Edwards Wins In Climate Control Poll

If we don't solve the climate crisis, nothing else we do will be worth a jar of spit.

ABC News' Raelyn Johnson reports: MoveOn.Org, the liberal grass-roots organization, declared former senator and Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards the winner Wednesday of their unscientific, online ballot, asking members which '08 Democratic candidate has the best plan to combat global warming.

After an online presidential forum where MoveOn members were asked to watch streaming web video of the '08 Democratic candidates outlining their proposals to address global warming, the liberal advocacy group sent its 3.3-million members an email asking, "which candidate’s position on dealing with the climate crisis do you prefer?"

MoveOn.Org received about 95,000 online responses. Of those, Edwards received 33 percent of the votes cast, twice as much as the next two candidates. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio., and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., each garnered almost 16 percent of the total votes. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., won about 15 percent of the vote.

"The enormous response we got from our members on this issue emphasizes how important it will be for our next president to make solving the climate crisis a top priority in 2008," said Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn.org Political Action.

The unscientific vote was open to anyone who joined MoveOn.org by providing an email address. Individual email addresses were only allowed to vote once. The ballot reflects the views of those who chose to participate rather than all MoveOn.Org members.

The grass-roots organization has not officially endorsed Edwards. However, they will begin running ads in Iowa and New Hampshire next week giving kudos to the climate change plans of three Democratic candidates who topped their climate change ballot: Edwards, Kucinich and Clinton.

Global warming was one of the first issues Edwards began talking about after announcing his candidacy last December. His energy plan calls for an 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050; calls for new uses for coal; and encourages Americans to conserve energy and cut carbon emissions.

Edwards, along with other Democratic presidential candidates, is running a "carbon neutral" campaign, meaning the campaign has purchased carbon offsets for the greenhouse gas emissions created by his campaign travel, and the energy used in his campaign headquarters and field offices.

In April, MoveOn.Org announced Obama and then Edwards topped a similar ballot asking members "which candidate would be best able to lead the United States out of Iraq?"

MoveOn is planning another online presidential forum on health care for later in the year.

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....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free

More Than The Money Primary

How and why does money translate into votes?

It doesn't have to.

It's really very simple. The people with the most money can afford more airtime and are given much more, free of charge on Cabal news. The media thus decides whom we can vote for in the general election. Everyone wants to vote for a winner, no matter that he or she may not have their best interests at heart. The media is more than happy to tell you who those people are, on both sides of the insane duality-lie of a political system with which we are cursed. They are the ones with all the money, usually an indication that they are corporate-approved

We have taken to paying attention to: (It goes without saying that we must believe in his/her message and more, we have to have some faith that he or she can and will carry out the plan)

1) Of whom does the media, especially the obvious right-wing media, constantly make fun? This candidate is probably the biggest threat to corporate interests, not ours.

2) What is the ratio of donors to total money raised. If the candidate is not getting most or a huge percentage of his/her money from grassroots, individual donors, they are corporate approved.

3) According to polls, can the candidate beat any Republican in the general election, providing Republican machines are not doing the vote counting and the candidate is not a gutless wonder who will refuse to fight for our votes even if it takes months and an all-out revolution?

Right now, the one candidate who meets all of our standards is John Edwards

More Than The Money Primary - CommonDreams.org:

But grassroots activists should ask themselves a question about the money primary?

Why are the frontrunners raising so much money? Is it because they have the best ideas? The best bases of support?

Hardly. Clinton, who has been the strongest figure in the recent Democratic debates, is raising her money in big chunks from many of the same business interests that backed George W. Bush and other Republicans. Obama has a broader pool of givers, but the attraction seems to be his personal dynamism rather than his soft stands on the issues and his tepid debate performances — and he, too, is attracting a good deal of so-called “establishment” money.

In fact, as Republican presidential contenders struggle to keep up with the Democrats in the fund-raising race, there is much evidence to suggest that big-money interests are moving their chips to the Democratic table and placing their bets on Clinton and to a somewhat lesser extent on Obama.

Clinton and Obama are acceptable to those interests.

