Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A Special 2008 Post-Election Report

How the Independent Movement Went Left By Going Right

Jacqueline Salit, Executive Editor of The Neo-Independent, issued this special report on the role independents played in the historic 2008 presidential election.

Use the above link to read the report(pdf).

Michael H. Drucker
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Tuesday, December 23, 2008

NY Orange County Legislature allow for Third Political Party

GOSHEN – Orange County Legislator Michael Amo may be a political party of one – the Independence Party – but he has the same rights as the other political parties in the legislature. The 21 member law making body has 10 Democrats, 10 Republicans and Amo as the sole Independence Party member.

Legislators Monday amended their legislative manual to give Amo the same rights as any other political party and allows him to be the caucus leader for his caucus of one, but does not allow him to collect the stipend that the other two party leaders receive. Among the concerns of those opposed to Amo as a party of one is that the legislature’s rules call for the caucus leader to form caucus positions and secure all necessary information to do that. Some lawmakers said they don’t have the same individual access because they must rely on their caucus leader.

Noting there are 10,000 registered Independence Party members in Orange County, giving him the same rights and access to information is a matter of fairness, Amo told his colleagues. “New York State will recognize a party if it has more than 50,000 votes in the gubernatorial election,” he said. “The Independence Party has done that to the point that it has the third most votes behind the Democrats and Republicans. This is not a fringe party. This is a party that represents a lot of people in the State of New York, a lot of people in Orange County. All we are asking for is to have that kind of information that every other party has. ”Before the rule change, parties in the Orange County Legislature were recognized if they had three members or more.

Michael H. Drucker
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Friday, December 19, 2008

With economy in shambles, Congress gets a raise

A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.

Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.

However, at 2.8 percent, the automatic raise that lawmakers receive is only half as large as the 2009 cost of living adjustment of Social Security recipients.

Use the above link to read the entire article.

Michael H. Drucker
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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Obama's Inauguration Program

The order of the program will be as follows:

Musical Selections - The United States Marine Band

Musical Selections - The San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus

Call to Order and Welcoming Remarks - The Honorable Dianne Feinstein

Invocation - Dr. Rick Warren, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, CA

Musical Selection - Aretha Franklin

Oath of Office Administered to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr. - By Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, The Honorable John Paul Stevens

Musical Selection, John Williams, composer/arranger; Itzhak Perlman, Violin; Yo-Yo Ma, Cello; Gabriela Montero, Piano; Anthony McGill, Clarinet

Oath of Office Administered to President-elect Barack H. Obama - By the Chief Justice of the United States, The Honorable John G. Roberts, Jr.

Inaugural Address - The President of the United States, The Honorable Barack H. Obama

Poem - Elizabeth Alexander

Benediction - The Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery

The National Anthem - The United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters”

Michael H. Drucker
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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

CUIP National Conference of Independents

THE POST-ELECTION INDEPENDENT MOVEMENT:
PRINCIPLES INTACT
PARADIGMS IN TRANSITION
OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE

I hope you will join me at CUIP's upcoming national conference. The conference will be held on January 25th, 2009 in New York City.

Five days after Barack Obama is sworn in as president, we'll be meeting to shape the future of the independent movement. The Democratic Party may have seized the moment to create the opportunity for change. But it's not at all clear that the Democrats, and the Republicans, can deliver the necessary change. That is the job of independents. And that is our challenge. I hope you will be with me in New York on January 25th.

CUIP has arranged for rooms at the Holiday Inn at a special rate. Please call 800-231-0405 or 212-581-8100. Ask for code XCU.

You may find cheaper hotels by going onto one of the travel websites such as: travelzoo.com, orbtiz.com, expedia.com, etc.

Please contact CUIP's national coordinator Nancy Ross at national@cuip.org or 212-609-2800/800-288-3201 to make reservations for the conference, limited housing availability and for more information.
_____________________________________________________

Last night, 12/15/2008, The New York City Organizations of the Independence Party - the third largest party in New York State - dedicated to involving independent voters in recreating our political culture held their Ninth Annual Anti-Corruption Awards.

