Florida to be targeted by trucks in downtown areas bearing billboards with abortion pictures.

[madfloridian]

They are going to target downtown Winter Haven and downtown Lakeland this week, and then head down the west coast and up the east coast of Florida.

The pictures are said to be huge, very graphic in nature, and are to be mixed in with pictures of the Holocaust and pictures of lynchings. The tactics of using wedge issues is now outweighing the campaign about what our country needs to overcome its financial meltdown.

This is ugly stuff. They are mostly in the Southern states, and states like Florida that are considered swing states.

Pro Life Group to Roll Out Large Abortion Photos

WINTER HAVEN | Photographs of aborted human embryos and early stage fetuses - billboard sized and graphic - will circulate through downtown Winter Haven today and through downtown Lakeland on Friday.

They're being displayed on a fleet of several large trucks to raise public awareness of abortion before the Nov. 4 election.

The color photographs they showcase have stirred controversy in Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina. Florida is being targeted because it is a key election state, Harrington said. The group has been in Florida before, he said, but not in Polk County.

The trucks will be here prior to a trip down the West Coast of Florida and up its East Coast. In several Southeast Florida locations, although not in Polk, the trucks will stop to allow setup of the Genocide Awareness Project. That display has pictures of abortion along with images from Nazi concentration camps, a lynching of a black man, the World Trade Center attack and other instances of genocide, seeking to have people see abortion in that light.

"The images we display are not pleasant," the group said on its Web site. "They represent an injustice of such magnitude that words alone fail us."

I have never heard of these things going on here, not on a scale like this. I believe it is part of the effort to win at all costs using wedge issues and hate.

I believe it is the legacy of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove.

To the disbelief of both Republican and Democratic strategists, who thought the public would never swallow it, Atwater hammered Dem nominee Mike Dukakis’s little-known stance on mandatory Pledge of Allegiance rules for schoolchildren. He also talked endlessly about a black guy who had escaped from a prison furlough, vowing to make Willie Horton Mike Dukakis’ running mate. Although Dukakis was a centrist candidate who had achieved the American Dream through hard work and relentless moral integrity, Atwater successfully painted him as a dangerous, foreign-seeming liberal elitist who didn’t love America and couldn’t keep us safe. Ring any bells?

It should. On Sunday Sarah Palin told a crowd, “We know who the bad guys are, OK?” and was greeted with cries of “Obama!” She said, “We know that in the war, it’s terrorists, terrorists who hate America and her allies and would seek to destroy us, and the bad guys are those who would support and sympathize with the terrorists.” Not surprisingly, their crowds have begun shouting that Obama is a terrorist, has committed treason, and should be killed. The GOP is also inciting racial resentment by falsely accusing ACORN of voter fraud and trying to blame America’s economic meltdown on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

They have taken the god, guns, gays, and abortion issues to new and higher levels this year. It showed in John McCain's "air quotes" about the health of a woman and her right to an abortion.

I have faith this will backfire. I think the majority of people in our area will be offended. I did not think so until recently, but times are changing.

I think they will realize their emotions are being played upon.

[Cerridwen]

1. Can someone explain to me why that crap isn't XXX rated?

Seriously.

Healthy people's exposed pieces parts are not allowed in public yet they can show graphic (and frequently false) images such as those and not get a ticket for indecent exposure.

Why?

[madfloridian]

8. You can't see it on TV. You Tube will remove it.

But it is okay on the streets of downtown Florida. :shrug:

[Cerridwen]

10. Exactly. Why is this legal? And no, I'm not kidding.

I appreciate the thought down thread mentioning the Iraqi war dead. That might be a good counter protest. Huge pictures of that very real obscenity.

Anyway, I don't get how they get away with that.

[babylonsister]

2. This is so repulsive to me; the people spreading this 'message'

are those who are in the most need of the education Obama talks about.

[madfloridian]

5. To include pictures of the Holocaust and lynchings as well.....spreading hate.

That is exactly what they are doing. Spreading fear and hate.

[Sheets of Easter]

3. Ghouls, plain and simple.

They claim to be "pro-live," but they thrive on images of death.

