a waste in any case

Posted Feb 1, 2006 14:02 UTC (Wed) by jhardin (guest, #3297)
In reply to: a waste in any case by cventers
Parent article: iPods for Senators

> May I ask what makes you think that?

I agree, and what makes me think that is the following:

1) the iPod won't be a gift from a close family member.

2) the iPod will be received as part of a broad, planned lobbying (yes, it *is* lobbying) effort.

That reduces the "purity" of it, and destroys the subtlety of the strategy.

If you want to do this, then get together a group of people from *your own district*, buy it yourself, load it with music (perhaps the project might publish a suggested playlist), and give it to your senator/representative *directly*. *Then* they might pay attention to it the way you want and it might have some positive impact, and it will be a little less likely to be dismissed as some fringe group trying to buy political favor.

It's the press, not the present

Posted Feb 1, 2006 18:30 UTC (Wed) by Max.Hyre (subscriber, #1054) [Link]

We want it to be exactly as proposed.

Yes, the gifts might be rejected for being over-limit, but, IIRC, the President can keep stuff (and it can be pretty impressive stuff when given by another head of state) by accepting it for the American People, and leaving it behind when leaving office.

Yes it might be given to a staffer.

Yes, a couple of dozen may already have come from other directions.

Yes, we could give them to our individual congresscritters.

But, all that is immaterial. It's being done by a cute little organization of copyright geeks (sorry, that's how the media will see us), and it's notably original---not a trip to Hawaii or something. That means we can get onto the press's radar screen, even if only for a thirty-second sound bite, and that's a Good Thing.

If that bite is snappy enough, one which might arouse some folks curiosity, we're way, waaay ahead of the game.

Don't kill it by the death of a thousand cuts; either donate or at least don't discourage others. This is precisely the sort of thing that gets people noticed, and heaven knows we need to be noticed.