I have continued to work on ideas concerning the TIPS program since I first heard about it. Some great news I just heard on MSNBC is that the US Postal Service has issued a statement that they will NOT agree to letting their mail delivery personnel or anyone else who works for them participate in the TIPS program, as, they believe, it encourages Americans to spy on one another which, in turn, will breed suspicion and animosity among us.

Three cheers for the USPS!

Also, I caught a tease for Chris Matthews' Hardball show tonight (7/18) at 9 pm eastern on MSNBC. He is going to be discussing the TIPS program. I believe I heard, too, that on Donahue, 8pm, same station, he will be interviewing that whacky new spokeswoman for the far rightwing who thinkS it is okay to blame disabled Vietnam vets for America's losing that war, Ann Coulter. Perhaps she will address the rumor that she gets the mechanical heart on odd days of the month, Cheney on even. Should be an interesting couple hours of viewing tonight.

Back on the subject of TIPS, I have decided I am going to do the following for now:

1. Write my state's Senators and House reps and let them know I strongly object to this program, that I am pleased to hear the USPS has refused to participate in it, that I will NOT allow any stranger into my home unless his/her company can assure me in writing that he/she is not participating in this program, and that I am a registered voter and will NOT support any candidate for office who supports the implementation of a civilian spy corps in the United States of America. I will also, of course, send similar emails to bush & cheney. president@whitehouse.gov vice.president@whitehouse.gov

2. Write media contacts in my address book and urge them to provide full coverage of this program now as well as when and if it goes into effect. I am going to state that this issue is of the utmost importance to me, and I will patronize only those outlets that do NOT participate in keeping TIPS a secret from the American public.

3. Write a form letter which can easily be altered to address any company, public or private, and its representatives and store it in a computer file for easy access to use when and if TIPS becomes the law. I will present this letter, appropriately addressed, to any company that requires access to the interior or exterior of my home. The letter will make it clear that I will only allow workers into my home if they and their company will assure me in writing that they are not participating in the TIPS program. The letter will further state that if I find they have lied about their participation, I will file suit and they can expect to hear from my attorney.

4. I'm going to continue my investigation of the legality of such a program as TIPS, what our rights as private citizens are, and how we might be able to legally postpone and/or prevent TIPS from ever existing in this country. I may be wrong, but I believe there are state and federal laws that limit/restrict/forbid corporations/companies/agencies, etc. from collecting personal information on private citizens without our knowledge, maintaining files with this information in them, and sharing them with any other agencies they choose.

For those of you who may want to do some of these things, too, here is some information to help you:

Use these links to locate your state's Congressional representatives:

U.S. Senate, 107th Congress
Government Guide

Here are email addresses of various media outlets [please copy and paste these into your mail]:

60m@cbsnews.com, AbramsReport@msnbc.com, Nightly@NBC.com, community@cnn.com, Dateline@NBC.com, Donahue@MSNBC, comments@foxnews.com, comments@MSNBC.com, peterjennings@abcnews.com, niteline@abc.com, Rush@eibnet.com, cmatthews@sfchronicle.com, Hardball@msnbc.com, whitehouse@washpost.com, MTP@NBC.com, oliphant@globe.com, o'reilly@foxnews.com, evening@cbsnews.com, Today@NBC.com, Imus@msnbc.com, al.hunt@wsj.com, mike@michaelmoore.com, ellengoodman@globe.com, conniechungtonight@cnn.com, letters@newsweek.com, letters@washpost.com, letters@latimes.com, letters@thenation.com, crossfire@cnn.com, Rberke@nytimes.com, letters@Time.com

Of course, you are welcome to share any and all of this information with whomever you want. Add names to the media list if you have others-- and I would greatly appreciate it if you could send me ones you have that I don't so I can add them to my list. You might want to copy and save that list, too, for easy future access.

As passionate as I've felt about many political issues since the stolen election of 2000, this TIPS thing, well, tipped me over the edge. I will not sit here and let this nightmare be visited on us if there is some way I can help stop it. This corrupt administration, in my opinion, banks heavily on two things to get its agenda in place-- keeping secrets from us and keeping us sniping at one another, perceiving each other as the enemy to deflect attention away from who we really need to be fighting-- them. TIPS is designed to put us at war with each other, and you have to hand it to them-- it is a brilliant idea. But, it is an idea that will wither and die on the vine if I have my way. Hearing that the USPS has rejected it has given me great hope and renewed strength. I think we might be able to win this one-- and it is a BIG one. I hope we never see it in action but, if we do, I have other plans in place, and will continue to enlist your help. I'm not giving up on this one...

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