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Occupy movement comes to New Paltz; one arrest is made | New Paltz Times

23 Dec

A New Paltz resident and Occupy movement member spoke up during the public comment period, saying, “I was an activist probably before many of my fellow members were even born.” That said, he felt “rejuvenated by these young people and the Occupy movement, which is born out of great darkness. Homes of working Americans are being foreclosed on; millions are without health insurance; those that are pay more than half their paycheck for the limited insurance they receive, which includes increasingly high co-pays and deductibles that they can’t afford. We’re seeing extreme layoffs, corporations paying off politicians to continue practices that endanger public health and our water and air. They are a ray of light shining into that darkness, and I support them.”

via Occupy movement comes to New Paltz; one arrest is made | New Paltz Times.

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Ron Paul and the second coming of Buchananism – War Room – Salon.com

23 Dec

Buchanan called Paul “an honest, principled, courageous political leader,” but stressed that he won’t be making any endorsement in the GOP primary because of his MSNBC contract. While he doesn’t think Paul can actually win the nomination, he insists the GOP is slowly moving in his direction, with the price-tag that comes with a sustained overseas presence eventually wearing down the GOP’s hawkishness.

“What’s going to bring it down is these deficits,” he said. “I think Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan are ahead of their time.”

via Ron Paul and the second coming of Buchananism – War Room – Salon.com.

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Why Do GOP Bosses Fear Ron Paul? | The Nation

21 Dec

Ron Paul represents the ideology that Republican insiders most fear: conservatism.

Not the corrupt, inside-the-beltway construct that goes by that name, but actual conservatism.

And if he wins the Iowa Republican Caucus vote on January 3—a real, though far from certain, prospect—the party bosses will have to do everything in their power to prevent Paul from reasserting the values of the “old-right” Republicans who once stood, steadily and without apology, in opposition to wars of whim and assaults on individual liberty.

Make no mistake, the party bosses are horrified at the notion that a genuine conservative might grab the Iowa headlines from the false prophets.

via Why Do GOP Bosses Fear Ron Paul? | The Nation.

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Thank You, Anarchists | The Nation

20 Dec

The anarchists’ way of operating was changing our very idea of what politics could be in the first place. This was exhilarating. Some occupiers told me they wanted to take it home with them, to organize assemblies in their own communities. It’s no accident, therefore, that when occupations spread around the country, the horizontal assemblies spread too.

At its core, anarchism isn’t simply a negative political philosophy, or an excuse for window-breaking, as most people tend to assume it is. Even while calling for an end to the rule of coercive states backed by military bases, prison industries and subjugation, anarchists and other autonomists try to build a culture in which people can take care of themselves and each other through healthy, sustainable communities. Many are resolutely nonviolent. Drawing on modes of organizing as radical as they are ancient, they insist on using forms of participatory direct democracy that naturally resist corruption by money, status and privilege. Everyone’s basic needs should take precedence over anyone’s greed.

Through the Occupy movement, these assemblies have helped open tremendous space in American political discourse. They’ve started new conversations about what people really want for their communities, conversations that amazingly still haven’t been hijacked, as they might otherwise might be, by charismatic celebrities or special interests.

via Thank You, Anarchists | The Nation.

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Letters at 3AM: Occupy the Future

20 Dec

It is not my place to speak for Occupy, but I’ll use my own “people’s mic” to offer a proposal: that Occupy demands a constitutional amendment to reverse Supreme Court decisions that have given corporations the rights of citizens. Carefully craft this amendment to make clear, beyond doubt, that a corporation does not enjoy or deserve the constitutional rights of a citizen. Rather, a for-profit corporation is a commercial venture subject to the republic’s laws governing commerce. This amendment must state and enforce that corporations are not people.

Change the Supreme Court’s stance that corporations are people and you change the fundamental rule under cover of which corporations conduct themselves. The passage of such an amendment would go a very long way toward getting corporate money out of American politics.

via Letters at 3AM: Occupy the Future – Columns – The Austin Chronicle.

And if the Newt free-fall doesn’t stop… – Opening Shot – Salon.com

19 Dec

New Iowa data from Public Policy Polling released overnight show the former House speaker plummeting to third place in the lead-off caucus state, with just 14 percent of the vote. The new Iowa leader, according to PPP, is Ron Paul with 23 percent, followed by Mitt Romney at 20. At the national level, the latest numbers from Gallup’s daily tracking poll have Gingrich nursing a 4-point lead over Romney, 28-24 percent — a far cry from the 38-23 percent advantage he enjoyed in the same poll just over a week ago. Paul is at 10 percent in that survey.

via And if the Newt free-fall doesn’t stop… – Opening Shot – Salon.com.

