If this helps defeat enough of the current Republican crop of thieves, perverts, nutballs and miscreants, I may have to forgive Mr. Brock for his sins against Anita Hill. From the NYTimes, “Trailing G.O.P. With Cameras, Seeking Gaffes“:
AMHERST, N.H. — Aaron Fielding quietly stalks his prey — Republicans — with his video camera, patiently waiting for a political moment worthy of YouTube.
__
At 27, he is a full-time “tracker” for American Bridge 21st Century, a new Democratic organization that aims to record every handshake, every utterance by Republican candidates in 2011 and 2012, looking for gotcha moments that could derail political ambitions or provide fodder for television advertisements by liberal groups next year.
__
The organization has hired a dozen professional trackers like Mr. Fielding, outfitted them with the latest high-tech cameras and computers and positioned them in key states where Republican candidates are busy chattering away to voters. If all works as planned, incriminating moments captured by American Bridge will quickly become part of the political bloodstream.
__
Combined with a team of 20 researchers in a Washington “war room” that has a large rack of computer servers, the effort is part of a push by Democratic groups to bolster their opposition research. Republicans also have trackers, but so far have not assembled the kind of centralized video archive of political caught-on-tape moments that their rivals envision.[…] __
American Bridge is the creation of David Brock, the founder of Media Matters for America, which critiques conservative media outlets, particularly Fox News. Once a leader of right-wing attacks on Mr. Clinton, Mr. Brock is a liberal convert, now seeking ways to have a bigger impact.[…] __
By tapping into his network of Media Matters donors, American Bridge officials say they have raised several million dollars and hope to bring in $15 million to make the group part of a new liberal infrastructure that will last far beyond the 2012 cycle.
I’m sure all the right-minded Centrist goo-goos will hastily draw the skirts of their togas aside from the contamination of such low political activism, and David Brooks will press the back of his lily-white hand to his brow as he laments the coarsening of our political discourse on the Sunday talking-heads shows. But here in the real world we’re stuck combatting an opposition that bases half of its electoral strategy on lying, denying, and fakery — we need to start documenting Republican dishonesty in formats where their perfidity can be explained, with short words and vivid pictures, within the severely limited attention span of the average low-information voter.
elchubs
There isn’t the slightest iota of difference between the current Republican crop of thieves, perverts, nutballs and miscreants and the current Democrat crop of thieves, perverts, nutballs and miscreants.
They’re all scum who’s sole reason for existence is the lining of a select few’s pockets and the continuation of the system in it’s present form to facilitate the aforementioned pocket lining. You’re kidding yourself if you honestly believe that voting for a Republican or Democrat matters in the slightest.
It doesn’t matter if you lean right or left, but do America a favor and vote for a third party.
Leo
Which one? The one that loses all the time or the one that loses all the time?
Starfish
That only addresses the thieving part. We know that they have very different kinds of perversions.
WereBear
I don’t take anyone seriously who talks third party. We have a structural design that makes third parties irrelevant except as an occasional source of ranting. Ross Perot wasn’t about how third parties can make an impact; it was about how looney billionaires have entirely too much influence on our discourse.
Third party shenanigans are spoilers, and that’s all they are.
Carol
I could talk about how the Democrats are defending labor and all of the rest, but why waste my breath? Or about how the Democrats are trying to save the planet and all by working on improved environmental standards, but why bother?
Face reality. America is a binary political system, and the Democrats are the only sane party left in that system. Voting for a third party is like masturbation: feels good for a short while, but there’s no progeny.
When one party is busily trying to punish America for daring to change for the better and be inclusive, that entertains fantasies of secession, there is only one party, and that’s the Democrats.
WereBear
In terms of this Media Matters operation, all I can say is a shiny eyed “Awesome!”
Carol
No wonder Fox is trying to get Media Matters’s no-profit status removed. Fox wants to keep the playing field to its self.
Skippy-san
I’ve had it, it is time to club some people with a baseball bat. I’m currently working in Bucharest Romania-which is living “the austerity life”. They hate it.
superdestroyer
Why have a program that is meant to discourage people from getting involved in politics. Why have a program that will cause empty suits who can stay on message to dominate politics? Why only follow Repulblicans around instead of following all of them around? If saying something stupid is enough to eliminate someone was an elected leader, then everyone who wants to run for office should be followed.
Linda Featheringill
Wonderful effort!
Maybe we could rename it to: The Quit-Whining-and-Start-Documenting Project.
:-)
AAA Bonds
Huckabee hints that Rick Perry’s gay
boss bitch
I hope they get everything in context. Republicans always seem to be taken out of context. poor things.
NamelessGenXer
Documenting? Did you say documenting? With regard to Treasonous Republicans Congressional voting records, they are well documented. For example, since 1997, McConnell Voted to Raise Debt Ceiling 8 Times, and Boehner 6 Times.
SiubhanDuinne
AAA Bonds #11:
Maybe there’s a cultural reference in the “being a dickhead is cool” YouTube that’s obvious to all you young folks but is eluding me — but I’m finding nothing about Huckabee or Perry at that link. Unless being a dickhead is the cultural reference.
Okay, as you were, back to getting off my lawn.
John Puma
To expand on Leo’s comment (@2): “Which one(third party)? The one that loses all the time or the one that loses all the time?”
Or the one that
1) is further to the right than David Duke or
2) is NOT on the ballot
SiubhanDuinne
@carol #7:
Good catch! I’ve been wondering why Fox has been hammering away so hard in the past few weeks about challenging MMFA’s 501(c)3 status, and basically trying to turn their audience into IRS whistleblowers. But it makes sense if they got an advance whiff of Brock’s new venture.
Good for him. Fire with fire.
jcgrim
Amen. Brock has a long term media strategy grounded in progressive principles; principles that are sorely lacking in the DNC, DLC, and Third-wayers.
AAA Bonds
@SiubhanDuinne:
Whoops! Mix-up at the Lucky Charms factory. Here’s the real link:
Huckabee and Perry in gay dust-up!
harlana
It’s already been done but I welcome more of same + funding. Nice.
SiubhanDuinne
@AAA Bonds #18:
Okay, that one is a very
stupid and violenthip and ironic video with a lot of Dilbert types shooting each other in the face.Maybe third time’s a (lucky) charm?
Kobie
@Siubhan 16: Fox’s latest run at MMFA makes a little more sense now. Good. But I honestly hope they don’t doctor quotes to make them look like what they’re not. I don’t feel MMFA has done that, so I have no reason to think this latest venture would; however, I’d hate to see Brock trying to out-Breitbart Breitbart.
Libby Spencer
Only half? I’d say 90% but happy to see this project launched. I’ve long thought the left needs to target the low info crowd with an easily digestable, snappy soundbite strategy.
A Mom Anon
I hope there’s a plan to do serious oppo research involved in this too. I’ve never understood the lack of that on our side of the political line,especially after all the stuff they threw at Clinton until something finally stuck.
I live in GA where my GOP rep runs unchallenged every damned election. The last time a conservative Dem ran against him the RNC flooded the district with money and oppo researchers. The Dem had a couple ads before the election and that was it,no on the ground canvassing,no town halls,no events. I’ve lived here for over 15 yrs and have not been represented,the idiot is a tea party ass kisser and could care less about his constituents and the challenges we face. The amount of ignorance here is staggering,and the hatred of anything deemed liberal is at times frightening(as in I have feared for my family’s safety). The Dems here are a joke,they simply have no power and no fight in them. You cannot fight this level of entrenched bullshit without exposing corruption,and that means getting your hands dirty and fighting back. Bullies don’t respond to nice with anything but kicking nice in the teeth,you have to fight with enough force to subdue it.
I wish I could move,but it would mean walking away from our house to get out of here. It’s really fucking depressing.
WereBear
Absolutely. Mr. Brock knows what he’s doing; his confessional book, Blinded by the Right, is a great read.
I support all his efforts!
AAA Bonds
All I got left is this Civil War footage.
Kobie
@23 A Mom Anon: Christ, there’s areas in upstate New York that are similar. Perhaps not in the entrenched redneckery that populates Georgia, but just useless Democrats who can’t even nominate a candidate. I’d love to see numbers on Democrats vs. Republicans that run essentially unopposed. I’d bet a million fucking dollars that more Republicans run without a serious challenger than Democrats in Congressional races.
phx
Great idea! And they’ll do it to us, and then nobody but the worst assholes in the world will ever want to run for political office, no matter what their party! Oh, wait, that’s already the case.
