indie

Independent Presidential Run in 2012

INDEPENDENT PRESIDENTIAL RUN

• Antsy Voters Look for a Third Way - When Perot First Ran, 39% Were Dissatisfied; Today It's 81%. 'Something Is Going to Explode' (By NEIL KING JR., Wall Street Journal) So far, no national figure has stepped forward to run outside the two-party system. But some veteran pollsters say public disenchantment is so strong that someone is bound to try to fill the vacuum. And the opportunity is only likely to grow, they say, with the collapse this week of Congress's bipartisan deficit-cutting committee, which many read as another sign of Washington's inability to solve problems.
• Democrats should fear a third-party challenge in 2012 - Independent runs by Ron Paul or Sarah Palin could cripple the GOP — but they're unlikely. A presidential bid by Michael Bloomberg, on the other hand... (Edward Morrissey, The Week)

Maloney Could Replace Frank on Finance Committee; Williams Might Challenge Rangel

NEW YORK

• Carolyn Maloney could get Barney Frank's job, even at risk of 'Armageddon' (By Azi Paybarah, Capital New York) Maxine Waters of California has the most seniority, but is under investigation for allegedly violation House ethics rules. Next in line is Carolyn Maloney, whose district is in Manhattan and Queens. One Waters supporter within the Congressional Black Caucus said there'd be "Armageddon" if she doesn't get the spot, according to The Hill.
• Potential Rangel Foe Claims Strong Poll Position (BY Celeste Katz, Daily News/Daily Politics) Clyde Williams, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton with ties to President Obama, didn't want to blindly challenge the 42-year incumbent. So Williams hired one of Mayor Bloomberg’s pollsters, Whitman Insight Strategies, to ask 600 likely Democratic primary voters in the district if they would re-elect Rangel.

Should Philanthropies Operate Like Businesses

PHILANTHROPY
Should Philanthropies Operate Like Businesses? (DEBATE Wall Street Journal) Charles R. Bronfman and Jeffrey R. Solomon, chairman and president, respectively, of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, favor businesslike thinking. Michael Edwards, a distinguished senior fellow at Demos, a social issues think tank, argues that social values should take precedence.

hey congress, 40 % of americans are independent

Politics 2012: Watch Out for the Independents

TOP TWO OPEN PRIMARY
Lawsuit argues top-two open primary system is unconstitutional (By: Damon Eris, US Independent Voter Network) At this stage, mainstream and corporate media coverage of challenges to the top two system seem to be misinformed.  For instance, In its report on the lawsuit from November 23rd, The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the plaintiffs in the suit are seeking the preliminary injunction “in hopes of preventing the new system from being used during next year’s presidential contest.”  In fact, there is no mention of presidential elections anywhere in the lawsuit’s complaint, and the top-two open primary system does not even apply to presidential elections.

BLOOMBERG 2012
Why it's worth paying attention to Michael Bloomberg, even when he's just posing (By Steve Kornacki, Capital New York) As rote as it seemed, it was still interesting to watch Bloomberg execute his latest gimmick, not because it suggested the 69-year-old mayor will actually seek the White House (he almost certainly won’t, next year or ever) but because the idea that he might seemed to generate an unusual level of interest from the political world. This is something you might want to get used to, at least for the next few months, not just because Bloomberg undeniably has the financial resources to mount a national campaign if he really wants to, but because for only the third time in 32 years it appears that next year’s election will feature the three ingredients that are most conducive to the emergence of a credible third party candidate.

RON PAUL 2012
Ron Paul Rising (Brian Doherty, Reason Online) "I could very well see Ron Paul coming in second place," said longtime pollster Andy Smith, who runs the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

NEW YORK

• Bronx judge: Keep Pedro Espada’s Soundview clinic open to meet healthcare needs of the NYC’s poor. Judge: Health system will be burdened without Soundview (BY Kevin Deutsch, NEW YORK DAILY NEWS) In a separate development Monday, several patients and medical providers who work with Espada's network filed petitions in support of the clinics. They claim the shuttering of the clinics would leave 20,000 patients without affordable health care and lead them to overwhelm other Bronx doctors.
• A Court, Not Votes, Sustains a Political Machine in Queens (By MICHAEL POWELL, NY Times) “Surrogate’s Court is the play,” notes a well-connected Queens Democrat who remains that way by talking anonymously. “You can’t talk about what makes the machine tick without talking about surrogates.”

LAST WORD
Who Believes The U.S. Is Bailing Out Europe? (Forbes) “Since we’re controlling for partisanship and education, it seems like there really is something about watching Fox that makes people less informed on this issue than they would be otherwise,” said Dan Cassino, a political science professor at FDU. “Given that Fox’s ratings are well above their competitors, the findings are very troubling.”
Who is bailing out Europe? Independent voters are least likely to answer that correctly. While 36% of Republicans can, followed by 33% of Democrats.  Only 26% of political independents name Germany, with 30% of them thinking it is the U.S.

Strike, By Gove!

Education Secretary Michael Gove has today launched into a scathing attack on the beleaguered public sector workers who are due to go on strike on Wednesday across the UK. The strikes are to highlight plans to cut the pensions benefits and increase pension contributions of workers in schools, local authorities, and other public sector services. While the media and the Deputy Prime Minister have played up to myths about supposed "gold-plated" pensions in the public sector, the fact remains that the average pension paid out is around a paltry £5,600 p.a. - this is actually over £200 p.a. lower than the average private sector pension. The accrual rate is slightly better than the private sector, but it has long been a feature that lower pay in the public sector is compensated for by a slightly better set of pension arrangements than most private employers offer.

There is plenty of evidence the public sector pension pot is perfectly viable in the long run and stands to decline as a proportion of public spending. The Government however is determined to cut it and while claiming to still be negotiating, has essentially adopted a "take it or leave it" approach for some weeks now.

And so on Wednesday there will be a one day strike. It is likely to cause significant disruption around the country, although the nation will not be paralysed - but aside from anything else, the inconvenience caused might highlight to people just how much of the work carried out by public sector workers is not noticed - until it isn't there, when its vital role becomes very apparent.

Mr Gove however has lambasted strike leaders: "I am deeply opposed to this action, and the damage it generates," he has said, claiming the leaders of Unite and other unions are simply spoiling for a fight and keen for confrontation.


Mr Gove hasn't always felt like this. Like many Tories, it always a different matter when its his own wallet he is worried about.


Here he is on strike, trying to shut down his employer when he was a journalist back in 1989.


Sauce for the goose...

