When your campaign fails….blame the plumber, the housekeeper and the staff for it

Poor American Taliban (the republican party). They just can’t seem to bring themselves to admit that it wouldn’t matter who they put on the ticket this year, Americans are just fed up with cowboy-fascist-capitalism and are voting for Barack Obama and the Democrats running statewide and locally. Oh, but if you’re Karl Rove and William Kristol, you can’t admit this, but rather, blame the plumber, the housekeeper, the candlestick maker, and the staff instead:

And remember, when you realize John McCain has admitted to voting 90% of the time in favor of George Bush’s economic & foreign policies over the last 8 years, make sure you don’t confuse him with George. Okay?

Another PATRIOT tries to arrest Karl Rove!

Love it. Watch Karl Rove act like a little boy who thinks his sister is being mean to him in this video…

Bah hahahahahahaha! I thought members of the War Party/American Taliban would fight to the death, but when I see Rove slapping this woman away with a limp wrist, well, my opinion of this Party has changed.

The Wimpy Limp Wristed Party.

😆

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine was fine with robo calling in 2007 and duping Mainers

Yes she was (and she still is so don’t let her fool ya!)Back in 2007, she started a calling campaign where one of her office/campaign members down in Washington, DC would “call” people in Maine to ask us to join in on a “live” discussion with Sen. Susan Collins. The taped messenger would then tell you to stay on the line as the “discussion was happening” to ask Collins a question.

But, guess what? You never got through to ask Collins a question! In fact, this scheme never allowed you to actually ask her a question, but rather, was an informercial where you could only listen to Collins talking about her positions and “taking questions” from the people in the “audience”.

It was a sham. Sen. Susan Collins’ office was duping Mainers back in 2007.

Neilius of Turn Maine Blue did a post on Sen. Susan Collins “live conference call” around the time it was happening, and said this:

Did ANY participants ask her a question that could remotely be construed as critical?  Controversial?  Not hardly.  In fact, one of the participants, a “small business owner” from old town, said something about how she noticed that Susan has been really “leaning to the left” lately – only to follow with a “question” about wanting to pay less taxes as a small business.  If there was ever something that anyone in the well-over-50%-of-the-state-that-is-blue-minded thought about Susan Collins, I can tell you that it WOULDN’T be “wow, she’s really been leaning to the left lately”.

I probably should have hung up 5 minutes into the call.  But I waited, tempted by the notion that perhaps this really WAS a live call, and perhaps I WOULD get a chance to ask MY question.  I listened for about 45 minutes.  One of the questioners at the end said something about how she had been on the call for 20 minutes, and it was at THAT point that I really knew that something wasn’t quite right.  I had been on the phone for over 40 minutes at that point, so clearly I would have been ahead of her in the questioning queue…unless questioners were “randomly” selected from the queue, as well.

And still, I waited.  It was announced that there would only be one more question, and this one was from Portland!  Could it be me?  I unmuted the phone, and got my notebook ready, took a deep breath.  But no, it wasn’t me, it was someone else asking yet another ridiculous “question” about how great Susan Collins is (not).  See, I can’t even bear to write it without qualifying it, the thought is just so ludicrous.

By the way, I also called Sen. Susan Collins office to find out what was going on (I had received one of the robo calls myself):

I called Susan Collins’ office today here in Maine to find out about these “live cold calling” calls that she’s making. I told Helena, who is one of her office support people, that I had also received a call like this at least a month ago and when I heard Collins’ recorded voice asking me to join in a live discussion, I ended up hanging up. After a few minutes after doing that I realized that was dumb to do, so I called the number back and I got a cell phone answering machine (it was a DC area phone number) that belonged to a young guy (could tell by his voice he was probably in his 20’s) and I asked her who this young guy was. She said she didn’t know. I said to Helena, “Don’t you think it’s a little weird that a guy with a cell phone in DC called my house and when I picked it up, it was a recorded voice of Susan Collins. Helena acted like she didn’t know why it was done like that.

By the way, Helena was very nice and patient with my questioning.

So, I tell Helena this and then I tell her that there are people online talking about how they’re also receiving these “random” calls from her office and I asked her these questions:

Are these calls actually live? (Helena said ‘yes’)

Where does Susan Collins do these “live conversations”? (Helena said they’re done in Collins’ office in DC)

How come only softball questions are asked of Susan and none are asked by those who oppose Susan? (Helena said, “If your question didn’t get through, then you can send her an email and she’ll personally answer it”.)

