Green News and Opinion

Just trying to post photos

2009-06-16T10:43:00.002-04:00

So I can link to them at Green Party Watch

What the world needs now is another website

2008-10-21T13:55:00.003-04:00

The Daily Gregg

Two minutes or less. A webcast on Blog Talk Radio. Text at the The Daily Gregg blog.

All for free! Ain't it a wonderful world?

Where did he go?

2008-10-01T17:22:00.002-04:00

Of course that may not be a question you have ever asked about me, but if you have, I can tell you with great satisfaction that I am now available for reading at Green Party Watch. I hope that you will visit us over there as often as possible, and please consider adding your voice either as a commenter or as an author.

And, if you have a site of your own, please consider linking to GPW. Here is a button you can use:

To get the button on your site just paste this into your template, or simply post it into a post. Replace the "*" with a "<" and the "#" with a ">".

*a href="http://www.greenpartywatch.org"#
*img src="http://www.greenpartywatch.org/images/greenpartywatch_170x50.jpg"# */a#

Ain't technology grand?

2008-06-28T18:42:00.002-04:00

As I was looking to find out if I can afford to attend the Nominating Convention in Chicago, I went to look at Google Maps. Lo and behold, those buggers have a street level photo of my house! That's right...home of the Green Rush Limbaugh right here for all to see!

OK...so here's the skinny. Ours is the home with the garage door open. The red van is my work vehicle. The white Explorer is my wife's, but my In-laws use it now, and the blue van is one of my Mother In-law's therapists.

Enjoy!

View Larger Map

Kent Mesplay, US Presidential Candidate on Sustainability

2008-06-06T18:49:00.001-04:00

This fine video is one of a series which will be pulled together into a movie about being Green. Can't wait!

Green Party on Current TV

2008-06-03T18:22:00.002-04:00

The video was made by Little Tree Media, and is showing on TV on these channels:

You can watch Current TV online or enjoy it from the comfort of your couch:

directv channel 366
dish network channel 196
comcast channel 107
at&t u-verse channel 189
time warner check listings

Migration

2008-06-03T07:51:00.002-04:00

Well, I've been doing this blog for what, a year and a half? Two? I actually can't remember. It has been up and down, but while I appreciate ever so much each of you for visiting here, and while I do intend to continue posting here, the posts may be more opinion than news, and more infrequent than I might prefer. I like knowing that you folks read what I write.

But of course, while I have taken long breaks from here, occasionally for better than a month, I know your need for news related to the Green Party. I am not the only source of news about the GP, but I have tried to bring you more than what one might find in Google or Yahoo!

Now, that has evolved. I have joined almost a dozen other Greens to write for Green Party Watch. Registered to Ronald Kane Hardy of Babblemur fame, the site has grown from a registration just over a week ago to a full fledged website with an active community of readers than numbers close to 100 a day at this point. I think the MOST I ever got here was maybe twenty or thirty. I'm not complaining, just excited about a project that is going so well.

So...feel free to grab yourself an RSS feed (that little orange dot with two waves comming off it in the right hand corner of the address bar) and check it from time to time and see if I have posted anything new here...or stop by any time! It's always free....

Peace...oh! I am also writing a once-a-day column for Independent Political Report and hope you'll visit there from time to time as well.

And, don't forget Green Party Watch

Vimeo

2008-05-29T22:32:00.002-04:00

Google has apparently got a phrase that they say reflects something about the company: Don't be evil.

Google owns Blogger, where I write this. They own YouTube. They own Gmail, Google Earth, and of course, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir which they purchased in a leveraged buy out involving Yoko Ono, Michael Jackson, Queen Beatrix and the Church of Scientology.

But there are alternatives. There's Mapquest, and Riseup email and the New Tabernacle Singers...and Vimeo.

Vimeo is the YouTube alternative. Here's an example of the stuff there, and while this is not professionally done, the woman's logic is spot on. She observes that the worser evil we are supposed to not vote for is seldom as horrible as the lesser evil, and the differences between lesser and greater evils is so small...

But to me the perfect line was where she said "What they say when they run for office is pretty different, but what they do when they get there really isn't."

The video is by Rachel MacCratic. Take a look:

McKinney for President from Rachel MacCratic on Vimeo.

Green News Daily Roundup - Morning Edition

2008-05-29T07:11:00.000-04:00

Over at The Champion Newspapers they are carrying a piece about Cynthia McKinney winning support in her native Georgia at the state Green Party convention back on May 3rd, securing seven of that state's eight delegates. Kat Swift won the eight delegate.

The Park Slope Greens in NYC are encouraging their membership to attend the city convention and get set to be a delegate to the nominating convention set for July in Chicago.

Stories In The News of Ketchikan, Alaska carries an editorial about third parties, calling us "ever hopeful".

Green News Daily Roundup - Morning Edition

2008-05-28T08:25:00.001-04:00

The Camden NJ Green Party will be meeting in Collingswood, NJ June 5th at 7 PM at the library at Haddon and Frasier Avenues.

The Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping will deliver the invocation at a Green Party conference set for NYC this Saturday. You gotta check this one out. It includes presenters like Lynne Serpe, director of FairVote, Joel Kovel, Gloria Mattera, Mark Dunlea and several prominent NYC Greens, as well as what I assume are several prominent non-Greens. The event is set for Hunter College in Manhattan, 105 Lexington Avenue (between 68th and 69th Streets)from 9 AM until 6 PM, and is sponsored by the Green Party of Brooklyn.

That's all for now folks. More after a day's work.

South Carolina Greens to Bush & Co: We Object!

2008-05-27T14:49:00.000-04:00

Join your fellow Greens at Furman 5/31/2008.

The South Carolina Green Party and the York County (SC) Greens are co-sponsoring a protest and demonstration at Furman University on May 31st as President Bush delivers a speech to the students and faculty of that university. The protest is also co-sponsored by The Greenville Anti-War Society, the South Carolina Progressive Network, the Carolina Peace Resource Center, and Code Pink. In addition, the event is sponsored by Operation Democracy, part of MoveOn.org, Aiken Peace, No More Victims, the Freedom Group and finally, Veterans for Peace.

To join in, click the link above and look for your fellow Greens once you get there, or drop us a note in advance at GreggJocoy29715@yahoo.com

Proxies, the cost of a national convention, and the nomination

2008-05-27T12:32:00.000-04:00

The numbers just reported by Ronald Kane Hardy at Green Party Watch (GPW) show that, even with strongholds not yet decided,Cynthia McKinney's campaign has secured enough votes for her to be our nominee for President. Unfortunately, as I reported in my last post, the national party has apparently decided to charge each state for their proxy votes.

While this may seem a bad idea at first blush, and indeed may be a bad idea, evidence from past discussions would indicate that lack of financial resources is what has motivated the plan to charge for proxy votes.

According to a source familiar with the national party and it's internal discussions, the GNC is discussing possible changes to this policy of charging for proxy votes.

Tom Yager leaks to Ballot Access News

2008-05-27T10:39:00.000-04:00

Well, maybe it's not as dramatic as all that, but in fact, Ballot Access News does attribute their report to Yager of VA. In the report, BAN announces that Cynthia McKinney has secured enough committed votes to win a first ballot victory in her race for the Green Party Presidential nomination.

The only "problem", if there is one, is that simply having the committed delegates is not enough, for McKinney or any of the other candidates. Unless those delegates show up at the convention in numbers high enough, her nomination is not sewn up.

Apparently the national party has decided to charge each state for proxy votes to be cast at the national convention, and some states may face difficulties fielding their entire slate of delegates, even with proxy votes.

Green Party Watch and Green News and Opinion will report more news on this front as it comes available.

Humbolt CA Greens call for $10 minimum wage

2008-05-26T08:51:00.002-04:00

and while I'll agree that this seems like a lot, think about it. That's $400 a week in a 40 hr a week job. That's $20,800 a year, before taxes. Not exactly a king's ransom, but perhaps enough to get by.

The fine folks over at High Boltage have all the details.

You really can't make this stuff up...

2008-05-25T18:35:00.002-04:00

Titanic search was cover for secret Cold War subs mission

Da votes are in...

2008-05-25T17:32:00.002-04:00

The last round of voting in the Libertarian race for their Presidential nomination are:

Bob Barr : 324

Mary Ruwart : 276

Bob Barr is the nominee.

It would appear that the Libertarians are going to nominate Barr and Root

2008-05-25T17:06:00.002-04:00

So, unless the Libertarians who want a party activist at the head of the party ignore what the person they voted for recommended, former Congressman Bob Barr will be their nominee, and Barr will ask for Root to be his Veep.

I realize that it's unlikely that the Green Party will have accusations of the candidates being frauds, as there have been in the Libertarian race, but that is to our benefit. I tend to believe the nomination will be secured by the McKinney campaign in the first round of balloting, but either way, I don't see the level of disdain amongst the Greens for the different candidates.

Libertarian Party convention

2008-05-25T16:41:00.002-04:00

I hesitate to write about this here because, in truth, I don't do other parties very often. There are few enough places to find news about the Green Party as it is without having to share that space with other parties.

Even so, the Libertarians have much in common in terms of policy with the Greens. Often I think we come at things from different directions to reach similar goals, but one cannot deny that the differences between Greens and Libertarians are substantial.

If the Green Party had rules as loose as the Libertarians apparently are, who knows who may have popped up at the last moment to ask for our nomination. I can imagine that Senator Gravel might have come to us if he had thought he had any chance at all. Similarly, at some point in the future, there may be a Democrat or Republican doing well enough to jump ship early on and make better than 5% on election day. For example, if Edwards had left the Democratic Party just after Super Tuesday and brought his campaign staff with him, I have little doubt that he would have secured more than 5 %.

