Thanks to your help we raised over $10K for Candidates in the 2008 Cycle.
Please help us reach our goal of $30K for 2010
No donation is too small $1 sends a message
Our Candidate List
Again Michele Bachmann has no respect for the truth . As if we should expect anything less. As her mouth moves the lies are immediately spewed
On a day when crowd estimates could provide their respective groups with political clout, Bachmann asked her audience how many thought more than 1 million people were in attendance. The question was met by big cheers from the gathering of about 1,000. "We're not going let anyone get away with saying there were less than a million here today because we were witnesses," Bachmann said.
Mark this down for one of the worst ads of the 2010 Campaign Cycle. Why does "Jim the Election Guy" look like he's getting ready to squat down and use the commode? Who the heck is "Jim the Election Guy" anyways?
Minnesota really doesn't like phonies. ... They appreciate a politician who will be who they say they are. As far left as (the late Democratic senator) Paul Wellstone was, he was respected for not squishing on his views, and I'm the same way.
The moment we have all eagerly been anticipating. Well since the Teen Choice Awards anyways.
Unfortunately polldaddy does not let us publish results to surveys unless we purchase the pro version. Another reason to send us a donation.
The survey sample a little smaller than we had hoped. So consider it a little less than scientific. Some questions were skipped.
Overall I learned that we have less regular readers or at least those that took the survey are less regular.
We are largely Democrats. Most of us read the Daily Kos and The Huffington Post on a regular basis. Other popular sites are The New York TimesMedia Matters, Five Thirty Eight and The Hill. Politico not so much. But a whole bunch of other sites were mentioned under other like Crooks and Liars, Burnt Orange Report and Think Progress.
You mostly learned about the site through a link from another site or you simply cannot recall.
You feel pretty good about Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Alan Grayson and Anthony Weiner. All those Grayson and Weiner seem to have a stronger like as some had no opinion of these. Everyone had an opinion about Pelosi, Obama and Biden.
You really don't like Rush Limbaugh, Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin. Big surprise there right? You don't like Rand Paul either although the dislike is not as intense. Most of you don't have as strong opinions of Jack Conway or Tarryl Clark as I would have hoped. (kind of hard to read this one in form below)
Job creation and financial reform are the most important issues. Although all issues listed seems to be important.
Half of our readers who responded are 55+ or older. 30% of those who responded are 55-65 followed by 19% older than 65% which is impressive. Not as many between the age of 25-35 responded as I expected. And we had no younger than 18 readers respond. Probably not that surprising.
57% of the readers who responded were female. 43% male.
Fairly even geographical distribution although not surprisingly the southeast, southwest and northeast lead the way. And California also had a number of readers respond.
Oh and most of those who responded did so from a PC opposed to my beloved Mac
Today, Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel recognized the enormous pressure put on by those unhappy with the donations made to Minnesota Forward. The contributions to MN Forward were then used to support Tom Emmer, a very anti-gay Gubernatorial candidate.
Civic Activity A Message From Gregg Steinhafel, Chairman, President and CEO
8/5/2010
Dear Target Leaders,
I have heard from many of you, and our team members, over the past week regarding Target's contribution to MN Forward, and I appreciate your engagement and candor, both of which clearly demonstrate your loyalty and passion for our company.
In situations like this, it is often difficult to find the right words, but I would like to respond with the same honesty you have shown me.
The intent of our political contribution to MN Forward was to support economic growth and job creation. While I firmly believe that a business climate conducive to growth is critical to our future, I realize our decision affected many of you in a way I did not anticipate, and for that I am genuinely sorry.
We remain fully committed to fostering an environment that supports and respects the rights and beliefs of all individuals. The diversity of our team is an important aspect of our unique culture and our success as a company, and we did not mean to disappoint you, our team or our valued guests.
Going forward, we will soon begin a strategic review and analysis of our decision-making process for financial contributions in the public policy arena. And later this fall, Target will take a leadership role in bringing together a group of companies and partner organizations for a dialogue focused on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, including GLBT issues.
Thank you for sharing your input and for your continued commitment to making Target an even stronger company.
Sincerely,
Gregg Steinhafel
Chairman, President and CEO
1. Michael Steele cancels/postpones/suspends a Beverly Hills fundraiser scheduled on August 12-14 with Andrew Breitbart.
2. More on the world according to Breitbart - he appeared at a tea party rally in the City of Brotherly Love this afternoon. Of course he did not address the Shirley Sherrod incident in his first public speaking engagement since her firing.
His speech did not address the incident, but mostly laid out specific incidents Breitbart says prove the Tea Partiers are not racists.
Oh goody. So what you are saying is that the Tea Partiers are not racists all the time, just some of the time.
3. Earlier in the week, the Tea Partiers expressed anger that Michele Bachmann endorsed Roy Blunt in the Missouri U.S. Senate race over the teabagger candidate. Bachmann bailed on a scheduled fundraiser for Blunt today because of an undisclosed illness. Curious timing? Her staff maintains she is recovering from yesterday's hospitalization. No word yet if this was a mental health related issue.
