Just in case anyone had their doubts about whether progressive groups are serious about holding Blue Dogs, conservodems, and other center-right Democrats accountable for supporting Wall Street and conservative groups instead of supporting their own constituents, doubt no more. The following video is the first paid media campaign from a large progressive coalition designed to hold Democrats accountable on mortgage bankruptcy reform, otherwise known as "cramdown."
It will appear over 250 times in Jonesboro, which is the largest city in the Arkansas 1st congressional district. Jonesboro is also a college town (home to Arkansas St.) It would have cost just as much to run the ad in smaller, nearby towns, so only Jonesboro was targeted.
It will run only on CNN, both in the daytime and during primetime. CNN was chosen because its appeals to news junkies and its viewers lean heavily Democratic (65%-26% according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports) and because MSNBC was not available in the area.
The ad will run over the next three weeks, starting today. By appearing over 250 times in one area, and over an extended period of time, local Democratic news junkies will see it often enough to remember it.
The ad placement cost $5,000, paid for by BlogPac. Such a low price was made possible by the new services offered by SaysMe TV.
David Sirota is in New York City today, where he may or may not be meeting with people who may or may not be associated with cable television. As part of our campaign on Open Left to help David win the new MSNBC show that will follow Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, let's offer him a little support during his trip.
At BlogPac, we have set up a form that makes it easy to email MSNBC, and ask them to make David the host of the new show that will follow Keith and Rachel. The David Sirota for MSNBC Facebook group, which is now over 1,700 members, started this action last night. As of this writing, over 150 200 people have already sent emails to MSNBC.
Republicans hammered Barack Obama over his connection to ACORN during last year's election, but now ACORN is taking a swing at some Democrats - with the help of liberal activists at MoveOn.org.
The role reversal arises out of the groups' anger at moderate House Democrats who opposed a housing bill that has more generous bankruptcy rules for people facing foreclosure.
Next week this coalition will begin airing TV ads criticizing House Democrats who voted against the measure, which would for the first time give judges the authority to restructure home mortgages - a procedure known as a cramdown.
Hmmm... where did I hear about this before? Oh yeah:
An Ad To Run Against Dems Who Vote Against Cramdown
First, our request for $17,400 to secure Soapblox was met:
While the thermometer shows the fundraiser at slightly under the $17,400 goal, that total does not tell the whole story. More sources chipped in, too, including:
Over $200 raised directly for Soapblox by non-US citizens via PayPal
So, the fundraiser is actually over $20,000 at this point, well past our goal. Thank you, thank you, thank you! All of the money raised beyond the $17,400 goal will be used to continue upgrading Soapblox. Here is what the money from this fundraiser has already accomplished (more in the extended entry):
This is amazing. You guys are amazing. Earlier this week, when we unveiled our Better Democrats 2010 page, it quickly shot up to over 100 contributors, and more than $5,700. Now, in less than seven hours today, the Save Soapblox campaign has reached over 60% of it's goal, hitting $10,978 already!
For a time just after the holidays, just after an exhausting and expensive campaign, and during an economic downturn, this is a remarkable effort. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has contributed, and everyone who has helped out so far! You can help us get over the top here.
The efforts of the netroots over the last six years have been a remarkable testament to what a group of dedicated grassroots activists can do. Right now, it is hard not to feel excited, and hopeful for the future. We have the organizing energy. We have the growing numbers. We are making change happen, and turning the country bluer. The remarkable efforts of this community over the past week are just another example. In a time of great need for 100 progressive blogs around the country, you are coming through. Again, thanks to all, and let's keep it going!
You know how some politicians are fond of saying "you can't solve a problem by just throwing money at it." Well, here is a problem you can solve by throwing money at it. Send in a contribution to save Soapblox now!.
To continue an almost comic run of bad luck, following my broken arm, Matt's departure from the site, and the Soapblox crash, last night my glasses broke. As it is impossible for me to function without my glasses, in uber-geek fashion, they are now taped together:
I take is as a symbol both of how much of progressive infrastructure is truly run on a shoestring, and of how we continue to press forward no matter what happens.
Together with Paul Preston and several Soapblox-dependent state blogs, BlogPac is finalizing a plan to save, secure, and improve Soapblox over both the short and long-term. For us, Soapblox is simply too big to fail, and we will not allow it to happen. The plan, along with an action alert, will be presented tomorrow. In the meantime, the situation has improved dramatically, as a new press release from Saopblox indicates. We are going to fix this problem, and continue to build a vibrant progressive movement.
