Slashdot Mirror

Oh, that "tiniest amounts" comment was from the same place, and it's really not fair to contrast the two. I just don't doubt he'd use it if it occurred to him. The League of Conservation Voters gives him a 14% rating, and I'm surprised it's that high. Something must have gotten to him: from 1999 to 2004 he scored 0%.

http://capwiz.com/lcv/bio/keyvotes/?id=641&congress=1121&lvl=C

(It has to do with opposition to biodiesel, something environmentalists can't seem to get on the same page on.)

No need to have "10 more wires hanging on poles" or to have your street "dug up 5 different times" just to have multiple providers be able to install their cabling. There's a proposed bill that would mandate that street crews install conduit whenever federal monies are used to dig up streets. If road crews install conduit whenever they dig up the roads, then communications providers don't have to.

If this sounds like a good idea to you, here's the link to email your representatives about it. FWIW, this link comes from the advocacy section of Google's FTTH project.

This bill will create the single largest tax increase in US history. Expect to pay 3x what you do now for electricity if this bill passes. Let your representatives know that you oppose this bill. http://capwiz.com/freedomworks/issues/alert/?alertid=13618876&type=ML

First, you ahve no garuntee you will get paid. second, you ahve no way of knowing if it's fair. You can skew the odds 10% in the houses favor, and no one would notice. probably more.

The persistence of these myths is quite remarkable, and may have something to do with the current legal situation.

As others have pointed out, poker is not a game which is skewed in the house's favor. The house takes a percentage of every pot, called the rake. In poker players play against one another, and while there is a chance element, chance does not favor anyone in the long run. In the long run, the difference in earnings between two players can be attributed to the choices they make. That is why poker is considered a game of skill and many governments have recognized this distinction. Poker is legal in California, for example, because the courts have ruled it to be a game of skill.

What is especially silly about this new legal move is that it rests on very shaky legal ground. The prosecutor has cited the Wire Act, but federal courts have already ruled that the wire act only applies to sports betting. It's also strange timing since the UIGEA which attempts to prevent gambling-related money transfers is scheduled to begin being enforced later this year.

As to the fairness of the games, that could only be ensured and improved with proper regulation. Hopefully the attention brought to this situation by this case will ultimately result in the legality of online poker being clarified. Barney Frank has introduced a bill to legalize and regulate online poker. If this is an issue you support, I urge you to let your congressperson know.

I see that you refused to answer the actual question on this and instead associate it with something I specifically said to you. So what have they said? Lets see, I checked and as far as I can tell, at least from their press releases,

Lets see, the EFF has contacted the copyright office, refused to contact the copyright office, participated in legal cases, filed legal cases and not one mention of lobying congress whatsoever at all.

The American library association has contacted the copyright office and the library of commerce to influence their reports to congress but I can find no mention of them directly lobbying congress. Of course they do have a action commity designed to put you in contact with your senator and representative but their organization seems to be a little shaky. Of course when I select the copyright link in their issues and advocacy page http://capwiz.com/ala/issues/, I get a Page Not Found error.

I could go on but I'm going to assume the rest if about the same. They either release some statement that congress will probably never read or hear of until afterwords or they talking to other groups who will talk to congress. Of course that is like you asking me to make sure someone else knows what you think, I'm only going to do it if is furthers my cause.

What I'm talking about isn't needle dicking around, I'm talking about lobbying congress directly. Of course you probably incorrectly assumed they were already doing this. I'm basing the incorrect part of your ability to incorrectly assume as presented by you Idea that I would have anything to do with a Rand Shrine in the first place and what I gathered from the first two organizations you mentioned. They haven't lobbied congress and I don't think you have a right to get upset over someone else doing so and getting their way when you can't figure out how to lobby them.

I think we're mostly coming from the same page. I'm not as familiar with his record on civil liberties, but googling ACLU ranking managed to show me a ranking of 86% which is somewhere around 6th tied with Ted Kennedy.