And LOVE the unique way arch-villain David Brooks is dragged into this post. It’s kind of like a BJ drinking game – no matter how off-topic, how can you get David Brooks into your post or comment.
Get serious.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kobie #21: I’m with you. I don’t think Brock is either that stupid or that arrogant. His whole Blinded By the Right experience knocked out most of it years ago, and IMO he has redeemed himself with MMFA. And he’s been a careful chronicler of Breitbart’s many overreaches, so I think (I hope) he’s aware of the hubristic dangers that lurk.
My fear would be that maybe not all of his young camera crew are as astute as he is. All he needs is one loose cannon James O’Keefe type to bring the whole thing down and end up doing more harm than good. I hope he’s built in a bunch of redundancies and safeguards to minimize that possibility.
Joey Maloney
@1-4, exactly right re the at best uselessness of third parties. I have a suggestion, though, for people who can’t stand to be part of the compromised Democratic party.
Join the Republicans. Mind you, I’m not saying vote for them. But get involved with your local party. Show up at the precinct. Vote for committeepeople. Volunteer for the platform committees. If enough sane people rejoin the party, perhaps you can drag it back towards the role of being a loyal opposition. Heck, maybe you could even get them to give more than lip-service to their personal freedom-based critiques of the surveillance state and the drug war.
Keith G
It wont.
Energized voters rallying around powerful ideals firmly argued by a champion is what will be required to win this cycle. Meaning, we are screwed.
Maude
@A Mom Anon:
Hello and it is so good to see you.
I have been hoping all is okay.
SiubhanDuinne
@A Mom Anon #23:
Hi! Good to see you here again (apologies if you’ve been posting regularly and I’ve just somehow missed seeing your comments).
It can be really depressing, looking at the people who “represent” us. Because you’re right, they don’t. You and I and stuckinred and JPL and who knows how many other blue Juicers living in GA are all unrepresented (I exempt SIA only because I think she lives in the 4th, Hank Johnson’s district).
When I retire in a couple of years I will likely move somewhere else. I rent so am not faced with the mortgage situation. Sometimes I think I should stay and fight, but then I look around and realize how futile that would be.
SiubhanDuinne
@AAA Bonds #25:
A fat cat struggles to lose weight?
Okay. Never mind. I am destined to go through life not knowing how Huckabee outed Perry. It’s all right. I’ll survive.
stuckinred
SiubhanDuinne
OK, let’s all take a deep breath. The morons are everywhere. Live your life, it’s over in a flash. Stay interested and involved but don’t let the bastards grind you down. Changing addresses means you changes address. FIDO
OzoneR
Unless they’re Republicans, then they’re rally around whatever will beat the libtards.
birthmarker
Blinded by the Right by Brock is a great book. Lots of insider-baseball about 80s and 90s politics.
Isn’t it the place of the national party to provide enough organizing to see that there are candidates at every position? Didn’t Dean do this? And didn’t it force the repubs to pour the money in and defend the positions? I had hope for the new chairwoman. So far, crickets. Those candidates for the House races should be in place right now.
JGabriel
Hmm. Typologically, the only things separating David Brooks from David Brock are the little curve closing on the right that changes a c to an o, and the squiggle of an s at end — which sounds more metaphorical and dirtier than it really is, sadly.
.
OzoneR
Yes, but he had to run conservadems in some parts of the country, which the netroots hated
Dean definitely didn’t have candidates in place by July 2005 and July 2007. We do have some already, for example in IL-08 and in numerous Senate races. Now would be a good time for the netroots to try to set up a political base in some of these districts to foster candidate recruitment.
A Mom Anon
@32
I’ve been too depressed and busy to post anywhere for a long time. We had the chance to move,them my husband freaked out and came back home after accepting a new job up north(DC metro/MD). I was so desperate to leave I was willing to break even on our house(though the real estate agent seemed to think she could do a bit better than that). The husband was lucky his old job wanted him back or we’d be living in a van down by the river,lol.
It is futile,there is so much hatred for anything percieved even remotely liberal. My neighbors won’t have anything to do with us because of our lack of church affiliation and liberal politics. My family turned their back on us for the same reasons. This is what I have a hard time forgiving the GOP for doing to this country. I am so sick of hearing bullshit like liberals don’t hold jobs or care about their families or love their country. Hell,I caught shit for wearing a Rosie the Riveter t shirt at the grocery store. I I bought it at Pearl Harbor for christ’s sake. But noooo,appearently even THAT is evil now.
