| Please let me be the first person to welcome you to People For the American Way and www.pfaw.org. Every day, PFAW is fighting hard for the core American values we share: Liberty, Equality, Religious Freedom and constitutional principles like checks and balances and fair courts that provide access to justice for all Americans, not just the very powerful.
In 1981, I became deeply concerned with what I saw as a fundamental attack on the American values I hold dear. Televangelists, then the public face of the growing Religious Right, were increasingly filling the airwaves with divisive messages that mixed religious dogma and politics and that challenged the faith of anyone whose politics were not aligned with theirs. What I was seeing was not what our country was supposed to be about… this was not the American Way. I woke up one morning with an idea for a television commercial to counter their televangelists, and the response was overwhelming. It turned out that the concerns I had weren’t mine alone — they were shared by millions of Americans from every walk of life. Taking the energy created by that ad, I joined with the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas, faith leaders and other concerned citizens to form People For the American Way Foundation, and three years later formed People For the American Way, an advocacy organization dedicated to exposing the extremism of the Far Right and defending the constitutional rights and values of all Americans. Over the next few weeks, we’ll help you get more acquainted with PFAW, teach you about the work in which we are engaged, and offer ways to get involved in the fight for issues you care about. For now, I would like to invite you to watch the TV ad that started it all, along with a more recent video that shows you what we’ve been up to in the nearly 30 years since that ad first aired:
And, of course, feel free to explore our web site at your leisure at www.pfaw.org. On behalf of the entire board and staff of People For the American Way and our affiliate People For the American Way Foundation, thank you for your activism and welcome to the family. Together, we can help make sure that America is the best it can be, and that the promises of Liberty, Equality, Justice for All — the American Way — become a reality. Sincerely,
Norman Lear, Co-founder NEXT: Look for an email soon from Michael B. Keegan, President of People For the American Way. |
Daily Archives: 10/28/2010
a message from Vice Presient Biden
But we can’t let up now.
There are campaign offices out there that need to add extra phone lines because they’re packed with volunteers ready to make calls. There are volunteers ready to go canvass, but they need flyers to go door to door. There are kids on college campuses working to get their classmates to vote, and they need our help, too.
I don’t want to let any of them down — not now, not when we’re so close.
So I need you to join another supporter and commit to this work, together.
Please donate $3 or more today:
https://donate.barackobama.com/NoRegrets
Thanks for all you do,
Joe Biden
Midnight tomorrow is the deadline for getting last-minute urgent funds into our final week’s media ad buy.
We just got new polls that show several challengers surging in these final 8 days and we continue to see our members with narrow leads in dozens of races nationwide. Urgent additions must be made to our ad buy to put us over the top — but we are still coming up short on the funds.
We are literally just $77K away from President Obama and Joe Biden‘s grassroots goal — we can get there tonight in time for tomorrow’s one week out ad buy, but only if you can give right now. I have several House Democrats lined up to match your gifts 2-to-1 tonight. Please give right now to our final week’s ad buy.
It all comes down to these final 8 days — it’s now or never and I know we can do this. Don’t let Sarah Palin and her tea party express buy their way into Congress with deceptive ads. Please contribute $5, $10 or more right now so we can cross the finish line to victory together.
Jon Vogel
DCCC Executive Director
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From: Joe Biden
Sent: Monday, October 25th, 2010 9:12am
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: Will we do the same?
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Friend —
The Republicans are putting everything they’ve got into these 8 final days before Election Day. The only question is will we do the same?
They are trying to overwhelm us with misleading attack ads funded by the very same special interests that would hold enormous sway if Republicans control Congress.
Let me tell you something. I’ve been around campaigns for a long time and I have never seen a midterm election with this many races in play. That’s why my friends at the DCCC have a strategy in place to secure victory in these final days. But they need your help to fund it by midnight tomorrow.
Every dollar you give could be the difference between victory and defeat for another House Democrat.
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We’ve seen this kind of politics from the Republicans before. They’re coming at us with this final blitz of attack ads on the simple calculation that we won’t have the wherewithal to fight back.
Your support will help our Democratic champions in the House set the record straight against these kinds of attacks in these final days, when it matters the most.
In an election this important, we cannot have a single regret, thinking we could’ve worked harder in these final days.
With victory so close at hand, now is the time to move forward with everything we’ve got.
Joe Biden
P.S. Every dollar you give could be the difference between victory and defeat for another House Democrat. Help the DCCC raise $250,000 before the One Week Out deadline Midnight Tomorrow to fund their efforts for the final push before Election Day.
Just got off the phone… a message from James Carville
I just got off the phone getting an update from Democratic Headquarters about how things are looking out there.
They told me early voting is going better than expected in several states and that the poll numbers are tight but showing us up in dozens of toss-ups. Then they said — they need cash.
We’re now just hours away from our last shot to wire money to our campaigns for their get-out-the-vote blitz this weekend.
We can’t leave any votes on the table because a campaign doesn’t have the cash to rent a van or pay for gas to get folks to the polls. The DCCC must have $28,949 more in the bank by the 5pm wire deadline today to get enough Democrats to the polls in races where Democrats are ahead, but just barely.
We’re talking about literally keeping the lights on in campaign headquarters out there. They want to support even more Democrats running against Republican extremists but they can’t unless they get money in the door by the 5pm wire deadline.
You know these extreme tea party nut cases that Sarah Palin is trying to put in Congress aren’t going down without a fight. Neither can we.
After this election is over, what will you tell your kids and your grandkids that you did to keep Sarah Palin’s favorite extremists out of Congress?
