Meanwhile in D.C...
Congressman John Campbell's weekly message from inside the Beltway
[John Campbell] 3/22/06

First Bill: During my first week in Congress back in December, I authored an amendment to HR 4437, the Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Act. The Senate is now considering this bill. The amendment removed federal funds from cities that have policies prohibiting their law enforcement officials from passing information on illegal immigrants to the Department of Homeland Security.

But I have now introduced my first bill in Congress. HR 4862 removes the sunset from and makes permanent the Internet Tax Freedom Act originally passed by Congress in 1998. This may be a new bill for me, but it is not a new issue for me. I was author or co-author of two similar bills during my time in the state legislature. The first one was successful in extending a sunset but the second one failed passage and therefore California's version of the Internet Tax Freedom Act has now expired. It is amazing that the state most closely associated with the growth of the Internet would vote to enable taxes on it. But that is a subject for another day.

The Internet has been the source of tremendous growth for the economy, commerce and communications. Much of the past and future growth of the Internet is dependent on the unfettered access to it that we now enjoy. We do not need this access restricted by government efforts to tax it. The Internet Tax Freedom Act bans taxes at the federal, state and local level on Internet access or use. Imagine how Internet use would be affected if you had to pay a tax for every minute you spent reading this e-mail (although it would certainly be worth it solely for this astute communication). It also bans discriminatory Internet taxes such as some proposals to tack a special sales tax on purchases made only on the Internet.

But the Act is set to expire next year. My bill would eliminate that expiration and make the ban permanent. We already have 45 cosponsors of the legislation including 2 Democrats. If you want to be involved in passing this legislation, please reply in the box at left.

Moveon.org: This is the liberal grassroots organization that coordinates much activity for Democrats. I had not encountered them much in the Legislature as they don't do that much at the state level. But now, my office receives calls, letters and e-mails from members of this group every day. These communications are.......well.....pretty far out there. Here are a few examples sent to me in the past few weeks commenting on my views relative to the war on terror:

"(you are a) simpering lap dog for that moron who stole two elections, G. W. Bush, the draft dodging, reality-challenged nitwit currently squatting in the White House"

"up Yours"

"After reading your opinions, there is not conclusion other than you are a facscist!" (grammar and spelling errors copied from the original text)

"What crap! You will do anything to support a total incompetent moron who happens to be our President. Your is the kind of reply I expect from one of many morally bankrupt minions. I will be fighting to bring this a--clown down you and yours in history where you belong..."

The words "fascist" (however misspelled), "moron" and "a--", are repeated in a sizable percentage of the e-mails. These words must be in moveon.org's "vocabulary to instruct and influence" manual.

At least we know that the level of discourse from these people is equivalent to their ideological perspicacity. CRO

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