The Anti-Corruption Awards is the occasion when we honor business, political, and community leaders who participated in the fight against political corruption and partisanship, and work to build our movement.

I was one of the recipients' of the award with 11 other New Yorkers. We also give Richard Winger, the country's leading authority on independent and third-party ballot issues and the founder, publisher and editor of Ballot Access News, www.ballot-access.org, an award.

Michael H. Drucker
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Monday, December 15, 2008

Open Primaries

An Open Letter to President Barack Obama from The Independent Movement

Independent voters were proud to be a vital element of your winning coalition during the presidential campaign of 2008. Your appeal to Americans — that the country must move beyond partisanship and towards a more participatory and open political culture — resonated strongly with independent voters, who have been voicing these concerns for many years. Your invitation to all Americans to reshape our country’s future — without regard to political affiliation — was a refreshing change for independents and Americans of every political persuasion.

During the presidential primary season, independents played a crucial role in bolstering the change-oriented movement that led to your nomination. By virtue of being able to vote in the primaries and caucuses in 33 states, independents cast the votes that gave your campaign its margin, and continued to support you in the general election.

You asked the American people to partner with you to realize the dream of our democracy, to form a “more perfect union.” Let us strengthen that partnership as you begin your first term and work together to expand the voting rights of independents.

We raise this not as some kind of “political payback” for our support, but because we believe, insofar as the presidential election itself became a partial reform, this needs to be protected and expanded for future elections.

Use the above link to sign the petition.

Michael H. Drucker
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Friday, December 12, 2008

The People's House

From the President-Elect Obama's website:

Bring Americans Back into their Government

-Hold 21st Century Fireside Chats: Obama will bring democracy and policy directly to the people by requiring his Cabinet officials to hold periodic national broadband townhall meetings to discuss issues before their agencies.

-Make White House Communications Public: Obama will amend executive orders to ensure that communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside government and all White House staff are disclosed to the public.

-Conduct Regulatory Agency Business in Public: Obama will require his appointees who lead the executive branch departments and rulemaking agencies to conduct the significant business of the agency in public, so that any citizen can see these debates in person or watch them on the internet.

-Release Presidential Records: Obama and Biden will nullify attempts to make the timely release of presidential records more difficult.

He also wants to open the White House to the public: like readings to school children; and the new oppening of the vistor center.

Use the link to read his new agenda.

Michael H. Drucker
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Thursday, December 4, 2008

Not Every Vote Counts

THE lizard people have eaten a vote in Beltrami County. That’s not so strange in a recount like the one underway in Minnesota — voters do all kinds of inexplicable things like inscribing “lizard people” in the write-in slot, as one did, invalidating his ballot.

Much more alarming is that hundreds of votes have disappeared in the still too-close-to-call Senate race between Norm Coleman, the Republican incumbent, and Al Franken, the Democratic candidate. The missing ballots expose a fundamental flaw in our way of doing elections — one that proves the recount in Minnesota is futile.

Luckily, Minnesota’s electoral law has a provision for ties. After all the counting and recounting, if the vote is statistically tied, the state should invoke the section of the law that requires the victor to be chosen by lot. It’s hard to swallow, but the right way to end the senatorial race between Mr. Coleman and Mr. Franken will be to flip a coin.

Use the above link to read the entire article.

Michael H. Drucker
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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Independents Win Many Races in 2008

According to the December issue of the Ballot Access News, independents and third party candidates were elected to state legislatures in Arkansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont (8), and Wisconsin.

Arkansas was a Green.

Vermont - 7 Progressive and 1 independent.

Greens ran second in a number of races. They also won local offices in Colorado and Michigan.

A Libertarian won a race in Kansas.

Working Families elected one in Hartford, CT.

Michael H. Drucker
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