Defend Your Rights! Defeat John Roberts
From:
Patricia Gracian
This message is all about ACTION and how we can magnify our voice to defeat John Roberts. (Vote is expected before Thursday 9/22/5)
The task may seem daunting, but if each of us participates in these actions, we will create the volume to force a reaction by our Senators.
There are at least 4 immediate reasons why John Roberts must be rejected for Chief Justice of our Supreme Court.
As someone who has sided with Bush against our critical right for due process, his confirmation must be defeated or we may be facing another 40 years of Bush control and erosion of our precious rights!!
We must magnify our voice to the Senate and to the media on these 4 reasons for rejection and for censure or impeachment by pressuring all of our elected representatives from the ground up!
1. John Roberts is a lying partisan judge. Therefore, nothing he says during the hearing should reassure anyone that his past work does not characterize his character and will not affect his future decisions. Why do I say he is a lying partisan judge?
He claimed he had not been a member of the Federalist Society. Past records clearly show was on the steering committee of this extreme right-wing group. This in itself is enough for ME to reject this unworthy candidate. Such a person should be tried for perjury, if the statements are made under oath.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/24/AR2005072401201.html
or at
http://www.napervilledemocrats.org/node/992
2. John Roberts is dishonest and lacks the proper judicial temperament and ethics. Why do I say that? Everyone that knows the facts will agree that someone who decides a case to the benefit of one of the parties AT THE SAME TIME that that party is rewarding the judge with the highest Judicial position in the land, has just accepted BRIBERY and has no sense of ETHICS!!! You do not have to be a lawyer nor a judge to know this. In addition, the resulting judgment is DEEPLY FLAWED and this judge SHOULD BE IMPEACHED. Here's an article on this:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-lubet13sep13,0,1515736.story
Read the details and send a letter to your Senators:
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=19554
3. John Roberts has something to hide. As if we needed more reasons to reject him! When immediately after a visit by Bush lawyers to his judicial files, those files disappear, there is no doubt that there is something further to fear from this man. This devious destruction of records should be enough reason to reject this candidate.
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2005/08/17/build/nation/65-roberts.inc
4. John Roberts is a War Profiteer, having placed himself in a position to benefit from the destruction of Iraq. Why do I say that?
A man or a woman benefits from having a spouse that works for a company that directly benefits from the destruction of Iraq by advertising themselves as experts in procuring reconstruction jobs in Iraq.As such, John Roberts and his wife should be tried as War Profiteers.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/072105Burns/07-21-05_Burns.pdf
Any one of these transgressions by John Roberts should be ample reason for immediate rejection of this unworthy candidate. I personally would press for prosecution, censure, and impeachment.
Even more frightening, is that those are not the only 4 reasons why he should be rejected. In crucial decisions, he has sided for corporate interests, partisan politics, and strong-armed federal government against individual citizen's rights.
In addition, Mr. Roberts has issued statements that show a disturbing penchant for deciding according to his personal biases and opinions, rather than from precedence and constitutional law. He has no respect for our constitutional rights and our fundamental freedoms and has just recently proved it by allowing President Bush to solidify a greater executive power and also denied rule of law to the American people! He has no respect for the balance of powers and has moved to destroy that balance. Why do I say that? Please scrutinize his record. The evidence is all there. He has already shown his hand, helping corporations over individual rights.
P.S. Here's other great info:
http://www.slate.com/id/2124603/
http://feinstein.senate.gov/05speeches/s-roberts912.htm
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091305A.shtml
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091305Z.shtml
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/legal/september_11th/docs/Roberts_Testimony_91205.pdf
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091205Z.shtml
One citizen's wording:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=8028061&content_dir=ua_congressorg
Now for the actions to push for the rejection of John Roberts:
1. PLEASE compose the best letter you can, to your Senators, expressing your OUTRAGE that he is being considered for this position. State in your own words in whatever order, in your own organized way, these HUGE lapses in ethics and include one or more of the links from above as proof of what you say.
