MoveOn.org and Political Awareness

Real political action!

If anyone else is experiencing feelings of helplessness about the situations we are discussing in class (or even if you're not) then I really think you should about this fantabulous organization called Move On www.moveon.org

How it works! First, you sign up! You tell them your name, email address, and zip code. Then, they email you ways that you (yes, you) can take direct action on their campaigns. They might email you a link to click and when you click it - BAM! your name is now on a petition that will be distributed to House Reps and Senators (and the press!). Or maybe when you click the link - BAM! you just send a form letter (or you can write it/add comments if you want) to a specific Rep or Senator, or more likely, to (using your zip code) your district/state's Rep/Senator telling them just how you feel about a certain issue!

Ongoing campaigns! I have 4 emails from MoveOn that are still in my inbox:

-Vote of whether MoveOn should not support the re-election of any Democratic Senator who would help the Republican filibuster of the public option version (non-watered down version) of the health care bill. Only one Democratic Senator is needed for a filibuster!

-Got an email with the number to call of my House Rep. to tell them that I support the public health insurance option – (she was one the Dems who hadn’t committed yet!)

-Petition asking Democrats to join President Obama in his (sort-of) boycott of FOX News (Obama has said he will not appear on FOX for the rest of the year) (http://foxnewsboycott.com/)

-Got the number to call AT&T to tell them I think they should quit funding the Chamber of Commerce and its efforts to “kill progress on clean energy, health care, workers' rights, and even financial reform”

That is from the last 4 days! Its a great, easy way to get through to the people who, believe it or not by how distant and disconnected from you they may seem, actually represent you in our government!

MoveOn has done some great things in the past - check out the "Successful Campaigns" tab at the top of the page.

ColorOfChange.org - affiliated organization - same format - focuses on racial issues in politics. Ongoing super-awesome action - due to one of their petitions over 81 companies have pulled their ad's from Glenn Beck's programs on FOX News. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Glenn Beck is an uneducated, racist DJ who likes to play pretend to be a political commentator. Irony - Beck got Anthony Van Jones (a co-founder of colorofchange.org) to step down from his position at Green Jobs - a part of the White House Council on Environmental Quality for (see if this sounds at all familiar) the incredible stir he caused after discovering that Van Jones at previously been associated with... dun dun dun! Marxist groups! It also became public that he signed a petition (he denies this) of an organization that questions the mainstream account of the events of 9-11, and he apparently called Congressional Republicans "assholes" in private. What the hell any of that has to do with creating environmentally friendly jobs - I don't know!

Political Awareness - I don't know much about gender issues but I do try to stay educated on political topics. Here are some great links!

CNN.com - duh!

Economist.com - must-watch site!

Politifact.com/truth-o-meter/ - accountability yay! (very fair and balanced, does a great job of tracking Obama's kept and broken campaign promises)

NYtimes.com

FOXNews.com - keep your enemies closer - make no mistake, FOX News is the enemy. “We’re going to treat [FoxNews] the way we would treat an opponent,” said Anita Dunn, the White House communications director. “As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave.” - "Fox’s senior vice president for programming, Bill Shine, says of the criticism from the White House, “Every time they do it, our ratings go up.” Mr. Obama’s first year is on track to be the Fox News Channel’s highest rated."

WashingtonPost.com

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/ - must read financial blog/column by Economics Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman - you may not understand all of what you read but you will learn! I find that a lot of young people are really in the dark about economics - you need to educate yourself! We all know we're in a financial pickle right now - how many of you knew a lot of people are blaming Alan Greenspan and the mountain of banking deregulation that accrued during his almost 20 years as Chairman of the Federal Reserve? How many of you knew that Obama has proposed a financial regulation reform bill? (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/422/create-new-financial-regulations/)

Hope this helps!

-Devin