Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, also known as Crossroads GPS, is a secretly-funded 501(c)(4) conservative political group created in June 2010 by right-wing political operatives and “advised” by Karl Rove and former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie to support Republican candidates. It is a spin-off group of American Crossroads, a 527 Political Action Committee under the same leadership.

“It’s no surprise that Karl Rove has an early eye on this Senate seat,” said DPVA Chairman Brian Moran. “When looking at George Allen’s record next to Tim Kaine’s there’s no comparison.

“Republicans know that they can’t run on George Allen’s dismal Senate record so they’ve resorted to false claims about Tim Kaine. Voters in Virginia deserve to know the facts about their candidates not be mislead by outright lies.”

Newspapers across the Commonwealth agree, see the video below or click here.

How about some good talking points and getting fired up too.

Elizabeth Warren, Democratic Senate candidate in Massachusetts (elizabethwarren.com) and former White House financial reform adviser, blasted Republicans at an appearance in Andover in August for accusing Democrats of engaging in “class warfare.” See the video below or click here. For the Huffington Post story, click here.

This November 8th we can preserve our Democratic majority in the Virginia Senate, pick up seats in the House and send a message to Bob McDonnell and the Republicans that their radical tea party agenda has no place in Virginia government, but we can’t do it without your help. Please take a moment to check out this new video, share it with your friends and keep spreading the word about what’s at stake this November.

Virginians need to know who these candidates are, AND the party behind them. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum – it’s the obstructionist, Tea-publicans in the the General Assembly that keep Virginia from moving forward. Virginia families cannot afford for the Republicans to have unchecked power over Virginia government. That’s why it’s so important to talk to people in your community about who these candidates are and what they will do if elected.

DFA (Democracy for America) just released the ‘Don’t Kill the Dream‘ campaign identifying 10 steps to get our economy back on track and restore the American Dream – giving everyday Americans talking points about how supporting Democrats moves us in that direction.

A new 60-second television ad released by Democracy for America targets Republicans for killing the American Dream and failing to create jobs. The ad, “Don’t Kill the Dream,” which will air both nationally and targeted locally, features Americans who want Republicans in Congress to stop dismantling the middle class and killing the American Dream by slashing vital programs they depend on, while simultaneously insisting on tax breaks and loopholes for corporations and millionaires.

See the ad below, or click here.

10 critical steps to get our economy back on track and restore the American Dream (click each step for details)

• I. Invest in America’s Infrastructure
  Rebuild our crumbling bridges, dams, levees, ports, water and sewer lines, railways, roads, and public transit. We must invest in high-speed Internet and a modern, energy-saving electric grid. These investments will create good jobs and rebuild America. To help finance these projects, we need national and state infrastructure banks.
  
• II. Create 21st Century Energy Jobs
  We should invest in American businesses that can power our country with innovative technologies like wind turbines, solar panels, geothermal systems, hybrid and electric cars, and next-generation batteries. And we should put Americans to work making our homes and buildings energy efficient. We can create good, green jobs in America, address the climate crisis, and build the clean energy economy.
  
• III. Invest in Public Education
  We should provide universal access to early childhood education, make school funding equitable, invest in high-quality teachers, and build safe, well-equipped school buildings for our students. A high-quality education system, from universal preschool to vocational training and affordable higher education, is critical for our future and can create badly needed jobs now.
  
• IV. Offer Medicare for All
  We should expand Medicare so it’s available to all Americans, and reform it to provide even more cost-effective, quality care. The Affordable Care Act is a good start and we must implement it — but it’s not enough. We can save trillions of dollars by joining every other industrialized country — paying much less for health care while getting the same or better results.
  
• V. Make Work Pay
  Americans have a right to fair minimum and living wages, to organize and collectively bargain, to enjoy equal opportunity, and to earn equal pay for equal work. Corporate assaults on these rights bring down wages and benefits for all of us. They must be outlawed.
  
• VI. Secure Social Security
  Keep Social Security sound, and strengthen the retirement, disability, and survivors’ protections Americans earn through their hard work. Pay for it by removing the cap on the Social Security tax, so that upper-income people pay into Social Security on all they make, just like the rest of us.
  
• VII. Return to Fairer Tax Rates
  End, once and for all, the Bush-era tax giveaways for the rich, which the rest of us — or our kids — must pay eventually. Also, we must outlaw corporate tax havens and tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas. Lastly, with millionaires and billionaires taking a growing share of our country’s wealth, we should add new tax brackets for those making more than $1 million each year.
  
• VIII. End the Wars and Invest at Home
  Our troops have done everything that’s been asked of them, and it’s time to bring them home to good jobs here. We’re sending $3 billion each week overseas that we should be investing to rebuild America.
  
• IX. Tax Wall Street Speculation
  A tiny fee of a twentieth of 1% on each Wall Street trade could raise tens of billions of dollars annually with little impact on actual investment. This would reduce speculation, “flash trading,” and outrageous bankers’ bonuses — and we’d have a lot more money to spend on Main Street job creation.
  
• X. Strengthen Democracy
  We need clean, fair elections — where no one’s right to vote can be taken away, and where money doesn’t buy you your own member of Congress. We must ban anonymous political influence, slam shut the lobbyists’ revolving door in D.C., and publicly finance elections. Immigrants who want to join in our democracy deserve a clear path to citizenship. We must stop giving corporations the rights of people when it comes to our elections. And we must ensure our judiciary’s respect for the Constitution. Together, we will reclaim our democracy to get our country back on track.
  

This is what Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin call a ‘gotcha’ moment, what the rest of us call a moment of truth, a real insight into the unvarnished truth of a person’s thoughts. On Thursday at the Iowa State Fair, Mitt Romney’s soapbox moment surely epitomized a common theme among Republican thinking that, “Corporations are people, my friend”. See the video below, or click here, and articles from the Washington Post and Huffington Post.

“Corporations are people, my friend… of course they are. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people. Where do you think it goes? Whose pockets? Whose pockets? People’s pockets. Human beings my friend.”

That corporations are treated like people is in fact a reality when it comes to political speech and uncontrolled spending as a result of the now infamous Citizens United decision of January 21, 2010. The scary thing is that a huge segment of the populace believe a GOP / corporate benevolence will look out for their well-being with corporate profit, that privatized services will have recipients best interests foremost as their raison d’etre.

Need anyone look further than Wisconsin and Governor Scott Walker to see what friends to corporations such political thinking brings?

Had enough, vote Democratic!

NOTE: primary election (Tuesday, August 23, 2011) poll locations in Lee District are the same where you have voted previously, but will change for 3 locations for the general election on Tuesday, November 8, 2011.

To create its redistricting plan, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors appointed an advisory committee to recommend new election boundaries. The committee sent their recommendations in late March, and the board held a public hearing on these redistricting proposals on April 12.

Every 10 years, Fairfax County must redraw its electoral boundaries based on the population count by the U.S. Census.

“Citizens United” – the January 21, 2010 Supreme Court ruling, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, giving corporations a constitutional “right” to spend unlimited money influencing elections.

See Congressman Jim Moran’s (video) part below or click here, and the other videos:

• Bill Samuel, AFL-CIO
• Marge Baker, People For The American Way
• Craig Holman, Public Citizen
• Eric Byler, Coffee Party USA
• Question & Answer