[norepubsin08]

4. Could someone get an injuction of some sort

for either A it is inflammatory and riot inciting or B) pornographic C) not suitable content for minors ??? Need some legal opinions here....

[snake in the grass]

It's not pornographic unless you have a very sick mind.

It is graphically horrific and shouldn't be presented in public, especially because these sanctimonious turds have a totally different agenda. For them it's not about saving life but controlling women. Seriously, if I had young children I would be raging mad if they were forced to see such things.

[norepubsin08]

25. If there is any nakedness shown it could be

twisted in a court of law as pornographic...I don't care how the injunction is gotten, just so long as it is done!

[snake in the grass]

28. I agree with you there.

I was in a nit-picky mood. Sorry. By whatever means necessary, this behavior should be stopped. Maybe we could rent some big trucks with huge pictures of dead Iraqis and U.S. soldiers. Title them 'Sanctity of Life?'. These religiously insane need to finally be driven back under their rocks. One more generation of inbreeding should rid us of them as they will no longer be viable. Whenever I see them I must fight back the urge to vomit.

[bertman]

61. I was thinking exactly the same thing, snake. Huge pictures of dismembered Iraqi children,

soldiers and civilians with a giant banner over them that screams PRO-LIFE AMERICA AT WORK

This whole idea is so repugnant it could only have been thought up by the reich-wing zealots.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

31. This should be considered an act of child abuse...

...I'm nearly fifty years old and I can remember being a little kid (I'm thinking I was about 4 or 5) when I was at Sunday mass and my parish priest turned down all the lights to have a slide show about abortion. Every photo was more brutal than the next.

I can still picture those photos in my head.

[snake in the grass]

40. It is quite curious, isn't it?

Otherwise they are so concerned about the children that they practically shove them forward as protective or warning shields. Think of gay marriage. In their Prop 8 ads in California, they ramble on about this 'lifestyle' being forced upon the dear children. Basically, they don't really care. They will simply sink to the lowest of lows to achieve their goals; a characteristic that makes them despicable.

[steve2470]

6. Why do all the nutjobs come to my lovely state ?

Wait, don't answer that, I think I already know the answer :-(

[KansDem]

7. self deleted

[thereismore]

9. Why don't they add pictures of dead soldiers and Iraqi civillians to the mix? nt

[Wapsie B]

14. My thoughts exactly. Show some dead Iraqi children too.

[Poseidan]

43. and also

Pictures of live-saving surgeries.

Disgusting alone doesn't make it bad.

[Raster]

11. Anti-Choice Group to Roll Out Large Abortion Photos

WINTER HAVEN | Highly sensationalized and highly retouched photographs of purported aborted human embryos and purported early stage fetuses - billboard sized and graphic - will circulate through downtown Winter Haven today and through downtown Lakeland on Friday.

They're being displayed on a fleet of several large trucks to raise public awareness of anti-choice before the Nov. 4 election.

The color photographs they showcase have stirred controversy in Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina. Florida is being targeted because it is a key election state, Harrington said. The group has been in Florida before, he said, but not in Polk County.

The trucks will be here prior to a trip down the West Coast of Florida and up its East Coast. In several Southeast Florida locations, although not in Polk, the trucks will stop to allow setup of the Genocide Awareness Project, with is a cheap attempt to pander to the Jewish voting bloc. That display has pictures of abortion along with images from Nazi concentration camps, a lynching of a black man, the World Trade Center attack and other instances of genocide, seeking to have people see abortion in that light, although neither concentration camps nor lynchings nor the World Trade Center attack has ANY CORRELATION TO A SAFE, PRIVATE MEDICAL PROCEDURE.

The anti-choice group acknowledges that is yet another attempt to force their morals and religious beliefs on the general population and acknowledges that if they allowed a safe and private medical procedure to remain that way, they would lose SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF REVENUE GARNERED through the exploitation of a safe, secure and private medical procedures.

The group has reported that if they did not have the unpopular anti-choice position to exploit, they would probably have to turn to other medical procedures, probably plastic surgery. Analysts agree the exploitation factor for other medical procedures is low and is not as profitable.

