"Penn, Schoen and Berland has played pioneering role in the use of..exit polls to facilitate coups."

[Bluebear]

Mark Penn

In his article, "Coup D'etat in Disguise," Jonathan Mowat described how these "polls" work: "Penn, Schoen and Berland (PSB) has played a pioneering role in the use of polling operations, especially "exit polls," in facilitating coups. Its primary mission is to shape the perception that the group installed into power in a targeted country has broad popular support. "...the deployment of polling agencies' "exit polls" broadcast on international television...give the false impression of massive vote-fraud by the ruling party, to put targeted states on the defensive."

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=11471

PSB and the 2004 Venezuelan recall election

PSB received negative attention for polling it did during the August 2004 Venezuelan recall election of President Hugo Chavez:<8>

"Exit Poll Results Show Major Defeat for Chavez" the survey, conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, asserted even as Sunday's voting was still on. But in fact, the opposite was true - Chavez ended up trouncing his enemies and capturing 59 percent of the vote.

PSB's Venezuela poll raised eyebrows for several reasons: the opposition to Hugo Chavez seized upon it as proof that "the results from the vote itself were fraudulent"; the poll results "were sent out by fax and e-mail to media outlets and opposition offices more than four hours before polls closed," in violation of Venezuelan law; "members of Sumate, a Venezuelan group that helped organize the recall initiative, the fieldwork for the poll"; and remarks to media went beyond poll results and analysis to election commentary - Mark Penn told Associated Press that Doug Schoen "believes there were more problems with the voting than with the exit poll."

PSB and the Serbian elections in 2000

Interestingly, PSB was involved in similar charges of "American political interference in Serbia, locus of a $77 million U.S. effort to do with ballots what NATO bombs could not--get rid of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. In the run-up to national elections on Sept. 24, U.S. aid officials and contractors are working to strengthen Serbia's famously fractured democratic opposition. They have helped train its organizers, equipped their offices with computers and fax machines and provided opposition parties with sophisticated voter surveys compiled by the same New York firm that conducts polls for President Clinton" -- PSB.

Jonathan Mowat has a more incisive appraisal of PSB as follows:

Penn, Schoen and Berland (PSB) has played a pioneering role in the use of polling operations, especially "exit polls," in facilitating coups. Its primary mission is to shape the perception that the group installed into power in a targeted country has broad popular support. The group began work in Serbia during the period that its principle, Mark Penn, was President Clinton's top political advisor.

PSB and the 2005 British general election

In late January 2005, The Daily Telegraph revealed that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had recruited the services of PSB's Mark Penn in the run-up to the general election in the UK, widely expected to take place in May of that year.

PSB and the Italian elections in 2006

At the beginning of 2006, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ordered PBS (via his party Forza Italia) to conduct a survey on the next Italian elections (of April 9, 2006). The results showed Berlusconi's coalition winning, while all other surveys by Italian pollsters showed the opposition winning. The Penn, Shoen & Berland Italian survey results can be seen here. Other news reports on this contested survey are here and here.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Penn%2C_Schoen_%26_Berland

[hlthe2b]

1. Ohh, now this is really disturbing...

yes, like Hillary or loathe her, she MUST address this (having this guy on her team).


Some days I envy those who are "blissfully unaware" or politically ignorant....

[movonne]

3. Hillary backers will be here soon to tell us this is an non-issue...I'm

beginning to believe they will back her just like the bush lover backed him..brain washing of the dems...

[Bluebear]

4. That's how I am reading some of her backers

Hey, back your candidate, I am all for it, but to not even question things? That is blind loyalty.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

40. blind, foolish loyalty.

But Penn is the perfect tool for the Hillarian campaign. They are made for each other.

[papau]

8. I agree - this is really disturbing - and the Venezuelan pretend poll was just that - so

did they do this at the request of the CIA? - As I recall the CIA had and has live operations trying to destroy - even kill - Chavez.

Sometimes one must realize that the CIA goals are less patriotic and more just working for the American Oil companies.