A kick up the 80s: Striking Gove - kneeling, on the left! (1989)

Ron Paul, New Hampshire Open Primaries, and the Future of the Nation

AMERICANS ELECT
What is Americans Elect All About? (CHARLES ELLISON, Politics 365) Some observers are speculating that it’s a front for a potential Independent bid from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who 1) has lots of cash and 2) is not a big fan of President Obama. And who has the most to lost from this effort?

2012

• Ron Paul’s strategy for winning: Independent and cross-over voters (By Brad Knickerbocker, Christian Science Monitor) Still, the same one-on-one fake elections show other Republican presidential hopefuls in the field – Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, and Michele Bachmann – losing to Obama among independents. Only GOP front-runner Mitt Romney comes close, tying Obama among such partyless voters (but losing overall, as do the others). Why is this important? It’s because independents are the fastest growing segment of our nominally two-party system, swelling the ranks of voters as the Democratic Party and the Republican Party alike lose trust and loyalty.
• Do New Hampshire endorsements really matter? (By ADAM SILBERT, Nashua Telegraph) The state’s open primary allows independents to vote in either party’s contest. This makes a state already known for its independent streak even more unpredictable. And party-affiliated voters tend not to listen to what party leaders tell them to do. Sure as their snow-covered mountains, they certainly don’t obey what happens one week prior in the Iowa caucuses.
• The GOP’s Supercommittee Backlash (by John Avlon, Daily Beast) This corresponds with a CNN poll taken the week before the supercommittee decided to wave the white flag. It showed that 40 percent of independent voters would blame Republicans more for a supercommittee failure, while 24 percent would blame the Democrats. Likewise, 47 percent of self-identified centrists said they would blame the GOP, while 25 percent said the Dems would be most at fault.

Labor Showdown in Ohio

LABOR
How Progressives Won the Labor Rights Showdown in Ohio (By Amy B. Dean, United Steelworkers) “In Wisconsin the only means available to us [for opposing Gov. Scott Walker] were partisan elections,” Booth said. “In recall elections, you have to overcome the bias against recalling sitting officials. And because of the constitutional framework in Wisconsin, we could only run recalls in districts that had been won by the Republicans in 2008, not the swing districts they seized in 2010. So it was a heavier lift. In Wisconsin, a very high percentage of the people who voted for Walker voted against the recall of their state senators.” Ohio, Booth noted, presented a different situation: “Doing a ballot measure is a non-partisan exercise. So 30 percent of the people who voted for Kasich in 2010 voted ‘no’ on the referendum. While we split the independent voters in the Wisconsin recall elections, we got a solid majority of them against Senate Bill 5 [in Ohio].”

Doug Schoen: Random Comments About Occupy Wall Street

OCCUPY WALL STREET

• Polling the Occupy Wall Street Crowd - In interviews, protesters show that they are leftists out of step with most American voters. Yet Democrats are embracing them anyway. (By DOUGLAS SCHOEN, Wall Street Journal)
• What we learned from Occupy Santa Ana’s failed Wal Mart flash mob (New Santa Ana - blog) Douglas Schoen, a Democratic pollster, reported in the Wall Street Journal that “Occupy Wall Street is a group of engaged progressives who are disillusioned with the capitalist system and have a distinct activist orientation. Among the general public, by contrast, 41% of Americans self-identify as conservative, 36% as moderate, and only 21% as liberal. That’s why the Obama-Pelosi embrace of the movement could prove catastrophic for their party.” WITH VIDEO

Antarctica

Mother Naure weeps as the ice melts.

There is a myth among the climate change denial industry that the climate of Antarctica is actually cooling rather than warming, and that this disproves the case for global warming. One theory is that the (man made) ozone hole has temporarily cooled the stratosphere and this makes for local cooling in spite of global warming; but needless to say, even this week, outright deniers claim that the thinning and breaking of huge swathes of glaciers is meaningless.

This surprising claim is in the face of the 1.2C average increase in Antarctic temperatures between 1959 and 1996. And it also ignores the plain fact that on a more front line level, there is clear warming taking place - for example, the Antarctic tourist industry (yes, there is such a thing, now) is rubbing its hands with glee at the profitable prospect of being able to take tourists deeper into Antarctica - one tour has been extended from 11 to 14 days because there are far more opportunities to disembark and sight see compared to a few years ago.

And study after study, including this year, has shown increasing thinning and melt of ice shelves, with massive icebergs resulting. while a plague of parasitic crabs moving south with warmer water is currently causing concern for local flora and fauna. By contrast, the supposed cooling evidence comes from data collected at just one location on the Continent - the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research Station, along with rather a lot of extrapolation.

Antarctica has been described as the canary of the world - perhaps we should be listening harder to its faltering song.


The music and beauty of Antarctica - with film from the threatened south and north poles:

2 parties no voice

2012: Who Has a Better Chance?

2012

• The Choice Ahead (By JIM MCTAGUE, Barron's Cover) The election, however, is not until November 2012, and it would be naïve to write off a skilled campaigner like President Obama -- and we haven't. Independent voters will determine the outcome of the election. This electorate's current gloomy mood could swing to cheer if our trial-and-error president's luck changes and the languid economy's pulse strengthens. 

• Bloomy for Prez? - Mayor plainly eyeing a run (John Podhoretz, NY Post) Meanwhile, independents dislike everybody. And that’s where Bloomberg might come in. Perot, another billionaire businessman with mythical technocratic prowess, rode a wave of independent disaffection to a historic 19 percent of the vote in 1992. Bloomberg has similarly unlimited resources — and he would come at the race from a stronger position as a man with real governing experience.

HANKSTER SPECIAL REPORT: Dr. Omar Ali, Professor at UNC Greensboro Speaks Out About Occupy Wall Street and Need for Political Reform

SPECIAL REPORT: Omar H. Ali Speaks Out About Occupy Wall Street and Need for Political Reform

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Representative Darrell Issa Leads List Of Wealthiest Member Of Congress (Written by USA Today) VIDEO: Ali on CBS discussing money and politics, emphasizing the need to increase the political participation of the 99% through structural reforms as opposed to trying to regulate the 1% (which has not worked since McCain-Feingold).
NC Occupy movement takes stock - Occupy movement in NC takes stock after 2 months (WAVY NBC Channel 10 - Portsmouth VA) NOTE: Above AP article also picked up by Boston Herald
Race and Occupy Wall Street (by Frank Stasio and Ginny Mueller, WUNC North Carolina Public Radio) AUDIO The Occupy Wall Street movement has spread across the country and captured the attention of millions of Americans. The movement deals with national issues, but it doesn't necessarily represent all factions of society. Are minorities being well represented in the revolution of the 99 percent? Host Frank Stasio talks about Occupy Wall Street and race with Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP; Omar Ali, an African-American studies professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; and Marcella Robinson, an Occupy Raleigh protester and member of the group Mortgage Fraud in North Carolina.
A New Poll Reveals Only 17% of Americans Are Happy With The Direction Our Country Is Headed (Written by Rosemary Plybon, CBS Good Morning Show, WFMY News 2)
Occupy Greensboro Movement discusses social equality (by Yasmine Regester, Carolina Peacemaker) The Occupy Greensboro Movement stemmed from the Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York in early September directed against economic and social equality. The protests have since spread across the U.S. The slogan for the movement has been "We are the 99%" which according to Dr. Omar Ali, University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) Associate Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies and panelist, it refers to the 99 percent that are not wealthy and have been hit hard with the downturn in the economy.

