[Man50D]

A couple of bad strategies here.

First, you won’t get a complete Republican boycott of the Finance Committee. Snowe will show up. It is also very likely that Hath (don’t count your Hatch before he chickens) would show up as well. Those two (and possibly others) want to move beyond partisanship.

That's only an assumption. It is fact they are more likely to attend a quorum if people don't inundate them with calls, faxes and emails. The more people contact them demanding they don't participate, the more likely they are not to attend. Keep in mind the original deadline of the socialists to pass health care was before the August recess but Congress felt such tremendous pressure over the August recess and currently that they have still not passed a bill!

Second, H.R.1586 is probably dead in the Senate.

Again another assumption. Obviously Harry Reid doesn't think so otherwise he wouldn't bother attaching health care as an amendment to this bill.

It is such an obvious poison pill that I doubt it would make it into the Health Care debate.

Reid's purpose of attaching a health care bill as an amendment to HR1586 is to avoid a debate because he knows it wouldn't survive this process. It would only require a straight up or down vote on HR1586 itself.

I doubt any “poison pill” amendment will kill the Health Care bill. So, be careful with the poison pills.

Any federal health care legislation and HR1586 are the poison pills! They need to be stopped!

Adding anything to this bill will probably get the objectionable stuff enacted faster.

That's exactly what Harry Reid wants to happen! That's why we need to demand the Republicans not quorum for a vote and oppose HR1586!

Man50D, what are those phone numbers?

I stated what the numbers are in the last sentence of the the body of the thread. They are toll free numbers to the Capital switchboard.

[cc2k]

Man50D wrote:

I stated what the numbers are in the last sentence of the the body of the thread. They are toll free numbers to the Capital switchboard.

OK, I missed that part.

As someone with telecommunications and networking experiences, I want to add a word of caution about those numbers.

There is no toll free number for the capitol

Some representatives and Senators have their own toll free direct numbers, but that is the exception and not the rule. If you want to use one of their numbers, be sure you get it from a reliable source (*.house.gov or *.senate.gov web pages are reliable).

The numbers you posted are toll free forwarding services operated by third parties. These can be maintained by unions, lobbyists and other groups. Often you get a recording about some issue and advocating a position on that issue before the call is forwarded to the Capitol switchboard. If you disagree with the position in the recording, don’t worry, your tax dollars don’t fund that message.

There are pros and cons to using these numbers. The biggest advantage is you can use the money of someone you disagree with to pay for your call. The disadvantages are many. First, the operator of the forwarding service gets your phone number. Even if you block caller ID, the person paying for a toll free number still gets your number when you call their toll free number. Second, the organization running the number might make a fundraising call to you at some point. Even if you are on the "do not call" list, they may believe that by paying for your phone call, they have established a "business relationship" with you. Finally, unless you are certain of what your Congressional Representative or Senator's staffers sound like, you can't know for certain where the number is actually forwarded to. Theoretically, you might be calling actors instead of the real capitol switchboard. If someone wanted to suppress public outrage about an issue, they could make these calls disappear. I have no evidence this has ever happened, but the possibility of advertising one number on network newscasts, CNN and MSNBC, and the same organization advertising a slightly different number on Fox News, Rush and Hannity could be an interesting ploy. The side you support forwards to the actual capitol switchboard, the side you disagree with goes to actors in a call center someplace.

The first two issues can be avoided by using a pay phone, with the added bonus that the people running the toll free number pay an extra $0.60 for calls from a pay phone. The last issue is probably just my personal paranoia. If you know the voices of your Rep and Senators staffers, you will know who you are talking to. Otherwise, you might want to avoid numbers you aren't sure about. Personally, I prefer calling the numbers I find on my Senators' and Rep's official web sites.

---

From the desk of cc2k:

Obama Agenda Survey (RNC fund raising package, and my response) Term Limits from the Grass Roots The Two Million Frog March (Why 9-12-2009 spells trouble for Republicans and Democrats alike)