I am trying to get someone to cross over from the dark side.

I know someone who always votes repuke because he says they are good for business.

He is a VERY successful businessman. He works very hard at it, too.

He is a naturalized citizen, a Palestinian who was born in Jordan. I think he has been a citizen for almost thirty years.

He is a generous friend and father, and a good guy, in most ways.

I have a hard time figuring out why a Muslim would support Shrub, but I need more cogent arguments than that for this guy. He is intelligent.

Any suggestions?

Ethnicity has nothing to do with it, and greed is non-sectarian.

It is not unusual to find people from other countries living in the US who are well-to-do and have very "conservative" opinions on many subjects that many of their less affluent compatriots do not share.

A recent article in the print media said that many of the Muslims who supported Boy George's bid for the White House in 2000 have been so disgusted by his policies that they're not going to vote for him again. I remembered the mention of some sort of council. I'm sorry I can't narrow your search any further.

Then he is in the minority, and let him vote for him, I don't care.

My concern is that everyone look realistically at if they are benefitting from his business policies. I am quite sure that only the richest do. All this other stuff, these cheesy little "tax refunds" etc. are just smoke and mirrors for people who are not too bright.

If everyone answered this question honestly: Are you better off than you were 4 years ago? Then Shrub wouldn't get more than 15% of the votes.

to bring him from being a repuke to a dem?
there are fewer economic arguments you have to make if that is the case. yes, dems believe in higher taxes but they also pay as they go.
crontrolled privatization is still up for grabs.
if it's more left than that then brushing up on left wing economics becomes necessary.
you might ask irate citizen or mschreader for more detailed info and books. both of those folks are truly brilliant when it comes to explaining left wing economics.
it can be done -- but one should know exactly what the bogey men are so you can dispell the myths more accurately.
part of the problem with conservatives is they see leftists as less than pragmatic than they are and believe all social goodness derives from the engine of free enterprize. the problems with that myth are legion and rather than paint a huge portrait small pictures might serve you better.

They keep saying the country is going great. I do not think so but then I am retired. That even does not make my income steady. I got no tax cut I can find and my income has dropped every month since Bush got in.The one thing under GOP I should be able to count on is what has gone down in income, my retirement account.

Has he heard about Maher Arar?

TORONTO, Nov. 4 -- A Canadian citizen who was detained last year at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as a suspected terrorist said Tuesday he was secretly deported to Syria and endured 10 months of torture in a Syrian prison.

Maher Arar, 33, who was released last month, said at a news conference in Ottawa that he pleaded with U.S. authorities to let him continue on to Canada, where he has lived for 15 years and has a family. But instead, he was flown under U.S. guard to Jordan and handed over to Syria, where he was born. Arar denied any connection to terrorism and said he would fight to clear his name.

U.S. officials said Tuesday that Arar was deported because he had been put on a terrorist watch list after information from "multiple international intelligence agencies" linked him to terrorist groups.

...

Arar said U.S. officials apparently based the terrorism accusation on his connection to Abdullah Almalki, another Syrian-born Canadian. Almalki is being detained by Syrian authorities, although no charges against him have been reported. Arar said he knew Almalki only casually before his detention but encountered him at the Syrian prison where both were tortured.


This guy was just on his way home from Tunisia. He had to take a connecting flight from NY to Montreal. Somebody had put his name on a watch list and the next thing he knows, he's being tortured in a Syrian prison. BECAUSE HIS NAME WAS ON A LIST.

This can happen to anybody of Middle Eastern descent. If your name happens to look like that of a terrorist or maybe you have met the acquaintance of somebody else who is on a watch list, you could find yourself in all kinds of trouble for no reason other than that you might share the same ethnicity as a terrorist.

Big business. The ones who devour small businesses and leave them to rot, or get lesser paying jobs - assuming they can pass the entrance tests.

What I want to say about republicans right now is too vile to mention.