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Big ugly Helms posters



Well in the first place my objection to the "Little White Lies" posters
is primarily the same as my objection to too much of the rest of the
anti-Helms bullshit: It's sloppy, ineffective speech. We don't NEED any
more generalized "ooh, isn't Jesse evil" blah blah blah--we need recent
quotes, we need the text of bills he's sponsored, we need good
comprehensible explications of his voting record over the past 6 years.

I mean, he's a fucking psychopath, sure--but it takes some intelligent
explanation to show people exactly *how* and *why* that's true.

It's a horrible, stupid mistake to believe that the nastier a candidate
is, the less of such stuff you need. On the contrary. If you spend 10
years calling somebody a monster, then at a certain point you're gonna
have to start backing it up with something other than hackneyed "he's a
bigot" scare-tactic blah blah blah.

Isn't there *anybody* out there with some information which is less MTV?
Less 10-second-soundbite? Why is one of the best examinations of Helms's
record (and it's only halfway-done itself) in Mother Jones, for
goshsakes?

Even the damn N&O has devoted more space to Jesse's snotty comments than
they have to actual substantial examination of his record.

So anyway. That's why I wasn't surprised to find out that the Little
White Lies posters were the work of one of the thousands of apparently
well-meaning, albeit clueless lefties nationwide who feel so put down by
Jesse that they've taken it upon themselves to, uh, "win" the election
for us.

Specifically, a West-coast artist named Robbie Conal, according to the
Associated Press. In cahoots with Pearl Jam (gee, guys, after you did
such a bang-up job on Ticketmaster, it's nice to have you on the team  .
. . ) and the thus-far-ill-defined Artists for a Hate-Free America. And,
according to the Herald-Sun, MOVE.

So now the whole midsection of the state has been plastered with posters
of Jesse's big ugly face, posters which are nearly impossible to remove
easily. Posters which don't contribute constructively to the debate (no
new information, and precious little information at all), and which are
pretty much fucking guaranteed to drive the pro-Helms people to the
polls in droves. Particularly those pro-Helms people whose private
property got trashed when some dumbass glued a poster all over it.

Meanwhile, probably 2/3 of the people in North Carolina still aren't all
that sure of what Harvey Gantt even LOOKS like. Come on, you la-di-da-di
politicos: how about some attractive posters of the candidate you
SUPPORT, instead of just these nasty-assed additions to the urban
landscape?

Then again, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Robbie Conal, as well as
Eddie Vedder and the rest of the folks, don't know anything more about
Harvey Gantt than yr average non-North Carolinian (or yr average NC
resident, for that matter). Which begs the question: could ya'll just
shut the fuck up until you've got something informed to say?

Thanks

Ross
-- 
"I wish I could play stand up bass...will somebody teach me..."
                                        --5er
"strap that thing around your neck and stand up.
that's all there is to it."             --3.2.3


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