----- Original Message -----
From: Joe Seeman
Cc: Matt Funicello
Sent: 3/3/2009 3:39:32 PM
Subject: I ran into Sundwall today
FYI: I ran into Eric Sundwall, who is trying to get on the ballot to run for the NY 20th congressional district. This was before the Murphy-Tedsico debate in Saratoga, when he approached a group of us rallying outside with Murphy signs.
Sundwall had someone with a camera, and he acted like he was a journalist interviewing us. When asked who he was, he answered that he was from some TV show & didn't mention that he was a candidate until someone pointed that out.
He asked about the Stimulus bill, which he decried as creating a terrible future for our children. He was repeating the Rush Limbaugh extreme right wing rhetoric, and clearly is a right wing extremist on economic issues. When I mentioned the jobs the Stimulus bill will create, he indicated he didn't think government should be creating jobs.
He got quite hostile when he didn't get the answers he wanted, and walked off in a huff.
Dear Joe,
With all due respect, Eric Sundwall and the NYS Libertarian Party DO have a show. It is on Schenectady cable access. It is an all-inclusive third-party political forum
called the "Capitol Outsider". You can check it out at: capitaloutsider.org
Eric is quite frequently the host or reporter for the show.
Also, Rush Limbaugh is not the place from which most anti-pork citizens gain their hatred of government handouts to big business. Though I am a Green, I absolutely share Eric's Libertarian hatred of pork in all its myriad shapes and sizes. We have this in common with all the Dems who fight for IDA reform, the anti-WalMart gang, the anti-bailout crowd, single payer advocates and anyone who owns or runs a business in this state that employs people and pays taxes. You don't have to listen to, or like, or even agree with, Rush Limbaugh to see that handing out hard-earned tax dollars to rich scumbags and thieving welfare developers is a huge mistake.
Like me, Sundwall and many others in this CD, are not Republicans. We are simply in a kind of agreement with them on this one issue. We do not see this "stimulus" as a stimulus. It is nothing more than further pork for the ruling class. We've seen enough! After 8 years of Clinton selling our manufacturing base to China for a dollar. After 8 years of Bush's war and oil pork. After two months of Obama's Wall Street bailout pork, it is simply time to stop this killing of the workers in our country by stealing their futures to feed the ruling class. Enough is enough, already.
More taxpayer money being thrown away to better those who don't need it is not a supportable viewpoint. It is idiocy and just because this time it is YOUR corporate war candidate's idiocy instead of Bush's doesn't make it any better. Simply saying over and over again, "We have to do something" and putting this plan forward doesn't make it any more palatable for those of us who see it for what it is. No jobs or rejuvenation of the stock market will result from this ridiculous package based on even the most sophomoric projections I have seen.
As an aside, I have to ask, how can you support Scott "Blue Dog" Murphy? He is pro-war and you're not. Right?
He also seems to have made his money by oppressing foreign workers (just like everyone else who claims to have made their money in "computers"). Aren't you against slavery and worker oppression?
Politics makes for strange bedfellows but this match makes no sense to me at all.
Peace,
Matt
Showing posts with label eric sundwall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eric sundwall. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
An Easy Way You Can Help Strike a Blow For Independent Politics
Friends,
The people's candidate in this election (the one not running with the two parties but in opposition to them) is Eric Sundwall. He could really use our help getting on the ballot. He needs about 5,000 - 6,000 signatures of registered voters from our congressional district to satisfy the Board Of Elections. This may also allow corporate media to pay a small amount of attention to him. More voices, more choices, right?
Please contact me at mattfuniciello@earthlink.net and I will send his petition pdf file to you ...
Eric is MY candidate. So, even if you do not intend to vote for him, I know that you value our democracy and that its unlikely that you do not want me (or other independent voters) to have our choice represented. In that vein, I am asking you to do me a favor.
1 - Print out one (or more) of the attached ballot petitions.
2 - Have some of your family and friends take five seconds out of their busy day to apply their pen to the paper for you (as long as they vote in CD 20).
3 - Sign it as a witness and be sure that all information is correct. Remember that the two parties will challenge everything on a petition they can get away with.
3 - Mail the ballot to Eric Sundwall immediately and directly at his address listed in Niverville, NY. The deadline is March 6th so mail it by Tuesday just to be sure.
4 - Rest easy in the knowledge that you have just braced the divide between spectator and participant in our "democratic" process and that I, and Eric, thank you!
If you have any questions at all, please feel free to call me at (518) 361-6278.