Edwards, in contrast, has taken strong stands and attracted a substantial number of small contributors. Unfortunately for Edwards, many of his strong stands challenge corporate power — in ways that neither Clinton or Obama has so far done.

The DemocracyFest

Let's hope they were all discussing how to stop Democracy Theft.

Greg Palast joins Howard Dean and John Edwards at DemocracyFest
By Deaniac 05/27/2007 11:06:07 AM EST

Greg Palast, author and progressive journalist, has joined the list of speakers for the 4th Annual DemocracyFest. Other speakers include Gov. Howard Dean (free and open to the public), Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Mike Gravel, Bev Harris, Jim Dean and more! See the schedule and get your tickets at http://www.DemocracyFest.ne t

Trainings and panels offered include Impeachment, Creating Community Websites, Service Politics, Anatomy of a Grassroots Campaign, Framing, Peak Oil, Election Law, Democracy and the Religious Right, Pollworker Training, Making the Most of Grassroots Volunteers, the DFA Training Academy, and more!

All this plus lots of live music, films, and most importantly, networking with liberal activists from across the country. Don’t miss this chance to form working relationships that will have a lasting effect on our issue-based activities and our efforts to elect fiscally responsible and socially progressive candidates.

The 4th Annual DemocracyFest will take place June 9-10 at the Wayfarer Inn near Manchester, NH. More information is available at http://www.DemocracyFest.ne t


(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Lantern has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is The Lantern endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free

Send John Some Money!

Edwards predicting big second-quarter drop-off
By Sam Youngman
June 22, 2007

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) is expecting a significant drop-off in campaign contributions for the second quarter that might look like a pittance compared to the dollar amounts Democratic rivals Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) are expected to raise.Though it would not be unheard of for a campaign to try and lowball its fundraising expectations, an e-mail to supporters from senior adviser Joe Trippi, of Gov. Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign, tells Edwards’s fans the campaign is two-thirds of the way to its goal of $9 million for the quarter.

That would give Edwards a $6 million rake with nine days to go. And even then, the campaign would realize $5 million less than it did in the first quarter.An Edwards campaign official said the goal for the campaign from the outset has been to raise $40 million total to compete in the first four primary or caucus states.“We were never going to raise $25 million in the second quarter,” the aide said, alluding to the giant sums expected of Clinton and Obama. “They’re pretty much more based on their celebrity. We are based on the early four states strategy, and we need $40 million to do that.”The dollar decrescendo is nothing new to Edwards. In 2003, Edwards was the talk of Washington after raising $7.4 million in the first quarter, which was a lot of money back then.

But in the second quarter, he reported raising $4.5 million.“This is not about out-raising our opponents in a meaningless fundraising arms race,” Trippi said in the e-mail to supporters.

“This is about executing our plan — raising enough money to push our message in the critical early states and building our operation around the country.”

Meanwhile, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) told reporters after he first entered the race to wait and watch his second-quarter numbers instead of his first.

A senior adviser to his campaign said that risky strategy came through, and they expect to report more this time around than the $6.2 million they reported after March. And all of that money will be primary election donations.An aide to Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) said the senator’s campaign was expecting to raise around the same amount as the $2.1 million he raised in the first quarter, which he combined with just under $2 million from his Senate reelection funds.

Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) campaign declined to comment on its expectations. Dodd raised about $4 million in the first quarter, which he complemented with $4.7 million from his Senate reelection chest.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Lantern has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is The Lantern endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free

Corporate Media Out To Get Edwards? Is The Pope Catholic

Well, of course they are.

He is the biggest threat to them.

Are Media Out to Get John Edwards?
By Jeff Cohen
t r u t h o u t Guest Contributor
Friday 01 June 2007

Give me a break about John Edwards's pricey haircut, mansion, lecture fees, and the rest. The focus on these topics tells us two things about corporate media: One, we've long known - that they elevate personal stuff above issues; the other is now becoming clear - that they have a special animosity towards Edwards.

