It was a first for many reasons — our first time working with the Rockland County Times, the Hudson Valley Business Journal, and the Nyack Village Theater. And, thanks to the last, the HVDU’s first Webcast! So let’s give you a look:

Karen Bulich Moreau of the Land & Liberty Foundation leads off for the Proposition side of the question.

Paul Gallay, President of Hudson Riverkeeper, leads for the Opposition to the Motion.

Adam Schultz of the Independent Oil & Gas Assn. of NY (standing, left) takes a Point of Information from Buck Moorhead of NYH2O (standing, right) At the table, L to R: Tom West, The West Law Firm; Karen Bulich Moreau, Land and Liberty Foundation; Dr. Kathy Nolan, Catskill Mountainkeeper

Tom West, of the West Law Firm of Albany, speaks in favor of the motion

HVDU head honcho Patrick McGrath makes a point at the Fracking Debate. At left, supporters of the motion - Tom West of the West Law Firm, Albany NY; Adam Schultz of Gilberti et al. of Syracuse, representing the NY Independent Oil and Gas Assn.; Karen Bulich Moreau of the Land & Liberty Foundation, Feura Bush NY. At right, opposing the motion: Dr. Kathy Nolan, Catskill Mountainkeeper; Paul Gallay, Hudson Riverkeeper; Buck Moorhead, NYH2O.

The Teller announces the results of the voting: 10 red chips in favor of the motion, 22 green chips against the motion. The motion to support the NYS DEC's proposed fracking regulations failed to convince the audience at the Nyack Village Theater. Photo credits: Christine McGrath

Video (courtesy of Rockland World Radio.com) Part 1:

Part 2:

NYACK, NY (16 November 2011) – The Hudson Valley Debate Union, which brings interactive, face-to-face “Oxford-style” debating to the Hudson Valley and beyond, announces its next debate event, covering one of today’s most pressing environmental issues—the question of hydraulic fracturing—“fracking,” for short—to extract underground reserves of natural gas and other fuels.

In a first for the HVDU, the event is a joint production with The Rockland County Times, which has covered the county since 1888, the Hudson Valley Business Journal, “the definitive source of local business news since 1986,” and the Nyack Village Theater, which is both hosting the event and providing livestreaming video of the event for debate participants anywhere via the Web.

The debate will take place on Thursday 1 December 2011, from 7:30 to 9 p.m., at the Nyack Village Theater, 94 Main Street (2nd Floor), in downtown Nyack, New York. The Web streaming will be available on RocklandWorldRadio.com. Web stream viewers will be able to vote on the motion by using the chat room function linked on the front page of the Rockland World Radio side.

The motion for the debate will be:

This House supports the adoption of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s proposed regulations for high-volume hydraulic fracturing (6 NYCRR Parts 52, 110, 550-556, and 750)

Scheduled to speak in favor of the motion will be:

• Ms. Karen Bulich Moreau, President of the Land and Liberty Foundation, Feura Bush, NY
• Mr. Adam Schultz, representing the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York; attorney and partner with Gilberti Stinziano Heintz & Smith, P.C. in Syracuse, NY
• Mr. Tom West, founder and managing partner, The West Firm PLLC, Albany NY

Scheduled to speak against the motion will be:

• Mr. Paul Gallay, President of Hudson Riverkeeper
• Ms. Kathy Nolan, High Peaks Regional Director for Catskill Mountainkeeper
• Mr. Buck Moorhead, co-founder and Vice President of NYH2O

Hudson Valley Debate Union founder and executive director Patrick McGrath comments:
“First, I want to thank Dylan Skreloff of The Rockland County Times and Richard Quinn of the Nyack Village Theater for opening their venue to HVDU’s brand of performance debate. We will love to have you in Nyack, but if you can’t make it there, no worries—thanks to the Theater’s RocklandWorldRadio.com, the debate will be livestreamed, and those watching on the ‘Net can vote on the motion through the Web site’s chat room.”

“Hydraulic fracturing—‘fracking’—is one of the top environmental and resource extraction issues of the times. Opponents of fracking cite potential effects on drinking water and the harms of chemicals used in the process. Proponents of fracking state that the process gives access to ‘a century’s worth’ of natural gas, and will create thousands of jobs in regions of upstate New York that currently suffer from high unemployment.