I hate it here. It wasn’t always this bad. Right after 9/11 the local GOP(thanks Ralph Fucking Reed and your minions)went to work and boy did they succeed. Bastards.
stuckinred
A Mom Anon
fuck em if they can’t take a joke
stuckinred
Animals
Don’t Bring Me Down
out to the garden ya’ll, get off this bummer!
harlana
Is it just me or am I being suddenly bombarded by anti-Obama ads on the teevee? I’m too stupid to understand, does this have something to do with Citizens United?
AAA Bonds
HTML, a phonogram of “hitmill”, is a type of computer used to count how many other computers visited the screen.
You can press Enter at any time to go back. But it won’t be the same.
bob h
How long before one of these guys gets his head stomped?
aimai
@Mom Anon 39,
Mom Anon,
My mother always says that people don’t ever move except out of great pain–that when the prospect of staying in place, or doing the same thing, becomes more painful than they can bear they move (for better or worse). It sounds like you are at that place, but your husband isn’t. I’m terribly sorry because what you are going through living in a place that isn’t welcoming to you, or loving, sounds horrendous. But sometimes people have to “draw back to jump better” (crude translation of a french phrase). Your husband couldn’t handle all the demands and changes that would come with that job up North *this time* but maybe he will be able to handle it next time. Keep working with the goal in mind of getting out and going North–though its not all peaches and gravy here either–and you’ll get there. Sometimes people just aren’t ready, but next year maybe he will. Perhaps things will seem more bearable if you think that you and he have made the first cut at getting out, and maybe the next cut will free you.
hugs
aimai
cleek
so, the difference is that the liberal group has plans to set up a file server somewhere. the “conservative” group doesn’t.
wow.
Keith G
@OzoneR
Of course. Those folks are a lost cause. Nonetheless, I work around many time card punching types who would take a serious second look at Obama if he gave them reason to. These are not cerebral folk. They need a strong simple message that is repeated often
stuckinred
This time 1968, King and Kennedy killed, the convention 6 weeks away. 200+ Gi’s a week killed in Vietnam. Love it or leave it, Nixon, Agnew. . .
nancydarling
elchubs @1. The difference is that D’s steal postage stamps (Rostenkowski comes to mind). The R’s are LOOTING THE COUNTRY.
handsmile
Upon first reading this article, I got a quiver of righteousness: F**k Yeah!! Intrepid seekers of truth from our side “taking the battle to the enemy’s territory.”
But after that quiver passed, I begin to wonder when did I last read a story in the NYTimes or its ilk on GOP “tracking” or other opposition-research efforts? Could it be that reporters from such venerable papers simply couldn’t find examples of such skulduggery among the virtuous, law-abiding Republican election operatives?
I may be irredeemably cynical, but I do grimace when a new Democratic-oriented organization such as American Bridges 21st Century chooses to disclose its operations so fully. Perhaps it will increase donations to the group, but contrary to the cliche, not all publicity is good publicity.
Take this excerpt: “The job calls for walking uninvited into New Hampshire house parties until you are asked to leave. (That hasn’t happened to Mr. Fielding [an American Bridges “tracker”] yet.) He has gotten to know some of the Republican staff members and they are beginning to know him.” Bob H (#44) may well be prescient.
B. J. Siddarth, the videographer who captured George Allen’s “macacca” moment was operating independently or at least covertly. It puzzles me that one side chooses so blithely to reveal its operations and practices to its opponent. Given the eagerness of the Village to castigate any Democratic hardball as unseemly partisanship, I fear I see this article as an act of needless self-sabotage.
satby
@47 Keith G
How about the strong, simple message that the Repugs are shafting them and looting the country for their corporate overlords? Even the hardest core Tea-baggers I know don’t like oil companies getting subsidies when they’re pulling in billions in profits. But we can’t even get agreement from the Repugs to drop that subsidy. Imagine the sea change if that message was hammered in the MSM.
bemused
aimai,
I can’t imagine living in a place where I could not find some compatible people to hang with. The people in your area sound not only incompatible but hostile. Are they all like that and there are no tiny pockets of like-minded folks quietly living there or have the wingnut locals chased them all out?
