We worked straight through the holiday to take our activism to a new level. We now have an upgraded and updated function on our action pages for sending letters to the editor of your nearest local newspaper, and here's why: Recently a former congressional aide wrote that NOTHING gets the attention of members of Congress more that when THEIR NAME appears in a letter to the editor. It's called publicity and they're petrified

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My guest today is the PEN, progressive political activist.  Welcome back to OpEdNews.

What's on today's agenda, PEN?

PEN: Just the most pressing policy emergency going right now.  Despite the fact that 181 bipartisan members of the House have already signed official letters protesting a proposal to "fast track" a purported trade deal called the Trans Pacific Partnership, apparently remaining diehard corporate stooges in Congress are determined to rush this thing through.  It's really quite remarkable, some of those signers I am certain we agree with on absolutely no other issue.

JB: Hold on a minute. What is the Trans Pacific Partnership and why is everyone getting so energized about it? And why haven't we heard about it if it's as bad as you seem to be saying?

PEN: We don't use hyperbole lightly.  You are not SUPPOSED to have heard about it.  It has been negotiated in such extreme secrecy, the documents around it are so classified, that Alan Grayson has complained he would have to break the law to even tell us what is in it from what he has himself seen.  Journalists who have tried to attend the conclaves where this is being discussed have been systematically excluded.  They tell us this is all necessary because if people knew what was in it, then people would object.  Uh . . . duh!!

JB: Is this even legal? Aren't We the People supposed to know what our elected officials are negotiating on our supposed behalf?

PEN: Congress has a constitutional duty to regulate trade.  But they also, unfortunately, have the power to be derelict and shirk that duty by voting that they waive it, so instead of serious deliberation we have quick, fast track and a hurry.

JB: Let's back up, PEN. Please tell us what the TPP is supposed to do and what it's really doing. I mean, how and why is it so terrible?  

PEN: All we have to go on are leaked documents, but what we do know from them is this:   Only two of the 26 chapters of the proposed "trade" agreement have anything to do with trade.  The rest is a full on assault on national sovereignty by corporate special interests.  The language they are pushing would give private business the right to de facto veto laws on pollution, labor rights, privacy, you name it, everything.  If they wanted to come into your backyard and start fracking, there is nothing even your own government could do about it.  If you had a labor union, they could in effect dismiss it.  

JB: So, the legislation is all just a smokescreen in order to accomplish something else entirely?

PEN: Calling it legislation is to presume that the role of government from now on is to rubber stamp whatever laws private corporations want to make to rule over us.  Never did the worst fascists in history even dare to dream about such all supreme power.

JB: Well, we know that various pieces of legislation have been written by corporate lobbyists, most notably the energy bill under Dick Cheney that was allegedly written by oil execs and the health care bill, that was allegedly written by health insurance lobbyists, for instance. How is this different?

PEN: You betcha.  But what this represents is an attempt to do to INTERNATIONAL law what they have already done to the laws of our own country.  

JB: So, I don't really get this, to tell you the truth, PEN. Are you saying that international and local businesses will have control over rules and regulations which our legislators have deliberated on and passed? How can that be? It sounds outrageous. Why would anyone ever agree to this?

PEN: All it takes is enough corrupt legislators to let mega-corporations write laws that serve only their interests, we're not talking about little mom and pop businesses, assuming there are any of them left.  That, and enough passive people to just sit on their hands and watch all of this being done to them.  That is what would be the most startling thing, if people DID get wind of this, which so many, not just us, are shouting about, and then did not even make the slightest effort to object.

JB: Where's the press, PEN? I know I keep asking but this is a BIG STORY, one of the biggest ever. It's a coup really. Or am I overstating?

PEN: The progressive blogs are all over this.  Just do an online search for Trans Pacific Partnership and you'll find it all.

JB: You're right:  According to Google, about 12,100,000 results.

