Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 22:27:33 -0700 From: Jim Warren Subject: GovAccess.030: Congr.contacts, CA Govinfo; CA candidates e-resps; + Apr.06, 1994 OLD TRUTH; STILL TRUE - KNOW THIS AND KNOW HOW MUCH ABOUT POLITICAL POWER "Nothing is more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than to see the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and to observe the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. When we enquire by what means this wonder is brought about, we shall find, that as Force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. 'Tis therefore, on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular." -- David Hume, "Of the First Principles of Government," ESSAYS AND TREATISES ON SEVERAL SUBJECTS, 1758 ed. [From: John E Collins ] [This wasn't just a quote. I've found it to be essential insight. --jim] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& THE COALITION FOR PUBLIC INFORMATION GOPHER From SMITHB@STU.ADMIN.USFCA.EDU Sat Mar 19 12:22:20 1994 From: BRAD SMITH This is a coalition of information developers, providers and educators dedicated to ensuring public access and of the evolving electronic information infrastructure in Canada. The Coalition will encourage the development of change strategies and institutional readiness, and provide the public education and awareness, that is required to adapt to tomorrow's information technology paradigms. The Coalition will provide a mechanism for public input, debate and education concerning the developing information highway. This is a new site and there's not much here yet, but worth watching. Type=1 Name=Coalition for Public Information Gopher Path= Host=resudox.net Port=1994 URL: gopher://resudox.net:1994/1 &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& HOW TO DISCOVER THE U.S. HOUSE & SENATE GOPHERS & ONE SENATE E-ADDR In the April issue of PC Computing, John Dvorak's column describes a Senate Bill, supposedly introduced by Senator Leahy and co-sponsored by Sen. Kennedy, to keep people from being intoxicated on the information highway. The column is an April Fools hoax and I'm sure plenty of people will find it amusing (see below). Unfortunately there are also people that are actually believing it to be true. Our office has recieved several calls from outraged constituents and I understand Leahy's staff has as well. I originally received the article via e-mail, and I understand that the on-line rumors are flying leading some people to learn about it without the benefit of the actual article (which when read closely, reveals the hoax). Congress has taken some great forwards steps recently, particularly through the availability of the Senate and House gophers (gopher.senate.gov, gopher.house.gov) and it would be unfortunate if people weren't aware of them. I share this with ACE in hopes that you can help quash any of these on-line rumors if you see them. Feel free to put people in touch with me if they'd like to hear more about what's happening in the cyber-Capitol :-) Thanks for any help. I enjoy April Fools gags, but a lot of folks just aren't getting this one! --- Chris Casey chris_casey@kennedy.senate.gov Office of Senator Kennedy 202/224-3570 Washington DC 20510 &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& LET'S *ALL* ASK HOW TO ACCESS THE HOUSE E-MAIL SYSTEM Numerous people are asking me to publish the e-mail addresses of the federal and/or state legislators who have 'em. I'd love to, and am doing so as I stumble across 'em. In the meantime, tharper22@aol.com on Mon Mar 21 18:28:32 1994 sent the following message to: comments@hr.house.gov Please send info about the House Electronic Mail system. Maybe each of us will have to ask individually, until we pry the e-addrs of the citizens' elected representatives out of their cold dead fingers (as the saying goes). &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& HAVE ALL U.S. HOUSE & SENATE PHONE & FAX NUMBERS, ETC. WILL U ARCHIVE IT? Thanks to tarbaby@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Alexander Resnevics), I now have a 580-line file of all Congressional representatives, along with their alleged voice- and fax-phone numbers, states and those ever-so-important political party affiliations. But, I don't really want to inflict that large a file on all the GovAccess list. If you have a public ftp archive site and are willin' to store the file, request a copy, and then send *exact* [i.e., "dummy's"] instructions on how to at least ftp it from your location, that I can repost to GovAccess. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& HOW TO ASSURE TRUTH IN CORPORATE STATEMENTS From: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (David Farber) One FCC staffer said this "Washington/Wall Street shuffle" ruins cable lobbyists' credibility, because regulators presume the financial audience is being told the truth. "There are no laws against lying to public officials, but there are laws against lying to the securities industry," the staffer said. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& CALIF GOVT-INFO "TOWN HALL" DISCUSSION-LIST Date: Thu, 10 Mar 94 16:53:37 PST [reformatted for GovAccess --jim] From: kec@stubbs.ucop.edu (Karen Coyle) [The delay in posting this to GovAccess is my fault; not Karen's. --jim, the swamped-creature] Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, and other friends and allies have begun a public discussion list that can serve as a "town hall" for discussing, debating and analyzing issues relating to the development of California's government information network. The passage of AB1624 (Debra Bowen, D-Marina Del Rey) in 1993 was the first legislative effort to put public government information online in the state of California. There are a number of bills in the legislature today that would expand that access. One is AB2451 sponsored by Oakland Assemblyman Tom Bates. The organizing and public education effort led by Jim Warren over the Internet showed that netizens are interested in bringing government information on-line and are effective lobbyists on this issue. If you wish to participate in the continuing efforts to get California online, subscribe to the list calgovinfo@cspr.org. To do so, send the following email message: SUBSCRIBE CALGOVINFO Firstname Lastname to: listserv@cpsr.org where Firstname is your first name and Lastname is your last name. For more information about listserv commands and access to files via email, send the email message: HELP to: listserv@cpsr.org. Make sure listserv commands do not get sent in email messages that have subject lines which resemble error messages. These are rejected. To send a message to the calgovinfo mailing list to be sent to the other recipients, mail to: calgovinfo@cpsr.org . The list is currently un-moderated and public; please don't send administrative commands and requests to the list itself. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& ONLY JOHN GARAMENDI & TONY MILLER FILE "COMPLETE" CAMPAIGN-FINANCE DISCLOSURES As of 4/1, the only statewide candidates who have voluntarily filed their campaign-disclosure statements in *digital* form are Gov. candidate John Garamendi and Secy of State candidate Tony Miller -- currently the Acting Secretary of State. And, gtotten@bna.com (Glenn Totten) reports that Garamendi's diskette can be provided in WordPerfect 5.1, WP 6.0, or ASCII formats. Call Caren Daniels-Meade or Shirley Washington at (916)445-6375. FLAMBEAU THE FRONT-RUNNERS (& THE BACK-RUNNER, TOO!) [has adds & corrections] Modern California Gubernatorial candidates: Tom Hayden Campaign, 2150 Capitol Ave #220, Sacramento CA 95816 EMAIL/reform94@delphi.com ; fax/916-446-9807; voice/916-446-9802 [In an earlier post, I listed this incorrectly as 94reform. Tsk!] Kathleen Brown Campaign, 12233 W. Olympic Blvd.#180, Los Angeles CA 90064 EMAIL?/katbrown@netcom.com ; fax/310-207-7610; voice/310-207-7600 [Please see the following item; flame - and vote? - accordingly.] Quaintly-connected California Gubernatorial candidate: *John Garamendi Campaign, 9000 Sunset Blvd.#400, Los Angeles CA 90069 voice/310-205-5480; fax/916-446-7619 Pete Wilson Campaign, 1020 12th St. #300, Sacramento CA 95814 fax/916-552-6474; voice/916-565-1994 *-Garmendi is only gubnatorial candidate who has volunteered full disclosures in *modern*, digital format - available from the Secy of State's office. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& CALIF GOV CANDIDATE KATHLEEN BROWN'S SEMINULL-RESPONSE TO EMAIL [She's even worse than me! (But then again, I don't have staff.) --jim] Received this from a netcreature, 3/10. It appears that K.Brown is much more interested in giving us her words than receiving our words. Noteworthy [un]responsiveness when it comes time for someone to receive our votes. Sent a message to katbrowm@netcom.com, and this is what I got for my trouble: FORWARDED MAIL ------- From: witch!netcom.com!katbrown (Brown for Governor) Date: 09 Mar 94 Originally To: <>@netpros.win.net Our auto-mailer was not able to process your subject line. At this time, we can not individually answer any mail that comes to this account. If you have questions or comments, please write: Kathleen Brown for Governor 12233 W. Olympic Blvd Suite 180 Los Angeles, CA 90064 or Call: (310)-207-7600 For information on Kathleen Brown's campaign for Governor of California, you can ftp to ftp.netcom.com. The material is in /pub/katbrown. Material formatted for WordPerfect can be found in /pub/katbrown/wp21. If you do not have access to ftp, send an e-mail to katbrown@netcom.com with the subject "send index" for a list of material you can receive. If you are having technical difficulties with this account, send a message to the above address with the subject line "problem". Thank You. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& STATE LEGISLATIVE INDICES EXIST; ARE NEEDED, ONLINE From: bbonner@electriciti.com (Brian A. Bonner) Mon Mar 21 18:15:10 1994 Organization: ElectriCiti, San Diego, CA, USA There are 2 documents prepared by the Legislative Counsel that should be on the Internet: -- Table of Sections Affected. This document identifies the various code sections affected by pending legislation. --Legislative Index. This document identifies by subject what legislation has been introduced. Access via Internet would greatly improve the ability of individuals to identify legislation of interest to them. [The Legislative Counsel is the legal advisor to the legislators and their staff. Also the operator of Calif's Legislative Data Center. --jim] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& GUIDE TO ONLINE ACCESS OF CALIFORNIA LEGISLATIVE INFO NOW AVAILABLE IN ASCII I'm told that the Guide to how to access California's LegInfo system is now available in ASCII format. The file name is README public_access_guide_txt . Ftp to leginfo.public.ca.gov to get it (assuming, of course, that you know how use Internet ftp). &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& LEGISLATIVE JOINT RESOLUTIONS [not on leginfo.public.ca.gov ??] From TSHAPIN@biivax.dp.BECKMAN.COM Mon Mar 28 22:02:30 1994 From: Ted Shapin RE 3/7 query: I can't find senate joint resoutions on the Calif. ftp archive. Do you know where they are? You might try gophering or ftping sen.ca.gov. --jim I found them they are in the first senate bill subdirectory. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& A FAIR STATEMENT [correcting(?) a GovAccess.027 datum from a reference-desk] From fair@apple.com Mon Mar 14 18:51:44 1994 From: "Erik E. Fair" (Your Friendly Postmaster) The last time I checked, there were 435 reps in the House, not 535... [There are 535 including the 100 Senators - who are *not* in the House. :-) ] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& [OFF TOPIC, BUT...] WARNING RE SENDING CREDIT-CARD NUMBERS ACROSS THE NET There are, from time to time, offers over the nets of products or services, for which credit-card numbers are solicited. For the net-naive: It is UNWISE to send your credit-card details over the net, "in the clear" - that is, not encrypted by an agreed-upon scrambling mechanism. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& "Grassroots grow into lawns." [from d.wiesner@genie.geis.com] Mo' as it Is. --jim Jim Warren, columnist for MicroTimes, Government Technology, BoardWatch, etc. 345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/415-851-2814 >To join or drop the GovAccess list, email to jwarren@well.sf.ca.us .<< >Permission herewith granted for unlimited reposting and recirculation.<<