I don't know why you have to classify a competent professional diplomat as a scumbag -- I'm sure he defers to experts in the areas he doesn't understand (Tech law) just as I hope Obama defers to him in the case of international disputes -- it's just that his experts aren't very good. As VP, I'm sure Obama will defer to him on those areas and probably follow his own judgement in the other cases -- that's why he won.

I don't know who gave us the idea that it's better that our foreign policy leaders don't know the difference between Sunni and Shi'ite (as McCain does), but didn't we just have 8 years of that? Didn't Clinton's team of experienced politicians actually do pretty well when it came to world affairs compared to Dubya?

I don't know...I guess I figured the presidency is something like 60% domestic, 40% international and for a guy who lacks the relationships with foreign leaders, I feel like he can at least get the 40%.

American Citizens can go here Use Pro H1-B resources to fight against the H1-B Just get rid of the standard title and boiler plate and replace it with the truth - that American Companies should hire Americans and that the H1-B visa is CRAP!

Thanks for finding that.

If you live in IL you can use this link:
http://capwiz.com/ala/il/state/main/?state=IL
To find out who your members in the general assembly are.

This is the person who presented the bill:
http://www.ilga.gov/house/Rep.asp?GA=95&MemberID=1182

And this person is a co-sponsor:
http://www.ilga.gov/house/rep.asp?GA=95&MemberID=1160

Here is the status of the bill:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=4380&GAID=9&DocTypeID=HB&LegID=&SessionID=51&SpecSess=&Session=&GA=95

So how do we organize some letter writing to voice concerns to our representatives?

We should all send email feedback to people in Indiana... Governor http://www.capwiz.com/politicsol/mail/?id=141178&t ype=GV&state=IN Office of Tourism Development http://www.in.gov/tourism/contact/

This current plan to hike royalty rates would be apocalyptic for internet radio. Its retroactive effect alone (back to January 1, 2006) would bankrupt all but the huge players.

Here are some useful sites where you can find out what you can do. If nothing else, contact your congressional representatives and tell them to save internet radio by sponsoring the Internet Radio Equality Act.

http://www.savenetradio.org/
http://www.savenetradio.org/act_now/index.html
http://www3.capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/callalert /index.tt?alertid=9731806

If you want to find your local congress critter, and ping them on the subject, Go here. This link takes you to a nice little cgi app that takes your zip code, and gives you the phone numbers for your house and senate rep's, along with a short script of talking points. If the Internet Radio Equality Act, (S. 1353 in the senate, and H.R. 2060 in the house) can get some sponsors, and get passed, we're all in much better shape.

Does this somehow bypass the abominable licensing dilemma that the RIAA has imposed on online radio?

Go here to protest this bullcrap.

This is a repost of an e-mail I posted in a previous /. thread. I urge everyone to follow the link and get a hold of your local representative. You can read more on their blog, including the following message: http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/

Hi, it's Tim from Pandora,

I'm writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/? alertid=9631541

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I'm no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster's business potential.

I hope you'll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

where is the RIAA mentioned? Where is RIAA's affiliate organization SoundExchange?
im sorry i don't see it. i don't see where this makes any argument from the musician's point of view such as:

"Are you saying that if I don't pay the RIAA the royalty rate to broadcast MY OWN SONGS that is illegal? So I have to pay a fee to, say, air my views on Bush?

How can this be Constitutional?"

look for yourself at the CapWiz "Contact your Congress" link
http://www3.capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/al ert/?alertid=9631541

" As a fan of Internet radio, I was alarmed to learn that the Copyright Royalty Board has decided to raise music royalty rates by 300 to 1200 percent. For most webcasters the new royalties exceed their revenue and they simply will go bankrupt and stop webcasting.

The silencing of Internet radio would be a blow to listeners like me who enjoy the wide variety of choices only available via Internet radio. This will kill the great diversity of music that I hear over the Internet and all the independent artists who have a difficult time breaking through on other forms of radio.

