They are trying in the secret Trans Pacific Partnership to give corporations veto power over the national laws of any country on pollution, labor, privacy and everything else? But with this new easy write a letter to your newspaper editor we can create the publicity to stop them.

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(Article changed on January 8, 2014 at 13:15)

(Article changed on January 8, 2014 at 13:09)

Dear Friends and Activists,

As promised, tonight we launch a massive new letters to the editor initiative against fast track treatment for the so-called Trans Pacific Partnership, a proposal so bad members of Congress risk going to prison if they even try to tell us what's in it. But from leaked documents we know it's all about giving corporations veto power over national laws on pollution, on labor, on privacy, and everything else.

For more detailed information on this issue there are numerous supporting reference links on the action page itself.

BEGIN NEW PETITION:

As if the last session of Congress didn't get little enough done, the first thing some members of Congress want to push for in the next is to completely abdicate their constitutional duty to make trade policy, by fast tracking the so-called Trans Pacific Partnership without a second thought.

Why should a member of Congress have to risk going to prison just to tell us what is being secretly negotiated behind our backs? Why do we have to find out only from leaked documents that they are trying to give corporations veto power over the national laws of any country on pollution, labor, privacy and everything else?

Thankfully, 151 wise and dutiful members of the House have already signed the Rosa L. DeLauro letter, 22 members have signed the Walter B. Jones letter, and 12 members have signed the John B. Larson letter, protesting this fast track proposal. This is not a partisan issue.

For the rest:

We, the people, demand that you immediately make a like commitment in writing to oppose any consideration of the terms of the Trans Pacific Partnership not conducted in the full light of day on the floors of the U.S. Congress.

In particular, we, the people, demand that members of the Senate demonstrate parallel leadership to put a majority of senators on the record in writing opposing fast track for the TPP.

Did we mention, this is an election year?

No Fast Track For The Trans Pacific Partnership action page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1149.php

The above is the actual text of the petition sent by the link also above. As you know from our last alert we have just freshly revamped and updated our letters to the editor function, and there is a special innovation on this action page we have created especially for this campaign.

People write us and ask, "Why can't someone create an easy way to track how members of congress have voted?" We've gone one better. There is a special new button right on the action page which instantly determines your members of Congress, and tells you where they stand on this issue.

This same petition also goes directly to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways And Means Committee, the first places we need to make a stand against this. And as we hold their feet to the fire, we will update the info so you can know exactly who is responsibly representing you, and who just works exclusively for some big corporate donor.

Now, please take a moment to continue reading why it is so important for you to use the letters to the editor function, and how it works exactly. A former congressional aide recently wrote that NOTHING gets the attention of members of Congress more than when their NAME appears in a letter to the editor.

Think about it. They might get 10,000 phone calls or 100,000 emails in their offices, but who's to know? Who's to call them out on it? But when there is PUBLICITY, that's what really gets their attention.

So we are asking you not only to add your personal comments, intended as a free standing letter to a newspaper, to your action page submissions, but make a special point of working in the name of your  members of Congress, and your feelings about their position on this In the case of the newspapers, keep in mind they will not get the petition text, just your own words.

We must mention a couple more things that are VERY important for our policy advocacy success together. Most newspapers like letters to be no more than about 200 words, so this is a safe number to be in the ball park of. Also, please do not include any internet website links in your comments. Newspaper want to know what YOU have to say, not publish links for people to just leave their own newspaper site.

And while a phone number is not required by our action page form for regular congressional submissions, newspapers universally require one so they can confirm you are a real person who authorizes publication of your letter.

Though the same action page will send messages to your own members of Congress, and the two congressional committees involved, you should refer to your members of Congress in the THIRD person.  That way the voicing will work for all recipients.  That is, avoid the word "you" and for members of Congress it will be like you are talking to one of their aides, which makes perfect sense.

Then, after you submit the action page, feel free to request the must have new "Expressway To Trade Hell TPP" bumper sticker. Imagine a barren highway racing towards a horizon in flames, with a sign post that tells you where this is going.  Based on the terrific constructive input of the readers of OpEdNews, we are not fully spelling out "Trans Pacific Partnership" on the bumper sticker because we want people who don't know what it is to QUESTION what it is. This is the most dramatic bumper sticker we have ever done, and you can have one for no charge, not even shipping just by requesting one from this page.

Expressway To Trade Hell Trans Pacific Partnership bumper stickers: http://www.peaceteam.net/all_bumper_stickers.php

Of course, if you can make a contribution of any amount, this is what makes it possible for us to sent free stickers to anyone who cannot afford to make a contribution right now.

Thank you for your faithful diligence in reading this alert to the end. Every word in it is critical stuff you will need to know so that we can win.

Authors Bio:

The Pen is a real person, and the creator of UTalk, a revolutionary new internet radio interface, to make advocacy messages as facile and easy as possible. With this goal in mind we pioneered one click action pages in the political realm, now imitated by virtually all other action sites on the internet.

The premise behind the resource has always been twofold. If people are speaking out to their members of Congress in sufficient numbers one of two things MUST happen. 1) Either our representatives will heed the voices of their constituents and we will have the policy change we want, or 2) People will personally experience being ignored by their members of Congress, and then we have a base of people motivated to seek their replacement.

Last year we also added to its resource options fax sending capability, so that messages can be sent by fax to recipients who might not be reachable by web input form or regular email.

Besides our own action alerts and pages, many other activist groups have been set up with their own action page creators, including building this capability into the writer article submission interface for OpEdNews itself, to empower them in their own policy missions. And all of these services are provided for absolutely no charge to anyone, supported only by whatever kind donations individuals choose to make from time to time.