Friday, October 24, 2008

The robo call outrage...

People are being asked to contact their elected representatives to come out against robo-calls. What kind of robocalls have been out there? Ones like this:
“Hi, I'm calling with some information about Barack Hussein Obama that you don't know. Barack Hussein Obama says he doesn't take money from Washington lobbyists or special interest groups, but the record is clear. He does. In fact, Barack Hussein Obama has taken millions of dollars from federal lobbying firms, Wall Street fat cats, big oil and pharmaceutical companies. It's all there on the record, the facts are clear. We just can't take a chance on Barrack Hussein Obama.”


The focus on why this is wrong is because it uses his middle name, several times.

Ready to call and complain? Well, for that one you'd have to track down which Democrat ran it since both the Edwards and Clinton campaigns were accused of sending it in January in Nevada.

Samples of two of the audio's being sent out by the McCain campaign can be heard here.

Then of course there is the latest "Joe the Plumber" story, this time with a robo call connection, a call center employee who decided she didn't want to read the McCain script, said she was fired:
"Hello, I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers [airs], whose organization bombed the US Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home, and killed Americans.

"And Democrats will enact an extreme leftist agenda if they take control of Washington. Barack Obama and his Democrat allies lack the judgment to lead our country.

"This call was paid for by McCain-Palin 2008 and the Republican National Committee."

Part of her reasoning for refusing was:
Asked what bothered her about the message she was told to repeat over the phone, that Obama was associated with people who tried to bomb the Pentagon, Cole said, “I don’t know if it’s true. I’m not the person who would call people and tell them lies about somebody else. I didn’t make one call."


Ayers group did bomb the Pentagon,

19 May 1972 - Bombing of The Pentagon, "in retaliation for the U.S. bombing raid in Hanoi." [NYT, 5/19/72]

They did bomb the Capitol,

1 March 1971 - The United States Capitol is bombed. WUO states this is to protest the invasion of Laos. President Richard M. Nixon denounces the bombing as a "shocking act of violence that will outrage all Americans." [NYT, 3/2/71]

I think everyone knows or at least should know about the judge's home being bombed and that they did kill people; one of my personal favorites?

12 September 1970 – The WUO helps Dr. Timothy Leary escape from the California Men's Colony prison.

It would have been fairly simple for anyone to check to see if these things were true if that was the real concern. Now how closely you believe Obama worked with Ayers could be debated, but what the Weathermen themselves even admitted they've done is out there. Having worked at a call center, normally if you have a problem and you are an employee they want to keep, they work with you. If they don't? Then situations like that are one way to get rid of an employee.

Either way, I hate robo calls and I'm happy to report that for some reason we have not gotten any this year, not from either the Obama or the McCain campaign which goes to show, neither campaign is doing a good job in "reaching out and touching" someone...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha! Good post. I haven't been getting many either. I think several months ago. Now I just get the real live voice and from both parties.

Unknown said...

I have not gotten either, which is strange, my husband is a registered Republican and I'm on the Democratic lists.

Hmmm I wonder if they've blacklisted my phone number so I won't blog about either side?

(laughing)

btchakir said...

This morning I'm driving my wife over to the Charles Town (WV) Courthouse so she can cast her early vote for Obama. My son and I have been over there to vote already, but this is the first opportunity Elly has had outside of her teaching schedule. The fact that West Virginia has early voting is something we are very happy about... it gives us a chance to put in some campaign time on election day supporting others in getting out the Obama vote.

You may know, however, that WV is one of the states which has had some polling place problems with computerized voting machines switching votes from Obama to McCain. We are in Jefferson County which uses a printed ballot that is then scanned, but in Martinsburg, right next door to us and part of Berkeley County, they have already reported machines that are switching votes. It is interesting that ALL of the vote switches using the ES&S machines are from Democrat to Republican... and it is great that due to early voting these problems are being documented and broadcast through the National media, making the voters even more aware of possible voter fraud happening.

If one looks at newspaper coverage across the country, it looks like the 33 or so states with early voting are trending toward Obama. This from the LA Times, for instance:

A surprise is the makeup of the early voters, election experts said. In past campaign seasons, Republicans have used early voting to their advantage, mobilizing a slice of the electorate that typically skews their way.

Yet a look at voters in a handful of crucial states suggests that Obama is turning out his base in numbers that surpass those of Republican John McCain.

"Historically, we've seen that early voters are older, they tend to be white, have higher incomes and are better educated," said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore.

"And that group of people tends to trend Republican. Now we have a mirror image in this campaign."

On the day I voted, over a week ago, the line of people was distinctly older... and were mostly Democrats from what I could determine. But I voted while most young people were either working or in school (we are in a heavy college area), so I will be interested to see what the Saturday turnout is.

I realize that West Virginia looks like it is in McCain's pocket (although our Democratic Governor and Senator Jay Rockefeller lead in their respective polls) when it comes to the election. I am afraid that is because of a 90%+ white voter registration (with a predominantly older perspective) and some unfortunate racial tinges which have been identified in the press. Given a poll-defying push in early voting, and a minor miracle somewhere, it is possible that Obama could win here... but it is doubtful. There is still reason for hope.

I am counting, however, on the trends in the rest of the country. If you can get out and vote early, I would encourage you to do so.

Under The LobsterScope

Unknown said...

btchakir,

My problem with the early trending is twofold, I'll give you first why it's a bad thing for Obama, if the continual reports out there are that he's doing well in early voting than that cuts down on the "desire" of many who wait till the last moment who are not really sure but then feel as if "He's going to win anyway" it's a bad message to promote.

Secondly, votes are not counted, or at least they are not supposed to be counted until election day, so it creates the impression that somehow these early votes are being counted when people state, "early vote trending shows Obama is leading" which further creates questions in the faith of our election process. The reality is the exit polling being done to determine this "early trending" is worse than scientific polling.

I've heard the reports of machines not registering a vote properly but they have not always been a machine trying to switch from Obama to McCain, though those instances have gotten more media attention. It's why some have tried to push for the elimination of these types of voting machines.

Robin said...

I've received a few robocalls. Mostly from Republican groups.

I received two letting me know when McCain and Palin were going to be in the area.

I've received a few pre-recorded messages telling me how evil Barack Obama is. One of those was the pre-recorded voice of Rudy Giuliani. Crap like that has made me lose any kind of respect I had for the guy.

I've received a couple from the Democrats. Mostly asking me to support Barack Obama.

I've received one survey asking me who I was going to vote for and ended up hanging up on the guy when he tried to convince me to tell him, when I didn't want to.

I'm waiting to hear a real live voice with these calls. Might be fun to see if I can get a real live answer out of anyone.

I must be open season since I'm registered as an Independent.