I respectfully request that Congress look into this matter and take action to prevent it. Please understand that time is of the essence since the new royalty rates are retroactive to January 1, 2006 so they will cause immediate bankruptcies if they become effective for even one day. Please don't let the music die. "

then what's up with that date? 2006? it's already happened.
the only thing i see this saying is that webstreamers are paying 300-1200% too much. i don't see a fucking thing about soundexchange or the riaa.

this is exactly what is wrong with these automated email systems. the language is so diluted that the senator writes diluted crap that doesn't ever address the whole issue, or the core issue (theft of non-label/riaa music) at all. i bet the senators don't even know what the fuck is wrong here.

you can do a lot better than "daily kos's version" of this infuriating topic.

do these people even read the text in these fucking email campaigns? i wouldn't sign that shit.
i'd re-write the whole thing from scratch and look up my own representatives. but then there's a lot of lazy motherfuckers out there lately.

just look at the electronic voting machine situation. and the shitty bills and watered down fucking crap proposed. even the current holt bill 811 is fucked right now. does anyone give a shit about anything anymore, you people are going to be so fucked by this. some of us already are fucked by this. i guess in the big scheme it won't matter, because you won't matter.

savenetradio.org has a form up to call your congressperson to get them to co-sponsor the bill.

I realize I'm reposting information already provided, but with all the "op-ed" posts, I want to make sure that people are aware of possible solutions, since the majority of us agree on the topic, rather than only discussion.

Write your state reps:

http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/? alertid=9631541

Find more info:

www.savethestreams.org

Thanks

Internet radio statiosn are generally supported by advertising. They are free for their listeners because of this. Advertisers won't flock to an illegal off-shore service. No money -> no music.

Don't panic, instead DO SOMETHING!

Go here

http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/? alertid=9631541

Tell our elected officials what to do - If enough of us make a fuss they will listen.

Don't let our government KILL Internet Radio

Let your voice be heard. Go here...

http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/? alertid=9631541

This will send a message to your representatives in Washington

Just received, and followed, this e-mail today. I encourage everyone to do the same, as it will send e-mails out to your local representative(s) in the house and senate. I quote:


Hi, it's Tim from Pandora,

I'm writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/? alertid=9631541

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I'm no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster's business potential.

I hope you'll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

Perhaps this has been mentioned before, but there is a very simple online petition that you can participate in (yeah, I know, petitions don't work, but this actually sends letters to your reps). Spread it around. Tell your friends on MySpace, or Facebook, or what have you.

Complain to the government. Write your congressmen and your senators, state and national, and let them know what this means. Then tell your non-geek friends and let them get pissed off too.

Sometimes its hard to believe that companies can get away with things like this, but when it comes to technology most of the country doesn't care enough to come to places like slashdot. Today I was talking to a friend about the evils of DRM, and I mentioned the Sony Rootkit incident and she had never heard of it (and she's not just someone off the street, she's an administrator at a website development/hosting company). If most of the country doesn't know about an issue, its easier to get away with it.

Pandora has a link in their blog to a petition thats been set up, so tell your friends, pass around the link, and use the information on the site to contact your own representatives.

tedivm

HOW TO CONTACT CONGRESS REGARDING CURRENT H-1B CRISIS SITUATION: See available webform to contact your Congressman or Senator here http://capwiz.com/aila2/issues/alert/?alertid=9221 981&type=CO

They might have meant http://www.saveourinternetradio.com/ and http://capwiz.com/congressorg/sbx/f/?aid=9461656&r =1

I think this is an excellent time to point out that you can do your part and join the Digital Freedom Campaign. You can send a letter to congress or just sign the petition.

I live just North of Highlands Ranch (also in the South part of Denver).

I signed up for Yahoo!'s "MegaVote" service which tells me who voted for what, and what the upcoming votes are.

It will be interesting to see how the new electronic machines work out.

C-SPAN has an interactive map that shows you how your reps voted on this issue. The first vote was to send the bill back to committee to reconsider the net neutrality issues. A vote of "yes" means that your rep was concerned about net neutrality. It failed horribly, mainly along party lines (surprised?)

