Wow things are finally heating up in the Senate today:
“I was one of the people that voted yes on the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and I made a huge mistake…I don’t want to make that mistake again,” said Senator Robert Byrd, holding up the President’s Resolution for attacking Iraq. “That’s what this is — another Gulf of Tonkin Resolution!”
I’m recording it all today and I’ll be transcribing it tonight and tomorrow as fast as I can.
Still watching the House and Senate on CSPAN waiting for something to happen on any of the war/anti-war and/or internet radio bills.
Now everyone’s all giddy about some Sherman Amendment. (Looks like the same ill-defined war on terror-type legislation to me…)
Well there seems to be a lot of good stories up today, so let me get back to posting them for you…
Watching the House in action is pretty funny. They are doing one minute speeches.
One Rep has been introducing a Reverend and his family for the last full minute, for instance. This next one is explaining how a particular company has progressive health care policies (ah, back to issues of governmental concern…) Now another Rep is talking about what a big fat liar Saddam is (fair enough). Now another one is talking about a church again (what is it with that? what do these churches have to do with running our country?) “God has truly blessed the _______ Congregation…” (so what? let’s get back to healthcare and the war…)
Now they’re looking at a Mosquito Control Bill. Wow, cases of West Nile Virus have gone up 160% in the last year. Over 2,400 cases across the us and over 100 deaths. Holy moly! Better pass that sucker…
Yeah I’ve actually been meaning to write about the Mosquito Invasion of this country for a while, actually. But there’s not a whole lot people can do besides try to keep the little buggers away and have treatment facilities ready. (Oh yeah, and spray the hell out of everything — which I have mixed feelings about.)
But I digress — No word on the Peace Bill or the Internet Radio Fairness Act 🙂
I’ve created a little site with links to the text of the Bill and more information about how you can let your Reps know NOW how much you care:
Save Internet Radio – Vote Yes On the Internet Radio Fairness Act
Today’s the day to fax a letter to your representative asking them to Vote Yes on the Internet Radio Fairness Act!
This is being voted on tomorrow in the House! Act now guys!
Here’s the letter I’m faxing out.
I’ll have a little site up with more information, like my peace site soon, but I wanted to get this out as soon as possible so you can start sending your own letters to your representatives.
Thanks!
I know I just asked you to send a letter to try and stop this war, but it turns out that an Internet Radio Bill was introduced last week (HR 5469) that is basically the legislation we’ve been waiting for to be introduced, has been!
This six month freeze and call for new rates is basically what I was asking for in the song I wrote to James H. Billington and Marybeth Peters.
This thing gets voted on early this week — making it really important that you fax a letter out to your Representative by Monday morning at the latest!
Thanks for checking it out and spreading the word:
The Rifle Shot
Contact your U.S. Rep NOW! .
This is an experiment…
If you email me at lisarein@finetuning.com with your full name and snail mail address (or even just your name and zip code) with “FAX A LETTER FOR ME PLEASE” in the subject header, I’ll look up your Representative for you and FAX him or her the appropriate letter, depending on whether or not they already support HR 473.
Re: The obvious question — can you trust me to not use this information in some way other than intended?
How about this: I will permanently delete your email (without saving your address anywhere) and will literally burn the letter I’ve faxed over for you in my fireplace afterwards. This will be the default procedure unless you explicitly say not to do so in your email. (It’s just easier that way.)
I’m just trying to help out those folks who might not have a FAX machine handy, who would still like for their voices to be heard by their Representatives (but don’t want to end up on some mailing list either).
Thanks!
So I’ve got all my HR 473 letter-writing stuff all in one place now.
Letters you can send now, links to the actual texts of the opposing Bills, and what will hopefully be a growing list of Congressional Supporters.
As marches start organizing, I’ll try to help get the word out on those too.
(I know there’s one this Saturday in San Francisco, for example, but I need to figure out exactly where…)
Anyway there it is. Feedback is very much appreciated.
Here’s the letter to send if your Reps aren’t yet on this list of supporters for HR 473.