For more information on why Soapblox matters, read this diary. For Paul's full press release, check out the extended entry.
In case you have not heard by now, Open Left's service provider, Soapblox, is currently in serious trouble. Given that Open Left is the largest website on Soapblox, and that BlogPac has given more money to Soapblox than any other organization (for the past two years, we have paid the hosting fees for almost all of the fifty-state blogs, and also invested money to improve server security), this had me in a near state of panic for a while. Fortunately, the crisis seems to be temporarily receding--for now.
This is a reminder of how much progressive infrastructure is operated on a shoestring. Soapblox was run by a single person as a part-time job even though, collectively, Soapblox websites--including most local blogs, Open Left, Pam's House Blend, Swing State Project, My Left Wing--had more than 100,000 readers a day. As Matt Glazer writes at Burnt Orange Report, another Soapblox dependant site:
Our site, along with nearly 100 others, are run on the SoapBlox platform. That is hundreds of thousands of eyes across the nation who use SoapBlox and never knew it.(...)
Again, Burnt Orange Report and our data seem to be in working order and intact. But if SoapBlox is down and fails to return, nearly 90% of the statewide blog infrastructure must reorganize. Nationally that means state and local sites are no longer able to cover their state legislative sessions or city, state, or statewide races.
In the long run, this outage (temporary or permanent) directly hurts all of us.
Paul developed and maintained SoapBlox for little money and no fame. In fact, SoapBlox is just a part time job for Paul, and like many of us that do this, we are required to have paid full time jobs in order to maintain and run our online projects. Today highlight why this systemic problem must be fixed long term.
While everything is in flux right now, later today BlogPac will start a "Save Soapblox" campaign to make sure that this never happens again, and to generally improving progressive blogosphere infrastructure. I will have more details when they are available, but for right now, BlogPac is on the new Better Democrats 2010 page. I know we are in a recession, but any contribution you can give in this time of crisis will be used to help keep Soapblox operational.
There are some progressive policy changes that are fairly simple, easy to achieve with electoral success. All it took, for example, to get a minimum wage increase was to elect a Democratic Congress. All it took to start investigating executive branch malfeasance was to give Henry Waxman a gavel. Having the EPA and OSHA issue better regulations requires only a President who will appoint better people to run those agencies. Lots of other things are harder, requiring the combination of both electing a more progressive President and making our progressive movement stronger. To get a dramatically improved trade policy will take not only an Obama Presidency but a powerful movement demanding that Obama do the right thing on trade. But even so, that kind of change, as big and important as it is, is not terribly complicated to actually pull off- it just requires a President willing to do it.
There are, however, some issues that are big, complicated messes to try to make real change in. Really shrinking the power of our military-industrial complex so that there won't be a constant political pressure for more military adventurism fits in that category. So does fundamentally charging our carbon fuel based economy so that we can truly solve the climate crisis. And restructuring 1/6 of our economy, health care, is going to be incredibly tough as well.
I think we are likely going to have to wait to do much regarding the first of these, the military-industrial complex issues, because while Obama will at least start to move us out of Iraq, he probably won't look to make major change in general on national security policy. The other two issues, though, we have a shot at- Obama says he wants to make them a priority.
Given that, I want to go back to discussion that has graced the pages of OpenLeft from time to time, which is about theories of how you can create change, in this case specifically the kind of big change desperately needed regarding health care and climate change. I want to compare the big theories of change that one hears most often, and start a discussion on how the progressive community should focus its energies.
Respectfully, I ask Mike Stark to change the name of his MyBO group with haste. I am all for having a MyBO group that expresses the feelings of Obama's progressive supporters. But if it remains a group that criticizes Obama for voting the way that he absolutely has to on the overall FISA bill, I hope that people will begin quitting the group en masse.
As a simple matter of logic, even if you voted in favor of the Dodd amendment, to then vote in favor of a FISA bill without the Dodd amendment is the same thing as voting in favor of retroactive immunity. So, if Obama votes in favor of the overall FISA bill, which contains retroactive immunity for telecom companies, then Obama has voted in favor of retroactive immunity for telecom companies. As such, Obama will not have gotten FISA right.
