Green Party Success in 2006

Green Party Success in 2006

Continue Reading November 30th, 2006

This is a piece from the Berkeley Daily Planet that highlights all of the various success stories that the Green Party has to show for the 2006 election.

I think the author goes a bit overboard in calling this year an “unqualified success” considering the Greens lost their only state legislator …

Osborn Wins Warren County?

Continue Reading November 30th, 2006

Libertarian Senatorial candidate Steve Osborn received just under 13% of the vote statewide in a one-on-one contest against Senator Dick Lugar. However, results on the CNN website and on Dave Leip’s site both point to a 60-40% win for Osborn in Warren county. This is not Osborn’s …

Rapping for T. Lee Horne

Continue Reading November 30th, 2006

Picked this up off the LP’s national website, it’s a rap music video for 2007 Libertarian for Governor of Louisana, T. Lee Horne.

My first thoughts were negative when I hit play, assuming that it would degenerate into some cheesey mess. As I watched the whole video, it’s actually kind …

Really “lame” lame duck Congress; Pryce wins; P2008 news.

Continue Reading November 27th, 2006

TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE.

LAME DUCK CONGRESS MAY QUICKLY ADJOURN; PRYCE WINS; P2008 NEWS.
Roll Call is reporting that a “squabble among Republicans over spending bills makes it increasingly likely that the House will finish its business by the end of next week … Given that GOP conservatives have prevented their colleagues on the House and Senate Appropriations panels from moving forward with plans to pass the nine remaining spending bills as an omnibus package, Republicans leaders are now expected to punt the issue to next year’s Democratic-led Congress rather than take the time to piece together major spending legislation” … Ohio election officials finally finished the initial counting of ballots in the CD-15 race on Monday. With all votes counted, Congresswoman Deb Pryce (R) defeated Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy (D) by 1,055 votes (or 50.2% to 49.8%). However, as the margin was less than 0.5% of the vote, state law requires an automatic recount. Neither side expects the the outcome to change in the recount … Iowa Republicans selected August 11, 2007, as the date for their non-binding Ames Straw Poll. The vote is a major test of grassroots organization strength. Also, the Boston Globe reported that California, Florida and Michigan — three giant states — are attempting to move their Presidential primaries to “as close as possible” to the date of the New Hampshire primary.
Posted by Ron Gunzburger - 11.28.06 | Permalink | postCount(’112806a’);

FREE SPEECH ZONE.
According to the New York Times, the highly touted Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group just produced a first draft of recommended options that does NOT include any version of a phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. All these newly elected congressional Dems — and the Dem leadership — kept saying for weeks they wanted to the see the ISG recommendations before formulating a specific Iraq policy. Now they look likely to be stuck with a “new” plan of options that — essentially — consists of “stay the course” variants. US Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) had the guts this week to break with his party and openly call for the start of the phased withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. So, what will it take for the new Democratic leadership to find some backbone and follow suit?
Posted by Ron Gunzburger - 11.28.06 | Permalink | postCount(’112806b’);

Brownback close to P2008 bid; General says Rumsfeld authorized prison abuses; Mainstream Dems.

Continue Reading November 26th, 2006

MONDAY NEWS UPDATE.

BROWNBACK CLOSE TO P2008 BID; GENERAL SAYS RUMSFELD AUTHORIZED ABUSES.
US Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) strongly hinted on ABC’s This Week that he will soon make an official announcement on his likely Presidential candidacy. “We’re very close with announcements … and really considering whether we could bring a message to the country that needs to be discussed. I think there is room, on the Republican side, for somebody that’s a full-scale conservative, that’s an economic and fiscal and social conservative,” he said. He is also a leading voice in Congress for US action to end the ongoing genocide in Darfur. Brownback has made several trips to Iowa, New Hampshire and other early contest states over the past year. Brownback — the most socially conservative of the likely GOP candidates — would need to rely on heavy support from the party’s Religious Right base in order to gain traction … Former US Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski told Spain’s El Pais newspaper that Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld personally authorized in writing the mistreatment of prisoners in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. Karpinski was the commandant of the prison when the abuses took place. The letter authorized US contractors to use sleep deprivation, making prisoners stand for hours on end, and other similar techniques. “The handwritten signature was above his printed name [in the letter] and in the same handwriting in the margin was written ‘Make sure this is accomplished,’” said Karpinski. She said she is now willing to testify against Rumsfeld in any court cases or hearings. The Pentagon declined comment on Karpinski’s statements … Incoming House Committee Chairs Barney Frank (D-MA) and John Dingell (D-MI) said they plan to advance an agenda for “mainstream America” in the next Congress. Because of that, according to Frank, don’t look for the new House leadership to advance divisive, liberal hot button issues like gay-in-the-military, etc.
Posted by Ron Gunzburger - 11.27.06 | Permalink | postCount(’112706a’);

FREE SPEECH ZONE.
Your daily open thread.
Posted by Ron Gunzburger - 11.27.06 | Permalink | postCount(’112706b’);

Happy Thanksgiving

Continue Reading November 25th, 2006

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday. We’ll be back with new updates sometime later in the weekend.

