Internet Used To Keep House Of Reps. Broadcasting After Closure
from the don't-stop-us-now dept
If you watch the way Congress acts some of the time, you could easily mistake them for kindergartners at times, with the way they have petty grievances and blow attacks on each other totally out of proportion. Both parties engage in these silly petty spats from time to time, so this is hardly a partisan thing -- though, fans of each party tend to highlight it when the other party acts this way, and ignore it or brush it off when their own party does. Belonging to neither party, and not liking either party, I have no horse in this race, but do find what happened on Friday in the House interesting. For the sake of keeping this from being a partisan post, I'll leave out the party names, though I'm sure in the comments partisans of either side will be sure to make it clear how evil the other one is.Anyway, one party wanted to discuss some new energy legislation and the other did not. The party that did not, decided to adjourn and shut down the House for summer "vacation" (which is usually more like "go back to my district and campaign to be re-elected" time). Some members of the other party, though, chose to stick around, even though the lights and microphones were turned off and the C-SPAN broadcast was turned off. Not only that, but they continued making speeches about the energy bill and "broadcasting" what was going on using social media tools like Twitter and Qik. Much of this campaign was led by noted early adopter Rep. John Culberson, who has been fighting hard to make such tools acceptable in the House (though, all too often in a highly partisan manner).
Either way, no matter which party you support (or if you support neither), it is cool to see Representatives learning to make use of these tools to better connect with constituents and (sometimes) to route around some of the petty rules used to shut down debate. Now, if we could just figure out a way to get each side to stop playing silly games, while then getting each side to stop automatically blaming the other for shutting off debate (when they would do the exact same thing if roles were reversed), we might actually get somewhere. Unfortunately, I know of no such technology that's likely to do that any time soon.
![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: congress, house of representatives, john culberson, partisan politics, social networks
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Business as usual
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Oh Man!!
As a democrat, even I feel like they mishandled this situation. Why are our representatives so damn immature?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Oh Man!!
Even if it did take 7+ years to see any of that oil hit the market, it will hit. In 7yrs we will benefit. If we never start because it may take X years, we will never see any help. Alternative energy is going to take quite a while too don't forget.
Working on both oil/gas exploration and pursuing alternative energy is the best way to go. We are covered either way. Besides, oil is used for a lot more things than just gasoline/diesel fuel. We will still have need of those things. This shouldn't be a partisan issue.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Oh Man!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Oh Man!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Oh Man!!
Years ago the Democrats were crowing about how Brazil became less dependent on foreign oil... guess how Brazil did that?
By opening up their shorelines and streamlining the process. Just like we should do.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Oh Man!!
Besides, as others have pointed out, the fact that new drilling will considerably drop the futures price on a barrel of oil, which is essentially a hedged bet on what the future price will be. If new production is guaranteed to be added, it pays to bet lower.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Oh Man!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Oh Man!!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I know of one, they call it Revolution.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: JD Smith
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So Lets do it NOW?
Imagine if the energy policy of 2001 had been passed that included the above. Just where we would be today?
So Dan you are saying we should never drill the 2 above areas?
I'm gona try to keep the current car I have for 5 more years, it would be nice to fill it from ANWR (as it's properly referenced)gas in five years.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: So Lets do it NOW?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: So Lets do it NOW?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: So Lets do it NOW?
Anyway, what about when the Carter administration started the Synthetic Fuels Corporation to develop alternative energy back in 1980, only to have it shut down by the Reagan administration just five years later? We could be completely energy independent now, if not for past shortsightedness, which drilling in ANWR and off the coast is. We don't need oil, we need alternatives.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: So Lets do it NOW?
The answer, of course, is we should pursue BOTH. In fact, in comparison, drilling is the short term solution.
If you want to be really pragmatic, we should have been using a lot more nuclear the whole time. The environmental impact is lower than anything else on the table.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: So Lets do it NOW?
And what, exactly, do you propose we do while we're waiting on those alternatives?
Or is someone going to wave a magic wand and suddenly we'll have alternative energy?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: So Lets do it NOW?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I like it when...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I like it when...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
idiocy
But they want to make the Debate about where they are not allowed to drill, not what they are refusing to drill.
I'd think before we make a big deal about areas that are under protection, lets make the most of what we have in place, which can hit the market quickly. Any money or effort beyond that need to be concentrated on getting us less dependent on oil, not drilling the last few areas that exist.
As for congress, fire them all.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: idiocy
That's why all the talk by dems about "use it or lose it" a few weeks ago was so silly. That's ALREADY the state of affairs.
More generally, it's never really not in the oil companies interest to NOT drill for oil if it can be brought up cheaper than it can be sold. US oil companies only account for a small percentage of world supply, so it's not as if they themselves can create artificial scarcity.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: idiocy
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Technology to the rescue
Electric shock collars installed on all the politicians
and operated via public access web page would be a good
start.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Technology to the rescue
Oh. Huh. You know, maybe it's not such a bad idea after all...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Technology to the rescue
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Throw them all out
That's easy throw their asses out of office and remove all recognition of political parties from the ballots, and try our best to remove them from our media and thinking habits.
If we force our representives to run on their own merits and ideas our country would be much better. Right now the only motivation our leaders have is to get as many of their party-mates into office at any cost, so they themselves can remain in power.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
about techdirt articles
this is jack
actually techdirt articles are in general rare and it is not upto its marking
============================
jackjill
Flat Fee MLS
[ link to this | view in chronology ]