RossInDetroit
I’m not sure that we don’t all have limited attention spans. It’s not like the involved and committed voters are still having thoughtful debates through the Op Ed pages of the Times. Stuff happens fast, or at least appears to in the media. The format of news has become briefer, faster and lighter than ever before and people adapt by absorbing it superficially.
Michael Bersin
Heh. Then there’s the documenting the trackers part:
Campaign Tracker: the worst job in politics and you still have to wear a suit
Representative Mark Parkinson (r): I know you are, but what am I?
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
chris hayes would like you to know this was rahm’s idea.
i will pre-eminently denounce stalin, and pol pot, but not broccoli, i like broccoli, george bush senior hated broccoli,two reasons to respect broccoli. i stand firm and resolute that my faith in broccoli is unwaivering, at this time.
i would love to see a gotcha corps, but it can’t be done by an out and proud establishment like media matters, this stuff is supposed to be funded and done on the downlow, like o’keiffe and brietbart.
why can’t we have a better citizens press corps.
driftglass
“…we need to start documenting Republican dishonesty in formats where their perfidity can be explained, with short words and vivid pictures, within the severely limited attention span of the average low-information voter.”
OK, but please understand that, however much the Left keeps fantasizing about it, this will not make the slightest difference to the “I don’t know” and “I don’t care” Centrist/Wingnut coalition. Facts just bounce off of their awesome “You can’t trust anything Liberals say/Both sides do it” shield.
OTOH, I would very much support tracking the Hell out of every fart and giggle made by David Gregory, David Brooks, David Frum, Howie Kurtz, Andrew Sullivan, every booker and producer of the Sunday Gasbag Parade, and the rest of the Villager A-List media shills from the minute they step out of the doors of their Bethesda mansions in the morning.
That is where these clowns are vulnerable.
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2011/07/dead-center-ctd.html
RossInDetroit
People react to what they see much more strongly than to what they read or hear. Ask George Allen, whose Macaca Moment, a rather mild slip, came to define his campaign for many. You can always walk back an ‘inartful’ published comment, over and over if you’re Mitt Romney, but a video will haunt you forever.
Johannes
Actually, I’d prefer setting Daleks on the trail of GOP candidates, but I’ll settle for the trackers.
nancydarling
Ross @53. Attention spans are not limited. How many people know every detail of the recent murder trial (can’t remember the acquitted mom’s name) and at the same time cannot name even 3 supreme court justices or who their state rep is?
ABL
The calling card of a person who is not to be taken seriously.
RossInDetroit
@nancydarling
For most people, words can’t compete with pictures and moving pictures are irresistible. I shun TV, don’t read the paper and I could still outline for you the Casey Anthony case just from what I’ve absorbed on news site front pages.
Remember Elian Gonzalez (sp?)? You wouldn’t be aware of him if there hadn’t been a photo of a soldier with a gun grabbing him.
The emotionally charged picture is what gets attention so that’s what the media uses.
karen marie
+1
Citizen_X
I…I can’t even process that. What the fuck is someone thinking when they do something like that? Jesus. Ignorant fucking traitors.
nancydarling
I see the issue as more “social issue” voters than “low information” voters. A large percentage of the electorate will vote for any rapscallion as long as he/she professes a love for Jesus, opposes marriage equality, and thinks abortion is murder.
stuckinred
Ross
you mean like this?
artem1s
hope they are training these kids how to stay out of trouble with teahaddists crowds. the crowds tend to be so hand picked at these events. I could see a nightmare scenario where the baggers ‘discover’ the ‘traitor’ in their midst and go postal.
dmsilev
Huh? Allen and his campaign knew that Siddarth was a tracker; that’s why Allen singled him out in the first place. The ethnic slur was just a bonus. Trackers per se are nothing new.
burnspbesq
Am I the only one thinking that these videographers are at serious risk of getting shot if they show up at a Bachmann or Palin event?
Bill H.
The playing field is level now that we have dragged ourselves down to their level and are all wallowing around in the mud. I am so proud of “American exceptionalism.”
Yeah, I know, I’m a fucking troll.
Corner Stone
@Skippy-san:
To whose cranial area would aforementioned bat be applied?
