Also, a New Jersey media outlet is reporting that in the poll of TMZ (a celebrity gossip website), Roseanne Barr for President is trailing Obama by only 3%. And, the news story also lists by name Green Party Watch, and the other nominees for Green Party President 2012 (Jill Stein, Kent Mesplay and Harley Mikkelson).

(excerpt from) newjerseynewsroom.com
Comedian Roseanne Barr seeking Green Party presidential nomination
Monday, 06 February 2012 07:16

An informal TMZ opinion poll has Roseanne trailing President Barack Obama by only three percent, 39 percent to 36 percent, with Mitt Romney coming in at 25 percent…*

*Note: Some sites are reporting the poll as Barack Obama 38% to Roseanne Barr 35%.

Barack Obama’s rhetoric certainly has a populist tone to it these days, but words are cheap.  At the same time that he invoked Teddy Roosevelt, Obama sought to undermine Social Security, one of the fundamental social safety net programs in this country.  Ron Paul and the newly Libertarian Gary Johnson, on the other hand, provide adequate solutions to some of the symptoms of this greater problem.  Both are opposed to the race-driven drug war and the military-industrial complex and the empire which sustains it.  They are even opposed to our modern “crony capitalism,” and in my eyes they are certainly better choices than any of the offerings of the major parties, yet their libertarian ideologies encourage corporate greed and power in some nasty ways.  Actual solutions, or at least the first steps toward actual solutions, to our systematic socioeconomic inequality are present in the campaigns of the Green Party’s Jill Stein and the Justice Party’s Rocky Anderson.  Stein’s campaign is centered on the idea of a “Green New Deal,” providing employment and a fair, democratic redistribution of wealth while jump-starting American environmental efforts.  Anderson, the former mayor of Salt Lake City, recently formed the Justice Party and the central theme of his candidacy is, in his words, “to change the system and get the corrupting influence of corporate and other concentrated wealth out of our electoral system and out of our system of governance.”

Teddy Roosevelt, Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and Rocky Anderson either are now, or once were, third party Presidential candidates.

“We have been talking with Rocky for months, and exploring how we could potentially work together, in the long run, in the short run, etc. I think Rocky is interested in creating a new party. He is newly emerged from the Democratic Party, and what you learn when you work in third party politics is that you don’t create these parties overnight. It takes a lot of work to create and maintain a party, and it’s hard to do that and run for office, and I think Rocky is testing the waters right now and we’ll see how the conversation progresses, but there is a very friendly and collaborative dialogue going on between us at this point.”

Someone has already set up a facebook group in order to encourage collaboration between the two campaigns.

Dan Hamburg is a former Democratic Congressman and former Green candidate for Governor of California. John Pinches is a heretofore unknown member of the American Independent Party, but is serving as a Supervisor for Mendocino County until 2015.

Green Party: 3,033 (0.27%)
Independent American Party: 51,535 (4.55%)
Libertarian Party: 7,111 (0.63%)
Non-Partisan: 181,960 (16.05%)
Other: 3,945 (0.35%)

California’s most recent voter registration statistics are from February 2011.

American Independent Party: 417,567 (2.43%)
Green Party: 113,118 (0.66%)
Libertarian Party: 92,246 (0.54%)
Peace and Freedom Party: 58,470 (0.34%)
Other: 121,019 (0.70%)
No Party Preference: 3,507,119 (20.41%)

Alaska’s most recent voter registration statistics are from

Alaskan Independence Party: 14,866 (3.01%)
Libertarian Party: 8,073 (1.64%)
Non-Partisan: 80, 833 (16.38%)
Undeclared: 183,045 (37.08%)
Constitution Party: 29 (.01%)
Green Party: 2,130 (0.43%)
Veterans Party: 1,427 (0.29%)

New York’s latest registration statistics were reported on November 1, 2011.

