Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Calling for Tsongas (MA-05-centric Open Thread)

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Spent some time today calling unenrolleds for Tsongas.  Didn’t speak to anyone who admitted to supporting Ogo.  I’ll take that as a good sign.

Side question: I had the predictable complaint from someone who said they were on the Do Not Call list.  Does anyone know if there is an exemption for political calls?

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  1. Please keep on calling!

      Are calls from political organizations or calls soliciting for charities covered? 

        Political solicitations are not covered by the TSR at all, since they are not included in its definition of “telemarketing.” Charities are not covered by the requirements of the national registry. However, if a third-party telemarketer is calling on behalf of a charity, a consumer may ask not to receive any more calls from, or on behalf of, that specific charity. If a third-party telemarketer calls again on behalf of that charity, the telemarketer may be subject to a fine of up to $11,000.

    (from http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt107.shtm)

     

     

  2. One of my more unusual calls was a woman complaining about a car with a Tsongas bumper sticker.  The car was going 30 in a 45 mile zone.

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    I knocked on a door today of someone who knew about the race, but somehow thought his community was not part of the district.  Knowing that you are getting people out to vote who might not otherwise do so makes it all worthwhile.

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    Please sign up if you want to help!  Send an e-mail to gus@nikitsongas.com – there are many opportunities to help over these next three days.

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    Feel free to call me directly if you are having trouble getting information.  I am at 508-404-8531.  You can also e-mail me, but I will be out of e-mail access for much of the next three days.

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    Kate

    • Makes perfect sense to me – saves gas, reduces dependence on foreign oil, better for the environment.

    • One of my more unusual calls was a woman complaining about a car with a Tsongas bumper sticker.  The car was going 30 in a 45 mile zone.

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      Except for limited access highways, the speed limit is the upper limit.  Limited access highways do have lowere limits.  Or at least they used to; now they are so congested that it is difficult to maintain the lower limit in many areas.

      • I know I drive faster then I should but nothing moves me toward road rage more then a driver going slower then the posted limit. Especially if they won’t move over and allow a faster car to go by.

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        Put a candidate’s bumper sticker on that slow car and you give me an outlet to vent my frustration with the driver. Welcome to the irrational world of politics.

        • Btw, we don’t adorn our cars with bumper stickers, or magnetic yellow ribbons (made in China, of course).  Or anything else, for that matter.

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          Regarding

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          Especially if they won’t move over and allow a faster car to go by.

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          Move over to where?  A lane filled with parked cars?

          • Raj:

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            I wear my liberal bleeding heart on my sleeve and my politics on my car’s bumper.

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            Re: “Move on for faster cars”. Was really referencing those drivers in the highway’ left passing lane when I made the comment, but would be happy if the single lane slowpokes would move to the shoulder (when safe of course) and wave by a faster car.

            • …the last time we had an American labeled (a term I use intentionally) was 1990-2000.  Ford (Mercury) Sables.  The maintenance was ridiculousy costly, and we got rid of the last Sable when the crankshaft broke (!).  I’m not going to blame the unionized workers for the crankshaft breaking, but quality is definitely not job one with Ford, and I haven’t seen GM being any better.

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              We went back to Toyotas.  Assembled in the US.

              • Raj – (nodding) I get the American labeled concept. I pay close attention to where the car I buy is actually manufactured and where the content comes from. The UAW’s website is a good resource for that.

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                US Automakers created most of their own problems, so I get the quality concerns.

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                US assembled  means a US workforce that that is always a priority for me. Being a Union guy (as well as paid union staff) I make sure my car is built union.

        • and you get stuck behind someone doing 45 in a 55 mph zone for five minutes [where you’d have been driving 65 mph], you’ll be… 90 seconds late.  A single traffic light could hold you up that much, or poking around to find your keys.  And, this is an extreme example since five minutes is a really long time to be stuck behind somebody — usually there’s chance to pass before that.

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          My point: relax.  Getting frustrated only increases your chances that you’ll never arrive because your stress could contribute to a traffic accident.  There’s no sense in getting worked up over something you can’t control, especially since it’s only a matter of seconds anyway.

          • You don’t sound like you are originally from Massachusetts.  Someone driving 10 MPH under the speedlimit in a low speedlimit zone is one of the worst affronts to mankind.  The appropriate response of a Masshole is to flash your lights and honk incessantly don’t you know. đŸ˜‰

          • …IIRC, the speed limits are above 55 mph only on limited access highways, and all of them (that I know of) have multiple lanes in each direction, allowing for passing.  The highest speed rate that I’ve seen on Rt. 9, which is not limited access, is 50, and it also has multiple lanes in each direction.

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            BTW, Rt. 128 north of Rt 9 and into at least Burlington is virtually a parking lot between 7-10AM and 3-7PM., so you can’t go anywhere near the speed limit.  And the backups on the Pike at Rt 128 and at the Alston Brighton tolls are so bad that you can’t go anywhere near the speed limit, either.  When I used to work in Kendall Square, I would go the back way, avoiding the Pike at all.

    • Well, that remark got more attention thatn I anticipated. 

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      The voter with whom I spoke absolutely intended to vote for Tsongas.  She just wanted me to know how annoying it was to be stuck behind this person.

