N.H. Democratic Party loses phone service at offices

[Bjorn Against]

Source: seacostonline.com

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire Democratic Party has lost phone service — on some or all lines — at local campaign offices at 11 locations around the state.

Michael Brunelle, the party's executive director, said two phone and Internet providers haven't pinpointed the problem. Service was affected in Concord, Manchester, Milford, Dover, Hampton, Nashua, Keene, Plymouth, Exeter, Londonderry and Somersworth starting at 1:30 p.m. Monday.

The party also alerted the state attorney general's office as a precaution.

In 2002, a scheme to disrupt Democrats' get-out-the-vote efforts by jamming telephones with hang-up calls resulted in criminal convictions for former state GOP executive director Charles McGee and former political consultant Allen Raymond.

Read more: http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20101101-NEWS-101109975

---

There better be a major criminal investigation into who tampered with those phone lines, this is a crime against our democracy.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. 5th and kick!

[karynnj]

2. The problem - as seen by the 2002 case is that it was years later before

the people behind it were tried. Meanwhile, Sunnunu was Senator.

[David Zephyr]

3. Help kick this story up. This is not a coincidence.

K&R.

[Bitwit1234]

14. Aren't they showing the hate and violence side of theirselves again

this type of thing is all the republicans know how to do. And the the S.O.B. are screaming THEY have to watch out for voter fraud. Bet they don't do anything to them. How can phone lines go out in different locations around the state.

[snot]

4. 11 locations!!!

[demi moore]

60. operation valkyrie

jam all communications!

[zbdent]

80. then it can't be an "isolated incident" ...

[Mojambo]

5. And so it begins... n/t

[left coaster]

6. If MSNBC really wants to investigate possible election fraud, they should start here. nt

[kmac3]

78. Sooner better than later

Amen

[jimlup]

7. Not surprising ...

I certainly believe the republi-criminals are capable of crap like this.

GOD DAMN THEM TO HELL!!!!!!!!!!!

There, now I feel a little better. Thanks for indulging my vent!

[EmeraldCityGrl]

8. Kick.

[Angry Dragon]

9. Seems pretty wide spread

Anyone know if others were affected??

[No Elephants]

24. Unlikely. If folks in 11 NH towns had lost service, the OP article would surely have said so.

That would have been a much bigger story in a state like NH than only Democratic political offices losing phone and internet service.

[dddem]

83. I was

Evidently it was a Comcast issue, brought about by the robo calls (I was told). I'm about 30 minutes from the New Hampshire border, and I wasn't happy. I don't get cell service in my apartment, so my land line is all I have. It was out for quite a few hours.

[CLANG]

10. How CONVENIENT!

[AC_Mem]

11. When I have volunteered

we mostly used our own cellphones.

This sounds suspicious. I work for a telecom company and can tell you it wouldn't take long to troubleshoot and find out EXACTLY what happened. If we have problems with voice it is usually at the turn up of the service (or at disconnect per customer request). If there is a problem that disrupts service it would be someone that either physically went into the account and disconnected the service, or lines/service actually disconnected at the premises or breakdown of customer equipment. Or weather, obviously.

[elleng]

12. ROVER IS GOING TO DESTROY US ALL,

and if we permit it, we will have ourselves to blame. THIS IS NO SECRET.

GET TO IT, DEMS!!!!

[wordpix]

58. since he got away with treason, he's sure to think he can get away with this

He outed Plame and got a couple of interviews with Fitzgerald. Not so bad for a traitor to his country. Now he thinks he can get away with this, and why not? :shrug:

[avaistheone1]

61. Rove has gotten away with everything including literally murder

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3855905

[struggle4progress]

13. Wadda coinky-dink!

[alp227]

15. Did James O'Keefe do it?

Maybe he'll just get some more probation and a double fine rather than a real punishment. It'd take another Watergate for the perps to spend some time in the federal pen I suppose. Seriously, the Republicans will stoop as low as it takes to poison the political discourse.

