Culberson for Congress

Lamar Towers Meet & Greet

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:29:01 GMT

Lamar Towers Meet & Greet
Start Date: 22-Oct-08 5:30 PM
End Time: 22-Oct-08 7:00 PM
Location: Lamar Towers
Speaker:

Event Details:

Nancy Lucke and Helen Van Buren

invite you to come out and meet their friend

The Honrable John Culberson

U. S. Congressman,Seventh District of Texas

Member of the House Appropriations Committee

Wednesday, October 22nd

5:30p.m. - 7:00p.m.

Lamar Towers

2929 Buffalo Speedway

for more information: 281.304.0093

jennifer@culbersonforcongress.com

Lamar Towers

HOT DOG! Its Time to vote at Conoco HQs

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:38:42 GMT

HOT DOG! It's Time to vote at Conoco HQs
Start Date: 22-Oct-08 11:00 AM
End Time: 22-Oct-08 1:00 PM
Speaker:

Jersey Village Meet & Greet hosted by Barbi Freeman

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:38:44 GMT

Jersey Village Meet & Greet hosted by Barbi Freeman
Start Date: 17-Oct-08 5:00 PM
End Time: 17-Oct-08 7:00 PM
Speaker:

Fundraising Luncheon hosted by John Nau, La Griglia - call to RSVP

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:37:18 GMT

Fundraising Luncheon hosted by John Nau, La Griglia - call to RSVP
Start Date: 22-Sep-08 11:30 AM
End Time: 22-Sep-08 1:00 PM
Speaker:

Greater Houston Dental Society Reception

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 21:46:54 GMT

Greater Houston Dental Society Reception
Start Date: 3-Sep-08 5:30 PM
End Time: 3-Sep-08 7:00 PM
Speaker:

Maritime Luncheon

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:36:00 GMT

Maritime Luncheon
Start Date: 26-Aug-08 12:00 PM
End Time: 26-Aug-08 1:30 PM
Speaker:

Cy-Fair Republican Women, 7903 Alamar, Houston, TX 77095

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:32:28 GMT

Cy-Fair Republican Women, 7903 Alamar, Houston, TX 77095
Start Date: 12-Aug-08 6:30 PM
End Time: 12-Aug-08 8:30 PM
Speaker:

Reception honoring Congressman John Culberson, special guest Congressman Bill Archer

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:46:14 GMT

Reception honoring Congressman John Culberson, special guest Congressman Bill Archer
Start Date: 28-Jul-08 5:30 PM
End Time: 28-Jul-08 7:30 PM
Speaker:

Event Details:

Dan and Jan Duncan and the Host Committee cordially invite you to a

reception in support of our friend and Congressman

The Honorable John Culberson

U. S. Representative, Seventh District of Texas

Member of the House Appropriations Committee

with special guest, The Honorable Bill Archer

Monday, July 28, 2008
5:30 p.m.
Home of Dan and Jan Duncan

2980 Lazy Lane

Contribution Levels:

Platinum $2300/person or $5000/PAC

Gold $1000/person or $2500/PAC

Silver $500/person or $1000/PAC

Bronze $250/person

Online credit card contributions may be made at www.CulbersonForCongress.com

Federal law requires political committees to report the name, mailing address, occupation and name of employer for each individual whose contributions aggregate in excess of $200 in a calendar year. Contributions are limited to $2,300 per individual and $5,000 per Political Action Committee per election cycle. Federal law prohibits corporate contributions. Donations are not tax deductible for federal income tax purposes.

Authorized and paid for by Culberson for Congress.

Victory 2008 Event - Berry Center on Barker-Cypress

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:49:36 GMT

Victory 2008 Event - Berry Center on Barker-Cypress
Start Date: 26-Jul-08 9:00 AM
End Time: 26-Jul-08 11:00 PM
Speaker:

Culberson to speak at the Victory 2008 Meeting at the Berry Center

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:04:28 GMT

Culberson to speak at the Victory 2008 Meeting at the Berry Center
Start Date: 26-Jul-08 9:00 AM
End Time: 26-Jul-08 11:00 AM
Speaker:

Culberson to speak on Saturday!

noemail@culbersonforcongress.com — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:02:55 GMT

Join Texas Victory, Congressman Michael McCaul and Congressman John Culberson

for a

TEXAS VICTORY 2008 Organizational Meeting

WHEN: Saturday, July 26^th

WHERE: The Berry Center, 8877 Barker Cypress, Cypress, TX 77433

Parking Lot A or B, Entrance Two, Follow the Signs to the Lobo Room. The Berry Center is located off HW 290 west, exit Barker Cypress, turn left and the center is just past Cy-Fair Lone Star College.

