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  • Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire: Ultimate Fan Guide

    Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire: The Ultimate Fan Guide [Kindle] $0.99.


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    Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire:  Ultimate Fan Guide

    Georgiana is the subject of the movie "The Duchess" (currently on Netflix) and a relative of the young Prince and Princess of Cambridge. Get the Ultimate Fan Guide -- with plot points, history, and what happened to the historical characters -- for only 99 cents!

  • Green Party Peace Sign Bumper Sticker


    Green Party Peace Sign Bumper Sticker
    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.
    Today we march, tomorrow we vote Green Party.

  • Occupy Wall Street: What Just Happened?

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    Occupy Wall Street: What Just Happened? eBook

    Occupy Wall Street: What Just Happened? eBook on Amazon

    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.

    The eBook is currently available on Amazon for Kindle;  Barnes & Noble Nook ; Smashwords independent eBook seller; and a Kobo for 99 cents and anyone can read it using their Kindle/Nook Reader, smart phone, or computer.

How do a blogging couple spend their 10th Wedding Anniversary?

hat_bottomup by you.We re-design our website, of course.  You can compare screen shots of the old and new at the bottom of this post.

This re-design has been a long time coming.  Kimberly probably would not have talked Ian into spending the day on it it, if it hadn’t been a rainy day.  Moreover, a drive out to the North Fork was out of the  question since we would just be going into the Hurricane Danny-inspired rain. Read more »

Bill Moyers talks with Bill Maher about Healthcare video

Hmm . . . . The Democrats and Republicans are both dominated by corpoations that have kept us from being the only industrialized nation in the world without single payer universal healthcare.

Wonder what a political party not dominated by corporate contribution would be like?  Read more »

Another Major Setback for “Nuclear Renaissance”: Industry Goes 0-6 in 2009 Efforts to Overturn State Bans on New Nuclear Reactors.

More Lobbying Expected in 2010 in Even Tougher Environment After Yucca Mountain and Soaring Cost Estimates; Outside of Bans, Industry Falters on CWIP in Missouri and Key Fights in Other States.

The so-called “nuclear renaissance” is finding few friends among state lawmakers in the United States. The nuclear power industry has been shut out across the board in 2009 in its efforts in all six states — ranging across the nation from Kentucky to Minnesota to Hawaii — where it sought to overturn what are either explicit or effectively bans on construction of new reactors, according to the nonprofit Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS). Efforts to overturn bans also have failed to advance in Illinois and West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Beyond failing to reverse a single state-level ban on new reactors, the industry also suffered a wide range of major defeats, including an effort to repeal a ban on “Construction Work in Progress” (CWIP) payments that would have been imposed on Missouri ratepayers to finance a new nuclear power plant, which was then promptly mothballed. Industry efforts to get nuclear declared “renewable” by the states of Indiana and Arizona also failed to achieve results. Also going nowhere is a California bill to lift the state’s pioneering law banning new reactors until a high-level waste dump is in place. That follows a 2008 California statewide referendum drive with the same focus that failed for lack of sufficient signatures to get it on the ballot. Read more »

Hard-hitting gender story about Caster Semenya situation

KW: I have excerpted the story from The Root/repost at Reclaim the Media below about Caster Semenya and gender testing. The story itself is even more controversial. One thing is that the article seems nearly cruel, in naming the ugly ideas that other people have about Caster. Difficult to decide in a situation like this: Do you name the ugly thoughts? Does naming them conquer them? Or, spread them?

Pull quotes:

“But the tests are, of course, rigged—because witch hunts always produce witches.”

“Results of the gender investigation aside, Caster Semenya’s humanity has already been sacrificed to Western culture’s desperate, frightened effort to maintain the fiction of binary, fixed gender.”

(excerpt from) Reclaim the Media
Semenya’s race and sex struggle
by Kai Wright, The Root

It’s important to note that no one believes she has masqueraded as a woman. Rather, the hypothesis is that she’s been confused her whole life. “Clearly it was not her fault,” IAAF spokesperson Nick Davies told the BBC, in speculating about what it’ll mean if she fails her gender exam. “It’s a medical issue. … She was born, christened and grew up a woman.” She just might not be one, at least not by [The International Association of Athletics Federations] IAAF’s standards.

So now she must endure a stunning battery of tests, stretching far past a mere dropping of the trousers. Davies explains: “There is chromosome testing, gynecological investigation, all manner of things, organs, X-rays, scans. … It’s very, very comprehensive.”… Read more »

Harry Chapin Tribute 8/31/09 & much more

by Cindy Funk under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

Harry Chapin

Update: Video of Harry Chapin event: here and at bottom of this post.

Other listings start below at *******’s.

Monday August 31 Harry Chapin Tribute MC Stuart Markus 7pm Eisenhower Park, East Meadow Nassau County Parks Department www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/Parks End of Eisenhower Park Lakeside Theatre Free Summer Entertainment Schedule.

Bring canned food & money to donate for Island Harvest www.islandharvest.org & World Hunger Year www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/Parks/2009SummerSchedule.html

The line-up for the Chapin Tribute show Monday August 31 (in no particular order): Read more »

Obama’s White House: New ways to spy?

KW: I totally missed this story, even though it is a week and a half old. Thanks to Adam Kokesh, who is running for Congress in New Mexico, for bringing it to my attention at his candidate web-site. The main story below is about the White House and a tips line for health care disinformation. Though, the last paragraph holds a whole new warning about a whole new battle. Posting the last paragraph first. Take note:

Privacy concerns also attended the administration’s use of YouTube, which came with an unusual exemption to White House rules banning the use of tracking software known as cookies. A White House proposal this month to permanently change the rules on cookies has again raised these concerns; the administration is seeking to overturn the ban on the use of cookies by federal Web sites.

(excerpt from) Washington Post
White House Drops Health-Care Tip Line
E-Mail Effort Raised Privacy Concerns

By Garance Franke-Ruta / August 19, 2009

After complaints from Republicans, the White House has shut down a two-week-old e-mail tip line where people could report “disinformation about health insurance reform…

The e-mail tip line, flag@whitehouse.gov, was launched Aug. 4 as part of the White House’s Health Insurance Reform Reality Check, a rapid-response effort reminiscent of the war room that the Obama campaign began last summer to fight online rumors about Obama’s patriotism and religion.

But the new effort quickly sparked concern among Republicans about the government collecting information on private citizens’ political speech. Read more »

Elections in Japan: left wins over conservative

It is amazing how many media outlets refuse to acknowledge victories by the left. The AP story, which many papers often use, did say that the ruling power who lost is “conservative” and the party that won is “left-of-center.” Though, on my Google-news search for a newspaper source, the word “conservative” was left out of most articles.

(Excerpt from) Washington Post
Exit Polls Show Opposition Wins Japan Election
Victory Would Break Half-Century Hammerlock of One-Party Rule

Sunday, August 30, 2009; 8:07 AM

TOKYO, Aug. 30 — Breaking a half-century hammerlock of one-party rule, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan won a resounding victory in a parliamentary election on Sunday, according to exit polls conducted by Japanese media. Read more »

Nader will release his new fiction book: Sept. 22, 2009

Thanks to Peter Orvetti at Independent Political Report for the news.

Ralph Nader’s new, fiction book is: “Only the Super-rich Can Save Us!” It will be released by Seven Stories Press on September 22, 2009.

Description from the publisher’s web-site, below:

“In the cozy den of the large but modest house in Omaha where he has lived since he started on his first billion, Warren Buffett watched the horrors of Hurricane Katrina unfold on television in early September 2005. . . . On the fourth day, he beheld in disbelief the paralysis of local, state, and federal authorities unable to commence basic operations of rescue and sustenance, not just in New Orleans, but in towns and villages all along the Gulf Coast. . . He knew exactly what he had to do. . .” Read more »

Green Party demands Single-Payer

In Durham, North Carolina this July, delegates at the Annual National Meeting of the Green Party of the United States chose working for a Single Payer Health Care System as one of the top priorities for the coming year.

The Green Party has taken a strong stand, based in experience, to reform our nation’s health care system.  All across the country, the health insurance debate rages.  The debate is centered around reforming the health insurance companies.

The Green Party has a tradition of going to the root of the problem. The problem will not be addressed by making minor changes to require health insurance companies to provide a bit more health care to a few more people….  We exist not to dabble in small adjustments on the edges of corporate America, but instead  to pressure for basic reforms.  The Green Party honors health care as a basic right for all rather than as a rationed privilege only for those who have.   We advocate for a Single Payer Health Care System.  Our candidates stand firmly for Single Payer when they run for office, our elected officials stand for Single Payer when in office, and our members advocate for Single Payer in their daily lives.

The idea of health care as a right is not a radical position, but instead is part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the founding document of the United Nations, of which the United States was a signatory in 1948.  It states:  “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services” Read more »

CT Green Party calls for Special Session to “Fix” Unconstitutional Public Campaign Financing

The Green Party of Connecticut  called on the General Assembly  to reform the “Clean Elections” Law ,which was   struck down as unconstitutional  by  the  Federal Court,  as soon as possible, and not appeal the ruling to other courts, which would cost the taxpayers more money in legal fees and could take months in the courts.

Tim McKee, a National Committee person for the Green Party said “We have over a year before elections and we could fix the law in one day session. We seem to be stuck in “permanent and ongoing campaign mode “ if you listen  to the Secretary of State and Attorney General. Their actions  to try and appeal the ruling will keep hurting third parties and Independent  candidates . We simply want to make the law constitutional as the Federal Judge ruled.”

Steve Fournier, State Co-Chair said “We will push for the General Assembly to treat all political parties equally by scrapping the excessive petitioning and matching funds requirements.  If a candidate qualifies for the ballot, that candidate should receive full funding.  The General Assembly can quickly and easily amend this law to make it constitutional.”

