Thursday, March 30, 2006

It takes more than luck...

Watched 'Good Night, And Good Luck' last night. It was an interesting movie. Unique cinematography for sure.

It was a story that I wasn't familiar with too. I really didn't know much about Edward R. Murrow - which isn't too good for someone who spent time in the journalism world.

Anyway, it was good, but I found the departure from normal storytelling to be a bit distracting. It might have been my mood though. I had a lot on my mind, so I wasn't into giving a movie a big effort.

One thing it did do was rile me up a bit. So, today I began working down the list of Senators and started calling them all.

Interesting thing to know about the U.S. Senate switchboard...it is pretty wonky on the connection front. If you do some calling, you'll see what I mean. Think you're calling Gordon Smith (R. - Oregon)? Nah, you're getting John Sununu (R. - N.H.). Calling Biden? Naw...wouldn't you rather talk to Bayh?

Sort of figures that the government would even screw up it's own phone calls, doesn't it? Maybe there should be an entire agency created to oversee it. And in another 10 years, we can create another agency to oversee the first agency. Or, if the Republicans stay in power, maybe we can create two agencies to oversee the first. Think of the jobs it would create.

Another interesting thing to know. If you call a bunch of Senators' offices to tell them you support censuring the President, the Democrats' staffers will politely take down the information and promise to pass it along to the Senator while a good percentage of the Republicans will politely tell you to fuck off and call your own Senator. Not surprising really. Is it just partisan support for the President, or inherent rudeness and disregard for other's opinions manifesting itself? I offer no answer to that although you can likely guess my opinion.

Yeah, well...I called about 20 Senators today. That made me feel fairly civic minded. At least I know that at least I made some effort to make myself heard. I'll try some more later. I don't know if I'll call all of them, but maybe that would be a worthy goal.

Last week I watched 'V For Vendetta'...good thing that's not what spurred me to action, eh?

6 comments:

The Zombieslayer said...

Shawn - I have an assignment for you. I need you to review V for Vendetta. Would I like it? Keep in mind, I'm buying 3 tickets, which is $27. That's more than the price of a lap dance.

The Zombieslayer said...

Speaking of Senators, Boxer writes me back. She's written me back for over 15 years now. I don't know her personally, but the guy I used to be politically active with in the early 90s knew her before she was a Senator.

Doubt she'd remember him, it was a long time ago, but she's actually a pretty cool person, even though politically she and I are very much different. She used to be pretty cute too.

Shawn said...

Z-slayer - That's a tough one. I enjoyed it, but I didn't think it was super awesome. It made me think and there were a lot of parallels to today's climate. Plus Natalie Portman is really cute and deserving of a spot in the Zombie compound...that will always skew a movie for me.

D-back Dad did a really good review on his blog that's definitely worth a read if you're trying to decide. For me, it's one of those movies that could really go either way for people.

ZS (part two) - I can respect people who are cool even if I don't agree with them politically. I might not vote for them, but I respect them. Cool people are far too rare in politics.

Laura said...

Another thing to keep in mind is that it is remarkably easy to get a meeting with a Senator's staff to discuss an issue in person... I respect Feingold for standing up. I wish my two senators would do more of that. Not that they're party-locksteppers by any stretch, but still, it'd be nice to have some more independent thinkers.

Shawn said...

L - I'm a bit of a snob...I always want to talk right to the Senator. Screw the staff! But when it comes to phone calls, it's more of a 'put a check in the yes or no column' kind of deal.

At least the Senate isn't as ridiculous as the House when it comes to doing some actual...you know...work.

The Zombieslayer said...

Shawn - I assure you, Ms Portman will be in the anti-zombie compound when the plague hits. She was probably one of the first ten.