We (the people) need to free our elected from daily fund raising and the fear that contributions will go to their next opponent if they don't comply with the wishes of their funders.

A corrupt system is one in which good people do bad things because it seems normal.

Until the super-minority of big money campaign contributors and corporations with super-citizen rights can no longer directly buy candidates with mega-donations, or indirectly influence them with marketing departments, lobbyists, and “helpful” self-interest groups, our elected will not look to voters when decisions are made. 

“Members of Congress should be compelled to wear uniforms like Nascar drivers, so we could identify their corporate sponsors.” - Unknown Blogger, 2009

Coffee Party USA is focusing efforts for the next 18 months on our FREE THE ELECTED strategy. Several projects are in production, but we need your help. 

The technology needed to empower action in every state and every congressional district in America is not free. Your contributions to FREE THE ELECTED will be used to launch the platforms for our national and local projects.

Out with cash and in with votes: end the tyranny of the super-minority.

Let's face it: we are using the bows and arrows of righteous indignation against  the stealth bombers of big money. Our power lies in who we are as a country when we are united in our intent to have those we elect work for US.

Go to our donation page, FREE THE ELECTED with Steak and Lobster by clicking HERE. We will send you a free Restaurant.com Gift Certificate* equal to your contribution for dining out in your community as a thank you! (Some of us will be having sushi or a tofu burger with home fries, but you get the idea.)

There are no limits to how many times you can visit the page, and no limit to how much you can contribute. Any amount will be a big help to FREE THE ELECTED.

We all thank you for all you do!

CoffeePartyON!
Jeanene Louden, Treasurer and Managing Director
Cameron Michaels, Fundraising
and the rest of the Board of Directors

*A Restaurant.com Gift Certificate gives you the choice of thousands of participating restaurants nationwide, as well as premium online partners like LobsterGram, Mrs. Fields, The Fruit Company and many others.  Your free Restaurant.com Gift Certificate will be emailed to you within 7-10 days of your contribution.

Minimum spend requirements and other restrictions may apply. Visit http://Dine.Restaurant.com for complete terms and conditions and participating restaurants. 

The "Follow the Money Act" is the first bipartisian campaign finance reform bill in over a decade. This morning, The Washington Post came out in support:

The two main parties once agreed that disclosure should be a pillar of campaign finance. In 2010, the Supreme Court’sdecision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission opened the door to unlimited contributions by corporations, wealthy individuals and labor unions. It should not be forgotten that in Citizens United a majority of the court reaffirmed the importance of disclosure. But having won on the issue of contribution limits, many Republicans abandoned their previous support for disclosure.

An attempt toward more transparency was made in the last Congress with the Disclose Act, but the measure was blocked by Republicans. Now Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has joined with a Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, to offer a fresh attempt at a bipartisan bill, the Follow the Money Act, which, they declared, will cover “the full universe of independent political spenders.” One welcome idea in the bill is real-time electronic reporting and disclosure of contributions. It is not clear whether the mechanism of the bill would deliver the worthy goal of universal coverage, but there is time to hammer out details. It’s significant that Ms. Murkowski has become the first Republican in a while to sign up for a campaign disclosure bill, and we hope she can persuade others to join her.

More from The Washington Post's editorial.  |  Read other key provisions.

Contact your Senators to ask them to co-sponsor.

Oklahoma. With sadness, shock, and sorrow for fellow Americans who lost lives, loved ones, and homes in yesterday's tragedy, we welcome tonight to The Middle Ground D.R. Tucker, conservative writer and blogger whose widely-read essay “Confessions of a Climate Change Convert” crystalizes the angst of intelligent, scientifically literate conservatives who have seen their movement taken over by Rush Limbaugh sensibilities and Sarah Palin science.

The Middle Ground
Tuesdays at 8 pm ET
CLICK HERE to listen to archived recording

D.R. has focused much of his work on efforts to convince leaders in the Republican party to take action. He wrote recently:

...Set aside the GOP’s alliance with Big Oil for a moment, and realize that in order for the GOP to accept climate reality, it must accept the reality that government has to play some sort of a role in solving this problem, either through EPA regulations or, preferably, a bill that places a gradually rising fee on carbon emissions, with all proceeds rebated to the public. How many members of the GOP base are willing to accept government playing this sort of role in the economy? Even after Hurricane Irene and Superstorm Sandy, the resistance to regulation is still rampant on the right.

But if we put all the blame, and all the responsibility, on GOP party leaders, we are abdicating our own responsibility as citizens? Isn't there something that we can do? I'll start off the show tonight by asking our guest, and I encourage you to call in with your own ideas.

