TrueMajority | |
---|---|
Founded | June 2002 |
Dissolved | September 2007 |
Merged into | USAction |
Ideology | Progressivism |
Political position | Center-left |
Website | |
www | |
TrueMajority was a far left advocacy group in the United States. In September 2007, TrueMajority and its related organization TrueMajorityACTION merged with USAction. [1] By 2008, the combined groups had over 700,000 members, [2] making it, together with MoveOn, one of the two largest liberal advocacy groups in the United States. [3]
TrueMajorityACTION was a separate but closely related organization, which had a different status under U.S. law so that it could campaign for specific parties and politicians.
In 2007, TrueMajority merged with USAction in 2007. In 2012, Ben Cohen founded Stamp Stampede.
TrueMajority was founded in June 2002 by Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's. [4] [5]
TrueMajority was mentioned on The Colbert Report on March 5, 2007, when Ben and Jerry made a guest appearance. In the episode, they offered free frisbees to Colbert viewers who visited the web site, and then they signed up each viewer who visited as a member of the advocacy group. [6]
TrueMajority's Ten Principles were endorsed by Greenpeace USA, Rock the Vote, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Peace Action, the National Head Start Association, Global Exchange, The Interfaith Alliance, The Nation , Sojourners , Rainforest Action Network, Women's Action for New Directions, Service Employees International Union, and National Council of La Raza. [7]
TrueMajority organized protests of the 2008 G-20 Summit. [8] It also opposed the 2008 financial bailout of banks, and helped to organize protests of the bailout. [2]
In 2004 TrueMajority ran advertisements calling for a paper trail in electronic voting. [9]
TrueMajority co-sponsored protests and advertisements against the Iraq war in 2003. [10] The organization published anti-war advertisements in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal , but its ads were refused by television networks including CNN, Fox, MTV, and Comedy Central. [11] [12] TrueMajority also supported Howard Dean in the 2004 Democratic primary, mounting a letter-writing campaign and arguing for his support on the grounds of his opposition to the Iraq War. [13] In 2008 TrueMajority gathered over 20,000 petitions to urge CalPERS to investigate KBR for war profiteering, including in the petitions accusations of rape and murder. [14] [15]
Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, the company went from a single ice cream parlor to a multinational brand over the course of a few decades. The company was sold in 2000 to the multinational conglomerate Unilever but operates as an independent subsidiary. Its present-day headquarters is in South Burlington, Vermont, with its factory in Waterbury, Vermont.
Opposition to the Iraq War significantly occurred worldwide, both before and during the initial 2003 invasion of Iraq by a United States–led coalition, and throughout the subsequent occupation. Individuals and groups opposing the war include the governments of many nations which did not take part in the invasion, including both its land neighbors Canada and Mexico, its NATO allies in Europe such as France and Germany, as well as China and Indonesia in Asia, and significant sections of the populace in those that took part in the invasion. Opposition to the war was also widespread domestically.
Beginning in late 2002 and continuing after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, large-scale protests against the Iraq War were held in many cities worldwide, often coordinated to occur simultaneously around the world. After the biggest series of demonstrations, on February 15, 2003, New York Times writer Patrick Tyler claimed that they showed that there were two superpowers on the planet: the United States and worldwide public opinion.
Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's second largest oil service company which is responsible for most of the world's largest fracking operations. It employs approximately 55,000 people through its hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands, and divisions in more than 70 countries. The company, though incorporated in the United States, has dual headquarters located in Houston and in Dubai.
KBR, Inc. is a U.S. based company operating in fields of science, technology and engineering.
John Barden Shadegg is an American politician and former U.S. representative for Arizona's 3rd congressional district, serving from 1995 until 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party.
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Media Matters for America (MMfA) is a non-profit left-leaning watchdog journalism organization. It was founded in 2004 by journalist and political activist David Brock as a counterweight to the conservative Media Research Center. It seeks to spotlight "conservative misinformation" in the U.S. media; its methods include issuing reports and quick responses. Two example initiatives include the "Drop Fox" campaign (2011–2013) that sought to discredit Fox News' "fair and balanced" claims; and a 2023 report about X that highlighted antisemitism on the platform.
Vets for Freedom is an American political advocacy organization founded in 2006 by veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars, with connections to Republican Party leaders. The group was initially founded as a 527 group.
Sue Weisenbarger Kelly is an American businesswoman and politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2007, representing New York's 19th District. She was elected to the seat that had been held by Republican Hamilton Fish IV after he dropped out of the 1994 race due to prostate cancer. Kelly defeated his son, Hamilton Fish V, in that race and served until John Hall defeated her in the 2006 congressional election.
VoteVets.org is a progressive political action committee (PAC) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization in the United States.
Freedom's Watch was a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(4) lobbying organization. Freedom's Watch was supportive of the George W. Bush administration's positions in the War on Terror and of Republican Congressional candidates. The group was run and supported, in part, by several former officials of the Bush administration. The organization stated that its goal was "educating individuals about and advancing public policies that protect America’s interests at home and abroad, foster economic prosperity, and strengthen families." In the 2008 election cycle, Freedom's Watch purchased advertisements in support of Republican congressional candidates.
The MoveOn.org ad controversy began when the U.S. anti-war liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org published a full-page ad in The New York Times on September 10, 2007, accusing General David H. Petraeus of "cooking the books for the White House". The ad also labeled him "General Betray Us". The organization created the ad in response to Petraeus' Report to Congress on the Situation in Iraq. MoveOn hosted pages on its website about the ad and their reasons behind it from 2007 to June 23, 2010. On June 23, 2010, after President Obama nominated General Petraeus to be the new top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, MoveOn erased these webpages and any reference to them from its website.
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Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream is a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor composed of vanilla with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and a caramel swirl. The ice cream was officially introduced on February 14, 2007, inspired by Stephen Colbert, host of the CBS television show The Late Show, and the fictionalized version of him who served as host of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. The same flavor became available in Canada as "Oh Cone-ada" in 2010.
Jamie Leigh Jones is a former employee of KBR, an American engineering, construction and private military contracting company. During her employment, KBR was a subsidiary of Halliburton from 1962 to 2007. She is notable for accusing then fellow KBR employees of drugging and gang-raping her on July 28, 2005, at Camp Hope in Baghdad. A federal grand jury investigated her claims but issued no indictments.
Our Country Deserves Better PAC (OCDB) is a political action committee (PAC) formed in August 2008 to oppose the election of Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama. The organization, based in Sacramento, California, is one of the largest conservative PACs in the United States. Its current mission is to challenge President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress for their stance on raising taxes on the wealthy, health care, national defense, energy policy, immigration, and judicial appointments, as well as defeat the election of liberal Democratic candidates. In February 2010, Our Country Deserves Better was among the twelve most influential groups in the Tea Party movement, according to the National Journal.
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