American Policy Center » 2008 » September
- E-VERIFY AND THE EMERGING SURVEILLANCE STATE
- UPDATE ON THE GREAT NORTH AMERICAN PHONE-IN
- Press-Release Lap Dogs
- URGENT!! Mark your Calendar for September 16, 2008 – THE GREAT NORTH AMERICAN PHONE-IN
- The Great North American Phone-In
Subjecting all Americans to an
International databank
September 24, 2008
By Tom DeWeese
If government won’t do its job, is that a reason for Americans to surrender their liberty? Do you think that is a funny question? Well, it is actually what a number of activist groups are now advocating in the name of stopping illegal immigration.
The fact is, the U.S. government is not doing its job to secure the border and stop the flood of illegal aliens from rushing across it. Even though Congress has passed legislation demanding that a fence be built, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is dragging its feet, holding up the project. Moreover, DHS is fighting efforts in local communities to allow police to arrest illegals. There is little effort to tighten visa security, or allow law enforcement to track down and deport those who stay here past their allotted time. Those illegals caught committing crimes are still allowed to leave, only to easily and surreptitiously return at their will. The border is a sieve. There is no border control – period.
Rather than work to strengthen the borders and take steps to stop illegals from getting here in the first place, many now seek “internal enforcement” rather than the “rule of law.” In other words, take action after leaving the barn door open.
The answer, say some very powerful anti-immigration forces, is to put the burden of control on American businesses. Jobs, they say, are the draw to illegals, so business should be the first line of defense. The answer, we are told, is simply to get tough with business and stop the ability of illegals to get a job. Such a plan, while appealing to desperate Americans, can have dire consequences if a nation desires to remain free.
Chief among the schemes to “get tough” with business is the universal enforcement of something called the E-Verify System. It is the brainchild of the Department of Homeland Security and is an electronic employment verification (EEV) program. Essentially, E-Verify uses the Social Security databases to verify Social Security Numbers to determine if someone is a US citizen. Employers are to simply enter in the applicants Social Security Number to verify they are an American citizen (of legal status) and therefore eligible for employment.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 made it illegal for employers to “knowingly” employ unauthorized workers, and E-Verify (then known as “Basic Pilot”) grew out of the requirement for work-eligibility verification. Since its inception the program has been voluntary for all businesses. However, that’s about to change.
In 2007, after the dramatic defeat of the illegal immigration amnesty bills, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced several changes to the E-Verify System. The agency will now require more than 200,000 federal contractors to use E-Verify, an increase of more than 1,076 percent over the 17,000 employers registered in 2007 (with only about half actually using) E-Verify. The system will use an “enhanced photograph capability” that will allow employers to check photographs in E-Verify databases. DHS will expand the number of databases E-Verify checks to include visa and passport databases; and the agency is asking states to “voluntarily” allow DHS access to their motor vehicle databases. DHS will require employers to fire employees if they were unable to resolve “no match” discrepancies within 90 days. If the employers do not terminate the workers’ employment, the business would face fines of $11,000 or more. DHS also will raise fines against employers by 25 percent and increasingly use criminal action against employers, as opposed to administrative action.
With those changes, E-Verify is now being sold as the atom bomb in the war on illegal immigration. Described as “the most effective tool to protect vulnerable American workers from unscrupulous businesses that hire illegal foreign workers to displace American workers or depress wages.” Sounds great – of course all of this confidence in the E-Verify System’s ability to stop illegal immigration is celebrated BEFORE most businesses have even been required to use it.
The fact is, there are major problems with the E-Verify System. It is a hugely flawed system and will have a severe effect on both naturalized U.S. citizens, as well as those who are native born.
Millions of employees could mistakenly fall into
legal limbo.
Independent analysis of existing government databases have found unacceptably high error rates. Currently those voluntarily using E-Verify have experienced near double-digit error rates. Forcing more than 7 million employers to verify the legal status of more than 160 million current employees, as well as the millions of future hires, means that potentially, as many as 17 million citizens and legal US residents will be mistakenly found “ineligible” to work.
The fact is, the Social Security Administration (SSA) never purges a Social Security number once it’s assigned. The Numident database (which E-Verify uses) currently contains 435 million records; more than 100 million more than the nation’s total population, legal or otherwise. In December 2006, the SSA Inspector General reported approximately 18 million of these records are not accurate. Yet, DHS wants E-Verify made mandatory for the entire American work force.
