From owner-govaccess@well.com Fri Jan 5 17:37:48 1996 Received: from well.com (majordom@well.com [206.15.64.10]) by eff.org (8.6.12/8.6.6) with ESMTP id RAA21741; Fri, 5 Jan 1996 17:37:47 -0800 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by well.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) id MAA10394 for govaccess-outbound; Fri, 5 Jan 1996 12:26:15 -0800 Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 12:25:23 -0800 To: GovAccess@well.com From: jwarren@well.com (Jim Warren) Subject: GovAccess.240: fed budget; telco deform; CQ; govnews; FOIA; ... Sender: owner-govaccess@well.com Precedence: bulk Status: RO GRAVITT, anyone? Sorry to bother you with administrivia, but I've been trying to track down bounces from mgrav81666@aol.com for months. AOL finally told me that "Mason Gravitt" apparently had his email forwarded to that address - that has now been cancelled. But I can't find the address from which he was forwarding. Help? --jim CONTENTS Home Cookin' -- Federal Budget Simulators on the Web Compilation of All Federal Agency Budget Requests Submitted to Congress Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking -- The National Debt Clock Community Networking Information Wesbiste The Telecom Reform Yo-Yo [obsolete information -- more than an hour old] MIT Professor Addresses Telecom "Reform" Act Problems, Dangers Where's Clinton's Anti-Trust Div'n re Telco Cartel's ISDN Ripoff Plans? Congressional Quarterly Launches American Voter '96 Usenet Newsgroups May Establish "govnews" Hierarchy; U.K. Has Political Sites Freedom-of-Information Act *Requests* Used as Surveillance Tool Minnesota E-Democracy Offers Nonpartisan Online Activism Website Another Side of Oregon's Senatorial Race (for the ex-Sinator's seat :-) Online Activism Cranks Up to Oppose Illinois' Henry Hyde About Gingrich -- Good and Ill What Brought Tears to My Eyes &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Home Cookin' -- Federal Budget Simulators on the Web From: Copper Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 16:00:24 -0500 (EST) We had talked about fed. budget simulators before, and I wasn't sure if you knew about these. Tara > Try "How Would You Spend The National Budget" at > http://ux1.cso.uiuc.edu/~kundert/taxes/taxdollar.html and "Federal Budget > Simulator" at http://garnet.berkeley.edu:3333/budget/budget.html &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Compilation of All Federal Agency Budget Requests Submitted to Congress Date: Mon, 01 Jan 1996 21:00:03 EST From: [a shy reporter] You may have to crank up ole Netscape to peek at http://ibert.org (that's Institute For Better Education Through Resource Technology) for compilation of all federal agency budget requests submitted to Congress and detailed list of federal budget line items, along with comprehensive federal links. Takes a Licking and Keeps on Ticking -- The National Debt Clock IBERT also links to the U.S. National Debt Clock, which as of 1-1-96 at 5:42 p.m. (EST) was calculated at $4,991,640,777,503 (or $18,905.02 per citizen). The clock is at http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ [Let's see -- that means each family of four should add about $76,000 to their car loan or house mortgage. --jim] &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Community Networking Information Wesbiste Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 15:50:32 -0500 (EST) From: "Paul M.A. Baker" I really enjoy your newsletter, so I thought I would mail this notice to you. The interest in community networks (for instance Doug Schuler's article "Public Space in Cyberspace" _Internet World_ Dec. 1995) indicates a need for additional information on community networks. I have created a new website that focuses on policy and governmental aspects of community networks, as well as Virginia based efforts. Should you be interested in any additional information, I may be reached at 703.993.2271 during the day, or by email - pbaker@gmu.edu Paul M.A. Baker, AICP - Research Fellow The Institute of Public Policy, MSN 3C6 George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030-4444 703.993.2271 (V) 703.993.2284 email: http://ralph.gmu.edu/~pbaker - Community Networks Guide to Resources &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& The Telecom Reform Yo-Yo [obsolete information -- more than an hour old] Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 12:46:00 -0800 (PST) From: Declan McCullagh Subject: Reuters: Telecom Bill Nixed Until Budget Fixed Earlier this afternoon, Reuters reported that Newt Gingrich says no work will be done on the telecom bill until the budget mess is over: In response to a question about whether the telecommunications bill was on the table in talks with Senate leaders, Gingrich said there will be ''nothing on the telecom bill until we have a budget.'' &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& MIT Professor Addresses Telecom "Reform" Act Problems, Dangers Date: Mon, 01 Jan 1996 15:23:36 -0500 From: Dave Farber Subject: IP: re: Telecom legislation by William F. Schreiber Prof Emeratis MIT To: interesting-people@eff.org (interesting-people mailing list) ABORT THE TELECOM BILL! This legislation should be rejected, regardless