Pls. sign petition to help Clean Up Congress w/Clean Elections-

[babylonsister]

style public financing of elections.
Petition at this link:
http://ga3.org/campaign/cleanupcongressnow

Clean Up Congress Now


Big Money from wealthy special interests is at the center of Washington's scandals. Tell Congress real reform requires Clean Elections-style public financing of elections.

Even as the DeLay-Abramoff scandals spread, most politicians will do as little "reform" as they can get away with. Choosing a new majority leader or tinkering around the edges won't stop the auctioning of elections, or public policies, to the highest bidder. It's easy for Members of Congress to give up their free lunches from lobbyists; but real reform means ending their dependence on big money contributors.

Congress needs an overhaul, not face-saving measures, and that must include public financing of elections. Americans want reform that takes power away from the wealthy speical interests and gives it back to the people. Sign Today!
Tell me more
Tell Congress: Real reform requires public financing of elections

* Your Congressperson
* Your Senators

I support a comprehensive reform platform that puts citizens in the driver's seat.

Ethics and lobbying reform are important first steps. But the only way to really fix Washington is to sever the connection between politicians and the wealthy special interests and lobbyists who fund their campaigns by enacting public financing of elections.

Reps. John Tierney (D-MA) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) have filed H.R. 3099, the Clean Money, Clean Elections Act, which has 31 cosponsors so far. It goes farther than any reform proposal currently on the table in Washington.

Senators must file companion legislation immediately.

It's time to restore the power of citizens to elect representatives not bought for and paid for by special interest lobbyists and big money donors.

Signed by:

[blm]

1. Senate should resubmit Kerry and Wellstone's Clean Money, Clean Elections

bill in a long overdue tribute to Wellstone.

[bdamomma]

2. signed thanks

[CrazyOrangeCat]

3. Done.

[Auntie Bush]

4. I signed it but there is no place to click to send it.

:shrug: What am I missing? (besides a brain)

[babylonsister]

5. LOL! If I recall, once you enter all your info,

the screen comes up with that info again for your review. On the bottom is a 'confirm' button. That's how you mail it.
Thanks!:hi:

[Auntie Bush]

6. Found it...couldn't see it.

Thanks for your help.
So that means I'm blind...not dumb.Yeah!

[babylonsister]

7. ...

:spray: :hi:

[flpoljunkie]

8. Thanks, babylonsister! This is the key to cleaning up Washington and

making it work once again for the people. K&R!

[flpoljunkie]

9. Kick! Every DUer, MoveOn member, every Dem needs to sign this petition!

Do it now! It is our only hope to clean up the "culture of corruption" in Washington, and not all Congressional Democrats are willing to do what is needed to clean up Washington and make it work for the people.

[babylonsister]

10. Thanks, flpoljunkie. Even if people aren't responding to this

post, I hope they are signing the petition. It's something we can do NOW. :hi:

[blm]

13. Hopefully - sometimes DUers get giddy and miss important work that needs

attention.

[flpoljunkie]

11. How about a recommendation for this post, guys? Nothing is more important!

From David Sirota's post on TPB Cafe on "How We Take It Back"

http://bookclub.tpmcafe.com/node/29537

The second suggestion Hostile Takeover puts forward is a demand that progressives put public financing of elections at the center of our movement - not just leave it as a peripheral issue. I’ve written a lot about this before - and about how it is a travesty that progressives and the Democratic Party still refused to make public financing proposals within their midst a national theme , even in the wake of the Abramoff/Delay/Cunningham scandals where with a bit of work it could be made to resonate even more powerfully with the public than normal.

Oh sure, Big Money interests will deride public financing of elections as "welfare for politicians." But the simple truth is that we get what we pay for. Elections are going to be financed by someone. If we allow elections to continue to be financed by Big Money, we will always have a government that represents Big Money. If we are willing to pay for our election system, we will get far closer to getting a government that represents us. And if you are worried about the cost of a public financing system you need look no further than Duke Cunningham and the over-the-top earmarking abuses to know that taxpayers are already paying a far greater price under the current system of legalized bribery.

You can tell just how important public financing of elections really is by the opposition to it. As just one example, in Portland, Big Money interests are pouring their cash into a campaign to repeal that city’s public financing system. These interests know that if a system exists to free political leaders from the grips of corporate campaign cash, government policy may be a whole lot different. That is, a whole lot more representative of ordinary citizens’ interests.

As I said, for the other suggestions I have for taking it back, go check out the book. But remember the bottom line: we still have a chance to take back our government, as long as we have the guts to start fighting the real fight that we all know is at the center of American politics, but that too many in the Establishment want to pretend is not important: namely, the conflict between those who want to let Big Money interests continue to run roughshod over our country, and those of us who think America deserves better.

To be sure, there are always going to be well-funded, corporate-sponsored voices telling us we shouldn't really be angry that our political leaders are selling off our democracy, that we should just tone it down, that we should back off, and that the political elite really supports everything that we are pushing for, when in fact they clearly do not. That's exactly what the Establishment wants - us to retreat, stand down, and fool ourselves into thinking everything is O.K. But that's exactly what we shouldn't do. We must instead refuse to be intimidated, refuse to relent, refuse to swallow the poll-tested fictions. We must, in short, fight back.

[flpoljunkie]

12. Let's make Washington work for the American people, not BIG MONEY!

[flpoljunkie]

14. Kick!

:kick: