GOP unnerved by Democrats' candid camera techniques

[cali]

Democrats are testing the boundaries of privacy with their tracker videos. | POLITICO Screengrabs
By ALEX ISENSTADT | 7/9/12 4:37 AM EDT

Politicians recognize they give up a degree of privacy when they run for office.

But Democrats are testing the outer limits of that understanding with a practice that raises questions about when campaign tracking becomes something more like stalking.


While most serious campaigns on both sides use campaign trackers — staffers whose job is to record on video every public appearance and statement by an opponent — House Democrats are taking it to another level. They’re now recording video of the homes of GOP congressmen and candidates and posting the raw footage on the Internet for all to see.


That ratcheting up of the video surveillance game is unnerving Republicans who insist that even by political standards, it’s a gross invasion of privacy. Worse, they say, it creates a safety risk for members of Congress and their families at a time when they are already on edge after a deranged gunman shot former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords 18 months ago.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78217.html#ixzz209EguhCp

[DJ13]

1. Not a smart idea

Campaign stops are one thing, private lives and family are another.

[tularetom]

28. Why should they be entitled to the privacy they would deprive you of?

They supported the legislation that enabled the government to obtain your private telephone records, e-mails and other communications without a warrant.

And yet it somehow is wrong to post video of their residences?

[backscatter712]

36. They didn't do anything illegal.

Explain to me which law they broke. Taking videos of events is legal. Taking pictures of houses from public streets and rights-of-way is legal.

Candidates, public officials, and their supporters are fair game. The public has a right to know about them.

[DJ13]

41. I didnt say they broke any laws

Im thinking more that there needs to be some limits on behavior in our politics, nothing more.

No matter the party this its also a bad idea.

[Drale]

2. I've been saying for years that

if you are elected to an office, you should be forced to wear a "wire" 24/7 with the exception of when you are "having maritals" with the wife. That way they could never deny that they broke the law or didn't say something. If your elected to public office, your life is now public.

[Inuca]

3. Sorry to say, but

if that's indeed the case, I agree with the Rs.

[backscatter712]

37. It's not.

Show me where laws were broken.

[warrior1]

4. They're pissed because they didn't think of it first. nt

[99Forever]

5. Does anyone here think for...

.. for one second that the Teathuglicans aren't doing the exact same thing?


Would these same folks be interested in buying some ocean front property in Kansas? I can set you up.

[CJCRANE]

6. I don't entirely trust politico...

I'd like some more information before I make a judgment.

[FSogol]

8. Same here. Sounds like just another article that Karl Rove wrote for Politico. n/t

[Poll_Blind]

7. The methods may be a bit different, but this is really nothing new.

You have the same deal with paparazi and movie stars. If politics were more fashionable, this would be the equivalent of TMZ. Do I like it? Not really. Is it legal? It would seem, in every way, absolutely- from the examples given.

I'm sorry, this is life in America under state and federal law. People could do the same to me and I would have no recourse in situations where I am being filmed legally.

PB

[msongs]

9. republican anti-choicers do it routinely so what's the prob? nt

[hack89]

15. I don't use repukes as my standard for acceptable behavior

especially borderline domestic terrorist groups. But that is just me.

[Zalatix]

18. It's war. You fight to win.

[DontTreadOnMe]

27. Is that the "Woodrow Wilson" reply?

time to grow a spine, this is war.

[hack89]

33. I see it as a war of contrasting ideas and morals

for there to be a contrast we have to have better ideas and better morals. If I wanted to act like a repuke then I would become a repuke.

[backscatter712]

38. And where have we compromised our morals?

Tracking is perfectly legal and ethical. We have a right to know about the activities of public officials, candidates and their donors. Explain to me where a law was broken, or where somebody suffered a legitimate invasion of privacy (and no, taking a picture of a guy's house from the street is both legal and not a breach of privacy.)

[hack89]

39. Do you think that "republican anti-choicers" routinely act in a legal and ethical manner?

that is what I was referring to.

[Wellstone ruled]

10. Just ask Orin Hatch about hacking

Ted Kennedy,this prick with ears,opened the door. Recall all the Dems were very cautious as to what the comments should be. Remember a Romney fund raiser in my town,GOP goons were everywhere with video cameras,most trained on us protesters. All this sh*t was later used in anti Obama ads in Utah.

Game on,bring it on,I'am game and plan to be out there this fall getting in there faces.

[Cali_Democrat]

11. So how many of these "unnerved" Republicans voted for the Patriot Act or the NDAA?

Now they know how it feels.

Fuck them.

[Zalatix]

19. +100. To hell with those whiny crybabies.

[RKP5637]

29. Yep, they worked, well with some democrats too, to end privacy rights in the USA! n/t

[Downwinder]

12. James O'Keefe become a Democrat?

[limpyhobbler]

13. This crosses a line of common decency.

Stalking should be illegal.

