Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AdAge.com) -- Politicians can finally get their MTV. After declining political advertising since its inception in 1981, MTV is reversing course. The Viacom MTV Networks channel -- once known for round-the-clock music videos and now home to a host of reality shows -- says it will now take political ads, though only from political candidates and party political committees, not from third parties.

The youth vote is rockin' if not rollin'. Young voters who blog -- and there are lots of them -- boast they're the voting bloc that's hot. "Young voters are the new pink," a Rock the Vote blogger shouts. "Or the new orange? The new indigo?" They're like that little black dress, always poised to save the moment. The Obama campaign boasts that it registered thousands of new young voters. Hillary had her "Hillblazers," cheered on by daughter Chelsea, and John McCain says he'll contest every youth vote in November. Why else would he stay up late to joke and...

CNSNews.com) - A coalition of liberal organizations announced plans Tuesday to move "the most expensive mobilization in history this election season." MoveOn.org, Rock the Vote, Acorn, National Council of La Raza, Women's Voices Women Vote Action Fund, and the AFL-CIO announced plans for a $350 million initiative for the 2008 elections at the Take Back America conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the liberal Campaign for America's Future. Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, called it a "sea change election" on Tuesday, "one that we really haven't seen since 1980 when Reagan was elected and conservatives really...

ABC News' Kate Snow Reports: Bill Clinton says his wife can be a “comeback kid” just like he was. "Absolutely," President Clinton said in a brief interview with ABC News. "Remember I lost here," Clinton added, referring to New Hampshire. (Bill Clinton placed second in New Hampshire in 1992 behind Paul Tsongas.) He then quickly listed off his other losses from memory: "South Dakota, Maine, Maryland, Colorado, before I ever won a state," he said. So what can Hillary Clinton do to come back? "Run that hard here," said her husband. "She's got a better profile here. They know more...

Some Democrats have decided to try to transform the military draft into what the Social Security issue was 25 years ago. Time and time again since the late 1970s, Democratic candidates and campaign committees sought to win the votes of seniors by raising questions about whether Republicans would dismantle Social Security if they ever won control of Congress. The Democrats’ scare tactics on Social Security were not without basis. Republicans opposed the creation of Social Security, and for more than a decade, many conservative GOP candidates and high-profile officeholders, including former Rep. Newt Gingrich (Ga.), bashed the system and berated...

"Despite a generally buoyant Democratic Party nationally," the New York Times reports, "there are worries among Democratic strategists in some states that blacks may not turn up at the polls in big enough numbers because of disillusionment over past shenanigans." What shenanigans would those be? The paper explains: "This notion that elections are stolen and that elections are rigged is so common in the public sphere that we're having to go out of our way to counter them this year," said Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist. . . . Democrats' worries are backed up by a Pew Research Center report...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Rock the Vote is turning 16 this year, but the birthday for the organization that has used Madonna, R.E.M. and other music stars to get millions of young people involved in politics is shaping up to be anything but sweet. The nonprofit group founded in Los Angeles in 1990 is $500,000 in debt and down to just two employees, from 20 in 2002, according to tax documents and Hans Riemer, the group's political director. Rock the Vote has been courting donors and hopes to make an announcement in about a month about its future, Riemer said....

The Rock the Vote movement, which began in 1990 in an effort to get young people to register to vote for any candidate they wished as long as it was a Democrat, is in dire straights. According to the Los Angeles Times, Rock the Vote is the proud owner of $700,000 in debt, and the group has cut its staff from 20 people in 2004 to just two today. The people, and if the trend continues, person, who now run Rock the Vote have said that the public has the impression that because of the high profile nature of the...

For more than a decade, the youth-and-civics group Rock the Vote has been the coolest kid on the political playground. Founded in Los Angeles in 1990 with the goal of politically empowering the MTV generation, Rock the Vote quickly became a cause celebre among Democratic and entertainment power brokers. At rock concerts, on college campuses and with ads featuring a near-naked Madonna, the group helped register millions of young voters. But as it moves into its 16th year, Rock the Vote itself is being rocked by crisis. Saddled with about $700,000 in debt, the group has cut its staff from...

Janice, an African American woman, age 55, is all fired up against the Democrats in Louisiana. Said "I bet you those buses were running on election day!"

