Tag Archives: United States

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A message from Norman Lear …


Norman Lear

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:

Watch the videos >

vids

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 signature

Norman Lear, Co-founder

NEXT: Look for an email soon from Michael B. Keegan, President of People For the American Way.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

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

————————————————————————————
From: Joe Biden
Sent: Monday, October 25th, 2010 9:12am
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: Will we do the same?
————————————————————————————

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.

Help the DCCC raise $250,000 more before the One Week Out deadline Midnight Tomorrow to fund Rapid Response ads and support their state-of-the-art voter contact efforts for the final push before Election Day. Contribute today and your gift will be matched 2-to-1 by generous House Democrats.

Contribute Today


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.

Help the DCCC raise $250,000 more before the One Week Out deadline Midnight Tomorrow to fund Rapid Response ads and support their state-of-the-art voter contact efforts for the final push before Election Day. Contribute today and your gift will be matched 2-to-1 by generous House Democrats.

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.

~ my 2cents ...

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%

 

 

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

The Economic Outlook and Options for Fiscal Policy


CBO’s Web site:

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Final Countdown …a message from Jon Vogel


I just want to say thank you. We reached President Obama’s goal of $1 million in time for our final week’s advertising buy expanding into even more districts and giving our Democratic campaigns much-needed air cover.

Now, we turn our focus to our Get Out the Vote operation, because with so many Democrats locked in too-close-to-call races, it will all come down to turnout.

Here’s the latest: Our targeting director has been running new models based on early voting returns. We figure there are an additional half-dozen toss-up districts where an influx of resources could drive our Democratic candidate over the top.

But, we just sent all the money we had to expand television advertising. And now, in order to expand field, we will need to raise $200,000 by tomorrow’s wire deadline so we can transfer money to these campaigns in advance of their final weekend push.

Can you make a generous contribution before tomorrow’s wire deadline so I can transfer money to these campaigns in advance of their final weekend push?

Thank you again for all you have done so far — we will retain our House Majority if I have you in this game.

It’s time to go all in, and rest assured your dollars are being put to work immediately.

Jon Vogel
DCCC Executive Director

————————————————————————————
From: Barack Obama
Sent: Friday, October 22nd, 2010 10:31am
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: Final Countdown
————————————————————————————

Two years ago, you joined millions of Americans to assemble a grassroots movement to move this county forward.

Even though we’ve made extraordinary progress, entrenched power concedes nothing without a fight. Thanks to a Supreme Court decision called Citizens United, the very same special interests that we are finally holding accountable are now spending unlimited amounts of money on political attack ads to try and take our country back.

That’s why we’ve got to fight their millions of dollars with millions of grassroots supporters who are ready to finish what we began in 2008.

Right now, my Democratic allies in the House are preparing for the final days of this campaign. Your support to help them raise $1 million before Tuesday will determine how many doors they can knock on, how many phones they can dial, and how many Democratic voters they can get to the polls.

Contribute before Tuesday’s deadline to fund our final get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of my great Democratic partners in the House. Your support will be matched by a group of generous Democrats.

Contribute Today


My partners in the House led by our remarkable Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have done extraordinary work to get our economy back on track and clean up the mess left over by the other side.

But rather than remind ourselves of all that we have accomplished, now is the time to recognize all of the things that will remain undone unless we are just as focused, just as energized, and just as excited as we were in 2008. That is what will make the difference in the days ahead.

Contribute before Tuesday’s deadline to fund our final get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of my great Democratic partners in the House. Your support will be matched by a group of generous Democrats.

If you can dig a little deeper, knock on a few more doors, talk to a few more of your friends and neighbors, we will be successful in this election and continue working to reclaim the American Dream for the next generation.

I am grateful for all that you’ve done already in this election. But now I need you to do a little more. When polls close on Election Night, we cannot have a single regret, not when the stakes are this high.

Barack Obama

P.S. Right now, my Democratic allies in the House are preparing for the final days of this campaign. Your support will help to determine how many doors they can knock on, how many phones they can dial, and how many Democratic voters they can get to the polls. Contribute before Tuesday’s deadline to fund our final get-out-the-vote efforts.