“As a matter of simple math,” says Jim Harper at the CATO Institute, “that means that if E-Verify were to go national, on the first day 1 in 25 legal hires would be bounced out of the system and asked to go down to the Social Security office and straighten out the problem.”
Imagine the problems faced by honest, law abiding Americans who are thrown out of the system. In most cases, these are not well-to-do executives who can simply take the afternoon off to fix the problem. They are lower level workers who depend on every dime they earn to pay the rent and feed the kids. Simply taking a day off to go down to the local Social Security office isn’t an easy thing.
From the moment they are found to be a “tentative non-confirmed” they have eight days to contest the claim and to prove they are legal. A day off work is required because the Social Security office is only open from 8:30am to 5:00pm. If the employer fails to make it to the office in the 8 days, the employer is required by threat of fine and criminal charges to fire the employee.
Moreover, as the E-Verify system is forced on all employers and the large numbers of employees (as reported above) are thrown from the system, there will be a massive run on the Social Security office. The SS Administration is simply not equipped to handle such a massive influx of cases. The infrastructure to handle it is not in place.
As anyone who tried to get a passport last year knows, when the government makes significant, mandatory changes in a system, typically government inefficiency rules. New rules concerning passports forced Americans to flood passport offices, but the offices weren’t prepared to receive and process the massive number of applicants. The E-Verify System would force much larger numbers into unprepared Social Security offices.
Now, under E-Verify, employees that do make it to the SS office may be forced to return day after day. Jobs and income will be lost as the Employment Eligibility Verification (EEV) process does not permit employers to hold the jobs or delay start dates. The clock starts to tick the second the tentative non-confirmed notice is issued and runs out in exactly 8 days.
If it’s all been a mistake, the burden of proof is on the employee to prove who they are and that they are legal citizens or residents eligible to continue working. These law-abiding American citizens enter the Social Security Office as criminal suspects with the potential of being deported. Contrary to American law, they are guilty until proven innocent. Incredibly, there is no appeals process in place to challenge the findings of E-Verify.
MORE FRAUD – NOT LESS
The E-Verify System is promoted as the only foolproof way to stop illegals from obtaining jobs. Advocates say the program has enough safeguards to protect citizens. Not so fast. Once the system is in place there are huge gaps that allow massive fraud.
To work efficiently, an E-Verify System allows employers access to a centralized record of all legal residents and citizens. Given the government’s mixed record on data security, this could become a one-stop-shop for identity theft.
First, illegals and those employers wishing to hire them can simply work under the table, paying cash, hiding the transaction from any official source. Illegals don’t regularly file income taxes, so the hire isn’t hard to hide.
On a larger scale, it must be understood that illegal immigration is big business and it has the money and the means to create false documents and to provide “legal” identification, complete with matching names and Social Security numbers.
Today, many illegals simply make up names and Social Security numbers, hoping not to get caught. Of course, the E-Verify system would catch them. However, in response, an illegal only has to obtain the name and SS number of a legal citizen. While that legal person may already be working a job, it will not create an alert if the information is used by someone else.
Such information can be available through a wide variety of situations, including stolen lists and select employees with access to databases like the Social Security lists. Organized crime can certainly have well placed cohorts. The process would create a massive criminal market for Americans citizens’ personal information.
The only way to stop it is for the federal government to create a new database that records every new hire and monitor all employees in the nation.
The real losers in this game are the people who have now had their identity stolen in the process. They may be the ones accused of identity theft as they suddenly discover someone else is using their name and SS number.
Of course, the federal government has proven it has no ability to safeguard the records in its current databases. And the more databases established, the more opportunity for theft.
Recently, federal employees have been caught “sneaking a peek” at the passports of a large number of celebrities and even presidential candidates including Barack Obama, John McCain and Hillary Clinton.
In August of this year, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lost a laptop computer which contained the records of 33,000 people who had signed up for its pre-screening program, designed to give travelers quicker access through airport security. The unencrypted information in the database included names, addresses, driver’s license numbers, passport numbers, Social Security numbers, Alien registration numbers, and current credit card numbers.