TIME: Registration: 9:00-10:00am

Meeting: 10:00am -12:00pm

OBJECTIVES: Meet Texas Victory Leadership and Congressmen McCaul and Culberson and State Representative Candidate Allen Fletcher, learn about the Victory Team Leaders, voter registration goals, and how you can become involved. Start working toward Republican Party victory in November!

Reserve your seat at the 2008 Regional Texas Victory Training by contacting:

Luke Sheffield, lsheffield@texasgop.org,
512-592-2697

Please pass this information along to anyone interested in Team Victory 2008.

About Texas Victory: Victory is a statewide Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) program dedicated to cultivating, energizing, and training grassroots volunteers to ensure Republican success at the polls on Election Day. The program is chaired by former Secretary of State Roger Williams. Texas Victory 2008 will utilize the latest technology like never before in prior elections to target Republican voters and drive them to the polls.

Special thanks to the Berry Center

Authorized and paid for by Culberson for Congress

21-Jul-08 10:02 PM

Phoning It In: Software Turns Mobile Phone into Personal Newscam

noemail@culbersonforcongress.com — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:00:00 GMT

July 21, 2008 in Technology & Innovation

Phoning It In: Software Turns Mobile Phone into Personal Newscam

Qik's latest software delivers live, streaming video--but Congress doesn't want the technology in its House

By Larry Greenemeier

A lawmaker streams live video with the first images from the Mars Phoenix lander, a technophile shares his experiences with his new iPhone 3G, and a dog owner shows off his canine comrade's repertoire of tricks (clearly without the benefit of rehearsal). Welcome to the world of "qikking," where mobile phone users spontaneously capture video and send it to the Internet where, unlike YouTube, the action can be viewed live.

This ability to turn one's mobile phone into a personal newscam is courtesy of Qik, Inc., a Foster City, Calif., start-up whose software has since late last year let people create live, mobile video streaming, including images and sound. The average Qik video is between two and five minutes long. These videos are stored on the company's computer servers and available via the Qik Web site, blogging sites such as Twitter and Pownce, video sharing sites such as YouTube and WorldTV, live blogging services such as CoverItLive and location-based social networks such as ipoki. With the release of the latest version of Qik today, videos can also be viewed via social networking sites Facebook, MySpace and Orkut. The videos can be shared publicly or with a select few.

Even Congress is hip to the budding technology, which Rep. John Culberson (R–Tex.) used to broadcast live interviews with fellow GOP congressmen, Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Mac Thornberry (Tex.), who spoke with Culberson live shortly after the House passed the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expanding warrantless wiretapping by the government. Culberson also streamed video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory control room in Pasadena, Calif., in late May as the space center received the Phoenix lander's first images of the Red Planet.

But not everyone is onboard. Turns out that House rules bar legislators from posting video on any site with commercial or political advertising, and from using taxpayer dollars to show content anyplace other than on the chamber's official site, House.gov domain. Translation: Culberson's videos are banned on Facebook, MySpace or any other site supported by advertising. "My qikking and twittering are illegal," he says, "but I'm not stopping."

Culberson, who has used Twitter to blog from the House floor, is taking advantage of the House's lax enforcement of its rules as legislators figure out how to regulate the use of this new technology. "I'm working to change the rules so that members of Congress have the same access to new media as they have to old media," Culberson says, noting the he sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) on July 11 suggesting the rules change but has yet to hear back from her.

This debate comes at a pivotal time for Qik, whose new software supports a larger selection of mobile phones (more than 30)—in particular Nokia, Samsung and Motorola phones that use either the Symbian or Windows Mobile Smart phone operating systems. Qik is planning to support Apple's iPhone, but the company is still in the early stages of developing software that would work with the original or the new iPhone 3G.

Qik's software can send video across all major cell phone networks, including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon. The service is, of course, only as good as the network over which it sends the videos, so streaming video is not possible when one's smart phone is not receiving a signal. However, if someone starts streaming a video and loses the cell signal, Qik will resume sending the video automatically once the link is reestablished.

Streaming videos cannot be viewed via mobile phones, but the company plans to add this capability. "Our goal is to stream video to any connected device," says company co-founder Bhaskar Roy, adding that this will also include video game consoles that connect to the Internet.

