Good news

I’m sure you’ve heard the good news by now, but here’s a report from EqualityMaine:

The Maine House of Representatives soundly defeated the constitutional amendment on marriage last night by a vote of 88-56.

Our opponents needed a 2/3 majority and didn't even muster a majority. This gives us tremendous momentum as the bill heads to the Senate today for what we predict will be another defeat.

Several legislators made astounding pro-LGBT speeches on the floor last night, including Representatives Sean Faircloth, Marilyn Canavan, Glenn Cummings, Stan Gerzofsky, Joanne Twomey, Charlie Harlow, Tom Saviello and Ben Dudley.

Check here for the roll call vote (a “yes” is a vote to defeat the amendment). I’ll post Senate updates as soon as they’re available. And if your representative voted "yes," call to say thank you!
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UPDATE: The Senate voted 19-15 to defeat the amendment. Roll call is here.

Media wakeup, day 6

There’s a lot to report today besides just email addresses, and much of it good. But we’ll start with the names:

• National Public Radio, Ombudsman Jeff Dvorkin. email: ombudsman@npr.org phone: 202-513-2000 fax: 202-513-3329
• Philadelphia Inquirer, Deputy Managing Editor/News Carl Lavin. email: clavin@phillynews.com phone: 215-854-4562 OR National News Editor Ned Warwick. email: nwarwick@phillynews.com
• ABC World News Tonight [repeat]. email: PeterJennings@abcnews.com phone: 212-456-4040 fax: 212-456-2795

The backstory is here. Newcomers should definitely check the link as should anyone looking to fine-tune their letters for each individual case. But in the interest of expedience and volume, it is perfectly okay to send the same letter to every contact every day.
Now for the news. The campaign is definitely picking up steam. Yesterday we reported that Sen. Kennedy made a scathing report on the DSM (Downing Street Minutes) in the senate, while Editor & Publisher was seeing widespread signs of editorial unrest on Iraq. Later in the day came news of abysmal poll results for Bush with, for the first time, more than half of respondents disapproving of the president's handling of Iraq. (Click here for full version.)

Meanwhile, the Washington Post did their second major story on the DSM yesterday, and it's a good one. We've also seen press from the Philadelphia Daily News, the Palm Beach Post, the Boston Globe, the Dallas Morning News, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Times, the Houston Chronicle, the Detroit Free Press, and Knight-Ridder, along with dozens of other papers (go here for links).

Best of all, the DSM finally got serious treatment on TV and radio in the wake of the Bush-Blair press conference. NPR did a brief but good dissection last night and a little more this morning. NBC Nightly News, PBS, and CNN gave it brief mention. But CBS News really went to town, plastering quotes from the DSM on screen while Bush gave angry, rambling answers to questions on the memo, scrambling his own talking points and possibly painting himself into a new corner with his lies about "work[ing] hard to see if we could figure out how to do this peacefully."

All in all, a great day. Hallelujah. But let's savor the moment and immediately get back to work, because there's lots to do. ABC said nothing at all last night. PBS did a fair job of botching the story. And you can be sure the rest of the pack will let the matter drop without further pressure. In our favor, we have a new angle with Bush's lies last night and a growing receptive audience among questioning news editors and a disgusted electorate. So please let's keep at it.

By the way, the hands-down winner for best DSM editorial of all, according the blogosphere, is a recent op-ed in the Bangor Daily News. "Concise, eloquent, angry," says one writer. It's getting major play on the net. Go read and be proud of a fellow Mainer.

Media wakeup, day 5

Today's emails go to:

• USA Today. Managing Editor of News, Carol Stevens. email: editor@USAToday.com phone: 800-872-0001 or 703-854-2165
• Toledo Blade. Ombudsman, Jack Lessenberry. email: omblade@aol.com phone: 419-724-6200

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• Washington Post. Ombudsman, Michael Getler. email: ombudsman@washpost.com phone: 202-334-7582 fax: 202-334-5269

Backstory here. Thank you.
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Update: Senator Kennedy has just posted an excellent statement on the Downing Street Minutes.
Update II: Editor & Publisher thinks we may be seeing a turning point on Iraq:

Suddenly there seems to be something in the air - the smell of death? Or something in the water - blood? In any case, this past week, widely scattered newspaper editorialists roused themselves from seeming acceptance of the continuing slaughter in Iraq to voice, for the first time in many cases, outright condemnation of the war.

