Robocalls - What the Conservative Bloggers...

...are saying - Part III

Unambiguously Ambidextrous:---

Are we still whining about robocalls?

"Honestly, I’m not even paying attention. Most of this stuff is just created by the media hype. We basically started with about 1,000 complaints to Elections Canada, which is pretty standard for a country of our size, and when the media trumped up this non-story we wound up with roughly 36 times that number. I’m actually surprised it isn’t larger based on the sheer media attention."

He goes on. Unambig is pretty cynical about it all, which is not good, IMHO.

Halls of Macadamia:---

Instead of...You Know in which he links to SDA. Informative discussion in the comments, too, especially about Elections Canada. I, too, have heard things about Elections Canada over the years, but, unfortunately, I can't recall specifics or provide any verification, off the top of my head. I may have to see what Google can dig up.

And while we're on the topic of SDA, here is the commentary at Kate's site:

An Inconvenient Number posted by EBD.

"...there's another far more important number that hasn't been released, or at least, a number that certainly hasn't been widely reported, if it's been reported at all, a number that the reporters at the CBC and other anti-Conservative media could surely use their investigative smarts to come up with: precisely how many complaints did Elections Canada receive in the days immediately following the last federal election - as opposed to nine months later, after ample prompting - from voters who said they didn't get to cast their ballot because they'd been directed to the wrong polling station?"

And Ezra Levant:---

Sorry, robots didn't highjack the election

"The NSM - ­that stands for the non-Sun Media - ­thinks robots stole the last election for Stephen Harper by calling up Liberals and using their robotic powers to convince them not to vote.

The NSM is caught up in this conspiracy theory. It's become a mania. They've whipped each other up. It's a study in the madness of crowds, of pack thinking.

It's like the NSM's other bizarre obsessions. Like the long-form census that the Tories made voluntary. Or the NSM's obsession with unfounded rumours about our soldiers' treatment of Taliban prisoners; or the fake freak out over a common parliamentary procedure called prorogation; or, more recently, the fake freak out over the right to have gay divorces in Canada for gay marriages performed in other countries.

What all these fake scandalettes have in common is the NSM deciding, all together, that they've found some Watergate moment (Emphasis mine) that will make them heroes and bring down the hated Conservatives. So any facts that contradict their central theory are discarded."

He's right about MSM toadies trying so hard to find their "Watergate" moment. I lived through the Watergate era and observed a distinct turning point. That was the moment at which the mainstream media became the lamestream media. Thereafter, media existed solely to dig up scandal, and if they couldn't find one, they invented one. Every single journalist wanted to be a Carl Bernstein or a Bob Woodward, and they haven't stopped yet.

But back to the task at hand:

From Spin Assassin:---

Pierre Poutine: the smear within a smear

"When this faux scandal started, I didn't know what to think. Maybe some idiot did something dirty to "help" the CPC? How was I to know? How was anyone to know? All we had were baseless accusations and mass generated complaints from the left's smear engines.

I focused on the absurdity of the crime. On twitter I cracked jokes about the weakness of the left wing mind. I recommended a higher protein diet which would not only strengthen the resolve of a robocall victim but also increase the resistance to left wing arguments to begin with.

Then we found out who ordered the robocalls. Pierre Poutine. Now I am strongly suspicious that is a setup by the left. A rogue operative who was tuned in enough to order a sophisticated voter suppression campaign would buy a burner phone with a pseudonym that further harms the good name of the CPC? It doesn't add up.

The CPC is hypersensitive of the smears they are already accused of. They would never make an insulting affront to Quebec culture this way. Pierre Poutine from Separatist Street indeed."

Yes, that crossed my mind, too, especially the fictional, sarcastic quality of the name.

Stephen Taylor has a whole whack of good stuff, especially about the lawsuits flying all over the place. Can you hear the lawyers licking their chops?

Taylor also notes the catastrophic failure of the attempt by the left to create a scandal, accuse, try and pronounce guilty the Conservative Party, prior to any serious investigation:

Robocall protest falls flat

"A signature petition to demand a public inquiry does not a specific complaint of voter suppression make. Indeed, for those looking for the truth in the matter, flooding Elections Canada’s inbox only makes it more difficult to find the needles of legitimate complaints (if they exist) in the ever-growing spamstack. Troubling has been the media’s tone and volume on these contacts as they are seemingly equating lazily clicking a mouse and joining (re-joining) leadnow’s mailing list with the effective filing of a police report."

Moving right along. A new to me blog called Crux of the Matter has several good entries about this latest lamestream media's attempt to manufacture a scandal:
Why the Vikileaks & robocall hysteria

"Without a doubt, Canada’s Liberal and NDP opposition and all those who can be critical of Canada’s Conservative government almost reflexively– have finally jumped the shark.

