During the 2012 election year I was fortunate enough to attend a couple Town Hall meetings in my area. This is an open meeting to the public to attend and you can ask politicians questions and voice your concerns toward certain topics. Many current Town Hall meetings have discussed the NSA and the Government Shutdown. Here you basically voice your concerns directly at Politicians in a civil and respectful manner. My suggestion here is start having anons show up to town hall meetings ready question Congressmen and Senators and also showing the public we are active in making change and a better community/ nation. To do this you can't go in all fired up chanting FREEDOM you need have legit questions and reliable documentation of the topic you would like to debate. I think it would be beneficial to comprise a team of professional debaters in various major outlets to start showing up and discussing these topics of concern face to face with these politicians. No signs to pickets, just notebooks with prepared documentation and questions. I have no idea if there is a mask rule I showed up as myself and observed the two times I attended.
Asking citizens to participate in the democratic process to try having their views heard – sounds radical. Why is this an anon thing though? Shouldn't this be common sense?
It is highly unlikely they will let you wear a mask in any town hall meeting. Security will be tighter than a dolphin's asshole especially if the town hall involves possible/definite POTUS candidates. Although it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a series of questions available for people here to ask. It is very doubtful asking a question would out your identity, though.
It doesn't have to be an anon thing but it could be an anon thing. Would rather ask questions gathered by a collective rather than one individual person. I understand the security would be high and the possibility of wearing a mask would be low but it would be nice to show the public anon is more than just drum bangers.
Hmm, I've never been to a town hall meeting. I've watched city council meetings on TV --snoozapalooza for me. If there is a lot of waiting around I probably can't handle it. But I might be able to copy edit someone else's ideas for the smoove. I imagine town hall meetings might be a good way to spread useful memes, especially if a local reporter puts a few in an article. With the NSA thing, I personally feel it would be useful simply to voice worries, to have citizens saying, "I'm worried that this program might allow for insider trading that no one will be able to detect" or whatever. Just get those memes out there. Because right now in my world, people aren't exactly sure what to make of the fuss. They know the NSA has been spying on potential enemies for decades and they're not concerned.
You hit the nail on the head. The general public is only privy to idea that the NSA is a white knight spying on illegal enemies they don't comprehend the fact the Director of the NSA lied to Congress about spying on innocent people. Congress has already shown they are willing to pressure the NSA into incriminating themselves but instead the media has everyone focused on how bad of a person Edward Snowden is. Placing like minded intelligent individuals from the anon community with in these Town Hall discussions would help open the eyes of the general public to what is really important to concentrate on. It has to be all over though not in just one community. As an example right now John McCain wants to fire the current director of the NSA for allowing Snowden to access the info he leaked. http://rt.com/usa/mccain-nsa-alexander-fired-552/. This is all fine and dandy but that only makes Snowden seem more of a monster rather than the patriot he is. if this happens the NSA continue with the shroud that is in the right and the public will follow accordingly.
I am starting to like your idea. However, it might be a good idea for a pool of questions to be generated so people can ask hard hitting questions. Some questions I came up with: Does your cabinet support the collection of metadata on people that have no ties to any terrorist group? In regards to Snowden: Why do you or your group feel his capture is paramount when his actions seem like whistle-blowing to some? Do you feel it necessary, being a member of the government, that a single federal organization can or should have unfettered access to the private communications of individuals? Do you feel that the NSA has overstepped it's bounds and violated the 4th Amendment? Benjamin Franklin once said that we should not give up personal liberties in the name of security as that erodes both. Do you feel that in order to protect this land, we must forgo personal freedoms for security or do you feel there can be a way to have both? Now, these are just questions to ask a person running for office or what not. If you want to answer them, feel free to. However, a politician that is worth their salt would want to answer these in a manner that they can be held accountable for if they go against their answer.
