Liberty Chick

The Health Care Debate: Resource Center

What’s Next?
Activist Resources
Get Involved Locally
Sign a Petition(s)
We the People Congress
Tea Parties
Calling Out the Media Bias
Other Events
Become a US Constitution Activist
Write Your Congressional Representatives, Directory & Letter Guidelines
The Congressional Hammer!

What’s Next: After the Tea Parties

While the Tea Party movement will continue, liberty-minded groups are settling into their more permanent places.  This means regular outreach and education to revitalize interest in the real history of America and out founding fathers, and the principles of limited government.  Think local.  Issue related engagement and mobilization will also be necessary.  When our politicians fail to represent us, WE must do so ourselves.  Continue what you are doing:  network, educate others on our views, join organizations, initiate a new event.  Remember, this is grass-roots and it needs to STAY grass-roots; so we don’t want to see everything rolled up under a big national organization with political ties to it. This is the People’s Movement.   Sure, it’s fine to join some of the national groups so we can leverage and link up with each other where appropriate, but keeping our efforts organic is still key to our credibility and our success. We need to be equally involved locally, and focused on 2010 elections to help drive change. There are plenty of year-round ideas for progressing our causes and taking back an out-of control government; below are a few key points to get you started:

• Get Trained. American Majority is a terrific small-government activist organization that offers training and other outreach programs to become an activist yourself, or to help others be active on your behalf. We need as many voices out there as possible!  Another is also FreedomWorks.
• Stay Informed. Follow other liberty-minded bloggers (start with the blogroll to the right), subscribe to RSS feeds, read your local papers and watch the news.  Remaining vigilant in keeping informed is key.  Watch sites like GovTrack to follow all legislation.  Join Facebook and Twitter and follow liberty-minded groups and people, like Liberty Chick.  Our Twitterers will keep you updated on all the breaking news, legislation and events, and we frequently schedule live events, like “Tweet4Truth”
• Stay Involved.
  • With The 9-12 Project, as this is a central hub for organizing ongoing grass-roots activities and continuing communication
  • DownsizeDC is a continual event-driven organization focused on returning government to its smaller roots. You can check here for ongoing events and campaigns that need local organizers.
• Educate & Inform. Become a trained Constitution Activist and organize a Constitution event in your area; have a related Call to Action
  • A Memorial Day or Flag Day event
  • Independence Day event on July 4th
  • National Constitution Day on September 17th
• Be Active.
  • Check the Calendar 912
  • Sign one (or more) of the many petitions below
  • Join Facebook and Twitter and follow liberty-minded groups and people, like Liberty Chick.  Our Twitterers will keep you updated on all the breaking news, legislation and events, and we frequently schedule live events, like “Tweet4Truth”
  • Subscribe to email lists, newsletters and RSS feeds
• And many other vehicles listed throughout the remainder of this page below

Activist Resources

While I have most of these resources organized on this site under “The 9.12 Project Resources for Members”, you do not have to be a 9.12 Project member to be able to utilize them.  Whether you are a new activist or you’re a veteran organizer, there are resources here for everyone.  And they are not only 9.12 Project specific.  These resources are great for Tea Party organizers, constitutional and limited government advocates, issue activists and any sort of state and local political organizers.  Visit this Resources for Members section for some of the following resources:

Tea Party Videos
Original Graphics for use
Tea Party/Small Government Talking Points
Tea Party Signs, Flyers & Other Marketing Collateral
E-Mail Marketing Tools
Press Release Distribution & List of Media Outlets
Website & Blog Programs
Search Engine Optimization & Submission
Royalty-Free Stock Photos & Images and Stock Music
Broadband Media
Social Networking & Bookmarking
Promotional Materials (T-shirts, etc.)

Calling Out the Media Bias

If you are tired of and angry about the way that the left-biased mainstream media has been portraying you, your beliefs, and especially the Tea Parties, you can take action. Write to the ones who fund them.  Send a letter to every one of their advertisers / sponsors and let them know that YOU are the American consumer, and YOU are tired of the likes of MSNBC and CNN berating and attacking you just for having an opinion. And if we have to, we can always boycott sponsors if that’s what’s needed.

