No More Robo Calls?
House Republican Majority Leader Tom Cross is introducing legislation that will limit the free speech here in Illinois. He wants to ban robo calls.
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 understand why politicians, especially the corrupt ones we have in Illinois want to limit free speech, but why do so many citizens want to give up one more freedom? I am including a few of the citizen comments:
I agree that these calls must be stopped. I pay for home telephone service so that I can call other people, and so that I can invite other people to call me.
I do NOT pay for home telephone service just to make it easier, cheaper and more convenient for some politician to feed me their propaganda.
The notion that my phone is just another campaigning tool is an outrage and if it takes legislation to stop the practice, so be it.
posted by RegularGuy
THANK YOU! I hated these bombarding phone calls as much as the twice-a-day mailings. It was ridiculous!
posted by Me2
Bruno sums it up best in his sarcastic response to these commenters:
“Take my freedom, I’m not using it.” Yecch!
At the rate we’re going in Illinois, there will soon be no need to even vote. Those of you who still care about free speech need to speak up before all your freedoms are gradually taken or given away by politicians and people who don’t want to be bothered with actually knowing the facts.
I have personally used robo calls in my school district. Because of their use, my group was able to get about $7,000,000 abated back to the taxpayers. Without robo calls supplementing the neighborhood walks, the effort would have failed. We didn’t have the money to advertise on the radio or the paper. We only had a website, letters to the editors, robo calls and our feet. This is a free speech issue and not just about calls somebody thinks are annoying.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
As I testified in the US Senate 2.27 robo calls are an epidemic.
We have created a voluntary political do not call registry which does not limit freedom of speech.
Our members are taking a stand and saying enough is enough at the National Political Do Not Contact Registry at StopPoliticalCalls.org.
Here is a quote from a member this morning:
“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. Also my vote is PRIVATE… so who do you think you are calling with a survey to find out who I am voting for!!! Stop calling me.”
Regards,
Shaun Dakin
CEO and Founder
http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org
March 19th, 2008 at 8:06 am
Most politicians don’t need robocalls. They have the privilege of incumbency that gets them re-elected 98% of the time. The people that need robocalls are the grass root organizations that don’t have the money to run TV and radio ads. They can utilize robocalls as a means of getting out their information. This helps holds politicians accountable.
Banning robocalls is an abridgement to free speech. If everything is banned because it is annoying or abused by some then when are we just going to ban voting.
This is still a free country, but if we continue to allow politicians or to freely give up our free speech rights it won’t be for much longer.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
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