I am so freaking sick of getting recorded phone calls from Democratic candidates urging me to vote for them. What is the POINT of this? Is there really anyone out there who remains undecided the day before election day and suddenly a recorded phone call from Hillary Clinton is going to make them say, “Well, I was waffling before, but this settled it for me!”
If any of these people want to call me themselves and chat for a couple minutes, thatwould interest me, just as it does when local candidates come knocking on my door and want to talk about the issues and ask for my vote. But this recorded stuff just makes me want to go vote for whoever isn’t derailing my train of thought with these annoying interruptions.
PAD
• 
There have been a lot of complaints about “robocalls” recently. Oddly, one of the current batch of dirty tricks involves Republicans setting up a robocall bank to alienate Democratic voters…
http://www3.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO33180/
Actually, it’s interesting that you bring this up, PAD.
In NH, somebody made a complaint to the state after receiving 5 automated calls in two days. The person is on the federal do-not-call list.
Apparently, with that list, politicians still cannot call you with automated messages, so they (the GOP) were told to stop.
Of course, the whole idea is that these messages are targetting those that are undecided… whether anybody is undecided the day before the election, I guess there are such people, otherwise they wouldn’t be bombarding/harassing us with this crap. 🙂
Peter, there is a big story on this already making the rounds. The Republicans in certain areas have been doing massive robo-calls identifying themselves as Democrats in order to pìšš øff voters. See Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo for details.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010852.php
My sympathies on the automated calls. One of the bonuses I’ve gotten out of switching to a cellphone for all phone communications is the decided lack of all sorts of cold-calls. I wouldn’t expect that solution to be practical for you, but it sure worked for me.
I had the exact same thoughts but in reverse. I only get calls from Republican candidates, sometimes I want to vote democrat in revenge.
I keep wanting to say, I’m on the no-call list. I know, legally you can call, but it completely disrespectful. If I don’t wanna hear from telemarketers, I don’t wanna here from the political version of a telemarketer.
Oh, that’s really interesting, Matt Q.
It looks like we’ve reported the same issue, but I hadn’t heard anything about the content of the messages, just that it was supposed to be against the do-not-call list rules.
I actually got a robocall from Lynda Carter, of all people. It was so weird to hear that on my answering machine: “Hi. I’m Lynda Carter…”
Eric
I only get calls from Republicans here, which is funny since we have so few competitive races and nobody for Senate running. I think one was a record form Rush Limbaugh or someone who sounds like him. Another was from some woman who goes on and on and on…
Are political ads covered under the Do Not Call legislation? I could see potential First Amendment problems here.
According to Wikipedia, Placing one’s number on the National Do Not Call Registry will stop most, but not all, telemarketing calls. A person may still receive calls from political organizations, charities, telephone surveyors or companies with which he or she has an existing business relationship.
Political solicitations are not covered by the National Do Not Call Registry.
Perhaps recorded messages are different, though that seems a strange hair to split.
There’s a very good chance this is actually Republicans masquerading as Democrats. The object is to pìšš øff Democratic voters so they stay away from the polls. This is going on all over the country. Story here:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/5/212753/967
Are political ads covered under the Do Not Call legislation?
Before all this started making news about whether this was Repubs trying to pass themselves off as Dems, the article I originally read said that political calls could be made to those on the Do Not Call List if they’re not automated (ie, ‘robocalls’).
So, they apparently are partially covered.
I could see potential First Amendment problems here.
Pfft. The thing I hate about the Do Not Call List? It’s an opt-out list.
This could is so ášš-backwards, that to prevent from being harassed, you have to opt-out. Nothing is opt-in.
And more opt-out madness: After having been notified for the third time in the last ten months that my personal information may have been put up for grabs to identity thieves, I get to write to the three credit companies to opt-out of allowing my info to be used to send me junk mail.
Opt-out blows.
These people shouldn’t be allowed to harass us to begin with. Their right to free speech long ago overcame our right to privacy.
The way I read it, the GOP spent over 2 million on this project, and it’s designed to create the exact kind of response that PAD had.
Think about it. Dirty, dirty trick.
Peter, I sympathize I am a life long republican so I get all their calls, but I have the same name and now same phone number as my late father a life long democrat. SO now I get all the calls from both parties. Five Republican calls this weekend including two from John McCain and Three Democrat calls including two from Hillary. God I can’t wait till Wednesday.
Oddly enough, I haven’t received any calls from either party, desptie the huge amount of desperation Rick Santorum is in.
Joe Piscopo is shilling for the Repub candidate for Senate in NJ.
It’s a head-scratcher. I can’t imagine the number of people who would be swayed by Joe Piscopo’s opinion is much greater than the number of people in his immediate family.
Another reason I’m glad we don’t have a house phone anymore. Although it did come in handy when we lost our cells in the house.
I can honestly say I’ve never had a candidate for ANYTHING knock on my door. Might be kind of interesting.
Oddly enough, I haven’t received any calls from either party, desptie the huge amount of desperation Rick Santorum is in.
That’s exactly why. Santorum is so screwed only a Cyberman conquest could save him now. This phoney call trick is best reserved for squeaker elections where the candidates are tied. You only need to supress/switch a few people to make a difference.
I’ve had two (so far) today.
One was a pre-recorded message not only reminding me to go vote tomorrow, but accurately quoting me where my polling place is.
Being in Connecticut, the other pre-recorded message was from BILL Clinton urging me not only to vote, but to vote Democratic. At least I came out better on that one because I would have hung up the instant I recognized Hillary’s voice, even if it wasn’t on tape.
Thankfully, I have Call Intercept with Verizon. If you aren’t familiar with this handy feature, it puts private, blocked, and other types of calls that don’t allow you to see their name or number through an automated system that asks them to dial something in order to record a 2-sec announcement and ask my permission to put the call through. The Interceptor calls me with the short message so I can choose to accept the call, reject it, or put it through to voicemail. It also gives me the option to play a message that says I do not accept solicitations with a formal (and legal) request to put me on their do not call list.
This has reduced the amount of spam calls to 1 per month! I love it! The automated machine calls are automatically rejected because they can’t select the announcement option, and the live people apparently don’t waste their time trying to convince me to accept the call.
Daniel
Thing that cracks me up is we’re supposed to be in the “Information Age.” We’ve got data flowing at us everywhere. The McDonalds’ that I went into over the weekend had four LCD TV’s, all on news channels. “Hi, I’d like Wolf Blitzer with cheese, please.” Now, I don’t want to say that it’s impossible to be undecided, since I only see the local races, but these people on either side have been shouting from the nearest rooftop for months now,so do they REALLY think a couple phone calls are going to get more people out? A couple RECORDED phone calls? Come on.
so do they REALLY think a couple phone calls are going to get more people out? A couple RECORDED phone calls? Come on.
Well, the hope of the most recently detailed dirty trick is that sufficient recorded phone calls will inspire people to stay home. And in a close race, that’s a viable tactic.
Posted by: Sasha at November 6, 2006 03:41 PM
Santorum is so screwed only a Cyberman conquest could save him now.
The Cybermen wouldn’t help him. Santorum is a conservative Christian who opposes abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and Cyberization.
He is not eligible for upgrade. He will be deleted.
“The only thing that could get me to vote Republican”
LUUUUUUKKKKEEEE,
COME….TO…THE…DARK…SIDE….
HEH, HEH……..
The Cybermen wouldn’t help him. Santorum is a conservative Christian who opposes abortion, embryonic stem cell research, and Cyberization.
But Cyberization = no more gáÿ šëx, so he might support it.
I’d say that the modern GOP is following the Dalek example of wanting to exterminate that which is not (theologically) pure.
(And Rove is a wannabe Master . . .)
> This has reduced the amount of spam calls to 1 per month! I love it!
And how many viable calls has it intercepted by mistake? I’ve known this to happen with some of those systems. I’ve got a friend who wondered why he hadn’t heard from me in a while. His call-blocking system was the answer. He was not happy. Neither was I.
Maybe if Colin Powell was running…. He’s about the only “politician” I can respect.