Would Susan be willing to videotape herself live when she’s doing these calls? (Dead air…no answer given directly to this question, but Helena did reiterate that if I have a question that needs to be addressed to please send it to Susan)

I said to Helena that there are some online who have received these calls and who are now believing that they’re pre-recorded “discussions” to make it look live, but really, it’s not and it’s just a way of advertising Susan’s issues etc. (Helena answered that they ‘are live’)

Does Susan Collins advertise that these calls are going to be taking place, so those who are not getting a call, can also participate? (Helena didn’t know)

Are any republicans in Maine complaining because they didn’t get through to ask her a question? (Helena only said that there have been calls asking about this ‘live cold calling’ and when I pushed further if it was republicans who were also complaining, she couldn’t say. She didn’t know)

I think this ‘live cold-calling’ by Susan Collins is a farce. Seems that way to me. Not surprised. She is not a moderate either, so why wouldn’t she deceive Mainers that she’s letting them listen in on a “live chat” so they can ask a question, when all the while it’s really a recorded session that is going on and she’s just duping the public one more time.

Sick and I’m tired of this kind of crap.

Neilius then updated the original post to reflect WHAT WAS REALLY GOING ON (links disabled below, sorry):

At the suggestion of several commenters in the thread, I have investigated the situation further. Here’s what I found out so far (all references to commenters refer to users at dailykos, where this conversation initiated):

First off, one of the commenters (blubryeyes) actually called the number that was listed in my caller ID, and found out that it belonged to “TeleTownHall” and “Constituent Town Hall Services”.

If you go to their websites, teletownhall.com and constituenttownhall.com, you’ll see that it sounds “legitimate” enough – a computer dialer calls thousands of numbers from the lists that are provided by their clients (in this case, presumably, Senator Collins), and callers are given a chance to join a conference call and queue up to ask a question (which I did).

Then (this is an important part), the call hosts can, through a web interface, see who is on the line, and who is waiting to ask a question. Assuming that this call actually happened “live” (there was never anything that happened that couldn’t have been pre-recorded), I have two guesses:

1. The questions WERE asked in-the-moment, but all of the questioners were selected based on party affiliation or their being, somehow, “known” entities to the Senator. In fact, Susan actually knew a couple of the questioners…how likely is it THAT was random?????

2. The questions were all prepared in advance, the questioners were all selected in advance, and all the rest of us who queued up for questioning never really had a chance to ask OUR (more probing) questions.

Furthermore, a whois lookup of ConstituentTownHall.com reveals that the registrant of the website (which was actually hidden for TeleTownHall.com) was Rodney A. Smith. A little more googling reveals that Rodney A. Smith is, surprise, surprise, one of the MAJOR Republican fundraisers, having been Finance Director for the RNC, NRSC, AND NRCC. How much more surprised you might be to find out that my research seemed to indicate that ALL of the politicians who have used this service, so far, have been Republicans!

It also sounds like Smith is your typical establishment consultant, having found ways to make hundreds of thousands of dollars off of his (republican) clients, for himself and members of his family. Read this interesting article by Jim Hightower: Hightower article

Here is a brief that Rodney Smith filed with the supreme court (on the behalf of Mitch McConnell, of course) – which gives biographical information: amicus brief of Rodney Smith

Article about the teletownhall concept, which makes it obvious (even from the content of the website itself) whose agenda the teletownhalls are supposed to promote: townhall.com article

So, how likely do you think it is that a major Republican finanical player has given republican politicians a chance to hear candid feedback from their constituents?

OR, could is possibly be that this Mr. Rodney A. Smith has devised a way to help Republicans do their campaigning under the guise of an “open, live town hall meeting” that is just grey enough so as to not make its intent (and it’s law-breaking (or, at a minimum, law-skirting) crystal clear?

Was this call paid for by campaign funds? By “official” funds? And maybe it’ll be just too difficult to prove exactly what happened behind-the-scenes last night.

Following the money, I think that the choice is obvious. How about you?

Nice, huh? Sen. Susan Collins knows that most Mainers are stupid and wouldn’t question “Our Senator’s” honesty after these kinds of calls. Collins is so far up the ass of the right wing of this country some mistakenly call her ‘Susan Rove’  or ‘George Collins’ from time to time.

So…

Don’t let Sen. Susan Collins fool ya about the robo calls John McCain’s campaign is doing here in Maine. She’s completely for this kind of crap, but she knows a win for her in November is very fragile, so she has to give the appearance she’s above this kind of vile campaigning, when really…..THIS IS THE ONLY CAMPAIGNING SHE’S EVER KNOWN! Starting in 1996, she has lied & deceived Mainers. As she pointed out, she’s running for her 3rd term (her first lie when she said it would only be 2 terms) BECAUSE SHE LOVES THE POWER SHE HAS IN D.C., you know, THE POWER TO PROTECT HERSELF, GEORGE BUSH, JOE LIEBERMAN, AND ASSES LIKE JOHN MCCAIN! Oh yes. She’s all about the power.