[No Elephants]

25. My thought was similar, but he prolly doesn't have skills necessary to pull off anything like that.

His skills seem to be confined to dressing up in ridiculous-looking outfits, heavily editing films and bs'ing.

[defendandprotect]

66. James O'Keefe is probably busy hosting some show on FAUX NEWS today ...???

[Jackpine Radical]

69. Watergate? That 3rd rate burglary?

Takes a lot more than that to get a Republican jailed these days.

[Blue State Bandit]

16. Comcast: "Congestion" from automated calls...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Telecommunications company Comcast says massive numbers of automatically dialed political telephone calls that caused service outages in New England have dropped off sharply.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-democrats-phone-lines,0,5412382.story

This don't sound good, but, it does sound like a digital trail may have been left.

On edit:

A sharp drop off may mean that the source was either within the vicinity of the outage and/or a small number or single source. But it's too early to know for sure.

[No Elephants]

26. Were the "political calls" that caused the failure incoming or outgoing?

If incoming, who made tbem?

If outgoing, the only beef Dems have is with the phone company. (What's the point of paying for umpteen lines if you can't use all of them at once?)

[Hubert Flottz]

34. Spilt milk under the bridge now...and

nobody will ever get in any real trouble over this.

[Lugnut]

17. Imagine that.

Who could've predicted that? :sarcasm:

[AsahinaKimi]

18. Tampered phone lines?

:grr: I am smelling Tea bags near by.

[Judi Lynn]

19. Only total sociopaths would come right back with a mega phone crime against Democrats in N.H.

It's like they're thumbing their ugly noses at non-rethuglicans.

How bizarre was it, seeing this story revealed, knowing it was all connected to Karl Rove, and there was even a record of all their calls going right into the White House exactly at the time they were jamming the phones.

Refresher moment:

James Tobin was President George W. Bush's New England campaign chairman. He was convicted on December 15, 2005, of telephone harassment "for his part in a plot to jam the Democratic Party's phones on Election Day 2002". However, this conviction was later overturned by a federal appeals court and Tobin was acquitted on all charges.

As New England campaign chairman for Bush-Cheney '04 Inc., Tobin stepped down two weeks before the election when state Democrats accused him of involvement in a phone-jamming scheme on Election Day 2002. Tobin was later indicted for conspiracy.

Tobin served as national political director for publisher Steve Forbes' Presidential campaign. He is an employee of the Washington, D.C.-based DCI Group and also has his own consulting firm, Tobin & Co., based in Bangor, Maine. During the 2004 election cycle he was a Bush Ranger, raising at least $200,000 for the Bush 2004 reelection effort.

Trial
During the summer of 2004, Charles McGee, former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and admitted paying $15,600 to an Alexandria, Virginia telemarketing company, GOP Marketplace, that hired another business to make the calls. A co-owner of that firm at the time, Shaun Hansen, was indicted in March. Republican consultant Allen Raymond, GOP Marketplace's former president, also pleaded guilty in the summer to a conspiracy charge in federal court.<3>

Tobin was convicted of putting McGee in touch with Raymond,<4> but was acquitted by the federal jury on conspiring to violate voters' rights. He was sentenced on May 17, 2006, to 10 months in prison, two years probation, and $10,000 in fines.<5>

During Tobin's trial, questions arose about the source of the money involved in funding the phone jamming and his defense.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tobin_(political_operative)

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com.nyud.net:8090/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060410/060410_tobin_vmed_3p.widec.jpg

Republican fun lover, phone jamming, vote stealing felon, James Tobin.

[northernlights]

30. somehow they always learn the wrong lesson

and that is the essence of their stupidity. they are completely and totally beyond redemption as a result. Unteachable.

[David Zephyr]

20. New Hampshire again. Telephones in New Hampshire again. Targeted Democrats at election again.

The Republican Party and the ravenous monsters that need their power never cease.

And they return to the scene of their own previous crimes.

Past is always prologue.

There will be no investigation. Again.

[DFW]

23. This does indeed seem like a repeat of an old movie

And like the old movie, the bad guys will get away with it again.

