Fla. governor gives out sex hotline

"In an embarrassing mistake, Florida Governor Rick Scott gave out a phone sex hotline number to Floridians seeking information on a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak." — Michael Peltier, with Reuters

• [Antinous / Moderator]

  Is that cryptococcus in your meninges or are you just glad to see me?

• [ahecht]

  I wonder why, whenever an official gives out a wrong number, it never goes to anything boring like retail store or tech support. Does the phone sex industry really own that large a majority of toll free numbers?

  • [Jesseham]

    Call 5 at random.  Then call 5 more.  Call 5 more after that if you need more data.

    I read somewhere, some time ago, that it’s squatters who bought up all of the available numbers and that you can’t get one for yourself unless you buy one from them.  I guess parking them with a phone sex recording is the easiest way to make something off them in the meanwhile…

    • [Donald Petersen]

      And sometimes it’s the alphanumeric keypad that screws you over.  Don’t know if they still use it, but once upon a time there was a customer service number for GMC trucks that caused a spot of bother if you left off the C.  Because as it turns out, on a phone dial, GM TRUCK also spells HOT SUCK.

      • [Vaughn Marlowe]

         Years ago in the 415 area code GOD DAMN would get the Dial-A-Prayer recording.

  • [SoItBegins]

     Yes. A variety of automated systems exist that are designed to reregister toll free numbers within minutes of their expiration.

  • [siloxane]

    There was a BoingBoing post last year reporting on how one company has bought up 1.7 million 1-800 numbers in the US and Canada and uses them for phone sex lines.

• [pjcamp]

  I guess it’s never a good idea to elect an idiot.

  • [lafave]

     but those are our only choices

  • [MythicalMe]

     When we stop electing politicians based on looks the idiots will go away. Abraham Lincoln could never get elected in today’s election races.

    At one time people cared less about what a politician did privately and more about their public policies. Would FDR get elected 4 times today? Americans cared less about FDR’s polio than the promise to deliver victory over Japan and Germany.  Sure, it took Truman to deliver the promise, but Franklin recognized Truman’s greatness and the possibility that he might not fulfill his promise.

    We need to recognize that the best leaders are not the puritanical, but the ones who are able to demonstrate that policy is more important than libido. Clinton may not have worked that right, but he might also be the last President able to lie about his relations with an intern and get away with it.

    I’m still waiting for any information that Coolidge was a sexual deviant, but so far nothing.

    • [Judas Peckerwood]

      “When we stop electing politicians based on looks the idiots will go away.”

      You’ve obviously never seen the Florida governor in question — an unholy cross between Lex Luthor and Voldemort.

      • [Boundegar]

        …and that’s BEFORE you look at his policies.

      • [Doug Black]

         … with a soupçon of Weekly World News’ “Bat Boy” thrown in. 

• [Dlo Burns]

  Was this news story broke by Dave Barry?

• [Mona Tara Morgan]

  Last number dialed on his phone?

• [professor]

   ”If you’re getting screwed by meningitis, go screw someone!”