One of Qik's greatest assets, says Carla Thompson, a senior analyst with San Francisco–based Guidewire Group, a research firm that identifies and analyzes emerging information technology markets and start-ups, is the software's ability to quickly deliver video and text (a user can send SMS, or standard data transmission protocol, text messages along with their video streams), creating a tool that could be very useful to the emerging population of citizen journalists. "I can see Qik seeping into the mainstream because of its ability to immediately convey thoughts and images," she says, "more than just text or a digital photo can."

Link to Article

21-Jul-08 10:00 PM

It looks like Congress is an old dog that doesn't want to learn new tricks

noemail@culbersonforcongress.com — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

It looks like Congress is an old dog that doesn't want to learn new tricks

Houston Congressman John Culberson's use of the social networking site Twitter.com to update constituents has angered house democrats.

By KTRH's Scott Crowder

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Republican Culberson has been using his Blackberry to update his Twitter account to tell his district what's happening with bills and issues in Washington, DC. But democrats are trying to stop him, claiming it's a violation of the rules. "The deepest, darkest hole in Washington is the house floor, where Nancy Pelosi runs the place like the Supreme Soviet and there's very little debate, very few amendments, very little time to review bills."

Congressman Culberson says he's going to keep doing it. High Tech Texan Michael Garfield says what the congressman is doing is great. "I don't think Congress has really taken a look at how to correctly and uniquely use interactive communication tools like this yet."

You can see video of what Congressman Culberson calls a "double ambush" below:

Link to Article

17-Jul-08 7:00 PM

Border arrests cram courts, fill cells in neighbor states

noemail@culbersonforcongress.com — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Border arrests cram courts, fill cells in neighbor states

12:28 AM CDT on Thursday, July 17, 2008

By DAVE MICHAELS and DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News
dmichaels@dallasnews.com
dsolis@dallasnews.com

A zero-tolerance approach to illegal border crossings has produced a record number of immigration prosecutions in Texas and other border states, swamping federal courthouses with misdemeanor cases and landing many immigrants in local jails, according to interviews and new federal data.

Analysts attribute the surge in prosecutions to Operation Streamline, a Bush administration program that began in Del Rio and now includes virtually every mile of the border except near Big Bend National Park. The program expanded last month to three counties in the Rio Grande Valley.

New immigration cases, many of them stemming from misdemeanor arrests, represented 58 percent of all new federal prosecutions in April, dwarfing the number of drug and white-collar crime cases, according to the data.

In Texas, immigration prosecutions surged the most in Texas' western district, which includes El Paso and Del Rio. The most common charge was a misdemeanor that landed migrants in jail for several months or weeks.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security credits Operation Streamline with interrupting the flow of illegal immigrants and reducing the number of migrants who try to enter the U.S. again after being caught.

"These illegal migrants come to realize that violating the law will not simply send them back to try over again, but will require them to actually serve some short period of time in a jail or prison setting – and will brand them as having been violators of the law," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a speech last month.

Federal officials argue that the campaign should result in fewer illegal migrants making their way to cities such as Dallas.

But critics of the strategy say it has criminalized immigration – traditionally handled by administrative courts – without focusing on employers who hire illegal migrants. Some lawyers call the policy "crimmigration," adding that it has packed the courtrooms and burdened public defenders with more cases.

"We are seeing 100 misdemeanors per day," said Marissa Perez-García, chief of the Laredo branch of the federal public defender's office. "That started in the past year, and apparently there is no end."

Immigration advocates called the campaign a major switch in government policy, saying that it has caught many migrants off guard.

"Facing criminal sentencing and going to prison is new for them," said Vanna Slaughter, head of immigration legal services for Catholic Charities of Dallas. "For so many years, even if they were apprehended, they were returned to the other side of the border and never went to prison."

The increase in immigration prosecutions has coincided with fewer arrests made in recent months along the border. The number of immigration arrests between October 2007 and June 2008 dropped 58 percent in the El Paso zone compared with the same period during the previous fiscal year, according to Border Patrol figures.

Nationally, the number of apprehensions in 2008 – about 577,100 – is down about 17 percent compared with the same period in 2007. Some critics of Operation Streamline cautioned against reading too much into those numbers, saying that migrants have been discouraged from crossing the border by the weakened U.S. economy.

"The numbers are somewhat off this year, not due to Streamline but to our sagging economy," said T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. "If jobs are tough to come by, word spreads quickly, and people don't cross in the same volume as during healthy economic times."

