Apparently, people have been receiving these calls over the past two days all across the country: similar calls are happening in New York, in Miami, in Denver, in Eugene, in Portland and elsewhere. Kossack ban nock north of Denver reports getting a call from the same (210) number as mine.

Several individuals at Democratic Underground have reported receiving these calls--some even twice in a single day. Even more perplexing, many of the Kossacks and DU participants receiving these calls are unlisted, and their numbers not registered with any organizations.

Perhaps most importantly, these calls are illegal. They do not violate the Do Not Call registry calls, as political calls remain exempt from the law. However, it is required that all such robo calls mention the name of the organization sponsoring the call, and provide a callback number. From FactCheck.org:

Federal law requires that groups making automated calls identify themselves at the beginning of the call and provide a call-back number. The FEC says that a disclaimer must accompany public communication made by political committees or individuals. However, specific regulations for political robo-calls vary from state to state.

J.Crosby at Texas' Burnt Orange Report notes that Texas law (where my robocall orginated) clearly states that robo calls that fail to properly identify the entity behind the calls within 30 seconds are illegal.

None of the teabagger calls received across the country have identified their source, or provided a number to call back. Thus, they are illegal, and at risk of heavy fines imposed for every single illegal call they have made, to the tune of thousands and thousands of dollars.

If you have received one of these illegal robo calls, I urge you to contact your state's attorney general and complain. A list of attorneys general state by state be found at the National Association of Attorneys General.

Perhaps more disturbingly, these robocalls appear to be going out completely at random, and without prior targeting of any kind. They are going out to cell phones and landlines, progressives and Democrats and conservatives and Republicans, listed and unlisted numbers. There appears to be little rhyme or reason to the locations of the calls, except that they appear to be in medium or large cities where teabaggers are getting together to do their thing.

It is possible that all these calls are the work of one or a few idiot miscreants with autodialers (though that wouldn't explain the calls to unlisted numbers); if this is the case, the culprits need to be found out, arrested, jailed and fined.

If, however, it is the work of a broader organization with significant funding, it demonstrates not only a foolish disregard for the law that should be punished accordingly, but also exactly the sort of political panic I described yesterday. If the best the Right has to come up with against Obama is the worst sort of self-marginalized irrelevant protests that have been the hallmark of the most extremist elements of the Left, their goose is truly cooked. Adding nation-wide non-targeted illegal robo calls is just worth one more guffaw at their expense.

Still, these violations should be taken seriously. I urge every Kossack who has received one of these calls to complain to your Attorney General today. And please post your experiences in this diary in as much detail as you feel comfortable, especially regarding your location, the nature of your phone number (cell/landline, listed/unlisted, etc.) and the source of the call. If you have Caller ID info to share, please do so. Best yet, if you have a recording of the call, please upload it in this diary.

Whoever is behind these illegal calls, let's expose the bastards.