Tactical error my friend, and I'll use your first question to illustrate. If I were a lying scumbag sucking jewgolds from the intelligence industry cock I'd respond as follows: "Absolutely. You have to realise that when data is collected it is stored in a manner that isn't accessible without a court order. Analysts and intelligence operatives simply cannot access your metadata unless the FISA court grants us a warrant. Should an incident occur, or there is an imminent terrorist threat, it is vital that our security services are able to query metadata. Unless the metadata needed to prevent the attack has been collected by these programs, then the ability of our security services to operate will be severely curtailed – putting us all at risk. I mentioned earlier that collected data cannot be accessed without a court order. Unless we can provide probable cause to the FISA court for a warrant we cannot access any such metadata we have collected. This ensures the protection of innocent citizens and their privacy, and also guarantees that the information necessary for keeping our citizens safe has been preserved when it is needed." You have to be careful to shape the narrative and the talking points. Asking a question so open-ended would just allow a lying politician to take charge and shape the discussion (as I illustrate above, the product of 5 seconds of thought). It doesn't matter if what the politician says is full of shit – you would be buried under a response like the above. You have to think of these town halls as opportunities to shape national discussion. If you do ask a question you need to make damn sure you have constructed sufficiently strong narrative to prevent any lying scumbag from using it as a platform for their own talking points. That's not an easy thing to do mind.
Here's a schedule of town hall meetings for the end of 2013. There aren't many opportunities. http://www.narfe.org/pdf/CongressionalTownHallMeetings.pdf States that will be holding town halls in the final quarter of 2013: Arizona (too late), California (too late), Florida (too late), Illinois (too late), Indiana (too late), Kentucky (too late), Oklahoma (there are still a couple left in 2013), Oregon (too late), Wisconsin (there are still a couple left in 2013). If you want to participate in 2013, you have to go to a town hall in Oklahoma or Wisconsin. Otherwise, you'd probably better wait until 2014 to see if that schedule gets updated. Here is a small selection of the many stories about the decline in town hall meetings across the nation. Many states have stopped having them entirely. http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/keith-rupp/2013/08/26/why-congress-town-hall-meetings-may-become-history http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-29/at-town-halls-congress-now-steers-clear-of-voters http://hotair.com/archives/2013/08/13/nyt-congressional-town-hall-meetings-on-the-decline-after-2009-obamacare-fight/
Ok will start planning for 2014 town hall meetings in my area. Gives me time to work on the feed the homeless op and gives something to look foward to after. We can still use this thread to plan questions and organize a who would like to represent their area.
I was discussing something with PresidentShaw the other day and as is works out you can organize your own Town Hall Meeting and if you cant get a Politician to show up you can make it a Community Teach-In. Shaw also suggested using Google Hangout or another form of Video Socializing to hold the Meetings. Here is a copypasta from http://peaceact.net/organizing-tools/organizing-tips-2/town-hall-meeting/ on how to start up a Town Hall meeting or Community Teach-In. There is some weird characters in the outline but it's easy to get the concept. How To Organize A Town Hall Meeting A town hall meeting is a large public meeting where community members are allowed to share their views with their elected representatives present. Elected representatives have the opportunity to hear from their constituents and to share their own views and positions in return. The following is a suggestion on how to organize a town hall meeting. You will want to modify it to fit your circumstances. Decide who the sponsoring organization(s) should be. To draw a large group it may be good to invite other organizations to co-sponsor. Decide on a choice of 3 or 4 possible dates for the town hall meeting. Call potential co-sponsoring organizations to solicit their interest. Explain that each co-sponsor can give testimony of 3-5 minutes. Each co-sponsoring group should commit to bringing 10 people to the town hall meeting (or whatever number of people you decide.)When you know who will be sponsoring the event call the appropriate legislators in your area to see if they will participate and what dates would work for them. If you can’t get elected officials to attend this time, you could turn the event into a Community Teach-In. Secure a location to hold the town hall meeting. If you