posting to php through ajax

I am stumpped on posting variables to a php file.
From my html I call 'calledFromHTMLform()'.  This file generates an ajax variable and posts to a file called 'myPHPfile.php'.
The php file sends an email. The email is successfully sent but I cannot read any of the posted variables.
In the following code, the $message variable contains nothing.
Any input as to what I am missing?

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function calledFromHTMLform() { 
	var ajaxVar = getAjaxRequestVariable(); 
 
	ajaxVar.onreadystatechange = function() { 
		if(ajaxVar.readyState == 4) { 
			var myResponse = ajaxVar.responseText; 
		} 
	} 
	ajaxVar.open("POST", "myPHPfile.php", true); 
	ajaxVar.send('name=myname&username=myusername'); 
} 
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function getAjaxRequestVariable() { 
	try { // Opera 8.0+, Firefox, Safari 
		ajaxRequest = new XMLHttpRequest(); 
	} catch (e) { // Internet Explorer Browsers 
		try { 
			ajaxRequest = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); 
		} catch (e) { 
			try { 
				ajaxRequest = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); 
			} catch (e) { // Something went wrong 
				alert("Your browser broke!"); 
				return false; 
			} 
		} 
	} 
	return ajaxRequest; 
} 
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<?php
	$email = 'you@domainname.com';
	$subject = 'This is the subject';
	$message = $_POST["name"]; 
	$from = "me@domainname.com";
	$headers = "From: $from";
 
	if(mail($email,$subject,$message,$headers)) {
		echo "Thank you for sending email";
	} else {
		echo "Can't send email to $email";
	}
?>
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