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Chuck Baldwin vs. Ralph Nader - Presidential Debate Tonight!

Published
by
Adam Pieniazek
on October 23, 2008
in Leadership and Politics
. 9 Comments

After a lot of back and forth, there will be a third party presidential debate tonight in Washington D.C. The debate will also be broadcast live on CSPAN starting at 9PM. So far, all six presidential candidates have been invited but so far only Constitutional candidate Chuck Baldwin and Independent candidate Ralph Nader have confirmed their attendance. Still, these two candidates represent opposite sides of the political spectrum, with Chuck Baldwin being a true conservative in the Ron Paul tradition, while Ralph Nader is a true liberal in the Ralph Nader tradition.

I’m glad that a debate will occur, as I was actually thinking of withdrawing my vote for Nader if he was not able to debate someone, my thinking being that if you can’t get a debate going, how could you ever manage a country? Now, I know this debate is not organized by Mr. Nader and that he has a campaign to run but in my opinion the best thing for Ron Paul and Ralph Nader would have been to spend some of those megabucks raised by money bombs and fundraising on getting a new debate going counter to the mainstream, corporate owned debates.

Hopefully Cynthia McKinney is able to show up at the debates tonight too, though Bob Barr has stated numerous times he will not attend due to a prior engagement at Georgia Tech. Honestly, if I was in charge of the Barr event at GT, I’d cancel it and encourage him to attend the debate, but perhaps that’s why I’m not running a campaign…

In either case, tune in tonight to C-SPAN or head on over to Restore the Republic Radio for a live web stream of the event.

Got a Business Card? Help Set a World Record!

Published
by
Adam Pieniazek
on October 21, 2008
in Boston, History and business
. 16 Comments

A few days ago I thought I somehow stepped through a time warp as I opened my mailbox and found a piece of non-corporate snail mail. At first I eyed this envelope suspiciously as it was not my birthday nor could I conjure any other reason for the snail mail. As my paranoia subsided, my fingers ripped open the envelope to find a card inside, with a hand-written note from a Ms. Sophie Grossman.

At this point my mind was blown, not only had I just received snail mail it was also hand-written! Crazy!

As my eyes read the note this article about a local teen in Somerville collecting business cards in an attempt to set a Guinness record came soaring back into my conscious. After reading the article I sent Sophie not one but two business cards (part of a set of ten that I received for free from flickr).

As of this note, she’s received nearly 800 business cards so far. That’s 800 in addition to her already existing collection of over 2,200 business cards! She plans on submitting an entry to the good folks at Guinness Book of World Records once her collections hits 5,000 cards. If you’ve got a business card and want to help Sophie in her record breaking quest you can send them to her attention at:

Somerville Journal
20-40 Holland Street
Somerville, MA 02144

If you do send one, let me know! If you include links to your business (non spammy) I might do a shout-out post to those who help Sophie out…

To Boston & the Red Sox, It’s OK

Published
by
Adam Pieniazek
on October 20, 2008
in Boston and Sports
. 4 Comments

Yesterday as I jumped on my bicycle to pedal home after watching the Sox game in town, one angry fella walking by with his group of buddies yelled out:

Aaarrgh this suck this sucks, this fracking sucks

For once, I did not feel the same way. In fact aside from being slightly cold I did not feel much at all. As I’m sure at least some of my readers are aware, the Boston Red Sox lost yesterday to the Tampa Bay Rays, who just one year after denouncing the Devil (from their name) find themselves in the World Series. Though I’m a Bostonian born and raised, I’m quite OK with it. If we had not won the World Series in 2004, I’d probably be devastated right now, but the truth is baseball was simply not even on my list of priorities this year.

The world series win in ‘04 literally freed a lot of us from our own fanaticism. That’s all any of us ever really wanted, just one world series in our lifetime. Heck, the Sox were still working off their five year championship grace period when they went and extended the grace period by winning another one last year, which was such a non-event I did not even blog about it!

Including the ALCS and the few games I attended, I probably saw less than 15 games this year (if not even fewer) which is an almost impossible number for a Bostonian resident. Sure I’m still and forever will be a Red Sox fan, but it’s just a game now. Thanks to the Sox for making the transition into the miserable cold winter slightly more bearable and entertaining. Damn it actually feels good, the Sox just lost a chance to get to the World Series and I honestly don’t care. Such words would not have ever been uttered by a Bostonian just a mere 4 years ago.

So Red Sox players, fans and organization members, do not pay attention to the ridiculous Boston media. It’s actually OK. You fought damn hard to repeat and made a very respectable comeback attempt in defense of your championship. For once, we can be proud of our loser baseball team!

:-)

You know what, usually we only do this after victories but screw it! Cue the music!

I’m gonna tell you a story
I’m gonna tell you about my town
I’m gonna tell you a big bad story, baby
Aww, it’s all about my town

Yeah, down by the river
Down by the banks of the river Charles (aw, that’s what’s happenin’ baby)
That’s where you’ll find me
Along with lovers, fuggers, and thieves (aw, but they’re cool people)
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you’re my home (oh, you’re the Number One place)
Frustrated women (I mean they’re frustrated)
Have to be in by twelve o’clock (oh, that’s a shame)
But I’m wishin’ and a-hopin, oh
That just once those doors weren’t locked (I like to save time for
my baby to walk around)
Well I love that dirty water
Oh, Boston, you’re my home (oh, yeah)

Because I love that dirty water
Oh, oh, Boston, you’re my home (oh, yeah)

Well, I love that dirty water (I love it, baby)
I love that dirty water (I love Baw-stun)
I love that dirty water (Have you heard about the Strangler?)
I love that dirty water (I’m the man, I’m the man)
I love that dirty water (Owww!)
I love that dirty water (Come on, come on)

Lyrics to Dirty Water by The Standells

Damn it feels good to be an ex-champion.

3rd Party Debate is ON!!! ….or is it???

Published
by
Adam Pieniazek
on October 17, 2008
in Government, History and Politics
. 0 Comments

A few months ago I wrote a post here discussing my attempts to get a 3rd party debate going between Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin. Well, a few other parties have managed to get a debate scheduled for this Sunday, October 19!

So far Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin and Cynthia McKinney have confirmed their attendance. Bob Barr is stating he has a scheduling conflict, though the even organizers are stating he wants to only debate Ralph Nader. In either case, Barr is running a very odd campaign, first ditching uber-popular Ron Paul and now refusing to participate in a debate with his fellow third party candidates.

Right now there are actually two debates scheduled, on being an online debate this Sunday from 7pm to 9pm while the other is a physical debate starting at 8pm. Seeing as how the physical debate is being televised by CSPAN and moderated by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman it seems the online only debate organized by Trevor Lyman will fall to the wayside, especially seeing as how only Cynthia McKinney has confirmed she’d participate.

In either case, three of the four candidates will be at the physical debate, hosted by The Free and Equal Elections Coalition and the Columbia Political Union. So confused yet by the varying debates and times and places? Well so are the candidates who are now waffling about whether they will or will not attend, even though three of them confirmed their attendance a few days ago. In either case, the debate is scheduled and set up and now it’s up to the candidates to show up. For the sake of progress for our democracy, let’s hope they do show up. Send e-mails to your candidates encouraging them to show up! Even Barack Obama and John McCain are invited, let’s have one debate between all six candidates!

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