Rock the Vote? ROCK THE HYPOCRISY! Despite claims of being non-partisan and non-ideological, Rock the Vote has made their left-wing message clear by aggressively opposing President Bush’s plan to reform Social Security. Rock the Vote alleges that they speak for America’s youth, but the truth is, WE SPEAK FOR OURSELVES. Join Americans for Prosperity Foundation in protesting Rock the Vote’s Awards Dinner in Washington, DC on June 8th. Outside the National Building Museum Corner of 4th and G Streets, NW Washington, D.C. 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. After the protest, please join us for a free youth networking reception. My Brother’s...

HONORING LEADERS WHO INSPIRE A NEW GENERATION • PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON • SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN • SENATOR BARACK OBAMA • STREET TEAM LEADER SARAH SAHEB • AND THE BLACK EYED PEAS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some said young people wouldn’t—and didn’t—vote. But the truth is out. 2004 was the highest youth turnout in decades. 4.5 million more 18-29 year olds voted in 2004 than in 2000. And a new generation is finding its voice. Founded in 1990, and now in its 15th year, Rock the Vote is the nation’s premier nonprofit organization dedicated to building political power for young people. In 2004, Rock...

For Immediate Release Wednesday, March 2, 2005 Contact: Tessa Hafen 202-224-3545 REID JOINS ROCK THE VOTE STUDENTS TO OPPOSE SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVATIZATION YOUNG PEOPLE TO SUFFER MOST FROM BENEFIT LOSSES Washington, D.C. – Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) joined representatives of MTV's Rock the Vote and college students from around the country at a Capitol Hill news conference today to show how much young people will lose under President Bush’s Social Security Privatization Plan. If the plan passes, Nevadans in their late teens and twenties could lose as much as 35% of their annual benefit by the time they retire. "The...

"In a unique effort to attract college and graduate students to the growing discussion over Social Security's future," reads the press release, "four leading national youth organizations are offering generous prizes to the student team that best answers this question: How would you spend $100,000 to get America's campuses talking about Social Security?" It sounds like a great approach to one of today's hottest political issues. Unfortunately, this particular press release was dated February 1998. Of the four youth organizations that sponsored the Social Security Challenge, three—Third Millennium, the 2030 Center, and FIRST—are no longer active. Meanwhile, President Bush used...

I recently read an article online stating that record company Universal is looking into starting their own music channel to compete with MTV. Apparently, the company is tired of giving videos to MTV for practically no cost, then watching as the channel runs episodes of "The Real World" and "Pimp My Ride" for hours on end. Warner has also expressed interest in a new channel. The whole point of the labels giving MTV videos is so they can gain exposure, but since the videos aren't getting much airtime, the recording industry is threatening to make MTV start paying for music....

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com Michael Moore (courtesy United Artists) Don't blame Hollywood for Sen. John Kerry's defeat in the presidential election last month, says filmmaker Michael Moore, who insists activist entertainers made the race closer than it would have been otherwise. Reacting to charges that his polarizing activism galvanized Republicans, Moore -- director of the provacative, anti-Bush film "Fahrenheit 9/11" -- contended Kerry lost the race simply because he was "not the best candidate." "For the last month, we've had to listen to a lot of conservative pundits talk about how Democrats need to run away from Hollywood," Moore told reporters before addressing...

Cancellation To all those planning to attend the Saturday night Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Barbara Streisand, Dixie Chicks, and Dave Matthews Concert hosted by Michael Moore on the White House lawn are hereby notified that it has been cancelled. God Bless America!

FAT MIKE, musician Fat Mike is not a happy man. "When I see a Bush-Cheney bumper sticker on a car, it's time to slash their tires," he says, calling from the offices of his Fat Wreck Chords label. "When I run into a tourist with a Southern accent, I tell them to get the f -- out of San Francisco. We're at a culture war. I'm angry at them." Leading up to the election, the member of Bay Area punk bands NOFX and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes did more to mobilize progressive and young voters than certain red-state...

Election 2004: The Role of "Moral Values" Cathy Cleaver Ruse, Esq. This election was supposed to be about terrorism, the economy, and Iraq. But there was a more pressing issue that motivated people to vote this year, and that was the issue of moral values. According to exit polls from the National Election Pool, the official election source for broadcast and cable television stations, "moral values" was cited as the most important issue this election by more people than any other concern. The economy and jobs was next, followed by terrorism, then the war in Iraq. Among those who cited...

By Jim Emerson Editor, RogerEbert.com October 14, 2004Who's the, uh, biggest villain in "Team America"? Kim Jong Il or Hollywood celebrities?"You should learn to keep your opinions OUT of your reviews!" Every critic I know has received at least one letter like that from an indignant reader. Of course, it's an absurd proposition; critics are paid to express their opinions, and the good ones (who exercise what is known across all disciplines as "critical thinking") are also able to cite examples and employ sound reasoning to build an argument, showing you how and why they reached their verdict. Well, since...