Occupy Greensboro

Dr. Ali, a long-time activist in the independent political movement in the US and a founder of  is an Associate Professor of the African American Studies Program & Department of History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the author of In the Lion's Mouth: Black Populism in the New South, 1886-1900 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2010), foreword by Robin D. G. Kelly and In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third Party Movements in the United States (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2008), foreword by Eric Foner, among other books.



OCCUPY WALL STREET
'The New Tammany Hall' (By MATTHEW KAMINSKI, Wall Street Journal) Fred Siegel: The institutional barriers to change have grown, too. The Working Families Party, founded in 1998, is the political arm of government unions and a driver of turnout in local elections. Though little known outside New York, the influence of this third party can be seen on the City Council, which has come to tilt heavily left. So far, says Mr. Siegel, the party has a better political track record than Tammany. "With the exception of Giuliani, they've never lost an election. No matter who wins, they're OK."

Cyber Bullying in Connecticut: A Lesson in Empathy

Fellow Independents!

Internet voting can be used as the ideal substitute for our current two-party dominated system of conducting elections. But the progress toward that goal is being stymied by a crafty and powerful opposition. For example, recently, in Connecticut, some anti-Internet voting meanies set a trap for West Virginia Secretary of State, Natalie Tennant. They led her to believe that they wanted her advice on how to set up an Internet voting system for that state’s overseas military voters, like the system West Virginia has. As you will see, that’s not what happened …
http://internetvotingforall.blogspot.com/2011/11/cyber-bullying-in-connecticut.html

William J. Kelleher, Ph.D.
Blog: http://tinyurl.com/IV4All
Twitter: wjkno1
Email: Internetvoting@gmail.com
Author of Internet Voting Now!
Kindle edition: http://tinyurl.com/IntV-Now
In paper: http://tinyurl.com/IVNow2011

Bill King: Party System Blocking Meaningful Change

ECONOMIC CRISIS

• King: Party system blocking meaningful change (By BILL KING, Houston Chronicle) To get any meaningful change in the current system, we are going to have to return to the Founders' view of political parties and start thinking differently about them. Instead of being proud to be associated with a political party, it should be an embarrassment. After this week's debacle with the so-called supercommittee, that sentiment should not be much of a stretch.
• Community Impact of Supercommittee Failure (by Yanick Rice Lamb, Special to the AFRO) Among independent voters surveyed, seven in 10 favor cuts in domestic spending and increases in taxes on corporations and wealthy people. About six in 10 of all respondents are against reductions in defense spending.

BLOOMBERG
Bloomberg pivots to slamming D.C. (By: Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman, Politico) “My suspicion is he hasn’t quite figured out what his next act is, but the one thing he knows he wants is to stay relevant and continue cultivating his brand as the independent, sane, grown-up voice in American politics,” said Democratic strategist Dan Gerstein, a veteran of Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman’s independent 2006 campaign. “This plays into his sweet spot: It’s the intersection of independence, adult leadership, and finance and economics.”

2012
Is the Stage Set For a Third-Party Presidential Candidate? (By Amy Bingham, ABC News) “We are not a third party,” said Elliot Ackerman, the group’s chief operating officer. “The country has enough special interests and goofy ideologies out there. We are a second way to nominate our leaders.” By gathering enough petition signatures, the group has already secured a spot on the ballot in nine states. Ackerman said that number will jump to 28 by the end of the year and before November 2012, he said the group will have secured the remaining 22 states.

More Funny Weather

Today, with supremely smug irony, the British Parliament has been discussing slashing the feed-in tariff (originally designed to encourage the adoption of solar power by domestic consumers) as part of the Government's so-called "green deal". It is being cut by over a half on the spurious argument that it increases the cost of electricity to consumers and consequently pushes people into fuel poverty - I say spurious because the highest estimated increase caused by FITs is £6 per annum onto the average household bill, with some estimates as low as just 30p. This is zilch by most standards and even more so when set against the rise of several hundred pounds per annum that the Government has contentedly allowed profiteering energy companies to add to fuel costs in the last year or two.

This comes in the same week as a World Meteorological Organisation report has revealed that in 2010, in spite of all the talk and more talk by the IPCC and Governments, the rate of increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached its highest yet - an additional 2.3 parts per million, putting us firmly on course to exceed even the worst scenarios previously anticipated by climatologists. These figures endorse an earlier report by the International Energy Agency in May, which produced similarly stark findings. Even if magically all further increase was to stop, temperatures would rise by around 3C by 2050 - it may not sound much, but its impact would be on a level that would spell disaster for human societies in many parts of the world through the collapse of their agriculture and social systems. Less directly affected countries would find the cost of basic needs such as food and water rocketing well beyond the point of social crisis, and mass migrations would almost certainly trigger conflict on an unprecedented scale.

Don't believe it? It would be nice if it wasn't true and tempting to want to think that; and this week, the BBC announced that the global warming episode of its "Frozen Planet" series won't be shown in the USA so as not to disturb the willful ignorance of the US public, who are among the worst polluters on the planet. 

However, aside from the evidence of increasingly extreme weather events, like the fact that British temperatures this past week have been around double the seasonal average - a whopping 18C on Sunday compared to the 9.5C norm for mid-November - the plain science is this:

- the more carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere, the more heat from the Sun is trapped in our atmosphere. Too little and we would freeze; too much, and we'd fry. The margins either way are surprisingly (and terrifyingly) small - humanity's hold on the planet is tenuous to say the least.

- through our massively increasing use of fossil fuels, such as gas, coal and wood due to the processes of the industrial age from the 1750s onwards, humans have pumped unprecedented amounts of carbon dioxide and other gasses with even greater "greenhouse" effects, like methane and nitrous oxide (currently the fastest increasing gas), into the atmosphere. Indeed, in the last fifty years, we have used more carbon fuel than in the rest of history combined.

