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Need your help to run radio ads. in Speaker Hastert's district ...

Hi folks,

We just sent out an email alert asking our members and supporters to help us raise $10,500 online so that we can purchase drive-time radio ads in House Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-IL) district. We need to raise $10,500 by the end of the week to buy these ads, which will urge constituents from the Speaker's district to contact him and ask him to appoint an indepdent, outside counsel to investigate the mounting allegations of ethics abuses against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX).  The ads will urge Hastert's constituents to drive home the message that he needs to demonstrate leadership by bringing in an outside counsel to investigate ethics allegations against DeLay and restart the stalled ethics process in the GOP controlled House.

You can view the full email from Chellie right after the jump.

Dear Common Cause Activist,

The congressional Republicans have shut down the ethics process in the House of Representatives again. Earlier this year, the "fearsome DeLay machine" reacted to three admonishments of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) from the bipartisan Ethics Committee by changing the rules to make it harder to investigate Members of Congress for ethics violations, firing the Republican Ethics Committee chairman who oversaw the 2004 admonishments, and purging staff who were also involved (2). GOP leaders, however, retreated in the face of our enormous public and grassroots pressure by reversing the rule changes. But now they are at it again, paralyzing the committee over staff vacancies and stalling any serious investigation into the mounting allegations against Majority Leader DeLay and other capitol lawmakers.

We need your help to break this ethics impasse. Three weeks ago we sent a letter to the chairman and the ranking member of the Ethics Committee, asking them to appoint a credible, independent, outside counsel with experience and stature in the legal community to investigate Rep. DeLay. We have heard nothing back, and the committee remains stalled by a stalemate over staffing issues.

So, we are now calling on Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) to intervene, get the Ethics Committee working again, and see that an independent, outside counsel is brought in to investigate allegations against Rep. DeLay. We need your help today to take this message directly to Speaker Hastert by reaching out to constituents in his district. Specifically, we need your help to raise $10,500 by the end of the week so we can buy radio ads in Hastert's district urging his constituents to call his office and urge that he bring in an outside counsel. The ads will be aired repeatedly during drive-time traffic reports in Hastert's congressional district in the Chicago suburbs (IL-14). You can help our efforts by making a contribution today:

http://www.commoncause.org/ContributetoHastertRadioAds

Each of these ads costs $140, and we want to saturate the Chicago rush-hour radio airwaves for the whole week. So, can you help us raise $10,500 to get out the message in Hastert's district that an independent, outside counsel is critically needed to investigate allegations against DeLay?

http://www.commoncause.org/ContributetoHastertRadioAds

With your help we can start running our advertisements in Hastert's Chicago area district beginning Monday June 27th and continue them through the weekend leading up to July 4th. So, please contribute $280, $140, $70, $35, or whatever amount you can, so that we can take our message for an independent, outside counsel to investigate Tom DeLay directly to the streets and freeways in Hastert's district.

Speaker Hastert needs to step up. The New York Times called him out this week to show leadership in unlocking this ethics impasse and moving ahead with a DeLay investigation:

"It's time for Speaker Dennis Hastert to show some leadership by signaling that the ethics committee has a larger role to play than weighting the scale to favor Mr. DeLay. In the past, committee rules calling for a nonpartisan investigative chief were honored in the high-profile inquiries that dealt with abuses by Speakers Newt Gingrich, a Republican, and Jim Wright, a Democrat.

"Nothing less is acceptable now. Even Mr. DeLay is urging something be done as he proclaims his innocence and complains that the standoff is putting him at risk as elections near. His junketeering at the bidding of a favored lobbyist deserves a clean investigation."

We can't afford to roll over and play dead. Help us today to get our message directly to Hastert, reminding him that he has the ultimate responsibility for maintaining the credibility and integrity of the House. As the Speaker, he must take responsibility for reestablishing a functioning ethics review procedure and address allegations against DeLay in a credible and expeditious manner.

http://www.commoncause.org/ContributetoHastertRadioAds

We appreciate your dedication to holding public officials to the highest ethical standards. Your actions do make a difference. Thank you again for your passion and commitment to Common Cause.

Sincerely,

Chellie Pingree
CEO & President, Common Cause


Tags: Government Accountability (all tags)


Display:

Join the revolution for progressive legislation.


STOP CENSORING ME PLEASE.