Also be sure to check out this special page, dedicated entirely to the distorted parallel universe they called Tea Party Coverage.

Get Involved Locally

The most important thing you can do is to get involved locally. First, become an activist! For The 9.12 Project, for the Constitution, for an important cause – it’s important to educate others; through unity in our voices we can drive a major movement founded upon philosophical change. Next, vote in local elections. Elect leaders who reflect the values of 912ers. Local leaders interact with state leaders, who interact with federal leaders. Drive the change by starting from the bottom up.  Look for local and national organizations that are dedicated to states’ rights and local issues.

State News & Political Activism

StateLine

Stateline.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan online news site that practices journalism in the public interest by reporting on emerging trends and issues in state policy and politics.  Each weekday, Stateline.org’s staff of professional journalists chronicles the top developments in all 50 states. We then connect the dots through our original reporting and graphics to spot and analyze developments of national significance taking shape in the states. Our goal is to enlighten public debate on topics of importance at the state level, including health care, taxes, immigration, social policy, education, energy, environment, criminal justice, homeland security, transportation and elections.

NewsFifty

Newsfifty.com provides national and statewide news coverage from all 50 states in one convenient website. This makes our site a valuable resource for those who check their news online, and especially for anyone seeking local news from various parts of the country. We feature one national homepage with important headlines and breaking news on a national level. From there, through an interactive map, visitors can quickly and easily access 50 separate state pages dedicated to all the headlines from each state.

The Patrick Henry Caucus

Fellow Patriots, this is how to get involved locally to drive change!! The Patrick Henry Caucus stands united to sustain the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Their goal is to restore and uphold the sovereignty and rights of the individual States as guaranteed by the tenth amendment of the United States Constitution, which states,  “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

PHC Blog |   PHC on Twitter |  PHC on Facebook

The Free State Project

The Free State Project is an effort to recruit 20,000 liberty-loving people to move to New Hampshire. They are looking for neighborly, productive, tolerant folks from all walks of life, of all ages, creeds, and colors who agree to the political philosophy expressed in the Statement of Intent, that government exists at most to protect people’s rights, and should neither provide for people nor punish them for activities that interfere with no one else.  Other states are modeling FSP and coming out with their own projects.

Tenth Amendment Center

The 10th Amendment Movement is an effort to push back against unconstitutional federal laws and regulations on a state level. The principle is known as “nullification,” and was advised by many prominent founders.  The Tenth Amendment Center features comprehensive research coverage of key Tenth Amendment issues and topics, and daily Tenth Amendment news and analysis. The Tenth Amendment Center works to preserve and protect Tenth Amendment freedoms through information and education. The center serves as a forum for the study and exploration of state and individual sovereignty issues, focusing primarily on the decentralization of federal government power.

We the People Congress

If you want to do something about Congress not respecting our Constitution, this is the group to help. We the People Congress has had active petitioning going on to enforce our first admendment rights in the courts. They’ve also convened a people’s Continental Congress to meet regularly, tour the country, and keep current awareness top of mind in the US. Learn more about the profound First Amendment Right to Petition from their partnering website Give Me Liberty Revolution. Also view their Plan to Restore Constitutional Order for a very organized and effective (and peaceful) plan to do so across the nation.

Sign a Petition(s)

• Petition for Redress of Grievances, from the 912 Project forums
• ScrapTheCode, petition to support Tax Reform
• Patriotic, Idea-Based Citizen Resistance To Obama’s Socialist Agenda Nearing 430,000!
• Stop the Spending: Say “NO!” To The Obama Budget With $1.6 Trillion In New Taxes!
• Grassfire
• PetitionOnline
• GoPetition

Tea Parties

• The Tax Day Tea Party Website (taxdayteaparty.com) has now transitioned to Don’tGo’s new organization, American Liberty Alliance. Check here for ongoing nationwide events.
• A list of currently scheduled (and growing) Tea Parties for July 4th can be found at http://www.reteaparty.com/teaparties
• Also be sure to check out the Tea Party marketing resources on the “Resources for The 9.12 Project Members” page, and promotional videos and more on LibertyChickTV if you want something to help promote your next event.