The laptop was in the possession of employees of a private company contracting with TSA for the project. TSA signup documents for the project promise that the records will be maintained at its headquarters in Arlington, VA and “other authorized TSA or DHA secure facilities, as necessary, and at a digital safe site managed by a government contractor.” In reality, the laptop was stashed in a locked office at the San Francisco Airport. There are a lot of laptops containing personal information of Americans being taking home by government employees these days. Why?
MISSION CREEP
The greatest threat from establishment of a system such as E-Verify is the creation of perhaps unintended results. As Cato’s Jim Harper surmises, “The things to make a system like this impervious to forgery and fraud would convert it from an identity system into a cradle-to-grave biometric tracking system.”
“Mission Creep” is the commonly used description for a program designed for a specific purpose, but is later used for much more. A prime example of mission creep is the Social Security System itself. It was designed specifically as a means for people to deposit money into a government program to provide for their retirement years. Today, there are those who want to take its databank of users and transform it into an identity system to prove American citizenship. “Well, it’s already there!” That’s mission creep.
As reported in the beginning, DHS Secretary Chertoff intends to increase the E-Verify system to include biometric photographs and extended databases. On numerous occasions Secretary Chertoff has expressed his desire to create a national identification card that would include near complete information on its bearer. This would include job, medical, tax, and school records. It would also include biometric and facial recognition, with RFID microchips that could monitor the whereabouts of every American.
E-Verify is the beginning of the creation of such a system. Is it worth it for Americans to endure an existence in a well-controlled matrix of surveillance simply to catch some illegal workers? Communities across the nation are proving that illegals will stop coming here – in fact actually leave – if they are made to feel unwelcome.
E-Verify sets the stage for a national workforce management system which gives the government ultimate power to decide who works and who doesn’t. It is designed to ultimately subject all Americans to an intrusive global surveillance system as the information in DHS databanks is being transferred to international systems through such DHS partners as American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The federal government has been given the mandate by the people to close the borders and keep them out. It doesn’t require cradle-to-grave biometric tracking of every legal American to accomplish that task. Facts show that such “internal enforcement” would not reduce the illegality, it would promote it. Border security combined with real efforts by the government to keep illegals out of the country will do much more to stop the flood than by chaining American citizens to massive, all knowing surveillance data banks.
Special thanks to extensive reports on the E-Verify issue by Jim Harper at CATO (Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification, Franz Kafka’s Solution to Illegal Immigration), and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), (E-Verify System: DHS Changes Name, But Problems Remain for US Workers).
September 22, 2008
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I want to issue a heartfelt “thank you” to all APC Sledgehammer activists who took part in the Phone-In on September 16th.
Apparently we made quite an impact as thousands of calls were made to Capitol Hill, to district offices across the country, and to the Canadian parliament in Ottawa.
Some of the highlights:
1. By 11:00AM Eastern time APC received calls from two congressional offices begging us to stop the calls. The office of Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama said they couldn’t get any work done. Our response was “good.”
Another congressional office (we didn’t get the name) said the tired old line, “we don’t support a North American Union because there is no North American Union.” I answered, “then put it in writing by co-sponsoring H.Con Res 40.” No response. The calls continued.
2. APC received many calls from activists anxious to report on their efforts. Some reported that, as soon as congressional staffers answered the phone they said, “Yes, we know, H. Con. Res. 40.” Apparently our message was getting through.
3. Rep. Virgil Goode’s office (he is the chief sponsor of H. Con. Res. 40) was thrilled by our efforts. His staff reported that there is considerable buzz on the hill about the bill. We have 50 co-sponsors reported to date, hopefully more are coming.
4. Reports came later in the day that callers were having trouble reaching congressional offices. If they called the numbers we provided, the recorded message came on that “this phone was not in service.” Calls had to be made through the switchboard at that point. We don’t know if that was from the volume of calls, but we do know it wasn’t happening earlier in the day.
5. We received reports that local district offices were swamped with calls. In turn they were reporting of the large number of calls being received in the districts to their Representative’s office on Capitol Hill (which were receiving their share of calls also). The overall impression was that we were a nation-wide campaign. Very impressive.
6. In Canada, parliament had to add more receptionists to take the calls. Most calls had to be made through toll-free 800 numbers, and there was a large back up as callers had to wait to get through to individual offices of members of Parliament. Moreover, we understand that parliament was receiving calls from as far away as Mexico and the Netherlands.
7. Throughout the day, my Canadian associate Paul Grondin, (the man who came up with the idea for the Phone-In) received numerous calls from Activists wanting to join the Phone-In and were looking for lists of phone numbers.