HOLLYWOOD- For Hollywood's part, the presidential campaign of 2004 will be remembered as a blockbuster effort that brought together a glittering all-star cast, a robust budget and an amazing soundtrack to produce ... a major dud. Sen. John F. Kerry's bid for the White House rallied A-list movie stars, savvy moguls, brand-name rock heroes and street-smart rappers to its cause. But in the end it came down to the little people - the voters - and they didn't seem particularly star-struck. "We squandered record amounts of money," said Dan Adler, board member of Rock the Vote, the outreach effort that...

No link to this yet but will be one shortly...was on Headline News....estimates show P.Diddy and Russel Simmons "Vote or Die" project failed miserably yesterday and was actually over shadowed by the Christian Youth Vote 4 to 1. Estimates show some 47% of those who were newly registered....slept in or were no show's. Rock The Vote hoped to achieve some 25 million new voters to the polls...estimates show they got 6 million.

RACINE - The get out the vote project planned by Horlick High School students has been canceled. Racine Unified School District Superintendent Thomas Hicks said what started out to be a class-related activity last week turned out to be a partisan event. The decision to cancel the event was made Monday morning after he learned the facts had changed and it was no longer a bipartisan endeavor. "At one point it appeared it was going to be bipartisan and reach out to all of the community. But some groups decided they didn't want be part of it. Not everyone was...

MTV has been promoting Rock the Vote and Vote or Die very hard over the past couple weeks. They were behind the huge draft rumor that was meant to scare kids, parents, grandparents... etc Will these newly registered voters show up at the polls tomorrow or is it just a Howard Dean type media bubble? Will Bush's base of Evangelical Christians take a stand? These are two important demographics that each side is counting on. I kinda think the Dem's trust in young voters is misplaced, What do you think?

Voters double-dip in Ohio, Fla. More than 27,000 are registered in both states, could cast ballots in either place Sunday, October 31, 2004 Scott Hiaasen, Dave Davis and Julie Carr Smyth Plain Dealer Reporters Hundreds of voters could easily cast ballots Tuesday in both Ohio and Florida because they are eligible to vote in both states and have received absentee ballots from election officials in Ohio, The Plain Dealer has found. And if they do, they almost certainly will go undetected. These people are among more than 27,000 listed as active voters in both Ohio and Florida who could cast...

Two former MTV producers have accomplished what the entire mainstream media thus far has not: they’ve captured the real life and times of the Iraqi people. They didn’t do it alone, however. Producers Eric Manes and Martin Kunert sent 150 digital cameras into Iraq this April with very simple instructions: “Videotape your neighborhood, shopping area, where you live and work, pray, relax, and play” and interview “people who have the most meaning in your life.” (See the entire instructions here.) The cameras were passed on to friends and family members, and the handheld devices eventually made their way to the...

This ran in the San Jose Mercury News yesterday and got my blood absolutely boiling! The lying, scumbag Rats, masters of every illegitimate voter fraud trick in history, conniving to steal the election have friends like Luckovich who convince people of the opposite. Just like 1984.

HOT TIP [10/22 04:40 PM] I hear from a well-known and reliable blogger, "Keep your eyes open for a story about MTV employees being caught in anti-Bush demonstrations as part of a Rock The Vote event. There's video, I hear."

LOS ANGELES, CA – The liars at MTV are using the airwaves to brainwash America’s youth. As a result, the California College Republicans (CCR) scheduled a protest of MTV to confront MTV/Rock the Vote for using the draft to scare young voters. We now see why they chose the fear factor: to elect the Democrat nominee for President to office. MTV/Rock the Vote called CCR Chairman Michael P. Davidson to deny any association with Rock the Vote’s draft scare tactics. When asked who the person calling was, they would not give a name. The number from which they called (212-846-2609)...

Sent to me from my friend in Sparta, NJ jean in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont ----- Original Message ----- From: "vic" <vic@nac.net> To: <vic@grade-a.com> Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 11:03 PM Subject: A Student discusses the Vote I am teaching an online journalism course this Fall (Sussex County Community College - Newton, NJ -- a very rural county in NJ). Politics is a hot issue. Students are different from the normal population -- at least the way I view them. I was most impressed with the following editorial(student paper) that went to press today.. Maybe you'll find it enlightening...

