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Cult Watch Title: Pepsi Refresh Contestant Claims Rules Were Broken(Immoral Liberals) Pepsi Refresh Contestant Claims Rules Were Broken By STEPHANIE STROM Published: September 30, 2010 A group battling childhood cancer has filed a complaint against Pepsi, contending that its popular charity fund-raising contest, Pepsi Refresh, has been infiltrated by organizations with a political agenda. The group, Arms Wide Open Childhood Cancer Foundation, which raises money for alternative therapies and treatments for children with neuroblastoma, has been competing in the September contest to win $250,000 from Pepsi, ranking second Thursday night. Arms Wide Open contends that a group of 16 organizations called the Progressive Slate have also been vying for votes and funds and are “essentially political groups tied to the Democratic Party” and thus violate the contest’s rules. “We have concerns about the fairness of this contest,” said John K. Bartosz, a lawyer representing the charity whose son has neuroblastoma, a cancer that develops in the nervous system and mostly affects infants and children. He added, “We’ve built a grass-roots effort to tell our families and friends to vote for us, and now we learn that we’re up against a political machine.” Through Pepsi Refresh, Pepsi is giving more than $20 million to charities this year, allowing 1,000 organizations to compete for grants of $5,000, $25,000, $50,000 and $250,000 each month. Online voters decide who wins. The complaint is another example of concern over nonprofit groups using tax-exempt dollars for political purposes in the current election cycle. On Wednesday, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter to the I.R.S. asking it to investigate the use of tax-exempt groups for political purposes. The contest rules state that applications cannot be for projects that would advance, lobby or expand membership for a political party, candidate or cause. Groups belonging to the Progressive Slate, many of which are skilled at voter registration and community organizing, are collectively working to help each other win the contest. The strategy is proving successful: as of Thursday evening, eight of the top 10 contestants in the $50,000 category were Slate members, and two members were among the top five contestants vying for $250,000. Many of their Web sites promote liberal agendas, featuring comments from MoveOn.org, recommending LeftyBlogs.com, and displaying membership lists that include labor unions. They are led by the Center for Progressive Leadership, a nonprofit group whose eight-member board includes two Democratic members of the House of Representatives; Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a Democrat and the former lieutenant governor of Maryland; Matt Dunn, a Democrat who failed to win the party’s nomination to be governor of Vermont; and Mike Lux, a Democratic political operative who helped found the organization. Peter Murray, president of the center, said Arms Wide Open’s complaint had no merit and was nothing more than a competitive tactic in the final hours of the September competition. “These are all nonpartisan, nonprofit charitable organizations,” Mr. Murray said. “The projects that are seeking support have no political or advocacy or lobbying elements to them whatsoever. They are for helping kids, young people, helping the homeless, helping the poor.” Peter Land, a Pepsi spokesman, said, “We evaluated each idea solely on the basis of the merits, and each met our guidelines, which state that an idea cannot support or endorse any political candidate or party.” A version of this article appeared in print on October 1, 2010, on page B4 of the New York edition.
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Progressive, liberal democrats are such immoral assholes.
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