ONE Vote ‘08 Launching Monday
On Monday, June 11, ONE is launching our biggest initiative to date. It’s an unprecedented, non-partisan campaign to make global health and extreme poverty foreign policy priorities in the 2008 presidential election.
We’re kicking off the campaign with a press conference on June 11th at 11:15am with Senators Tom Daschle and Bill Frist, Ashley Judd, and others, at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 3rd and A St. SE, Washington, DC. Please RSVP to attend. (Doors open at 10:45am)
The next president of the United States will take office in a time of great hope: there are effective and affordable solutions that save lives. AIDS drugs can now cost as little as $1 a day. A $5 bed net can keep a child from dying from a mosquito bite. With the force of more than 2 million members from all 50 states and a coalition of more than 100 non-profit, religious and charitable groups, ONE Vote ‘08 will educate and mobilize voters to ensure that the next American president is committed to using “smart” power to end global poverty and keep America strong.
Also- If you’re a blogger, please use this special blogger RSVP page- We hope you’ll come and start talking about ONE Vote ‘08 on your blog. We have a daunting challenge ahead of us, and we need every ONE member on board to make it happen.
i think it should not be a debate about us helping out on this issue it should not even be an issue it should be our priority as americans. what kind of country are we living in if all we do is think of us of our wealth and pride. there are people all over the world that die every day because what! they can’t afford food. we’re over here facing major health problems and having to deal with a tromendous amount of obeced americans. while we sit here knowing that some people will even get lucky enough to get not even a servings worth of food for their whole family for that week. it’s truly outragous, we should put more effort into helping the starved get food than this most of all retarded war that we are in. i would honesly rather give up money in taxes collected from my check to help those that need our help than for it to go to some lil game that our government is going through.
Comment by Robert Macias — June 11, 2007 @ 1:16 am
I THINK THIS IS SUCH A WONDERFUL CAUSE. I THINK THE TAXES THAT WAS AND DEDUCTED IS DEDUCTED FORM MY PAYCHECK SHOULD USE TOWARD FIGHTING HIV/AIDS, POVERTY AND HELP THE LESS FORTUNATE ALL OVER THE WORLD INSTEAD OF IT GOING TOWARD HEALTHY ADULTS WITH CHOICES IN AMERICA.PEOPLE LIVING ON WELFARE IN THIS COUNTRY WHO HAVE THE ABUNDANCE OF OPPORTUNITY, YET THEIR ARE THOSE IN THIS WORLD WITH HONEST NEED FOR A SOLID MEAL. TO ME, THIS IS WRONG.
I AM TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY HAPPY TO KNOW ABOUT “ONE” AND THE GOOD THINGS THE ORGANIZATION IS WORKING TOWARDS.I WILL CONTINUE HELPING IN EVERY WAY I CAN.
Sherryl Riley…BX-NY
Comment by Sherryl Riley — June 11, 2007 @ 7:43 pm
Wrong move Hollywood!
Every patriotic American, rich or otherwise should pour every available dollar or minute of energy towards building rival television news networks to communicate straight factual content and put Fox News and CNN out of business. Until this is done, ignorance will run rampant, the Stings and Bonos of the world will get used for their fame but ripped off by vultures and the money will never get to the people who need it because of corruption. Lennon said, So you give multiple milllions to the Africans and they get fed for one day…what then?
Good governments are put in place by an educated population. Start here.
Comment by Richard Ray Harris — June 11, 2007 @ 10:14 pm
Bill Frist? BILL FRIST?
Oogy boogy, I’m the ghost of Terry Schiavo!!!
Comment by alec — June 11, 2007 @ 10:26 pm
Is where the money will end up?
A vulture fund is a financial organization that specializes in buying securities in distressed environments, such as high-yield bonds in or near default, or equities that are in or near bankruptcy.
As the name suggests, these funds are metaphorically like circling vultures patiently waiting to pick over the remains of a rapidly weakening debtor.
Vulture funds target not only companies but also whole countries. In the recent case of Argentina, for example, vulture funds bought up a large part of the public debt at very low prices (sometimes only 20% of their nominal value), and then attempted to cash them when the Argentine economic crisis exploded in 2002. A single vulture fund run by Kenneth B. Dart, heir to the Dart Container fortune, claimed 700 million USD in a lawsuit against the government of Argentina.
A company registered in the British Virgin Isles been given permission by a British court to enforce a claim for tens of millions of dollars theoretically owed by Zambia. The high court ruled that a claim against Zambia by the US company Donegal International, owned by US citizen Michael Sheehan, for debts incurred by the impoverished southern African nation more than a decade ago, was lawful. Donegal bought the Zambian debt, with a face value of around $40m, from Romania in 1999, for less than $4m. Zambia had run up the debt, mainly for agricultural machinery, during the Cold War.
Vulture funds have sometimes sued national governments with success, in order to freeze their assets. International courts have at times prevented countries from paying to other debtors because one of these funds had requested an embargo.
A related term is “vulture investing”, where certain stocks in near bankrupt companies are purchased upon anticipation of asset divestiture or successful reorganization. A prime example in the U.S. is K-Mart, where the real estate held by the company was the anticipated payout for investors who bought stock during their bankruptcy proceedings.
Comment by Rick — June 11, 2007 @ 11:22 pm
This is misguided on so many levels. Starting with your partnering of Bill Frist. This is folly and you will not get an ounce of support from anyone with a rational mind. If you want to do something truly helpful go rescue NOLA.
Comment by Kasandra — June 12, 2007 @ 5:21 am
Dr. King said(paraphrase) “good people do good things, bad people do bad things, it takes religion to get good people to do bad things”. Much money and effort has been spent on both sides of the political debate in America to polarize the citizens. The right has been and will be feral in their efforts to install a ‘ Permanent Republican Majority’, while there are good republicans who believe in a small govt., low taxes and no foreign intervention, the current majority of republicans don’t represent this view. The Current Bush administration has bastardized the ‘Bill of Rights’, confused the constitution for a party power grab over and above what is best for America and the world. If ‘One Vote 08′ lies with dogs, they will suffer fleas. One Vote has a grand utopian message but it does not deal with reality, it does not deal with the human survival instinct, it does not deal with American politics and furthermore it does not deal with geopolitical realities of regional survival. Lastly, it does not deal with the human capacity of ignoring others suffering if all is right with the American’s NIMBY thinking. The Dems don’t have the answer either-but I would still rather belong to a party that has many factions pissing into the tent , full of ideas, rather than walk lockstep with theocrats who believe their way is the only way and damm everyone else! Good luck to One Vote 08, I’m just one little guy full of ideas and I truly hope they can put some star power behind a unified message of goodwill and hope. Beware the ides of March.
Comment by Martin — June 12, 2007 @ 5:33 pm
[…] Via C&L and FireDogLake, I learned of “One Vote ‘08″. As described by famous Hollywood Actor Matt Damon, “One Vote ‘08″ is a campaign to reach voters and make the fight against global disease and extreme poverty a key issue in the 2008 presidential election. While I praise the idea of making global issues at least on the agenda for future elections, I’m really baffled by the choice of One Vote to team up with Bill Frist. […]
Pingback by My Head Just Exploded | Prose Before Hos — June 12, 2007 @ 6:18 pm