Obama for America

During the course of this election, I have watched how the media has spinned the polls, actions of the candidates, and the election results. First they said that Barack was naiive, were the first to question whether he was "black enough" to get the African-American vote, unexperienced, and "just too good to be true." Later, they misjudged the polls in New Hampshire, suspected that race was very important in this election, placed words in Barack's mouth about the Clintons and the Republicans, said that Barack Obama would win South Carolina only because of Black voters, and the list goes on. Feel free to question the candidates' records, their positions or their past, but don't bring up stereotypes to play on fears of the American people. I have become very disgusted by the politics of yesterday that the media has played. Yes, we love the harsh fights between candidates, but as John Edwards said in the South Carolina Debate, how many children does that give a better education or how many people does it help get better health care? The answer is NOT A SIGNLE ONE. It is time for the media to do its job instead of what it likes to do. It is time for them to talk about the issues AMERICANS care about, not what they wish Americans cared about. Enough is enough. We are tired of the games. We are tired of the tricks. Please get back to the basics of reporting the facts not what you want people to believe. You play an important role in this democracy. Continue to press hard, critique candidates and our leaders but do not play the game of twist the truth to benefit the person who pays your salary. This is America; it is time that we get back to the ideas and values that make this nation strong.

Dear Friends,

Fox News has a horrible record of attacking Black people, politicians,
and cultural institutions. But, at this very moment, the Congressional
Black Caucus has agreed to partner with Fox News to host presidential
debates prior to the 2008 elections.

For the CBC Institute to partner with an organization like Fox
News--given its hostility to Black political interests--is
shameful. I've signed on with ColorOfChange.org to help prevent them
from making this serious mistake. Will you join us in calling on the
Institute to drop its talks with Fox?

Link />
The CBC Institute, an organization led by Black members of Congress,
claims to share ColorOfChange.org's goal of politically empowering
Black America. But after being presented with the case against Fox
and hearing vocal opposition from over 12,000 ColorOfChange.org
members, the CBC Institute elected to complete a deal with Fox.
We'd expect that they would recognize the obvious: that validating
Fox News as legitimate hurts Black America, and undermines the
CBC's credibility.

Fox's record is horrible. Their on-air personalities and regular
guests consistently marginalize Black politicians, culture, and
institutions. In fact, Sen. Obama has stopped giving interviews to Fox
reporters because of repeated attacks on his character and intimations
that he has connections to terrorism. Even the Democratic Party in
Nevada backed out of doing a debate with Fox because of remarks about
Obama, but the CBC Institute hasn't moved.

And it's not just Obama. Here's a sampling of the kind of offensive
messages put out on Fox News:

* Commenting on Hannity & Colmes about the speakers at Coretta Scott
King's funeral, featured guest Mary Matalin said, "I think these civil
rights leaders are nothing more than racists" who are keeping "their
African-American brothers enslaved."

* Jesse Lee Peterson, a regular guest who is Black said: "Kwanzaa is a
racist, pagan, Marxist holiday" and then claimed that the "so-called
seven principles of Kwanzaa are socialist, Marxist, separatist
ideas... if a white man started a white holiday, seven-day white
holiday, black folks would be burning down America."

* Erik Rush, another Black guest, labeled Sen. Obama's church as cultish
and separatist for espousing values of black unity and black
empowerment (Fox regularly selects Black guests it knows will
undermine Black causes). Rush said he replaced the word "black" with
"white" in the church's mission statement and "Suddenly, I was looking
at this really scary doctrine. You know, it was something that you'd
see in more like a cult or an Aryan Brethren church I would go beyond
saying they're Afrocentric. They're African centric. They refer to
themselves as an African people and that somewhat disturbs me from the
viewpoint of well, do they consider themselves Americans? Do they
consider themselves Christians?"

* On The Big Story, John Gibson, warned viewers that nearly half of all
children under the age of five in the United States are minorities.
"You know what that means? Twenty-five years and the majority of the
population is Hispanic." He then urged viewers to "do your duty. Make
more babies." He later repeated: "To put it bluntly, we need more
babies."

Given it's record, Fox News shouldn't enjoy the support of Black
political or cultural institutions connected to the Congressional
Black Caucus. We believe (or at least hope) the CBC Institute will
change course once it realizes that Black America, if not all of
America, is watching.

Please join us in making sure they hear us, loud and clear.

Link />
Thanks.

Washington">Link Post

Family Planning Official Resigns

Friday, March 30, 2007; A07

The doctor in charge of the Bush administration's family planning programs resigned yesterday after revealing that state Medicaid officials had taken action against his private medical practice in Massachusetts.

Eric Keroack, an obstetrician-gynecologist, became deputy assistant secretary for population affairs in November, advising Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt on matters such as reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy. He oversaw $283 million in annual family planning grants designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies, especially for low-income people.

Family planning advocates panned the pick, noting that Keroack also had served as medical director of A Woman's Concern, a nonprofit Christian pregnancy counseling organization in Massachusetts that on its Web site opposed the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women."

In an e-mail to colleagues yesterday, Keroack said he was resigning to focus on appealing the action by Massachusetts Medicaid officials. HHS officials declined to provide more details, and state Medicaid officials could not be reached.

