I happen to live in what might be the 2004 political keystone of the Keystone State. As Lancaster Co. is called the biggest Republican county in Pennsylvania, a big lead is needed (70,000 votes more or less) to offset the huge numbers the Democrats will get in Philadelphia.
As living persons rooting for the candidates of their choice will actually cast many of these votes, both parties have an interest in Lancaster Co. as well as Phila. And so they and their families are starting to visit us.
Yesterday it was the Bush Twins. As the paper reported -
(Snips)
Jul 23, 2004
Barbara and Jenna Bush made a clandestine visit to Lancaster County GOP headquarters Thursday afternoon. The 22-year-old twins stopped by to stump for the re-election of their father, President George W. Bush, and to thank campaign volunteers for their work.
Between 75 and 80 people were present for the 45-minute campaign stop…
[Republican Commissioner] thought the twins "were very real people. They were very down to earth and very communicative. They weren't very polished."
http://www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/local/4/7709
Jenna and her father were here two weeks ago. They had traveled by bus caravan through the county passing through our famed 250-year-old village of Intercourse to a private gathering in suburban Smoketown outside of Lancaster City.
There they visited an electrical company strangely enough started by an electrician who from an Amish family who has now passed it down to his two sons.
The company was picked because of the political connections of the one son, it is located in an industrial area and because it is a model (as least to the President’s campaign team of America’s recovery from the recession. Last year they hired six new people while the year before they had fired four. As the company’s work is much more pricey than many other local firms my family has never dealt with them.
A number of Republican committee people and relatively small contributors were critical of the event because they were excluded. The event was limited to 250. This might be one reason Jenna Bush returned so soon.
(no link found to any newspaper article}
While at Lapp Electric the President met separately with a small group of practicing Amish.
As the paper reported -
(Snips)
Jul 16, 2004
President Bush met privately with a group of Old Order Amish during his visit to Lancaster County last Friday. He discussed their farms and their hats and his religion. He asked them to vote for him in November.
The Amish told the president that not all members of the church vote but they would pray for him.
Bush had tears in his eyes when he replied. He said the president needs their prayers. He also said that having a strong belief in God is the only way he can do his job.
Stoltzfus reports: “It took a while to get them through the metal detectors as these were farmers and shop men, with vice grips, pocket knives, and nuts and bolts in their pockets. Some ladies had baby gear. All pockets had to be emptied.’’
When the Amish were “found not to be a serious threat to national security,’’ they were allowed inside the office area of Lapp Electric and waited about 30 minutes for the president to appear
“He seemed relaxed and just like an old neighbor,’’ says Stoltzfus.
Bush said he had never met any Amish before and was curious about why the men were wearing straw hats rather than black wool hats. The Amish explained that they wear cooler straw in summer. Bush tried on a hat.
“One of the young girls wanted to give Bush a whoopie pie cookie,’’ Stoltzfus says. “Bush declined it. The Secret Service man took it, as presidents aren’t supposed to eat untested food.’’
At the end of the session, Bush reportedly told the group, “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.’’
http://www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/local/4/7565
There were also protests and a few arrests as the paper again reported.
(Snips)
Jul 10, 2004
The flag-waving, cheering throngs and banners for “Four More Years” were there.
But the signs of discord and disapproval with President George W. Bush were also amply evident Friday afternoon outside Lapp’s Electrical Service in Smoketown, where the president spoke. They were there as well along the 18-mile motorcade route to York, with the president surprisingly visible in the front of the bullet-proof, tinted-glass presidential bus.
The president had to see the thumbs-down gestures and John Kerry banners, perhaps even the occasional obscene fingers thrust skyward as his bus passed by them.
Six young men from Lancaster City wearing only thong underwear were arrested along Old Philadelphia Pike when they attempted to recreate the infamous picture of Iraqi prisoners forced into a human pyramid at Abu Ghraib prison.
About 300 people were strategically placed outside the Republican Committee of Lancaster County building, vying for the most dominant position to ensure the president’s attention as he zoomed past them in a bus moving about 40 mph.
Protesters and supporters were intermingled and each displayed bold signs and loud statements. The anti-Bush crowd was outnumbered about nine to one, but they were vocal.
Later, as the motorcade passed through Lancaster, Martin Andrews, 42, of 228 N. Reservoir St., made an obscene gesture and dropped his pants {mooning] at the president’s convoy, Lancaster police said.
Veteran Jake Caldwell, 42, of Lancaster, held up a sign that stated “Stop the war” as he loudly questioned the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
“I feel the American public’s been duped,” Caldwell said. “I think it’s pretty obvious. If you don’t see that, I think you’re in denial.”
Mary Schroeder, 31, held a sign that read “Shame on you” in one hand and her 1-year-old son, Ezra, in the other.
She said Bush should be ashamed of how he won the election in 2000, and of profiting from being president, sending troops to die for no reason and killing people from Iraq needlessly.
http://www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/local/11/1920
The paper carried a cartoon that morning which featured a cartoon with the slogan “4 Moore Years”. F 911 was playing to packed audience in a single theater at the local movie house.
Originally the management there said it would not be coming at all but something happened about which there are two different theories.
As protestors gave Mr. Bush the finger, two local young men claimed he did it to them.
(Snip)
Adam, Brendan, and I rose our banner (the More Trees, Less Bush one) and he turned to wave to our side of the road. His smile faded, and he raised his left arm in our direction. And then, George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States of America, extended his middle finger.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jiveturky/185733.html?page=5
As for my family during this visit, we had no interest in seeing the motorcade pass. The time is past when we would have been out there in Bush’s support such as we did with once fellow freepers post Nov. 2000 election in Lancaster City.
