One of Congress' most useful actions in the past decade was the creation of a national do-no-call list. The list has proven very popular -- those who like to talk to telemarketers at dinner time being a minority among the American populace -- but it has some loopholes.

First, is the exception allowed for companies that you have an "existing business relationship with." This typically means credit card companies who call you up trying to sell other financial services to you. This is annoying because I'm not going to buy anything over the phone -- I want to see it in writing.

Second, is the exception for "political telemarketing." Isn't it unsurprising that the politicians have once again exempted themselves from the laws they pass? I've received at least one recorded phone call a day, every day, for the past couple of weeks. Thankfully, many of these come in the afternoons or evenings when I'm at work, so I just delete them quickly off the answering machine.
Today, however, I'm ticked off.

The first phone call came promptly at 9 a.m.

I turned out the light and went to bed at 3:30 a.m. after winding down from a stressful day at work.

To put this in normal person terms, let's say you typically go to bed at 11 p.m. That would mean that this phone call was made at 4:30 a.m.

At least, that's how it felt to me.

The second phone call came 30 minutes later -- 9:30 a.m.

The third phone call came at 11:10 a.m.

The fourth phone call came at 12:30 p.m.

Now, these aren't all the same candidate calling. In fact, the first one wasn't even a recording -- it was a live person taking a poll. The guy asked me if he could call back later. I responded, "no."

The good news is there's only two or three more days of this. The bad news is that the next time I see Brian Bilbray, I'm going to kick him in the crotch -- because he's been calling me the most.

I think the solution is to re-register to vote and either leave my phone number blank, or list a phone sex number.

How many people actually listen to these pre-recorded phone calls? Is it really worth it to tick a lot of people off just so you get whatever measly percent of depressed, socially inept, shut-ins to actually listen to the whole message?

To summarize: Stop calling me!

*UPDATE* Fifth phone call at 1:45 p.m. -- from Brian Bilbray. He's "sorry he missed me." That's it! Bilbray gets a kick in the crotch and a punch in the nose.

*UPDATE 2* Sixth phone call at 2:40 p.m. -- this time from a public opinion polling operation. "We want to know your opinion," the woman said. "My opinion is that this is the sixth election-related phone call I've had today and I'm sick and tired of it."

I didn't stay on the line to hear her response.