Free Republic

"People were just getting together on their own," remembers Tom. "I guess you could call it grass roots." Like thousands of others, Tom downloaded phone lists so he could cold-call potential supporters in the area. Mary spent hours typing names and addresses into Obama's national database. The first paid operatives finally arrived in the area weeks later, only to find a virtually organized Obama machine already up and running. When the campaign held its first statewide training sessions in March, some 2,000 people turned up.It has gone on like this all year for Obama as his campaign deftly exploits the...

Let's start with Wednesday night's CNN/YouTube debate. I'll have to admit. This is the most entertaining debate format of the season. While many of the questions are dumb, I like that the candidates are uneasy and having to roll with the punches. Here's a wrapup of the Republican version on Wednesday. But the biggest disappointment for me was that the guys at Red State Update didn't make the cut this time. Back in the summer, they were the hit of the Democratic Debate with a question about Al Gore. (see Joe Legge's Blog) But this time, they're questions were too...

Senator Barack Obama scored a victory among progressive activists Wednesday, winning the Politico.com Straw Poll of attendees at the Take Back America Conference in Washington. Obama received 29% of the 720 votes cast in the straw poll, narrowly beating out former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, and decisively knocking official front-runner Hillary Clinton into third place. Edwards took 26% of the vote and Clinton 17%. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson received 9% of the vote, and 8% wrote in the name of former Vice President Al Gore, who was not listed as a candidate in the straw poll. The poll...

Ron Paul, for the People Can a libertarian Republican appeal to Democrats?Brian Doherty | June 15, 2007 Ron Paul may not be the next president of the United States, but he is already in effect the president of meetup.com. You might remember that online community site from the Howard Dean explosion leading into the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries. It was widely credited with being key to his burgeoning people power that scared the rest of the Dem pack four years ago.Deanmania ruled for a while, at least until votes were actually cast. He did not, as you might notice, end...

On Technorati, which offers a real-time glimpse of the blogosphere, the most frequently searched term this week was "YouTube." Then comes "Ron Paul." The presence of the obscure Republican congressman from Texas on a list that includes terms such as "Sopranos," "Paris Hilton" and "iPhone" is a sign of the online buzz building around the long-shot Republican presidential hopeful -- even as mainstream political pundits have written him off.

Emerging from the back of the stage to a vociferous round of applause from the audience, Ron Paul quickly took a seat next to the show's host, a visible look of surprise on his otherwise placid face. Leaning into him, the host quipped that he had never seen such an animated audience before and attributed the tangible excitement in the room to Ron Paul and his appearances at the Republican debates and other talk shows. With the recent surge of support for Paul's once obscure presidential candidacy, spurred in part by the tremendous amount of buzz he's garnered online (his...

Congressman Ron Paul is the most-demanded GOP presidential candidate on Eventful.com and the third most-demanded candidate overall, trailing only Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Watch the CNN Report

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who barely registers in public opinion polls of the Republican presidential field, won last Thursday night's debate. That was the unmistakable conclusion of the online poll posted by debate sponsor MSNBC, which registered Paul with higher positive ratings and lower negative numbers than any of the other nine candidates on the stage. In ABC's post-debate Internet survey showed an even clearer victory for Paul, with the congressman taking more than 9,400 of 11,000 votes as of 12:30 p.m. Monday. (Rudy Giuliani is the next ranked candidate, with barely 150 votes.) So are the polls missing a...

British salors are tortured in Iran.....The Democrats are going to "Cut-and-Run".....Huge Tax increases are on the horizon....and Pissant is pissed that Rudy Guliani has so much support.....Now the real possibility arises: Will Sanjaya kill "American Idol"?....... The Indian-American teen says he'll win, but Simon Cowell says if that happens, he'll quit. Even Paula Abdul, usually the kindest judge, says the buzz surrounding this unlikely contender has "run amok." It started with the Web site votefortheworst.com, which encourages voters to keep 17-year-old Sanjaya Malakar on the Fox show because his performances -- marked by a weak singing voice that often veers...

Leftists Stealing Votes That Don't (Really) Count? In a matter of only hours, two left wing blogs - Kos and Atrios - went from the bottom of the pack of blogs and suddenly pulled ahead by a pretty fat margin in the Best Overall Blog category in the Wizbang Weblog Awards. I have a deep suspicion that (ahemm) someone rigged the poll. There is a huge possiblity that someone could have nixed the system, and after roaming at Kos and Atrios, Atrios hasn't even advertised himself in the Weblog Awards! I humbly ask that Mr. Alyward, chairman of the Election...

