Best post of the day. Kudos to you for illiciting a response from someone actually in the know on this robo-calling thing.

This win-at-all-costs strategy is getting really gross. I don't think 'scorched earth' adequately describes it.

More names from the board close to Clinton:

Hal Malchow
Ashley james
Mim Mager
Holly Schadler

One has to wonder if this story will get real attention in the media.

How low will the Clintons go? Is there even a bar left to lower?

If this is actually tied to the Clinton campaign then it puts her in the same company as Bush's George and Jeb, Karl Rove and Katherine Harris.

Well done, astral -- and no wonder Podesta replied to you. Your e-mails were so persuasive. He must be taking the issue seriously because sensible voters like you are taking him to task.

I'm still scratching my head over the point of this WVWV adventure in vote-suppression. Suppose Clinton became the nominee. How would suppressing black turnout benefit the Democratic candidate in the GE? Does she just figure that black voters will stay home when told to, then turn out in our usual numbers in the unlikely event that the vote-suppression were to win her the nomination?

WVWV should adopt a new slogan: "Cut nose, spite face."

If you define cowardice as running away at the first sign of danger, screaming and tripping and begging for mercy, then yes, Mr. Brave man, I guess I'm a coward.

I find a lot of what goes among posters at TPM to be rather stupid in its lack of political detail. Pages and pages of personalities stroking each other. How cute.

This is sort of a political porno site. Posters constantly stroking each other, more interested in your cliques than anything else. Your humor lacks wit, your pursuit of political correctness (from the so-called serious posters) knows no bounds. That Billy Guy is the smartest, but he's a Clintonista. He sure has all you scared of him, able to control a who stays at a post with a single line.

Having pissed you off now, go do something useful. Here's something to do with your time except jerk-off.

The mob goes silent, wondering what to do. Slip away, skip away.
But worry not, Billy will tell you. He's a smart one, that Billy. The Alpha Dog, but worthy of it. The crazy thing is that he's with Clinton. What hasn't he told you?

What's interesting about Billy is his two interests--controlling the blog, and promoting Clinton. I'm fascinated about which matters more to him. I think controlling the TPM does. But I can't, with all respect, rule out the he is the ultimate Clinton Troll. I say that with respect.

And finally (I have to go to work) it's the gestalt of the ebb and flow of the avatars that is most interesting. That's something the low-lives get --the art of the thing, it's surreal river of no meaning. That would be different if there was real meaning in the interplay. Face it, what is the percentage of useful political dialogue here compared with self-stroking?

Hillary's campaign is getting ridiculous. Clearly both candidates are competing for the second spot on a Gore ticket because of Howard Dean's decision to employ the "Denver Plan" (google it if you haven't heard from it). No wonder she's pulling out all the stops.

Oh shoot. You comment on the piece BEFORE you read it. Just can't wait to stroke your friend.

Buy the way, your friends will read this. But more importantly, the average reader who drops in will be interested in the many posts by the blue picture, and learn something about the process here.

That's how these boards work. And from a political stand point of view, they may get involved with details of the story.

Calling the friends of Opus !!

Give him a stroke !

Give his a "back at ya..."

But as I'm not a trained psychologist, I'm not sure what it's called when you can't respond to a question in the first person, and instead talk to people who aren't here. It's some kind of personality disorder, but I would have to go look it up, and I'm afraid to leave you alone here talking to your ghosts. So...what can I do to help?

Add Podesta and I think we have the right number. 10 at present.

Of course, the broader implication is that this has been a nation-wide effort, as per Stefanie's response letter:

"just the tip of the iceberg - WVWV has apparently executed similar "lapses in judgment" in Virginia, Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, Colorado, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Arkansas, usually immediately before those states' primaries."

I'm glad the NC Attorney General is looking into this. Of course, one then has to wonder about his/her own political connections.

I see that this is now the headline on the TPM front page, so I'm off to read that now.

The front page of The Washington Post reported on the Sundday after the NH primary that Hillary may have won NH because of robo-calls made days before the vote that smeared Obama's abortion positions. I wonder if WVWV was behind those calls.

Please check out the original, and now updated, diary at:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/30/211016/253/775/506710

I believe the statements made by some boardmembers that they were unaware of this.

I believe in the overall good intentions of the organization.

I believe that there is a Hillary sleeper-cell within the organization that is mis-using WVWV's resources for a dirty tricks/special ops campaign.

After reading the DKos posts that Astral linked here, I have to agree that there is a very disturbing pattern of behavior exhibited by WVWV's activities in the last several months. While the issue may have been dealt with effectively (if belatedly) in NC, I have to wonder about the remaining contests. Among the 24 states included in the group's 3-million mailers program: all of the upcoming state primaries after next Tuesday(excluding Puerto Rico) -- WV, OR, KY, MT and SD.

Deadlines to register to vote in the primaries in WV, OR and KY have already passed. Should voters in those states receive robo-calls like those used in NC, they will have the same disruptive effect on the targeted voters.

The registration deadline to vote in the MT primary is May 5 and, for SD the deadline is May 19. Since the Secretaries of State accept mail-in registrations that are postmarked by those dates, it will continue to be acceptable for robo-calls to be made before those dates in those jurisdictions, so long as they comply with applicable laws that require robo-callers to properly identify the source of the call.

Unfortunately, as these mailers and phone calls are considered campaign speech, it is nearly impossible to obtain a restraining order against an organization like WVWV to prevent their use. Legally stopping WVWV from robo-calling before they start would be considered prior restraint of protected speech. The best that can be done is to alert voters in the remaining states to the possibility of receiving calls and to encourage them to record the calls, note the exact language of the message, and contact election authorities if the calls are received after the registration deadline in a given state, or if the calls do not identify their exact source.

I'm going to shoot off a mail to the Secretaries of State of the remaining contests to try to raise the awareness level of potential deceptive campaign techniques following the NC model of robo-calling. Hopefully, with some awareness, those bodies will be prepared should they receive any calls from voters similar to the effort in NC and will be able to act quickly to identify WVWV's handiwork and put a stop to it.

I'll leave it to others to hunt down the truth on whether there is a definite Clinton campaign connection... ;-)