Other Events

• Visit the Events & Education page for the most current events
• Constitution Day is Sept. 17th every year
• Calendar 912 has a list of all scheduled events in one place

Become a US Constitution Activist

• Coordinate a Making of America Seminar from the NCCS
  
• National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS)
• Coordinate a “Constitution Day Event”
• Become a Trained Constitution Advocate from American Majority

Write Your Representatives, Letter Guidelines

Rather than send one of many form letters, it’s better to make it personal if you want anyone to hear your plea. This site offers some great guidelines under “How To Write a Letter to Congress”. In fact, I took action myself after hearing our own public servants, CONGRESS, dismissing the April 15th Tea Parties, making false accusations and calling us horrible names.  Well, call me a whiner, I don’t care. I just think what Pelosi, Schakowsky and their minions that last week was inexcusable. These are our Congress people and they are supposed to represent us, not insult, lie about and then dismiss us! So I took the time to write a serious but respectful letter to my own Congressman, to make a request.  Believe it or not, many Congress people did in fact read their constiuents’ letters on the House floor (saw them on C-Span for myself!).

Read my letter!

Since then, I’ve also written and faxed at least 10 other letters to my representatives on various issues, the most recent being my letter opposing a government-run Health Care plan.

I also regularly use these extra services for a very small fee to make contacting Congress members (and the media) easy and efficient, and to make sure my letters are definitely received:

• Advocacy Xpress to haveyour letter hand-delivered
• MyFax to send multiple faxes in one step to multiple recipients, from my computer – without a fax machine. Now that I’ve faxed various representatives, all the information is stored there, making mass faxes super-simple and fast for me in just one shot.

You need to write your representatives, and do so regularly – keep an open dialogue about what’s important to you.  I purchased the “Congress at Your Fingertips” directory from Capitol Publishing, which not only has Congress members’ contact info, but it has their aides, state Governors, other federal govm’t agencies, committees, Executive offices and cabinet members, White House & Congress media outlets – everything.  This is a must have resource for every average American who has finally decided to stop being silent and to stand up and be heard.  Though not as full of detailed information as the “Congress at Your Fingertips” guide, online directories can also be found at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt and http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ (this site has email addresses & websites for each member).

The Congressional Hammer

Lastly, the website The Hammer from DarkStar Incorporated is an online tool that makes contacting your Congressional representatives quick and easy. “The Hammer uses a pre-written letter called a “Spike”. The message of the letter is very important.  It’s about Constitutional principles. But the Hammer is also about numbers. It’s all about Americans coming together as one voice.  Tens of thousands of people just like you, sending the exact same letter to Congress, will have an overwhelming impact. Using The Hammer, contacting your Congressional representatives is easy. Simply fill out your return address in the form provided, select your Representative, preview the letter, then print, sign and mail it, or copy and paste it into the email contact forms using the links provided.”

In addition to the Hammer, the website also has great educational resources on Civics, which focus on the role of citizens in their government, plus News sources, great commentary, and lots of links to other great sources in the fight for freedom and liberty.

The Hammer:  Action Campaign Contact Center
http://www.darkstarincorporated.net/online/contacts.php

This is an excellent resource of the website.  It not only has quick access to your representatives, but it thoroughly outlines all of the caucuses like the Blue Dog Democrats and Congressional Progressive Caucus, and lists each of their respective members so you can contact them easily, with a more targeted message:

• Federal and State Level Contact Information
• Federal Level District Offices
• Media Contact Information
• Telephone Contact Information
• Blue Dog Coalition
• Moderate Democratic Senators
• Congressional Progressive Caucus/Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)

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