There Are Ajit Pai 'Verizon Puppet' Jokes That the FCC Doesn't Want You To Read (arstechnica.com) 97
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.
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Does not compute. Error. Error!
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Get a life
Oooooo, good comeback, dude!
Re: In the interested of National Security (Score:3)
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Re: In the interested of National Security (Score:5, Funny)
Show me on the doll where net neutrality touched you.
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You're the one calling them "draft jokes."
But it's "truth in humor." As in, Ajit Pai is an industry puppet, a perfect example of the industry capture of a regulatory body that Republicans love to complain about until they're the ones who benefit from it. Then Pai jokes about making the FCC an industry tool is salt on the wound. Sure, maybe people should have thicker skin, that's ALWAYS true, but when you dick people over and then LAUGH about it, it's a demonstration of pride and hubris and people in the US
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You're the one calling them "draft jokes."
RTFA, it specifically calls them 'draft' versions. Justify it all you want, but simply giving a crap about someone's draft jokes, much less making a big deal out of it, is pathetic. You seem to be one of those just looking for stuff to be mad at. You are part of a big group who thinks likewise.
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Given the actions of the ISPs and the FCC, people have a good reason to be angry. This isn't making mountains out of molehills.
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Getting upset about policy is fine. Fretting over draft jokes is pathetic.
I don't think anyone would care about "draft jokes" if they didn't have the policy to back them up.
When you create policies that screw people over, people get even more upset when you joke that you screwed them over. Maybe they shouldn't, but that's human nature.
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Whatever turns you on, getting mad a draft jokes if that's your bowl of soup.
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The money shot: nobody is willing to vote them out
Nothing else counts until that issue is acknowledged and addressed.
WE are the chairman of the FCC!
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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 Republica
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The collapse, if it occurs, is arbitrary, a product of labile traders making bets on rumors and having a hugely oversized effect, dwarfing the traditional explanatory variables, supply and demand. Psychology affects prices more than supply and demand.
I wouldn't have used 'currency collapse,' more 'economic collapse often brought on by austerity' when you run out of money, your country's credit rating goes into the dumpster, causing investors in government bonds to not invest which reduces government income even more. The resulting sharp reduction in central spending does not result in a private sector boom and a roaring economy, just an overall economic malaise.
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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.
3) I think Republicans really do want smaller government, but large, large portions of their base directly benefit from larger government and want government spending that benefits them. The seniors who need Social Security and Medicare. The defense contractors and technology companies who rely on military expenditures. Folks scared of the big bad world outside their borders and want to "kill them over there before they kill us over here." All of these things are incredibly expensive.
Never underestimate the
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Found the Baby Boomer.
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I say spend it all now and let the next generation figure out their own way rather than rely on our hard work
That's not how debt works. We're not talking about refusing to leave an inheritance for the next generation to benefit from, we're talking about spending THEIR money before they get it because we like to spend far more than we make.
When the country is controlled by no-holds-barred capitalists and nobody is willing to vote them out, you either play their game or perish, and I intend to outplay them at their own game because most of them appear to be idiots and if your only weapon is lack of morals, I can certainly go ahead and lose mine too.
In other words, "I am happy to be the problem rather than the solution. I am the one who causes the problems."
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New hashtag
# Blank Check Republicans
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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
Re: Meanwhile (Score:1)
Klonopin needed
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One pointless correction to the above #14: The Apollo program is about putting a man on the moon, while the OP talked about putting a man in space. He's likely talking about there being no replacement for the shuttle program, but given that he's frothing-at-the-mouth right-winger, you'd think he would be happy that we're moving a Big Government program to the private sector. If Trump did it, it'd be Trump's economic genius, but since Obama did it, it's another sign of how evil Obama was.
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Congress passes budgets, not the President. Read the Constitution.
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Please don't refer to your readership in headlines (Score:5, Funny)
There Are Ajit Pai 'Verizon Puppet' Jokes That the FCC Doesn't Want You To Read
The real question is: will #4 shock me?
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The real question is: will #4 shock me?