I’ve always felt that those who refuse to exercise their right to vote really have given up the right to complain about politics .I don’t mean to go off on a rant here, since I don’t often throw about my beliefs. But since I vote every year, and though “W” is not my president, I feel I’m supporting the process that elected him, which I believe, in theory, can work. Likewise, though I don’t support the flagrant misuse of power that put them there, I support our troops wherever in the world they may serve. However, I can’t help but feel that my little “voice” in the government process is like shouting at the rain. I still feel unheard, my outrage at the mockery organized politics has made of the affairs of this country goes largely unheeded. Yet I still vote. It’s more an act of faith these days….faith that by some stretch of the imagination, somebody might feel the same way I do. And if one more person does so and votes, than maybe more of us are out there.
So I make this blanket plea to all of you voters out there. Drag some one else in there with you. Any hippocrite who bìŧçhëš about how terrible this government is and says they don’t vote because it doesn’t matter. That’s not the point.
Okay, maybe it is the point, but, if each of us do this, then maybe some self respect will return to the electoral process. Do you realize how much the dictatorships of the world must be laughing at America? We fought so long and hard against what they believe, so our citizenry can participate in their government, only then, once we have this freedom, to have a pitiful 20 percent voter turnout? 20 percent is disgraceful… 50 percent is disgraceful too, but hey, baby steps, right? If more of us normal, every-day working schlubs took the time to give a šhìŧ, maybe we could hold our government accountable for the right bloody mess we’re in. We cannot stand idly by and watch this from the sidelines any longer. The founding fathers gave us a great gift, and we’re pìššìņg away our birthright for an MP3 file and an X-Box. It is not just our right, but our solemn duty to question our goverment officials, because if they aren’t held acountable…. well we’ve seen what can happen.
Live free or die used to be our country’s motto… now it seems to be “Live Free, but Don’t Bother Me to Care”.
I also got the phone call from Piscipo. It was kinda odd. It seemed at first he was just reminding you to vote, but then he added in that he was voting Republican, and then the back matter ran.
I can’t vote tomorrow. I do, however, plan on continuing to bìŧçh about my government. 😉
(I moved recently, from one state that won’t let you absentee vote if you’ve been living out of the state for more than a month, to a state that requires residency for longer than a month before you’re allowed to register to vote… lucky me. Irritatingly, this is the second time this has happened to me, although last time it was in a presidential year…)
One question about the Piscopo call?
What Exit?
At least I would’ve listened to Lynda Carter, especially if the call began “Hi! I’m Lynda Carter and I’m standing here in my Wonder Woman
costume. Time to tie up Dubya and Rumsfeld with my Golden Lasso and make them tell the truth…
Wow…and to me the most annoying things about election time has been all the @#$% signs at EVERY corner with a stoplight.
I’ve had a couple of calls, but they’ve come in when I’m not home, and the machine gets ’em.
“At least I would’ve listened to Lynda Carter, especially if the call began “Hi! I’m Lynda Carter and I’m standing here in my Wonder Woman
costume. Time to tie up Dubya and Rumsfeld with my Golden Lasso and make them tell the truth…”
If Wonder Woman had ME in her lasso, all she’d get from me is:
“ÐÃMN, those are some BIG ‘OL Hooters!”
R. Hansen wrote: “There’s a very good chance this is actually Republicans masquerading as Democrats. The object is to pìšš øff Democratic voters so they stay away from the polls. This is going on all over the country.”
Oh c’mon! I live in Illinois, and I haven’t received any automated political call that calls me back seven times. I have however, received plenty of calls from Democratic candidates, who have a ton of dough to blow here. I’ve gotten two from Republican candidates, including one that asked me if I wanted to participate in a live “town meeting” conference call with Congressman Mark Kirk — which I thought was pretty cool, and opted to do so to check it out. You could ask questions if you wanted to wait in a que, and you could vote on various poll questions he asked. The callers did not seem to be shills, because some of them were pretty angry and negative. I stuck around the meeting for a half hour or so, and based on the slightly fluctuating poll results, at its peak, there was about 150 people on the call.
The Democratic attack ads transmitted here via telephone, on TV, via e-mail and in the snail mail seem to outnumber the Republican ads by a margin of three or four two one.
And while it looks like I will again be splitting my ticket this election, I do not appreciate the deluge of attack ads from both parties. And any party that claims a moral high ground in the ad war this election is full of crap — at least from my perspective. Overall, this has to be one of the dirtiest elections I can recall since I cast my first vote back in 1972.
