November 17, 2008 11:38 AM

Dose of Durst

To refer to George W Bush as a lame duck doesn't quite cut it. Quadriplegic platypus is more like it.

November 13, 2008 3:30 PM

Wonky, but worth it.

I just got off the phone with a reporter who was calling about a CREDO campaign we launched yesterday.

Rep. Henry Waxman has challenged Rep. John Dingell for leadership of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee. Waxman will fight to take aggressive steps to fight global warming. Dingell, known as the "Congressman from General Motors" will not act with the urgency needed to address the current crisis.

Yesterday, we emailed hundreds of thousands of members and ask them to urge their Democratic Member of Congress to support Waxman's challenge for chairman.

The reporter wanted to know: Aren't you afraid of provoking the powerful chairman of a Congressional Committee that passes legislation that affects your business? The answer from our point of view is pretty clear. While we are a mobile phone company, we're in the business of social change. And if we don't address climate change now, we're all in serious trouble.

Why is it crucial that we replace Dingell as chairman of this Congressional committee? The most important pieces of legislation addressing climate change must pass through the House Energy and Commerce Committee. As chair of that committee, Congressman Dingell has exerted his power time and again to kill bills that could roll back global warming. Dingell has lined his campaign war chest with millions of dollars of contributions from electric, oil and coal companies. His wife (and potential successor to his Congressional seat) is a senior executive at General Motors. What's more, until recently, he wouldn't even admit that climate change was a real threat.

The new president is going to need our help to make the progressive changes we all have been waiting for. Weighing in on Waxman's challenge of Dingell for committee chair is wonky, but worth it. And it's just one of thousands of things that may make the difference between success and failure as we organize to achieve our progressive agenda.

November 12, 2008 12:47 PM

Dose of Durst

As President Bush faces retirement, he looks forward to a lifetime of figurehead status with no actually powers. So, no big change there.

November 11, 2008 10:12 PM

This is what a movement looks like.

Like many of you, my emotions were a mixed bag on election night: On one hand, I was elated by the myriad victories for progressive values across the nation. On the other hand, I was absolutely devastated that, here in California, Prop. 8 passed - that's the ballot initiative that imposes a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage. Amidst so much joy, I was stung beyond words that a majority of my fellow Californians would cast their ballots against equality.

But something else happened on election night, something amazing - a movement was born. There have been dozens of anti-Prop. 8 protests in California, including the one here in San Francisco last Friday where 25,000 protesters shut down rush hour traffic as they marched for equal rights. This Saturday, November 15th, the movement is going national. There will be coordinated protests in nearly every major city in America (and a few in other countries!) at 1:30 ET/10:30 PT. If you can, I hope you'll consider attending one, or organizing one if there's not already an event near you.

The national list of events is here: http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com

And you can also get involved on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=45356108205

It's not every day that Americans stand together in solidarity for the rights of all our brothers and sisters, our fellow human beings. And I have to say, I'm hard pressed to think of a moment when I've loved this country more.

November 6, 2008 2:26 PM

Dose of Durst

In comparisons with his predecessor, Barrack Obama should fare well. In the last couple years, Bush didn't just lower the bar, he buried it.

November 5, 2008 1:54 PM

The day after.

At CREDO headquarters in San Francisco, most staffers are exhausted -- physically and emotionally -- from election day.

There were some magnificent victories. By and large, our election system worked. Record numbers of citizens cast ballots and the country didn't have to face another stolen election.

The nightmare of the Bush administration is truly over and we can move forward and work with a new president to bring about progressive change.

We fought hard to stop Colorado, South Dakota and California from banning choice and were successful.

However, in our home state, we lost a ballot proposition that has very real consequences for many in the CREDO community. Proposition 8, which would take away the right for same sex couples to marry in California, won the votes of a majority of California voters.

We, of course, have many staff members and customers who have married their same-sex partners in California. How does it feel when over 5 million of our fellow Californians vote against their unions? Not very good, we can tell you that.

So today we celebrate our victories and mourn our losses. But on the whole we are feeling optimistic about the direction our country will take if progressives stay organized, engaged and keep fighting for our values.

November 4, 2008 8:11 PM

Celebrate change with a free bumper sticker!

Keep the celebration going! CREDO Mobile is giving away free bumper stickers. Choose one of three messages:

• "I Voted. You're Welcome." or
• "My Vote Changed History" or
• "I Voted for Obama Just to See His Victory Dance."

To get the bumper sticker of your choice, go to credomobile.com/obama. Just fill out your contact information and we'll mail your complimentary bumper sticker right away.

Oh, and while you're still celebrating -- if you're on Facebook, you can also join our "I voted. You're welcome." Facebook group.

