Fear and Loathing of Oliver Letwin

Old Etonian, Oliver Letwin, MP, the Cabinet Minister in charge of the Coalition Government's reforms of the beleaguered public sector yesterday went along to the head office of KPMG, a consultancy  firm that has ripped tens of millions of pounds out of state coffers providing "advice" on efficiency over the last two decades. With his hosts eyeing more cash as the quintessential Public Schoolboy of British politics gassed his way through a speech on how they have more work to do charging for yet more advice, Letwin declared that the public sector needs "some real discipline and some fear" among its staff to get them to work harder.

Britain's hardest worker busy instilling some fear

Oliver, a man who seems never to have held a real job in his entire life (although he does have at least one lucrative consultancy "arrangement" doubtlessly entirely in his spare time), went on to warn that without this, innovation and change in schools and hospitals just won't happen. Of course, he starts from an entirely impartial point of view, having stated in 2003 that he would rather "go out on the streets and beg" than ever have his children go to a state school.

This callous statement, made at a time when the public sector is already reeling from service cuts and job losses following the slashing of budgets to pay for the massive bailout of supposedly efficient private sector banks, misses a few obvious points.

First, given the massive amount of public services already tendered out to private providers or totally denationalised, like the railways and bus services, where are the supposed efficiencies and improvements the private sector ethos supposedly brings? Public subsidies to the rail industry, for example, have more than doubled since privatisation, leaving the much-derided state company British Rail as a paragon of good service and value for money by comparison. And with social care effectively privatised, we have in the last few weeks seen the Southern Cross care company go bust, although its clearly useless directors have walked away with millions of pounds each in their greedy, grasping pockets having capitalised its property for rent-back a few years ago - the source of their financial crisis.

Likewise, KPMG and its ilk have enjoyed literally thousands of contracts for providing consultancy advice and even running contracted out services over the last two and a half decades (since Ollie was working in Mrs Thatcher's Policy Unit) - how come they have evidently made so little progress in spite of all the invoices? Any ideas? Because Oliver Letwin's certainly don't hold up at all.

BUT Oliver does know all about public money himself - he made jolly good use of the £2,145 he claimed from our taxes to fix a leaking water pipe under his private tennis court. Of course, the poor chap had to pay it all back...when he was found out. He did keep the cash for cleaning out the septic tank - how appropriate.

CNN's Don Lemon Brings Back Independent Panel: Dr. Omar H. Ali, Joe Gandelman, Nicole Kurokawa Tonight at 7pm ET

Today, Sunday, July 31st at 7:00 pm/ET, Dr. Omar Ali, Joe Gandelman and Nicole Kurokawa will appear as a guest on  CNN as host Don Lemon brings back his independent panel for commentary on the week's political news.

Omar is Editor of The Neo-Independent who latest installment is available here. 

Joe Gandelman is the founder and Executive Editor of The Moderate Voice.

In case you missed them, below are links to recent CBS and Fox news segments featuring voices from the IndependentVoting.org network.

Jackie Salit on "Fox & Friends"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IndependentVoting.org President Jackie Salit appeared on Fox & Friends introducing herself as a member of the "anti-Party" and among the 38% of Americans who don't like parties and don't like partisanship. "There is no middle ground, but there is a way to bring Americans together, and the way to do that is around the issue of structural political reform" said Salit. 

The Early Show on Saturday Morning CBS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (CBS News)   Time is running out to raise the debt ceiling before the U.S. begins to default on its obligations, a deal appears to be nowhere in sight, and Democrats and Republicans only seem to be getting angrier at each other.  So, who's to blame for the debt lid gridlock in Washington?  "The Early Show on Saturday Morning" put together a panel of independent voters to address the question.

Fox and Friends - Independent Voters on the Budget Negotiations ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This "Fox and Friends " segment Tuesday on the budget negotiations featured independent voters John Odycke from New York, Greg Moohn in the DC bureau and Linda Ricke in Tallahassee, Florida.  "Negotiations implies the assumption that the two sides are actually listening to each other, not just talking at each other."  Linda Ricke, Florida Sunshine Independents

Washington Should Not Forget the Independents

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The Republicans want spending cuts. The Democrats want to preserve the safety net. Obama believes that his job is to stitch together a solution that draws from both. Put another way, he's trying to be the non-partisan President. And no doubt, the President's advisors hope that independent voters - who decided the last two elections - (actually three, since independents in open primary and caucus states picked Obama over Hillary Clinton) will see him that way."

Jackie Salit

Des Moines Register

Friday, July 22, 2011

Colbert Report - how reality doesn't get in the way of media sensationalism

Concluding the week in bad, bigotted journalism...

who goes there?

QUILT: Kim Svoboda

Pew Research: Obama Losing Among Independents

2012
Obama Loses Ground in 2012 Reelection Bid - In GOP, Romney Leads, Attentive Like Perry, Bachmann Most Visible (Pew Research Center) This is consistent with a drop in Obama’s approval among all independents. Currently, a majority (54%) disapprove of Obama’s performance for the first time in his presidency. His approval among independents has slipped to 36% from 42% last month and 49% in late May. (See “Public Wants a Debt Ceiling Compromise, Expects a Deal Before Deadline.”)

Jackie Salit, President of independentvoting.org, says 'I'm a member of the Anti-Party' -- most Americans don't like parties, partisanship, and Americans will come together around structural political reform. There is no center -- O needs to come out strongly in support of political reform and indies will support him.

California Changes: Voters Welcome Independent Redistricting

CALIFORNIA REDISTRICTING

• Independent commission finishes drawing new districts (Sac Bee/Capitol Alert) The new maps, which will be released to the public on Friday, are expected to generate a flurry of lawsuits and at least one referendum drive, all of which would, if successful, shift redistricting to the courts for final resolution before the 2012 elections.
• Members Brace for California Map (By Kyle Trygstad, Roll Call) Just one seat has changed party hands since the 2001 redistricting, and at the start of the 112th Congress, the average tenure of California's 53 Members was eight terms. That's about to change, with the potential for a handful of Member-vs.-Member races and perhaps a few retirements.

Utah Lawmakers Not Listening to Voters on Redistricting

UTAH REDISTRICTING

• Critics say lawmakers don’t listen on redistricting (By Lee Davidson, The Salt Lake Tribune) But the Alliance for a Better Utah, Fair Boundaries and RepresentMeUtah! said Wednesday that lawmakers have not responded well enough, and their maps still protect incumbents more than they keep communities of interest together. They said keeping communities whole is what most commenters in public hearings have said is their top concern.
• Don't ignore what Utahns want in drawing new boundaries, advocates urge (By Lisa Riley Roche, Deseret News) "We're concerned that the public input process has been nothing more than a dog and pony show," said Maryann Martindale, executive director of Alliance for a Better UTAH. "We hope we're wrong, but we don’t think we are."

NY CD 9th Special: David, Goliath and Independent Wild Card?