[Selatius]

12. I'm sure the ADL would LOVE to hear that they are conflating the Holocaust with abortion. nt

[madfloridian]

13. You forgot lynching. Scary stuff they are doing. I wonder how it can be legal?

To publicly mix the 3 issues. There must be some way this is not okay? :shrug:

[Selatius]

15. Yeah, I'm sure the NAACP, SCLC, and the Southern Poverty Law Center would oppose as well.

Ultimately, I fear the best anybody could do is write strongly worded letters about how it's not like the Holocaust because nobody scapegoated fetuses for political ends like Hitler with the Jews, or nobody targets fetuses because of the color of their skin unlike members of the Ku Klux Klan did with Black people.

[yardwork]

69. Way to win over Jewish votes.

[defendandprotect]

16. Who knows where these photos originate . . . ?? Could be anything --

[get the red out]

17. They called it Genocide

When they came to set up shop at the local university last year they had signs that said "this way to see the genocide". A friend of mine thought they were publicizing Darfur until she saw it. GAWD wasn't with them on there display here though, it poured the rain almost every day they were set up, and I mean poured!

Nothing is more sickening and dangerous than a religious fanatic. These people need to be completely insignificant.

[defendandprotect]

19. Without their hooks in government/GOP they would be "insignificant"...

[madfloridian]

20. I was going to link to the website of that group....but the front page is too graphic

And if you click Home....it starts a horrible video.

So I can not link to their site, yet they can roam the cities of Florida.

Is this really free speech when it is something that could not get on TV?

[kas125]

18. I was in Saint Paul for the RNC (with CodePink) and those trucks

were all over the downtown area. My friends said they were in Denver for the DNC, too.

[flvegan]

21. I've seen them roll through Tampa before.

Don't know if it's the same group, but it's the same tactic.

[madfloridian]

22. With lynching pictures and Holocaust pictures as well?

I would think combining the 3 would be crossing some kind of line.

[flvegan]

24. I honestly don't recall.

I saw the aborted fetus picture, recognized it for what it was and then gave it no further attention.

I agree that combining abortion with lynching and the Holocaust is a poor idea and will likely just piss a lot of folks off.

[tnlefty]

35. I braved it went to the site for a few minutes, and the

trucks are the trucks, but it seems as though the lynching and Holocaust pictures are part of large displays. I noticed they had set the displays up at UTC and MTSU, unless I missed something and they're going to try to combine them with the trucks. :shrug:

While I found the displays disgusting and rather bizarre at least the setting was one in which young adults and older adults would be the only people likely to see them as opposed to those trucks rolling down the street where anyone of any age would be exposed to them.

[Suspicious]

23. These scum did this in our city a couple of years ago.

I work a block away from the Capitol of my state. Not a day goes by that I don't see at least one busload of school kids on a field trip to see their Capitol. One day, I'm standing outside my office building on a break, chatting with some co-workers...I look up, and I see this massive, horrific, assault-your-senses billboard on wheels driving slowly by. I was absolutely stunned that someone would have such an extreme lack of sensibility - hell, lack of humanity - that they would do something like this and feel positive about it - with children everywhere.

I feel sorry for these people. I truly do. They obviously haven't evolved beyond a very basic level of emotional intelligence.

[colsohlibgal]

26. Shameless!

These cretins were doing that in Columbus last week for Obama's speech, circling a truck around the downtown block where Barack spoke. It was shockingly graphic. They don't care who they offend, they don't care that young children have to see this. This is way down there in the how low can you go game, even for them where the bar is so low to begin with.

They will stoop to any level they see as necessary to try to retain power.

[steve2470]

27. I wonder how Republicans and RW'ers would feel if someone drove a truck around Florida with...

graphic photos of dead soldiers in Iraq ? On the left, we want to bring the troops home as quickly as possible, but we don't resort to that kind of nastiness.

[Warren DeMontague]

29. The majority of Americans are Pro Choice.

By constantly reminding people that they want to outlaw abortion as well as most (if not all) forms of contraception, they are not helping their numbers.

[Mad_Dem_X]

30. I agree - it will backfire

I think most people will be so disgusted that they will not show support to these sickos.

