The Daily Render

A Digital Scrapbook for the Past, Present, and Future

Third Party Presidential Ballot Access in the United States of America
|| 9/3/2008 || 11:07 pm || Comments Off on Third Party Presidential Ballot Access in the United States of America || ||

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The inverted color graph above from Wikipedia shows the states where political parties in America are on the ballot. Each state has its own ballot access rules and regulations, so unlike the two major parties in America, the smaller parties have a harder time getting access to all states in America. In Washington, DC residents like myself have the option of Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney as well as the two major party candidates.

Last week in Denver I went to Ralph Nader‘s rally and found his speech to be quite dull. I have the utmost respect for Ralph and he is one of my personal heroes, but when it comes to perennially running for president, he has nothing new to say and is a waste of time when it comes to growing third parties in America. This was the third political rally I’ve attended with Nader as the keynote speaker and his speech this year was not much different from the one I heard at the Green Party National Convention in 2007. His stance on the issues is 100% in line with my vision, but in most cases it seems that he’s still living out a dream that he is somehow going to crack through the two party system. By running as an independent he is able to keep the alternative voice alive in American political discourse, but by not aligning himself with a specific party he’s denying his supporters a political organization that can promote change from the bottom up, instead of strictly from the top-down. This has been sufficiently called Nader’s Nadir and it’s why I am not supporting him. I believe that changing the political sprectrum in America comes from the ground up through a slow coup of multi-partisan support. Or I’d at least like to believe its possible.

Related 2008 Election Entries:

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La Bruja recites her poem “Be Who You Are”
|| 8/21/2008 || 2:29 pm || Comments Off on La Bruja recites her poem “Be Who You Are” || ||

Caridad De La Luz, who goes by La Bruja, is one of America’s leading spoken word artists. Earlier this month in New York City she performed at an event supporting Green Party vice presidential candidate Rosa Clemente. The clip above is one of the final segments of the evening which featured numerous MC’s reciting their poetry and rapping in support of Rosa Clemente’s candidacy. You can view other clips of the event here.

Below the fold is a second video clip of her performance earlier in the evening which features a few more poems:

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YouTube Has Chosen For You! – Digital Scrapbooking Explicit Bipartisanship
|| 6/28/2008 || 5:55 pm || Comments Off on YouTube Has Chosen For You! – Digital Scrapbooking Explicit Bipartisanship || ||

Last month I snail mailed a letter to YouTube citing the fact that their political page was being explicitly partisan and did not include any third party politicians running for president. I have yet to receive a written reply. Instead YouTube gave the page’s layout a makeover, but still left out 3rd party presidential candidates. To document this flagrant bipartisanship, I decided to take a screen shot every day I was on-line this month.

Below you’ll see the candidates YouTube has tacitly endorsed during the month of June:

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Dalai Lama: “If you have a Green Party I want to join it”
|| 6/24/2008 || 12:45 pm || Comments Off on Dalai Lama: “If you have a Green Party I want to join it” || ||

About 2 minutes into the video the 14th Dalai Lama asks if America has a Green Party and if so he would want to join it. Made me smile :-) Read more about his remarks here.

CurrentTV: Green On Green [feat. the 2008 Green Party Presidential Candidates]
|| 6/4/2008 || 12:39 am || Comments Off on CurrentTV: Green On Green [feat. the 2008 Green Party Presidential Candidates] || ||

This four minute video showcases some of the 2008 Green Party presidential candidates and their stances on a few issues. I like the way the video goes about rectifying some misconceptions about the 2000 election and the importance of voting for who & what you believe in. As I noted last week, Cynthia McKinney has clinched the Green Party‘s presidential nomination, but regretfully I won’t be able to attend the national convention this year because family duties call me to Colorado at the same time. After attending the two previous annual meetings I’m really curious to see who shows up, but this year I’ll just have to watch the videos of the proceedings on-line.

Blue Balls [Hexcode T-Shirt Humor]
|| 5/20/2008 || 11:14 am || Comments Off on Blue Balls [Hexcode T-Shirt Humor] || ||

Following up my use of Hexadecimal Color Codes on the #006900 Party t-shirt, which was based off of the #000000 Power t-shirt, I made another t-shirt design: #0000FF (balls)

For the last week or so I’ve been thinking about a way to use a non-color word visually and this morning I came up with balls. They are easy to draw and are easily identifiable. Embedded in the t-shirt is a phallic image that is supposed to further add to the humor of what constitutes blue balls.

#006900 Party [that’s Green Party in Hexadecimal Color Code]
|| 5/11/2008 || 10:07 pm || Comments Off on #006900 Party [that’s Green Party in Hexadecimal Color Code] || ||

At the Artomatic opening night I spoke with someone close to Mark Jenkins about his #000000 POWER t-shirt concept that uses Hexadecimal Color Codes to reference the word’s color (aka BLACK POWER). In this geeky context I thought it would be funny to follow-up this meme by making my own HTML-based t-shirt.

After thinking through a bunch of different permutations, I came up with #006900 Party to represent the Green Party of the United States. I could have chosen from quite a few different combinations for the color Green, but I thought that the number 69 was the most widely understood numerical reference out of the possible permutations, with the exception of the number 42, a favorite number of mine that I found to be too dark.

I will be donating this design to the Green Party of the United States if they want to use it for their official merchandise.

Germany’s Green Party opens chapter in Washington, DC
|| 4/10/2008 || 11:46 pm || Comments Off on Germany’s Green Party opens chapter in Washington, DC || ||

As a current member of the DC Statehood Green Party, former elected member of the DC Statehood Green Party steering committee, and former elected national delegate to the Green Party of the United States, this is exciting news to me. Dies ist gut:

Germany’s Green Party opens chapter in Washington, DC

Julie Gregson | Deutsche Welle | 04.09.2008

Germany’s Green Party is setting up a branch in the United States. The bottom-up initiative aims to bring a more international perspective to the party’s work and combat anti-Americanism among some members back home.

The chapter is due to be officially founded next weekend in Washington DC. It hopes to tap into the experiences of the growing number of Germans working in the US capital in international organizations, foundations and think tanks, as well as in the media, the culture industry and higher education.

“We’ve discovered that there are a lot of Germans in town who are young, tolerant and cosmopolitan and who share Green values or are active in the Green party,” said chapter co-founder Arne Jungjohann. “We want to offer them a platform.” But the group is also looking to engage with Greens across the United States and has set up a Facebook presence to allow those living further afield to contribute to the debate. “Our purpose is to have a group that is following German domestic politics and influencing the Green agenda in Germany on international topics,” said Jungjohann, who is also Environmental Program Director at the Boell Foundation.

Countering anti-americanism

Anti-Americanism is another area where the group believes it could have important input. Reinhard Buetikofer, co-leader of the Greens, welcomed the establishment of the party’s Washington DC branch, saying it was a positive sign for bilateral dialog.

“This is not supposed to be a one-way street — it’s an exchange, it’s about cooperation,” Buetikofer said. “It will attest to the fact that the Green party is open towards exchange with the United States. You do not have to be German to join the group, but an affiliation with Germany is required and German will be its working language.

It is the Greens’ second branch abroad. The party also has a group based in Brussels, the headquarters of the European Commission.

[via Sam Smith’s D.C. City Desk]

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Nikolas Schiller is a second-class American citizen living in America's last colony, Washington, DC. This blog is my on-line repository of what I have created or found on-line since May of 2004. If you have any questions or comments, please contact: