Get Democrats elected to Congress in 2006, restore balance of power

As I write this it looks as though Virginia is going Democratic too to tie the Democratic Senators with the Republican Senators at 49 each. The 2 independents are democratic leaning, so we’ll have a majority there as well as in the House of Representatives.

In my state, our Democratic governor was reelected via a wide margin, and that silver-tongued senator Rick Santorum was soundly defeated by Democrat Bob Casey Jr. (Let it be known though that while he’s registered Democrat, his views on many liberal concerns are actually quite conservative.) In my area, the Republican representative was reelected which I had expected though there was a nice turnout of Democratic votes. Also in our state senate race the unopposed Republican won though I did get a write-in vote against him.

I think the biggest news of the day though is that Rumsfeld is out. That shows that Bush realizes that the country is fed up with their secret agendas and half-truths. It’s time to focus on our needs as a nation, and help us heal our own wounds instead of inflicting more on other nations.

I was having a conversation with my mother yesterday and she revealed that she’s already cast her absentee ballot for Rick Santorum and Lynn Swann. Her comments revealed that she’s been sucked into the negative half-truths that the Republican spin doctors have been flooding the airwaves with. So my votes will be cancelled out by hers.

While I hope that each of you will vote Democratic tomorrow, it’s more important that we each take the time to do our democratic duty and cast a vote.

One last pitch why you shouldn’t vote for Rick Santorum if you’re voting in Pennsylvania, here’s 51 facts about our Senator:

1. Rick was the only member of the entire U.S. Congress to go to Florida and intrude at Terri Schiavo’s deathbed. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/30/05)

2. Rick voted against a minimum wage increase 13 times. (Vote 344, 7/31/95; Vote 519, 10/27/95; Vote 54, 3/27/96; Vote 183, 7/9/96; Vote 184, 7/9/96; Vote 278, 9/22/98; Vote 77, 3/25/99; Vote 94, 4/28/99; Vote 239, 7/30/99; Vote 356, 11/9/99; Vote 76, 4/7/00; Vote 26, 3/7/05; Vote 179, 6/21/06)

3. Rick has voted with President Bush 98% of the time. (Congressional Quarterly, Pres. Vote Support Analysis)

4. “Making people struggle a little bit is not necessarily the worst thing” was Rick’s defense of his careless vote against increased child care funding. (Congressional Quarterly, 9/12/03)

5. Rick wants to allow states to outlaw all forms of birth control, even for married couples. (Newsweek, 12/27/04)

6. Rick on birth control: “I’m not a believer in birth control. . . I don’t think it works. I think it’s harmful to women.” (Newsweek, 12/27/04; CN8, 7/28/05)

7. Santorum has repeatedly voted against increasing funding for Pell Grants that provide needed financial aid to lower-income students. (Vote 220, 5/25/95; Vote 68, 3/17/05; Vote 51, 3/11/04; Vote 331, 9/9/03; Vote 339, 9/10/03)

8. “Yes, I am something of a salesman for homeschooling and cyber-schooling” is Rick’s description of his public education plan. (It Takes a Family; Patriot News, 7/31/05)

9. Pennsylvanians have paid $55,000 in local tax money to cyber-school Rick’s children at their estate in Virginia. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/14/04)

10. Rick’s thoughts on college education for women: “The notion that college education is a cost-effective way to help poor, low-skill, unmarried mothers with high school diplomas or GEDs move up the economic ladder is just wrong.” (It Takes A Family, p.138)

11. Rick’s disrespect for two-paycheck families: “In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really take an honest look at the budget, they might confess that both of them really don’t need to.” (It Takes a Family, p.94)

12. Rick has repeatedly voted against the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows Americans to take time off from their jobs and take care of their sick children or other family members. (Vote 393, 11/13/91; Vote 22, 2/3/93; Vote 443, 9/30/92)

13. Rick opposes the right to privacy: “The right to privacy doesn’t exist, in my opinion, in the U.S. Constitution.” (Associated Press, 4/22/03)

14. Fly Rod & Reel magazine has named Rick one of their “dirty dozen” senators for his votes against clean water, and he has supported Bush’s lowering of standards for arsenic in water. (CNN, 4/25/01)

15. “Yes, there will be species that go extinct, but other species will come along and take their place” was Rick’s response to his vote to end all enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 5/1/95; Vote 106, 3/16/95)

16. Rick founded a small “charity” organization, which is subsidizing his campaign staff and campaign activity with tax-exempt dollars. (Philadelphia Daily News, 2/21/06)