- Consequently, since 1750, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased from 280 parts per million to 389 parts per million. At the same time, temperatures have climbed, sometimes exaggerated or cooled by natural variations like El Nino and El Nina, and even occasionally by sunspots, but overall, the ongoing, underlying trend is up, and has nothing to do with any natural phenomena. Rather, it is created and fanned by human activity for precisely the scientific reasons set out above: burning fossil fuels creates greenhouse gas emissions which trap more and more heat in our atmosphere.

The current rate of emissions is in spite of the downturn in economic activity through the global recession - and Britain is as much to blame as anywhere, with a 2.8% increase in emissions in 2010. And as the planet warms, we are already past the "feedback" thresholds for a number of phenomena which will start to cause an exponential increase in greenhouse gas levels. These include the diminishing of the albedo effect as Arctic ice melts and the "whiteout" of the northern hemisphere declines, reflecting less light and heat back into outer space. Similarly in the north, the melting of the Siberian tundra after millennia of permafrosting is releasing dangerous quantities of methane, which is around twenty times more powerful at trapping heat than carbon dioxide. Eventually, what has been triggered by human activity and could still be at least mitigated by human action, will take on a life and dynamic entirely of its own.

So, just as every long march begins with a single step, every piece of action taken now to reduce greenhouse gas is utterly vital, not to saving the planet - it will endure - but to saving our civilisation and even our species. To this end, the delay and trimming by the Con Dem Government is more than lamentable - it is a betrayal of our futures and a crass denial of reality.

Funny weather indeed. But no laughing matter.

happy turkey day

CA Prop 14 Under Attack From Third Parties

SOUTH CAROLINA PRIMARY
South Carolina Supreme Court turns back challenge to presidential primary (By Jim Davenport, Associated Press, Augusta Chronicle) Election officials in Beau­fort, Chester, Greenville and Spartanburg counties said county taxpayers would be left with more than $1 million in costs the state wouldn’t cover for the Jan. 21 contest.

PROP 14

• Lawsuit: Prop. 14 violates California minor party voters' rights (Sac Bee/ Capitol Alert) "By limiting access to the general election ballot, Prop. 14 effectively bars small political parties, their candidates, and their members from effective political association, precisely at the moment when the highest number of voters are engaged in the electoral process," the complaint reads.
• Proposition 14 Lawsuit (VIDEO, KCRA Channel 3) with CT Weber, Chair, Peace & Freedom Party
• Open primaries: 3rd-party backers sue over law (Marisa Lagos, San Francisco Chronicle) "This is really a lawsuit about keeping the field of political debate open," said attorney Michael Siegel. "Proposition 14 narrows the political debate by saying only two candidates can participate in general elections, and we think that's unconstitutional because many Supreme Court cases have said you can't have a barrier to small parties competing in the general election."

Mayor Bloomberg Criticizes Washington for Failure of Super Committee

BLOOMBERG

• Shame On Us, Washington (By Ron Fournier, National Journal) New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, blamed Obama and lawmakers in both parties for the failure of the so-called super committee to reach a deficit deal, calling the stalemate a "damning indictment of Washington's inability to govern this country."
• Cuomo says Bloomberg's criticism of Obama 'misses the point' (By Azi Paybarah, Capital New York) But unlike Bloomberg, an independent who periodically blames both parties in Washington for federal-government dysfunction, the Democratic governor said that it wasn't Obama's fault that Washington lawmakers didn't come up with a plan.
• Bloomberg Blasts Obama, Congress Over Deficit Deal Standstill (By: Josh Robin, NY1 Staten Island) "Washington's inability to get its fiscal house in order and work in a bipartisan fashion to create jobs represents a fundamental failure of government that has bred frustration and anger among the people and prolonged the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression," Cuomo said.

Citizens Union Presents New York Redistricting Plan

REDISTRICTING

CITIZENS UNION PRESENTS COMPREHENSIVE CASE FOR REDISTRICTING REFORM (PRESS RELEASE, Citizens Union) The report entitled ReShaping New York: Ending the Rigged Process of Partisan Gerrymandering with an Impartial and Independent Redistricting Process highlights how uncompetitive elections have become because the two majority parties, the Democrats in the Assembly and the Republicans in the State Senate, have colluded for decades to draw safe districts that protect incumbents and maximize their seats in their respective house of the legislature.

Partisanship - the Failure of the Super Committee

FAILURE OF THE SUPER COMMITTEE

• The Supercommittee Fails—and That's Good for Obama (—By David Corn, Mother Jones) Obama: In addition to my [deficit-reduction] plan, there were a number of other bipartisan plans for them to consider from both Democrats and Republicans, all of which promoted a balanced approach. This kind of balanced approach to reducing our deficit—an approach where everybody gives a little bit, and everyone does their fair share—is supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans—Democrats, independents, and Republicans. It's supported by experts and economists from all across the political spectrum.
• A Failure Is Absorbed With Disgust and Fear, but Little Surprise (By MICHAEL COOPER, NY Times) Does the American political system even work anymore?
• The new age of uncertainty: Does the world seem more volatile than ever? Get used to it, experts advise (By Douglas Brown, The Denver Post) People who study politics, financial markets and the media say it has been decades since so many consequential events and trends have emerged simultaneously around the globe, from the decline of many economies to the rise of organized dissent to the spread of the independent voter.
• Obama targets GOP in New Hampshire as he pushes for extension of payroll tax cut (By Associated Press, Washington Post) It’s been nearly two years since Obama visited New Hampshire. And on Tuesday, he’ll find a state that has shifted distinctly to the right since his 2008 victory. Recent polls show that, if the election were held today, Obama would lose by roughly 10 percentage points to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
• Analysis: End to debt gridlock is not in sight (CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press, Albany Times Union) Nathan Daschle, who heads a political networking firm called Ruck.Us, and whose father was a Democratic Senate leader, said the only way he can envision "really changing the incentives of our political system" is to have huge numbers of Republican and Democratic voters switch their affiliation to independent.
• U.S. Voters Say Almost 3-1 Super Committee Will Fail, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; More Blame Republicans (Quinnipiac) Expecting failure are Democrats 54 - 36 percent, Republicans 84 - 14 percent and independent voters 71 -22 percent, the independent Quinnipiac   University poll finds.

