Including unlogged in guests we have 641 people looking at Legislation right now, and its not US primetime yet. That begs the question what do we do with these people? Last time we put together some decent phone-ins with almost no coordination. I think we should prepare and be ready to swamp the phone banks Monday with Threads and groups on SKype/Aim/MSN/whatever.

We should have the leaders of both caucuses, the DoJ, and the White House. Thats five phone calls mandatory for every participant PLUS you call your own Rep and Senator with notes to talk at least 5 minutes before breaking out in an angry tirade, which is your wish after taking their time up somewhat politely. Then, we should each pick either an advocacy group, party headquarters, or regular publication to call and write both. I think all of this can be accomplished within 2 hours if we flesh out the meat of of a message this weekend. Who doesn't play 2 hours in a day is probably not going ot see this regardless.

Then, if you have time left over, message your friends online and irl who play casually, and ask them to make a call or two. Or at the least, borrow their cell phone/landline and do it for them. Numbers will be important on the first day. There is no reason we can't have 10k unique phone calls to Harry Reid and John Boehner. Thats 100k minutes of giving an informed earful.

Then, we need ideas to keep people involved. We can shut the phones down a week or so, but after that we need some momentum. This may be the last chance to have a prayer of a say in how poker looks in the future. Do you really want Harrah's and Wynn to run it with zero player input? If you do, inaction is your choice.

=======================================

TE Edit:

Action plan as determined by entire group (so far):

1. Visit www.theppa.org/takeaction and follow the PPA action plan. Here are the first three actions:
   
   PPA Take Action

   “On behalf of the millions of poker players across the c ountry, we are shocked at the action taken by the U.S. Department of Justice today against online poker companies and will continue to fight for Americans’ right to participate in the game they enjoy. Online poker is not a crime and should not be treated as such.” PPA Chairman Alfonse D'Amato
   

   Take These Actions Today and Stand Up for Poker
   
   1) Call and email the Department of Justice and Attorney General Holder
   
   
   
   Call the Office of the Attorney General Public Comment Line: 202-353-1555
   
   Talking Points:
   • The Department of Justice’s attack on Internet poker is a clear attack on the rights of American poker players.
   • The US government must ensure that the money American citizens have in their Internet poker accounts is not jeopardized by the DOJ’s actions.
   • The US government should be protecting American citizens by allowing Internet poker sites to become licensed and regulated under US law, rather than taking away citizens’ freedom to choose to play online poker for fun or for a livelihood.
   
   Click button below to send an email to Attorney General Holder
   
   
   
   2) Email President Obama and Congress
   
   
   
   Click the button below to send an email to President Obama and Congress
   
   
   
   3) Seek out your Representative and Senators and tell them how you feel
   
   
   
   Congress is on recess for the next two weeks and your federal lawmakers will likely be in their home state. Call their local offices and find out if they are having any public appearances. Attend the event and let your lawmaker know that you are upset about the recent DoJ action against poker and that they should support efforts to license and regulate Internet poker, not spend resources trying to criminalize it.
   
   See www.theppa.org/takeaction for links to lawmakers and for the other actions to take
   
   
2. Monday 9AM-Friday 5PM: Everyone should take 2+ hours a day and make phone calls. Pick from leadership in each caucus, and call all 3 of your own. Use your cell phone, your landline, your partners, kids, parents, and friends if you can't get them to give you 5 minutes of their life. Some people are calling for calling SDNY, so add them in if you want, and if you are going to flame, flame them, be polite to your Congresspeople.
   
   When we get to where we can sticky an agenda for next week, CnP it to every other poker/gambling forum you frequent. This is the biggest, but there are a ton of people out there who socialize and chat from other forums, and these are the people we need to convince a serious fight will be made.
3. Follow the action plan detailed at www.PokerXanadu.com/actionplan.htm.
   
   Starting at 9am on Monday, April 18, 2011, call each and every number listed on the site*. If a number is busy, skip to next one and return to skipped ones later.
   
   Continue phoning through 5pm or until you have reached every number.
   
   On the next day (Tuesday) starting at 9am, finish calling the list if you didn’t finish it the previous day, then start over and call them all again.
   
   Continue in this manner every day of the week, through Friday, April 22nd at 5pm. Try to reach every number every day of the week.
   