California College Republicans Chairman Michael P. Davidson issued the following statement on the use of the draft by MTV’s Rock the Vote and the KerryCampaign as a scare tactic this election year: "MTV and the Kerry campaign's use of the draft to scare young voters into voting is pathetic and disgusting. "While our servicemen are fighting for our country and the freedom of millions, military service should not be used as an instrument of fear. Military service is one of the most honorable deeds and any suggestion otherwise is grossly insulting. "In this campaign, there is only one person that...

Kerry beat Bush 61-39 among all the people who registered through MTV's Rock the Vote campaign. I think that's pretty good news for Bush if all the MTV "Vote or Die" and draft bullcrap were able to pull in just 61% for Kerry. I would have expected it to have been more like 75-25. Don't underestimate the young voters.

News and Press   Michael P. Davidson323-533-9675 October 15, 2004 WAR AGAINST ROCK THE VOTEMTV’s Rock the Vote & John Kerry Dodge the Facts about the Draft    LOS ANGELES, CA – California College Republicans Chairman Michael P. Davidson issued the following statement on the use of the draft by MTV’s Rock the Vote and the KerryCampaign as a scare tactic this election year: "MTV and the Kerry campaign's use of the draft to scare young voters into voting is pathetic and disgusting. "While our servicemen are fighting for our country and the freedom of millions, military service should...

        John Kerry's Crack the Vote Address (Satire)Presidential candidate John Kerry addresses thousands of addicts, many holding signs "WILL VOTE FOR CRACK" at a Crack the Vote rally in Washington D.C. on Saturday.My friends, I have a plan. It's a good plan.  I was talking to Marion Barry (the b*tch set me up) just the other day. He asked me what my drug plan was. I told him that the President's drug plan was the wrong plan at the wrong place at the wrong time.  The president refused to change his policy. The President made drug importation...

A friend of mine just got this email-letter from the folks at Rock the Vote. It manages to be galling, lame, offensive and silly all at once: Dear [Name Withheld], We just received an outrageous letter from the Chairman of the Republican Party, demanding that we stop talking about the issue of the military draft. He said that the draft issue is just an “urban myth” and Rock the Vote’s effort is being conducted with “reckless disregard for the truth.” The truth is that we still haven’t received acceptable answers from the candidates to real questions affecting our lives. The...

The possibility of a new military draft is not a hoax or an Internet rumor. It's a real issue and it demands real answers. more on; http://www.rockthevote.com/draft/

Via Drudge, but all commentary is mine. Rock the Vote is back pushing the Draft lie. It has teamed up with Bobby Muller of Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and Alliance for Security ( http://www.allianceforsecurity.org/). Muller is a left-wing anti-war activist. He was on Hannity and Colmes tonight and pushed the lie that those that served with Kerry (on his boat) all support Kerry and none of the Swift Boat Vets served with Kerry (as if fighting in the same battle while being on another swift boat ten feet away from Kerry's boat, living in the same base camp, and...

Dear Voter, We just received an outrageous letter from the Chairman of the Republican Party, demanding that we stop talking about the issue of the military draft. He said that the draft issue is just an “urban myth” and Rock the Vote’s effort is being conducted with “reckless disregard for the truth.” The truth is that we still haven’t received acceptable answers from the candidates to real questions affecting our lives. The possibility of a draft is not a hoax. It’s a real issue that deserves real answers. An attempt to silence us by any politician—Democrat, Republican, Whatever—is unacceptable. This...

CALL 202 962-9710 Hans Reimer, Political Director of Rock The Vote - He is the one responsible for this LIE: Kerry Still Says Bush Plan Could Lead to Draft... MTV/ROCK THE VOTE CONTINUE CALL-UP SCARE... I contacted MTV ROCK THE VOTE TO PROTEST URBAN MYTH LIE ON THEIR WEBSITE ... I insinsted its a lie and to AT MINIMUM state that the fcat is that Senator Fritz Hollings and Charlie Rangel are DEMOCRATS who sponsored this bill which is dead in committe. No Administration official has ever suggested draft. The RTV guy kept giving me BS canned answer about "It's...

