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    Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire: Ultimate Fan Guide

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    The Green Party has continually opposed entry into war and has consistently called for the immediate return of our troops, in stark contrast to the Democratic and Republican parties.
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    Occupy Wall Street: What Just Happened? eBook

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    Occupy Wall Street: What Just Happened? eBook

    Reflections on Occupy Wall Street, with photos, fun, and good wishes for the future. eBook, Occupy Wall Street: What Just Happened? (Only $.99 !) In the eBook, the Occupy movement is explored through original reporting, photographs, cartoons, poetry, essays, and reviews.The collection of essays and blog posts records the unfolding of Occupy into the culture from September 2011 to the present.  Authors Kimberly Wilder and Ian Wilder were early supporters of Occupy, using their internet platforms to communicate the changes being created by the American Autumn.

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Who may belong to the Congressional Black Caucus?

Posted on November 9, 2010 by kwilder

There is a very interesting development in the world of politics. The Congressional Black Caucus [CBC] — traditionally a group of Democratic Congresspeople — may open its doors to black, Republican Congresspeople. Besides issues related to the ideology and membership of the potential Republican members, there is another interesting aspect to this change: What will happen when there are third party, black Congresspeople elected? It appears that moving forward, if parties such as the Green Party or Libertarian Party elect people to Congress, those officials will be welcome into the CBC.

(excerpt from) The Hill
Black Caucus says it will welcome newly elected black Republicans
By Mike Lillis – 11/09/10

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) said this week it will welcome a pair of newly elected black Republicans if they wish to join. [GOP Reps.-elect Allen West (Fla.) and Tim Scott (S.C.)] Read more »

Filed under: 3rd party, democrat, Election 2010, News, politics, progressive politics, third party, US Politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Did you know it snowed on Monday?

Posted on November 9, 2010 by kwilder
A picture of a Snow Crystal taken by Wilson Be...

Image via Wikipedia

It really snowed on Long Island Monday. A woman at the library had told me that she saw snow at 7:30 am Monday in North Babylon when she took her children to the bus stop. Now, Newsday reported snow on Monday as the first snow of the season. (Although, my young nephews in Coram claimed to see some flakes this weekend, I believe those flakes were “under the radar” as it were.)

(excerpt from) Newsday
Early taste of winter hits LI with snow, wind, cold temps Read more »

Filed under: local, long island, News | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Green Party regains ballot status in Mass., NY, & Texas on Election Day 2010

Posted on November 8, 2010 by iwilder
Sunflower

Image via Wikipedia

The Green Party regained ballot status in three states on Election Day 2010 and Green Mayor Gayle McLaughlin was reelected in Richmond, California, among several other victories in that state.

Green election results in Massachusetts, New York, and Texas won ballot access for these states, thanks to the campaigns of Nat Fortune for State Auditor in Massachusetts, Howie Hawkins and Gloria Mattera for governor and lieutenant governor in New York, and Ed Lindsay for Comptroller in Texas.  Green Parties in California, the District of Columbia, and Michigan maintained their ballot status.

Having ballot status in three of the most populous states will make a Green presidential campaign much easier in 2012.

A list of victories, including ballot status wins, follows below.  News from other races:  LeAlan Jones (Illinois) and John Gray (Arkansas) were declared winners by reporters in their state’s debates, with Mr. Jones declared the winner of a debate he was barred from attending.  In a historic first, Arizona Green candidate Jerry Joslyn confronted John McCain on his war spending in a US Senate debate.

GREEN VICTORIES, including ballot access, on November 2, 2010 (unofficial Results): Read more »

Filed under: 3rd party, election, Election 2010, elections, governor, grassroots democracy, Green Party, new york, New York State Politics, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Explosion closes Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City; no danger of radiation leak

Posted on November 8, 2010 by iwilder

A transformer explosion prompted the automatic shutdown of one of the two units at the Indian Point nuclear power plant on Sunday night.

Officials at the Buchanan plant immediately declared an alert after the 6:39 p.m. emergency but said the warning was only precautionary.

via Explosion closes Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City; no danger of radiation leak.

Filed under: News | Leave a Comment »

The Tyranny of Comstat – Ta-Nehisi Coates – National – The Atlantic

Posted on November 8, 2010 by iwilder

Late as always, I recently came upon the story of an NYPD precinct in Brooklyn, where the commanding officer was taped repeatedly ordering his subordinates to either arrest or ticket American citizens for the sole purpose of juking statistics. That alone is bad enough. But in playing with the numbers, the officers inadvertently aided the rampage of a serial rapist in Bed-Stuy. You can listen to episode of This American Life, here. Or read about it in the Village Voice here.