The second vote was whether to pass the bill as-is, which passed by a 3 to 1 margin. A vote of "yes" means that your rep didn't think net neutrality was all that important. However, it's not quite as damning as the first vote since the passage of the bill does make certain markets (cable TV) more competitive.

God I'd love to see the GOPs stranglehold on both houses broken this November. I'm not a Democrat, but it's amazing how dangerously one-sided the federal goverment has become over the past six years.

C-SPAN has an interactive map that shows you how your reps voted on this issue. The first vote was to send the bill back to committee to reconsider the net neutrality issues. A vote of "yes" means that your rep was concerned about net neutrality. It failed horribly, mainly along party lines (surprised?)

The second vote was whether to pass the bill as-is, which passed by a 3 to 1 margin. A vote of "yes" means that your rep didn't think net neutrality was all that important. However, it's not quite as damning as the first vote since the passage of the bill does make certain markets (cable TV) more competitive.

God I'd love to see the GOPs stranglehold on both houses broken this November. I'm not a Democrat, but it's amazing how dangerously one-sided the federal goverment has become over the past six years.

http://capwiz.com/ascp/bio/?id=20004&lvl=F&chamber =P

No matter how you put it, BUSH IS NOT A TEXAN BY BIRTH. Screw what you say otherwise. I dont' see his birth certificate resting in ANY Texas records office.

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
                                          by Rob Sanchez
                              October 21, 2005 No. 1352
---

Today I talked to Roy Beck of NumbersUSA to get some inside information about why the Senate Judiciary approved more H-1B and green card visas. He said the word is out in Washington DC that this was the result of intense lobbying by Microsoft. Last week lobbyists from Microsoft went to every Congressional office to lobby for more visas. Some people on Capitol Hill are actually referring to the Senate proposal as the "Bill Gates" bill.

---

My source for the "Bill Gates Act" is this "Job Destruction Newsletter," sent out to a free e-mail list by Rob Sanchez. Although the Newsletter is archived at his web site:

http://www.zazona.com/

This recent one is not there yet.

Rob got his information from Roy Beck:

http://www.numbersusa.com/index

Prof. Norman Matloff of Univ of Calif.

http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.html

also sent this information out to his free e-mail list.

I consider all of these people reliable and well-informed, in contrast to the pro-industry propaganda found in MSM [Main Stream Media].

I can't suggest stories to /. since they apparently dump all attempted contributions from Win XP users, a bug that is not being addressed currently according to their bug list. - The wrong way to attack Microsoft, IMHO.

I would be grateful if you or someone would attempt to post this info, and even more the following time-critical info [e-mail from Norm Matloff: ]

---

To: programmer mailing list

I urge you to call and express your opinion, pro or con. (Obviously I support Byrd on this issue.)

Yes, CALL. And make sure you talk to someone who handles immigration, NOT whoever answers the phone.

The sample message below is far too complicated. CONGRESS DOESN'T CARE ABOUT REASONING OR LOGIC; all they understand is pressure. Keep your message short, just a couple of sentences. But make sure they understand that you feel STRONGLY about this issue.

Norm

----- Forwarded message from Sandra Gunn

Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2005 13:15:55 -0800 (PST)
From: Sandra Gunn
Reply-To: Sandra Gunn
To: matloff@cs.ucdavis.edu
Subject: URGENT ALERT! Senate Voting Tommorrow on Amdt to Stop Foreign Worker/Immigration Increase

URGENT ALERT FROM FAIR!

Senate Voting Tomorrow on Amendment to Strip Foreign Worker/Immigration Increase from Deficit Reduction Bill

Call your Senators Immediately and Urge a YES Vote for the
Byrd Amendment

THIS JUST IN...Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) has decided to offer an amendment tomorrow to the Deficit Reduction Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 2005 (S. 1932) that will strip out language added by the Judiciary Committee that sells out American workers by expanding employment-based visas, H-1B high tech worker visas and accompanying family members by an estimated 368,000 per year.

PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS IMMEDIATELY AND URGE A YES VOTE FOR THE BYRD AMENDMENT.

