Paul Ferguson is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, senior fellow of the Roosevelt Institute, and contributing editor at AlterNet. Jorgensen is assistant professor of political science at University of Texas, Pan American and Non-Resident Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center at Harvard. They co-authored a just-released piece: “Massive Surge…

Rick Ungar is a contributor to Forbes.com, and appears as the liberal voice of the “Forbes on Fox” television show and as a political pundit on other Fox network programs. He recently wrote the op-ed, “Romney Family Investment Ties To Voting Machine Company That Could Decide The Election Causing Concern.” It states: “A test conducted…

Editor of Ballot Access News, Richard Winger said today: “In the November 2012 election across the U.S., in 39.9 percent of all state legislative districts, there is no Democratic-Republican contest, because either the Democrats, or the Republicans, didn’t nominate any candidate. The United States, for legislative elections, suffers from undercrowded ballots, not overcrowded ballots. Yet…

Jeff Cohen is among a number of well-known progressives — including Daniel Ellsberg, Cornel West, Frances Fox Piven, Barbara Ehrenreich, Marjorie Cohn, Jim Hightower and Norman Solomon — backing a RootsAction.org proposal aimed at progressive voters: “If you live in a close state, defeat Romney and his right-wing policies by voting Obama/Biden. If you live…

BRIAN CONCANNON [email], via Nicole Phillips [email] Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, Concannon said today: “Hurricane Sandy will kill many times more people in Haiti than everywhere else combined, despite barely touching the country with tropical storm-strength winds. Sandy shows that Haiti’s real disaster is decades of policies by Haitian…

International specialist at Beyond Nuclear, Linda Gunter said today: “Given that all the safety systems are reliant upon offsite power, nuclear reactors in the path of this mega-storm need to promptly shut down because of grid instability. But when they do, they can no longer provide electricity at a time when it is needed most.”

The group 350.org organized activists in unfurling a giant “End Climate Silence” banner in Times Square on Sunday. Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org said today: “Meteorologists have called this ‘the biggest storm ever to hit the U.S. mainland,’ which is a reminder of how odd our weather has been in this hottest year in…

Director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, Tyler Slocum said today: “For the first time in 24 years, neither the presidential nor vice-presidential candidates were asked a question about climate disruption during the debates. And the candidates have failed to highlight the issue as well — unless you count Governor Romney’s use of climate change as…

LisaGilbert is with Public Citizen, Lauren Strayer is with Demos and Mary Boyle is with Common Cause. The three groups are part of the Corporate Reform Coalition, which just released a poll on the public’s attitudes toward money in politics.

Michele Simon is a public health lawyer, president of Eat Drink Politics and author of Appetite for Profit: How the food industry undermines our health and how to fight back. She has been writing about California’s Proposition 37, which would require labeling of foods with GMOs. She recently wrote: “University of California at Davis agriculture…