from: BitchSlappin [1]

Follow the Money. It's going right from the Telecomms to the State Congresspeople

So the other day I pointed out that there was new legislation being introduced in North Carolina that would take away the ability of a City to build out its own broadband network in the absence of Cable or Telecomm action, a bill called The Local Government Fair Competition Act, which is anything but local and anything but fair. I also expressed my opinion that this smelled way too much like Telecomm Shenanigans to be anything different. Sure enough, all five sponsors of NC House Bill 1587 received $4,000 or more from one of the Telecomm or Cable interests. Who are the five? Drew Saunders, Harold Brubaker, Nelson Cole, Julie Howard, and Hugh Hollman. I suggest that when these five come up for re-election you interested citizens in North Carolina should let them know what you think of them selling you out to the highest bidder.

Ohio has also seen a really amazing increase in Campaign Contributions, and gee, guess what? All the recipients of Telecomm and Cable largesse are State Congresspeople who are involved in making Ohio Video Franchising friendlier to the Telecomm and Cable Corporations– "$69,365 to Gov. Ted Strickland, another $30,188 to the other four statewide officeholders, and $84,210 to Democrat and Republican party accounts, according to Citizen Action. The contributions totaled $558,344 in 2005 and 2006."

I've been checking my stats, and I know there's a bunch of y'all following this issue as closely as I am, just by the links to these articles on the State Franchising issue. It's become obvious to me that the State Congresspeople, and, in some instances, the Governors, are just too damn susceptible to the pull of Campaign Chest Dollars, and are more than willing to sell out their local folks so they can keep getting the goods from Big Media and Telecomm. I doubt it's limited to Ohio and North Carolina. Have any of you folks from Wisconsion, Illinois, Massachussetts, Tennessee or any of the other Cable Choice and Competition Infected States, know about any of your local CongressCritters who have sold you out? Please post it in comments. We'll keep a running tally of who NOT to vote for in upcoming State elections. This Telecomm and Cable Corruption of the political process MUST be stopped.

I'm wondering, do y'all think it would work to make it illegal for any CongressCritter to sponsor or vote on any legislation where he or she has taken money from a special interest directly affected by it? Or is my thinking not Machiavellian or Abramoffian enough?