There is an innocent explanation - if one accepts it is your choice of course. It is known that the exit polling workers hired by Penn were from the anti-Chavez side of the house and were minimally trained and thus biased - in general dropping the "random" procedures and instead talking mainly to those like themselves - those anti-Chavez voters.

But that could have been planned. And the CIA did try to run with that exit poll.

[Mnpaul]

60. Funded by USAID

Witch is rumored to be a CIA front group

[snappyturtle]

50. I certainly would get a lot more done if I were politically ignorant.

I find politics so intriguing and it takes time trying to figure it out...which I doubt I ever will!

This post is distressing.....ONE of the elephants in the room.

[Matariki]

92. nevermind

[tkmorris]

2. And there you have it

I really don't see how anyone could support this.

[Karenina]

6. Really? Not?

Being offered a seat in the "inner sanctum," perks of perceived power etc. ad infinitum nauseum? I see it clearly.

[helderheid]

5. rec 2 - get this to Keith Olbermann

[Bluebear]

7. Are all these huge Clinton-lead poll numbers even real?

Just askin'!

[papau]

9. The 30+ lead from the ABC/Post poll is likely an "outlier" - but the 15% lead seems real.

n/t

[Junkdrawer]

13. If they can get you to believe Hillary has a huge lead...

they can get you to believe just about anything.

[bonito]

14. Funny that

Same applies with a virgin birth or walking on water, raising the dead, although I have the greatest respect for his teachings in truth I conceder undeniable, kinda makes one wonder just how people are led, another example would be blind patriotism for ones country and its actions, but patriotism is being loyal to your country all the time, but to your leaders when they deserve it.

[Junkdrawer]

16. I'm reading H.G. Wells' Outline of History....

His take on Christianity is that Jesus taught what he called a 'Kingdom of Heaven' philosophy which was an early form of Communism. (In a Roman authoritarian slave state, it's easy to see why this caught on.)

It was St. Paul that took this popular fad and turned it into a major priest-led religion by injecting the "he died as a sacrifice for our sins" stuff. If you read the Gospels, it's just not there. Most of the nonsense of Christianity is theocrasia.

http://www.bartleby.com/86/36.html

[bonito]

19. Sounds interesting

I'll read up on it, thanks

[Junkdrawer]

20. I joined Audible and the got the audiobooks in my intro offer...

At 22 hrs. each, they were a good bargain..

http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/products/ProductDetail.jsp?productID=BK_BLAK_000348&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

http://www.audible.com/adbl/site/products/ProductDetail.jsp?productID=BK_BLAK_000349&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes

[Sam Ervin jret]

58. Most "christians" don't know shit about Jesus. Find the books the powers didn't want read.

Sheep follow, but some actually know where the green grass grows. Only a foolish lamb would starve rather than take a good look around.

All the major religions are based on patriarchal rule, patriarchal behavior modification and socialization to the acceptance of a patriarchal social structure which, although it has improved as of late in a few ways for a few in a few countries, denigrates anyone deemed to be of lesser power (usually a woman) and deemed to be of lesser value (again usually a woman.)

Please do not mix up Religion and Faith. One is an institution of the state. The other is a very personal expression of an experience many cannot explain, cannot name, cannot communicate to another person very well in any language yet created by man. Yet the person after the experience, desperately wants to communicate what has happened to him/her. It seems to them to be the most extraordinary thing that has ever happened to them, yet when they try to tell the people they love, words fall short.. Are they mad?

Then there is religion, a means for control, and it meets with these crazy experiences or the people who have had them. What a weapon!
The two meet. The Power uses the faith to control. The faith sends messengers, prophets of all faiths, to try to balance the Power of man's greed and need to control. Man's belief that Might makes Right is strong. Many prophets come give their message and go. The world changes .... Slowly.

Do you have any faith that we will get to the right place in the end? A place where Might does not make Right? Where buildings and institutions do not a county, an ideology, a belief make? A place and a time where and when all people are valued equally and rules are set by all, for the good of all, are justly settled by all?

I do. But then, I have Faith. Want to call me a fool for it? You won't be the first.

