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Welcome!  I’m Nat Fortune, and I’m the Massachusetts Green- Rainbow Party candidate for state auditor. I teach physics and environmental science and policy at Smith College in Northampton, and I’m chair of the school committee for my town of Whately. I’ve been on the committee for the past 7 years. My wife Joyce serves on the town select board, and our two children, having graduated from Whately Elementary, now attend Frontier Regional High School.

I understand how hard it is for our towns to pay for the schools and services we need and deserve.  I want ensure that we have a government worth paying for, at a price we can afford to pay.

So why auditor?

Because the state auditor’s job is to make sure that you are getting your money’s worth from your taxes, and that those taxes are being spent where they’re needed most. The state auditor’s job is to be your fiscal watchdog.

I think it’s time we have a watchdog that barks.

Continue reading Why I’m running
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Next Democracy Day is TUESDAY, AUGUST 10. Please spead the word far and wide! Visit Democracy Days and post YOUR reasons for supporting this campaign!

When’s the last time someone asked you,”yo–wanna make history?”

Been a while? Well, I’m inviting you to do just that right now.

You can whine about all politicians being corrupt. You can pretend nothing outside your front door matters. You can accept impotence as a fundamental condition of your being. You can compromise to no end, selling your soul piece by piece on the obscene premise that life is all about settling for the lesser of two evils.

I dunno. Sounds like a pretty crappy deal to me. If that’s the best we can do, hell, I’d just as soon not have been born.

But I’m damn glad I was, and I’m not settling, and I’m not taking a blade to my whatsits, and neither are you. Because we have an opportunity to redeem ourselves, to redeem our commonwealth, to redeem our future. And all you gotta do is contribute ten bucks. Between now and August 10. That–and spread the word.

Go here and check it out:

Continue reading Democracy Day 2: The Countdown Continues

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Jill is as friendly, dynamic, and well-spoken as I could have hoped for. Her campaign team is as organized, determined, and thirsty for victory as any political machine could ever build itself to be. Her core group of supporters are intelligent, dedicated, and ready to put in the hours to make this campaign happen. And, ladies and gentlemen, let’s not forget that JILL IS ON THE BALLOT.

In her remarks yesterday on the steps of the State House and on a conference call Tuesday night, Jill and her campaign organizers made it clear that this is not just a victory for her campaign; this is confirmation of a job well done for the volunteers who made it all possible, a step forward for the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts, and the beginning of a massive grassroots movement to bring power back to the people of Massachusetts.

Continue reading Onward and Upward
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I am increasingly disheartened by the Boston Globe’s apparent dismissal of Jill Stein’s gubernatorial campaign, in the opinion pages and news coverage alike. The Op-Eds ignoring her are mounting. Whether Adrian Walker’s glaring omission was mindful or mindless, and whether Joan Vennochi’s dismissal was ignorant or spiteful, these biased actions deserve to be countered. I submitted a letter to the editor in response to Walker’s column, but the Letters editor called me to ask whether I was a paid staffer for Jill’s campaign. I told him that I’ve been working on a grassroots fundraising campaign that is poised to turn into a paid job, but that it’s message is an important one for Globe readers to learn about.

The following is an Op-Ed I submitted as a counterweight to their bias, but I didn’t hear back from them and wanted to get this out before August 10th. I think I’ll create a section on Green Mass Group called “What the Globe won’t print” and just start collecting people’s Op-Eds and LTEs that don’t make the paper. What do you think?

Cross-posted at DemocracyDays.com.

Continue reading Democracy’s Dawn in Massachusetts?
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Something unique is happening in Massachusetts. A dedicated group of supporters of Jill Stein, the Green-Rainbow Party candidate for governor, have started a movement to introduce clean, voter-based funding to the only candidate not taking corporate donations. They’re sending the message, $10 at a time, that it isn’t necessary to be entrenched in corporate interests to fund a political campaign. On these days of action, called “Democacy Days,” they’re asking for donations of $10 (…or more!) to drive this message home.

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As Democracy Days’ Eli Beckerman just posted, if every one of the 75,000 citizens who voted for Stein in the 2002 gubernatorial race gave $10, she would not only have a substantial amount of money to get her message out there, but she’d also receive matching funds from the state. As the only candidate who has agreed to abide by Massachusetts clean election laws, this is the perfect opportunity to let lawmakers know that we will no longer support politicians who are beholden to corporations who threaten our economy, environment and the health of our communities.

