Take Back the Capitol Begins with Some Success.
Members of the 99% have descended upon Washington DC with a mission that is more than carrying signs and singing chants. Today they have begun the “Peoples Lobby” as they have send small groups to seek out and “occupy” the offices of their representatives. As to be expected, most of the elected representatives were unavailable to the 99%ers. But in a few (two that I know of as of the writing) elected representatives that did agree to see their 99% constituents. One was Rep Sean P Duffy of Wisconsin. When asked about bill BR 459 (#202 in the Senate) the aid that was present in the office and talked with the 99%ers showed interest as Rep Duffy is a co-sponsor of the bill. The bill requires an abbreviated audit of the loans handed out to Wall Street during the bail outs of 2008. Shortly afterword it was announced to the group that was assigned to him that he would indeed meet with the members of the group that were direct constituents. This change in tactic, from simple protest to actually lobbying may prove to actually show results.
As I was in the office with the group, it seemed quite unlikely they would be able to meet at first, but as it was displayed to his staff that some of the group were actually informed and educated in bills he was co-sponsoring, as well as many of the issues at hand, there was a sudden change of hart. It will remain unlikely that the likes of Congressman Paul Ryan would with to speak to those who are quite opposite of this policies of placing corporate and big money interests in front of the average man.
I am not having very good luck getting any stories out but I will continue to try, so please be patient. As I am not really being classified as a media person, it adds a bit of hardship to my efforts. I also do not have a personal computer of my own on the ground and I am writing this report from one of the laptops in the media tent. I will try to bring the most relevant and important developments of this phase of the movement to you as they occur here in Washington DC.