Crooks for Kerry: Lefty group hires ex-cons to canvass

[sniffa]

A left-wing group with ties to Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign is hiring convicted sex offenders and batterers to go door-to-door to register voters in several battleground states.

Officials with America Coming Together, a nonprofit group heavily pushing Kerry's campaign agenda, conceded last night they hire cons in some states but insist the public is in no danger.

snip

ACT is unapologetic about its hiring of cons, saying they pose no threat to the public.

``The fact that they are willing to do this work is a fairly serious indication that they want to become productive members of society,'' said Elleithee, the ACT national spokesman.

While campaigning chiefly to benefit Kerry, the group has ties to almost every major Democrat - not just the Bay State senator.

http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=33142

i know, i know, it's the boston heraLd. this is the bLairing headLine on the front page. it's fucking sickening.

i've noticed a pattern.. every thursday the heraLd is overLy harsh in its partisanship and couLteresque in their attacks. it must have a different editor on thursdays?

[NMDemDist2]

1. ACT is a 527 and has no ties to any candidate

that headline is a bit misleading IMO

[ElectroPrincess]

2. Hummm ...

Methinks that if we dig down to the source of the story, the lion's share of these ex-cons may have been other "non-violent offenders." The above is my conjecture. But I wouldn't put it past Republican Spin-Meister's to elevate a small percentage of this Ex-Con population to identify Kerry supporters. Sound like DeLay spin to me. :P

Hey, all kidding aside, there are a lot of "drug use only" and "non-violent crime" Ex-cons who cannot vote by Republican design. If this population was mobilized in some sane way, it may not be a bad idea.

[dusty64]

3. Note the words "Lefty" like

its some kind of obscenity. Funny how they NEVER describe extremist rightwings this way.

[ixion]

4. and how many ex felons work for BushCo

Ollie North
John Poindexter

to name just two. And these ex-cons aren't on the pavement. The have power positions. But for some reason, that's okay.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

18. Add Elliott Abrams to that list.

[Mistress Quickly]

22. I don't think

Ollie contra-North works for Bush, he's just a shill for Bushco. They need no money in return, they are happy to do it for free. He works for Fauxnews, right?

[kikiek]

5. And Fox gave felon Ollie North a TV show.

[LizW]

7. Good point

Frankly, I'd rather have felons canvassing than working in the White House under a Bush administration, but maybe that's just me.

[smada]

6. No matter how reformed they are, it's still not a good idea

The first time an incident of assault or a sexual offense occurs, it's going to play in the press like Willie Horton all over again.

[libertad]

23. You mean once you've paid your debt to society you should be

discriminated against?

[Capn Sunshine]

33. Not as long as you agree to wear the big red "F"

whenever you go out in public.

[smada]

8. Reading further into the article...

The canvassers will be collecting people's Social Security number???

Now, call me un-PC, but I don't think I want to give my SS number to anyone, much less someone who may have just gotten out of jail on charges of fraud or identity theft.

[sniffa]

9. i'm guessing that's a Lie

i've never been asked for my SS# when registering to vote.

[cmd]

16. Untrue, I'm a trained canvasser........

......and that is not one of the questions.

[sniffa]

21. i thought that was a big Lie

what can we do about this piece of trash?

[cmd]

29. I need to clarify

ACT does not ask for SS numbers, but the voter registration forms we hand out do ask for a driver's license number or the last four digits of your SS number. I guess in a round about way the article is somewhat correct about that.

[libertad]

24. Prisons have currently incarcerated criminals taking credit card

numbers over the phone for on-line and catalog sales in some states.

[H2O Man]

10. Monkey warfare!!!

Maybe it's time for us to engage in a campaign of monkey warfare to counter foolishness like this. Perhaps we should submit the "necrophiliac's manifesto for cheney" to the press. Hundreds of volunteers of the Necro Society are patrolling the funeral homes and cemeteries to register dead voters for cheney. It's the fastest growing republican underground movement in the country.

[cap]

11. 1/3 of black males have done time

because of discriminatory policing and enforcing...

If ACT hires a lot of blacks, there will be a number of "criminals".

[mom cat]

17. Minimum wage workers are more likely to have a "past". Poor

folks can't hire good lawyers like Kenny boy etc.

[Longhorn79]

25. You can't put all the blame on police

[R Hickey]

12. This sounds like something Karl Rove thought up

This reminds me of Karl Rove's mailing of Bush practice-debate-tapes in Austin in the 2000 selection.

The story sounds like part of a GOP dirty trick. It sounds like its being promoted in order to make people afraid of Democratic volunteers who might be canvasing to get out the vote.

[catmandu57]

13. This story comes out of Kansas City

I watched coverage of it on our local news last night. These guys were from a release program, a halfway house, one of them found a job with ACT and spread the word that they were hiring.
Now, jobs are getting hard to find, it's even harder to find a job if you're carrying a felony record with you, and to stay out of prison, employment was part of the contract.
These were nonviolent people, they didn't say anything about what their offenses were, as to social security numbers they were required to get the last four, not the entire number.
This story also is months old, the five who were working here no longer work for ACT, and three have been violated back to prison.

