Right down to the election day wire, the Washington Post does its level best to drag the Democrats across the finish line. Today it is an article about "robo-calls", that the left blogosphere has been going wild over for the past few days. They, and the Democrats they support want these automated political ads shut down at once. Not their own robo-calls, mind you, just the Republican's.
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.
Some voters, sick of interrupted dinners and evenings, say they will punish the offending parties by opposing them in today's elections. But critics say Republicans crafted the messages to delude voters — especially those who hang up quickly — into thinking that Democrats placed the calls.
Republicans denied the allegation, noting that their party acknowledges its authorship at the recorded calls' end. After citizens' complaints in New Hampshire, however, the National Republican Congressional Committee agreed to end the calls to households on the federal do-not-call list, even though the law exempts political messages from such restrictions.
Whether "robo-calls" are positive or negative, mean-spirited or humorous, thousands of Americans are sick of them, according to campaign organizations that have been fielding complaints over the past two weeks.
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."
Why is it the the only people who ever seem to actually try to shut down speech are the left? All the while complaining that their speech is being stifled, mind you.
Note the highly subjective nature of this story. Nowhere is this "inundation" of calls being quantified. (I read something yesterday where one person said she had received six of the calls, I'll try to find that again). To date I have received four robocalls, two from Republicans, two from Democrats. But the Post treats us to anecdotes about the people getting flooded without actually getting a number out there. But here are two things that hint at a problems with the "evil Republicans doing bad things" storyline the reporters are following:
"I hang up as soon I hear it start. I've already heard most of what people have to say. I don't have time to listen to them," said Angela Elliott, a Fairfax Circle resident who is registered as an independent and has been getting more Democratic calls than Republican ones.
….
Democrats cited federal records indicating that the NRCC recently spent about $600,000 in at least 45 contested House districts for robo-calls, which are among the least expensive campaign tools.
Assume that this money is split evenly across the 45 districts (not accurate, I'm sure, but instructive). That's a bit over $13,000 per district. This is a flood? Or is this just the Post carrying more water. I think it's pretty obvious which it is.
I got five in a row on Saturday here in Upstate New York, obviously because I live right by the big Arcuri vs. Meiers fight for the NY 24th seat the Sherry Boehlert is vacating. And yes, the calls were from the Republicans. And yes, they started out with “Some news about” the Democrats, which would initally lead you to believe it was from the Dems. And yes, the machine kept calling back again and again.
Democratic leaders contend that the messages violate federal rules that require groups making automated calls to identify themselves at the outset. And the National Republican Congressional Committee, which has financed the calls, agreed on Sunday to quit making some of them in New Hampshire, where a state law limits who can receive computerized phone messages.
As usual Gaius, you completly ignore the actual story, change the subject, and slam the media for reporting the news.
The issue here is deception. The REPUBLICAN calls are designed to make callers think that they are coming from Democrats so that voters will direct their anger about getting spammed at the wrong party.
“According to the Federal Communications Commission Web site, automated calls must state the identity of the business, individual, or other entity making the call at the beginning of the message. Burgos said the messages comply with all federal laws, but declined to comment specifically on the placement of the sponsor message.“
Is that really that hard to understand? Why can’t you be honest in your commentary?
So this was Karl Rove’s ‘Ace in the Hole’. Spend hundreds of thousands dollars on false flag Robo-Calls to suppress the Democratic Vote.
If it works, when they are found out tomorrow, they’ll say “Sorry, we thought it was legal”, pay a few fines and laugh all the way back into control of Congress.
Great country, huh?
I hate to break this to the folks with knotted shorts, but I just hung up on Bill Clinton. And all the histrionics aside, that is what most people do with the robo-calls. They hang up and forget about it.
The Lefties are oh so upset about the prospect of a few suspicious phone calls during an off year election, but don’t seem to care much at all that Saddam bribed the UN, France, and Russia to cover for his bloodthirsty ways. It must be a case of selective outrage, after all “Progressives” have to keep their priorities in proper order.
It only goes to prove these people are simply not able to function in the real world.
I’ve received about 10 calls in the last few days, all from the Democrats and all automated. I personnaly don’t care what party the calls come from, I hang up on all of them.
As do I.