torture states love ignoring you

[solarbird]

I've been sending variations on this letter - different every time, of course - to my DC "representatives" every day or two for a couple of weeks now.

Dear {Senator|Representative} [foo] -

I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving holiday. Now that you're back: what plans did you make while back here in Washington to confront the Bush and Cheney administration over their torture regime? It is a continuous source of disgust and deeply personal anger that the United States federal government is engaging in the same wretched practices I wrote against as an Amnesty International Freedom Writer, and I'm very much interested in your plans to stop it. Immediately.

I look forward to a paper-mail response.


Sincerely,


solarbird

No reply yet. Some of you might try it too. But you have to do it over and over again - at least, that's my hypothesis. I know outright that they'll ignore just one.

If you're local, here's Maria Cantwell's message webform, here's Patty Murray's message webform, and here's Jay Inslee's. I give obviously fake email addresses ("nothanks@nowhere.net") because I don't really want their email bullshit, but give real phone number and paper address information so they can reply, if they want to.

Comments

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the inspiration; I shall try somthing similar with our Member of Parliament, Catherine Bell (who is on the whole a good one). Up here, we have franking privilege to write to our parliamentary representatives -- saves 49 cents.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

You know, the more I see out of you guys the more I'd like to just import your whole political process, part and parcel. From no-confidence to paper ballots counted by hand in a roomful of RCMP to writing your MP's for free... yes, you've got your problems, but *damn*...

I understand why our own Founding Fathers set things up the way they did... but we don't have the transportation and communications problems we once did that made that necessary. I also understand why the elections people are trying to do what they are trying to do... and some of it is a would-be panacea and some of it's graft and *none* of it is right.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Well, I do think, given the sampling of Yank and Southern friends I've known and loved, that y'all will be able to sort out your aggravations. A convincing plurality, if not an outright full majority, would go a long way to it.

I always bear in mind that although I am married to certain Yanks, and we are very close to taking in another to fill a space in our array, I am decidedly a **non**-immigrant spouse, would not consider giving up being a free-range Canadienne in a month of Sundays. Canada's been awfully kind to me, BC and Alberta especially (tho' in the case of Alberta, if they knew exactly what sort of wild harridan bodie I really am, they'd probably want to run me out on a rail).

Let's just say that if there are many more Callihanians like you around, the States'll be okay.

Oh, and the only reason the RCMP come to watch the ballot-count? We give em coffee, tea and Timmies. That's do it every time. Sides which, they are so dang cute in their red serge.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I hope we can manage to work it out. I'm more hopeful now than I was a year ago, and yet I fear if we don't do something drastic, waiting another year-plus to get the Current Occupant out the usual way will take us places we really don't want to go...

Can't say as I blame you for wanting to stay.

*LOL* the funny thing is that even though I've never been to one, I know enough Canadian culture to figure out what a "Timmie" is in just a few seconds... cops and their donuts *shrug* what can you do, eh? Feed'em more?

One wonders if you're familiar with a little band called the Arrogant Worms... IIRC they're from Saskatchewan... they did a cute little ditty about a disillusioned Mountie...

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, do I ever know of the Arrogant Worms. Just consider the beaver...

Also enjoyed, in no particular order; I'd imagine you'd know at least some of them:

Todd Butler (whose utterly savage "Beautiful BC" I sang at a karaoke fest in Beijing last trip there, to the general non-comprehension of the Chinese, thanks be)
Three Wierd Sisters
Emerald Rose
Swamparella
kd lang

and of course the late, lamented Stan Rogers. Garnet Rogers comes close...

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

TWS I know of, ditto k.d., and I ♥ Emerald Rose. You probably discovered them the same general place I did; I seem to recall Lumpkin County is their home turf, with occasional forays down Dekalb-ward?

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Mmm. Well, they used to play a "private engagement" every autumn, which, one year, I very reluctantly chaired owing to the customary organiser having died. I preferred usually just to show up in Atlanta a few days beforehand, take care of some errands there, down in Forest Park and out in Kennesaw, fill my rental-car with other expatriates, drive up there to Lumpkin-Land and get properly incoherent [set state=altered] for three days, leaving the young'uns, including my two god-sons and lovely god-daughter, to take care of affairs. ER also played as house band at my god-sons' first weddings down in Decatur, both of them on the same day; them and TWS both, IIRC. Down on Rainbow Road off of Snapfinger, if you know the geography of Decatur -- we have fond memories of both the households that lived there in succession.

