Tuesday, October 31, 2006


Santorum V. Casey

Hat tip to Conservatives For American Values.... I guess it's best to consider every issue before voting, after all.


Posted by FleshPresser at 7:24 PM / 1 comment


Your Five-Minute Task for Oct. 31st - Take Back The Capitol!

I've got nothing cute today - no Halloween theme for today's five-minute action - save for possibly thinking about the total terror of two more years of Republican ineptitude should we not take back the Capitol on November 7th.

But with YOU taking these small steps each day between now and then, we WILL take back the Capitol and restore accountability to the White House!

Today's action is simple. Target five people who you know to be "apathetic" toward the political process. You know the ones - everyone has friends or colleagues like these. The ones that don't believe their vote, or their actions, will make a difference.

If you want, feel free to share my story of how one vote makes ALL of the difference sometimes.

Regardless, your task is to simply talk to five people about the importance of voting on November 7th. If you don't vote, after all, you forfeit the right to complain about the results.

Simple. Take the action. Take back the Capitol.

Posted by FleshPresser at 12:42 AM / No comment


Why Democrats Will Win...

There was a time, seemingly not too long ago, when Democrats were the ones standing in the circular firing squad. Given the impending demise of the Republican control of the House and Senate, Republicans are now lining up to do the same:



This isn't CNN being the "Liberal Media." No one put these words in the mouths of Dick Armey or Bob Barr. These are CONSERVATIVES trying to tell their fellow "alleged Conservatives" how bad they've screwed up this opportunity.

Posted by FleshPresser at 12:39 AM / 1 comment

Monday, October 30, 2006


Your Five-Minute Task for Oct. 30th - Take Back The Capitol!

This is a short task as well... but it may be just a little bit more painful. Today I'm going to ask you to take five minutes and contribute $20 to a Democratic candidate.

After today, your donation may not be useful to assist in the outcome of the election on November 7th.

Look, we're all busy, and don't necessarily have time and or the inclination to go door to door, ensuring that people are aware of their polling place locations, or working to get out the vote.

Campaigns have volunteers in these positions, but they also pay as many people as possible to do these jobs professionally during an election campaign.

This week, it is critical that Democrats have the resources necessary to ensure voters arrive at the polls.

Would you be willing to sacrifce the cost of going out to a movie this weekend if the trade-off were effective leadership and accountability in Washington?

It takes five minutes - but it makes a world of difference. And TODAY is the day to take the action!

Go to Act Blue and make a contribution to your local candidate, or to the Democratic in one of the nation's Key Races where your donations will make a huge impact.

You choose - but ACT!

Posted by FleshPresser at 2:25 PM / 1 comment


Keeping Tabs on Key Races

As we get closer and closer to November 7th, more and more information becomes available tracking key races across the country. MSNBC has a great interactive page devoted to watching each of the key Governors, House and Senate races across the country. The site is definitely worth a bookmark. They also rank the likely outcome of these races, according to Charlie Cook.

For those who want to call CNN a part of the "Liberal Media," you may be right - that is, if you equate "liberal" to "speaking the truth." It seems in the last few days as though CNN has decided to embrace the liberal media moniker, running a special series entitled "Broken Government." Although sharing some general focus on Congress and incumbents, it shines a majority of its spotlight on where conservatives have gone wrong - even devoting an entire program to nothing but the voice of conservatives bashing their "alleged fellow" conservatives - the result is an engaging program entitled Where The Right Went Wrong.

As you seek out information on the final days of the campaign, I would recommend both of these sites, and would love others to recommend other sites doing a good job of covering the races.

Posted by FleshPresser at 2:11 PM / No comment

Thursday, October 26, 2006


Your Five-Minute Task for Oct. 26th - Take Back The Capitol!

Today, your task is yet again simple. Choose a local candidate that you support, find a recent news clipping about the candidate from Google News, and e-mail that article to five friends or associates. Along with the link to the article, give them your reasons why it's important to vote on November 7th, and urge them to do the same.

Small steps. Simple actions. Individually they may not mean much, but if we collectively take action, we can shift our world.

Posted by FleshPresser at 12:26 AM / No comment


All Politics Is NOT Local

If you live in a state where a close House or Senate race is happening, look at how your vote could affect the lives of millions of people across the country:


It's not just what your Representative or Senator does for your own District or State that's important - it's important how we're ALL represented.

Posted by FleshPresser at 12:18 AM / No comment

Wednesday, October 25, 2006


Your Five-Minute Task for Oct. 25th - Take Back The Capitol!