17. His reelection campaign is staffed in large part by his taxpayer-funded Senate and conference office employees. (Roll Call, 7/25/06)

18. Rick has accepted 15 corporate flights, allowing companies like Wal-Mart to funnel support to him since they can’t legally make cash donations. (Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/3/06; Santorum FEC Reports, 04-06)

19. Since Rick has been in leadership, our national debt has ballooned to $8 trillion. (US Department of the Treasury, 7/14/06)

20. Big oil companies, due to Rick’s support, will receive billions in tax breaks over the next five years, while the price of gas has doubled since he entered the Senate. Remember that when you fill up your tank. (Vote 213, 7/29/05; Vote 332, 11/17/05)

21. Santorum also raised more drug company money than any member of Congress – $298,327 this cycle alone. It’s enough to give you a headache. (Campaign Finance Reports)

22. Rick voted against an amendment to negotiate better prescription drug prices under Medicare. (Vote 60, 3/17/05)

23. Rick has been dubbed the “King of the K Street Project” due to his intimate connections with special interest lobbyists. (Washington Post, 8/2/02)

24. Rick has pocketed more lobbyist, special-interest money than any other politician in the country. (Center for Responsive Politics)

25. Another piece of Rick’s shady financial history: this year, he bought two apartments at $1 a piece and then sold one a few months later for over $100,000. (Centre County Property Records; The Times-Tribune, 6/15/06)

26. Rick helped pass CAFTA, a bill that will ship hundreds of thousands of American jobs overseas. Since 2001, Pennsylvania has lost 181,000 manufacturing jobs. (Vote 170, 6/30/05)

27. Santorum talks tough on immigration but has opposed tougher penalties for employers who hire illegal immigrants. (Vote #96, 4/30/96; Vote #40, 5/23/06)

28. Rick Santorum has voted against increased funding for first responders, port security, and other vital measures. The 9/11 Commission gave Bush and Congress five Fs and 12 Ds for their slow progress. (S Con Res 95, 3/11/04; HR 3338, 12/6/01; HR 4567, 9/9/04; HJ Res 2, 1/16/03)

29. Rick voted seven times against hiring more border patrol agents. (Vote #3, 1/16/03; Vote #119, 4/3/03; Vote #291, 7/22/03; Vote #169, 9/9/04; Vote #182, 9/14/04; Vote #64, 3/17/05; Vote #95, 4/26/06)

30. Rick doesn’t think seniors should be allowed to buy cheaper medicine from Canada. He even voted to have border patrol agents confiscate prescription medicine bought in Canada for individual use. (The Hill, 7/12/06)

31. Rick has voted 14 times to cut Medicare. (Vote 69, 4/17/91; Vote 39, 3/4/92; Vote 609, 11/22/93; Vote 232, 5/25/95; Vote 296, 6/29/95; Vote 556, 10/28/95; Vote 156, 5/23/96; Vote 159, 6/13/96; Vote 92, 5/23/97; Vote 96, 6/5/97; Vote 130, 6/25/97; Vote 209, 7/31/97; Vote 303, 11/3/05; Vote 10, 2/2/06)

32. In 1990, Rick won his first election by attacking his opponent for living in Virginia. Today, Rick and his family live in a home valued at almost $1,000,000 in Leesburg, Virginia, even while he insists a two-bedroom home in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, is his primary residence. (American Prospect, 3/1/06)

33. Santorum has opposed billions in federal funding for Veterans Affairs and has voted down mandatory funding for veterans’ health care. (Vote #90, 4/12/05; Vote #89, 4/12/05; Vote #145, 6/23/04)

34. Despite talking big on health care, 714,000 Pennsylvanians have lost their health insurance since Rick became a Senate leader. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

35. Arguing about his $37,000 pay raise, Santorum said, “if the people of Pennsylvania saw my record on the pay raise, they would stand up and applaud, not complain that I voted for three pay increases….” (Pennsylvania Press Club, 8/28/06)

36, 37, and 38. Three times Rick has voted to raise his own pay, after he said in 1990, “Whatever the salary is when I walk into office. . . that’s what I’ll take. . . I won’t take one additional penny. . . .” (Vote 360, 12/7/01; Vote 242, 11/13/02; Vote 406, 10/23/03; AP, 11/7/90)

39. Rick Santorum led efforts last spring to eliminate overtime pay protections. (Vote 27, 3/7/05)

40. Rick talks tough on lawsuit reform and supports a $250,000 cap on malpractice suits, yet he testified on behalf of his wife when she sued her chiropractor for $500,000. (AP, 12/15/99; ABC Primetime Live, 11/11/05)