        • From a harrowing story:

          The truck is tailgating me. No, scratch that. Tailgaiting is too ordinary a description for what he was doing. I haven’t really seen anything like this before. He is about six inches behind me, at 45 mph. I kid you not. I gradually slow before the left turn into my home street simply because if I brake any more abruptly, he is guaranteed to rear-end me. I turn. He turns behind me, keeping his close distance, and then suddenly lurches around me to the left on our small residential street, swerving wildly around me at around 50 mph and almost losing control of his truck. Our driveway comes up, I turn left into it, shaken. He jams on the brakes at the stop sign that’s about 75 feet from our driveway, coming to a tires-smoking halt. I get out of my car and stare at him in amazement.

          h/t atrios

          He’s now right in front of my driveway.

          • Gotta say, if somebody’s tailgating me like that, to the point of following me down my own street, I would not have gone home. I would have headed for the local police station. If he wants to have it out, he can do it there. If he gets lost, great.

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            But ain’t no way I’d let a crazy know where I live.

  3. Members of the Merrimack Valley Labor Council and the Mass AFL-CIO will be going door-to-door for Niki Tsongas this Sunday.

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    Volunteers are welcome. Starting time is Noon. Meet at the United Teachers of Lowell office, 169 Merrimack St., 4th Floor, Lowell. Walk kits and lunch provided.

  4. …that people now-a-days equate the democratic process (i.e. citizens talking to other citizens about why they should vote for someone) with tele-marketing calls.

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    There should be nothing more pure in America than canvasing and phone calling for a political candidate or issue.  Yet in this bastradized world, it is viewed as unseemly by many–I hope you didn’t interupt anyone from watching the latest on Britney!

    • …it is politicians who vote on who gets blocked by a “Do Not Call” list but they never include themselves. Try explaining that to the voice on the phone the next time you get ROBO called.

      • That should be banned.  I’m sorry if you don’t have the volunteers, but don’t bother me with the telephone equivalent of an infomercial.

      • That fellow citizens calling other citizens about public policy issues should be banned and put on the “do not call list”?

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        As for Robo calls many states, New Hampshire being one, have laws limiting their uses (although the Republicans ignored those laws in 2006.)

        • Early on I called the Tosngas Campaign and the Ogognowski Campaign and said please do not call me or send me mailings as I do not support your candidate. When their people still called I said the same thing. I still get ROBO calls and my paper recycling is full of both campaigns literature so yes I favor banning it because it is not policy discourse… Calling your friend is one thing. Calling people you don’t know whose numbers you got off the voter rolls (because you actually do go out and vote) who asked you not to is political (abuse) reality.

          • this is not a defense of robocalling people against their wishes, but here is my observation of why you don’t get the response you ask for:  i’ve had the opportunity to assist in numerous campaigns of many sorts.  most campaigns are largely powered by volunteers who rarely have had the time to learn anything about the infrastructure of the office.  campaign offices are generally frenetic places.  so, when you call and ask to be put on the do not call list, chances are that the volunteer you spoke with dutifully makes a note, but has no way of making the needed changes in the database themselves.  so they pass the note along…to a shift supervisor who either has no idea how to make the changes, doesn’t have the time to figure it out with 50 phones ringing and 25 volunteers asking questions….  you get the picture.  it is one of benign neglect.  it is not ideal, but at least it is usually not a deliberate effort to thwart your wishes.  i haven’t been to either campaign office, but I can at least guess by Og’s website (news hasn’t been updated since the 5th, they’re asking volunteers to help on days already past…) that there is no one there to process your request.

          • I understand your frustration but the fact that you are called and mailed is an indicator that you vote on a regular basis. In special elections (in particular) good voters are targeted for repeated contacts.

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            Perhaps you could view the calls and mail as a compliment for your outstanding service as a a voting citizen.

            • http://www.lowellsun…

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              This editorial says it all about what elections have degenerated into and what phone marketing is about. Also I have done phone banking (not any more) and you’re leaving out all the people who either hang up on you or express their displeasure about being bothered. Just look at the poor turnout at who shows up to vote (or for that matter register in the first place or affiliates themselves with the entrenched parties) and then step back and think what are all the reasons people don’t participate in the electoral process.

              • The level of participation is disappointingly low.  Should be expect more than 30% in the special election?  The WBZ poll suggests a 63% turnout, but I think that just brings the credibility of the poll into question.

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                Unfortunately, there is too much money and too few real ideas in almost every race.  The major parties do us all a disservice by putting party above principle, talking points above ideas, and subjugating critical thinking to an agenda.  It turns off too many of the majority of the voters.  But, that may be their strategy, so that the minority can control the election result.

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                The Democratic party should have the advantage in this election, with a higher number of registered voters and the general rejection of the Bush administration.  But they really haven’t done much to distinguish themselves and take control of the election.

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                Should the Independents get out and vote, we might see that both parties are losing a bit of the stranglehold they have had on politics, as they have the numbers in today’s registration battle.

                • …as they (independents/unenrolleds) have the numbers in today’s registration battle.

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                  Some of us refuse to register for any party to preserve the right to vote in either primary–whichever is the most interesting.  I’m not sure that party registration means as much as it did even 20 years ago.

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                  In Germany (and I suspect this is true in much of western Europe), the parties put up a slate of candidates.  There are no primaries.

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