Obama, Paul Face NH Indies and Dems

2012

• Obama on Tuesday to face NH voters now sour on him (By Steve Peoples, Associated Press, Boston Globe) In a likely nod to independents, Obama is expected Tuesday to prod Congress to extend a temporary cut in payroll taxes that has enjoyed bipartisan support. The tax cut will expire at the end of the year unless Congress extends it again.
  
• Brooks: Country needs a ray of hope (BY DAVID BROOKS, NEW YORK TIMES in Albany Times Union) The era of the two moons is a volatile era. Independent voters are trapped in a cycle of sour rejectionism -- voting against whichever of the two options they dislike most at the moment. In policy terms, the era of the two moons is an era of stagnation. Each party is too weak to push its own agenda and too encased by its own cocoon to agree to a hybrid. The supercommittee failed for this reason.

• Anti-war Ron Paul attracting support from local left (By Michael Kitch, Laconia Daily Sun - NH) Lynn Rudmin Chong, former chair of the Belknap County Democratic Committee, has publicly endorsed Paul and said that "I have found other kindred souls." The Sanbornton resident said that she left the Democratic Party and changed her voter registration to "undeclared" in anticipation of  taking a Republican ballot in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation presidential primary and casting her vote for Paul.

The Spirit of Free Enterprise

The Guardian newspaper is reporting that the Business Secretary, the foot-in-mouth ballroom dancer Vince Cable, is likely to exempt small businesses from most employment law protection for staff. It isn't clear yet, but the exemptions seem set to reduce further the rights of millions of ordinary people, potentially allowing their employers to bully them, treat them unfairly and dismiss them with some ease. Although the Con Dem Government already accepts that Britain has one of the most "flexible" work forces in the world, apparently some folk are not tugging forelocks far or flexibly enough not to traumatise our nascent entrepreneurs. So what little practical protection exists for swathes of low paid, temporary, part-time, often female staff, will be taken away.

All to help unleash the spirit of free, but evidently not fair, enterprise.

falling

PHOTO: Nancy Hanks (View Out My Window)

Bill Schneider: False Promises and Third Party Efforts

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
The False Promise of a Third-Party Candidacy (Bill Schneider, Distinguished Senior Fellow and Resident Scholar at Third Way, Huffington Post) Most of the money for Americans Elect is believed to be coming from wealthy Wall Street hedge fund managers who want to get rid of President Obama but can't abide Tea Party Republicans. (The organization keeps its donors secret.) Those donors may find themselves pleasantly surprised if the Republicans repudiate the Tea Party and nominate Mitt Romney. Romney's one of them.

Mississippi Open Primary Drive Goes to the Next Level

OPEN PRIMARIES
Tea party meet hears of open primary effort (Daily Leader - Brookhaven and SW Mississippi) Now, Marla Nottingham is moving from a petition to a full ballot initiative. Her goal is to bring a constitutional amendment opening up Mississippi's primaries to a statewide vote. Nottingham appeared Monday night at the first meeting of the Brookhaven Tea Party. Organizer Kendall Boutwell praised Nottingham's efforts and voiced support for them.

Independent Redistricting: Create American Nonpartisanship

REDISTRICTING

• Editorial: Independent redistricting commission is the ticket (By: Winston Salem Journal) There's a better way to do this: an independent redistricting commission created by constitutional amendment.
• EDITORIAL: Gov. Brewer’s Overreach (NY Times) The court decision was a ringing defense of state voters, who approved creation of the independent commission in 2000 after decades of gerrymandering.

Sonoran Alliance Warns of "Independent" Label

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Poll: Voters pessimistic on supercommittee deal (By Jonathan Easley, The Hill) The pessimism among voters is not specific to any party. Eighty-eight percent of Independent voters, 84 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats are doubtful that a deal would be reached… Sixty-seven percent surveyed are in favor of increasing taxes on the wealthy. That breaks down to 83 percent of Democrats saying they're in favor of raising taxes on the highest earners, 64 percent of Independents, and 53 percent of Republicans.
• Sonoran Alliance Website is an extreme far right Republican website (by Hispanic-Politico, Tucson Citizen) Only in “extreme” Arizona.  Shane Wikfor’s Sonoran Alliance website has gone too far for communicating that using the label Independent is a branding strategy.
• Beware the ‘Independent’ Label, Democrats Use New Branding Strategy (By Sonoran Alliance) Using the label “Independent,” Democrats are now attempting to fool voters by taking the “new & improved” branding strategy.

Occupy Redistricting Pennsylvania

PA REDISTRICTING

• FINAL: Occupy movement disrupts redistricting commission meeting (By Eric Boehm, PA Independent) Protesters said the redistricting process put political interests above the concerns of the people. In particular, they said Friday’s hearing did not include everyone who wanted to speak.

 RECOMMENDED VIDEO
"What makes you more uncomfortable: children starving or gay marriage?"

• Winner in Redistricting Is Still to Be Determined (By MICHAEL D. SHEAR, NY Times/ The Caucus) If you listen to officials at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, things are looking up for their candidates. They point to states like California, Illinois and Nevada, where independent commissions or legislatures under Democratic control have increased the party’s chances of gaining seats… Both parties are also watching the process in Virginia and Pennsylvania, where the legislatures are still not finished with their maps.

Pew Poll: What's Wrong with This (Presidential) Picture??

Polls are reporting "fast-breaking" mood changes among the American electorate and pundits relate our perception of the "down-to-earthness" of President Obama and Repub heir-apparent Mitt Romney to their "popularity."  Hmmm.... The fact that ordinary Americans have very little say in politics seems absent from this picture. What do you think?

"October is the worst time of the year for a cold!"

2012

• Poll: Mitt Romney trails President Obama by 2 percent (The State Column) The poll, conducted by Washington D.C. based Pew Research Center, revealed that Cain is neck and neck with Romney. The Pew poll gave Romney 23 percent of the votes and Cain 22 percent of the votes. However, the survey focused primarily on the head to head match ups between President Barack Obama and the eventual Republican presidential nominee. Obama holds a slight advantage over Romney at 49 to 47 percent, and a 49 to 42 percent advantage over Perry and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
• Obama Gets a GOP Gift for the 2012 Presidential Campaign (Eleanor Clift, The Daily Beast) Unlike Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, “one of the president’s problems is he has a detached and analytical way of talking—which Romney has, too,” Olsen said. Obama’s professorial loftiness and Romney’s buttoned-up boardroom style don’t endear them to these independent voters. The election could well turn on which man is better able to connect with these disaffected Americans.

Maine: Eliot Cutler and Americans Elect

Independent Just Like Maine

MAINE
Cutler seeks to shake up presidential race (By David Carkhuff, The Portland Daily Sun) Today, Cutler is a board member for Americans Elect, a national group spearheading an online nominating process that aims to give voters the power to choose a presidential candidate in 2012. Cutler seeks to shake up presidential race.

