$80 million to fund new wave of liberal advocacy groups

[mom cat]

Post Sunday: $80 million to fund new wave of liberal advocacy groups
RAW STORY

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Post_Sunday_80m_to_fund_new_wave_of_liberal_gr_0806.html

At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute at least $1 million each to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups, to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up over the last three decades, the Washington Post will front Sunday, RAW STORY has learned. Excerpts follow.

#
The money will be channeled through a new partnership called the Democracy Alliance, founded last spring in a series of liberal initiatives as the Democratic Party and its allies struggle with the loss of power in Congress and the White House. Many influential Democratic contributors were left angry and despairing over the party's poor showing in last year's elections, and are looking for more effective ways to invest their support.

Financial commitments totaling at least $80 million over the next five years at a time when some other liberal groups, such as George Soros-backed America Coming Together, are floundering--suggest the Democracy Alliance is becoming a player in the long-term effort to reinvigorate the left. The group has a goal of raising $200 million, a sum that would inevitably come partly at the expense of more traditional Democratic groups.

Advertisement


The Democracy Alliance will act as a financial clearing house. Its staff and board of directors will develop a list of established and proposed groups they believe will develop and promote ideas on the left. To fulfill their million-dollar pledge, partners must agree to give $200,000 or more a year for at least five years to alliance-endorsed groups.

[Chicago Democrat]

1. FANTASTIC NEWS!

happy happy joy joy!
happy happy joy joy!

[mom cat]

3. Glad to bring you some joy!

[CTyankee]

2. At last! We will do it

I know a lot of folks think that money won't do it, but money did it for Repubs so why not us? I've been a fundraiser for organizations and I know that money makes the biggest difference next to mission and quality of leadership. This is great!

[BlueCaliDem]

57. Money Didn't Do It for The Repugs...

...VOTE TABULATING MACHINES DID!
When are our Dem leaders going to stop whistling by the graveyard of voter's rights and tackle the 8000 pound elephant in our corrupt voting system, thy name be: ELECTION THIEVERY??
Until we address the nearly ignored Conyers report, we're not going to ever win another election if our reps and senators piss off the wrong Repug!
Then all we're going to get is DLC-like Dems forever more.
More better to invest that 80 mil into launching a liberal equivalent of Faux News Channel so we can finally put on the air immediate counterattacks of the corporate-owned-rightwing-media-prejudice.
Had we that today, then the Downing Street Memo and Rep Conyers would've gotten the attention they so desperately and crucially needed, right?

[OrwellwasRight]

61. While you make many good points,

there is no reason to ignore the way the Repubs have spent millions creating a Repub hegemony ever since the 1964 Goldwater debacle. They have AEI, Cato, the American Heritage Foundation all spewing "research" and having their extreme positions portrayed on NPR as unbiased research.

We can no longer fight their propoganda machine by resting on the laurels of who we used to be. We need to build our own research and message infrastructure and we are only 40 years behind.

I say woo-hoo!

[BlueCaliDem]

69. I Believe I Made THE Point...

...because fact of the matter is, no matter how many millions liberals invest into "focus groups", if we don't get the message out, what does it matter?
When the Repubs and the Corporate owned rightwing media continues to demonize extremely sensible, and for most Americans, crucial and beneficial plans, like universal healthcare, or equal rights for all Americans without us having any way to broadcast reasoning in our defense, we're not going anywhere.
It's that simple.
Good thing Americans aren't idiots, though.
They're catching on that Judith Miller isn't that much of a heroin after all, and the WP and NYT as well as the Faux News Channel have seen steady declines in readers/viewers.
This is the United States. It's all about "esthetics"; about what we see.
No wonder C-Span is incredibly popular these days--not with rw idealogues, but with the majority of Americans who have a clue about what's real in the world.
Just imagine if we had the liberal equivalent of the Fox News Channel? Do you think that 78% of Americans still would support Bush's rush to war? Which do you think the majority of Americans will tune into when every other network/cable news spew lies about WMD for countering what's being spewed?
If we build it, they all will come.
The success of Air America Radio, and shows like, the Daily Show, and Bill Maher's "Real Time" should give us a clue.
Also, don't forget, that when Donohue had his show on, on MSNBC (very liberal show!) he had the highest ratings in that short period of time--even over Mega-Mouth Matthew's.
He only lost to the once highly popular "The O'Reilly Factor" (although that too, can be disputed since, well, Fox has the tendency to "bend the truth" just a wee bit) but had MSNBC not gone yellow-belly, I'm sure Donohue would've surpassed that rightwing blowhard within a few more months!
Also, don't forget.
We already have focus groups: NOW, NAACP, the many, many liberal weblogs--like Democraticunderground; Code Pink, Working Assets, and so many, many other groups--but they don't get to tell the rest of America what they'd found out, since well, the corporate rightwing biased media.
I'm still convinced we need to invest that 80 mil+ into a liberal news station AND get the Republicans OUT of vote tabulating!

