[Nettime-bold] īVirtualī War Protest Ties Up Senate Phones

[rdom@thing.net]

īVirtualī War Protest Ties Up Senate Phones


By Alan Elsner, National Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of
opponents of war against Iraq called and faxed U.S.
leaders on Wednesday in a "virtual march on
Washington," jamming the White House switchboard and
many congressional telephone lines for several hours.


Coordinated by the Win Without War Coalition, an
umbrella protest group, the action aimed to direct at
least one telephone call and fax to every U.S. senator
every minute throughout the day. Organizers said they
were far exceeding that goal.

The White House switchboard was also flooded and most
callers heard a message that "all circuits are busy."

Tom Andrews, a former Democratic representative from
Maine who is running the organization, said more than
500,000 people had signed up on the Internet to take
part and a half a million more were also expected to
participate without registering on the groupīs Web
site (Moveon.org).

"We have hundreds of thousands of calls and faxes that
we know are going in. Itīs a first-of-its-kind protest
and a tremendous success already," he said. "People
are making their voices heard loud and clear -- donīt
invade and donīt occupy Iraq."

The Web site had a running total of what it said was
the number of calls placed. As of 5 p.m. EST the
number was almost 400,000. The Web site was flashing
the names of individual protesters above a map of the
United States with quotes from e-mails sent to the
headquarters and to lawmakers. Each comment included
the name and hometown of the protester.

Some protesters themselves had difficulties getting
through to their representatives. Molly Lanzarotta
from Boston said she had to dial several times to get
through to an answering service in the office of
Democratic Sen. John Kerry, a leading presidential
candidate for 2004.

Others tried for long periods but eventually gave up.
Brian Fry tried to call from Cleveland but kept
getting the message, "all circuits are busy." He said
he would call his senatorsī local Ohio offices instead
and try to get through to Washington again later on or
the next day.

SET TIMES TO CALL

Activists were given set times to call. Chicago
marketing executive Mary Rickard was supposed to call
at 3:14 p.m, 3:19 p.m. and 3:24 p.m. The faxes from
people who signed onto the Web site were also
programmed to go out at set times.

Telephone calls placed from Reuters to various
senators received busy signals at all but two offices.
At Florida Democrat Bob Grahamīs office, a spokeswoman
said they had received 400 calls in the first three
hours of the day, well above the norm. Other senators
also reported receiving many hundreds of calls, the
small fraction that got through.

Andrews said the Internet had emerged as a key tool
for the anti-war movement in organizing protests and
instantly reaching tens of thousands of activists.

"It allows us to be in touch instantly with activists
all around the country and the world. Itīs a
tremendous democratic tool," he said.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions more
in cities around the world have taken to the streets
in a series of demonstrations over the past few weeks.

However, the latest polls show a substantial but not
overwhelming majority of American voters support
President Bush on Iraq. Surveys suggest that around 35
to 40 percent of the electorate opposes the war.

A Time/CNN poll conducted on Feb. 19-20 found 54
percent said the United States should use military
action to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The
number was down 5 points from two weeks before and at
its lowest level since last November. Thirty-eight
percent said they were opposed.

Pollster Jennifer Laszlo, a Democrat who has recently
conducted four focus groups, said support for the war
was soft and opponents were far more intense in their
views than many supporters.

"Republicans think this is Americaīs war but Democrats
more and more see it as Bushīs war and they are
getting more energized and more angry," Laszlo said.



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