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from the something-there-is-that-doesn't-love-a-wall dept.
As you probably already know, Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign was involved in some recent hijinks involving improper access to campaign data from the Hillary Clinton campaign, after a buggy software patch applied by the contractor maintaining the Democratic Party's voter database, NGPVAN, inadvertently opened a data firewall. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) suspended the Sanders' campaign access to Democratic voter lists (a subscription that the campaign had paid for); Sanders responded by suing the DNC; after a brief negotiation, the DNC restored the Sanders campaign access; and Sanders apologized to Clinton for the hack in Saturday night's debate. Clinton accepted the apology, and noted that most Americans don't care anyway.
Present company (possibly) excepted. Veteran Democratic campaign consultant David Atkins, who evidently has hands on experience using the software in question, pieced together what he thinks happened; including useful background on NGPVAN's software and its use by the Democratic party.
Atkins' bottom line:
As it turns out the ethical breach by Sanders operatives was massive, but the actual data discovery was limited. So it made sense and was fairly obvious that the DNC would quickly end up giving the campaign back its NGPVAN access—particularly since failing to do so would be a death sentence for the campaign and a gigantic black eye to the party.
Atkins also had some choice words for DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, agreeing with David Axelrod (Obama's former chief campaign strategist) that the DNC overreacted.
DNC CEO Amy Dacey blogged that the suspension of access to Sanders wasn't punitive:
This action was not taken to punish the Sanders campaign — it was necessary to ensure that the Sanders campaign took appropriate steps to resolve the issue and wasn't unfairly using another campaign's data.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 26 2015, @12:51PM
AC already responded - and I'll add that if you read TFA, it is stipulated that the software is 1990's style and quality of software.
"The first thing to understand is that NGPVAN is a creaky voter database system that looks, and feels like it was put together in the 1990s"
So - shit software, administered by incompetent fools - they can do anything they want, no matter how damned stupid, and claim that it's the fault of the software. The programmers won't take responsibility, the DNC won't take responsibility, and administrators certainly won't take responsibility.
It's like they neighborhood nymph undressing in front of her open windows, and claiming that anyone who sees her is a peeping Tom.
#warmonger #Biden #impeach_Mayorkas
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday December 26 2015, @07:02PM
In a winner take all world of party politics, allowing the party to manage your campaign contact list just seems sort of dumb.
Trusting the other camp by hiring their ex-staffer seems even dumber.
And that's about as specific as I can get before the _cough_ progressive troll army descends on me.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday December 26 2015, @07:11PM
Mob, Frojack. It's a mob, not an army.
#warmonger #Biden #impeach_Mayorkas
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday December 26 2015, @07:25PM
Still I'm likely to get "mobbed" to hell here on SN by laying any baskets with babies too close to certain doorsteps.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday December 26 2015, @09:24PM
Let me tell you about mobbing.
The Jews really, really want Clinton to win. The supreme ruler of the Democratic party and loyal Israeli Debbie Wasserman-schultz [squarespace.com] will stop at nothing to ensure that all candidates other than Clinton are disqualified or discredited from running.
In short, there is no "democracy" in the Democratic party.
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Sunday December 27 2015, @04:43AM
I'm clearly missing something — given both Clinton & Sanders are steadfastly pro-Israel, why would Jewish or loyal Israeli people favor a candidate that's Methodist over one that's proudly Jewish?
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday December 27 2015, @08:02AM
Good question. Maybe with the Jews, winning a Democrat candidate is a win-win situation. They control everything.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday December 26 2015, @07:30PM
Isn't this a result of "the party" doing the fund raising, and therefore havinf the money to collect the information?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday December 26 2015, @08:21PM
Nope.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Saturday December 26 2015, @07:42PM
The campaign already needs to access the contact data because most of the data is owned by the DNC and available to both sides.
Given the lack of tech-savvy people in politics and the need to spend money carefully, it might be a dumb move to spend money re-inventing the wheel.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday December 26 2015, @08:24PM
Lack of tech savvy people in politics? Seriously?
We are talking about the DNC - Democratic National Committee here, not the DRC Democratic Republic of the Congo.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.