Finally! A response

[fair catch fryar]

I'm not one to dwell on the whole "spygate" debacle, but I finally received a response from one of my state's two Republican senators regarding the email I sent them about Specter's wasting taxpayer's time and money on it. This is what Sen. Susan Collins (R)-Maine said:

Dear Mr. XXXX:

Thank you for contacting me regarding Congress' involvement in professional sports. I appreciate your taking the time to do so.


I agree with you that Congress should work on the many pressing challenges facing our country and not waste taxpayer dollars investigating a professional sports matter that should be handled by the National Football League. As Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, I will continue to focus my efforts on ensuring the safety and security of our nation as well as the effective operation of the federal government.



Again, thank you for contacting me.

 

[BelichickFan]

Re: Finally! A response.

I got some sh!t from Feinstein about how Congress has the right to oversee the NFL due to the anti trust exemption.

F*ck you, Diane.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Re: Finally! A response.

You received that from the Senator's 'secretaries' as a bulk email message probably sent to those with similar complaints - Not from the Senators themselves ,Senator's could care less about what the public thinks - Thats a qualification of a politician.

 

[upstater1]

Re: Finally! A response.

I got some sh!t from Feinstein about how Congress has the right to oversee the NFL due to the anti trust exemption.

F*ck you, Diane.

The thing about that anti-trust exemption: it's not like baseball's. In football's case, it only applies to the distribution of TV rights. If they got rid of the NFL's exemption, then the top teams in the big markets would be able to cut their own deals. This anti-trust exemption is not really leverage for the pols against the NFL. if they took it away, it would change the game, and put the big market teams in control.

 

[Wretch]

Re: Finally! A response.

You received that from the Senator's 'secretaries' as a bulk email message probably sent to those with similar complaints - Not from the Senators themselves ,Senator's could care less about what the public thinks - Thats a qualification of a politician.

My wife worked for Senator Collins and she reviews every piece of correspondence that leaves her office. She may not write the email but she has read and approved it.

 

[BelichickFan]

Re: Finally! A response.

The thing about that anti-trust exemption: it's not like baseball's. In football's case, it only applies to the distribution of TV rights. If they got rid of the NFL's exemption, then the top teams in the big markets would be able to cut their own deals. This anti-trust exemption is not really leverage for the pols against the NFL. if they took it away, it would change the game, and put the big market teams in control.

That's what confuses a lot of people, both baseball and football have anti-trust exemptions but the one the NFL has makes it vastly different than baseball. Congress loves to use them as leverage though.

 

[fair catch fryar]

Re: Finally! A response.

You received that from the Senator's 'secretaries' as a bulk email message probably sent to those with similar complaints - Not from the Senators themselves ,Senator's could care less about what the public thinks - Thats a qualification of a politician.

First of all, you're from Pennsylvania and you guys put that piece of sh!t in office in the first place, so your impression of your senator's is a little different than mine. I am well aware that Senator Collins doesn't respond to every message she gets personally, but I would also believe that she doesn't let anyone express an opinion on her behalf without approving it first. Besides, I don't believe every Senator operates the same way. I believe some STILL value what their constituents think and being from a less populous state like Maine, they know well enough to not ignore this.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Re: Finally! A response.

I got the same exact response from Senator Collins today, as well.

 

[cblesz]

Re: Finally! A response.

Whaaaaat? Um, we have a political board for that crap.

 

[PATSNUTme]

I wrote to her a while ago about this and I got no response from Sen Collins.

But I did get notice that Netflix were sending me 2 DVD's.:rocker:

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

Re: Finally! A response.

First of all, you're from Pennsylvania and you guys put that piece of sh!t in office in the first place, so your impression of your senator's is a little different than mine. I am well aware that Senator Collins doesn't respond to every message she gets personally, but I would also believe that she doesn't let anyone express an opinion on her behalf without approving it first. Besides, I don't believe every Senator operates the same way. I believe some STILL value what their constituents think and being from a less populous state like Maine, they know well enough to not ignore this.