Conservative Party: 140,137 (1.32%)
Working Families Party: 38,290 (0.36%)
Independence Party: 398,830 (3.75%)
Green Party: 18,331 (0.17%)
Other: 3,059 (0.03%)
Blank: 2,135,863 (20.08%)

David Cobb is determined to change that, and he returned to Vermont this week to promote the next steps in a campaign to amend the U.S. Constitution. Last January, Cobb, a former Green Party candidate for president who leads the Move to Amend campaign, spoke about the issue in Burlington, Waitsfield and Montpelier. He also met with 11 state senators who agreed to support a Vermont resolution calling on Congress to initiate the process.

In a joint interview with Cobb on Vermont Public Radio, Ben Cohen explained this week that he originally felt amending the constitution “was an incredibly high bar. But when the Occupy Wall Street movement came around, I thought this makes it possible.”

In addition to David Cobb, a former Presidential candidate of the Green Party, various other third party and independent figures and organizations are mentioned: Independent Senator Bernie Sanders, the Progressive Party of Vermont, and Progressive State Rep. Chris Pearson.

Ian Wilder, GP of Suffolk Secretary at Black Friday Demo

Green Party of Suffolk: Occupy/Peace Black Friday at Smith Haven Mall

A number of Green Party of Suffolk members participated in a demonstration at Smith Haven Mall on Long Island on Black Friday. The Green Party of Suffolk endorsed the demonstration, and is an organization in the Suffolk Peace Network which helped organize the action.

“[This] is a gathering of the 99 percent,” said Green Bill McNulty. “It’s the 99 percent that has been unable—because of job loss, foreclosures and the collapse of the financial markets and all the rest of it—to satisfy its material needs.”

“The beauty of this movement is that it’s uniting people across all sorts of life: those who have been foreclosed, students who graduate with huge loans and no jobs and the working people, whose wages have been flat since the 70s,” he continues. “All of these people are here and we’re acting in a way, we hope, which will keep this movement going—because the politicians aren’t listening. They are elected by us, but don’t serve us, so there has to be another pressure, another force exerted, to promote… systemic change that will promote the well-being of the population, the 99 percent.”
_______________________________________________

The event was covered by several, local media outlets, and the activist press. There are photos at FaceBook: here and at Flickr: here.

A story about the event at Long Island Press:
Long Islanders Hold Occupy Black Friday Protest at Smith Haven Mall

_______________________________________________

Roger Snyder, GP of Suffolk Chair, at Occupy Black Friday on Long Island. 11/25/2011.

…The Green Party candidate for mayor of Tucson [Mary DeCamp], who is days away from losing her home to foreclosure, is flanked by fellow Occupy Tucson activists as she directs her long shot bid for public office from a borrowed tent in a local park.

“November 10th is my eviction date,”…

DeCamp kept her distance from Occupy Tucson at first, thinking that her presence might politicize an anti-Wall Street movement aligned with groups around the country protesting economic inequality, high unemployment and corporate greed.

Ultimately she decided politics needed to play a part, and that Green Party ideals aimed at protecting the little guy dove-tailed with Occupy Wall Street goals of speaking out for the so-called “99 percent.”

DeCamp now counts herself among a couple of dozen hard core Occupiers who have remained camped night after night, amassing citations for staying in the park past its 10:30 p.m. closing time…

A 17-year resident of Tucson, DeCamp said she is in the Occupy movement for the duration and will decide later where to go when it ends, whenever that might be…

___________________

There is a database of Green Party candidates from around the country at the Green Party of the United States website: here.

From www.revbilly.com:

Bank Transfer Day
Move your Money! Uptown at Union Theological then Rituals at Union Square
Saturday, November 5, 2011 – 11:00am – 2:00pm

Why you should move your money and other resources?

We start with a short service at 11 am at Union Theological (The James Chapel, between 120-122 and Broadway) and proceed to Union Square at 1 pm for hilarious and wonderful money moving magic – meet us at the Bank of America at Union Square at 1 pm. See you there, dress festively and bring feathers and flowers.