NEW YORK

• City & State First Read (City Hall & The Capitol) A rumor making the rounds contends Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is pushing hard to deliver Jews for Weprin… How high are the odds stacked against independent candidates in special elections? Ask Justin Wax Jacobs, a college student...
• David Is Goliath (LETTER To The Editor, Queens Tribune) Turner will have to rely primarily on ordinary, local, non-political, community-based volunteers. Other than Councilman Eric Ulrich and Brooklyn State Sen. Marty Golden, he has no local GOP/Conservative public officials to assist him. His recent endorsement by former Mayor Ed Koch will move some Jewish, Democratic and Independent voters into Turner’s column. Unfortunately for Turner, many of Koch’s supporters from decades ago have moved out of town or passed away.

MEDIA
Capital Tonight: Is the Tea Party ready to govern? (By: Allison Sandza, YNN Austin) NOTE: The article is worth reading for Texas politics, but more significant is that YNN has expanded to Austin where it has taken over Austin New 8. YNN is controlled by Time Warner Cable.

Salit: No Middle Ground, I'm a Member of the Anti-Party

Debt distress, partisan pollution... 'There is no middle ground, but there is way to bring Americans together. President Obama is trying to play to the center when there is no center...' -Jacqueline Salit on Fox & Friends

Careless Talk Costs Lives

Right-wing Media commentators like Melanie Phillips (far right) and Glenn Beck (far left) provide the pseudo-intellectual background to the conflict-centred worldviews of men like Anders Breivik and Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh.

In the wake of the terrorist atrocities in Norway, a timely analysis of extreme rightwing networks and the dangerous overlap between the rhetoric of populist politicians and media pundits and the violence of men like Anders Breveik and Timothy McVeigh. The writings of journalist Melanie Phillips were cited in Breivik's manifesto, while Glen Beck constructs conspiracies and raves about insidious threats to the USA on his TV and radio programmes - setting the scene for people like Breivik and Timothy McVeigh to to develop their ideas of conflict with Islam and those "traitors" who fail to agree with their analysis. Whilst not directly or personally responsible for violence, their journalism is sloppy, ignores facts that contradict their wild assertions and lends, however slightly, a sort of pseudo-intellectual succour to such men as they develop their atrocious response to their apparently shared worldviews.

proof of life 2011

 

PHOTO: Marian Rich

California Independents Took Matters Into Their Own Hands with Props 14 and 20

OPEN PRIMARIES
Political change starts with moderates (LETTER San Diego Union Tribune) The independent and moderate voters in California took matters into their own hands during the last general election and passed Proposition 14, which allows independents to vote for any candidate during the primary election. Proposition 20, which will replace the current gerrymandered district boundaries so incumbents are no longer guaranteed re-election, was also passed.

Liberal Discontent with Debt Ceiling Wars

DEBT CEILING
The summer of liberal discontent (By: Glenn Thrush, Politico) “Every policy outcome for liberals is a loss at this point,” said a senior party operative, reflecting the prevailing view among progressives that the alternatives mulled by Obama in the debt talks range from the awful to the unthinkable. “We may win on the politics,” the operative said, “but the policy battle is lost. It’s just depressing.”

The Left's Hue and Cry Against Third Parties

2012

• The ridiculous third party rallying cry - Bloomberg and Friedman pretend partisan fighting is ruining our country. The real problem is too much consensus (By David Sirota, Salon) As both Dartmouth professor Brendan Nyhan and the Columbia Journalism Review show, this act is so unerringly consistent that it has become cliche #233. And yet despite its maddening monotony, it remains a popular cottage industry. Indeed, from the pornstachioed Thomas Friedman to the Gordon Gekko-haired Jon Avlon to the monocle-and-top-hat-worthy Michael Bloomberg, the Third Party Fetishists provide a glorious career for its most slavishly devoted and dishonest cast members -- and, hey, as grifter jobs go, it's a damn good living.
• Crashing the Party System - Why does Thomas Friedman want to help a Republican win the White House? (Ben Adler, The American Prospect) Of all the rites of American politics that attend the presidential election, none is more irritating than the inevitable third-party bubble. Around this time four years ago, a coalition of irrelevant old politicos—former Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford officials and a former governor of Maine—formed a group called Unity ’08 to create a bipartisan presidential ticket. They had big dreams of holding online primaries and recruiting candidates like New York City’s independent mayor, Michael Bloomberg. The effort sputtered, then pooped out.
• Morning Jay: The Fundamentals Do Not Currently Favor Obama's Reelection (By JAY COST, The Weekly Standard) It is worth pointing out that, in the last forty years, no president has ever been elected in a predominantly two-way race with less than 48 percent of the independent vote. (That was George W. Bush in 2004.) with CHARTS

Americans Elect: People vs. Parties

AMERICANS ELECT

• No Labels and Americans Elect: A List of Known Connections (Jim Cook, Irregular Times) NOTE: Jim Cook has written 94 articles about Americans Elect and has set up a special page at Irregular Times called Americans Elect Watch
• Americans Elect seeks to upend primary system (By Matea Gold, Washington Bureau, LA Times) "The only political philosophy we have is that people should be greater than parties," said Elliot Ackerman, the group's chief operating officer.

Improved Ballot Access for Third Parties in Tennessee

THIRD PARTY BALLOT ACCESS
Green Party, Constitution Party sue over TN ballot access - New law doesn't address judge's concern of stringent rules, they say (Written by Chas Sisk, The Tennessean) That indicates the requirements are too stringent, U.S. District Judge William J. Haynes Jr. said in a decision released last September. He ordered state lawmakers to pass a new ballot-access law. The legislature did so in May, passing a bill with broad support from Democrats and Republicans. The law removed the requirement that signers declare themselves to be party members, and it gave parties about 15 more days to gather signatures.

Arizona Voters Are Choosing Independence

ARIZONA INDEPENDENTS

• Arizona voters choosing independence (By The Associated Press, AzCapitolTimes) Arizona voters continue to skip the party. The Secretary of State’s Office says new registration figures show independents outnumbered Democrats for the first time in January.
• Can independents vote in Arizona primaries? (Hankster Open Primaries page)

Is Redistricting Changing Anything in North Carolina?

NORTH CAROLINA REDISTRICTING
Republicans mimic Democrats of old in redistricting ruse (Charlotte Observer/For the Record) In response to criticism about packing minorities into G.K. Butterfield's 1st District, the new version adds some counties and removes voters in southeast Raleigh but includes voters in Durham County. The newly revised maps follow through on previous threats to pit incumbent Democratic Congressmen Mike McIntyre (7th District) and Larry Kissell (8th District) against each other in the same district. It does the same with David Price (4th District) and Brad Miller (13th District), also Democrats.

NYC Mayor 2013 Race Begins

NEW YORK

• Three-Way Race Creates Excitement In Special Election - Candidates Compete for Darryl Towns’ Seat (By Harold Egeln, Brooklyn Daily Eagle) A recent WNYC Radio report commented on the upcoming special election for the 54th Assembly District race between Rafael Espinal, endorsed by two political parties and favored by another; Jesus Gonzalez, a Working Families Party candidate backed by north Brooklyn reformers; and Deidre Towns of the Towns political family.
• Ray Kelly, Police Commissioner: Mayor Of New York In 2013? (Huffington Post) Kelly, an independent who would probably run as a Republican, was chosen by 23 percent, including 17 percent among Democrats, when the independent poll asked New York City voters who they most want to see elected mayor in 2013.
• July 27, 2011 - Kelly Top Of The Heap For New York City Mayor, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Bloomberg Inches Back To A Positive Approval (Quinnipiac University) "Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has never given the faintest hint that he'd like to move from Police Headquarters across the street to City Hall, but New York seems to like the idea of Kelly for mayor," said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

I Do Not Want Mercy, I Want You To Join Me | Common Dreams

I Do Not Want Mercy, I Want You To Join Me | Common Dreams

Tim DeChristopher, a climate activist who disrupted what was later ruled to be an illegitimate land auction, has today been sent to jail for 2 years in the USA. His crime was to have falsely bid in the auction against oil and gas companies intent on drilling the land and adding to the damage of the environment and atmosphere.

