Tom Delay is Redirecting Calls To MoveOn

[JohnGideon]

Yep! I just called MoveOn with the phone number I got from a .whois and lo and behold their phone message is "If You are trying to contact Tom Delay call ********" then it goes on to say that Delay is transferring his calls to MoveOn. That fills MoveOn's voicemail box and makes it so Delay doesn't have to answer questions. He must have diverted one of his numbers only but it is having an effect on MoveOn.

Oh! Those pesky republicans

[Mairead]

1. That's illegal! That's denial of service, a federal offence

If you can prove that, call the FBI. Seriously!

[Papa]

2. what a scumbag

Delay thinks he is the law. Democrats should band together and call him out on this.

[prolesunited]

3. Please notify MoveOn

IMMEDIATELY! They need to know this. Call and e-mail if you can.

[madfloridian]

4. The only way to contact Moveon is the forum.

And I don't know how often they read it.

[nostamj]

8. but....

if they've set up that voice message, don't they know already ???

:shrug: did I miss something in the first post ???

[madfloridian]

11. Nope, I missed something. Read it wrong.

Very interesting.

[JohnGideon]

7. They Have No Other Phone Number

that I can find and their email only directs you to the ActionForum and they don't read that. They know it is happening because they have the message on their voice mail.

[Cocoa]

5. I don't get it

what is he doing? And why?

[JohnGideon]

9. I Think He Is Mad At MoveOn

due to their attacks on the Texas Redistricting. So he is diverting phone calls to MoveOn to show them who is boss. He breathed too much bug spray in his previous life.

[bearfartinthewoods]

15. diverting or referring?? Which?

one may be illeal and the other isn't. please...make it diverting.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

16. He is making sure their phone lines are jammed..typical Repuke

strategy.

[Cocoa]

18. how is he doing this

how can he do it without MoveOn's permission, and why doesn't MoveOn ask the phone company to stop it.

[Demoiselle]

19. Moveon is trying to bring the FCC vote to the floor...

Delay and Hastert, despite a house majority in favor of blocking the FCC's new rape of our broadcast laws, have stated that they will not bring the resolution to the floor of the House. Moveon has been encouraging all of us to phone our congresspersons and Mssrs Delay and Hastert as well, to force a vote....at least, that's my understanding...and this is probably what has triggered Delay's reaction.

[madfloridian]

24. He has said that overturning the FCC deregs is dead.

He and Hastert refuse to bring it to a vote.

[DK666]

6. Verification

Do we have aerification of this ?

[JohnGideon]

10. How Do I Get Confirmation?

The only way to contact MoveOn, that I know of, is to use the number I called 510-524-6100. Delay's office isn't going to admit it is happening.

[NicoleM]

12. I don't know about now but

there was a LTTE to Salon the other day. A guy called DeLay's office and asked if they were redirecting calls to MoveOn and the person who answered the phone said they were. And didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with it.

[Stephanie]

17. Here's the story in Salon

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/10/08/nypost/

Right-wing crank yankers
Texas bug-man Tom DeLay and the New York Post's Bob McManus are harassing MoveOn.org with silly phone tricks.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Michelle Goldberg

Oct. 8, 2003 | The progressive Internet organizing group MoveOn.org has reduced two pillars of the right-wing establishment to pulling petulant phone pranks. On Tuesday, the office of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, angry that MoveOn members were wasting the staff's time with complaints about DeLay's handling of a House resolution on FCC regulation, started forwarding its phone calls to MoveOn organizer Eli Pariser's cellphone. The day before, Bob McManus, the New York Post's opinion-page editor, published MoveOn's Noah Winer's phone number in the headline of his Monday column and urged readers to "swarm" him.

<snip>

DeLay's office doesn't see it that way. As a MoveOn member wrote in an e-mail to Pariser, "I was also able to reach Rep. DeLay's office. There, I was interrupted in the middle of my first sentence, asked if this was about the FCC, and placed on hold. After a few seconds someone else answered and I learned that Rep. DeLay's office had forwarded my call to MoveOn.org. Evidently, they have no interest in the opinions of a citizen." Pariser has since changed the message on his cellphone, urging callers to try DeLay again.

<snip>

But since DeLay holds one of the most powerful positions in the United States government, doesn't he have an obligation to all Americans? Roy's response was a non sequitur. "Do you have an obligation to all Americans at Salon.com?" he asked.

The answer to Roy's question, clearly, is no, since Salon is an online magazine with a responsibility to its readers, and not a high-ranking official in a representative democracy. But the question of whether DeLay has any responsibility to hear the views of dissenting citizens rather than play tricks on them remains open.

If you want to ask him yourself, his office number is [phone].

[NicoleM]

20. Thanks, Stephanie. :)

I was too lazy to do that myself. Here's a part of the LTTE:

I just finished reading Michelle Goldberg's article on Tom Delay and MoveOn.org. I was appalled at House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's office staff's unethical behavior and had to find out for myself if this was true. I called the office number listed at the bottom of the article and got through to DeLay's office. I said that I had just finished reading the Salon article and asked if it was true that they had been forwarding calls concerning the FCC resolution to MoveOn.org. The phone receptionist I was speaking to freely, and with no sense of shame, admitted that they had indeed been doing that.

I was so stunned that I asked again to make sure I was understood -- she again, with a light and airy voice, admitted that that is what they had indeed done. I was so shocked by her attitude about this matter that I stumbled getting out my statement to her and to Tom DeLay, that I felt what they had done was unethical and I was lodging a complaint about it. She got a bit terse, and said she was glad I felt that way and hung up on me.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/letters/2003/10/10/arnold_intifada/index.html">Link

[mitchtv]

25. as a former telco employee, I know tis is illegal

a call to repair service and one to the PUC should stop it fast

[Stephanie]

13. Call the newspapers

Have them try Delay's number and see if they get the same diversion. Let them report it, and then let the prosecutions begin. The petty little creep.

[izzie]

14. That is funny wait to the geeks get ahold of that. WOW

We will have a war going on on the internet.

[LoneStarLiberal]

23. Just Submitted It To Slashdot

The Salon article is about a week old, but I just put it out on Slashdot to see if they will publish it.

[snippy]

21. This reminds me of a previous criminal operation by republicans

to depress turnout among democratic voters in New Hampshire, and possibly other states, during the 2002 election. http://www.thehill.com/marshall/021903.aspx

[JohnGideon]

22. OK! I Called The FBI

It's probably not denial of service. He says that MoveOn should be the one to take action via the FCC. The only thing we can do is call our congresspeople and complain about it.

[CBHagman]

26. I've already complained to Hastert's office about this.

Since we pay the salaries of DeLay and his worthless, puerile staff (Believe me, I've spoken to them and know what we're dealing with), we should be able to get an Ethics Committee investigation out of this. Complain to your rep and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) and point out that DeLay is interfering with grass-roots efforts to move a bill concerning the FCC's removal of ownership caps. That's a mouthful, but that's where all this started. DeLay stands in the way of a vote on something that has GOP, Democratic and independent support. He knows he's going to lose, and look at the stunt he pulls.