I had wanted to visit Colonial Williamsburg for ages. Thanks to my new marital alliance with The NLB, I got the chance to go. Just the idea of the House of Burgesses at “CW” inspired the Look and Feel that I’ve established at HVDU events. The video above — I’ve just started a Vimeo channel for longer videos — was taken by yours truly on our recently acquired FlipVideo Ultra recorder-player. Please let me know what you think of it.

Ahoy there, HVDU fans!

Your HVDU founder is preparing for the Fall 2010 HVDU debate season, and part of that preparation was a desire to reach back to the roots of debate in this country. So I decided to go (along with my New Lovely Bride) to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. I’ve been wanting to go down there for ages, long before I started the HVDU. Since The NLB and I needed a honeymoon, and had a gap open on our calendars, we loaded up The Silver Fawn and motored down to the Virginia Tidewater and hit the place over the weekend of the Glorious Fourth.

Advice to all: Have you ever thought about going to Colonial Williamsburg? Do it. If you’re an American, or if you’re a lover of freedom, you need to go there. Because it all started there. Plus Jamestown and Yorktown are right next door, easily accessible over the Colonial Parkway. We hit all three places, and it was great. We expect to go back sometime.

First: It’s the perfect place to channel your inner patriot:

Also: Are you into stocks? You can do that there, too:

And do you want things that go boom? Does the smell of black powder in the afternoon make you feel like victory? Then “CW” is your kind of place:

Plus, you never know who’s going to show up. You’ve got famous Frenchies like the Marquis de Lafayette:

Even traitors like the one and only Benedict Arnold come riding into town:

As you stroll along Duke of Gloucester Street in the morning, you can meet the big meat:

And check out the big Scottish flowers in the garden:

And CW has all the hottest bands come into town. The hottest 18th Century bands, that is. They lay down a nice beat and you can march to it. All the kids are into it:

If you motor over to Jamestown — a quick trip along the cars-only Colonial Parkway — you can do some sailing:

Yorktown, at the opposite end of the Colonial Parkway, is also a boom town:

And, when you get back up to W’Burg, you can hang out at the Royal Palace:

All photos courtesy of The NLB

Anyway, more on the trip later. Hope you like this so far!

Hope you like it! More HVDU news soon!

Here they are, in the order they occurred:

Opening:

Steve Pappas:

Jim Coleman:

Brian Cocolicchio:

Matt Neuringer:

Cliff Weathers:

Diane Holland:

Conclusion:

I spent the bulk of today hunkering down from the snowstorm, assembling the videos of the event. (My old VHS-C camera was the only video camera there).

However, YouTube has been a beast uploading today, so I can’t tell you when I’ll have them up. In the meantime, I do have a few still photos from our first visit to Haverstraw Town Hall (thank you, Supervisor Phillips).

Your host, getting ready for the expected hordes at Haverstraw Town Hall.

The Proponent team: Cliff Weathers, Steve Pappas, and Brian Cocolicchio

The new 'tough' HVDU sign is holding up well

Two of the three for the Opponent team: Diane Holland and Jim Coleman

Discussion after the debate

Late update:

The first YouTube video:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Patrick McGrath 845-429-3206

STONY POINT, NY (31 January 2010) – The Hudson Valley Debate Union, which brings face-to-face “Oxford-style” debating to Rockland County, the Hudson Valley, and beyond, announces the Confidence in the Obama Adminstration Debate, between the prominent supporters and opponents of current Presidential Administration.

The debate will take place on Tuesday 9 February 2010, from 7 to 9 pm, in the Council Chambers of Haverstraw Town Hall, 1 Rosman Road, Garnerville, New York 10923. Haverstraw Town Hall is just off U.S. Route 202 in Garnerville in Rockland County, just to the west of the Garnerville Shop-Rite.

The motion for the debate will be, “This House has confidence in the current executive Administration in the White House.”

Scheduled to participate as Principal Speakers are:

In favor of the motion:

• Mr. Brian Cocolicchio, Clarkstown Democratic Committeeman and returning HVDU Principal Speaker
• Mr. Steve Pappas, representing the office of Ellen Jaffee, New York State Assembly (95th District)
• Mr. Cliff Weathers, progressive blogger at “Left of the Hudson” and “Rock-Prog.org”

Against the motion:

• Mr. Jim Coleman, returning HVDU Principal Speaker
• Mr. Matthew E. Neuringer, legislative director and campaign manager, Greg Ball for Assembly; candidate for Town Council, Town of Southeast (Putnam County)
• Ms. Doreen Alli Linder, writer and columnist at Examiner.com

HVDU Founder and Executive Director Patrick McGrath commented:

“For the first time, the HVDU presents one of the classics of the Oxford debate genre: the no-confidence debate. Every year, the ancient debate societies of the Oxford and Cambridge Unions in England argue the motion, “This House has no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government.” These events are modeled after the real “No Confidence” debates in Britain’s House of Commons that can, and have, brought down British Governments..

