The Good

This week The Good is brought on by a response to something that is definitely The Bad. This post will probably be largely representative of a single issue today, but from different angles.

The issue is HR 5034, the bill that is designed to undermine consumer choice in wine shipping, and to destroy the public’s access to normal processes of challenging bad public policies in this arena. So, you are probably asking yourself what could possibly be good about this? The silver lining in this black cloud has been the grassroots response that has been generated in this community. The Twitterverse and Blogosphere (yes, I just used both of those terms in one sentence) have been inundated with calls to action, and reports of action being taken to stop this horrible travesty of a bill. There is no way that I will be able to hit every blog that has done a great post on this topic, but I will name a few: Drink Nectar, VinTuba, Wine(Explored), Dr. Vino, Fermentation, and Another Wine Blog are good places to start. There are also great online resources and communities for this issue, such as the Facebook StopHR5034 page, and the Free the Grapes site. We need to let our voice be heard, and I can tell by the response that a lot of people are making a lot of noise on this issue.

The Bad

Quite simply, The Bad this week is this piece of legislative feces that has been introduced into our public debate. Not much else to be said.

The Ugly

The Ugly belongs to any representative who would support this bill, and many thanks to Josh Wade from Drink Nectar for posting a list of names and contact information for the sponsors of this bill. As a resident of Lubbock, TX, I would like to issue a special shout out (not of the positive variety) for my representative, Mr. Randy Neugebauer for appearing on this list. A look at this list will show that there are plenty of representatives from both parties who are in the back pocket of the Alcohol lobby. Thanks to Josh for allowing me to reprint this list here. If your rep is on this list, make an additional effort to get everyone you know to contact them and voice their opposition to this bill.