Tim committed no act of violence, damaged no property and harmed no person. But tonight, he is in prison.

More on this travesty from Common Dreams, click here.

Tim DeChristopher

Jackie Salit: Not Enough for Obama to Simply Criticize Congressional Leaders

How Barack Obama Can Be a Non-Partisan President (By JACQUELINE SALIT, SW News Herald - Chicago)

Power politics has a way of erasing the memory of how things happened in the first place. That’s because when institutions come to power, they want the stories about themselves to reinforce their institutional strength. They never like to credit outsider, non-institutional forces, even if the outsiders’ role in a set of events was pivotal.

Both President Obama and the Republican-led Congress seem to be grappling with this very tension in the budget negotiations going on now. Republicans won control of the House in 2010 because independent voters put them there. Obama won the White House in 2008 because independents chose him. Yet the budget negotiations — both in their form and in their content — are thoroughly rooted in a Democrat/Republican reality.

The Republicans want spending cuts. The Democrats want to preserve the safety net. Obama believes that his job is to stitch together a solution that draws from both. Put another way, he’s trying to be the non-partisan president. And no doubt, the president’s advisors hope that independent voters — who decided the last two elections — (actually three, since independents in open primary and caucus states picked Obama over Hillary Clinton) will see him that way.

Maybe they will. Certainly, independents — now 38 percent of the country according to the latest Pew poll — have made it plain enough that they don’t like partisanship, they don’t like ideological dogmatism and they don’t like… well, parties. Even if they vote for them.

Obama would do well, not just to remember that history, but to make it a more visible feature of how he governs. Independents catapulted him — first to the Democratic nomination and then to the White House. When he says that the American people “feel a sense of urgency, both about the breakdown in our political process and also about the situation in our economy,” he can also acknowledge that the American people are doing something about it, namely leaving the Democratic and Republican parties and becoming independents. According to the Pew Research Center, only 23 percent of Americans self-identify as Republicans, down from 25 percent in 2008 and 30 percent in 2004. 35 percent identify as Democrats (the same as 2008) even though the 2008 elections were expected to swell the ranks of Democrats. Independents, now 38 percent, were 32 percent of the electorate in 2008.

For many Independents, it’s not enough for Obama to simply criticize Congressional leaders for their partisan intransigence. He has to show that he’s willing to back certain structural changes in the political process that make such intransigence more difficult. This means taking a stand in support of open primaries in which Independents can vote. And imagine the shock waves that would follow an Obama appointment (in consultation with leaders of the Independent movement) of two Independents to vacant seats on the Federal Election Commission.

Moves like these would show Independents that the president understands the history of recent electoral unrest and that he is ready to stand up for  changes in the process that promote inclusion over party control and partisanship. Over the long term, that’s what Independents are looking for.

More Voters Walking Away From Two-Party System - A Case for Top Two

It's never been more clear that in order for new ideas, new alliances, new directions to emerge in our country, independents -- those who choose to go outside the box politically -- need to be included in our political process. Top two open primaries is one structural reform that is gaining support all over the country, much to the distress of the parties...

TOP TWO OPEN PRIMARIES

• More voters walking away from Democrat and Republican parties (AZ Central/Laurie Roberts' Columns & Blog) Meanwhile, with each set of new registration numbers, more and more Arizona voters are walking away from the two-party system. Yet the system remains, just as it has since statehood. When are we going to get around to dropping this antiquated system and going to a general and a runoff, where everybody votes on all the candidates regardless of party designation?
  
• Independent voters continue to rack up numbers (By David Rookhuyzen, Green Valley News) The state’s voting system could also be contributing to the high number of unaffiliated voters. Independents in Arizona can vote in any party’s primary election, except the Green Party, meaning there is no penalty for not having a party affiliation, Davis said. However, independents in Arizona are barred from voting in the presidential primary — or Presidential Preference Election — next year, which is reserved for members of the major parties.
  
• South Carolina Republicans Win Opportunity to Present Evidence Against Open Primary (Ballot Access News) On July 18, a U.S. District Court Judge in South Carolina issued an 8-page Opinion in Greenville County Republican Party v State, 6:10-cv-1407, the case in which the South Carolina Republican Party argues that the Constitution protects its ability to limit its primaries to party members.
• California State Appeals Court Sets Oral Argument in Case Against Two Aspects of “Top-Two” (Ballot Access News) This is one of the two cases that challenges two particular details of the Proposition 14 “top-two” system...

Congress Cares More About Placing Blame Than Resolving the Debt Ceiling Issue

As Hankster readers might know, I sometimes cross-post at The Moderate Voice, whose founder and Editor-in-Chief Joe Gandelman attended the February 2011 national conference of independents in New York City. My post yesterday elicited 3 great comments which I want to share with yo. Thanks to all!!!

From davidpsummers: One symptom is that the politicians are clearly putting as much effort into who might get the blame for the crisis as to the actual crisis. In fact, most of the partisan pundits find who will get the blame, and spin on that topic, as important as anything. In the end, all either side really cares about is partisan advantage.
    I have not doubt that either side would be willing to let the crisis happen if they thought the other side would get the blame. Or, in fact, even just get “more” blame, since they know the two party system doesn’t give voters any alternative to the two parties. That is why we need structural reform.
    I think it is time to mention instant-runoff voting again…

From Allen: Congress is to blame for all of it because Congress has the purse strings. No budget bill has been passed in Congress as yet.
    The Republican party has a minority stake in our government and they are trying to control the majority by holding the financial security of the United States, even the world, as ransom.
    Republicans will no doubt get the blame, domestically, and, internationally.

From ph447sf: This Aug. 2, debt ceiling thing isn’t a crisis. So many times the debt ceiling just gets raised; raise it. Our oversized debt is a problem, but the two shouldn’t be lumped.
    The debt problem can be solved:
    -Roll back the Bush tax cuts.
    -Cut military spending
    -Big Pharma needs to give the USA the prices it gives Canada
    -Change our trade policies
    -Stop giving Corporate Welfare
    -Get out of these crazy wars
    There you go, debt problem solved! I could go on, but that alone would probably do it.


