Monday, November 28, 2011

The state of Occupy


 Editor's Note: Writer and political activist Steve Iskovitz has occasionally emailed around updates from Occupy Wall Street. I asked him recently if he minded if I posted them and he said No. So, here's his latest update, from Nov. 23:

It's been slow around here since my last post. Strange to say this, since up to recently things have been frantic.

We're still hanging in, securing housing for ourselves and running meetings again. I went to a spokes council meeting the other night. It was kind of nice to see the process functioning. Spokes council is a cumbersome process, but it's quite democratic. Of course, it's a messy process, lots of arguments, and then the next day everyone else yells about the decisions made. Once you explain the reasons, they lower the volume of their yelling a bit. I suppose groups making decisions about how to conduct themselves is by nature complicated and controversial and always will be.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Instead of Occupy out, how about Occupy in?


Guest Perspective by Ralph Nader

From New York City to Oakland, and several cities in between, the police, on orders from city officials, have smashed the Occupy encampments and evicted the protestors from public parks and spaces. More politicians from Congress to the state and local level want the Occupy people OUT!

Well, why don't they start letting them into the places where decisions are being made against their legitimate interests? 

Saturday, November 5, 2011

The Road to Twenty One Presidential Debates in 2012


 In the Public Interest By Ralph Nader, 11/2/11

What people would not want Presidential Debates in multiple cities all over America in September and October 2012? Why, the people at the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). CPD is a private corporation created in 1987. It is controlled by the Republican and Democratic Parties and acts as the iron gatekeeper regarding the number of debates, who is chosen to ask the questions and who is excluded from most important forums for reaching millions of people interested in the presidential elections.