We're trying to give very simple actions for you to take every day between now and November 7th to make a difference in the election.

Today's is simple. Print out this flyer (it's in .pdf format) and make five copies. Hang these five copies in conspicuous public places.

Every time that someone states that Democrats "don't have a plan," mention these six points.

Easy. No more than five minutes out of your day. But take a step toward making a difference on November 7th.

Posted by FleshPresser at 11:07 PM / 1 comment


Stay The Course...

The Bush Administration doesn't feel obliged to "change their strategry".... simply to drop some old catch phrase and attempt to distract us by changing the lexicon. That is the one thing that Republicans are truly good at - attempting to frame the debate by their choice of language.

But this time, it's going to come back to bite them hard in the ass....


Posted by FleshPresser at 11:03 PM / No comment

Tuesday, October 24, 2006


Take Back The Capitol!

Two weeks until we Take Back The Capitol!

In the next fourteen days, PTF will be suggesting one small step that you can take to make sure that we bring accountability back to our government - not big complicated projects - each will be a small step that you can take to MAKE a difference!

This is important, PTFers - If each of us are not willing to take even small actions to change our government, then we have no right to complain when the government is not representative of our views.

Two weeks... five minutes a day... Can YOU spare an hour and ten minutes out of your life to make a difference???


Posted by FleshPresser at 12:09 PM / 1 comment

Thursday, October 12, 2006


The October Surprise? Democrats Still Have The Edge!

With just under a month before the November elections, Republicans still find themselves against the ropes. Despite the best attempts of the oil industry to sway Americans with a temporary drop in gasoline prices, Americans obviously aren't paying attention, or at least aren't being diverted by the sleight of hand:
* Approval ratings for Bush continue to hover in the low 30s;
* 67% of Americans are not happy with the current direction of the country;
* 58% of Americans believe the Bush administration knowingly misled the American people in building its case for war against Saddam Hussein;
* 66% say the war has not made America safer from terrorism
* 53% of Americans want Democrats to win control of Congress; and
* If the election were held today, 51% of likely voters would vote for the Democrat in their district versus 39% who would vote for the Republican.
Perhaps the scariest piece of information for Republicans is this little bit of information taken from the poll:
Democrats now outdistance Republicans on every single issue that could decide voters’ choices come Nov. 7. In addition to winning—for the first time in the NEWSWEEK poll—on the question of which party is more trusted to fight the war on terror (44 to 37 percent) and moral values (42 percent to 36 percent), the Democrats now inspire more trust than the GOP on handling Iraq (47 to 34); the economy (53 to 31); health care (57 to 24); federal spending and the deficit (53 to 29); gas and oil prices (56 to 23); and immigration (43 to 34).
But that's just the general picture. Let's look at some specific cases across the country, and focus on the nuts and bolts of how the Democrats will finally take control of Congress and bring accountability back to the Bush Administration.

PENNSYLVANIA: The tide has turned, and although Casey has never relinquished the lead in this race, Santorum has failed to close the gap. Indeed, the gap has begun to widen once again, and Casey now leads by 14 points.

MISSOURI: Most polls generally show this race as too close to call. Rasmussen Reports, however, points out some interesting facts in trying to tease out any advantage for either Democrat Claire McCaskill or Republican Jim Talent. While the latest poll shows McCaskill up by only one point (within the margin of error, as this race has continued to play), there are some other determining factors.

Missouri will obviously be a bellweather state in determining control of Congress. When asked how they would vote if their vote determined the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, 46% said Democrat and 43% said they would vote Republican. While it's still too early to call, I ultimately believe that current events recently swinging nationwide in favor of Democrats and against Republicans will make this race a lot less close than the recent polls. Democrats are simply going to be more motivated to get to the polls.

OHIO: Sherrod Brown continues to widen his lead over Mike DeWine - the latest poll has Brown with a 49-41 advantage. This is, I believe, the state where a Democrat will win by the largest margin over the Republican.

TENNESSEE: People lost faith in him, and said once Bob Corker became the Republican nominee for the seat that Bill Frist is vacating, there was no chance that Harold Ford could even run a competitive race statewide. Well, we here at PTF have been keeping the faith in Ford, and today, he leads the race by five points - 48-43. Another interesting sidelight here is that Harold Ford has an edge with unaffiliated voters and has a huge 70% to 23% lead among moderates.

