[Cialug] no more UPS needed

[Barry Von Ahsen]

Nathan Stien wrote:
>> Similarly, lobbies that are advocating for issues and products that
>> are truly in our interest (and not just for someone's pocketbook) are
>> strengthened when we speak up.
> 
> The lobbies that are in the general interest will always be inherently
> less powerful than highly concentrated special interests.
> 
> For example, look at sugar protectionism.

or the PTC (parents television council).  they're the ones that write 
all of the letters to the FTC that take the good stuff off of the TV :)

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20041207-4442.html

quote:
[the FCC] said it received 159 complaints against Married by America, 
which featured strippers partly obscured by pixilation. But when asked, 
the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau said it could find only 90 complaints from 
23 individuals. ...  “All but four of the complaints were identical…and 
only one complainant professed even to have watched the program,” Fox said.

so one person got a bunch of like-minded to fill out a form letter, 
which led, at the time, to the largest fine ever.

I do like the PTC for one reason, they're pushing the hardest for a la 
carte cable, so they don't have to pay for the "smutty" channels

> Obviously, the text of the Evil Lobby Co. legislation won't say
> "transfer a bunch of money from everyone to just a small group".  It
> will couch it in patriotic, populist language that makes it seem like
> it's in the general interest.  "Industry X needs help to compete with
> foreign devils" or something like that.  The deceptive language will
> play on popular misconceptions about politics and economics.  That
> will bring in a horde of well-meaning voters who don't know what
> they're doing.  They will go home with their "I Voted" stickers and
> feel warm and fuzzy about it, thinking they helped save some jobs or
> something.
> 

no, they can call it the "transfer a bunch of money from everyone to 
just a small group" act, they'll just need to attach it to the "money 
for freedom, orphans and puppies bill" (Real ID, Iowa Rain Forests, 
etc), or have it debated on Christmas Eve (Federal reserve act)

-barry