In another post, Old Bear talked about the spirit of contention such as occurred during the Vietnam War arising again in American. During this day it came to Amishland.
As living persons rooting for the candidates of their choice will actually cast many of these votes, both parties have an interest in Lancaster Co. as well as Phila. And so they and their families are starting to visit us.
Yesterday it was the Bush Twins. As the paper reported -
(Snips)
Jul 23, 2004
Barbara and Jenna Bush made a clandestine visit to Lancaster County GOP headquarters Thursday afternoon. The 22-year-old twins stopped by to stump for the re-election of their father, President George W. Bush, and to thank campaign volunteers for their work.
Between 75 and 80 people were present for the 45-minute campaign stop…
[Republican Commissioner] thought the twins "were very real people. They were very down to earth and very communicative. They weren't very polished."
http://www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/local/4/7709
Jenna and her father were here two weeks ago. They had traveled by bus caravan through the county passing through our famed 250-year-old village of Intercourse to a private gathering in suburban Smoketown outside of Lancaster City.
There they visited an electrical company strangely enough started by an electrician who from an Amish family who has now passed it down to his two sons.
The company was picked because of the political connections of the one son, it is located in an industrial area and because it is a model (as least to the President’s campaign team of America’s recovery from the recession. Last year they hired six new people while the year before they had fired four. As the company’s work is much more pricey than many other local firms my family has never dealt with them.
A number of Republican committee people and relatively small contributors were critical of the event because they were excluded. The event was limited to 250. This might be one reason Jenna Bush returned so soon.
(no link found to any newspaper article}
While at Lapp Electric the President met separately with a small group of practicing Amish.
As the paper reported -
(Snips)
Jul 16, 2004
President Bush met privately with a group of Old Order Amish during his visit to Lancaster County last Friday. He discussed their farms and their hats and his religion. He asked them to vote for him in November.
The Amish told the president that not all members of the church vote but they would pray for him.
Bush had tears in his eyes when he replied. He said the president needs their prayers. He also said that having a strong belief in God is the only way he can do his job.
Stoltzfus reports: “It took a while to get them through the metal detectors as these were farmers and shop men, with vice grips, pocket knives, and nuts and bolts in their pockets. Some ladies had baby gear. All pockets had to be emptied.’’
When the Amish were “found not to be a serious threat to national security,’’ they were allowed inside the office area of Lapp Electric and waited about 30 minutes for the president to appear
“He seemed relaxed and just like an old neighbor,’’ says Stoltzfus.
Bush said he had never met any Amish before and was curious about why the men were wearing straw hats rather than black wool hats. The Amish explained that they wear cooler straw in summer. Bush tried on a hat.
“One of the young girls wanted to give Bush a whoopie pie cookie,’’ Stoltzfus says. “Bush declined it. The Secret Service man took it, as presidents aren’t supposed to eat untested food.’’
At the end of the session, Bush reportedly told the group, “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.’’
http://www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/local/4/7565
There were also protests and a few arrests as the paper again reported.
(Snips)
Jul 10, 2004
The flag-waving, cheering throngs and banners for “Four More Years” were there.
But the signs of discord and disapproval with President George W. Bush were also amply evident Friday afternoon outside Lapp’s Electrical Service in Smoketown, where the president spoke. They were there as well along the 18-mile motorcade route to York, with the president surprisingly visible in the front of the bullet-proof, tinted-glass presidential bus.
The president had to see the thumbs-down gestures and John Kerry banners, perhaps even the occasional obscene fingers thrust skyward as his bus passed by them.
Six young men from Lancaster City wearing only thong underwear were arrested along Old Philadelphia Pike when they attempted to recreate the infamous picture of Iraqi prisoners forced into a human pyramid at Abu Ghraib prison.
About 300 people were strategically placed outside the Republican Committee of Lancaster County building, vying for the most dominant position to ensure the president’s attention as he zoomed past them in a bus moving about 40 mph.
Protesters and supporters were intermingled and each displayed bold signs and loud statements. The anti-Bush crowd was outnumbered about nine to one, but they were vocal.
Later, as the motorcade passed through Lancaster, Martin Andrews, 42, of 228 N. Reservoir St., made an obscene gesture and dropped his pants {mooning] at the president’s convoy, Lancaster police said.
Veteran Jake Caldwell, 42, of Lancaster, held up a sign that stated “Stop the war” as he loudly questioned the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
“I feel the American public’s been duped,” Caldwell said. “I think it’s pretty obvious. If you don’t see that, I think you’re in denial.”
Mary Schroeder, 31, held a sign that read “Shame on you” in one hand and her 1-year-old son, Ezra, in the other.
She said Bush should be ashamed of how he won the election in 2000, and of profiting from being president, sending troops to die for no reason and killing people from Iraq needlessly.
http://www.lancasteronline.com/pages/news/local/11/1920
The paper carried a cartoon that morning which featured a cartoon with the slogan “4 Moore Years”. F 911 was playing to packed audience in a single theater at the local movie house.
Originally the management there said it would not be coming at all but something happened about which there are two different theories.
As protestors gave Mr. Bush the finger, two local young men claimed he did it to them.
(Snip)
Adam, Brendan, and I rose our banner (the More Trees, Less Bush one) and he turned to wave to our side of the road. His smile faded, and he raised his left arm in our direction. And then, George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States of America, extended his middle finger.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jiveturky/185733.html?page=5
As for my family during this visit, we had no interest in seeing the motorcade pass. The time is past when we would have been out there in Bush’s support such as we did with once fellow freepers post Nov. 2000 election in Lancaster City.
In another post, Old Bear talked about the spirit of contention such as occurred during the Vietnam War arising again in American. During this day it came to Amishland.