[avaistheone1]

62. Exactly. Crime pays BIG TIME for the republicans.

Democrats are afraid to rock the boat and expose these criminals. Wouldn't want to go backwards, ya know.

[indimuse]

F#*cking disgusting!

KNR!

[indimuse]

F#*cking disgusting!

KNR!

[indimuse]

21. F#*cking disgusting!

KNR!

[underpants]

22. "How to rig an election" by Allen Raymond - good read

Raymond really comes off as naive but there is no mistaking that Rove set him up and let him fall. Raymond did 4 months in jail for the 2002 phone jamming operation.

[tomp]

87. life in prison would not be too harsh for election interference. nt

[AlbertCat]

27. Repugs are so pitiful!

They know they cannot win unless they lie and cheat.

[Solly Mack]

28. k&r

[Douglas Carpenter]

29. kick and recommend!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!

[Dinger]

31. Kick

Holy fucking shit! SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!

[Hubert Flottz]

32. Nobody every really pays the price for this kind of attack on

democracy?

People who support our troops support the democracy the troops defend with their lives every day.

People who defend democracy expect their right to vote and for their vote be counted fairly, to be protected.

The GOP wants to turn America into a nation of outlaws.

[tilsammans]

33. uh, coinkydink, or what? n/t

[33Greeper]

35. Sounds like

Republicon dirty tricks to me. I hope someone gets jail time out of this.

[Vinca]

36. Here we go again. I wondered why the phone wasn't ringing off the hook.

[proReality]

37. K&R

I'm sure those same phone lines have been working for months, so to suddenly stop working just before the election seems incredibly suspicious.

[snooper2]

44. I find it amazing nobody on DU understands phone systems

Do you have any idea the amount of autodialer traffic telco's recieve around election time?

It's not the simultaneous calls that are the issue, it's the CPS, calls per second. The vast majority of these calls are short duration, so you have an autodialer sitting there running 20-30-40 CPS killing network switches.

This is why a lot of telco's don't even accept autodialer traffic.

[drm604]

48. I'm willing to believe that this might be an unfortunate accident

caused by the traffic. My only question is if other customers in the area, Republican headquarters specifically, are also affected. I also have to wonder why this is happening today when there's been a huge volume of autodialing going on for days now if not weeks.

[snooper2]

51. Are they using the same provider?

are they on the same switch?

was a whole switch congested, or just certain trunk groups?

I don't have the data....

historically autodialer traffic will ramp up and up the days and day before election day. (I was called twice last night on my cell phone)

[drm604]

52. True, Republicans may be using a different provider.

Are other Comcast customers experiencing an outage?

[snooper2]

53. I don't work for Comcast

:P

[drm604]

55. I wasn't specifically addressing you.

I just threw out there in case anyone knew. :hi:

[joeglow3]

73. Per CNN, Republican offices are experiencing the same thing

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/11/01/new.hampshire.robocalls/index.html?section=cnn_latest

[ooglymoogly]

76. Well that ridiculous assumption is easily proven

Did it happen to any Repuke organizations or in Pug strongholds. To pretend in this day and age that 17 phone lines or several hundred for that matter, operating all at once could shut down the service of a select group is absurd. If we are in that kind of weakened state H$ should call an emergency and step in. NH is home to some of the creepiest teapotters and mad hatters this country is famous for.

[RoccoR5955]

38. It looks like the CONS are up to the same old tricks again. n/t

[penndragon69]

39. Do you hear it?

The sound of jack boots echoing down the streets.

[Enthusiast]

40. I expect they will pull this

sort of 'dirty trick' around the nation today.

[paparush]

41. Kick & Rec.

[paparush]

42. Don't Stomp On Me! (and don't cut my phone lines either)

[FailureToCommunicate]

43. We did GOTV out of one of those offices in '08. Something is rotten...

[lonestarnot]

45. Somebody is gonna get it now!

I'm not too worried, although it's not a good thing and someone should be punished if they intentionally fucked with our phones. But how many people can we drag out to vote by phone if they had no intention of voting in the first place. It galls my ass to think someone would want to live in a democracy and not exercise their right to vote.

