Everyone I talk to who has put out Obama yard signs has had them stolen. It usually happens late at night. I don't know if this a Freedom of Speech issue or plain old theft of private property issue, but if this is the master plan of the republicans, they really must be desperate.I was talking to Jan at the Red Coyote Cafe last week. Her cafe enjoys an nice location on the main highway into Zion National Park. As I was complimenting her excellent taste in Obama signage, she sighed & told me how many times it has been stolen. Sometimes the sign-stealers are not content to just take the sign. Sometimes they use it to destroy her patio plants. She always replaces it and wonders what the sign-stealers are really trying to say. Are they saying she is not entitled to express her own political opinion on her own property? As she serves her tasty Breakfast Burritos, she wonders if perhaps one of the customers is enjoying her food by day and coming back to steal her signs at night. She worries that the sign stealers may turn violent, but that hasn't stopped her from putting out Obama signs.
After a woman in a nearby town had her Obama yard sign stolen a few times, she mounted one on a branch of a big tree in her front yard. A few days later, she found the tree branch laying on her lawn with a rope hanging from it ... no sign of the sign. Was this done by her neighbors, she wonders, or just some drive-by McManiac? She now takes her sign inside each night at dusk.
Apparently this is a national phenomenon.
In North Carolina a couple of stolen Obama posters were wrapped around a murdered baby bear which was left at the entrance of Western Carolina University.
In Sacramento CA a family had so many yard signs stolen, they put out a sign saying if you steal our sign we will donate money to the Obama campaign. It was stolen, so they now have put out 100 yard signs & donate a dollar every time one is stolen.
In Portland OR 16-yr old Preston Fosback has mounted a webcam to watch his Obama sign after having a few swiped. People all over the world are now monitoring his sign every night.
It's happening in Texas. "What are people thinking? Signs don't vote!" East Texans are attributing the theft to racism.
In Virgina a baptist minister found his 4x8-ft Obama yard sign replaced with a big Confederate Flag.
SWASTIKAS were spray-painted on some Obama signs in Albuquerque NM ! (link includes video) ... what does this say about THE REAL AMERICA, the one humped by Sarah Palin ... does that place even exist anymore?
I don't normally put out political yard signs because I live on a dead-end street and my neighbors are beyond political redemption. However, I'm rethinking that position because I came home tonight to find this little message stuck in my front door:
"VOTE PALIN-McCAIN ... Palin will go to work cleaning up corruption in Washington DC just like she did in Alaska. Palin has a record of transparency. You can bet she will fight for drilling for oil ... immediately! ... She has a record in Alaska of fighting unreasonable environmentalists, like the polar bear claim. Thank you for your vote."
You notice, not a word about McCain, except to put his name 2nd? Wow, I knew Utahns weren't impressed with The Mav-prick, but did not realize they consider HIM the afterthought to the Republican ticket. And what to say about the brazen ignorance of Palin's attributes they so lovingly cited? Maybe it's time to finally put out my Obama sign and see how long before it is stolen!
24 comments:
What an overwhelmingly discouraging testimony to the ignorance and meanspiritedness of our fellow citizens! As always, you've written a wonderful post, D.K. I doubt sign in your front yard will convince your neighbors of anything substancial. The content of the front door message you received has me reeling.
Wow, D.K. great post. I am so outraged especially about the baby bear paying the price of someone's attack on Obama with his/her life.
Unbelievable. I love the people who put out more signs and donate. That is AWESOME.
It's sad that so many angry, ignorant, abusive criminals (yes I consider sign stealing to be a criminal act) are living here.
That Palin-McCAin thing is pretty hilarious... well, she did say it herself early on. Remember?
B. Exporer:
It was seeing that creepy message carefully rubber-banded around my front door knob that set me off -- what gives people the right to steal Obama signs and then plaster my front door with their political views. Early voting started here yesterday. I have no hope for UT at the national level, but a few local offices might tip.
I'm especially pulling for Lin Alder & Brooks Pace who are running for County Commissioner & State Senator. Their repub opponents have used as an argument against them that they are "freinds of radical environmentalists" (because they questioned a coal-fired plant to be constructed 40-miles away that was originally approved to be a natural gas plant) and that "they will have no power as democrats in a predominantly republican state". How to fight that "logic"?
HelenW:
That bear cub was shot in the head. A couple of Obama posters were stapled together & put over its head, so all that could be seen was a little bear's body with Obama's name plastered on its face. The maintenance guys took the sign off & saw it had been shot in the head. It is an outrage, not just against the murdered bear cub, but for what the underlying message was. North Carolina is a possible swing state.
Oh yeah, Helen, Sarah did indicate "Palin-McCain" in one of her rallies, and apparently some of her ardent supporters here in theocrat-land have taken it as a code-word to them that she intends to be president very soon. Johnny better hire a food-taster if he ends up in the oval office with that viper for veep!
They are doing everything possible to try and steal this. I have heard some pretty bad stories today. I saw on TV they had someone on camera they caught stealing the signs! I am not looking forward to this fall!
Avg Patriot:
I saw that TV footage of a woman stealing signs, too. Not being a normally violent person, I was surprised to find myself thinking about puncturing her tires! She was so brazen about it, right in the middle of the day, just walking onto people's property and STEALING. I'm sure she goes to church every Sunday & meditates how she is doing what her bible tells her to ... or something!
I live on a quiet street w not much traffic, so yard sign would not get much notice. But I have had the Obama bumper sticker inside my van back window for months.
I live in a mostly liberal college town, so the opposite has been going on here- Mccain signs have been disappearing. As the homeowner said you can steal my sign, but you can't steal my vote.
Yea, well let's just hope nobody is stealing votes in this election.
Also why not put your lawn sign inside your front window? They are lightweight & can be hung with clear strapping tape on the glass.
That way you display your candidates name & nighttime sign stealers are foiled. Ha- ha.
The bear murder incident is just sick & sickening.
I hope they are caught & prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
I will admit though, yesterday I saw a woman with a
NOBAMA bumper sticker on her vehicle @ the grocery store.
It really got my dander up, thinking she's not even supporting a candidate... she is just opposed.
She was a haggard old lady, smoking a cigarette.
I just drove right on past her w my Obama bumper stickered car. Keepin' Hope alive.
I've always thought yard signs, core flutes and bag signs a waste of resources and invitation to vandalism. Not very smart either, except to show the candidate is 'active'.
But there is a dynamic where some candidates signs are souvenired, which is a positive use of signs. Better on someones wall than as a visual eyesore.
red
It is sickening what the vicious perverted right has done to our country and civility!
Fran:
I can't put a sign in my front window. I planted some small olive bushes there 2-yrs ago & now they are covering those windows, which is what I had been hoping for since that is where the hot SW sun had been killing us. I won't put on a bumper sticker since my car got keyed for my Kerry-Edwards one in '04 (and THAT was in "liberal" california).
I read someone had resorted to mounting their Obama sign behind plexiglass & screwed it to their house wall. Also someone else talked about running part of his "fenceless electric dog fence" over the sign. What a shock that would be!
ps, don't you wonder on what issue that "haggard old lady" has decided NObama? Her social security? Her health care? What?
I'd hazard to guess the haggard old Nobama lady is a haggard old bigot :)
Cart:
These signs are not being souvenired. They are usually found busted up in little pieces all over the neighborhood. Or they are found in the local trash dumps, hundreds at a time. I did read about a teenager who was "collecting" them in his basement. He was caught on film & now his dad is trying to explain that was just a teenage prank ... while he is standing in his front yard with a McCain08 sign in the lawn!
I don't like the clutter of too many signs at intersections etc. In Calif there was a law that all political signs had to be removed within 2-weeks of an election. But I have to say, in THIS presidential election, it is more like a MOVEMENT & for a movement to take hold, many people need to see that others are part of it. Just seeing an Obama sign cheers me up!
Avt Pat:
Amen! No manners, no civility, and where is respect for private property?
HelenW:
you snuck in there! Yup, that is exactly what I was thinking, but Fran didn't say she was white, so I didn't want to presume. Maybe she & her church friends have bought into the Obama-wants-to-kill-babies-and-raise-your-taxes-and-let-his-terrorist-friends-run-the-state-dept lies. Or maybe, like my idiot neighbors, they just LUV Sarah, can't get enough of her!
Fran, by "she" in the above comment, you know I meant "the haggard old lady", right?!?!? I just reread it & realized I'd made the classic writing error about which every english teacher would cringe!
I find it disturbing that anyone would be drawn to Palin. She's nothing but scary to me.
But I think she reminds people of the popular girl in H.S., you know, the one that kills someone's reputation with a word, or teases someone into an eating disorder. As much as everyone hates the evil popular High School girl, they all secretly want to be her.
Palin is still that girl, and I'd be willing to bet either she was like that in high school OR she strove to become like that afterwards. But that's how she comes across to me.
HelenW:
That's it EXACTLY! She was "IN" and everyone else was "OUT" unless she said otherwise! Funny how most of those types of girls from HS end up with that same big "I WANT" wrinkle across their forehead and pressed pouty lips when they don't get their way. Looks kinda cute on a teenager, but very ugly on a mature adult.
LOL! That's for sure! And I think we all know at least one of those (the ex-H.S. popular girl who can't seem to ever grow out of it).
Yes, that behavior is even less attractive from someone over 18!
WOW...thanks for the sign update...why people steal them is beyond me...
counted strickers and signs today in hood...18 in a 2 block region..( and the ONE McCain sign had bird poop all over it...or that is what it looked like..funny thing..3rd time this week...hmm..maybe the bird does not like McCain..??)
Enigma, you just reminded me that my favorite place to walk my male dog in '04 was by a Bush yard sign. The sign would regularly melt from all the dog pee. It wasn't just my dog either. Unfortunately, the owner always replaced it.
Today I spotted a couple Obama bumper stickers driving around town & 2 big blue Obama signs mounted to street lights at a freeway offramp. That's a good day for around here.
it is a testament on how we need to sweep these people back under those rocks where they came from. Tamp down the earth, put a shit load of gravel and muddy guck on top so as not for the re-weeding to surface EVER AGAIN!!
I should put my Obama sign out but I don't think it'll get stolen. We live on a long street with a cul de sac at the end and the majority of people are obama supporters..
Ingrid
Ingrid:
you must be gardening! I am at the end of that cul-de-sac, except I'm surrounded by churchy repugs.
Caribou Barbie has definitely got her own kind riled up. Apparently they are all as mean and spiteful as she is.
Thanks for establishing ** I** am not the haggard old woman. Yes, the cigarette puffin Nobama lady is white, I thought I caught a whiff of Rush Limbaugh as I drove by.
She probably ate up all the hate & lies right wing radio served up. Because whatever they sat on the radio & FOX news MUST be true. Ack!
I told my buddy to put vaseline all over his next sign to give the thief a little surprise when he grabs it in the dark.
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