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Loading...Multiple Arrests Can’t Stop Reverend Billy From Running
He’s a community leader and performance artist whose message of Think Before You Buy strikes fear and loathing in the hearts of corporate America. He’s been arrested dozens of times. In July 2007 he was jailed for reciting the First Amendment in Manhattan’s Union Square; last March the city of New York paid him $23,000 to settle his wrongful arrest suit out of court. Today Reverend Billy, aka Billy Talen, is the Green Party candidate for mayor of New York City.
Talen is running on an insanely radical platform: “Keep our Neighborhoods Livable and Vibrant, Healthy and Safe,” with planks supporting leadership on climate change, community policing, immigrant rights, support for local economies, city government commitment to buying sweatshop-free products, and equitable access to clean air and clean water in low-income neighborhoods. The long-time activist uses street theater tactics and his guise as Reverend Billy of the Church of Life After Shopping to break the spell of corporations and consumerism that keeps so many people in thrall and in debt.
Reverend Billy doesn’t hold back from critiquing hypocrisy wherever he sees it, and he returns time and again to the importance of personal, individual actions. He blogged on September 26 from the site of the G-20 meeting about President Obama: “Peace will remain an impotent Hallmark Card if we wait for this recent peace candidate to emerge from his closed meetings with bankers and generals. We can only look to ourselves.”
Talen’s emphasis on the diversity and character of New York’s neighborhoods has struck a chord, literally, in his “singing” endorsement (video below) Will New York exchange billionaire incumbent Michael Bloomberg for a thoughtful jester like Reverend Billy as mayor? Doubtful. The good reverend is performing the service of pointing out what New York City’s priorities could be, and what New Yorkers (and the rest of us) could demand of leaders. Stay tuned: the election is November 3.
Read more: activism, economics, new york, politics
Photo: Jonathan McIntosh; Creative Commons license
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+ add your ownActually, Mr. ALL CAPS, you're the one who is arguing based on unsubstantiated attacks instead of factual info (and that's not an 'ad hominem', that's a critique relevant to this discussion). So you're voting for Thompson because he's a "hack"? Go right ahead. Just stop complaining because other New Yorkers have the chance to vote for someone with a clear message they actually agree with. That's called democracy, brother.
And before you join the ranks of Democrats Against Democracy, don't forget - Bloomberg's dictatorship was ratified by a majority of the Democrats on the city council. All made possible by Democrat/Working Families darling Christine Quinn.
Fortunately, there are four Greens running for city council in NYC, working to bring accountability and fresh ideas to a culture of unresponsive one-party rule.
As for calling Rev. Billy "anti-community" and "Euro-centric" - he's the only candidate who has made community a core issue of his campaign. He's the only candidate speaking out on immigrant prisons and racial profiling by the NYPD. Watch the video: "Rev. Billy on WNBC's video voter guide". Read the platform at http://VoteRevBilly.org/ . Educate yourself.
I'm in this video at :39, saying that I "absolutely will" vote for Rev. Billy, and yes, I absolutely will vote for him. I'm certainly not throwing away my vote on Bloomberg!
REV. BILLY'S FANS OBVIOUSLY DON'T GET IT, WHICH IS WHY, INSTEAD OF PRESENTING ANY FACTUAL INFO, THEY REPEAT GREEN PARTY RHETORIC AND LAUNCH AD HOMINEM PERSONAL ATTACKS AGAINST ANY OF THE MAJORITY OF NYERS WHO KNOW & REMIND REV. BILLY'S FANS THAT A CIRCUS ATTRACTION LIKE REV. BILLY CAN NOT & WILL NOT STOP BLOOMBERG, WILL NOT GET ANY MORE THAN 50,000 VOTES *IN NYC*, THAT THEIR VOTES ARE (BECAUSE VOTES FOR REV. BILLY EXPRESS A REFUSAL TO STOP THE BLOOMBERG DICTATORSHIP) NOTHING MORE THAN AN AFFIRMATION OF THE WORK OF BLOOMBERG'S CITY COUNCIL PUPPETS THAT ALLOWED HIM TO RUN FOR A 3RD TERM, THAT A DICTATOR LIKE BLOOMBERG IS MORE POWERFUL THAN A HACK LIKE THOMPSON, WHOSE ELECTION (THOMPSON'S) WOULD FACILITATE MORE EFFECTIVE ORGANIZING (AGAINST A CITY HALL OCCUPIED BY A HACK MAYOR RATHER THAN ORGANIZING AGAINST A DICTATOR), AND THEY ALSO DON'T GET THE FACT THAT THE 2009 NYC MAYORAL ELECTION IS ABOUT ENDING BLOOMBERG'S DICTATORSHIP, AND NOT ABOUT USING YET ANOTHER ELECTION TO PEDDLE GREEN PARTY FRIVOLOUS EUROCENTRIC ANTI-COMMUNITY IDEOLOGY!!!
