Ah, the Power of Oprah

Ah, the power of Oprah.

I just received an email from my good friend Amy encouraging me to contact my senator in support of Senate Bill 1738 -- The Protect Our Children Act. Apparently, Oprah endorsed this bill on her show, highlighting child exploitation and pornography. She said this bill would help protect our kids and prosecute the bad guys. I can get behind that. So, I thought I would investigate a little before blindly calling my senator.

Here are some things I learned:

• Bill 1738 is part of omnibus S.3297 (Advancing America’s Priorities Act), which means that all 30 bills packaged within the omnibus are voted for when you vote in favor of 1738. Some of the items sneaked in with 1738 include:

o Paralysis research, stroke treatment, research on postpartum activities, vision care for kids, homeless youth awareness campaign, unsolved civil rights crime act, Star-Spangled Banner and War of 1812 bicentennial commission, captive primate safety act, Chesapeake Bay gateways and watertrails network continuing authorization act, beach protection act, Appalachian regional development act, study abroad foundation act, reconstruction and stabilization civilian management act, overseas private investment corporation reauthorization act, tropical forest and coral conservation reauthorization act, torture victims relief reauthorization act, support for the Museum of History of Polish Jews act, broadband data improvement act, training for realtime writers act, undersea research program act, ocean and coastal mapping integration act, national sea grant college program amendments, integrated coastal and ocean observation system act, federal ocean acidification research and monitoring act, preservation of records of servitude, emancipation, and post Civil War reconstruction act, etc., etc….

Now, maybe you agree with all of the things mentioned above; I support you in your right to make informed descisions. I just think it was irresponsible journalism for Oprah to neglect to mention the other 30 things you would be encouraging your senators to vote for. Perhaps you would like to read up on those things before casting your vote? Visit the Library of Congress Website for the whole she-bang on S.3297: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.3297:

If your real concern is the kids, consider this instead:

S.3344 Protecting Children from Pornography and Internet Exploitation Act of 2008

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:S.3344:

This one includes the following:

- *National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

- *Additional Measures to Combat Child Exploitation

- *Effective Child Pornography Prosecution

- *National Institute of Justice Study of Risk Factors (assessing dangerousness)

- *Enhancing the Effective Prosecution of Child Pornography Act of 2007

- Securing Adolescents From Exploitation-Online

- Improvements to Commerce Clause Authorities to Allow for Effective Child Pornography Prosecutions

(All marked with asterisk are also included with the omnibus Oprah endorsed…along with the kitchen sink and some other stuff. The last two about adolescents and the commerce clause authorities are unique to this Act.)

Interesting to note: The bill Oprah endorses was authored by Joe Biden and endorsed by Barack Obama (whom Oprah has also endorsed). On the other hand, Sen. Tom Colburn authored the second bill and included SAFE (the adolescent protection portion), which was authored by Sen. John McCain.

Incidentally, the omnibus (packaged with the 30) will cost taxpayers $70 for the average family. JUST the child pornography protection portion would cost $4.93 for the average family. Consider whether you want to spend the extra dough on the extra stuff packaged in the omnibus.

To me, it seems like Oprah wants the hodge-podge omnibus to pass because she doesn’t want McCain to get any credit for an important piece of legislation. Why does everything have to be so partisan? Does anyone agree with me?