Independent voters: We elected Obama, but we did not become Democrats

I just attended a screening of Jackie Salit's soon-to-be-released dvd of her annotated talk at CUIP's celebrated bi-annual January Conference where I was also on the behind-the-scenes panel just after the screening, the whole thing organized by producer Sarah Lyons. Please check out the trailer here, and watch for the launch of the dvd and online version soon!!

-NH

Jackie Salit: How the Independent Movement Went Left by Going Right

As commentator John McLaughlin remarked, "It's the independents who are controlling the action.  You can't understand what happened on Election Day if you just look at the [two] parties.  You've got to look at what happened with independents."       Now, Neo-Independent magazine editor and IndependentVoting.org founder Jacqueline Salit presents that history.        HOW THE INDEPENDENT MOVEMENT WENT LEFT BY GOING RIGHT goes behind the headlines to consider the strategic alliances, innovative tactics and on-the-ground organizing that positioned the independent movement as a mainstream force for political development.        Salit offers key insights into the changing character of the American political process - examining efforts to integrate the Perot movement, the significance of open primaries, and the vital connection between small, qualitative developments and sweeping social change.        HOW THE INDEPENDENT MOVEMENT WENT LEFT BY GOING RIGHT is an important, untold story about how we, the America people, built a movement that challenges the culture of partisanship.
Reviews   "A comprehensive overview of the impact of the independent movement on the Obama election."   - Douglas Schoen   Political Strategist    Info Website		Watch the Preview   Jacqueline Salit paints a vivid picture of a fluid but pivotal movement that broke into the mainstream in 1992 in the explosive center-right campaign of Ross Perot. In her dual role of political player and analyst, she documents its evolution over the next 16 years into a center-left, multi-racial movement that changed the rules of engagement in 2008.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Young independents in Oklahoma
  
• California headed for open primaries
  
• Bloomberg going for New York City Independence Party endorsement
  

彭博三連任獲獨立黨背書

彭博三連任獲獨立黨背書

紐約時報紐約27日電

March 28, 2009 12:00 AM | 38 觀看次數 | 0  | 0  |  | 

紐約市獨立黨已捐棄前嫌，支持彭博市長競選三連任，讓他的名字列在該黨的選票欄上。

兩大創黨成員26日受訪時說，他們將支持彭博，使他成為該黨的市長候選人，預計黨內成員將會投票贊成。

獨立黨領袖紐曼(Fred Newman)說：「我認為他已勝算在握，他連任是合理的。」

彭博獲提名，可說是峰迴路轉，他去年曾觸怒獨立黨成員，以致他們揚言不會把他的名字列在該黨的選票欄上，作為報復。(read more)

How independent is independent Mayor Michael Bloomberg????

The New York press -- including the paper of record -- is all "a-twitter" with news of a possible run on the New York City Independence Party line by Mayor Michael Bloomberg this year. Fanciness afooot...

In the meantime, see what Jacqueline Salit had to say about it.... and we may shortly hear from the members....

Stay tuned!!!

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Nobody likes Joe Lieberman
  
• Arlen Specter likes open primary
  
• sleazy Illinois political skullduggery on open primary bill exposes extreme partyism
  
• liberals and progressives
  
• Michael Bloomberg woos NYC Independence Party
  

where in the world are we?

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Repubs want to overturn Hawaii constitutional requirement of open primary
  
• Party protection plan in South Carolina -- strip the voters
  
• Specter needs open primary in PA
  
• Open primaries could fix California's woes
  
• New York City Independence Party growing
  

Talk Talk: Bonus, Bubbles and Bangs

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Every weekend CUIP's president Jacqueline Salit and strategist and philosopher Fred Newman watch the political talk shows and discuss them. Here are excerpts from Bonus, Bubbles and Bangs, their dialogues compiled on Sunday, March 22, 2009 after watching selections from "Hardball with Chris Matthews," two Charlie Rose interviews and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Newman: But the truly esoteric, cutting edge stuff, in my opinion - and I might just not know what's going on in every field - is in cosmology.   Salit: And what are the questions that those scientists are asking?   Newman: The questions that we asked as children, basically. How did the universe begin? How did it all get started? How do you go from nothing to something?   Salit: From non-existence to existence.   Read Talk Talk in its entirety here.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

Illinois voters subject to coersive partyism -- need open primaries!

Michael Bloomberg's options

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• To Win Virginia, Parties Must Court Independents (FRANK B. ATKINSON, RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH) In eight months Virginians will choose a new governor. If history is a guide, the election will be decided by the almost one-third of voters who describe themselves as "independents."
  
• Are Independents Hedging Their Bets? (by Charlie Cook, National Journal) The generic question's results are "evidence that voters, particularly independents, are worried that they overcorrected in the 2006/2008 elections combined, and now have more of a liberal slant to government than they want. They want change but with checks and balances."
  