"A little science 'drives' a man away from God. A lot of Science bring him beck" Bacon

[anitar1]

76. Thanks for the info about Well book. I must read it. n/t

[tom_paine]

22. Bingo. n/t

[stlsaxman]

71. just last night i mentioned the "30% ABC poll" at a table of 12 and everyone groaned out loud...

"it CAN'T be true..."

people ain't buying that shit.

[HooptieWagon]

18. Ha! That was my first thought

Hillary supporters are almost bushbotesque in their koolaid consumption.

[lumberjack_jeff]

30. Do you remember the post from the person who was polled, and Kucinich wasn't an option?

[tom_paine]

39. Oh, I remember, and while it is anecdotal evidence, I tend to believe this.

without even ascribing a sinister motive to it, just Corporate Infoganda's usual penchant for abberviation and the quick clip.

This is how you get a Soviet-style media without having to have beetle-browed KGB agents standing behind every journalist with a gun to their head.

[leftist_not_liberal]

31. Just kickin' Just recommendin' n/t

[havocmom]

32. Have yet to meet any person who would vote for her in a primary

So, my guess is NOPE.

[helderheid]

45. I have to wornder as well.

[Diane R]

53. I don't know anyone who wants Hillary. How can the polls show such a large lead?

[yardwork]

57. I've wondered this myself.

[mod mom]

37. will gladly do, although KO seemed kind of gushy over Bill Clinton.

[Donnachaidh]

48. just because one is gushy over Bill, does NOT automatically force them to

*take* Hillary. Of course, you need to take a good hard look at her, and distance yourself from the "Bill on a Stick" promises being offered.

[ChiciB1]

51. Very Very Good Idea!!! n/t

[LibertyorDeath]

10. Great info

Rec!

[illinoisprogressive]

11. Schoen is working for Rassmuessen. They are messing with things.

[zazzle]

64. Yes - we've known that for awhile

[Gold Metal Flake]

12. K&R

[gateley]

15. K&R. nt

[jpgray]

17. Recommended. Pollsters get far too little oversight.

[tom_paine]

21. People, this has been going on since long before 2000.

Nice to see it get some small mention in some small place.

I wouldn't expect to see it address on Cable TV Pravda anytime soon.

[defendandprotect]

24. Obviously, the right-wing could not defeat liberalism in any honest ways . . ..

We have had extreme political violence --

And the electronic voting machiens didn't pop up in 2000 --
they've been with us since the late 1960's . . . . !!!!!

Read VOTESCAM -- look at the website and understand that this story was being reported by at least early 1970's....

When you think things don't seem right . . . . you may be right!!!!

[defendandprotect]

25. And, now Penn is using Hillary to move the agenda along . . . . !!!!

[tom_paine]

38. Authoritarians can NEVER defeat liberalism by honest means

because at it's black heart Authoritarianism contradicts the human desire for freedom.

However, it may be that the desire for security and order, combined with the forces of apathy and denial, may be far stronger.

This explains the far FAR greater prevalence of authoritarian goverments, left and right, compared to free governments throughout human history and today moreso than any time in the last half-century. Though more authoritarian governments have learned to cover their tracks with rigged 51-47% or 98-2% "elections" (in less developed nations with less eductated populace).

It would not suprise me that this has been going on for quite some time, and the reason why it has shifted to overdirve now is because I think most of the American Aristocracy, left AND right, despises and has contempt for the Filthy Little Nobodies they rule.

Something snapped during the Clinton Era in our aristocracy, and the wholsale reprogramming of Republics and conservatives into unquestioning authoritarian monsters also reached a critical mass during that time.

Now, America is so shot through with people who have no real belief in democracy (though they will shout that they are defending it when they steal and suppress votes, just likethe Nazis before them), that I wonder if we have enough people to beat back Friendly Facsism, even if EVERYONE who still believes in the Founding Fathers would wake up tomorrow.

[mirrera]

46. That Book is amazing!

Hey what do you think Janet Reno said to the guy who was finally going to help them get the message out? Do you remember the part where he was going to hold a press conference but first talks to Reno behind closed doors, comes out looking terrified, walks past them out the door, drives away and doesn't talk to them again?! What do you think that was? You are the FIRST person I have come accross who has read the book.
Sincerely, I am stumped.

