McCain phone bankers quit after refusing to peddle low-brow Obama smears
By SilentPatriot Tuesday Oct 28, 2008 10:15amIt's nice to see at least some people in the McCain campaign still have standards.
TPM:
Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents.
Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger."Williams' daughter told her that up to 40 of her co-workers had refused to read the script, and had left the call center after supervisors told them that they would have to either read the call or leave, Williams says. The call center is called Americall, and it's located in Hobart, IN.
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Yeah, paying shit wages doesn't buy much loyalty I would assume. Judging from McCain's contempt for workers, I would guess they all made minimum wage.
Not compared to the shit Palin, McCain and Leiberman have been saying...
"he's a marxists, he's not a real american, he's a terrorist (maybe even a muslim)"
imagine... the populas has a better moral compass than the so called "leaders"
What a story! People with a conscience! These folks should be given a private welcome to the WH in January.
Republicans will be calling for these people to be fired. Pharmacists who refuse to dispense medication? They're ok.
What's with all the Republicans suddenly finding their consciences? What could have changed recently to cause such a thing?
The economy tanking is the moment where lots of people have realized the Emperor ain't got no clothes on ...
... and McCain is still trying to convince people he's a snappy dresser.
I live in Porter county which is right next to lake county. We are the 2 most Democratic voting counties in the state, also 2 of the largest. So i'm not sure if the republicans are actually finding a conscience, they're just setting up shop in the wrong areas.
These campaign workers seem to know more about honor than McPOW.
These were not campaign workers. They were call-takers and telemarketers whose employer picked-up the RNC as a customer.
When you're script is to sleazy for a telemarketer then you know you've gone too far.
Kudos to the Americall workers that took a stand even though it cost them a few days pay (no small thing when you're at minimum wage.)
for those workers to be handed that script? These are people who are not making a good or decent wage, work long hours in sucky conditions, probably have no benefits whatsoever.
They probably needed the money too - these are your lower middle-class scraping to get by members of our working class. What they walked away from was probably harder for them than for a Wall Street criminal to lose several million.
At those type of wages they are not the "lower middle-class", they are the working poor. When things are that tight this will mean they are giving up xmas presents for the kids because of the choice they made.
I wish we could find a way to get some money to them.
these jobs are the salt mines. some of the most psychologically demeaning position descriptions in the world. possibly second only to the way the GOP executives treat illegal immigrant slaves in their factories.
I don't think a lot of you understand exactly how significant it is, for an entire call center team to walk away from a job because its "too corrupt".
its not unlike all the McDonald's employees in east L.A. suddenly walking out of their jobs because they all agree after a quick discussion that today's shipment of beef is just "too unhealthy for human consumption."
working in a call center is absolutely the worst job I've ever had, ever. I know some of you wonder why people like me are so jaded. its because I've heard the worst vitriol ever, the worst hate, from upper-class and middle-class hippies, right wingers, christians, soccer moms, nascar dads, blacks, whites, hispanics, asians and all points between... when making outbound phone calls in a warehouse filled with 100 or more people sharing the same damn flu virus with one another.
after 18 months in a call center, I like to think I'm one of the most culturally diverse men on the planet - I am an equal opportunity hater.
I've seen call center supervisors hire men on parole then threaten them that they better work 45 minutes unpaid overtime or else they'll call their PO with false drug charges.
then I've had executives of Fortune 500 companies blast airhorns through the phone into my ear, in an attempt to deafen me.
I've seen people in wheelchairs have to ask for help rolling up the steps because they were hired as a tax write-off before wheelchair ramps were installed.
then I've had heads of major children's psychological wards tear into me for 20 minutes, assuring me that I'm nothing but a god-damned loser, for the audacity of interrupting their late lunch.
12 years ago, I powered through this shit for over 18 months, because there was literally no other work to be found in my recession-ravaged community. 5 years ago, I was forced to fall back into the rut for another 9 months, and power through it again. giving into my pride would have meant starving my son.
this should be incredibly significant. an entire outbound call center's project, cancelled. because of a "strike" by people unrepresented by a union.
but I know it will be dismissed. ignored. you can bet your asses they will be fired, with no severance, and with heavily-contested unemployment insurance claims.
today's headline will digress into little more than tomorrow's rejected food stamp request. you can't get the foodies if you can't keep a job! maybe the next batch of flunkies that Americall hires will figure that much out.
don't matter how much it hurts to read what you're readin, or how much it hurts to hear the response. just gotta dial and smile, baby... dial and smile.
god bless those poor souls for doing the right thing. unfortunately, they will pay dearly for their integrity.
I feel you man.
The Repiglicans have sunk so low that they have begun to disgust telemarketers!
Have they hit the bottom yet?
Yes they have!
So they started digging!
Next , they will be upsetting "used car salesmen"! Though frankly, I have more respect for used car salesmen than I have for McCain and Palin. Probably, they tell more truths than the Republican duo.
Could this week be the unfolding of the last desperate acts of a dying campaign? Ye gods, I hope so!
