One of the slimiest keep-to-the-shadow conservative groups is the Conservative Majority Fund. Their main tactic is to pick an area and carpet bomb it with anti-Obama robocalls. The text of the calls change with the times and have moved from a Birther message to an election message to a Benghazi/IRS/Chicago-politics/White folks are doomed message. In all their efforts, they make it clear that the President is a dangerous outsider who must be impeached/stopped/obstructed. Race is the context and the frame for the efforts. I know this firsthand as they have been calling Maryland over the last few days and I just got another call this morning.
When they first called a few days ago, I went through their phone tree and pushed the buttons to tell them to take my number off their list. It didn’t work. They called again and again.
So after my call this morning, I looked up their FEC filing. Their address turns out to be a UPS store mail box. Their Treasure is a long-time conservative foot soldier named Scott B. MacKenzie from Northern Virginia.
The Conservative Majority Fund does their best to hide and make it impossible to contact them. Still, there are Federal forms that must be filed and some require something more than the address of your UPS mail drop box. One of these was their Statement of Organization filed with the FEC on July 9, 2012. This one included a phone number for Scott B. MacKenzie, 703-868-1776.
So I gave him a call to ask that he stop robocalling my house with his racist nosense. He answered the phone and seemed surprised. He took my name and number and claimed the calls would stopped. It was satisfying to reach one of the nutters behind this type of abuse and tell him to stop.
As a public service, I offer the phone number they shared with the FEC as a point of contact to reach Scott and the Conservative Majority Fund. Anybody else who is being harassed by their repeated racist robocalls, might want to give Scott a call and ask him to stop. Perhaps if enough folks call Scott, he and his group might decide to change their robocall strategy or at least try to narrow their call list to the ever shrinking group of angry and old white wingnut whackos.
Cheers
Woodrowfan
I love you! (in a purely manly hetro way of course, but still). YOU ROCK!
Hawes
Speaking of public services:
Petition to keep Larry Summers off the Federal Reserve:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/user/reset/37094966/1374503437/GM34nPH1h3yasD9w5PK_0nvXhDR5KV7u09irgZ5FOhE
SiubhanDuinne
Nice detective work! And how great to see you back here. We’ve missed you, Dengre!
cckids
Well played, Mr. G. Well played.
cleek
hah!
nice.
Eljai
Great to hear from you, Dennis! The Conservative Majority Fund is probably avoiding me since I live in a liberal enclave, but I’ll put the word out to family in the middle states. My mom gets calls from wingnut organizations all the time.
Pinkamena Panic
@cleek: Did you know you misspelled your site’s URL?
Ash Can
Great information! I’ll have to remember the bit about looking up the FEC filing; it could come in very handy at some point. Thanks!
Sibling Nonspecific Firearm of Random Adjective Followed by a Noun That Describes a Mental State (fka AWS)
I only have a mobile phone. Does anyone else *not* answer calls from “Unknown Number” on the first call? I figure if they want me, they can leave a message, otherwise, it’s marketing or something.
Citizen_X
I am sure this is librul terrorizm somehow.
Yatsuno
@Sibling Nonspecific Firearm of Random Adjective Followed by a Noun That Describes a Mental State (fka AWS): If I don’t know the number I don’t answer it. Of course sometimes even if I do know it I still don’t answer. I really don’t like talking on the phone.
Howlin Wolfe
Isn’t Scott Mackenzie the guy that sang that top 40 hit from the late ’60s “If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair” etc.? Has he gone from DFH to wingnut? I hope not, although that song is annoying.
Howlin Wolfe
@Citizen_X: It is librul terrorizm, Citizen! Right wingers are not supposed to be held accountable for their cartoon ideology for any reason whatsoever!
Chris
@Howlin Wolfe:
I love the interjection of “Citizen!” Got that perfect French Revolutionary vibe. When does The Terror start?
cleek
@Pinkamena Panic:
cleem!
all the kids are into cleem these days!
Jewelbomb
Delurking just to say: post moar Dennis! I’ve missed you.
pete
@Howlin Wolfe: No, the good Scott died last year. He did co-write Kokomo, but relatively speaking he was still the good Scott.
Keith
@Howlin Wolfe: Surely, he’s the son of the recent $590 Million Powerball winner?
Dennis G.
@Howlin Wolfe: That would be Scott McKenzie. He was a “Mc” and not “Mac” like our wingnut friend…
McKenzie was the one who wrote nice song about San Fran and the hippies.
? Martin
This story is kind of amazing.
Not surprising, really, but if anyone wanted a perfect anecdote that captures how useless Wall Street is to the global economy, this is pretty much it:
Manipulating commodity markets is nothing new, but often the manipulation was centered around seasonal arbitrage – buying oil when demand was low (artificially raising it in a slow market), and selling it when it was high (reducing it in a fast market). There’s nothing seasonal about this – they’re just moving aluminum from one place to another, for no purpose other than to drive up the price.
alhutch
Dennis – I applaud you for seeing that through to the bitter end. I bet Scott was surprised to hear from you!
? Martin
Hmm. I’ve seen this map before.
Anyone want to guess where all of the black people and native american reservations are on that map?