• Kentucky Legislature Adjourns Without Passing Election Law Bills (Ballot Access News) including HB 17, which would have let independent voters vote in party primaries (with no provision for the party to indicate a preference on that matter)
  

first day of spring

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Quinnipiac: Obama losing support among independents, but remains strong
  
• Arlen Specter lobbying for open primaries in Pennsylvania
  
• Massachusetts Dems want independent and unaffiliated voter input
  
• South Carolina has open primaries, but some want to close them to independents and unaffiliated
  
• Abel Maldonado local hero
  

ELSEWHERE:

UK website offers "politics without parties"

First Amendment isn't just for the homos!

Hell, no!

I posted an article and a photo today which was taken during a protest over Mayor Bloomberg's public demolition of term limits at City Hall by James Wagner on behalf of the Radical Homosexual Agenda. Thanks for the h/t -- and -- more power to ya/all of us!!!

If you haven't yet checked out this site yet, please DO!

And welcome to the independent nonpartisan political movement!

NH

choice?

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Specter won’t rule out run as an Independent (By Aaron Blake, The Hill) The decision would be harder for Specter, too, because Pennsylvania state law does not allow someone who has lost a primary to run as an Independent, as Lieberman did. Specter would need to decide to run without a party in advance of the primaries.
  
• Specter Wants An Open Primary (Steve Rankin, Free Citizen)
  
• If a voter wants to switch (News Observer - NC) "We've become pretty liberal in allowing unaffiliated voters to vote in either primary already," he said. "Why shouldn't the rest of us get to?"l
  

NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE

• Will state be ignored? Bill would give candidate with most national votes our electoral votes (Peter Marcus, Denver Daily News)
  
• Colorado House approves plan that would elect president by popular vote (Seattle Times)
  

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

The Centrist President (Ben Domenech, the New Ledger) His White House has already become an engine of Rahm Emanuel-approved partisan political attacks, fueling targeted media campaigns against Rush Limbaugh, Jim Cramer, Rick Santelli and others. 

NEW YORK POLITICS

• Bloomberg's third-term-rigging: Not so fast, folks.... (Newsday/Spin Cycle)
  
• Democrats gain first-ever enrollment edge upstate (By Robert J. McCarthy, Buffalo News) Unaffiliated gains more
  
• Extension of Term Limits Clears a Key Legal Hurdle (By FERNANDA SANTOS, NY Times) “We are obviously disappointed,” said Randy M. Mastro, the lawyer who represented the opponents, including Councilwoman Letitia James of Brooklyn and some minority Council candidates. “But our fight continues.”
  

happy st patrick's day

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

OBAMA'S STRUGGLE TO BE INDEPENDENT

• The Battle Adhead (By Dan Froomkin, Washington Post White House Watch) I've been arguing for a while now that establishment Washington -- complicit in so many of the irresponsible policies that President Obama is trying to reverse -- would inevitably put up resistance...
  
• How Barack Obama became our first independent President...
  

OPEN PRIMARIES

• State Party Must Focus on Ending “Two-Thirds Rule” (by Paul Hogarth‚ Beyond Chron) But I didn’t join the Democratic Party just to turn more seats “blue.” At the end of the day, I want to see a working progressive majority in California that can implement laws and pass budgets that are compassionate. An “open primary” would certainly make it harder to expand a Democratic majority – but what good is a majority when the “two-thirds rule” gives the minority of right-wing Republicans free reign to hold up the state budget? 
  
• California and the Open Primary - Third Time a Charm? (Senator George Runner, Best Syndication News) Given that the U.S. Supreme Court has already overturned one attempt by California to establish a blanket primary, the question has been raised: What makes SCA 4 different enough that it will not also be overturned?
  
• A new agenda to fix Massachusetts politics (By Rick Holmes, The MetroWest Daily News) The Open Primary initiative was put on California's ballot because a single state rep demanded it in return for his vote settling that state's budget impasse. Party officials - Republican, Democrat and third parties - hate it. But it has strong backing from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who knows as much as anyone about using referendum campaigns to leverage government reform. That's how real reform could happen in Massachusetts as well. 
  

 

 

happy 130th, al

March 14 was Albert Einstein*'s birthday. He's 130 years old today!

*Albert Einstein, the first child of Hermann and Pauline Einstein, was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany. I learned of this on Twitter.......... (seems appropriate!)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Jacqueline Salit: "We supported Obama, but we did not become Democrats!"
  
• Lousiana Repubs: No independents need apply! Seems the opposition was missed the meeting...
  
• Is Obama abiding his promise of nonpartisanship?
  
• The Clinton legacy lives on through Obama cabinet -- consolidating the Reagan Revolution... And wtf is a Bilderberger???
  
• Obama's first quick minute a burden...
  
• Jon Stewart vs. Jim Cramer -- more opinions...
  
• California open primaries will "destroy the 2 party system" -- and that's a "bad" thing???
  
• Can Mayor Bloombags get over on NYC voters?
  
• Unity '09 is NOT your dad's Unity '08!