Say Anything Blog

Not written by KOS, but by Republic Not Empire.

Can’t recall why those New Hampshire repub

phone guys were incarcerated.

I wonder how long the election will be held hostage by Dems if they don’t get the results they hope for? Didn’t Al Gore invent this technique in holding Americans hostage??? Oh wait a second! Al Gore is really President isn’t he? NOT!…

I covered this yesterday. No, I don’t think it’s illegal. But it’s frigging stupid to the max. The people on the list have made an effort to say they don’t want calls; if the RNCC had a lick of sense, they’d use it anyway. The people they reach would be more pissed off than anything else.

But that would be presuming they have a lick of sense.

J.

I covered this yesterday. No, I don’t think it’s illegal. But it’s frigging stupid to the max. The people on the list have made an effort to say they don’t want calls; if the RNCC had a lick of sense, they’d use it anyway. The people they reach would be more pissed off than anything else.

But that would be presuming they have a lick of sense.

Though not in the best interest of democracy, I think it actually is a very good, albeit crude, political tactic. The point is to make those you calling believe it is the message is been sent by the Democrats. ..its mostly about suppressing the turnout of the Democratic leaning voters.

..I personally think such tactics should be made illegal.

I don’t think humans are going to change their vote for robo-calls.

The only effective use of them would be reminders to the party faithful to get out and vote the day before and election day.  However I think the Rove machine relies on volunteers to do that.

What’s going to happen to US industry when the global warming extremists like John McCain double the price of electricity?  I would think all these factories will close and set up in countries where they aren’t scared of technology.

I don’t think humans are going to change their vote for robo-calls.

The only effective use of them would be reminders to the party faithful to get out and vote the day before and election day.  However I think the Rove machine relies on volunteers to do that.

the one mostly been complained about works in keeping the “soft” voters of you opponent at home. ..it isn’t good for democracy, but as a political tactic it actually works, though you have to be careful about a backlass. ..not to mention how cheap it is.

So, the opinion is that calls were legal.

Nice try. I’m in NH-01, I know my State.

You had better go tell NH AG’s Office {run by perhaps the only ethical Republican in the whole State, Kelly Ayotte} which has come out and clearly said these robocalls are a violation of Statute, as written. They will persue this. The defense of these tactics in a court of law by Republicans {whats left of them in NH} will be hilarious.

The larger theme of Republican corruption is a cauldron of soup steaming hot in NH. People are awaiting the felony trials of WH operatives from the 2002 phone jamming case to start on Novemeber 27th. Implicated in this case are Ken Mehlman and Karl Rove.

Meanwhile, not only is this backfiring in NH-02, but throughout the nation, as the news media is getting totally saturated with complaints. In years past, these reports would come out AFTER the election, and people forget until next time.

Not THIS time.

You try to spin this until your head pops off. The people of this country are sick to death of Republican dirty tricks. It’s going to cost Charlie Bass his seat, and possibly quite a few other Republicans in the 53 districts the NRCC has been doing these robocalls.

You had better go tell NH AG’s Office {run by perhaps the only ethical Republican in the whole State, Kelly Ayotte} which has come out and clearly said these robocalls are a violation of Statute, as written. They will persue this. The defense of these tactics in a court of law by Republicans {whats left of them in NH} will be hilarious

The courts (not the AG) are the ones to decide whether this is a violation of any applicable law.

It should be enough to remember that the people on the do-not-call list do not want to be called. As to the appropriateness of the GOP tactic, Rob presented fairly good arguments in support of its legality while dodging entirely the morality of a candidate pretending to be the other guy. I just wonder what arguments Rob would have used to unequivocally demonstrate the illegality of the operation had it emanated from Democrats pretending to be Republicans.

I believe I am on that do not call list. I have not been called, BUT I actually don’t mind the Reminder to vote call. I just dont like the never ending telemaeketer calls and the political fund raisers.

Y’all have got be kidding:

N.H. Rev. Stat. § 359-E:7 provides (this is the law you cite):

A telemarketing sales call shall not include a call made: . . .
(e) On behalf of a political campaign, except that a call made on behalf of a political campaign by a vendor using automatic dialing equipment shall be deemed a telemarketing sales call under this chapter.

Holy Shit!  I’m not able to come up with an argument against the last post. I’ll let the in house lawyer (rob?) try and take care of that one.

Anon, already took care of that argument in the post.

A call cannot be a telemarketing call if it is about an established business relationship, which is defined by the FTC as a financial transaction between the caller/callee or an inquiry for information from the callee.

Links and specific definitions are in the post.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

The courts (not the AG) are the ones to decide whether this is a violation of any applicable law.

Thanks, Einstein.

