New LETTER OF THE WEEK Forum
Some of us have started a LETTER OF THE WEEK feature here that will provide sample letters that you can use on one forum-selected topic per week--and contact information-- mostly aimed at helping Congress focus on our issues and talking points, also to support progressives in Congress who are taking brave stances against the BushCons, and to encourage others to join them. Barbara Boxer wrote that she had 40,000 letters backing her up in her tough interrogation of Condoleeza Rice this week. This inspired us to want to do more.
Join our forum discussions on topics and help write letters!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=293412&mesg_id=293412--------
Our first!
LETTER OF THE WEEK #1: The Media and the Protests (already posted)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x294547This letter can still be used Friday and this weekend to encourage media reports on the protests, using MEDIA BLASTER (see below).
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LETTER OF THE WEEK #2: To Senators on Condoleeza Rice nomination
This second letter (below) is meant for Senators and must be sent differently. (Preferably fax; also email--see below.) It must go out this weekend. No time for snail mail. The full Senate debate will be Tues. and Wed. (9 hours total). It is a hard hitting letter opposing the nomination of Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State, and supporting Boxer, Kerry and others in opposition. Boxer and Kerry were the only members of the Foreign Relations Committee to vote against Rice. Others like Biden voted for. And Feinstein will be introducing this bad appointment to the full Senate on Tuesday. Go figure.
Clearly the antiwar segment of the Democratic Party needs our support. But there is no reason not to send this letter—or your own—to all Senators, including Republicans. Remember that almost 60% of Americans oppose the Iraq War. We are the majority!
Feel free to change the letter any way you wish.
Senate and House contact info. (click on state, all Sen's & House, tel/fax/web site)
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/Senate and House direct send email:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/cgi-bin/mailform2.cgi?site=ctcSenate (has list of all; snail mail addresses; DC tel, and webform)
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm_______
Here are two background articles on the Rice nomination:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050120/D87NRVAG0.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050117/pl_afp/usricepolitics_050117223654Our third letter will be on the Gonzales nomination (which has been delayed for a week—our letter will be posted in a couple of days.) Other topics will include election fraud, investigation and reform, Social Security and the environment.
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Send Senate Letter to the media?
You might want to also send the letter to the hundreds of media email addresses available at MEDIA BLASTER. It's easy. Just cut and paste the four sets of media email addresses into your email program, cut and paste your letter, and SEND. Here's MEDIA BLASTER:
http://www.independentmediasource.com/voteintegrity2_12.htmYou will want to change the greeting from "Dear Senator…" to a title, for instance: "Sent to all United States Senators on January __, 2005." Put your name at the bottom and it's probably best to add at least town and state, and phone number (possible letter to the editor?).
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LETTER OF THE WEEK #2
Dear Senator ____:
The war in Iraq is by far the worst and most disastrous mistake that the Bush regime has made, and Condoleeeza Rice, whom George Bush has nominated for Secretary of State, has been responsible for conveying the false justifications for this war to the American people and to the Congress.
We need a Secretary of State whose word we can trust, and who can be trusted by other countries. Condoleeza Rice does not meet that job description.
I oppose her appointment as Secretary of State, and I support the efforts of Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry to obtain answers from her on the matter of misleading America into war. I support their votes against her appointment, and I urge you to do the same in the full Senate.
Thousands of Americans have been killed and wounded, over 100,000 Iraqis have been killed and many have been imprisoned and tortured, in this war—a war based on falsehoods, and a war that also holds grave consequences for America's reputation as a just and conservative country for whom the use of a force is a last resort.
The administration is now stuck in a quagmire in Iraq, similar to the one in Vietnam in which over 50,000 US soldiers and over one million Vietnamese were killed—and now the regime is spoiling for war in additional countries.
Nearly 60% of the American people oppose the Bush Regime's war in Iraq. The American people cannot continue to pay for these reckless and bloody policies, and we can no longer tolerate war crimes being committed in our name.
Ms. Rice has also been less than candid about the failures of this administration to protect the U.S. from the 9/11 attack, and supports policies of completely unethical interference in the internal affairs of other countries, such as Haiti and Venezuela.
A regime that holds power on the tenuous grounds of massive vote suppression against minority voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, on the further tenuous grounds of a non-transparent election system that is controlled by partisans of the regime, and that currently has almost 60% of the American people opposing its war policy, would be well advised not to commit further arrogant acts against the consent of the governed, such as nominating for Secretary of State a person whose lies have resulted in countless unnecessary deaths.
Sincerely,
NAME
(a good idea to put here at least town and state, and phone)
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