It appears from these reports from the front lines that The Great North American Phone-In was a success and has had the desired impact. Congress can no longer ignore the North American Union.
Our next step is to issue a follow up letter to Congress, again urging them to investigate the NAU and the SPP and to join in cosponsoring H. Con. Res.40. It’s not too large for more organizations to join in this effort and apply much needed pressure on this vital issue.
Again, my thanks for a job well done by the many activist and groups who participated, and to the many radio programs across the nation who helped get out the word to their listeners.
— Tom DeWeese
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September 17, 2008
By Tom DeWeese
“We’re supposed to fall for a candidate who has to play up her eight years as the mayor of a town of 6,715 – where the Associated Press devastatingly remarked the “biggest civic worry is whether there will be enough snow for the Iditarod dog-mushing race” – and her time on the PTA to round out her resume.” The news media – just being fair.
America’s news media is surprised and appalled at the accusations that it has been too hard on Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Says the media, “examining the record of the Alaska governor, of whom not much is known about, is the legitimate line of inquiry for the press. Time Magazine’s Joe Kline believes the McCain team’s attacks on the media are simply a tactic meant to thwart inquiries into Palin’s history. “This is a smoke screen, intended to divert attention from the very real and responsible vetting that is taking place in the media – about the substance of Palin’s record as Mayor and Governor,” said Klien. Said one reporter, “should (reporters) have stuck to the press release, like how she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere (after she supported it)?”
So, with the media’s all-out effort to dig down and get the “truth” (because they are just journalists doing their job), here’s what we know about Sarah Palin: Her 17 year old daughter is unmarried and pregnant; an Alaska state legislative panel is investigating if Gov. Palin improperly dismissed Alaska’s public safety commissioner because he wouldn’t fire an Alaska state trooper who happened to be divorcing Palin’s sister; Palin has a new baby with Down syndrome, which she didn’t abort; She’s in the PTA; Her husband is a blue color worker and union member; she was a beauty queen; she hunts; she is a member of the NRA; she is against placing Polar Bears on the Endangered Species list (they aren’t endangered, by the way); she’s anti-abortion and anti-evolution; and, horror or horrors, she “hasn’t uttered a word about racial diversity or civil rights.”
It’s certainly true that the media has a right and a duty to check her out. She was an unknown on the national political scene. So why is the McCain camp, along with many Americans in general, so upset over the coverage Palin got in the first week of her candidacy? The media’s coverage is neither fair nor balanced. Far from it. It’s obvious that the news media used its attack dog ruthlessness to “expose Palin” but has literally ignored much more important facts about Barack Obama. In Obama’s case, the media has certainly “stuck to the press release.”
The media has refused to publish, or has white washed reports, of direct connections between Barack Obama and several known communists. In fact, Obama’s “mentor” as a child was a well-documented Marxist named Frank Marshall Davis. Obama actually mentions him only by his first name in his 1995 book, “Dreams from my Father.” Further, in a report prepared by the Obama campaign to rebut Jerome Corsi’s best selling book, “Obama Nation,” Obama admits to a personal relationship with Davis, all the while calling Corsi a liar for saying the same thing. Instead of investigating the facts, the news media sticks to the Obama press release.
If the media mentions Davis at all, it calls him a “civil rights activists,” a “labor leader” and a “poet.” In fact, some of the poems Davis wrote were in praise of the Red Army and mocking Christian missionaries. Davis, who died in 1987, appeared before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee in 1956 and took the Fifth Amendment, refusing to answer questions about his Communist Party USA (CPUSA) activities. His lawyer was Harriet Bouslog, another CPUSA member.
The Associated Press did run a story about Barack Obama’s Marxist mentor without ever mentioning him as a CPUSA member. The story, with a headline that read, “Writer offered a young Barack Obama advice on Life,” simply calls Davis a “left-leaning journalist and poet.” As investigative journalist Cliff Kincaid reports in an extensive expose`, Davis “was not a journalist in any real sense of the term. He was a propagandist and racial agitator for the CPUSA.”
Rather than try to present evidence to refute such charges, Obama attacks critics like Corsi as “liars.” For obvious reasons, he wants the issue to just go away. And the news media, unlike in the Palin case, just sticks to the Obama press release. There is no attempt to investigate the charges by mainstream media.
