Neutral third party viewpoint here. This will help explain the argument. This will help explain why we need to stay polite and continue to do benefit-of-doubt.
With a specific government department (i.e. American IRS or Canadian CCRA), I have heard of many horror stories as well as many success stories. Someone got audited, someone got a tax refund.
Another example: Cellphone companies. Don't forget there are many happy Cingular customers who have been pampered by very nice people working there, while there are many angry Cingular customers that have been abused by seemingly brainless customer service, and people actually don't sign up for Cingular because of the bad stories they hear.
And don't get me started regarding presidents, prime ministers, and other leaders (of many countries, Canada, America, wherever). We all totally agree that some of us love them, some of us hate them, and some are anywhere in between.
There is enough polar-opposite experiences with any ONE government department that I understand both sides of the argument. You are intelligent enough to understand that multiple-person entities (government, companies, etc) can often exhibit the behavior of one hand not knowing know what the other is doing, and the usual inefficiencies and inconveniences that sometimes occur... And that word-of-mouth is very powerful, especially when told by close friends.
Shame given Jo's apparent grief (let's not worry about if DB is real or not), you aren't using more polite statements such as "While I understand there has almost certainly been negative experiences with FOIA, the problem happens with just about any federal department. If you come across a financial situation where you are able to afford to try and make the 'gamble' to do so, you should try approaching FOIA sometime anyway to make a request. There are occasionally good stories -- it's worth a gamble in the odd chance you get some useful info, which is certianly possible -- Here's a success story with FOIA, someone got a..." .... Instead you chose to say something inflammatory such as "It is beyond my understanding why the person who started it steadfastly refuses to file FOIA requests" Yes, there is emotional reaction, but remember Jo is the one who had the dying husband, not you -- even if you don't think he's real, you need to give understanding of that. Hear, hear!
I continue to watch this story. It is one of the most interesting threads on dropzone.com lately.
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With a specific government department (i.e. American IRS or Canadian CCRA), I have heard of many horror stories as well as many success stories. Someone got audited, someone got a tax refund.
Another example: Cellphone companies. Don't forget there are many happy Cingular customers who have been pampered by very nice people working there, while there are many angry Cingular customers that have been abused by seemingly brainless customer service, and people actually don't sign up for Cingular because of the bad stories they hear.
And don't get me started regarding presidents, prime ministers, and other leaders (of many countries, Canada, America, wherever). We all totally agree that some of us love them, some of us hate them, and some are anywhere in between.
There is enough polar-opposite experiences with any ONE government department that I understand both sides of the argument. You are intelligent enough to understand that multiple-person entities (government, companies, etc) can often exhibit the behavior of one hand not knowing know what the other is doing, and the usual inefficiencies and inconveniences that sometimes occur... And that word-of-mouth is very powerful, especially when told by close friends.
Shame given Jo's apparent grief (let's not worry about if DB is real or not), you aren't using more polite statements such as "While I understand there has almost certainly been negative experiences with FOIA, the problem happens with just about any federal department. If you come across a financial situation where you are able to afford to try and make the 'gamble' to do so, you should try approaching FOIA sometime anyway to make a request. There are occasionally good stories -- it's worth a gamble in the odd chance you get some useful info, which is certianly possible -- Here's a success story with FOIA, someone got a..." .... Instead you chose to say something inflammatory such as "It is beyond my understanding why the person who started it steadfastly refuses to file FOIA requests" Yes, there is emotional reaction, but remember Jo is the one who had the dying husband, not you -- even if you don't think he's real, you need to give understanding of that. Hear, hear!
I continue to watch this story. It is one of the most interesting threads on dropzone.com lately.
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