MONTANA: Jon Tester is holding a seven point lead over Republican Conrad Burns - the latest poll shows the race at 47-40 in favor of Tester. Jon Tester is one of the best choices of a candidate to unseat a Republican, especially for a state like Montana. Conrad Burns has been vulnerable from the outset for his ties to Jack abramoff, but Tester is a big burly farmer - when voters in Montana were asked who would better represent them in terms of honesty in government and ethical issues, Tester tops Burns by a margin of 51 - 26.

RHODE ISLAND: Most people ignore Rhode Island, because Lincoln Chafee masquerades so often as a Democrat in Republican clothing. Nonetheless, he is a Republican, and he's yet another reason why Republicans control the Senate. Until November, that is. In the most recent poll, Sheldon Whitehouse was maintaining a 51-43 advantage over Chafee. If there is anyone with momentum right now, it's Whitehouse, and the fact that this one could slip through GOP hands is freaking them out.

VIRGINIA: Not too terribly long ago, George Allen was not only holding a double-digit lead over Democrat Jim Webb, but he was mulling over a 2008 Presidential campaign. Then he took a political gun and shot himself over and over and over. As a result, Webb has pulled within the margin of error in this very-traditionally red state, and even if he's politically impotent by November, Allen might at least have a considerable amount of time to mull over that Presidential campaign. Again, taking the notion of more Democrats being motivated to actually go to the polls, this could be the biggest upset of the day.

So, there are seven states listed with real potential to switch from Republican to Democratic seats in the Senate. This is not to say that it's a done deal, but it's a huge October surprise in an election where, earlier in the summer, most were conceding the House changing hands, but few giving Democrats a chance in the Senate.

Even more telling is the new GOP firewall strategy. The RNC has devoted unprecedented amounts of money into advertising into three key races - Ohio, Tennessee, and Missouri. The strategy is to strongly defend a few states they believe they can win, protecting control of the Senate.

The key here, as I see it, is not the states that they've targeted - it's the ones they haven't. Given their new endgame focus on these three states, does this mean that they will be conceding Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Montana and other important races. This is what seems to be the case.

Like the gas prices and the approval ratings for President Bush, I'm not at all convinced that throwing money at these races will equal votes for the Republicans come November. Stay tuned....

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Posted by FleshPresser at 12:34 AM / 9 comments

Thursday, October 05, 2006


A Matter Of Trust...

So, President Bush continues to campaign and fundraise, telling Americans that they should not trust the Democrats with the security of the nation.

Meanwhile, Republicans cannot be trusted to defend the security of minors in their own corridors:



Maybe Americans shouldn't trust the "liberal media" to present the truth to them, either? Well, perhaps those that can't trust Democrats and can't trust the media will trust the members of their own party who are calling for the resignation of Dennis Hastert:
REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R), TENNESSEE: If anybody participated in a cover-up, whether it was a member or whether it was a staffer or whether it was somebody who was holding e-mails, that individual needs to resign immediately.

REP. BRIAN BILBRAY (R), CALIFORNIA: It's just like when someone of the cloth or a teacher violates the trust, a congressman violating his trust is an outrage.

BAY BUCHANAN (Conservative Analyst): I think the speaker will be gone by the end of the day.... I mean, he can't sustain this now. There are Republicans already talking on the Hill, talking amongst themselves, what they should do. Many of them do believe he should step down.... I think this kind of revelation tells them he has to go. He has to go now. And I think the speaker himself will realize that.

RICHARD VIGUERIE (Conservative Icon): This isn’t an isolated situation. It is only the most recent example of Republican House leaders doing whatever it takes to hold onto power. If it means spending billions of taxpayers’ dollars on questionable projects, they’ll do it. If it means covering up the most despicable actions of a colleague, they’ll do it.... They’ve lost their moral rudder.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES editorial: House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away.

How about Dennis Hastert himself? According to CQ, Hastert has now stated that "...he would resign as the top congressional leader if it would help the Republican Party stave off defeat in November."
Keep in mind that this is a small group of 70 or 80 kids whose parents have trusted Congress to keep them safe during their time in Washington. If they can't be trusted to keep these kids safe, how is it that Americans are supposed to trust Republicans with the security of 300 million Americans?

Who Do YOU Trust?

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Posted by FleshPresser at 12:33 AM / 20 comments

Wednesday, October 04, 2006


There's A Sad Joke Here...

I KNOW that PTFers out there can caption this picture brilliantly.... It's far too perfect to ignore - give it your best shot!



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Posted by FleshPresser at 5:14 PM / No comment