TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Progressives and Independents (Liberal Arts Dude, Mirror On America) Here's an idea: how about Leftist Progressive activists join Independents in efforts for radical structural reform? One effort they can join very easily right now is the effort by Independents for Open Primaries.
  
• Gumm wants open primaries (OkiePolitics.com) Oklahoma law currently mandates that parties have closed primaries. Gumms SB5 would allow party officials to open up the runoffs to independents (you know, swing voters like me) and members of rival parties.
  
• It's Politics: Charles Calderon weary of political 'bickering' (By Mike Sprague, Whittier Daily News) His solution? Bring back a version of the open primary that would in a sense turn all state offices as well as legislative races into non-partisan races, similar to how counties run.
  

 

POLITISOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS

• Obama's Divisive Choice of Rick Warren (By Michelle Goldberg, Religion Dispatches) Warren is something of a magician. He has convinced much of the media and many influential Democrats that he represents a new, more centrist breed of evangelical with a broader agenda than the old religious right. 
  
• Sturm and drang over Rick Warren (by kos, Daily Kos)
  
• Taking Yes For An Answer (Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish)
  
• Is Obama moving too far to the right? (The Daily Voice) Writing in Black Agenda Report, Glen Ford said Obama had earned a designation as a center-right politician after he had "endorsed the bankers' bailout, put the economy's future in the hands of the same people that set the stage for financial meltdown, and let Bush's War Secretary keep the keys to the imperial armory."
  

NEW YORK POLITICS/INDEPENDENCE PARTY

• Judge upholds Independence Party status quo (BY TOM WROBLESKI, Staten Island Advance) In a ruling released yesterday, Justice Anthony Giacobbe said that Frank Morano's bid to wrest control of the county organization from chair Sarah Lyons was invalid.
  
• Sharpton's Birthday Shout-Out To Council Candidate 'Johnny T' (Elixabeth Benjamin, Daily News/Daily Politics) Sharpton, who met recently with Tabacco at his National Action Network, called the candidate his "friend and brother" at last night's get-together and joked that he might be the only person who could bring Sharpton and Sliwa together.