"It's a good day for women's health," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "Keroack was unqualified to run the nation's family planning program. . . . The nation's family planning program should be run by a champion for women's health and safety."

-- Christopher Lee

1.) My.BarackObama.com: Link (PLACE HOLDER)

2.) Official MySpace profile: Link (under construction)

3.) Official Group profile on MySpace: Link (PLACE HOLDER)

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</p>PLEASE DONATE WHATEVER YOU CAN TO ONE MILLION MYSPACE FRIENDS FOR OBAMA'08'S MIDWEST $10,000 CAMPAIGN COFFER DRIVES!

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Presidential Hopefuls on Public Financing and FENA
The three front-runners for the Democratic nomination for
President are on the record in support of public financing of
elections. John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama have
all come out strongly in favor of a change to the system. You
can see Edwards' endorsement here
Link and Clinton's here
Link. See this clip
Link of Obama's recent endorsement
of Senator Richard Durbin's Fair Elections Now Act, and
exhortation for public pressure on the issue here. Republican
presidential hopeful, John McCain, meanwhile has been less
supportive of public financing while on the campaign trail this
year, but has supported it strongly in the past
Link at the state level as well as
for the Presidential race. He has joined Obama in promising to
run under public financing in the general election if his
opponent agrees to do the same. It's encouraging to see
discussion of and support for this policy from the presidential
field; nobody knows better than the candidates racing to raise
the millions they'll need to get to the White House that
campaign financing needs an overhaul.

Speaking of the Fair Elections Now Act, it's been popping up in
the news left and right drawing positive editorials and LOTS of
attention on the letters to editor page
Link thanks to efforts of Public
Campaign Action Fund members. You can write your own letter to
the editor using our tool here
Link />
New Mexico Close to Judicial Public Financing
Great news! New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson plans to turn
his endorsement of public financing for judicial races into
action when he signs the bill recently passed out of the state
legislature in special session that would expand the state's
public financing program to include state Supreme and Appellate
court races: Link. He plans to
line-item veto the "poison pill" provision in the bill that
would require voters to amend the state constitution to
eliminate retention elections (making those judges run in
partisan races) before the public financing system could take
effect. New Mexico already has public financing available to
candidates for the state's Public Regulation Commission, and the
city of Albuquerque approved public financing for municipal
elections by ballot initiative in 2005. Many thanks to New
Mexico Common Cause and Public Campaign Board member Richard
Romero, for their efforts in passing this bill!

Maryland Campaign in Final Days
Thousands of emails, hundreds of calls, and a pair of lobby days
later we are in the last week of the Maryland legislative
session: the moment of truth for a Clean Elections win in the
state this year Link. In fact, the
Senate is schedule to vote today on the bill that would bring
full public financing for legislative elections in Maryland --
the state Assembly is already in support. Though Senate
President Mike Miller (D) is notoriously opposed to Clean
Elections, the gossip in Annapolis is that grassroots organizing
(all those emails, all those calls) and the tireless efforts of
Progressive Maryland, Maryland NAACP, Maryland Common Cause,
Maryland Sierra Club, and The Reform Institute, have really
boosted support among previously ambivalent legislators for
passing Clean Elections. It's going to be quite a showdown -- as
soon as we get the results of the vote we'll let you know!

April Showers?
Did Uncle Sam give you a refund on your federal tax return this
year? How about turning a little bit of that around with an
investment in winning Clean Elections through a gift to Public
Campaign Action Fund Link Your tax
dollars fund the policies of the country, what better way to
ensure they are spent responsibly than by establishing Clean
Elections systems that make elected officials accountable to
you?

VOICEing Support
Public Campaign staffers checked their inboxes a few weeks ago
and found an email from National Field Director Jeannette
Galanis: "I think we need to go to Iowa." Why? Because a
dedicated group of legislators and activists from Iowa Citizens
for Community Improvement and the Clean Elections Coalition had
advanced full public financing legislation, the Voter-Owned Iowa
Clean Elections (VOICE) Act, farther than they ever had in the
state: far enough to make a win this year a real possibility.

A pair of bills, HSB 105 championed by Representative Pam Jochum
(D-Dubuque) and SSB 1173 headed up by Senator Mike Connolly
(D-Dubuque) have passed out of their respective State Government
committees and are moving on to Appropriations, where they look
to face formidable opposition. We are gearing up for a full
court press grassroots field effort; getting calls in to
legislators in support of VOICE, getting the word out through
door-to-door canvassing and phone banking, and ramping up
lobbying efforts in Des Moines to win Clean Elections for Iowa!
You can find out more about the campaign here
Link />
Blog/News Roundup
Have you been reading Paid For By?, Public Campaign Action
Fund?s blog? In case you missed this week, check out the stories
we've been following on?

- New Jersey Governor John Corzine signing the bill continuing
his state's Clean Elections Pilot project
Link />- Presidential candidates raising money any way they can --
ethics? What ethics? Link
- Energy for change: watch Senator Durbin's passionate speech
Link introducing the Fair Elections
Now Act on the floor of the Senate here.