“The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has now proposed regulations that will open some of the Marcellus Shale formations in upstate New York to fracking production. Some towns have passed local laws banning the process, and bills have been introduced in the Legislature in Albany to shut down fracking statewide. Our Principal Speakers represent environmental advocates, landowner organizations, and industry groups, who are all ready to take Points of Information from each other—and from you the Voting Guests.

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 Principal Speakers at the debates each get ten minutes for their speeches. The first two minutes and the last two minutes are ‘protected’ — but the six minutes in between is 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 in the theater 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. The HVDU’s YouTube channel is located at http://www.youtube.com/user/hvdebateunion

I am hard at work preparing the next HVDU event, and there will be an announcement shortly.

The event will be on a hot topic–in several senses of “hot”–a new venue, new partners, and the most (potential) audience participation ever for the HVDU. So keep your eyes open and your calendars free.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Patrick McGrath 845-915-3159 (land) 845-558-4281 (cell)

HYDE PARK, NY (20 May 2011) – The Hudson Valley Debate Union, which brings interactive, face-to-face “Oxford-style” debating to the Hudson Valley and beyond, announces its first-ever debate event to be held at the historic estate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the banks of the Hudson. The subject will be one of today’s public policy flashpoints—the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PL 111-152) of 2010.

The debate will take place on Wednesday 1 June 2011, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home. The Center is located on Route 9 in Hyde Park, New York, north of Poughkeepsie.

The motion for the debate will be:

This House opposes the order of the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida granting summary judgment in Florida et al. v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Scheduled to speak in favor of the motion will be:

• Mr. Richard Kirsch, Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and former National Campaign Manager for Health Care for America Now.
• Mr. Mark Scherzer, Legislative Counsel, New Yorkers for Accessible Health Coverage
• A potential third speaker to be named later.

Scheduled to speak against the motion will be:

• Mr. Steve Lonegan, Americans for Prosperity of New Jersey.
• Mr. Robert Fois, blogger from NewsCopy.org
• A potential third speaker to be named later.

Hudson Valley Debate Union founder and executive director Patrick McGrath comments:

“First, I would like to thank the officials of the National Archives and Records Administration at the Henry A. Wallace Center of the FDR Library for opening their Center to the HVDU. Our debates are always about the cutting edge of public policy, and, in his day, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was at the edge of public policy, both foreign and domestic.

“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—called ‘Obamacare’ by its opponents—was one of the most controversial bills ever debated and enacted by the Congress. The debate is not over: twenty-six states, joined by several other parties, sued in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, seeking a judgment that the legislation was unconstitutional. On January 31st, the judge hearing the case, Richard Vinson, granted summary judgment to the states and their allies and ruled that the Obamacare law was unconstitutional. The Government appealed that decision. Exactly two months later, on March 31st, the U.S. Court of Appeals sitting in Atlanta announced that oral arguments in the case will be heard in their court on June 8th. So our HVDU debate takes place mere days before that crucial oral argument.

“Supporters of the law believe that it will bring affordable health care to millions of previously uninsured Americans. Opponents of the law believe that the Federal Government has no constitutional authority to enact such a law in the first place, and object to the law’s ‘individual mandate’ that will compel every American to buy a federally-approved health insurance policy, whether they want such a policy or not.

“This debate will ultimately be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, but before it arrives there, our HVDU Principal Speakers will thrash out the issues involved.

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 Principal Speakers at the debates each get a set number of minutes for their speeches. The first two minutes and the last two minutes are ‘protected’ — but the time in between is 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. The HVDU’s YouTube channel is located at http://www.youtube.com/user/hvdebateunion

It’s been a trying few months here at HVDU.

I tried very hard to set up two debates during the runup to the elections that took place today. One was to be a state legislature candidates event, the other a Congressional candidates event. To make a long story very short, both events fell through — lots of conflicting schedules. It was rather like dealing with a disreputable fruit seller in the Middle East — I picked bad dates.

At any rate, there is an important HVDU announcement.

You may know that the HVDU’s beloved official mascot, Anteyka, is no longer with us. We miss him a lot.

The late Anteyka, mascot of the HVDU

Today I am delighted to announce that there is a new HVDU mascot. Please welcome Ziggy, successor to Anteyka.

Ziggy and Teyka became best buds during his last months. Ziggy missed him a lot too, when he didn’t come home. Sigh.

Anyway, the Z-Cat has revived the cuteness factor of the HVDU mascot’s post. Yay Zig!

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: