Posted on 05/12/2006 4:10:06 PM PDT by ncountylee
BELLEVUE, Wash., May 12 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) today accused perennial anti-gunners including Senators Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of "world class hypocrisy" in their snit over disclosures that the National Security Administration (NSA) is checking phone call data, when they have no problem at all snooping into the privacy of American gun owners.
"The hypocrisy here is staggering," said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. "Feinstein, Schumer, Pelosi and others are having fits about the NSA's possible invasion of privacy over telephone calls, but they've never had such reservations about mining gun trace data from federal law enforcement agencies, or demanding other invasive measures against law-abiding gun owners.
"For years," he continued, "gun owners have had to submit to federal background checks to buy firearms, and more invasive checks to legally carry handguns for personal protection. To all the people who are now voicing alarm over the NSA revelations, all I can say is 'Welcome to the party'. Now they know how gun owners feel."
Gottlieb noted that Schumer and Feinstein, both Democrats, have been outspoken opponents of legislation designed to prevent municipal governments from essentially "mining data" on traces relating to so-called "crime guns" by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. That data is still available to law enforcement agencies for bona fide criminal investigations, but the cities want it to bolster junk lawsuits against gun makers and others, even though federal legislation passed last year prohibits such lawsuits.
"Their concern over legal 'fishing expeditions' obviously does not extend to law-abiding Americans who own firearms, nor to the possibility that such digging could interfere with on-going criminal investigations," Gottlieb stated. "Isn't it ironic that Pelosi, Feinstein and Schumer are righteously indignant about probes that are supposed to be uncovering terrorist threats to our country, but they haven't the slightest concern about digging into the lives of citizens who are no threat at all, and are guilty only of exercising a constitutional civil right?"
Exactly.
"HYPOCRITE" should be tattooed on all the foreheads for everyone to see.
Democrats' Data Mining Stirs an Intraparty Battle
With Private Effort on Voter Information, Ickes and Soros Challenge Dean and DNC
By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 8, 2006; A01
A group of well-connected Democrats led by a former top aide to Bill Clinton is raising millions of dollars to start a private firm that plans to compile huge amounts of data on Americans to identify Democratic voters and blunt what has been a clear Republican lead in using technology for political advantage.
The effort by Harold Ickes, a deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House and an adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), is prompting intense behind-the-scenes debate in Democratic circles. Officials at the Democratic National Committee think that creating a modern database is their job, and they say that a competing for-profit entity could divert energy and money that should instead be invested with the national party.
Ickes and others involved in the effort acknowledge that their activities are in part a vote of no confidence that the DNC under Chairman Howard Dean is ready to compete with Republicans on the technological front. "The Republicans have developed a cadre of people who appreciate databases and know how to use them, and we are way behind the march," said Ickes, whose political technology venture is being backed by financier George Soros.
"It's unclear what the DNC is doing. Is it going to be kept up to date?" Ickes asked, adding that out-of-date voter information is "worse than having no database at all."
Ickes's effort is drawing particular notice among Washington operatives who know about it because of speculation that he is acting to build a campaign resource for a possible 2008 presidential run by Hillary Clinton. She has long been concerned, advisers say, that Democrats and liberals lack the political infrastructure of Republicans and their conservative allies. Ickes said his new venture, Data Warehouse, will at first seek to sell its targeting information to politically active unions and liberal interest groups, rather than campaigns.
As it stands now, the DNC and Data Warehouse, created by Ickes and Democratic operative Laura Quinn, will separately try to build vast and detailed voter lists -- each effort requiring sophisticated expertise and costing well over $10 million.
"From an institutional standpoint, this is one of the most important things the DNC can and should do. Building this voter file is part of our job," Communications Director Karen Finney said. "We believe this is something we have to do at the DNC. Our job is to build the infrastructure of the party."
In the 2003-2004 election cycle, the DNC began building a national voter file, and it proved highly effective in raising money. Because of many technical problems, however, it was not useful to state and local organizations trying to get out the vote.
