Nobodies on the net

Granted, local politicians may not be too familiar with this new-fangled internet thing (or as Bush refers to it, the "internets"), it's only been around for oh, about 30 years or so, but one must seriously marvel at the fact that as far as I can determine, not one of our state representatives from the area has a web site. Not Boland, not Jacobs. (Though alert commenter HUD provided the web address www.patvershoore.com which is a very basic site for Vershoore. (there's also a www.mikejacobs.com and a www.mikeboland.com, but they're something completely different) Of course, Evans, Durbin, and Obama have sites. Most politicians have had them for years.) While multiple millions of others are flying down the "Information Highway", our local pols are sitting in the driveway stuck in park.

Sites aren't all that difficult to create, as witnessed by the fact I've managed to create a few with what few still functioning brain cells I possess. And given the fact that millions of 13 year olds have created their own sites as well as damn near every business no matter how small or obscure, isn't it a bit peculiar that our legislators haven't? Hell, even candidates from weird fringe parties have websites. But not our crew.

These are people who live and die by communication. They spend greater or lesser amounts of time in a ceaseless quest to get their message out and let their constituents know just what wonderful works they're accomplishing for their benefit. They are, perhaps more than any other profession, dependent on the media and getting their message out to the largest number of people possible.

And yet not one of our representatives in Springfield have even a rudimentary web site, ignoring only the the most massive communication revolution since the invention of the printing press.

They and their staffs spend endless hours chasing after press coverage and writing that wonderful speech, or getting quoted in the press or getting TV coverage of this or that appearance. Some spend as much time chasing publicity, if not more, than they do actually attending to their duties as legislators.

Yet apparently they're not quite sure about this internet thing. How else to explain their not utilizing such an obvious tool to get the word out?

They could have all the PR they wanted on their site. They could have press releases touting and explaining the wondrous legislation they were sponsoring or promoting, and they could update it almost instantaneously. They could have pictures of themselves surrounded by the elderly, hard hat workers, minorities or children or better yet, minority children.

They could to a certain degree bypass the press and just put up what they want. If anyone wanted to find out what they're working on, they'd be just a few clicks away, 24 hours a day, 365 days a week, and from literally anywhere on earth. If a politician wanted to put forth his views on anything at all, it would be there for all to see.

They could register, design, and maintain a website for as little as $200 a YEAR (this would barely cover a dinner tab for some) and it would be available to literally millions of people for only pennies a day. But apparently this idea has never entered any of the minds of these guys or their staffers. Guess they like it better doing things the way it was done in the disco era.

As it stands, if I'd like to report on what they're currently working on, or if someone mentions a bill their guy is sponsoring, I have absolutely no way to find out what they're talking about, and therefore it doesn't get mentioned. In light of their position, you'd think they'd want to do everything they could to make this information easily available, but apparently, they expect interested parties to spend a few hours searching in vain through mind-numbing legislative databases for any information on what they're working on.

Despite my repeated urgings, not a single staffer or politician has ever e-mailed The Dope to get the word out about their man or woman. Guess they just don't need the publicity. And the fact that they haven't bothered to establish a presence on the web seems to confirm it.