What do you think is the best way to have a say in the decisions our representatives make on our behalf?

We need to get the attention of the do-nothing, bought-and-paid-for incumbent politicians.
Writing letters to your congress persons is OK, but don't seem to accomplish anything except result in a return form letter asking for a donation.

What may be much more effective is for every voter to research their congress persons, and display their corruption, the way they vote, and their scandals all over the internet, as follows:
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STEP 1:
Check your Senators' and Representative's voting records:

• Go to: Issues2000.org (there are many other sites too)


• Click on your state


• Click on each your Senator


• Look at their voting record.


• search for: soft money


• search for: Congressional gifts


• search for: campaign donations


• search for: campaign finance


• search for: prioritizing national debt


• Look at their other votes; you may be surprised


• Now do the same for your Representative.

• Second, go to: Citizens Against Government Waste


• Click on Reports (on menu bar).


• Click on Pork Book (on drop down menu).


• Press Ctrl F, and enter the name of your Representative or Senator: e.g. "Kay Bailey Hutchison"

She is one of my Senators of Texas (who will not get my vote when the time comes).
Here's the pork-barrel Kay Bailey Hutchison voted:
___________
$107,433,000 for projects added in the state of Senate TTHUD Appropriations Subcommittee member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), and the districts of House TTHUD Appropriations Subcommittee . . . including: $500,000 for the Midland County Board of Commissioners Connection; $250,000 for Odessa for the renovation of the Historical Globe Theater (this is really imoportant isn't it?); $200,000 for Nacogdoches for renovations to the Fredonia Hotel and Convention Center (these are your tax dollars too), . . . .

• Also, check their attendance records. Many, such as John Conyers, do not even show up to vote much of the time.

• Open your internet browser.


• Click on the Search button


• Enter (capitalize the AND): kay AND bailey AND hutchison AND scandal


• or: ted AND stevens AND illegal


• see what turns up . . . something almost always does.

___for example____
KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, the first woman Texas has ever elected to the U.S. Senate, has gone from stardom to scandal in four months. Last week, she was indicted for misconduct in her former job as Texas state treasurer--an indictment . . .
_______________

STEP 4:

• Now, start posting things like that (above) on all the blogs you can.
  Also, send a copy to the congress person with the links to where you posted it.
  Many politicians and their hacks are monitoring the blogs.


• You can and should still write letters to your Senators and Representatives, but displaying the corruption, the way they vote, and the scandals of those Senators and Representatives all over the internet may get their attention faster than your letter (which probably never even got read or merely result in a return letter asking for a donation).


• Get the word out about your crooked politicians.
  Help educate your fellow voters.
  Education is the first step.

Try to get your facts correct (find one or two decent sources such as news sources like the Washington Post, etc.; avoid the nutcase web-sites; ). What ever you write and post all over the blogs will not go unnoticed. Just a handful of people could have a significant impact.

• Stop Repeat Offenders.
• Don't Re-Elect Them !

Wow, Dan! Great answer!

Thanks!
Perhaps, what we need, is to remove the nebulousness, and make it more specific (or personal) ?
If bought-and-paid-for, do-nothing, corrupt incumbents are going to be so irresponsible, we should point out exactly who they are (especially the worst offenders, which is a very long list).

It's interesting how most refuse any reforms that might reduce their power, opportunity for self-gain, and security of their incumbency.

Citizens Against Government Waste do a good job of this, but it requires some work.

What would be useful is a picture of the United States (like issues2000.org), a list of incumbent politicians for the selected state, and their deeds (or, more appropriately, their misdeeds).

This type of comprehensive data is difficult to find in one place.

What would be nice is an easy-to-navigate combination of issues2000.org and cagw.org , with a blog for discussion of each and every congress person.

I like what VoidNow is proposing, but think you can go even further. Check out www.GOOOH.com and see how we can not just evice the 435 members of the House of Representatives, but can replace them with concerned citizens just like you.