There is much more evidence of Communist influences over a young Barack Obama and more evidence of attempts to wash it from the record.
More than a year ago, reports surfaced of a connection between Obama and William Ayers and his wife Bernadine Doran. Obama and Ayres sat on a board together for three years. They have made speeches together from the same podium. Ayres even sponsored a fundraiser in his home for Obama’s Illinois state senate campaign.
Why does a relationship with Ayres matter? Both Ayers and Doran were founders of the 1960′s era domestic terrorist group called “The Weathermen.” That group planted bombs in the U.S. Capitol Building, organized riots, set fires to buildings on college campuses, and plotted the overthrow of the United States. The Weathermen were known as the most violent and most dedicated communists of the 1960′s revolt. They had direct ties with Moscow and made numerous trips to Cuba and North Viet Nam in support of the world-domination goals of the Communist revolution.
Of course, Obama denies any connection with Ayers and Doran. When pressed in a debate, Obama said he barely knew Ayers and then dismissed Ayres history of violence against the country by saying whatever Ayers did occurred when Obama was eight years old. Obama seems to have left out some details from his press release, so the media didn’t think is was important to mention.
And there’s more. Corsi’s book reveals that Obama’s wife Michelle was influenced by black Marxist revolutionary Stokely Carmichael when she formulated her Princeton thesis on black separatism. Again Obama calls it a lie. Again, the news media simply accepts the “press release.”
However, as Kincaid reports, “…turning to Page 139 of his memoir, ‘Dreams,’ we find that he himself (Obama) was inspired by Carmichael.” While living in New York, according to Obama’s book, he was in “search of some inspiration” one day and “went to hear Kwame Toure, formerly Stokely Carmichael of SNCC and Black Power fame, speak at Columbia.”
During the 1960′s Stokely Carmichael was recognized as one of the most violent and dangerous radicals in the Civil Rights movement. Martin Luther King was appalled at his coining of the phrase “Black Power” and attempted to discredit him. Carmichael was also the originator of the phrase, “Burn, Baby, Burn,” as he rejoiced over the burning of American cities during the riots of the late 1960′s.
In a speech at the Oakland Auditorium, February 17, 1968, Carmichael accused white Americans of harboring a goal to commit genocide on the black race. He said the nation was built on the genocide of the red man. Then the whites dropped the Atomic bomb on “some helpless yellow people in Hiroshima.” He then went on to rationalize that black people were no longer needed to pick cotton in an increasingly technological America. “When the need for black people disappears, so will we, and he (the white race) will consciously wipe us out.”
This is the man from whom Barack Obama – and his wife – went to for “some inspiration?” This is where the man who may soon lead our nation gets his ideas? And the nation’s news media doesn’t think such details warrant even a question or two? Rest assured, had Sarah Palin ever walked on the same side of the street as a member of the KKK she would now be drawn and quartered for such an “association.”
These facts took me about two hours to investigate. I knew none of it before starting the effort. It wasn’t hard to find. The fact is, today’s news media, led by the likes of Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Charles Gibson, Keith Olbermann, Chris Mathews, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, MSNBC, and so many more, are not journalists. They do no investigation. They do not attempt to tell both sides of the story.
As this gang is tearing Sarah Palin apart because she may blunder on some specific detail as she stands in the spot light, Americans should ask the news media this question: name a single “change” that Barack Obama is advocating in his campaign of “change we can believe in.” Name one, Katie Couric, and tell us how it will impact on our nation’s economy and our individual lives. Charles Gibson, have you asked a single question about allegations against Democrat Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden for plagiarism? The charges were strong enough to throw him out of the presidential race a few years ago. Isn’t that worth a question or two? Bias combined with ignorance is not journalism.
Americans who read or hear their nightly news reports are not informed of the issues – they are instead victims of an elitist propaganda for what the media determines to be “globally- acceptable truth.” Real facts be damned.
To further make the point, consider this fact. As Ron Paul’s supporters, 10,000 strong, met across town from the Republican National Convention, in a historic effort to literally found a new movement of dedicated, freedom loving activists, not a single major media outlet gave it the time of day. Had Hillary Clinton done it, the reports would have overshadowed the Democratic Convention as “monumental,” “revolutionary,” a “moment of hope,” and an endless list of superlatives, ad nausea.