[OrwellwasRight]

70. "NOW, NAACP, liberal weblogs"

are not the same as think tanks. They do not publish scholarly articles that tell the ful side of the liberal story. NAACP and NOW, like NARAL and NRDC (and others) are good at what they do, but:

1) they focus on single issues (or clusters of issues); and
2) they make no attempt to tie it all together to raise the liberal consciousness on all issues.

I agree that if we let Diebold take over voting machines in all states, then there is no sense in doing much else (except preparing for a possible revolution).

However, I do not believe that the electronic takeover will happen (the word is spreading). Thus, we do need to fight back with think tanks that can appear as credible as all the right wingers' think tanks and get their voices heard on the op-ed pages and other forms of media.

Try reading The Republican Noise Machine or Don't Think of an Elephant for some insight on this.

Also, on DU, there isn't necessarily ONE right answer. If there were, we wouldn't need the contributions of some many unique members.

[davidinalameda]

4. pretty cool

we need more groups like this set up to fight the right wingers

they've been at it much longer than we have and we have a lot of catching up to do

[Gronk Groks]

10. That is the understatement of the century...

...we are about 20 years behind the curve !!!

About time we got started.
(Please God make it so...)

[WhiteTara]

27. true

but truth and knowledge are so much more exhilarating that it will be easier.

[krkaufman]

5. Before ya'll get too excited....

... let's *do* remember that the wealthy Dems/liberals may well not back a platform that the progressive/liberal left will love. (Think DLC.)

I especially don't like the sound of "alliance-endorsed groups." We may soon find we're fighting both the think tanks of the far-Right *AND* the near-Right.

[Jane Austin]

9. The RawStory article referenced "80 liberals", not

80 Democrats.

This sounds like good news to me, although I'm curious why the article characterized ACT as "floundering".

[StuckinKS]

12. I'm not certain which thread I read it in

but it was reported that ACT had just fired most of its staff. This development must be the basis for the "floundering" comment.

[krkaufman]

15. ACT was very heavily union-based (i.e. AFL-CIO)...

... and the recent departure of SEIU & Teamsters was expected to affect ACT.

Here's a WPost article...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/02/AR2005080201849.html

[Jane Austin]

33. Oh, yeah . . . I remember something about that.

I assumed it had to do with the ebb and flow of the election cycles.

Thanks for the info.

[krkaufman]

13. Yes, that's why I said "Dems/liberals"...

... rather than liberal Democrats. Since the narrow-minded press would classify Biden, Liebermann, Clinton, Bayh, etc as liberal, I think they've proven they can't be trusted to accurately evaluate.

The point remains...

[davidinalameda]

35. ACT has basically closed down shop

they're running with like a few employees

[goforit]

62. Yes...this sounds great....Gotta keep those Dem traitors out though.

and you know they'll get their tentacles in some how.

So keep one eye open.

Nothing like having Lieberman spying on this group.

[Gloria]

6. Yeah, money without a SOUL won't fix it.....

eom

[VADem11]

7. Glad to see some money

I just hope they are successful and liberal enough.

[rocktivity]

8. Thank you, Paul Hackett!

I do hope that he changes his mind about re-enlisting. He can best serve his country by remaining here.

:headbang:
rocknation

[Placebo]

11. Best news I've heard in a long time.

:thumbsup:

[tblue37]

14. Why is Soros' group floundering?

Has he withdrawn financial support? Or are the clueless about what to do? Why should it be floundering?

[Jane Austin]

34. See posts 12 and 15 upthread for explanations.

I asked the same thing and those good people answered.

[Eric J in MN]

41. Yes. He's not giving them more money, because

he gave them $20 million to get Bush out of office,and they didn't.

[Pirate Smile]

WP: Rich Liberals Vow to Fund Think Tanks

Rich Liberals Vow to Fund Think Tanks
Aim Is to Compete With Conservatives

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 7, 2005; Page A01

At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute $1 million or more apiece to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up over the past three decades.

