Republicans Want To Leave You Voicemail -- Without Ever Ringing Your Cellphone (recode.net)

bricko quotes a report from Recode: The GOP's leading campaign and fundraising arm, the Republican National Committee, has quietly thrown its support behind a proposal at the Federal Communications Commission that would pave the way for marketers to auto-dial consumers' cellphones and leave them prerecorded voicemail messages -- all without ever causing their devices to ring. Under current federal law, telemarketers and others, like political groups, aren't allowed to launch robocall campaigns targeting cellphones unless they first obtain a consumer's written consent. But businesses stress that it's a different story when it comes to "ringless voicemail" -- because it technically doesn't qualify as a phone call in the first place. In their eyes, that means they shouldn't need a customer or voter's permission if they want to auto-dial mobile voicemail inboxes in bulk pre-made messages about a political candidate, product or cause. And they want the FCC to rule, once and for all, that they're in the clear. Their argument, however, has drawn immense opposition from consumer advocates.

Comments

Counter-argument

[DontBeAMoran]

People want to leave politicians and marketers a big turd on their front door - without ever ringing their doorbell.

Re:Counter-argument

[DivineKnight]

In this case, I believe the 3 AM Vuvuzela Orchestra in D-minor outside their bedroom window is more appropriate.

I'm starting a web site

[taustin]

to document every politician who does this, how often, and about what. It will offer no commentary on whether it is good or bad, whether the politician should be thrown out of office or given a medal. Just that they did it, how often, and about what.

Who is willing to help me post bail when I'm arrested for it?

New Record

[Fire_Wraith]

I have to hand it to the Republicans - I thought they couldn't come up with any measures that would be any lower or more despised than they already have. I clearly underestimated them, because who would have thought they'd side with telemarketers, of all people?

What the Hell, I got karma to burn

[rsilvergun]

so I'm gonna say this: Why is it whenever something awful comes up it's always the Republicans front and center. Yeah, yeah, there's some blue dog Dems that'll vote for it, but none of them woulda had the gall (and the balls) to actually put a bill on the floor.

What I'm saying is this: both sides aren't the same. One is objectively worse. And every year we fail to call them on it they get a little bit worse as they realize they can get away with everything while people shout: "But both sides are bad!".

Re:Let them

[Pfhorrest]

Today's Democrats used to be called "Communists"

Completely the opposite. Eisenhower was further to the left of any politician in recent memory. Reagan and Nixon were further to the left than most Democrats today. The whole spectrum has moved to the right in absolute terms -- but both left and right have moved further from their common center, so from a parochial point of view ignorant of history and the wider world, it looks like the left has moved left, relative to the current center, which is far right of where it used to be.

See the many sourced answers here for more details:
https://www.quora.com/The-Left...