Yes "desperate acts", the like we haven't seen in modern history
I called that place yesterday posing as an assistant to David Brooks and they hung up on me.
In a West Virginia call center....at least 2 walked off the job rather then read the hate and lies.
Call centers such as these cost Gore the state in 2000....and thus the entire election. Back then it was calls on behalf of the NRA telling the good people of WV that Al Gore would take away their hunting rifles.....total BS, but effective.
I tried arguing with the folks that called my house, but they aren't allowed to vary from the script.....
Roll on McCain's "Hate Talk Exprerss"
Good for them.
See that republicans?
It's called "doing the right thing."
John McCain is asking himself why this evil toxic crap isn't working on Obama. After all it worked on him when Bush used it. The answer he will be unable to discern is that it doesn't work on someone who actually has integrity.
I think it’s time to proclaim that the neocon ship has slipped below the surface and is in free fall, taking the remaining rats with it. I say good riddance.
Lawyers boycotting staged trials, telemarketers abandoning ship, maybe the GOP has hit the lowest depths on the slime-O-meter, and the American people have had enough. Money really doesn't make everything better!! It does make you look pretty hurtin', from an outside perspective.
Maybe the pendulum of politics has swing so far right, into insanity, it can do naught but swing back now.
Where fid I put my old love beads. Gotta get 'em out again. Yippeeee!! Peace.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." (Edmund Burke) Congratulation to the telemarketers who walked out rather than read a script designed to scare people and spread falsehoods (lies). If we all had their courage, it'd be a better world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZcJE7ExhtY&fe...
a country to be proud of.
They stood up for their principles in the face of peer pressure, and did what they thought was right, even though it was unpopular to do so.
Bravo!
Or, as Sarah Palin might put it, "What do we REALLY know about this company?"
We'll be discussing it this evening on "Head-On With Bob Kincaid." Suffice to say, the selection of this outfit for their robo-sleazing doesn't reflect well on McHoover.
Don't forget to look at their ugly step-sister, dialamerica.com.
I can't believe it was telemarkers having to do that work. Obviously forced to do it or get fired. Low, low, low, low. You'd expect it to be GOP volunteers, but to make poorly paid workers to do it. It's like asking people to drink their own urine.
What is this "GOP volunteers" you keep talking about. It sounds like an oxymoron.
The so called "actors" who take money to do the TV ads should have the guts and pride in themselves to do the same. "It's my job Luke". "That don't make it right boss", The late great Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. And just cause I like the line: These are your spoons, any man loses his spoon, spends the night in the box.-CEO,citizens,eyes,open
A great actor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBD6FxrtJN0
Here's how it works:
- Your agent learns of the casting call. They give you the information.
- You audition. You don't know who's in the booth. It could be the producer, the writer, even a member of the campaign staff. So you can't roll your eyes, bitch about the writing, or opine that John McCain is an idiot. At the same time, you can't afford to do less than your absolute best, because you don't know what other projects the producer/writer may be working on - perhaps a lucrative national spot, something you'd really like on your resume.
- Tell your agent, no, you don't want to do this gig? I don't think so. If you start getting selective, your agent will stop bothering to send you out. No auditions, no work, no paycheck. You end up flipping burgers at McDonald's.
Maybe if you're one of the top-tier actors/voice artists like a Don LaFontaine, maybe you're in a position to say no. (But then, Don - the movie trailer guy who passed away recently - also pulled down $250,000 for ten minutes' work.)
They seem to have problems with people with disabilities
http://hr.cch.com/news/employment/011106a.asp
Stupid blind people
The phone bankers should have gathered together and come up with their own script. Why walk off the job when you can get paid to talk about what YOU want to talk about? Spread some truth and avoid the lies.
It doesn't sound from the story that these are people IN the McCain campaign but just telemarket company employees and that the company had been hired by the mcnasty campaign people. Still a great story though.
The fact that they were just regular people, and not insane party zealots, makes the story even better. Especially the fact that these people were not VOLUNTEERS! They were actually quitting a JOB and losing a PAYCHECK for the sake of honor, and doing the right thing. They're good Americans in my book.
This definitely has traction. I hope the MSM picks up on it, and it goes beyond TPM.
1901 Northwind Pkwy
Hobart, IN 46342
(219) 942-2918
http://maps.google.com/maps?rls=com.microsoft...
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.c...
I love this blog - but you should really change this particular post's wording - the link you provide states quite obviously that these people were not working for the McCain campaign. Furthermore - the 30-40 people didn't necessarily quit, they just left for the day.
Still a great story
As TPM states: "The script coincided with this robo-slime call running in other states, but because robocalling is illegal in Indiana it was being read by call center workers."
Here's a list of Americall's clients, maybe we should give them a call and let them know what kind of low lifes they're dealing with http://www.americall.com/testimonials.htm
polite to telemarketers. Let's face facts: Nobody does that job for shits and giggles, or because their employment prospects are sunny.
This story gives me a new reason to continue my policy.
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