The media decide ahead of time who will get their support, based on their own political agenda. And they decide anyone who dares challenge that agenda will be ripped to shreds. The media offer themselves to be benign lap dogs for their chosen ones, and killer attack dogs for those who dare speak in opposition. And they call it journalism. The propaganda machine of Hitler’s Nazi Party couldn’t have done it better.
Remember that the next time you see Brian Williams, or any of his ilk, whining that the media is a hard working group of dedicated journalists who deserve our respect. Simply regurgitating someone’s news release is not hard work, it’s cowardice.
One Special Day to say “NO” to a North American Union
September 12, 2008
This is a reminder of the Great North American Phone-In on Tuesday, September 16th. This alert is updated from the previous alert posted last week. Listed below is all the information you need to participate. Thank you.
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Sick of Congress’ refusal to stop the ongoing formation of a North American Union? Angry that your elected officials deny the NAU’s existence? Tired of Congress’ failure to protect our nation’s independence and sovereignty, to serve the Constitution they were elected to protect? It’s time we take more aggressive action.
Join us September 16th in The Great North American Phone-In. Join thousands in the United States and Canada to send joint messages to Capitol Hill and the Canadian Parliament that we will not tolerate a North American Union!
Mark September 16th on your calendar.
On that date, citizens of the U.S. and Canada will call members of the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament to voice opposition to the NAU.
All of the phone numbers you need, including local Congressional District Offices and the Canadian Parliament are now available on the APC website.
Our purpose is to flood Capitol Hill (and the Canadian Parliament) with enough phone calls to shut down the switchboards…
As we demand that our elected representatives:
• Stop efforts to create a North American Union
• Protect our nation’s independence and sovereignty
• Serve the Constitution they were elected to protect
Above all – send the message that the American People will not tolerate a North American Union!
You probably remember the words of former Mexican President, Vicente Fox, when he said in Madrid, Spain, “Eventually our long-range objective is to establish with the United States… an ensemble of connections and institutions similar to those created by the European Union.”
Yet, many in Congress continue to deny there is any effort to create a North American Union.
Now is your chance to make sure they hear about the NAU.
We are organizing an army to annihilate the North American Union! APC has recruited the Coalition to Stop the North American Union, consisting of more than 50 major organizations – a full radio network, with thousands of listeners – and a major Canadian political party to organize efforts in that country. But we need your help; the Great North American Phone-In will not work with just a few participating.
ACTION TO TAKE
On September 16, 2008 call as many of the Congressional offices – both locally and in Washington (Canadians call your Parliament members) – as you can.
Tell them:
1. You oppose the North American Union (NAU) and the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP).
2. You support H. Con. Res 40. This is a bill offered in Congress by Virginia Representative Virgil Goode calling for Congress to oppose the NAU and the NAFTA Super Highway. The bill has 48 co-sponsors, but needs many more.
3. Say Thank You and hang up!
4. Make the next call.
Do not engage the congressional staffers in debate or conversation because that will slow you down in making multiple calls.
The key to jamming the phone lines on Capital Hill is to keep up a barrage of calls pouring into congressional offices. Call an office, say your message within 30 seconds, say Thank You and hang up. Then dial the next number. We need a constant influx of calls.
You can make two calls a minute – or 120 calls in an hour. If 10,000 people make the calls that amounts to 9.6 million calls in 8 hours.
I have provided on the APC site the numbers for Congressional offices plus their local district offices. You may have more impact with the local offices which are not used to receiving massive amounts of calls. I have also listed the numbers of Senate offices and (for Canadians) the Canadian Parliament numbers.
Don’t be fooled. Your Congressmen and Senators know all about the North American Union and the SPP. Demand they stop pandering to global corporations and special interests which do not care about the ideals of freedom you and I hold so dear.
Make Congress feel the heat; force them to uphold the Constitution they were elected to defend. With your help, I know we can win this fight to stop the North American Union.
Recruit your friends and family to join the Great North American Phone-In and shut down Congress’ phones!
You will find that after a few calls, you will quickly turn into a master. Remember: the most difficult call(s) you will make is the first call of the morning and the first call after you return from a break. When you take a break, do not get distracted. Do not start to surf the net, or answer regularly scheduled e-mails. However, do not close yourself off to your immediate environment, although that isn’t a bad idea.