I must say right here and now that I firmly believe that Cynthia McKinney can do that for us as well. In addition, Congresswoman McKinney brings new constituencies to the party, many successful campaigns, and a record of accomplishment and long term positive relations with the Green Party that make her our best candidate.

That does not diminish the other three candidates. I thought that Kent Mesplay was a good candidate in 2004, and in fact, I believe he would have beaten Cobb if he had traveled as Cobb did. I think Kat Swift is a party star on the rise. Her unwillingness to be daunted by the tasks she faces is wonderful, and I have little doubt that she has endeared herself to Greens who put a high value on ballot access. I believe Jesse Johnson brings talents to the party which we have not had access to before both because he was not a Green and because his state party was not affiliated.

Today, all four of our candidates are securely Green. All four are heads-on-straight candidates. All four understand the Green Party's Ten Key Values, and all four are committed to the growth and future of the party. We are blessed indeed.

With that in mind, the Libertarian Party has just opted out of nominating Gravel. Gravel won 71 votes in round 1, 73 in round 2, 78 in round 3 and 76 in round 4. He was in last place in round 4, and was eliminated.

Now these are in round 5.

Former Congressman Bob Barr who won 202 votes in the last round

Mary Ruwart, a Libertarian Party activist, won 202 votes as well

Wayne Allen Root, who I guess is also a Libertarian Party activist, won 149 votes.

These results just in from Round 5:

Barr - 223

Ruwart - 229

Root - 165

Root eliminated.

Green news from Reading

2008-05-25T07:59:00.002-04:00

In an article at the Reading Eagle, Mary Young writes about the hurdles we Greens face in getting on the ballot in PA.

Frankly, if any other nation made it this hard to even get on the ballot, the US government would consider them anti-democratic...and they would be right!

McKinney @ YouTube

2008-05-24T20:41:00.003-04:00

If only she had a few hundreds of thousands of dollars to put this on TV...

McKinney campaign in last two days of matching funds drive

2008-05-24T20:27:00.000-04:00

The McKinney campaign sent out a report today which offered details of a matching funds effort. It was set up by Rich Whitney, Green Party nominee for Governor of IL, winning better than 10% on election day.

Whitney's campaign, as all Green Party campaigns should, came to the end of the election cycle without debt. Not only that, the campaign was left with a surplus. Now Whitney is offering to match your donations to the McKinney campaign.

To learn more or to participate in this program, simply click here.

Them wacky ole Greens

2008-05-24T13:20:00.002-04:00

Carol Brouillet is running for Congress from California's 14th Congressional District as a Green. For many, that alone would qualify her as "wacky", as most of us who have run as Greens in places where Greens are uncommon can attest, but add to that her article at Indy Bay indicates that she believes that there are unanswere3de questions about the events leading up to and following 9-11-2001, so that clearly puts her on the "wacko" list.

Finally, she advocates for Community Currency, saying that we should consider the difference between money and real wealth.

I would guess that for many "mainstream" voters these might in fact make her "wacky", but to be honest, I think that many voters today are so tired of the same old political self-preservation tactics of standard politicians that being a little bit "wacky" may be seen as a Good Thing.

I know that's how I see it. Give me a candidate who is unwilling to take a stand and I'll show you a politician who won't make it unless s/he puts the entire party choke collar on and tows the line like a good serf.

International Middle East Media Center sez: Only McKinney supports Palestinian rights

2008-05-24T12:47:00.003-04:00

While I am sure many who favor Nader will point out that he too supports Palestinian rights as well, but apparently I am not the only one who thinks that building something lasting, like a political party, is important.

Given that Cynthia McKinney is in fact the only party associated presidential candidate with broad name recognition who has publicly supported Palestinian Rights, as is pointed out in this article by the IMEMC, I can't help but wonder if those who also support Palestinian Rights have looked in their bank accounts for a few dollars to give to McKinney's bid for federal matching funds. Afterall, if neither the Democratic nor the Republican nominee is going to stand for Human Rights, doesn't it make sense to help someone who does secure matching funds to carry that message forward?

Brentwood Press covers Green battle

2008-05-24T12:45:00.002-04:00

What's more important, a centuries old vineyard, or a new Big Box Store. Guess where the Brentwood political establishment stands. Guess where the local Green Party activists stand. Now take a look and see if you're right.

Mark June 21st on your calender

2008-05-24T12:36:00.002-04:00

According to Miller Politics, that's the date he's going to be holding a Green Party Presidential debate on his BlogTalkRadio program.

BTW, any Greens out there doing BlogTalkRadio, public access TV or radio, low power FM, pirate radio? How are we spreading the word?