Sorry, but cold calling is cold calling, no matter how worthy the cause. I detest the intrusions when I am victimized by them and I certainly am not going to help anyone do this to others.
JG.
its to your representatives jg. congressmen etc...
yes, I understood that.
JG.
Jersey Guy,
You do also understand that Congressional offices are expected to take cold calls from constituents and other citizens, both individually and in groups? It's not like this project calls the Reps and Senators at home or tries to sell them vacations. There's no invasion of privacy here. They work for us.
Accountability is a good thing. Elected politicians have to understand that they're being watched by their employers, and citizens should be able to address their representatives directly on issues that concern them. People were calling and visiting their representatives in DC before the Internet, and all this tool does (like the telephone and automobile and airplane and email) is make it easier.
Will it be used by conservative wingnuts and or even re-created by marketers? I have no doubt, since it seems to be open source and non-partisan. But then, so is the Bill of Rights.
(The site seems to be based on combination of MediaWiki, Asterisk, and an unknown VoIP app and provider. It's intended to draw info on legislation from public databases. Nice mashup.)
we should never feel liek we are beign intusive to call our reps. assume you aren't callign the guys home number (I would eb upset if my boss called me at home) the shoudl expect to recive calls from us. We are there boss. They server us not the otehr way around.
As an asside I see no reason that I have to respect the president, any more then i would respect any employye. As his boss, he damm well better respect me....we need to fire this one.
Though I am well old enough to be, I am not very experienced at this sort of thing. I just think that there has to be a better method than organized phone bombing.
JG.
"I just think that there has to be a better method than organized phone bombing."
There is. It's called having enough money to hire a lobbyist to push your personal or industry or religious agenda. Extra points if your lobbyist is an attractive and accomodating blonde woman who can disappear when she becomes inconvenient to a certain Senator's run for the White House (how many days has it been now?).
For the rest of us, well, those office phone lines and PBXs don't exist just so the Reps and Senators can exchange gossip and jokes. Strangely, the numbers are made public (as in public servant), so we're allowed to call, too. And calls work better than e-mails with the Beltway types.
This Cause Caller system makes mass phone campaigns (top-down versions of which have been in existence for decades) more efficient, more grassroots, and easier to implement in a focused manner. Probably cheaper, too.
Objections that actually have something to do with the situation being discussed are always welcome, as are suggestions for better alternatives. But vague griping gets us nowhere.
I'll get off your lawn, now.
If I am going to be accused of "vague griping" when I disagree here, I guess I will find a place where my opinions might be more welcome.
JG.
"If I am going to be accused of "vague griping" when I disagree here, I guess I will find a place where my opinions might be more welcome."
Well, where's the specific griping? Disagree all you want, but also state your concerns about the issue at hand and perhaps suggest reality-based ways to address them. That's how systems get improved and refined.
This isn't a "fair and balanced" MSM debate, where the factless fundie preacher gets equal standing with a biologist in a discussion about teaching evolution. From what I've seen, differing opinions of the non-troll variety are very welcome here, but those opinions are usually based in something other than gut feelings and unrelated issues.
(sorry to be so testy, but I was in a late meeting yesterday where someone wasted 40 minutes of everyone's time with vague, irrelevant and unfocused concerns. His boss told me today that she read the guy the riot act, so apparently I wasn't the only one who felt that way)
Jersey Guy, you miss the point, if we don't call about issues important to us as voters, the ONLY folks who will be in touch with our representatives are the K-Street-Klan
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