Remember how bad the Kerry campaign was? It's back!

[Joe]

http://www.drudgereport.com/dnc66.htm

Which party is peddling fear, again?

[Vympel]

What you're trying to play this off as (i.e. peddling 'fear') is not what the .jpg even says. The tactic is to pre-empt (hence the word "pre-emptive strike") any attempts to dissuade voters from voting by making it an issue first, thus framing the issue the way they want.

Comparing this to "vote Bush or America will be in danger" is bullshit.

[Gil Hamilton]

Ah, yes. Matt Drudge is an excellent source of completely non-partisan information about the Kerry Camp, right Joe?

[Joe]

Did you even read the article? A DNC spokeperson said it was true!

[Gil Hamilton]

Did you even read the article? A DNC spokeperson said it was true!

You mean the anonymous "top source" that Matt Grudge "quoted" at the end? Oh yes, very convincing.

[Joe]

Listen, Drudge is wrong a lot, but he doesn't just make shit up out of the blue.

[Gil Hamilton]

Listen, Drudge is wrong a lot, but he doesn't just make shit up out of the blue.

Where is your evidence for this? Drudge makes up bullshit all the time. He's built his career off of taking a grain of sand, blowing it up, spinning it beyond recognition, and making a beach out of it.

[Iceberg]

Listen, Drudge is wrong a lot, but he doesn't just make shit up out of the blue.

That's sig-worthy humor.

Oh, wait, you're serious.

[Patrick Degan]

Listen, Drudge is wrong a lot, but he doesn't just make shit up out of the blue.

If Drudge is wrong a lot, then that sort of lessens his value as a source of accurate information, doesn't it?

[Durandal]

Listen, Drudge is wrong a lot, but he doesn't just make shit up out of the blue.

Thus it's impossible that he could be wrong about this. Gotcha.

[SirNitram]

[Yoda]The desperation is strong with this one..[/Yoda]

Come back when a real reputable source picks this up.

[Augustus]

Oddly enough...

The first source to break the O'Reilly story was Drudge. Most people on the board don't seem to have a problem accepting that story.

I guess it only counts if its not your Ox getting gored.

[SirNitram]

Oddly enough...

The first source to break the O'Reilly story was Drudge. Most people on the board don't seem to have a problem accepting that story.

I guess it only counts if its not your Ox getting gored.

And Augustus comes up to the plate, swings... WHIFF!

You'll note no one on this board used the Drudge article on it to support it. Whoops. Looks like your criticism fails before it gets out of the gate.

[Augustus]

Oddly enough...

The first source to break the O'Reilly story was Drudge. Most people on the board don't seem to have a problem accepting that story.

I guess it only counts if its not your Ox getting gored.

And Augustus comes up to the plate, swings... WHIFF!

You'll note no one on this board used the Drudge article on it to support it. Whoops. Looks like your criticism fails before it gets out of the gate.

Sorry Nitram,

I started the O'Reilly thread, and its origin is the Drudge Report supplemented by the material at the Smoking Gun. I intentionally posted the Smoking Gun link because of the hostility some have towards Drudge.

[SirNitram]

Sorry Nitram,

I started the O'Reilly thread, and its origin is the Drudge Report supplemented by the material at the Smoking Gun. I intentionally posted the Smoking Gun link because of the hostility some have towards Drudge.

You'd do so much better if you weren't a lying sack of shit.

The Smoking Gun

Love him or hate him - if true it will be the last of him.

That's your entire opening post. A link to TSG, and a short comment. Where's the stuff from Drudge, exactly, in your post? No where. Where's the stuff in there that we would have to consider legitimate from Drudge? No where. Go fuck off.

[Augustus]

What part of "Sorry Nirtram" did you not get?

[SirNitram]

What part of "Sorry Nirtram" did you not get?

I apologize. I interperated it as a sarcastic tone with the entire post. I overreacted.

[Beowulf]

[Yoda]The desperation is strong with this one..[/Yoda]

Come back when a real reputable source picks this up.

The DNC a reputable source?

2. If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a "pre-emptive strike" (particularly well-suited to states in which there techniques have been tried in the past).

