Posted on 11/07/2006 11:37:57 AM PST by steve-b
This year's heavy volume of automated political phone calls has infuriated countless voters and triggered sharp complaints from Democrats, who say the Republican Party has crossed the line in bombarding households with recorded attacks on candidates in tight House races nationwide....
An Ohio woman, who did not leave her name, called The Washington Post in tears yesterday, saying she could not keep her phone line open to hospice workers caring for her terminally ill mother because of nonstop political robo-calls.
Pamela Lorenz, a retired nurse in Roseville, Calif., called her own experience "harassment as far as I'm concerned" and said, "If I were voting right now, the opponent who's doing this, he'd be off my list for throwing that much trash."
Hour after hour and day after day for two weeks, Lorenz's home has received the same NRCC recorded message attacking Charlie Brown, the Democrat who is challenging Rep. John T. Doolittle (R) in a hard-fought battle in northeastern California....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It apparently was happening in NH and Indiana, but it's been stopped.
Who else here is happy today is election day because the ads are over?
The last week, we didn't get any commercials except congressional attack ads from both sides, over and over and over again.
The ads have basically been running since labor day. I am not exaggerating that saying there was only 1, that is right, 1 policy issue, proposal brought up in the dozens of different ads run. They were all, you are sleazier than me.
The one policy proposal by the challenger btw was to give tax breaks to veterans. That was all the issues being discussed for 3 months. Makes me want to bury my head in the sand.
Here's the end of it. The last paragraph contains a particularly ridiculous argument. Oh, preceding the column were four letters from readers annoyed by the calls -- nobody submitted a letter in support of this practice.
"Robo-dials can be inconvenient, and I know there are times when mistakes are made and your phone rings at a strange time, but typically these calls take 30 seconds, and they represent the freedom of speech that our country was founded on.
<snip>
"So, before getting too upset about the robo-dials that you are no doubt being bombarded with this weekend, think about what they are: a political campaign spending a small amount of money to use one of the few mass-education tactics available to reach out to you and get (or keep) you involved in the electoral process.
"Instead of hanging up on the call, realize that this is American democracy in action and that there is nothing wrong with an automated call requesting that you participate. After all, many sacrifices have been made over the course of American history to preserve our right to vote. A phone call or two reminding us to exercise that right is certainly something we can all live with."
Uh no, the constitution does not guarantee you a right to 'market' to me on my private telephone line.
I agree...when caller ID says out of area or unknown I press talk than off so the darn thing quits ringing!!!!!
I am on the do not call list but they still come through....
Our governor has called me twice, as hve Rudy giuliani and Sarah Brady (about a local legislative race. She helped me figure out who NOT to vote for.)
I hvae all my numbers on that list and I still get them.
Political calls are exempted. Obviously, that needs to change.
Political calls are exempt from the "do not call" list.
Me too. The do-not-call list only works for some calls. Thanks to Caller ID, I only answer if I recognize the person who's calling.
If I don't know you, then if I'm in a really good mood I MIGHT let you leave a message on the answering service. Otherwise, you're SOL.
I've gotten 1,0000000000 emails.
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