Don't know if you ever found your way to the farmstead in Lumpkin or not: it was a bit east and then north of the Teletubbies Tower, which is quite the local landmark. Last I heard, they finally tore the old house down; I have delightful memories of staggering-good dalliances there, anyway. I'm never one to turn down a flower-fight when I'm in a sociable mood. Running away nekkid at three in the morning to go get sluiced off in the mist-covered pond was just simply a bonus.

And k.d. , well, there's another excuse for a bottle of raki some day... she was one very wierd kid, indeed.

[sutures1.livejournal.com]

You've probably noticed Amy Goodman's opinion piece in the Seattle P-I recently but here's a link: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/341487_amy29.html

Very, very depressing, but it kinda answers your question, doesn't it?

As I've said for several years now, it's sometimes hard to believe the Dems are much of an improvement.

[solarbird]

I have a long history of Not Being a Fan of the Democratic Party.

That said, I had not seen that. Thanks, for some value of, "...for the added disgust." But it's good to know.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

I suppose I should know better by now than to propose th Democratic Socialists of America ^_^

I'm married to one of those. She gets these tiny-typed newsprint leaflets in the mail every month, full of utterly incomprehensible manifestos from folks living in cold-water flats in the Bronx, or out in the 'burbs.

So, having just read that P-I article, fair question is this: what, if anything, is a reasonable political choice to make when the Reps and Dems seem to be batting off the same play-book? I know it's not the Greens, unless you like being on the no-fly list? But are there any other options that have more than a regional weight, if that?

Up here, we're sort of screwed in the viable opposition department too, but at least (thank God) we do have a minority government, which is the best possible state of affairs in a parliamentary country. Besides which, being in power makes the Neo-Cons get cocky, and that's fun to watch.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

No, dammit. We've got jack all for real opposition, which ... well, lookit the icon.

BTW, I figured you guys would've called an election by now, what happened? Torys too chicken, but not stupid enough to do something to provoke a no-confidence?

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Mmm, Liberals aren't ready to fight an election, that's why. But Question Period is really entertaining, and Harper is just scared enough of his bloody low poll ratings, that he keeps declaring that a proposed bill's failure will not be considered a statement of no confidence -- thus the Governor-General has no cause to dissolve Parliament.

Sounds wierd, maybe, but it works.

Tories are just plain DUMB in my opinion. DUMB and DUMBER when you consider Harper and McKay (the little ratfink) together. But, well, they're OUR Tories, so we keep 'em around so that the children can see them in a quasi-natural setting.

[ETA: I'm feeling vaguely guilty about hijacking someone else's comment-space. How's all of this on netiquette, anyway?]

[solarbird]

It varies. On true blog blogs, this is perfectly standard and correct behaviour. On true journals, it's often considered a little strange. My LJ is somewhere between the two, but, as I am an attention whore fine with it, feel free to carry on.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*LOL* thanks for the vote of confidence... as it were. :)

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

you're not the only one hoping this hasn't gone too far afield in here...

Does your @lj email work? (Mine doesn't, too much spam...)

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

Try me on "ten tod dnalsi ta enimlaoc" if'n you get my drift. Backchannel is always better for mutual cognisance, I don't really have all that much of a public existence, other occasional forays into conceptual-art projects ^_^

I have the LJ-mail facility switched off. In theory I have an admin account at IAIR but have not figured out what to do with it (let alone figuring out quite what to do with IAIR, for which the Regents are starting to gripe at me).

In any event, I think my currently-best attributes are "skittish, but goes well with cinnamon sauce."

[solarbird]

If I won the lotto - I mean, big money - I think I would go spend several million dollars on a national effort to get all the people who hate both parties, who think the whole damn thing is useless, who never go vote for anything ever, to go out and vote for any random third party they've never heard of in 2008.

I don't care who would get the votes. I wouldn't be pushing for people who do vote to vote differently; the only message would be aimed straight at people who don't vote. That's more than half the electorate. I'd specifically want the bored and disgusted to do it as a stunt.

Any result would send a shock through the system at this point, and would be an improvement.