Legs...

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

While channel-surfing this evening, I came across three channels that were discussing the Downing Street Minutes. Simultaneously. In Prime Time. This story officially has legs, and I'd like to encourage all 70,000+ DU'ers to help keep it moving.

Step One. Go the DU Media Blaster. It's located at here. Enter the information that's appropriate for where you live and follow the directions.

Step Two. Compose a brief letter to the editor. It should be 150-250 words (200 words or less is better). DO NOT USE PROFANITY and avoid name-calling and "wild accusations." Simply demand that with 1,700 combat deaths and climbing, the Bush Administration owes the American people a full accounting of how we came to be at war in Iraq.

Step Three. If your congressional representative is a Democrat or a comparatively sane Republican (especially one who may be facing a tough re-election campaign next year), compose a brief e-mail message that says you demand an accounting for why the United States finds itself at war in Iraq. If you don't have your representative's e-mail, you can find it here.

Step Four. If your newspaper doesn't print your letter -- or any other letters demanding an explanation -- Repeat Step Two. If you still don't see anything, call the newspaper's ombudsman or circulation desk and complain. Let the media know that we demand answers.

Step Five. If your representative doesn't respond to your letter, Repeat Step Three. If you still don't hear anything, call his/her local office and state your opinion directly.

I know that this is a lot of work (not a lot, when you consider the sacrifice being made by our troops in Iraq and their families). But it's necessary that the media doesn't decide to let this story drop after 48 or 72 hours. Conservative activists have used this method for years to browbeat the media -- now it's our turn.

[ailsagirl]

1. Thanks for the legs post!! It'll come in handy!! n/t

[coloradodem2005]

2. It's got legs. It knows how to use them.

[LightningFlash]

3. Its minimal, small time save our ass coverage....

But its better that they actually have it on at all.

Then again, their credability falls faster and dies the more they don't have it.

It's always the case. :thumbsdown:

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

4. We need to keep after them...

Here's the national media list from DU. Remind the major news outlets that this story isn't going away.

On Edit: My Letter

More than two years ago, the Bush Administration went to war in Iraq, assuring our nation that Sadam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and that every reasonable option for a peaceful resolution had been exhausted. More than 1,700 combat deaths later, we now know that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

More troubling, documents have emerged in England and suggest the Bush Administration never had any intention of finding a peaceful solution in Iraq and, in fact, it faked evidence of the situation in Iraq to scare the American people into supporting a war based on a threat that did not exist.

The dead and the wounded of the Iraq War demand a complete explanation from the Bush Administration.

[bamademo]

5. Obligatory ZZ Top Lyrics

She's got legs, she knows how to use them.
She never begs, she knows how to coose them.
She's holdin' leg wonderin' how to feel them.
Would you get behind them if you could only find them?
She's my baby, she's my baby,
yeah, it's alright.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

6. kick

Do it!

[annabanana]

7. my letter:

With 1,715 combat deaths and climbing, the Bush Administration owes the American people a full accounting of how we came to be at war in Iraq. The recent revelations about how the so-called “faulty” intelligence was, in fact, being twisted to match the long standing desire of the Bush Administration to invade Iraq makes it very clear that we were lied to. We were lied to in the State of the Union Address when we were told about nuclear materials being bought in Niger. We were lied to when the Vice President repeatedly insisted that there were weapons of mass destruction aimed in our direction. We were lied to (and the whole world was lied to) when Colin Powell held up a little vial and insisted that the imminent threat demanded an immediate attack.

The war on Iraq was illegal from the word “go” and it was started so that multi-national corporations could carve up their oil fields. If there isn’t a serious, and complete, investigation of when and how we were chased into this ill advised conflict, it may be repeated in Syria and Iran. Then more of our children will die.

America doesn’t ask much of us. To be a citizen here is not onerous, there is not much “hard work”. We do have one duty, however, and that is to be involved in the running of the Country. The government works for us, and if we don’t insist on a clean shop, we can expect that it will be taken over by whoever bullies their way through the “locks” of checks and balances that our founders made for us.