DLC Pollster released fraudulent exit polls in Venez. Recall

[plurality]

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20040819_91.html

A U.S. firm's exit poll that said President Hugo Chavez would lose a recall referendum has landed in the center of a controversy following his resounding victory.

"Exit Poll Results Show Major Defeat for Chavez," the survey, conducted by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, asserted even as Sunday's voting was still on. But in fact, the opposite was true Chavez ended up trouncing his enemies and capturing 59 percent of the vote. ..

Critics of the exit poll have questioned how it was conducted because officials have said Penn, Schoen & Berland worked with a U.S.-funded Venezuela group that the Chavez government considers hostile.

Penn, Schoen & Berland had members of Sumate, a Venezuelan group that helped organize the recall initiative, do the fieldwork for the poll, election observers said.

Roberto Abdul, a Sumate official, acknowledged in a telephone interview that the firm "supervised" an exit poll carried out by Sumate. Abdul added that at least five exit polls were completed for the opposition, with all pointing to a Chavez victory.

Abdul said Sumate which has received a $53,400 grant from the National Endowment for Democracy, which in turn receives funds from the U.S. Congress did not use any of those funds to pay for the surveys.

Combine that with this...

http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/lieberman/liebfind1q03.html

Joe Lieberman-Campaign Organization Joe Lieberman for President Inc. 1st Quarter 2003 FEC Report

Major Consultants and Services
Penn Schoen & Berland (Washington, DC) $110,646.25

[klook]

1. Lieberman link doesn't work n/t

[plurality]

3. fixed n/t

[Classical_Liberal]

2. Not surprised by this since the dlc bots here have are really

pissy about attacking Chavez. Not to mention the unfortunate Kerry promise to raise funding for NED, which indicates his right wing sounding foriegn policy isn't just to attract moderates as claimed.

[plurality]

4. More on Penn, Schoen and Berland

http://www.psbsurveys.com/home/framep.htm

Mark J. Penn has been President of Penn, Schoen and Berland for 27 years since its’ founding in 1975 while he studied at Harvard as an undergraduate.
He is best known for serving as President Clinton’s pollster and political adviser for the 1996 re-election campaign and throughout the second term of the administration. As a result of the successful methods he pioneered for the campaign, Time Magazine labeled the firm the “Masters of Message.”

He also ran the polling and messaging and was part of the media team for the successful Senate campaign of Hillary Clinton, serving as her chief campaign adviser.

...

The Washington Post called him perhaps “the most powerful man in Washington you’ve never heard of”.

Way too much to put in. Read it and weep.

[berry]

9. Looking around their website, it looks as if they've taken down

their client list pages. Anyone else try to access it?

[plurality]

10. yeah i tried it too and got an error

Not surprised, after something like this I imagine they'd want to keep secret others they've slimed into power.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. The PablumDemocrats are always so helpful... to the RWwingers.

Here and abroad.

[klook]

6. Lieberman should give back the $110,646.25

that Penn Schoen & Berland paid him and denounce them publicly. Otherwise, he's part of the Venezuelan anti-democracy forces.

(Good research, BTW.)

On edit: changed "chastise" to "denounce."

[plurality]

7. Lieberman didn't take $110k he GAVE it for services rendered.

And thanks, but it's all luck really. I only knew this because I met Penn when he was the pollster for a race I worked on. Since I already knew he was a DLC guy when I read the article it was just a few Google clicks before I had the info.

[tom_paine]

8. Sounds like a DLC - Bushevik connection to me

How come the DLC is doing the Busheviks' Dirty Work for them in Brazil?

They do the same thing to Gore in 2000, I wonder?

WHO do they serve and WHO deos the DLC truly serve?

[DUreader]

12. Carville has been in bed with the Venez. Oligarchs too

[JanMichael]

13. Yes he has been. I wanted to ask him WHY on the Guy James Show but I...

...chickened out.

It's hard to get big name guests and if I did...I'll just shut up now and pretend like we have a Democracy...

[tom_paine]

14. Got any links to this allegation?

Is Carville DLC? I guess I always thought of him as kind of independant from all that.

Hard for me to pin working for the Busheviks on Carville, he is such a strong voice for our side and for fighting back, which is the opposite of cowardly DLC "please don't hurt me tactics".

But show me a credible link to Carville and the Venz. oligarchs, please.

[JanMichael]

15. It was in the Washington Post

Here.

It's still a little fuzzy as to how involved Carville was/is but he also mentioned on TGJS that he'd wasn't working on US campaigns this year and was "Doing some things down in South America"(Or something to that effect). That's not to say he didn't mean Brazil, or Argentina. That said I'd like to know.

"Hoping to convince U.S. officials of their claim that they are battling a dictator disguised as a democrat, opposition leaders traveled to Washington and New York last week. They have also been informally consulting with James Carville, a Democratic strategist, for ideas to better explain their cause abroad."

[tom_paine]

16. Mmmmm. Not much of a connection.

But something to think about...

:hi:

[Vladimir]

11. Very very predictable

And its not surprising to see the dirty paws of the NED all over this one...

This post by Tinoire sums up the NED pretty well:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1256111#1256741

National Endowment for Democracy (currently implicated in the Venezuelan Coup Scandal for having financed the opposition to Hugo Chavez) which Ronald Reagan started in the early 1980s to promote American values abroad. Also on the board Frank Carlucci, Carlyle fame, Morton Abramowitz, Vin Weber, Evan Bayh ((All our little friends from PNAC!)) http://www.ned.org/about/who.html

Ronald Reagan started the NED in the early 1980s to "promote American values abroad" by destabilizing progressive movements/governments, especially those with a socialist or democratic socialist bent. Also on the board Frank Carlucci (Carlyle fame), Morton Abramowitz, Vin Weber (original PNAC signatory), Evan Bayh http://www.ned.org/about/who.html

Here are the National Endowment for Democracy's major/majority donors:
Sara Scaife Foundatation financed in turn by Mellon Industrial, at one time its largest single holding was stock in the Gulf Oil Corporation. Richard Scaife is the 38th richest man in America. Scaife has been a leading financier of New Right causes. The Sarah Scaife Foundation is considered to be one of the top 4 conservative foundations. He's known as the Right's Founding Father.

and that's only the start...