Sincerely,
Matt
The people's candidate in this election (the one not running with the two parties but in opposition to them) is Eric Sundwall. He could really use our help getting on the ballot. He needs about 5,000 - 6,000 signatures of registered voters from our congressional district to satisfy the Board Of Elections. This may also allow corporate media to pay a small amount of attention to him. More voices, more choices, right?
Please contact me at mattfuniciello@earthlink.net and I will send his petition pdf file to you ...
Eric is MY candidate. So, even if you do not intend to vote for him, I know that you value our democracy and that its unlikely that you do not want me (or other independent voters) to have our choice represented. In that vein, I am asking you to do me a favor.
1 - Print out one (or more) of the attached ballot petitions.
2 - Have some of your family and friends take five seconds out of their busy day to apply their pen to the paper for you (as long as they vote in CD 20).
3 - Sign it as a witness and be sure that all information is correct. Remember that the two parties will challenge everything on a petition they can get away with.
3 - Mail the ballot to Eric Sundwall immediately and directly at his address listed in Niverville, NY. The deadline is March 6th so mail it by Tuesday just to be sure.
4 - Rest easy in the knowledge that you have just braced the divide between spectator and participant in our "democratic" process and that I, and Eric, thank you!
If you have any questions at all, please feel free to call me at (518) 361-6278.
Sincerely,
Matt
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The Post-Star Censors Me, Then Tells Me Why ;-)
----- Original Message -----
From: Ken Tingley
To: mattfuniciello@earthlink.net
Sent: 2/12/2009 9:27:30 AM
Subject:
Mr. Funicello,
I swore I would never email you again, but I will take one more shot. When you write insulting things about me and the newspaper that are patently not true, I will not allow it on my blog. That is my call. You repeatedly talk of some corporate conspiracy against third-part candidate - which is ridiculous - it is hard to take you seriously. The reality is that we make decisions each day over where to spend our resources and what the most important stories are. You may not agree with those calls because you believe third-party candidates are a big issue. It is a subjective decision.We constantly editorialize about change and for you to say we are for the status quo is pretty big leap. I also find it insulting for you to comment on Maury's blog that we will not let Maury do certain stories on third-party candidates. which is also not true. Maury makes his own calls on what stories he does and does not do as do all our reporters. When you stop making accusations that are not true, then I will consider posting them on my blog.
Ken Tingley
Editor
The Post-Star
** MY RESPONSE **
Ken,
I appreciate that you have broken your silence (however briefly) where I am concerned. I accept that many of your readers do not see independent or third party candidates as "big news". I think that, if we're honest, much of what is printed in the paper on any given day is of little interest to the average reader. Its really circular logic, anyway. How do we know people aren't interested in real candidates and instead are interested in daily anecdotes about the blank slates who are just waiting for their corporate donors to fill in the blanks?
Its like a bad song. If you play the Tedisco/Murphy "song" every day on your "radio", I may well find myself humming along whether I am engaged by that song or not. This is how mainstream media influences the American voter and helps retain the status quo. It is low-level brainwashing. Its pervasive and makes most people hesitant to have an independent thought. Its really important that you understand I don't see poorly made choices in media as a corporate conspiracy. I see them as a result of mainstream media CULTURE. It is well-established, long-term patterns of behavior and decision-making that reflect almost no curiosity about anything outside of the box or the mainstream. Historically, substantive change is almost always instigated by those who think "outside the box".
The problem I have with your paper is the total lack of response when your readership shows interest. As evidenced by activity on your forum, we were all quite interested in third party and independent candidates during this past election and we wwrree given excuse after excuse about why there was almost no coverage at all. We were told repeatedly that our candidates don't deserve it or haven't earned it ... etcetera. Why? because a bunch of rich power brokers in a room somewhere else didn't appoint our candidates, they are somehow less important or less credible than rich corporate lawyers who have been chosen for us? You had far greater activity and debate on your forum during the past presidential campaign whenever mention was made of Ron Paul or Ralph Nader than when you reprinted tired old AP stories about Obama and McCain. Thats because most truly engaged political activists are opposed to the mainstream and we are a larger group (independents and 3rd party and non-voters) than the two parties are in this county. We are starving for a media that will cover everyone "comparably" (to use Mahoney's own term) and
comparable does not mean a blog entry or two when the balance is 20 stories prominently printed in the actual paper.
