Slashdot Mirror
Republican Robocall Pretexting Campaign
WCityMike writes, "In 53 Congressional campaigns across the country, including the Pennsylvania 6th, the Connecticut 4th, the North Carolina 11th, the New Hampshire 2nd, and the Illinois 6th and 8th (and possibly all races), the National Republican Congressional Committee is conducting a $2.1 million campaign to make it appear as if Democrats are spamming callers with telemarketing calls. The NRCC hired Conquest Communications Group to conduct a massive nationwide robocalling campaign with calls specifically scripted to appear as if they're coming from the Democratic candidate — in violation of FCC regulations on such 'robocalls,' which requires the identity of the caller to be stated at the beginning of the message [47 CFR 64.1200(b)(1)]. The call begins with 'Hello. I'm calling with information about,' and then says the name of the Democratic candidate. There is then a pause; if the recipient hangs up here, they will receive repeated calls back with the same message, potentially up to 18 times or more (according to one callee). If the callee doesn't hang up, they hear a smear message from the machine about the Democratic candidate. The NRCC thinks the legality of the calls is, conveniently, a 'complicated legal question that's not going to get adjudicated this weekend.'" Update 20:47 GMT by SM: Thankfully we all learned how to deal with these folks last week.
Actually, since most people don't vote for the candidate they want, but instead vote against the one they like the least, negative advertising (including "smear messages") is the most useful information to have.
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
Oddly enough, I've been getting a bunch of calls supporting our incumbant Republican senator....so many were coming in that I was wondering if it was actually a ploy from the Democrates to get me annoyed and blame the Republicans. However, the only smearing was against the Democrats. Still, what possible marketing model says that the way to get votes is to repeatedly harass potential voters by phone?.
The phrase "out of touch" comes to mind....BTW - I'm a registered independant, and thinking of going Libertarian.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
They're right. It won't get adjudicated this weekend.
However, just like their phone-jamming shenanigans in New Hampshire, it will get adjudicated against their corrupt asses.
So let them have their fun. This kind of crap is exactly why this Republican will be voting against every Republican on tomorrow's ballot.
Funn how my party continues to call the Democratic party one of traitors when it's my party which is undermining democratic principles.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Over the past three months the republican incumbant (under investigation by the FBI/DoJ for taking a $30000 vacation given to him by foreign lobbying groups) has been robocalling everyone in the county and some outside the county with calls that are basically designed to make you hang up the second you hear their tagline, "This call is about supporting Charlie Brown" (yes that is the democrat candidate's real name :P). Charlie's campaign doesn't have robocallers, but the actual campaign workers who call were rather surprised to hear from people that they got a robocall three minutes ago claiming it to be from their campaign.
Its rather a shame that the local republican controlled newspaper made no mention of this in their so-called "bad campaigning expose".
Do you expect anything less?
The Rove/Bush machine put fliers all over South Carolina in 2000 during the primaries saying that John McCain had fathered a "black" child.
The Rove/Bush machine sent a debate-prep videotape to Al Gore's headquarters in 2000, hoping to then play the "Gore campaign stole our video tape!" angle that they used against Jimmy Carter in 1980. Only Gore's campaign didn't take the bait and immediately called the media to report it. It turned out that a RNC staffer sent the tape (and took the fall, even though she was doing exactly as her bosses wanted her)
This is how they operate. Republicans always feel the ends justify the means, especially this current batch. It is a pattern in everything they do. They wanted to go into Iraq from the moment they took office, and they didn't care how much they had to lie or trump up false evidence to do it. The ends justified the means.
They feel that this country cannot survive without them in power, so there is no tactic too shameless or illegal that they won't try. In their minds, they MUST remain in power, so they will do anything and everything - even if it involves violating the law - to ensure that they do.
It is why Blackwell in Ohio accused his opponent of being endorsed by NAMBLA. (As Jon Stewart said, "how far do you have to be trailing in the polls to throw out the NAMBLA card?")
It is why supporters of Corker in Tennessee aired an ad indicating that Harold Ford Jr. is interested in white women.
There is no strategy too vile, too shameless, too illegal, too immoral for the Republicans. They represent the worst side of human nature. They are pigs. They know it, and they don't care. Too them, the stakes are too great to allow the Dems to take control of any part of government, and they will lie, cheat, and steal to prevent it from happening.
The ends justify the means.
That is why, if there is any hope of saving this nation from the course it is on, we must fight against them at every turn.
"I have as much authority as the pope, I just
don't have as many people who believe it" - George Carlin
Actually, the stock market has done better when the democrats were in power, according to NPR (no citation) and this Yahoo! Finance article. So, I welcome the change that is likely to happen tomorrow.
PS - I didn't get any stinking Bush tax cut. I'm not rich enough. Repeal the damn thing already!
First off:
The Dems are On this, filing one of the only C&D letters I've actually supported. Kinda brilliant of the NeoCons, really -- they hire an impersonator to make a fake 5 minute message, robocall it at 11 PM till 4 AM, make it long enough that most people hang up long before they hear the "paid for by the Republicans" message at the end, and, well, it's just brilliant. Too bad the Democrats are too ethical to try something like this themselves.
Jim Webb's campaign is also being specifically targeted by this, in what is probably a "test run" by Karl Rove. Robo calls are reporting that people will get arrested if they vote, that their locations have changed, pamphlets are being handed out telling black people not to bother voting, and the Voting Machines are set up to "accidently" mess Mr. Webb's name up. Even the Board of Elections are saying these efforts are Widespread and Deliberate (and, oh yeah, ILLEGAL).
Kinda a pity that the Republicans are so afraid of the United States Citizens voices being heard that they have to resort to such disgusting efforts to repress the vote. Of course, having seen this the last 3 elections in a row, this isn't a real surprise.