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JonPincus — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:06:12 CDT

The fight for Wall Street accountability is far from over.

What next for No blank check for Wall Street? There are a few important things to do at this point:

A "lessons learned" discussion. What worked well? What could have gone better? What should we be thinking about now to prepare for the next time a battle flares up on short notice? Please share your perspectives in replies on Facebook and on the wiki.
Let members of Congress know that we're holding them responsible for their vote. The easiest way to do this is on our thank/spank threads on Facebook here and here. If you'd like to be even more direct, let them know directly on their Facebook pages.
Try to keep the media attention on the intense public opposition to a blank check for Wall Street. Our main short-term focus here will be our collaboration with MixedInk on our October 13 open letter to the presidential candidates. We'll start work on that next week -- stay tuned!

Here are some other ways you can help.

email information about us to your friends, and ask them to help.
mention us and include links to our Facebook page and our open letter in comments on blogs
if you're a blogger or journalist, write about us!
if you know bloggers or journalists, ask them to write about us!

If you're on Facebook:

Tell Nancy Pelosi how you feel on her Facebook page
Sign up as a fan (and watch your "updates" for what's next)
share our Facebook page with your friends you think will be interested, and post it to your profile
join in the discussions or write on our page's wall. every time you do this, it goes out in your feed, and some of your friends are likely to notice -- and this contributes to our "viral growth"
Let other politicians on Facebook know how you feel as well

If you're not on Facebook:

sign up for our annoucement email list and check your email for what's next!
phone or email your legislators and tell them how you feel

About no blank check for Wall Street

We're a multi-partisan group of people demanding accountability for Wall Street for its role in the 2008 financial crisis. We welcome those who oppose a bailout as well as those support a bailout with accountability. The easiest ways to stay in touch are via our Facebook feed or our announcements email list.

We currently have two principles:

1) Wall Street firms and executives should be held accountable, and should not be allowed to profit from misdeeds

2) any government spending or loan guarantees to Wall Street as part of a recovery package must not be a blank check; it must involve meaningful oversight, accountability, and fair compensation to taxpayers.

Please join us!

Thanks to Bobby McArthur for the logo!

Lessons learned

JonPincus — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:42:59 CDT

What worked well?

What could have gone better?

What should we be thinking about now to prepare for the next time a battle flares up on short notice? Please share your perspectives in the threads here and on Facebook.

An open letter to Congress

JonPincus — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:37:38 CDT

This letter was created by 9 members of No blank check for Wall Street using the democratic, collaborative writing tools at MixedInk.com. For more about how it was created, and other drafts, see http://mixedink.com/letter_to_congress/no_blank_check_for_wallstreet/. It can be republished only if accompanied by this note.

Note that several other drafts were prepared, and this letter does not necessarily reflect the opinions of all the participants.

If you agree with this letter, please sign either on the signature thread here or on our Facebook page.

Next week, after the house vote, we'll be working on another open letter, this one to the presidential candidates in preparation for the debate on domestic policy. Stay tuned!

Jon Pincus, October 3

Note: I also posted this on Nancy Pelosi's discussion board and John Boehner's wall.

Instead of buying assets, why not provide direct credit to those who need it?

As we understand it, the purpose of buying $700 billion in distressed assets is to relieve the inability of the financial services industry to extend credit which businesses and citizens need in order to purchase assets, carry out improvements, pursue education, and aid short-term adjustments to a changing financial landscape.

Such a buyout puts us in the position of buying questionable assets at an inflated price. It also links the US economy to these declining assets which have already caused the bankruptcy of numerous large financial institutions. For this plan to succeed, the housing market would have to improve in short order, but given the realities that most Americans still cannot afford to purchase property even at today's prices, the only likely chance for property values to increase would be for rampant inflation to take hold, and we all recognize that would hurt our economy. Therefore, the buyout is a bad idea; however, we must find some way to resolve the liquidity crisis.

Here's a possible solution: use the 700 billion to provide direct credit, perhaps building on the existing Federal Direct Lending program, and cutting out the banks, which have proven themselves untrustworthy. That way, our citizens would receive the support they need to prosper without the added burden of carrying along the charlatans and rogues that have for so long plagued our financial sector.

Since the Clinton administration's rollbacks of regulation, and abetted by the current Bush administration's tax-cuts, only the top 1% of Americans have enjoyed substantial real economic growth over the last decade, and those who could least afford it actually lost ground financially. It's time to redirect money for the growth of our nation's long-terms tax-base rather than allowing the hyper-wealthy to duck responsibility now that the bill has come due.

Strategy and planning

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:56:17 CDT

Strategy-in-progress for week of September 29. Last major update: Wednesday, 4:30 p.m. Pacific time. Current working assumption: Senate vote tonight, House on Friday.

Short-term priorities:

Until the House vote: focus on Nancy Pelosi, work with MixedInk on open letter to Congress
In parallel: "prime pump" by getting the word out. collect Facebook pages for politicians, lay groundwork for 50-state strategy

After the House vote

Another open letter, this one to Presidential candidates (and to the debate moderator?). Tentative thinking: launch on Monday 10/6, finish Monday 10/13, voting until Tuesday 10/14
Publicize on Facebook, twitter. Hope the web stays up.

Key metrics:

# of replies in threads, obviously
# of fans on Facebook page
# of links. [not sure how to compute this easily]
# of participatnts in open letter

How to get the word out?

Last week:

Alert press/blog contacts, Get FISA Right alums, "net movement" group that something might be happening here
Front page posts on Pam's House Blend, links, tweets; map how people are finding the group
Diaries, quick hits, comments, on Open Left
Viral growth with Facebook page, event
Friend and message people from FB page; test out response rate with "are you getting updates" thread.
Beta-test messaging and instructions

Sunday night/Monday morning

Facebook page: 600 members; only ~5% are likely to read updates
Diaries on Pam's House Blend (front-paged), OpenLeft, post on Liminal States
twitter it using #nobailout tag
share with ~40 friends on FB, post to profile, ~20 in email. ask for help.
Comments in prog blogosphere: OL (1, 2, quick hit), dKos, myDD, JJP, ...
ask to be included in mailings from "Just say no" to the Paulson bailout FB group (3200+ members), DownsizeDC (lots!), planttrees.org (4000?)

Other possibilities

update everybody in the earlier lists
digg the first major blog post, first MSM blog post, and first MSM articles -- and encourage people to comment on them. (ditto for reddit, Y! buzz)
contact people on pushback.org
try to sync up with CREDO's No blank check to Wall Street campaign, BigShitPile, etc.

Does anybody have contacts? Please send them this link and ask them to get in touch with us!

Petitions to consider signing on to

if you agree with them, of course: there are a range of opinions here ... if you know of others, please add them!

Bernie Sanders' plan and letter to Paulson
CREDO Action's No blank check to Wall Street
Campaign for American Progress' call for a better bailout
Congressman DeFazio's No Bailouts Act

Facebook/MySpace pages for politicians

JonPincus — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:08:40 CDT

Is there a good resource for this elsewhere? Here's some links for now ... if you know others, please add them, either on the page or in the threads at the bottom.

Facebook pages with discussion boards:

Chuck Schumer (R-NY)
Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Gendolynne Moore

Nancy Pelosi (D - CA)
Barbara Boxer (D - CA)-- see the no blank check for Wall Street thread here
Dianne Feinstein (D - CA)
Jerry McNerney (voted yes, in a tight race for re-election)

Janice Schakowsky
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison
Sen. John Cornyn
Rep. Michael McCaul

Tom Harkin
Tammy Baldwin
Russ Feingold (D - WI)
Barney Frank (D - MA)

Jesse Jackson Jr.

Lynn Woolsey (she voted no and supports a revenue measure with any bailout)

Bernie Sanders (D-VT) he has a great statement of principles on his gov site)

Facebook pages without discussion boards

John Boehner
Thaddeus McCotter (R, MI-11)

MySpace page

Coverage

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:30:36 CDT

(sorted by date, reverse chronology. some categories might make sense later on. if you've seen some coverage that should be on the list, please add it!)

September 29
Wall Street Bailout: A Watershed Moment ... Adriel Oak Hampton, GovLoop.com
tweets, Adriel Oak Hampton, twitter.com

September 27
Join "No Blank Check for Wall Street" Facebook Group, Francis L. Holland, The Francis L. Holland blog

September 25

in Dodd’s Section 8: slight improvement on the original Diktat, but is it enough?, Thomas Nephew, newsrackblog.com
Organic growth, our first tweet, and viral email, Jon Pincus, Pam's House Blend

September 24
Greed and Risk, The Crow, A Gay Crow's Nest
tweet, Maegan Carberry, twitter.com
in Wednesday Blogaround, Melissa McEwan, Shakesville

September 23
No blank check for Wall Street!, Jon Pincus, Pam's House Blend

September 21
No BLANK CHECK - Conditions for a Bailout, Adriel Oak Hampton, adrielhampton.com

Help get the word out

JonPincus — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:19:04 CDT

Here's how you can help get the word out about No blank check for Wall Street:

email information about us to your friends, and ask them to help.
mention us and include links to our Facebook page and our open letter and in comments on blogs
if you're a blogger or journalist, write about us!
if you know bloggers or journalists, ask them to write about us!