You wont believe what happens next!
Re: Please don't refer to your readership in headl (Score:2)
Re:Please don't refer to your readership in headli (Score:5, Funny)
"impede the candid exchange of ideas" (Score:5, Interesting)
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."
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^ 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
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It's not strict implication in the sense of symbolic logic, but symbolic logic borrowed the term from normal English, and the use of implies in the G.P. post follows the rules of usage in normal English. You may disagree with the conclusion (I don't), but it is within the scope of normal usage.
OTOH, it does indicate that there is an unspoken, perhaps unverbalized, chain of reasoning between the two statements. I could construct one, though it would have flaws, but I have no idea whether my chain would mat
Re: "impede the candid exchange of ideas" (Score:2)
This excuse smells like, "We don't even think enough of your request to give it thoughtful rejection."
To be fair, it's a pretty stupid request designed to make Ars look clever, not serve the national interest.
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Rejecting it isn't clearly appropriate. I suspect the reason is to avoid self-defamation, but that's just a suspicion. Since FCC chairman is a political post, it is clearly appropriate for the public to know how he comports himself at official events.
OTOH, rejecting is was probably the expected reaction. Gizmodo gets a story out of it, anyway, and the FCC chairman gets to partially conceal what a bastard he is. But it would (probably) have been a better story if Gizmodo had gotten the jokes, and when "g
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It's Gizmodo, not Ars, but yes: this was dumb, and rejecting the request is appropriate.
My bad. That's what I get for replying on my phone.
Re: "impede the candid exchange of ideas" (Score:2)
If it's such a stupid request, what are they afraid of?
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How exactly is it innappropriate to request records of semi-public statements by an unelected member of the executive branch that reflect heavily on the growing evidence that he's unsuitable and hopelessly corrupt at the role? FOI excemption rules only protect personal information, national security secrets and certain deliberative exchanges (Ie discussions between work collegues). This fits none of those criteria and I doubt it would survive a court challenge
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This is just fishing. The only motivation for this is public anger over what the FCC is doing, it's basically harassment: hit them up with pointless requests in the hope that you'll get some tidbit of juicy gossip. It's exactly the sort of behavior that I'd expect from Gizm
Ego over truth? (Score:1)
It's a good thing there aren't other people in power positions like that in our government! ;) #ShowUsTheGirthCertificate
Switch From Verizon! (Score:3)
Re:Switch From Verizon! (Score:5, Insightful)
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Or do you think the stooge from Comcast would be a bit nicer?
The stooge who originally worked for Comcast, Tom Wheeler, actually was a bit nicer.
Not that that was the intention, everyone thought he would just be the Comcast exec in charge of making things great for Comcast. No one thought he'd actually try to be serious at the job -- it's unlikely he'd have gotten the job if the they did.
Business opportunity (Score:3)
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.
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don't worry - SFW
Oh God, that means it's almost certainly a goatse link!
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Safe... http://paranoidechochamber.com... [paranoidechochamber.com]
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Only 1000 lawyers? Not enough
If you plan to dump more than 1000 lawyers at the bottom of the sea in a single location, you have to fill out an environmental impact statement. It's better to do it in small groups and spread them out.
Re: What do you call 1000 lawyers (Score:2)
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That's not only predictable, it was predicted.
They must be terrible jokes, because ... (Score:3)
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.)
If you can't stand the heat stay out of the kitchn (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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.
You're assuming he has a spine. Or gives a damn about anyone who's not paying him to do their bidding.
Ajit Pai can't be a sock puppet (Score:2)
A sock puppet can be turned back into a sock and put to good use. Ajit Pai has no use.
Who gives a flying F (Score:1)
Seriously? I couldn't give a rats ass what his "rejected" jokes look like. Is it in our best interest to know what jokes didn't make the cut? Do we ask for all 319 revisions of his speech as well so that we can make fun of the poor grammar and spelling mistakes? Seriously, this shit needs to not even make it on any new sites, legitimate or not. This kind of thing is meant for ONE reason only, and that is to cause more division between people. Just political bullshit.