[TlalocW]

14. I don't agree with it BUT...

Hey, their policies (aided with the help of cowardly democrats) gave us the Patriot Act, which is an invasion of everyone's privacy. Their policies allow guns to be put into anyone's hands, including the nutjobs. Their policies and attitude allow their followers to do the same to abortion providers. They have no room to complain... Heck, why don't we do something else in the republican vein and make up a graphic of conservative congress members faces with gun sights on them? You know... for easy check-offing when you go and see what their house looks like.

Reap what you sow, assholes.

TlalocW

[Douglas Carpenter]

16. as long as it does not damage the Democrats or help the Republicans I support fighting them by

any nonviolent means necessary. They want to destroy everything good about America and gravely endanger the peace of the world. They are the most reactionary force to block the forward progress of mankind since the military defeat of fascism in Europe. The future of humanity demands that their dark and sinister ideology be wiped from the face of the earth and consigned forever to the dustbin of history. This is war. We didn't start it. They did. The only reason to hold back on any tactic is if there is a probability that it might backfire and help them more than hurt them.

[RKP5637]

30. Agree 1000% +++ We are now fighting for the survival of the US against

republican terrorists.

[Abra]

17. Mixed mind on this

We are not going to win elections or anything else by playing nice.

[Aerows]

21. What are you afraid of?

Democratic party members are openly allowing people to see that they do as they say. Republicans are scared to death over this.

What does that smell like to you?

[RKP5637]

31. Much as with the Vietnam war, the masses did not get what was

going on until it was aired nightly on the news.

[Aerows]

20. When you lie a lot

And don't live up to your own standards, like the GOP does, it scares the shit out of them, and should when people offer a genuine example of living up to what they say. Republicans freak out over having to do that ... because?

[JI7]

22. this comes to me as trying to make Democrats look bad

we seem to get something like this every year. remember parlock, the ashley b girl thing ?

[Pathwalker]

23. Gabby was shot in a PUBLIC parking lot. I remember their mantra

during the Patriot Act debates: "If you've got nothing to hide, what are you so afraid of?" We now have security cameras everywhere, thanks to their Terror War, we can be detained indefinitely without charges, and we're not allowed to know who these creeps really are, the one's who are getting richer and richer while robbing us blind? And they are now whining that WE are invading THEIR privacy? WE no longer have privacy, thanks to them.

As a woman I know loves to say: Fuck em. In the teeth. With a Lead pipe. Sideways.
Enough of their mind bendingly stupid hypocrisy. Enough.

[Aerows]

24. The chime then was

"What are you afraid of if you have done nothing wrong?"

Well, If I was the GOP, I'd be shitting in my pants about now because they are crooks, thieves and criminals all of them. I'd prefer people fresh out of the jail to tend to my grandmother in the hospital than any one of these GOP thieves. They would figure out some way to steal her pension and rob her of her medication.

Oh wait, they are trying to do that ANYWAY!

[backscatter712]

25. I've participated in some of this tracking. As far as I'm concerned, we're well within our rights.

I'd like to hear more than a sensationalist Politico article to prove that Democratic trackers have crossed the line into invading privacy. When I've participated in tracking-related activity, it was at events that were supposed to be open to the public, or where we were invited.

And it sounds like the worst crimes here was trackers doing things like standing in public streets or public rights-of-way and taking footage of the outside of a persons' home, which is perfectly legal.

Besides, they do it to us, and they cross the line all the time! Look at all the harassment Dems have had to go through at the hands of the teabaggers, especially during the health care debate in '09. Teabaggers were committing acts of vandalism, assaulting people, threatening people, and now that our side is doing nothing but going to their events, taking pictures and broadcasting what they're doing, they squeal like stuck pigs.

Fuck 'em. We are at war, I feel absolutely no obligation to be nice to them, and I have precious little respect for the privacy of public officials who are wigging out because people are holding them accountable.

Yes. We play hardball. I make no apologies.

My favorite moment of my tracking experience (IMHO) was when we were at a meeting of the Longmont, CO Tea Party, where Congressman Cory Gardner (CO-4) was the featured speaker. When we first showed up, we brought out protest signs and stood along the curb, outside, in the public right-of-way, demanding that Gardner hold town hall meetings open to the public instead of private fundraisers. One of the tea-partiers came out and said we were welcome to come in as long as we put the signs away and didn't disrupt. We agreed.

In the meeting, Gardner did his usual spiel, which included the right-wing talking point that week about how the Democrats had no budget plan whatsoever - "WHY DON'T THEY PRESENT THEIR PLAN?" This was right as the Progressive Caucus had unveiled their People's Budget, so I politely raised my hand, and asked my Congressman what he thought about the People's Budget. He stated that he voted no on that budget.

PWN3D!

Linkage to our group's press-release on that event: http://www.coeyesoncongress.com/?p=69

[spanone]

26. politico..

[babylonsister]

34. And there you have it. nt

[marsis]

32. Didn't O'Lielly

send his people out to ambush one or more Dems at their homes?

[backscatter712]

35. Ah, yes, Billo's stalker-producers! n/t

[JesterCS]

40. didnt republicans say " if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear " about Patriot Act?