Politician's Support Letters For Merger Actually Written By Comcast

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Like this is a surprise. :rolleyes:

For instance, a letter sent to the FCC by a town councilman from the small community of Jupiter, Florida, was in fact largely orchestrated by some of the biggest players in corporate telecom. Not only do records show that a Comcast official sent the councilman the exact wording of the letter he would submit to the FCC, but also that finishing touches were put on the letter by a former FCC official named Rosemary Harold.
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And this surprises.... no one hopefully...... :rolleyes:
 
So this politician is going to be fired right? At the very least not re-elected?

What? Not going to happen? No one cares? :*(
 
Hey, politicians are busy people ... those babies aren't going to kiss themselves and those sex scandals require a lot of "hands on" activities :D ... I am not sure this is any worse than a politician hiring a speech writer or a corporation encouraging consumers or employees to send messages to Washington ... that said, we'll see if his local constituency cares or not when he is up for reelection
 
They don't read any of the things going through their desks, why would they write it?

Consecutive term limits seems like a better thing to me. Like, it has to change out with someone else every term, but they can come back 2 terms down.
 
I wholeheartedly support responsibly and properly run corporations, however, this is not responsibly run. This is backhanded rogue behavior. For such an incredible level of deceit, these guys must have no conscience. It doesn't really surprise me, coming from Comcast.
 
There's a pretty easy solution to this kind of behavior; the harder a company pushes for something, ANYTHING, the harder you push back. Basically do the exact opposite of what any millionaire+ is asking you to, because trust me, it aint in your best interest.
 
Yay SCOTUS for saying that money equates to speech and allow corporations from buying politicians...

Seriously, can we just burn the whole fucking system down, it's beyond broken.
 
McFry said:
There's a pretty easy solution to this kind of behavior; the harder a company pushes for something, ANYTHING, the harder you push back. Basically do the exact opposite of what any millionaire+ is asking you to, because trust me, it aint in your best interest.
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Wrong, it isn't in OUR best interest. For a those guys it gives them a pile of money.

wabbitseason said:
Execute this fucking guy. No honor, no principles.
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One could only wish, bring back tar and feathering
 
Had a less than great experience with Internet trouble (TWC) over the weekend. Packet loss, horrid latency, etc. "Surprisingly" speedtest.net worked fine! 48ms ping and upload/download speeds as advertised. Clearly became some sort of configuration issue on their end when certain things work flawlessly while everything else runs like shit.

After the support experience (took hours) and evidence above I hope the government regulates the fuck out of cable/internet companies. Yes yes regulation and government are bad, but the situation is already shitty as the companies conspire to screw their customers with no competition therefore no risk.
 
Why is everyone acting surprised like Congress doesn't do this sort of thing every day with bills that lobbyists write?
 
This is pretty much the same thing that other groups do to "email" your congressman, where a web page basically builds your email for you etc.

Except its a corporation doing it for a politician... is a bit beyond lazy, especially considering knowing and having positions on various policies is their job.

Stuff like this is what should get people ousted from office at election time, but it doesn't matter unless its an attack add 1 month before election.

We all can blame ourselves and our neighbors for that.
 
wabbitseason said:
Execute this fucking guy. No honor, no principles.
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Yeeeaaah, its not at all insane to scream for the unwarranted murder of someone who basically signed and forwarded a letter to someone else. And everyone wonders why normal people are horrified by tech enthusiasts. :(

Meds today...did you remember to take them?
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Yeeeaaah, its not at all insane to scream for the unwarranted murder of someone who basically signed and forwarded a letter to someone else. And everyone wonders why normal people are horrified by tech enthusiasts. :(

Meds today...did you remember to take them?
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Saying someone just "signed and forwarded" a letter is like saying I just moved my finger before the gun went off. It's the result of that letter that is so damning.
 
McFry said:
Saying someone just "signed and forwarded" a letter is like saying I just moved my finger before the gun went off. It's the result of that letter that is so damning.
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Gotta agree with ya.

I don't know about killing him. Unless he's been doing some other crazy shady shit. But this guy should be kicked out, on the spot, at the very least, then barred from government work.
 