[lpbk2713]

32. Drive in front of it, hit your brakes hard, then dial up a whiplash lawyer.

Let those assholes pay for your retirement.

Don't think they wouldn't do it if roles were reversed?

Keep in mind they have proudly admitted killing people before.

[KamaAina]

33. We used to call that "fetal pornography"

Here's a thought: Let's rent the exact same truck, except put pictures of the horribly mangled bodies of dead Iraqi babies on it, and drive it through downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Anyone care to guess how long we'd get away with that??

[SemperEadem]

34. anyone got some paint balloons?

[LeftyMom]

36. We have a random local loony who does something similar, and likes to drive by schools

as they let out for the day. He also puts up anti-gay stuff on the truck sometimes, along with giant pictures of hot topless men kissing. :eyes:

Everybody needs a hobby, I guess.

[smoogatz]

37. All but the wingnuttiest wingnuts will be alarmed/annoyed by this.

It's a kind of visual assault; I know what my reaction would be--especially if my kids were subjected to it. It's actually great that the racists and woman-hating anti-choicers are finally showing their true colors after thirty years of relative political "legitimacy." It's a real sign that the conservative movement is in serious trouble. I'm not declaring it dead by any means, because historically it has a way of coming back no matter how many times you drive it out with a pitchfork.

[fascisthunter]

38. Time to Do The Same with Photos from Iraq

and Abu Gharaib... hit back

[madfloridian]

39. Looks like that campaign in making abortion the big big issue till Nov.

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/10/16/102220/49/Dominionism_in_the_military/Palin_and_Christian_Right_on_Abortion_Warpath

"After two presidential debates and one vice-presidential debate, the fourth was the charm - for a question about abortion. With Roe v. Wade hanging in the balance, CBS' Bob Schieffer asked the presidential candidates:


"Senator McCain, you believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned. Senator Obama, you believe it shouldn't. Could either of you ever nominate someone to the Supreme Court who disagrees with you on this issue? Senator McCain?"
Although the issue of abortion had not come previously in the debates, it is very much in play on the campaign trail, especially in a number of battleground states. Often, while the term itself isn't used, it is clearly the subtext when the question of appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court is discussed, or the phrase "judicial activism" -- meaning politicized legal decisions -- is used.

Not having the issue raised during the vice-presidential debate has not stopped Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Sen. John's McCain Republican Party running mate, from raising the issue a number of times in different venues.

In addition, South Dakota, Colorado and California all have abortion-related initiatives on their November ballots; initiatives that are aimed at ending or limiting abortion rights"

Very long article. I am so ashamed of this.

[katmondoo]

41. If they come here (Gainesville area) they get the finger from me

[DinahMoeHum]

42. Remember the TERRY SCHIAVO circus, folks ??

Those fundies were so hysterical, it was hard not to laugh my ass off at their antics. The topper for me was seeing that picture of a crucifix on a trailer hitch.

The whole thing back-fired on them and the Bush mis-administration BIG TIME, and marked the beginning of the end of the power hold they had for several long years.

I see a similar scene played out here. It will backfire here as well. Hardly anyone gives a fuck about this issue in light of the current economic situation that is hitting their pocketbooks (and ours)

But then, these fundies never learn.

Fuck 'em.

:evilfrown:

[jmowreader]

60. You mean this Jesus?

I haven't figured out the loony right yet, or at least their leadership. Either

(1) they don't really want abortion banned (although many of the rank & file Christians DO) but like using the possibility of its banning to raise money

OR

(2) they DO want it banned, and will use its ban as a starting point--if they can ban that they can ban everything else they don't like.

Either way, their followers are scary fuckers. Remember James Kopp? The fundie who murdered abortion doctor Bernard Slepian?

[jrockford]

44. When I was in parades, around Lakeville, doing campaign work for the DFL

in 1996 and 1998....weird fuckers would wait for us to go by, then suddenly from no where they'd waive these fetuses in our face. Not sure if they were real, but it was disturbing as hell...and for all to see.

Then they'd do other Christian things like spit on us.

[peekaloo]

45. Around Lake Hollingsworth this afternoon.

Two of them. Nice scene for those moms with their babies in strollers.

[Overseas]

46. K&R-- to beg the McShame campaign to STOP INFLAMMATORY TACTICS.

These anti-abortion folks can become quite violent in promoting their cause.

[Name removed]

47. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[madfloridian]

50. A Palin supporter, are you??? Welcome to DU.

I believe that is a woman's right to decide with her doctor.

[muntrv]

48. They should be banned on obscenity charges. Otherwise, it should be legal

to show big pictures of nude women posing for Hustler magazine.

[FatDave]

49. I sure hope nobody slashes the tires on those trucks.

Especially not when they come to a stop at red lights. That would be wrong.

And I also hope they're not mercilessly pelted with balloons filled with paint. That would be wrong too.

[GoneOffShore]

51. Or shot at with paint balls.

That would be wrong.

Or have sugar put in the gas tanks when they're parked overnight.

That would be really wrong.

[VoodooGuru]

52. Oh yes, very, very, wrong...

Such a very, very wrong idea... I sure hope nobody with more concern for decency than the letter of the law and the money to pay the fine thinks of it... :evilgrin:

[FatDave]

56. Well, if some unscrupulous people did bring paint ball guns...

...I sure hope they don't first target the windshield. Because that would force the truck to come to an immediate complete stop. And that could interfere with traffic.

[Quantess]

53. THIS IS A DISTRACTION.

The McCain campaign wants you to take your eyes off the economy.

[2Design]

54. hope they include the dead wounded, and managled from the wars

you can not be pro war and pro life - that is oxymoron and the rw are morons

[RadicalTexan]

65. A-FUCKING-MEN

nt

[greenbriar]

55. I have seen the "truth truck" in Wichita it is disgusting

someone has an aweful imagination

[CitizenPatriot]

57. I saw one of these in north eastern florida two years ago

I will never forget it, nor will the people I was with. It was HUGE, GRAPHIC, and utterly appalling. It wasn't safe for driving near, because you couldn't help but stare. Blood and gore --- disgusting.

It was hard not to vomit.

The GOP's tactics are so incomprehensibly horrific and low level, I hope they get what they deserve for this. Yeah, this is leadership.

Who's the terrorist now?

[Matariki]

58. Oh, that's going to work

about as well as Peta comparing a chicken farm to the Holocaust.

[illuminaughty]

59. That horrific truck drove around during the Kerry/Edwards

rally in 2004 in Kansas City. Driving in front of the WW1 Memorial, in front of Union Station and Hallmark's Crown Center. I can't believe it's legal. They're were children everywhere and it was horrifying.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

62. Maybe the guy who used to drive around downtown Portland

with huge photos of aborted fetuses on the sides of his vehicle has decided to move to Florida.

I used to see him all the time, especially at anti-war demonstrations, and I doubt that he changed any minds or provoked any reactions other than "Gross."

[yardwork]

70. That guy used to drive around the Mall in D.C., too.

We saw him when I took my young children there to see the nation's capital. It was a good learning experience for the kids - introduction to right wing lunacy.

[lib2DaBone]

63. .and the trucks will be driven by Illegal Aliens with no Driver's License

..and the whole project will be funded by Charlie Crist using Tax Dollars for Evangelical Gatherings.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article845939.ece

[Solly Mack]

64. Displays like that just make me more determined to fight back against

the idiots.

[The Backlash Cometh]

66. Did I misread that? They're going to have trucks depicting the lynching of a black man?

Are they against it, or condoning it? I'm confused.

[4_TN_TITANS]

67. How about pics of war torn Iraqis?

We can't even take pics of caskets coming back. <sigh>......

[yardwork]

68. I don't think that this will help McCain at all.

This is another mistake. McCain already has the low-information scaredy-cat voters. They love Sarah Palin and they're already voting for him and he's still way behind.

To win, McCain must win back the moderate Republicans who have jumped the sinking ship and are now supporting Obama. The only way to win them back is to somehow convince them that McCain is more reliable than Obama. Running bilboards of aborted fetuses around Florida is not going to do that.

[dysfunctional press]

71. how about graphic billboards of diseased sexual organs as a pitch for better sex education?

how would the fundies react to THAT kind of campaign?