Is it hypocritical for the former senator to base a presidential campaign on alleviating poverty while building himself a sprawling mansion? Perhaps. But isn't that preferable to all the millionaire candidates who neither talk about nor care about the poor? Elite media seem more comfortable with millionaire politicians who identify with their class - and half of all US senators are millionaires.

Trust me when I say I don't know many millionaires. Of course, I don't know many presidential candidates either (except my friend Dennis Kucinich, whose net worth in 2004 was reported to be below $32,000).

But I'm growing quite suspicious about the media barrage against Edwards, who got his wealth as a trial lawyer suing hospitals and corporations. Among "top-tier" presidential candidates, Edwards is alone in convincingly criticizing corporate-drafted trade treaties, and talking about workers' rights and the poor and higher taxes on the rich. He's the candidate who set up a university research center on poverty. Of the front-runners in presidential polls, he's pushing the hardest to withdraw from Iraq, and pushing the hardest on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to follow suit.

Given a national media elite that worships "free trade" and disparages Democrats for catering to "extremists" like MoveOn.org on Iraq withdrawal, the media's rather obsessive focus on Edwards's alleged hypocrisy should not surprise us.

Nor should it surprise us that we've been shown aerial pictures of Edwards's mansion in North Carolina - but not of the mansions of the other well-off candidates.

Or that a snob like Brit Hume of Fox News is chortling, "What would Jesus do with John Edwards's mansion?"

Or that we've heard so much about Edwards's connection to one Wall Street firm, but relatively little about the fact that other candidates, including Democrats, are so heavily-funded by Wall Street interests.

Or that Juan Williams and NPR this weekend teed off on Edwards for saying he's "so concerned about poverty" while pocketing hedge fund profits and $55,000 for a lecture at the University of California, Davis. NPR emphasized that the Davis fee was for a "speech on poverty" - but didn't mention that Davis paid other politicians the same or more for lectures. Or that Rudy Giuliani gets many times as much for speeches.

You see, those other pols aren't hypocrites: They don't lecture about poverty.

What's really behind the media's animus towards Edwards is his "all-out courting of the liberal left-wing base" (ABC News) or his "looking for some steam from the left" (CNN).

One of the wise men of mainstream punditry, Stuart Rothenberg, said it clearest in a "Roll Call" column complaining of Edwards's "class warfare message" and his "seeming insatiable desire to run to the left"; the column pointed fingers of blame at Edwards's progressive campaign co-chair David Bonior, consultant Joe Trippi, groups like Democrats.com and Democracy for America, and a bring-our-troops-home message "imitating either Jimmy Stewart or Cindy Sheehan."

Leave it to Fox's Bill O'Reilly to take the mainstream current over the cliff, bellowing on Tuesday that Edwards has "sold his soul to the far left.... MoveOn's running him.... His support on the Internet is coming from the far left, which is telling him what to do."

What seems to worry pundits - whether centrist or rightist - is that Edwards is leading the polls in Iowa, where the first caucuses vote next January.

Indeed, current media coverage of Edwards bears an eerie resemblance to the scary reporting on the Democratic frontrunner four years ago, Howard Dean. If Edwards is still ahead as the Iowa balloting nears, expect coverage to get far nastier. The media barrage against Dean in the weeks before Iowa - "too far left" and "unelectable" with a high "unfavorable" rating - helped defeat him. (I write those words as someone who was with Kucinich at the time.)

Today, elite media are doing their best to raise Edwards's unfavorable rating. But the independent media and the Netroots are four years stronger - and have more clout vis-a-vis corporate media - than during Dean's rise and fall.

And it's hard for mainstream pundits to paint Edwards as "unelectable." Polls suggest he has wide appeal to non-liberals and swing voters.

After years of pontificating about how Southern white candidates are the most electable Democrats for president, it would be ironic for even nimble Beltway pundits to flip-flop and declare that this particular white Southerner is a bad bet simply because he talks about class issues.