The money will be channeled through a new partnership called the Democracy Alliance, which was founded last spring -- the latest in a series of liberal initiatives as the Democratic Party and its allies continue to struggle with the loss of the House and the Senate in 1994 and the presidency in 2000. Many influential Democratic contributors were left angry and despairing over the party's poor showing in last year's elections, and are looking for what they hope will be more effective ways to invest their support.

Financial commitments totaling at least $80 million over the next five years generated by the Democracy Alliance in recent months -- at a time when some liberal groups, such as the George Soros-backed America Coming Together, are floundering -- suggest that the group is becoming a player in the long-term effort to reinvigorate the left. The group has a goal of raising $200 million -- a sum that would inevitably come in part at the expense of more traditional Democratic groups, although alliance officials say donors have committed to maintaining past contribution levels.

Alliance chairman Steven Gluckstern, a retired investment banker, said that President Bush's victory over Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) last year after millions of dollars had been poured into pro-Democratic "527" groups caused many contributors to think that a dramatically new approach is needed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/06/AR2005080600848.html

[Pirate Smile]

16. more

Rosenberg said liberals and Democrats now face a conservative "information-age Tammany Hall, a 21st century political machine, that is simply better than what we have on our side.

-snip-
The goal of the alliance, according to organizers, is to foster the growth of liberal or left-leaning institutions equipped to take on prominent think tanks on the right, including the Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institution, the American Enterprise Institute and the Cato Institute, as well as such training centers as the Leadership Institute and the Young America's Foundation.

"To be effective in the 21st century in promoting your beliefs, it is necessary to have a financially secure institutional infrastructure that has the capacity to promote consistently and coherently a set of ideas, policies and messages," Stein said. "We understand that it's very hard to promote a belief system and to be operationally high performing if you don't have multi-year funding."

-snip-
There has been a flourishing of new, pro-Democratic think tanks and advocacy groups in recent years. Clinton administration chief of staff John D. Podesta established the Center for American Progress; former Democratic congressional aide David Sirota recently set up the state-oriented Progressive Legislative Action Network; and author David Brock helped create Media Matters for America last year, among others. All these groups are potential recipients of money from alliance partners.

[Teaser]

17. about goddamn time.

nt

[Pirate Smile]

18. True, but I'm so glad they are finally doing it.

[Crunchy Frog]

19. About 30 years late

but better late then never I guess. I just hope they can manage to actually be effective doing this. I know we have the capacity to pour money into ventures that are not effective and I hope it won't be the case this time.

[Eloriel]

55. But we have one HUGE advantage

and that is, most of America already agrees with us on the issues. We don't have to LIE about who we are and what we're up to, or come up with spin and fakery and deceptions about ourselves or our agenda. That makes it hugely easier.

Too, things (communications, and just the pace of life) are moving MUCH faster than they did 30 years ago, so while you're right that this is 30 years late, we can make up for lost time easily.

[eleny]

20. Maybe they can climb into the tanks and...

...think about voting machine manufacturing. Free voting machines to counties and with open software. That would be a start to finish off the neoconservative lie machines.

[AtomicKitten]

21. agreed

There is really no point in voting anymore if somebody doesn't put a leash on the EVMs. There is video circulating of a programmer testifying about hacking the vote. He said there are two ways to detect fraud - (1) source code - which we will never see because it has been deemed "proprietary," and (2) paper ballots to double-check the tallies, which, of course, we don't have. Hell, Diebold makes ATMs and they have freakin' receipts.

This is just crazy.

I want these liberal richies to think tank their way to fixing that.

[Pirate Smile]

31. Well, perhaps an Institute focused on Voting can be started and

funded by them that would lead the way in deciphering all the individual state laws, promoting initiatives for election reform, getting them on the ballot as referendums (or whatever each state needs) and campaigning for their passage.

We will never get anything of any worth through the current Congress so we need to focus on the individual states. The results can come more quickly and we don't have time to waste.

[Jane Austin]

36. Montana has already passed good voter legislation.

They have a new Democratic Governor and a Dem majority in their legislature.

That's the only way we're going to get it done.

County by county and state by state.

[AtomicKitten]

48. Howard Dean had a good suggestion

When interviewed on Air America, he said we can't count on the government to fix this because Repubs have blocked it every turn of the way, but he said citizens could compile signatures to put it on state ballots mandating that no voting machines could be used unless a paper recount could be done. That would force the EVM companies to put the damn paper trail on that they purposely eliminated and then the scanners would be monitored carefully. They either comply or they'll be put out of business.

