Today was a frustrating day for me. I’m adamantly against net regulation and what I see as the needless trampling of the constitution/American’s civil liberties. To me one of the most important issues in our modern environment is accountability. Did I just contradict myself? Well, it depends on how you believe accountability is best accomplished. Personally I feel it stems from checks, balances, disclosure and transparency. To that end John McCain’s stances on a number of technological issues really upset me. The chasm between our national representative’s behaviors and loyalties and the will of the people also really frustrates me.
So, I’d be exaggerating more than a little if I told you I was thrilled about John McCain’s vote today against Chris Dodd’s amendment to the FISA bill which would have removed retroactive immunity for telecom companies which violated the law and American citizen’s rights [Senator Kyle also voted against the amendment]. Both of these individuals cast their votes despite a significant public demand that the rule of law be respected and those who had violated the law knowingly be held accountable. Frustrated I fired off another seemingly pointless e-mail and then had an idea.
John McCain has obviously put lobbyists, power and money ahead of his constituency. So, if he was not going to accept my 2 cents one way….Why not try playing by his rules and offer it in a way he might actually pay attention to? I navigated over to his official campaign website and pulled up the donation page. I was in luck, there was a space for a custom donation amount:
Eager to offer up my 2 cents, I entered the amount, filled out the rest of the form and hit submit. Unfortunately, this is where technology failed me and my suspicions were confirmed. My donation was rejected. It would appear that even in $ form John McCain does not want my 2 cents. In fact, the site told me that there was a minimum donation of $1.00 required. After thinking about it for a while I decided that given McCain’s economic policies and the inflation that has gone along with them 2 cents just isn’t worth what it use to be. So, I tried again – this time attempting to donate my 2 cents adjusted for inflation:
I double checked my information once again and hit submit. Sadly, I once again received a message telling me that my donation had not been accepted. So, I’ve come to the conclusion that no matter what I do, my Senator, John McCain the Republican Presidential Candidate for the United States of America in 2008 does not want my 2 cents. I encourage my fellow Americans – the citizens that Mr. McCain was appointed to serve – to try and share their 2 cents. It could be just me, but I have a hunch that he doesn’t want your 2 cents either.