A Blogger's Conference Call

Last night, I participated in a bloggers conference call regarding the "Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007", also known as the Amnesty Bill (pdf).

The conference call, hosted by Conservatives with Attitude!, included Michael "A.J. Sparxx" Illions from Polipundit.com, John Hawkins from Right Wing News, Kevin Ecker from EckerNet.Com, Joe from Techography, Keith Thompson from SFGate.com, Denny Wilson from Grouchy Old Cripple, and myself.

In the nearly ten years I have been blogging I have never taken part in a bloggers conference call, and now I wish I had done so sooner. While I didn't talk much, I absorbed a ton of information from the others who participated. I had a few things I wanted to say, but someone always beat me to the punch. Great minds think alike, I suppose.

We decided we would step up, in a united front, and do our part as bloggers to make sure this Amnesty Bill gets defeated.

When it comes to contacting your Senator to voice your displeasure at his support of this bill, there are many ways you can make your voice heard. The most effective way to voice your displeasure is by phoning your Senators office. If you cannot make that call, or you just don't like using the phone, you can always send them an email. Thats what I did. I actually received a response today as well, although it wasn't the response I was hoping for. Of course, I will be sending a follow-up soon. You can check this page for a complete list of U.S. Senators, along with their phone numbers and email contact page links.

If you are the a "fax-activism" type person, NumbersUSA has a system in place that will create and fax letters on your behalf based on your zip code. You can find their free service at the NumbersUSA website.

You should also contact the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). Your vocal opposition to those Senators who support this bill along with the threat of losing monetary donations will spur them into helping their candidates re-think the issue.

To contact the RNC, you can call (202) 863-8500 (option 1).
To contact the NRSC, you can call (202) 675-6000.

Whether or not your state's Senators support this bill, you can always contact the GOP leadership in the Senate. They too should be held accountable for this abomination. Mitch McConnell is the Senate Minority Leader, and Trent Lott is the Senate Minority Whip. You can find their contact information at the senate.gov website as well.

In that earlier post, in which detailed Sen. Chambliss's response to my letter, I listed all of the senators who voted for cloture last night. If any of them are from your home state, you should make sure you contact them to make sure they do not support this bill. Here is that list of Senators again.

Alaska: Murkowski (R-AK), Stevens (R-AK)
Arizona: Kyl (R-AZ)
Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Pryor (D-AR)
California: Boxer (D-CA), Feinstein (D-CA)
Colorado: Salazar (D-CO)
Connecticut: Lieberman (D-CT)
Delaware: Carper (D-DE)
Florida: Martinez (R-FL)
Georgia: Chambliss (R-GA), Isakson (R-GA)
Hawaii: Akaka (D-HI), Inouye (D-HI)
Idaho: Craig (R-ID)
Illinois: Durbin (D-IL)
Indiana: Bayh (D-IN), Lugar (R-IN)
Iowa: Grassley (R-IA), Harkin (D-IA)
Kansas: Brownback (R-KS)
Kentucky: McConnell (R-KY)
Louisiana: Landrieu (D-LA)
Maine: Collins (R-ME), Snowe (R-ME)
Maryland: Cardin (D-MD), Mikulski (D-MD)
Massachusetts: Kennedy (D-MA)
Michigan: Levin (D-MI), Stabenow (D-MI)
Minnesota: Coleman (R-MN), Klobuchar (D-MN)
Mississippi: Cochran (R-MS), Lott (R-MS)
Missouri: Bond (R-MO), McCaskill (D-MO)
Nebraska: Hagel (R-NE), Nelson (D-NE)
Nevada: Ensign (R-NV), Reid (D-NV)
New Hampshire: Gregg (R-NH)
New Jersey: Lautenberg (D-NJ), Menendez (D-NJ)
New Mexico: Bingaman (D-NM), Domenici (R-NM)
New York: Schumer (D-NY)
North Carolina: Burr (R-NC)
North Dakota: Conrad (D-ND)
Ohio: Brown (D-OH), Voinovich (R-OH)
Oregon: Smith (R-OR), Wyden (D-OR)
Pennsylvania: Casey (D-PA), Specter (R-PA)
Rhode Island: Reed (D-RI), Whitehouse (D-RI)
South Carolina: Graham (R-SC)
Tennessee: Alexander (R-TN)
Utah: Bennett (R-UT), Hatch (R-UT)
Vermont: Leahy (D-VT)
Virginia: Warner (R-VA), Webb (D-VA)
Washington: Cantwell (D-WA), Murray (D-WA)
West Virginia: Rockefeller (D-WV)
Wisconsin: Feingold (D-WI), Kohl (D-WI)

The hope is, that if enough of us make those calls, fire off those emails, or send those faxes, we will get enough members of the Senate to re-think their "support" of this measure and soundly defeat it.

Please take a moment to voice your opposition to this bill. Our senators are there to serve their constituents. Even if they don't expect to hear from us, it's our duty to let them know how we feel on the issues. It's as simple as this, if you don't speak up about illegal immigration reform now, you may never get the chance again.