But the surge of activity produced during the lifetime of Operation Streamline is unquestionable. In the Western District, immigration-related prosecutions numbered 10,100 from October through April, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, an independent research outfit that collected the data. If that trend continues, the total for fiscal 2008 would be almost nine times that of fiscal 2007.

In Texas' Southern District, which includes the Rio Grande Valley and Laredo, the number of prosecutions was 9,255 from October through April, according to TRAC. If that pace continues, prosecutions for fiscal 2008 will be 28 percent higher than the previous year's total, according to TRAC.

"In the last three months, it has just gone off the charts," said David Burnham, co-director of TRAC. "This has surged all along the border."

Operation Streamline has its advocates in Congress, including Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, and Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio. Mr. Culberson has said that crime has dropped 76 percent in Del Rio since implementation of the program.

Some groups that urge immigration controls are similarly encouraged by the operation.

Jean Towell, head of Citizens for Immigration Reform of Dallas, said the effort could deter migrants from trying to return.

"There is a lot of networking done between illegal immigrants and people in the U.S.," Mrs. Towell said. "If they hear it is a criminal offense, rather than a civil offense, it might keep them from coming in or trying to risk their lives."

Whether its reach expands depends on the willingness of congressional Democrats to increase the budget for the U.S. Department of Justice, which must prosecute the cases.

"The question is whether it's worthwhile to expend so many resources for prosecuting crimes of that nature when you have a lot of other crimes going on – both at the border and beyond," Mr. Bonner said.

Link to Article

17-Jul-08 7:00 PM

Most incumbents in lead, so far

noemail@culbersonforcongress.com — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

July 17, 2008, 3:28PM
CAMPAIGN 2008: FUNDRAISING
Most incumbents in lead, so far
Some challengers in hot contests are pulling ahead in race for money

By ALAN BERNSTEIN
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Local incumbents such as Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas and U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson start the second half of the year with big advantages in campaign funding for their sharply contested races, but some challengers are breaking through.

Thomas' Democratic challenger, Houston Councilman Adrian Garcia, gathered many more campaign donations than Thomas during the last few months. But the latest campaign finance reports required by state law show Republican Thomas with $609,000 in his campaign account, thanks to a surplus from previous campaigns, compared to $112,000 for Garcia.

Likewise, Republican challenger and former Senate aide Pete Olson of Sugar Land corralled more money than Democrat Lampson since April, starting before Olson defeated Shelley Sekula Gibbs in a runoff for the nomination. But Lampson has $1.15 million on hand compared to $261,000 for Olson, who has made a $170,000 personal loan to the campaign, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Financial advantage has never guaranteed success for political candidates. But as the Nov. 4 election approaches, it gives them the opportunity to fund more advertising, staffing, polling, mailing and other campaign efforts.

Republican state Rep. John E. Davis started July with $60,000. His Democratic challenger in southeast Harris County, education consultant Sherrie Matula, reported a balance of $73,000.

In another east side state House district, Republican businessman Ken Legler technically ended the half-year with no money and Democratic businessman Joel Redmond reported having $87,000.

Republican incumbent Robert Talton is not seeking re-election.

U.S. Rep. John Culberson continues to trail Democratic challenger Michael Skelly, a wind power executive, in fundraising — a rare position for a congressional incumbent. Skelly posted a balance of $1.05 million, including $200,000 from himself. Culberson's balance was $550,000.

County Judge Ed Emmett, after a tough GOP primary against Charles Bacarisse, continues to trail Democratic challenger and businessman David Mincberg in the money column. Emmett reported $569,000 on hand, to $713,000 for Mincberg.

In the race for Harris County district attorney, Democrat C.O. Bradford has the financial advantage so far following Republican Pat Lykos' bruising primary campaign against Kelly Siegler. Bradford reported a cash reserve of $115,000 to Lykos' $32,000.

Republican Paul Bettencourt, the county tax assessor-collector, has banked $130,000 compared to $94,000 for Democratic opponent and professor Diane Trautman even though she raised the most in the latest disclosure period.

District Clerk Theresa Chang reported $51,000 in her Republican campaign treasury, compared with $9,000 for Democratic challenger Loren Jackson, according to county records. There are similar numbers in the county attorney's race: $50,000 for Republican incumbent Mike Stafford; $10,000 for Democratic challenger Vince Ryan.

In the special election to replace state Sen. Kyle Janek, former judge Joan Huffman leads other contenders in fundraising thanks mostly to a $500,000 bank loan she secured and a $100,000 contribution from West Texas music impresario Herbert Graham.

