Comments on: Bending Congressional Ears

By: summums

summums — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:30:51 +0000

We need to repeal the ENTIRE MCA. It has more evil than only habeas corpus, though that is most important. It also grants immunity for war crimes for the executive branch. Repeal the whole thing,along with the PATRIOT Act!

By: Ed Kunin

Ed Kunin — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:42:14 +0000

I gave it a try. Got the Capitol operator who asked for my zip code. Told her and got Christopher Shays office. Never voted for him. I put him in a class with Lieberman. Got an intern. Asked him how Shays felt about the habeus bill. He said he cannot speak for the Congressman. I said I didn’t want him to speak for the Congressman. Just wanted to know where the Congressman stood. He said he didn’t know. Gave him my name and address and that was that.

By: empy

empy — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:29:32 +0000

I’ve been trying these numbers and my Senator’s (Bill Nelson) all day with no luck. No one answers the listed numbers and Nelson’s is always busy. I guess they are getting some serious call volume today. Wonder why?

By: junglefreak

junglefreak — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:05:37 +0000

Called Senators Alexander and Corker (TN). Neither of them had a position, so I urged them to become co-sponsors or at least support the legislation.

I have spoken with Jim Cooper’s (TN-05) office a number of times and have brought this issue up on a couple of those occasions. He is in full support of restoring habeas corpus.

By: Bison

Bison — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:00:51 +0000

Called my Congress-critter Brad Sherman and told his staff that he needed to take advantage of this golden opportunity to do good for his country and become a co-sponsor of HR 1416.
Sen. Feinstein and Boxer’s lines were busy, I’ll try them again later.

By: Christy Hardin Smith

Christy Hardin Smith — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 18:14:15 +0000

Sam at 99 — Thanks! Much appreciated!

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:54:57 +0000

I just called Sen. Murray’s office (D-WA) and asked about her support. Currently she has no position, but I encouraged her to support the bill and to consider co-sponsoring it along with fellow Washington state Senator Cantwell.

By: Christy Hardin Smith

Christy Hardin Smith — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:22:40 +0000

Harriet at 97 — I think every bit helps. And, in my experience, local staffers are wonderfully conscientious about calls because they don’t tend to get as many — so you may get your message across even better with a local office than you can with the DC one. HTH!

By: Harriet

Harriet — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:22:07 +0000

I called Sen. Schumer’s DC office — having done that, would it be useful to call his local NY office as well, or would that be redundant?

By: Ed Kunin

Ed Kunin — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 15:13:32 +0000

Christy Hardin Smith @ 43

wgg –
Being a citizen requires action — passive sitting back and kvetching among ourselves doesn’t get us anywhere.

Again I take a different perspective from that generally expressed on this blog, but that doesn’t make me a bad person. I agree kvetching doesn’t get us anywhere. I don’t think calling 800 numbers gets us all that far either.

We need some process which makes the will of the people known and unquestionable. Millions of hand written, original authentic letters might do it. We need something central, someplace to discuss issues and actions in a meaningful fashion. I have no idea how that might be accomplished technically. Blogs all over the place, each independent, are fun, but ineffective.

The court cases which upheld the rule of law inspiring us to shout “The system works!” Didn’t change anything either.