Young People, who hold the key to America’s future, have voted for John Kerry to become president in Nickelodeon’s “Kids Pick the President.” This may not seem that important to many voters, but the winner of Nickelodeon’s “Kids Pick the President” has correctly selected the winner of the election the past four times. Nearly half a million children and teens voted, and the results were released yesterday. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry received 57 percent of the vote and Incumbent President George W. Bush received 43 percent of the vote. Third Party candidates were not put onto the ballot. Nickelodeon is...

NEW YORK - Kid power! Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) is the winner, and the rest of the country should pay attention because the vote on Nickelodeon's Web site has correctly chosen the president of the United States in the past four elections. Nearly 400,000 children and teens voted, and the results were released Wednesday. Kerry received 57 percent of the vote; President Bush (news - web sites) got 43 percent.

MSNBC Online Poll Bush 59% Kerry 41% Ralph Nader 1% 707,892 votes

The DUmmies, knowing in their guts that they will be losing the BIG POLL on November 2, are now trying to make themselves FEEL GOOD by attempting to win the online Post-Debate polls all over the country. They have conveniently listed dozens upon dozens of online polls on this DUmmie THREAD. Anyway, lets allow the DUmmies their temporary feel-good experience for now because after November 2 when the REAL POLL results come in they will be suffering a massive depression. The hysterical rantings of the DUmmies are in Bolshevik Red while the incisive remarks of your humble correspondent are in...

I've seen a lot of back and forth over FReepers voting in online polls that have already been rigged by rats.

Here's what's important: Use several Yahoo IDs to vote repeatedly; create new ones if you don't have several. The objective is to get the story down BELOW 3--a win against liberal scum. Be efficient--vote on the story BEFORE the total number of votes reaches 400. When the total number of votes for the story reaches 400, you'll no longer get to influence the story's rating.

we need a way of combating the democrat 'bots that are destroying the online polls.. freeping isn't enough.

Kerry is winning the online polls on the debate by such a huge margin, as with the last debate, that its quite obvious that poll spamming by www.DemocratsUnderground.com isn't the cause. In the past, Freerepublic provided online poll links, DU provided online poll links, and it was usually a spirited but decent contest. Tonights online polls, as with the last debate, indicate that there are certainly far more sophisticated techniques being used to falsely inflate the Kerry vote than DU's normal multiple voting techniques. I have watched CNN and MSNBC go dramatically into a huge (and unbelievable) lead in only...

For tonight's vice presidential debate, we are posting a list of websites that are likely to have online polls. Please visit these websites and vote on each of these polls. If you find another poll, please post it in this thread so we can add it to the list. IMPORTANT -- Please note that many of these links haven't yet posted their poll. We have a simple graphical icon next to each poll indicating whether a poll is online yet or not: No - Poll is not online yet. Please post in this thread when a poll becomes available, and...

WE RECEIVED THE following letter from a woman in Yonkers, N.Y.: "Dear editor: This debate made it clear: John Kerry is a leader we can trust to tell us the truth when it comes to our nation's security. George Bush has had his chance; I'm ready for a new direction." Cogent, succinct, personal -- everything we look for in a letter. So why are we writing about it here, instead of publishing it in the columns to the right? Unfortunately, the letter, perfect in every other way, arrived in our electronic in-box Thursday afternoon, four hours and 14 minutes before...

Gene Koprowski United Press International Last updated: Sep. 29, 2004 at 7:38AM CHICAGO, Sep. 29 (UPI) — An online service offers a poll to its subscribers, asking them whom they prefer for president of the United States in the Nov. 2 election -- George W. Bush or John F. Kerry. A sample of 250,000 "votes" is taken and a landslide is declared for one of the candidates. Is the poll more accurate than a small sample of public opinion, interviews with 1,000 people, taken by a behavioral scientist, over the telephone? Probably not, experts told United Press International. Some forms...

Posted on Sat, Sep. 18, 2004 'Fake' polls, 'phony' stories -- sounds like a leftist paper Professor Toro Professor Toro By now, the "no" votes could be up to a gazillion on an informal poll on The Herald's Web site last weekend. The poll asked: Should the 10-year federal ban on assault weapons be extended? The results haven't been tallied because the poll was hijacked. Or "Freeped." That's what the Free Republic Web site calls it when its fans jam a poll to mess up the results. The Free Republic folks wrote that the poll in a "small local left...

