RE: [MLUG] Door-to-Door Vote Begging

["Pottinger, Hardy J." <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

> Not being one to pass up the cynically obvious, could it be the calls 
> are secretly made by the opposition, to piss people off? (I 
> am willing to bet it happens)

'twould be a wise bet. As strange and disgusting as it might seem, the
NRCC (Political committee devoted to increasing the number of
Republicans in Congress) is funding a huge robo-calling effort right now
that does just this. The news stories are just now hitting, so it's
probably too late to put a stop to the calls.

Specifically, the calls start out 'Hi, I'm calling with information on
[Democratic candidate's name]..." and, after a pause, they launch into a
list of reasons to vote against the candidate. At first glance, this
might seem OK, however, you have to factor in two things: 1) most people
hang up on robo-calls, and those who do will be left with the impression
that this is a pro-dem call; 2) the reports from across the country are
that if the calls aren't allowed to complete, the robots call back. In
other words, the NRCC (Republicans) are making intentionally harrassing
phone calls.

Not that it matters a whole lot to these folks, but this kind of 'false
flag' political calling is against FCC regulations, which require a
clear, up-front ID of who's calling. 

As I said, the media's just now catching up to this new tactic. The
stories are just now getting written (I'll include links in a sec). But,
there's every chance that, given the timing, this story will die out.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/15898729.htm
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/barrington/news/120568,ba-chrobocalls68-1102
06-s1.article
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061101/NEWS/61
101011/1003/ARCHIVES

--
HARDY POTTINGER <EMAIL:PROTECTED>
University of Missouri Library Systems
http://lso.umsystem.edu/~hardy/
"No matter how far down the wrong road you've gone,
turn back." --Turkish proverb

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