Read the rest here.

Media wakeup, day 4

Send your emails to:

• CBS, 60 Minutes. email: 60m@cbsnews.com phone: 212-975-3247
  
• Newsweek. email: letters@newsweek.com attn: National Affairs Editor phone: 212-445-4000 fax: 212-445-5068

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• Chicago Tribune; Don Wycliff, Public Editor. email: Dwycliff@tribune.com phone: 800-874-2863 fax: 312-222-2550

Backstory here. There is no doubt now; the campaign is making a difference.

Read only if you're a pissed off Maine voter

I thought they’d gone inactive, but no: here’s the League of Pissed Off Voters renting space in Portland and back to holding meetings twice a month. Also known as indyvoters.org, these guys are smart, young, tough and talented multi-issue organizers. I first met our local chapter at a Fahrenheit 9/11 screening when they had the smarts to hand out voting and action guides to all the people waiting in the one-hour line. Talk about a motivated audience! Anyway, I'm on their mailing list now and will post meeting info as it comes in. Meanwhile, check out their list of 11 Things You Can Do Right Now! (Hat tip to Maine Citizen Leadership Fund.)

Write a letter to the editor.
Did you know that the opinion page is the most-read section of the paper after the headlines? That's because it addresses a basic human need: belonging. People read letters from their neighbors out of curiosity but also to see if their views "fit in" with everyone else's. And that's why we have to be active letter writers - it's the most effective tool we've got. One thoughtful letter from a local can short-circuit a million dollars worth of wingnut propaganda.

So when something ticks you off - quick! - pick up a pen and dash off a letter to the editor. Follow these three simple guidelines and you're done:

• Make it short. (Short letters are read first.)
  
• Make it polite. (Even while you're being furious.)
  
• Include at least one positive statement about Democrats.
  

You'll find local media contacts here.

If you have more than one letter in you per month, mix it up a little and send them to different papers. And don't worry about making them perfect. Just write.

Media Awake! Day 3

Here's today's lot:

• ABC Nightline. email: nightline@abcnews.com
  
• NBC News. email: nightly@nbc.com phone: 212-664-4971 fax: 212-664-4426
  
• Wall Street Journal. email: wsjcontact@dowjones.com phone: 212-416-2000 fax: 212-416-2658

Read the backstory here.

Go to a local political meeting or event. Make your voice heard, make connections, meet your neighbor. List updated weekly.

• Tues. June 14, Boothbay. Boothbay Region Peace and Justice Group meets bimonthly to explore ways to build support for peace and justice in our community, nation, and world. At the library. Contact info: Susan Mello, backrvr@gwi.net.
• Wed. June 15, Portland. The Portland League of Pissed Off Voters meets on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month.
• Tues. June 21, Wiscasset. The Lincoln Country Democratic Committee meets on the third Tuesday of each month at the 911 Communications Building (on Route One behind the Lincoln County Court House), 7pm. Contact info: Tim Nason, timnason@gwi.net.
• Tues. June 21, Damariscotta. American Friends Service Committee invites volunteers for its 'Youth and Alternatives to the Military' (counterrecruitment) efforts. Friends Meeting House, Belvedere Road, 5pm. Contact info: Gretchen Noyes-Hull, peacebridges@peacebridges.org.
• Wed. June 22, Rockland. Midcoast Peace and Justice Group meets the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at the UU Church on Broadway, 7pm.
• Thur. June 23, Newcastle. Study group on God's Politics, Why The Right Gets It Wrong And The Left Doesn't Get It, the bestselling book by Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine. Explore a new understanding of the roles of religion in politics in the midst of polarizing times. Sponsored by the Lincoln Association of the United Church of Christ. Books can be ordered at the Maine Coast Bookstore, on line at Amazon.com or at a 40% discount if ordered by June 13th by calling the Belchers at 644-1700 or Rev. Dale at 563-3379. First of seven sessions. Second Congregational Church, River Road, 7pm.
• Tues. July 19, Wiscasset. The Lincoln Country Democratic Committee meets on the third Tuesday of each month at the 911 Communications Building (on Route One behind the Lincoln County Court House).
• Ongoing, Rockland. “Prisoners of Conscience,” an exhibit by over 50 artists featuring portraits of prisoners of conscience the world around. Presented by Amnesty International with local as well as international artists including Alan Magee, Jonathan Frost, Travis Chapman, Cindy McGuirl, Alan Clark, Susan Beebe, Scott Davis, and Eliza Squibb. Lincoln Street Center(594-6490), 9-4 Weekdays; 1-4 Saturdays until June 26. For directions please call Lincoln Street Center. Contact info: Steve McAllister, 236-4298.
• Ongoing, Boothbay. Visit the Boothbay Library in June to view the "Cost of War" exhibit. It includes the traveling "True Cost of War" display by Jack and Fay Bussell of Maine Veterans For Peace (VFP), "Faces of War" photographs of Iraqi people by Bangor artist Jim Harney, and work by Natasha Mayers of Whitefield, Patricia Wheeler of Deer Isle, and Boothbay artists Kitty Ives and Liz Derecktor. The devastating losses in Iraq are portrayed within the context of the artists’ belief in a human race that is essentially one spiritual family.
• Ongoing, Wiscasset. Each Sunday, from 12 noon to 1pm, a group of citizens meets at the Wiscasset bridge to protest the war against Iraq, the cost of wars in general, and the need for patriotic protest to keep our country well. Many are members of the Boothbay Region Peace and Justice group; others are not. Some are Democrats, some are Independents, some are Greens, and some are Republicans. Anyone is welcome to join. Parking is provided at the Edgecomb end by the generous owner of the Sheepscot Inn; park in the lot across the Eddy Road opposite the inn.