State your case, and urge your Senators to protest this candidacy and to DEMAND that he be withdrawn and prosecuted for his past transgressions: http://www.trotn.com
Save a copy of this letter to edit for your next action:
2. Write a similar letter, and aim your message at your government representatives at all levels, pressing them to protest the inaction of your Senators. Demand that they pressure your Senators (at www.senate.gov )to highlight and prosecute the ethics lapses revealed in John Roberts' past decisions. Contact these levels of government at:
Mayor: http://usmayors.org/USCM/cgi-bin/database_search4.asp
City Council members and local government:
http://www.firstgov.gov/Agencies/Local_Government/Cities.shtml
State Governor:
http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.42b929b1a5b9e4eac3363d10501010a0/?vgnextoid=d54c8aaa2ebbff00VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextfmt=curgov
State Legislators: http://www.ncsl.org/public/leglinks.cfm
Congress: http://www.house.gov
3. Compose a similar letter to the TV and radio media - national and local, and demand that they expose these blotches in the John Roberts record. Send them full details with links to these news stories. Contact them with the following tool, 5 at a time, and use your back arrow icon repeatedly to reach as many of the media outlets as are listed for your zip code:
http://www.savethecourt.org/site/c.mwK0JbNTJrF/b.882409/k.CDF8/Activist_Media_Tips.htm
Send emails demanding media coverage of these ethics transgressions. Here are some national media email addresses:
2020@abc.com , thisweek@abc.com , nightline@abcnews.com , 48hours@cbsnews.com , 60m@cbsnews.com , 60w@cbsnews.com , bpc@cbsnews.com , evening@cbsnews.com , earlyshow@cbs.com , efm@cbsnews.com , ftn@cbsnews.com , mkx@cbsnews.com , pma@cbsnews.com , rbc@cbsnews.com , sundays@cbsnews.com , grain@cbsnews.com , InsideScoop@cbsnew s.com , dateline@nbc.com , mtp@nbc.com , nightly@nbc.com , today@nbc.com , niteline@abc.com , Ted.Koppel@abc.com , nightline@abcnews.com , NETAUDR@abc.com , wnn@abcnews.com , 2020@abc.com , thisweek@abc.com , cnn@cnn.com , Colmes@foxnews.com , Jack.Cafferty@turner.com , jconason@observer.com , LarryKingLive@turner.com , Lateedition@cnn.com , sidney_blumenthal@yahoo.com , aaron.brown@turner.com , am@cnn.com , 360@cnn.com , andrea.koppel@turner.com , bill.schneider@turner.com , bruce.morton@turner.com , candy.crowley@turner.com , carol.lin@turner.com , crossfire@cnn.com , daryn.kagan@turner.com , david.ensor@turner.com , daybreak@cnn.com ,
kurtzh@washpost.com , inthemoney@cnn.com , crossfire@cnn.com , jeanne.meserve@turner.com , jeff.greenfield@cnn.com , jim.walton@turner.com , deirdre.walsh@turner.com , kelly.wallace@turner.com , kyra.phillips@turner.com , livefrom@cnn.com , livetoday@cnn.com , lou.dobbs@turner.com , loudobbs@cnn.com , miles.obrien@turner.com , moneyline@cnn.com , newsnight@cnn.com , Paula.Zahn2@cnn.com , paula.zahn@turner.com , tom.hannon@cnn.com , wam@cnn.com , wolf@cnn.com , KOlbermann@msnbc.com , dennis.sullivan@msnbc.com , hardball@msnbc.com , countdown@msnbc.com , abramsreport@msnbc.com , dshuster@msnbc.com , norville@msnbc.com , imus@msnbc.com , joe@msnbc.com , jtrippi@msnbc.com , Lesterholt@msnbc.com , msnbcinvestigates@msnbc.com , feedback@msnbc.com , rreagan@msnbc.com , viewerservices@msnbc.com , dateline@nbc.com , mtp@nbc.com , nightly@nbc.com , today@nbc.com , feedback@ap.org , jloven@ap.org , lmargasak@ap.org , msilverman@ap.org , npickler@ap.org , rfournier@ap.org , sjohnson@ap.org ,
pr@ap.org , thunt@ap.org , traum@ap.org , Editors@newsweek.com , howardfineman@aol.com , patricia.wilson.reuters.com@reuters.net , todd.eastham@reuters.com , arshad.mohammed@reuters.com , editor@reuters.com , randall.mikkelsen@reuters.com , steve.holland@reuters.com , john.whitesides@reuters.com , investigations_desk@upi.com , politics_desk@upi.com , greg.hitt@wsj.com , jeanne.cummings@wsj.com , dkeil@bloomberg.net , wroberts@bloomberg.net , ghall@bloomberg.net , hprzybyla@bloomberg.net , alan@alan.com , ontherecord@foxnews.com , MPossley@tribune.com ,
International: ipi@freemedia.at , editor@ipsnews.net , headquarters@ips.org , farai@ips.org , latam@ipslatam.net , rjaura@ips.org , ipsasia@ipsnews.net , ipsun@aol.com , support@themoscowtimes.com , almaeena@arabnews.com , editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk , foreign@guardian.co.uk , politics@guardian.co.uk , politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk , foreigneditor@independent.co.uk , newseditor@independent.co.uk , newsonline@bbc.co.uk , online@tnr.com