McFry said:
Saying someone just "signed and forwarded" a letter is like saying I just moved my finger before the gun went off. It's the result of that letter that is so damning.
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No, sorry it's nothing like that at all. Those two situations are totally incomparable and it's a huge skewering of reality to even suggest this is anything close to someone dying or being killed. Also, I'm pretty sure making death threats about an elected public official on the Internet can result in yucky stuff.

It's scary that there are people out there who think like that and others who think that thinking like that is okay. :eek:
 
Actually, he didn't make a death threat. He made a statement.

"I'm going to kill you" is not the same as "This guy should be killed."
 
When will it be my turn to be a pampered Senator, ceo, cfo, coo, cio, cto :(


Ill be honest and say I would be just as corrupt as these jokers. Maybe not to the extent they are......but I would be.

And most others here would to. Just don;t lie to yourselves. It's a human trait.
 
kbrickley said:
Hey, politicians are busy people ... those babies aren't going to kiss themselves and those sex scandals require a lot of "hands on" activities :D ... I am not sure this is any worse than a politician hiring a speech writer or a corporation encouraging consumers or employees to send messages to Washington ... that said, we'll see if his local constituency cares or not when he is up for reelection
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Most people within a constituency are oblivious to how things are actually run. It is unlikely that the voters will care enough about this one minor issue (though of course this is probably a symptom of a larger disease) to stop supporting their candidate. This isn't abortion, gay marriage, or the 2nd Amendment after all...

dgingeri said:
I wholeheartedly support responsibly and properly run corporations, however, this is not responsibly run. This is backhanded rogue behavior. For such an incredible level of deceit, these guys must have no conscience. It doesn't really surprise me, coming from Comcast.
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ICOM said:
Hooray for Capitalism!!!!
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The problem is not capitalism per se, but rather the fact that the system requires that people are of upstanding moral character so as not to become corrupted by it. Since people have proven time and again that they are incapable of rising to that challenge, it falls upon our elected representatives to impose responsible regulations so as to mitigate these potential negative outcomes. As dgingeri noted, their lack of conscience allows this behavior to be the norm.

CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Yeeeaaah, its not at all insane to scream for the unwarranted murder of someone who basically signed and forwarded a letter to someone else. And everyone wonders why normal people are horrified by tech enthusiasts. :(

Meds today...did you remember to take them?
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It is a bit of an extreme response, but then again, so is the behavior that triggered it, just in a different form. Metaphorically speaking, it is overdue for corrupt corporate shills to have their public image destroyed.

Lying to everyone by saying what they want to hear just to get elected, then playing the crony capitalism game ruins it for everyone and will only continue to alienate larger portions of what is otherwise a decidedly moderate society. Divide and conquer at its finest. Besides, would you actually expect a politician to write their own letters?
 
You tell me what to say, and I'll sign on the dotted print. I wont peek.
 
pothb said:
Actually, he didn't make a death threat. He made a statement.

"I'm going to kill you" is not the same as "This guy should be killed."
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Get real, it's essentially the same thing and it contains the same sentiment of him wanting someone dead. You people are insane.

CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Yeeeaaah, its not at all insane to scream for the unwarranted murder of someone who basically signed and forwarded a letter to someone else. And everyone wonders why normal people are horrified by tech enthusiasts. :(

Meds today...did you remember to take them?
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I think that last line is rhetorical, all things considered. :p
 
sfsuphysics said:
Yay SCOTUS for saying that money equates to speech and allow corporations from buying politicians...

Seriously, can we just burn the whole fucking system down, it's beyond broken.
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Unfortunately I think that this is the only way to fix the broken political system in the US. It's too far gone.
 
dandirk said:
This is pretty much the same thing that other groups do to "email" your congressman, where a web page basically builds your email for you etc.

Except its a corporation doing it for a politician... is a bit beyond lazy, especially considering knowing and having positions on various policies is their job.

Stuff like this is what should get people ousted from office at election time, but it doesn't matter unless its an attack add 1 month before election.

We all can blame ourselves and our neighbors for that.
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No we can blame gerrymandering. It's kind of hard to vote out your representative, when they have drawn lines around a population of 80%+ that vote for their party by default. It's a load of horseshit under the guise of democracy.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Get real, it's essentially the same thing and it contains the same sentiment of him wanting someone dead. You people are insane.
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But it's not. I wish I had a ps4, and I will get a ps4 are 2 different things. A statement is not a threat. A threat can be a statement.
 
