Illinois Sheep, crying to be sheared
The Daily Herald covered Tom Cross’s brilliant plan to keep all of you dumb and stupid. Being dumb and stupid, most people seem to support plans to make them even more so.
Lawmakers look to pull plug on robo calls?
SPRINGFIELD - Faced with a bevy of complaints from angry suburban residents, area lawmakers will propose restricting so-called “robo calls” that have become a hated campaign tactic.
At a news conference scheduled for today in Geneva, House Republican leader Tom Cross of Oswego, state Rep. Tim Schmitz, a Batavia Republican and state Rep. Ruth Munson, an Elgin Republican, are expected to call for new restrictions on the use of such calls.
I hope you link to the article and read the comments. I just posted the following comment to the article page.
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The issue is less about free speech than it is about the increasing insularity that people are demanding. We gather in increasingly homogenous groups and frequent increasingly narrow sets of websites and information outlets.
If we hear a view point that doesn’t fit with our self-enforced insularity, we reject that view for one that we have made ourselves comfortable with. We say we are all for free speech and openness, but shut out avenues of information because we don’t like the quality of the message or the messenger.
Go ahead and say “you want to be left alone.” Just understand that you will NEVER be “left alone.”
Illinois is bankrupt. Your pensions aren’t safe. Each citizen has around $9K of debt attached them (as yet untaxed). Your homes have 30 years of crushing debt attached to them that is dragging down their value. Your schools are substandard for the price, and the Republican Party a subsidiary of the Dem party, which is a subsidiary of corrupt interests.
But go ahead and ban robo calls. Ignorance is bliss. Let nothing disturb your bliss. We now return to our regular programming.
March 20th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Cross is simply getting press and publicity. There is little chance that this will become law. Mostly because of politics but also because of the first amendment.
This is the season that politicians introduce bills that look good to the public but have no chance of moving through the legislative process to become law.
There is an alternative to regulations which run square into first amendment issues.
I started a non-profit, non-partisan organization last year to combat intrusive robo-calls by using a voluntary, private sector solution: the Political Do Not Contact Registry. As a result I was asked to testify at the U.S. Senate 2.27.2008 along with N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper.
Our registry is similar to the federal government’s Do Not Call list. But to succeed it requires politicians who will honor the wishes of voters who’d rather not endure the endless robotic, political phone calls during campaign season.
Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) was the first Member of Congress to join us. She has taken the pledge and agreed not to robo call constituents that sign up for free at the National Political Do Not Contact Registry at StopPoliticalCalls.org. We commend her leadership on this important consumer issue that impacts the privacy of all voters. As one frustrated Mother wrote us: “I find it very frustrating… I tend to get calls at the WORST time. I have a one year old daughter, and it NEVER fails that the phone will ring when I put her down for a nap or for bed.”
Voters’ phones will soon be ringing off the hook this Fall. Fed up voters can visit our web site at StopPoliticalCalls.org and add their names to our free Do Not Call registry. It’s time we give the political dialogue back to average, concerned citizens.
Shaun Dakin
Founder & CEO, the National Political Do Not Contact Registry
StopPoliticalCalls.org
March 23rd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Robo calling is an important political tool, because it offers a lot of bang for the buck. They can be made for under a nickle. A three-fold, black and white brochure to be hand delivered costs about 15 cents. A 3-color mailer on glossy paper costs over 50 cents delivered.
A well planned robo call campaign will tailor its message to particular individuals at a number and do so at the most effective hour.