UPDATE: Congratulations, everyone! We broke $50,000! We're now at $52,122.05. Good work and thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Hi, everyone. As you know, my Dad is
Jack Carter, who's running for US Senate in Nevada. We've done really well with our end-of-the-quarter online fundraising numbers! Our original goal was to get
$50,000 in online donations, and as you can see from the "Bet on Jack" banner, we're up to
47,201.27! Those chips have almost taken over! We're almost there!
Don't tell anyone, but I was really worried that we wouldn't make it to our goal. If you look at my diary from Wednesday, you'll notice that I didn't even mention the $50,000 goal. Since I wasn't sure we'd make it, I thought I should stop reminding people that we even had a goal. But, I'm pleased to announce that you all like us Carters more than I anticipated! We'll almost certainly get there now! Help put us over the top!
We need to show as big a number as we can for the end of the fundraising quarter. Also, every bit that you can give us will help us show how much netroots buzz there is about our campaign; and more importantly, will help us spread the word within Nevada. Remember that the paid media in Nevada (espcially TV ads) are pretty cheap, so your dollars go a long way.
I've written before about my Dad's positions on issues (and you can also find them on the website), but there have been a couple of things just in the last couple of days that show why it's so important to help candidates like my Dad get elected. If you agree with my Dad on these very critical issues, please help us out by contributing what you can.
The first is yesterday's Hamden v. Rumsfeld Supreme Court decision, which held that the Bush Administration overstepped its legal boundaries in its tribunals for prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. My Dad is extremely sensitive to these Civil Liberties issues, and wrote a statement about it right away:
Today's decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld marked a blow to the Bush-Cheney attempt to avoid judicial review of actions they have taken in the war against terror. The Supreme Court ruled that it retained jurisdiction in the matter of tribunals for Guantanamo Bay prisoners and that the administration violated the law.
I applaud the administration's intentions in fighting our enemies, but the foundations of our American democracy rest on checks and balances among the three branches of government. When the executive branch tries to evade review of their actions by our courts or to avoid oversight by our elected representatives in Congress, it is a patriot's duty to demand a change. We have existed for more than 200 years under this form of government. There is no reason to depart from it now.
If the Republican-controlled Congress would stand up like the Supreme Court and demand to be a part of the decisions which affect the security of our country instead of rolling over like lap-dogs to every whim of the executive branch, we patriots could go back to making a living.
The junior Senator from Nevada is part of the problem. He is Washington's voice to Nevada. I will be Nevada's voice to Washington.
The "junior Senator from Nevada" is John Ensign, who has voted with the Bush administration
96% of the time since he was elected (including
100% of the time in 2004), and shows no signs of standing up to the executive branch.
I'd like to point out that my Dad's not just jumping on this issue opportunistically - he's been pushing for protecting our Civil Liberties and for Congressional oversight from the beginning of his campaign. Back in January, he wrote an Op-Ed in the Elko Daily Free Press (which I diaried at the time). In that article, he wrote in part:
There is no doubt that torturing people is un-American. There is no doubt that unfettered eavesdropping on Americans by the executive branch is un-American. There is no doubt that holding prisoners without due process is un-American.
These are the spear marks our attackers left, every bit as much a wound as the gaping hole in New York's skyline. These were inflicted, not by suicide bombers, but by Fear - the opponent of Values and the "other" weapon in the terrorists' arsenal.
We must defend our families and our values as fiercely as we attack our enemies. Our government must fight Terrorists, but our Values must battle Terror. These principles define us. They make us American more than geography ever did.
He's been pushing for Congressional oversight on the stump, too, and has been
very well-received. This article is titled "Carter wows bi-partisan Incline Crowd:"
. . . drawing on his experience as a young man with a father in the White House and his successful run as a businessman, Carter said there's a difference between not agreeing with policy and not wanting to be told lies.
"When you look at the eavesdropping, Congress passing a law and the President ignoring it, and the secrecy ... we see this president has lied to us," Carter said. "People can say 'I do/don't agree with him on (issues) and that's OK, but leaking classified information for political reasons, that's not what presidents do."
Carter's candor won much of the crowd over.
The other big issue that's come up just in the last couple of days is that of Net Neutrality. John Ensign is on the Commerce Committee, which met on Wednesday about the big Telecom bill. Ensign voted against the Snow-Dorgan amendment which would have ensured net neutrality. Not only did he vote against it, he called it a "poison pill." His vote led to an 11-11 tie, which meant that the amendment failed. If my Dad had been in his place, he would have voted for the amendment, the vote would have been 12-10, and net neutrality would have been included in the bill. This is an especially concrete example of the difference between my Dad and John Ensign.
These are two very recent examples of why it's absolutely essential that you do everything you can to help elect Jack Carter. Please give what you can. I promise, after today, I won't ask for money again for a long time!
Thanks for reading!
Sarah