I've never written a meta diary before, and while I've rarely participated in them, I usually do read them. The recent meta storm and a candidate diary that went nowhere yesterday morning, however, has me joining the meta stream.
Over the weekend, Ministry of Truth wrote a rec listed diary about a man who fired a shotgun in the air when a census worked stopped by to count the members of his household. Yesterday morning, he wrote a positive, thoughtful diary on an excellent candidate from Alabama's 7th CD - that diary did not get on the rec list and scrolled off in the morning's rush.
The stated mission around here is to get more and better Democrats elected - please join me over the fold for what I think is an important discussion...
While I agree that the threat of right wing violence is very real and dangerous, I can't help but be disappointed when good diaries about solid progressive candidates barely even get noticed. I'm hopeful that DK4 will help resolve some of this issue, but it seems that the sensational stuff is just so much more appealing to the majority of users. So I'm asking everyone to think twice about pushing that recommend button for a sensational topic, and to please give candidate diaries a look - if we're going to get more and better Democrats elected, we're going to have to support good candidates first and foremost.
This is yet another reason why I'm forming my own PAC - if this issue is a concern to you, please consider joining us. I've been on here touting it for weeks - we're on a membership drive, and the only way we will be effective is by gaining a large membership base making small donations. Click through to our web site for a complete description of what we're about - here's a quick snapshot:
- To support Job Creation with good pay and benefits, and to protect and preserve good jobs for the American people, as well as to support and defend the rights of all Americans to organize and participate in Labor Unions.
- To support and promote a sustainable and environmentally friendly Energy Policy that will lead America away from the unsustainable consumption of Fossil Fuels and America’s dependence on foreign energy sources.
- To rebuild America’s outdated and depreciated infrastructure and transportation systems.
- To support and defend the civil rights of all Americans as envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and defined by the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America in order to ensure the civil rights of all Americans regardless of race, religion, creed, original nationality, sex or sexual orientation.
- To promote and defend non-profit health insurance and to promote and support quality health care for all Americans through reforms and policies such as, but not limited to, Medicare for All.
- To support and promote America’s public education system and education reforms that bear in mind the best interests of the American people.
- To fight Corporate and Special Interests influence in Government by supporting and defending Campaign Finance Reform and supporting and advocating on behalf of Publicly Funded Elections.
Click here to see the complete first draft of our prospectus.
Our PAC is small-d democratically controlled, we are truly a people-powered public policy PAC. We are setting up by-laws for the PAC which will ultimately be voted on and adopted by the PAC membership. These by-laws will include limits on executive compensation and avoidance of any conflict of interest - the last thing we want is a diary about Peanut Butter PAC like the one we saw about FDL's PAC a few weeks ago. As of this writing, no one has received any compensation at all for services rendered to the PAC, and that won't be happening until we have sufficient funds to do so.
By design, better than 80% of the money our PAC collects goes to awards to candidates and causes. There is built-in tip income which pays administrative expenses, but we have only just begun collecting donations and so far our cash outlays have been very limited - we've rented a mailbox and gotten a DBA certificate from the town I live in. We've also done several things which are free - we've obtained a federal tax id, and we've registered with the FEC as an unconnected PAC.
Paying members are allowed to see the books at any time - we currently have enough paying members to generate $39 per week, so we are on a membership drive. Once we reach $500 per week, we will begin voting and disbursing awards to candidates - and if we don't reach $500 per week by the end of April, we will start the voting with a monthly award so that we can still begin to get money to candidates. To get a full understanding of the concept, please see our "About Us" page here:
http://www.peanutbutterpac.org/...
Please consider joining Peanut Butter PAC - if you can't make a recurring donation, please consider a working capital donation, as every little bit helps. Thanks for reading!
Follow me on Twitter: @JohnTehan
Follow Peanut Butter PAC on Twitter: @PeanutButterPAC