Are you planning to move your money Saturday? Or have you already moved your money and would you like to be blessed?
please contact  Savitri AT revbilly DOT com

Location
Union Square
New York, NY  10012

________________________________________________________________________

From an announcement from several years ago, posted at website of the national Green Party:

Move The Money to Main Street

This campaign is a coordinated effort of people across the country who will be withdrawing their checking accounts, mortgages, credit cards, etc. from the 20 Big Banks that fund the rapacious destruction of the planet and moving them to either a locally based bank/credit union or one supporting their values. The determining factor where to place accounts will be excellence; banks and credit unions that have a history of supporting the community in a sustainable way… – gp.org

From a 2008 interview with Laura Wells, who has run for several high profile offices as the Green Party candidate:

“Yes, the Green Party platform explicitly supports credit unions, realizing that credit unions help keep money circulating within local communities, rather than heading straight to distant headquarters of giant for-profit financial institutions. By helping in areas including housing, local employment, small business development, credit unions are an important element of the Green Party value of ‘community-based economics.’” – Laura Wells

(BOSTON, MA) Jill Stein, a physician and former Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate, announced today she is running for President of the United States to provide an alternative to the “Wall Street parties” on issues such as jobs, universal health care, peace and climate change. She is seeking the nomination of the Green Party of the United States.

Speaking to a gathering at the historic State House in Boston, Stein declared that voters have lost confidence in the Democratic and Republican leaders who have given the nation “massive bailouts for Wall Street, layoffs on Main Street, declining wages for workers, wars for oil abroad, and attacks on Medicare and Social Security.” She further noted that “They’re privatizing education, rolling back civil liberties and racial justice, plundering the environment, and driving us towards the calamity of climate change.”

According to Stein “we need people in Washington who refuse to be bought by lobbyist money and for whom change is not just a slogan.”

The centerpiece of Stein’s Green New Deal is a commitment to “end unemployment in America” by direct Federal action to create the jobs needed to end the “Bush/Obama recession”. Stein dismissed President Obama’s “Wall Street-first” approach to job creation as fundamentally misconceived – since it is too small and gives money to the financial elite in hopes that they will decide to create jobs. Stein said that ending the “Bush/Obama” recession needs direct action to create jobs since unemployment is a major obstacle to business recovery. Her plan would create 8 times more jobs than the current Obama jobs proposal.

Stein said that it’s time for the United States to “catch up with the rest of the developed nations” and provide health care for all through a Medicare-for-all system.

Noting the crushing debt burden facing students forced to take out loans for their college education, Stein called for forgiving existing student debt and providing free education for all students, calling this “an investment in our future that will pay off enormously.”

Stein also called for ending home foreclosures and requiring banks to adjust mortgages to reflect the current market value of homes.

In explaining how she came into politics, Stein cited her experience as a medical doctor and as a parent, seeing a broken health care system and an epidemic of preventable diseases in children driven by community conditions including pollution, poor nutrition, inadequate recreation and poverty. “I spent years working to persuade elected officials to act. Slowly I realized that in order to persuade elected officials, you need to shower them not with information, not with heartfelt human concerns and cost saving solutions, but rather with bundles of big campaign checks.” At that point, Stein decided that she had to run for office.

Stein noted that many of the health concerns of youth that first caught her attention are now compounded by a vast array of problems – unsafe streets, inadequate schools, unaffordable college, and a severe lack of jobs. “People ask me why I keep fighting political battles in a rigged system. The answer is simple. I keep fighting because when it comes to our children, mothers don’t give up.”

Calling climate change ” the greatest threat confronting our generation,” Stein noted that “Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama have all refused to act to bring carbon emissions under control, even as extreme weather patterns and rising temperatures inflict increasing damage worldwide. The time for foot-dragging is over. We’re going to put this issue back on the table.”