DEBT CEILING
The Debt Crisis: Systemic and Uncontrolled Disease of Partisanship (Posted by Nancy Hanks, The Moderate Voice) Dr. Jessie Fields (she asks the last question) tells us ‘I’m not an expert on the economy, I’m a 25 year physician and I recognize disease when it’s systemic and uncontrolled, and the two parties are strangling our democracy. We as a nation need to turn our attention to reforming the political process. As independents we support comprehensive nonpartisan restructuring of the political process; we think that’s at the heart of this crisis. What are your thoughts, ideas, about solutions?’
The Debt Ceiling Debacle (Robert L. Borosage, President, Institute for America's Future, Huffington Post) Progressives need to learn not so much from the Tea Party as from their own history and build an independent movement to stand with working Americans... The American Dream Movement, championed by Van Jones, Moveon.org, the Center for Community Change, the Campaign for America's Future that I help direct and others, is beginning to build that uprising.

Norway Is Not Alone - But Nor Is Breivik

As the world rushes to write off Anders Breivik as an isolated, maverick madman, a lone phenomena with no enduring significance beyond the appalling acts of savage murder he carried out in Norway last Friday, British racists have hurried to his defence online. As we see in the post by English Defence League supporter, Michelle Miley, lauds him as a hero on her Twitter.com account above; and her colleagues similarly tweet (such an innocent terms for such violent bastards) in the extract below. Because Breivik's young victims were nearly all members of the Norwegian Labour Party, it seems Michelle and her friends reckon they had it coming to them. (A similar phenomenon errupted in Israel, where many Israelis also suggested the young Labour members got what they deserved because they had had a banner on the island criticising Israeli policy towards the Palestinians - Breivik meanwhile had cited his support for Zionism and Israel.)

English Defence League leader, Stephen Lennon, has rebuffed any suggestions - including Breivik's own claims - of any links between the Nordic terrorist and his supposedly peaceful organisation. And yet, in the next breath, he tells the Daily Mail that "others could be inspired to commit similar atrocities ‘within five years’ if they feel their voice is not being heard."

The worry of course is that, unlike the Norwegians, who have responded to the atrocities with a ringing re-emphasis of their open, multicultural society, British politicians will seek to "listen and learn" from the sympathisers of the EDL and the self-imploding BNP. This we already saw with David Cameron's crass speech about "muscular liberalism" earlier this year.

Cameron, his Communities Secretary Pickles, and a host of other rightwing commentators have dangerously lied and lied again about supposed "political correctness" taking over Britain. Complete fictions are made up about non-existent sharia courts taking over towns like Bradford and Dewsbury, no-go-zones for white people, Asian immunity from criminal prosecution and of course the perennial but complete myth (or lie) about bans on Christmas trees, Nativity plays and even Christmas itself. 

The deranged ravings of newspaper columnists like Melaine Phillips and Jeremy Clarkson could be ignored were it not for the fact that people like Anders Breivik directly quote their rubbish, including in his genocidal manifesto. Smirking Clarkson should perhaps be smiling a bit less if he stops to consider how he has added to the mood music that has provided such fertile ground for the Nordic murderer to create the political narrative to justify his slaughter and carnage. Perhaps he would like to test drive the victims' hearses for them and make some of his stupid remarks as they pull into the graveyards, again and again and again?

The fact is that the rightwing nationalism that is spouted by so many in this country is nothing to do with any real threat to our culture. I have lived in areas with high concentrations of Muslims for nearly a quarter of a century and am in no way proscribed from living my life in precisely the way I wish. The churches still function for those who wish to attend, school lessons are in English, the pubs are open, and young women can walk the streets as scantily dressed as they like. If anything is gradually changing, it is the cultures of Asian communities that, like so very many waves of immigrants before (including the English - once foreigners to these shores themselves), are slowly assimilating into the wider zeitgeist.

Extreme nationalism is very much what it says on the tin: it is exclusive; it sees those outside its genetic definition as The Other and as a threat. It is not about pride or self-worth. Rather it is about insecurity, lack of pride and rank xenophobia. It is propagated by self-serving interests that see it as a very useful means of diverting the grievances of those who are losing out in a society that is increasingly polarised between rich and poor. Instead, it focuses on the idea that poor white people are poor not because they no longer have trade unions and are paid crap wages by exploitative employers, but rather because the local council has built a playground in an Asian area rather than a white one. Divide et impera.

The British media has repeatedly played up the threat from a handful of Islamic fascists over and over again, while largely ignoring the actual and planned attacks by scores of white fascists. Again and again, the police have, to their credit, arrested members of the BNP and EDL for assaults on Asians. Huge caches of bombs, bomb-making equipment and even biological material such as deadly ricin have been found in the homes of active members of fascist groups in the UK, but you wouldn't know it from the press.

Even when attacks are carried out, such as those against the black and gay people targetted by the explosions carried out in the most vicious way by the London Nailbomber, whose shrapnel ripped an unborn baby from its mother's womb, the media dutifully declared him a lunatic loner - ignoring his former activities in the BNP and the other members of that party arrested for planning similar attacks. Leader Nick Griffin's assistant, Tony Lecomber, was even known in the party, for very good reasons, as "Bomber Lecomber", but the media instead concentrated on how the party was supposedly becoming respectable under his leadership.

Fascism is a term that comes from the Latin fasces - the bundle of rods for beating and axes for beheading the opponents of the Roman state. They were selected by Mussolini back in the 1920s as the symbol of his movement of nationalists and have been aped by his admirers and ideological brothers ever since. This aggressive symbolism has reinforced the martial rhetoric of nationalist leaders, who have framed their ideologies very much around conflict which deems their political opponents to be traitors and mortal threats to the survival of the national Volk. Consequently, the most extreme response is at least psychologically sanctioned and so whether or not he acted alone, Breivik is not ideologically alone. And however comforting it may be to declare him mad, the only delusions in such circumstances are our own - for these are cold, calculated acts with a clear purpose, however horrifying. We do not dismiss al-Qaeda as illogical mad people; so why do we hurry to excuse white extremists by declaring them to be conveniently mentally ill and so not really responsible for what they have done?

Mainstream politicians across our Continent are failing to address the social and economic inequalities that are at the heart of our crisis. Instead, they play up to the xenophobes by gestures such as the ban on the veil in Belgium and France, the illegal deportation of gypsies by Sarkozy and the stigmatising of the Muslim community as fundamentally hostile in Britain due to the actions of four men in July 2005. They do so at great peril, ultimately, to us all - because by doing so they will never solve the root causes of discontent. Rather, they will simply fuel the anger and desire for more and more scapegoats, greater violence and, in some minds, provide the justification for more massacres like the one we have witnessed.

It falls to those of the Left, the internationalists, the humanistic, to show the different path, to argue incessantly for real solutions, real equality and community. The real stories from Friday should not be the frightening scenarios of ceaseless conflict and division conjured up by Anders Breivik and Melanie Phillips and their twisted fellow travellers. Rather, they should be the stories of the ambitions and hopes of those whose young lives were snuffed out when they were just about to begin. We owe it to them to listen to their voices, which were for democracy, tolerance and humanity rather than the narrow and perverted bigotry that so arrogantly decided to silence them.

Jackie Salit on Fox and Friends Wednesday July 27 at 8:15am ET

Wednesday, July 27th at 8:15 am/ET, catch independentvoting.org's Jackie Salit on "Fox and Friends."