R. Hansen wrote: “There’s a very good chance this is actually Republicans masquerading as Democrats. The object is to pìšš øff Democratic voters so they stay away from the polls. This is going on all over the country.”
Oh c’mon! I live in Illinois, and I haven’t received any automated political call that calls me back seven times.
Sorry, but this has been published in mass media in Philadelphia
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/15898729.htm
and Kansas
http://www.nancyforcongress.com/index.php
And factcheck.org has been tracking the number of misleading ads and indicate that the Republican ones have been outnumber the Democratic ones.
Because of the way this campaign tactic is being done, there is no way to tell for sure if the call is coming from your Democratic candidate or if it is coming from your Republican opposition.
The Republicans are trying to piss people off so they either vote against the “pain-in-the-butt Democrat” or just don’t vote at all.
Dirty politics, but what can you expect from any Republican candidte these days.
Because of the way this campaign tactic is being done, there is no way to tell for sure if the call is coming from your Democratic candidate or if it is coming from your Republican opposition.
Actually, a lot of the calls, if left alone to complete, will say that the phone call is being paid for by the RNCC (which is a violation of campaign rules).
Either way, it’s really kinda scummy.
Many years ago, I was taking care of one of those mundane chores we are all forced to do, I was in the laundromat doing my laundry.
It was the middle of the day and the laundromat was somewhat deserted. The laundromat was on the main street of the town I was living in at the time, one of several small villages lining the shore of the Hudson just north of the city.
A middle aged man came into the laundromat, he was well dressed and seemed somewhat out of place. At first, I thought he had come in to get change from the change machine for the parking meter but, he immediately made a beeline for me, stuck out his hand an introduced himself.
He asked me if I would vote for him in the coming election and I was impressed by his earnestness. Needless to say from that point forth I found myself voting for the man. The rub was, this was not a man who was running for office for the first time. In fact, at the time I believe he was serving his seventh consecutive term in the House of Representatives. The fact that he took the time out to go out, by himself to meet his constituents always stayed with me. Then again, he is a very unique man as evidenced by his biography here.
I keep getting fliers from the local Republican party saying I shouldn’t vote for certain candidates because they’re liberal, pro-choice, and the NRA doesn’t like them. I’m thinking “thanks for confirming that these are the one’s to vote for” 🙂
David
We’ve been getting a lot of those calls around here as well. Doesn’t matter to me one bit.
I’ve met George Allen. I’ve had to work around the man and gotten to see how he really acts. I wouldn’t vote for that bášŧárd if you put a gun to my head.
No call in the world is going to change that.
🙂
While visiting my parents’ house I answered their phone twice today to hear prerecorded, civilized-sounding messages from Bill Clinton (sure sounded like him) & John McCain. I listened to less than 5 seconds of each (something about voting, I think) before hanging up. I’d like to joke that I couldn’t get a word in edgewise with Clinton when I tried to ask him “any word on the McRib?”
idiots like Affleck can stump for Democrats, though rarely seem to know about the actual candidate. He instead just cheers the Democratic platform, regardless of the district’s issues. I don’t see why Piscopo can’t do the same
“We’ve been getting a lot of those calls around here as well. Doesn’t matter to me one bit.
I’ve met George Allen. I’ve had to work around the man and gotten to see how he really acts. I wouldn’t vote for that bášŧárd if you put a gun to my head.
No call in the world is going to change that.”
I live in Virginia too. George Allen has my vote, if for no other reason than simply to negate Jerry C’s vote
HAH!
Fine with me, Sparky.
You go ahead and negate my vote. Then my wife will cast her vote. She also hates Allen. Since the blow up doll you have as a girlfriend doesn’t get to vote, we win this exchange two votes to one. Thanks for playing. Have a nice night.
🙂
“Fine with me, Sparky.
You go ahead and negate my vote. Then my wife will cast her vote. She also hates Allen.”
Guess I’m going to lose after all…I had realized that we’d given sheep the vote…oh well…
The RNCC has ADMITTED they’re doing this. They’re PROUD of flaunting the FCC law. After all, they have plenty of money to pay the fines, and in the meantime they get to either smear the Demo candidates (if the recipient listens to the call all the way through) or pretend to be the Demo candidate (if the recipient likely hangs up) and keep calling at 5 AM or whatnot, up to 14+ times!, and convince the recipient not to vote Dem. Either way they win. DON’T LET THEM.
They’re PROUD of flaunting the FCC law.
One can only hope the FCC finds a way to bring the hammer down on them in a way that the RNCC thinks twice about doing this kind of stuff every again.
I’m already imagining the kids of voting horror stories we can expect to hear tomorrow.
“One can only hope the FCC finds a way to bring the hammer down on them in a way that the RNCC thinks twice about doing this kind of stuff every again.
I’m already imagining the kids of voting horror stories we can expect to hear tomorrow.”
Christ, Hannity was right…”either the Democrats win, or the Republicans cheated.”
You people are such idiots….
Bob Ahrens:
“The founding fathers gave us a great gift, and we’re pìššìņg away our birthright for an MP3 file and an X-Box.”
Uh, no, we took the great gift our founding fathers gave us and turned it into WWF WRESTLING!!! This is no more intelligent than Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper mothing off at each other!
This is all actually a game that government is playing with our lives. It doesn’t matter who’s in power–Democrats or Republicans–we don’t get a REAL say in how we get to live our lives…this is all really just to keep us entertained so that these áššhølëš in Washington can keep their jobs.
NONE of the Politicians out there is worth their weight in Elephant poo (except maybe Joe Leiberman–he stuck to his own opinions and gave the Democrats the finger-sit and spin on THAT, Pëløšì-FÙÇK your party lines–Frickin’ HARSH, dude! The man’s got BALLS)
So yeah, go out there and vote.
But don’t expect life to change all that much.
It never does.
Christ, Hannity was right…”either the Democrats win, or the Republicans cheated.”
If the Dems do not reclaim so much as one house of Congress, then, going entirely by the fact that less than 30% of the country is happy with the current direction of Congress, cheating is the first and strongest logical reason for Republicans staying in power. The second being a hopelessly corrupted electoral system where the public will is thwarted by last-minute infusions of cash and negative campaigning.
You people are such idiots….
Sez the lockstep conservative. We may all be sheep in our own lefty or righty way, but some of us have the sense to ignore a shepherd that is trying to coax us over a precipice.
Uh, no, we took the great gift our founding fathers gave us and turned it into WWF WRESTLING!!! This is no more intelligent than Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper mothing off at each other!
My god, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn occasionally I guess. Bradley actually said something I agree with, who woulda thunk it?
The sad thing is there doesn’t seem to be any going back. The 2004 election was won by saying “Kerry was a coward in Vietnam” and “Kerry will get us all blown up by terrorists” and “John Edwards is a scummy trial lawyer who doesn’t have any experience” and so forth. First the Democrats and their supporters didn’t do much to counter at all, and when they finally did, with talk of how a win for Bush would mean another draft and those reports about Bush’s military service that turned up on Dan Rather’s desk, it was done ineptly.
So now, after getting their áššëš handed to them in 2004, the Dems are trying to fight fire with fire. Will anybody ever get elected again by being a nice guy, by playing fair, or is it gonna be like this until the end of the system as we know it?
I find this whole thing with the recorded calls (or even live calls) soliciting people for votes to be so strange, very annoying, and just plain stupid.
My father lives in New Mexico. I was there two years ago in November and remember him getting multiple calls a day. And I was just down there at the beginning of October of this year and encountered the same situation — multiple phone calls per day soliciting votes.
It just stupifies me. I live in Texas (and have for going on 18 years) and we don’t have that problem here. I can’t ever remember getting bombarded with phone calls like that. In fact … I’m not sure I can even remember getting a single phone call of that nature.
Of course … it maybe be because I live in a state that generally tilts toward the Republican side that I haven’t encountered any of this because I think most of the calls my father is getting bombarded with in New Mexico are from the Republican party.
It is just madness.
I know if I were subject to that same insanity, it would definitely influence my vote (I would refuse to vote for candidates/parties bombarding me with calls and annoying the hëll out of me).