This will come up tomorrow, so we have less than 24 hours
to make an impact. If you call during business hours, ask to speak with or leave a message for the legislative assistant handling immigration. If calling after business hours, please leave a message on your senators' voicemail.

Call the Capitol
Switchboard (202-224-3121) and ask to be connected, or find direct phone numbers on our web site at

http://capwiz.com/fair/dbq/officials/

Write to your members of Congress, inform them that you vote and you actively follow the issues that are important to you, and then tell them that if they associate with Jack Thompson, you will vote against them when they are next up for re-election. It might be helpful to include links to Jack's initial offer, and the open letter ending his association with NIMF.

Initial offer and game description:
http://gc.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=5883

NIMF letter:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid= 12259

Be polite, be civil, and be sure to include your full, real name, and your full, real address. Ask for a reply. You'll probably get one.

Believe it or not, members of Congress pay close attention to these things. They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on staff and supplies for constituent relations. I know it's cool to think that only big corporations get things done in Washington, but it's not true. When enough people speak up, they can move the government.

You can be sure that those who agree with Jack are writing letters once a week. Only by matching or beating that can we fight back.

Here's a good site to get started, for free. Find your representative and senators and write today!

http://www3.capwiz.com/y/dbq/officials/

https://ssl.capwiz.com/usatoday/mail/compose/?id=9 482&billid=6036236
send carper a thank you note.
(congressional staffers sort mail into "for and "against" buckets. at the end of the day the buckets are weighed. email doesn't weight much. a brick with a note, expressmailed, has more impact.)

Yes. Carper (and it's not just him - D Senators Landrieau and Almond are in on it, http://www.senate.gov/~landrieu/releases/05/200572 7713.html) swore an oath to uphold the constitution. Carper's been a congressman, governor, and now senator for years, and this is the first time i've seen him violate his oath. But it only takes once. He should resign. If he doesn't, he should be encouraged, politely but unceasingly. Senators are relatively immune when they get caught violating their oath of office. One of the checks and balances of the system is that soldiers and veterans have taken an oath to oppose the enemies of the constitution, foreign and domestic. By continuing to claim the office of senator after violating his oath of office, I personally would consider Carper a domestic enemy of the constitution, who should be actively opposed veterans. For ethical reasons, such opposition should be nonviolent. Perhaps a wave of free online carper-porn would make the point. Perhaps picketing his house would be appropriate. https://ssl.capwiz.com/usatoday/bio/?id=9482&congr ess=1091&lvl=C He lives in wilmington, not sure exact address. Perhaps a national boycott of the democratic party until carper resigns would be the way to go. Each veteran could do something a little different. Realisticly, almost nobody will do anything, but ten people would enough to hound this usurper out of office if they were persistant and clever. Maybe we should just pray for him. Perhaps he's educable.

Anyway, how can Real-ID be "controversial"? Nobody but slashdot readers and "bloggers" even know it exists.

You can respond online by following this link

The Pentagon is located in Washington, D.C. John Kerry won D.C. by a victory margin of 80% over George W. Bush. Not even the red states could boast a Bush margin like that.

You were saying?

just enter your ZIP code

Washingtonpost has an article on the Industry vs. American workers squaring off on this issue. and an article on outsourcing.

BTW, Harriss Miller and the ITAA are the ENEMY on this issue and the IEEE is the good guy. Check out IEEE Legislative action center to help us take action on these issues.

If we make you president will you show up to work?

Most folks with that sort of absenteeism would be in the unemployment line instead of seeking a promotion.

-- Greg

Which is amazing considering that the Patriot Act initially passed with only 66 nay's in the House and only a SINGLE nay in the Senate.

The PPA website (linked in the original message) has a handy tab link to this guide to your elected reps -- drill down appropriately to get addresses, fax numbers, etc.

(Yeah, the info is available elsewhere and probably on .gov sites, but why not use up a little of PPAs bandwidth?)

