"If You're A Nassau County Legislator, Dial 'Zero'"

Dialing "D" For "Dumb" Is Hallmark Of County GOP; Republican Legislators Give Residents X-Rated Mailing

You know, even we can't make up stories like this!

Imagine how red-faced County Legislator Peter Schmitt, the Minority Leader, must have been when he finally realized -- AFTER the mailing had beeen sent out by his Republican colleagues -- that the telephone listing he thought was a toll-free number for the New York Sex Offender Registry turned out to be the number for a sex chat line.

That no one on the GOP side of the aisle proofreads (or at least picks up the phone and dials)comes as little surpirise, given that literacy is not a requirement of service -- on either side of the aisle.

What does surprise us, time and time again, is that the supposedly intelligent and informed electorate habitually returns these bozos (with profound apologies to Bozo the Clown) year after year after year.

Must be something in the water!

Sure. Mistakes happen. We all goof up at times. To err is human.

When, however, the mess-ups are blatant and frequent, and come at the expense of the taxpayers, to forgive would require more than divine intervention.

Clearly, there is a receiver off the hook at the Nassau County Legislature [like we didn't realize that when Roger Corbin and Peter Schmitt were foolishly wheeling and dealing to be top cheese (make that limburger)].

Is there a story behind this story? [At The Community Alliance blog, there always is!]

Was it human error, a mere inadvertance, in directing residents to a "pay-to-play" sex chat line, as Schmitt & Company suggest, or was that sultry voice on the other end of the line -- the "hey there, sexy guy" girl, none other than someone who got a patronage plum from the GOP?

Kat D'Amato's house of pain, perhaps? Or was it Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray's "Helpline?"

Folks, we only report. You'll have to decide this one for yourselves! :-)

Now, what was that phone number again?

Oh yeah. 1-800-STUPID-IS-WHAT-STUPID-DOES. [Hmmm. Must be a long distance call.]

Operators and Nassau County Legislators are standing by. . .
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Nassau pol sends callers to sex chat line
By Celeste Hadrick
celeste.hadrick@newsday.com

Call it 1-800-OOPS.

Seven Nassau Republican legislators, led by Minority Leader Peter Schmitt, had good intentions when they urged constituents to call a toll-free number to be notified when convicted sex offenders move into their neighborhoods.

"Nassau County Legislator Peter J. Schmitt wants you to be protected from sexual predators," said the headline on the postcard his office mailed in cooperation with Parents for Megan's Law, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention and treatment of sex abuse.Unfortunately, the 1-800 number printed on the card prompts callers to another 800-number -- a sex chat line.

"Hey there, sexy guy," says the sultry recorded female voice that answers the phone. "Welcome to an exciting new way to go live, one on one, with hot horny girls waiting right now to talk to you."

Republican spokesman Ed Ward acknowledged, "Apparently there was an error in the phone number."

Instead of 1-800, it should have been 1-888, he explained. Ward said he didn't know who made the error or how it was made.

Constituents alerted Republicans to the problem soon after the mailings went out late last month to all but two of the nine Republican districts, Ward said. At that point, dialing the 1-800 number put callers directly onto the sex talk line for a fee. Ward said Schmitt's office was able to get the prompt to another number so that unsuspecting callers wouldn't be dumped into the chatroom without notice.

"The intent was to alert homeowners and parents to join the Parents for Megan's Law e-mail alert program," Ward said. "They could go on the computer and get an alert if a sex offender lives on their block or in their neighborhood."

Constituents were asked to phone or e-mail the organization. The e-mail address www.parentsformeganslaw.org, was correct, he said.

"As a result of that mailing, we've seen a significant increase in number of registrants in Nassau County," said the organization's executive director Laura Ahearn.

She said the U.S. Justice Department made a similar error two years ago when the Office of Victims of Crime had mailed the same wrong 1-800 phone number to victim service providers across the nation."It is a common mistake that is made," Ahearn said. "We just hope no one was inconvenienced."

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.