Jackie Salit, a twenty-year veteran of the independent movement, is president of IndependentVoting.org and launched The Neo-Independent magazine in the Spring of 2004. A prominent leader in the fight for open primaries, she conducts regular national conference calls with over 150 grassroots independent leaders from around the country. An independent political strategist and journalist, she managed Michael Bloomberg's independent campaigns for Mayor of New York City in 2001, 2005 and 2010, and has appeared as a commentator on CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. She produced the documentary "How the Independent Movement Went Left By Going Right" as well as the video "Can Independents Reform America?" Salit lives in New York City. 

The Debt Crisis: 'Spirit of Party' Gone Mad

Lot's of blame, no room for new ideas. Why? The spirit of party gone mad.  Solution? Structural political reform. See video below of CBS New York Q&A on the debt crisis with independents. Dr. Jessie Fields (last question) tells us 'I'm not an expert on the economy, I'm a 25 year physician and I recognize disease when it's systemic and uncontrolled, and the two parties are strangling our democracy. We as a nation need to turn our attention to reforming the political process. As independents we support comprehensive nonpartisan restructuring of the political process; we think that's at the heart of this crisis. What are your thoughts, ideas, about solutions?'

DEBT CRISIS

• Parties still divided on debt negotiations (Meet the Press, msbnbc) With no deal in sight and political gridlock inside the Beltway, our roundtable addressed this question: Is Washington broken?
• Michael Bloomberg warns of D.C.'s 'leadership deficit' - 'Our national leaders need to stop staring down the other side,' said Michael Bloomberg. (By REID J. EPSTEIN, Politico)
• Dreck ceiling: Bloomberg's centrist shtick is getting old, and dangerous (By Steve Kornacki, Capital New York) Never mind that this belief is utter nonsense, stemming from a fundamental misunderstanding of what the growing number of independent voters means. (Short version: Partisan behavior is actually on the rise, even if voters prefer to think of themselves as "independents.") A fair chunk of the pundit class is convinced it's true and has convinced itself that Bloomberg possesses the special formula that will break the D.C. logjam that both parties have contributed equally to. They never explain how he would do this, and neither does he.
• GOP Pollsters Say Obama Must Pull Voters Back from Brink of Anger - Conservative advocacy and polling group Resurgent Republic's Ed Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee Chairman, and Ed Goeas, a veteran GOP pollster, argue independents like President Obama but don't believe he's made the economy better. (By Dave Cook, Christian Science Monitor)
• Obama achieves new levels of political demagoguery (By Michael Hudome, The Daily Caller - founded by Tucker Carlson) From Obama’s perspective, the proverbial electoral elephant in the room isn’t any of the GOP candidates for president. It’s the specter of a primary from the left. Don’t think for one minute that isn’t on the minds of the president’s political brain trust. A president with his low approval numbers is ripe for the picking. Imagine the message Independent voters in New Hampshire could send to the president and America by voting for a viable alternative.
• Our stupid self-inflicted debt crisis (By John Avlon, CNN) But the blame for this stage of failure lies squarely on the party that unilaterally withdrew from the talks -- and that's the Republicans… Independents voted for Republicans in the 2010 midterm elections because they wanted checks and balances; they wanted to reduce deficit and debt spending. But they did not vote for dysfunctional government, and they certainly did not vote for default. The polls showing that independent voters say they will blame Republicans more than Democrats for a U.S. default reflects this disconnect.
• Poll: US voters blame Republicans, Obama on jobs (Reuters) Obama receives higher marks from independent voters than Republicans when it comes to jobs, but appeasing supporters in his own party could be a bigger challenge.
• Obama, Boehner: Speechs without solutions (By Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun Times) Obama zoned in on the Tea Party freshmen in Congress, though not by name. "I realize that a lot of the new members of Congress and I don't see eye-to-eye on many issues. But we were each elected by some of the same Americans for some of the same reasons." Obama's message: The independent voters who sent Obama to the White House were also some of the people who voted for them. And they can be switch hitters again.
• Cool Obama meets hot Boehner in dueling debt ceiling speeches (By Chris Cillizza, Washington Post/The Fix) Obama was aiming at the political middle — unaffiliated and independent voters who are seen as the most critical voting bloc heading into 2012. Those voters prize compromise and bipartisanship above any single issue and Obama repeatedly drove that message home.
• A ‘Unique Opportunity’ on the Debt Ceiling, Lost (By JACKIE CALMES, NY Times) And while Mr. Obama also seeks to appeal to independent voters who make the difference in presidential elections, many Democrats complain he is too willing to compromise, potentially disillusioning their party’s voters and muddying the case against Republicans for proposing much deeper entitlement program cuts. Mr. Boehner’s problem is that some otherwise persuadable Republicans worry less about the general election than party primaries, and fear they could draw a conservative rival by supporting a deal with Mr. Obama.

So, who's to blame for the debt lid gridlock in Washington? "The Early Show on Saturday Morning" put together a panel of independent voters to address the question.

Im an Independent Voter, Can I Vote in the Primary in Arizona?

Independents have to pick a primary in state elections. Call for top two open primaries!

ARIZONA INDEPENDENTS

• Voter registration, early voting increase in Arizona (By The Associated Press, AzCapitolTimes.com) Officials also say about 13,000 people registered as independent voters, while the number of registered Republicans and Democrats fell.
• More voters walking away from Democrat and Republican parties (AZ Central/Laurie Roberts' Columns & Blog) Meanwhile, with each set of new registration numbers, more and more Arizona voters are walking away from the two-party system. Yet the system remains, just as it has since statehood. When are we going to get around to dropping this antiquated system and going to a general and a runoff, where everybody votes on all the candidates regardless of party designation?

I'm an Independent Voter, Can I Vote in the Primary in West Virginia?

WEST VIRGINIA INDEPENDENTS
GOP Votes to Stick With Primary (By Whitney Burdette, WTRF) State Republican Executive Committee voted Saturday to select presidential nominee by primary - “Albeit we’d love to pick early, we think it’s important that voters not be confused by the process,” he said. “Independents are able to participate in our process. In the convention format, independent voters were unable to participate.”

From Wikipedia:
In West Virginia, where state law allows parties to determine whether primaries are open to independents, Republican primaries are open to independents, while Democratic primaries were closed. However, as of April 1, 2007, West Virginia's Democratic Party opened its voting to allow "individuals who are not affiliated with any existing recognized party to participate in the election process".

NJ: Of Independents and Sunflowers

NEW JERSEY INDEPENDENTS
Meet the man who should be governor of NJ, if we had any sense (Jeff Edelstein column, The Trentonian) Some of you may remember Kostas; he ran for governor in 2009. (For those keeping score at home, he lost.) But he did manage to get some 2,500 votes, which ain’t so terrible for an Independent candidate who had no chance of winning. Clearly, his message got through to a few of us. He called his party the “For the People,” and what he believed then rings so true today, it made me forget all about the 12-foot sunflower looming overhead.

Who's Behind Americans Elect and What Can We Learn About Democracy From Them?

Interesting read from Micah Sifry at techPresident on Americans Elect, focused on its financial and political backing.