Stein said that she was inspired by young people who were taking the lead in the Occupy Wall Street movement at more than 1500 sites across the country. “Just like in the civil rights movement, when the young people stand up, the nation changes forever. If more of us take a lesson from them, we’re going to be an unstoppable force.”

As the candidate of the Green Party, Dr. Stein expects to be on the ballot in at least 42 states that represent over 90% of the voters in America. She also expects to qualify for presidential primary matching funds.

Jill Stein was born in Chicago and raised in Highland Park, Illinois. She, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1973 and from Harvard Medical School in 1979. Dr. Stein lives in Lexington, Massachusetts with her husband, Richard Rohrer, also a physician. She has two sons, Ben and Noah.

Related Articles:

October 24, 2011: Jill Stein presidential campaign announcement and money bloom today
October 21, 2011: Jill Stein to launch presidential campaign on Monday Oct. 24
October 12, 2011: Which Presidential Candidate Stands With The 99 Percent?

Medical doctor, community activist and Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party leader Jill Stein is set to announce her campaign for the Green Party presidential nomination on Monday Oct. 24th at the state house in Boston, MA. Her website at JillStein.org states, “America deserves a a Green New Deal that provides a secure future for everyone and the planet we depend on.”

The Jill Stein for President website has been collecting pledges from supporters for a money bloom scheduled to coincide with the announcement. At last count, almost $8,000 of the $10,000 goal had been pledged.

To learn more about Jill Stein for President and to contribute, check out JillStein.org.

Related Articles:

October 21, 2011: Jill Stein to launch presidential campaign on Monday Oct. 24
October 12, 2011: Which Presidential Candidate Stands With The 99 Percent?
October 10, 2011: Jill Stein Campaigns at “Occupy Boston”

Occupy Wall Street Support, Reverend Billy Not Guilty

The Chairman of The Working Families Party in New York sent out a memo decrying the Mayor’s decision. And, The Working Families Party did an action alert for a press conference, and for people to come gather at Liberty Square tomorrow at 6am.

The national Green Party website also featured a call from New York City greens to come to the park this evening, and help with the scrubbing and cleanup.

From the Green Party NYC website:

We need a hardcore Green Cleanup Team TONIGHT at Occupy Wall Street.

Mayor Bloomberg wants Occupiers to “temporarily” leave Zuccotti Park on Friday so NYC Sanitation can clean the park, but City Hall and the NYPD have proved they cannot be trusted to respect protestors’ rights or safety. So tonight (Thursday 11/13) the Occupation is staging a Community Cleanup to eliminate this pretext for evicting a peaceful demonstration.

Reach out to friends/family/anyone to donate or purchase:

-brooms, dust pans and mops
-squeegees and buckets
-garbage bags
-power washers and any other cleaning supplies

Donations go to the Sanitation Station at Zuccotti Park.

Join us TONIGHT, after the General Assembly (which tend to end between 9pm and 10pm), so the Greens can join the full-camp cleanup session. Be seen being Green, and HELP US CLEAN!

Zuccotti Park is at the corner of Liberty Street and Broadway, take the 4/5 to Wall Street or the N/R to Rector Street. Call Michael at 917-xxx-xxxx or email michael at gpbk dot org with questions…

Thanks for your hard work and dedication!

Keep Hands Off Protesters, Says Green-Rainbow Party

BOSTON – In response to the arrest of over 120 people early Tuesday morning, the Green-Rainbow Party (GRP) called for the City of Boston to find ways to accommodate the Occupy Boston demonstrators who have been gathering in the Dewey Square area of the City.  In response to the reported roughing up of members of the Veterans for Peace brigade, the GRP condemned any excessive use of force against peaceful protesters.

“The Occupy Boston movement is an important and long overdue effort to assert the rights of our citizens to have a government and a society that works for all the people, and not just for insiders and big money opportunists,” said Green-Rainbow Party Co-chair John Andrews.  “The people who are gathering are exercising their rights of free speech under the Constitution, as well as their inherent rights to ask for redress of their grievances. Any government that is of the people, by the people, and for the people should work to accommodate their gathering, not find excuses for attacking them. The police need to be told to back off, and solutions to problems need to be negotiated with the protest organizers.”

Andrews noted that “Government officials can work with Occupy Boston to resolve traffic or landscaping problems without taking away the inalienable rights of citizens to protest government abuse.  We have to get our priorities straight. “Jill Stein, former Green-Rainbow Party gubernatorial candidate, spoke to the Occupy Boston gathering last week. “The Occupy movement is a cry for change from workers whose jobs have been shipped overseas and young people whose future is being stolen from them by politicians intent on serving Wall Street rather than the people,” she said. “People are being forced from their homes by big banks that defrauded consumers. The planet is being sacrificed to protect profits of polluters.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is addressing the root of these problems, and the 99% must be heard.  Both the Democrat and Republican parties have broken America’s social contract by refusing to remedy — in fact, deliberately aggravating — our intolerable economic inequities.

We are alarmed to hear of excessive police force being used against people exercising their Constitutional free speech and assembly rights.   We are especially concerned to hear of the reported roughing up of Veterans for Peace,  who risked their lives to defend those rights for all of us.  We call on the authorities to refrain from the use of violence, and to respect the rights of citizens to protest peacefully.”

Patrick Burke, a college student who serves as GRP membership director, noted, “My fellow students, who are facing years of debt and unemployment, are being arrested for demanding a better future.  And Wall Street is allowed to steal billions without any of the bankers being led away in handcuffs.  That’s why we’re not going away.  That’s why we’re not going to be silenced.”

Last week the Green-Rainbow Party officially endorsed the Occupy protests and called upon people to support them.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Today West Virginia is holding a special gubernatorial election. Besides the Republican and Democratic candidates, there are two third party candidates, one independent candidate, and three write-ins. The third party candidates are the Mountain Party’s (West Virginia affiliate of the Green Party) Bob Henry Baber, former Mayor of Richwood, and Harry Bertram of the American Third Position Party. The independent candidate is Marla Ingels. According to Wikipedia, there are also three write-in candidates. They are: Phil Hudok, teacher and registered Constitution Party member, Rick Bartlett and Donald Lee Underwood. Phil Hudok has the support of the West Virginia Constitution Party. See their article, “OK with Phil HudOK – WRITE-IN for Governor”. See this article about the election.

Related Articles:

October 4, 2011: Special WV Governor election today with Mountain Party candidate Baber
September 23, 2011: Interview with Bob Henry Baber, WV Mountain Party gubernatorial candidate
September 12, 2011: Mountain Party’s Baber takes part in WV Governor’s Debate
June 18, 2011: American Third Position Qualifies for 2011 Special Election for West Virginia Governor
May 3, 2011: Mountain Party Nominates Bob Henry Baber for West Virginia Special Gubernatorial Election

When I asked Nader, who mounted campaigns for the presidency in 2000, 2004 and 2008, if he would consider running again, he answered that it was “very unlikely.”

“You have millions of people who say run, run, run,” he said. “Then you put yourself out there and find they are voting for Obama. Until they become mature, until they realize that if they generate 5 to 8 million votes behind a progressive third-party candidate for leverage, what is the point? Why should people try four or five times? Let someone else do it.

“The people who go out there with some credibility and record, go into 50 states, sweat it out month after month, beating back ballot access obstacles, fighting the Democrats who are trying to suppress free speech and candidate choices for the voters, and then you still can’t get on the air to discuss civil liberties,” he said. “Never mind that they do not want to upset dear Obama or dear [John] Kerry. They don’t give you air time to discuss the simple issue of the denial of civil liberties and the crushing of third parties.”

Nader is sounding more and more burnt out with running for office. Who can blame him after five successive presidential campaigns? In previous months, he called for another progressive standard bearer to step up to the task of a run, although he had kept the possibility of a bid alive.  Now, Nader sounds increasingly less enthusiastic about such a prospect.

In the short-term, this is good news for the national Green Party. For the last two presidential cycles Green presidential candidates have split between one and one and a half percent of the electorate with Nader, so his exit could provide an opportunity for the Greens to reconsolidate their pulpit as spokesmen for disenchanted  leftists.

But a big problem remains: who would be the spokesman? This is not a new problem; the Green Party has no obvious candidate to excite the base and run a vigorous campaign like Nader did in 2000. The clock continues to tick as the 2012 presidential race begins to heat up.

from Village Tattler, Huntington
Green Party Renews Call for Moratorium on Tasers in Suffolk
By Dorf Schwatzer, on June 4th, 2011

“The Green Party of Suffolk is outraged to discover that Suffolk County has continued using Tasers against its residents,” said its chair Roger Snyder. “It is inconceivable that Suffolk has continued to use Tasers given the questions about the Taser-related death of Darryl Bain  in 2009.”

Snyder repeated the Green Party’s plan to protect the lives of Suffolk residents: “In line with our pillar of nonviolence, the Green Party of Suffolk demands Suffolk County seek out ways to avoid the use of easily abused and potentially lethal Tasers. As an immediate step, the Green Party of Suffolk calls on the county to put a moratorium on the use or purchase of any Tasers. In the long term, the Green Party calls on the county to train the police in nonviolent methods of resolving situations.”

The renewed call for a moratorium on Taser use in Suffolk County was prompted by the death of Daniel McDonnel after he was tasered twice by the Suffolk Police.  According to Newsday, McDonnel is the fifth person to die after being tasered by Suffolk Police.  Amnesty International USA has found that at least 350 people died in the United States and Canada after being shot by Tasers since June 2001.

The heavy-handed use of Tasers in Suffolk is striking.  According to a 2009 Newsday after the death of Bain, “Suffolk police have 669 Tasers, and supervisors hope to arm most patrol cops with one.”  The large number of Tasers has created an explosion in their use in Suffolk.  Newsday also reports “Tasers were used 44 times in 2006, 53 times in 2007, 65 times in 2008 and 146 times so far this year.”

The dangerous nature of Tasers is well-known.  Amnesty International released a report on December 16, 2008 that labeled Tasers as “Potentially Lethal and Easy to Abuse.”  Angela Wright, US researcher at Amnesty International and author of the report said that “Tasers are not the ‘non-lethal’ weapons they are portrayed to be. They can kill and should only be used as a last resort.”

The Amnesty International report showed that abuse of Tasers is widespread.  The Amnesty report “found that 90 per cent of those who died after being struck with a Taser were unarmed and many did not appear to present a serious threat. Many were subjected to repeated or prolonged shocks – far more than the five-second “standard” cycle – or by more than one officer at a time. Some people were even shocked for failing to comply with police commands after they had been incapacitated by a first shock.”  The report found that Tasers were used against persons with “medical conditions such as seizures.” It also found that “police officers also used Tasers on schoolchildren, pregnant women and even an elderly person with dementia.”

The Green Party is an alternative party to the Democrats and Republicans. The four pillars of the Green Party are: Nonviolence/Peace; Grassroots Democracy; Social and Economic Justice; and Ecological Wisdom. The Green Party Party is now a ballot-qualified party, so they are listed on the new voter registration forms.  On the old voter registration forms, you can enroll in the Green Party by checking the box marked “Other” on the voter registration form and writing in the word “Green” on the line next to it.

From the office of Ian S. Wilder, Green Party of Suffolk Secretary
www.gpsuffolk.org

Green Party leaders urged President Obama to reverse his decision to withdraw from participation in the third World Conference against Racism (“Durban III”). US Green Party members will attend the conference.

The conference, sponsored by the United Nations, will take place in New York City on September 22, 2011, marking the tenth anniversary of the first World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance in 2001, which was held in Durban, South Africa. The Obama Administration has cited widespread anger against Israel and the US at past conferences, perceived to be antisemitic and anti-American, as the reason for the withdrawal.