I compare the climate/energy issue with the gun safety issue.  On the one hand, we have powerful industry lobbyists who do not want the People to take actions that might reduce their profits. On the other hand, we have a People that is discouraged and even disgusted with the performance of those we elect to represent us. And, in both cases, we make a practical, if cold, calculation:

What are the chances I will be killed in a natural disaster, or an assault weapons massacre? Tiny, right? Is it worth giving up some of the precious time I have with my family, or the time I need to recuperate from a demanding job, to try to reduce that percentage? Perhaps not. And if not, that means that the most powerful influence on our elected officials will continue to be money, not voters — profiteers, not People.

What can we do to shift the way we think about such issues? If we were to accept the notion advanced by President Obama — and President Bush, and indeed all of our past presidents — that we are "all in this together," shouldn't we calculate the frequency and deadliness of such disasters not only in terms of our own risk, but in terms of the risk to America as a whole. For, the difference between a .1 percent chance, and a .05 percent chance that I'll die in hurricane disaster, tornado disaster, or gun massacre may not be significant enough to cause me to take action. But if we multiply that percentage chance by 300 million — the approximate population of the United States — we could, if we chose to take action, save thousand and thousands of lives. Is that not enough to be willing to try?

Press [1] For Democracy

Follow Up:  What the 1% Media Doesn’t Care About

NEW TIME! Monday at 9 p.m. Eastern

Call (646) 929-2495 to listen & hit [1] to speak

Listen live online or archived

How many times [per week] does the mainstream media report a sensationalized story based solely on rumor, conjecture, and “unnamed sources” in an attempt to scoop the competition?  And once the actual facts are revealed, rarely if ever do those media outlets revisit the story in hopes of actually setting the record straight.   

Tonight, in order to hold ourselves to a higher standard, Press [1] for Democracy will revisit the topics of shows past in order to update you with any new facts that have presented themselves.  Topics scheduled for review include:

• Last week’s IRS scandal

• Congress’s failed attempt at mandating background checks for gun buyers

• What’s happening in Newtown, CT these days?

• Any new ideas on putting America back to work

• GMO’s

• Shareholder Actions

• Anything else you wish to discuss

And of course, we’ll not only discuss these latest updates, but call the press out for any butchering they did of the stories in the first place.  Join us tonight at our new start time, 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST.  Listen live or better yet, call 646-929-2495 to voice your opinion/outrage.  And when you enter the host queue, remember to Press [1] for Democracy!  

Dan Aronson

LUNCH WITH LOUDEN,
Thursdays 12-2 PM Pacific

Can We Just Start Over?

Call in 646-929-2495

Listen LIVE or LATER

We talked with JD Messinger on LUNCH WITH LOUDEN’s 3/21/2013 show about the numerous grievances We the People have with our government due to the sell-out of our commons to corporate and foreign interests and breakdown of our infrastructure with apparent disinterest.  At the end of the show, we promised to report back.

This week, JD Messinger returns along with special guest Miriam Knight of New Consciousness Review for a special “live” show where we will be in the same room (normally we are in remote locations) AND we plan to broadcast for TWO hours!  

We’ll start out with what JD calls “the Old World Mosaic” and our current situation and complications.  We know this arena well with all of our division, fear and separation.  This mosaic is now collapsing in all of our systems from healthcare to education to financial to politics.  Why? Because our map for fixing this system is wrong: what worked before no longer works, largely due to unrestrained corruption that has taken over all systems.

After our last show together, and many (at least 18) rewrites, JD became ambivalent with the list of grievances.  What he saw was systemic corruption at a level that could not be addressed within the system itself.  The system is now set up to protect itself and those in power to the point where We the People have lost control or even the right to ask for redress of grievances.  

So now what?

"The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new" - Socrates

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible" - Frank Zappa

It is time for a new system, one that starts with each person, individually and then connecting with others.  What would a “New World Mosaic” look like?  If we were starting over, what would we create today?  Send us your ideas via comment here, tweet our guests JD Messinger or Miriam Knight  @ncreview or join our Facebook page conversation.  As always, we have a few ideas to share, but it’s not a conversation without you.

We look forward to a spirit-full conversation of possibilities.

JD Messinger bio

Miriam Knight bio

JD Messinger’s book, 11 Days in May is the story and conversation of his journey from corporate consultant, senior vice president and more to his personal awakening to wholistic solutions for the planet.  We are so excited to talk with him, Miriam Knight, another wholistic thinker in Portland, and draw on their combined insights and research as we begin to map our new world.

Coffee Party ON!
Jeanene and Debilyn

I just learned we have an incredible guest [Tues. May 14] on THE MIDDLE GROUND. In North Carolina, people compare Rev. Dr. William Barber II to Martin Luther King, and say it is only a matter of time before the nation recognizes his tremendous potential to build diverse coalitions and stand up to the corrupting influence of money in politics.