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James Carville
A major announcement …
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Hi! This is Ann McLane Kuster, Democratic candidate for Congress in New Hampshire. I have two exciting pieces of news to report.
First, RealClearPolitics just upgraded our race from “toss up” to “leans Democrat” — thanks to the strong people-powered campaign we’re running, in which so many PCCC members have played a role.
Second, I’m proud to announce that 95 Democratic candidates are uniting to protect the biggest driver of people power in our democracy: the Internet. We’re promising to protect Net Neutrality — the First Amendment of the Internet — from recent attacks by big corporations.
The media are already reporting on this news today. Can you show everyone that Internet freedom is important to voters by being a “citizen signer” of our joint Net Neutrality statement? Click here to see it and sign.
(Please also donate to help pro-Net Neutrality candidates win next week. Chip in $3 here.)
Let me tell you how protecting Net Neutrality affects voters and jobs here in New Hampshire.
Phone and cable companies want to put tollbooths on the Internet — forcing businesses, organizations, and individuals to pay extra for their websites to open quickly on people’s computers.
Big corporations like Exxon Mobil could afford this cost. But small businesses, economic innovators, independent media, and grassroots groups could not. Losing Net Neutrality would stifle free speech, innovation, and jobs.
Especially in the “Live Free or Die” state, hurting Internet freedom by putting new tollbooths on the Internet is a non-starter. And across the nation, Democratic candidates agree.
(And please donate $3 to help pro-Net Neutrality candidates win.)
Thanks so much — especially to the thousands of PCCC members who have used the Internet to make small-dollar donations to my campaign and make calls reminding people to vote.
Together, we’ll win next Tuesday, and fight together in the future.
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Ann McLane Kuster

thorny Thursday … who is sitting out 2010midterms?
An article from a popular online News service stating that “gay voters are weighing in on sitting this one out” and giving the Democratic Party a rude awakening was sad because the rude awakening or bad joke will be on all of us who want to move into the 21st Century. It also tells me that the public needs to think about the bigger picture and this just seems to be ignored because of all the anger. I understand it – I get it, but why be so angry that you make whatever progress made thus far slide into the abyss with the possibility of ending any chance again for a long while because you “sat this one out.” I have to say, that I do not get. Anyway, my response to the article about gays sitting out for the midterms is below and to be honest I question the validity of the article though it uses the New York Times to frame the story. My response below is not just to the article about gays, but to another article as well with a list of folks thinking they might lean toward the GOP and those who have questions: Catholics, older individuals, so-called angry ex-Obama supporters, independents, Women and the less affluent.
I would like to know…Do these “gay voters” thinking about sitting this one out know that any movement on the right the “Republican Tea Party” will probably keep DADT in place as well as possibly reinforcing bans on marriage? I would like to know if anyone remembers what Tancredo, Paladino and others have been saying for the last 2weeks and with tea party characters being put in line for positions of power just to spite Dems, it is possible that any move into the 21st Century will be placed on hold… for good? -The filibuster and the rule of 60 have done the dirty job so far but if more right of center folks get on the floor of Congress -the vote for repealing DADT or any other equal rights issue legislation will probably get voted down- and it won’t be because of the process needed to make sure it’s legal – but hey that’s just my take
-sitting this mid-term out or voting for Republicans to express anger is voting against your best interest and makes no sense to me …get angry but be pro-active and give President Obama two more years then vote otherwise…don’t get me wrong i believe President Obama deserves 2terms. What is a problem is how few people actually got on the phone to our members of Congress to tell them to do the peoples business and stop the stalling, blocking and making the Senate scale down bills so they only make a small impact. I personally will support President Obama for the 2012 elections because the ditch dug by the last guy has made it impossible to correct in just one term. I know that people like Michael Moore have something else cooking and i see that as another troubling shoe ready to drop so this is my warning to the President that some parts of the progressive movement are probably behind the scenes organizing. The last 20 months have been filled with obstacles- Republican obstacles, the group that should be held accountable and be made to pay by putting more democrats on the floor of Congress ..again that is just me. I had hoped that both sides of the political aisle would work together but the rude awakening is that McConnell, DeMint, Pence and Cantor all have a different agenda and it has nothing to do with helping the American people –The Political Party of No as well as conservadems in some cases will continue to be the bane of our struggle to move legislation that is more geared toward 21st Century living and that includes finally moving equal rights for all of us into a reality. Vote …but Vote for DEMS. I will admit i do not understand why women feel the GOP would be the Political Party working for our needs -all of us working women ..some single women, single moms, married women with or without families all have over the last few years have suffered under Republican governing and while the air is filled with contentious rhetoric it should not …should not keep women from voting for the Democratic Party because if you were listening the family values platform is against women and has not changed. In fact if more RTP get on the floor of Congress women our issues along with so many others will become game pieces on our move toward into the 21st Century . I don’t know about other women but this scares me big time. The right says they want less government are constitutionalist yet lately not so much and when you find out what their family values platform really is you find out that they are social conservatives ready to make all of us abide by what they say not as they have done or are doing . I have to wonder why those people who stood up and said we need a change in 2008 suddenly have turned away or just don’t get that the Republican Tea Party decided shortly after we voted President Obama into office that they would not cooperate or compromise on anything.
Gallup says …2010 mid-terms
56% of voters ages 18-29 —65% ages 30-49 —58-66% ages 50+ plan to vote on Nov.2nd
Overall those that plan to vote: Democratic Party 65% and Republicans 63% and indies 61%





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