“2011 is both the International Year of Afrodescendants and the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the US Civil War. As such, it is vitally important the United States of America have an official presence at Durban III, to join an open discussion with the rest of the world on racism and how to end it; racism here in the USA, as well as in other countries,” said Marian Douglas-Ungaro, co-chair of the Green Party’s International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl/) and a member of the Green Party Black Caucus (http://www.gp.org/caucuses/black/index.php).

“Any statement expressing religious or ethnic intolerance or incitement to hatred against the Jewish people deserves swift condemnation. But the U.S. and other western countries have often interpreted legitimate criticism of the state of Israel, which has maintained its brutal and illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and internal apartheid, as ‘antisemitic’. They’ve used this thinly-veiled excuse to withdraw from the Durban conferences to avoid situations where certain rights-violating policies would face scrutiny and criticism on the world stage,” said Muhammed Malik, Co-Chair of the Miami-Dade Green Party (http://miamidadegreenparty.org/) and former Racial Justice and Voting Rights Projects Associate at the ACLU Florida. Mr. Malik recently spoke about racial justice as a panelist on the opening plenary of the Rights Working Group’s Southeastern Regional Conference and is organizing a rally at the Israeli Consulate in Miami in support of
Palestinian rights and the Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza (http://ustogaza.org).

Greens said that the White House has avoided the Durban conferences also because of the failure of the US to address internal racial inequality, including continuing economic disparities and disadvantages suffered by people of color (such as the disproportionate loss of black families’ homes during the recent sub-prime mortgage crisis), the unaddressed call for reparations for the descendants of slavery, harassment and deportation of undocumented immigrants, the targeting of people of color in the War on Drugs, and record incarceration rates, with black, brown, poor, and young people locked up to feed the for-profit private prison industry.

Referring to Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent announcement that he will authorize the release of 5,500 federal prisoners to begin correcting sentencing disparities between crack and cocaine offenders, Green Party co-chair Theresa El-Amin said, “In this International Year of People of African Descent it’s beyond disappointing that the Obama Administration lifts a release of [only] 5,500 for nonviolent drug offenses when there are 2.4 million incarcerated in the United States. The fact that the majority of the 2.4 million are people of color makes the 5,500 release a non-event. The US is number one in the whole world in incarceration rates. China, which is four times more populous than the US, is a distant second with 1.6 million people in prison. The US pulling out of the Durban process is simply unacceptable.”

Ms. El-Amin, who plans to attend Durban III, was one of several human rights activists who participated in a special White House conference call briefing on Thursday, June 2. During the briefing, White House official Samantha Powers explained that the US delegation to the UN would withdraw from Durban III and cited “Israel” when asked why, drawing several statements of disappointment by other participants before the White House abruptly terminated the call.

Greens, including 2008 Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney, have participated in the first World Conference against Racism in 2001 and the second meeting (“Durban Review Conference”) in Geneva in 2009, both of which the US shunned. On August 8, 2001, the Green Party issued a strongly worded resolution on the withdrawal (http://www.gp.org/press/pr_08_13_01.html).

MORE INFORMATION

UN: One-day plenary event on the 10th anniversary of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intorelance
http://www.un.org/events/calendar/Edetail.asp?EventID=1976&BeginDate=9/22/2011

2001 World Conference against Racism (UN site)
http://www.un.org/WCAR/

US Human Rights Network
http://www.ushrnetwork.org

Yes, you heard that right. The Greens will be playing in a softball game against supporters of the Libertarian Party. The event will be taking place, more specifically, in the San Fernando Valley.

…to raise awareness of…. OUR TWO PARTY DICTATORSHIP! We don’t need politicians this day, we need ball players! If you can run catch, throw, & hit, c’mon down!

Even if you can’t come on down anyway! We need support!

Make sure to RSVP so we know how many folks are coming!

PS – I’ll provide the bases & balls, but if you can bring a bat and/or a glove for yourself, that would be great!

When: Saturday, May 14 · 11:30am – 2:00pm

Where: Hjelte Sports Center (Diamond 1) 16200 Burbank Blvd. Encino, CA

Here is the facebook page for the event. Makesure to leave a comment if you would like to participate…Don’t forget to wear your Green…http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=200575926648426

Here is another page for the event on meetup.com http://www.meetup.com/LALibertarians/events/17733231/426

Image via Wikipedia

Green Party leaders on Monday expressed hope that news of the killing of Osama bin Laden marks a new stage, in which US troops are withdrawn from Iraq and Afghanistan; air assaults on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Libya are halted; the US presses Israel to observe full human rights and justice for the Palestinian people; and violations of domestic civil liberties are overturned.

On September 11, 2001, the Green Party strongly condemned the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon as an international crime and called for capture and prosecution of the perpetrators. (http://www.gp.org/press/pr_09_11_01.html and http://www.gp.org/articles/responses_9_11.shtml). Greens argued that concerted police action, with international cooperation, was the way to bring the 9/11 criminals to justice, and that war would only lead to mass death and destruction, deeper international conflict, and erosion of civil liberties and the rule of law in the US.

But Greens expressed alarm at the changing story of the May 1 raid, which, according to changing news reports (complicated by the apparent destruction of on-the-scene evidence), has begun to look more like a targeted assassination or summary execution than an attempt to arrest Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice.

“The American public has responded to this news with various reactions ranging from celebration to anxiety about the future of global security. Green Party members also lost friends, neighbors, and co-workers in the 9/11 attacks. We understand these reactions and are focused on the next steps ahead. The Green Party of the United States supported action in which bin Laden would be arrested as a suspect, tried on the evidence, and if found guilty punished for his actions to the fullest extent of the law short of execution — the Green Party strongly opposes any use of the death penalty. In custody, bin Laden might have provided vital intelligence,” said Justine McCabe, co-chair of the International Committee.

“Nonviolence is a key principle of the Green Party, and Greens condemn any and all killing of unarmed civilians, in any country and on any side of a conflict. Greens understand the connection between global security and protection of human rights. Every US bomb dropped on a village, every case of torture motivates someone to take Osama bin Laden’s place,” said Sanda Everette, former co-chair of the Green Party of the United States and a longtime peace activist.

Greens noted that decades of US support for dictators, plundering of resources, maintenance of military bases in the Gulf region, and manipulative policies (e.g., arming of the Mujahedeen) have led to hostility against the US, which was aggravated by the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11. Green Party leaders called on the Obama Administration to reverse direction and adopt a peaceful, fair, and non-imperial foreign policy, to minimize the number of new enemies we create and bring peace to the region.

“As Greens anticipated in 2001, the Bush Administration’s wars on Iraq and Afghanistan resulted in hundreds of thousands of civilians dead, many more wounded, while leaving the environment and infrastructure of both countries in ruins. In the case of Iraq, the US invasion was justified by false claims that Saddam Hussein had participated or cooperated with al-Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks. The severity of the attacks have also been used to justify torture in the US, denial of habeas corpus, and other abuses of power and violations of constitutional and international law, as well as pointless ‘homeland security’ policies and the USA Patriot Act,” said Farheen Hakeem, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.

Greens said that many unanswered questions remain about the 9/11 attacks, such as the sources of funding for the terrorists (including connections with Pakistan and Saudia Arabia), CIA and FBI intelligence on the hijackers, and ignored evidence of the impending attack, all of which deserve extensive independent investigation (http://www.gp.org/press/pr_04_28_04.html). The two co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, have stated their belief that the Bush Administration established the Commission in a way that ensured that it would fail. One lingering mystery is the President Bush’s refusal of the Taliban’s offer to turn Osama bin Laden over for trial before and after the 9/11 attacks (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/bush-rejects-taliban-offer-to-surrender-bin-laden-631436.html).