A good while ago, long before it was fashionable to know such things, I figured it out: The religious right is mighty well organized and they are coming to make us a god-fearing nation. So, I did what any intelligent person about to be assaulted and rendered senselesss by ignorance and bigotry would do: I started spying on the,. I went to Christian Coalition meetings. I signed up for newsletters. I started learning the names of people on the back pages of their church bulletins and mass mailings. Then these hell spawned people discovered the internet (a few years ahead of the progressives, from waht I can tell).
I now have an in-box that would make the pages of Free Republic look mild. Let me introduce you to one of the people in my in-box: Chris Carmouch, better known as Chris@grasstopsusa.org (You may have heard of him:
http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/extra/archives/001269.html
How did I meet Chris? It must have been the same way I met the likes of Rev. Lou Sheldon -- via putting my name on the Christian Coalition's on-line mailing list. I never once signed up for his stuff. (I urge you to buy a bottle of Scotch, put your name on that list, and start reading.) Chris sends out an action alert every few days, and often tells us how well organized his reading list is. (It is full of my friends from across the country, actively working against what he urges us to do.) He reports on the successes of his base, a god-fearing, bible thumping, gay hating, communist revealing group of foot soldiers of the Bush administration. I used to chuckle at his action alerts until I realized that these fanatics are now totally in charge, and even their own Republican brethren can't seem to rein them in. I realized that the "radical left" he is talking about is me -- the most radical thing I have done recently being putting a bit of rum in the raspberry trifle I made for my anniversary dinner. Oh, and I blew all that money on People for the American Way.
Christopher's e-mails are masterful pieces of reframing. Here, the "nuclear option" has been renamed, because people know that this word, difficult for our president to pronounce, sounds kind of, well radical. So now we have a new name for it: The CONSTITUTIONAL OPTION. I think good Christians in the heartland feel better about being on barrd with thigns that are "constitutional" over things that are nukular!
I think it is helpful to know what action alerts these people are sending out. At the local level, get your keyboard activists fired up to meet them phonecall for phonecall, fax for fax, e-mail for e-mail. Don't use their links -- use your own. Their links often only give you one option.
For example, please read Chris's latest rant/ action alert. THEN GO TO YOUR PHONES AND KEYBOARDS AND DO THE OPPOSITE. Note who they are targeting: "Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and the twelve Senators being targeted by the liberal left; Chafee, Cochran, Collins, Dewine, Hagel, Lugar, McCain, Murkowski, Smith, Snowe, Stevens, Sununu, Voinovich and Warner"
Subject: Judicial Tyranny Killed Terri Schaivo: Stop It Today 04-01-05
Reply-To: Christopher@grasstopsusa.org
Date: 01 Apr 2005 01:31:40 -0500
Dear GrassTopsUSA Member:
People for the American Way (PFAW) -- the ultra left-wing group
founded by Norman Lear -- just wrote a $5 million check to
obstruct President Bush's judicial nominees.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg folks.
In addition to this $5 million nationwide television ad campaign,
PFAW has set up a huge 2,500 square foot "war room" in Washington
D.C. and they have deployed 75 of their 120 full-time Washington
D.C. staffers for this campaign of obstruction.
PFAW is also mobilizing 750,000 volunteers to man boiler-room
telephone banks.
And as if that were not enough, PFAW is leading a coalition of a
dozen of the heaviest-hitters -- a "murderers row" -- of the
liberal left to thwart our efforts to bring common sense, the
rule of law and justice back to our federal courts.
This "dirty dozen" of the left includes; Planned Parenthood,
NARAL, Moveon.org, the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights, the AFL-CIO and several other big labor unions.
I am not being melodramatic here folks -- to quote a line from
the movie The Godfather -- the left is "going to the mattresses!"
Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent Blast Fax message to
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and the twelve Senators being
targeted by the liberal left; Chafee, Cochran, Collins, Dewine,
Hagel, Lugar, McCain, Murkowski, Smith, Snowe, Stevens, Sununu,
Voinovich and Warner.
Tell them to stand firm against the multi-million dollar campaign
of lies and distortions being perpetrated by the "dirty dozen" of
the left.
Tell them to stand with the majority and support the
Constitutional Option. It may well be the most important
legislative battle of the century.
http://www.grasstopsusa.com/nucleariii.html
AOL Members
Use this Hyperlink
If the above hyperlink does not function, please copy and paste
it into the address bar of your browser.
IT'S NOT NUCLEAR: IT'S CONSTITUTIONAL
As many of you know, Senate Democrats have obstructed and
filibustered President Bush's nominees to the federal bench for
over four years.
Then -- a few months back -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
vowed to finally put a stop to this obstructionism by employing
what he called the ,,Constitutional Option °°°-- or what the liberal
media has dubbed the ,,Nuclear Option. °°°
As expected, the liberals in the Senate literally went "nuclear"
at the prospect of their plans of holding the President's
nominees hostage going up in smoke and started claiming that this
so-called Nuclear Option was unconstitutional and a severe breach
of Senate procedure.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the
nuclear option is not nuclear at all, it is based on democratic
majority rule guaranteed by the Constitution.
