Sens. Franken (D-MN) and Bennet (D-CO) have introduced S. 1959, the Close the Revolving Door Act, i.e., the "revolving door" between Congress and lobbyists. How many Blue Dog Democrats did we learn would not attempt to reclaim the seats they lost in 2010 once we learned they had accepted positions in some lobbying corporation or other in 2011? It sometimes seemed like more of them became lobbyists than had actually lost their seats! But S. 1959 would ban Congressfolk from ever doing any lobbying on anyone else's behalf after they leave office -- which is not a violation of the First Amendment, since that guarantees your right to redress your own grievances, not the grievance of some corporation that's paying you -- and would ban lobbyists from getting jobs in Congressional offices for six years. We make a lot of fun of Congressfolk, but we shouldn't have to -- we should be able to respect these people, and if we have to use the law to change them into people who earn our respect, so be it. Demand Progress helps you tell your Congressfolk to support the Close the Revolving Door Act.
Meanwhile, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Congressfolk to support the framework of the Iran nuke deal, then the Friends Committee on National Legislation still helps you do that. Frankly, the noise coming from people who oppose this deal is quite appalling, and not just flatugasma like Scott Walker's suggestion that he might have to bomb Iran on his very first day as President. People actually say they oppose this deal because "you can't trust Iran." Hello? The deal doesn't require you to trust Iran, at all -- it requires Iran to present its nuclear facilities for inspection 24/7, and allows us to inspect suspected new facilities based on new intelligence. And personal to the folks running those ads bemoaning that we didn't use the negotiations to get four hostages out of Iran: you need to get used to the idea that you don't get everything you want (or even everything you burn for) in negotiations. And what prevents you from writing to the government of Iran and embarrassing them by demanding they release hostages from unjust imprisonment? Are your hands broken?
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