In the hours after accepting the Republican nomination for another four years in the White House, President Bush's popularity skyrocketed in the America Online straw poll, as he led in all 50 states. As of 2 a.m. Eastern Time this morning, Democrat John Kerry was ahead only in the District of Columbia, carrying just three electoral votes, while Bush covered the entire rest of the U.S. map, collecting 535 electoral votes. A total of 270 electoral votes is needed to win the White House.

Nearly 70,000 people took part in NewsMax's poll on Vice President Dick Cheney, and the verdict is overwhelming: Keep him on the Republican presidential ticket. Among all voters, 19,830, or 28.81 percent, said President Bush should replace Cheney as his running mate, and 49,003, or 71.19 percent, said no. Story Continues Below Bush’s supporters and Sen. John Kerry’s supporters were polar opposites. Among self-identified Bush voters, 14,486, or 23.53 percent, wanted to replace Cheney, and 47,082, or 76.47 percent, did not. Among Kerry voters, however, 4,646, or 75.83 percent, wanted a replacement, and 1,481, or 24.17 percent, did not. Among...

George W. Bush 52 % John Kerry 43 % Other Candidates 1.8 % Undecided 3.2

Partial ZOGBY online poll: Thinking about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, what is the most important lesson you think the U.S. should take from this experience? Statement A The country needs to be prepared at all costs for a terrorist attack, and therefore should spend as much as necessary on national defense? Statement B Statement B. The U.S. should seek international alliances and promote citizen exchanges and better understandings between different cultures in order to prevent such attacks in the future? Regarding marriage, which of the following statements come closer to your opinion? Statement A The state and federal...

Online activists defend freeping's ethics Political scientist says differing opinions may be result of local-national realms By Tu-Uyen Tran Herald Staff Writer While Grand Forks City Council candidate Scott McNamee's recent poll-stacking stunt has outraged some, others are outraged at the outrage. His defenders, including members of the FreeRepublic.com Web site that he frequents, said there is nothing wrong with organizing people to overwhelm online polls, an activity known as "FReeping" after the Web site. That's just what McNamee did a week ago when, posing as someone close to the candidate, he asked FreeRepublic.com members, FReepers, to vote for him...

A FReeper running for City Council needs a little "poll" help about a debate. He is already leading, but a few choice votes from other FReepers would solidify the lead. He is the Challenger and the poll is on the right-hand side. This FReeper is very close to me and I know him well...he's a solid conservative.

While Grand Forks City Council candidate Scott McNamee's recent poll-stacking stunt has outraged some, others are outraged at the outrage. His defenders, including members of the FreeRepublic.com Web site that he frequents, said there is nothing wrong with organizing people to overwhelm online polls, an activity known as "FReeping" after the Web site. That's just what McNamee did a week ago when, posing as someone close to the candidate, he asked FreeRepublic.com members, FReepers, to vote for him on the online poll of Grand Forks radio station KNOX 1310's "Voice of Dakota" talk show. That's not unethical, McNamee's defenders say,...

Posted on Fri, May. 28, 2004GRAND FORKS ELECTION: Council candidate caught in Web mess Radio station says McNamee interfered with poll resultsBy Tu-Uyen Tran Herald Staff WriterGrand Forks City Council candidate Scott McNamee came under fire Thursday for interfering with a radio talk show's online poll."When it comes down to it, this is a dirty trick," said Dakota Huseby, the host of "The Voice of Dakota" on KNOX 1310. She revealed on the air Thursday that McNamee had anonymously asked viewers of a national conservative Web site to vote for him, stacking the results in his favor.That "trick" evidently helped...

GRAND FORKS ELECTION: Council candidate caught in Web mess Radio station says McNamee interfered with poll results By Tu-Uyen Tran Herald Staff Writer Grand Forks City Council candidate Scott McNamee came under fire Thursday for interfering with a radio talk show's online poll. "When it comes down to it, this is a dirty trick," said Dakota Huseby, the host of "The Voice of Dakota" on KNOX 1310. She revealed on the air Thursday that McNamee had anonymously asked viewers of a national conservative Web site to vote for him, stacking the results in his favor. That "trick" evidently helped put...

