[Northampton-GP] FW: A crucial FREE phone call

[Tim Carpenter]

>
> Dear MoveOn member,
> 
> As we continue our Iraq campaign, we're also working to track the
> most pressing domestic challenges from the Bush administration.  While
> Iraq is taking all the media focus, the right wing is using this
> diversion to cover attacks on almost every front.
> 
> Tomorrow -- Thursday, March 6th -- our ability to withstand this
> onslaught may come down to one crucial Senate vote.  This vote
> -- on the Miguel Estrada judicial nomination -- is widely seen as
> a key moment defining whether the Democratic opposition can turn
> back the worst of the right-wing initiatives.
> 
> The Senate will be voting on the filibuster* on the nomination of
> Miguel Estrada to the D.C. appeals court.  We need to support this
> filibuster and the courageous Senators who are stepping forward
> at this key moment.  Please call your Senators *immediately* to make
> your voice heard.   
> 
> We've arranged a TOLL-FREE number for you to use.  Please call it 
> twice to speak with both your Senators:
> 
>    1-888-508-2974
>    
> If that number is busy, please call your Senators directly, at:   
> 
>    Senator Kennedy 
>    DC Phone:    202-224-4543
> 
>    Senator Kerry 
>    DC Phone:    202-224-2742
> 
> Make sure the staffers know you're a constituent.  Then urge your 
> Senators to:
> 
>   "Please SUPPORT the filibuster to stop Miguel Estrada.  
>    Please vote AGAINST cloture." 
> 
> Please let us know you're making these important calls, at:
> 
>   http://www.moveon.org/callmade2.html
> 
> Miguel Estrada is a stealth right-wing extremist who has never served
> as a judge before, yet has been nominated by the White House to a seat
> on America's second-highest court.  He stonewalled the Senate during 
> his confirmation hearings last year, refusing to answer basic questions
> about his legal & judicial philosophy.  Estrada is widely thought to be
> President Bush's top choice for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.  His 
> silence on his views on the law is a direct challenge to all of us.
> 
> Calling Estrada's behavior "a new height of arrogance," Senators Tom 
> Daschle (D-SD) and Harry Reid (D-NV) have finally gotten their fellow
> Democrats to take a unified stand on principle, and are rightly 
> refusing to allow Estrada's confirmation.  
> 
> They have launched a filibuster -- a tactic of last resort that is a 
> minority party's only recourse to ensure that a narrow majority party 
> does not gain absolute power.  It's a bold move.  If the filibuster 
> holds, as it has for 3 weeks now, it will send a clear signal that the 
> right wing can not ram its radically unfair agenda through Congress.  
> If it fails, that will send the opposite, frightening message.
> 
> In effect, the Estrada filibuster is now our main line of defense 
> safeguarding the democracy we believe in and the society we want our 
> children to inherit.  Republicans have just called for a "cloture" vote 
> -- an attempt to break the filibuster -- to take place this Thursday.
> 
> MoveOn members have played a huge part in making this filibuster 
> possible.  For weeks, key Senators have been citing our thousands of 
> phone calls as a major force keeping the Democrats together.  Even 
> today, they're talking about what a difference we're making.
> 
> Unity among Senators to maintain this filibuster is crucial.  Please 
> call your Senators right now.  
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> --The MoveOn Team
>   Carrie, Eli, Joan, Peter, Wes, and Zack
>   March 5, 2003 
> 
> P.S.: 
> 
> A recent New York Times story on the filibuster is at:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/12/politics/12ESTR.html
> 
> For more information on Estrada, there's a good fact sheet at:
> http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=7795
> 
> * For more information on filibusters, see our bulletin at:
> http://www.moveon.org/moveonbulletin/bulletin11.html
> ________________
> 
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> 



--- Tim Carpenter
--- sheilacarp at earthlink.net