This morning irishamerican delivered a SOTU throwdown diary (if you watch Food Network you’ll get this) that focuses on President Obama hearing from you instead of the other SOTU diaries I've seen focusing on what you want to hear from him or diaries asking him if he's listening.
irishamerican’s diary didn’t get much traction this morning so I got permission to repost it. (I’ve taken a bit of editorial license in the repost to shorten it up.)
Please follow me below the fold for the throwdown...
Here's OUR CHANCE to Lobby The President. A Challenge to YOU!
by irishamerican
Wed Jan 27, 2010 at 08:06:05 AM PST
What are we made of?
Can we organize ourselves?
I say we can and I have a proposition for all of us that will give us immediate results.
The #17 (all time)You Tube site most subscribed to-Reporters, the #50th You Tube site most viewed overall this week: Citizen Tube
The State Of The Union speech will be broadcast live on Citizen Tube tonight. During and after the speech, we will be able to submit questions to the President on this site that he will be answering next week in a live interview.
We all have our issues that we think are the most important. Our "issues" range from Healthcare, to Civil Rights, to Campaign Finance, to Media Consolidation, to War, to War Crimes, to DOMA, to the "Drug War", to Messaging, to the Right Wing Media, to Campaign Promises, to The Economy, etc...You guys know what our issues are.
Given the chance to ask one question, can we come together with one voice, for one night, to ask the President the same question 200,000 times for emphasis?
Here is my challenge to all of us to come together, to be productive and to bend the President's ear instead of fighting with ourselves.
I propose that all of us reply in the comments with one question 40 words or less (so that it get's answered). [editorial comment: if you have several questions to propose, please do so in separate comments]
Whichever question get's the most recommends by 5:30 PST/8:30 EST, we all agree that that is THE QUESTION to submit during the course of the speech to Citizen Tube. [editorial comment: that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t submit others but at least submit that same one for emphasis]
I think that if we do it this way, if we all participate we will get an answer from the President at best, and in the least we will make our voices heard and actually have the opportunity to practice what we preach.
[editorial comment: take a page from Rachel Maddow's playbook: it's okay to be tough but be respectful]