[grasswire]

81. years ago....

...a fellow who was extremely radicalized and better educated about the BFEE than anyone I've known(he's now dead) suggested that if I were ever to read two books, they should be "Votescam" and "Nazis Go Underground."

[The Count]

23. So, by 200 Florida they had perfected this to an art...In 2002 they just discarded exit polls

and then again in 2004!

[marmar]

26. I needed two SoCos with lime after reading this.....

Disturbing, to say the absolute least..... It's like we're living in The Matrix.

[defendandprotect]

27. And Edwards broke the story on this, right . ... not the MSM . . . ????

[Bluebear]

28. Yes, and supposed progressives here assail him for "smearing" Clinton.

I had hoped we were early enough in the primary season that reasoned people would still have their eyes and ears open, but blind loyalty seems to be the order of the day.

[defendandprotect]

29. Wow!!! How Republican of them -- !!!!!

What a shame to be so close-minded . . . .

[Terri S]

72. Edwards isn't smearing Clinton

he's pointing our facts about Clinton the media refuses to cover. He should be applauded.

[Bluebear]

83. Well yes, exactly what I mean.

[leftist_not_liberal]

33. I don't know that you could say that. It's complicated.

First of all the root sources on the OP links are not meaningful ones. ('ll post some about that at the bottom).

Here though is reporting dating to 2004 from an apparently credible reporter in the Guardian rgR UA bit more nuanced:

The Democratic party's National Democratic Institute, the Republican party's International Republican Institute, the US state department and USAid are the main agencies involved in these grassroots campaigns as well as the Freedom House NGO and billionaire George Soros's open society institute.

US pollsters and professional consultants are hired to organise focus groups and use psephological data to plot strategy.

The usually fractious oppositions have to be united behind a single candidate if there is to be any chance of unseating the regime. That leader is selected on pragmatic and objective grounds, even if he or she is anti-American.

In Serbia, US pollsters Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates discovered that the assassinated pro-western opposition leader, Zoran Djindjic, was reviled at home and had no chance of beating Milosevic fairly in an election. He was persuaded to take a back seat to the anti-western Vojislav Kostunica, who is now Serbian prime minister.

In Belarus, US officials ordered opposition parties to unite behind the dour, elderly trade unionist, Vladimir Goncharik, because he appealed to much of the Lukashenko constituency.

Officially, the US government spent $41m (£21.7m) organising and funding the year-long operation to get rid of Milosevic from October 1999. In Ukraine, the figure is said to be around $14m.

Apart from the student movement and the united opposition, the other key element in the democracy template is what is known as the "parallel vote tabulation", a counter to the election-rigging tricks beloved of disreputable regimes.

There are professional outside election monitors from bodies such as the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, but the Ukrainian poll, like its predecessors, also featured thousands of local election monitors trained and paid by western groups.

Freedom House and the Democratic party's NDI helped fund and organise the "largest civil regional election monitoring effort" in Ukraine, involving more than 1,000 trained observers. They also organised exit polls. On Sunday night those polls gave Mr Yushchenko an 11-point lead and set the agenda for much of what has followed.

The exit polls are seen as critical because they seize the initiative in the propaganda battle with the regime, invariably appearing first, receiving wide media coverage and putting the onus on the authorities to respond.

The final stage in the US template concerns how to react when the incumbent tries to steal a lost election.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ukraine/story/0,15569,1360236,00.html

OK, now the asterisk about the links in the OP which, actually I posted earlier mainly to get my post count up so I could start the thread on Mr. Anonymous:

Curious about more, I have looked for anything corroborating this in any way and see nothing but an article echoed all over the internets by an author Jonathan Mowat. There is ~Nothing else about or by him anywhere that I see. He is a man of mystery making big, big claims.

There is only this same piece
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/MOW502A.html

And then I thought "aha, there's that deeper source from sourcewatch."

- it's a now dead link but on the wayback machine, an article also echoed through the so-called 'leftist' blogosphere

http://web.archive.org/web/20050319113628/http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/031905Mowat-1/031905Mowat-3/031905mowat-3.html

(An aside. there is no really leftist blogosphere, or it would be discussing the kinds of things seen in this thread which I suspect is rather unusual on this site. People are all caught up in capitalism as though it were as natural as breathing and that means everone on both "Sides." Nobody discusses economics, the voodoo that it is as practiced today, but that really is where the line in the sand is. Thus no leftist blogosphere.)

I cannot find anything the internet about this coup-plotting side, that doesn't all seem to point back to an unattributed article and a mystery-man-made one. That's really not doing it for me. I ain't no genius, but aspire to be a bit more rigorous than that.

some of the only ostensibly credible reporting on it is a virtual reposting by The Guardian's Central European reporter, Ian Traynor and he makes no such claims.

So, for whatever it's worth, there.

My Take?

Stealing elections or not, the pattern is all too often a familiar one - the overthrow of a leftist regime uncooperative with the "free" people whose capitalist betters must have new markets and the regimes that will allow that.

But hey, it's "progress."

[cachukis]

42. Leftist , Might I say, "Refutation and or corroboration."

Aces.


Cachukis

[zazzle]

63. I'm supporting John Edwards!

[Richard Steele]

34. Such lovely company she keeps. recommended.

[mod mom]

35. Oooh where's febble and otoh commentary? bookmarked! Thanks for posting!

[OnTheOtherHand]

41. you rang?

PSB's exit poll result in Venezuela was almost certainly wrong -- the only question is why. A pretty decent theory is that PSB got duped by some of its data collectors, but I've never even set foot in Venezuela, so I'm not in a position to say. I'll edit this in a moment with some links.

Not a huge problem for me, since I don't think exit polls are infallible. It ought to be a problem for people who think the 2004 U.S. exit polls prove anything.

ETA: I think Weisbrot et al. holds up OK, but I well could have missed something -- I'm an Americanist.

[Febble]

43. Right here.

So, what do you think? That exit polls useful for monitoring elections, or enabling fraud?

[mod mom]

79. I usually allow you experts to quibble over exit polls, but my gut feeling is

the polls come in mighty handy when you need results to come in for a fraudulent election.

The exit polls never were needed to persuade me. I witnessed it first hand and was told the opposite by the media. My focus was on the blatant disenfranchisement in High Dem, low income predominately Af Am precincts. The USA Scandal and the exposure of the politicization in the civil rights division of the voting section of the DoJ, (which is why I'm urging everyone to contact their elected officials over the possible appointment of Hans von Spakovsky to the FEC) pretty much acknowledge that our observations were correct. The machines, of course were helpful to the "winning team". The machines tested by OH's new SOS showed close to a 50% failure rate. So I guess you can defend your exit polls, but if you have thugs willing to win at any cost, what's tampering with a few exit polls?

This op seems to reinforce that there are unscrupulous people out there and unfortunately some of them appear to be associated with a Democratic candidate.

thanks for checking in- wow it's like magic you guys appear :hi:

[Febble]

82. Nah, not magic

we conspire together....

And yes, there are unscrupulous people. And what you saw first hand I saw on TV, and it appalled me too. That's why I got involved. I still think there was a slam dunk Civil Rights case, and my fear was that the exit poll stuff may have got in the way. Maybe not. But Kerry should have stuck up for his voters in Ohio, whether not it would have made any difference to the result. It was their rights that mattered, not his.

Another link to my favorite rant:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2004/12/15/9734/4841

cheers

Lizzie


:hi:

[OnTheOtherHand]

85. "you can defend your exit polls"

Do you ever actually read our posts? First of all, we play no part in the exit polls, so they aren't ours. Second, typically we are explaining why and how exit polls can be wrong, and someone like TruthIsAll is insisting that exit polls can't be wrong, they're science, and they've been used to detect election fraud all over the world.

And now you come, say that exit polls can easily be rigged, and say that Febble and I "can defend (our) exit polls." Yeah, right, that's exactly what we do. :banghead:

And you call us out in the subject line, then say it's "like magic" that we appear. :shrug:

But I agree with you that a lot of people got disenfranchised in Ohio. Most of them wouldn't show up in exit polls. That's another reason why I hate the 'exit polls show fraud' argument.

[The Backlash Cometh]

36. Great find, bluebear.

No matter how hard we try to explain to people how easily polls can be manipulated, it helps to put a human face on it.

[OnTheOtherHand]

44. how many people think Milosevic won in 2000?

Is someone here actually alleging that PSB rigged an exit poll in 2000 to make it look as if Milosevic had lost?

Does anyone here know what is being alleged about the 2000 Serbian (F.R.Y.) election or exit poll?

I do not pity Slobodan Milosevic. Others' mileage may vary.

[havocmom]

78. Has PSB worked in Australia? None of my daughters' pals down under

know anyone who actually voted for Howard.

The RW Corporate takeover is not just an American phenomenon. It's global

[OnTheOtherHand]

86. no idea, but apparently all polls showed a fairly close race

Just scanning the wikipedia article, it seems as if the polls in the last few weeks ranged from Coalition +8 to Labor +4 or so. (I can't vouch for those results.) Probably your daughters' pals don't constitute an unbiased random sample.

Whether PSB was helping Howard with his talking points (or whatever), I haven't a clue.

[havocmom]

89. Um, the polls ARE the questionable element

That's what these clowns do.

[OnTheOtherHand]

91. which clowns?

Do you think all pollsters make up their data? Could you please sketch out your whole argument, so I'm not left to speculate what you actually mean?

If you have evidence that all the pollsters in Australia who polled on the 2004 election rigged their results, I'm open to argument. I don't think your daughter's pals make for a very strong argument.

[havocmom]

93. AH, PSB, the subject of the OP

No, I didn't accuse all pollsters, but I know there are crooks in ALL fields and these guys are king-makers hired by the top tier economic bracket.

[OnTheOtherHand]

95. OK, but...

surely it's obvious that PSB didn't conduct all polls in Australia. We don't know whether they were involved with any. So, what exactly is your point about Australia?

[havocmom]

98. Guess you didn't read the OP and associated links exposing the use of polls abroad

for covert manipulation leading to regime change via confusing issues.

Polls are really not any more accurate than the collective random observations of a lot of us here across the nation. Do you deny there are polls worded for particular results? How is that accurate?

:rofl:

be fun to swap pay stubs around these forums. :rofl:

[OnTheOtherHand]

99. maybe you need to reread the thread

Do you intend to make an argument about Australia, or are we just here talking in circles?

The OP doesn't actually expose the use of polls abroad leading to regime change. Assuming for the sake of argument that PSB's Venezuelan exit poll was rigged, it made almost no difference -- it obviously didn't lead to Chavez's removal. We could go point by point -- for instance, do you think PSB brought about regime change in Serbia? If so, why?

Do you deny there are polls worded for particular results? How is that accurate?

How is that relevant? Do you have any idea what point you are trying to make? I don't.

[Joanne98]

47. Oh isn't this something. This guy is a total dirtbag!

[ima_sinnic]

49. hmmm ... so who else is in Hillary's stable of manipulators?

after a while, all the "oh, that doesn't mean anythings" start to sound a bit ridiculous and add up to the fact that she, like *, is most likely just a puppet, a figurehead of something very sinister. She herself is what "doesn't mean anything."

apparently the bots are all regrouping right now, "strategizing" to respond to this latest expose of "nothing."

[Diane R]

54. Don't forget Carville sandbagging Kerry on election night.

[Bluebear]

55. And Carville writing the judge asking leniency for Scooter Libby.

[zazzle]

65. and Hillary bashing Kerry for his joke gaffe a week prior to the 2006 election

[Ken Burch]

70. That was because HRC's campaign NEEDED the Dems to lose in '06

So she could come in with her "it's me or nothing, and it's my platform or nothing" routine in '08.

The '06 Dem victory was a major setback for her.

[ProudDad]

52. I'm sure these pigs are also masters of the "push-poll"

That may explain hillary's lead too.