• Issue a press release

i. Reviewing Republican tactic used in the past in your area or state

ii. Quoting party/minority/civil rights leadership as denouncing tactics that discourage people from voting

• Prime minority leadership to discuss the issue in the media; provide talking points

• Place stories in which minority leadership expresses concern about the threat of intimidation tactics

• Warn local newspapers not to accept advertising that is not properly disclaimed or that contains false warnings about voting requirements and/or about what will happen at the polls

[SirNitram]

[Yoda]The desperation is strong with this one..[/Yoda]

Come back when a real reputable source picks this up.

The DNC a reputable source?

Yes. Thank you. That wasn't so hard, was it?

[Patrick Degan]

[Yoda]The desperation is strong with this one..[/Yoda]

Come back when a real reputable source picks this up.

The DNC a reputable source?

2. If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a "pre-emptive strike" (particularly well-suited to states in which there techniques have been tried in the past).

• Issue a press release

i. Reviewing Republican tactic used in the past in your area or state

ii. Quoting party/minority/civil rights leadership as denouncing tactics that discourage people from voting

• Prime minority leadership to discuss the issue in the media; provide talking points

• Place stories in which minority leadership expresses concern about the threat of intimidation tactics

• Warn local newspapers not to accept advertising that is not properly disclaimed or that contains false warnings about voting requirements and/or about what will happen at the polls

Yes it is, but:

Oct 14, 2004
Cabrera On Drudge Report: GOP Offers Up Red Herring to Cover Up Shameful Record of Voter Intimidation

Washington, D.C. – With early voting underway already, today the Drudge Report posted a misleading statement about Democratic efforts to fight voter suppression. In response, the Democratic National Committee released:

1) A statement from DNC Communications Director Jano Cabrera;
2) A brief review of past GOP voter intimidation efforts from this year alone;

3) The full excerpt from the DNC field manual which was a alluded to, but unfairly characterized, on the Drudge Report;

STATEMENT BY DNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR JANO CABRERA

"Democrats are working every day to ensure that every American eligible to vote can vote," said DNC Communications Director Jano Cabrera. "For decades, Republicans have engaged in systematic voter suppression and intimidation, from throwing minorities off the voter rolls to ripping up Democratic voter registrations. We make no apologies for fighting these tactics by exposing the dirty tricks when they happen, and helping educate local officials and activists about past Republican tactics so they can prevent them from occurring this year."

THE REPUBLICAN RECORD ON VOTER INTIMIDATION - THIS YEAR ALONE

Yesterday
Reports surfaced in Nevada, Oregon and potentially other states of the RNC paying half a million dollars to a company who was ripping up democratic voter registration forms. These activities are currently under investigation.

Last week
A former Republican Party executive filed a bogus lawsuit, which was dismissed, trying to knock 17,000 Democratic voters off the voter rolls in Nevada. He told the Las Vegas Review Journal – "I am looking to take Democrats off the voter rolls."

July
Republican official John Pappageorge told the Detroit Free Press, "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote we’re going to have a tough time in this election cycle."

FULL EXCERPT OF DNC FIELD MANUAL ON HOW TO PREVENT AND COMBAT VOTER INTIMIDATION

The DNC also released the section of their field manual titled "How to Organize to Prevent and Combat Voter Intimidation" referred to on the Drudge Report, which focuses on how to detect, prevent, and combat voter intimidation practices.

I. WHAT TO LOOK FOR

In general, the goal of minority voter intimidation programs is either to provide a basis for challenging the right of people to vote just before election day or when they show up at the polls, and/or to create doubt, confusion and fear among voters about their right to vote or the location at which they can vote.

Prior to Election Day

Activities that may take place in the weeks or days leading up to election day can include:

1. Mass mailing targeted to minority communities aimed at using letters returned as undeliverable as a basis for challenging voters (on or prior to election day) based on change of residence

2. Mailings, signs, and/or phone calls targeted or concentrated in minority communities

• Providing "information" about the requirements for voting, for example, that persons not current on child support payments will not be eligible to vote, or that persons who have recently moved will not be eligible

• Providing "information" about what questions will be asked or documentation requested of voters at the polls in order to vote, e.g., that proof of citizenship will be required, or that a drivers license or lease will be required to prove residence

• Giving warnings about election offenses, i.e., that voting when ineligible to do so, or voting at the wrong place, or providing false information to election officials, etc. is a crime

• Suggesting that polling places have been changed

3. Any variation of the above in Spanish, targeted to, or appearing in, Latino communities

4. Complaints filed by Republican Party or candidates with election authorities (or police or other authorities) about volunteer registrars registering minority voters illegally

5. Attempts to encourage voters in minority communities to throw away mail-in ballots

6. Attempts to coerce voters in minority communities to turn over endorsed absentee ballots On Election Day

Activities that take place on election day itself may include:

1. Signs, posters, phone calls, and/or sound trucks giving "information" or warnings about voter requirements or eligibility and/or warning that voting when ineligible to do so is an offense, etc.