   Use your social networks to get as many other people as possible to do the same thing by sending them this message: "Please help the poker players of America regain their rights from our government’s attack on our freedom by following the action plan shown here: http://www.PokerXanadu.com/actionplan.htm"
   
   *Note: If you don’t have the free time to call them, call the ones from your state first. But the general idea is to let all our Congressional representatives know that poker players across the country are outraged and want their freedom back. This is best accomplished by inundating them with calls, regardless of which state you are from.
4. Politely post your thoughts on the DoJ Facebook page, at www.facebook.com/DOJ?sk=wall&filter=1. Simply "like" the page and you can post away. Be sure to "like" other pro-poker posts as well.
5. Ask your friends, spouse, significant other, and everyone else send the letter from www.theppa.org/takeaction. Couples should send individual letters, not joint, so such letters get counted as two rather than just one.
6. Post the PPA action link to your Facebook page, and Tweet the link as well.
7. Post comments on columns that discuss this issue.
8. Write articles on the issue. Many sites will allow you to post columns without any kind of approval. Use tools like Digg and Twitter to promote these.
   • For example, I write a column on BigGovernment, at www.biggovernment.com/rmuny. That site is not open-posting (i.e., I am a columnist there, and my column is subject to editorial approval), but you can get the idea.
9. Follow the PPA Facebook page, at www.facebook.com/theppa
10. If you have a question about a PPA tactic, please ask someone from PPA why the tactic is being employed before trashing the organization on this or any other forum.
11. If you have an idea on actions to take and would like PPA support, contact someone from PPA and let them know.
12. Volunteer with PPA, at www.theppa.org/volunteer
13. Consider filing for unemployment to attact attention to this issue.

So, what are your ideas? Please post them here ITT!

Obv in. Lol @ 0 replies.

lets do this...



please message me with anything u need help with. I am free all day.

I'm in and ready.

Iam from Germany but willing to help if I can.

Isn't Congress on a two week vacation for Easter?

Before the flames begin here me out. I realize we wouldnt actually be able to collect unemployment but thats not the point. What if we could all unite and not be lazy for once and take some action? I'm not saying this is the perfect action and I'm certainly up for other suggestions but it feels as if we should do something. How about we all march in to our unemployment office and attempt to file on monday. The PPA has over 1million members (which likely means there is 50x that number affected bc we are lazy). If we had 1million poker players around the country filing for unemployment on the same day wouldn't that get us some media attention.

Ok now back to your beers and flaming. We can do nothing and bend over and take it instead if you want thats fine. Sorry I'm pissed and I want to do something besides send another form letter to a congressman who won't read it. Can we organize and do something to let them know how many people they have affected? I have played poker for 7 years online as my only source of income. I have a wife and 3 kids who count on me. I am not a bad person. I pay my taxes every quarter.

What can we do to fight this?

We can all keep writing our lawmakers and fight for federal and/or good state online poker legislation. There isn't much we can directly do about what the DOJ did today, that's now a matter between the sites, the DOJ and the courts

They probably wouldn't notice the extra 1% of people in the office.

I file taxes as a pro poker player and have paid unemployment taxes as part of being self-employed for many years. I see no reason why we couldn't collect unemployment.

3 Things To Do To Help Legalize Online Poker

Change is coming. In the end, online poker will be restored, regulated by the Government and (hopefully) better and more transparent due to the oversight by the proper authorities. Life is going to be tough in the online poker world for a while but in the meantime here are a few things you can do to bring about the change a little quicker.

1. Write to your local representative in Congress. I worked in Congress as a staff assistant in 2004 and writing and calling your representative does make a difference. Of course, you’re most likely not going to be able to speak with him or her but the assistants do organize and tally the number of calls they get on a particular subject and it is submitted to the rep. on a form listing the amount of calls they receive on a particular subject. This helps the rep. know what his constituents are concerned with. If enough people call the rep. WILL address the issue sooner or later. FYI, personalized letters and phone calls are better than form letters in almost all cases. Take two minutes and write a paragraph from the heart instead of typing your name at the bottom of a form letter. Form letters ALWAYS get counted then trashed.

Find your House representative: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Find your Senate representative: http://www.senate.gov/general/contac...nators_cfm.cfm


2. Join & donate to the Poker Players Alliance. The PPA remains the largest, most organized and most capable front we as a community have been able to muster. Organization and coordination of interests speaks volumes in DC. They are not perfect but do warrant our support now. Remember, if you don’t agree with their standpoint, still join, and try to change and better them from the inside.

https://ppa.secure.force.com/pmtx/Mi...0130000000X7te


3. Join an online community or forums to discuss legal strategies and opportunities for real action.

Poker Players Alliance Forums:
https://theppa.org/forums/

2+2 Forums:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/

……………………………………………………

These 3 recommendations are blatantly obvious and totally redundant but the point of the thread is to spark discussion about real ACTION we can start taking. We can sit here and talk and type until we are blue in the face and the wheels will only continue to spin. It’s not until we finally bridge the gap between discussion and action that the change we all know is inevitable will finally manifest.

If anyone else has any ideas of what we can all do please list them here.

Thanks so much! - Farmer

Or, as someone said in another thread, stop voting for socialist looters and support the most libertarian candidate possible.

