I agree with President Bush

[bookman]

The House voted 412-8 and the Senate 95-0 for the bill. President Bush said he looked forward to signing it. "Unwanted telemarketing calls are intrusive, annoying and all too common," he said in a statement.

I think I agree with that. Which makes me wonder what I'm missing. Help me, DU'ers! Am I missing something? Or is it a case of even a broken clock is right twice a day?

[roguevalley]

1. This is a no win.

2million people will lose their jobs, many of them single moms, the disabled. I am disgusted that they hump their butts on this and ignore the important things.

Tough guys, indeed.

[JohnKleeb]

4. I see what you mean

[Catherine Vincent]

18. You know, I never thought about that.

I was neutral on this thing but now I think I'm leaning against it. If you don't want telemarketers calling you don't answer the damn phone or just tell them don't call you anymore. Most people have caller ids anyways.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. The law of averages caught up with him

He was right about that. Mark this as a red letter day.

Of course, I'm sure Bush will also tell you that the sun rises in the east.

[JohnKleeb]

3. who voted against?

[catpower2000]

5. "President" Bush? There's your first problem right there nt

[bookman]

6. You're right

Actually I was looking for a subject that would draw attention.
It worked. :)

[JohnKleeb]

9. good observation

I never have called him that.

[Don_G]

7. Don't Forget

A Federal Judge appointed by King George the First has already blocked the legislation passed by both the House and the Senate.

I wonder who bought whom off?

[Lisa]

8. well, you know, he HAS had honest moments

Purely by accident, I'm sure. Like when he told reporters that he was "basically a media creation" during the campaign. Or when he went off in the Unaugural speech about how other countries would be happier with the US if it adopted a humble foreign policy.

Or the times he reveals his inner self -- those unforgettable candid moments when he yells at his dog, slaps his wife's posterior in public, spits on the lawn, or picks his nose.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. I don't think this is one of those moments...

I think he's just BSing people because the "don't call" legislation has so many loopholes that it can't possibly be as effective as it promises to be.

[bif]

11. You mean "Former Governor Bush"

n/t

[LynneSin]

12. Well I don't agree with him

I think this whole thing is atrocious. Like another poster mentioned - this move will cost jobs. I get 1-7 telemarketer a week which thanks to our phone system I very rarely have to answer them (Answering Machine Screen).

However, I get on an average about 1000-3000 spam emails a week. Although I have the 2 email address system, (one for friends and the other for junk services) about every 1-2 years I have to change email addresses because eventually they find account and they hound me to death.

And what really kills me - I've actually seen people from DU who's attitude about people who might lose their job - "They just need retraining for something else" How the fuck can we make a suggest like that when many of these people are probably folks who've already lost a job and took something to help them pay their bills and feed their families.

Everyone sided with keeping the Do Not Call bill because they don't want their own form of spam - people calling their elected officials and yelling at them for not supporting it.

Personally I'm hoping the courts take care of this one. We have enough unemployeed people in this country.

[matcom]

13. it costs me ONLY $1.69 a MONTH for unpublished number!

WHY put thousands more out of work?

unpublish your phone number and you won't get ANY calls!

i just don't see how this is a good thing.

sorry

[LynneSin]

14. Thank goodness

I'm glad I'm not alone when it comes to this "Do Not Call" being a bad thing for our country. Let's deal with the Email Spammers, most of them are probably people at home signed up for those pyramid schemes where they need to send out thousands of emails a day. They are the real culprits!!!

[Ladyhawk]

19. My telephone number is unlisted

and I still get those annoying calls. I don't have caller ID and I'm sick to death of telemarketers trying to sell me things I can't afford. I always say, "Don't ever call back," but there's always another company quite willing to do just that.

Telemarketers have interrupted me at too many important moments for me to just brush it off.

Maybe a good compromise would be to help those in the telemarketing industry find jobs and give them help in the meantime, but of course, that would have to be in a booming economy, which this is not, thanks to the unPresident.

Still, I'll be glad not to be pestered anymore.

[JackDragna]

15. I disagree with the president on this, too.

I don't like telemarketers, but I'm none too keen on the government mandating that they're not allowed to call you. Telephone companies may be private, but the lines themselves are techically publicly owned. The government has no business mandating that a certain group of people cannot use such a utility.

[bleedingheart]

16. I don't like it because who knows what will be next

no GOTV calls?

[Deja Q]

17. Now I feel two-faced and ambivilant

The bill is, technically, unconstitutional all though I am for it because it restricts corporations for once. I'm amazed Shrubbypants* is FOR it - probably because it'll save corporations money in the end, no more telemarketers to pay at slave wages (which is why they can be so rude in the first place!) He just has the convenient excuse of using "intrusive, annoying, and all too common".

[LynneSin]

20. Better yet it'll be another excuse to send their telemarking overseas

Not that many already have done so, but the DNC list will eliminate so much potential income that'll it be cheaper to have it done overseas.

Thanks Bush

[Interrobang]

21. I don't.

I telemarketed for seven hellish weeks one summer, and my personal feeling about telemarketing is that I would rather be on the street (which I very nearly have been a couple of times, thanks) than ever, ever do that again. I wish Canada would get a Do Not Call list bill, and quickly. Pardon me for sounding like a freak bigot here, but telemarketers should get some self-respect and go on Welfare or something -- believe me, it's considerably less degrading (I've done that, too).

I also live in a town where practically no one gets out of their 20s without having put in some time "working the phones," in one form or another (we have a lot of telemarketing/inbound sales/customer service/tech support pits, er, "call centres" here), and the majority of people working those phones are NOT single mothers and/or the disabled; they're usually high school graduates, apathetic university students, or the like. I can't remember seeing anyone (else) at either my telemarketing job or at the several interviews for other kinds of phone work I've been to who was visibly disabled.

Inasmuch as two million more unemployed people is a categorical Bad Thing, the Telemarketing Experience from both ends is equally bad. If working conditions for telemarketers were better, and they had some decent rules about when and where you could and could not call (instead of the useless "rules" they purport to have now), and telemarketing paid a living wage (which it usually does not!), I might have a different opinion. To me, people who run telemarketing pits are just exploitive corporate sharks who use desperate people to make a quick buck.

As my former telemarketing pimp, er, supervisor said to us once: "If you don't like the job, quit. I can find ten people to replace you tomorrow." Yeah, they're a real caring bunch of folks and they deserve our sympathies -- NOT!! To me, they rank only slightly above spammers, who should also be eradicated with extreme prejudice.