2. Concentration of numbers of Republican poll watchers or challengers in minority precincts

3. Republican poll watchers challenging every voter in minority precincts on some pretext

4. GOP poll watchers, local law enforcement officers, or persons with official looking badges or insignia stationed at polling places taking pictures, asking for names, or engaging in other types of intimidating conduct.

5. Other persons deliberately placed at polling places to harass or hassle voters

6. Efforts to create longer lines in the polls, targeted in minority communities, through means such as limiting the number of registration books; deliberately sending unregistered voters into certain polling places to create confusion and delay and/or create a scene, and thereby slow down voting at those polling places

7. Changing polling locations close to election day

8. Slower responses to voting machine breakdowns in minority precincts

II. HOW TO ORGANIZE TO PREVENT AND COMBAT VOTER INTIMIDATION
The best way to combat minority voter intimidation tactics is to prevent them from occurring in the first place and prepare in advance to deal with them should they take place on election day.

1. If there are any signs of present or expected intimidation activity, in advance of election day, launch a press program that might include the following elements:

• Prepare and distribute to the press (or have available at a press conference, see below) materials giving the background and history of GOP minority voter intimidation, with emphasis on past activity in your state or district.

• Devise separate press strategies for mainstream and specialty press:

i. Mainstream press: Consider a press conference
— Featuring a prominent mainstream spokesperson (priest, civic leader, business leader)
— Including a group of established community leaders behind that spokesperson, but with only one person giving a statement
— Emphasizing a message of outrage, but designed to appeal to the broader community: "We thought this community was better than that", "We thought those days were behind us", "Nothing is more despicable than trying to deprive any American of the precious right to vote, the foundation of our democracy for which so many have sacrificed."
— Impugning the source of divisiveness – the GOP, the opposing candidate, whoever can credibly be said to be behind it
— Include call to action

ii. Specialty press
— Use minority intimidation as an organizing tool: in a press conference and/or press materials, community leadership should call on the community to rise up against the efforts to disenfranchise them by turning out in record numbers and challenging any effort at intimidation
— Link this fight to the historical fights to enfranchise minorities, going back to the civil rights struggle.

2. If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a "pre-emptive strike" (particularly well-suited to states in which there techniques have been tried in the past).

• Issue a press release

i. Reviewing Republican tactic used in the past in your area or state

ii. Quoting party/minority/civil rights leadership as denouncing tactics that discourage people from voting

• Prime minority leadership to discuss the issue in the media; provide talking points

• Place stories in which minority leadership expresses concern about the threat of intimidation tactics

• Warn local newspapers not to accept advertising that is not properly disclaimed or that contains false warnings about voting requirements and/or about what will happen at the polls

3. Train field staff, precinct workers, and your own poll watchers thoroughly in the rules they need to know for election day.

4. Plan and completely prepare for possible legal action well in advance of election day

5. Have Secretary of State record public service announcements about election day – when polls are open, who is eligible, etc.

—context is everything. Drudge simply cherry-picked the "evidence" which "proved" his charge.

[Beowulf]

So telling people that voting when you're not supposed to is a crime, is considered intimidation?

And the full except doesn't refute the charge that Democrats are planning a full on blitz regardless of whether intimidation is found or not.

[Patrick Degan]

So telling people that voting when you're not supposed to is a crime, is considered intimidation?

You mean the way the Florida Department of Investigation's been going around to minority neighbourhoods in that state to interrogate the residents and doing nothing whatsoever to clear up the impression that their attempts to vote might be illegal? I've got news for you: that is intimidation.

And the full except doesn't refute the charge that Democrats are planning a full on blitz regardless of whether intimidation is found or not.

Only if you decide to selectively read the text, the way Drudge dishonestly did.