JB: Where is Congress in all this? And what about the press?
PEN: Actually, we are off to a great start. Many members of Congress have already signed letters demanding that they have a say in this on our behalf. There are even some Republicans, who we agree with about absolutely nothing else, who get this. As far as the press goes, the various progressive blogs have been blowing the trumpet and publishing whatever leaked documents we have been able to obtain. But not surprisingly, the corporate "mainstream" media is playing asleep at the switch.
JB: It's not usually a problem getting the word out in the progressive blogosphere. But that's not enough. I'm worried that there are too many members of Congress whose bosses are not their constituencies, but rather their corporate masters.
PEN: That's all the more reason why we need to speak out strongly and not be complacent. They've been slowed down, but they will never stop pushing, and we can never stop pushing back.
JB: Agreed; I think it's called eternal vigilance. So, I understand you have a petition for people to sign. That's a good start. Got any good articles for people to read to understand more about the dangers of this agreement?
PEN: What good activist would ever not have a petition ready to go? This one specifically calls for Congress to reject fast track treatment for this, and we're off to a good start with over 5,000 submissions already.
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1143.php
Also, on this same action page are links to reference articles for all the important points made, so people can just follow the links and get up to speed on this issue quick, fast and in a hurry. But above all, remember to actually submit the action page itself, because just being knowledgeable does not change policy, only acting on this knowledge does.
JB: Sounds good. Anything you'd like to add before we wrap this up?
PEN: We the people have had some great victories recently because we have been speaking out.
JB: Hear, hear!
PEN: We stopped a new quagmire in Syria. We stopped the totalitarian blockade of federal judges by putting some spine into the Senate Democrats. All people need to do is stop giving our politicians a pass for self-partisan reasons, to demand that they actually represent us and not just have the right party designation letter after their names, and people power can become an instant reality.
JB: Thanks for talking with me once again and for spearheading this campaign to block the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). And thank goodness the politicians in other countries have more sense than ours here seem to.
PEN: Our job is to make sure they get it. Let's do our job.
JB: Okay, PEN. We're on it!
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