Send your event notices to: kjosephs@lincoln.midcoast.com.

These people are not going to quit until we stop them

If you have not seen this appalling story about the GOP's attempt to recruit "Patriot Pastors" in Ohio, you'd better take a moment to check it out. Make sure you've had your blood pressure medication.

Yoo hoo, Snowe and Collins

Required reading for our junta-enabling senators:

Calling Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick a "DeLay Disciple" and decrying the Republican Party's move to the right, former Republican Bucks County (PA) commissioner Andy Warren on Wednesday announced he has become a Democrat and is not ruling out a run for office.

Ha! So don't tell me it's impossible.

Today's "Awake" contacts

Following up on yesterday's post about the Downing Street Minutes, here are today's media contacts:

• ABC News. email: PeterJennings@abcnews.com phone: 212-456-4040
  
• PBS NewsHour. email: newshour@pbs.org phone: 703-739-5000
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• The Baltimore Sun, Public Editor Paul Moore. email: publiceditor@baltsun.com phone: 410-332-6364

The first two get the same note you sent yesterday. The Baltimore Sun is a special case - they're a small local paper doing terrific reporting, and we want to encourage them to do more of it.

Here are two "bad media" samples to get you started. First a long, verbose one (from me, of course):

Dear [Bad Media Outlet]:

It's been more than a month since the "Downing Street Minutes" story leaked over here from Britain. By any reckoning, this should be about the biggest story of the decade: the president decides he wants a war, twists intelligence to get there, even talks about timing it in the context of his re-election campaign.

Yet we've heard very little from you on this story.

• Please don't tell me it's old news. I don't recall any major news outlet stating that Bush appears to have lied his way into Iraq and that we ought to be investigating.
  
• Please don't tell me it's hearsay. The document in question is a "Memorandum of Understanding" from a meeting held among high-level British officials in Tony Blair's office. It is a legal document containing the written record, or minutes, of an official government meeting. We are not talking about a photocopy of a letter written in questionable typeface and pulled out of somebody's bureau drawer.
  
• Please don't tell me it's not important. There is scarcely a more important story out there. More than 1,800 coalition soldiers are dead and untold numbers of Iraqi civilians; we've spent $174 billion and counting; we've stretched our military to the breaking point and beyond.
  

The American people deserve to know how we got into this situation. We don't get to ask the president questions, but you do. Won't you please devote some investigative resources and air time [column space] to this critically important story? And soon?

And a short, pithy one:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have been dismayed at the Post's failure to adequately cover what is possibly the largest story on the run-up to the Iraq War to date: the British Downing Street meeting minutes which revealed that the Bush administration "fixed" US intelligence to suit an opaque agenda and manipulated US and international institutions in order to facilitate the Iraq war.

