Great. I'm Twittering Robert Byrd right now.

I've never used this Twitter site, but every time I've written to a reprentative on the federal level, I get back a lame form-letter. The answer to our failing government is TERM LIMITS.

@rpm773: ha, that made me laugh

The Senate voted in favor of the bill not too long ago. With so much democratic majority in DC at the moment you might just have a chance.

@HiPwr: Term limits? Strom Thurman never would've let this happen. Kidding, of course!

You know...with all the talk about Adrian Fenty (D.C. mayor) going off on all these undisclosed trips...I'm wondering if he's not currying some kind of connections for a future run at Congress. Who wants to be mayor forever? He moved to the mayorship (mayorhood?) from the D.C. Council, why not onward to Congress, especially since it seems likely the bill to give D.C. representative rights is going to stick.

@pecan 3.14159265: I'd be in favor of a Constitutional Amendment to give D.C. residents representation. Until then, however, Congress has no authority to overrule it.

I want to know what kind of response I get if I tweeted WTFBBQ.

@TinkishDelight: Well I'm all about a statehood amendment, but I guess small steps are where it's at.

Some of my congresspeople are of the elderly set, let's say, and I just envision them to react to twitter the same way my 88-year-old grandma reacted to when I tried to explain to her what e-mail is: confusion and apathy.

Then again, the senators and representatives aren't the ones actually checking in, are they? Wouldn't they have some twenty-something intern do most of the twitter dirty work for them?

i love the way it also gives you a form to ask your reps to join twitter.

it's okay, guys, i'll just assume you're paying attention to your job and not dicking around on your blackberry. [yeah right, but still!]

too bad you can't tweet (scream) back at them...

Basically, contacting elected officials is done by weight and volume with an automatic thank you letter generated by computer and/or intern. This is just a bit of PR nonsense.

@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: Assuming they get more that 1 tweet a day, it's almost certain that it's someone in their office (probably a technically inclined intern(s)) that's dealing with this type of thing and summarizing for the congressperson.

But hey, you never know, some older people are just as technologically involved as kids these days.

@katieoh: Yeah I tried to use it, but it says my IP address has already done it 1500 times? Wft?

@HiPwr: i'm not in favor. DC doesn't get a vote for a reason.

why can't they just shift the representation to maryland or virginia & give one of them an extra seat or two?

Are people who use Twitter called Twits?

Good idea, but none of my reps are on Twitter. Considering I come from NY, this is not all that big of a surprise.

@mac-phisto: Because D.C. residents would still not get any representation because they can't vote in Virginia. You'd have to do some serious overhauling to allow that.

@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: The tweet probably goes to the press secretary or that person's assistant. Press people generally know the most about what's going on.

I don't have representation either, here in the IL-5th.

I'm a fan of Claire McCaskill AND Twitter, maybe I should check this out.

On a semi-unrelated note, I actually live above Clair McCaskill's offices in Springfield Missouri, and nearly every night someone lobs garbage (or...fruit? I can't really tell what it is) at her windows. It's tough being a democrat in this town I guess.

@pecan 3.14159265: Regardless, you would get a better response if you tweeted OMGWTFBBQ.

You know one thing that I've noticed since the Republicans got thoroughly trounced in these past two elections?

Since then, they've really, really started picking up on new technologies like Twitter and whatnot. Even if it's just their staffers doing it, the people working for them are starting to get really connected.

I think people are going to be very surprised about eight years from now if this keeps up. (Or maybe even just four years.)

@JosephFinn: I'm in the IL-14th. No representation in Twitter, or Congress. Those shitbags don't even begin to represent my interests or even care what they are.

I feel your pain Alex, I live in DC too.

@mac-phisto: @pecan 3.14159265: Not to mention the fact that Virginia is a traditionally red state and DC which is filled with minorities (read:democrats) would be swallowed whole.

@HiPwr: Have you ever told them that? They can't read your mind.

@pecan 3.14159265: well, either way you need to do some serious overhauling, considering the consitution creates an explicit distinction between the government seat & states.

@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: This is completely off-topic, but I find your username to be highly ridiculous. If you listen to any of the Beatles' interviews on the subject, you'd realize very quickly that it's an unsubstantiated rumor. Each member has stated numerous times that there were many, many factors involved in the band's eventual break-up. John was already growing bored with the band, and I doubt that he would have had a change of heart if he hadn't met Yoko. Rumors like these are started by the same people who called Yoko "Dragon Lady," and I'm sure you don't want to be associated with them.

@mdmadph: You may be right, but I hope it's not the twit herd who wile away their time broadcasting the minutiae of their daily routine on the internet that selects our next president. Bad enough that it was the naive, unserious lefty blog followers who brought us this one. It may seem old fashioned, but I'd rather have people who read whole books choosing our leaders as much as possible.

@korybing: That would be me.

Somewhere, I have filed a mid-1990s email reply-bot response from John McCain, in which he asks me to recontact him about my issue by writing him a conventional letter on paper stationery and sending it via postal surface mail. Priceless. I gotta find that.

I just put my name on the petition to get Congressman Sam Johnson (TX district 3) on Twitter. We'll see if he actually gets on -- fat chance. He won't even respond to a letter that I sent to him AND faxed to his office. What in the hell is up with these people? They forget that they work for us. We need term limits damn it!

You live in DC and you didn't already know you don't have representatives in congress?

Well supposedly one Sen. Jeff Merkley here in Oregon is on Twitter but the link to his tweets is invalid. Rather like the link he has with the voters.

Here's a Facebook app I created called RepresentedBy which also lets you keep track of what your legislators are up to.
[apps.facebook.com]