Print this 3' x 6' poster out and display it on July 4th as a protest against George W Bush
This poster will require 45 letter sized pages and will give you a 3' x 6' poster of the symbol of resistance to the Bush regime that you can display on July 4th.

Download it here and print it out from Acrobat reader.

http://www.hoflink.com/~dbaer/bush_silver_coin_ful l.pdf

 We the undersigned demand that the Congress of the United states and the president of the United States enact a law to increase the minimum wage to TEN dollars an hour and also to extend unemployment benefits for all people whose unemployment benefits expired after 6 months even though they still seek work.

We also demand that the Congress of the United States to not privatize social security benefits in any form including taking a percentage of the social security tax and placing it in private accounts. People can already create their own pensions with money after taxes in the private sector.

We also demand that the congress make all of a person's earned income taxable for social security FICA tax purposes and remove the 88,000 dollar salary cap. This will make social security solvent for many years to come.

We pledge to boycott Walmart and call them at 800-966-6546 and demand they help in getting the above legislation enacted or we will never buy from Walmart again.

We make no statement of quality of Walmart products but we maintain the right of free speech and association and of boycotting for the purpose of persuading congress to enact this part of a progressive agenda. After all the money belongs to us and we can legally set conditions for our purchases of products and doing business with any company in the United States.

We the undersigned also demand congress and the president enact a prescription drug benefit under Medicare Part B which covers 80 percent of medication cost, with no extra premium, no extra deductibles, no means test and no coverage gaps or else we will not purchase products from the CVS, Eckerd, and Walgreens pharmacy chains. We make no statement of the quality of products sold by these pharmacy chains.

We pledge to Call Eckerd Pharmacy Corporate Headquarters at 800 325 3737, Call CVS Pharmacy Corporate headquarters at 888 607 4287 and Call Walgreens Pharmacy Corporate headquarters at 800 289 2273 and tell them we will not purchase any products from their drug stores but will patronize them in the future if they can get the congress to pass a prescription drug benefit as described above. If a person cannot stop buying medications from the three drug store chains, I consider it acceptible to buy your medication from one of the chains but still refrain from buying other products from their drug stores.

We also call for the complete repeal of the faulty Medicare law HR 1 / S 1 passed by congress in Nov 2003.

Please tell your friends, family and coworkers to sign this petition.

We do this in the spirit of peaceful resistance to a congress that refuses to enact this legislation

If you don't support what the Republicans did since they took over the House of Representatives in 1995 and don't support the Republican party's plans for this year then Join the revolution for progressive legislation and sign the petition at
http://www.boycott-republicans.com

Write this url on your one, five and ten dollar bills in the white areas in Pencil.

Tennessee residents please make an effort to boycott the following companies I list in my boycott petition: Walmart and Eckerd,CVS, and Walgreens in your state and call Senator Frist and tell him unless he gets our agenda passed those Tennessee outlets of these chains will not get your business. You live at one of the biggest seats of power in the United States. Organize and use your purchasing power to leverage it into passing progressive legislation.

Also join my activist group

 http://groups.myspace.com/revolutionforprogressive legislation  

Sign the petition to end the war in Iraq.

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopthewar

To punish the Republicans for stealing the 2000 and 2004 elections Call and email Wendy's and Outback Steakhouses, 2 big Republican Party contributors, BOYCOTT Wendy's (of Ohio) restaurant chain and Outback Steakhouse (Florida) chain until the following four situations occur:

The people elect Democrats as governor and secretary of State of Ohio and Florida and in the majority in the legislatures.

 We implement vote by mail throughout the United States of America. This will prevent Republicans from vote suppression by skin color which happened electronicly and in person in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Demand that your state implement vote by mail with ballots easy to fill out and difficult to change or invalidate by Republican Party officials.

Civil servants on the state payroll should keep track of voter registrations and vote counting of mail in votes in each precinct and not companies such as Choicepoint. We need to take the Republican Party out of the business of keeping track of voter registration and counting votes.

States ban the secretary of sate from engaging in politics especially acting as a campaign official for a presidential campaign.

Spread the messages at your grocery store too by printing out the graphics and leave it in your shopping cart when you finish.

Look at this web page for other efforts.

 http://www.justicefornone.com/handbills/index.htm

Thank you.

