Stan has a plan

Suddenly, the masses have this period when a window of power, however small, has opened. Given the herd behavior of Congress generally, and the political shit-on-the-shoe that Iraq is now becoming, a flood of demands from the public to these intrepid politicos to end the war has what I like to call stampede potential.

I’m not talking about lobbying. Don’t think so. I’ve done lobbying before. That’s when you dress up in something “respectful,” due deference to their positions and all that, and ask them nicely to “please, sir” support my little pet-bill. They need a flood of emails, letters, telephone calls, and visits from people wearing shower shoes and cutoff jeans (hey, it’s hot, dammit!) demanding that they do everything in their power to get the US out of Iraq… yesterday! Lobbying gives them the power. They need to be harassed like stray cats caught in a schoolyard.

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That’s my suggestion, just a starter suggestion. Every week from now on, write your Congress-hack (there are a few who don’t deserve this) and tell him (or her) that you are extremely disappointed in them for not having stopped the war. Get as many people as you can to do the same thing. Call them on the phone until they sign out a restraining order against you for stalking. Take delegations to her (or his) office.

Warning: This stuff is harder than whining, and requires a certain amount of time and effort.

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Then organize at least two public events – one in July and one in September, no matter how small, in your local community – that explain why the war is wrong. If you want to know how to answer that business of “we broke it, we own it,” There are talking points available. That’s the next layer we have to win over – the people who didn’t want the war, who don’t want the war, but can’t conceive of how the US can simply leave.

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Contact Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families for Peace, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, and Iraq Veterans Against the War, and have them contact local reps to attend these events. They have immunity from pro-war, patriot-baiting bullshit. At each of these events, badger people unmercifully to come to Washington DC on September 24-26 for a mass mobilization against the war. Don’t just badger them to come, badger them to get others to come. Badger them to pay for at least one person to come that can’t afford to come.

Because when a poll makes Walter Jones, Jr. abandon his “freedom fries” chauvinism in a district where the 2nd Marine Division lives, there is fear stalking the halls of the federal legislature, and we should exploit it without shame.

More here.