Please join me on Tuesday, August 10th, for the third Democracy Day, and please spread the word far and wide so that we can get the message out there that democracy doesn’t have to go to the highest corporate bidder and that people themselves can still make a real difference in the political landscape.

Visit DemocracyDays to find out how you can make a difference on August tenth, and for help in spreading the word.

Continue reading A grassroots fundraising effort is dawning in Massachusetts

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(READ EXCERPTS FROM DR. STEIN’S ANNOUNCEMENT):

Dazzled by the efforts of the truly invincible cadre of folks who braved this summer’s scorched sidewalks to collect the signatures needed to place GRP candidates on the ballot, impressed all over again with our gubernatorial candidate’s eloquent grasp of pressing issues and ability to weave them together with both sense and grace, pleased to meet my comrades once again on the same Statehouse steps we did when Jill Stein announced her candidacy on a chill March morning, I for one am feeling downright re-invigorated. No, all’s not well with the world. Far from it. But we’re ready to go to war to make it well, and all of us–in the party, in the movement, and, in fact,  all of us across the commonwealth, who’ve been delivered a choice we didn’t have yesterday–owe a real debt to those who labored indefatigably to ensure our candidates would be on the ballot–and in the freaking debates–and to the slate of candidates–Jill Stein & Rick Purcell, Nat Fortune, and Scott Lagenour–who are looking simply to give a real voice, not to party partisans, not to big-time donors, but to citizens like themselves  (we’ll shortly be adding the tireless Mark Miller to that list).

From the heart: thank you.

Of course … that was the easy part. To get involved with stage two, please visit Democracy Days.

This won’t work for everyone, but it still does it for me. Some Shakespeare for you.

Continue reading “STEIN QUALIFIES FOR BALLOT, DECLARES FOUR-WAY RACE FOR GOVERNOR”

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As part of Secretary Clinton’s 21st Century Statecraft initiative,Tech@State

http://www.state.gov/statecraf…

connects established leaders, new innovators, government personnel, and others to work together on 21st century technology solutions to improve the education, health, and welfare of the world’s population.

In its first iteration, Tech@State: Haiti,

http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/…

participants from the private sector, NGOs, academia, the Haitian Diaspora, and the public sector demonstrated and discussed their innovations in Haiti. The event served as an idea and technology exchange among participants and ignited those attending to collaborate on current and future projects in Haiti and in other nations.

The second iteration, Tech@State: Mobile Money,

http://www.state.gov/statecraf…  

will be held August 2, 2010.

Video at

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/…

Continue reading Tech@State
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Spread the word!!  Save the trees!  Protect the biosphere!



Thursday, August 5,4pm. Protest the Biomess! (that rhymes) At the Biomess industry conference. Meet in front of the Westin Copley Place hotel at the corner of Dartmouth and St. James in Boston (near Copley Plaza) at 4pm.

Contact: stephaniesanch@gmail.com/ 203-536-2050 cell ph

Continue reading Thursday, August 5, 4pm. Protest the Biomess!
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Here is Jill Stein’s take on what’s happening today on Beacon Hill:

STEIN CALLS “ORGY OF BACKROOM DEALS” A TROUBLING REMINDER OF BEACON HILL DYSFUNCTION.

Visiting the State House to observe the frantic closing day of the 2010 Legislative session, gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein offered the following comments:

“The orgy of backroom deals culminating here today is another disservice to the people of Massachusetts, and a troubling reminder of how dysfunctional Beacon Hill has become.”

Continue reading “ORGY OF BACKROOM DEALS” OBSERVED BY STEIN
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{ Installment 2 of Ivan Illich’s Energy and Equity series }

The industrialization of traffic

The discussion of how energy is used to move people requires a formal distinction between transport and transit as the two components of traffic. By traffic I mean any movement of people from one place to another when they are outside their homes. By transit I mean those movements that put human metabolic energy to use, and by transport, that mode of movement which relies on other sources of energy. These energy sources will henceforth be mostly motors, since animals compete fiercely with men for their food in an overpopulated world, unless they are thistle eaters like donkeys and camels.

Continue reading Energy and Equity: The industrialization of traffic
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