Sean Reardon: Education Income Achievement Gap

2010 Census: 1 in 7 Americans live in poverty

EDUCATION REFORM
“Income achievement gap” almost double black-white achievement gap (By Louis Freedberg ~ EdSource Extra-Engaging Californians on Key Education Challenges) The report by Sean Reardon, a Stanford professor of education and sociology, shows that the income achievement gap—the difference in the average standardized scores between children from families at the 10th percentile of income distribution and children at the 90th percentile—is now “nearly twice as large as the black-white achievement gap.” A half century ago, the situation was just the reverse. The black-white gap was one and a half times as large as the income achievement gap as defined in the report, Reardon found.

Olympic Oppression: London Games & Beijing Deja Vu?

The British Government in its appropriately sinister-sounding Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act are introducing a range of new powers for the police to ostensibly ensure security at the London Olympics next year, but which simply add to the increasingly intrusive arsenal of powers of surveillance and repression of political protest. The Independent newspaper published some details today.

Among other powers deemed essential to ensure athletes compete and corporate till ching to the sound of ticket price rip offs and assorted memorabilia scams, are - being able to enter private homes and remove political posters. As we know, posters are very threatening items in the wrong hands and someone displaying an anti- government poster in their home on a tourist route is frankly a clear and present danger to the national economic well-being. Suddenly aware of the Coalition Government's appalling record, some visitors may choose to not spend their cash - perhaps treason should be added as a potential charge to such subversive poster owners.

The laws will include a range of new methods for closing down protests like St Paul's and the one outside Parliament, where the late and much missed Brian Haw defied national and London authorities for years with his anti-war protest. Given that the camp in Parliament Square caused no issues during the Royal Wedding earlier this year, why are the Con Dems so concerned about a crackdown before the Olympics? Could it be because they know the economic news is going to be even worse by next spring?

It is chilling to read, on a day when Egyptian police have been trying to remove the camp in Tahrir Square, to read that the British administration is seeking to squash protest which in one report is deemed to be not only embarrassing to the authorities, but positively dangerous. But in our corporate-dominated world, sadly unsurprising.
The Olympics, a crackdown on political dissent on safety grounds....doesn't it sound rather familiar....?

2008 - 2012: Then & Now - Beijing & London Olympics...

where are we going?

PHOTO: Jillian Mai Thi Burke-Epperly

TED: Robin Ince: Science vs wonder

h/t to @aricochet Byron Conway

TED: Robin Ince: Science versus wonder? - Robin Ince (2011) j.mp/t9vhOj
Robin Ince: Science versus wonder?

independents

IMAGE: CBS News

Oregon Sec of State Candidate Knute Buehler Supports Open Primaries

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Bend surgeon kicks off Republican campaign for secretary of state (Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian) Knute Buehler, a Bend orthopedic surgeon who backs tight campaign finance limits and open primaries, kicked off his Republican campaign for secretary of state on Wednesday.
• M. Julian Bradley: Election process needs (By M. Julian Bradley, vice chairman of the La Crosse County Republican Party, La Crosse Tribune) To further protect Wisconsin and our electoral system, we need to eliminate open primaries.
• Mandatory voting: An idealistic inefficiency (Kim Tran, Opinion Editor, Los Angeles Loyolan) For busy citizens, there need to be more convenient voting methods available, such as absentee ballots, early voting or same-day registration, that would ease the process for those who want to vote but do not have the time. Unaffiliated citizens should be allowed to participate in open primaries of their choice.

Virginia Senate Candidate Sues for Access to Debates

OPEN DEBATES
Senate candidate files lawsuit seeking to join December Kaine-Allen debate (By Ben Pershing, Washington Post/ Virginia Politics) Modica’s lawsuit argues that excluding him from the December debate ”based on standards, defined and created behind closed doors, that, theoretically and practically, only two former Virginia Governors can meet is like excluding your youngest son from Christmas celebrations just because he lives in Northern Virginia.”

Colorado Discriminatory Campaign Contribution Case Riddle v Ritter Back to U.S. District Court

Colorado Case on Discriminatory Campaign Contribution Limits Returns to Federal Court (Ballot Access News) The lead plaintiff is Joelle Riddle, who wanted to give more than $200 to Kathleen Curry, an independent candidate for the Colorado legislature in 2010.

Arizona Supreme Court Reinstates Independent Redistricting Commissioner

ARIZONA REDISTRICTING
In win for Democrats, Arizona redistricting commissioner reinstated (By Cameron Joseph, The Hill) The state supreme court's decision that Brewer did not meet the constitutional requirements for removing a commissioner will reinforce the views held by some in the state that Republicans crossed the line on this issue.

Obama, Paul, Third Party, Millionaire's Tax Up in Polls

2012

• Obama Job Approval Edges Up, GOP Contest Remains Fluid (Pew Research) Obama continues to trail Romney by a wide margin among independent voters. Currently, 53% of independents favor Romney while just 41% support Obama. In matchups with other leading GOP candidates, Obama leads or runs about even.
• Ron Paul takes 2nd in an Iowa poll for 2nd time in 4 days (The State Column) Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, garnered 20.4 percent of the votes to secure 2nd place in a ISU/Gazette/KCRG poll of 1,256 registered Iowa Republican and independent voters.
• The GOP’s third-party nightmare scenario - A poll shows Ron Paul doing shockingly well as an independent candidate. What would make him take the plunge? (By Steve Kornacki, Salon) In reality, of course, this probably won’t happen — because he’s been shunned by the GOP, Roemer would likely be just as anonymous as an independent candidate. But Roemer’s third-party flirtation is a reminder of another potential spurned candidate revenge scenario that the GOP should probably be much more worried about: What if Ron Paul decides to run as an independent?
• Political Intelligence - Top Rank Beltway Pundit Will Offer 2012 Election Forecast at UCSB (By Jerry Roberts, Santa Barbara Independent) Independent Candidate: Gergen said that in Washington, there is “increasing talk about a third-party” challenge for president. While potential candidates like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg or Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz may have the resources to mount an independent effort, the practical logistical requirements, coupled with the difficult challenge of Electoral College calculus, make such a bid unlikely.

MILLIONAIRE'S TAX
Poll: New Jerseyans support a Millionaire's Tax by a 2 to 1 margin - Poll finds they also strongly support Occupy Wall Street movement (BY TOM HESTER SR., NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM) Voters support a tax hike on the rich by 64 to 28 percent, up from a high of 55 to 34 percent in a Feb. 10 poll, according to a Quinnipiac University poll made public Thursday. Current support is 82 to 13 percent among Democrats and 67 to 25 percent among independent voters, while Republicans are opposed 54 to 38 percent.