Link to Article

17-Jul-08 7:00 PM

FEC Second Quarter -- Dust Bowl

noemail@culbersonforcongress.com — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

RealClearPolitics Politics Nation Blog

By Reid Wilson (AIM: PoliticsNation)

July 17, 2008

FEC Second Quarter -- Dust Bowl

Part seven in our exhaustive look at the best potential races of the year takes us west to the golden fields of Nebraska south to the Rio Grande and the Gulf of Mexico. Check out our last post on the Dust Bowl here. We would include Kansas in this list, but thanks to an August primary, candidates there aren't required to file with the FEC until July 24. We'll update when that time comes.

The hot races we're watching from Texas north:

Texas 07: We weren't convinced this is a real race three months ago, and we still aren't convinced. But Republican Rep. John Culberson raised $394,000 in the second quarter and has $550,000 on hand, and that raises some alarm bells, given that his Democratic opponent, businessman Michael Skelly, has outpaced him by such a huge margin. Skelly raised $408,000 in the Second Quarter and has a whopping $1.05 million in the bank, making netroots Democrats pay attention. At the very least, Skelly will make life uncomfortable for Republicans in a district that gave a 28-point majority to President Bush.

Texas 10: Another heavily Republican district and another seat that might not really be in play, but Rep. Michael McCaul will face a minor celebrity in November in Larry Joe Doherty, host of the trial show "Texas Justice." McCaul raised $246,000 through June, keeping $489,000 on hand, while Doherty slightly outraised him with $247,000, keeping $260,000 on hand. That's enough to make us pay attention, especially when McCaul beat a Democrat by a 55%-40% margin in 2006. But the Republican remains the heavy favorite in a district John McCain will likely win easily in November.

Texas 22: Republicans have few better opportunities to reclaim a lost seat than in the suburban Houston Twenty Second District. Formerly Rep. Tom DeLay's seat, the GOP now has its eye on Democrat Nick Lampson, who barely beat a write-in candidate with a funny name. Lampson, who raised $261,000 over the last three months and has almost $1.15 million in the bank, will face a candidate hand-picked by Republicans in former Congressional aide Pete Olson. Olson outraised Lampson in the Second Quarter, with $354,000 pulled in, but after a contentious primary he's rebuilding his warchest and has just $261,000 on hand. The DCCC has reserved $1.1 million in advertising time to protect Lampson, but this year, against a good Republican candidate, that may not be enough.

Texas 23: Lampson isn't the only Democratic incumbent the party is worried about in Texas. Stretching from the El Paso suburbs to the San Antonio suburbs along the Rio Grande, Rep. Ciro Rodriguez beat a Republican in the Twenty Third District by just eight points in 2006. This quarter, he raised $332,000 and retained $1.19 million in the bank, while Republican Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson raised $262,000 and still had $280,000 in the bank. The DCCC has reserved ad time in the Twenty Third, as well, but they may not need to use it.

Nebraska 02: Yet another race where Democrats might not ordinarily have a chance makes our radar screen because of the possibility that Barack Obama could compete there. Incumbent Republican Lee Terry has made comments about his constituents' independent streak, calling them "Obama-Terry voters," and after his close 55%-45% win in 2006, he faces a repeat challenger in businessman Jim Esch. Terry raised $249,000 in the Second Quarter and still has $617,000 in the bank, while Esch, who faced a Democratic primary, raised $219,000 and has $141,000 in the bank. Terry got a boost when one of Esch's defeated Democratic rivals endorsed the Republican incumbent.

Link to Article

17-Jul-08 7:00 PM

Post Modern Political Commentary

noemail@culbersonforcongress.com — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Post Modern Political Commentary

Posted on July 17, 2008 by goodmind

Of late, there have been some interesting discussions in Congress (no really). Texas Rep. John Culberson started a new social media scandal by using Twitter, and a video site called Qik to post his commentary on the legislative process in real time. Culberson believes that these platforms give constituents the opportunity to participate in discussions, and sees his constant Twittering as a dialogue. He’s able to hold spontaneous “Town Hall” meetings over the internet, by posting to Twitter mere minutes before the actual event.

Unfortunately, current House rules ban “work-related activities on non-House Web sites,” which has resulted in a bit of tension on the House floor. This rule exists to separate the commercial (campaign) content from the actual political issues online. Basically, information available on any official House of Representatives website (a “.gov”) is certifiable political content. Anything ending in a “.com” is personal marketing. That’s how Congress sees it anyway.