4. Massage your letter slightly into a "letter to the editor" and in your letter, include the contact information: the webpage http://www.senate.gov and toll-free Capitol phone number 877-762-8762 and urge your fellow Americans to call, FAX, and email their Senators with their demands. Send to as many newspapers - national and local- as you can. Use your back arrow icon to resend to more newspapers: http://www.moveonpac.org/lte/
Here's some letters to the editor additional email addresses: letters@charleskrauthammer.com , Letters@newsweek.com , letters@time.com , letters@taipeitimes.com , letters@guardian.co.uk
5. Using the idea from our friends at The People's Email Network, forward this email to your favorite progressive, liberal, Green, environmentalist, rights-watch, women's-rights, GLBT, black-justice, etc. groups, websites, and radio stations- all of who will LOSE everything with a traitorous Chief Justice- so they will join the battle and post our entreaty on their webpages and to their email action groups. Also call in to your radio stations to keep them focused on this topic:
WEB SITE ACTIONS
All progressive blogs must FEATURE a prominent Stop Roberts action center. If you have a web page of any kind, the absolute bare minimum is to have in the top fold of your main index page (if not on every page of your site) the toll-free Capitol telephone number (877-762-8762), plus an exhortation to call your senators specifically to oppose Roberts, and not in teeny-tiny type, but in large bold type that nobody could miss.
If you have a mailing list of any kind of your own opt-ins, do a mailing emphasizing the importance of this action and provide a link to your John Roberts Action Page.
RADIO ACTIONS
All progressive radio personalities must dedicate part of EVERY show to giving out the toll-free Senate phone number (877-762-8762) and to rally your listeners to take action on this. Don't just assume people know it already or can find it on their own. PROMOTE it. Talk is not enough, not even close. We must convert advocacy into ACTION. In the same way that a single run of an ad on your radio station will not have sufficient impact standing alone, you must make this a recurrent theme of your show and keep REPEATING it, at least for the next week or so.
At the same time you can give out the URL of the main action page, http://www.trotn.com, or any other easy to say and remember web address you like, to get people to email or phone or fax their members of Congress. In addition all the other things above that apply to other web sites apply to you as well. Feature the Senate toll-free phone number and action links and do it prominently on your main page, your blogs, and ideally on ALL your pages at least in one of your side columns.
And as a listener of your favorite progressive radio show, call in. Encourage them to get on the case to give out the toll-free number, and to give out web links and post them on their sites. Talk about this on the air when they put you on.
We must communicate to our members of Congress in every way that this is a deal breaker for us. This particular nominee is a threat to absolutely anything else Congress might try to do in the future, as he UN-legislates from the bench. Any democrat who votes for this nominee or even for cloture must never hold public office in any capacity again and they must be made to understand this by our emails, our faxes, our phone calls, and our letters to the editor. We stopped Bolton (at least in the Senate) and we can and will stop this nominee as well.
Additional ARGUMENTS:
1. CONCEALMENT OF CRITICALLY RELEVANT DOCUMENTS
The administration has refused to disclose documents relevant to the consideration of the nominee. They have totally frustrated any meaningful opportunity to cross-examine this nominee by stonewalling access to any of his memos from the last 20 years, materials that previous administrations have always disclosed as to other Supreme Court nominees.
The senators on the other side and the nominee in particular have repeatedly complained about being asked about 20 year old documents. Well, guess what, because of the bad faith refusal of the administration to cooperate that's all we have to work from. Mr. Roberts the lawyer would never even consider trying a case without access to ALL the documents and evidence he had a RIGHT to review. And just like Bolton, this nominee must be rejected until and unless all relevant documents are produced.
