Stein easily wins in Arizona

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein won the six-way primary in Arizona last night with 69% of the vote, according to an email.
Stein has also won in Ohio, Minnesota, Maine, Illinois primaries and conventions.

A victim of the housing crisis

This house near Port Charlotte Harbor in Florida still remains empty, nearly four years later, a victim of the housing crisis.

NENPA Awards

The New England Newspaper and Press Association Awards have come and gone and this year, I didn't win any. Frankly, it shouldn't be that surprising since I switched jobs a few months before the entry period ended.
When I was asked to recommend some potential entries, there were only a few stories I thought might be worthy. At the time when I was looking at the entry dates, I realized that during the nine month period of the awards that I would be eligible, I worked without a reporter for almost four of those months. And during some of those months - nine weeks to be exact - I was doing one and a half papers by myself and two websites - yikes. How did I do it? I have no clue. But, in other words, I was not working in the best conditions to be doing your best work, which happens in this business sometimes.
NENPA also eliminated the election category this year, which I won last year and Belmont has won in previous years, I believe. Elections are important because you have a responsibility to voters. It's important to make the coverage matter. I don't know the logic of removing the coverage award - maybe the org doesn't think it is as important as it once was.
I like to win awards but I prefer to do the quality work that makes you eligible to win the awards. That's just as important; in fact, it's more important. 
Anyhow, congratulations to all my friends who won this year, including some former members of my Lexington crew that won a bunch. Hats off to you folks. :-)

Greens on the ballot in Utah

I received an email earlier today noting that the Greens had made ballot status in Utah. This is the 19th state the Green Party will be on, so far, without missing a single petition deadline at this point, thanks to the efforts of Jill Stein and others. Imagine for a moment how cool it would be to have a debate with President Barack Obama, Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and whoever the GOP puts up. Wow.

Oh how quickly we forget ...

File this in the catching up with stuff bin ...
I happened to be quickly skimming last week's edition of the Hippo while sipping coffee this morning and noticed the latest Granite Views column by Jody Reese knocking Republicans at the Statehouse for trying to return $85 million in No Child Left Behind money to the federal government.
Right out of the gate, Reese makes a big blunder.

Nader: Can Democrats Landslide Republicans?

By Ralph Nader

I often ask Congressional Democrats these days is: "If you agree that your Republican counterparts in Congress are the most craven, corporatist, fact-denying, falsifying, anti-99 percent, militaristic Republicans in the party's history, then why are you not landsliding them?" Their responses are largely in the form of knowing smiles and furrowed brows. 

Green Party's Stein wins big in Ohio

According to a press release I received on Monday, Green Party candidate Jill Stein won 90 percent of the delegates at the party's Ohio convention during weekend caucusing there. It was the first contest for the greens in 2012.
There has been a lot of heightened press awareness about the party now that former television actress and comedian Roseanne Barr is running for the nomination too.
The greens are on a bunch of state ballots at this point and the Stein campaign is actively fundraising in an attempt to secure federal matching funds. In order to do that, a candidate must agree to spending limits and receive at least $5,000 in at least 20 states.
So far, Republican Buddy Roemer is the only candidate who is receiving federal matching funds.

Santorum's trifecta ...

While everyone within the sound of my clicking computer keys is downplaying Rick Santorum's solid wins last night in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri, they shouldn't be. Yes, these weren't big states like Florida or Texas. Yes, Missouri doesn't even pick delegates yet. Yes, the other two were tiny caucus contests. However, these were big wins for him in places where Mitt Romney did well in 2008 against John McCain. In other words, clearly, there is uncertainty out there for this field and for this party, which is intriguing too, considering all that the nation has gone through during the last three years, never mind 11 years.

Gingrich's "rambling"

I must be alone. While GOPers are complaining about Newt Gingrich dragging out the primary campaign, with only five states voting, watching his press conference last night after the Nevada Caucus was actually quite amusing. Am I alone in thinking he should continue? Why not?

Think the new jobs numbers are good? Think again

Check out this post: ["Contrary to Government Claims of 243,000 Jobs Created, Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs Were Actually LOST In January"]. Post this link far and wide. More than a million people fall off the cliff in a single month and we're rah-rahing that 235,000 jobs were created. Wow. 

Follow the Bills

In the Public Interest/By Ralph Nader 2/1/12

Looking at millions of individual bills that makeup the 2.7 trillion dollars of annual health care costs opens a gigantic window on the massive waste, redundancy, profiteering, fraud and sometimes criminal over-billing.