Monday, April 23, 2007

Is The Party Just Starting On Long Island?

Who Is Bill Corrigan, And What Does The Long Island Party Want From Us?

Another blog in blogdom.

This one, The Long Island Party blog, is part political, part promotional, with a decent smattering of the issues -- if not opposing viewpoints -- mixed in.

Bill Corrigan, who labels himself an independent, is running for Congress in Long Island's 3rd CD. [That's the seat held by Peter King, for those who are CD numerically challenged.]

He lives in North Massapequa, graduated St. John's University, and is a Hibernian -- not that there's anything wrong with that.

On the issues, suffice it to say that this blogger, consistent (in whole or in part with the official positions of The Community Alliance), agrees on some points (say, making tobacco products illegal), and begs to differ on others (as in, "We don't believe that there was wholesale deception with regards to Iraq." Of course not. It was RETAIL deception).

No matter the points articulated on the blog [can you still stay "articulate?"], issues that concern all Long Islanders -- from windfarms to global warming, immigration to Internet safety -- are raised and open for discussion, debate, and comment.

Whether you agree with Bill and his Long Island Party, or characterize his musings as the rant of a present-day "wrong-way Corrigan," give him credit for putting the issues of the day out there, and for offering the opportunity to, at the very least, think about them.

Besides, anyone who would run against Pete King can't be all bad, right? :-)

Bill Corrigan is trying to woo Democratic voters. This may be a hard sell, given his views on such issues as the war in Iraq (in line with those who still believe we won the war in Vietnam), civil confinement (which we diss on Constitutional grounds, not as cheerleaders of more sexual predators on our streets), a woman's right to decide what to do with her own body and her own health (though we do agree that education, not legislation, is the answer), prayer in public schools, and the privatization of social security.

Then again, it is not entirely clear from the blog whether the professed viewpoints have hardened into positions beyond campaign rhetoric, and, who knows, through discussion, debate, and the communal learning curve, Bill may just be ripe for both personal and social growth.

By no means is this blogpost an endorsement of Bill Corrigan for Congress, nor is it meant to either espouse or adopt the views of the Long Island Party.

We're just putting the content and the information out there for you to explore, examine, think over, and talk about.

And, in equal time to Peter King, there is now a Bill Corrigan Watch in the works, giving credence, perhaps, to his campaign -- or poking fun at it.

One thing we do like -- and whether novel or a novelty, we give Bill a high-five for it -- the intent to allow residents in the 3rd CD to direct the Congressman's votes on the hill by their own votes on the issues, this through a "proprietary" Congressional voting system. [Hmm. We thought that we had such a system in place now, fully accessible to the public. Its called "write, phone, fax or e-mail your Congressman!" If anyone is interested, we, at The Community Alliance, would be willing to sell this technology to you. :-)]

As Bill says in his blog, he's an open-minded guy (unlike Pete King, who is, more or less, mindless), and he'd just love to hear from you. You can contact Bill at info@billcorrigan.com.

1 comment:

  1. Good morning Community Alliance!

    I want to thank you very much for writing such a thorough article about me and the Long Island Party.

    I would like to reinforce to your readers, if I may, the central point of my running. The voting system that we developed is a web-based, real-time system that is provided in addition to traditional communication methods such as phone, fax, email, etc.

    Using this real-time system, constituents can create their profile with how they want to vote on the issues. They can register one time and can participate on each and every bill that comes out of committee. We will push the information to all of our constituents and let them vote on each and every single bill should they choose. For those who chose to be less involved they can simply register “Always vote with the Dems”, “Always vote with the GOP”, “I trust my representative to vote in the best interest of the third district”.

    And that will be how I will vote. Regardless of what the positions of the Long Island Party, myself, my family, my mom, my bishop, anyone…everyone gets to vote and I guarantee that I will vote as the majority of the district wants me to vote.

    This is what I believe representing the voice of the people should be.

    Thank you again for listening and sharing,
    Bill Corrigan

    ReplyDelete