2. BUSH HAS USED UP HIS POLITICAL CAPITAL
The primary argument we have heard from the other side is that he's the president's choice and that should be enough. They are saying in essence, "Ha, ha, we won the last election, too bad." And yet now, just 10 months later, Mr. Bush is the most UNPOPULAR second term president in history. His bad judgment in crisis after crisis has brought shame and destruction to our country and cost thousands if not tens of thousands of innocent American lives. There are now too many dead bodies for even them to hide, though they've tried that in New Orleans too. Bush's nominee Bolton, who he stubbornly rammed through over the objections of the good judgment of the Senate, has done nothing but create chaos and disruption at the UN already, to the dismay of even our closest ally, Great Britain. His selection of partisan cronies for FEMA management positions crippled that agency's ability to protect us. We no LONGER trust the choices of Mr. Bush. If there were to be an election today, with his popularity in free fall, there is no doubt Bush would be soundly defeated.
3. ROBERTS HAS NOT BEEN CANDID ABOUT HIS TRUE AGENDA
The Republican senators on the judiciary committee have repeatedly encouraged the nominee to NOT answer questions on the merits, to be evasive and call it integrity. Roberts has testified at length and said absolutely nothing of substance, like the enormously slick lawyer he is. But one interesting thing he did say is that as a lawyer he could take EITHER side of a case and make a reasonable argument. And you better believe that in ruling against us time after time, he will always find a CLEVER way to make extremism sound reasonable, and that is precisely why he is so dangerous. He said it is not the job of a lawyer to have a position on the issues. But ultimately it IS the job of a judge.
Additional info about Roberts:
"Frustrated by Roberts, and Unsure How to Vote," The New York Times, September 16th, 2005
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=911
For quick facts:
http://www.SaveTheCourt.org/Roberts
For in depth analysis:
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund report: (PDF)
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=908
The National Women's Law Center reports:
http://www.nominationwatch.org/
The People for the American Way report:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=910
Here's another way to reject John Roberts: View this ad:
Windows Media Player or Quicktime and donate to get it aired: https://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=16852
AirAmericaRadio is available to you at these locations:
http://www.airamericaradio.com/stations
Informant: Martin Greenhut
Patricia Gracian
This message is all about ACTION and how we can magnify our voice to defeat John Roberts. (Vote is expected before Thursday 9/22/5)
The task may seem daunting, but if each of us participates in these actions, we will create the volume to force a reaction by our Senators.
There are at least 4 immediate reasons why John Roberts must be rejected for Chief Justice of our Supreme Court.
As someone who has sided with Bush against our critical right for due process, his confirmation must be defeated or we may be facing another 40 years of Bush control and erosion of our precious rights!!
We must magnify our voice to the Senate and to the media on these 4 reasons for rejection and for censure or impeachment by pressuring all of our elected representatives from the ground up!
1. John Roberts is a lying partisan judge. Therefore, nothing he says during the hearing should reassure anyone that his past work does not characterize his character and will not affect his future decisions. Why do I say he is a lying partisan judge?
He claimed he had not been a member of the Federalist Society. Past records clearly show was on the steering committee of this extreme right-wing group. This in itself is enough for ME to reject this unworthy candidate. Such a person should be tried for perjury, if the statements are made under oath.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/24/AR2005072401201.html
or at
http://www.napervilledemocrats.org/node/992
2. John Roberts is dishonest and lacks the proper judicial temperament and ethics. Why do I say that? Everyone that knows the facts will agree that someone who decides a case to the benefit of one of the parties AT THE SAME TIME that that party is rewarding the judge with the highest Judicial position in the land, has just accepted BRIBERY and has no sense of ETHICS!!! You do not have to be a lawyer nor a judge to know this. In addition, the resulting judgment is DEEPLY FLAWED and this judge SHOULD BE IMPEACHED. Here's an article on this:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-lubet13sep13,0,1515736.story
Read the details and send a letter to your Senators:
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/action.cfm?itemid=19554
3. John Roberts has something to hide. As if we needed more reasons to reject him! When immediately after a visit by Bush lawyers to his judicial files, those files disappear, there is no doubt that there is something further to fear from this man. This devious destruction of records should be enough reason to reject this candidate.
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?tl=1&display=rednews/2005/08/17/build/nation/65-roberts.inc
4. John Roberts is a War Profiteer, having placed himself in a position to benefit from the destruction of Iraq. Why do I say that?