THE MIDDLE GROUND
with Michael Charney & Eric Byler
8 pm to 9 pm ET Tues. May 14, 2013
CLICK HERE to listen live to archived recording

How do the news stories of the past week impact you?  What if your neighbor had been the kidnapper of three women?  Or your boss was charged with sexual battery (as the Air Force Lt. Col. in charge of prevention of sexual abuse)? How did you feel when a rape victim was vindicated by a jury after suffering denigration and blame for the crime committed against her?  

Extreme situations like this point to the ways groups of people are marginalized today. The influence of the spin doctors seems to grow stronger as we allow our political influence and social significance to degrade.

So, exactly what makes violence against women a money-in-politics issue? Many of us assert that equality is “bad” for politics today, that it is “good” to sort people into controllable groups to be used or disenfranchised as needed to maintain power, and, as is true for all “other” groups:  the farther out from the hub of power, the more un-equal life becomes.

Equality costs more “they” say: yet the wage, wealth, and influence disparity gets bigger by the day. The 15,000 point high point on Wall Street this month is a likely bubble given unemployment, underemployment, and wage erosion in America.  Remember a time when the stock markets and Wall Street were related to these concerns?

How obvious is this becoming? The Yale University Institution for Social and Public Policy sponsored a conference earlier this week called Purchasing Power, Money, and Politics, where “...leading policy makers. academics, advocates, and thought leaders from around the country will come together at Yale University to explore the role of money in our political system.”

Women make up the greatest number of single heads of households, are the most likely to make minimum wage, and make up a disproportionate number of the true unemployed. Instead of a cry for support, we are inundated with the systematic denigration of those falling away from our illusion of prosperity. After all, why can’t a poor single mother working part time for minimum wage with 3 children to feed “boot strap it?” “Good people succeed” is a slap in the face.  And, it makes it OK to not give political influence.

In case you still have some doubts, let’s look at a recent example.

The recent renewal (after expiration) of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was political theatre at its best. All data since the original inception of the law showed reductions in rates of violence and homicide between intimate partners, both men and women. But upon reflection after many failed attempts to have reasonable debate let alone pass the expired law, it appeared that the biggest barrier to passage was, in the words of Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, " I didn't like the way it was expanded to include other different groups."

The spin doctors have made it fashionable to consider native American women, undocumented women, or the transgendered as less important, even though they are a part of the group called women.  

The United Nations considers violence, discrimination, and undereducation of women a pandemic. In 2011 UN Women outlined a comprehensive policy agenda to end violence against women globally. Among the list is the call for political will and investment to ensure that women can live a life without violence.

The lack of political will and investment in America tells the story. For some reason NOT acting pays. In our current corrupt environment of political pandering for campaign contributions, the big donors MUST be pleased.

But why inequality? Why denigration? This may all go back to the infamous words from Paul Weyrich in 1980: "Now many of our Christians have what I call the 'goo-goo syndrome.' Good government. They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."  Disenfranchised people do not vote. Is it really that simple?  Yes, it appears to be.

Today on LUNCH WITH LOUDEN we will discuss the politics of inequality with YOU and guest, Dennis Little. He is active in transpartisan politics, and works to advocate change. Dennis has a background in the health care system and is currently involved in the renaissance of health care technology and the human dynamics aspect of care.

TODAY 12-1 PM PACIFIC
LUNCH WITH LOUDEN
646-929-2495 to listen or participate
Listen LIVE or LATER

Coffee Party ON
Jeanene

(Debilyn is away this week) 

We hear a lot of opinions every day about what the MOST important issues of the day are and how we should cover them.  

Today, we’d like you to call in to share with us your single most important issue.  Together, let’s see if there is a connection back to money in politics or campaign financing.  

We’ve heard a lot about jobs, wage stagnation, pensions, Social Security, GMOs, the Keystone XL Pipeline, quality of the food supply, housing, women’s rights and gun control, just to name a few.  

With everyone focusing on the issue that matters most to them, each with it’s own fundraising strategy, how do we rise above the cacophony to have a single, unequivocal voice that our legislators can hear?  Is money in politics the single issue that touches all others?

Yes.  It is the core of Coffee Party USA along with many sister organizations to address this uber-issue that impacts all others.

The addiction to money in our campaign system and strategies can be healed.  Imagine what would be possible if our elected representatives were accountable ONLY to their voters and there were no other funders?  The next election opponent was a person with a healthy counterpoint in the local area instead of a multinational corporation or powerful lobby backed yes-man (or woman).

