Tuesday, August 19, 2008

[Correction] Today's Bill Dew RoboCall is not Lying to You

Transcript of a robocall left on my voice mail about an hour ago:

Bill Dew

Hi, I'm Bill Dew, Republican running for Congress. Congress is on vacation, not working on the energy crisis because of one vote -- Jim Matheson's vote. That one vote was the difference. If I was your Congressman, Congress would still be in Washington where they should be. This is one example of why we need change get involved go to billdew.com. This message may repeat.


[updated 8/19/08 3:06 PM -- It turns out that I was wrong. As Dan Burton, a friend of mine for years, informed me, it takes more than a simple majority to adjourn. If the vote had been a 15-vote difference, they wouldn't have adjourned.

In other words, it's Chris Cannon's fault for not voting....

Anyway, all the stuff below this is wrong.

Anyone spot the One Lie?

That's right! Apparently, if we elect Bill Dew as our Congresman, his vote will be worth 16 votes.

Because that's actually the number of votes that sent congress on their previously scheduled vacation. One-six.

Oops.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

And why robocall indiscriminately? All it does is piss people off when not targeted to a) likely/swing supporters and b) in the middle of the day when no one is at home or wants your call on their cell phone.

Instead, he calls registered Democrats like you, stupid.

Bob said...

Actually, I'm still a registered R from having voted in the June Primary.....

Daniel B. said...

Bob, Dan Burton here.

Better go check your sources. Mine show me that there was only a one vote majority for the final vote for recess.

Daniel B. said...

Did you figure it out yet, Bob? In order to recess, Congress needs more than a simple majority. That means there was 16 more votes than the minority. If there had been only 15 more votes, Congress would not have recessed. Ergo, according to math, one less vote would have kept Congress in session.

Make sense?

Anonymous said...

I got this robot call, too. Caller ID had it listed as (801) 741-5500. This number is not in service, obviously it's being used to autodial people anonymously. Isn't this practice illegal?

I called Bill Dew's political office (801) 580-3827 and left a message stating that I didn't appreciate his phone tactics. Call him and leave a similar message if this clown bothers you with his political ads.

Shaun said...

Robo calls really don't work. They make good press, however.

If you have the audio online, let me know.

Shaun Dakin
CEO
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry
http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org/index.php

Daniel B. said...

SO I checked on the legality of the calls. Apparently it is completely legal. Something about the First Amendment and Free Speech and all that.

;-)

As for if they work, I found the following article from a Democratic operative in 2006, touting them as an effective, if annoying, method of educating the apathetic voter.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/w
p-dyn/content/article/2006/11/03/
AR2006110301325.html

All I can add is: Thank goodness someone is finally educating Utah about Jim Matheson.

Anonymous said...

Before you call someone a liar make sure you double check your facts. On Roll Call vote 537 in the U.S. congress the vote on Adjournment was 213 to 212. Thanks Jim Matheson I really wanted congress to go on vacation and continue to do nothing. If you need more help just go to: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll537.xml to see the votes.