Well, C-Span has one. You can search by subject, month, member, and vote number. Upon finding the desired bill, it pops up a map that colors states based upon the overall vote, bringing up a vote count by Dem or Rep when your mouse cursor hovers over the state, and upon clicking a state, you can get detailed information, including votes by representative name.

Actually, it's a neat site that I oughtta keep in mind come November.

Sounds great. Now go and write your congressman. That's not a troll, it's probably the only way you or I can help drive the space program in the proper direction. I've already written mine.

Find your reps here

Mars is where we need to go. I agree that NASA does need some goal if they are ever going to do anything useful again but if they're going to set a goal, it should at least set a potentially habitable planet as a goal with the Moon as a sub goal or a proof of concept.

Robert Zubrin, president of Pioneer Astronautics and founder of the Mars Society has called for the mobilization of Mars exploration proponents to write their representatives on the future of post-Columbia NASA. From his announcement: 'This debate will play out over the next six months, and the result could determine the future of the American space program in our generation. Now is the time when anyone who cherishes hopes for a spacefaring future for humanity must step forward and speak up.'

This is happening alongside the recent testimony Zubrin gave to the full Senate Commerce Committee on Oct 29th (audio files here and the .pdf) and the proposed Bill from Congressman Nick Lampson TX to restore Mars as a goal and put NASA on a schedule. Here are a few sample letters if you want to write your congressman.

I would suggest you go down to city hall. Just being there will give you a bit more insight of what it is like. It's kind of like installing a new operating system. You can kind of figure out basically what it is like from pictures you have seen and properties you have read about, but you get a better picture from what is going on from trying it out.

Also, government is a huge hierarchy as you might already know, I guess like a filesystem. So you have your local, state, and country.

Cities
Pretty much all large cities have a website where you can download the city code or get information on various meetings and events that will allow you to get involved. Don't bitch about city decisions unless you don't take the effort to acquaint yourselves with current happenings every month or so. To visit your city website alter the "XX" in the following URL to reflect your state abbreviation (ie. ca - california, ny - new york)

http://www.statelocalgov.net/local-XX.htm

State
Your state government is the accumulation of all local governments within a set boundry. Do the same thing with the following URL as the one above.

http://www.statelocalgov.net/state-XX.htm

National
Here we have all those states to create a national charter of if...then statements governing your way of life. These are ultimate and cannot be evaded by each lesser government (local, state). It should be noted that those smaller governments can choose to enact various further restrictions that they see fit, as long as it does not interfere with the national charter.

Here are two portals for the huge national government.

Library of congress portal - Executive (links to the other two branches of government, Legislative, and Judicial are at top the top.)

Official Federal Gov portal site

A bit more on elections specifically
Relatively recently unveiled on slashdot , Project opengov contains a wealth of information. I would recommend spending much of your time here to acquaint yourselves with the people running your government.

Alternatively, enter your zipcode to get quick summary of who's working for you in government. Project vote-smart

There are a few other good sites, one at the tip of my tongue, it features detailed financial recordings of government election campaigns. I'm sure you have enough data to grok though ;)

Knowledge is power.

to busy saving the Free World, eh?
good thing there already are things like this in place:
http://capwiz.com/afr/home/
i've found it really handy, so far. nice record of how my reps and senators voted.

In a previous article, Sarcasmooo! (267601) pointed out to me the Common Cause Megavote. The megavote is a easy way for people to get notifications via email about how their elected officials have voted and plan to vote on current bills. While its nice to have /. cover stuff it feels is important, there is a great deal more about the governments actions that I want to know about.

Go here and sign up at the bottom of the page.

Patriotism:
Love of and devotion to one's country.

Nationalism:
The belief that nations will benefit from acting independently rather than collectively, emphasizing national rather than international goals.

I love my country which is why I oppose this war and the people who fight it - yes, that means the troops. And before you froth at the mouth and label me a troll, Check this out.

I will be happy to support the wounded on both sides when the fighting stops - but I will not support the systematic murder of thousands of people whether they be Iraqi or American. Murder is still murder whether it be on battlefield or at bus stop.

Register to Vote.