Yatsuno
@? Martin: They do it because they can. Goldman will be the first to tell you everything they’re doing there is completely legal, though parasitical to the extreme. It’s all about the fastest, cheapest way to earn a buck. And it could all be stopped tomorrow but it won’t be, becuz jerb creators and market uncertainty and blah blah blah. I’m thinking revoking just one corporate charter would wake these fuckers up.
Comrade Dread
@? Martin: These free market geniuses are making a great case for becoming socialists.
J.D. Rhoades
He answered the phone and seemed surprised.
Trolls often are when you out them.
Yatsuno
OT: RIP Dennis.
raven
That is Dennis Farina for those who might be confused.
gogol's wife
@Yatsuno:
Oh, that’s sad. I loved him.
maya
Wonder if he is related to this Mackenzie?
quannlace
“He answered the phone and seemed surprised.”
*********
The dude probably really believes he’s doing some kind of public service and people are just waiting by the phone for the next installment.
Jebediah
@Yatsuno:
Bummer!
Violet
Thanks for this, Dennis, and good to see you. I can only imagine how surprised Scott must have been when his phone rang and you were on the other end.
Napoleon
@Sibling Nonspecific Firearm of Random Adjective Followed by a Noun That Describes a Mental State (fka AWS):
Me, then I reverse look up the number. There are websites out there where people report certain numbers being used for scams and the like. It is amazing how often I get called from unkown numbers.
geg6
You are my hero for this. Damn awesome work.
geg6
@Yatsuno:
Heh. I’m the same way. If you aren’t in my contact list, I’m not going to answer and won’t call back unless you give me a number and I feel like talking to you. And sometimes, even if you leave a message and/or are listed on my contact list, I’m still not answering or calling back.
I hate the telephone. The only thing I hate more is my car.
Bobby Thomson
@Yatsuno: NSFW Dennis
Shakezula
Great detective work! I request regular reruns as the next election day draws nigh.
I wonder if this moron is not aware Maryland is ultraviolet. It is possible, even though he is right next door. Not that I have anything against these assholes wasting their cash, but sometimes how they choose to do so is interesting.
Arclite
Great Sleuthing Dennis! Cheers!
CONGRATULATIONS!
With the gentleman’s fine track record of honesty and aboveboard dealings, you’ll be getting ten calls a day from his robodialer for the rest of your life.
Elizabelle
@Bobby Thomson:
Fuck no!
Not Dennis Farina.
RI fucking P.
The Red Pen
@Sibling Nonspecific Firearm of Random Adjective Followed by a Noun That Describes a Mental State (fka AWS):
I have my phone set so it doesn’t ring or vibrate on such calls.
Villago Delenda Est
@Sibling Nonspecific Firearm of Random Adjective Followed by a Noun That Describes a Mental State (fka AWS):
That is a sound policy in any case. Anyone unwilling to let you know their number is a waste of your time…and more than likely it is a marketing/scam type call.
Villago Delenda Est
@Yatsuno:
Sucks, sucks, sucks.
Dick Cheney still lives, too. There is no justice.
? Martin
@Sibling Nonspecific Firearm of Random Adjective Followed by a Noun That Describes a Mental State (fka AWS):
My wife has a Google Voice number. She has it set up so that anyone we don’t know will get forwarded from the home phone to her Google Voice which causes her cell phone to ring. If both phones ring at once, don’t answer. It’s very clever and works great.
? Martin
@? Martin: It’s worth noting on that map, that kids born in fucking Detroit have more upward mobility than across most of the south.
Napoleon
@The Red Pen:
How do you do that?
aimai
@Chris: Hell, when does it stop?
Keith G
Oooops
Paul in KY
@Dennis G.: The San Fran crowd hated him for that song. Mr. McKenzie was from LA & here he was a) Sending all those thousands of people to San Francisco & b) he was an LA guy making loads of money off of that song.
The Red Pen
@Napoleon: Argh. I don’t have access to my phone in the lab where I work… but it’s under ringtone settings. It’s Android Jelly Bean… I assume it’s a standard feature (i.e. not added by Samsung).
I also assume the iPhone has a similar setting.
pete
@Dennis G.: Nice Scott didn’t write the song — that was John Phillips of the Mamas & Papas.
Paul in KY
@pete: They hated John Phillips too for writing it then.
AHH onna Droid
@pete: Never could understand the appear of vacationing in central Indiana, I mean that unpasteurized Amish cheese isn’t *that*good, at least to me.
Pogonip
I never answer the phone unless it’s a caller I recognize.
EriktheRed
Kinda OT, but I think I’m giving my Lib/Con message board a break after today. USMessageboard wingnuts have gone almost full KKK since the Zimmerman verdict.
Dennis G.
@Paul in KY: I just remember it as a poppy tune about hippies. Shows you what I know…
Dolly Llama
Mr. Greenia, where you been, brother? (You’ve been away so long that you may not recognize my new-ish ‘nym. FKA Evolved/Evolving Deep Southerner here. The fellow who met you at UGA when you were the head knocker at Flagpole.)
When will you get back into the regular commenting gig?
Dennis G.
@Dolly Llama: I’ve been on a bit of a walk-about. More on that in an upcoming post, Cheers
robobt
Wouldn’t it be poetic to just continually call Mr. MacKenzie at, I don’t know, 3am his time and play a recording of the robocalls for him? (You could use gmail’s call feature.) I can’t find a better or more recent recording than this one, but, hell, it doesn’t have to be quality — just annoying.