[thechat] Senators Introduce Junk E-Mail Bill

[Judah McAuley]

David Wagner wrote:
> Madhu quoted:
>> The bill, sponsored by Montana Republican Sen. Conrad Burns and Oregon
>> Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, takes aim at a popular spam tactic by requiring
>> Internet marketers to provide legitimate return addresses on their
> messages.
> 
> 
> w00t!
> 
> Wyden's always kind of annoyed me, but he's stood behind a few pretty solid
> things.
> 
> And he's better than his freakishly conservative counterpart, Elephant Sen.
> Gordon Smith (who in previous years has seemed to take quite a bit of pride
> in his subtle and evil manipulation of Oregon voters.)
> 
> Of course, this bill is years behind and ridiculously small in scope.
> 
> "Too little, too late" -- it's what politics vs. the Internet is all about.

Smith is not that bad.  I mean, I don't agree with him most of the time, 
because he is a republican and we have idealogical differences.  But he 
works with Wyden a great deal of the time on legislation beneficial to 
Oregon and he was the primary person responsible for blocking drilling 
in the Arctic National Wildlife Refugue.  He also helped push through 
wilderness designation for Opal Creek.  And while he voted to block 
Oregon's Death with Dignity statute, that was because of strongly held 
personal beliefs.  I didn't vote for the guy, but I understand that 
sometimes you have to vote your conscience instead of following the 
majority of your constituents.  We've had a tradtion of legislators 
doing actual "leading" as well as following the will of the voters. 
Witness Senator Morse who was a Republican and cast one of only two 
votes against the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.  You have to go with your 
deeply held beliefs sometimes.  There are a number of people in Oregon 
I'd vote for over Smith in an election, but he is certainly one of the 
more reasonable and decent Republicans in Congress.

Wyden, on the other hand, is more of a weasel in my opinion.  That's 
probably because I expect more of Democrats.  Silly of me, I know, but a 
nasty habit left over from when I was under the illusion that we had a 
two party system in this country.

Judah