I was really disturbed by this story. I’ve seen reports of stop and frisk and racial bias for months now and tuned them out. If blacks and Latinos commit most of the crimes, it stands to reason they’ll be overrepresented among the stop and frisks. Except that this isn’t about fighting crime. It’s about harassing the weak, in order to uphold the strong. I’m ashamed, now, that I ignored those reports.

via The Tyranny of Comstat – Ta-Nehisi Coates – National – The Atlantic.

Filed under: News | Leave a Comment »

Monday, Nov 8th: My day at the Suffolk County Board of Elections

Posted on November 8, 2010 by kwilder
Audrey1 BOE

Audrey Capozzi. Photo by Kimberly Wilder.

 

Kimberly BOE

Kimberly Wilder. Photo by Audrey Capozzi.

 

Today I spent a few hours at the Suffolk County Board of Elections. I am a registered “blank”, who supports the rights of all third parties. I went with a pollwatching certificate from the Libertarian Party. And, I worked with Audrey Capozzi, who is the Vice Chair of the LPNY (state Libertarian Party) and Secretary of the LPSC (Libertarian Party of Suffolk County).

Our main goal is to make sure that all the votes for Libertarian Governor candidate Warren Redlich are captured. And, we got some information on that issue. Though, with all the tight races and recalls, it was fun just to be at the Suffolk County Board of Elections and see what was happening.

The two big races being contested at the Suffolk BOE are the Tim Bishop/Randy Altschuler race in the 1st Congressional District and the Marc Alessi/Dan Losquadro race for State Assembly. Read more »

Filed under: 3rd party, Green Party, local, long island, Long Island Politics, new york, News, politics, third party, US Politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

X-Rays: A naive celebration on Google’s front page graphic

Posted on November 8, 2010 by kwilder
x-ray

Image via Wikipedia

Have you seen the graphic du jour at Google today? It is a whimsical collage of x-ray images, with the note “115th Anniversary of the Discovery of X-rays”.

X-rays are one of those scientific inventions which have been used with more celebration, and much less caution, than needed.

It is ironic that Google is celebrating the x-ray, since there is currently a lawsuit against the US Department for Homeland Security for using x-ray technology in full body scans at airport security checkpoints. EPIC, Electronic Privacy Information Center, contends that there were not proper hearings before these scanners were implemented.* Read more »

Filed under: News, politics, progressive politics, public health, safe, safety, screening, US Politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Bishop & Alessi’s Chickens Come Home to Roost

Posted on November 7, 2010 by iwilder
Slot machine.

Image via Wikipedia

Congressman Tim Bishop (CD-1) and New York State Assemblyman Marc Alessi (AD-1)have recently been de-elected  when it turned out that their election night vote counts were off by several thousand in their opponent’s favor in very close races.

I have no sympathy for Congressman Bishop.  Congress shoved the awful “Helping America (not be able to) Vote Act” down our throats.  It is aslo known as HAVA.  Congress demanded we get rid of our safe and secure manual voting machines and replace them with these black box slot machines electronic voting machines.  In a huge case of corporate welfare, these unproven machines were to be purchased from a small number of manufacturers.  Even worse, they privatized voting so that the ability to check the software running the vote is in the hands of a private company.

Assemblyman Marc Alessi has the secondary blame, but more than enough.  In the volleyball analogy that Kimberly uses,  the New York State legislature popped the ball over the net, by accepting the federal demand for these slot machines and even setting the terms on which they were purchased.

Chicken roost

Image by btmspox via Flickr

In the greatest irony of all, Bishop and Alessi are now demanding a full hand count of the ballots.  ROTFLMAO.  Voting experts have testified from the beginning that hand-counted paper ballots (not electronic voting machines) are the most secure, least expensive, and most accessible form of voting.  Canada uses paper ballots every year without issue.  And they hand count them overnight.

I am only waiting for the other shoe to drop, or be thrown, as the case may be.  They are now claiming that 38% of the machines in Bishop’s congressional district mis-reported the vote to the Suffolk County Board of Elections.  Since that large a sample from one end of the county was wrong, when is someone going to figure out that they need to check the vote in ALL of Suffolk County?

Related Articles Read more »

Filed under: election, Election 2010, elections, grassroots democracy, local, long island, Long Island Politics, new york, New York State Politics, News, politics, US Politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Link to PeaceSmiths photos and mini-report…

Posted on November 6, 2010 by kwilder

If you were there, come relive the moment.

If you missed it: Wanna see how much fun we had?

