Women's Voices UPDATED: Did they lie to Virginia police?

[kpete]

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Thanks to readers, we have found a very important update to this story, which further suggests that these are far from "honest mistakes."

Women's Voices had promised to stop anonymous robo-calls in February, but didn't

Two and a half months before the D.C. group Women's Voices Women Vote began making illegal, anonymous robo-calls to voters in North Carolina, they had promised to stop the practice nationally, after being investigated by state police in Virginia.

As The Virginian-Pilotreported:

By Friday, however, investigators obtained some of the packets and tracked them to the source.

Women's Voices Women Vote, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Washington, made the calls and sent the mailings, Geller said.

The group said it is part of an "unprecedented" effort to register women. Trouble was, it was largely unheard of. The calls to potential voters started even before the effort was announced.

..............

Sarah Johnson, communications director for the organization , said Friday that not including information about the source of the voter registration effort was "absolutely an accidental omission."

She said the group was changing its nationwide phone alerts to make clear who is coordinating the effort.

It was 11 weeks later -- over two and a half months -- that Women's Voices began blanketing North Carolina with anonymous robo-calls from a fictitious caller named "Lamont Williams." As a tape recording of the North Carolina calls show, the calls in no way identify their source. Recipients of the calls tell Facing South that the phone number of the caller was also blocked.

Did Women's Voices lie to the Virginia State Police when they promised to stop making anonymous robo-calls? Or were the illegal, anonymous calls in North Carolina just another "accidental omission?"

more at:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5/1/84059/86757/567/506918

[Coexist]

1. holy crap!

[DJ13]

2. Clinton's supporters have read the GOP playbook

Or did they help write it?

[Rageneau]

11. Before you accuse, tell us: What POSSIBLE good do these calls do Clinton?

Or is the rule now that we simply accuse Hillarey of hurting Obama even when she hasn't hurt Obama and could not have hurt Obama and had no intention of hurting Obama but -- since Obama's supporters enjoy whining so much -- they want to BELIEVE, somehow, someway, that she hurt Obama with these calls.

[blm]

15. They calls specifically targeted BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS - gee - who has been getting the lion's share

of black votes?

[PinkyisBlue]

13. Karl Rove is the woman behind Women's Voices Women Vote.

[Why Syzygy]

3. I hope they prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.

The gall. A MAN (Lamont? is that supposed to be a "black" name) calling SUPPOSEDLY unmarried women to tell them to vote. yuh right

Not only are they inept, they are STUPID. And criminals. Book 'em!

[Kali]

4. this sure is suspicious

is it getting legs anywhere "mainstream" yet?

[Aloha Spirit]

7. There was an AP report, it was carried in some NC newspapers.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gValsOLfqBF2SGS-zHlwij9PEYkgD90CH4980

google news search.

[redqueen]

9. I found one AP piece.

NC group sorry for misleading calls on voting in primary
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gValsOLfqBF2SGS-zHlwij9PEYkgD90CH4980

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A group whose automated phone calls to North Carolina residents provided misleading information about voting in Tuesday's primary election apologized and said it will stop making the calls.


Of course there is no mention of their previous illegal actions, or their previous promise to stop.

[Spazito]

5. Over two and a half months AND many states later....

NO changes to their tactics says very clearly there is absolutely NO question they have an agenda and it is NOT to help "unmarried women" vote.

[Nia Zuri]

6. "Lamont Williams"

[1776Forever]

8. You cannot believe that they didn't know this was illegal then! And what else has gone on?

I heard on Ed Schultz show a couple of months ago that in Nevada Clinton's group was caught using a manual that they tried to pass off as the real one from the Democratic Party.

Here is an article on that:

Obama: Clinton Won Dirty.... Clinton Campaign: Obama Lost Dirty

20 Jan 2008 06:20 pm

One thing is clear: Nevada has to figure out how to do a better job next time. Barack Obama's campaign is accusing Hillary Clinton's of deliberately violating caucus laws to prevent late-arriving Obama voters from participating.

Obama's campaign counsel, Bob Bauer, said: "There was a clear disenfranchising effect. We want a full review of this."

He said the campaign received more than 300 complaints from folks who were not allowed into caucus sessions even though they had been in line to register by 11:30, the stated time.The campaign obtained what it said was a copy of Hillary Clinton's caucus manual and what it said were misleading instructions to caucus chairs.

Here's the page from the Clinton caucus guide.

One entry says: "11:30: Deadline for registering (or standing in line to register) to participate in the Caucus. And then: "11:30: Caucus chair closes door."

Nevada Democratic Party rules say: "In order to participate in the Nevada State Democratic Party Caucuses, attendees MUST be in line, or signed in, by noon. At noon, Presidential Preference Cards should be given to any person in line, and after that point, no Presidential Preference Cards should be given to any new arrivals, as they will not be allowed to caucus."

................

Again the Win At All Cost strategy that HRC has used throughout this campaign! Disgusting!!!!

:banghead:

[KoKo]

10. " The WVWV Shitstorm and Blog Fatigue"....Booman's Blog take on this...

The WVWV Shitstorm and Blog Fatigue

by BooMan
Thu May 1st, 2008 at 01:38:23 AM EST
Everybody has their breaking point and apparently my breaking point has not yet been reached. I know this because I keep watching other bloggers collapse in a heap of their own former credibility. The rubbernecking is clogging the tubes.

This campaign has, by my count, wiped out or seriously diminished the trustworthiness (or, in some cases, the talent) of most of the established blogs that existed prior to its inception. A few people have apparently lost their sanity.

The latest test is the revelation that Women's Voices Women's Vote (WVWV) is now under criminal investigation in North Carolina for making potentially felonious robocalls. This has already set off a firestorm...some out there for all to see, some hidden in the bowels of the secret blogosphere. The problem? This baby has the potential to unravel and make all kinds of people look like paid shills...even some that aren't paid shills, or were not aware they were paid shills. People are asking who is funded by whom, who knew what, who contributed to this campaign, etc. John Podesta's money is everywhere.

There is one hysterical faction that stands to get dinged up in this (probably wrongly) that is defending WVWV with everything they've got, even though they so far have got very little. And there's another faction that wants to be respectful of their friends and wait to see what facts might come out. (I'm in this faction). A third faction doesn't want to hear anything and is full-bore convinced that the Clinton campaign used WVWV as a proxy for voter suppression. When this is all done, no one is going to walk away uninjured.

Non-disclosed funding and relationships are going to come out and people (mostly totally innocent) are going to have a hard time getting people to trust them. People will be shitty to each other, feelings will get hurt. It's a big mess.

I just want to remind you of a couple of things. Just because someone is only one or two degrees of separation from John Podesta doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with them. The people that work at WVWV are good, idealistic people. Even board members at WVWV that have associations with the Clintons are good people.

But they are all lawyering up now because their organization committed a felony in North Carolina. And all the strings are going to get unraveled. People will insist that nothing untoward happened. Others will insist that is ludicrous (and it is) and it will do nothing but tear us all apart more and make us crazy.

The Panda wants this campaign over. The Panda is wise.


http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2008/5/1/13824/65455

[KoKo]

12. kick...

[TexasObserver]

14. Cheating seems to be a deep seated trait among the Clintons

Hillary's campaign has repeatedly cheated to try to gain advantage, particularly in caucus states. This robo call thing is nothing new, either. They have modeled her campaign after something Rove would do.

[mainer]

16. They make me embarrassed to be a woman

What a bunch of sneaky bitches.