Green Party of NYS ballot symbol

The Green Party of Suffolk has become a part of Move to Amend: Brookhaven (movetoamend.org/ny-brookhaven).  Spearheaded by Lauren Carmichael, Brookhaven‘s division of Move to Amend, like others throughout the country, is seeking to proclaim:

• Corporations and unions are not people and are not endowed with inalienable human rights.

• Money is not speech (money is property), and therefore, regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting political speech.

• Communities have the right to protect, our land, our environment, our homes, our health, and all of our citizens (children, elders, workers, the sick and the poor) against actions which overturn our democratically enacted laws.

And so, to protect our democracy, our health, our lives, our families, our communities and our futures, we move to amend the United States Constitution to affirm that only real people - human beings - are sovereign and entitled to inalienable human rights protected under the Constitution.

According to Carmichael,

We at Move to Amend Brookhaven are committed to mobilizing, educating, and involving folks in our community to join us in asking our council members to show support for the 28th Amendment movement by passing a resolution that states that money is not speech (money is property) and therefore regulating political contributions and spending is not the equivalent to limiting political speech; corporations and unions are not people and are not endowed with inalienable human rights.  After researching what the Greens stand for, I came to the conclusion that the Greens are the party that can move our country forward.  The Greens are not bought and sold by the corporations that are driving our country into a death spiral.  

Dr. Jill Stein

Dr. Jill Stein (jillstein2012.org), who is running for the Green Party’s Presidential nomination, also recently spoke about the movement.

Since 1996, the Green Party has called for a constitutional amendment to abolish the doctrine of corporate personhood. Greens have been ahead of the curve, but today, the curve has caught up with us, and now this movement for a constitution that serves we, the people, has gathered a historic momentum.

Colia Clark

The Green Party’s US Senate candidate, Colia Clark (coliaclark.org) addressed the issue as such:

Corporations are not individuals. They have created this present disaster. As a candidate for the US Senate, I will campaign vigorously to prevent these corporations from interfering with campaign funding and controlling our government. I will work vigorously to make sure this legal fiction is wiped out of the law.  Corporations are not human beings. Corporations are businesses. And they are in the business of making sure human beings do not have access to the electoral process.

“The Green Party has been a consistent voice against corporate and government abuses“, said Roger Snyder, Green Party of Suffolk’s Chair.  He went on to say that the Party is excited to join with citizen’s movements across the country, protesting corporate corruption. The Green Party of Brookhaven, a division of Suffolk County’s party, is an active Chapter that will be working closely with Lauren Carmichael, and other members and organizations that are currently part of the movement, to bring this amendment before the Town Board.

To join the Brookhaven movement with the Green Party, please contact Brookhaven Rep Marisa Pizza at FLY1632@AOL.com. For more information about the Green Party, please visit the website: www.gpsuffolk.org. With an automatic ballot line in New York,  the Green Party of Suffolk will join with states across the country in putting their Presidential candidate on the November ballot. The Green Party is a worldwide political movement. The four pillars of the Green Party are: Social and Economic Justice; Grassroots Democracy; Ecological Wisdom and Non-Violence/Peace.

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• US Senate candidate Colia Clark to speak at Green Party of Suffolk 4/21/12 annual meeting(onthewilderside.com)

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• Green Party prepares for the ‘Occupy May Day’ General Strike(onthewilderside.com)

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• Green Party CA Presidential Forum 5/12/12 with LWV & KALW’s Rose Aguilar(onthewilderside.com)

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• Green Party seeks abolition of Prison Nation and Police State abuses in the US(onthewilderside.com)

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• Global Green Parties support for the Occupy Movement, Arab Spring, and other democratic movements(onthewilderside.com)

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• Prez Cand Roseanne Barr (G) first campaign appearance 3/23/12(onthewilderside.com)

  ---

According to Newsday, over 90% of school budgets on Long Island passed. Though, the school budget failed in:

Center Moriches Schools
Comsewogue Schools
East Islip Schools
Elmont Schools
Floral Park-Bellerose Schools
Mount Sinai Schools
Oysterponds Schools
Three Village Schools
Tuckahoe Schools

The big news of the day is that high school senior Josh Lafazan won a seat on the Syosset School Board. Part of Josh Lafazan’s campaign was a complaint about the Superintendent’s $500,000 salary/beneifts annualpay. The budget did pass in Syosset Schools.

