I guess it wasn't enough to have the Norwegians interfering with the upcoming presidential election by publishing incoherent rants in the Washington Post. Now we have the Manchester Guardian getting into the act, publishing a primer on how to launder foreign campaign contributions and cold-call American voters to convert their votes into European proxies:

Certainly, the actions of the US impact on our lives in overwhelming ways; British political life may now be at least as heavily influenced by White House policy as by the choices of UK voters. And yet, though the US Declaration of Independence speaks of "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind", you don't, of course, have a vote. You can't even donate money to the campaigns: foreign contributions are outlawed. And you're unlikely to have the chance to do any campaigning on the ground. All you can do is wait and watch: you're powerless.

Or are you? At G2, that sounded like fighting talk. Where others might see delusions of grandeur, we saw an opportunity for public service - and so, on the following pages, we have assembled a handy set of tools that non-Americans can use to have a real chance of influencing the outcome of the vote.

And sure enough, the Guardian focuses on Clark County, Ohio, as the most likely place to impact the November 2nd election. Ohio is a battleground state that went to Bush in 2000 but may be wavering; Clark County went Gore in the same election by a few hundred votes. The Guardian even has a link to a website where readers can receive addresses of Clark County voters for letter-writing campaigns. The most amusing aspect of this vote-influencing scheme is this assurance on the submission form (emphasis mine):

Your address to write to will be emailed to you at the address you give. We will not use your email address for any other purpose or pass it on to any third parties.

So while the Guardian feels that giving out American street addresses of voters to any bloke who sends them an e-mail is perfectly acceptable, they want their readers to feel secure in the knowledge that their own e-mail addresses will remain private. What hypocrisy! Those who opt into this program get more privacy than the American voters who never volunteered at all for it.

Nor is this the only effort the Guardian makes in order to skew the election. They also give advice to people on sneaking their money into the campaign, using the new options that the McCain-Feingold reform act has opened up. They also speak to Americans who apparently see nothing wrong with allowing foreign influences to affect US elections:

American law forbids foreigners from giving money to affect the outcome of a federal election - except that, on closer inspection, it doesn't. You're banned from donating to the campaigns themselves, or to many of the independent campaigning groups that fight explicitly on behalf of one candidate. So you need to identify officially non-partisan groups whose activities, none the less, have the practical effect of helping one candidate over the other. "Perhaps the most important way foreigners could help John Kerry would be to help out those organisations which have, as part of their mission, fostering African-American voter turnout," says Nathaniel Persily, a Pennsylvania university expert on election law. "It's quite clear that if there was 100% African-American turnout in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, John Kerry would win this election running away."

I fault the Guardian for sticking their noses into our business. If Americans flooded the UK with cash to skew their elections, the Guardian would be the first voice screeching to the high heavens about American imperialism and chutzpah. But Americans like Persily are even worse: sell-outs. Regardless of who gets support from the Guardian's readers, I find foreign influence obnoxious and meddlesome, and it's revealing that the Democrats appear so desperate to grasp power that they don't find it objectionable in the least.

In order to play the Guardian's game back on itself, be sure to get your own Clark County voter address. The more CQ readers collect for themselves, the fewer that can get into the hands of the EuroLefties for their mischief.

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» Perfidious Albion from Last Chance Cafe
Captain Ed has an entry outlining how the Guardian UK 'newspaper' is sponsoring a program to influence the coming U.S. election. There is an extensive 'how to' describing various means to accomplish this, including a letter writing campaign to Clark... [Read More]

Tracked on October 12, 2004 11:44 PM

» Oh Dear Mr. Sullivan from Quasiblog
POSEUR ALERT: "I cannot support Bush but I'm amazed I'm this close to considering favoring Kerry as president. I'm not there yet. Don't rush me " -- Andrew Sullivan on October 9th Are you a voting U.S. citizen, Mr. Sullivan? [Read More]

Tracked on October 13, 2004 5:47 PM

» My Letter to the Guardian from RIGHT ON RED >>
Dear sirs, I recently learned about your campaign to contact voters in Clark County, Ohio, to persuade them to vote for John Kerry. I am an American, and I'd like to offer some thoughts. I'm sure you don't need me to remind you that 229 years a... [Read More]

Tracked on October 15, 2004 12:33 AM

» ...in which protein wisdom participates in Tim Blair's Operation Guardian from protein wisdom
To:     Guardian Editors From:   Protein Wisdom Re:     Operation Clark County Who the fuck eats blood pudding? Not me, that's for sure. Respectfully, protein wisdom **** Ope... [Read More]

Tracked on October 15, 2004 5:25 PM