[PinkyisBlue]

32. Diebold

Yes, the first million dollars should go to replacing the Diebold machines with neutral machines, complete with paper ballots for any needed recounts. All the rest of the money will be wasted if elections continue to be fraudulent.
Al Gore is the true President. Think how different things would be if the true victor had been declared the President.

[Arugula Latte]

54. Welcome to DU, Pinky!

:hi: :toast:

[PinkyisBlue]

60. Thanks!

I like it here.

[Eric J in MN]

40. Offer free optical-scan ballots to any state which agrees to do

a public recount by hand at the precincts on Election Night.

[madfloridian]

22. Two groups actually...more on them.

I posted this in GDP earlier.
One is NPI being formed by Simon Rosenberg. The other is the Democracy Alliance or Phoenix group. Here is an article.

http://www.ndnblog.org/archives/001086.html

"The New Politics Institute is a think tank for politics. It has been established by people from across the country and across the political spectrum to help progressives succeed on the dynamic new battlefield of 21st century politics. NPI’s founding team includes Sergio Bendixen, Jamie Daves, Gina Glantz, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, Mark Penn, Cecile Richards and Joe Trippi. Simon Rosenberg is NPI’s founding President. Bay Area philanthropists Andy and Deborah Rappaport, as well as The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) are major partners in the start-up phase of this exciting new venture." (I have noticed that there has been tendency among some of these to be critical of the DLC, so we will have to see. I notice the DNC is working heavily with the hispanic community, so does this group)

WHO:
Danny Goldberg, Air America CEO
David Brock, Media Matters
Simon Rosenberg – NDN President
Jamie Daves, NPI Fellow

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Here is more about the Democracy Alliance, I believe Rob Stein. Harder to find stuff on it, but it is separate....though many of the same people are involved. From April:

http://ff.org/centers/csspp/library/co2weekly/2005-04-28/phoenix.htm
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Here is more about Democracy Alliance also called the Phoenix Group:

"Rob Stein, a veteran of President Bill Clinton’s Commerce Department and of New York investment banking, convened the meeting of venture capitalists, left-leaning moneymen and a select few D.C. strategists on how to seed pro-Democratic think tanks, media outlets and leadership schools to compete with such entrenched conservative institutions as the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute and the Leadership Institute.

Senior Democratic National Committee (DNC) officials were quietly briefed about the meeting in recent weeks. DNC Chairman Howard Dean was aware of it, in part though his friendship with Stein, but one senior DNC source said the organizers “kept that list kind of tight.”

Sarah Ingersoll, de facto spokeswoman for Stein’s Democracy Alliance, said it was “a very preliminary meeting of committed donors interested in building a community to support progressive infrastructure.”

The Democracy Alliance will act as a clearinghouse and is expected to channel much of its money to new organizations and existing ones such as John Podesta’s Center for American Progress and David Brock’s Media Matters for America.

The money details are several weeks away. “There aren’t dollar figures at this point,” Ingersoll said."

This article from The Hill mentions both groups.
http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/051105/tank.html

[Jane Austin]

38. Hey, Cool! Cecile Richards is Ann Richards' daughter.

And I see Kos is there, too. Sounds like a good group.

Now if they'll recruit some bulldogs to go on the TeeVee shows against the usual suspects from the Repugs.

[confludemocrat]

58. Yeah, a bootcamp for on-air lib bulldogs is a good idea and the first clas

s should come from among DUers.

[bliss_eternal]

23. Great news! Glad to hear this..

:woohoo:

[Zorra]

24. Great idea. I'd start recruiting from DU right now if I were them. n/t

[Pirate Smile]

29. They do mention the internet and blogs.

"In addition, the number of liberal bloggers on the Web has been growing at a fast pace, and their blogs have become both central forums for debate over party strategies and hugely successful vehicles for campaign fundraising, including raising through online contributions more than two thirds of the $750,000 used in the surprisingly competitive House campaign of Democrat Paul Hackett in Ohio. Rosenberg has created the New Politics Institute, an organization that works with bloggers.

Alliance organizers said they are seeking to avoid involvement in the ideological disputes that have plagued Democrats in recent years. But it may prove difficult to avoid them when the list of organizations eligible for contributions is drafted."

[aquart]

25. God, we're slow.

Somebody tell Mr. Gluckstern that he who controls the count controls the outcome.