Miscellaneous School Election Results:

Newsday reports:
East Islip Schools “…a local taxpayer group has campaigned heavily for two candidates, incumbent Louis Raffone and Philip Montouri Sr., who ran unsuccessfully two years ago. Both won…” [And, the budget failed in East Islip.]

Newsday reports:
Bayport-Blue Point “a team of three challengers — Rebecca Campbell, John Lynch and William Milligan [won]…” “The challengers…promised to scrutinize employee contracts to make sure the district can afford them under the new tax cap…” [In Bayport-Blu Point School District, the budget passed.]

Here in North Babylon School District: The Budget passed. The school district posted these results:

For North Babylon Schools

Budget Vote:
Yes – 1577
No – 913

Bus Proposition
Yes – 1530
No – 932

Board Trustees:

Audrey Jacullo
Salvatore Levanti

Sachem Central School District: The budget passed with 60.2% YES votes. Sachem Schools Election results: here.

Connetquot Central School District. The budget passed with 2438 YES and 1041 NO. Reported at Connetquot Schools website: here.

For Connetquot Schools

School Budget: Passed

Yes- 2,438

No- 1,041

Board of Education Elections:

Seat 1: Kim Pepe – 1784

(Charles F. Gee – 1,390)

Seat 2: Leo R. Marinick 1,712

(Joseph Doscher – 910)

(Frederick W. Stroh -571)

Josh Lafazan of Syosset Schools

Website of Josh Lafazan, NY’s youngest, elected official: joshlafazan.org

Story with video at NBC News: here.
“An 18-year-old high school senior has won a seat on his Long Island school board, becoming the youngest elected official in New York state…” [Correction: Another HS senior, younger than Joshua Lafazan, was also elected in NY State yesterday.] “…winning by over 2,000 votes…”

Story, with fuller election results details, at The Syosset Patch: here.

So, Joshua Lafazan, a student at Syossett public schools, won the school board election in his district. Lafazan will be [among] the youngest elected official[s] in New York State.

Joshua Lafazan’s story reminds us of the biography of documentary producer Michael Moore, who also won a seat for school board when he was 18 years old. The reaction to Moore’s tenure is quite a saga, and can be read at Michael Moore’s website: here. Let’s hope Josh has an easier time of it!

Onthewilderside commentary about Josh Lafazan, Jeffrey Lafazan, the election, and the records controversy: here.

Results from other 2012 Long Island School Election results at onthewilderside: here.

_______________________

About the Syosset Schools Election
More results, analysis, and some prickly comments by Kimberly Wilder, below:

Here are the results, as posted at the Syosset Patch:

Results from Syosset Patch:

Candidate     Votes
Lafazan     4,739
DiFilippo     2,531
Resnick     2,474
Moore             2,365
Rutigliano     2,115

Since I have been volunteer campaign staff for many candidates, and since I am very  interested in electoral activism, the chance to crunch numbers and analyze this election fascinates me.

The election was for 3 seats, and 5 candidates were running.* 18-year-old Josh Lafazan won the most votes. The two candidates with the least votes were John Moore (not elected*) and Sonia Rutigliano (not elected). John Moore was not on the board, and had never run for public office before. Sonia Rutigliano was on the board. So, I thought it would be interesting to study why she lost the election, and was the least vote getter.

I think I found the answer. It appears that Sonia Rutigliano was a strong voice for the status quo, which, in Syosset School District, includes a Superintendent salary and benefits of over $500,000 a year. Though, other, winning candidates also took that position. So, perhaps, what lost Rutigliano the vote may have been her specific comments on the election. While a student was empowering himself to run for office, and young people were descending on the election, Sonia Rutigliano was quoted in the Patch as saying: “The board is made up of 9 responsible, mature, respected adults.” (See story: here). It sounds like her comments were a subtle, ageist attack on youthful candidate Josh Lafazan. If so, the comments and attitude backfired greatly.

Another interesting number is the difference in votes between Josh Lafazan and the next highest candidate. Josh won by about 2,200 votes! And, the school budget passed by 61%. A lot of the job of school staff and school board members is to get the community out to vote YES on the budget. So, Josh Lafazan appears to have been very helpful in activating the community, and helping to pass the budget. Other school communities should reflect on the value of having students run for school board. And, on the value and importance of getting young people to participate in the school system that shapes their world, and controls their destiny. Perhaps if a high school senior ran in every district, the budgets would have a more likely chance of passing. And, even better, what if the students — especially of voting age, but truly all the students — had genuine input into the budget process. Perhaps there would be a better budget, and a better chance of it passing?

If you reside in the Syosset School District, you may want to figure out today who was wrong and who was right: The local school board, or the father of a young candidate.

For people not in the Syosset School District, the most important part will be figuring out the truth after the election. And, making sure that justice is served, and the system fixed, so that something like this does not happen in your school board or other local elections.

The school district is accusing the father of wrongly taking the only copy of some election records.The main point this story underscores is: Elections matter! Anytime there is an election, there is power and/or money at stake. For a school board election, you can add into the mix that community pride is at stake, the well-being of children is at stake, and the direction of local taxes is at stake. So, it matters a lot. And, when at lot is at stake, people will fight hard, and possibly cheat.

This election matters enough that either the Syosset School District played games with records and/or the father of a candidate played games with records. (My guess is, it was both of them. But, depending on how wrong the school district was, the father’s defensive maneuvering may be somewhat justified, if technically wrong.)

Josh Lafazan, a student, is running for school board for Syosset Public Schools.

His father, Jeffrey Lafazan has been involved in a controversy with the school district.

Below are some highlights of what probably happened, according to Newsday and other media outlets:

- Mr. Jeffrey Lafazan asked the School Board for access to absentee voting records in the morning.

- It appears that the school board denied him any access to the records.

- The father complained to a higher authority, the State Board of Elections.

- Sometime later in the day, the school district called the father back, and told him he could inspect the records. (So, if he had the right to them all along, then imagine how frustrating it must have been to him to hear “no” earlier in the day?)

- The father was in a room viewing the records, and allegedly took the records out of the office with him.

- The school claims that this was the only copy.

-The school district created a post on their website and a whole robocall accusing the father, and creating a big stink, while this election is going on.

I have run for local office before. I have dealt with boards of elections and election lawsuits before (as a candidate). And, a few things jump out at me:

-It seems fishy that the school board would not share the information with the father the first time he asked. Having a list of absentee voters seems like an important piece of information for any citizen to have access to, but especially, for candidates or their supporters. So, I am guessing that the school district wrongly denied access in the morning. They are probably in violation of Freedom of Information Laws.

-It seems silly for the school board to claim that it was “the only copy”. As most of us can guess, in this computer age, that information was probably part of a file or database that could be called up and printed out again. So, it was not as dire as the school district tried to claim — as if the Holy Grail had disappeared.

-The way the whole election system is set up is pretty unjust to begin with. In New York, a school board basically runs its own election. Often, the School Clerk is the Election Clerk. Clearly, the district would have a bias towards protecting the incumbents. With that in mind, the school clerk, district staff, and school board members should have been extra careful and open about sharing records. And, the school district should have been extra cautious not to use public resources in their control to attack a family member of the candidate to the community and in the press.

It will be interesting to see the outcome of the election. Who will win “in the press” today?

But, I am more interested in knowing, when all the facts come out, who was wrong and who was right. Will someone at the state level criticize the school district for their handling of records? Did the school wrongly deny the father in the morning? Will there be any paper trails showing all the people who chimed in on the decision to deny access to the records? Will the community be angry about the biased use of resources, ie: creating a robocall attack ad during the election? Will the father issue an apology if he was wrong? Will the candidate explain later which actions he specifically advised his father on, if any?

We will follow the story here at onthewilderside.

Background:

The story at the Syosset Patch:
http://syosset.patch.com/articles/syosset-parent-accused-of-stealing-election-documents

The story at Newsday:
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/missing-syosset-absentee-voter-list-probed-1.3719185

Website of “challenger” candidate Josh Lafazan:
http://joshlafazan.org/aboutjosh.html

An April 28, 2012 story at Newsday said this:

[Josh] Lafazan has made Superintendent Carole Hankin’s pay part of his platform. Her compensation package — $541,454 in salary and benefits — has been criticized by the state comptroller and governor, among others…

Should you vote for Josh Lafazan?

Kimberly Wilder writes: I do not live or work in the Syosset School District, and have done only cursory research. But, before I heard about this controversy, I had skimmed Josh’s site and looked at an article or two about him. I think that some of his budget cutting ideas were naive, in a way that could come out as too conservative in practice. Though, I think it is very cool to have a student’s perspective on a school board. And, young people are open to quick learning when immersed in a subject. I also believe that in the past there were serious concerns about an administrator’s salary, so new blood would be helpful.

