On Tuesday, Obama supporters from all over the country made over 300,000 phone calls to Congress. It was an amazing effort that proved we've never been more "fired up and ready to go" for health care reform!

Today the FDL Action PAC launches an online phone bank effort to call 40,000 of the most progressive Democrats in Nevada, asking them to contact Harry Reid and let him know they support a public option.

Click here to register and start calling!

Why are we calling Nevada? Because we absolutely have make sure the bill that comes up for a vote on the floor of the Senate has a public option, because according to knowledgeable policy experts and Capitol Hill staffers, it will be virtually impossible to add a public option later.  

We have 51 votes in the Senate - a majority - to pass a strong public option, yet Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has been sending mixed signals that he doesn't have the 60 votes he needs to overcome a Republican filibuster. He won't even tells us what Democratic Member out of our 60-vote supermajority is threatening to stand with Republican's to hold the pubic option hostage!

This is unacceptable. We need health care reform - with a strong pubic option - brought to the floor of the Senate for an up or down vote. If there are Democratic Lawmakers in Washington who don't want to vote for it, make them vote in public! Don't let them hide behind a filibuster threat so they don't have to go on the record.

Fortunately for us though, Reid's up for reelection in 2010 -  and the polls show him behind possible Republican challengers. So if we can get enough of his own constituents to call him and tell him they want a public option in the bill, we're likely to get the kind of traction that outside petitions and calls from out of state can't.

Register now to phone bank to Nevada for the public option.

We can make those 40,000 calls. YES WE CAN!

TIPS FOR MAKING SUCCESSFUL PHONE CALLS

I ran hundreds of phone banks during the general election last year. Here are a few tips I hope you will find useful.

1. Read the script a couple of times before you start, so that you feel you understand the concept. If you don't feel comfortable reading off of it verbatim, don't. Make it your own. Make it conversational. But be sure to ask all the questions on the script.

1. You'll only reach 15-20% of the people you attempt to call at any one time. Most will not be home. Some numbers will be wrong.  Some people will not be supporters. This is normal for every phone bank, and it's why we ask so many people to make calls, because it usually takes several attempts to reach a voter.

1. If someone is unsure, feel free to tell them why you personally support a public option. You don't have to site a bunch of facts and figures. For instance, I tell people that I want a public option because my brother in law joined the army 15 years ago because his wife was pregnant and they couldn't afford insurance. 15 years and 3 kids later he still can't. He's about to be sent to Iraq for the third time. No one should have to make that choice.

1. If someone says they don't know if if they'll call and you can't get a definitive answer from them, I would recommend marking them as "not home". That means someone else will call them later and try and persuade them again.

1. Don't take rejection personally. Even a "no" is valuable information and will help refine the list down to real supporters.

After a night of sleeping wedged into a love seat just big enough for my cat and a surreal day of hunting for a ticket to Obama's speech at Mile High Stadium, I am in no mood for games. I've run into too many alleged "journalists" looking for disaffected Hillary delegates (of which I've yet to find) and I'm beyond patience.I want some fucking unity. I want it now.I've traveled from LA to Denver to be a part of history. Devoid of credentials, unable to get into the convention at the Pepsi Center, my world for the next few days will instead revolve around Denver's 16th Street pedestrian mall (think 3d Street Promenade). A lot of the bars are here, which means most of the delegates, which means all of the media, cops and protesters. I track down some fabulous expresso from the local lesbian coffee house and begin my day in earnest. The night before it had become pretty clear to me that my chances of getting a ticket for the Obama speech had gone from slim to none. Every person I asked had the same deer-in-the-headlights look on their face when I brought the subject up. Clearly drastic action was called for.Time to hit Craig's List.Out of the 70,000 tickets available, some 40,000 went to Colorado and other western swing states. They "sold" out within 24 hours (they were actually free). In an effort to keep down scalping, the Obama campaign didn't mail out the physical tickets only the week before. Recipients had to call in or log in on the internet and provide their names and contact information, along with the serial number on the ticket. Once registered, the tickets become non-transferrable. The told us if your ID doesn't match the info you provided when the ticket is scanned at the stadium they won't let you in (this turned out not to be true - they just scanned the ticket and let you in)Of course this didn't stop the scalping at all. I logged on to the Denver Craig's List and found half a dozen tickets for sale. Yet almost as soon I attempted to contact a potential seller, the link would be erased. What started out as straightforward illicit transaction quickly became a game of whack-o-mole.As the day wore on I watched as prices climbed from $100 a ticket to a $1,000 a pair. A $1,000 a pair for apolitical speech. No wonder McCain is do desperate to smear Obama as being a celebrity. He's green-eyed envious.But as the day wears on, the idea of paying for a piece of history just becomes depressing.  For hours I walk the Mall, my iPhone held out like a divining rod as I change tactics, trying to get an extra ticket from some of the few contacts I have in Denver. Low on battery, I'm almost ready to give it up when lightning strikes.The rest, as they say, is history.............If you like what you see, please donate to my fundraising page<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CYZuq0IqRmg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CYZuq0IqRmg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/1/103419/3802/773/560613

(This time with a working link!)
I hardly know what to say about this, except maybe we've just witnessed the lights go out for a legitimate female presidential candidacy in our lifetimes. And I'm not talking about Clinton. By crying "sexist" and encouraging her ardent and (mostly) female supporters to do the same while making a spectacle of themselves today, she's set women's advancement in national politics back at least 20 years. 
http://wonkette.com/400098/more-coverage-of-the-dnc-rbc-meeting

I hardly know what to say about this, except maybe we've just witnessed the lights go out for a legitimate female presidential candidacy in our lifetimes. And I'm not talking about Clinton. By crying "sexist" and encouraging her ardent and (mostly) female supporters to do the same while making a spectacle of themselves today, she's set women's advancement in national politics back at least 20 years. 
http://wonkette.com/400098/more-coverage-of-the-dnc-rbc-meeting