November 28th, 2007 at 2:43 pm | posted by Weldon Kennedy
For the last few weeks we have been turning on the heat for the presidential candidates to tell us exactly what, if elected, they would do fight extreme poverty and global disease.
So far this “On the Record” campaign has been stunningly successful as we’ve delivered more that 55,000 petition signatures to each of the campaigns. But if we’re going to get all of the presidential candidates to take this challenge and make the On the Record campaign a success, we need to go all out. It’s phone call time.
To make a call:
1. Go to ONE.org/OnTheRecordCalls/
2. Use the drop down menu to look up candidate’s numbers.
3. Use the talking points to help you with your call.
4. Fill out the form and check off each candidate you called.
This is a huge chance to make a real difference in the fight against poverty. If we can get all the candidates to make commitments to fighting poverty now, before the primaries and caucuses, we stand a good chance of our next president being dedicated to our cause.
November 28th, 2007 at 10:03 am | posted by Josh Lozman
Yesterday, Senator Barack Obama released a broad strategy to promote global development.
In it, there are many specific commitments:
· Senator Obama renewed his commitment to double foreign assistance to $50 billion a year by 2012.
· Senator Obama committed to at least $2 billion a year in funding for global education and will leverage those commitments through the World Bank’s Fast Track Initiative (FTI). FTI approved countries have national education plans and are coordinated in their approach to achieving universal basic education.
· Senator Obama renewed his commitment to provide $50 billion over five years to fight global HIV/AIDS and will increase U.S. contributions to the Global Fund.
· Senator Obama has committed to 100% debt cancellation for the world’s heavily indebted poor countries and to pressing for reforms at the World Bank to ensure that poor countries receive grants rather than loans.
· Senator Obama has further commitments that support growth of developing country economies through support for agricultural development, a microfinance initiative, and infrastructure growth. These are all critical to the future of developing countries and we applaud their inclusion in the Senator’s global development plan.
· Senator Obama’s development plan also discussed reforms to the federal government’s development infrastructure that would include strengthening USAID and placing several government agencies working on development within USAID.
ONE Vote ‘08 thanks Senator Obama for presenting his plans to target extreme poverty and global disease.
November 28th, 2007 at 9:55 am | posted by Josh Lozman
Governor Huckabee recently released a statement outlining his plan to fight global HIV/AIDS if elected president. Governor Huckabee committed to supporting President Bush’s $30 billion plan over five years for a second round of the emergency AIDS plan. The Governor also committed to increasing support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
ONE Vote ‘08 applauds the governor for releasing his plans to fight HIV/AIDS. We look forward to hearing more from the governor about his plans to fight global poverty and disease.
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:50 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons
ONE’s Libby Pederson is on fire. Below she delivers the “On The Record” petitions, with more than 53,000 signatures, to Senators Biden and Thompson in Iowa.
Last night in Laconia, NH, Sen. Obama held a town hall meeting and I went with some ONE members to lend our voice to the poorest people on Earth.
During his speech, Sen. Obama spoke about how, if elected president, he would expand US efforts to fight AIDS and poverty in Africa and said that he would help build schools for impoverished children so that they do not end up without primary education or get pulled into extremist madrassas. And in response to a question, he stated that he would try to shift wasteful farm payments to conservation in order to help local farms and developing world farms.
After the town hall, ONE member Melissa Skinner was able to pass off an informational packet for “On The Record” that over 50,000 ONE members signed on to in the past 2 weeks. Sen. Obama told her that although he was not wearing his ONE bracelet, he support’s ONE goals and had Melissa give the packet to his aid, Reggie Love.
(Apologies the clip is sideways. Will try to fix!)
Rep. Dennis Kucinich was in Concord, NH, today where he went to get a charitable haircut to benefit autism. I presented the “On The Record” petitions to him in the barber chair.
Rep. Kucinich was eager to tell me how much he support’s ONE’s mission and efforts. His staff was already familiar with “On The Record” from when ONE member Michael Castaldo dropped off the petitions to his office over the weekend!
November 7th, 2007 at 11:14 am | posted by Virginia Simmons
ONE Vote 08’s core mission is to make global poverty and diseases priorities in the 2008 election, and yet global poverty wasn’t even mentioned once in the last two presidential debates. It’s time that we step up our game.
Right now, ONE members are urging every man and woman running for president to tell us, in writing, where they stand and what plans they have for:
Eradicating malaria;
Improving child and maternal health;
Reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis;
Achieving universal primary education; and
Providing access to food and clean water for all.
At the same time, we’re asking all the candidates to speak on camera to ONE members about these commitments.
To increase the impact of this campaign, we’ll be placing newspaper ads in the four critical early primary states asking the candidates to tell us where they stand - and in those ads we’ll let the candidates know just how many ONE Campaign members have already signed the petition.
We are only a few weeks away from the start of the primary elections and the actions we take now could matter even more than they do on Election Day 2008.
The ONE Blog is a daily log of the anti-poverty movement. The site is operated by ONE staff, volunteers, members and coalition partners.
The content of each post and each comment represent the views of that author and does not necessarily reflect the views of the ONE Campaign or ONE Action. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any posts expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
For the last few weeks we have been turning on the heat for the presidential candidates to tell us exactly what, if elected, they would do fight extreme poverty and global disease. 