I don’t think the current story about records should sway people too much. We just won’t know who is wrong or right today. Even if Josh’s dad is wrong. That is only the candidate’s dad, not the candidate. And, the way the school district handled the situation, and is throwing their weight around, makes me even more suspicious that they are sincere.

While the number of street stops has skyrocketed, the number of additional guns recovered as a result of those stops is tiny.

The New York Civil Liberties Union today released an analysis of new NYPD data that provides a detailed picture of the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk program, including new insights on the program’s stark racial disparities and its ineffectiveness in recovering illegal firearms.

NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said:

The NYPD’s own data undermine many of the Bloomberg administration’s justifications for the stop-and-frisk program. Contrary to the mayor and police commissioner’s assertions, the massive spike in the number of stops has done little to remove firearms from the streets. Instead, it has violated the constitutional rights of millions of people and corroded the ability of communities of color to trust and respect the police.

The NYCLU analyzed the NYPD’s full 2011 computerized stop-and-frisk database, which contains detailed information not included in the quarterly stop-and-frisk reports the NYPD provides the City Council. The analysis examines multiple aspects of the 2011 stop-and-frisk data, including stops, frisks, use of force, reason for stop and recovery of weapons. The analysis provides detailed information at a precinct level and a close examination of race-related aspects of stop-and-frisk.

Last year, the NYPD stopped and interrogated people 685,724 times, a more than 600 percent increase in street stops since Mayor Bloomberg’s first year in office when there were only 97,296 stops. Nine out of 10 of people stopped were innocent, meaning they were neither arrested nor ticketed. About 87 percent were black or Latino.

NYCLU’s analysis reveals that:  

• 

  Black and Latino New Yorkers are more likely to be frisked and less likely to be found with a weapon.

  The 685,724 stops in 2011 (an increase of 14 percent from 2010) were spread unevenly amongst the city’s 76 precincts, with the 75th Precinct in Brooklyn (East New York) leading the city with 31,100 stops and the 94th Precinct in Brooklyn (Greenpoint) having the fewest stops at 2,023.

• In 70 out of 76 precincts, blacks and Latinos accounted for more than 50 percent of stops, and in 33 precincts they accounted for more than 90 percent of stops. In the 10 precincts with black and Latino populations of 14 percent or less (such as the 6th Precinct in Greenwich Village), black and Latino New Yorkers accounted for more than 70 percent of stops in six of those precincts.
• Young black and Latino men were the targets of a hugely disproportionate number of stops.  Though they account for only 4.7 percent of the city’s population, black and Latino males between the ages of 14 and 24 accounted for 41.6 percent of stops in 2011. The number of stops of young black men exceeded the entire city population of young black men (168,126 as compared to 158,406). Ninety percent of young black and Latino men stopped were innocent.
• Though frisks are to be conducted only when an officer reasonably suspects the person has a weapon that might endanger officer safety, 55.7 percent of those stopped in 2011 were frisked. Of those frisked, a weapon was found only 1.9 percent of the time.
• Frisks varied enormously by precinct, with officers in the 46th Precinct in the Bronx frisking people 80.4 percent of the time, as compared to a low of 27.5 percent in the 17th Precinct on the East Side of Manhattan.
• Black and Latino New Yorkers were more likely to be frisked than whites and were less likely to be found with a weapon.
• While the NYPD recovered one gun for every 266 stops in 2003, the additional 524,873 stops in 2011 yielded only one gun for every 3,000 people stopped.
• Of the 605,328 stops of innocent people in 2011, 53.6 percent were frisked. The 75th Precinct led the city in stops of innocent people with 27,672 such stops, while the 94th Precinct had the fewest with 1,843.

“Our analysis demonstrates the alarming extent to which the NYPD is targeting innocent black and brown New Yorkers,” NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn said. “In nearly every police precinct – black and white, high crime and low crime – black and Latino New Yorkers are stopped and frisked at a far greater rate than whites. Everyone wants to feel safe in their neighborhoods, but the abuse of stop-and-frisk is making communities of color across New York City fear the force that is supposed to protect them.”

Black and Latino New Yorkers who are stopped are significantly more likely to have force used against them than whites.

In response to discriminatory policing practices like the abuse of stop-and-frisk, the NYCLU and our allies in Communities United for Police Reform are working to pass the Community Safety Act, a series of City Council bills that would strengthen the definition of discrimination, ensure that New Yorkers understand their right to not consent to searches where no probable cause or warrant exists, and require that NYPD officers identify themselves when conducting stop-and-frisks or engaging in other police activities. In the coming weeks a bill will be introduced creating an NYPD Inspector General’s office.