Below is my translation (rough, don't swear by it) of Der Spiegel's latest on-line article about the Freeping of their "poll" about President Bush. I note, Vote, capitalized, refers to an online-vote conducted by a media site. There's a difference between it and the verb "to vote" or the noun, "vote." I apologize for the length of the body of the comment. If I knew a way to hide the bulk of it, I would do so. An earlier thread deteriorated into a shouting match including lots of ethnic slurs on both sides, IMO. Blah. I think these folks are...

SPIEGEL ONLINE With Large Pro-Bush User Base The votes are in. It's official: two thirds of SPIEGEL ONLINE visitors rate President George W. Bush's job performance as "very good" (59 per cent) or "good" (8 per cent). An anonymus SPIEGEL ONLINE source described the results as a "complete surprise to us, comparable only to the demise of comrade Erich Honecker". At this very moment, the left-wing SPIEGEL ONLINE editorial team has convened for a strategy session with their media consultants to determine their future course. "In terms of ideology, everything is now up for grabs," said the source. "We might...

<p>Is Howard Dean's Internet-based campaign another dot-com flameout?</p> <p>The candidate whose fundraising success on the Web generated enough hype to anoint him the front-runner before a single vote was cast is now trying to revive his campaign. After losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, he has asked his staff to defer their pay, pulled his television ads and pushed aside his chief strategist, Internet aficionado Joe Trippi.</p>

If the U.S. administration's 'road map' for Middle East peace leads nowhere, which group do you believe is most to blame? Palestinians – 857 votes (4 %) Palestinian militants – 6087 votes (26 %) Israelis – 16697 votes (71 %) Total Votes: 23641

N A T I O N How Dean Is Winning The Web The Democrat's ability to win fans and raise cash online has taken his party by surprise By CHRIS TAYLOR/SAN RAFAEL Monday, Jul. 14, 2003 Howard Dean is hardly what you would call a high-tech guru. The former Vermont Governor, whose trademark look is a blue shirt with rolled-up sleeves, is a mostly gadget-free zone. He does not carry a BlackBerry email pager or tablet PC (he leaves those to his aides). And don't expect to find Dean, 54, surfing the Web for hours at home. "I kind of...

<p>I live in South Florida and there is a VERY liberal radio talk show called The Randi Rhodes Show on WJNO 1290 AM. Today she is telling her audience about the Freepers! She keeps going on and on about how organized we are and how we skew polls and such. How we are all liars and scum because we are organized unlike those democrat sites/groups I won't mention. This bleeding heart liberal constantly talks about our President as a piece of filth. She calls him a liar, a thief and a murderer daily. She tells how the war in Iraq was a scam and how he is just plain stupid. I can't take it anymore!</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) - More than a million Internet users will be invited to vote in a virtual Democratic primary next week, but this most modern of elections is facing age-old allegations of vote-rigging. Howard Dean, who has built an extensive network of Internet-savvy supporters, is expected to get the most votes in the MoveOn.org primary. Organizers of the site say any advantage for the former Vermont governor is due to his appeal among their members, and not any misdeeds in their process or because one of their employees worked on his campaign. The primary begins Tuesday and voting runs for...

Last night I was informed that our poll was attacked by terrorist. Not the kind of terrorist you hear about everyday but the kind at Free Republic.com. Freeping is a way of manipulating a poll to reflect an outcome which is not neccesarily the opinion of our visitors. The polling system was ... damaged and before I remove it I want everyone to see what happened. Free Republic at this time has LRP World News Listed at the top of one of their web pages for a need of major freeping. In fact a quick search on google will show...

<p>Something strange happened during the 2000 Gore-Bush election fiasco you may have missed.</p> <p>CNN, which was running 24-hour special election coverage, hosted a program with conservative columnist Bob Novak shortly after the disputed election results were returned. Novak was adamant that Al Gore should quit trying to steal the election and concede. To bolster his point, he brought up the results of CNN.com's public-opinion poll "Should Al Gore concede?" Poll results showed that a full 89 percent of the thousands of people who had visited CNN.com and voted had agreed -- Gore should give up the ghost.</p>

<p>Did 90 percent of Americans in 2000 really want Gore to concede? Or was the widely reported Fox News poll 'freeped?' A look at the opinion-skewing fad that seems to be giving conservatives the last laugh.</p>

OKLAHOMA ON-LINE POLLS FOR STEVE LARGENT AND TOM COLE -- PLEASE HELP US OUT! VOTE FOR REPUBLICAN TOM COLE (J.C.'s SEAT) VOTE FOR REPUBLICAN STEVE LARGENT