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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (11685)	7/4/2007 1:23:54 PM
From: tonto	Respond to of 224750

2000 Serbian elections Interestingly, PSB was involved in similar charges of "American political interference in Serbia, locus of a $77 million U.S. effort to do with ballots what NATO bombs could not--get rid of Yugoslav President Slobodan Miloševic. In the run-up to national elections on 24 September, U.S. aid officials and contractors are working to strengthen Serbia's famously fractured democratic opposition. They have helped train its organizers, equipped their offices with computers and fax machines and provided opposition parties with sophisticated voter surveys compiled by the same New York firm that conducts polls for President Clinton" -- PSB. [7] Jonathan Mowat has a more incisive appraisal of PSB as follows: Penn, Schoen and Berland (PSB) has played a pioneering role in the use of polling operations, especially "exit polls," in facilitating coups. Its primary mission is to shape the perception that the group installed into power in a targeted country has broad popular support. The group began work in Serbia during the period that its principle, Mark Penn, was President Clinton's top political advisor. [8] [edit] 2004 Venezuelan recall referendum Further information: Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004 PSB received negative attention for polling it did during the Venezuelan recall referendum of 2004 of President Hugo Chávez. The referendum results were controversial. A Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB) exit poll predicted that Chávez would lose by 20%, but the election results showed him to have won by 20%. Schoen commented, "I think it was a massive fraud". [9] US News and World Report offered an analysis of the polls, indicating "very good reason to believe that the (Penn Schoen) exit poll had the result right, and that Chávez's election officials — and Carter and the American media — got it wrong". [10] Associated Press reported that PSB used Súmate volunteers for fieldwork, and its results contradicted five other opposition exit polls. Publication or broadcast of exit polls was banned by electoral authorities, but Associated Press says that results of the PSB poll went out to media outlets and opposition offices several hours before polls closed. [11] The Schoen exit poll is one of the basis of the claims of electoral fraud. [edit] 2005 British general election In late January 2005, The Daily Telegraph revealed that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had recruited the services of PSB's Mark Penn in the run-up to the general election in the UK. [12]. [edit] 2006 Italian elections On January 2006, during the 2006 Italian elections, a survey was commissioned to PSB by House of Freedoms' leader Silvio Berlusconi, who claimed the Italian surveys to be fixed in favour of the centre-left opposition. The survey, then announced on late February, is as of today the only one which showed Berlusconi ahead of opposition leader Romano Prodi, whereas all other Italian surveys have shown at least a 4% lead in favour of the centre-left. Some of the consultants who helped elect Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Michael Bloomberg are now on opposite sides of a law suit. The firm of Penn Schoen & Berland is suing one of its former partners, Michael Berland, for allegedly violating a no-competition agreement by helping another former PSB employee, Mitchell Markel, form a rival company. Berland “was funding and assisting Markel in setting up this competing enterprise,” the plaintiffs claim in a lawsuit filed in state supreme court on June 21. It goes on to say “Berland and other Individual Defendants, are currently soliciting and/or servicing PSB’s biggest clients, including National Hockey League (“NHL”), Estee Lauder, Qwest, RIM and Electronic Arts...” Also named in the law suit are Julie Bissell and Jennifer Negrin, who previously worked at Penn, Schoen and Berland. While the heart of the case is about access to corporate clients, the principals in the law suit are consultants with ties to Hillary Clinton and Michael Bloomberg (who could conceivably end up being presidential rivals in 2008). PSB was founded by Mark Penn and Doug Schoen, who did polling and consulting for Bill Clinton during his second term. Penn is currently a pollster and top adviser on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Berland was a key figure in Bloomberg’s two mayoral campaigns (which you can read about in a recent book by Schoen). Messages left at the offices of Penn, Schoen & Berland, with the company's lawyer and at the DC office of Michael Berland were not immediately returned.