The NYCLU is also helping to organize a Father’s Day march with 1199 SEIU, the NAACP, the National Action Network and dozens of other labor, civil rights and community organizations to demand an end to the NYPD’s abuse of stop-and-frisk.

“The findings of the NYCLU are incredibly disturbing yet not surprising at all,” said George Gresham, president of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. “The NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy has led to rampant racial profiling with tragic consequences over the years. For the safety of all our children, we must speak out against this continued injustice. This is an issue for all people of color and all people of conscience.”

The NYCLU sued the NYPD in 2007 for access to the Police Department’s electronic stop-and-frisk database. In 2008, a State Supreme Court judge ordered the NYPD to turn over the database. Prior to that, the NYPD kept secret detailed information of its stop-and-frisk program.

To download the full report and see graphics on the new data, visit http://www.nyclu.org/news/new-nyclu-report-finds-nypd-stop-and-frisk-practices-ineffective-reveals-depth-of-racial-dispar.

Related articles

• NYCLU Analysis Reveals Bloomberg NYPD Street Stops Soar 600% (onthewilderside.com)
• NYCLU, Coalition Partners Demand End to Troubling Border Patrol Tactics (onthewilderside.com)
• NYPD Arrests NYCLU Legal Observer at Occupy Wall Street event (onthewilderside.com)
• ACLU & NYCLU Call for Federal Probe Into Obama Funding NYPD Religious Profiling (onthewilderside.com)

This symbol belongs to Green politics. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Presidential candidates Roseanne Barr, Kent Mesplay and Jill Stein will face-off the evening of May 12 as Green Party members all across California are getting ready to go to the polls and vote.  Joining them on stage at the Victoria Theatre will be Rose Aguilar, Host of “Your Call” on KALW-FM and author of “Red Highways, A Liberal’s Journey Through the Heartland.”

Co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of San Francisco, the forum is scheduled to coincide with a Green Party of California plenary May 12 and 13, also in San Francisco. California Greens will have the largest delegation heading into the Green Party’s Presidential Nominating Convention in Baltimore, Maryland, July 12-15 (http://www.gpconvention2012.com).

Details on the Presidential Forum: 

Time: 7:30-9:30 PM

Cost: $10 – 20 sliding scale; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Tickets available here https://cagreens.nationbuilder.com/may_12_donate

Free seats will be set aside for media covering the forum. Contact June Brashares at 415-425-3733 to reserve your place.

For information about Rose Aguilar and her KALW-FM program “Your Call,” visithttp://www.yourcallradio.org/

League of Women Voters of San Francisco http://lwvsf.org/

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The NY Times reports:

“Maurice Sendak, widely considered the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century, who wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche, died on Tuesday in Danbury, Conn. He was 83 and lived in Ridgefield, Conn.”

Kimberly writes: It is very sad that the world has lost such a great man and a great artist. As a teacher and a lover of children’s literature, I have always surrounded myself with Maurice Sendak’s books and artwork. I remember a poster book I had with scrumptious artwork of his, including a poster for a showing of “The Magic Flute”. I used the images to brighten up my first grade classroom in a poor and gray city school. On top of my bulletin board at home is a postcard for a showing of “Where The Wild Things Are” opera, which postcard I could never bring myself to put away.

Do you remember the first time you saw “In The Night Kitchen”? I remember as a child thinking it was wonderful, but somewhat naughty and frightening. And, so many folks have relished the chance to huff and puff and triumph with Max of “Where The Wild Things Are”.  I think the way that Maurice Sendak’s ideas at once startle and compel is such tribute to his art. His work, and our appreciation of it, will most definitely live on.

Look for food labelled with USDA Organic for Non-GMO

Despite the publicity of the First Lady talking about Americans eating healthier food, the Obama administration has continued the march of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) to destroy our food system.  The US is arguably the most GMO-devastated economy in the world.   At least 40 countries around the world require GMO labeling, including china, Russia, India and Saudi Arabia.