Then how do consumers voters see it? Well, Culberson’s dynamic Twitter feed is far superior to C-SPAN’s static camera feed, since followers of the former are actually engaged. Plus, there’s the rise of the Obama “brand,” which continues to evoke highly emotional reactions from all sides.

We’re not trying to be cynical here, but it’s pretty difficult to preserve any sort of distinction between personal marketing and politics when social media is the easiest way to reach a sizeable, yet targeted audience, and the most cost effective way to produce and distribute a message. As long as it’s authentic, Personal Punditry can even be biased, but still be effective. Just think of the Federalist Papers as an 18th century blog network, and you’ll see the political potential for social media in the 21st century.

Link to Article

17-Jul-08 3:00 PM

Congressman Wants to Set Rules for Official Twitter 'Tweets'

noemail@culbersonforcongress.com — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Congressman Wants to Set Rules for Official Twitter 'Tweets'

by Will Safer, posted Jul 17th 2008

Elected officials and government bodies have had official Web sites since the Internet came into popular use, but now Congress is trying to grapple with a relatively new Web phenomenon: microblogging.

This type of communication is typified by sites like Twitter, which allows users to write short notes or updates on their daily, hourly or even minute-by-minute activity, and share the information with people who subscribe to the service. It's fast, easy, and lets large groups of people follow the activities of their friends or others whenever they update their Twitter feeds. A single Twitter update is known as a "Tweet."

Blogging and e-mail have been used as tools by politicians running for office, but as official communication, this is something new, and the U.S. Congress has rules on how its members send messages to constituents.

According to Republican Representative John Culberson of Texas, it's time for Congress to catch up with the micro-blogging fad. Current Congressional rules apply to e-mail and Web sites, but don't account for messages that appear on Web sites outside government purview, such as Twitter. To him, easy communication is a critical tool for government. As Culberson told CNN in an interview last week: "The single-minded goal needs to be to shine sunlight in every dark corner of the Congress, to make the Congress and the government as transparent as humanly possible."

One of the concerns is that Twitter and other sites, like Qik.com, and Utterz.com, or even YouTube, which allow for video clips to be shared, can also include advertising, or have content that might not fit with an elected official's goals. That gives some pause to House Franking Commission Chairman Mike Capuano, a Massachusetts Democrat, who says some representatives might have concerns about their postings showing up next to political ads.

Link to article

17-Jul-08 3:00 PM

House Atwitter Over Rules Governing Video, Blog Posts

noemail@culbersonforcongress.com — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:00:00 GMT

House Atwitter Over Rules Governing Video, Blog Posts

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas

WASHINGTON — Texas Rep. John Culberson uses his Blackberry to post blurbs about his work onto Twitter, a social networking site on the Internet. The Internet has set him free from unfair media reports and other barriers between him and his constituents, enabling him to better represent them in Congress, he says.

But Culberson's actions have put him in possible violation of House rules that appear to ban blogging or other work-related activities on non-House Web sites.

Current rules "have been interpreted to prohibit (House) members from posting official content outside of the House.gov domain," Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., chairman of the Congressional Commission on Mailing Standards, better known as the franking committee, wrote in a report late last month.

In a series of recommendations sent to House Administration Capitol Security Subcommittee Chairman Robert Brady, Capuano said some rules are necessary so as not to mix House official messages with commercial or political campaign material.

"Members of Congress who use taxpayer money to communicate with constituents should be held to the highest possible standard of independence — and the appearance of independence," he said last week.

"Official content" — like video — that is posted outside the House.gov domain should be clearly marked, should not appear alongside commercial or campaign content and should contain an exit notice for people linking out from the House.gov domain, Capuano recommended.

But those recommendations have riled Republicans like Culberson, who argue they limit his communications. The spat has reached the highest levels of the House, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi backing Capuano by saying his work won't restrict but will rather loosen the rules. In response, House Minority Leader John Boehner has rung alarm bells over possible Democratic-led censorship of the Internet.

By communicating on Twitter, Culberson said he can tell his constituents to watch a live video he's about to broadcast on a site called Qik.com. By blasting an announcement that he's going to hold a town hall meeting, Culberson said anyone with a mobile e-mail device, an Internet connection or a phone can tap into the discussion. Or if a vote on a confusing or quickly-moving bill is coming up he can shoot out marching orders as needed to his supporters.

"It's a great way to instantaneously communicate with a large number of people," Culberson said.

Read Entire Article

16-Jul-08 9:00 AM