You Streeters nationwide enjoyed Stephen Colbert's take on the Citizens United vs. FEC case last week (see clip below). And then they took action, inviting Mr. Colbert out to Senator Alan Simpson's Wyoming ranch for a discussion about the solution that public funding provides.

You can sign on with the Senator or write your own invitation to Stephen Colbert and help bring the spotlight of Colbert Nation to the fight for publicly funded elections.

The following was sent in to us by You Street member Dan Lynch of Colorado. Send us your thoughts at http://youstreet.org/contact.

To me, public financing is the single most important issue before the Congress. I watch the health care debate degenerate as members of key committees in both houses keep raising money from those whose profits may be affected by the legislation. There never will be change we can believe in until we destroy the power of special interest money to corrupt the political process.

We've come a long way since the days where we had to rely on one local newspaper for all our news and political coverage. Every day, we're monitoring thousands of news sources to get the latest on money in politics, public funding of elections, and other important campaign finance topics. You can read the latest news and slice it how you like at http://youstreet.org/news.

Our organization fights for public funding of all federal elections (Congress, the Senate, and the Presidency), but we also support various public funding initiatives in the states. Here's a roundup of what went down this week throughout the country. And check out http://youstreet.org/news for news about your state!

Statement of Americans for Campaign Reform, 9/9/09

When the United States Supreme Court today rehears the campaign finance case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), it will be calling into question no less than sixty years of established precedent limiting corporate spending in federal elections.

This is the first in a regular series of posts highlighting the resources available to You Street members and public funding advocates.

In our last survey, several members requested materials they could print out and distribute in their communities. We're happy to present a handful of clear, succinct one-pagers for your downloading pleasure. They're all available as PDFs, but if launching Adobe Reader crashes your computer, you can preview each document online by clicking the "read online" link.

We've organized these documents into three categories:

MAPlight.org is a non-partisan non-profit research organization that shines a light on the shady-yet-legal links between campaign donations and legislative votes. They've been doing great work at the federal level and they're expanding to include data from several states. That's where you come in.

There's been a lot of hot air blowing around the healthcare debate in recent weeks, from town halls across America to the halls of Congress in Washington, DC. This week, NPR's Diane Rehm began pealing back the rhetoric to give a rare view of the actual distribution of power and influence that underlies this debate. Seems to us a worthy endeavor, considering the results of the present healthcare negotiations will profoundly affect the lives and livelihoods of every American.

We were fortunate enough to be featured in Roll Call's K Street Files, a must-read blog written by Matthew Murray and Anna Palmer. The profile of our President, Dan Weeks, follows Dan's Op-Ed in last week's Roll Call. Here's an excerpt:

We've spoken at great length about the truly insane amount of time members of Congress and their challengers must spend raising money. Every election cycle, the amount of cash needed to run for office skyrockets. And with it, the amount of time our leaders spend in cubicles cold-calling strangers asking for cash increases. Estimates range from 20-40% of their time, depending on how much they're trying to raise. And they're spending this time reaching out to wealthy interests, not actual constituents.