[Ksec]

26. more great news

[Chicago Democrat]

28. Rich Liberals are outnumbered 1 to 5 to Rich Conservatives

Naturally.


Rich Liberal have to give 5 times as much to even break even to their natural base.

[fearnobush]

30. Liberal = Liberty = people = America = Love Liberty = Love Liberals

<>

[loudsue]

37. Rosenberg.... and the NDN.... is the "repuke lite" crowd.

They will NEVER push the policies of their base. They are DETERMINED to push for "gobalization", "deregulation", and corporatization.

Until wealthy Democrats, who want to turn this country around, LISTEN to their "blogger base", they'll continue to throw good money after bad.

I want to throw the whole lot of them out of congress, and get back to some REAL American Democratic base values.

With the NDN in there, instead of world peace, we're going to get more whirrled peas. They just don't "get it".

:kick::kick::kick:

[madfloridian]

39. Maybe not.

I notice that Kos, who is working with them, has been speaking out loudly against DLC policies. He even went after Hillary last week about her DLC stance. They may surprise us. Rosenberg sort of split from From, so there is hope.

[SoCalDem]

42. Good news..BUT we really needed this in 2001

and the 30 years prior to that.. It will help, but the republican machine did not start cranking out big wins until their "machine" had been working for about 20 years or so..

Their media/think-tank machinery was fired up shortly after Goldwater's defeat, and kicked into high gear aftre watergate..they did not succeed in a big way until 94....

[oscar111]

43. RADIO STATIONS? any $ for AAR-style get-message-to-voters?

think tanks are fine, but MSM doesnt let the tank's good ideas out to the public

24/7

the way AAR does.

some money direct to AAR would be wise.
Or to a similar network, in areas where it would NOT compete with AAR.

[SoCalDem]

44. Exactly.. $80M to buy radio & TV would work faster/better

AAR proves that.

[oscar111]

45. AAR up to 66 stations: Bush down to 41% -- Connected? Yes.

as AAR expanded,

bush sank.

Think tanks are now bottled up by the MSM. Short replies by pundits are the best we can get out of MSM.

But talk radio is a 24/7 campaign ad.

Limbaugh is a campaign ad right now, for the GOP, on

EVERY US radio.

we must match that. Fast.

Bush's decline is not due to Bush's recent foul deeds --- He did many foul deeds BEFORE AAR.
Did not sink, then.

Now many voters are hearing why his deeds are foul, and the result is sinking bush poll numbers.

Blame AAR.

[oscar111]

46. 160 new RADIO STATIONS: 20 in each of 8 swing states

that is what 80 million can buy us, at 1/2 million cost for a station. {price is what the anchorage station was asking, when IBEW planned to buy it, and put AAR on. They later did buy it.. cost not known to me}. -- KUDO is the station.

Imagine what 20 new stations in each of 8 swing states could do for us!

If they delivered just six new states for the Dems, we would have a solid victory!

Perhaps too much of a margin for the GOP to steal without getting caught.

===================
MENTAL JOY
To get a feel for this, picture where in your state you would place 20 new stations. How would you scatter them? What towns?
Isn't it amazing how totally you could blanket your state?

which states? Ohio, Florida, Arkansas, ...
==================

DIEBOLD AUTOMATICALLY ENDED
Also gets us Paper Ballots Hand Counted. Our current effort to get rid of Diebold suffers from the big problem we have on all issues -- cant get the message out.

With radio educating the millions on the Diebold problem, new stations would make it possible to end Diebold.

[AtLiberty]

47. It doesn't take a think tank to figure out what it takes to win --

KILL THE DAMN VOTING MACHINES!!!

Can I receive a consulting fee?

[annabanana]

49. accurate voting = legitimate government = media coverage

When the media companies learn that the government will bend to the will of the people (and that the vote accurately reflects the will of the people) they will be back on board that whole "gov't of the people" thing because THAT'S where their bread will be BUTTERED.

[leveymg]

50. WP: "Rich Liberals Vow to Fund Think Tanks"

Hey, DUers: What would you do with $200 mil?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/06/AR2005080600848_pf.html
Rich Liberals Vow to Fund Think Tanks
Aim Is to Compete With Conservatives

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 7, 2005; A01


At least 80 wealthy liberals have pledged to contribute $1 million or more apiece to fund a network of think tanks and advocacy groups to compete with the potent conservative infrastructure built up over the past three decades.