STOP BLOOMBERG!!!
THOMPSON FOR NYC MAYOR!!!
JUSTICE, NOT GREEN PARTY FRIVOLOUS EUROCENTRIC ANTI-COMMUNITY IDEOLOGY!!!
Okay. If you can't make your argument with actual points, make it with all-caps and extra exclamation points.
Truth be told, the ones who voted to "extend the Bloomberg dictatorship" were a majority of the Democrats on the city council.
Billy Talen's supporters are voting for something, but that something is definitely not politics as usual.
Don't fall for the NYC Democratic machine's trap. They anointed Bloomberg for a third term, and now they're marketing their guy as the lesser evil. They must not have realized that some New Yorkers can still think. And those New Yorkers are voting for the candidate who has a vision of a livable, vibrant, sustainable, and just NYC.
Vote Green for real change!
A VOTE FOR REV. BILLY IS A VOTE TO EXTEND THE BLOOMBERG DICTATORSHIP! IF REV. BILLY WERE A SERIOUS CANDIDATE FOR NYC MAYOR HE WOULD CAMPAIGN IN NYC, NOT AT BURNING MAN OR THE G20 PROTESTS!!
STOP BLOOMBERG!
THOMPSON FOR NYC MAYOR!!
Before you make up your mind about Rev. Billy Taln, check out this 4-minute video in which he sums up the reasons for his campaign:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vtCZ9f_x44&feature=channel_page
(search for 'Rev. Billy on WNBC's Video Voter Guide' on youtube)
CHANGEALLUJAH!
Charlene - NYC residents voted for terms limits twice. Bloomberg and 29 members of the overwhelmingly Democratic city council, led by Speaker Christine Quinn, overrode the term limits law to set the stage for another term for Bloomberg (and themselves).
John McDermott - the NYC Democratic/Working Families machine aided and abetted this power grab. After railing against the Bloomberg coup to score points, the Working Families party cynically endorsed Christine Quinn against progressive challenger Yetta Kurland.
The issue is democracy. Thanks to $100 million in advertising, a complacent corporate media, a complicit Democratic party, and a classic Republican "don't change horses in midstream" pose about the economic crisis that his Wall Street buddies created, Bloomberg is hypnotizing New Yorkers into thinking they need his strongman rule.
The issue is: can we vote for a clear alternative to unsustainable overdevelopment, homogenization and corporatism, or must we settle for soothing rhetoric and Republican-lite policies?
Rev. Billy Talen has a platform to make New York City livable, vibrant, sustainable and just. His solutions emanate from the neighborhoods up, not down from the corporate boards. His message is striking a deep chord with New Yorkers, many of whom wouldn't bother to vote otherwise.
http://VoteRevBilly.org/
Also check out 4 Greens running for NYC city council:
http://www.greenpartywatch.org/2009/10/05/four-greens-running-for-new-york-city-cou
Sally B. - That e-mail edict from your school district sounds patently illegal and completely hollow. It should have, at least, been in Writing and on official letterhead with appropriate Signatures (so that you would all Know Who to sue). I believe any competent lawyer could make hash out of that attempt to deny you all your right of free speech. Try the ACLU in your area.
We, the voters, must remember one thing. Our legislators are continually voted back into office by us. We must take responsibility for our problems, and stop re-electing career politicians.
Almost all, well-intentioned, altruistic candidates, find that it is close to impossible to make change with those in office for repeated terms.
Remember Ventura in Minnesota? He won the Governers office, but then was turned off by the politics as Obama is finding out. The corruption in higher places, makes it almost impossible to change things. Politicians are too powerful and the heck with doing what is right. But I say go for it Billy!!
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