One of the things that annoys me about election season is the flood of robo-calls I get from various political outfits, especially from the campaigns that I don't support. Yesterday I got a robo-call from the Democratic National Committee. The politicians have cleverly exempted themselves from the National Do Not Call Registry. Nevertheless, we still have recourse against political campaigns that violate our privacy with nuisance telephone calls. When a campaign calls you at home, simply call the candidate or campaign official at home and ask them politely to stop calling you.
If you get an unwanted robo-call from the Democratic National Committee, the appropriate response is to call DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe at home to ask him to stop calling your home. According to his official DNC biography, Terry McAuliffe and his wife Dorothy live in McLean, VA. Lo and behold, the Yahoo! white pages show a listing for a Terry and Dorothy McAuliffe in McLean, VA. [I'm 99.9% certain that this is the DNC McAuliffe, -- public property records show only one listing for a Terry McAuliffe (Terence R. and Dorothy S.) in Fairfax County, where McLean is located] Remember that this is the McAuliffes' home phone. When you call to ask Terry McAuliffe to stop placing robo-calls to your home, be more courteous to the McAuliffe family than the DNC was to your family.
UPDATE It turns out that the McAuliffe home has 7 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, 3 fireplaces and a pool on 2 acres. It was purchased last year for $1,175,000. That's not quite Teresa Heinz-Kerry wealth, but it's still not half-bad for the leader of the party that claims to represent the poor. When the Democrats talk of "Two Americas", perhaps they mean the America of the super-rich like John and Teresa Kerry and the America of the slightly less fabulously rich, like Terry and Dorothy McAuliffe.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 05, 2004 12:00 PMso on a day when we learn that bremer says more troops were needed in the days after saddam's fall, and some adminstration types are saying that bremer never asked for more troops, despite news accounts to the contrary, this blog gives us mcauliffe's property description....
great investigative reporting shark! nice way to dodge inconvenient facts.....no longer interested in iraq? or just waiting for some convenient facts?
Posted by: dinesh on October 5, 2004 03:30 PM1)From a marketing viewpoint, I just don't get robo-calling. Every time I get one of these, it leaves me with a very bad impression of the company or organization that perpetrated it.
2)Re the Bremer thing...I have rarely had a subordinate executive/manager who didn't think he should have been given more resources than he had...
Posted by: David Foster on October 5, 2004 05:19 PMIf you get robo-called, try writing McAullife a letter to politely ask him to abide by the "Do Not Call" registry. Here is the address to his mansion:
Terry McAullife
7527 Old Dominion Drive
Mclean, VA 22102
I also noticed that as Chairman of the Democrat National Committee, McAullife "donated" $25,000 to the DNC.
http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?search=1&type=name&lname=McAullife
I noticed that according to the FEC, between January 1, 2003 and July 31, 2004 RNC Chairman Marc Racicot didn't give any money to George W. Bush or the RNC period-end of story. Former RNC chairman Haley Barbour gave the maximum $2,000 donation to the President:
http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?search=1&type=name&lname=BARBOUR&fname=HALEY
Only one person named "Paul G. Racicot," a retiree in California, gave $300 to the RNC:
http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?search=1&type=name&lname=Racicot
No matter how badly you convulse into a "this is the fault of Dick Cheney and Haliburton" position, the fact of the matter is that McAullife is NOT a man of the people (unless all of your people are people that complain about the excesses of the wealthy, live in mansions and are themselves extremely wealthy).
Posted by: Scott on October 5, 2004 09:33 PMDNC = Do Not Call
DNC = Democratic National Committee
Coincidence?????
Posted by: triticale on October 6, 2004 05:36 AMThis is NOT just a Democrat problem.
I've been inundated with Republican robo-calls this year.
I wrote Chris Vance to express how much I hate them and ask how to be taken off the list (I got them from SO many different candidates during the primary that I figured I ought to go right to the top)
He wrote back something incoherent about how this was their new tactic and all registered voters got the calls and I gather that means the only way NOT to get robo-called is to unregister to vote -- I wonder if that is REALLY the line he wants to be giving out?
Posted by: Sarah Schreffler on October 6, 2004 03:55 PM