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Strange bedfellows

Post #1212 • July 22, 2008, 7:54 AM • 5 Comments

Politics have been more or less banned from Artblog.net since Kerry lost the 2004 election, and mostly I don't miss it. I'm going to make a rare exception for today, though, to direct your attention to an effort going on to send a message to government that Americans across the political spectrum value their freedom. A group calling itself Strangebedfellows is organizing a moneybomb on behalf of AccountabilityNowPAC in response to the erosion of civil liberties under the Bush administration in general, and Congress's capitulation over telecom immunity and domestic spying in particular.

Ron Paul supporters like myself had a good time with moneybombs during the primary season. Paul has a pro-Constitution message of peace, freedom, and sound money, and that message penetrated public consciousness to an astonishing extent thanks to this innovative method of raising awareness along with cash - getting people to donate en masse to a cause they believe in on a calendar day of some signficance. (Paul supporters garnered a record $4.2 million in a single day in a moneybomb that coincided with the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.)

This moneybomb, though, is being put together by a coalition of progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans who have set aside their policy differences in support of civil liberties and our rights under the Constitution. Organizers, which include the libertarian media network Break the Matrix and noted liberal political columnist Glenn Greenwald, have timed this moneybomb to drop on August 8, the anniversary of Nixon's resignation, as a reminder of just how much iniquity among our leaders this country has come to countenance in the last thirty years.

Keeping with the Strangebellows theme, Artblog.net is teaming up with Ed Winkleman to encourage you to pledge your support for the 8-8-08 moneybomb at the AccountabilityNowPAC website. Ed and I agree on few things in politics and even fewer things in art, but we find our respective undergarments equally bunched over the legal overreaches perpetrated by this president and his henchmen in the name of national security.

Here's a short to-do list:

Read the one-paragraph About page at AccountabiliyNowPAC.

Read Glenn Greenwald's article on Strangebedfellows and the moneybomb. There's some interesting background information (the idea came from a similar cross-party pro-liberty movement in British politics) and details about how the money will be spent.

Pledge to donate on August 8 at this link:

It doesn't take much to send a message in the language our leaders understand - the Tea Party moneybomb that made campaigning history consisted mostly of $100 donations. This can work, and these are the people who can make it work. Let's do it. Less time spent keeping an eye on your government means more time for art.

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