A man or a woman benefits from having a spouse that works for a company that directly benefits from the destruction of Iraq by advertising themselves as experts in procuring reconstruction jobs in Iraq.As such, John Roberts and his wife should be tried as War Profiteers.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/072105Burns/07-21-05_Burns.pdf
Any one of these transgressions by John Roberts should be ample reason for immediate rejection of this unworthy candidate. I personally would press for prosecution, censure, and impeachment.
Even more frightening, is that those are not the only 4 reasons why he should be rejected. In crucial decisions, he has sided for corporate interests, partisan politics, and strong-armed federal government against individual citizen's rights.
In addition, Mr. Roberts has issued statements that show a disturbing penchant for deciding according to his personal biases and opinions, rather than from precedence and constitutional law. He has no respect for our constitutional rights and our fundamental freedoms and has just recently proved it by allowing President Bush to solidify a greater executive power and also denied rule of law to the American people! He has no respect for the balance of powers and has moved to destroy that balance. Why do I say that? Please scrutinize his record. The evidence is all there. He has already shown his hand, helping corporations over individual rights.
P.S. Here's other great info:
http://www.slate.com/id/2124603/
http://feinstein.senate.gov/05speeches/s-roberts912.htm
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091305A.shtml
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091305Z.shtml
http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/legal/september_11th/docs/Roberts_Testimony_91205.pdf
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/091205Z.shtml
One citizen's wording:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=8028061&content_dir=ua_congressorg
Now for the actions to push for the rejection of John Roberts:
1. PLEASE compose the best letter you can, to your Senators, expressing your OUTRAGE that he is being considered for this position. State in your own words in whatever order, in your own organized way, these HUGE lapses in ethics and include one or more of the links from above as proof of what you say.
State your case, and urge your Senators to protest this candidacy and to DEMAND that he be withdrawn and prosecuted for his past transgressions: http://www.trotn.com
Save a copy of this letter to edit for your next action:
2. Write a similar letter, and aim your message at your government representatives at all levels, pressing them to protest the inaction of your Senators. Demand that they pressure your Senators (at www.senate.gov )to highlight and prosecute the ethics lapses revealed in John Roberts' past decisions. Contact these levels of government at:
Mayor: http://usmayors.org/USCM/cgi-bin/database_search4.asp
City Council members and local government:
http://www.firstgov.gov/Agencies/Local_Government/Cities.shtml
State Governor:
http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.42b929b1a5b9e4eac3363d10501010a0/?vgnextoid=d54c8aaa2ebbff00VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextfmt=curgov
State Legislators: http://www.ncsl.org/public/leglinks.cfm
Congress: http://www.house.gov
3. Compose a similar letter to the TV and radio media - national and local, and demand that they expose these blotches in the John Roberts record. Send them full details with links to these news stories. Contact them with the following tool, 5 at a time, and use your back arrow icon repeatedly to reach as many of the media outlets as are listed for your zip code:
http://www.savethecourt.org/site/c.mwK0JbNTJrF/b.882409/k.CDF8/Activist_Media_Tips.htm
Send emails demanding media coverage of these ethics transgressions. Here are some national media email addresses:
2020@abc.com , thisweek@abc.com , nightline@abcnews.com , 48hours@cbsnews.com , 60m@cbsnews.com , 60w@cbsnews.com , bpc@cbsnews.com , evening@cbsnews.com , earlyshow@cbs.com , efm@cbsnews.com , ftn@cbsnews.com , mkx@cbsnews.com , pma@cbsnews.com , rbc@cbsnews.com , sundays@cbsnews.com , grain@cbsnews.com , InsideScoop@cbsnew s.com , dateline@nbc.com , mtp@nbc.com , nightly@nbc.com , today@nbc.com , niteline@abc.com , Ted.Koppel@abc.com , nightline@abcnews.com , NETAUDR@abc.com , wnn@abcnews.com , 2020@abc.com , thisweek@abc.com , cnn@cnn.com , Colmes@foxnews.com , Jack.Cafferty@turner.com , jconason@observer.com , LarryKingLive@turner.com , Lateedition@cnn.com , sidney_blumenthal@yahoo.com , aaron.brown@turner.com , am@cnn.com , 360@cnn.com , andrea.koppel@turner.com , bill.schneider@turner.com , bruce.morton@turner.com , candy.crowley@turner.com , carol.lin@turner.com , crossfire@cnn.com , daryn.kagan@turner.com , david.ensor@turner.com , daybreak@cnn.com ,
kurtzh@washpost.com , inthemoney@cnn.com , crossfire@cnn.com , jeanne.meserve@turner.com , jeff.greenfield@cnn.com , jim.walton@turner.com , deirdre.walsh@turner.com , kelly.wallace@turner.com , kyra.phillips@turner.com , livefrom@cnn.com , livetoday@cnn.com , lou.dobbs@turner.com , loudobbs@cnn.com , miles.obrien@turner.com , moneyline@cnn.com , newsnight@cnn.com , Paula.Zahn2@cnn.com , paula.zahn@turner.com , tom.hannon@cnn.com , wam@cnn.com , wolf@cnn.com , KOlbermann@msnbc.com , dennis.sullivan@msnbc.com , hardball@msnbc.com , countdown@msnbc.com , abramsreport@msnbc.com , dshuster@msnbc.com , norville@msnbc.com , imus@msnbc.com , joe@msnbc.com , jtrippi@msnbc.com , Lesterholt@msnbc.com , msnbcinvestigates@msnbc.com , feedback@msnbc.com , rreagan@msnbc.com , viewerservices@msnbc.com , dateline@nbc.com , mtp@nbc.com , nightly@nbc.com , today@nbc.com , feedback@ap.org , jloven@ap.org , lmargasak@ap.org , msilverman@ap.org , npickler@ap.org , rfournier@ap.org , sjohnson@ap.org ,
pr@ap.org , thunt@ap.org , traum@ap.org , Editors@newsweek.com , howardfineman@aol.com , patricia.wilson.reuters.com@reuters.net , todd.eastham@reuters.com , arshad.mohammed@reuters.com , editor@reuters.com , randall.mikkelsen@reuters.com , steve.holland@reuters.com , john.whitesides@reuters.com , investigations_desk@upi.com , politics_desk@upi.com , greg.hitt@wsj.com , jeanne.cummings@wsj.com , dkeil@bloomberg.net , wroberts@bloomberg.net , ghall@bloomberg.net , hprzybyla@bloomberg.net , alan@alan.com , ontherecord@foxnews.com , MPossley@tribune.com ,
International: ipi@freemedia.at , editor@ipsnews.net , headquarters@ips.org , farai@ips.org , latam@ipslatam.net , rjaura@ips.org , ipsasia@ipsnews.net , ipsun@aol.com , support@themoscowtimes.com , almaeena@arabnews.com , editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk , foreign@guardian.co.uk , politics@guardian.co.uk , politics.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk , foreigneditor@independent.co.uk , newseditor@independent.co.uk , newsonline@bbc.co.uk , online@tnr.com
4. Massage your letter slightly into a "letter to the editor" and in your letter, include the contact information: the webpage http://www.senate.gov and toll-free Capitol phone number 877-762-8762 and urge your fellow Americans to call, FAX, and email their Senators with their demands. Send to as many newspapers - national and local- as you can. Use your back arrow icon to resend to more newspapers: http://www.moveonpac.org/lte/
Here's some letters to the editor additional email addresses: letters@charleskrauthammer.com , Letters@newsweek.com , letters@time.com , letters@taipeitimes.com , letters@guardian.co.uk
5. Using the idea from our friends at The People's Email Network, forward this email to your favorite progressive, liberal, Green, environmentalist, rights-watch, women's-rights, GLBT, black-justice, etc. groups, websites, and radio stations- all of who will LOSE everything with a traitorous Chief Justice- so they will join the battle and post our entreaty on their webpages and to their email action groups. Also call in to your radio stations to keep them focused on this topic:
WEB SITE ACTIONS
All progressive blogs must FEATURE a prominent Stop Roberts action center. If you have a web page of any kind, the absolute bare minimum is to have in the top fold of your main index page (if not on every page of your site) the toll-free Capitol telephone number (877-762-8762), plus an exhortation to call your senators specifically to oppose Roberts, and not in teeny-tiny type, but in large bold type that nobody could miss.
If you have a mailing list of any kind of your own opt-ins, do a mailing emphasizing the importance of this action and provide a link to your John Roberts Action Page.