The chutzpah of CBS and ABC. On Sunday night, both decried how the Sinclair Broadcast Group has told its owned and operated televisions stations to run an anti-Kerry documentary, Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal. On the CBS Evening News, reporter Kelly Cobiella noted how "Sinclair has given the lion's share of its political contributions to Republican candidates. This year, the company's CEO wrote out the largest personal check allowed by law to President Bush's re-election campaign." ABC anchor Terry Moran stressed how "Democrats decry this move as a political smear and yellow journalism" before Geoff Morrell relayed how "Sinclair's...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a joint statement from Bobby Muller, president of Alliance for Security and founder of Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, and Jehmu Greene, president of Rock the Vote, on an Annenberg Public Policy Center poll on the military draft: Today's poll by the respected Annenberg Public Policy Center is a clear example of why we need our Presidential candidates -- and Congressional candidates -- to take seriously the issues surrounding the draft. The public is looking at the facts and is simply not going to accept the fact that saying no to the...

I wanted to know how many people out in this board are registered or just voicing an opinion.I cant stress how important it is to vote. I know that most of the young people are not registered yet, what a problem. If you need a link to register or want to give it to someone else heres one for Rock the Vote http://www.gotdownloads.com/rtv/# I heard thru an internship they have a contest going that ends october 1st with so little entries chances to win are Good. So register and win at the same time.

Despite the President's promised June 30 th deadline to give back control of Iraq's government to the Iraqis under the United Nations, it's not clear under the current state of affairs when our military role there will begin to wind down even if we hand over power on time.

Twelve years ago, it was a news-grabbing newcomer on the political scene. Today, MTV's Rock the Vote seems positively Stone Age. That campaign to recruit youth voters is still around, but this year it has lots of company. HeadCount, Music for America, PunkVoter, Smackdown Your Vote! – they're just some of the groups taking part in pop music tours aimed at charging up voters and, in some cases, changing their minds

John Kerry's old anti-war protest partner "Hanoi" Jane Fonda is coming to New York in the wake of the GOP convention as part of a get out the vote rally she's calling "Vaginas Vote." "V-Day's V is For Vote' and Rock the Vote's 'Chicks Rock, Chicks Vote,' in conjunction with The White House Project's "Vote, Run, Lead" and Omega Institute, announce THE event of the election season: "Vaginas Vote, Chicks Rock." A press release issued Wednesday by Fonda and her partner, "Vagina Monologues" playwright Eve announces: The release continues: "On the evening of September 13th, actors, singers, dancers, thinkers...

Archive E-mail Comments Send to a Friend Print Version Tuesday, August 03, 2004 MORE ARRESTS IN PAKISTAN [KJL] Posted at 06:12 PM HOWARD DEAN STICKS TO HIS GUNS… [Rich Lowry] ..on “Hardball” tonight> Early transcript: MATTHEWS: Well, we have Governor Dean joining us right now. Governor Dean, how do you see the administration playing this, do you believe they jacked it up to create some heat, to cause a rally-around-the-flag mentality in the country? DEAN: Well, here's what happened, in the middle of June, in the middle of July, two operatives from al Qaeda were captured. With the second capture,...

Music is the soundtrack of our lives, so it only stands to reason that songs have become the subtext to our political campaigns. At the FleetCenter they ranged from the obvious --... ...and U2 singer Bono told a group of young City Year volunteers that when he was their age he joined a band because he wanted to do two things: change the world and have fun. "I'm a fan of America, one of those annoying fans that follows the singer into the bathroom and asks what happened on the last album," Bono said to explosive applause, hardly needing to...

<!-- <p>h1, h1.headline { color: black; font-size: 105%; } <p>html,body { margin: 0; padding: 0; } <p>.release, .photos, .note, h1, h1.headline, address.text { margin-left: 1.0em; margin-right: 1.0em; } <p>--> Non-partisan Survey by Pace University and Rock the Vote Shows New Voters Up for Grabs in the 2004 Presidential Election                   EMBARGOED -- FOR USE AFTER 2:30 PM MONDAY, JULY 26 Partisan Registration Neck-and-Neck; Independents Favoring Kerry GOP Shows Strength Registering Evangelicals BOSTON, July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- First-time voters in the 2004 presidential election remain in play, according to a non-partisan survey among newly registered first-time voters conducted by...

BOSTON - Howard Dean (news - web sites) isn't running for president anymore, but you'd never know it from the reception he got Sunday night. Speaking to a crowd of young voters at a party sponsored by Rock the Vote and Democratic Gain, Dean was welcomed like a rock star. He could barely get through the crowd. Once he reached the stage, with his shirt sleeves characteristically rolled up above the elbows, he was greeted with chants of "Dean, Dean, Dean" echoing back to his rallies this past winter, when the former Vermont governor was running for the Democratic nomination....