The pressure on Democrats to begin more aggressive "data mining" in the hunt for votes began after the 2002 midterm elections and intensified after the 2004 presidential contest, when the GOP harnessed data technology to powerful effect.
In 2002, for the first time in recent memory, Republicans ran better get-out-the-vote programs than Democrats. When well done, such drives typically raise a candidate's Election Day performance by two to four percentage points. Democrats have become increasingly fearful that the GOP is capitalizing on high-speed computers and the growing volume of data available from government files and consumer marketing firms -- as well as the party's own surveys -- to better target potential supporters.
The Republican database has allowed the party and its candidates to tailor messages to individual voters and households, using information about the kind of magazines they receive, whether they own guns, the churches they attend, their incomes, their charitable contributions and their voting histories.
This makes it possible to specifically address the issues of voters who, in the case of many GOP supporters, may oppose abortion, support gun rights or be angry about government use of eminent domain to take private property. A personalized pitch can be made during door-knocking, through direct mail and e-mail, and via phone banks.
This approach is designed to complement the broad-brush approach of television and radio advertising, which by its nature must be addressed to large, and often diverse, audiences.
Traditional get-out-the-vote efforts operated crudely, such as by canvassing neighborhoods in which at least 65 percent of residents voted for a particular party. It was often deemed too inefficient to focus on neighborhoods where the partisan tilt was less decisive, and it ran the risk of doing more to turn out the opposition's vote.
The advantage of data-based targeting is that political field operatives can home in on precisely the voters they wish to reach -- the antiabortion parishioners of a traditionally Democratic African American church congregation, for instance.
Consultants working for the Republican National Committee developed strategies to design messages targeting individual voters' "anger points" in the belief that grievance is one of the strongest motivations to get people to turn out on Election Day.
Under the direction of Bush adviser Karl Rove, the RNC and state parties repeatedly tested the voter file and different ways to contact voters to determine which were most effective at boosting turnout.
"They were smart. They came into our neighborhoods. They came into Democratic areas with very specific targeted messages to take Democratic voters away from us," then-DNC Chairman Terence R. McAuliffe said after the 2004 contest. "They were much more sophisticated in their message delivery."
Ickes has quietly raised an estimated $7.5 million in start-up money for Data Warehouse. A prospectus said the company will need at least $11.5 million in initial capital.
In addition to Soros's support, Ickes has the financial backing of some of the wealthy participants in a new fundraising group called the Democracy Alliance. He and Quinn, who will be chief executive of Data Warehouse, have hired technology specialists from internet retailer Amazon.com and a Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology computer project.
Quinn had worked on the voter file program under McAuliffe, but Dean brought in his own people after he took over in early 2005.
These included former Dean presidential campaign workers who formed a company called Blue State Digital, now under contract with the DNC.
I made this exact argument at lunch today. The liberals in the bunch were strangely quiet.
Privacy for ME, but NOT for THEE......
Did the world come to an end. Was her thighness deeply concerned about privacy?
"World class hypocrisy" from schumer and feinstein; the understatement of the century
The left will never see it and the right won't nail them on it. I want my GOP to grow a spine and act like they have a pair.
Did ya'll hear Whoopie G. on Sean's show today?
She said she supported the 2nd amendment, sort of...
I paraphrase..." Everyone should has a right to bear arms
to protect themselves and their family, but I think they
should be registered."
Well, Geeee Whoop, what would be the point of that???
Oh, so the state can take away those rights from those it
deems unfit to exercise them......I see!
She thinks you aren't supposed to even think of ever using guns against the government, which is Great and Good and Wise. Thus the government has the right to indemnify itself against your potential irrational actions by keeping tabs on you. ;)
They only should be "registered" if you are being protected by HIRED SECURITY.....which most of the anti-gun rich liberals are....
Good one for Monday.
Bump.
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