Two years ago President Obama set up a very cool system where anyone one can post petitions on the white house's website and if they can get 100,000 people to support the petition online then President will issue an official response. Its a very cool way to bring a little attention to an issue. So far the white house has made 120 official responses to petitions.
One that I just recently supported is a petition to allow Tesla Motors to sell cars directly to consumers across the country. Car dealerships are putting up legal fights to prevent Tesla from selling direct to consumers. The petition just recently topped 100,000 so the white house will respond but the more the merrier so go out and support it as well, it is as easy as liking something on facebook.
The official response to a number of petitions opposing the Westboro Baptist Church (the group that protests funerals) just came out. The response didn't say all that much other than "we don't like them either" and "we can't comment on certain matters". I suppose it is a good example of where a petition can't do much because the white house actually can't do that much.
The petition system is nice because it is a little bit of a gamble for the President. I'm sure the President doesn't want to discuss pardoning Eric Snowden. I wonder if it would ever be used by the Republicans against the President, by flash mobbing the system with something super conservative that sounds great with a quick one liner but is really a much more complicated issue, like "Flat Tax". I kind of wish the Democrats had done something like that to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's "YouCut" website, we could have put in "Cut Oil Company Subsidies".
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
My State Reps
In my county we are lucky to have two state representatives. I really like our two state reps, Mitzi Johnson and Bob Krebs. They are very open to talking with constituents so I thought I'd look up their voting records for the year. The state has a pretty good searchable database so I did some research and this is what I came up with:
They mostly voted the way I would expect/hope but there were a few surprises. Bob voted against the marijuana decriminalization bill, the Public Pre-K bill, and Campaign Finance bill.
Don't really care about the marijuana bill, though I'm glad it passed and I would have voted for it. But the other two bills didn't pass (they did pass the House just not the Senate), and they are two bills I do care about quite a bit. I'll follow up with Bob and get his take, I'm sure he'd be glad to talk.
I'm also bummed the GMO bill didn't pass but both my reps voted for it.
Later, I'll try to do the same for my state senator, Dick Mazza as well.
Bill
|
Topic
|
Mitzi
Johnson
|
Bob Krebs
|
Status
|
H99
|
Equal Pay
|
Yea
|
Yea
|
Enacted
|
H520
|
Greenhouse
Gas Reduction
|
Yea
|
Yea
|
Enacted
|
H530
|
Budget
Bill
|
Yea
|
Yea
|
Enacted
|
H200
|
Decriminalization
of Marijuana
|
Yea
|
Nay
|
Enacted
|
H536
|
Sexual Harassment in National Guard
|
Yea
|
Yea
|
Enacted
|
S14
|
Unions
|
Nay
|
Nay
|
Enacted
|
H270
|
Public
Pre-K Education
|
Yea
|
Nay
|
Stalled
after House
|
S77
|
End of
Life Choice
|
Yea
|
Yea
|
Enacted
|
S59
|
Unions
|
Yea
|
Yea
|
Enacted
|
S38
|
Drivers'
Licenses for Illegal Immigrants
|
Yea
|
Yea
|
Enacted
|
S7
|
Social
Network Privacy and Patent Law
|
Yea
|
Yea
|
Enacted
|
S81
|
Poison
Flame Retardant
|
Yea
|
Yea
|
Enacted
|
S82
|
Campaign
Finance Reform
|
Yea
|
Nay
|
Stalled
after House
|
s152
|
Health
Care Reform
|
Yea
|
Yea
|
Enacted
|
H112
|
GMO
Labeling
|
Yea
|
Yea
|
No Senate
Action
|
S129
|
Workers'
Comp
|
Yea
|
Yea
|
Stalled
after House
|
They mostly voted the way I would expect/hope but there were a few surprises. Bob voted against the marijuana decriminalization bill, the Public Pre-K bill, and Campaign Finance bill.
Don't really care about the marijuana bill, though I'm glad it passed and I would have voted for it. But the other two bills didn't pass (they did pass the House just not the Senate), and they are two bills I do care about quite a bit. I'll follow up with Bob and get his take, I'm sure he'd be glad to talk.
I'm also bummed the GMO bill didn't pass but both my reps voted for it.
Later, I'll try to do the same for my state senator, Dick Mazza as well.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Acts and Resolutions
So tonight I thought I'd research some bills introduced in the Vermont General Assembly. But I got side tracked when the search page had the option of searching Acts or searching Resolutions. What is the difference?
So it turns out Acts are the real deal law making that we know about. Resolutions are cute little things that say things like "Congratulations Essex High School for winning the division III badminton state championship!" and then they make the Secretary of State mail of copy of the resolution to the congratulatee. They don't have to be passed, they are just sort of approved.
This only applies for Vermont, for the Federal Congress resolutions are just another type of bill but they still have to get voted on and signed by the President. US Senators and Representatives have to just congratulate people on the floor of the floor during a speech.
Just something to know.
So it turns out Acts are the real deal law making that we know about. Resolutions are cute little things that say things like "Congratulations Essex High School for winning the division III badminton state championship!" and then they make the Secretary of State mail of copy of the resolution to the congratulatee. They don't have to be passed, they are just sort of approved.
This only applies for Vermont, for the Federal Congress resolutions are just another type of bill but they still have to get voted on and signed by the President. US Senators and Representatives have to just congratulate people on the floor of the floor during a speech.
Just something to know.
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