[lynne]

46. Comcast reporting large amounts of political calls led to outage -

- problems in several locations. link> http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/25599952/detail.html

[defendandprotect]

67. Comcast .... making $500 million a year from internet porn and taking over NBC....???

[sulphurdunn]

47. Domestic politics is civil war

without bloodshed. It works when all sides wish to avoid real bloodshed and have agreed upon rules of engagement. The Republican party seems to have no problem (at least rhetorically)with real bloodshed and abides by no rules it can circumvent. The Democrats seem content to wage relentless gentleman's club politics.

[Window]

49. Kick

:kick:

[EC]

50. Hope they all have cells

to GOTV...and I hope Comcast is held accountable legally...this is surpression...I wonder if phone lines are down in the whole area or just the Dem offices?

[HughMoran]

54. Jesus effing Christ

Fucking Republicans in this state are nothing more than common criminals.

[paparush]

57. Fixed your post for you...

Fucking Republicans in this state are nothing more than common criminals.

[HughMoran]

59. Is true

:toast:

[bobburgster]

56. Just found this on the local news....

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Telecommunications company Comcast said massive numbers of automatically dialed political telephone calls that caused service problems in New England have dropped off sharply.

A Comcast spokesman in Philadelphia, Charlie Douglas, said the volume of calls dropped precipitously starting at about 8:30 p.m., easing the service problems. He said only the New Hampshire area and perhaps parts of Massachusetts appeared to have been affected.

http://www.wmur.com/news/25600386/detail.html

[matt819]

63. Another NH voting problem? Anyone with unsent absentee ballots?

My son requested an absentee ballot last week and did not receive it.

Anyone else with absentee ballot issues?

[MBS]

64. as I remember, tricks like this happened in NH in 2004 and 2008, too n/t

[defendandprotect]

68. NH ... is Sununu still around?

NH must be one heck of a threat to Repugs -- ???

Or is it just a very persistent Repug virus prevalent there -- ???

[defendandprotect]

65. Trust they can get lines back up and working for today?

Right wing dirty tricks never end -- it's like trying to figure out what Hitler

would do next in an election!!!

"Voting for a Republican is a hate crime" -- !!

[LaPera]

70. Slimy republican tactics - Not a doubt in my mind - misleading, lying robo calls going out

all across the country, suspicious electronic voting foul ups already occurring, voter purging - harassing & bulling tactic at voting locations - republicans are truly hateful diabolical slimy racist elitists while their corporations (using their money to buy elections) are out to enslave every worker in this country and the world!

[kestrel91316]

71. Someone needs to go to prison for LIFE. This is about as bad a crime as

you can commit in our democracy.

[SocialistLez]

72. Let's hope everyone has their cell phones charged up and plenty of minutes.

I wish I could donate some AT&T rollover minutes to the cause.

[marginlized]

74. Typical

but when you confront Repugs in debate with this crap, their response is always "oh but that's not us, that's merely the fringe elements. We can't be responsible for what THEY do."

[Blue Owl]

75. They've killed Kenny again.

Same old stunts, same old reaction, same old do-little-or-nothing-about-it crap.

:mad:

[kmac3]

77. Normal Method of Win

Nothing new here . . . Republicans find cheating their way of winning on way too many occasions to be coincidental. This needs to be followed up diligently and justice served. Allowing these incidents to just pass over only suggests it works and can be done repeatedly.

[Raksha]

79. K & R

[PBS Poll-435]

81. Deja-vu all over again. nt

[craigmatic]

82. They did this same thing years ago. This is nothing new from republicans.

[Politicub]

84. Unless they have VoIP, it's extremely rare for phones to go down

It's one of the most reliable tech systems there is.

[Gman]

85. Problem is, a felony conviction of the perps 2 years later doesn't

reverse the results of an election. They basically get away with it.

[newscott]

86. Doesn't this happen every time in NH?

[ManiacJoe]

88. CNN is reporting NH and MA phone problems for both parties.

(And affecting any folks dealing with large phone volumes.)