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Friday, April 10, 2009

Government Retaliation for Bad Press

So much for "openness."

A conservative watchdog group that published a critical report last month on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the government has retaliated by charging the group exorbitant fees for documents.

Judicial Watch published a report in March, based on e-mails and other documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request, showing Pelosi repeatedly requested military aircraft to shuttle her and her colleagues and family around the country.

Though Judicial Watch was not charged fees for those documents, the group got a different response when it filed a follow-up document request with a unit in the Air Force on March 16: That'll be $760.

"We thought it was retaliatory," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. "This seems like a petty response. This seems like a petty effort at retaliation in response to the bad publicity at the speaker's office."

A representative for Pelosi was not available for comment. The Freedom of Information officer who said Judicial Watch would owe a fee also did not return a request for comment.

The chief reason cited by the Pentagon in denying the group's fee waiver request was that Judicial Watch qualifies for the "other" category -- this means the group did not qualify as "media," a designation they've received before that makes it easier to win a fee waiver. - FOX News

There has been a pattern of Retaliation from this Administration. They sure don't like for anyone to question their agenda or motives. If you do, you pay the price.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hahaha... the conservatives are recycling the false story that Speaker Pelosi demands special treatment from the Air Force.

Since they know the story has been disproved, they must change it a bit. This time they are claiming that the group that ran the false story is now being charged for additional records they are requesting.

Some claim $760 is excessive, but no where can I find any mention of the number of pages included in the request.

I my profession I provide copies of records to attorneys for litigation. It is standard to charge $1.00 per page. So, if the request is for 10 pages, yes it is excessive, but if the request is for 800 pages, no it is not.