Patt Morrison Blog
Patt Morrison for Friday, August 1
Robocalls - the hated recorded messages telling you why you should vote for McCain or Obama - are, in many cases illegal. Why aren’t the laws against robocalls being enforced? Patt takes a look. Also, would Senator Joe Biden be a good match for Obama? We continue our veepstakes series handicapping the Senator’s chances to be VP on the dem ticket.
Also, The Rise of the Internet Troll…..In the late 1980’s internet users adopted the word “troll” to denote someone who intentionally disrupts online communities. But in the days of MySpace and addictive social networking – accompanied by countless hours spent grooming profile pages and Internet message boards – the “troll” heralds a subculture built on deception and delights in “pushing people’s buttons.”
Read Mattathias Schwartz’s upcoming piece in the Sunday New York Times Magazine here and tell us what you think about the subculture of internet trolls.
Not sure what is legal or illegal with robocalls? Check out this robocall fact sheet
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- August 1, 2008 10:08 PM by Aimee Machado
- Comments (24)
- Categories: Criminal Justice, Politics/Public Affairs, Science/Technology, Society/Culture
- Tags: internet trolls, joe biden, new york times magazine, robocalls, veepstakes, vice president
24 Comments
I'm glad to see we are trying new things with regards to cutting down on illegal immigrants, a problem that is destroying this state. Illegal immigrants are a strain on our schools, emergency services / hospitals, and law enforcement.
Re: Voluntary leaving by immigrants
I am an immigration attorney in Orange County, and I must say this seems like a ploy by a Republican Administration to seem like it is tough on Immigration. There is no chance this program will be successful. Why on earth would an undocumented immigrant come forward and leave? Because the US government invited them to?
The US Government knows this won't work, but they are hoping to electrify the anti-immigrant population to more fully support the Republican Party.
Alan - your statements are refuted by fact. Illegal immigrants tend to contribute more to the economy than they strain it. First, they avoid going to hospitals often for fear that they will be discovered and deported. Second, they tend not to apply for public benefits they are entitled to for fear of being discovered. Finally, statistics show that immigrants, whether legal or not, have much lower conviction and arrests rates than non-immigrant groups.
Boing Boing will often remove vowels even if it isnt a troll. Often when you post back and refer to Boing Boing (without any troll-like behavior), they will remove vowels. My only thought is that they do this because they don't have balanced moderation.
As a peace officer I can attest to how destructive illegal immigrants are to emergency services. Jay, wow, I just don't know what planet you are from - do you live in L.A.?
In the rare instance that I don't hang up immedieately on a robo call, and I find out what the cause behind the call is, it is more likely to make me vote AGAINST whoever or whatever the cause is. As for the immigration comments, keep in mind that this country was founded by illegal immigrants from Europe who stole it from the native Americans. One world, One people.
I think the funniest call was when "Dianne Feinstein" called robo-called me for a local candidate . . . she sounded as if she was trying so hard to be conversational with her "um's" and "ah's" that I started laughing. It was just so phony. I ended up doing what I always do--I hung up. I find them intrusive. Verbal Spam!
I don't have a problem with freedom of speech. What I don't like is the disruption of my person time by the call itself.
I find robocalls annoying no matter what their message and cause. I normally just hang up after the first few words.
Freedom of speech???? What about my freedom of being free of these annoyances?
Why not have this guy who is in favor of robocalls give out his phone number, and we can call him to tell him what we think.
Phone calls are different from other things:
with mail I can go to the mailbox whenever I want and read the materials whenever I like.
Calls come in when THEY want.
I'm not just sitting around waiting for them to call.
That means they INTERRUPT what I'm doing.
I DON'T want them - ever.
What about people who work nights and sleep during the day ? For them 9 AM - 9 PM IS their quiet time.
My phone is for my personal communications use.
Not for anyone to interrupt me to sell me whatever junk they are selling - merchandise or candidate -
it doesn't matter.
Can robo-call companies add a feature to their calls where the person called can opt out from all future calls by that company by pressing, let's say, the star (*) key?
Robocalls are ineffective for me as a voter because I DON'T HEAR THEM. I, and a lot of people I know, never pick up their land line phone. They let their answering machine pick up incoming calls. When I go through my answering machine messages I can identify the fact that the message is a robocall within five seconds. Once I hear "Hi, I'm Warren Beatty" I automatically hang up because I know there is no way Warren Beatty is calling me specifically. I never end up hearing the message. With items in my mail box I at least read a few sentences of the political postcard and read the candidates name before I chuck the postcard in the trash.
