Sunday, October 30, 2011

Occupy Wall Street is On the Move


 Guest perspective by Ralph Nader
The question confronting the Occupy Wall Street encampments and their offshoots in scores of cities and towns around the country is quo vadis? Where is it going?

This decentralized, leaderless civic initiative has attracted the persistent attention of the mass media in the past five weeks. Television cameras from all over the world are parked down at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, two blocks from Wall Street.

But the mass media is a hungry beast. It needs to be fed regularly. Apart from the daily pressures of making sure the encampments are clean, that food and shelter are available, that relations with the police are quiet, that provocateurs are identified; the campers must anticipate possible police crackdowns, such as that which has just occurred in Oakland, and find ways to rebound.


Saturday, October 29, 2011

"Jersey Shore" ... costumes ...

 This is so, so wrong, in so many ways I can't even explain it ... "Jersey Shore" costumes at Wal-Mart for $19.99. I wonder what their cut is for something like this. Is it like a CD royalty or something, maybe $1? $2? I mean, I guess they probably don't care what happens to their lives at this point, considering what goes on during the show. But really, a Halloween costume? That's downright scary! Boooooo!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

November 2011 Top 30 Noise chart


14 different radio and internet stations reporting

1. The Grinds – Whatcha Lookin’ At? EP
2. The Grownup Noise – This Time With Feeling
3. Juliana Hatfield – There’s Always Another Girl
4. The Hush Now – memos
5. Eolune – Tiny Oceans EP
6. Tan Vampires – For Physical Fitness s
7. Buffalo Tom – Skins
8. The Lights Out – Primetime
9. The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library – Volume One
10. Count Zero – Never Be Yourself
11. The Diamond Mines – The Diamond Mines
12. The Future Everybody – It Takes Nothing
13. Kingsley Flood – Dust Windows
14. The Fatal Flaw – Narrow Hours
15. Freezepop – Imaginary Friends
16. Blackout Mafia – The Dark Season
17. Guillermo Sexo – Secret Wild
18. Gentlemen Hall – Give Us Roots, Give Us Wings EP
19. Comanchero – The Undeserved
20. Ado – Ado
21. The Organ Beats – Mishmash
22. Full Body Anchor – The Restless EP
23. Girls, Guns and Glory – Sweet Nothings
24. My Own Worst Enemy – Electric Like The Moon
25. The Rationales – The Distance In Between
26. Naked on Rollerskates – Naked on Rollerstakes
27. Deer Tick – The Black Dirt Sessions
28. Township – One More Summer
29. Ad Frank & The Fast Easy Women – Your Secrets Are Mine Now
30. Bring the Knife – Bring the Knife

Friday, October 21, 2011

Jill Stein to announce presidential run for Greens on Oct. 24

Dr. Jill Stein, a two-time gubernatorial candidate for the Green-Rainbow Party in Massachusetts, will announce that she is running for president on Oct. 24, in Boston, at the State House.
The Lexington resident who has served as a Town Meeting member and also ran unsuccessfully for Secretary of State there, announced the presidential run in an email blast late last night.
"The coming year represents an extraordinary opportunity for the Green Party to emerge as the people's alternative to the incumbent parties who are servants of Wall Street," she stated, inviting people to get involved in the process with her and others.
Her site is JillStein.org.
Richard Winger of Ballot Access News told me earlier today that the Greens are on 15 state ballots and possibly 16, after Ohio grants them ballot access in the coming days. Building alliances with other third parties like what's left of the Reform Party and leftwing and progressive groups in other states could help the effort get on more state ballots. 
I'll have more analytical comment about this later but I can tell readers that Stein is a relentless campaigner. She doesn't give up. She doesn't give long policy speeches (she gives short ones). Stein talks to people, fires them up and activates them, and then continues on and on and on. With money that can be raised via presidential matching funds, a lot of anxiety out there concerning the two major political parties, and a decent campaign team that focuses the traditional movement building-types into active electoral participants, she'll be a force in the next general election.
Photo courtesy of the Boston Herald.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Let Our Farmers Grow


 Guest perspective by Ralph Nader
Although Rep. Paul has introduced several bills like this one in the past, there are several reasons that this bill should be passed now. Hemp has an amazing number of uses. Its fiber can be used in carpeting, home furnishings, construction materials, auto parts, textiles, and paper. Its seeds can be used in food, industrial oils, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. There are assertions, reported by The Guardian and in Biodiesel Magazine that using industrial hemp in biofuels instead of crops like corn and other feedstock provide greater environmental benefits. The expansion of industrial hemp as a feedstock for biofuels could also help to reduce oil imports.