+ 1

We can send letters to our representatives to voice our concerns.

http://capwiz.com/pokerplayersalliance/home/

My goodness...

New voices suddenly saying "get involved".

Who could have imagined....

Tuff

Okay guys. Here I stand. About 24 hours later. What now?

- should I head over to the Philadelphia DOJ with a card table Monday morning and hold a game in front of the doors after calling the media and lettin them know we will be there?

- should I be making a "I'm not a criminal, wall stree. Does more damage than poker" video and uploading it to fb alon with 1 million other PPA members? What do I need to do to do that?

- should I call my local media outlets and demand attention? Which outlets why?

- should I wallpaper my congressperson's office with playin cards?

- shouldn't I be calling / faxing /emailing the ny doj keeping them from getting business done?

All the time I used to spend grinding is now free to act, to get in the gov't and media faces. Let's act! Organize us! That's what I contributed for! Let's create the conversation. Let's tell them that the government is trying to illegalize poker. It doesn't really matter that that is a partial truth, let's start winning in the court of public relations, it's kinda a big deal.

The short answer to your post is ... "yes."

The PPA will be issuing another formal statement very soon. It will ask for you to make noise in certain ways that are believed to be most effective on Capitol Hill.

But just because the PPA does that does not mean you should ONLY do that, or that you cannot organize other actions yourself.

Quite honestly the staff of the PPA is way too small to micromanage the legitimate and pervasive anger that all poker players should be feeling right now. The DOJ has launched a direct and dire attack on your game and in many cases your livelihood.

You should express your anger in every non-violent, not-illegal way imaginable. All of you. You should organize with your friends. You should figure out what actions will get the most favorable attention. And you should act.

If you wait for the PPA to tell you to get 20 of your poker playing friends and stage a mock card game at 29th and Main street at noon this Sunday you are going to be disappointed.

Skallagrim

I say we go to Washington and protest. Ala what happened in Wisconsin, but without the anarchy. Let's just stay there until they change the law.

Skall,

thanks for your thoughtful response. My plan is to do those things. I'm not really concerned about me being active. I know how to do these things, I'm not a 19 year old grinder experiencing his first fight with the gov't. Guidelines, an action center, some creative ways to get attention are needed. I'll be doing these things as I'm sure plenty other players will as well. You guys have the email lists. Send the guidlines. Remind folks that safe legal respectful action is important. I don't expect you to micro manage I expect you to guide and lead. I think you all are heading in that direction and I'm happy to help and glad that more emails etc are coming. People need guidance though and that's the PPAs roll now as well

PPA has been telling you what to do for years.

It is a bit late to turn to the PPA now.

Just go back to doing whatever you were doing before all this happened and you didn't know who the PPA was.

Oh ... wait.... that is right. No more FTP or Stars........ ever.

Tuff

Tuff, like me your life isn't changed dramatically by what just happened. We're lucky.

How about not being a complete ****head and not rubbing salt in the wounds of those who are affected and trying to do something constructive?

Tuff Fish for the win! Hey Tuff I spend a lot of time in SD you play in any of the local card rooms?

Back to topic, forget the PPA and please stop blaming the govt for this. Instead of using the last 5 years breaking the law and thinking you werent you should have lobbied congress aggresively. I suggest you start now. With the big guns in Vegas leaning on Reid we can get a bill in a years time doing what you should have done for the last 5 years. The PPA is not the answer. You are.

Pretty sure the judge who wrote the ruling said that it wasn't illegal for players to play online poker so nobody who was playing was breaking the law

SKallagrim, Id be happy to participate I'm just not very creative when it comes to political protest, that idea above is great. We need a thread in this forum to srsly discuss protest ideas/Exhcange media contacts in every state, etc etc. We need this in addition to your "Official" run of the mill PPA mass emailing etc. You forget alot of us are 20ish years old, we werent around in the 70's when "sticking it to the man" was much more common.

Also we need a solid list of talking points that will appeal the the layman we are going after. So far I've Got.......

1. In 2006, Congressman Dbag passed a law outlawing online gambling, Even though he said this was to protect families from gambling, for some reason he made a carve out for Lotteries etc...... So Basically big surprise, hes lying about why he made the law.

2. Poker is a skill game, and It's an activity that any responsible person can enjoy without hurting others, Just like drinking a beer.

3. Every freedom that is taken away is just momentum for more. Just because a new hypocritical law doesn't affect you right now, doesn't mean the next one wont. If someone gets away with this once, it gives them momentum and changes the status quo in their favor to do it again and again.

4. I just lost my job of 5 years, this is a result of a corrupt political system. Even if you dont care about online poker, you should be able to appreciate that. We need people's voices heard, we can help this situation, but we have to speak up with our votes etc.