Common Cause Minnesota spent an exciting summer recruiting our board members, establishing our local office, and contacting legislative candidates to learn about their views on issues that matter most to our members. In fact, over the last six months we have built a solid foundation for our state chapter. We were thrilled to have Common Cause President Bob Edgar visit Minnesota in June as we kicked off our foundation-building summer. Please view Bob's message to Common Cause supporters here -

This past week's news includes another cause for celebration: Minnesota is now the 38th state with a Common Cause chapter.

Politicizing NASA

Josh Zaharoff posted on June 2 the results of an investigation by the NASA inspector general's office. The inspector general found that political appointees in the space agency's public affairs office worked to control and distort public accounts of its researchers' findings about climate change for at least two years.

From the fall of 2004 through 2006, the report said, NASA's public affairs office "managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public." It noted elsewhere that "news releases in the areas of climate change suffered from inaccuracy, factual insufficiency, and scientific dilution."

Josh points out that "the reason we have career staff at government agencies is to handle such issues without political interference -- the exact opposite of what's happening now, as this story shows."

Last week we in the Connecticut office were fortunate enough to have Bob Edgar visit our small state.  While planning his visit, we  knew we had to have at least one event with our activist community.  We are so lucky in Connecticut to have a large group of people dedicated to grassroots activity.  They've stood on street corners every Saturday for five years holding up signs to try and stop the Iraq War.  They came in droves to phone bank for campaign finance reform.  They door knock and lit drop and attend rallies and marches.  Connecticut Activists Rock!  And in August of 2006 they helped pull off a primary upset that sent signals around the nation when Ned Lamont beat Senator Lieberman. But as the war wears on, as our national government continues to be run my the money machine, as our media keeps on embracing its role as the corporate mouth piece, activists are getting tired.  Is their tireless work actually producing any fruit?

What better way to help keep these dedicated troops energized and to introduce Dr. Edgar to some of the best folks in the state then by hosting a forum with both Dr. Edgar and Ned Lamont?  Both of these men know first hand how important the grassroots are to any effort to speak truth to power - and so the plan was set in motion.  Follow me after the jump and I'll tell you how the evening went.

Bob Edgar has called for radical change with Common Cause's Fresh Start for Democracy Campaign.  GrannyD, Doris Haddock, veteran champion of election and campaign finance reform, likes to characterize what is needed as a "velvet revolution," a term borrowed from the Ukrainian transformative election of 2004.  

This kind of revolution implies the absence of the weapons of war, but no less the fervor.  Edgar's emphasis on urgency reflects that fervor and the immediacy of the need for change.  He speaks of 2008 being the year in which "we have got a fundamental choice to make."  That choice, to be embraced, has to be predicated on a truthful understanding of what went so terribly wrong and why.  Understanding the past is an important step in formulating enduring change for the future.

A revealing example of the diabolical nature of our democracy's recent decline and the intricate strategies used by those responsible can be examined through the lens of the theft of the 2000 and 2004 elections and is continuing today.

One only needs to be reminded of Orwell's 1984, to begin to understand what is going on in plain sight.  In a recent priceless example to divert attention from the truth, the Cleveland Plain Dealer editorialized on Nov. 24 that:

Check out Bob Edgar and other experts talking about the giveaway of one of the most important resources of the information age: the spectrum (also known as our publicly-owned airwaves).

The video is long, but it's worth taking the time to understand this issue.

As a group fighting for transparency, we're not about to hide our own successes--so enjoy this latest Common Cause news from around the country:

• Florida passes paper ballot bill...
• ... and restores voting rights for ex-felons
• Tennessee lobbyist disclosure law goes into effect
• Contribution limit violations in NY, as papers continue to back reforms
• Edgar takes the helm