Washington, DC - Shaun Dakin, CEO The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - Sign up for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org
OK. The summer vacation is coming to an end. The endless campaign of tit for tat is, hopefully, sinking under its own weight of nothingness. The conventions (which will be full of nothing but hot air) are coming up and then the general election will get going in earnest. And that is when the calling is going to start, and not stop until election day.
Good thing for millions of voters that McCain invented the Federal Do Not Call Registry! That means his campaign will agree not to call those voters on the Registry, right? I doubt it. But we'll see. Pigs do fly.
Could this become Gore's "I invented the Internet"! gaff of the 2008 election (btw, Gore never really said that, but who cares, that is what the media narrative said he said in the 2000 election, so IT MUST BE TRUE !) More than likely, this will fit into the "McCain can't use a computer or email or the internet" narrative.
I, personally, however think that this could become a more important one for Obama to follow. The fact that McCain can't use a computer may be a big deal for the youth vote, but the fact that he lied about "inventing the do not call" registry actually relates to something that impacts 160 million American voters.
So, now comes a great article by Clinton's Privacy Chief, Peter Swire, about the latest policy paper to come from the McCain campaign about technology and the internet. There are some great exaggerations in the paper, but here are the ones that we care about:
(3) The paper says: “2003 – McCain led
in creating the FTC’s ‘Do-Not-Call’ telemarketing registry to allow
consumers to opt out of receiving telemarketing calls. And, when the
law was challenged in court, McCain led the effort to ensure that it
was upheld.”
This claim is hilarious for those of us who work on these issues. FTC Chairman Tim Muris announced
in October, 2001 that the FTC was going to do the Do Not Call list. Yet
somehow McCain magically caused the Do Not Call list in 2003. And,
given the independent agency status of the FTC, it is a stretch to say
that “McCain led the effort to ensure that it was upheld.”
(4) The paper says: “2003 - McCain
co-authored the CAN-SPAM Act to regulate the sending of unsolicited
commercial e-mail (”spam”) to consumers and enable them to opt out of
receiving such email.”
According to the Library of Congress,
three Republicans and four Democratic senators introduced the CAN-SPAM
bill in 2003. John McCain was not one of them. McCain became involved
during the process, but only after at least 19 other senators had
sponsored the bill.
So, we have the great maverick stating that he was a driving force behind one of the most successful pieces of Federal regulation in history (the do not call registry has over 160 million phone numbers on it preventing commercial telemarketers from calling those that register).
This while his campaign ignores the privacy of his OWN voters by continuing to robo call them at home even though they signed up for the Federal Do Not Call registry.
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry has thousands of complaints from our members that they received unwanted robo calls from the McCain campaign during the primaries and continuing throughout the summer.
Do you think that the McCain campaign will honor the privacy of millions of voters that do not want robo calls at home this election?
I doubt it, but I know that the campaign better be careful in California where robo calling is illegal. And Oregon. And Indiana.
Washington, DC - Shaun Dakin, CEO The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - Sign up for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org