41. After Hurricane Katrina, Rick called for penalties on many of the suffering victims who could not afford to evacuate. (WTAE-TV, 9/4/05)

42. Rick Santorum authored a bill to dismantle the National Weather Service. (Palm Beach Post, 4/21/05)

43. Rick is considered the #1 proponent of Bush’s Social Security privatization scheme. “It’s a very small amount of money skimmed off the top” was how Rick explained the plan to privatize your Social Security tax money. (National Journal Congress Daily, 2/22/05; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2/20/05)

44. Rick’s plan for Social Security would also raise the retirement age to at least 70, and he even said, “I’d go even farther if I could.” (La Salle University, 10/18/94)

45. Rick has raised over $1,000,000 in donations from oil, gas, chemical, and mining industries. In fact, Rick has raised more money from gas companies than anyone in Washington other than Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. (Center for Responsive Politics; www.opensecrets.org/industries)

46. Rick appears to subsidize his lifestyle with campaign contributions. He pays for fancy hardware, ice cream, and groceries, plus has 66 charges to a Starbucks four miles from his Virginia estate. (Philadelphia Daily News, 2/21/06)

47. Rick on our local schools: “It’s amazing that so many kids turn out to be fairly normal, considering the weird socialization they get in public schools.” He has gone on to consistently oppose funding important initiatives like reducing class size. (It Takes a Family, p.386; Vote #148, 6/27/00; Vote #103, 5/15/01; Vote #379, 10/14/03)

48. Rick Santorum once told a group of young people to “not be afraid to be intolerant.” (The Culture of Life World Youth Day, 7/22/02)

49. Rick was once an advocate for teaching “intelligent design” theory as an alternative to teaching evolution in schools. He has flip-flopped on the issue for this election. Maybe his position “evolved.” (Scranton Times-Tribune, 12/23/05)

50. Rick Santorum is still fixated on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He ran to the media over chemicals no more toxic than “household pesticides” while the military, CIA, and White House acknowledged they were no longer useable. (Washington Post, 6/22/06; CNN, 6/29/2006)

51. Despite the world making North Korea a top priority, Rick discounted the threat and said Kim Jong Il “doesn’t want to die. He wants to watch NBA basketball.” Are you serious? This is how Rick makes threat assessments? (The Patriot-News, 7/11/06)

It’s not too late to make an effort to help accomplish this mission. The Republicans are great at getting people out to vote in the clutch and we need to get the Democratic voters out as well. You can help by reaching out to people who have voted Democratic but haven’t traditionally come out to vote during these mid-term elections. For more information, check out this link:

Call For A Change

Calling does make a difference. You can make a difference.

If you feel like you want to do something to help get people out to vote, consider volunteering for MoveOn.Org’s Call For Change.

Here’s how Call for Change works: they’ve gone through the voter lists in the most competitive House and Senate races, and found the Democratic-leaning people who often don’t vote in mid-term elections like this one. If we can just get the people who voted in 2004 but not in 2002 to vote, they’ll provide a winning margin in a whole bunch of races.

Through an online tool, they’ll give you the numbers of these folks to call, a script to read, and lots of tips. Here are three reasons to give it a whirl:

Person-to-person contact works. All the research shows that the thing that has the very most impact on whether people vote is whether someone reached out to them, person-to-person, to ask them to. We’ve done our own research on this calling program, and we know that it’s as effective as anything volunteer phonebank ever studied.

_It’s really easy_—even if you’re not sure if you want to make calls, I’d encourage you to check the online tool out. Make a call or two. In an hour or less, just by making these calls, you can help change the course of our country.

And it actually feels good. Most of the folks you’re talking to are barraged by the NRCC’s negative ads, but they haven’t actually been contacted by real people. You’re re-establishing the civic ties that have eroded after years of shock politics and sensationalism.

So, can you join us and make some calls? Just sign up at:

MoveOn.Org’s Volunteer Registration

A final reason to do it? Poetic justice. Tom Reynolds and the other Republicans we’re working to defeat believe that they can accumulate power through manipulation and fear. They think it’s OK to put their own political careers ahead of the national good.

This coming Saturday Senator Rick Santorum is coming to Coudersport. He’ll be at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum that morning. Guess where I’m going to be.

Senator Barbara Boxer’s PAC for a Change is currently holding an online vote to determine which Democratic Senate challenger they will support next.

The winning Senate candidate will receive a fundraising email to the entire PAC for a Change email list, which could be worth tens of thousands of dollars to their campaign.

