The straw that broke this camel's back

So, who else is tired of the negativity of political campaigns?

Today I am home with the boys because of MEA. The phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from numbers that are obviously telemarketing call centers (guessing pollsters are wondering where I stand, since we need to know who will win before the actual election). So thanks to the wonders of caller id I have been strategically avoiding answering any calls that are not from known acquaintances. (Side note on all of this is that when we bought our house and signed up for phone service, we specifically asked for the most private situation we could have regarding our phone number, so we have a previously never issued phone number, that is unlisted, shows up as private on the other end of things, and best I understand isn't supposed to be available for purchase on any lists from the phone company, so I need to follow up with said phone company and figure out how the heck our number is getting out, since we are very careful when filling out forms etc to make sure other companies can't sell our information. We even pay extra to the phone company for these extra measures. . . I digress)

So, the phone rings, and it comes up as "unknown" or "private" - something like that. I was going to ignore it, then I remembered that if someone like us was calling, that is how we would show up, and given the fact that Gigi is a teacher/ school administrator people she knows and works with might be as vigilant as we are with keeping home phone information private. So I pick up in good faith.

"Hello. . . hello, who is calling please" some static sound and then an obvious click, but not like someone hanging up the phone, more like the line just goes dead. Hmm. . . oh well, I hang up the phone.

Not even 20 seconds later and the phone is ringing again, same caller id read out- I'm thinking, "must have been cut off, so they are calling back- really want to talk to me". "hello. . . [click]"

to quote Garek - "What the . . . ?!?!?" (use your imagination).

again

and again

and again this happens.


That's it! I'm going to go take a shower, and if this keeps up I'm calling the phone company once I am out.

So I hear the phone ringing while I am in the shower, but it only happened once.

I see that there is a new voice mail, so I check it.

Some woman is rambling on as fast as she can read the script in front of her (sentences were barely coherent, more of a frantic run on) about the fact that our country needs to know this and that about how horrible a person Obama is- every last bit of mud that was ever fabricated from being a Muslim to running with terrorists was in the message.

As this is going on (the message was quite long) I am expecting this to be one of those underground unidentified interest parties not associated with any candidate etc etc.

". . . this message was paid for by the McCain for President Campaign (or what ever his official gig is called), address is [inaudible mumbling that resembles portions of what makes up an address, but in no way could I have contacted them if I wanted to]"

Oh. . . this was one of those- we just want to leave a message on your voice mail telemarketing things where the system cuts out if someone actually answers the phone since they expect the average working American to be at work when they were calling.


Here's the deal folks. I would classify myself an independent, but not associated with the party that goes by that name (fact of the matter is I probably will never become a card carrying member of any party as I despise the way parties hinder the ability to get things done). You will typically never know who I am voting for, since I am both conservative and liberal in various areas (don't bother asking where I stand, because I won't tell you). Gigi and I both work in Education, and both have a strong belief in making sure we do not have our personal beliefs influence the students we work with- one exception is the belief that they should participate and vote if they can, yet we push the students to formulate informed opinions for themselves and will gladly play devils advocate to challenge what they say they believe.

Today, this made my blood boil! I refuse to even consider voting for someone who knowingly or unknowingly runs a campaign that isn't about the issues, but instead is about instilling fear into the minds of citizens on "facts" (yeah, that's what the woman said she was telling me) that have no credibility. Telemarketing calls are one thing, but this was an act of shear coward-ism as far as I am concerned! At least have the spine to talk to me "face to face" so I have to option to clarify things regarding your sources, otherwise go spew your slander somewhere else.

FYI John, you just lost any chance of me voting for you. I refuse to believe that this tactic would be an effective way to change the Country and World we live in (maybe I am wrong and we should start Voice Mail bombing the leaders of the world to spread lies and hate to get our way- watch out global warming, financial markets and terrorists we finally figured out a way to beat you).


Now I just have to wait and see if Barack is able to stay on the issues, since that is what this is all about (it would be a real shame if my vote would have to be wasted on a write in for "Joe the Plumber" that we heard so much about during the debate last night).