You can do this. We can do this. It’s up to you, to me, to us. We will win. This is a small, but VERY IMPORTANT piece of the SOLUTION! This is a battle, and winning battles will win the war against the NOW and the NAU.
There is a trick or warning that should be heeded. Normally, when we get a busy signal, we listen for a few busy rings before we hang up the phone. It’s a bad habit. It’s as if we’re saying that we have to listen to the busy signal for 10 seconds to be polite or some ridiculous thing like that. I for one have this bad habit. On September 16th, we do not have time to waste. When you hear that busy tone, hang up and call another number. That first busy signal will not change into, “Hello, that first busy signal was only a joke.” If you use redial with an 800 number, because the call is being transferred from the switchboard to another number, on some phones you will not be able to use redial to call back the switchboard operator at the 800 number.
We need volume, serious volume, not sophistication.
Remember, everything that you are reading is presented as a suggestion. It is essential and very important that you do not become tied up in conversations. Be polite, but be EFFICIENT. Make the call, say, “Thank you,” then hang up and make another call. Tom has already gone through this in his releases, but it is important enough to repeat it, again.
Here is a typical canned message:
Hello, my name is ___________. I am against the North American Union. Please tell Congressman (Senator) ________________ to support Congressman Vigil Goode’s HCR 40 resolution to stop the North American Union. …Thank you very much.
USA
In the USA, everyone has two lists: Congressmen and Senators. You will have to work back and forth. Start with your home state. Therefore, if you live in Michigan, then start with Michigan congressmen and senators and proceed forward. We do not want everyone starting at the beginning of the list because there will be too many busy signals in the beginning.
Canada
If possible, it is best to stay away from the 800 number to Parliament. I have been testing the system. Using the 800 number, there was a waiting time 50% of the time. In some cases I waited for 30-45 seconds to be connected to an 800 operator. If you cannot afford to use the 613 numbers, then use the 800 number and talk to as many aids as possible or leave as many messages as possible. Some of the offices have machines to leave messages since there is a full blown election going on. In Canada, everyone needs to get re-elected. Even the Prime Minister needs to be elected as a Member of Parliament before he can become Prime Minister providing his party can form a majority government. (This explanation is for the benefit of our American brothers and sisters.)
Canadians should begin calling from the list of MPs beginning with their own representative. Then follow the list as it is presented in alphabetical order. Do not start at the beginning of the list. If everyone starts at the beginning of the list, there will be an unwanted jam-up, and it will only dampen our effectiveness.
When calling Bloc Quebecois MPs, begin with, “Parlez vous Anglais, s’il vous plait.” (Do you speak English, if you please?) It’s a courtesy. All receptionists are bi-lingual.
A simple canned message: “My name is _______________. Would you please tell (the Honourable, Mr., Ms.) that I am against the North American Union. I would appreciate it if he/she would oppose any actions to form a North American Union. Thank you.”
The receptionist could very well not know what the NAU is. Try your best to not engage in an education conversation.
Keep it simple. Say, “Please tell the Member of Parliament that I am against the North American Union.” OR you can use the first name. It does not matter. Quick, courteous calls are the key. The person answering the phone doesn’t care if you cannot pronounce the last name. The message is important. AND they know that people are nervous when they call the government.
The following is VIP. I have to repeat it: If a receptionist asks, “What is the North American Union?” here’s the trap to waste time. Avoid it. We are not there to educate them. Just say, “He/she will know what the NAU is. Please make sure that you deliver the message. Thanks a lot. It’s very kind of you.” OR say quickly, “The North America Union is to the USA, Canada and Mexico, what the European Union is to the countries of Europe.” Avoid long explanations! Besides, literally, thousands of us are calling in. The receptionist or aide will get the picture very early in the morning.
VIP:In Canada, if you are calling the 866-599-4999 number, and it is busy, remember, you can call the Senate at 800-267-7362. As a courtesy they will forward your call to the MP of your choice. However, 100+ people calling the Senate number might pose problems that will not be conducive to our campaign. Be wise. Also, it is always better to call the MP directly and not go through the 866 number.
Again, all the phone numbers you need are listed on the American Policy Center website at www.americanpolicy.org.
Here are the direct links to the lists:
US House: listed by State, the numbers for each congressional office and all the local district offices per State Congressman.
US Senate: listed by State the numbers for each Senator’s Washington, DC office and all their local district offices.
Parliament of Canada: lists all Parliament members’ office phone numbers as well as their constituency office phone numbers.
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September 1, 2008
By Tom DeWeese
Those who are angry about the possible creation of a North American Union and are tired of being ignored by elected officials who deny the NAUs existence have an opportunity to deal with both.
Set the date on your calendar: September 16, 2008. That’s the day scheduled in both Canada and the US for “The Great North American Phone In.” On that date, citizens of the United States and Canada are encouraged to call members of the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament to voice opposition to the NAU. The purpose is to flood these centers of the “people’s representatives” with phone calls to literally shut down their switchboards. Maybe that will get their attention.
Congress has simply denied the existence of the creation of a North American Union. They tell us that the “Security and Prosperity Partnership” is simply a “dialog” among the three nations to help “harmonize” rules and regulations for trade and security. I have a file of letters from members of Congress responding to inquiries about the SPP. Most sound as if they were written by the same person, with near exact wording.
Rep. J.Gresham Barrett, of South Carolina, wrote, “…to my knowledge, there are no plans currently being discussed by the federal government to develop such a union.” Senator Herb Kohl, of Wisconsin, wrote, “There are no plans to merge the sovereign nations of the United States, Canada, and Mexico into a new state.” Senator Susan Collins, of Maine and a member of the Homeland Security Committee, said, “Members of the SPP have not discussed the creation of a European Union-like structure for a common currency and have not adopted policies that would change the U.S. court system or legislative process.” Senator Robert Bennett, of Utah, said, “In fact, no one has heard of such an effort because it does not exist, other than in the pages of articles written by members of certain groups that circulate the conspiracy theories…”. And of course, there is this line as written by Rep. Jim Jordan, of Ohio, “The SPP is only a dialog and no agreement has ever been signed. It is not intended to set up a European Union-type cooperative, will not change our currency, courts, or legislative process and will not reduce the sovereignty of any of the three nations.”
Another common thread in such letters is that the NAFTA Superhighway – or the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) – does not exist. (Say the Congressional letters): they have checked with the FEDERAL Department of Highways and found no evidence of such a project. That’s because of a very clever ruse being employed in which the various sections of the TTC is being overseen by STATE departments of transportation. It’s quite obvious to members of the Texas state legislature that the TTC is certainly being built.
And on the NAU, it seems these representatives of the people have failed to do their research. All they need do is check out what leaders in Mexico and Canada are saying about what the SPP really is. For example, The Toronto Star wrote on September 20, 2006, “The public has been kept in the dark while business elites have played a major role in designing the blueprint for this more integrated North America.” Miguel Pickard, Mexican economist and researcher, wrote an article published in the foreign press, detailing the “deep integration” planned for North America. He said there will be no single treaty and nothing submitted to legislatures in the three countries. Instead, he outlined a “merged future” implemented through “the signing of regulations not subject to citizen review.” Jose Natividad Gonsales, Governor of the Mexican province of Nuevo Leon, said during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, “The Trans Texas Corridor is not just the NAFTA Superhighway, but the Logistical Trans-Corridor of North America, uniting Mexico, the US and Canada.” Funny how Mary Peters denies there is a TTC. And finally there is this quote from former Mexican President Vicente Fox, speaking in Madrid, Spain, “Eventually our long-range objective is to establish with the United States…an ensemble of connections and institutions similar to those created by the European Union.” Who could speak better on the intention of the SPP than Fox? He was there with President Bush at its creation.
No, my fellow Americans, your elected representatives aren’t merely ignorant of the SPP and its true purpose. They are lying to you as they pander to global corporations and special interests who are lining their pockets with cash. As Rep. Ron Paul said, “What is a dialog? We don’t know. What we do know is that Congressional oversight of what might be one of the most significant developments in recent history is non-existent.”
Clearly, Congress is not doing its job and it’s time we make them feel the heat. At The very independence of our very unique nation is at stake.
So, on September 16th, join “The Great North American Phone In” and tell them so. Call every single congressional office, even their district offices. The phone numbers, including those for the Canadian Parliament, are all provided at the American Policy Center website www.americanpolicy.org.
Make each call as quickly as possible. Tell them you oppose the North American Union. Tell them you support Rep. Virgil Goode’s bill, H.Con.Res. 40, which opposes the creation of a North American Union. Then, hang up and call the next number.
Shut their phone systems down until they feel your pain. It’s now or never.