PEN: Are the big CORPORATE media channel talking about this, some of the same ones that we are fighting in federal court right now for rejecting ads for our new full length feature film, The Last War Crime ?  Of course not, they are some of the beneficiaries of this seizure of power.  It is every bit a coup, if and only if they are allowed to get away with it.

JB: Okay, PEN. You've laid out the problem pretty clearly. Now, what have you got up your activist's sleeve in terms of action we can take to fight this?

PEN: With this new threat bearing down on us, we worked straight through the holiday to take our activism to a new level.  We now have an upgraded and updated function on our action pages for sending letters to the editor of your nearest local newspaper, and here's why:  Recently a former congressional aide wrote that NOTHING gets the attention of members of Congress more that when THEIR NAME appears in a letter to the editor.

JB: Good point.

PEN: It's called publicity, and the worst of them are petrified that people will realize the extent to which they are ignoring their little people constituents in favor of their biggest campaign contributors.

JB: I still don't get it. What do they think will happen if, God forbid, this is passed and people learn how they've screwed us over?

PEN: Oh, they've got lots of practice on covering their butts on bad policy.  Anybody remember, "Nobody would have thought that terrorists would fly airplanes into buildings," or "How could we have known the intelligence was wrong?"  The point is, we need to maximally get our protests in now, BEFORE the dirty deed is done, and really raise a ruckus about it.

JB: What's the timeline here, PEN?

PEN: The word is both the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee will introduce fast track bills perhaps as soon the the first week of the new congressional session starting this coming week.  But we are talking online here.  We can move at lightning speed if people just get engaged.

JB : Give us the links, please, and we'll get on this. How long does it take to do what we need to do online?  Half an hour? Twenty minutes? What are we talking about here?

PEN: One of the things we worked so hard on over the "holidays" was creating another brand new function.  On the new action page for this there is a button you can click that instantly looks up your members of Congress and tells you who has signed one of the congressional letters protesting this (Yes, Virginia, we do have some members of congress that are capable of integrity), and who has not.  And we are emphasizing how CRITICALLY important it is to use the letter to the editor function and call out your members of Congress BY NAME, for or against.

Stop TPP Fast Track Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1149.php

JB: So, if each of us spends a few minutes on this, we have a chance of stopping this horrid proposal in its tracks?

PEN: Our whole mission in life, all the resources we have dedicated our lives to creating, is to make activism as easy and simple as possible.  Click a mouse one time and your personal message goes to all your members of Congress, the newspaper of your choice, and in this case both the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways And Means Committee too.

JB: You folks have made it so easy, it's hard to come up with an excuse not to take this action, right now! Thanks so much for giving up your holidays for this cause. I'm assuming that readers should also share this via the social media as well to spread the word, correct?

PEN: Please, please, please.  We ourselves can do nothing alone.  The power of the people derives only from many speaking out together, from everyone doing whatever they can.  Write that one letter to an editor.  Forward the action page links to everyone you know.  It costs nothing but a minute to care about what is being done to YOU.

JB: And our children and their children". Thanks so much for talking with me, PEN.

PEN: And thank you, Joan, for doing what you can, using the power that you have as an individual to spread the word by allowing us the opportunity to speak here.

JB: Okay. I'm signing off so I can go use your new action page and get the ball rolling.  

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my previous interviews with PEN:

The Worst Trade Deal Ever, And What You Can Do To Stop It December 11, 2013

The PEN: Save the Bees Before We All Starve August 10, 2013

YouTube and MTV Try to Shut Down New Cheney Indictment Film ,   January 29, 2012

The Last War Crime documentary website

Authors Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html

Authors Bio:

Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning.



Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations - authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done.


When Joan hit one million page views, OEN Managing Editor, Meryl Ann Butler interviewed her, turning interviewer briefly into interviewee. Read the interview here.

While the news is often quite depressing, Joan nevertheless strives to maintain her mantra: "Grab life now in an exuberant embrace!"


Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.