RADIO ACTIONS
All progressive radio personalities must dedicate part of EVERY show to giving out the toll-free Senate phone number (877-762-8762) and to rally your listeners to take action on this. Don't just assume people know it already or can find it on their own. PROMOTE it. Talk is not enough, not even close. We must convert advocacy into ACTION. In the same way that a single run of an ad on your radio station will not have sufficient impact standing alone, you must make this a recurrent theme of your show and keep REPEATING it, at least for the next week or so.
At the same time you can give out the URL of the main action page, http://www.trotn.com, or any other easy to say and remember web address you like, to get people to email or phone or fax their members of Congress. In addition all the other things above that apply to other web sites apply to you as well. Feature the Senate toll-free phone number and action links and do it prominently on your main page, your blogs, and ideally on ALL your pages at least in one of your side columns.
And as a listener of your favorite progressive radio show, call in. Encourage them to get on the case to give out the toll-free number, and to give out web links and post them on their sites. Talk about this on the air when they put you on.
We must communicate to our members of Congress in every way that this is a deal breaker for us. This particular nominee is a threat to absolutely anything else Congress might try to do in the future, as he UN-legislates from the bench. Any democrat who votes for this nominee or even for cloture must never hold public office in any capacity again and they must be made to understand this by our emails, our faxes, our phone calls, and our letters to the editor. We stopped Bolton (at least in the Senate) and we can and will stop this nominee as well.
Additional ARGUMENTS:
1. CONCEALMENT OF CRITICALLY RELEVANT DOCUMENTS
The administration has refused to disclose documents relevant to the consideration of the nominee. They have totally frustrated any meaningful opportunity to cross-examine this nominee by stonewalling access to any of his memos from the last 20 years, materials that previous administrations have always disclosed as to other Supreme Court nominees.
The senators on the other side and the nominee in particular have repeatedly complained about being asked about 20 year old documents. Well, guess what, because of the bad faith refusal of the administration to cooperate that's all we have to work from. Mr. Roberts the lawyer would never even consider trying a case without access to ALL the documents and evidence he had a RIGHT to review. And just like Bolton, this nominee must be rejected until and unless all relevant documents are produced.
2. BUSH HAS USED UP HIS POLITICAL CAPITAL
The primary argument we have heard from the other side is that he's the president's choice and that should be enough. They are saying in essence, "Ha, ha, we won the last election, too bad." And yet now, just 10 months later, Mr. Bush is the most UNPOPULAR second term president in history. His bad judgment in crisis after crisis has brought shame and destruction to our country and cost thousands if not tens of thousands of innocent American lives. There are now too many dead bodies for even them to hide, though they've tried that in New Orleans too. Bush's nominee Bolton, who he stubbornly rammed through over the objections of the good judgment of the Senate, has done nothing but create chaos and disruption at the UN already, to the dismay of even our closest ally, Great Britain. His selection of partisan cronies for FEMA management positions crippled that agency's ability to protect us. We no LONGER trust the choices of Mr. Bush. If there were to be an election today, with his popularity in free fall, there is no doubt Bush would be soundly defeated.
3. ROBERTS HAS NOT BEEN CANDID ABOUT HIS TRUE AGENDA
The Republican senators on the judiciary committee have repeatedly encouraged the nominee to NOT answer questions on the merits, to be evasive and call it integrity. Roberts has testified at length and said absolutely nothing of substance, like the enormously slick lawyer he is. But one interesting thing he did say is that as a lawyer he could take EITHER side of a case and make a reasonable argument. And you better believe that in ruling against us time after time, he will always find a CLEVER way to make extremism sound reasonable, and that is precisely why he is so dangerous. He said it is not the job of a lawyer to have a position on the issues. But ultimately it IS the job of a judge.
Additional info about Roberts:
"Frustrated by Roberts, and Unsure How to Vote," The New York Times, September 16th, 2005
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=911
For quick facts:
http://www.SaveTheCourt.org/Roberts
For in depth analysis:
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund report: (PDF)
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=908
The National Women's Law Center reports:
http://www.nominationwatch.org/
The People for the American Way report:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=910
Here's another way to reject John Roberts: View this ad:
Windows Media Player or Quicktime and donate to get it aired: https://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=16852
AirAmericaRadio is available to you at these locations:
http://www.airamericaradio.com/stations
Informant: Martin Greenhut
Starmail - 20. Sep, 23:23