In the wake of Citizens United, we have seen corporations already take advantage of unlimited donations to large corporations to curry political favor. Troubling is the recent $150,000 donation from Target to MN Forward. Today we learn that the Target CEO supported Michele Bachmann with a $10,000 donation.
We know Michele Bachmann is nuts. Yet Target CEO Steinhafel supports her.
And Tom Emmer, the candidate being supported (barely) indirectly by Target's contribution is a radical. He has supported a Minnesota Constitutional amendment that would declare that Minnesota is exempt from federal laws unless the Minnesota legislature ratifies them and the Governor signs them (the Minnesota Governor could VETO federal law). It's crazy, unconstitutional, un-American and I find it hard to believe it would result in any benefit to Minnesota business--the lame excuse Steinhafel used to justify why Target donated to MNForward.
It's time to call out Steinhafel and Target for their un-American, discriminatory agenda.
Can you be a good American corporate citizen while supporting a candidate who essentially wants a state to leave the union and declare itself legally independent?
Can you really claim to support equality and progressive values if you actively support those who would create legal barriers to those values?
We started a petition at change.org where you can sign a letter letting the CEO of Target know how you feel. We choose where we spend our hard earned dollars and we can choose to spend them elsewhere.
Just want to give another plug to our friend Tarryl Clark . Check out her rec list diary at Daily Kos where she gives us a major plug as one of the first bloggers to spread the word about her campaign
Wow! That's the best way to describe my experience at Netroots Nation.
You asked tough questions. You showcased your amazing talents. And you gave me a reception that I will never forget.
I enjoyed seeing people like Martin Weinberg (@progressiveelec), who was one of the first bloggers to start spreading the word about our campaign almost a year ago. I had great conversations with people like Nicole Sandler (@nicolesandler), who came to #nn10 despite a broken foot, and wanted to talk about how we can win this election; or the women who joined me for a roundtable, like Minnesota's @robinmarty, who blogged about it here. I was glad to meet Markos Moulitsas (@markos) and talk about what makes my campaign different - and how we will finally defeat Michele Bachmann. And my campaign staff will tell you how thrilled I was to meet the quilting bloggers (as an avid quilter myself!) and thank them for their promise to quilt for our campaign, too.
Michele Bachmann is really awful but Tarryl is a great candidate in her own right. She got two standing ovations before she even spoke.
If nothing else has scared you about the Republicans and their agenda, the latest comments from Michele Bachmann should be the biggest motivation as to why you should work to make sure the Republicans fail in their coup de Congress.
"I think that's all we should do," Bachmann said at the GOP Youth Convention in Washington on Thursday. "I think all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another and expose all the nonsense that has gone on."
Democrats stand up. Seriously, we can't get Karl Rove to testify in front of Congress. We cannot allow the Republicans to step all over us with their faux "freedom loving" agenda turned witch hunts.
The Republicans will shut down the government to focus on dog and pony hearings and investigations. Never mind that we are less than two years into cleaning up the mess created by the most corrupt deceitful administration in American history. Never mind that we just sat through the pillaging and the looting of the Haliburton Cheney Presidency.
Two years ago, in the final days of the 2008 campaign, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann appeared on Hardball, and said the words that propelled her to the national stage:
Across the country, you rallied to send a message that Bachmann's unique brand of divisive rhetoric would not be tolerated. You raised almost a million dollars in a matter of hours for her opponent. And while the campaign fell just short of defeating her in 2008, you knew what you had to do.
You've kept vigilant watch as Congresswoman Bachmann has gone under the white-hot spotlights of the cable talk show circuit again and again.
TarrylClark's diary :: ::
And you've called her out: when she called on a conservative crowd to "slit our wrists" and "become blood brothers" in the efforts to defeat health care reform. When she called net neutrality an Obama plot to censor the Internet. When she said the American people needed to be "weaned off" Social Security and Medicare.
Her comments aren't just outrageous or headline grabbing - they're part of her agenda for America. They tell whose side she's on, and it's not ours.
And now, as Congresswoman Bachmann has defended BP, your contributions helped us to air the first television ad of the campaign, calling Congresswoman Bachmann out for her defense of BP in the wake of the biggest environmental disaster in our nation's history:
Michele Bachmann is intellectually brilliant, quick, strongly grounded in her faith and the Constitution, bold in her defense of Liberty, and extraordinarily blessed with great instincts," said King. "At no time in my life has America needed her more."
King and Bachmann have been quite the duo on Capitol Hill teaming up on ridiculous ideas such as repealing Obamacare.
King made this quote in promotion of a fundraiser he was attending for his buddy Bachmann.
BTW - There is a diary up at Daily Kos by Matt Campbell who is running against Steve King. Check it out.
