The Cellar - The FBI is getting new computers ... how about the legislators?

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The FBI is getting new computers ... how about the legislators?

These luddites think they should be allowed to pass laws regulating cyberspace.

Quote:

Senator Asks Permission to Bring Laptop to Work

By REUTERS

Filed at 6:40 p.m. ET -- June 18, 2002.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - You can still find brass spittoons on the floor of the United States Senate, but don't look for personal computers -- they're not allowed in the historic chamber.

Sen. Mike Enzi found that out when he first showed up for work in 1997. The Wyoming Republican asked permission to bring his laptop computer onto the Senate floor, where votes and debate take place, but was told to check it at the door by the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.

Citing advances in technology and the need to stay informed, Enzi has asked the committee to reconsider.

In a letter to the committee released on Tuesday, Enzi said that lightweight "notebook'' computers were now small enough that they would not damage the historic Senate furniture or interfere with its ambience, and would allow lawmakers to stay on top of the latest bills or amendments being considered.

Wireless networks could beam schedule changes and new bills to members right on the floor, the April 24 letter said, allowing senators to spend less time checking in with their offices and more time engaged in lofty debate.

Notebook computers allowed senators to stay on top of their work when they were shut out of their offices during last October's anthrax scares, Enzi said.

"If we could have then taken those notebook computers on the floor, we would have had access to all that information right at our fingertips as the Senate continued its legislative work,'' Enzi wrote.

Roughly 35 state legislatures use new computer technology in their chambers, Enzi said, saving millions of sheets of paper and freeing staffers from countless hours in front of the photocopier.

An Enzi spokesman said the chairman of the Rules and Administration Committee has agreed to reconsider the request, but has not yet scheduled a meeting.

Rules Committee staffers were not immediately available for comment.

Stupid, stupid senate.

Let's see, laptops are allowed on planes, in courthouses, in nuclear power plants, bomb testing facilities, the UN, at schools, and even at home! Gee, these places are still safe, in spite of laptops being allowed. But not at the Senate floor? No, cause they are special .

Politicians at their finest. :rolleyes:

Remember the tiny blowup over Congress passing, I think it was the USAPATRIOT Act, without ever seeing it? That kind of crap goes on all the time, especially at budget time, if they could download the bills as soon as they left committee, maybe they'd get a chance to read them once in a while. I guess maybe thats the point though...

they're not quite the luddites you would have them made out to be. many (very many) carry blackberry 957s, for instance. this started right after the anthrax. nobody wants paper down there, trust me on that one.

i work in a company where people take laptops to conferences and meetings, and they don't pay attention at all. they might as well have not shown up at all. actually, it's worse than that, because they distract all the people around them.

although, I am not sure how congress could be LESS productive than they are now, and it would damned good fun to sit in a session and run EtherPEG for a while. I bet it would be enough to make anyone blush.

http://www.oreillynet.com/1414.html

I've heard the same arguments against computers in the classroom. ;)

what's that. nic? i'm sorry, i was reading the WSJ on my laptop while you were posting. can you repeat that? :D