Another Phony Controversy from Team Mahoney?

by: Dean Barker

Fri Jun 25, 2010 at 19:39:32 PM EDT

Apparently reading the law is a bridge too far for the pushers of this non-story:

Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory" information such as a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools must tell parents and eligible students about directory information and allow parents and eligible students a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose directory information about them. Schools must notify parents and eligible students annually of their rights under FERPA. The actual means of notification (special letter, inclusion in a PTA bulletin, student handbook, or newspaper article) is left to the discretion of each school.

But of course, that's not the point.

The point is that Sean Mahoney, and the rest of the GOP contenders for that matter, have still not figured out a basic fact they need to win in November.  That they have not offered voters a compelling reason to vote for them.

Throwing stones at Carol Shea-Porter, and tweeting about it to bigger DC media fish, is not a valid reason to run for office.

mahoneyforwhateveryougot.com, Parts II and III

by: Dean Barker

Wed May 19, 2010 at 21:23:35 PM EDT

There was the holier than thou separation of convenience from the RNC.  The dog whistle Scary Barry Google ads. The fake Twitter accounts that are totally and completely not connected at all to him in any way.

Today, courtesy James Pindell, we are treated to not one but two exciting new adventures in the land of AstroTurf.

First, Sean Mahoney's new media guy's old fake news website highlights, for some strange reason I just can't understand at all, the following:

The Commentary Magazine story quoted a major donor of Ashooh's saying that he wanted to get more Arabs in the U.S. Congress.

"Sean Mahoney should apologize to the voters for allowing this type of dirty campaigning. Mahoney knew Pat Hynes' checkered past when he hired him, and now he should fire him."

Today also saw Team Mahoney leak to Pindell a strategy memo from David Carney.  Sean Mahoney must think the people of New Hampshire are really dumb not to realize that this "memo" is basically a campaign advertisement trying to piggyback on yesterday's primary news.

I didn't think the NH-01 GOP primary waters could get any more toxic than Bradley and Stephen in '08, but boy was I wrong.

Hey Guys - Where Is Your Outrage Today?

by: Kathy Sullivan 2

Thu Apr 08, 2010 at 17:33:54 PM EDT

Granite Grok accused CSP of being "blatantly sexist."

Oh, the outrage, oh, the horror!

Well, oopsie!  Guess who is talking now? Sarah Palin, heroine of the right, who said at her rally with Kelly Ayotte's campaign manager's former boss, Michelle Bachmann:

"Something kind of interesting about some of these Tea Party leaders - we are finding out that most of them are women," she told a boisterous crowd of 10,000 or so. "Yeah, some surveys show that."

She then quoted British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in explaining why that "gives us hope for this movement."

"She used to say, 'In politics, you want something said - ask a man. You want something done - ask a woman.'"

Sergeant Schultz, David Carney, Patrick Hynes & AJS

by: Kathy Sullivan 2

Fri Mar 19, 2010 at 09:16:01 AM EDT

Kelly Ayotte called AJS "shady", with a "demonstrated record for false and sleazy attacks". Two prominent NH Republican strategists, long time Sununu family intimate David Carney and Republican operative Patrick Hynes, are involved with that shady organizaton: Carney as a consultant (and former e.d. of the group), and Hynes as a board member. But when it comes to the activities of AJS in their home state, Carney and Hynes are making like Sergeant Schultz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Hynes denied having anything to do with the effort. Sort of. Hynes said, "The first I heard about this was in the Granite Status...I didn't have any decision making authority in this at all."  Hynes loves to parse statements by Democrats, so let's parse what Hynes just said.
 

NH-Sen: Amusing-er Development

by: Dean Barker

Fri Mar 19, 2010 at 06:48:40 AM EDT

Me, I continue to find it LOL funny, especially DiStaso's later update that tries to round up the likely culprits.

Think about it.  The local, coordinated GOP response to having Judd Gregg's DC orchestrated successor campaign forced on them without contest is to launch a well-funded, anonymous, multi-platform attack from Virginia.  Was it that Ayotte-Lamontagne wasn't mirroring Crist-Rubio fast enough?

And although Patrick Hynes and Dave Carney are intimately involved with Steve DeMaura's Americans for Job Security, gosh darn it, no one knows where this is coming from.

The fact that some in the NHGOP have to hide behind out-of-state front groups to go after the establishment sector of the NHGOP is really telling.  Try to imagine the toxic dump this would be if done on the D side, how quickly it would poison the well.