You can get ANY result you want with a combination of creative question construction and push polling...

(my apologies to Suidae everywhere)

[zazzle]

66. Hillary has been push polling against Edwards since early summer

[ProudDad]

77. I'm not surprised

I was push-polled once and it's an interesting experience.

They think you're pretty fucking stupid and politically naive.

Most who are polled apparently are.

[T.Ruth2power]

56. No surprises here

Certainly everyone is aware of how this has been going for decades.

It's as easy as N-E-D.

Origins, Leadership, Connections. When it was created in1983, NED's core agenda was to support political groups in target countries that would contest left-of-center organizations and political parties. In announcing its creation, President Ronald Reagan said that the NED would achieve this goal by supporting "the infrastructure of democracy—the system of a free press, unions, political parties, and universities—which allows a people to choose their own way, to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means" (Beth Sims, "National Endowment for Democracy: A Foreign Policy Branch Gone Awry," March 1990).

Allen Weinstein, a member of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) working group known as the Democracy Group, which proposed the formation of a quasi-governmental group to channel U.S. political aid, served as NED's acting president during its first year. Talking about the role of NED, Weinstein told the Washington Post in 1991 that "a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA" (Washington Post, September 22, 1991).

Under NED's elaborate structure, designed to veil U.S. government funding, U.S. Information Agency (USIA) and USAID funding did not flow directly to foreign political parties, unions, business associations, and civic groups, but was instead routed through the AFL-CIO, the International Chamber of Commerce, and the IRI and NDIIA. NED's origins go back to a bipartisan commission called the American Political Foundation established by the State Department that began to address the problem of having U.S.-funded "soft-side" overseas operations perceived as CIA fronts (Sims, "National Endowment for Democracy: A Foreign Policy Branch Gone Awry").

The working model for a new type of foreign operations program was the AFL-CIO's Free Trade Union Institute, which was funded by USAID and a tripartite directorship of labor, business, and government officials. In turn, the American Political Foundation called for a feasibility project called the Democracy Program, which formulated the objectives and structures for NED. Although the Democracy Program included business and USIA officials, its key movers were neoconservatives: Eugenia Kemble (sister of Penn Kemble), George Weigel (later with the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a signatory of PNAC's founding statement), Raymond Gastil of Freedom House, and Weinstein (member of neocon-led 1970s group the Coalition for a Democratic Majority and later president of the NED-funded Center for Democracy).

more at:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1513

[Kurovski]

59. K&R. (nt)

[flashl]

61. Awesome Bluebear! n/t

[zazzle]

62. Mark Penn is sooooo dirty - but the Clintons are determined to stay on his Team!

[dickbearton]

67. K&R.

Some members of Clinton's team, are like members of the
Criminal Bush's team, right out of Nazi Germany.

[Froward69]

69. I will resist the clinton Zombie machine

she should address this but won't. It is an issue!

[althecat]

68. Weird how the OP doesn't mention Hillary and the entire discussion is about her...

KnR

[Bluebear]

80. It's not weird, anybody here this week knows Penn is her TOP strategist.

[formercia]

73. It's alright Hillary the polls aren't that bad after all...

[Joe Chi Minh]

74. "At the beginning of 2006, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi

ordered PBS (via his party Forza Italia) to conduct a survey on the next Italian elections (of April 9, 2006). The results showed Berlusconi's coalition winning, while all other surveys by Italian pollsters showed the opposition winning. The Penn, Shoen & Berland Italian survey results can be seen here. Other news reports on this contested survey are here and here."

Polls.... a major player in the infamous, world-wide, right-wing noise-machine, preparing the public for otherwise totally unambiguous election coups.

[formercia]

87. Election coups

That's it. PBS does the faux polls and the faux election results just happen to match. Sounds like a conspiracy to me.

[Joe Chi Minh]

90. ... and if they don't... well, the poll data will just be amended to match the

actual data! The best of all possible worlds for the fraudster.