AMERICANS ELECT INTERNET CAMPAIGN
Americans Elect: Can an Internet-Powered 3rd Party Transform 2012? (Micah L. Sifry, techPresident) While AE says its delegates will drive the party's policies, it isn't just the hidden powers of the executive board that concern me. In our conversation last fall, Ackerman described wanting a process that would insure that the candidates of the party would present a balanced ticket representing the middle between the extremes of the two major parties. Experts from both sides of the political spectrum, he said, would be recruited to help frame the questions that candidates will be required to answer as part of the party's virtual primary process. But what is the "centrist" position on the minimum wage, I asked Ackerman. What is the "centrist" position on Afghanistan? In both cases, majority public opinion is well to the "left" of the center, if you define that center by taking an expert from each political party (or their related policy shops) and halving the difference. But Ackerman didn't have a reply, other than to say "We're an inkblot in the middle. How big it is depends on how the two oligopolists [i.e. the major parties] respond."

pretending to be a cat

Cutting Through the Democrat/Republican Reality Fog-Machine

2012
How Obama Can Be a Non-Partisan President (Jacqueline Salit, Huffington Post) Both President Obama and the Republican-led Congress seem to be grappling with this very tension in the budget negotiations going on now. Republicans won control of the House in 2010 because independent voters put them there. Obama won the White House in 2008 because independents chose him. Yet the budget negotiations -- both in their form and in their content -- are thoroughly rooted in a Democrat/Republican reality.
President Pushover (Paul Krugman, NY Times/The Conscience of a Liberal) Even people who are supposedly well informed believe that there was a vast expansion of government under Obama, when in fact there wasn’t. So we’re supposed to believe that independent voters will actually be able to cut through the fog — the deliberate fog of Fox, the he-said-she-said of most other media organizations — and give him credit for spending cuts?
Is Obama seizing the political center? (By Julian E. Zelizer, CNN) Obama has aggressively moved forward on an issue that has caused concern for many moderate and independent voters. By allying with some Senate Republicans, he has made the House GOP look like extremists who are more interested in tying up Congress than in reducing the deficit.
Report: On Debt, Democrats Rebel Against Compromiser-in-Chief (Ari Melber, The Nation) Obama has made Republicans "look bad," Drew concludes, but he is not actually getting much for it.  I'd go even further. By fully caving on this stand-off, where the White House is backed by the general public and large swaths of the GOP (the financial community and the well-informed), Obama would not only fail to impress independent voters, he'd ensure a drubbing on a series of future fights, large and small, with his unreasonable opponents.
Obama takes political, policy gamble on ‘big deal’ (By Zachary A. Goldfarb, Washington Post/Business) Unlike congressional Republicans and Democrats, who have to worry about what primary voters think of a deal when they’re up for reelection next year, Obama is focused on the views of independent voters in the general election. In polls, independents still show support for Obama, but his numbers have come down significantly since he took office.
Matthews Panelist Predicts Obama Will Use the ‘Politics of Fear’ to win re-Election (Fox Nation) New York magazine’s John Heilemann warned Matthews that this time around in 2012, the “hope” is very much gone and Obama’s strategy will be the “politics of fear.”

Americans Elect: Online Democracy for Nominating a 2012 Presidential Candidate

FreshDirect.com's founder Peter Ackerman has bankrolled a new petitioning drive/ internet presidential nomination process that hopes to bring forth a "centrist" or bi-partisan 2012 candidate. Americans Elect participants go online and create a profile of their priorities and will eventually create the debate, make choices for candidates, and hopefully influence the 2012 race. Whether the Unity '08 strategy of a bipartisan ticket can be revived this year, and whether there even is such a thing as a political "center" in America, remains to be seen.

Nevertheless, the group's on-the-ground petitioning drive is already impressive! 50-state access by an independent ticket to the Presidential ballot has been done twice before in the past 25 years -- Lenora Fulani in 1988, and Ross Perot in 1992.

Unfortunately, however, the very issue that can free us up from the partisan gridlock -- political reforms such as open primaries, nonpartisan redistricting, initiative and referendum, etc. -- is not an available choice on the Americans Elect profile at the moment. We would urge Americans Elect to include STRUCTURAL POLITICAL REFORM as a choice for priority. Working along side Jackie Salit's independentvoting.org networks and other extra-partisan efforts could be powerful.

Whatever the outcome of the American's Elect process, The Hankster wishes the initiative all the best.

AMERICANS ELECT

• Make Way for the Radical Center (By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, NY Times) Thanks to a quiet political start-up that is now ready to show its hand, a viable, centrist, third presidential ticket, elected by an Internet convention, is going to emerge in 2012. … (President Obama should dump the Democrats and run as an independent, which he is, at heart, anyway.)
• The Web’s Stealth Presidential Race - Big names have quietly launched an Internet presidential race that will offer the winner a real election ballot spot in all 50 states. Will this be 2012’s spoiler? (John Avlon, The Daily Beast) That’s the idealist vision driving a new group, Americans Elect, which has quietly collected enough signatures to secure a 2012 ballot line in eight states, including Arizona, Michigan, and Missouri. They will soon submit an unprecedented 1.6 million signatures in California… The money behind Americans Elect understands disruptive business models. The group’s founder, entrepreneur Peter Ackerman (father of Elliot), started FreshDirect.com… He and some 50 other initial donors have loaned the organization $20 million, out of an eventual $30 million budgeted, to be repaid if small donors join on.

California: Top Two Open Primary + Independent Redistricting = Blow to Partisan System

CALIFORNIASteve Lambert: Redistricting's one-two punch (By Steve Lambert, Whittier Daily News) Shifts in population have forced a redrawing of lines throughout the state, and for the first time since 1992, those choices aren't being made by politicians, rather by a citizens panel that may just well be the most powerful Californians this side of the prison guards union.

CBS Early Show: Independents Talk with John Avlon and Margaret Hoover About the Debt Debate

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Independent voters pin blame in debt gridlock CBS News VIDEO (CBS News)
"The Early Show on Saturday Morning" put together a panel of independent voters to address the question. They were joined by two analysts of different political stripes who happen to be husband and wife: Margaret Hoover, who was an aide to President George W. Bush and is the author of "American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party," and John Avlon, the senior political columnist for Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

Some of the independents were:
SUSAN SIMPFENDERFER, 48
JACK WYRICK, 28
MATT AMARAL, 23
JEFF STEVENS, 44
CANDICE HARRISON, 25
JESSIE FIELDS, 55
NICK JOHNSON, 62
SHANNA BROWN, 21
EILEEN KAUFMANN, 6

Deficit talks strain Obama's bipartisanship goals - He took office with a promise to overcome partisanship in the political process, but with debt negotiations apparently collapsing, the president's options are narrowing. (By Peter Nicholas, Washington Bureau, LA Times) But if no solution emerges in time to avoid a default, Obama may revert to a more partisan role rather than try to mediate between the parties.

State Politics in Utah and New York

UTAH POLITICS
Gay Utah Democratic boss moves beyond sexuality (By JOSH LOFTIN, Associated Press, Mercury News) "We appreciate diversity ... there's an opportunity for us to say to independent voters and disenfranchised Republicans to come to the party of common sense," Dabakis said.

NEW YORK
County Independence Party Head Supports Wilkinson Over Cohen Despite Local Party’s Wishes
(The Sag Harbor Express) “We are getting ready for our campaign,” said Jones. “I am working for Zach and he has our support, regardless. The bright spot is I believe Zachary Cohen has been endorsed by the Working Families party and that is where I will vote for him because he is the candidate who cares about the working people of East Hampton.”