;)

Post at the PeaceSmiths website: here Read more »

Filed under: Anti-War, local, long island, Long Island Music, long island music scene, Long Island Politics, News, Peace, politics, progressive politics | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Jeff Cohen: Major Corporate Money was Behind Dems as Well | CommonDreams.org

Posted on November 6, 2010 by iwilder

COHEN: It’s what I talked to Real News Network about many, many months ago, which is swing voters expected change, and when they didn’t get change, significant change from Obama, they looked somewhere else for change. And Feingold is a many-term senator, and he got punished because of Obama’s unpopularity in Wisconsin. Let’s face it: you know, we have a horrible economy, and what the people wanted was jobs, and instead of being bold on jobs, the White House gave us a weak stimulus. The country, people are losing their homes, and instead of a freeze on foreclosures for middle-class homeowners, Obama bailed out the banks, which didn’t loan the money to middle-class people anyhow. He dithered. You can’t dither when there’s a recession or a depression going on. If you’re in the White House and you do halfway measures and corporatized health-care reform, you don’t do anything on jobs, you do almost nothing about foreclosures, the independent voters who came to you in November 2008 are going to go somewhere else, even if it’s behind charlatans from the Tea Party.

via Jeff Cohen: Major Corporate Money was Behind Dems as Well | CommonDreams.org.

Filed under: election, Election 2010, elections | 1 Comment »

Nader case against Dems argued in Machias — Bangor Daily News

Posted on November 6, 2010 by iwilder

No decisions were reached Friday in Washington County Superior Court after several hours of arguments in a lawsuit brought by national activist Ralph Nader and three others against the Maine and national Democratic committees.

Nader maintains that the Democrats launched a nationwide effort to use litigation to neutralize his 2004 presidential campaign. He alleges that baseless lawsuits were filed against Nader in 29 states, including Maine, which challenged the honesty of petitions to place Nader and his running mate, the late Peter Camejo, on the ballot.

via Nader case against Dems argued in Machias — Bangor Daily News.

Filed under: 3rd party, Action Alert!, activism, grassroots democracy, Ralph Nader | Leave a Comment »

Green Party New York: Guv cand Hawkins (G-NY) Says the Green Campaign Continues

Posted on November 6, 2010 by iwilder

“We won the ballot line. Now we aim to win our Green New Deal policies for New York State,” Howie Hawkins said Friday, reflecting on the next steps for the Green Party after it passed the 50,000 votes for Governor threshold needed to secure a ballot line in New York for the next four years.

“We come out of this election much stronger than we went into it. We’re bigger, better organized, and have new allies in the labor, community, peace, and environmental movements. We now plan to keep organizing, mobilizing, and pushing for a Green New Deal between now and the next state legislative elections in the 2012 elections. We will also be working at the national level on bringing our troops home, cutting the military budget, immigrant rights, protecting social security and curtailing climate change,” Hawkins said.

via Green Party New York » Blog Archive » Howie Hawkins Says the Green Campaign Continues.

Filed under: 3rd party, Action Alert!, activism, Anti-War, election, Election 2010, elections, Global Warming, governor, grassroots democracy, Green Party, howie hawkins, immigration, international politics, new york, New York State Politics, politics, reform | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Democrats Take A Deliberate Midterm Dive | Black Agenda Report

Posted on November 6, 2010 by iwilder

The past four years of Democratic rule were a blown opportunity to control the politics of the US for a generation. The only force that stopped Democrats from creating millions of jobs, from ending the wars and bringing the troops home, from putting the banksters on a starvation diet, were elected Democrats themselves. By not fulfilling the mandate Democratic voters gave them in 2006 and 2008, Democratic party elected officials doomed themselves in 2010, and perhaps us too.

via Democrats Take A Deliberate Midterm Dive | Black Agenda Report.

Filed under: election, Election 2010, elections, grassroots democracy | 1 Comment »

Concerns with bond rating and finances in Nassau County

Posted on November 6, 2010 by kwilder
Seal of Nassau County, New York

Image via Wikipedia

On one level, this bond downgrading and any financial problems in Nassau County will become a blame-game between the new, Republican County Executive and the Democratic leaders there. Though, there is more to it than a major party,”he said-she said”. And, even though I am apathetic to political problems and political landscapes where there is no third party voice, the economics of this will matter a lot for the residents of Nassau County.

(Oh, and now that the Green Party of New York has a ballot line, perhaps someone there can pipe in with a third party solution, or a third party County Executive campaign?)

(excerpt from) Newsday
National rating agency downgrades Nassau’s credit
by Celeste Hadrick / November 5, 2010

For the first time in a decade, Nassau County’s credit has been downgraded by a national rating agency.

Moody’s Investors Service dropped Nassau’s credit rating Friday from Aa3 to A1 and also put the county on a negative outlook, signaling possible future downgrades. At the same time, however, two other major rating agencies held Nassau’s credit and outlook steady.

A drop in the credit rating usually means higher interest costs for the county when it borrows to pay expenses – though county Comptroller George Maragos noted that the Federal Reserve’s recent moves to push down overall interest rates could mitigate Nassau’s costs… Read more »

Filed under: 3rd party, economy, Green Party, local, long island, Long Island Politics, News, politics, third party | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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