Congressional Revolt2.0…
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
A couple of amazing things are happening in Washington following Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s adjournment of the Congress before acting on any energy legislation….
As this cellphone photo of a speaker-less house shows—not all of Congress wants to go home for 5 weeks—and the renegades are posting and streaming on the Internet to keep people informed.
After refusing to leave the chamber Friday–despite lights being doused and C-Span cameras being turned off—the Republicans returned to the chamber Monday to continue their ad-hoc session demanding Congress re-adjourn to deal with energy matters.
And the effort to get the word out was being lead by Congressman John Culberson… When Pelosi first gaveled the session closed—he grabbed his cellphone and began streaming the revolt live to the net.
The first 3 minutes 43 seconds make for fascinating viewing. At that point, the lights were turned out. Although t it was too dark for his phone to make pictures—the audio was still there.
In this clip—someone has overdubbed pictures to cover the black video..
Although the quality of the Congressman’s phone camera is poor—it’s a seminal event.
Citizen journalism from the floor of the house—by one of its own members.
But, the attempts to break the news blackout didn’t stop there..
Rep. Culberson is posting to his Twitter page here, and to a video service known as QIK, where he’s providing video clips here.
This clip of Congressman John Carter of Texas, explaining what was happening last Friday, is one of several that Congressman Culberson shot and has posted.
As for how the revolt will end—at the moment the Republicans are not getting their way.
As you can read here, President Bush says he won’t order Congress to return—-even though he has the power to do so.
But, as long as some in Congress itself keep feeding the Internet with updates about the revolt—it’s quite possible the viral nature of the net will create enough buzz that Pelosi and company may be forced to return to Washington to do what they were elected to do—serve OUR will—not theirs.
—Steve
Link to the video and the story Steve covered today on NBC-17
Click on this map to see details on where readers are located
Add to: | blinklist | del.cio.us | digg | yahoo! | furl | rawsugar | shadows | netvouz
Recent Readers to Between The Lines via KEOTAG