Logic aside, I have to wonder why hundreds of people on Daily Kos would desire for people to leave a group that is critical of Obama from the left. This is to effectively ask Obama supporters to stop asking things from Obama. The inability of some to tolerate any criticism of Barack Obama is pretty depressing.
Since the end of the primary season, Mike Stark's group is the only proven means of making Obama answer criticism from the left. It is also the only proven mechanism for making Obama actually self-identify as a progressive. To shut down the group would be to effectively shut down any hopes of having Obama actually address the concerns of what he calls his "friends on the left." The desire to see such a group disappear is thus functionally the equivalent of desiring to end criticism of Obama from the left. That's not something I would like to see, and reminds me more of the DLC than of the progressive netroots.
Instead of asking Stark to change his group name, BlogPac will donate $2,000 to Stark's cause. This is the sort of innovative, progressive accountability activism we need more of, not less.
New to politics a year ago, I entered the fray with only a passing familiarity with the candidates various policy proposals. Despite my indifference and apathy at the time, Barack Obama's commitment to good government policies -- specifically campaign finance reform, government transparency and ethics reform -- drew me into the campaign, and eventually into Democratic politics for good.
Well, once again I'm rooting for the reformer-underdog. Still, despite the overwhelming weight of New York's establishment machine bearing down on Paul Newell campaign, I'm more convinced than ever that Obama-style bottom-up Change is precisely what NY state so desperately needs.
(I have relatively little expertise in NY politics, but one of the people I trust the most- both because of his progressive politics and because he is a truly great organizer- is the founder of NY's Working Families Party. WFP is one of the best and most effective state level political operations on the progressive side in the country, so when Danny calls me about something, I pay attention, and he called the other day when he saw that BlogPac had endorsed one of Shelly Silver's primary opponents. I encouraged him to share his thoughts with you on the topic. Here they are... - promoted by Mike Lux)
I don't blog very often, being a bit intimidated by the blogging culture. But I have enormous respect for Open Left, and my anxiety is trumped by a desire to engage on an important topic.
I'm writing in response to the first Blue to Bluer post about the election campaign underway in New York between Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver and challenger Paul Newell (and a third candidate, Luke Henry). I currently serve as the Executive Director of New York State's Working Families Party.
First, let me say that the Working Families Party strongly supports the concept of Blue to Bluer. We have backed progressive challengers to incumbent Democrats repeatedly, and doing so is at the very core of our strategy to take the state, and our country, in a more egalitarian and humane direction. One prominent example of the value of the Blue to Bluer approach was the 2004 race for Albany District Attorney, in which the WFP and its allies took on a powerful incumbent because we wanted to highlight our opposition to the so-called Rockefeller Drug Laws. Our candidate (David Soares) won that primary, has served with distinction, and if the right-wing revives and tries to defeat him this year we will work just as hard to make sure he stays in office.
In fact, I think it's fair to say that the very reason for the 1998 formation of the WFP was to counter what we saw as the rightward drift of the Democratic Party. Public opinion in New York, as in the nation, is better and more progressive than public policy, and we felt then (and feel now) that building a ballot-line party under New York's "fusion" voting system would give us a powerful lever to advance ideas and elect candidates. As we enter what we hope will be a Democratic-leaning era in state (and national) politics, none of us should think for a nanosecond that the free-market, winner-take-all, anti-regulation crowd is about to give up or be reborn as egalitarian-minded social democrats.
Today, BlogPac is thrilled to announce our first endorsement in the Blue to Bluer campaign: Paul Newell for New York State Assembly. Newell is running against New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in the Democratic primary, which will take place on September, so we will have a lot of time to grow familiar with Paul, and work on this campaign. You can visit Paul's website here.
Throughout Blue to Bluer, BlogPac will be relying on local bloggers for their insight. In the case of this campaign, here is the nomination I received from Phillip Anderson of The Albany Project:
While the single largest impediment to reforming the New York state legislature, a body dubbed "the most dysfunctional in the nation" by NYU's Brenna Center for Justice, is certainly our state Senate Majority Leader, Republican Joe Bruno, a close second would be our Assembly Speaker, Democrat Sheldon Silver. Silver, along with Bruno and our new governor, David Paterson, is one of the infamous "three men in a room" that control most everything in Albany.