[flamingpie2500]

14. My guess is if there are 200 of these people there is 1 batterer and 1

sex offender and the other 198 are ex drug addicts. Spin, spin, spin.

[ElectroPrincess]

26. Ding Ding Ding ! My intuition was right :-)

As I've mentioned before, I still live among the bible thumping right wing nutcases up here in the land of the "belt-way bandits" (NoVA). I know how these slimy bastards think. Nothing, and I mean *nothing* is below a dirty-tricks right wing smear campaign. Thanks for the confirmation. To add insult to injury, they have the money and connections to pull-off lies that are to pass for journalism. The radical right wing has no integrity or shame. :-)

[Media_Lies_Daily]

15. The auther of this article is lying through his teeth. Read on...

Take a close look at the author's blog (conveniently linked from the Boston Herald's article), and you will see some patterns emerging. Please note the anti-Democratic Party tone throughout this person's blog:

<http://news.bostonherald.com/election2004/blogs/>

In the article, the first thing this guy does is state the following:

"A left-wing group with ties to Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign is hiring convicted sex offenders and batterers to go door-to-door to register voters in several battleground states."

Did he name names or bother to substantiate his claim in any way, shape, or form? No, he did not. Does he state where he got the information for his article. Not until some time later in the article.

The next thing the author states is the following:

"The group's New Hampshire spokeswoman said no convicted felons have been hired there but said none have yet applied.

'The policy is to not employ people who have been convicted of violent felonies,' said spokeswoman Delacey Skinner. 'We would not do anything in any way to put people in danger as we do our canvassing.'"

Disconnect, you say? Wait, it gets better. Here is the next bit of information:

"According to the AP report, felons work as canvassers in major metropolitan areas in Missouri, Florida and Ohio.

The wire service's review of criminal records showed the names and hometowns of dozens of ACT employees in those states matched those of people convicted of crimes such as burglary, drug dealing, assault and sex offenses.

Among other things, the canvassers request voter telephone numbers and Social Security numbers."

Does this not sound exactly like the technique used by Florida to scrub the voter list in that state prior to the 2000 election and being used to scrub the voter list for 2004? Tens of thousands of voters with ABSOLUTELY NO CRIMINAL HISTORY have been disenfranchised in Florida because their names are SIMILAR to the names of those that have actually been convicted of felonies.

And to top off this section of the author's article, he makes the statement that ACT is gathering "telephone numbers and Social Security numbers" which blatantly smears the entire organization because of the fact that SOME ex-felons MAY have been hired to do this work.

And finally, the author takes a major swipe at some of the top Democrats, including John Kerry, by stating the following:

"While campaigning chiefly to benefit Kerry, the group has ties to almost every major Democrat - not just the Bay State senator.

Newman, the New Hampshire director, worked for Vice President Al Gore in the last election while Skinner, the New Hampshire spokeswoman, formerly worked on former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's campaign in South Carolina. Elleithee is a former aide to retired Gen. Wesley Clark - another of Kerry's former primary opponents."

IMHO, this is one dishonest article written by a VERY dishonest author. Read the article closely and you be the judge.

[noonwitch]

19. At least they're not torturing the ex-cons or anything

LOL

[kikiek]

20. It's another fear factor. Make the Democratic

candidate look like he is easy on criminals. He will let them out to rape and pillage. If he gets in office Hannibal Lechter will be loose in the neighborhood. Really no connection exists to Kerry, but they are trying to make one. No evidence exists that anyone is dangerous, but they will make you think one could be. In a society that will try 12 and 13 yo's as adults we owe offenders who serve their sentence and want to rehabilitate a second chance. We sure give ourselves plenty of them.

[Carl Brennan]

27. What's the big deal? It's better than work release. nt

[Radical Activist]

28. No big deal, but ACT is still a waste of money

We have to have ACT because local parties don't do registration and turn-out like they should anymore. These organizations are taking the place of party organizations that were strong at one time.

Sadly, I think ACT wastes a lot of money on overpaid organizers, and fancy gadgets that no one really needs to do voter Reg. There are about 1/2 a dozen other groups doing national voter registration drives that will help Democrats more effectively.

[cmd]

30. It's not all about voter registration

ACT is more of a voter identification/education group. ACT identifies people's concerns using those fancy gadgets, then use that information to educate the undecided voters about the failed policies of the Bush administration. Voter registration is a small part of ACT.

[Radical Activist]

31. A real grass-roots organization wouldn't need palm pilots for that

They would already be connected to the community and know what people there care about. ACT is an election year organization and the kind of work they do would be done more effectively by a year round grass-roots organizations instead.

[cmd]

32. and since it is not being done, ACT was created

It is not being funded by taxes; I just don't see your gripe.

[Toucano]

34. Ex-cons? Does anyone still understand what the "ex" prefix means?

Since we're a "service" economy, most of the jobs they can get will being them into contact with the public.

Maybe they'd prefer if those who've paid their debt to society *not* have any means of financial support.

That would surely be effective at reducing recindivism.

[zulchzulu]

35. Many Reagan administration cabinet members had been convicted

Two can play this game.