Old motto: "Cypherpunks write code" New motto: "Cypherpunks lobby in state capitols, craft 'appropriate' policy responses, and identify 'key players' for 'maximum bang for the buck'" Old cypherpunk: Hacker, programmer, coder, sysadmin, engineer New cypherpunk: IRS undercover agent, state lobbyist, Jim Choate On Tue, Apr 10, 2001 at 09:23:01PM -0500, Jim Choate wrote:
Well, actually it's a plan to make a plan ;)
We intend the following:
- Identify the several bills (UCITA, UEITA, etc.) that are currently in the Texas legislature for consideration. We believe this count is currently at five (5).
- Identify pro and con sources of information.
- Identify pro and con members of the legislature.
- Compare and contrast the various 'positions' and develop an appropriate 'cypherpunk' responce.
- Begin an information campaign that will hit both the traditional and alternative media in Texas, in particular in the major cities (ie Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and El Paso).
We discussed letters to media as well as a potential video.
- Identify each of the steps that the bills will need to go through in their consideration in the legislature. The intent is to identify 'key players' who can be contacted for maximum 'bang for the buck' so to speak.
- Develop a presentation and arrange appointments with legislators to attempt an 'education campaign'.
- Pray for deliverance from the pestilence of God-$ (not that Cypherpunks have any objection to making money, it's the now)
To help resolve these issues, in addition to the monthly Cypherpunk get together, we will institute a bi-weekly meeting to work further on these goals. I will be making the meeting location and time announcements on the Austin Cypherpunks and ucita-tx mailing lists only!!!!!
We also intend to 'beef up' the SSZ homepage. One idea was to create a 'bulletin board' (eg WWWBoard) so that interested parties could participate in a more long-lived manner than a simple mailing list.
We also intend to re-write the 'form letter' on the 'Fight UCITA in Texas!' webpage. The feeling was that it was too long and not as well worded as it needed to be.
Currently the mailing lists and resources are:
Austin Cypherpunks http://einstein.ssz.com/cdr austin-cpunks@einstein.ssz.com (closed to outside submissions)
UCITA-TX Mailing List http://einstein.ssz.com/ucita ucita-tx@einstein.ssz.com (closed to outside submissions) Note that the mailing list itself is non-partisan. The same can't be said for the webpage and most certainly not the cpunks.
Ta ta.
____________________________________________________________________
To speak algebraically, Mr. M. is execrable, but Mr. G. is (x+1)-ecrable. Edgar Allan Poe
The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------