I've posted a few diaries on this issue over the holiday weekend (having first read about it late last week).
Response has been minimal and if we're truly about being activists to help defend the Progressive Cause we have to turn that around. We need to stand up for Sen Durbin even if national leaders on the left will not.
If you live in Champaign, Peoria or Rockford, Illinois (or know folks who do live there and can ask them to help), please keep track of the Durbin attack ads being funded by the regressive group "Move America Forward."
According to the right-wing shills' own homepage they were nearly $100,000 short of being able to air these ads, though their plan called for the ads to begin (no irony lost here) on July 4th.
I've posted the Rapid Response for Illinois alert below the fold, please respond to it.
Defending Sen Durbin from Right-Wing Smears
- Champaign
- Peoria
- Rockford
If you or folks you know live in these Illinois towns please read...
Please forward this alert widely...
Right-wing mouthpiece Move America Forward planned to begin airing their Durbin attack ads beginning July 4th.
Please, if you live in Champaign, Peoria or Rockford try to track these ads. We need to know what time and what show the ads appear on.
Email: il-AT-rapidresponsenetwork-DOT-org
Here are the stations to track:
WCIA (CBS-3) - Champaign,IL
Website: http://www.wcia.com
Phone: (217) 356-8333
Fax: (217) 373-3663
Address: 509 S Neil St Champaign, IL 61820
Jim Gee -- News Director
Rus Hamilton -- Vice President; General Manager
WMBD (CBS-31) - Peoria,IL
Website: http://www.wmbd.com
Phone: (309) 688-3131
Fax: (309) 686-8650
Address: 3131 N University St Peoria, IL 61604
Kevin Harlan -- General Manager
Brent Lonteen -- Assignment Manager
Chris Manson -- News Director
WREX (NBC-13) - Rockford,IL
Website: http://www.wrex.com
Phone: (815) 335-2213
Fax: (815) 335-2055
Address: PO Box 530 Rockford, IL 61105
Kim Carney -- Program Manager
John Chadwick -- Vice President; General Manager
Maggie Hradecky -- News Director
If you contact these TV stations consider that Sen Durbin never actually referenced our brave troops directly. Instead, he was discussing the unAmerican and immoral torture which the conservative White House and Pentagon civilian leaders have condoned.
And, he was reading directly from an FBI agent's report on the immoral and unAmerican torture -- which includes being hogtied in chains; left in a room with no cot, chair or even toilet; lack of food or water; and the often-overlooked fact that these prisoners were forced to defecate and urinate on themselves because of being chained up and not having a toilet (or even so much as a hole in the floor). As Americans we didn't approve when soldiers like John McCain were tortured in Vietnam and we shouldn't allow this to happen at the hands of our own fine men and women in uniform.
According to the Tribune story, these unbalanced ads from out-of-state partisan hacks from California ignore these facts in order to smear our Senator.
But we need your help to defend against this right-wing attack!
I'm trying to organize some sort of on-the-air response but am not sure how it will go -- it's relatively big dollars to get an ad on TV even in an off campaign season (or maybe despite that).
But the fact that out-of-state hacks would dare slur our own senior Senator even after he apologized and even after progressive leaders practically abandoned him really gets me PO'ed!
If Dick Daley won't stand up for Sen Durbin I will!
Please let Rapid Response for Illinois know (il-AT-rapidresponsenetwork-DOT-org) if you can help by tracking the ads or if you'd be willing to send some money to help the effort. (Realize though that no one's looking for money right now because we're not even sure if we can get a response ad off the ground. We currently have zero dollars, zero script, zero footage, and practically zero time...)
Past diaries on this have drawn comments like "He should have never apologized" or "He's safe even in 2008" ... these folks are missing the point.
We have to stand up for ourselves and our beliefs -- clearly if we don't no one will. Durbin's apology (due to lack of support from our own national leaders) and the non-stop, no-holds-barred right-wing attacks against him (before and even after his apology) prove that we must take things into our own hands to stand up for ourselves and our Progressive Cause. The national political party and national left-wing organizations are letting this one slip by and the effect of letting the regressives get away with it yet again will only serve to reinforce their scurrilous behavior.