Join the show today and share your most important issue: together we will draw the connection to money in politics.  Together, we can address this addiction and create or reclaim the health of this republic’s democracy.

Call in today! 646-929-2495
LUNCH WITH LOUDEN
Listen live or later

Coffee Party ON!  
Jeanene & Debilyn

TONIGHT ON THE MIDDLE GROUND

WHY ARE WE ALL SO DAMN MEAN TO EACH OTHER?

 IT'S AN OPEN-CALL SHOW

SO JOIN US AT 646-929-2495

As members of the Coffee Party media team, we here at the Middle Ground see a lot of posts, emails, show responses and tweets. The one thing that continually strikes us is that, no matter how hard any of us want civility, it seems like an increasingly difficult state to attain.

Even among our own fans and members, things can get pretty shocking....

Tonight we're having an OPEN CALL NIGHT on The Middle Ground. We want to hear about what YOU think it's going to take to reach true civility--not just from a handful of us, but from a majority.

Presented by Coffee Party USA, "The Middle Ground" covers a variety of topics with a trans-partisan approach with an eye to finding the place where the two major political parties share that 'middle ground.' Co-hosted by award-winning filmmaker Eric Byler (center-left perspective) and political author Michael Charney (center-right perspective), the show airs every Tuesday 8 to 9:30 pm ET.

We love our callers: 646-929-2495.

And we promise not to scream at you.

Respectfully,

Michael Charney & Eric Byler 

Contrary to Justice Scalia's clownish remarks, African Americans are NOT the only citizens protected by The Voting Rights Act. Targeted disenfranchisement impacts people of all races (even if resentment toward minorities is exploited to justify it). The 1965 Voting Rights Act makes voter suppression more difficult to pursue, protecting citizens of all races who wish to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

This op-ed by Prof. Gary May of the University of Delaware illustrates this fact using Alabama's 1966 gubernatorial race as a case study, and lays to waste Scalia's argument that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act should be overturned because it only protects African Americans.

(Even if it did protect only African Americans, isn't that like saying we should repeal the 2nd Amendment because it only protects gun owners?)

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on Shelby County v. Holder in June, ironically, during a period of rampant manipulation of election laws to achieve electoral outcome using targeted disenfranchisement. The case originates in Shelby County, Alabama, where district lines were redrawn in order to remove the lone African American member of the city council of Calera.

The argument made by Shelby County during oral arguments was not that politicians can now be trusted to write election laws, but rather, that politicians in the South are no more likely to attack voting rights than politicians elsewhere, and thus, Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act unfairly burdens covered jurisdictions (mostly in the South) where pre-clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice, or a federal court, is required before changing voting laws. Indeed, abuses of voting rights are at least as prevalent in swing states as they are in covered jurisdictions. This suggests to me that Section 5 should apply to all 50 states if fairness is a priority, rather than stripping the People of voting rights protection in those areas where abuse has been the worst. If Scalia gets his way and pre-clearance is struck down, the resulting flood of voter-suppression legislation will be so overwhelming, and the court battles will be so consuming, that the Justice Department will struggle to protect anyone. 

Politicians who feel entitled to the spoils of holding public office are using Voter ID laws, restrictions on early voting and Sunday voting, and race-based gerrymandering to counteract the revolutionary demographic shift that has made fear politics, political advertising, and "divide and conquer" tactics less and less effective. They have exploited the election of Barack Obama to spark hysteria over "voter fraud" and justify the abridgment of voting rights for millions of Americans. (Mind you, they only want to prevent a percentage of students, people of color, and poor people from voting — not all of them, just enough to hold on to power a little while longer.)

Until recent visits to North Carolina and Alabama, I had thought that the Jim Crow era was dominated by hatred. I now understand that hatred was merely a pretext for acts of voter suppression and political terrorism to achieve electoral results. 

Until the outrageously offensive comments of Justice Scalia, I had thought that the Voting Rights Act protects people of color from targeted disenfranchisement. Now that Scalia has attempted to exploit this perception, and — a recent rash of resentment toward African Americans — to lobby fellow justices to gut the Voting Rights Act, I understand that it actually protects us all. The right to vote is not only an individual right. It is not only a right belonging to minority communities. It is a right that protects the People as a whole, and allows us to choose self-governance over oligarchy. 

Will the high court rule as politicians, or as jurists? We know where Scalia stands, and, I think that his offensive comments, both on and off the bench, will make it more likely that one, or possibly two of his fellow Republican appointees will rule as jurists. My prediction: 6-3 with Chief Justice Roberts joining the majority in upholding the Voting Rights Act.

Laws, and court decisions that impact our sacred right to vote should focus on protecting our constitution, not achieving a desired political outcome.