How this does not strike the Post as newsworthy is utterly beyond me. Please improve your coverage of this crucial story.

And last, a "good media" letter:

Dear Mr. Moore:

The Baltimore Sun has done yeoman's work in covering news that the current administration would like to sweep under the carpet. I can't tell you how much you've done to keep hope alive in the "reality-based community" merely by asking sane questions and continually pressing for answers. Your influence extends far beyond the DC area and you put national papers, with all their reporting and distribution resources, to shame.

Please keep up this tradition with the two scandals surrounding the Downing Street Minutes. The first scandal is that an official British government document indicates very strongly that Bush lied us into war. The second scandal is that major US media outlets are ducking the story and getting away with calling it "old news."

If your paper could devote some resources to these two scandals, the American people would be in your debt. Even if they don't know it yet.

Have fun. And don't forget to sign John Conyer's letter here.

Lame Duck Time

Steve Soto at The Left Coaster has a great piece on disarray and creeping cluelessness at the White House. I highly recommend it; it will make you happy. But in case you don't have time, let me cut to the chase [emphasis added]:

The GOP is very good at creating their own reality by repeating a mantra over and over again until they make their own history. It's time for Democrats to begin repeating over and over again that this president and his administration are out of touch, captives of the far right lunatic fringe, are lame ducks already, and on the verge of irrelevancy.

This is our mantra. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Om.

Wake up call

Today marks the start of a focused campaign to increase media coverage of the Downing Street Memo - actually minutes, not a memo, from a 2002 meeting in Tony Blair's office providing incontrovertible proof of Bush's duplicity on the Iraq war. And now we have new leaks from Britain about provocative pre-war spikes in US air strikes against Iraq. While the past month has seen a trickle of US coverage, most major outlets ducked the story, calling it "old news." Uh huh.

The organizers of the website above recognize that our loosely organized, scattershot campaign for coverage needs more focus. So beginning today, each weekday they will list three media targets for attention. Our job is to contact them and request coverage. Today's targets:

• CBS Evening News. email: evening@cbsnews.com phone: 1-212-975-3247
  
• Associated Press, att. John Affleck. email: info@ap.org phone: 1-212-621-1500
  
• C-Span Washington Journal. email: journal@c-span.org

Read here for background info and instructions on writing your request (hint: short, polite, and in your own words is best).

One more quick and related action: Sign Rep. John Conyers' letter to President Bush in which he and 88 other representatives demand answers to the concerns raised by the Downing Street Memo.

Let's keep things moving!

In the wake of Deep Throat

The unveiling of Deep Throat has surfaced a lot of buried memories. DarkSyde, who has been doing some fantastic science writing over at Kos, has this plea for our neutered press corps:

The promise, appeal, and power, of Democracy [lies] not in capitalism, or in Divine Manifest Destiny, or in abstract ethics, as important as those issues are; the appeal of Democracy is firmly rooted in holding leaders accountable for the consequences of their actions on the electorate, and the capacity to remove them from power when they betray that trust. Democracy works because it represents a fundamental interest: Leaders work for the people, not the other way around.

But we the people can't make those decision based on stories about Runaway Brides or who Michael Jackson may have licked on the forehead. We need actual, tangible, investigative reporting. The kind that gets you blacklisted from White House Events and earns you a Pulitzer Prize Nomination. …

Bust the lid off, blow the cover, take chances, don't be neutered, get it done, report the truth, and do not ever, ever, stop. Reach inside, remember why you became what you are, and please, start working for the people, and not the other way around. You more than any of us have the power of the Written Word. Use it.

Maybe they'll remember, too, and start reporting again.

Don't give money to the bad guys

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• Don't give your hard-earned money to companies that turn around and hand it to the GOP! Check out BuyBlue and learn how simple changes in your purchasing habits can start money flowing to Democrats.
• If you have any alternative whatsoever, don't shop at Wal-Mart! Wal-Mart does untold evil to American communities, employees, unions, minorities, children, immigrants, taxpayers, and democracy. And their prices aren't all that low. Plus, they give to Republicans. Wal-Mart is evil, evil, evil and you don't want to go there. Really.