NY: Charles Barron Set to Challenge Rep. Ed Towns

NEW YORK
Charles Barron on the rise of Moammar Khadafy and the fall of Herman Cain (By Reid Pillifant,
Capital New York) "We don't need the [Hakeem] Jeffries and the [Ed] Towns there. Because look what happened with David Paterson. He has a chance to select a black senator, the black senator for this state, and he gives us Gillibrand, because he's trying to win an election that he's not going to run for. You know, just having black people in certain positions, without black consciousness and black commitment to black agendas and black issues, is a problem."

The Removal at Zuccotti Park

OCCUPY WALL STREET
Whose Police? (Posted by Philip Gourevitch, The New Yorker) The N.Y.P.D. descended on the park with deafening military-grade LRAD noise canons and several stadiums’ worth of blinding Klieg lights, and while they worked, they drove journalists steadily back further and further from their area of operations.

rat boy

Why are there more independent voters today than perhaps ever before?

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Appeal to Voters... Presidential (By Bill Miller Sr., Missourian Editor) Political experts in increasing numbers say that the independent voter is the one who will decide who our next president will be. Why are there more independent voters today than perhaps ever before? Is it because people are fed up with the party first and the nation second mentality of incumbents? Are people weary of professional politicians and that’s why a Cain with money can be a viable candidate?
• Study Conducted To Determine Where 2012 Election Ad Dollars Should Go (Sarah Novotny, Adotas) Bizo has partnered with Vizu to conduct a joint campaign to characterize, in real time, the party alignment and political donation plans of business executives, a highly coveted audience for presidential hopefuls in the 2012 election.

Independents Disapprove of Congress by 89%

CONGRESSIONAL APPROVAL
Congress' Job Approval Entrenched at Record Low of 13% - Congressional rating similar among Republicans, independents, and Democrats (by Frank Newport, Gallup) The disapproval cuts across party lines. Democrats have the highest approval of Congress this month at 15%, while independent voters are on the low side at just 11%.

2012 Presidential Election: Ron Paul, The Economy, Obama, and Two-Party Politics

2012

• Overshadowed by the Cainwreck and Newtmentum, Ron Paul Climbs into Second Place (By Alex Altman, Time/ Swampland) In a Public Policy Polling survey this week, the Texas Congressman leads President Obama 48% to 39% among independent voters — the only Republican hopeful to earn that distinction.
• The Economy Isn’t Obama’s Only Challenge (By MATT BAI, NY Times/ The Caucus) Simply put, Mr. Obama now has to run for president as a conventional Democratic nominee. And this, at least in the modern political era, isn’t an especially easy thing to do. Mr. Obama did not have to deal with this in 2008, when a bunch of mitigating factors came together to make him something more than his party’s choice for the presidency. The war in Iraq, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the market, the erupting fury at Washington’s impotence, the way Mr. Obama himself seemed to embody generational change and a renewal of the American story — all of this made it possible for him to run, essentially, as an independent candidate who rarely talked in terms of party.
• Two-party presidential race faces challenge (By Richard McGregor in Washington, Financial Times) Michael Toner, a former head of the Federal Election Commission, said third-party candidates have traditionally struggled to get over electoral laws and ballot-access rules to allow them to run. “A third-party candidate likely would need to be a major self-funder to be potentially viable, someone capable of contributing $100m-$200m of their own money into their campaign,” he said. “In short, someone like Michael Bloomberg.”

San Francisco Mayoral Race Rasies Questions About Ranked-Choice Voting

CALIFORNIA
Critics Aim to End Ranked-Choice Voting After SF Mayoral Race (Posted by Lance Williams, KQED) “Regardless of its merits, ranked-choice voting will probably be repealed,” he said in an interview. Ordinary voters struggle with the system because “it’s complicated,” he said. And politicians and political professionals quickly grew to dislike it because its results were so unpredictable.

Wisconsin Recal Gov Walker Makes Way for Better Politics?

WISCONSIN
Recall Walker campaign begins (BizTimes Daily) If the recall is successful, Walker would become just the third governor in the country's history to be recalled from office. California Democratic Gov. Gray Davis was recalled in 2003, followed by Arnold Schwarzenegger besting 134 other candidates to win the seat.  And in 1921, North Dakota Gov. Lynn Frazier was ousted amidst economic turmoil and a dispute between his progressive Nonpartisan League and the opposition Independent Voters' Association.

New York City Local Round-Up: John Liu Down, Charles Barron Iffy, Independent Redistricting Nowhere to be Found

NEW YORK

• New fundraising arrest raises more doubts about Liu’s future (By Colby Hamilton, WNYC/ THE EMPIRE) “It doesn’t look good for a city comptroller to now have two sets of investigations going on over his campaign fundraising,” said Dick Dadey, the executive director of the good government group Citizens Union. “For a citywide elected official, and an aspiring mayoral candidate, it raises questions that he can’t afford to have asked.”
• Towns Faces Opponents in 2012 Primary (by Harold Egeln, Brooklyn Daily Eagle) Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Crown Heights/Bedford-Stuyvesant), who has already started a campaign web site and a fund-raising effort, and Councilman Charles Barron (D-East New York/Brownsville/Canarsie), who is just now exploring a possible run for Congress, are his contenders at this point.
• Charles Barron has already decided where to announce his run for Congress (By Reid Pillifant,
  CAPITAL NEW YORK) After a "very positive" meeting on Friday night, Councilman Charles Barron said he's "moving closer and closer" to running for Congress, and he's already settled on when and where he might announce a second challenge to Representative Ed Towns.
• Lawmakers Already Drawing Up Special Session Wish Lists (By Andrew J. Hawkins, NY Capitol News) Sen. Joseph Addabbo, who has been advocating for a special session since the regular session ended in June, said redistricting during the special session amounted to “wishful thinking” at this point, especially since it lacked budgetary implications.