November 4, 2008 7:50 PM

Let's party like it's 2009

Tonight we celebrate our new president and the end of the national nightmare that was the Bush administration.

We have been successful in blocking two anti-choice ballot initiatives tonight. South Dakota and Colorado have defeated measures that would restrict a woman's right to choose.

I think we can safely say we're the only major U.S. company that has spent the last eight years fighting the Bush administration on the defining issues of our day. The Iraq war. Choice. Global warming. Civil and economic rights. Our 2008 voter registration, voter turnout and voter protection efforts began on Nov. 3, 2004.

We've been preparing for this day for a long time. And yet we still await two crucial votes in our home state of California.

Prop 4 would take away a young woman's right to choose. Prop 8 would take the right to marry away from gay couples.

So while we still wait for results on Prop 4 and 8 (and many other races across the country), we're ready to party like it's 2009. We hope you'll join us.

November 4, 2008 7:39 PM

Choice Won.

For the last several months you worked to protect choice by contributing over $70,000 and volunteering your time to stop three harmful ballot initiatives - Prop. 4 in California, Measure 11 in South Dakota and Amendment 48 in Colorado - that could have permanently altered the face of women's rights in America.

All three of these measures would have eroded a woman's right to choose: Amendment 48 gives personhood rights to fetuses; Measure 11 is a repeat of the abortion ban South Dakotans voted down in 2006; Prop. 4 would mandate parental consent for teens seeking to have an abortion.

These initiatives were bad news. Here is how the voters decided these measures. In Colorado, the amendment failed with 73% voting no, the South Dakota measure failed with 55% voting no, and the fight to defeat Prop. 4 in California failed with 52% voting no.

With the make-up of the Supreme Court, I don't have to tell you how dangerous these laws could have been for the future of choice. Roe v. Wade is safe for now.

Thanks to all your efforts we won.

November 4, 2008 8:40 AM

What we're doing today.

CREDO Activists are working today to make sure every voter can cast a ballot that counts.

Here are a few things we're doing:

Offering all our customers free outbound calls during polling hours so they can phone bank their friends and family to get out the vote.

Helping voters find their polling place. Go to govote.org and find out where to vote and what to bring to the polls. You can even click a link to text your polling place address to your mobile phone.

Helping people who are volunteering to Get Out The Vote look up polling place for voters in the field. Just text pp street address zip to 69866 to get polling place sent to your mobile phone.

Sending GOTV text messages to hundreds of thousands of voters, including all of our mobile customers.

Sending out text message alerts to our members who are "on call" to protect the election as part of our CREDO Mobile Election Protection Text Network. You can join by clicking here and we'll send you a text message if there is an election protection emergency in your community. (We've already sent out alerts to members in Virginia).

Helping our members who we helped get hired as pollworkers to protect the election when they encounter problems at the polling place. Over 12,000 volunteered to help protect the election as pollworkers.

Calling our members in Colorado (no on 48) , California (no on 4 and 8) and South Dakota (no on 11) to remind them to vote to protect choice and defeat a ban on gay marriage.

Challenging other businesses to help get out the vote and stand up to protect the vote if the election is stolen. Read an editorial by CREDO's president, Michael Kieschnick, in the San Francisco Chronicle: How business can help insure a smooth election.

October 30, 2008 3:12 PM

While Rome Burns

Well, perhaps not burns. While we are all obsessing about the election, the Treasury Department is using our $700 billion to consolidate the banking industry and underwrite executive bonuses. While the bailout was sold to Congress and the public as a way to unfreeze lending necessary to keep the economy from falling into depression, so far lending has barely budged and there is no pressure from the Treasury that it do so - that would micromanaging, or perhaps even socialism.

A great deal of mischief is going on - in Syria, Pakistan, Wall Street, the EPA - while we are not paying attention. The cost of the Bush legacy is rising very fast.

October 27, 2008 4:11 PM

Hooray for the conviction of Sen. Stevens

Sarah Palin says it is a sad day, but I think the quick jury conviction of Mr. Stevens is cause for celebration - the sad day(s) are the ones where he took bribes from oil field service companies in the form of unreported expenses for doubling the size of his home in the ski resort town of Girdwood (I had the great pleasure of viewing the home on a family vacation). Mr. Stevens is only the fifth sitting senator to be convicted. I must admit to being worried about the prosecution, which mishandled evidence and withheld evidence from the defense in such an obvious manner that the judge was outraged - I feared that the Justice Department was throwing the case. Clearly the jury could not ignore the tape recording revealing that the senator thought that even if he was caught, it would not be like Iraq where death might happen.