The Greens explained that the requirement requires that ONLY third parties collect over 200,000 valid signatures for equal funding for campaigns such as the Governor’s race. This means collecting close to 400,000 raw signatures, which would cost the smaller parties both a lot of time and money

Mike DeRosa, a lead plaintiff and Co–Chair of the Connecticut Green Party said “All we are seeking is a level playing field for all who run for office.  We want MORE people to run for office and the law hurts minor parties and independent candidates by requiring extra hurdles and burdens.

McKee added “This ruling has national implications for all third parties who have been treated unfairly in other states. The Federal Court agrees with us that you can not treat us differently than other parties.  Governor Rell has called the old law ‘a model law’ for other states to pass and others states were looking to follow the law struck down by the federal court. Other states, such as Maine and Arizona, treat the Greens and other minor parties fairly, and are the real “model laws” and we should do the same here.”

2010 Primaries in NY: Could the month be changed?

from Ballot Access News
Federal Legislation May Doom September Primaries
August 28th, 2009

The bill moving through Congress to fund the military has an amendment that requires states to postally mail ballots to overseas absentee voters no later than 45 days before the general election. This New York Times story says that New York state officials believe that if the bill passes, the state will be forced to move its primary (for office other than president) from September, to an earlier month. About a dozen other states also have September primaries, and what is true for New York will probably be true for them as well.

Eloquent shoe-thrower, Al-Zeidi, to be released early!

As journalist and Iraqi citizen Muntadhar al-Zeidi threw his shoe towards President Bush, standing at a podium in Iraq, Muntadhar said, “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”

(excerpt from) The LA Times
Iraqi shoe thrower to be released early

The lawyer for Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who became a folk hero in the Arab world for his act of defiance toward Bush, says his sentence was reduced for good behavior…will be released next month after his sentence was reduced for good behavior, his lawyer said today.

September 2009 Green Party Show Schedule on Woodbury Cable

Thurs 9/3/09 @ 5:30 am. Green Party Show on Woodbury Cablevision Channel 20 (E Nassau/W Suffolk Suffolk) featuring Pisces Cafe owner and former stockbroker Jeffrey Arthur speaking about Socially Responsible and Ethical Investing at the January 2008 Babylon Green Party Gathering at Pisces Cafe, Babylon.

Thurs 9/10/09 @ 5:30 am. Green Party Show on Woodbury Cablevision Channel 20 (E Nassau/W Suffolk Suffolk) featured former Green Party of New York State Co-Chair Ian Wilder who reviewed Obama’s First 100 days from a Green Party Perspective at the May 2009 Babylon Green Party Gathering at Pisces Cafe, Babylon.

Thurs 9/17/09 @ 5:30 am. Green Party Show on Woodbury Cablevision Channel 20 (E Nassau/W Suffolk Suffolk) featured “Debate: Why Do We Need a Third Party” with David Sprintzen arguing why we do not need a national, third party; Kimberly Wilder arguing why we should encourage third parties; a pre-recorded speech by Vivek Chibber of NYU; and moderator Terry Morrone. (This video shows the fuller program, with the alternate view presented, which the youtube “Top Ten Reasons To Like Third Parties” was made from.) Video by Terry Morrone. Edited to 30 minute format by onthewilderside media. Taped at the LIPC Patriot Games Forum at the Huntington Library, Long Island, NY. April 2009.

Thurs 9/24/09 @ 5:30 am. Green Party Show on Woodbury Cablevision Channel 20 (E Nassau/W Suffolk Suffolk) featured the band, beat radio, (consisting of Brian Sendrowitz and Phil Jimenez) played at the Green Party of Suffolk’s Earth Day 2008 fundraiser.

PLUS: Read more »

Good news for third party/independent candidates: Court decision on public campaign funding

KW: This is very good news for third party and independent candidates. Having government/public money set aside to fund candidates can be a healthy idea for getting all voices heard during election season. The idea is that people willing to run for office do not have to be rich to get their ideas out and have a campaign. Though, too many times, when public campaign funding is proposed, it includes hidden pitfalls for non-major party candidates. This new ruling is actually a great step in demanding an even playing field.

Commentary below by Ballot Access expert Richard Winger:

from Ballot Access News
Connecticut Public Funding Law Held Unconstitutional Because it Discriminates Severely Against Minor Parties & Independent Candidates
/ August 27th, 2009

On August 27, U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill, a Clinton appointee, held that Connecticut’s public funding law for candidates is so discriminatory in favor of the two major parties, and against all other parties and candidates, that it is unconstitutional in its entirety. The opinion is 138 pages long. A link to the decision is found in this news story from Connecticut News Junkie. Thanks to Ken Krayeske for this news. The case is Green Party of Ct. v Garfield, 3:06cv1030. The Libertarian Party is a co-plaintiff. Read more »