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| Home Front: Politix |
| London paper meddling in U.S. campaign? |
| 2004-10-14 |
| Recognizing the global impact of the 2004 presidential election, the left-wing Guardian newspaper of London is encouraging non-American readers to directly participate in the campaign through a "democratic toolkit" that links them to an individual voter in a key Ohio county. "The result of the U.S. election will affect the lives of millions around the world, but those of us outside the 50 states have had no say in it — until now," says the paper. Through a "unique scheme," Guardian readers are matched with American voters, giving foreigners the chance "to write a personal letter, citizen to citizen, explaining why this election matters to you, and which issues you think ought to matter to the U.S. electorate. It may even be a chance to persuade somebody to use their vote at all." |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #16 Tim Blair is all over this like a bad rash- they stole his gag and he is paying them out big time. Very funny stuff. Highly recommended. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2004-10-14 8:26:35 PM |
| #15 How about we press gang the Guardian staff into the US Navy. Now, that's one British tradition I can get behind. |
| Posted by: ed 2004-10-14 7:23:26 PM |
| #14 No representation without taxation! |
| Posted by: Thraing Ulolutch9664 2004-10-14 6:38:31 PM |
| #13 OS...God bless you. This is fun! Save them, maybe someone will want to buy them from you. Those things are worth money. |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-10-14 1:00:37 PM |
| #12 Good for you, OS! I save one Ohian, using my Hotmail account. No way in hell I'm giving these wankers my real (home) e-mail address. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-10-14 12:53:42 PM |
| #11 Not saying how or who, there are as of now over 100 signups per hour from single source, automated that are going to dump the names on the floor. He could run them faster but it would look suspicious and give away the machines he was using. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2004-10-14 12:14:15 PM |
| #10 No offense to our Brit friends, but our ancestors kicked your meddlesome asses out of here about 225 years ago. Don't make us come over there. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-10-14 11:46:48 AM |
| #9 I wonder what sort of reception these Brits will get from the local constabulary when they show up in suburban Dayton to try to influence the outcome of an American election. |
| Posted by: Mrs. Davis 2004-10-14 11:38:34 AM |
| #8 It is rather amusing that they're promising they won't sell or give out your e-mail address, whilst handing out the e-mail addresses of (apparently) everybody in Ohio. |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-10-14 11:31:48 AM |
| #7 It's weird watching the media self-destruct. They must live in such a tight cocoon that they are clueless as to the effect of what they are doing. I know they are still reaching and confusing millions for this election - and they are certainly giving it their last gasp. Since 9-11, only 3 years, they gone from being respected to having a status equal to the Enquirer. In the mean time - the rest of us have established sources of information that do not include them. Their reputation is shot - nobody takes them seriously and they look like a bunch of old stuffs with a big giant pole up their behinds. |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-10-14 11:29:10 AM |
| #6 You'd think the privacy activists would be outraged. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2004-10-14 11:20:14 AM |
| #5 The Guardian acknowledges, "Anybody might be justifiably angered by the idea of a foreigner trying to interfere in their democratic process. But..." "But what the hell! We're enlightened liberal journalists, and that makes us special!" |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-10-14 11:18:00 AM |
| #4 Psst -- owning your own domain opens up the possibility of INFINITE email addresses. It's tempting, but I don't have the time to do it. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-10-14 10:39:57 AM |
| #3 Interesting -- their script doesn't recognize proxy addresses as being the same as the default address. So if you have an account which presents multiple user names (but resolves to the same place on the server) you can get multiple OH voters out of their line of sight that way, too. |
| Posted by: rkb 2004-10-14 10:37:14 AM |
| #2 Hmm, it will take a little more work. The Guardian keeps resending one address per email address. So get out there, create free email accounts and USE THEM people. |
| Posted by: rkb 2004-10-14 10:35:28 AM |
| #1 I have signed up for over 30 addresses so far, using several email addresses. I plan to create a dozen more hotmail and Yahoo addresses and use those as well. The Guardian says it will not give the same OH voter name/address to more than one emailer. So I figure I can take maybe 50-100 out of the line of fire. Maybe other Rantburgers would like to join me. |
| Posted by: rkb 2004-10-14 10:34:23 AM |