think you will be able to recruit 100 people to come to the meeting, don’t pick a room that holds more than 100. If you expect a big crowd arrange for a sound system. Decide which topics you want covered in testimony. For example: Reasons all troops should be brought back from Iraq and Afghanistan. Testimony on the cost of the war and its impact on the community. Description of the bills or actions you want the legislators to take. (This works best if accompanied by a written handout that people can take away with them.) Invite people you want to testify. If their are victims, invite victims to testify. Co-sponsoring groups can also divide up topics to cover. Based on previous experience it’s important to be realistic about the time you have and don’t invite too many people to speak. (The entire town meeting, including questions and discussion, should not last more than 2 hours.) Carry out publicity for the Town Hall meeting. You need to get enough people to come. A poorly attended meeting can communicate to the elected officials that our cause has little support. Produce and distribute a poster. Send e-mail and postal mailings, making use of listserves. Make phone calls. Get listed in community calendars Send out a press advisory. Follow up with calls to ask the media to cover the event. Select a moderator, who has the skill to move the town hall meeting along; who can cut off long winded testimony; who can deal with hecklers or opponents who might show up; and who can adjust the times depending on how much testimony there is. Also provide a timekeeper to assist the moderator. Prepare the program for the event: Welcome and introduction of event and elected official(s) 5 minutes Prepared Testimony 40 minutes Audience Testimony – open mic with each person limited to 2 minutes. 40 minutes Elected official testimony 20 minutes Closing summary of the meeting and next steps in the campaign 5min On the night of the town meeting, set up with a large banner with your meeting theme. Have a registration table for people to sign in; set up a literature table. Start the meeting on time.
Bump. Idk if OP has abandoned this thread, but I thought that schedule was worth another gander for the year 2015. That link is still good. It's updated for the current year and month, into February, and I can only assume it's continuously updated.
Link is still good, if anyone has pressing need to attend a live event with their congressional representative. Congressional town hall meetings for 19 states are listed upcoming on the schedule for this year. The document was updated very recently.
This link is now dead. Here's a new one - http://www.trucking.org/ATA Docs/What We Do/ATA Grassroots Program/Congressional Town Hall Event Schedule Winter Update.pdf It looks like they make a new pdf every quarter - they have one for October 2015 that I am not linking - so the place to check for the new, updated pdf's every quarter is here - http://www.trucking.org/GR_Toolkit.aspx On the right hand side of the page, under a heading that says "Town Hall Meetings."
http://www.trucking.org/ATA Docs/What We Do/ATA Grassroots Program/Congressional Town Hall Event Schedule March Update.pdf
http://www.trucking.org/ATA Docs/What We Do/ATA Grassroots Program/Congressional Town Hall Event Schedule April Update.pdf Trump's imminent nomination made me think to bump this thread with the latest updated schedule of Congressional Town Hall Meetings. Many pundits and politicians on both sides of the political spectrum have predicted that Trump's name at the top of the ti be extremely bad for down tickcket willet Senate and House races. Maybe some of you might like to find out where your own Congresspersons stand re: Trump, or would like to express your thoughts and opinions on that stance, in person.
http://www.trucking.org/GR_Toolkit.aspx http://www.trucking.org/ATA Docs/Wh... Town Hall Event Schedule May 2016 Update.pdf
http://www.trucking.org/ATA Docs/Wh...Town Hall Event Schedule June 2016 Update.pdf June update for Congressional Town Hall Meetings. http://www.trucking.org/GR_Toolkit.aspx Trucking.org is the site for the American Trucking Association, the largest American trucking trade organization, and that's a link to their "Grassroots Toolkit." They put together this information for their politically motivated constituents, who are many. However, anyone can benefit from the information they have helpfully compiled. The link for the current updated list is constantly changing every month. To find the current updated list, visit the Grassroots Toolkit link above, and check the right hand side of the page for the box that says "TOWN HALL EVENTS" While there is a General Election looming, do not be surprised if the new link to the updated list of meetings is posted in this thread every month until the election is over. /slowpoke
Congressional Town Hall Event Schedule, February 2017 Update http://www.trucking.org/ATA Docs/Wh... Hall Event Schedule February 2017 Update.pdf
