Re: No money for health care, or food but for a laptop we got it

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

By the way, I should state that I am trying to be
nonpartisan. I will be happy to pass on (and have in the
past) such deep comments by Gore, Clinton , Dole etc


Dave


Date: Thu, 5 Jan 1995 18:24:22 -0800 (PST)
From: "Brock N. Meeks" <brock@well.sf.ca.us>
To: David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>
cc: interesting-people mailing list <interesting-people@eff.org>


Newt also lauded the fact that "Americans" can now participate in the
legislative process, instead of merely the "Washington elite."


He said he was looking forward to hearing from the "wealth of great
minds" that are on the Internet.


Small Catch Mr. Speaker:  Only a paltry handful of Congressmen have links
to the Internet themselves.


How then, I asked him, during the press conference, are you and the rest
of the legislators going to be able to tap into this wealth of ideas that
you expect to come streaming forth?


Are you implying that legislators (read: staff aides) going to actively
monitoring and interacting with all these knowledgable Americans?


"Well, you have to realize there are indeed time constraints... this is
very much a work in progress..." he said.


Translation:  He talks a good game, but "the vision thing" doesn't get
you squat.


Another question:  "What are you going to do when the 'average joe'
starts to read the full text of these bills and decides they are really
written in a foreign language because they are so dense and arcane?  Do
you propose to reform the language of the bills, making them readable by
people other than lawyers?"


Newt:  "We'll look at getting 'resource materials' online as well."


Great, now we'll need a "Congress-to-English" dictionary.  Maybe he can
ask the Ways and Means Committee to fund it...


Brock Meeks
CyberWire Dispatch