What’s that sound? It’s the sound of silence

Coda • GREG BEAN

It sure has been a lot quieter around the house since the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on prerecorded “robocalls” went into effect Sept. 1, and I couldn’t be happier.

I put my name on the national Do Not Call list the very day I learned about it, and it has been effective in limiting the number of unsolicited calls that disturb my afternoon nap and our dinner hour. Sure, some people ignore it — like the folks who keep calling about my chimney and the folks who’d like to resurface my driveway — but I can live with those.

But when we started getting those robocalls, as did millions of other Americans, it didn’t take long to get fed up. Turned out the marketers using robocalls just had a computer program that just started dialing every conceivable number in an area code, and an actual person didn’t get on the line until somebody at the other end picked up. The marketers said it wasn’t their fault, since their computer program didn’t know who was on the Do Not Call list and, therefore, they couldn’t avoid making the call.

That’s why a few months back, I got about a thousand robocalls warning me that my automobile warranty was about to expire (it had expired several years previously) and predicting a world of financial hurt if my clunker ever broke down. I tried to call the company back to tell them to leave me alone, but the number was always blocked or unavailable.

Those auto warranty calls were apparently the straw that broke the proverbial dromedary’s backbone, and when millions of angry people complained, the FTC leaped into action.

As of Sept. 1, as part of its Telemarketing Sales Rule, the people who make robocalls can be fined as much as $16,000 per call, unless you agree in writing that it’s OK for them to call. Of course, there are exceptions. Politicians, who never like a rule that applies to them, can still use robocalls to intrude on your privacy. So can banks, telephone carriers and most charitable organizations. So can people you do business with. Say you bought some steaks from that place in Nebraska that’s always advertising. If you buy one thing from them, they’ll bombard you from that moment forward with email messages, mailed advertisements and — if you don’t respond to those as quickly as they’d like — calls to your home.

Not much we can do about that, apparently, except tell the people who call that if they do so again, you’ll never again buy so much as a hot dog from them. That seems to work.

If you think you’re still being harassed, you can complain to the FTC at its website, www.ftc.gov, or call 1-877-FTC-HELP.

The folks there will want you to provide them with the number from which the offending call was made, which might be difficult if the number was blocked or unavailable, but it’s better than nothing.

• • •

The governor’s race has been a hot topic of discussion around our house lately, as I’m sure it has been in many New Jersey households.

And to tell the truth, I’m conflicted.

When Jon S. Corzine gave up his seat in the U.S. Senate and took over as governor in 2006, he won the office largely because the voters believed he could bring his considerable business acumen to bear on fixing the state’s dismal financial situation. In fact, that’s what he promised he would do.

For the last four years, he’s been reluctant to do the only thing that would really help — reduce

the size of state government and make more significant reductions in the number of state employees — and has instead raised taxes on everything and proposed other harebrained schemes, like selling the Turnpike, or raising the rates on the state’s toll roads to the point that only people driving state cars could afford to use them. Then, of course, there were his goofy statements about the

MOM line. And we all remember that he was nearly tarred and feathered by angry voters at the “town hall meetings” he set up to try and explain himself. Those were such a disaster that he never even finished the schedule.

The guy can’t take criticism, and his tenure has not exactly been a rousing success. Taxes sure aren’t any lower than when he took office, we’re still facing massive deficits, and state government is only slightly smaller than it was when he took over.

But I’m also troubled by the information that’s come out against his Republican challenger, Chris Christie. Considering the criticism Corzine received over his $470,000 loan to former lover Karla Katz, I’m surprised his people went after Christie for making a $46,000 loan to a colleague.

Sure, the circumstances were different. Corzine eventually forgave the loan and paid $160,000 in gift taxes, but you have to wonder if he would have done that if he hadn’t been found out. Christie didn’t report the loan, or pay taxes on the interest. And his explanations sounded pretty lame. But even so, it’s interesting that Corzine didn’t worry that bringing up Christie’s loan might make people remember the one he made.

Maybe he hopes they forgot.

I’m also troubled by the fact that Christie gave so many no-bid contracts to political cronies, including one worth at lest $28 million to his old boss and former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

But I’m a little disgusted by the ads the Corzine supporters have been running, where the not-so-subliminal message is, “Don’t vote for Christie because he’s fat.” Those ads always use the most unflattering images of Christie possible. In some, he’s clapping like an overweight seal and in another, the shot of him walking away from the camera with his jacket off was clearly chosen to highlight his caboose.

I don’t think that’s polite, and I notice that none of Christie’s ads have focused on Jon Corzine’s bald spots.

But when you come right down to it, we voters are in the same situation we find ourselves in so often around here, wishing there was a button for “None of the Above.”

Remember when Ronald Reagan asked the killer question during the 1980 presidential debate, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”

Maybe we ought to ask ourselves that question in November. Unfortunately, the answer could go either way — unless you’re a still-employed state worker or one of the crooks Christie put in jail. John Merla, come on down!

Gregory Bean is the former executive editor of Greater Media Newspapers. You can reach him at gbean@gmnews.com.