RootsCamp: few, but quality

1 comment November 22nd, 2006

Last weekend, I concluded a two-month project called RootsCamp by sitting around various tables with a small group of locals, talking politics. There were some disappointments, of course, mainly tied to the lack of numbers filling the venues. But I’m glad I made the effort. In fact, there was strong support for continuing the idea, perhaps in January for a single session.

Some of the key lessons learned include:

• Like-minded people have a lot of disagreement. The dozen people who attended were all progressive-liberal types of some definition. No students. No Republicans. No cultural diversity. Still, everybody has her own agenda, his own way to make sense of the world. Diversity of any kind is needed for good conversation, and it will surface even in a vanilla group of ideologues.
• When recruiting, there is no substitute for face-to-face conversation. Time and money were big resource constraints for me, but I also recognize that getting out of my office and talking to people about this idea is uncomfortable. Yet, I was at my most effective in explaining the concept when I did so. Blogging, email, web sites … all very important in the process, but they should support the act of looking someone in the eye.
• People will talk about what is important to them. The strength of this self-organizing format is that people are empowered to fill the Big Board with what interests them. Choices and opportunity are key ingredients, and we should actively fight against our own impulses to dictate agendas.
• The web site was an obstacle to entry. The pbwiki site is a bit on the clunky side, as are most wikis. The registration process, which required people to edit a wiki page, was a hurdle (I also accepted email and phone calls). The site also notified all members of every page edit by default, which led to a lot of notification emails for people who didn’t want them. Technology should facilitate, not dictate or interfere.
• There is no “good” day to have a conference. Every day is contended in Bloomington. This particular weekend of RootsCamp had many conflicts … Men’s basketball game on Friday night … IU-Purdue football game on Saturday … parenting conference on Saturday … Last weekend before a major holiday … The release of Wii, which required some to sit in the cold for two days to pick up one of the 45 units Best Buy got Sunday. Advance notice and frequent opportunities can help overcome the hurdles to participation, but there will never be a “perfect” time to do anything.
• Every place, every person, has an embedded identity. I take some pride in the fact that I can stand in a conversation and have people wrinkle their brows trying to place me in an ideology. I am not a Democrat, nor am I Republican. I am progressive, but even that isn’t clearly defined. Still, the fact that I attend, or that I organize forces others to make the attempt to classify me. And in doing so, they react to that classification, whether it is accurate or not. RootsCamp’s national effort is definitely “progressive” in the Democrat sense of the word. Anyone going to the site from the other side of the fence might be chased off by that. Those in attendance are talking about getting local organizations to host a session every month or so. Any location we choose is going to have embedded in it some identity that invokes reactions. The best way to compensate is to identify with a philosophy that can withstand those biases.

What’s Next? … Well, it is difficult to imagine not leaning on these new connections to become engaged in the local political scene. The absence of conservative voices (Republicans were largely defeated in this area in November) makes me want to redouble my efforts to get those people coming to the tables, perhaps starting with a conservative-centered conversation. There are a few tech and research initiatives that came out of the conversations, so I see some tangible things I can do to contribute.

What’s this mean for 3rd Party? … This experience reinforces two central beliefs. First, the best way to engage is locally through establishment of personal connections. Second, diversity exists even within like-minded people. To improve the quality of our political thought, we need to get people with lots of different ideas talking to each other. Not to convince, but to validate their life experiences and make sure they are considered in the action that results from the conversation.

Most Successful Candidates?

Continue Reading November 22nd, 2006

So, who do you all think were the most successful minor party candidates this year? That can be a tricky question because there are all sorts of factors to consider.

On one hand, if a person scores an 8% showing in a 2-way race, that really can’t be considered better …

Write-in Votes Continue to Trickle In

Continue Reading November 22nd, 2006

First off I want to apologize about the update I posted earlier on Randy Stufflebeam’s write-in totals. The original post missed the fact that the Stufflebeam campaign was including “undervotes” in the totals until such time as hard numbers became available. This probably created an extreme over-estimation …

Kubby’s Open Letter on Iraq

Continue Reading November 22nd, 2006

With the 2006 elections starting to fade from memory, it’s time to look ahead toward 2008. With that in mind, leading Libertarian Presidential candidate Steve Kubby has issued the following “open letter” that outlines his position on the situation in Iraq.

Dear fellow Libertarians,

Since I declared my candidacy for …