Bill Gates' Illusive Quest for Better Schools

Below is a WSJ article about the decade-long $5-billion investment by Bill Gates in the current education system and its failures. A quicker and easier route to better schools is outlined in the special report on solving the education crisis in America, "Let's Pretend!" by Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani -- a must read for anyone involved in education reform.

EDUCATION REFORM
Was the $5 Billion Worth It? - A decade into his record-breaking education philanthropy, Bill Gates talks teachers, charters—and regrets. (By JASON L. RILEY, Wall Street Journal) One of the foundation's main initial interests was schools with fewer students. In 2004 it announced that it would spend $100 million to open 20 small high schools in San Diego, Denver, New York City and elsewhere. Such schools, says Mr. Gates, were designed to—and did—promote less acting up in the classroom, better attendance and closer interaction with adults. "But the overall impact of the intervention, particularly the measure we care most about—whether you go to college—it didn't move the needle much," he says.

Norway's Darkest Night

In Memory of the victims of hatred, racism and intolerance.
Oslo and Utøya    22.7.11

a-ha

Obama Would Do Well to Remember the Independents

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Guest columnist: Washington should not forget the independents (Des Moines Register) Obama would do well, not just to remember that history but to make it a more visible feature of how he governs. Independents catapulted him — first to the Democratic nomination and then to the White House.
• The Rise of the Political Independents - Americans are increasingly alienated from the two parties (by R. Michael Alvarez in The Psychology Behind Political Debate, Psychology Today) To reiterate: rather than becoming more partisan, Americans are becoming more politically independent. Thus, there has been far too much focus on partisan polarization, and not enough focus on the growing tendency of Americans to proclaim independence from the two major political parties.
• YOUNG HISPANICS COULD BECOME THE NEWEST INDEPENDENTS (by Christopher A. Guzman, CAIVN) Given the specific issues noted in this survey, this could indicate that these young minorities are open to becoming fiscal libertarians.  Issues highlighted in surveying young Hispanic preferences on economic policy include less government interference, lower taxes on business profits, reduced federal spending, and specifically effecting more cuts in federal spending rather than raising taxes to address the economic crisis. Noteworthy is that attitudes regarding limiting the government's role is supported by a strong majority of young Hispanics.
• Officials recall local elections and the issues that drive them (BY BRIAN ANDERSON, SOUTH BERGENITE, NorthJersey.com) A new study from the Pew Research Center shows more voters identify themselves as independents than in the past-37 percent of voters identify themselves as independents, up from 30 percent in 2005. Pew also found although many of those independents do not identify with a party, they aren't in the middle of the political spectrum either.
• Unfavorable Ratings for Both Major Parties Near Record Highs (By NATE SILVER, NY Times/GiveThirtyEight) But there are also downside cases for both the president and the Congress. Mr. Obama’s post-partisan branding, evident especially during the early phases of his 2008 campaign, has been submerged by parties that continue to become more partisan on the one hand and less popular on the other. 
• GOP Makes Big Gains among White Voters, Especially among the Young and Poor (Pew Research Center) Analysis of the overall balance of partisan identification in all Pew Research Center polling conducted in each year – updated with data from the first six months of 2011 –finds that as the number of Democrats has fallen from a quarter-century high in 2008, the number of self-proclaimed independents has continued to grow. As a result, there are now as many independent voters as Democrats (34% each) – the first time this has occurred in more than two decades of Pew Research Center surveys, and, by all indications, the highest percent independent since party identification was first measured in the late 1930s.

Independent Gov Candidate Gatewood Galbraith For Kentucky's Perennial Problems

KENTUCKY
Try 5 for Gatewood (GREG STOTELMYER, WTVQ) Galbraith has run three times in the Democratic primary, once as the Reform Party candidate and now as an independent candidate.   “A perennial candidate?  Kentucky's got perennial problems,” said Galbraith.

satchel - just sayin'...

Kyle Chamberlin, Independent for South Bend Common Council, District Four

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES
An independent choice for city voters (KYLE E. CHAMBERLIN, South Bend Tribune) From what I've found, I may be the first independent candidate on a ballot for local office in more than 80 years. I recognize that status is not the fast track to a career in politics. However, I view public service as a calling, not a career. I would rather take the difficult path than bow to conventional wisdom. When fellow residents consider where they realistically fall on the philosophical spectrum, I expect my stand for cooperation and common sense will be a fruitful one. And I trust my lack of political party affiliation serves as evidence of my genuine intent to do things differently.

UPDATE: You can see Chamberlin's (very hip) campaign website here

Cyndi Lesher: Minnesota Needs Ranked Choice Voting

RANKED VOTING
If we want to swap polarization for moderation, we should adopt Ranked Choice Voting (By Cyndi Lesher, MinnPost.com) Under our "plurality-take-all" system, candidates win by mobilizing their party base and scaring undecided and independent voters away from their opponents. Divide-and-conquer campaigns work in a system that locks voters into a "lesser-of-two-evils" choice.

Gatewood Galbraith Files for Gov in Kentucky as Independent

KENTUCKY
Galbraith files to become independent candidate for governor (By Jack Brammer, Lexington Herald Leader) Saying Kentuckians are "so disgusted with the status quo" in Frankfort, Gatewood Galbraith turned in 7,396 signatures with the secretary of state's office Thursday morning to become an independent candidate in this year's race for governor.

BREAKING NEWS ON CAMERON RESIGNATION DEMAND

THE NEWS WE WERE ALL WAITING FOR:

The Shadow has Dirty Dave in his sights..

Alec Baldwin: David Cameron Should Resign

 

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

Today's biggest question: What does actor Alec Baldwin have in common with Labour MPs Dennis Skinner and Sir Gerald Kauffman? The answer: all three have called on the prime minister to resign in the last week.

More here from the Huffington Post

Stay Tuned: Independent Voters Talk with John Avlon and Margaret Hoover on CBS The Early Show Saturday Morning

Independents continue to add their voice to the national debate on the debt ceiling and budget negotiations. 

Tune in Saturday morning, July 23rd to CBS's "The Early Show " 7:00 - 9:00 am/ET, for a panel discussion moderated by John Avlon and Margaret Hoover featuring a group of NYC independents.

Also, next Wednesday, July 27th at 8:15 am/ET, catch Jackie Salit on "Fox and Friends."

Jackie's most recent oped, "How Obama can be a Non-Partisan President " was published in the Huffington Post and is slated to appear this weekend in the Des Moines Register.

Finally, in case you missed it, check out this segment from "Fox and Friends " featuring independent voters John Opdycke from New York, Greg Moohn in the DC bureau and Linda Ricke in Tallahassee, Florida.

kentucky independents at the gate

Courtesy Michael Lewis of Independent Kentucky
Independents file for KY gov race

What Can Change in America: The Structure of Politics

STRUCTURAL POLITICAL REFORM
A way out of our dysfunctional politics (By Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post/Opinions) What has steadily changed over the past three or four decades is not so much the ideological intensity (though it has grown) but the structure of politics, making it more beholden to narrow, specialized interests — including ideological ones — rather than broader national ones....