of its final provisions. Its history ought to serve as an object lesson in how not to write laws that make even a pretence of serving the public. Although much of the pressure to shape its various provisions has been cloaked in public-interest clothing, what we have seen, for the most part, is nothing more than a battle for future profits among the different wolves of the telecom industry. A good deal of money has been spent by the interested parties, much of which has gone to members of the Conference Committee. The public interest has mostly gone unrepresented. Ironically, the lobbyists may well be wrong about what will eventually make for rapid growth and high profits in the industry. We all remember the bitter fight over dismantling AT&T. As it turned out, the net result was greatly increased profits for the various pieces, although that was not the intention of the court. (IBM was next on the DOJ's list; except for a change of adminstration, IBM would probably have been taken apart also, much to its eventual benefit.) If we really want to reform the regulatory framework of the telecommunications industry and also serve the public interest, a different approach is needed. Let Congress and the administration appoint a blue-ribbon commission representing the public, the government, and academia, taking care to omit those with a financial interest in the subject matter. Let hearings be held at which representatives of industry and labor and other interested parties present their views, and let the commission then make a proposal to Congress. Although the use of this method does not guarantee success, at least a rational proposal will be produced in the full light of day. William F. Schreiber, Prof. of Elec. Eng., Emeritus, MIT. 30 December 1995 *****May be freely used in whole or in part with or without attribution.***** &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Where's Clinton's Anti-Trust Div'n re Telco Cartel's ISDN Ripoff Plans? The classic example of an illegal monopoly is where the powerful or dominant corporations in an industry coordinate their rates -- notably their rate increases -- instead of competing. Of course, government-granted monopolies that are *supposed* to be government-regulated, are given special gouging privileges, but the Baby Rells (Regional Bell Operating Companies, the RBOCs) think they are just about to be freed by the Telecom "Reform" Act to "compete" -- where they start the competition with 100% of their local telecomm markets. And they're "donating" millions of dollars to key members of Congress and surely to the Clinton re-election campaign and/or the Democrats' soft money, to buy their right to have they way with us in a new telecomm market cartel. (Some folks cynically opine that much of the hold-up in getting the telecomm "reform" enacted, and avoiding a weakly-treatened Clinton veto, has to do with campaign managers wanting to squeeze more millions out of the telecomm special interests.) Consider the manner in which several of them have "just accidentally" "happened" to all applied at the same time -- hidden by holidaze distractions -- to radically increase their ISDN rates ... but of *course*, without consorting to violate anti-trust principles (uh huh!): WASHINGTON STATE: In #233, I reposted summary information from Jamie Love's vigilent Taxpayer Assets Project (love@tap.org, 202/387-8030), about US WEST's recent request application to "increase the Washington State flat rate residential ISDN tariff from $63 per month to $184 per month" -- almost a 300% increase! CALIFORNIA: In the same issue, I also posted information from a just-received fax from a local official, summarizing Pacific Telephone's Dec. 5th application to the Calif PUC to *double* their residential and business ISDN rates -- a 200% increase. WASHINGTON DC: Now, Jamie has just circulated (Jan.2nd) TAP's response to the Dec. 8th and 20th applications by Bell Atlantic - Washington, D.C., Inc., to the DC Public "Service" Commission. Bell Atlantic "seeks an open-ended usage charge of $2.40 per hour in the 7am to 7pm period and $1.20 per hour in the 7pm to 7am period. This is clearly excessive by any standard. A person who uses an ISDN connection for 100 hours per month would be paying from $270 to $150 per month for local telephone service -- roughly 10 to 18 times the current cost of the highest tariffed local residential telephone service for the DC metropolitan area!" If customers actually *use* ISDN channels as designed -- for voice and data -- functionally, this is a 200% increase. ARE YOU NEXT? Clinton and Gore posture about how the National Information Infrastructure (NII) is crucial to the future of our nation -- just as the Interstate Highway infrastructure that Gore's father fathered while Senator, was essential to previous decades' national growth and well-being (although I recall hearing that it was politically justified as needed for national defense -- like much of the Beltway's rationales for more federal taxes and more Beltway-controlled spending). Well, if the RBOCs' cartel that has 100% of the local telecomm market rapes digital telecomm rates, to exclude most individuals, most residences and most small businesses -- which everyone keeps