“I thought it was high time to bring that classic motion to the Hudson Valley Debate Union.

“To make things somewhat easier on everybody, I’ve ‘reversed the polarity’ of the motion—it just makes things easier to understand if you’re voting ‘Yes’ to a positive statement. However, that will not make this debate all sweetness and light. To the contrary, the contention brought about by the policies of the Obama Administration have been almost unprecedented in American history. From historic high poll ratings at the Inauguration in January 2009, to historic low poll ratings a mere twelve months later, is there still confidence that the current Administration can govern America? That’s what our six Principal Speakers will try to thrash out.

“They will only have an hour to do that, so they’re going to have to concentrate and get to the point. And they’ll need to think on their feet, because our Oxford-style format allows both Principal Speakers and Voting Guests from the public to confront their opponents directly. Both sides will have to respond coherently to opponents’ questions. I think that this will be the HVDU’s most exciting event to date.”

WHAT HAPPENS AT AN ‘OXFORD STYLE’ HUDSON VALLEY DEBATE UNION EVENT?

“Voting Guests in the HVDU audience participate along with the Principal Speakers,” McGrath explained. “The six Principal Speakers at the debates will each get ten minutes for their speeches. The first two minutes and the last two minutes are ‘protected’ — but the middle six minutes are subject to Points of Information. That’s where anyone in the the audience can stand up, raise his or her hand, and shout out, ‘Point of Information!’ Nothing between you and the Principal Speaker—you just stand up, right from your chair — and rip it. The Principal Speaker on the floor at the time has the right to refuse any and all Points of Information, but they are strongly urged to take at least one or two.

“When all of the Principal Speakers are finished, the question will be called, and the audience will vote on the motion. We’re doing this low-tech: we’ll pass around the ballot box, the Voting Guests will drop in the green and red poker chips we use as ballots, then we’ll count the chips, announce the vote total and find out if the motion has passed. Now that’s what I call participatory democracy,” McGrath said.

Further information about the Hudson Valley Debate Union can be found at the HVDU’s Web sites: www.hvdebateunion.org and www.hudsonvalleydebate.com. Both sites have links to YouTube videos of the HVDU’s recent Stony Point Debate. The HVDU’s YouTube channel is located at http://www.youtube.com/user/hvdebateunion

However, please be alerted: There will be an announcement of the next event very soon. And it will be a biggie. So keep your eyes open.

That is all.

Dear Friends:

I had been planning for some weeks to hold a HVDU Debate on the Health Care Bill now presently being considered in Washington. It was going to be held on Tuesday 10 November, at Haverstraw Town Hall in Garnerville NY.

This is to let all of you know that, as of 1 pm today, 6 November 2009, that event has been cancelled.

Had the event gone forward, the Motion would have been, “This House supports HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act.”

The reason that I have been compelled to cancel the event is that not enough Principal Speakers from the pro-HR 3962 side were willing to participate in the event. I had nearly a full slate of anti-HR 3962 Principal Speakers — including one who was willing to come out from well out-of-state — but not enough from the pro-HR 3962 side to have a credible debate. I am grateful to Melissa and Moira at OFA who did their best, but the response from their contacts just wasn’t enough. (I also had one who was willing, but had a scheduling conflict — thank you, Jon — and another who called in just after I had to cancel, but otherwise, there was silence.)

I am also grateful to Supervisor Howard Phillips of the Town of Haverstraw for his graciousness in letting HVDU use Town Hall for this.

And I am grateful to everyone else who said Yes to this, but I am still disappointed. The Health Care Bill, a huge piece of legislation, needed the treatment of a full, Oxford-style debate. This would have been the one place where pro-Obamacare people and pro-TeaParty people could look each other in the eye and get the full measure of each other, put Points of Information to each other, then have the whole question put to a decision of the Voting Guests.

The HVDU will continue, but it will have to find other subjects to debate. But those are not difficult to find. If you know of one, and if it has a Decision Point with it, please drop me a line.

PATRICK McGRATH
Executive Director

After a day and a half of concentrated work, I have just posted the videos of the Stony Point Debate onto YouTube! Yay!

Because of YouTube’s 10 minute limitation, and because it’s just plain more convenient, I’ve split up the footage into conveniently managable chunks. I think this makes sense.

Again, a shout-out to George Potanovic who manned the videocam.

Here they are …

Opening Ceremonies

Peter Muller

William Sherwood

Geoff Finn

Jerry Rogers

Luanne Konopko

Steve Fischer

Conclusion