On the difficulty of "hanging up" on a robocall (to make another call, for example), if you have call-waiting, just hit "flash" to switch the line and get a dial-tone. This has worked for me.
I am in the poltical business.
No matter how we contact a voter, we always get someone who angrly says they will not voter for our side becuase of the
robo call, email, live call or even snail mail
Robo call are inexpensive. so they become a nesccary evil, because the oppistion will you use.
Yes you turn off a few
We do try to remove the abseentee who allreaddy voted
but some times we can't keep up
I have voted in every election since I was old enough to vote, and I don't take political instruction from a machine, REGARDLESS OF WHOSE VOICE IS ON THE MESSAGE. I also vote permanent absentee ballot far in advance of election day, which is when many of them come in. Robocalls may fill someone's pocket, but they are ineffective and highly annoying. They make me think less well of whatever organization or candidate is using them, but since it's impossible to tell that the caller is who they represent themselves to be, I ignore them and any information they purport to present. I do not listen to them, especially if they are left on my voicemail. I am on the national do-not-call registry for a reason: Leave me alone means LEAVE ME ALONE.
I resent any of those calls, even from candidates and organizations that I support. They are annoying, intrusive and should be against the law.
Invoking the 1st amendment is misguided in this case, because there can also be abuses of 1st amendment rights. As my parents told me since I was little, your rights end where other people's begin and in this case, my right to privacy leads me to support a do not call list.
Thanks for having me.
To learn more and register your phone number please go to:
www.StopIllegalCARoboCalls.org
Shaun Dakin
CEO and Founder
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry
StopPoliticalCalls.org
The comment from "Phoenix' said everything I would have said only better!!
Pat, thanks for the interview time.
You can register for the Federal Do-Not-Call list at www.donotcall.gov.
Go to the American Association of Political Consultants website to learn more about out group. www.theaapc.org
You can learn more about our company and services at www.PoliticalRobocalls.com
All the best!
Moses Ross
PoliticalRobocalls.com
Wow, Tina. Way to make a thoughtful and supported argument. haha.
Robo-calls: aside from the personal intrusion, the sheer number of simultaneous calls that are made often overwhelm the telephone network. I work for a communications firm and are constantly battling hospital telephone interruptions of service due to robo-calls. Contrary to what one of your guests said, this happens almost weekly, at least in Los Angeles.
A typical hospital may have a 1000 number block of numbers, say 213-456-0000 to 213-456-0999. Most of their calls are internal so they only have 24 or 48 trunks from their switchboard (PBX) to the phone company for incoming and outgoing calls. An incoming call is routed by the phone company to one of the free trunks, and the actual phone number is sent over the trunk to the hospital's PBX where it is directed to the proper phone instrument within the hospital.
A robo-dialer can initiate hundreds of calls simultaneously, and the hospital's PBX has to handle all calls in the number block, even calls that are not currently being used internally. Once all the incoming 24 or 48 trunks are occupied with calls, valid or otherwise, no further call can go in or out until a trunk is freed up. Typically, during a robo-call attack, 95% or more of the incoming calls to a trunk group are invalid, but still tie up the trunks. And they keep calling back if they don't get through the first time, keeping the trunks tied up. This same scenario occurs on a larger scale where there are far fewer trunks between telephone central offices than there are phone numbers within each office as most calls are local calls within the same office.
These "attacks" often begin around 9am and suddenly cease around 4pm.
If the robo-dialers were to call only a few number in each office code simultaneously, then no problem. But, they often seem to concentrate on a small geographical area or office code, overwhelming network connections.
"I'm in the political business"
Isn't that an oxymoron?
Jay, I ask you when was the last time you went to a general hospital ER? Stop by Harbor or County/USC and I think you will find that "immigrants" aren't too concerned about anyone finding out their immigration "status". While you're at it, ask the registration nurses about the procedure and how many questions come up about immigration status. When was the last time someone in the country illegally was found out via public health care? I fear your political leanings are clouding your argument. Tina was just pointing out the view of someone who is actually out there on the street.
I think there is definitely something to be said about the fact that many illegal immigrants are hard working, no one argues that, but they are here ILLEGALY, no?
Anyway, how did this topic come up?
TROLLS?
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