An new movement to take back our government from special interest:

[acmavm]

http://www.pcactionfund.org/lincolncall/

President Bush raised $49.5 million dollars over the last three months – more than all his Democratic opponents combined over the same period. This brings Bush’s special interest fundraising to $84 million since May, well on the way to an unprecedented $200 million-plus.

Asked by a reporter how he could actually spend that much, Bush replied:

“Just watch.”

At the same time, the Democratic presidential candidates are under pressure to prove their worth, not by the strength of their ideas but by the bulge in their bank accounts.

It’s time we raised our collective, patriotic voices to indict this pay-to-play system of financing campaigns, and present an alternative based on bedrock American values of fairness, equality, and justice.

That’s why we’re asking you to join us by signing the “Lincoln Call: A Presidency Of, By, and For the People.”

Joan Blades from MoveOn.org just signed the Call. So did Hasbro Toys CEO Alan Hassenfeld, and the National Council of Churches head (and former Congressman) Rev. Bob Edgar. And Arianna Huffington and Scott Harshbarger, former Common Cause president, added their names just last week.

Examples of the special interest stranglehold on politics are everywhere.

– Lobbyists for polluting corporations write loopholes in landmark environmental laws in secret meetings. The overhaul of Medicare has turned into a boon for HMOs and pharmaceutical companies. People who can’t afford to hire a lobbyist or write a $2,000 campaign check get fleeced.

– Halliburton and Bechtel – big campaign contributors – are taking “war-profiteering” to new heights in the rebuilding of Iraq. Every day we hear about more no-bid contracts, sweetheart deals, and backroom meetings for politically-connected donors. Now more than ever before, big donors have turned political investments into business investments, with astronomical returns at taxpayer expense.

If you care about public policy on the auction block, and believe that America can’t preach democracy to the world, when we tolerate such a mockery of democracy here at home, sign the Lincoln Call.

If you think that we need to fix the problems in our presidential campaign finance system by learning from the successes of Maine and Arizona’s Clean Elections laws, sign the Lincoln Call

http://www.pcactionfund.org/lincolncall/

Nick Nyhart and the rest of the staff at

Public Campaign & Public Campaign Action Fund

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS AN E-MAIL I GOT LAST NIGHT. I IMMEDIATELY SIGNED THE PETITION. I ASKED FOR PERMISSION TO POST THIS ON DU, AND I GOT AN E-MAIL BACK SAYING OKAY.