Y’all have got be kidding:
N.H. Rev. Stat. § 359-E:7 provides (this is the law you cite):

A telemarketing sales call shall not include a call made: . . .
(e) On behalf of a political campaign, except that a call made on behalf of a political campaign by a vendor using automatic dialing equipment shall be deemed a telemarketing sales call under this chapter.

Ya, we are all kidding here. We’ve already have a felony conviction of the Executive Director of the Republican Party of the State of New Hampshire. We already have a felony conviction of “James Tobin, of Bangor, Maine, President George W. Bush’s New England campaign chairman, was convicted December 15, 2005, on telephone harassment charges “for his part in a plot to jam the Democrats’ phones on Election Day 2002."”

Ya, we are KIDDING here in NH

People in NH value their privacy, a LOT.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=James_Tobin

Political phone calls are exempt from the “Do Not Call” Registry, but at least one state - New Hampshire - amended the federal law to include campaign calls, leading to an inquiry from the state’s attorney general.

But what about campaign calls made to people who have a business relationship with the political party making the calls as defined by the FTC?

New Hampshire law specifically states that such calls are not banned.

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

NRCC seem to be playing within the gray area od the NH laws:

per the Washington Post

People here say they first remember receiving automated calls in large volume during the 2000 presidential primary and their frequency increased during statewide elections in 2002. A controversy erupted then when phone lines used by the Democratic Party to reach voters on Election Day were jammed for two hours by automated calls. An investigation was launched after the executive director of the Republican State Committee, Chuck McGee, resigned but denied a role in the calls, which were found to have been arranged by an Alexandria, Va., consulting firm called GOP Marketplace.

Now, calls made in the state to people who are on the new national do-not-call registry may be illegal. Last summer, the New Hampshire legislature passed a bill that exempted political campaigns, except for calls made “by a vendor using automatic dialing equipment.”

But it also defines the banned calls as those made “for the purpose of inducing payment or the exchange of any other consideration for any goods or services or for the purpose of soliciting an extension of credit for consumer goods or services, or for the purpose of obtaining information that may be used for the direct solicitation of a sale of consumer goods or services or an extension of credit for such purposes.”

The New Hampshire attorney general’s office said it was unclear how the law applies to political campaigns. “There are a number of issues that come up with this statute, but we have not made a statement on whether [the calls] are illegal because it hasn’t been tested in the courts yet,” said Orville B. “Bud” Fitch II, an assistant attorney general. “Our general policy is to look at the plain language of the law, but there may be a gray area here.”

here’s more on the current incident:

A national Republican group yesterday scuttled a pre-recorded phone call effort the state Attorney General’s Office said may have violated New Hampshire law by contacting residents listed on the federal Do Not Call registry.
The National Republican Congressional Committee voluntarily agreed yesterday afternoon to stop making automated calls to homes on the registry, said Deputy Attorney General Bud Fitch, who oversees election law.

. . .

Fitch said the agreement with the RNCC came after a conversation about 2 p.m. yesterday between the Attorney General’s Office and the general counsel for the Washington-based RNCC.

The state continue to investigate, with no decision on whether to pursue civil action, Fitch said.

and the NRCC contends, ..

Alex Burgos, NRCC spokesman, said his organization has been making calls to independent voters in the state’s Second Congressional District since Monday and would continue to do so. . . .
“We are a federal organization campaigning about a federal race,” said Burgos. “We feel that New Hampshire law does not apply to what we are doing.”

whatever the legal outcome, the backlash seem to have made this one a net-negative for the NH Republican, specially given what has happened in the past.

welcome to New Mexico, ..

In New Mexico yesterday, the state Democratic Party accused its GOP counterpart of calling Democratic voters and falsely telling them their polling place has changed.

This morning, the AP reports, the Dems are asking a judge to immediately bar the GOP from calling any registered Democratic voters in the state.

In their defense, the New Mexico Republicans are saying it happened just once, and it was a mistake.

..

But in a conversation with me this morning, New Mexico Democratic Party director Matt Farrauto said the GOP had given incorrect information to more than just one Democrat.

“I am standing in front of four people who had it happen to them, and there’s a fifth woman who contacted me this morning,” Farrauto told me. The group was standing in the courthouse lobby, he said, waiting to meet with a judge who could order the GOP’s calls to stop.

..is Bob Ney running the calling operation or something?

Can’t recall why those New Hampshire repub

phone guys were incarcerated.

They flooded the lines of Democratic offices in an attempt to prevent them from calling out and reminding people to vote.

"Although I can accept talking scarecrows, lions and great wizards in emerald cities, I find it hard to believe there is no paperwork involved when your house lands on a witch.”
- Dave James