Occupy Wall Street Gathering, Losing Support

OCCUPY WALL STREET

• Fascination and Fear (Rick McGahey, an economic policy adviser to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, is a professor of professional practice in the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at the New School, NY Times/ Room for Debate) Democrats want to tap Occupy’s energy, but there's a risk of losing independent voters.
• Poll: Occupy Wall Street movement losing America’s support (Matthew Borghese, Gant Daily) Where the movement begins to lose support most dramatically, is among independent voters. A month ago, independent voters supported the movement (39 percent) but now a majority (42 percent) oppose the protests.
• Poll: Tea party trumps OWS (by Kyle Wingfield, Atlanta Journal Constitution) If a recent opinion survey by Public Policy Polling is any indication, the end of the full Occupation of Wall Street might have been the best thing that could have happened to the movement. Not because it will earn them public sympathy, but because the occupation itself had become the least sympathetic thing about the group.
• Buddy Roemer Slams Mike Bloomberg for Cops Clearing Occupy Wall Street (Kevin Derby's blog, Sunshine State News) "The mayor of New York City is standing on the wrong side of history. His actions in the midnight hours against the Occupy Wall Street protestors are unjust, uncalled for, and unconstitutional," said Roemer in a statement on Tuesday. “The First Amendment right of assembly and speech exists to protect America from this kind of government power abuse.

occupy raleigh

Race and Occupy Wall Street: Blacks and Independents in America

Race and Occupy Wall Street

Tuesday, November 15 2011 by Frank Stasio and Ginny Mueller

 The Occupy Wall Street movement has spread across the country and captured the attention of millions of Americans. The movement deals with national issues, but it doesn't necessarily represent all factions of society. Are minorities being well represented in the revolution of the 99 percent? Host Frank Stasio talks about Occupy Wall Street and race with Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP; Omar Ali, an African-American studies professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; and Marcella Robinson, an Occupy Raleigh protester and member of the group Mortgage Fraud in North Carolina.

mp3 download

We need to transform the current presidential nominating process

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
People powerless to party politics (By Jessica Wolfe, UWM Post - University of Wisconsin Milwaukee) There is much discontent with the current two-party political system, and as a result, we need to transform the current presidential nominating process. We may not be able to change the two-party system, but we can change the quality of candidates these two parties bring to the voting booth. The time has come for voters to transcend beyond traditional party politics and choose candidates who mirror our own ideologies.

Poll: More than half of Arizonans support a nonpartisan ballot in primaries

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Poll: More than half of Arizonans support a nonpartisan ballot in primaries (By Joanne Ingram, Cronkite News) More than half of Arizonans support switching from partisan primaries to a nonpartisan ballot that would send the highest-polling candidates on to the general election regardless of party affiliation, according to a poll released Monday by a public policy research group.
• S.C. high court hears arguments over how to finance GOP primary (By NBC's Ali Weinberg, msnbc) The Supreme Court today heard arguments in a lawsuit, brought by four South Carolina counties, claiming that the South Carolina Republican Party should cover the entire cost of conducting the 2012 primary election. Until 2008, the primaries here were considered private affairs, funded by state parties. But during 2008’s wide-open primary, the legislature approved a law authorizing the use of taxpayer funds for the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries.

Indiana’s current ballot access laws are reprehensible.

BALLOT ACCESS
Indiana’s unfair ballot access laws (By Sheldon Dance, Indiana Daily Student) Indiana’s current ballot access laws are reprehensible. I urge the state legislature to enact electoral reform to allow for fair ballot access for all candidates and all parties. Readers interested in learning more about ballot access laws should Google Electoral Reform Act of 2012 or learn more about ballot access issues at ballot-access.org.

Nonparty Party for 2012: Use your browser to build a dream ticket for President

AMERICANS ELECT
Crashing the Party - Hate all the presidential candidates? Use your browser to build a dream ticket. (by Andrew Romano, Daily Beast) “A nonparty party isn’t how you gain power,” says Princeton historian Sean Wilentz. “It just hasn’t worked that way in American politics. You have to stand for something very clearly—not ‘we don’t like parties’ in the abstract.”

Opposing Crony Capitalism

2012

• Ron Paul's Real Electability: Stopping The Third Party Threat (Written by Thomas R. Eddlem, The New American) Electoral Fact #4: Ron Paul is the only Republican who can win voters who oppose "crony capitalism." While Ron Paul is not the only Republican who opposed the TARP and other bailouts (Michele Bachmann and Gary Johnson also opposed it), he's the only GOP candidate currently polling in double digits to have done so.
• Republicans Lose Way Misreading Bush History (By Ramesh Ponnuru, Bloomberg News) It seems much more likely that Republicans lost in 2006 because of the bleeding in Iraq, corruption in Washington, wage stagnation and the lack of any agenda by the party to do anything about these or other problems. Some of these issues had faded in importance by 2008, but in that year voters were also ready for a change after eight years of Republican control of the White House and, above all, dismayed by the economic crisis. In 2008, 60 percent of voters said the Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, wasn’t “in touch with people like them” -- and 79 percent of people who felt that way voted against him. That’s what defeated Republicans, not a perception that they were doctrinally impure.
• Is Smart Money Leading GOP Off Cliff Again? (By THOMAS SOWELL, Investors Business Daily) The smart money inside the Beltway says that the Republicans need to pick a moderate candidate who can appeal to independent voters, not just to the conservative voters who turn out to vote in Republican primaries. Those who think this way say that you have to "reach out" to Hispanics, the elderly and other constituencies. What is remarkable is how seldom the smart money folks look at what has actually been happening in presidential elections.

They Came In the Night In the Land of the Free

New York police have cleared the Occupy Wall Street camp in the dead of night. Arriving at 1 am, they gave demonstrators 20 minutes to pack up and leave, arresting 70. The authorities told the demonstrators they were to remove all "private property" (like tents!) and could return presumably to stand all night in the open, in November. Allegedly, the camp in Zuccotti Park, was a health and safety hazard (sounds familiar to St Paul's protest in London?) and followed the clearing of a similar Occupy camp in Oakland in California a few hours earlier.

So much for freedom of speech and assembly in what is meant to be the land of freedom. If Egyptian police had done this in Tahrir Square, they would rightly have been condemned for squashing freedom of expression. Likewise, in many other countries, like Ukraine during the neoliberal "Orange Revolution", the USA squarely backed and even funded demonstrators as they brought down the mildly socialist government.

Different then when it is in their own backyard. Different when it is protest against the greed and excess of the 1,000 corporations and their political puppets who run our planet and rip us all off. These demonstrators have got it all wrong, it seems.

Freedom has its limits, it seems, if you are opposed to the Establishment. And so, as well as all the powers of surveillance and detention built into laws like the ludicrously named Patriot Act, they authorities will use by-laws to ensure that, in effect, prevent the protest continuing - as winter deepens, who on Earth will be able to stand in the streets of New York in the middle of the night, night after night?

Health and safety risk, the Powers-that-be claim. Yeah? Who's exactly?

Chilling, in more ways than one.