Corner Stone
@Keith G:
Buckeye! What are you trying to say?
burnspbesq
@eichubs:
“There isn’t the slightest iota of difference between the current Republican crop of thieves, perverts, nutballs and miscreants and the current Democrat crop of thieves, perverts, nutballs and miscreants.”
Really?
There’s no difference between a Supreme Court with Sonia Sotomayor on it and a Supreme Court with Janice Rogers Brown on it?
There’s no difference between a military that is enforcing DADT and a military that is phasing it out?
I could keep going if you’d like.
Shorter me: I’d like some of what you’re smoking.
burnspbesq
@ Bill H.:
“The playing field is level now that we have dragged ourselves down to their level and are all wallowing around in the mud. I am so proud of “American exceptionalism.””
There’s a word for political parties that unilaterally disarm: “minority”
RossInDetroit
@stuckinred
That’s a powerful one.
Famous case, the Nixon/Kennedy debates. Radio listeners scored Nixon the winner. People who watched his awkward, sweaty performance on TV gave the win to cool, charismatic Kennedy. Presentation matters.
ruemara
MMM. I should apply for a job with Brock, because this is the sort of activism I like. Mind you, still think messaging is key, but I could go for some reverse ratfucking of the first order. Plus I can handle standing with a field cam for 3 hrs. How hard can it be after you’ve been standing in fields filming hunting hawks? Republican congresscritters can’t begin to move as fast.
genghisjon
http://youtu.be/G4PgaX3cNpU Sometimes it is what it is.
handsmile
dmsilev (#66):
Kinda missed my point, or perhaps I was unclear.
Yes, “trackers”, whether armed with video cameras, still cameras, or pencil and paper, are nothing new. Political campaigns have long employed staff to monitor electoral opponents, releasing embarrassing quotes or footage when available.
Siddarth was working for Jim Webb’s Senate campaign against Allen. He was not identified as part of a national corps of such monitors affiliated with a media organization created to expose Republican malfeasance.
By showcasing its objectives and operations in this NYTimes article, I believe the effectiveness of American Bridges 21st Century has been compromised and diminished. Moreover, what both Bob H (44) and burnspbesq (#67) suggest is now more likely to occur. The ultras will be out looking for them. In “enemy territory” the best tactic is to be as inconspicuous as possible.
WaterGirl
@ A Mom Anon
Really glad to see you here again! You are in a tough spot – wish there was something I could do to help. Maybe if you hang out here more often you won’t feel so alone?
Adding my hugs to aimai’s…
harlana
A Mom: I have wondered how you were doing, I truly hope things get better for you. At least, if I am reading your comment correctly, you’re husband is working. You live in non-Atlanta GA, you poor thing. I live in SC which is not quite as bad and I really feel for the citizens of GA lately. Unfortunately, as you note, most of them don’t have sense enough to vote in their own interests and they act like damned fools. Same thing here, rampant ignorance, even among the well-educated.
Wishing you better times. If things can get better for me, they’ll get better for you, too.
bobbie
Hey Anne,
The thoroughly corrupt local Democrats in my home state of Rhode Island could use the very same video treatment you describe above.
stuckinred
harlana
Yea, well Athens is non-Atlanta and we’re just fine thank you very much.
harlana
i’m sorry stuckinred, I forgot about Athens – a nice, progressive town
jinxtigr
It’s sort of like police surveillance- the “so if you’re so good and decent, what do you have to hide? How can you object to this?”.
I like how that clashes with how Republicans want to operate. They’re going to make the argument that all good people agree with them and yet, they’re going to be stomping these people’s heads. It’s all about whether the general public likes having documentation and ‘freedom’ and stuff, or whether the general public likes stomping on bad people’s heads.
I’m not sure how to call it, but the likely response is PART of the project. We will see whether most of America is fascist or not, by the reactions to this as things get violent.
WereBear
Well, some people might like this and give money. That’s important with an operation like this.
And what are the Republicans going to say? They have to throw out the red meat to the Base. That’s what Allen was doing when he got tripped up. The point!
trollhattan
They should call themselves “Team Macaca.”
Also, too, Maher tore the hell out of dumb non-wealthy Republican voters last night in New Rules. I’m not a big fan but when he gets on a roll he’s actually useful. Had Coulter on the panel, which always helps me recalibrate my Vile meter.
Bill H.
