National/Federal Campaign re: PDLs

Sign me up!! I'll write Senators Boxer, Feinstein and my Congressperson, Ellen Tauscher. New Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is not from my district, but is right down the road, so I'll do her too.

Great KS. I think the first step is to pull together a form letter addressing the issue and that way we can just have it ready for anyone who wants to participate. Let's both take a stab at it and see what we can come up with.

I'm on it...I'm going to take a shower and this is where I do my best thinking!

PM me.

Most of these PDLs have lobbyist that are huge contributors to these politicians.

If we are going to do this campaign it needs to be organized. I would actually pick one senator or congressperson to petition!

Agreed. We should probably look at who introduced the legislation for the PDLs for the military and see if they would be interested in expanding. Also need to look into who is pro or con PDLs.

Well...

There are many senators and congressmen who themselves own PDLs.

Needless to say some research needs to be done!

I agree and recognize that. This is at the state levels too. However, there is a Yea vote, a Nay vote and an Abstain vote. I believe (and don't hold me to this) that a vote against could be challenged for conflict of interest.

PDL'S are already prohibited in where I am in New Jersey, but if you lead me in the right direction I will get my letters out Monday morning.

Whoa folks. I love the enthusiasm, but this is just getting started and we need to do a letter first and do some research on this. I think what we should do first is to get an organized and well researched plan together so we don't look disorganized and the message is consistent. I truly believe that if our legislators are inundated with letters and petitions, they will get the message that changes need to be made. We should probably try to set up some time to conference and maybe a phone tree of some sort since conferencing systems for huge numbers of people are expensive.

Let's start with finding out who is willing to commit some time and energy into this.

Count me in, I'm in Texas

Yaaahoo! The ball is rolling. KS and I are working on a letter. Actually, KS gets the credit. Let's I want to see if we can put the letter somewhere on the site so people can use it. I'm going to start on a list of legislators by state so we can have that available to everyone. In the meantime, check the federal section of your phone books and get the addresses to your legislators for the senate and congress.

I'm all for sending out letters - just send it my way when the letter is ready, and I'll send it to the pertinent parties in Michigan.

I think we would add more teeth to our argument if we had definite figures on how many states are represented by our board. One thing that politicians love is votes, right? So let's start some sort of a database or a map with this info. I represent California and my platform is World Peace (kidding :D )

I represent Utah and I represent ... um ... polygamists??? No. Just kidding. Economic equality. Let the little guy deserve what the big guy deserves.

I like the idea KS. We need some stats. Mike, where are you?

So just based on this thread, we have the following states, California, Utah, Michigan, Texas and New Jersey. That's 5 states and we haven't even scratched the surface here.

*chuckle*

I will help in Cal...

I'm from Oregon, and I'd be more than happy to get involved! I know my state is passing some harsh regulations against these poop-heads, so let's cut them off at the head with some federal regulations. My step-dad is a bankruptcy attorney, so I can give some great examples of how these affect people.

swedishgirl. We would love to get that information. Please start working on compliling the information.

I'll get a hold of him and see if he can share any info. Because of the client/attorney privilage, I'm not sure how much he can share "on the record", but I'll check and see. I can say from my personal experience that I had to file about 4 years ago due to 4 payday loans and credit card debt. Chalk it up to being a stupid college student and sticking my head in the sand. Well, like so many out there, it came to a head and I filed. It was really helpful having him as my step-dad, since I only had to pay the filing fee, and I did most of the leg work on my own. It was a big learning experience, and I plan on never doing it again. I'll do what ever it takes to get myself out of my own messes without having to go down that road. Besides, I can't file again for 3 more years. LOL

We don't want personal information, just a summary of how many people were forced into bankruptcy as a result of PDLs. It may be that all you can get is the number of filings within a span of time that had PDLs listed in their filings. See if you can find a scenario where there are 3 or more PDLs in the filing.

Sounds good. I'll check with him and see what he can tell me. Even if it's a ballpark figure, it'll give us a start. Meanwhile, I'll email my congressmen and my presidential hopeful.

OK, I see I'm a little late joining the bandwagon, but count me in from Ohio.

This sounds like a good idea. Let me know if I can be of any assistance. I can help in Ohio too :-)

Thanks dbaker and Mishele. KS wrote the letter. I want to check with her to see if she thinks it's ready. Mike is going to sticky a thread for us so the letter can be found at the top of the forum page.

Sorry, I am late here. But I am always with you all. Please let me know my next move, I will do my part.

Thanks
Mike

Count me in. FL.

Count me in for Idaho, where we always have free taters for out of staters. :)

Count me in from WV. Mocha Love that one free taters :D :D