This race is well suited, if not perfectly so for BlogPAC's Blue to Bluer program because it offers a fantastic bang for buck potential. In a solidly blue city like New York, our only meaningful elections are primaries. They are almost always low turnout affairs and often have huge consequences. A swing of roughly 6,000 votes in this district could radically effect the lives of over 19 million New Yorkers. This race will be won the old fashioned way, the way elections in dense urban districts often are, through street by street, building by building organizing. Because of the ridiculously expensive media market, not even Silver, one of the three most powerful men in New York will be doing television spots. This race offers ample opportunities for real people powered, neighbor to neighbor ground work which, given the absurd gerrymandering and campaign finance regulations of New York, is really the only way it can be won.
The district is tailor-made for Silver who drew it himself and has larded it with pork for three decades. He hasn't even had a token primary challenge in well over 20 years. Until now.
While there are actually two Democratic challengers to Shelly this cycle, I have nominated community organizer Paul Newell for Blue to Bluer. I believe that he offers the best chance, certainly the best chance since the 80s, to unseat one of those "three men" and break a large part of the logjam that keeps our state government a national laughingstock.
Newell, besides being a staunch progressive and genuine reformer, has an ambitious and I feel quite shrewd plan to swing those 6K votes. He's quite clear eyed about the difficulty of the task ahead of him. Primary challenges in New York are always a long shot and a challenge against the Assembly Speaker is even more so. The system that Silver and a bipartisan group of legislators going back a century or so is designed for one thing above all, incumbent protection. This race certainly will not be easily won, but it is doable and I think Newell is the man who can do it. But he'll need our help.
Sheldon Silver, then 32, the same age as Newell is today, first ran for the Assembly in 1976 and he did so as an insurgent reformer. He has now become the very embodiment of everything he ran to oppose all those years ago. Silver has certainly changed over the years and so has his district. Silver long ago abandoned his constituents in favor of playing Albany power broker. The district (and the nation, for that matter) are primed for change. You can help change life for the better for almost 20 million New Yorkers by helping Paul Newell win 6K votes in lower Manhattan.
cheers,
phillip
Here is a video of Paul Newell introducting himself to the online community:
New York is one of the bluest states in the nation, and as such should be a national leader when it comes to progressive policy. In 2009, after Democrats take control of the State Senate (right now, they are only one seat away), it is imperative that Democrats have progressive leadership in the State Assembly that can make it happen along with Governor David Paterson. It is in this way that defeating Sheldon Silver can help bring progressive change across the entire nation, and not just to New York State.
Paul Newell for New York State Assembly, and for progressive leadership around the country. No ask for activism today--just an introduction. In the coming days, BlogPac will be unveiling more endorsements in Blue to Bluer, and also offer more ways to become familiar with the endorsed candidates. If you have more candidate suggestions in your local area, please email me at christopher_j_bowers@yahoo.com. Let's keep building the progressive movement from the ground up.
Blog just sent out an email asking people to contact George Stephanapoulos and Charlie Gibson to explain their substance free moderation. You can send an email here.
Moveon also has a petition, which you can sign here.
And finally, Obama spoke out against the debate in a town hall meeting.
Apparently, the company that produced Path to 9/11 to tarnish Bill and Hillary Clinton and that worked to undermine labor and screenwriters is also shitting on Obama. Weird!
Two weeks ago, in a campaign called From Blue To Bluer, BlogPac solicited your input in order to find state and local progressives running in blue district primaries either against incumbents or for open seats. As per usual, I figured I could have a faster turnaround time on a new campaign than real life actually allows. However, I wanted to let everyone know that the campaign is still moving forward, and I wanted to provide an update.
We received over two-dozen excellent suggestions, and we are still in the process of going through them. The announcement of the selection of first group candidates for the program will take place on April 21st, the day before the Pennsylvania primary. We will have a wide-ranging, diverse selection of candidates who will help continue to build the progressive bench and movement nationwide. In order to have more and better Democrats, we have to start organizing at the local level where political careers begin, and where local machines still dominate.
The first candidate for the program, DFA-endorsed Anne Dicker, will have her primary (originally a challenge against a corrupt local incumbent, now an open seat primary against conservative, machine backed candidates) the day after we announce the first slate of candidates. As such, even though she was my local inspiration for the program, she will not receive a huge amount of direct benefit from Blue to Bluer. However, final ad buys for her campaign are being made now, and you can contribute to Anne here to help start the program off with a bang. If you live in the area, you can volunteer for the campaign here.
A fifty-state strategy means blue districts, too. Act locally, think blue.
STATE BLOGS