How to destroy the agenda of Arnold Schwarzenegger

and advance a progessive agenda in California.

http://www.boycott-republicans.com

The following people and companies gave at least 21,000 dollars to Arnold's
campaign and recall effort in 2003. I have named some of the more consumer oriented companies meaning they sell a product to the public that people can easily boycott and buy elsewhere. I suggest people begin by gathering your legislative goals and call these companies and tell them that they helped Arnold steal the California governorship so unless they get Arnold and the legislature to pass your desired legislation you and other people will call them and tell them you will boycott them.

and now the companies that helped install Arnold.

THE GAP clothing stores
TOYOTA TEMUCULA VALLEY
LANCASTER, SIERRA TOYOTA
JORDAN VINEYARD & WINERY
VICTORY DEALERSHIP GROUP auto dealers
WEIDER HEALTH & FITNESS
Dean Spanos SAN DIEGO CHARGERS ceo
CONANT AUTOMOTIVE RESOURCES
AMERICAN STERLING CORP commercial bank
FLETCHER JONES MANAGEMENT auto dealer
PACIFIC WEST PHARMACY
ARTISOFT, INC.
HANSEN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
CONEXANT SYSTEMS
SCHEID VINYARDS, INC
TUTTLE-CLICK AUTOMOTIVE GROUP
FOOD 4 LESS
MERUELO ENTERPRISES
Emulex corporation
HILMAR CHEESE COMPANY INC
HANFORD HOTELS
HITCHCOCK AUTOMOTIVE RESOURCES
KEYES MOTORS
HANSEN TECHNOLOGIES

I have a suggestion on how to force congress to increase funding for PBS and NPR.
The Secretary of Commerce in the Bush administration used to work as CEO of Kelloggs Cereals. Children who watch PBS educational programming tend to eat cereals

How about if people called, emailed and faxed Kelloggs telling them unless they get the congress and the Bush administration to INCREASE for PBS and NPR, we will no longer buy Kelloggs cereals.

It appears Conservatives and Republicans mainly understand money and if they stand to lose our business they might get forced to do what we want.

So people, shall we boycott Kelloggs cereals and call, email, and fax them demanding increase in for PBS and NPR and to tell as many people on and off the itnernet?

What do you say? The Republicans will not stop their fascism until we the people hit their contributors and friends in the wallet.

--------------------

Join the revolution for progressive legislation

http://www.boycott-republicans.com

progressive activism group on myspace.

http://groups.myspace.com/revolutionforpro...sivel egislation

my web log

http://www.campusprogress.org/page/community/blog/ maximus

Liberal America forum.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/259017

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jun 21, 2005 at 04:03:33 PM EST


I have gotten plenty of emails from common cause

So I consider it the point wherte I get to talk back. I do not appreciate my post getting censored. I consider mysef a liberal and I support your cause. Sending petitions and mkaing phone calls without boycotts will not get you very far.

Hit the contributors to the Republican party in their wallet and you will get results!

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jun 21, 2005 at 04:11:11 PM EST


Re: Partisan rhetorics ...

Hi there. Our moderators will delete any posts which are too partisan. Sure we are doing lot of work to hold leaders like DeLay accountable, but our focus all along has been the process itself. In our blog FAQ, you will find community rules for Common Blog, which states:
There are ample places on the internet for heated partisanized name-calling - this is not one of them. We reserve the right to delete any comment, and to prohibit you from commenting on this site, if we feel you have broached this policy.
From the face of your posting, it just looks like a partisan posting, and it has nothing to do with Alex's original post. If you would like to comment on the post itself by all means, otherwise strictly partisan stuff will get deleted from this blog. There are lot of other places on the internet for partisan rhetoric. Thank you.

by Murshed Zaheed on Tue Jun 21, 2005 at 04:40:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]


Well I get to answer common cause and I get ...

censored.

I repeat. You need to hit the Republican Party contributors in their wallets. Often you see Republican congressman cutting money for people who need help from our government.

We need to cut off money to some of the Republican contributors and make legislative demands of these contributors.

Yes, consider me a partisan. I believe in the Democratic party and have for the last 35 years and more.

Ever since 1920's the Republican Party has stood for poorbashing, cheap labor and racial and religious bigotry.

by Anonymous Citizen on Tue Jun 21, 2005 at 05:07:42 PM EST


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