saying are the foundation of the nation's jobs and economy -- then how the hell is that "crucial" NII ever going to get deployed? --jim &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Congressional Quarterly Launches American Voter '96 From: CQMKTG@aol.com Date: Thu, 4 Jan 1996 13:11:28 -0500 Congressional Quarterly Inc. has recently launched "American Voter '96", a Web site focused on the '96 congressional campaigns. Unlike other political web sites, CQ's American Voter '96 allows users to customize information on incumbents' and candidates' positions on issues, as well as generate reports on members' bill sponsorships, voting behavior and political profile. The URL is: http://voter96.cqalert.com Mina Bagherzadeh Consumer Market Manager Congressional Quarterly Inc. 1414 22nd St. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037 (202) 822-1446 mbagherzdh@cqalert.com ... Based in Washington, D.C., Congressional Quarterly Inc. is a private publisher celebrating its 50th anniversary of nonpartisan reporting on Congress, politics and public policy. The World Wide Web is a network of interlinked multimedia sites that are accessible via the Internet. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Usenet Newsgroups May Establish "govnews" Hierarchy; U.K. Has Political Sites From: David.Wright.0698886@bnr.co.uk Date: Thu, 4 Jan 96 23:17:57 GMT Kent Landfield (Kent_Landfield@sterling.com) writes: > > Are you aware of the govnews hierarchy that is being established ? If not > you might want to check it out. Work is being assisted by the NSF. For > additional information you might want to take a look at > > http://ftp.sterling.com/govnews/ Just in case any of you are interested in such things elsewhere - here are the UK Government and our three mail political parties' home pages. The Liberal Democrat pages are generally rated the best of the three Party ones, (but then, I'm biassed). http://www.open.gov.uk/ UK Government Information Service http://www.libdems.org.uk/ Liberal Democrats http://www.labour.org.uk/ Labour Party http://www.conservative-party.org.uk/ The Conservative Party See also uk.politics :-) &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Freedom-of-Information Act *Requests* Used as Surveillance Tool From: John Young Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 11:02:05 -0500 To: cypherpunks@toad.com Subject: FOI_led Sender: owner-cypherpunks@toad.com For comparison to snooping on search site searchers. 1-3-96. WsJo: "Freedom of Information Act Gets Wider Use by Sleuths, Snoops and Senators." FOIA is a handy tool for companies, politicians and journalists to snoop on one another. Many people who file requests aren't aware that the requests themselves are made public. Those who really know the process make FOIA requests on other people's FOIA requests. "It's not like I tapped someone's phone or got them drunk. These are public documents." Journalists sometimes use FOIA to scoop their colleagues. A cottage industry provides information about other people seeking information. Lexis/Nexis carries synopses of FOIA requests. So rich is FOIA intelligence that some are learning to take countermeasures. For a $36 fee, FOI Services will file its own FOIA requests on behalf of people who wish to remain anonymous. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Minnesota E-Democracy Offers Nonpartisan Online Activism Website Date: Mon, 1 Jan 1996 10:08:26 -0600 (CST) From: Steven L Clift "This is the best example of using the Internet to support active citizen participation in the election process." - Editor of the Center for Civic Networking's WWW. Minnesota E-Democracy proudly announces a number of new and exciting initiatives. Minnesota E-Democracy is a non-partisan citizen-based volunteer project, whose mission is to improve Minnesota's democracy through the use of information networks. It seeks to increase citizen participation in elections and public discourse through online civic forums and collections of important information. Detailed information on Minnesota E-Democracy and the Minnesota Issues Forum are available on the World-Wide-Web at: http://freenet.msp.mn.us/govt/e-democracy &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Another Side of Oregon's Senatorial Race (for the ex-Sinator's seat :-) Date: Sat, 30 Dec 1995 18:15:59 -0800 (PST) From: Michael Papadopoulos In GovAccess.235 you propagate a message [by shabbir@vtw.org (Shabbir J. Safdar) of the excellent Voters Telecom Watch] implying praise of Wyden for having been connected with the Cox-White-Wyden amendment. Such praise is not is not out of place. But this Democratic candidate is running for Packwood's seat, and while he can be praised for being seen to be connected with the Cox-White-Wyden amendment that's about it as far as I'm concerned. His position with regard to many issues is no better than, and is indistinguishable from that of the Republican candidate Smith. Please inform your suscribers that there are six candidates for Packwood's vacated seat: Lou Gold - Pacific Party (via fax:541-474-6284) Gene Nanni - Libertarian (via post:4335 SE 28th Pl, Pdx, OR 97202) Karen Shilling - American Party (via email:Shilling@rosenet.net) Gordon Smith - Republican (via fax:503-620-1193) Ron Wyden - Democratic (via fax:503-248-9890) Vickie Valdez - Socialist Party (via fax:541-585-2767) There are alternatives to the establishment, corporate position taken up by Wyden/Smith. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Online Activism Cranks Up to Oppose Illinois' Henry Hyde [Hyde has been an ardent opponent of free expression on the net. --jim] From: mtravis@bigjim.bridgecom.com (Mark Travis) [via declan+@CMU.EDU] Date: Sun, 31 Dec 1995 16:41:30 -72800 (PST) This happens to be the last year that Henry Hyde represents the 6th congressional district of Illinois. I've gotten FEC information as to who has contributed to him in 1995. I've transcribed a list of 146 PAC contributions. To see the list, go to http://www.bridgecom.com/freedom/hyde.html What I'd like to do is to be part of a campaign to communicate the sentiments of the Internet community to Hyde's contributors. We can politely communicate with his PAC friends our sentiments and plans to see that he loses his election in November, and request that no more funds go to his campaign. If nothing else, it will cause a big stink and knock Hyde off balance. It may even have the effect of getting some contributors to shy away. The FEC information which I received only included PAC names, dates of contribution, and contribution amounts. There was no address or contact info. Many of the PACs are big-name global companies, so finding contact info shouldn't be too difficult. I've separated the list into 15 different files in the hopes that some people on this channel might want to pitch in with a little bit of "data mining". The instructions for the project as well as the 15 small text files are available for anonymous ftp at bigjim.bridgecom.com under the /pub/hyde directory. I'll also be working on it little by little, but I'd appreciate any help towards getting this first step in the anti-Hyde effort under way. In addition, I'm poring over political legislation and paperwork explaining how to set up PACs in both Illinois and California. It's pretty easy to do so. For Illinois, positions of "Chairperson" and "Treasurer" need to be filled. Please let me know if you want to consider helping out the formation of PACs. (There's no cost--it's just required by every state and by the Federal Government in order to do things like funnel money to campaigns and gather voter information). &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& About Gingrich -- Good and Ill I've been meaning to post this for a month or so. Somewhat after Newt's much-publicized complaint about him and Dole being shoved out the rear door of Air Force One, while Clinton went out the front door and monopolized the microphones and press, a historian in a C-SPAN interview incidentally mentioned that it was the first such case he knew of when such leaders were traveling in the prexy's plane as the nation's representatives, when they did not all exit the front door and share the microphone. It's as close to being formal protocol as they have regarding such travel. I.e., in protocol worshiping Washington, Clinton overtly snubbed his partisan political opponents -- in a way that he wouldn't even *think* of doing, not even to our nation's "enemies" ... e.g., Kruschev. And, just so I can be equally flamed by both sides: I find it rather hypocritical that the Right bashes Slick Willie as being a "draft dodger," when they vigorously ignore the fact that both Gingrich and Phil Gramm used *exactly* the same academic deferments to "dodge" the same war. The only difference is that Clinton actually *acted* to publicly advocate his belief that our never-declared Viet Nam "war" was wrong, while Newt and Phil just layed low and dodged the danger. Please note that there are certainly many on the Right who just as bitterly compain that it was wrong, usually because we didn't use all the military alternatives we had -- e.g. the Bomb -- to "win." --loose-ended-jim &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& What Brought Tears to My Eyes Date: Wed, 3 Jan 1996 21:42:52 -0800 (PST) From: Jim Rollins Subject: Amazing Grace I believe the rendition of Amazing Grace that you saw on Wednesday was by Metropolitan Opera star Jessye Norman. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& "It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error." --Justice Robert Jackson, _American Communication Association v Douds_, 343 U.S. 306, 325 [1952] [via ed.nelson@SYSLINK.MCS.COM] Mo' as it Is. --jim Jim Warren, GovAccess list-owner/editor (jwarren@well.com) Advocate & columnist, MicroTimes, Government Technology, BoardWatch, etc. 345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/<# upon request> To add or drop GovAccess, email to Majordomo@well.com ('Subject' ignored) with message: [un]subscribe GovAccess YourEmailAddress (insert your eaddr) For brief description of GovAccess, send the message: info GovAccess Past postings are at ftp.cpsr.org: /cpsr/states/california/govaccess and by WWW at http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/states/california/govaccess . Also forwarded to USENET's comp.org.cpsr.talk by CPSR's Al Whaley. May be copied & reposted except for any items that explicitly prohibit it.