The online polls close on Friday, July 21st. So I encourage you to cast your online vote for your favorite Democratic Senate challenger here:

http://ga4.org/pacforachange/senate_vote.html

Then, while you’re there, I hope you’ll join Senator Barbara Boxer’s PAC for a Change—an organization committed to fighting for the future of our country against the right-wing extremists who are taking America down the wrong path.

Through Barbara Boxer’s PAC for a Change, we can make our voices heard on the critical issues facing America. And with our support, PAC for a Change will contribute to those candidates that need our help. Only by working together to get our message out far and wide across America can we bring about the change we so desperately need.

With the grassroots support of hundreds of thousands of Americans, we can build a better America. So please stand with Barbara Boxer and me—sign up to join PAC for a Change today!

Today is the Pennsylvania primary election where Democrats can vote for their representative on the fall ballot, and Republican can vote for their representative. While the ballots only list the respective party members, you have the ability to write-in whomever you would like.

Today I voted at lunchtime for Bob Casey Jr. for United State Senator. While I realize he may not be as liberal as democrat Chuck Pennaccchio, I believe that he has the best chance of beating Rick Santorum this fall.

Had you heard that next week, unless Congress acts, as many as 14 million seniors will face huge, lifetime penalties because they haven’t yet been able to sign up for the new Medicare prescription drug program?

The big drug companies designed the program to maximize their profit, which made it way too costly, controlling and confusing. No wonder so many seniors haven’t joined!

MoveOn.org has launched an urgent petition to Congress, calling on them to cancel the deadline and fix the program. I just signed, and I hope you’ll join me. You can add your name at:

http://www.moveon.org/pac/seniorsfirst

Thanks!

Pennsylvanians have begun to be innudated with negative campaigns thanks to an organization called “Americans for Job Security”. Reminiscent of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth negative campaign, the AJS are running negative ads that are packed with misleading statements about Santorum opponent Bob Casey. The ads attack his job performance as State Treasurer, when in fact it’s Senator Santorum who has the shabby job performance.

The shadowy political manipulators are continuing to use Rove tactics that when a campaign looks close, they create some outside group to do their dirty work for them and then refuse to comment. In fact, this group is refusing to disclose the donors that are funding these political ads while skirting the law that requires disclosure.

You can make a difference by signing a petition and helping to draw critical attention to this group’s secret funding. To sign the petition, click here.

This just in from MoveOn.Org:

In the next two weeks, we have an important opportunity to elect a new progressive to Congress—and set the stage for winning back the House in November.

California Republican Rep. Duke Cunningham took millions in bribes and is going to jail. On April 11th, there’s a special election to fill his seat, and progressive Democrat Francine Busby has a great chance to win. We’re launching a major get-out-the-vote effort to help her win and to test techniques for taking back Congress in the fall.

Will you make calls from home to voters in her district? It’s easy and fun, and if 10,000 MoveOn members talk to 30 voters each (you can spread the calls over a few days), we can hand Republicans their first defeat of 2006. Sign up to start calling today:

http://political.moveon.org/phone/volunteer

If you can be on the phone (land line or cell) and on your computer at the same time, you’ve got what you need to make calls. We’ll give you background on the race, training materials, and everything you need to feel confident calling voters. Our website will give you voters to call, and get you started in a few minutes.

We did a similar calling program in 2004 that MoveOn members found fun and effective: Kelli S. of San Francisco told us, “I loved connecting with another state and the idea that people from a safely ‘blue’ state could get involved this way.” Janet L. of Norwalk, CT echoed, “I made personal contacts and got at least a few out to vote who would not have voted otherwise.”

This district leans Republican so Francine Busby faces an uphill battle, but a new poll shows her far ahead of the nearest Republican candidate and working toward the 50% she needs to avoid a runoff election. Corruption is a major issue in the race, and Busby has been pushing strong reforms to clean up Washington. She opposed the war in Iraq from the start, and her other priorities include environmental protection, health care reform and securing reproductive choice.

MoveOn members have contributed nearly $125,000 to Busby’s campaign and now your phone calls can get out the votes she needs to win the seat. Equally important, we’re using this campaign to conduct a series of experiments that will help us hone our voter contact plan for the November elections, when we plan a much larger program of phone calls to win back the House.

Help Busby win, help MoveOn plan for the fall elections, and help take a seat away from the radical and corrupt Republican leadership. Sign up now and start calling today:

http://political.moveon.org/phone/volunteer

Thank you.

–Adam, Roy, Jennifer, Carrie and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006

Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.3 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you’d like to support our work, you can give now at:

http://political.moveon.org/donate

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