Iowa: Town halls starting Jan. 5-19. Sen. Grassley is a co-sponsor and needs to hear from you!

Top Priority for IA:
GO TO TOWNHALL MEETINGS!

Senator Chuck Grassley, a co-sponsor of PIPA, has a list of town halls throughout the month, starting January 6th.  Urge him to change his position!

• Join the meetup for Senator Grassley's townhalls and invite as many people as possible.  There are townhall meetings in several different locations.
  
• Senator Harkin, on the other hand has no meeting scheduled. Call the state scheduler, Pam Rigleb at (515) 284-4574 to request a meeting.

Be polite and professional, and request a meeting on behalf of Iowa for Internet Freedom (the folks in this forum) to discuss the PROTECT IP Act and SOPA.  Make it clear that you want to meet with the Senator during the January recess, and that you'll be bringing others from your group.  Have your calendar open when you call, so you can pick a time that works for you.  When finished, post a report-back. 

For example: "Hi, my name is ________, I'm with Iowa for Internet freedom, and I'm calling to request a meeting with Senator _______ during the January recess.  The PROTECT IP vote is happening on January 24th, and I wanted the Senator to understand my concerns before the vote happens."

Report back by posting a comment below

IMPORTANT: If you do get a meeting, post another message. That way others can join you in your meeting.  If there's any other specific information we should include in this post, message us and we can add it. 

KByron13

Senators,

  My name is Keith Smith and I am a registered voter, student, parent, and concerned citizen contacting you on behalf of Iowa for Internet Freedom. While it may seem to some that internet censorship  is in the best interest of all, it isn't. The beneficiaries of such legislation are media outlets, large businesses, and the shadier side of big government. It would give those in power positions the ability to prevent and eliminate any negative ideas as a start. Once opposition is removed, propaganda has free reign. This has been the case through-out history. Stalin, Lenin, Hitler, Kim Jong il, Chairman Mao, and Pol Pot all began their genocidal regimes by censorship and propaganda. 

  Also, to censor the ideas of others violates the first ammendment rights of freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

StopSOPA-HQ

@KByron13 -- are you going to be able to attend one of Grassley's town halls? We really need him to hear from you.

Ezrael

If SOPA is signed, we, Americans, will have taken another step into the censorship of the internet that the Chinese and many other nations are experiencing, where free flow of knowledge that is not corporate controlled or government dictated will be curbed if not completely removed. I beg you, please consider the implications of these actions.

ticodillo

KByron13 ,Ezrael 
 Unabashed compilation/plaguerization of both of your comments sent to Harkin and Grassley , as a letter from me hope you don't mind. Now to look up some congress people.

JonThompson

As members of the Des Moines Tech community, we were planning on attending the Grimes town hall meeting on the 19th, but I suspect that Grassley's staff changed it to a "student only" question and answer session as a response for our intentions.

Dob420_SuckFOPA

i wish all our senators shared the same views on the  Constitution as Dr. Ron Paul 

StopSOPA-HQ

@JonThompson - we were unaware of this development and find it troubling...

jake0886

@ 
JonThompson  I too am a tech employee in West Des Moines and was curious as to any other town hall meeting that your group plans to attend.  There are a lot of town hall meetings in small towns around the Des Moines area, within 45 mins to an hour long drive and I would consider driving myself to one of them. 

I'll probably make a solo trip, as I know most people in these small towns have little to no interest in this topic.  There are aspects of Chuck that I like, but this is definitely not one that I'm willing to compromise with.

19Mia_Neuzil93

Our founding fathers put Freedom of Speech on the Constitution first, because It's the most important right that we have. The Government is trying to rid our country of our rights. This country needs to take a stand, and Tell the government no to the laws they are trying to enforce. I will not participate in their acts, and their nasty laws. Our Founding Fathers are probably rolling in their graves to this bullshit.

Government, I'm saying no! I'm keeping my Freedom of Speech whether you like it or not.