You've Got Mail

If you write to Senator Lindsey Graham, even if it's just to sign a petition online, he will give you the red carpet treatment.  You will receive, through the US Postal Service a letter on attractive letterhead stationery, telling you how important your letter is to him.  Then he will tell you why your opinion does not  make one bit of difference in how he is going to vote.  And the best part of all this is, you pay for this service.


I'm not sure if this is better or worse than Senator Jim DeMint's response to your letters and emails, which is no response at all.  However, before you are allowed to send him an email, you must give him your phone number, I imagine just in case he is totally impressed with your opinion and wants to give you a call.  Actually, what I really think is that he pretty much wants to eliminate the riff-raff who don't own phones.


Now today I got an email from John Boehner, in response to an email I sent him.  Unlike most other representatives, Boehner has to accept email from everyone in the country, because he is Speaker of the House.  So if you go to his website, www.speaker.gov (no, really), and then scoot down to the bottom of the page, to send a message you will be able to let John Boehner know what you are thinking.


And he will reply.


I received an email from Speaker Boehner today, which was distinctive, not in that I read it, but in that it was written in a font that one would use to communicate with a first grader.  He was quite warm and friendly in thanking me for writing and assuring me he really wanted me to keep in touch.


Sadly, I sent it to trash, and now only Google has a record of it, somewhere in cyberspace.  Otherwise, I would have included it.


Since I can't show it to you, you'll just have to contact Speaker Boehner yourself.  He will be delighted to hear from you, and I can assure you, he would love to hear your opinions.

Lemonade Out of Lemons

With our own Nikki Haley in the forefront of the national voter suppression movement, we Democrats have been handed a golden opportunity.


This is our chance to organize a very special Get Out the Vote campaign.


We can spend the rest of 2011 organizing and fundraising on all levels, local, county, state.  In January of 2012, we will be ready.


Ready to move out into the community, knocking on doors, doing interviews on the radio, running television ads.  We will be ready to arm angry and disenfranchised voters -- or voters who are not even yet aware that their ability to vote in 2012 has been snatched from them.  We can arm them with their right to vote.


We don't need to wait for candidates.  This is a campaign that will write itself.  We can educate people throughout South Carolina six months before the primaries.  We can go door to door, not for a candidate, but with voter registration forms in hand, as well as information about how to get the requisite voter ID.  "Don't let the South Carolina legislature and Nikki Haley keep you from voting."  We can offer volunteers to take potential voters to the DMV.


This is the way to do voter outreach like it hasn't been done in forty years.  The people are ready -- is the Democratic Party?