Editorial: Calling the race early

Yeah, Brownback is a joke. But I don't think that's what this guy is saying. It doesn't ever sound pro-Brownback. Just anti-media.

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• Posted by Carraway on March 28, 2007 at 9:28 a.m.
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Editorial: Calling the race early

Brownback is around 1-2% in the polls. He is probably going to stay at that level because he is one of the worst candidates in the race.

Brownback does not stand a chance against Giuliani, McCain, Tom Tancredo, or even Ron Paul. Tancredo and Paul understand what the U.S. Constitution is--Senator Brownback does not.

Brownback is responsible for one of the most ridiculous, ANTI-FAMILY, UNCONSTITUTIONAL laws in the history of the United States. This pathetic bill cosponsored by Senator Brownback is known as the "International Marriage Broker Regulation Act" (or IMBRA).

This draconian bill, which became law on March 6th, 2006, implies that ALL Americans (mostly Conservative American men) are violent sexual abusers and wife beaters unless proven innocent. I DISAGREE!!!

IMBRA was discreetly attached to another bill, the 'Violence Against Women Act of 2005'. This law is better described as the 'International Romance Regulation Act', which is exactly what it is. Under Senator Brownback's outrageous law, all Americans (mostly conservative American men), must submit a detailed criminal background report in order to communicate with a woman in a foreign country. How absurd! The form is likely to get lost in the mail, and she will have no incentive to respond and send back her approval (again by postal mail) without a photo or bio. This law applies for all forms of communication including: e-mail, telephone, postal mail, text messaging, and in-person meetings. Penalties are severe: $25,000 fine and up to 5 years in prison for saying 'Hello'!

In order to drum up support for his atrocious bill, Senator Brownback along with other proponents (radical feminist group Tahirih Justice Center) concocted the sinister-sounding label 'marriage broker'. What is a 'marriage broker'? It is nothing more than an introduction or penpal service. So now all-of-a-sudden according to the U.S. Government, a penpal service will now be known as a 'marriage broker'. For your information Senator Brownback, nobody is getting married, and nobody is being 'brokered' when two consenting heterosexual adults decide to communicate.

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• Posted by Freedom on March 28, 2007 at 12:46 a.m.
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Editorial: Calling the race early

This law also has also scrutinized ALL international marriages no matter how the couples actually met. Most international marriages do not involve sinister-sounding 'marriage brokers', but because the government has no way of knowing how a couple actually met (it is none of their business anyways), they decided to crack-down on visa petitioners. Now any irrelevant DUI's, misdemeanors, fraudulent protection orders, and even arrests not leading to any conviction must be disclosed to your fiancee, which is a good way to become un-engaged. This is exactly what Senator Brownback and the feminists want. Their goal was to shut down introduction agencies and to keep American men away from foreign women. This law is a SCANDAL based on fraud, deception, cooked statistics, 'manufactured' hysteria and propaganda regarding abuse and trafficking of foreign women to support ulterior motives. In reality, THERE HAS NEVER BEEN ANY CONVICTIONS FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING INVOLVING AN AMERICAN-OWNED INTRODUCTION AGENCY. And THERE ARE NO DOCUMENTED CASES OF ABUSE OF FOREIGN WOMEN BY AMERICAN MEN PRIOR TO MARRIAGE.

On December 16th, 2005, Senator Brownback told his colleagues in the Senate that the "Tahirih Justice Center are frontline experts" and that customers of 'marriage brokers' (a false label) "need to clean up their act". No Senator Brownback, you "need to clean up your act". After he was elected, he took an oath to uphold the Constitution. But his draconian law violates the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, and 10th Amendments to the Constitution.

Senator Brownback claims to be Pro Life, yet for this bill he teamed-up with radical left wing Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) who openly supports the murder of human fetuses. He claims to support traditional marriages, yet his asinine bill criminalizes communication and love letters by heterosexuals. He has partnered with a wacko feminist not-for-profit organization named after an Iranian martyr: the Tahirih Justice Center. Senator Brownback has alot of explaining to do.

He as an embarrassment to the Republican Party and he has NO possibility of winning the nomination.

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• Posted by Freedom on March 28, 2007 at 12:46 a.m.
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Editorial: Calling the race early

Freedom-- While your tirade against all things Brownback is impressive, I'm not sure it fits as a response to this column. If you reread the column, you will see that at no point is support for Brownback advocated, or even alluded to. The point is that the media tend to decide for themselves the standing of candidates, even before they enter a race and even after they start changing their status. This column tries to remind voters, using an example of a local candidate, that it is essential to decide your voting preferences on your own.

The list of Brownback policies is not meant to support him, nor does it do so. It merely shows that his background is deeper than what his media designation implies, which is always simply some variation of "long shot, pro-life, darling of conservatives," etc.

Your litany against him shows that you have gone beyond the surface description and investigated him for yourself-- the exact embodiment of the column's point. Let's hope we all do the same.

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• Posted by TigerHawk on March 28, 2007 at 9:55 a.m.
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