Saturday, January 31, 2004

ALLEN ROLAND'S SUPER SUNDAY ACTION PLAN  2/01/04      WE HAVE THE POWER AND IF WE DON'T SEIZE IT ~ WE'LL LOSE IT.     Sunday is our chance to seize it .   Friday it was announced , to both Democratic and moderate Republican consternation, that the new Medicare Law ( or gift to the Drug and Insurance Companies ) would cost atleast $ 534 billion over the next ten years ~ or one-third more than was estimated two months ago when Congress passed the legislation.   And it was passed narrowly in the House after Republican leaders said the cost would not exceed $ 400 billion.   During the next decade , the deficit is projected to be atleast 2.5 trillion ~ and our children will eventually have to pay for it.   The White House and Republican leaders in Congress are playing games with the country's financial stability so they can starve the government of money and accomplish through desperation what they never could achieve through legislation . Their agenda  ~ cut regulation, end Social Security and generally free the rich from paying taxes, thus freeing them from paying for programs that help other Americans. It's time for action !   Here's how we can make a statement on Super Sunday.   MoveOn.org Urges One-Minute Boycott of Superbowl Half-Time Show   WASHINGTON - January 30 - Leaders of the MoveOn.org Voter Fund are urging the public to support a one-minute boycott of CBS during halftime at Sunday’s Super Bowl game to protest the network’s refusal to air an issue ad that is critical of the Bush Administration 's handling of the federal deficit. At the same time, the MoveOn.org Voter Fund announced it will air the ad on CNN all day Sunday, including during the Super Bowl, and throughout the next week. It also will air on broadcast and cable stations in Florida, West Virginia, Ohio, Missouri and Nevada, five states that are expected to be central to the coming presidential campaign. The cost of the new ad buy is approximately $1 million. Viewers are asked to leave the CBS Super Bowl broadcast for a minute( Halftime ) between 8:10 and 8:35 p.m.EST Sunday night ( that's between 5:10 and 5:35 PST )and go to CNN to see the ad that CBS would not run. For the exact time of the one-minute boycott and ad broadcast, go to the website www.Bushin30Seconds.org. The Censored Ad: Cute Children Doing Difficult Work The ad that CBS refused, claiming it has a policy that forbids advertising on “controversial issues of public importance,” already has been aired in the Washington, D.C., market and elsewhere. It was the winning ad in the “Bushin30Seconds” ad contest sponsored by theVoter Fund. The ad, one of some 1,500 entries, was created by Charlie Fisher of Denver and selected after 110,000 people viewed the ads on the internet and rated them . NOTE ~ I was one of them. It is a gentle, wordless ad in which cute children do difficult work – cleaning office buildings, washing dishes, hauling garbage, standing on an assembly line – to a background of a single guitar. The tagline is: “Guess Who’s Going to Pay Off Bush’s $1 Trillion Deficit?” “CBS will show the world ads featuring women in bikinis mud wrestling, to sell beer. It will have ads for all three erectile dysfunction medicines. But it has decreed that a message about the federal deficit and the President’s leadership failures is off limits,” said Eli Pariser, national campaigns director for MoveOn.org Voter Fund. The network also refused an issue ad by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals. The Deficit is a Serious Issue That Needs Public Attention "Given the Congressional Budget Office's acknowledgement of a $500 plus billion deficit from the Bush Administration for this year alone, it's more important than ever to have this issue in front of the public,” Pariser added. “That’s why we're taking this ad into swing states where we hope it helps to combat the president's spin campaign. “The unprecedented growth in the federal deficit is certainly going to be an important issue in the coming presidential campaigns. Americans can handle this kind of ' controversy, ' without censorship from CBS.” So watch the super Bowl but make a statement that CBS and George Bush's Corporate cronies  cannot ignore. The MoveOn.org Voter Fund is a "Section 527" political committee created to comply with the new federal campaign finance laws. It run ads and engages in other efforts to expose the policy failures of the Bush Administration. Allen Roland's weblog: http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/ Website: www.allenroland.com     12:30:34 PM    comment []