talkpolitics | Note Found In Vandalized Classroom: "A Republican Was Here."

Boston Herald.com

When the teacher, Paul Clifford, returned to his classroom Monday morning, he discovered that a collage depicting the history of the labor movement was missing. In its place, someone had left a bumper sticker reading: 'Working People Vote Republican.'

Caucus members also apparently looked inside a closed cardboard box near Clifford’s desk that contained copies of the U.S. Constitution donated by the American Civil Liberties Union. Clifford later discovered a note left behind reading, 'A Republican was here. What gives you the right to propagandize impressionable kids?' according to an account in the Portland Press Herald.

A public school in Maine allowed a contingent of Republicans to meet in their classrooms over a weekend. The result was a rifled and vandalized classroom and stolen materials.

It’s nice to know that the Maine Republican Party had the grace to apologize:

Villagesoup:

The Maine Republican Party does not condone the destruction of property nor does it encourage the lack of tolerance that these people demonstrated. Over 900 other people attended these caucuses without incident and I hope that the actions of few do not tarnish the image of many. We appreciate the hospitality of the staff from the King Middle School and hope to work with them again in the future. We sincerely apologize to the faculty and student body at King Middle School.

The problem is, that same contingent rooting around and looting the classroom – the Knox County Republicans -- is influential enough to have replaced the Republican Party Platform with one more to the liking of Tea Party activists.

In short, the vandals are the ones writing the party platform in that state.

But they're just a fringe group right? I mean, just because they're actually writing the Maine Republican Party platform doesn't mean anything. Right?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"We have some implied evidence"

That's (IMO) the problem with reporting the news, what is left out is sometimes as important as what is included. How sentences are strung together (as noted above) sometimes lead to inferences that don't hold up to close scrutiny. Both sides do it, so I'm not accusing. It's really sad actually, unless one is personally involved with a given situation, we can't always know what to believe. Heckeven then we know how unreliable eye-witness accounts can be :D

g: That's (IMO) the problem with reporting the news, what is left out is sometimes as important as what is included. How sentences are strung together (as noted above) sometimes lead to inferences that don't hold up to close scrutiny.

What you're talking about here is sometimes referred to as "parsing." That is, you scrutinize the grammar in a news story that embarrasses a given group, and try to work out some way that the news story DOESN'T say what it obviously says. I

'm reminded of a guy I encountered once online who took apart the subordinate clauses in a straightforward account of a cop pepper-spraying a woman with a baby. He then tried to claim that the news story ACTUALLY said the people who'd witnessed spraying (who were quite straightforward in accusing the cop in their accounts) had no idea who'd done the pepper spraying.

My explanation to chessdev is what he's referencing, not your silly opinion.

If it had just been that they had a meeting in the room, and then these things had happen, the evidence would be pretty flimsy (though still no evidence towards someone else doing it as a sham) but the fact that they've apologized for it and have the material make it seem plausible that its the way it happened- again, until more evidence comes to light.

What people shouldn't be arguing about is whether it happened, what people should be nitpicking is the implication that this impacts the overall republican platform.

"
What people shouldn't be arguing about is whether it happened, what people should be nitpicking is the implication that this impacts the overall republican platform."

I'm really starting to worry about me in how much I agree with you lately.

We're just two stopped clocks. Oh wait, that won't work at all.

We didn't need to argue that, because it's obvious to everyone except paft, and she'll never understand it anyways.

Note Found In Vandalized Classroom: "A Republican Was Here."

Ah, there's the rub.

Re: Ah, there's the rub.

Re: Ah, there's the rub.

Re: Ah, there's the rub.

Re: Ah, there's the rub.

Re: Ah, there's the rub.

Re: Ah, there's the rub.