I am used to this. It is the norm for the media not to cover my candidates. It is the norm for the media to not include them in debates. It is the norm for the media to marginalize and/or ridicule my candidates and my issues (ones that actually matter to real people). It is the norm for those journalists with conscience to make feeble excuses that never hold water about why they behave in a biased manner. Those of us who fight so hard for political change are very tired of the media's tacit support of the status quo (and I do believe, regardless of your intent, that this is exactly the result of only covering the corporate candidates). I understand fully that, as a newspaper editor, like most American citizens, you have probably never worked on a municipal or state or national campaign and have no idea how terribly biased the whole process is and how undemocratic it has become. That, in itself, should be your paper's job. To uncover the bias and the tyranny evident in this two-party system. All Americans of good conscience can't help but be outraged when they get involved and find out how terribly corrupt the "democratic" process has become. Will you spend your entire career doing nothing to change that or will you alter course and become an engaged citizen/editor? Will you attack this corruption with a similar zeal to that which you apply to teen drinking?
Being shut out of the media is one of the principle reasons why it is so difficult for real human beings to run for office and most papers don't ever cover these battles. I wish that instead of seeing me as your enemy, we could return to a gentler period of time when I was quite civil to you all and was merely asking questions about bias and the selection processes that kept the Post-Star from being the best paper it could be. Failing that, I want you to know that I appreciate the dialogue, however brief it may be.
Peace,
Matt
From: Ken Tingley
To: mattfuniciello@earthlink.net
Sent: 2/12/2009 9:27:30 AM
Subject:
Mr. Funicello,
I swore I would never email you again, but I will take one more shot. When you write insulting things about me and the newspaper that are patently not true, I will not allow it on my blog. That is my call. You repeatedly talk of some corporate conspiracy against third-part candidate - which is ridiculous - it is hard to take you seriously. The reality is that we make decisions each day over where to spend our resources and what the most important stories are. You may not agree with those calls because you believe third-party candidates are a big issue. It is a subjective decision.We constantly editorialize about change and for you to say we are for the status quo is pretty big leap. I also find it insulting for you to comment on Maury's blog that we will not let Maury do certain stories on third-party candidates. which is also not true. Maury makes his own calls on what stories he does and does not do as do all our reporters. When you stop making accusations that are not true, then I will consider posting them on my blog.
Ken Tingley
Editor
The Post-Star
** MY RESPONSE **
Ken,
I appreciate that you have broken your silence (however briefly) where I am concerned. I accept that many of your readers do not see independent or third party candidates as "big news". I think that, if we're honest, much of what is printed in the paper on any given day is of little interest to the average reader. Its really circular logic, anyway. How do we know people aren't interested in real candidates and instead are interested in daily anecdotes about the blank slates who are just waiting for their corporate donors to fill in the blanks?
Its like a bad song. If you play the Tedisco/Murphy "song" every day on your "radio", I may well find myself humming along whether I am engaged by that song or not. This is how mainstream media influences the American voter and helps retain the status quo. It is low-level brainwashing. Its pervasive and makes most people hesitant to have an independent thought. Its really important that you understand I don't see poorly made choices in media as a corporate conspiracy. I see them as a result of mainstream media CULTURE. It is well-established, long-term patterns of behavior and decision-making that reflect almost no curiosity about anything outside of the box or the mainstream. Historically, substantive change is almost always instigated by those who think "outside the box".
The problem I have with your paper is the total lack of response when your readership shows interest. As evidenced by activity on your forum, we were all quite interested in third party and independent candidates during this past election and we wwrree given excuse after excuse about why there was almost no coverage at all. We were told repeatedly that our candidates don't deserve it or haven't earned it ... etcetera. Why? because a bunch of rich power brokers in a room somewhere else didn't appoint our candidates, they are somehow less important or less credible than rich corporate lawyers who have been chosen for us? You had far greater activity and debate on your forum during the past presidential campaign whenever mention was made of Ron Paul or Ralph Nader than when you reprinted tired old AP stories about Obama and McCain. Thats because most truly engaged political activists are opposed to the mainstream and we are a larger group (independents and 3rd party and non-voters) than the two parties are in this county. We are starving for a media that will cover everyone "comparably" (to use Mahoney's own term) and
comparable does not mean a blog entry or two when the balance is 20 stories prominently printed in the actual paper.
I am used to this. It is the norm for the media not to cover my candidates. It is the norm for the media to not include them in debates. It is the norm for the media to marginalize and/or ridicule my candidates and my issues (ones that actually matter to real people). It is the norm for those journalists with conscience to make feeble excuses that never hold water about why they behave in a biased manner. Those of us who fight so hard for political change are very tired of the media's tacit support of the status quo (and I do believe, regardless of your intent, that this is exactly the result of only covering the corporate candidates). I understand fully that, as a newspaper editor, like most American citizens, you have probably never worked on a municipal or state or national campaign and have no idea how terribly biased the whole process is and how undemocratic it has become. That, in itself, should be your paper's job. To uncover the bias and the tyranny evident in this two-party system. All Americans of good conscience can't help but be outraged when they get involved and find out how terribly corrupt the "democratic" process has become. Will you spend your entire career doing nothing to change that or will you alter course and become an engaged citizen/editor? Will you attack this corruption with a similar zeal to that which you apply to teen drinking?
