#TCOT to Republican Senators: NO to Porkulus, NO to Compromise, No to Turncoats

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) February 4, 2009 -- Michael Patrick Leahy, co-founder of Top Conservatives on Twitter, the conservative grassroots organization that dominates the conversation on Twitter, today announced that the organization is focusing its OPERATION MOVE OVER MoveON.org on all Republicans in the Senate.

Led by #TCOT Project Servant-Leader Wendy Hermann, a work-at-home mom from Corpus Christi, Texas, #TCOT's MOVE OVER MoveOn.org project is focused on defeating the "Porkulus" Bill in the Senate (S.1), in any form.

"We intend to communicate that message to all 41 Republican Senators in the most direct way today and through the rest of the week. We know that Senate Majority Leader Democrat Harry Reid is trying to ram this bad bill through the Senate without a sufficient discussion of all the truly wasteful mini bail-outs to the Democrat Party's political allies it contains," Leahy said today.

The #TCOT message to every Republican Senator is clear and simple: "Stand firm, and don't fall for false promises of 'bi-partisanship' that are being used to merely provide political cover to the Democrats. This is a clear example of the Democrats' wasteful economic policies, and we need to let the Democrats own their foolhardiness."

The history of compromise in the US Congress is easy to understand. When Democrats coerce Republicans to abandon their principles, they call it 'bi-partisan' compromise, but that is fundamentally wrong.

Anyone who wants to help in the defense of American free markets can take advantage of an innovative interactive tool that allows everyone to view the most recent spending elements of the "Porkulus" Bill, and register approval or disapproval of each item.

#TCOT will periodically send out press releases highlighting the public's opinion of the most wasteful and extravagant elements of the bill.

This great tool was developed by Aaron Day, of Daylight Networks. To use it, simply

register at http://www.daylightnetwork.com/senate-stimulus to be able to vote on whether or not a specific line item included in the bill will help improve the economy or hurt it.

MoveOn.org, the liberal activist group funded by George Soros, is focusing an ad campaign to turn around five Republican Senators. They are using radio and television ads to encourage people to contact these Senators and tell them to vote for S.1. The targeted Senators are:
(1) Collins - Maine
(2) Snow - Maine
(3) Newmann (yesterday appointed to replace Judd Gregg) - New Hampshire *
(4) Murkowski - Alaska
(5) Grassley - Iowa

We've seen reports that various Republican Senators are offering a few ideas to make the bill seem more palatable. This simply won't work. Adding a few elements to placate moderate Republicans while keeping 90% of the $825 billion of pork included in the House version of the bill does nothing to help the economy.

If Republican legislators want a historical model to guide them, they need look back only a few months to the disastrous vote in the fall in which many of them supported the ill-advised and ineffective $700 billion Wall Street Bailout.

Top Conservatives on Twitter was started on November 29, 2008. It consists of a list of over 2,400 conservatives who use Twitter. The list can be found at http://www.topconservativesontwitter.org . The list serves as a rallying point for conservatives on the internet, and has led to the formation of many action projects, of which Operation MOVE OVER MoveOn.org is one.

The organization is referred to as #TCOT because those five characters are used so that anyone on Twitter can follow the “tweet stream” of conversation on Twitter that is aimed at the #TCOT community. To follow this “tweet stream”, go to http://search.twitter.com and enter #TCOT.

In January, http://www.hashtags.org data showed #TCOT dominated the Twitter conversation. #TCOT was the number one most used hashtag, with over 18,000 tweets. The second most used hashtag had less than 6,000 tweets.

#TCOT dominated the conversation on Twitter so dramatically that it had more than three times the conversation tweets as the number two hashtag.

#TCOT has released the following details of their plan of attack:

1. Phones. As we did in Operation Melt the Phones in DC, we are going to keep up a steady stream of phone calls to these Senators offices and report back on the TCOT Ac- tion Project site what the senators are saying. This time, however, we want to also call their local state offices. Each Senator has several in their state and they should be

pressured as well. The numbers are listed by state at the bottom of the page as well as a sample script. We recommend calling each of the Senators offices every day. We will be issuing daily talking points for you to question the senate aide about. Be polite, but assertive.

2. Faxes. This time we will add faxes to our blitz. Many out of state people wishing to send a letter to a senator were stymied by the Senate e-mail system not allowing them. We have posted fax numbers next to phone numbers for those wishing to use that method. A sample text is listed at the bottom of the page for use in drafting e-mails and faxes. Again, we would like each person to fax each office daily emphasizing that day's talking points.

3. E-mail. If you live in the senators state, we encourage you to send daily e-mails to the senators giving them reasons to vote against this piece of legislation. Links to each Senator’s webpage are on the Phone/Fax list at the bottom of the page. Use the Fax/E-mail text suggestions to know what to say.

4. Blogging and local media. We do not have George Soros’ money. We will have to be more grassroots than that. We are asking all conservative bloggers to post this Action Project on their blog and add their opinion or perspective on the talking point of the day.

5. We are also asking #TCOT members to call their local talk radio programs, send letters to the editor and notify local media of what they are doing. Our hope is that some will be picked up as human interest stories and we can rebroadcast them over the internet. We have made an outline/talking points list available for reference. Please use the list as a starting point. We are working to build this media list, so please report back whomever you
talk to and how they reacted.

6. We are looking for people with video experience that will write and produce short videos that can be posted on YouTube that counter the ads being run by MoveON.org. Please contact us if you are interested in this project.

7. We are looking to target moderate or blue dog Democrats in the Senate that could be swayed to our side. Please let us know if you find any Democrats on the fence about S. 1.
Above all else, be polite. Passion is encouraged, foul language is not. Be aggressive, but not abusive.

Resources:

Senate Phone/Fax numbers (with links to e-mail) can be found at http://moveovermoveon.posterous.com
To volunteer directly, and receive more detailed instructions, go to http://tcotprojects.ning.com

More information can be found online at http://www.daylightnetwork.com/senate-stimulus

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