Either way, it's a great opportunity to retire the J. Edgar Hoover nameplate and honor somebody else. Or nobody else.

Dump the old letters in a landfill, or donate them to a museum of cross dressing, if one exists.

I have my moments. :D

http://sjfm.us/temp/disconnected.mp3

Use it in good health... :D

Right click on the above link and then select SAVE or SAVE AS or whatever...

Michale

OK, I have to say, that's a pretty brilliant scheme to foil the robocalls!

:-)

-CW

As I am wont to do...

"Welcome to the party, pal!!!"
-John McClane, DIE HARD

:D

As much as I'd like to be able to opt out of tracking, I think it would be difficult to implement (much less enforce) a central Do Not Track list. If I'm being called by telemarketers, I am aware of it, and can file a complaint against the callers if I have put my number on the Do Not Call list. How would I know if I was (or was not) being tracked by anyone, even if I did register myself on a Do Not Track list

That's a very good point...

Further, how much of their private information would someone be required to give to a DO NOT TRACK list??

Further, THAT information would have to be tracked so as to determine if there is any tracking going on...

"Oh no, I've gone cross-eyed"
-Austin Powers, THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME

A DO NOT CALL list is (barely) doable because only one component is involved. The explosion of smartphones made the DO NOT CALL list almost unwieldy...

Imagine a DO NOT XXX list with dozens, HUNDREDS of different components...

Then throw in Government Tracking vs Commercial Tracking and all of the sudden ending climate change is a cake walk in the park by comparison...

Michale

I look at that as Obama's way of saving face. Like he did with his Syrian "red line"...

It doesn't do ANY good, it doesn't go anywhere NEAR to actually solving the problem, but it gives Obama a way to say, "Yea, I did something about it" without actually, ya know, LEADING on the given issue...

Michale

You should do what I do..

I have an answering machine message that starts with a PHONE DISCONNECT recording..

It gets rid of 80% of the robo-calls.. :D

Michale

How the times have changed... :^/

Michale

I pointed out the history so that people could see this shouldn't be any sort of partisan issue whatsoever. Of course, the GOP of today is not the GOP of 2003 or 2007, so who knows?

I am also constrained to point out that the DO NOT CALL legislation passed nearly unamiously...

So, apparently, the Democrat Party today is not the Democrat Party of 2003... :D

Michale

Welcome to the site. Your comment was held for moderation, but from now on you should be able to post comments and see them immediately. Just don't post more than one link per comment, as that automatically gets held for moderation (to cut down on comment spam).

It would be harder to police than Do Not Call, but not much. The data brokers themselves would have to be overseen, to insure that the people on the list weren't included in the data they sell. So, in terms of enforcement, the burden would shift to policing those making the profit off the data. But it wouldn't be that hard to run through their data and check it against the DNT list, really. Technologically, it could be done.

Michale [4] -

I pointed out the history so that people could see this shouldn't be any sort of partisan issue whatsoever. Of course, the GOP of today is not the GOP of 2003 or 2007, so who knows?

As for government, I concentrated on commercial uses in this column for a reason -- to head off the expected "let's just make the NSA a private company" proposals that I just know are coming in the next few weeks...

Government tracking is a separate subject, as far as I'm concerned. Watch that CBS 60 Minutes segment, that's what I'm talking about.

TheStig [6] -

You're right, it's not perfect, and scammers still exist (I get calls from them too, and I just laugh and hang up). But it is much improved from where things were before the DNC law took effect. It has driven telemarketing underground, at the very least.

[7] -

Well, there is that. But a guy can dream, right?

Heh.

Michale [8] -

Yeah, you're right. That one was in the red on the snark-o-meter. Well done, TheStig!

:-)

Michale [9] -

What? Pulitzers? I'll check it out. I assume my nomination got lost in the mail again...

Heh.

-CW

I'll say one thing..

If the Pulitzer Board doesn't award the Pulitzer to Greenwald et al, it will confirm what many Americans already know.

That the vast majority of the US MSM is nothing but a lapdog and a propaganda arm of the Democratic Party...

As much as I dislike the revelations and concede that they are a threat to national security, the hypocrisy in NOT naming Greenwald et al would be glaring and obvious...

In other words, these revelations do NOT serve the public interests. In fact, they RISK the public's safety...

But to NOT name Greenwald et al is to wallow in hypocrisy....

Michale...

OH, THE HORROR!

WOW...

And I thought *I* was sarcastically cynical... :D

Michale

The value of Facebook, Google and lessor minions collapse to a singularity.

The US Economy might actually have to start making real things again, or if that's impossible, start offering services actually useful to the public.

OH, THE HORROR!

Your mom get a recorded telemarketing call at 9 PM. You dutifully track down the number for her and make a complaint.

A few days later, you get the same telemarketing recording at 9PM, but from a different phone number.

Repeat.

The numbers originate from outside the US.

Some big name US corporations are involved in this crap, notably in the home security industry. They seem to be targeting the elderly. My mom, still using a land line, is like a sponge for this dodge. If you call the Big Corporate Sponsor to protest, you get some polite nonsense about sub-contractors and nothing happens. In fact, if you've done any business with the offending corporation in the recent past, they are probably operating within the law, or close enough.

Three points:

1) The criminal mind is endlessly creative.

2) US law only applies in the US, communications are global.

3) Where are the predator drones when you really need them? I want to see pink telemarketer mist!

"Do you know where I can get a signal for this??
(holds up cellphone to show 1973 John Winchester)
"Yea. How about the starship Enterprise."
-SUPERNATURAL, In The Beginning

:D

I understand why you would want to see such a thing happen, but it simply won't work..

And here's why..

The DO NOT CALL list is (somewhat) effective and is desirable because there isn't any National Security Concerns in having telemarketers contact people...

Put another way, if DO NOT CALL legislation was to come up under Democrats and Obama wanted to call people to pitch obamacare, you can bet that DO NOT CALL would never have happened..

But there ARE legitimate National Security concerns in being able to track people.

And, unfortunately, in the world we live in the line between National Security use and commercial/for profit use of tracking data is nearly non-existent..

DO NOT CALL was passed because the government did not have a pressing need to call people on the phone..

DO NOT TRACK legislation will never see the light of day because the government DOES have a pressing need to track people worldwide..

Welcome to your Democrat government. This is the bed ya'all made.. Now ya'all have to lay down on it..

But, credit where credit is due. At least YOU are making noise about it..

Most just blindly follow Obama and the Democrats with nary a whimper of protest...

So, kudos...

Michale

As I am wont to say, CW...

You set the standard... Wish more would follow you.. :D

Michale

I do wish the law required an affirmative "opt in" requirement for any type of sharing or sale of personal information acquired by the myriad commercial & governmental entities with which we do business. But enforcement in practical terms would be very difficult for this idea as well.

Anyway, check out last Monday (Crimea) and last Tuesday (poor, minimum wage) to see my comments. And sorry for the delay, once again...

-CW

-CW