If you're on Facebook:

Tell Nancy Pelosi how you feel on her Facebook page
Sign up as a fan (and watch your "updates" for what's next)
post this page to your profile, and share it with any friends you think will be interested
join in the discussions or write on the page's wall. every time you do this, it goes out in your feed, and some of your friends are likely to notice -- and this contributes to our "viral growth"
Let other politicians on Facebook know how you feel as well

Send a message to Congress

JonPincus — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:18:18 CDT

With the bailout plan heading to a vote, it's critical to let Congresspeople know how we feel. One way: leverage Facebook's direct communication. While it's no substitute for phoning politicians, it also has some major advantages: you don't have to spend time on hold, voicemail doesn't get filled up by people leaving long angry rants, and press and activists get to see how much feedback the politician has gotten.

Here's how you can help if you're on Facebook:

Sign up as a fan and watch your "updates" for what's next
reply to the No blank check for Wall Street thread on Nancy Pelosi's profile
share this link with your Facebook friends, and ask them to reply -- and to forward it to THEIR friends
if you've got the time, go to your legislators' Facebook pages, and give them the same message by writing on their Walls

There are sixty million people on Facebook. Let's see how much noise we can make.

jon

PS: If you're not on Facebook, you can still help:

sign up for our annoucement email list and check your email for what's next!
email this information to your friends, and ask them to help
phone your legislators and tell them how you feel

How you can get involved

JonPincus — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:17:15 CDT

Last updated 9/25, 12 a.m. Pacific time
If you use email:

sign up for our announcement list to stay informed
join our discussion list to give your perspectives
send mail to your friends and ask them to join us as well.

If you're on Facebook (or know somebody who is),

sign up as a fan.
Please post a link to wherever you're reading this to your profile, and share it with your friends; and maybe even write a note about it.
RSVP for our "Watch the debate" event and invite your friends.

If you're on other social network sites, please check the current list. If you don't see your site, please help out by starting up a No blank check for Wall Street! page there as well. If you're a blogger or journalist, why not cover this as an emerging story? It might well turn into the fastest-growing social network activism campaign yet, and you've got a chance to get a scoop.

Other opinions

JonPincus — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:59:52 CDT

What to others' think should be done? Please use this page to link out to other opinions that you find worthwhile (even if you don't completely agree).

Talking Points Memo's Bailout Burnout surveys what various economists think
Bring Congress back into session after the election, Brad DeLong
the DeFazio et. al. "No BAILOUTS" plan (endorsed by the SEIU)
... please add other links! ...

Social network sites

JonPincus — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:03:14 CDT

Links to No blank check for Wall Street on social network sites. If you don't see one where you hang out, please create one -- and update the list here!

Facebook page
tribe.net
Twitter
MySpace
Second Life
Google Groups
Yahoo Groups
Black Planet
Eons
YouTube
my.barackobama.com
...

Viral recruiting email (draft)

JonPincus — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 01:50:37 CDT

A sample/template email to send out to recruit people to No blank check for Wall Street -- and ask for their help in getting the word out. How to make it as inviting as possible for people to check things out -- and easy to act and forward? An excellent recent example of viral email is Quinn L and Lyra K's Call to action that cascaded into 160,000 (and counting!) responses. Here's the work in progress ... if you've got feedback, please use the comment threads below -- or join the wiki and edit the page!

Subject: No blank check for Wall Street!

Enough feeling powerless as a "crisis" spurs the government to talk about taking $700 billion out of taxpayers' pockets with no oversight ... I know there are a lot of people out there who are just as angry as I am. So let's do something about it.

A couple days ago, I launched the No blank check for Wall Street activism campaign by creating a Facebook page and a web site. The goal of our campaign is to send politicians a strong message:

Wall Street firms and executives should be held accountable, and should not be allowed to profit from misdeeds
Any government spending or loan guarantees to Wall Street as part of a recovery package must not be a blank check; it must involve meaningful oversight, accountability, and fair compensation to taxpayers.

To start with, we'll give politicians feedback directly on their Facebook pages with a wall-writing campaign. (If you're not on Facebook, don't worry, there are still ways for you to get involved.) Most politicians' pages are usually fairly quiet. When they start seeing 10, 20, 50, 100 messages a day, all letting them know that we don't want a blank check for Wall Street, they'll take notice -- and so will the media.

Here's how you can help:

most importantly: email, text, or twitter, or call any of your friends you think might be interested
If you're on Facebook: sign up as a fan, RSVP for our "Watch the debate" event and invite your friends, and start writing on walls
If you know somebody on Facebook: please forward them the link and ask them to join us
If you blog: please mention No blank check for Wall Street and link to the Facebook page and our wiki

Now's the time to act. Please join us!

jon

PS: the easiest ways to stay in touch are via our Facebook feed or our announcements email list. And if you're on other social network sites instead (Yahoo!, MySpace, SecondLife, YouTube), stay tuned: we might do something there as well.