House Votes to Launch Do-Not-Call List

Zendar writes "Yahoo! has a story on how it took less than an hour with a final vote of 412-8 to approve the 'do not call list'. "Votes to overturn the judge's order are expected mid-afternoon in both chambers, according to Republican leadership aides." The President is expected to sign today. Some choice quotes: "Fifty million Americans can't be wrong." and "This bill will pass faster than a consumer hanging up on a telemarker at dinner time." CNN also has the story."

Comments

In other news..

[Harald Paulsen]

..hell just froze over.

Re:In other news..

[Tackhead]

> ..hell just froze over.

Yeah, what the hell's going on here? Judge screws over 50,000,000 people because Congress screwed up. OK, so far, story makes sense.

But what's with Congress fixing the problem, especially fixing it within a few days. I mean, come on, this is September 2003, not 2004! Nobody's gonna remember Congress fixing its mistakes when the elections are over a year away.

WTF d00d? Did they also legalize drugs and a stoned-out-of-its-gourd Congress just forget to put it in the Record? Did terrorists put LSD in the Congressional water supply? KGB Agents under deep cover flipping all the calendars a year ahead in every office? A sudden attack of civic conscience? Just what the hell is going on on Capitol Hill, and is there any way of continuing it?

How warm and fuzzy..

[grub]

"Fifty million Americans can't be wrong."

Unless those same 50 million people are using P2P software.

*AAAAARRRGGGGGH*

[indros13]

Inigo: "Do you hear that Fezzik? That is the sound of ultimate suffering. My heart made that sound when the six-fingered man killed my father. The Man in Black makes it now."

Fezzik: "Actually, it seems to be coming from the direction of the Direct Marketing Association Washington offices..."

Re:How about an anti-spam bill?

[gothicpoet]

Because half of them will misunderstand and think it's a bill aimed at banning canned meat products.

Re:How about an anti-spam bill?

[nlinecomputers]

Because half of them will misunderstand and think it's a bill aimed at banning canned meat products.

And this would be a bad thing?

Finally, success in the war on terror

[kaltkalt]

The DMA, our worst domestic terror organization, has finally been stifled thanks to the bipartisan efforts of congress. Hopefully its 5,000 members can now be captured, tarred and feather, and executed. We truly are winning the war on terror.

Re:Democracy - Amen Brother.

[pkp_gl211]

Just think if we used popular vote for the presidential election, Al Gore would be president. On the other thing think of all the things he could have invented....

Re:Representative government?

[tetrad]

Now I have no clue how many of those jobs may or may not be lost by this bill, but the fact is, he is voting to protect those jobs. I personally fail to see how it is some great inconvenience to have telemarketers calling you every so often. Its putting food on someone's table, and is better than them being on welfare. My brother in law worked for the firm for a time. In that impovershed area of the country good paying jobs are hard to come by.

Perhaps Dave Barry said it best:

Leading the charge for the telemarketing industry is the American Teleservices Association (suggested motto: 'Some Day, We Will Get a Dictionary and Look Up 'Services''). This group argues that, if its members are prohibited from calling people who do not want to be called, then two million telemarketers will lose their jobs. Of course, you could use pretty much the same reasoning to argue that laws against mugging cause unemployment among muggers. But that would be unfair. Muggers rarely intrude into your home.