They gave $5000 to Friends of Hillary last year. I don't think the figures are in for this year yet. Or are they?

How much is this gatekeeper-of-the-debates job of Time Warner's worth to Hillary Clinton?

Here's a crazy fundraising idea...

How many people is 13% of the Democratic Primary electorate?

For argument sake, lets say there are 1,000,000 Registered Democrats in NYS. 13% of them would be 130,000 people.

If each of them give $5 we'd have raised $650,000 and qualify for the debate!

How many hits does this website get? Divide that number into $500,000 and ask everyone visiting to give the resulting amount under the campaign "spare a dollar for debate?"

How many people on your e-mail list? How much would each of us have to give to reach $500,000.

Consider that repugnant $500,000 cutoff as a challenge and lets figure out a way to make the "grass roots" see how important it is to donate. If we want debate, we have to pony up. Let's buy it back.

How can we do this?

Time Warner
PAC Contributions to Federal Candidates
2006 Cycle
Clinton, Hillary Rodham (D-NY) $5,000
http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.asp?strID=C00339291&Cycle=2006

I just sent this to NY1....

Dear Mr. Hardt:

I am writing to complain about the NY1 policy denying Jonathan Tasini from participating in the debate. With more than 40,000 signatures from NYS residents throughout the State, Mr. Tasini is clearly a serious candidate that deserves to be heard. The $500,000 spending requirement set by your station promulgates a position that our election system should reward candidates with the most money rather than using the debate as an opportunity for a true exchange of ideas.

Please reconsider the spending requirement and allow your viewers to hear the serious and important ideas of Mr. Tasini.

Thank you,

Resident of New York State

Here is my email to th director of politics at NY1:

Your decision to impose a half-million dollar test as a precondition for participating in your televised debates and town hall meetings is both arbitrary and unfair.

You apparently have invited both Republican Party candidates for the Senate to appear in a Town Hall Meeting with the incumbent Democrat, Hillary Rodham Clinton, thereby ignoring the fact that a Democratic Party primary will precede the general election and that it will take place between only two candidates - Jonathan Tasnini and Clinton. Don't your viewers have the right to hear from both Democratic Party candidates? And isn't it a responsibility of the media to provide information about primary elections?

By arbitrarily excluding a qualified candidate from your debates and town hall meetings, NY1 has crossed the line between messenger and message. NY1 should report news but instead it is restricting the flow of information, thereby promoting the candidacy of the incumbent and raising serious questions about your own ability to be fair and impartial.

Have you all seen this one:

http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/powerplays/archives/002769.php

Lets go there and comment!

re: 719,494 voters being ignored by NY1
*

Dear Mr. Hardt:
*

As of 2004, there were 5,534,574 registered Democratic voters in New York State, 2.6 million of them in NYC. According to the latest Marist Poll, so far, 13% of registered Democrats plan to vote for Jonathan Tasini in the Democratic U.S. Senate Primary election. That represents 719,494 voters in NY State, a remarkable number considering how low Mr. Tasini's name recognition is. That represents 338,000 voters in your broadcast area, NYC.
*

Is that not enough of a base for Tasini to "qualify" to be included in NY1 debates? It's larger than the combined voter base of both John Spencer and K.T. McFarland in NYC {36% [173,160] and 15% [72,150] of the 481,000 registered Republican Voters in NYC}. Both of them have been included in debates. Its larger than Tom Suozzi's base, and he and Spitzer just had debate with full media coverage.
*

Unlike other candidates, Jonathan Tasini is not in elected office and thus has no government influence to peddle for large contributions. He's also not a millionaire, nor are his supporters. By excluding him from the debates you are penalizing him not because he does not have a base of support, but because none of us are rich enough to bring him to your "magic number" of $500,000 in fundraising.
*

And that is truly revolting.
*

Tasini has made the ballot. He has important issues to raise with Ms. Clinton. These are issues that are extremely important to the future of New York and the nation. That you are denying him and the people of New York the chance to debate these issues is a dereliction of NY1's responsibility to the public interest.
*

NY1 should change its mind and serve all primary voters by including Jonathan Tasini in all debates and candidate forums. It is bad enough that our legislative process and our electoral process have become hijacked by big money interests. Don't play a role in letting money corrupt even basic public debate.
*

Am I to understand that you are excluding Jonathan Tasini from your senatorial debate? Is it true that you've imposed a means test for participation? You can't be serious!

Tasini has collected the required number of signatures to challenge Senator Clinton in the September Democratic primary, and his name will appear on the ballot. Money and polls are irrelevant--New York's Democrats have made him a candidate.

The Democratic voters of New York have a choice to make in the primary. We deserve to hear what Tasini has to say, and to learn how he differs from the incumbent. Your refusal to include Tasini represents NY1's endorsement of Clinton, and as such makes it utterly ridiculous for you to pretend that you are hosting an impartial debate.

Stop the charade. Either include Tasini in the debate, or just admit that you're giving free advertising space to Clinton.

Idiots and Whores who argues for us to keep quiet and be civil while they rape America

Bravo for Mr. Tasini for standing up and speaking courageously for America. We need more people like you if we are to have a chance of taking back America.

Read this story as posted on my website Zenwire for the truthiest news.

Tell these morons it's too little too late. They have NO clue what they have done or what they're doing to this world.
100,000 March Against U.S. and Israel in Baghdad
Lieberman to call for Rumsfeld resignation.
Clinton calls for Rumsfeld to Resign

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2940

Hopefully now this issue will reach more people...

To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Subject: Your wrong decision to keep Jonathan Tasini out of our debate
Date: Sat, 05 Aug 2006 15:51:27 +0700

Dear Robert Hardt,

In an era when the "mainstream news media" is falling through the fingers of the American people and into the hands of fewer and fewer corporate interests, themselves ever on the lookout for ways to please those who are in a position to withhold or to grant the favors that they seek from government, your decision to exclude Jonathan Tasini, who opposes "your" candidate, the one to whose campaign TimeWarner has already contributed $5,000, stinks. In a word.

Not only that, but the criteria you invoked to exclude Jonathan Tasini from the debates, the fact that he had not yet raised at least a half-million dollars to spend on TV commercials, is so transparently self-serving as not to pass the laugh test!

If this were a laughing matter.

Make no mistake, it is not a laughing matter. It is our nation's very democratic core that is at stake here. If a private corporation can determine who will get exposure and who will not in a US Senate campaign our democratic core has withered and died on the vine.

I copy the FCC with this email asking them to take appropriate measures to convince you to reverse your decision. For that is the only acceptable outcome to your autocratic exclusion of a candidate who has already fielded the support of 13% of the registered Democrats as a candidate in the Democratic Primary in the State of New York.

I want to see Jonathan Tasini and Hillary Clinton debate! I have heard much about Jonathan Tasini and now demand the opportunity to evaluate him in live debate with his opponent for the Democratic Nomination for the Senate from the State of New York!