Being shut out of the media is one of the principle reasons why it is so difficult for real human beings to run for office and most papers don't ever cover these battles. I wish that instead of seeing me as your enemy, we could return to a gentler period of time when I was quite civil to you all and was merely asking questions about bias and the selection processes that kept the Post-Star from being the best paper it could be. Failing that, I want you to know that I appreciate the dialogue, however brief it may be.
Peace,
Matt
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Sundwall For Congress
Greetings Fellow Independents and Progressives!
I have great news for all of us engaged in the fight against the two-party corporate system and also for those looking for a way to fight it locally!
Most of you are well aware that I a pretty independently-minded person (politically anyway). As such, I have considered the options carefully in this special election in this congressional district (CD 20) and have decided to support Eric Sundwall, who is the Libertarian candidate. Eric will be in Glens Falls next week to meet with us and formally ask for our support. I hope that you will come out and show him that he's got plenty!
I do not mean this support as a disrespect to my Green friends or compatriots. The Green Party's platform is the one I am in closest agreement with and I am still, very much, a Green. However, much like my support for Ralph Nader, I make decisions on who to support based on which non-corporate candidate seems most able to get on the ballot and mobilize a serious race. I believe that Eric is that candidate in this special election.
Bolstered by his state and national party's support, Eric has announced his intent to run. Even though there are a few issues on which I do not agree with the Libertarians, I know Eric, himself, to be a very good person and I believe that he will be able to raise money and organize a campaign that will collect enough signatures to get on the ballot in this special election. I believe that our commonalities and our desire to shake up the two-party system should trump our minor political differences.
As independents and third party advocates, we are all regularly engaged in the fight for ballot access in New York. Eric understands this fully and has often spoken fo his desire to see a coalition of Libertarians and other alternative parties. He really needs our help and he will be at Rock Hill Cafe next week to talk to us about his goals and to answer any questions you may have about him or his campaign. This will be a great opportunity to hear him speak and to sign up to help him get on the ballot.
Please make time next Wednesday at 7:00 pm to meet Eric at Rock Hill Cafe 19 Exchange Street Glens Falls, NY about a block from from Glens Falls Hospital.
Below is Eric's website and a link to the Post-Star's recent story on his candidacy.
www.sundwall4congress.org
http://www.poststar.com/blogs/?p=16988&cat=#comment-2277150
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to call me at (518) 361-6278.
I have great news for all of us engaged in the fight against the two-party corporate system and also for those looking for a way to fight it locally!
Most of you are well aware that I a pretty independently-minded person (politically anyway). As such, I have considered the options carefully in this special election in this congressional district (CD 20) and have decided to support Eric Sundwall, who is the Libertarian candidate. Eric will be in Glens Falls next week to meet with us and formally ask for our support. I hope that you will come out and show him that he's got plenty!
I do not mean this support as a disrespect to my Green friends or compatriots. The Green Party's platform is the one I am in closest agreement with and I am still, very much, a Green. However, much like my support for Ralph Nader, I make decisions on who to support based on which non-corporate candidate seems most able to get on the ballot and mobilize a serious race. I believe that Eric is that candidate in this special election.
Bolstered by his state and national party's support, Eric has announced his intent to run. Even though there are a few issues on which I do not agree with the Libertarians, I know Eric, himself, to be a very good person and I believe that he will be able to raise money and organize a campaign that will collect enough signatures to get on the ballot in this special election. I believe that our commonalities and our desire to shake up the two-party system should trump our minor political differences.
As independents and third party advocates, we are all regularly engaged in the fight for ballot access in New York. Eric understands this fully and has often spoken fo his desire to see a coalition of Libertarians and other alternative parties. He really needs our help and he will be at Rock Hill Cafe next week to talk to us about his goals and to answer any questions you may have about him or his campaign. This will be a great opportunity to hear him speak and to sign up to help him get on the ballot.
Please make time next Wednesday at 7:00 pm to meet Eric at Rock Hill Cafe 19 Exchange Street Glens Falls, NY about a block from from Glens Falls Hospital.
Below is Eric's website and a link to the Post-Star's recent story on his candidacy.
www.sundwall4congress.org
http://www.poststar.com/blogs/?p=16988&cat=#comment-2277150
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to call me at (518) 361-6278.
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