My Congressman is Danny Davis. It appears that he has not announced a position. I left a polite message asking him to vote against SOPA.
My two Senators are Mark Kirk and Richard Durbin. Kirk has come out against PIPA. Bully for him. I contacted his office and registered my approval.
I called Sen. Durbin’s office, and the person on the phone gave a well-rehearsed explanation of why the Senator supports PIPA.
I suggest that Illinois residents continue to call Sen. Durbin, and if possible have good reasons why PIPA is no good.
He may shift if the volume of contacts is large enough.
Keep working on this, please.
Update: I note that this issue seems to be a genuine example of Left / Right opposition to a naked power grab by one element of the Politico-Big Business Complex.
It is similar to the sliver of overlap on the Venn Diagram between the Tea Party and the Occupy movement: The one thing everyone who is not already an insider is opposed to is Crony Capitalism. See this post.
Does the Main Adversary at last come into view?
One can hope.
Does anyone else find it intriguing to watch how the ability to focus attention via communication has so enabled a population to call its representatives to task? Converse of Orwell’s thesis in “1984”, technology has not only provided a means of watching Big Brother, but of organizing warnings to the elected Big Brother.
I have found that Durbin’s stances on pretty much everything is diametrically opposed to everything I hold dear. I’m not sure what I can possibly say that would change his stance on, well, anything.
True story – when the Porkbusters campaign was taking root, I wrote an actual snail mail letter to Durbin, pointing out specific pork projects in Illinois that could be cut (Illinois apparently has hundreds of miles of federally-funded bike paths).
His office’s response? A profoundly poorly written letter (seriously, it might have composed via a game of MadLibs) that completely ignored the issue, and for two pages just kept repeating “tax the rich” in various phrasings.
“Does anyone else find it intriguing to watch how the ability to focus attention via communication has so enabled a population to call its representatives to task? Converse of Orwell’s thesis in “1984”³, technology has not only provided a means of watching Big Brother, but of organizing warnings to the elected Big Brother.”
Almost exactly why they want these bills or something like them. If they can call you a terrorist … it’s over.
I did last week, via email. Today I got an email back from Congressman Sarbanes:
“…In particular, I believe the legislation, as written, is overly broad and could place unintended limits on free speech and threaten legitimate web sites. As this legislation proceeds, it will be critical that we settle on a policy that strikes the right balance between the protection of online intellectual property and the promotion of an open and free internet….”
Thank you, Mr. Sarbanes. I agree, when you feel strongly about an issue and want your voice heard, write your representative and Senators. That’s why they’re there. I’ve been doing it for years and you’ll be surprised at how often you’ll get a reply.
…Not to mention the trashing of due process – heard on the radio this afternoon that Congress has either abandoned this or shelved it – they got a deluge of protests yesterday –