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WVWV is a non-story

shimanepdf — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:02:38 -0400

This is a non-story. Mostly it is about incompetence of political staffers not understanding marketing / direct mail / robo calling.

The interesting story, at least for me, as head of the National Political Do Not Contact Registry (StopPoliticalCalls.org) a non-partisan, non-profit org working to reduce robo calls is this:

- Non-profits are exempt from the robocalling law.
- Politicians are exempt from the robocalling law.

It is interesting that the AG is going after WVWV for violating the law, but they are not going after other non-profit organizations that may also be violating the law.

The calls violated the law according to the AG's press release:

"The calls violated state law by failing to disclose who sponsored the call and failing to offer the organization’s contact information to get the calls to stop."

The reality is that there are more than likely several campaigns and other non-profit organizations that are "failing to disclose who sponsored the call" and "failing to offer the org's contact information to get the calls to stop".

In fact, I know of no political campaign at the national level that offers voters a way to opt out of further calls.

That is why Sen. Feinstein and Rep. Lofgren have introduced the Robocall Privacy Act.

As I stated in my op-ed in Politico( http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9978.html) today.

Recently, a bicameral and bipartisan effort has been led by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Reps. Zoe Lofgren (-Calif.) and John Campbell (R-Calif.) with the introduction of the Robocall Privacy Act. The bill would sanction groups or individuals who make political robocalls between the hours of 9 p.m. and 8 a.m., make more than two political robocalls to the same number in the same day, fail to disclose the party responsible for the political robocall or block caller identification information.

Why is the AG not going after other organizations?

Is it because this is a political hot potato?
--
Cheers,

Shaun Dakin – CEO & Founder
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry
-- A non-partisan, non-profit program by Citizens for Civil Discourse
Register Your Phone Number Now for Free: http://www.StopPoliticalCalls.org/
Blog: http://blog.StopPoliticalCalls.org/

Cheers,

Not buying it from Women's Voices

Ruby Sinreich — Thu, 01 May 2008 12:37:44 -0400

I might have believed that Women's Voices just honestly screwed up if this was the first or second time it happened. Even then it would be a stretch - these are very savvy political operators. But North Carolina is the 12th state to report misleading voter outreach that is being funded by this organization. At some point (probably back in Arizona) this became a pattern.

It has nothing to do with Obama or Clinton, this is simply unethical and/or criminally incompetent.

(FYI, I have more to say and a collection of links about this here.)

BOOTS ON THE GROUND

RPmaniac — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 19:40:09 -0400

Meetup.com members as of 9/16/2007
updated from 9/10/07

Republicans

Paul.............. 45,145.....+2579
Hunter................230.......+38
Thompson..........179........+9
McCain..............107........+0
Giuliani................56........+1
Huckabee............34.........+3
Romney..............29...........-1
Tancredo..............4..........+0
Brownback............0.........+0

Democrats

Obama..........5893.........+84
Edwards........4139.........+16
Kucinich........4097.........+58
Clinton.......... 2042........+20
Gravel...............52.........+8
Richardson........31..........-2
Biden..................0........+0
Dodd...................0........+0

Obama opens up online phone bank

Peter Erickson — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:21:07 -0400

Obama is opening up a distributed phone bank online. You sign into the website and receive a list of phone numbers to call to spread the word on a policy position --- in this case, the Iraq war.

Kind of nifty. Here's the site.

Good point n/t

David All — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:44:51 -0400

________________________________________
David All
The David All Group
http://davidallgroup.com
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Fair and balanced?! How about relevant?

jake3_14 — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 21:01:43 -0400

Rather than worrying about whether candidates prefabricated answers to prefabricated questions will be fair and balanced, we should worry about whether the questions or answers mean anything at all. The only candidate Q&A I've seen lately of any substance was McCain's grilling on "The Daily Show." And there, only the questions were relevant. McCain's answers might as well have come from a Magic 8 ball.

Let's watch what candidates do, rather than listen to the boring pablum they spew when they talk to an audience. Knowing that Obama's political platform is written by the same Wall St. consortium that wrote Clinton's tells us far more than the vague platitudes about "the politics of hope" Obama mouths. Following the money trail (see http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/moneyweb.asp?cycle=2008) will tell you more about a candidate's loyalties than professions of solidarity with union workers. And there are a number of sites that examine candidate's voting records.

Frankly, I stop listening to what a candidate says the moment the candidate announces s/he's running for something, and I start looking at what s/he's done, who's paying for his/her campaign, and who's writing his/her policy material.

Thanks, Micah!

Ruby Sinreich — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:37:45 -0400

Thanks so much for these notes Micah. There were so many times during this discussion when I just wanted to bop those journalists on the head. They are probably way ahead of their peers, but they are really far from getting it.

They really seem unable to break out the mindset that their audience are a much of dumb sheep with no intellectual curiosity and who have to be told what they want to read. I nearly cried out when Plotz described the media's breathless coverage of Obama coverage as "earned media" instead of the predetermined and self-fulfilling script that the MSM is mindlessly following.

Anyway it was a fascinating discussion to observe. Perhaps next year they can include some of the politicians who they so frequently blamed for spin and message control. We can get a nice "chicken or the egg" session going.

Great post.

David All — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 17:24:25 -0400

Lots of words. Lots of content.

Thanks for posting this.
________________________________________
David All
The David All Group
http://davidallgroup.com
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