YO! BRO! CAN YOU SPARE $5?

No, not for a cup of coffee. Our-- yours, mine, ours-- Act Blue page is kicking ass. It's only been a few short months since Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake and Down With Tyranny combined our fundraising activities and we're already the second biggest money raiser in the whole system, right after our Netroots Page pals at Daily Kos, Swingstate Project and MyDD. [We never got around to some worthy candidates like Darcy Burner (WA), Linda Stender (NJ), Tim Walz (MN), and Gary Trauner (WY) and the Netroots Page is a good place to donate to those folks.]

We want to try something different today, something a little usual. Today it's all about $5 contributions. We always appreciate any contribution, big or small. And this week we have a goal. We want to get 1,000 contributions between the 3 blogs, that's 5 grand in total-- and 1,000 people who will feel part of the great victory we sense is coming in 20 days. We want everyone to feel part of that November 8 and everyday after-- how we saved our country from fascism. Take a look at our candidates. $5.00 for any one of them is what we're asking everyone to think about this week-- between today and next Wednesday. Starting now.

It looks like New York State, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana are going to have blue waves sweeping over them. Look at Colorado for a moment. There are 4 excellent Democratic candidates for the 4 Republican-held seats-- and they could all win. We've had Bill Winter, Angie Paccione and Jay Fawcett as Blue America guests. We never got around to Ed Perlmutter, who is being heavily aided by the DCCC-- no less worthy of grassroots help but less needful. But Bill, Jay and Angie are all within striking distance of taking seats from the far right. And all three-- plus Ed-- are progressives, nothing like the DLC-oriented Salazar Brothers.

Across the country in New York State, races for GOP held seats are tightening up and favoring Democrats. Tom Reynolds is behind by double digits. Blue America candidates Dave Mejias, Eric Massa and John Hall are all within the margin of error facing their right wing incumbents. And in the open seat around Syracuse, our guy, Mike Arcuri, is ahead. This coming Saturday we'll be talking to one of the most brilliant and charismatic candidates in the whole country, Kirstin Gillibrand, another progressive poised to take a seat away from a Bush rubber stamp. I just added her name to our list in fact. That's half a dozen potential seats.

Next door in Pennsylvania a similar story is shaping up, maybe even stronger. Santorum has been among the walking dead all season but on the House side, we have Blue America challengers leading in several races, including Lois Murphy, Joe Sestak, Patrick Murphy, and Chris Carney. And Steve Porter has a reasonable chance as well. Minnesota looks great and even gerrymandered California has great potential this year with reasonable expectations for Charlie Brown, Jerry McNerney, David Roth and Robert Rodriguez. Even Francine Busby's campaign, once written off as moribund, has come to life this week.

Ohio should be contributing a Democratic U.S. Senator, a governor, and 3 or 4 House members where really loathsome Republicans like Mean Jean Schmidt, Bob Ney and Deborah Pryce have been slithering. There is no part of the country where Democrats aren't poised to make gains.

Last night Siun sent me a cool report from an Ohio TV station talking about our "Had Enough" song and video campaign and that's the kind of response we're getting everywhere. In fact, after you've contributed your $5, if you want to give some more, let me make a suggestion. One of our very generous regular contributors has offered to match up to $1,000 in small contributions that go into the Blue America PAC. The money will go towards a radio advertising campaign for last weekend's close runner-up, Angie Paccione. So give your $5 to anyone on the list and if you feel flush, give another contribution to the Blue America PAC. We don't need much to pay for a whole campaign for Angie. In fact, Jacquie has it all ready to go.