GoldenTiger said:
I think that last line is rhetorical, all things considered. :p
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Guilty as charged. :D

pothb said:
But it's not. I wish I had a ps4, and I will get a ps4 are 2 different things. A statement is not a threat. A threat can be a statement.
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Regardless of how the linguistics of the matter are argued or spun, its still an unreasonable response to someone sending a letter on behalf of someone else. I'm pretty sure most people have signed a document that someone else wrote and then sent it out and doing so isn't something a reasonable person gets outraged about regardless of who's involved. It happens all the time as part of routine business everywhere on the planet advanced enough to have paper and pens and because it involves a cable company and someone in a political office doesn't mean its rational to go all freaky-face about it or even care.
 
Playing devil's advocate here, but I regularly see form letters used by groups wishing to oppose issues, such as this merger, so why is it okay for those opposed to something to use form letters and not those who support it?

I would be willing to bet that had this person opposed the merger, and did so via a form letter created by an opposition group not only wouldn't anyone here who currently posting against him see any issue with it, but the news of it would have never even made it on the site.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Yeeeaaah, its not at all insane to scream for the unwarranted murder of someone who basically signed and forwarded a letter to someone else. And everyone wonders why normal people are horrified by tech enthusiasts. :(

Meds today...did you remember to take them?
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While execution is going a bit far, it's not by a lot. You could argue that the senator is essentially commiting a light form of treason; deliberately ignoring the will of the people in exchange for some sort of payoff offer. It's a gross abuse of power and displays wanton corruption. The concept here is his actions affect millions of people, so it SHOULD carry heavy responsibility and thus penalties for abusing it.

As for the commenter wanting him dead, I think that stems more of the climate of the times where corruption like this is SO common and SO thorough in most of our halls of power that it just makes people just want to push back that much harder.
 
i hate to say this, but going omg tear the system down aint goign to work because it wont happen. What its going to take is public shaming of these politicians which are basically being bribed in some way. We need to do that. This is an issue that affects all sides of the isle it doesn't matter what party your on. If your a die hard democrat or republican, theres always the primary process to defeat these peoples. Do it or hell run yourself
 
tetris42 said:
While execution is going a bit far, it's not by a lot. You could argue that the senator is essentially commiting a light form of treason; deliberately ignoring the will of the people in exchange for some sort of payoff offer. It's a gross abuse of power and displays wanton corruption. The concept here is his actions affect millions of people, so it SHOULD carry heavy responsibility and thus penalties for abusing it.

As for the commenter wanting him dead, I think that stems more of the climate of the times where corruption like this is SO common and SO thorough in most of our halls of power that it just makes people just want to push back that much harder.
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Where in the article did it refer to a senator, I saw references to a city councilman, a mayor, a few governors, and the head of a political party but no senators ... besides, having members of the government send letters supporting it doesn't carry much grass roots weight
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
Playing devil's advocate here, but I regularly see form letters used by groups wishing to oppose issues, such as this merger, so why is it okay for those opposed to something to use form letters and not those who support it?

I would be willing to bet that had this person opposed the merger, and did so via a form letter created by an opposition group not only wouldn't anyone here who currently posting against him see any issue with it, but the news of it would have never even made it on the site.
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Fair point, but he wouldn't have gotten paid for opposing
 
The case for his execution has nothing to do with "just forwarding a letter". It has to do with using your trusted position of power to shaft millions of Americans and enrich yourself. It has to do with serving yourself and not serving the best interest of the country you swore to protect. It has to do with willfully and unapologetically harming your countrymen. In many ways these actions could be seen as treasonous, and treason is a far worse crime than murder.
 
wabbitseason said:
The case for his execution has nothing to do with "just forwarding a letter". It has to do with using your trusted position of power to shaft millions of Americans and enrich yourself. It has to do with serving yourself and not serving the best interest of the country you swore to protect. It has to do with willfully and unapologetically harming your countrymen. In many ways these actions could be seen as treasonous, and treason is a far worse crime than murder.
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Well, that gemstone of thought certainly answers the rhetorical question. :D
 
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