@burnspbesq
Doesn’t mean that I have to like it, and cheer for it. I didn’t say we should not do it, but I am still ashamed of what it makes us.
Southern Beale
Oh and I’m sure the RWers are quickly making comparisons to Breitbart and O’Keefe, who doctor their footage, re-edit and take quotes out of context, versus a crew capturing honest moments of Republican douchebaggery.
dogwood
Right. President Obama actually got rid of a tracker in 2004. Before Jack Ryan had to drop out of the race, he set one of these guys out to tail Obama everywhere. The guy was real aggressive, would move real close when Obama was on his cell, followed him into public bathrooms at the statehouse. Finally, at some press briefing in Springfield, Obama introduced the guy to the reporters. He was nice as pie- said he didn’t mind the Ryan campaign taping his public events but he did so wish he would be allowed to speak to his wife and children without a recorder in his face, and be allowed to use a restroom without being followed. It was a big story with Ryan doing the “nothing illegal”, “we’ve broke no laws”, “we won’t back down” schtick. The press ran with it because it had that “creepy” factor going on. The public were appalled, and Ryan fired the guy.
handsmile
I suspect this thread has petered out into Saturday chores, errands, and televised sporting events. But wading through the comments again, I wanted to single out for praise the post by driftglass (#56) above (sorry I missed it earlier).
His wit and acumen is why his website is a regular stop on my daily shuttling through the intertubes.
Jewish Steel
@Bill H.:
So when was this golden age of inspiring politics in history? I’ll bet someone has run a noble, high-minded campaign for class president somewhere. And lost.
dogwood
What concerns me about the Brietbart/Media Matters stuff is that it just becomes part of the national cable tv food fight. I mentioned the Obama story in #87 because I think these things are best handled locally. Republican voters in Illinois thought Ryan had gone too far in that situation. Luckily for Obama the story didn’t go national. If Bill O’Reilly and crew had been defending Ryan, and conservatives around the country had doubled down, Illinoisan would have become irrelevant. I’m sure that part of the reason it had little national appeal is that the tracker didn’t have any smoking gun video, but this is a case where I think its better to keep it local. When outside money and organization is involved whatever is on these tapes takes a backseat to the food fight.
piratedan
@bob h #44
I dunno, don’t you think we’ve already crossed that bridge when they stomped on the move-on girl during the Kentucky Senate campaign when she was carrying that “lethal” looking sign.
harlana
Hell, I need to be feeling sorry for myself. We have Nikki Haley as gov.
cleek
i suppose this is how we know the thrilling story about the wine Paul Ryan drinks. i wonder what his countertops look like.
sigh.
lol
Every competitive statewide Dem campaign already does trackers but there’s a dearth of them at the House level where they don’t necessarily have the resources for a full-time tracker. So anything that bolsters coverage at that level would be very helpful.
lol
@cleek:
That sounded like random chance in the story, not that the woman was following Ryan in particular.
cleek
@lol:
same result
OzoneR
Who are these people? Because I’ve never met one yet.
The Raven
WereBear, #4: me, I advocate voting reform at the state & local level, so as to make third parties a viable option. Instant Runoff. Range Voting. Common Cause. America Votes.
The Raven
Rob McKenna, the Tea Party Republican candidate for Washington State Governor, noticed a Democratic videographer at one of his speeches. When he couldn’t intimidate the videographer, he didn’t give the speech. See “Frightened by a camera, Rob McKenna retreats to the cupcake table,” article.
Go videographers.
lol
The Raven:
The key there was the prep work to make it clear he was legally entitled to be present at the event. The cops couldn’t do anything.
The Raven
WereBear, #4: me, I advocate voting reform at the state & local level, so as to make third parties a viable option. (The links in my original reply put that post in moderation, here’s the keywords instead.) Google for “Instant Runoff.” “Range Voting.” “Common Cause.” “America Votes.”
Gregory
Fixed.
24AheadDotCom
Brock’s plan is great, a truly genius idea and one that’s great for the U.S.
I came up with an idea several years ago that involves smart people “x-examining” pols on video. I have to admit that my plan is far, far worse than Brock’s plan. The last thing anyone should want is for the pols to be asked things they’ll have trouble with:
http://24ahead.com/s/question-authority
Ignore my plan, it’s far worse than Brock’s plan.