The Washington DC Stone-Wall Tactic and How To Defeat It
Mr. Sessions is a pretty powerful guy in Washington Circles. Barney Frank was another pretty powerful guy in those circles. They had the power to get wars started, change global priorities, alter Wall Street process and pull off other massive change.
But they couldn’t get some people to lick an envelope.
They wrote letters to the President of the United States, The Attorney General of the United States of America and other big shots. They wanted answers, or they wanted some information. These letters covered topics that affected hundreds of millions of American’s.
They got “Stone-Walled”.
The President of the United States of America, intentionally, never replied to them.
The Attorney General of the United States of America, intentionally, never replied to them.
These are the icons of the American system of government being overtly, and intentionally, “blown off” some of the biggest representatives of the U.S. population.
Can they do that? Yes!
Should they do that? No!
Does that make voters think the system is screwed? Yes!
It happens with every party and every agency. If the answer is going to be sticky, incriminating or prove the other person’s point, they are simply ignored.
Not only are they ignored, they get the added treat of being “bottom-drawered”. This means the request is put in the bottom drawer of a file cabinet and ignored. If anybody asks about it, the response always is: “Oh, yes, that letter.. we are looking into it but we have ‘limited resources’ so give our agency a bigger cut of the tax pie..” . All of the Applicants for Steven Chu’s Department of Energy ATVM funding were “bottom-drawered”, if they were not associated with certain campaign backers.
It happens every few minutes to the American public. Some taxpayer sees something illegal, corrupt and just plain wrong and writes a letter. The letter is promptly received, date stamped and bottom-drawered. The Department-of-We’re-Looking-Into-It goes to work on behalf of the VA, The SEC and who-ever else has agency heads nominated by campaign backers.
So, how do you get around that? Modern technology has the answers. Here is the tip sheet from advisors that work with the ACLU, Judicial Watch, The Hill and other hell-raiser groups:
- 1. Make a website for the issue and promote the hell out of it using resources from http://www.mohrpublicity.com and SEO providers
- 2. Send the letter to the person you mean to send it to with a copy to the top 500 most published journalists
- 3. Post a copy of the letter in a press release on PR Newswire and Business Wire
- 4. Hold a press conference with 10 minutes of pre-scripted talking points to allow for video sound bites
- 5. Send a copy to every union, trade association, community, civic group or area that may be positively affected by a favorable outcome from the letter.
- 6. Embarrass and shame the person you are sending the letter to, for not responding, if they are highlighting guilt regarding a crime or corruption by not responding. Make the point that they “Are admitting guilt” by refusing to reply.
- 7. Launch an online news column to discuss all of the comings and goings of trying to get the letter responded to.
- 8. Post a Google Calendar on all related websites starting with the day you hand-delivered the letter and noting each thing that happens relative to that, and the timing, from that point forward. Include a online negative-time countdown clock that counts down the months, days, hours, minutes and seconds of non-response
- 9. List out each person, on all the web sites, whose hand touches the letter. It is Illegal for the U.S. Government and most states, not to supply you with that information. The Library of Congress and federal sunshine laws require it. If you handed it to Obama at 9:12AM on Tuesday March 12, 2015, his office has to tell you that he handed it to Valarie Jarrett at 10:22AM in the Oval Office and she gave it to Secretary Alice Waters at 11:45Am, etc. etc.. Know, and publish, where it has stopped. Let the world kn
ow. - 10. Tweet the hourly status of the letter. Get the letter it’s own Twitter account.
- 11. Put a web cam up on your office in-box to make the point. Or…make a special inbox in the public lobby of your Congressional office that says: “INBOX: SEC Reply from George Tenant”, or some such to show how long that inbox has been empty
- 12. Hold standing hot dog parties, on Fridays, in front of the building or office where you are waiting for the response. The press will always show up for free food.
- 13. Lobby for a federal law, to protect voters, making it a felony to not respond, in writing to an official request letter, from any citizen, within 15 days. Make it 10 days or less for Congressional officials.
- 14. Send an aide over to the other person’s office every single day to get a status check on the letter, who has it, what they are doing with it, exactly, and then have the aide post about that on all the social media. Have the aide take plenty of extra copies of the letter for anybody that might need it.
- 15. Use reverse count-down clocks when-ever you can. If you are speaking before Congress, clip your reverse count-down clock on the podium, podium microphone or in another overt place to remind everyone how long the simple request has been delayed.
- 16. Make plenty of charts showing how, for hundreds of years, other industries, agencies, people and things, that are the same, or similar, were able to respond to the same question in a few days. Use this factual historical data to prove intentional delaying by showing how long it normally takes anybody else unless they are rigging the response and doing bottom-drawer tactics.
- 17. Get the public to call the person who isn’t responding and demand a quick response. Tell the public why it benefits them to have this response soon.
- 18. Make a start-up company, or new technology project, online like, for example: RESPONDNOW.COM, or WHYHIDEIT.COM, or something that uses peer-to-peer repercussive out-reach technology to get voters to contact other voters to get a thing done.
- 19. Add up the financial cost to the voters, of the daily losses, from not getting these answers or responses. Publish the results via expert infographics artists
- 20. Use infographics charts, lots of infographics charts. The most rapid comprehension for mass groups, in the shortest time comes from good infographics. Know what makes a good chart and a bad chart.
- 21. Sue them. File a lawsuit to demand the answers and punish them with cash losses if they don’t do their job and respond.
- 22. Put 3 minute graphic web movies on YouTube and Vimeo that detail the damage caused by not getting the answers from so-and-so.
- 23. Have your aides find out when that other person might be doing an on-camera walk-by and be there, ask them, on camera, when they will have those answers.
- 24. Give your associates big (3” diameter) white buttons with a big black number on them. Make the number 1 digit bigger each day so that the press and public are reminded of the delay. Wear your button all the time.
- 25. Get someone famous to start growing a beard and not shave until they get an answer. Imagine Boehner with a beard.
- 26. Drive mini vans around, and around, the Mall Promenade in Washington DC that say: In huge banners on the side: WHERE IS YOUR RESPONSE?
- 27. Stay creative, increase the pressure daily. Make it more painful to not respond than to Stone Wall.
