Look at Tennessee Go!

[JoMama49]

Now for today's news: I wanted to send a brief report on our statewide rallies to encourage Senators Frist and Alexander to join the bandwagon (at least 24 House members and 6 Senators SO FAR) to reject the Ohio electoral votes. Here in Nashville, in the warm drizzle, we had a three hour long event, which included interactions with the staffs of our two Republican Senators, and colorful and communal rallying with our group composed of the young and old; Black, White and Asian; Green, Democrat, Republican and Libertarian; oldster protesters and newbies -- all united for free, fair and verifiable elections.

In addition, we accomplished some good communication with the Nashville general public on two of the busiest streets in the city and were part of the efforts of other folks around the state who showed up at our Senators' offices at the same time everywhere to deliver their signed petitions also. Here's a link to a great article by Chris Lugo that is already posted on the 'net at the Tennessee Independent Media Center:

http://www.tnimc.org/feature/display/4027/index.php (When you visit the link, scroll down the home page for articles on two more of our Gatherings, both on the steps of the State Capital.)

We did have a bit of a dust-up at Frist's office with a carload of young men who mistook our rally for an anti-war protest. (You can always tell young men full of testosterone -- you just can't tell them much.) Fortunately, the late-day distractions with the youngsters didn't detract from the three hours. We even had good interactions with those kids and left them with some election fraud handouts that they didn't spit on. We also got them to agree that free and fair elections are something we all support. The scuffle even brought out six Metro cop cars briefly which added to the street theater (and we got to educate some cops on the rules of public protest at the same time).

I still have emails to send and calls to make and faxes to send -- all aimed at DC. We handed in six pages of signatures on our petitions in Nashville and similar petitions were submitted in Jackson, Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Blountville. Plus we have individuals collecting signatures and faxing them in themselves from across the state. I have reattached the petition, so if any of you just want to sign it with just your family, friends and co-workers and fax it in to Frist's and Alexander's office early tomorrow morning, please do.

Alexander's numbers are: voice: [phone], fax: [phone].
Frist's numbers are: (voice) 202-224-3344, (fax) 202-228-1264.

While I haven't heard from everyone yet, Chattanooga had a good experience and was well received by the public as they walked several blocks between the Senators' offices there. And Jackson probably did the best job -- several hundred signatures from four rural counties, and meetings with their Representative's staff as well as with the Senators' staffs. (Way to go, Diane.)

Perhaps the best moment for me today was when one of the people who was with me meeting with the Senators' staff people asked a staffer directly: "Tomorrow, will our Senator be standing with the Republican Party or will he be standing on principle?". And the (honest) answer was: "I don't know."

[nashville_brook]

1. wow -- that must have been a great moment! so satisfying. n/t

[Fly by night]

2. Brook, you can find my original longer post below this one on DU

It has more in it than this excerpt that JoMama abstracted and posted separately (why, I don't know.)

[Moderator]

3. Locking

If posting quotes from another poster's thread please attribute the quotes to the original poster or link to the thread.
This was originally posted by FlyByNight. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x243942

Thank you.