Well my friends, those days are gone forever,  wheeee, our politicians with only moments to spare between re-election photo-ops and getting their latest digs into the opposition party, gave the Federal Trade Commission the authority to stop all that dinner time intrusion and let us eat our meatloaf in peace.  At least that is what we thought when we fired off our telephone call or e-mail to the “federal do not call center.”   Wait though my fine feathered friend.  Not so fast with your gleeful celebration.  Exempted from the people who can set up endless phone banks are politicians, governments, charitable organizations, and religious groups or anyone you have done business with in the past 12 thousand years.

I don’t know how you feel about the above listed exempt group(s), but I tell you for a fact that I would rather be stuck with three cases of unwanted 40 watt light bulbs or bad aluminum siding, than stuck with nothing to show where my hard earned giveaway money is being spent.   Now don’t get me wrong.  We need the politicians, the governments, the charitable organizations and the religious group, but the problem I have with all of them is two fold.  How much do the people who they say are targeted for the windfall of the few dollars they might actually get from me. and how much do I actually see changed lives, better fire and police protection or better government?   The numbers might shock you a little more than you want  and give you some thought about just giving that guy at the red light, you know, with the cardboard sign “will work for food”, a few dollars for beer and go home with the knowledge that you helped a poor soul today.

After a serious heart attack in which the paramedics from the local fire department saved my carcass,  we were so grateful, we gave money to that telemarketer who called on behalf of the fire and police department.  We actually thought we were giving to those guys who rushed to my home and administered CPR and all the other emergency stuff.   Not.  I found out that only about 10 to 15% of the money collected actually get back to the boys who hang out at the fire house waiting for the bell to ring.  The rest of the money goes for the guys who grind out twenty or thirty calls a night, and their company.

If that weren’t bad enough, our name went onto a “sucker” list and soon we were getting calls on behalf of the local sheriff, the state police, the children in need of seeing another human when they get home from school,  the latch key kids, and Indians on behalf of Mother Teresa, just to name a few.

The fight is still on.  The telemarketers have their lobbyist working twenty four seven to keep the callers interrupting your dinner and the courts, who for the last twenty years have tried to legislate from the bench, are trying to keep them in the boiler rooms.

The answer is so simple it is staggering to the man or woman with enough gray matter to get them out of bed in the morning.  Why don’t we just ban all telemarketing?  Why don’t we stop home invasions by ma bell and let America eat their Tofu in peace? 

Years ago all radio stations who held license with the Federal Communication Commission were required to run public service messages for so many minutes a broadcast day.  The same groups who are now exempt from the do not call list were considered non profit and were okayed for free public service commercials.  Just allow those people to go back to free ads on radio and TV.  They would get their message out and we could all have hot tacos dinner for a change.

Just a question or two in closing.  Do the people who work for charities, actually give to charities?  If it is a charity, why do they pay the people at the top hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to run them? 

I have this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach that all this was a ploy to get fresh names for the telemarketers.  Now they have over 50 million people to call and sell those water softeners to.