I hate it when the ACLU or Moveon.org or DFA sends me an email asking me to call my representatives. I'm sure that can be effective, but I feel so manipulated by that kind of mass-phoning campaign. Plus, they must see right through it when suddenly hundreds of people are calling about the same issue; it must make it easier to dismiss the idea when it seems to be coming from one particular group, right?

Plus I'm totally intimidated to call those numbers. My old boss used to make me do that. Lots of times I'd lie and tell her I called. I prefer to send emails. Emails which I'm sure no one ever reads. Emails such as this one:

"I am writing to offer my support for Senator Feinstein as Congress attempts to hold the President accountable for the war in Iraq.

I do not favor funding that is not connected to a thoughtful plan for drawing down our troop levels.

In most matters I have come to trust Senator Feinstein's judgment. On this issue, however, she needs to listen to her constituents. A war that we the people do not support hurts our relationship with our own government, our government's relationships around the world, and most of all it hurts our men and women in uniform."

I should probably go back to my old plan to send Becerra, Boxer and Feinstein actual mail that can't be so easily deleted. Crap, why didn't I do that???