Fellow Kossacks,
This is a plea for help.
We sit at a critical time in our history. We have sat at a critical time in our history numerous times during the last 5 years. We will continue to sit at a critical time in our history for a long time to come.
Yet when critical legislation is on the line, it is catastrophic to our causes that we present a feeble voice in Washington.
Republican activist groups routinely use overwhelming pressure on critical issues like Supreme Court nominations, backing Bush on war and executive privilege resolutions, handing Bush a leash around our necks allowing him to spy on us, to imprison activists as terrorists, etc.
With the help of our activist groups, we all sign petitions to our 3 representatives, or send an email to the same 3.
Republican right-wing corporatist backer groups routinely deluge Congress with their voices.
What do they have in their arsenal?
What allows them to magnify their bully backers' voices over 500 times the people's voice?
Please follow me over the fold...
What they have in their arsenal is BLAST FAXES.
What is a Blast FAX?
A Blast FAX is a legal and ethical means to magnify the volume and delivery of one emailed voice to 535 FAXES! With one click, a right-winger can send a FAX to every Congressman and every Senator.
I have written to our various groups that defend our Constitution, our civil rights, our jobs, our environment, to PLEASE use the same megaphone tactics, so that our voices can be heard in Washington, and NONE of them has taken me up on it.
We continue to be at a critical time in our history, where we STILL risk the permanent loss of our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, Habeas Corpus, Jobs and the Rule of Law.
We risk the continuation of Permanent War, Abysmal Debt, Stolen Elections, Abusive Detentions, Torture.
In short, we risk the loss of all of our defenses from a permanently abusive government.
I am sure that every one of you reading this suffers from anguish and frustration at the lack of action in Washington. Democrats continue to suffer from lack of momentum, volume, and courage. There is no excuse for groups that champion our causes to refuse to use every legal and ethical means at our disposal.
I have attempted to contact every Senator individually before, and it takes hours. I have never achieved contacting every Congressman. Imagine every one of us being able to do so on a critical vote.
Preceding critical votes, right-wing groups routinely use Blast FAXES to deluge Congress with the same message/petition. Do you think our individual 3 emails get as much attention as 535 FAXes?
We continue to face critical votes in Congress, and the Democrats need all the pressure and support they can get. We need all the weapons in our arsenal. I submit that it is well beyond time that we add Blast FAXES to our arsenal for every critical vote in Congress.
I am writing this diary to beg you, my fellow Kossacks, to write to every activist group that champions our causes of freedom, peace, and justice, and insist that they magnify our voices like the right-wingers do, by providing Blast FAXES preceding critical votes so that our voices have the same clout as those deafening them from the right. It is time that the Republicans as well as the Democrats in Congress be deluged by our voices.
Currently, we have reluctant Republicans refusing to back any of the Democratic attempts to stop the war, to stop the abuses on detainees, to stop spying on all Americans. THIS WILL GO ON. Democrats do not by themselves have enough numbers to overcome a veto. Republicans are not running scared like they should be. Help me get them running scared.
Here is a taste of the current state of impasse:
http://www.suntimes.com/...
Republicans are so smug.
Democrats are so anxious.
Can we not reverse that?
PLEASE write to every activist group you know and demand that they provide Blast FAXES preceding critical votes to knock these smug Republicans and DINO's in Washington off their comfortable stools.
Those of you that can, please provide email addresses for our activist groups.
Here are the ones I already have...
pfaw@pfaw.org , membership@pfaw.org, PoliticalAction@afscme.org, votingrights@aflcio.org, workingamerica@aflcio.org, peoplepower@aflcio.org, action@dcaclu.org,
nrdcinfo@nrdc.org, carl.pope@sierraclub.org, info@earthjustice.org,
info@actforchange.com, info@truemajorityaction.org, callforchange@moveon.org
Others of you that can, may be able to provide the list of FAX numbers for every member of the Senate or for every member of Congress to send to these and other organizations.
If you provide these items, please label your replies with an apt heading.
Others still may be able to provide help to these organizations to program the Blast-FAX-and-payment capability.
Here are excerpts from a recent Blast FAX action item emailed from the far right:
ALERT: The liberal assault on conservative talk radio has begun -- Rush Limbaugh has figured out that there are more liberals than ever calling his show and other conservatives' shows, in order to "lay the groundwork" for demands to bring back the "Fairness Doctrine," better known as the "Hush Rush" Plan.
WE MUST STOP THEM! We have to make sure there are enough Democrats to side with a strong Republican minority against this legislation -- but the only way we can do that is by overwhelming our Congressmen and Senators with messages DEMANDING they vote FOR free speech, and AGAINST any attempt to bring back the anti-free speech Fairness Doctrine.
And we've got a GREAT way to do that!
To make YOUR voice heard LOUD AND CLEAR, we've set up our website so that you can send "blast faxes" to EVERY SINGLE REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR in Washington, D.C.! These Congressmen need to hear from us NOW, before they're able to sneak their legislation past an unsuspecting American public!
Send YOUR blast faxes to ALL 535 of these Congressman NOW, demanding that they support free speech and say NO to the "Fairness Doctrine":
https://secure.responseenterprises.c...
NOTE: As always, you can also send a FREE message to your current Congressman and Senators, demanding they OPPOSE any "Hush Rush" attempt to kill our free speech rights -- just go to http://capwiz.com/... now. Be sure to send this Alert to EVERYONE you know who wants to help STOP Congress from shutting down conservative talk radio!
The one on their website is similar. The Blast FAX link is in the last paragraph here:
http://capwiz.com/...
I believe that the message portion is permanent, so that their message cannot be perverted by those using their tools. Our activist groups could do the same, as in a petition, and/or allow an extra short paragraph to customize the FAX. Or they could choose to aggregate all signatures onto one large FAX.
Here's the link to the actual Blast FAX for that issue:
https://secure.responseenterprises.c...
Fellow Kossacks, I am counting on your concerted help to get this weapon in our arsenal.
We the people need all the help we can get!
Thanks for anything you can do.
Give Dems the Power!