Occupy the Safety Net | The Nation

15 Dec

Here is where the movement to end poverty could gain inspiration from the proudly unprofessional activists who have seized spaces and occupied the national discourse these past few months. Historically, like OWS, successful poor people’s movements have preferred justice to charity, pursuing goals set not by policy shops but by the people who know most intimately what kind of change they need, and on whose vigorous participation the movement depends. When Lyndon Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act in 1964 as part of his War on Poverty, it contained a provision calling for “maximum feasible participation” of the poor—a provision that “grew out of the mass civil rights mobilizations in the 1950s and early 1960s that, with blood and sacrifice, had won basic political rights for African Americans across the South,” writes historian Annelise Orleck in her introduction to The War on Poverty: A New Grassroots History, 1964–1980. The law secured funding for more than 1,000 community action agencies across the country, which helped engage and politicize poor mothers, who fought many battles over the ensuing decade for better food, schools and healthcare for their families (and won some of them). Imagine that: a president signing a law that asked for, even paid for, grassroots participation to shape policies and decide priorities. It sounds utopian now—even under a president who once worked as a community organizer—but as OWS has reminded us, sometimes the size of the demand is the measure of a movement.

via Occupy the Safety Net | The Nation.

Taking Root in Unlikely Soil, Occupy Florida Gains Momentum | The Nation

14 Dec

The Sunshine State seems unlikely territory for the movement, but Occupy has taken root in cities and towns across Florida. Swaths of the state are deeply conservative—ostensibly more hospitable to the Tea Party than Occupy Wall Street—and the state is known for beaches and Disney World, not political action. But Occupy has resonated here, drawing hundreds of people to demonstrations even in the smallest towns. And this month, Florida will be home to the first-ever state Occupy convention—the “People’s Convention.”

via Taking Root in Unlikely Soil, Occupy Florida Gains Momentum | The Nation.

Ron Paul Rising – NYTimes.com

14 Dec

In every post-Thanksgiving poll but one, Paul has been neck and neck for second place in Iowa. In most of them, he has lagged well behind the soaring speaker, coming in just below 20 percent while Gingrich hovers around 30. But a new Iowa survey, from Public Policy Polling, shows Gingrich leading Paul by just a single point, 22 percent to 21.

Moreover, the caucuses are not won by opinion polls alone. They’re won by the politician who can pack Iowa’s churches, libraries and community centers at 7 p.m. exactly on a frigid January Tuesday, and whose supporters won’t suddenly decide to back a different candidate during an hour’s worth of jawing, dealing and very public voting.

That’s how Howard Dean ended up losing Iowa by 19 points in 2004, even though last-minute polls showed him neck and neck with John Kerry and John Edwards….

Ron Paul isn’t going to take 37.6 percent of the caucus vote, as Kerry did in 2004. But he has a better organization in Iowa than Gingrich and inspires more enthusiasm than Romney, making it perfectly possible that he could eke out a narrow victory.

via Ron Paul Rising – NYTimes.com.

When every year is election year – 2012 Elections – Salon.com

12 Dec

The Presidential election season has become 4 years long. These numbers are insane! And the system is broken.

On money, the sky’s the limit. In 2000, the total federal election season cost $3 billion; in 2008, more than $5 billion, of which an estimated $2.4 billion went into the presidential campaign. With the Supreme Court having made it easier for outside money to pour in, thanks to its Citizens United decision, funding for campaign 2012 is expected to pass $6 billion and could even top $7 billion. The Obama campaign, which raised $760 million in 2008, is expected to pass the billion-dollar mark this time around (with money already pouring in from the financial and banking sector on which candidate Mitt Romney is also heavily reliant). …

It’s true that, on November 6, 2012, Americans will enter voting booths and choose a candidate for president, and that makes this an “election.” But thinking of it that way won’t get you far. It’s also true, that, on January 20, 2013, a newly elected president will step into the Oval Office. What any of this has to do with democracy, as opposed to spectacle, influence, corruption, the power of the incredibly wealthy to pay for and craft messages, and the power of media owners to enhance their profits is certainly an open question. Think, at least, how literally the old phrase “money talks” is being updated every time you hear the candidates, or see their ads, or get a robocall from one of them, or receive a geo-targeted mobile ad of theirs on your iPhone or Android.

via When every year is election year – 2012 Elections – Salon.com.

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