...It’s depressing — but the fact that our politics are the result of structural shifts means that they can be changed. Mickey Edwards, a Republican and a former House member from Oklahoma, has a highly intelligent essay in Atlantic magazine, suggesting a series of reforms that could make a difference. Some of them are large-scale, such as creating truly open primaries and handing over the power of redistricting to independent commissions. Others are seemingly small but crucial changes in congressional procedure and practice, for example, filling committee vacancies by lot and staffing committees with professionals rather than with political apparatchiks.... [more]

For more on this topic, read Jackie Salit's The Parties Are Over from NY Newsday, October 2010

Ordinary Independent Citizens Should Not Be Asked to Stand Aside for Rabid Partisan Choices

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Phil Power: Partisanship threatens public confidence (Livingston Daily - MI) So he seems to be saying that ordinary citizens (otherwise known as independent voters) should simply stand aside while the rabid partisans choose two candidates at either extremes. Then, maybe, the rest of us might be allowed to pick between the two. That's not my idea of democracy. What worked so well for years was the acceptance of the necessity of compromise.

NY Assembly 23 Special Election Shaping Up

NEW YORK

• Queens Dems Respond To Koch Bid For GOP Vote Swing (John Toscano, Queens Gazette) In admonishing Koch for his opposition to Weprin, Silver acknowledged that Obama has a problem with Jewish New Yorkers, but electing a Republican to take the 9th CD seat was not the answer. Koch had said electing Republican Turner to the long-held Democratic seat would send a message to Obama that his position on Israel was wrong.
• QUEENS GOP NOMINATES THREE IN SPECIAL ELECTIONS (John Toscano, Queens Gazette) In the 23d AD (Rockaway), County Chairman Phil Ragusa announced, the party nominated Jane Deacy, of Rockaway, the candidate against Democrat Phillip Goldfeder, in the election to fill Audrey Pheffer’s seat. Deacy is a former police officer, a grandmother, and co-leader with Councilmember Eric Ulrich (R-C-Ozone Park).
• Previewing the Special Elections (Gotham Gazette/The Wonkster) The Towns faction and the Lopez faction have been at odds, and some see the outcome of this as a high-stakes proxy fight. ” If Deidra Towns is victorious, the argument goes, there would be a ripple effect for the congressional players involved…. The other races seem more clear-cut. In the 23rd Assembly District in Queens, Philip Golfeder, an aide to Sen. Charles Schumer and former aide to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and onetime City Councilmember Simcha Felder, has Democratic, Independence and Working Families Party backing for the seat in the 23rd district, left vacant when Audrey Pheffer left to become Queens County clerk. Jane Deacy is the Republican/Conservative candidate. Vivian Carter has filed to get on the ballot as the Green Party candidate but documents from the Board of Elections indicate possible problems with her filing papers.
• Party claims GOP stole its line (Justin Murphy The Citizen, AuburnPub.com) Leaders of the Cayuga County Independence Party, unhappy about the slate of Republicans that will appear on its ballot line this November, are asking the county Board of Elections to remove them.

Lib Dems Last Chance in the Coalition of the Corrupt

"We both want a Britain where our political system is looked at with admiration, not anger. We have a shared ambition to clean up Westminster..."

These words were the ringing declaration by David Cameron and Nick Clegg in May last year, hailing the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government as a new start in British politics, jaded by the scandals of MPs expenses and the banking crisis. But tonight, they ring truly hollow.

After revelation upon revelation in the last fortnight of the incestuously close relationships between News International, the Metropolitan Police and the highest echelons of the Conservative Party, including - perhaps especially including - David Cameron himself, the idea that this can ever be a Government capable of reforming and cleaning up its own mess is beyond risible. Again and again, Mr Cameron has been compromised, whether in his hiring of Andy Coulson, his friendship with Rebekah Brooks, or his courting of Rupert Murdoch (even having him round for a "thankyou" cup of tea when the ink was barely dry on the Coalition Agreement). His actions in the Commons today were evasive to the point of being pathetic, like a childish schoolboy caught red-handed in the tuck shop, but denying he ate the chocolate smeared all over his chin.

Shapeshifter: like Star Trek's Odo, Cameron ultimately reverts to type..

It would be laughable were it not so deeply, terribly serious. Serious not only from the perspective of the victims of phone hacking, nor from the alleged payments to corrupt policemen, nor even the jobs offered by the Met and Cameron himself to former hacks and their family members. But even more so from the perspective that News International owned the two biggest circulation newspapers in the UK which, along with the prestigious Times titles, switched from supporting Labour to nakedly partisan advocacy for the Conservatives at the last election. And, given the nature of the reporting in The Sun and News of the World, these papers have substantially added to the atmosphere (or atmosfear) of xenophobia, disablism and paranoia that informs swathes of our society, while unquestioningly pursuing a right-wing agenda that entrenches the power of Murdoch and the Establishment.

Tomorrow's Morning Star...news you can trust!

Cameron should resign. There is no question of that. He is a disgrace to his office and, as we saw with him having to red-faced hurry home from South Africa earlier this week, he is a shame on our country.

Of course, he won't go. Like many power-hungry men in his position, he will cling by his fingernails to the varnished surface of the Cabinet table until his grip is prised off.

But by who?

Many Tories have long been suspicious of Cameron, but for now there can be little doubt that most will close ranks around them - the entire scandal has tainted their party and their class; so they will not relish removing him if he can ride out the storm.

Yet of course, this Government is not a Conservative one alone. Cameron holds office thanks to the support of 57 Liberal Democrat MPs and their leader, Nick Clegg. To date, they have been untainted by the scandal - they were not wined and dined by Murdoch and his lackeys - and Clegg claims to have warned Cameron about appointing Coulson as his Press Secretary, although evidently his words fell on deaf ears and he meekly went along with the appointment, the need to clean up politics quietly forgotten.

So, the question now has to be this - how long will the Liberal Democrats continue to sustain this man in office? How long will they permit him to be evasive about his appointment of Coulson? How long will they ignore his meetings with Murdoch's men - 26 in just over a year - at a time when News International were seeking Government approval to buy BSkyB outright? Do they seriously think the public will buy the idea that Cameron's links with NI were unknown to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who was to take the decision?

Before the task fell to Hunt, the duty of ruling on the takeover bid was in the domain of Business Secretary Vince Cable. The Lib Dem big wig was infamously stung by two young female reporters, the "middle aged" Minister effusively showing off by declaring himself to be "at war with Murdoch", thereby disqualifying himself from being allowed to take the decision. In spite of claiming he could nuke the Government because he was so important and powerful, he only just kept his job.

But if Cable's injudicious remarks compromised him, how much more compromised is the Government by the insidious, obsequious relations between the Prime Minister and these people?

So, for Mr Cable and his boss Mr Clegg, already reeling from the hostile reaction to their support for a range of neoliberal policies, the question now surely has to be is it not time to do the decent thing and pull the plug on their Coalition? When you have a Prime Minister as weakened as this one now is, surely it is time to ask the People who they want to govern? And don't they realise that, if they are indeed at war with Murdoch, they are also at war with their Coalition partner, who, more clearly than ever, is nothing but the parroting placeman of the moneymen who are trying to buy up our country and put paid to our democracy?

Time for Vince to push the button...