12/27/10 Dim Witted Doctor Delman Wastes Town Time In Call To Throw The Book At Phone Directory Publishers

Maybe Someone Should Give Evan Delman A Chiropractic Adjustment To Head So That He Would Be Able To Understanding That There Is Some Things Called The Constitution, The Bill Of Rights And Freedom Of Speech.

White Plains chiropractor and thin skinned Riverside busybody Even Delman DC says he wants the town's legislators to throw the book at telephone directory publishers.

Ever since the first telephone directory, consisting of a single piece of cardboard, was issued on February 21, 1878; they've been the best weathermen. They always seem to get delivered when it's going to rain.

That first telephone directory was published in New Haven and it listed 50 local businesses that had a telephone.

Now Dimwitted Doctor Evan Delman, wants the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting to legislate distributors of telephone books and require them comply to some sort a centralized unconstitutional local opt-out mechanism in Greenwich.

Dimwitted Doctor Delman is able to waste the RTM's valuable time, because he collected signatures from 20 people, out of a town with a population of over 61,000 residents.

Earlier this fall Delman collected the 20 signatures that enabled him to present the concept to the full 230-member Greenwich RTM.

His anti-freedom of speech idea was presented to the Greenwich legislators who referred the proposal to its Legislative and Rules Committee, where it will die and keep the town from being sued by telephone directory and newspaper publishers.

"I am seeking to basically -- you know how there's a do not call list for telemarketers -- to have a do not deliver list," Doctor Delman said. "I was tired of receiving phone books and newspapers."

Maybe, someone should refer the dimwitted doctor to a local TEA Party meeting, so they can explain to him that there is something called the First Amendment to the constitution.

Or, maybe someone should tell Delman that a municipal ordinance in Seattle requiring phone book publishers to pay a $100 licensing fee and a 40-cent tax for every directory distrubuted, as well as abide by an opt-out registry created by the city, is being challenged in U.S. District Court by several Yellow Pages Association members on free speech grounds. This has already cost Seattle close to $500,000.

As part of the research on Delman's tiny 20 signature phone book petition, the Town of Greenwich paid attorney Eugene McLaughlin Jr. to speak with the corporation counsel for a publisher that belongs to the Yellow Pages Association, who mentioned that there already is an opt-out feature on the group's website that Doctor Delman can use.

So the question is, do we really need Doctor Delman's anti-free speech local ordinance?

Instead of running around being a busy body collecting 20 signatures and taking up the RTM's valuable time all Delman had to do was go to the trade group's web site and opt out of receiving phone books

Among other questions the dimwitted chiropractor forgot to consider was enforcement.

Is this going to be too much of a load for the police department?

"Hello, 911. This is thin skinned Doctor Delman and I need you to send out a squad car, because AT&T just delivered a phone book to my house."

Doctor Delman's proposal still is going to take up valuable time on the January agenda of the RTM's Legislative and Rules Committee.

Greenwich attorney Douglas Wells, who is the committee's chairman, has already questioned the need for Delman's proposed ordinance.

"Clearly, we don't need the town to be involved in another lawsuit if the industry is already taking care of this in a reasonable way on its own," attorney Douglas Wells said.

Another set question for Dimwitted Doctor Delman is ...

Who is going to pay for the local opt out phone book system and how much will it cost?

How many town employees will have to be hired to create and maintain the local opt out phone book system?

In these tough economic times just what town services will need to be cut back to pay for Dimwitted Delman's anti-constitutional local opt out phone book system?

Talk about your unintended consequences from Even Delman's 20 signature petition.

Maybe Doctor Delman should focus on his White Plain's Chriropractic office and forget about being a phone book busy body in Greenwich.

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