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There Are Ajit Pai 'Verizon Puppet' Jokes That the FCC Doesn't Want You To Read (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission is refusing to release the draft versions of jokes told by Chairman Ajit Pai at a recent dinner, claiming that releasing the drafts would "impede the candid exchange of ideas" within the commission. In December, Pai gave a speech at the annual FCC Chairman's Dinner and played a video that attempts to lampoon critics who accuse Pai of doing the bidding of Verizon, his former employer. The video was shown less than a week before the FCC voted to repeal net neutrality rules, a favorable move for the broadband industry requested by Verizon and other ISPs. The satirical skit shows Pai planning his future ascension to the FCC chairmanship with Verizon executive Kathleen Grillo in 2003, the last year Pai worked as a Verizon lawyer. The video shows Pai and the Verizon executive plotting to install a "Verizon puppet" as FCC chair. In response, Gizmodo filed a Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) request for "any communications records from within the chairman's office referencing the event or the Verizon executive," the news site wrote yesterday. "Nearly a dozen pages worth of emails were located, including draft versions of the video's script and various edits," Gizmodo wrote. "The agency is refusing to release them, however; it is 'reasonably foreseeable,' it said, that doing so would injure the 'quality of agency decisions.'" The FCC searched for the records in response to Gizmodo's request and "returned no communications whatsoever with Kathy Grillo," the article said.
There Are Ajit Pai 'Verizon Puppet' Jokes That the FCC Doesn't Want You To Read
The real question is: will #4 shock me?
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Governmental agencies have rued the day the FOIA was implemented. Over the years, there have been many attempts to subvert the legislation's intent, from slow response times & outrageous fees per page of document, to redaction of nearly an entire requested page.
This excuse smells like, "We don't even think enough of your request to give it thoughtful rejection."
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
^ That implies that Ajit Pai should step down as his conduct has resulted in a situation which has already injured the quality of agency decisions.
^ That implies that you don't know what "implies" mean
lucm, indeed.
Obama never had trillion dollar deficits, the deficits during his presidency were holdovers from when the Bush administration was charging things to the national credit card without including them in the budget. Exclude the spending that Obama was obligated to make because of the wars and the economy that Bush crashed and he'd be nowhere near trillions in budget dollars.
Face it, the GOP never cared about the budget, they just get upset whenever people who aren't already massively wealthy get something from the government. The GOP hasn't had a President that left office without debt since Eisenhower. It's always the Democrats that get stuck balancing the budget and paying off the debt while the GOP throws stones and tries to blow it up as best they can.
People get a 2nd vote with their Dollars
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Somebody could make quite a bit of money selling 'Ajit Pai' string puppets, along with recordings of the advertising jingles of the big ISP's. "Make the FCC dance just like Verizon does" is one possible advertising slogan for the next fad toy. I'll bet Amazon could sell truckloads of them - especially if the toy comes with instructions for making the puppet bend over and spread its cheeks.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
Congrats! Looked like you used one simple trick to reap karma the mods don't want you to know about!!1!
Seriously? People are so pathetic that they care about this guys draft jokes? Is there a 'get a life' tag to put on this story?
Essentially all governments overspend. At some point this stops working and there's a currency collapse. Sometimes a major one, sometimes a minor one.
The thing to notice is that it's the Republicans, who talk about small government, who are worst at managing the budget. Occasionally a Democrat will even manage to reduce the deficit. There are two reasons for this (that I know of and believe):
1) The Republicans are less willing to tax the rich, so the income to the government decreases.
2) The Republicans are more tied to those who benefit from the government owing them money. Holders of Treasury bonds, etc.
These two reasons don't seem sufficient, so I'm rather certain that there are other causes. For one thing, the Democrats are much more willing to spend money on social projects, and yet they are the party that has repeatedly decreased the deficit. So something unobserved is going on.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
refusing to release the draft versions of jokes told by Chairman Ajit Pai ... claiming that ... would "impede the candid exchange of ideas" ...
(I thought the only bad joke at the FCC *was* Ajit Pai.)
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
It's not their level of patheticism; it's his.
Ajit Pai: If you don't want people to characterize you as an industry puppet, don't be an industry puppet.
It's not that complicated.
Show me on the doll where net neutrality touched you.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust