It Can't All Happen in Cyberspace

Blogs are uniting against Gonzales, and that's terrific. There's no substitute for face to face contact, though. Creating a buzz on the net is one thing, but being a physical presence in the community is where we have to go.

Living on an island, large segments of my community are funneled through our ferry system every day, and I leafleted those departing commuter runs both yesterday evening and this morning. It's my own community so a lot of people know me and a lot don't. I just got into the rhythm of chanting "Call your senators about the Gonzales' nomination", and when they grabbed the flyer, "Thank Senator Cantwell for her opposition." My leaflet was created in a hurry, but I wanted to make sure it was available for every state, in the belief that this should be a national effort.

Here's the thing. We may have the early part of next week to really push to have more people call. My challenge to whomever wants to take it on, is to make a far more compelling flyer. I think it's a good idea to keep it to a quarter page, to save paper and enforce brevity and punchiness. I have the spreadsheet ready to merge in the Senators' phone numbers for every state, so contact me with your ideas so we can work together this weekend to update the page and spread the word. On my leaflet I refer folks to this page on my blog. So also critique that or suggest or create a better online resource to reference - preferably with a short URL not prone to being misconstrued.

Finally, the best bloggers aren't necessarily the best leafleters, though I found it really invigorating, and heartily recommend it to anyone. Reach out through party or other connections to find people who are effective at finding the places to go and people who are good at hawking flyers. A really massive caller turnout may just be the difference in providing the Democrats with the backbone to filibuster, or even give moderate Republicans pause about voting in such an unpopular choice. Even the right-wingers need to be called, else they will claim their constituents back their crazy agenda. I do appreciate the feeling of futility a progressive Oklahoman must feel when leaving messages with Inhofe and Coburn, but I think their staffers really will tally the calls regardless. Everything counts.