First, it was the over-the-top hysteria about Bill C-30, the Twitter Vikileaks Account and Minister Vic Toews – although there was little appetite to actually identify the Twitter rogue. Then, there was the Robocall matter.

Yes, the automated telephone allegations are serious and yes, it could be about electoral fraud. But, the entire matter needs to be left to the authorities to deal with — Elections Canada and the RCMP. I mean, the last I heard people were still considered innocent until proven guilty in this country.

Yet, some media have clearly gone over the top with the latest allegations. As John Gormey writes (H/T BLY & BC Blue): “The Harper Derangement Syndrome has taken hold. And it’s not hurting the PM as much as what it says about his critics.” Exactly!"

You got that right, sister. She has an interesting analysis of the Conservative government's accomplishments to date toward the bottom of her post. Makes me kind of wonder if the current kerfuffle is designed to detract from that.

This Conservative got “official” robocall on May 2nd, 2011

"At first I wasn’t going to go public that I too had received an official-like robocall on election day on May 2nd, 2011 between 9:30am and 10am. I found it very odd at the time. But I proceeded to forget about it until the allegations broke this week about the Guelph riding and Bob Rae’s claims that Liberals lost ridings because of the calls.

What utter nonsense! I voted for my Conservative candidate — in a Niagara riding – nowhere near the ridings Rae is complaining about. And, as it turned out, my riding went heavily Conservative.

In any event, my automated caller had a very official sounding female voice. She said there had been a change of polling stations in my area. Then, the call was cut off. No alternative polling information was actually given. I remember thinking: “That is odd.” However, it didn’t bother me because I had already voted in one of the Advance Polls. And, even if I hadn’t already voted, I didn’t feel it involved voter suppression because all I would have had to do was call the telephone number on my voter registration card."

[---]

"However, I wish to make it very clear that I did not complain for reasons of voter suppression or inaccessibility. Rather, I complained because I am a Conservative voter and I am sick and tired of hearing that only Liberals got the robocalls.

In my opinion, the fake official robocalls went to supporters of ALL the political parties, and if any rule needs to be changed, it is the disallowing of any automated calls on election day."

Hear! Hear! Following this, I suspect political parties will no longer use robocalls for any purpose. The widespread disgust people have with automated phone calls, no matter whether their purpose is political or something else, should be enough to convince them that it is a stupid idea.

Update to why the Vikileaks Robocall hysteria

"What a difference a weekend makes. So, all the while the opposition was making hay out of the Vikileaks trashing of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, the individual was sitting comfortably in the Liberal parliamentary research bureau. Which only goes to prove once again that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones so readily.

Now, we know the rest of the story and a Liberal staffer has offered his resignation. Here is that breaking news from the National Post.

I look forward to equal time and treatment by CBC and CTV, particularly from their political commentators."

You'll be waiting a long time for that, love. Better plan on reincarnating.

CPC won 2011 election fair n’ square, yet media & opposition “stuck”

"I agree with L. Ian MacDonald’s Montreal Gazette column, not because I am a Conservative Government supporter (which I am), but because I too believe that there is more than enough evidence that the Conservative Party of Canada won a majority government on May 2nd,2011 fair and square. As MacDonald explains, the winning numbers are there.

Yet, apart from print journalists like MacDonald, Chantel Hebert, Ezra Levant and a few others at QMI and SunNews, who will write and present both pro and con sides to a story, there are few others in the mainstream media who are not part of the group-think “we-hate-Conservatives” consensus.

Truly, that attitude is irrational. I mean, the only thing the PM has done to the media is way back in 2006, he asked them to get a list of names approved before a press conference — exactly what President Obama has always done."

Pollsters put lie to CPC influence from robocalls

All I can say, is thank goodness for conservative bloggers. Without them we would never learn the truth because we would never be told the truth by the lamestream media. And the left, well they are all about abandoning due process and the principle of "innocence until proven guilty."

Anyway, it looks like I have discovered a few new conservative bloggers who should have a spot on my blogroll. I will be taking out some dead blogs and adding some new ones, perhaps today sometime. In any case, the wheels of justice grind slowly, and we likely won't see the end of this for a good long time. I suspect Elections Canada will have its dirty linen washed in public during the process. I'm reasonably certain this kerfuffle will have a whole slate of unintended consequences.

As for me, if the allegations are true, lets hope all wrongdoers are identified and face the full weight of the law. But don't be surprised if the investigation creates some unsuspected casualties.