The money will be channeled through a new partnership called the Democracy Alliance, which was founded last spring -- the latest in a series of liberal initiatives as the Democratic Party and its allies continue to struggle with the loss of the House and the Senate in 1994 and the presidency in 2000. Many influential Democratic contributors were left angry and despairing over the party's poor showing in last year's elections, and are looking for what they hope will be more effective ways to invest their support.

Financial commitments totaling at least $80 million over the next five years generated by the Democracy Alliance in recent months -- at a time when some liberal groups, such as the George Soros-backed America Coming Together, are floundering -- suggest that the group is becoming a player in the long-term effort to reinvigorate the left. The group has a goal of raising $200 million -- a sum that would inevitably come in part at the expense of more traditional Democratic groups, although alliance officials say donors have committed to maintaining past contribution levels. Alliance chairman Steven Gluckstern, a retired investment banker, said that President Bush's victory over Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) last year after millions of dollars had been poured into pro-Democratic "527" groups caused many contributors to think that a dramatically new approach is needed.

SNIP

The Democracy Alliance will act as a financial clearing house. Its staff members and board of directors will develop a lineup of established and proposed groups that they believe will develop and promote ideas on the left. To fulfill their million-dollar pledge, each partner must agree to give $200,000 or more a year for at least five years to alliance-endorsed groups.

SNIP

There has been a flourishing of new, pro-Democratic think tanks and advocacy groups in recent years. Clinton administration chief of staff John D. Podesta established the Center for American Progress; former Democratic congressional aide David Sirota recently set up the state-oriented Progressive Legislative Action Network; and author David Brock helped create Media Matters for America last year, among others. All these groups are potential recipients of money from alliance partners.

In addition, the number of liberal bloggers on the Web has been growing at a fast pace, and their blogs have become both central forums for debate over party strategies and hugely successful vehicles for campaign fundraising, including raising through online contributions more than two thirds of the $750,000 used in the surprisingly competitive House campaign of Democrat Paul Hackett in Ohio. Rosenberg has created the New Politics Institute, an organization that works with bloggers.

SNIP

Jockeying for cash among possible recipient organizations has already begun. Robert L. Borosage, director of the liberal Campaign for America's Future, said the alliance will fund a "set of institutions in this city to be in the national debate, and we would like to be one of them." Stein, who closely examined the finances of institutions on the right and left over the past two years, contends that there is a huge financial imbalance favoring conservatives that he puts at $295 million vs. $75 million.

SNIP

[Greeby]

51. Think Tanks

The problem is thinking too much and acting too little :eyes:

[BrklynLiberal]

52. It's about time!!!!!!!!!!!!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[Beetwasher]

53. Took 'Em Long Enough

n/t

[Orsino]

56. Not good.

Just perpetuates the modern American model of oligarchy. I don't such much reason to celebrate some of "our" rich people finally pledging to get in the game.

Our needs will not be served until politiicans are cut off from money.

I will admit, though, that this news means things will suck a little less.

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

59. that's great news! :)

[goforit]

63. I'm sure they could raise more $$$ from the less fortunate as well.

If their intentions are correct, then I think a few of us
could send a buck or two.

Anything is better than the DNC or DLC, you know the ones...the ones
who pretend they are democrats.

[orleans]

64. sounds good to me. n/t

[Trajan]

65. Im gonna be hopeful and humble ...

and just say "YAY!" ...

[KurtNYC]

66. Liberals pledge millions to revive US left - Guardian UK

Scores of the US's richest people have pledged $1m (£560,000) or more towards a new attempt to reinvigorate the American left and counter the powerful Republican political machine.

The money will be funnelled through an organisation called the Democracy Alliance which, according to a report in the Washington Post, will help fund a network of thinktanks and advocacy groups seeking to halt the shift to the cultural and political right.
...
The alliance chairman, Steven Gluckstern, a retired investment banker, told the Post many liberal contributors felt that a dramatic new and more sustained approach was needed, instead of the cash poured into special interest pro-Democrat groups ahead of an election.

"It wasn't only the failure to win, it was the question, 'what does it take to win?'," Mr Gluckstern said. "Among the lessons learned was that to bring back the progressive majority in this country is not just a periodic election investment strategy."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5257230-110878,00.html

This effort is organized by Rob Stein, democratic strategist and is IMHO part of what is needed. Good to hear that it is moving forward.

[whistle]

67. Starting with whom I wonder......

[IA_Seth]

68. Is there a list of the donors? n/t