GMOs are not designed to increase food output, they are merely designed for greater application of pesticides.  This is not surprising since their principal proponent is a pesticide company, Monsantao.  The same Monsanto that Obama has been recruiting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) leadership from.  Talk about the wolves watching the hen house.  Just as the overuse of antibiotics creates super-germs, the over-application of pesticides has been creating super-weeds.   It is simple survival of the fittest.  The pesticides kill off the weak weeds, so only the strong survive and breed.  As the pesticide use increases, it breeds more pesticide resistant weeds.  A viscious cycle for food production, but a profitable situation for Monsanto.  As food output dwindles do to superweeds, farmers are forced to buy more and more pesticide to try to keep up.

This voluntary food label will also ensure no GMOs.

Remember that pesticide is poison.  Humans are not immune to these poisons.  GMOs can cause irritable bowels, allergies, lymphoma, birth defects, cancer, liver damage, kidney damage, and reproductive damage.

GMOs have already overtaken in major food crops such as soy, cotton (cotton seed oil), Corn (including high fructose corn syrup), rapeseed (canola oil), sugar beets, milk, and aspartame.  In 2009, the Obama administration removed all regulation of GMOs in Papayas.  In 2011, the Obama administration removed all regulation of GMOs in Alfalfa.   The Obama administration is on track to remove all regulation of GMOs in zucchini, squash, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, rice, and salmon.

Adam Yauch marched with us in November over the Brooklyn Bridge. He was a visionary artist who never lost sight of his community. #RIP

May 4, 2012 1:54 pm via SendibleReplyRetweetFavorite

@OccupyWallSt

Occupy Wall Street

From the Beastie Boys website obituary:

In addition to his hand in creating such historic Beastie Boys albums as Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty and more, Yauch was a founder of the Milarepa Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness and activism regarding the injustices perpetrated on native Tibetans by Chinese occupational government and military forces. In 1996, Milarepa produced the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, which was attended by 100,000 people, making it the biggest benefit concert on U.S. soil since 1985′s Live Aid. The Tibetan Freedom Concert series would continue to stage some of the most significant benefit shows in the world for nearly a decade following in New York City, Washington DC, Tokyo, Sydney, Amsterdam, Taipei and other cities.

In the wake of September 11, 2001, Milarepa organized New Yorkers Against Violence, a benefit headlined by Beastie Boys at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, with net proceeds disbursed to the New York Women’s Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA) September 11th Fund for New Americans–each chosen for their efforts on behalf of 9/11 victims least likely to receive help from other sources.

From Coldplay:

Bonus video. Find the Beasties reference:

Edward DeMarco is the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after they went into recievership.  Fannie and Freddie was caused to go into receivership by the same kind of financial shenanigans that is killing the Post Office.  Fannie and Freddie were expanded during W’s tenure to buy on the secondary market all the bad sub-prime loans made by private crookslenders. (Just as the Post Office is being forced to pre-pay all of its pension funds for the next 50 years in 3 years time, so it can look like it is insolvent and should be privatized.)

DeMarco was appointed by W, and kept on by O, to oversee Fannie and Freddie.  He believes he  is a right-wing zealot, but he is actually an anarchist.  He has described his job as protecting the taxpayer, but he seems to be unaware that homeowners are taxpayers, and that the wealth of all tax payers are tied to the value of the residential real estate market.  (If he really cared about the taxpayer, he would have went after the corporate crooks who dumped all this toxic loans on Fannie and Freddie.) Instead DeMarco has refused to allow Fannie or Freddie to take part in any program that might help save homes from foreclosure, especially anything involving principal reduction. This nihilistic ideology caused him to refuse to allow Fannie or Freddie to take part in the recent $25 billion settlement with the banks which is saving homes at no cost to the government.

It recently came out that like Grover Norquist that DeMarco has been drowning in the bathtub any program that involved principal reduction before they had a chance to prove their value.  Even programs recommended by the banks.  Even principal forgiveness programs that were shown to ultimately cost the taxpaying public less money than foreclosing.  Some of these programs were innovative by spreading the risk through Share Appreciation Programs (SAP).  these programs would lop let’s say $100,000 off an underwater property in order to make it affordable and in line with its values.  In exchange the homeowner would agree to share a potion of the appreciation (let’s say 20%) if they sell the home for a profit in the future.  This is like what Bruce Willis did in Pulp Fiction.  He worked for scale on the movie because he wanted to do the project which did not have the budget for his usual salary but he took a part of the reciepts if the movie was sucessful.  The movie made a bundle, so did Bruce, and everyone was happy.

Demand DeMarco be fired immediately to stop him from wasting millions more of taxpayer dollars.