The PPH/Maine Sunday Telegram throws it’s support to George Bush’s biggest supporter: SEN. SUSAN COLLINS!

Sen. Susan Collins is not fighting for you. Wake up please! She backs Big Business who receive Big Federal Contracts and when you call her office, you don’t get a call back or even her personal cell phone number, because you’re a schmuck and not a corporate whore who has an in with her! Oh yes, I have a cleaning customer who is the president of a large company in Portland who has a direct line to Suzie-Q and she’s available to him whenever he wants her to be. Remember this as you read this post.

Well, here we go! The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram came out this past weekend in support of Sen. Susan Collins, you know, the Maine US Senator who is a jackboot licker to George Bush & Dick Cheney’s economic & foreign policies, and is about as moderate as Hitler was to the Jews for crying out loud.

The PPH is a failed newspaper, so it’s not surprising to me that they’re throwing their support to Sen. Collins who voted 67-80% in favor of George Bush’s failed economic & foreign policies.  Oh yes, the PPH is fine that she voted for George Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq (which is costing us $10 BILLION/month), voted in favor of tax cuts for the uber wealthy (the top 5% of America which is @ 16,000 families total), and didn’t supply an ounce of oversight going after the no-bid contracts received by Halliburton, KBR (Kellogg, Brown, & Root)  and others (bilked BILLIONS AND BILLIONS from the American taxpayer), because by doing so, she would have pissed off George Bush & Dick Cheney who were fine with war profiteering! She cares about what they say and not what we Mainahs have to say! See? Whatever George Bush wants, he’ll get. Just ask Suzie-Q who is the Commander Guy’s Commander Girl…

She works hard for him (though she did let up on the jackboot licking over the course of the year, but that’s because SHE’S UP FOR RE-ELECTION! See? The proclaimed TWO-TERM SENATOR is now running for her THIRD TERM. One more lie to chalk up on the very big Lie/Deceit list!).

Why is the Portland Press Herald a failed newspaper? Well, you could say in part it’s because of the Internet where a good portion of Americans are getting their news. But you could also blame the obvious: THE PORTLAND PRESS HERALD AFTER 9/11/01 DECIDED TO BECOME A RIGHT WING NEWSPAPER WHERE WAR PROPAGANDA WAS ALL THE RAGE!

Sen. Susan Collins also gets all gushy over Dick Cheney too…

This is the reason why I’ve not bought a PPH newspaper since 2001, because the PPH took on the Orwellian mantra through their Editor-in-Chief, which was: WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. Yep, for years the PPH’s Editor, Jeannine Guttman, would write an op-ed explaining to Mainahs that things were going to change and start looking different in the news we receive. She spent many hours telling Mainahs that war propaganda was good for the soul, the country, and she even went on to explain…if you noticed that what the PPH or the Bush White House was saying was a lie, you should just ignore it, because by doing so means you are a Patriot. Unfreakingbelievable! I’m telling you……….AS A REAL PATRIOT OF THIS COUNTRY I DESPISED GUTTMAN AND THE PPH FOR THEIR BULLSHIT! AND STILL DO! Germany’s Pravda under Hitler would have been proud of Guttman for sure!

Oh yes, and let’s not forget how much the right wingers at the PPH hates the Jews! This also didn’t help their coffers.

It wasn’t only me who has felt this way for years now about the PPH. Many did feel that the PPH had gone insane and they showed their distrust and disgust of the paper by not buying the “Fox News of Maine Newspapers” entirely because of their constant bullshit since 9/11/01. I don’t feel bad either that they’re now in a position where they have to sell their newspaper.

Did I tell you who the PPH is considering selling their newspaper to? You got it! Mike Liberty! Yep, the guy who the SEC filed charges against for FRAUD. Nice, huh? Well, it’s not surprising that the failed Portland Press Herald, which might be owned at some point by a failed/shady businessman…is now supporting the jackboot licking George Bush failure Sen. Susan Collins! It just makes sense!

I’m sure the PPH, Collins, and Liberty will get a Medal of Freedom before Bush leaves office. Seems plausible and we all know Sen. Susan Collins will proudly wear it under her US flag pin!

I’m glad the PPH came out to support Sen. Susan Collins because it shows where REPUBLICANS ARE TODAY.–(Way to go! Your skirt flipped up over your shoulders revealing to us Mainahs once and for all who you really are!)–They will support each other to the death and don’t care about telling anyone the truth along the way! They’re scumbags! Then again, to be a republican means you have to be a scumbag. See? It’s all very simple.