Speak Against O'Reilly & Rush

Over the weekend Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh lambasted Democracy for America and Brave New PAC for running the following TV advertisement asking why John McCain is hiding his health records:

Rush said, "These people will stop at nothing"

Bill O'Reilly called it "the most vicious political ad of the campaign."

O'Reilly, running scared, went on to attack MSNBC and their network executives for allowing the ad to air in the first place. Shortly after, NBC informed us that they were pulling the ad.

Evidently, O'Reilly is now calling the shots at NBC. Bill O'Reilly shouldn't get to choose what you can watch on television. Call NBC right now and tell them to run the ad.

NBC SwitchBoard
(212) 664-4444

CLICK HERE TO REPORT YOUR CALL

Asking John McCain to release his health records is fair and legitimate. The fact that Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly are on the attack is proof they don't want to know the truth.

If the traditional media lets wingnut talking heads like Limbaugh and O'Reilly control the agenda, we might as well throw any semblance of free speech out the window.

Call NBC right now. Tell them Bill O'Reilly doesn't speak for you. We stand with over 2,500 doctors who believe this important question should be heard. America has a right to know the answer.

CLICK HERE TO TELL US HOW YOUR CALL WENT

Demand the Debate!

from MoveOn:

Yesterday was one of the stranger days in presidential election history. John McCain actually asked to "suspend" Friday's much anticipated debate with Barack Obama so that he could posture on the financial crisis.

Even the arch-conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board was mystified.

Bottom line: This isn't presidential behavior. It's a desperate, reckless move that actually threatens to make it harder to resolve this crisis. And of course, presidents have to be able to handle lots of important issues at once—they can't panic and take their eyes off of one urgent priority when another one pops up.

Obama wants the debate to go forward. So do millions of other Americans. With 40 days left until the most important election in a generation, we deserve a debate on the issues.

DO SOMETHING! Sign our emergency petition to the Commission on Presidential Debates urging them to hold strong and make sure that the debate go forward on Friday, as planned. We'll make sure they get your comments by the end of the day.


The petition reads: "Now more than ever, the American people deserve a presidential debate. We urge you to make sure the debate goes forward as planned tomorrow night."

What's motivating all this panicky erratic behavior from McCain? It's hard to tell, but here are what some of the experts are saying might be behind it:

A drop in the polls. As Politico writer Ben Smith pointed out, "In terms of the timing of this move: The only thing that's changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling."

Stopping the VP debate. Last night, McCain surrogate Sen. Lindsay Graham suggested that the vice presidential debate between Gov. Palin and Senator Biden be cancelled to accommodate his request to postpone tomorrow's debate. (Now, why would they ever want to postpone or cancel the VP debate?)

Pure reckless decision-making. McCain has a history of reckless decision making. Here's how Time's Joe Klein put it yesterday, "McCain suspends his campaign because of financial crisis? Oh please. Given today's poll numbers—even Fox has him dropping—it seems another Hail Mary (like the feckless selection of Palin) to try make McCain seem a statesman, which is difficult given the puerile tenor of his campaign's message operation." And the Wall Street Journal wrote last week: "In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help."

But whatever the cause is, McCain's wrong. Serious situations like this one are exactly the time when Americans most need a real discussion—a debate.

We've got to make sure that the Debate Commission doesn't bend under Republican pressure. Can you add your signature now?

McCain and Obama Must Debate on Friday

from CREDO Action at Working Assets:

John McCain thinks we don't need a presidential debate on Friday night.

We at CREDO disagree. We need a real debate on the economy, and we need it now. The presidential candidates, as Senator Obama says, should hold their debate Friday as scheduled, and address the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

We've been hearing a lot this week about how our economy is in a crisis — maybe the worst crisis since the Great Depression. Politicians on the left and the right have made all kinds of claims about exactly how much or little we should panic and what that means for the policies we should enact.

The Bush Administration, for its part, has continued to insist that we must give the largest free lunch in history to the Wall Street tycoons who got us into this mess to begin with, We at CREDO disagreed strongly with this position, and we put forth some of our own policy recommendations in accordance with Robert Reich's suggestions.

If these issues are so serious, then that's only more reason to have a national dialogue about them, and to understand how Senator McCain and Senator Obama would handle them as president.

Americans have a monumental decision to make this November, and we need as much information as possible in order to make the best choice. We reject the notion that canceling the debate is the best way to focus on the economy. Rather, let's use the debate to spotlight the importance of economic issues.

DO SOMETHING! Encourage Senator McCain to show up for the debate on Friday as planned, and to focus on the economic issues facing our nation. As Americans caught in a pivotal moment in our nation's history, we deserve nothing less.

Global Poverty: Just ONE Question

From The ONE Campaign:

Two. Only two questions about global poverty have been asked in the history of modern presidential debates, going back to Kennedy-Nixon in 1960. That's less than one percent of all questions asked.

To change that shockingly low figure, ONE is launching a new campaign to get “Just ONE Question” about the fight against global poverty asked at the 2008 presidential debates.

The first debate at the University of Mississippi at Oxford, MS, will focus on foreign policy and is only 10 days away. Take action now by sending the message below to debate moderator Jim Lehrer. Click the link and we'll send your message to Mr. Lehrer, urging him to ask Just ONE Question on the fight against global poverty.

This first debate will happen just one day after world leaders gather at the United Nations in New York for an emergency meeting on the Millennium Development Goals – the global pledge made in 2000 to halve extreme poverty and global disease by 2015.

Meeting those goals will require unprecedented U.S. leadership during the next eight years. For at least four of those years, John McCain or Barack Obama will be our president. It's up to us to make sure that the issues being discussed at the United Nations in New York are also being raised with Senators Obama and McCain at the debate in Mississippi.

We can't afford to have another presidential debate that ignores extreme poverty and global disease. Please ask Jim Lehrer for Just ONE Question on global poverty, and we’ll deliver your message to him next week, right when he’s sitting down to decide what he'll ask the next President of the United States:

Speak Out Against McCain's Rove-like Lies

Do Something! Sign the petition.