Jeff Cohen is a media critic, former TV pundit and author of Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media. He was communications director of the Kucinich for President Campaign in 2003, and currently consults with Progressive Democrats of America.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Lantern has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is The Lantern endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free

Edwards Blasts Bush And Other Goopers

Edwards assails Bush, GOP rivals
By PHILLIP RAWLS,
Associated Press Writer
Fri May 25, 2:02 AM ET

Democratic presidential contender John Edwards argued on Thursday that President Bush has made the nation less safe and the Republican candidates are trying to become "a bigger, badder George Bush."

Edwards' remarks came one day after he challenged the idea of a global war on terror, calling it an ideological doctrine advanced by the Bush administration that has strained the U.S. military and emboldened terrorists.

Bush told reporters Thursday that Edwards' view was naive.

A short time later, during an appearance in Montgomery, Ala., Edwards answered back: "George Bush has made America less safe and less respected in the world. What we are seeing now in this campaign is John McCain , Rudy Giuliani and the other Republicans running for president of the United States are trying to be a bigger, badder George Bush. Is that really what America wants over the next four years?"

Edwards, who supports a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq, said he would keep the country safe by going "after terrorists where they are."

"There is an entire new generation of young people in the Islamic world sitting on the fence," he told reporters, and their status as adults "depends on whether America can change this dynamic that George Bush has created that America is a bully, that we are selfish and that we don't care anything about what is happening in other parts of the world."

At least one Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, scoffed at Edwards' comments on the global war on terror.

"Remember that old Edmund Burke quote, it's a famous quote, 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.' And that, I am afraid is the boiled down version of what John Edwards said, is that good men should do nothing. Put their head in the sand and hope it all goes away," Romney told an audience in Jacksonville, Fla.

The Edwards campaign later issued a statement, saying: "We don't need more political huffing and puffing, we need a smart strategy that uses American power to stop terrorists from hurting us and to stop people from becoming terrorists in the first place."

Edwards was making his first campaign trip to Alabama since entering the race. He met privately with several prominent Democrats at the Alabama Education Association headquarters, including Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom Jr., and veteran civil rights lawyer Fred Gray of Tuskegee. He also attended a $1,000-per-person fundraising reception hosted by the plaintiff law firm of former Lt. Gov. Jere Beasley.

Alabama has moved its presidential primary to Feb. 5, an increasingly crowded date with about a dozen states planning to vote.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Lantern has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is The Lantern endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free

Clinton in Trouble in Iowa

It's good to see Edwards in first place. But it is still early....

Clinton Falls to Third Place in Iowa
Sun May 20, 12:22 PM ET

The Nation -- Hillary Clinton's campaign is running into trouble -- potentially very serious trouble -- in Iowa.

The latest and best poll of likely Democratic caucus goers in the first state that will weigh in on the 2008 nomination race has Clinton falling to third place. And that's not the worst of it. As Clinton stumbles, a new contender with potential to eat into her base it rising rapidly.

The Des Moines Register survey has former North Carolina Senator John Edwards solidly in first. Edwards, who ran second in the 2004 Iowa caucuses and has worked hard to maintain his organization in the state, is at 29 percent. That's about where he has been for some time in Iowa, where caucus goers will do much to define the direction of the 2008 race as it hist full speed next January.

In second place is Illinois Senator Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) with 23 percent.
Clinton musters a mere 21 percent -- down significantly from her position in several previous polls -- to secure the No. 3 position.

But Clinton, the presumed frontrunner nationally, does not just have to worry about who is ahead of her in the first-caucus state. She's also got to watch who is coming from behind.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, the former congressman, cabinet secretary and UN ambassador who only formally announced last week, is gaining 10 percent support among likely caucus goers. As in New Hampshire, where a new poll has Richardson breaking from a pack of weaker contenders to enter the second tier in the crowded 2008 contest, the governor is moving up rapidly in Iowa.

The next strongest candidate, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, was at 3 percent.

Richardson, who is campaigning in Iowa small towns this weekend, was making the most of his improving position.

"We have a lot of good candidates running for president," he told friendly crowds. "A lot of them could be in the White House - as my vice president."


(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Lantern has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is The Lantern endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free

Tax Hikes On Rich Possible?

They should be a freakin' given!

There has been a god-damned party going on in this country, to which many of us were not invited; hell, most of us didn't even know about it.

Time for the party to be over - lights out!

Or how about a raid?

Tax Hikes on Rich Possible, Edwards Says
By LAURA KURTZMAN Associated Press Writer


SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Democratic presidential contender John Edwards said Sunday he would consider raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to fund programs such as universal health care.

Edwards has long said he wants to repeal the tax cuts on upper-income earners enacted during the Bush presidency, but Sunday he seemed to go further, by saying he was open to raising them higher than they were before George W. Bush took office. He also said he would consider taxes on "excess profits," including those made by oil companies.

Edwards said it was more important to level with voters than to worry about the political consequences of advocating higher taxes.

"It's just the truth," Edwards said during a news conference following his speech to the California Democratic Party convention. "It's the only way to fund the things that need to be done."

Edwards said his plan to provide universal health coverage would cost $90 billion to $120 billion a year.

He spoke on the last day of a convention that, because of California's early presidential primary, attracted nearly all the major candidates, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Sen. Joe Biden, campaigning in South Carolina, was the only hopeful to pass up the convention.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson also appeared, contrasting himself to Edwards as a business-friendly Democrat who would not raise taxes. And while the other candidates praised California for leading the way on environmental legislation, Richardson said his state was doing even better.

"New Mexico today is the clean energy state," he said. "We've surpassed you here in California."
During an extended news conference, Richardson acknowledged making a mistake at last week's Democratic debate in South Carolina when he named Byron White as his favorite Supreme Court justice. White, who died in 2002, dissented from Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in 1973.

Richards, who supports abortion rights in keeping with Democratic Party orthodoxy, said he named White in the debate because he had been appointed by President Kennedy and he was an All-American football player. Richardson said he had not remembered White's role in the abortion case.

Obama continued campaigning in California on Sunday, appearing at the First A.M.E. church in Los Angeles on the 15th anniversary of the Rodney King riots.

He recalled watching them on television when he was a law student at Harvard University and feeling a "sense of despair and powerlessness." He said inner-city problems of poverty and inequality that stoked the violence were not unique to Los Angeles.

"Although the fires, violence were at a magnitude that had not been seen for a very long time, there had been a quiet riot taking place not just in Los Angeles but all across the country," he said.

Pop star Stevie Wonder listened from the front row, then joined Obama onstage and broke into song.

Edwards, attended a fundraiser later Sunday in Reno, Nev., where he said in an interview that his rural roots and seasoning in a national campaign set him apart from Clinton and Obama.

"Because I grew up in a rural area, I understand a lot of the sort of independent spirit that people in the West have," Edwards told The Associated Press. "I saw the same things where I grew up. I have a natural connection with a lot of people in the West the way I grew up."
---
Associated Press writers Jeremiah Marquez in Los Angeles and Martin Griffith in Reno, Nev., contributed to this report.
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(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Lantern has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is The Lantern endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

....And The Truth Shall Set Us Free

John Edwards Picks A Winner

Trippi joins Edwards campaign
By Aman Ali
April 19, 2007

Joe Trippi, whom many credit with Howard Dean’s brief but meteoric rise to the top of the 2004 Democratic presidential field, will join the campaign of former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.).

“We couldn’t be more excited to have Joe join our team,” Edwards’s campaign manager, David Bonior, said. “He’s creative, passionate, committed and shares John Edwards’s vision of an America that works for all of us.”

Trippi will join the Edwards camp as a senior adviser and member of the campaign’s media team.

As Dean’s campaign manager, Trippi was credited for pioneering many campaign tactics used by candidates today, including small-donor Internet fundraising and utilizing blogs and social-networking sites.

On Edwards’s campaign blog, Trippi admitted Thursday he originally thought Dean’s 2004 run would be the last campaign he would be a part of.

“Too much is at stake,” Trippi wrote. “The war in Iraq continues, and more of our troops will lose their lives. Working Americans are losing ground … John Edwards is leading the way and making a difference on all of these issues.”


....and the truth shall set us free.