Believe what you will - More power to you,even if you think what you say as a citizen means more than feces to them.

BTW: I have always disliked Specter and would NEVER vote for him in office.

 

[PATSNUTme]

Re: Finally! A response.

Whaaaaat? Um, we have a political board for that crap.

I deleted that and the "quote" in your response.

Now a message for everyone:

Please keep the football forums free of political pollution. On this forum we are not Dem's or Rep's but NEP's.

 

[TOzgood]

A good civics teacher should have taught you that a HAND written letter to a political figure goes a long long way, no the "whip me up in 15 seconds" e-mail. They are more likely to respond personally than pawn it off over to their secretaries who do, yes, send out bulk emails speaking on behalf of their boss...just my two cents

 

[castlelong1]

Re: Finally! A response.

Believe what you will - More power to you,even if you think what you say as a citizen means more than feces to them.

BTW: I have always disliked Specter and would NEVER vote for him in office.

Citizens with a 20% voting rate, no.
Voters they better, unless you are an automatic like Ted "My brothers were good" Kennedy and for some reason Spector.

Yes, I know voting machines can be rigged and computer tallies are suspect (Viruses and Hacker's anyone?), but still a large block of voters can only be ignored at the elected officials peril.

 

[castlelong1]

Re: Finally! A response.

I deleted that and the "quote" in your response.

Now a message for everyone:

Please keep the football forums free of political pollution. On this forum we are not Dem's or Rep's but NEP's.

What if you are a Demican or Republicrat.

 

[upstater1]

A good civics teacher should have taught you that a HAND written letter to a political figure goes a long long way, no the "whip me up in 15 seconds" e-mail. They are more likely to respond personally than pawn it off over to their secretaries who do, yes, send out bulk emails speaking on behalf of their boss...just my two cents

What about a person who took Civics before the internets and their tubes?

 

[fair catch fryar]

Re: Finally! A response.

Believe what you will - More power to you,even if you think what you say as a citizen means more than feces to them.

BTW: I have always disliked Specter and would NEVER vote for him in office.

While I am not quite as cynical as you are, contrary to what you think I am a realist, and know how this stuff works, but at least the senator's response was one that supported reasonable thought and stated that Specter's quest to investigate spygate is a waste of time and money.

 

[NJPatsfan26]

Re: Finally! A response.

Indeed it is....hopefully the great Senator from PA will listen to his peers and back off....

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Just gotta chime in, being a Washington-area guy with a little Hill experience (but on the newspaper side... still, I got an idea of these guys, plenty of friends in their actual offices...)

Here's the deal... there is a great deal of correspondence. Thing 1 to realize is that they want to know first and foremost, how many feel a certain way. And yes they want to know how strongly you feel that way. So yeah, a letter in an envelope with a stamp is probably a stronger statement, but still an e-mail makes you worth the 10 or 100 people who would only sign a petition or something. And so on.

For anybody discouraged by a form response like we're speculating (probably correctly) that the above is, you should know about a little device called the autopen. The autopen is a machine attached to a stylus. It's got real live blue ink in it. You use to just guide the pen along in its track and it signed an important person's signature. It's probably electric now, haven't seen one for a while. But it's the same idea. It's so the secretary or someone else can sign a smooth, blue-ink signature.

The problem is there are 100 senators, and 435 congressmen, and 300 million of us.

So I just had to chime in on this idea that those bastards don't give a damn about us because secretaries answer mail, etc. "Listening" doesn't need to mean the Congressman or Senator is personally calling you and asking your opinion. It can mean they say "Hey Mary, you still getting a lot of e-mails about that Specter thing? Let's give that 5 minutes in the morning meeting tomorrow, it seems like there are a lot of those freaks."

Given the numbers they are supposed to represent, that is exactly how they should operate if you ask me.

PFnV