Hi, I'm going to a party on Thursday, 3/10, to help launch MoveOn's new approach to fighting President Bush's judicial agenda while we elect progressives to office. We'll form teams with other MoveOn members from around here to organize locally in opposition to pro-corporate judges. We'll also join together to craft a positive agenda, and work to bring progressives to power in Washington, DC. Our first effort will be aimed at keeping insane and unscrupulous judges off the Supreme Court, so we'll join a nationwide conference call with MoveOn staff to hear about this issue and what we can do about it around here. It should be fun, getting together with other local progressive folks, and finding out how we can make a difference. And of course there'll be snacks. So I hope you'll come with me! Sign up to come to the party I'm going to (or find another one, or even hold your own) at: http://action.moveonpac.org/houseparties/selectmtg.html?zip=23606&distance=30 I hope you'll come! Here is a copy of the original message I got from www.MoveOn.org that helped me make my decision: Your actions this week could determine the composition of the Supreme Court 30 years from now.
Last week, we told you that President Bush is trying to force through 20 right-wing judicial nominees. But this fight is also about something much bigger: whether the rest of America will have any say at all over who ends up on the Supreme Court. Republican leaders are trying to use a parliamentary trick so extreme it's called the "nuclear option" to end one of our most basic democratic traditions?the requirement that lifetime judicial nominees have broad support in Congress. The result: justices far outside the mainstream, who will favor corporations over citizens' rights and could undo generations of progress.
We have a plan to stop them: MoveOn members will team up in every town in America to spread the word about the Republican leadership's stealth attack on the judiciary and demand our senators stop it. But we may only have a few weeks to turn the tide. Will you come to a party on Thursday where people in Hampton can make a plan to save our courts?
http://action.moveonpac.org/houseparties/
If you don't see a party near you, host your own. It's easy, fun, and we'll show you how. Click here:
http://action.moveonpac.org/houseparties/newmeeting.html
There are more than 1,000 parties planned around the country right now, with names like Beat the Bushes for Democracy (in Napa, CA), Judge NOT (Greensboro, NC), The Constitution is not just a piece of paper (Titusville, FL), and Mayflower Power! (Plymouth, MA). We expect more than 10,000 people in attendance, forming the core of our new campaign to win back America.
Because judges are just the beginning. We need to fight the administration's agenda on many fronts, and the approach we'll lay out at the party?teams of MoveOn members taking local actions to win national fights?will be the foundation of our whole strategy to win. But our first focus will be safeguarding the courts.
Bush & Cheney's plan for the courts is breathtaking: Get Vice President Cheney, as Senate President, to quietly wipe out a centuries-old Senate practice that requires 60 votes to confirm a controversial judge. Do it now, before there's an opening on the Supreme Court and the public starts to pay attention. Then stack the Supreme Court and all federal courts with judges so extreme they could turn the clock back 70 years on efforts to protect working people, public health, the environment, civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy.
They key to stopping them is to inform the public about what's happening behind closed doors and put pressure directly on our senators?a simple majority vote can block Bush & Cheney's plan. During the election, we learned through our Leave No Voter Behind program that when MoveOn members team up, we can move mountains. So instead of just asking you to send an email or make a phone call, we're asking you to join with other members in your neighborhood to form an "action team" and spread the word to dozens of your friends and neighbors. And we need you to do it before the "nuclear option" comes up for a vote, probably in early April.
At the party, you'll hear about Bush's attack on the judiciary from a surprise guest speaker, and then we'll help you plan a local call-in day to your senators: Republicans need to know that they can't sneak this partisan rule change through without a fight, and Democrats need to hear how important this is to us so when Cheney goes on talk shows and calls Democrats "obstructionists," they won't give in. No matter how liberal or conservative your senators, they all matter.
This is one fight we simply can't afford to lose. Will you join us at a party to get Hampton organized against the Republican leadership's extreme agenda? Past house party participants always tell us it's a lot of fun and a great way to meet some neighbors. Please come:
http://action.moveonpac.org/houseparties/
Of course, this is only one of many areas in which Republican leaders in Congress and the White House are trying to use deception and scare tactics to force through a sweeping right-wing agenda. So beyond judges, we'll ask your team to spread the word about other critical issues like Social Security privatization and the war in Iraq. And at the party, we'll lay out our plan to use our neighborhood organizing to build a foundation for electing progressives to Congress.
It's a bold agenda to turn the tide and begin building a more progressive America, town by town and block by block. And it begins with you. We hope to see you on Thursday.
Sincerely,
--Adam, Justin, Matt, and the MoveOn PAC team
Monday, March 7th, 2005
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¶ 10:46 AM