This civil war has already damaged Ayotte, who responded late, and badly, to the news.  But it also damages Ayotte's opponents, because of the general lack of honesty and integrity clouding up the picture until we know who exactly is behind this.

Why Is Patrick Hynes Trying to Defeat Kelly Ayotte?

by: Kathy Sullivan 2

Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 10:52:02 AM EDT

AJS has always refused to disclose where it gets its money, so we can only guess about who is funneling the cash this time. However, we can lift the veil of secrecy a tiny bit, and it leads to a couple of interesting facts, which lead to some interesting speculation.

Fact 1: According to the corporate fililngs of AJS in Virginia, one of the members of the Board of Directors of AJS is Patrick Hynes, of Faux!Hampshire, the phoney "news" web site, and sometimes guest on Granitegork. Hynes also is on the payroll for Tim Pawlenty. If I were Kelly Ayotte, I would be on the phone right now to the possible 2012 presidential candidate and ask him why one of his paid PAC consultants is working against her United States senate campaign. And if I were Pawlenty, I'd be on the phone to Hynes asking him why he is making trouble for him in NH, because this kind of thing will be remembered by Ayotte supporters come 2012.      

Anatomy of a Hit Job, or, Media Responsibility (Pt. II)

by: Dean Barker

Sun Jan 24, 2010 at 07:38:46 AM EST

"And the Republican women said, when we were fighting over the health care bill, 'If we sent the men home, we could get this done this weekend.'"

Shea-Porter: Send the men home and Congress could pass health care reform

Shea-Porter suggests sending the Congressmen home.

SEXISM IN CONGRESS: Shea-Porter: Send the men home and Congress could pass health care reform.

NRO Punked by Another Pat Hynes Fantasy

by: Dean Barker

Tue Jan 05, 2010 at 21:07:44 PM EST

NOW Hampshire offers a rumor that, if true, would be layers upon layers of awesome.

...now there's whispers that Carol Shea-Porter reconsidering her decision not to seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Judd Gregg.

An article written by a paid professional GOP operative on a pretend news site containing the following sources:

"some"
"national Democrats"
"political watchers"
"one Democratic activist from the 1st CD"
"one DC Democratic consultant"
"one Democratic Hodes detractor"

Shea-Porter mulling Senate bid after all? 'Of course not'

The above quote comes from Rep. Carol Shea-Porter's spokeswoman when asked if anything's changed since March, when the congresswoman said she wouldn't run for the Senate.

"The Congresswoman is very happy serving the people of New Hampshire's First District in the House of Representatives," Jamie Radice says.

And now for the cherry on top - Jim at the NRO gets punked again in the same post, this time by "a reader":

*A reader writes in another key factor [in Democratic gains]: transplants from Massachusetts moving in...

Finally, it looks like we have another chapter to add to the book of Amazing Tales of Zero Credibility, brought to you by NOWHampshire:

Why NH Media Should Ignore Populus Research Polls
Anatomy of a Hit Job, or, Media Responsibility
Faux Journalism at Neo-Hampshire

Online Journalism a Good Thing

by: Dean Barker

Sat Nov 14, 2009 at 08:24:06 AM EST

In this episode, he smacks down an attempt by Pat Hynes to smear Carol Shea-Porter via dishonest guilt by association.

I've long maintained that the more voices that join in on the internet, the more credibility it gains. Why, to use one prominent example, Wikipedia is, in the long run, going to be more authoritative than gatekeeper-authored encylcopediae simply by virtue of the democratizing power of an internet connection.

Why NH Media Should Ignore Populus Research Polls

by: Dean Barker

Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 08:51:38 AM EDT

A couple of new polls out this week: NowHamp-shire.com/Populus Research polled 646 likely general election voters, 39 percent registered Republicans and 32 percent registered Democrats. In a generic Republican vs. Democratic matchup for Congress, the Republican won, 56 to 44 percent. Hodes lost to an unnamed Republican, 39 to 54 percent, with 9 percent unsure. The poll didn't match up Hodes with either of his potential Republican rivals, Ayotte or Lamontagne.

Another Populus poll found that 63 percent of likely voters in New Hampshire oppose instituting an income tax to balance the budget.

One caution: Populus Research is run by Steve DeMaura, a former state Republican leader.

* Let's start with the one explicitly mentioned by Shira - that Populus is run by Steve DeMaura.  I think former NHGOP Executive Director Steve's Twitter page pretty much says it all about Populus Research.And if you need more, a glance at Populus' "In the News" page says more.