The Constitutional Option is a simple procedure designed
specifically to stop the obstruction of President Bush's judicial
nominees and allow these nominees the opportunity to get an up or down vote by the full Senate.
In essence, the Constitutional Option will finally allow the
Senate to fulfill its constitutionally mandated duty to provide
advice and consent on the President's nominees.
Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent Blast Fax message to
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and the twelve Senators being
targeted by the liberal left; Chafee, Cochran, Collins, Dewine,
Hagel, Lugar, McCain, Murkowski, Smith, Snowe, Stevens, Sununu,
Voinovich and Warner.
Tell them to stand firm against the multi-million dollar campaign
of lies and distortions being perpetrated by the "dirty dozen" of
the left.
Tell them to stand with the majority and support the
Constitutional Option. It may well be the most important
legislative battle of the century.
http://www.grasstopsusa.com/nucleariii.html
AOL Members
Use this Hyperlink
If the above hyperlink does not function, please copy and paste
it into the address bar of your browser.
THE BATTLE OF THE CENTURY
Last month, we asked you to Blast Fax the Republican Members of
the Senate to support the Constitutional Option.
And it worked!
Because of your efforts -- according to our sources on the Hill -
- the Senate had the necessary votes to pass the Constitutional
option when they went on recess.
But the left is not going to let you win that easily!
In fact, the legislative effort the left is undertaking in direct
response to your efforts is unprecedented.
NARAL is sending it's members door to door across the nation.
The NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights are
boldly playing the race card, and are actually claiming that the
Constitutional Option will increase violence against women and
increase "discrimination" against minorities and homosexuals.
The NAACP published the following headline on its website: "RULE
CHANGE BEING CONSIDERED TO ALLOW RIGHT-WING EXTREMISTS TO BE
CONFIRMED TO LIFETIME APPOINTMENTS ON THE FEDERAL BENCH," and
called the Constitutional Option a "tyranny of the majority."
Planned Parenthood sent the following statement to millions of
liberal activists via email: " If activists like you don't speak
out and the Republicans succeed, there may no longer be a way to stop radical, conservative judges from turning back the clock on social justice."
And right now, as you read this letter, Moveon.org -- the
organization that compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler -- is
generating thousands of phone calls, e-mails and faxes to
Senators urging them to continue the obstruction.
They are hoping to win back some of those Senators that you
worked so hard to influence.
And we simply cannot let them get away with it -- not now -- with
victory in our grasp!
Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent Blast Fax message to
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and the twelve Senators being
targeted by the liberal left; Chafee, Cochran, Collins, Dewine,
Hagel, Lugar, McCain, Murkowski, Smith, Snowe, Stevens, Sununu,
Voinovich and Warner.
Tell them to stand firm against the multi-million dollar campaign of lies and distortions being perpetrated by the "dirty dozen" of the left.
Tell them to stand with the majority and support the
Constitutional Option. It may well be the most important
legislative battle of the century.
http://www.grasstopsusa.com/nucleariii.html
AOL Members
Use this Hyperlink
If the above hyperlink does not function, please copy and paste
it into the address bar of your browser.
WE ARE PLAYING FOR KEEPS HERE
Liberals know their legislative agenda is failing.
That is why the left has relied on activist judges to legislate
from the bench for years.
The liberals know that the face of the judiciary will change if
Republicans in the Senate develop a spine, act like a majority
and STOP the obstruction of President Bush's nominees. If that
happens, the left will LOSE MUCH OF ITS ABILITY TO ADVANCE ITS RADICAL AGENDA.
In short -- the American people will win and sanity will be
restored to our courts if we can secure enough votes to pass the
Constitutional Option.
Victory is within our grasp. And a victory now will pave the way
for conservative nominees to the Supreme Court.
But the left is mobilizing. We must not let their well-funded
campaign destroy the gains we have made.
It,s up to us to stop them.
Use the hyperlink below to send your urgent Blast Fax message to
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and the twelve Senators being
targeted by the liberal left; Chafee, Cochran, Collins, Dewine,
Hagel, Lugar, McCain, Murkowski, Smith, Snowe, Stevens, Sununu,
Voinovich and Warner.
Tell them to stand firm against the multi-million dollar campaign
of lies and distortions being perpetrated by the "dirty dozen" of
the left.
Tell them to stand with the majority and support the
Constitutional Option. It may well be the most important
legislative battle of the century.
Chris Carmouche
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Chris is exercising his freedom of speech in sending out his e-mails. He has a right to do that. But I just want people to know what we are up against. The radical right really is as whacko as you have heard. And Chris? If you saw me in the supermarket, I'd look just like one of the ladies from your church suppers. I am legion. And I am on to you. Constitutional option? My pet goat.