Back in March, I tested the waters of subscription tweets by launching a service called “Hill Tweet News.” The idea was to give everyone who follows Congress a central portal to the best tweets by lawmakers.
The policy community wouldn’t have to “follow” every member of Congress on Twitter and read every single tweet. Instead, they could just follow me, and journalist with nearly two decades of experience covering Washington policy and politics, and let me filter the congressional Twitter stream so they only received the most informative and entertaining tweets.
The idea sparked some interest and a few potential subscribers, but no one ever took the step of paying for the service. I was investing a few hours a night to pull it together, but without any revenue to show for it, I decided after about a month of tweeting and promoting the feature by word of mouth, the return on my investment of time wasn’t worth it.
Today, however, I read about a new service called Super Chirp that lets Twitter users charge subscription fees for direct messages sent through Twitter. Users can set their own subscription rates, and Super Chirp takes a cut for handling the business transactions.
I like the idea, so I’m going to make another run at “Hill Tweet News.” If your professional life inside or outside the Beltway revolves around what members of Congress say and do, you need to subscribe. And if you just love politics and policy, you’ll want to subscribe.
Let AirCongress streamline your social media life at “Hill Tweet News.”
Categories: AirCongress, Hill Tweet News
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The weekend news that the troubled insurance giant AIG is paying $165 million in executive bonuses despite having received federal bailout money sparked a bipartisan “tweetstorm” by outraged members of Congress today.
Lawmakers from both parties ranted in 140 characters or less, linked to longer rants that wouldn’t fit within Twitter’s textual constraints, and floated legislative trial balloons designed to punish AIG or any other company receiving federal bailout funds that might want to pay bonuses in the future. “Introduced a bill that imposes a 100% tax on any executive bonus over $100,000 that was paid by a company receiving federal bailout funds,” @RepSteveIsrael wrote.
Here is a recap of other AIG-inspired tweets from lawmakers using the mini-blog service:
- Like @RepSteveIsrael, @repblumenauer said he is working on a bill to place a tax surcharge on executive bonuses to recoup tax dollars from firms like AIG.
- On MSNBC’s “Hardball,” @DarrellIssa blasted “AIG/Bush/Obama boneheads who dropped $170 billion with no strings attached.”
- @SenChrisDodd: “A car mechanic or teacher in Connecticut shouldn’t have to subsidize the bad decisions of AIG’s executives.”
- @russfeingold wrote a letter of complaint to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.
- @gopconference called for an “exit strategy” on government bailouts after news of the AIG bonuses.
- And @SenatorMenendez posted to YouTube the clip of his MSNBC appearance to decry AIG.
AIG wasn’t the only thing on lawmakers’ minds, though. Among other things, they tweeted about earmarks, the oversight of federal stimulus projects and government contracts, “card check” legislation to govern votes for labor unions, taxes on health benefits, and public lands.
They also chatted about the NCAA basketball tournament that starts this week. And they linked to articles about lawmakers who tweet. Apparently every journalist in America is writing one of those stories these days.
To get Capitol Hill’s inside scoop from Twitter, subscribe to “Hill Tweet News.” It’s the best and quickest way to learn who sniped at whom, and why; what lawmakers did and said in committee, on the floor, on the news shows and elsewhere; and what articles, shows, Internet videos and more grabbed their attention.
Categories: Producer's Picks, Health, Labor, Budget, Taxes, Economy, Government Waste, Banking, Government Reform, Financial Services, Natural Resources, Bailouts, Hill Tweet News
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Rep. Pete Olsen fainted while working out in the House gym yesterday and had to have a pacemaker installed after being diagnosed with a slow heartbeat. The Texas Republican tweeted his thanks to people after his surgery.
“Thank you for your prayers and kind words,” he wrote at @peteolsen. He then directed his Twitter followers to a statement about the incident.
Here is a sampling of other Hill tweets from today:
To get Capitol Hill’s inside scoop from Twitter, subscribe to “Hill Tweet News.” It’s the best and quickest way to learn who sniped at whom, and why; what lawmakers did and said in committee, on the floor, on the news shows and elsewhere; and what articles, shows, Internet videos and more grabbed their attention.
Categories: Labor, Technology, Lobbying, Crime, Hill Tweet News
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Senate Republicans on Tuesday complained about the rally atmosphere of a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the “card check” method for forming labor union. A day later they released a video mash-up to emphasize their point.
The video showed committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, endorsing the applause and cheers of labor officials when they heard points they liked, but he drew the line at hostile vocal reactions to critics of the legislation.
“I don’t want to permit any hissing or booing or foot-stomping or throwing of things like that,” Harkin said. “I mean, there are limits as to what people can express here.”
Categories: Iowa, Tennessee, Vermont, Producer's Picks, Labor, Tom Harkin, Lamar Alexander, Bernie Sanders
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The Sunlight Foundation, an open-government group, has been pushing hard for the past few years to force a vote on legislation that would compel Senate candidates to post their campaign finance reports electronically. Sunlight took its cause to Twitter this week by telling people to “tweet” their support for the idea to senators who can make it happen.
The new media tactic caught the attention of two Democratic senators, @clairecmc of Missouri and @Barbara_Boxer of California. Boxer noted that she co-sponsored a previous bill on the topic and will do so again. And Claire McCaskill wrote: “I’ve supported electronic filing of campaign reports for a long time. It’s embarrassing that we are not required to file electronically.”
“In less than 24 hours, two out of 15 of the senators on Twitter who had not co-sponsored are now cosponsors,” Blumenthal noted on Sunlight’s blog. “In terms of grassroots outreach that is an amazing turn around.”
Here is a sampling of other Hill tweets from today:
- Why did the public lands bill fail in the House? According to @GOPLeader, it was a Second Amendment fight.
- @Senate_GOPs complained that labor unions turned a Senate hearing on “card check” into pep rally.
- @DeanHeller wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., about card check. “It could cost us 600,000 jobs by end of 2010.”
- @edlabordems posted videos from today’s hearing about lost educational opportunities in alternative settings.
- @SenJohnMcCain found a Washington Post article on Democratic thoughts about taxing health benefits “very interesting.” President Obama scoffed at the idea in the 2008 presidential campaign.
To get Capitol Hill’s inside scoop from Twitter, subscribe to “Hill Tweet News.” It’s the best and quickest way to learn who sniped at whom, and why; what lawmakers did and said in committee, on the floor, on the news shows and elsewhere; and what articles, shows, Internet videos and more grabbed their attention.
Categories: California, Missouri, Gun Rights, Politics, Health, Labor, Technology, Education, Taxes, Natural Resources, Claire McCaskill, Hill Tweet News, Barbara Boxer
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