* The second one is also mentioned by Shira: with "39 percent registered Republicans and 32 percent registered Democrats," I don't know what state DeMaura is polling, but it sure isn't New Hampshire. More like GOP Wishful Thinking Hampshire.  This point alone makes the poll junk.

* Populus relies on automated IRV technology to do their polling.  While they certainly aren't the only outfit to do so, it's also the case that the NYT, WaPo, the AP, and ABCNews refuse to report polls conducted with IRV.

* The sample is too small, and there's no description of the demographic or geographic data, or whether they even bothered with those details.

* DeMaura's partisan polls are premiered and pushed by Patrick Hynes' pretend "news" site, NowHampshire. Here is one egregious example of how NowHampshire operates as a disguised GOP spin funnel.

Now, this is the part where Kevin Landrigan or someone will put on the false equivalence hat and say, "Now wait just a minute!  Markos Moulitsas, the Great Orange Satan Himself, commissions polls that Mean Liberal Bloggers on the web log Blue New Hampshire put all over their site. So, A-HA!"

Yes. Those would be polls Markos commissions from Research 2000, a reality-based non-partisan polling outfit that always does a superb job with sampling and demographics. So good that the Concord Monitor themselves use them for polling.

Oh, and then there's that BH isn't pretending to be an online news site while it pushes GOP spin.  We are honestly partisan here.

It's bad enough that in NH we constantly have to deal with the demographic and sampling issues of UNH, and the opacity of ARG.  The last thing this state needs is a Republican partisan polling outfit the purpose of which seems to be to create pro-GOP momentum spin rather than accurately report voter opinion.  

Anatomy of a Hit Job, or, Media Responsibility

by: Dean Barker

Sat Sep 05, 2009 at 09:07:31 AM EDT

* One week ago today (August 29th), Carol Shea-Porter held a town hall meeting in Manchester.

*On the same day, the NHGOP put out a video on their YouTube channel of a man at that town hall acting out and subsequently being removed by a two police officers.  I encourage you to watch it.

* On August 30th, the following day, "Staff Reporter" at Republican operative Patrick Hyne's NowHampshire, a right-wing site that has the appearance of a legitimate "news" website, wrote the following:

Carol Shea-Porter... instructed armed security guards to remove a frustrated voter from her own town hall event in Manchester on Saturday.

In the appended video, Shea-Porter can be seen instructing security to remove a man for standing to ask a question without a ticket. Shea-Porter previously held a lottery to determine who could ask questions.

* On August 31st and September 1st, millions of Americans watched FOX and Friends repeatedly cover this story. FOX used the same parameters as the NowHampshire description, and made no apparent attempt to contact the Congresswoman's office for her understanding of the incident.

* Also on September 1st, James Pindell reported that NowHampshire was featuring a number of YouTube clips of FOX and Friends repeating the claim that Shea-Porter had the man removed. As of the time of this writing, those clips are still up on the site.

* On September 3rd, the police officer who escorted the man out of the town hall issued a statement making it clear that it was his own decision to remove the man. Conservative columnnist and Union Leader editor Drew Cline, an eye witness to the event, confirmed that version of the events.

In my opinion, sites like Hynes' NowHampshire do equal parts damage to candidly partisan blogs and legitimate news outlets.  And I think to a certain extent both New Hampshire based partisan blogs and objective news outlets understand what that site is all about and have been ignoring it.  Which is what I have mostly done.

But in cases like this where the national media get involved, ignoring is not enough.  And it is precisely because I am a partisan blogger on the left that I can't do the follow up.  Our state media, in my opinion, needs to, or this kind of thing will go on repeating itself.  Here are the questions I have:

* Is "Staff Reporter" Republican operative Patrick Hynes?

* What evidence did  "Staff Reporter" use to determine that Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter was "instructing security to remove a man for standing to ask a question without a ticket"?

* Did "Staff Reporter" contact the Congresswoman's office for her take on this incident?

* Was it "Staff Reporter" who fed this "report" to FOX and Friends?

Faux Journalism at Neo-Hampshire

by: Kathy Sullivan 2

Sat May 02, 2009 at 19:21:34 PM EDT

Today Hynes got caught pushing a story on nowhampshire that Raymond Buckley forced Democratic state senators to back the equality bill by telling them the DNC would strip NH of its first in the nation primary status if the bill did not pass. Hynes based his story on unnamed  "Democratic State House sources", and it got picked up by a couple of national blogs. The problem was, the story is not true.