Jonathan will be on this week's Gay USA hosted by Andy Humm and Ann Northrop. You can watch Gay USA in Manhattan on MNN on Thursdays at 11 PM on Time-Warner 34 and RCN 110 and simulcast at MNN.org channel 34. It is distributed nationally on the Dish Network through Free Speech TV. Go to www.FreeSpeech.org for the schedule.You can also get the GayUSAPodCast by clicking here.

Jonathan with Gay USA co-hosts - photo by Bill Bahlman

Many of you are calling for information on how to contact NY1 to protest their censorship of political debate. NY1 has declared Jonathan Tasini ineligible to participate in their debate series at Pace University because he does not meet their "threshold" of $500,000 in campaign funds either raised or spent. He does meet their other criteria, polling at 5% or better. (We were at 13% in the most recent Marist poll.)

Tonight NY1 is sponsoring a debate between the Republican Senate primary candidates; no Democratic Senate primary debate is scheduled. August 22nd is their U.S. Senate Candidates Town Hall Meeting; Jonathan is not invited.

Please call NY1 today and demand that the media power-brokers stop censoring political debate. Any candidate who has qualified for the ballot should be allowed into the debates.

Call or e-mail: Robert Hardt – Director of Politics, NY1, 212-379-3330 or [email protected]

And, then, pass the information on. Every voter, even those who don't support our campaign, should care about the ability of media power-brokers to censor debate in our country.

Click here to see the video clip of Jonathan's press conference to protest NY1's censorship

Press Statement by Jonathan Regarding Undemocratic Debate Conditions Set by NY1

Today's Editorial in NY Newsday

NEW YORK, NY: Jonathan Tasini, Democratic Senate candidate, released the following statement on the election in Connecticut:

“I want to congratulate Ned Lamont on his victory and I applaud Connecticut Democrats for standing up and declaring with a loud voice that Democratic Party politicians who vote for illegal, immoral wars will be held accountable at the ballot box. Now, New York Democratic voters have a chance to move our party another giant step towards a progressive agenda that will save lives, end the war and benefit hard-working Americans.”

“On the question of the war, support for devastating pro-corporate policies such as NAFTA and so-called “free trade,” Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton have the same world views. Hillary Clinton is trying to obfuscate her position on the war. Let us be clear: she voted for the war and continues to support the occupation of Iraq, which has killed 2,500 of our young men and women in uniform and tens of thousands of Iraqis. I believe in the safe, immediate withdrawal of our troops. I also oppose so-called “free trade” and believe NAFTA was a disaster for our country, while my opponent says NAFTA was a good thing and she recently voted for yet another so-called “free trade” agreement with Oman.”

Jonathan will be on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman tomorrow at 8AM.

Also listen to Jonathan on the Brian Lehrer show tomorrow at 10AM on 93.9 FM and AM 820 in NYC. You can listen online here.

Jonathan at our press conference about NY1 and the debates last Thursday. more photos

Other media coverage:

The NY1 shutout was discussed on Democracy Now! this morning and there will be a segment of Jonathan on the WBAI news tonight discussing this topic. A great article by Howard Medgal on our NY1 debates press conference also came out in the Chief-Leader newspaper today. Go pick up a copy in the newstands - it's not available yet online.

So as of Monday, Jonathan is officially on the ballot. I know you know we knew this already, but the petitions were certified by the BOE yesterday so now it's, you know, official. Our deepest thanks to the army of dedicated volunteers who made this happen. Team Tasini successfully collected around 40,000 signatures from New York Democrats, far in excess of the 15,000 required. More than 400 volunteers collected signatures for us, working with dozens of volunteer regional coordinators across the state. This was a powerful grassroots effort on behalf of the only anti-war candidate for Senate from New York, and have no doubt, your message is being heard. Sen. Clinton's bizarre beside-the-point scolding of Rumsfeld the other day was a clear reaction to Jonathan's challenge, as well as to the Lamont phenomenon.

Now we're taking that effort to the next level. We're building a GOTV effort to counter the ongoing media blackout on this race and the refusal of NY1 to let Clinton's only Democratic challenger debate her. Please call us to volunteer if you can help with this effort. We will be heard. We will have our say about this illegal, immoral war.