It's lucky for them that they are strangers to shame and surreal humour, or they wouldn't have been able to carry on like that for laughing. Well, they surely do in private. Even not so private. Remember the drunken Diebold officer at the barbecue?

[formercia]

94. It must be legal, for no one complains.

It's like the story of 'The King's new clothes.' Everyone is happy with the status quo and the fraudsters are allowed to continue their game as long as some little kid doesn't point out the obvious.

[Joe Chi Minh]

101. 'Cep in this case, the kid can bellow his heart out, and still no-one in

authority is going to pay the least attention.

[WinkyDink]

75. Remember the close election in Mexico? LINK:

http://www.narconews.com/Issue34/article1046.html

[Richard Steele]

84. Kick

[formercia]

88. A conversation between Hillary and Penn:

http://www.moviemorlocks.com/blog?action=detail&entry_id=8a25caac119044fa011190681ff80002

[T.Ruth2power]

96. Funny

thanks for the laugh.

:toast:

[formercia]

97. I knew someone would see the humor.

He does look a bit like Quasimodo. :rofl:

[Tech 9]

100. Hey Bluebear

I think this is really important, and I've borrowed some of your material for my own thread, meant as a collection of info on Penn

Here is some more stuff, not sure if this has been posted already:

Global Leadership

Mark J. Penn, Worldwide President & CEO



Mark Penn is worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller and President of Penn, Schoen and Berland. As CEO of Burson-Marsteller, Mark oversees a global network of 94 offices and 1600 employees that brings world-class public relations to companies around the world. As President of PSB, a position he has held since 1975 when he was an undergraduate at Harvard, Mark focuses on providing research-based communications strategy to political figures, corporations and crisis situations.

Mark has been called "Master of the Message" by Time Magazine; "The king of polls" by the London Times; and an "incandescent intellect" by the New York Times. On his wall are notes saying "you were brilliant" from Tony Blair after his historic third win and "thanks" from Bill Clinton after his impeachment acquittal along with photos of Mark working with CEOs including Bill Gates and Bill Ford, Jr. The Washington Post, in "Politics and Policy by the Numbers" summed up his influence in the White House and the corporate boardroom as a "unique vantage point: adviser to the preeminent innovator of the past decade in the realm of politics, Bill Clinton, and the preeminent innovator in the realm of business and technology, Bill Gates."

The techniques applied to these political and corporate battles were honed from early major corporate experiences with AT&T, Texaco and others. In "The Guru of Small Things" the New York Times explains how he has combined innovative techniques of micro-targeting, issue-based messaging and visual message testing to win major corporate, marketing and political battles.

Today, Mark serves as strategic consultant to several Fortune 500 companies and CEOs on a wide range of image, branding and corporate reputation issues. His client relationships include Ford Motor Company, Merck, Verizon, BP, McDonald's and Microsoft. He has been a key adviser to Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer since 1998, helping Microsoft affect a complete corporate turnaround from anti-trust scandal to Most Trusted Company (Wall Street Journal).

In 2007, Mark published a ground-breaking book, Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes that has been compared to The Tipping Point by Kirkus Reviews and has received praise from President Bill Clinton and Bill Gates.

Mark has helped to elect over 25 leaders in the United States, Asia, Latin America and Europe. Most recently, he served as advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair, helping achieve an unprecedented third term win for the Labour party in the United Kingdom. He is also well known for serving as President Clinton's pollster and political adviser for the 1996 re-election campaign and throughout the second term of the administration. Currently, Mark serves as a key strategic advisor to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. He has worked with Mrs. Clinton for over six years, since he ran the polling and messaging for her successful election to the US Senate in 2000.

Mark won the Pollster of the Year award, given every 4 years, in both 1996 and 2000, the top honor in his profession, from the American Association of Political Consultants. Mark has written for publications including the New York Times and the Washington Post, and has appeared frequently on networks including CNN and Fox News.

http://www.burson-marsteller.com/About_Us/Global_Leadership/Lists/GlobalLeadership/DispForm.aspx?ID=1&nodeName=Global%20Leadership&SubTitle=Mark%20J.%20Penn>About Us >Global Leadership > Mark J. Penn