Thanks to WBAI & Craig Seeman:

Phone call this morning from Israeli Prisoner #88794 Cynthia McKinney talks in detail about the mission, what happened, who she’s meeting in prison and their stories as well.

Spread this video! It’s OUR MEDIA!

In a statement published at the Green Party website, party leaders call on President Obama and the State Department, led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to demand the release of Cynthia McKinney and the rest of the Free Gaza 21 by the Israeli government. Pointing out that President Obama himself has called for an end to the blockade of Gaza, the Green Party called for action on behalf of those bringing just the sort of humanitarian aid to Gaza that the blockade is designed to keep out.

H/T to The Detroit Greens for the story.

The full statement can be read by clicking this article’s headline.

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In a press release the Green Party of the United States shares a statement from Cynthia McKinney issued from an Israeli jail cell in Ramla.

“We were in international waters on a boat delivering humanitarian aid to people in Gaza when the Israeli Navy ships surrounded us and illegally threatened us, dismantled our navigation equipment, boarded and confiscated the ship. All of us on board were then taken off the ship and into custody, and brought into Israel and imprisoned. Immigration officials in Israel said they did not want to keep us, but we remain imprisoned. State Department and White House officials have not effected our release or taken a strong public stance to condemn the illegal actions of the Israeli Navy of enforcing a blockade of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians of Gaza, a blockade that has been condemned by President Obama.”

The entire press release can be read by clicking this article’s headline.

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As the Democratic Party continues to fail the constituencies which helped them secure the Whitehouse, House of Representatives and a filibuster proof Senate, the Green Party of the United States prepares for it’s annual national meeting. Held this year in Durham, North Carolina, the national meeting is shaping up to be the launch of a reinvigorated, cohesive and determined political movement.

Watching as the Obama administration continues the Bush administration’s policies on gays and lesbians serving in the armed forces, the Greens are bringing supporters of equality fresh reasons to join our efforts. Obama’s lawyers equate homosexual relationships to bestiality and incest while the President promises that he’s “in their corner”, and the Lavender Greens continue to provide the Green Party with many of our most important leaders. Republicans cheer as the Democrats continue their policies of discrimination.

The Democratic controlled congress pours hundreds of billions into AIG, banks, and failed multi-national corporations while the Green Party calls for funds for schools, hospitals, infrastructure and small, community based enterprises. The Republicans offer no resistance.

The Obama administration and the Democrats in congress continue to permit blasting the tops off West Virgina’s mountains, push forward so-called “environmental energy policies” that give billions more to the nuclear power industry and promote “clean coal” while Greens are pushing for, and implementing on the local lever, real sustainable clean energy our children will praise us for. Republicans sit on their hands and watch as the air we breathe gets thicker by the day.

Democrats in congress support the Obama administration as they follow the primrose path Bush Co. blazed by continuing with their policy of indefinite detention and White House secrets, and the Republicans keep mum, ignoring the Constitution they pledged to protect from “all enemies, foreign and domestic”. Meantime, Greens are on the streets, in the news, and in the courts pushing to protect our fundamental democratic values.

So…who is the opposition party today?

The Green Party is.

The Green Party issued a press release explaining just how badly the American voter has been sold down the river by both the Democratic and Republican parties. Click on this article’s headline to read it for yourself, and then consider joining the Green Revolution.

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From the Michigan Green Party:

Michigan and Detroit Green Party leaders are calling on the White House and US State Department to intervene and demand the immediate release of 21 human rights activists, including former US Rep. Cynthia McKinney and Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire, who were taken prisoner by the Israeli navy after gunboats surrounded and seized the Free Gaza Movement relief boat ‘Spirit of Humanity’ on Monday.

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This video is getting a LOT of play in Israel and around the world. Cynthia McKinney calls WBAIX from Israeli prison. She and 20 others where detained after being seized by Israeli Navy while in international waters. They were attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. To watch live updates, interviews, protests go to http://www.livestream.com/wbaix

(HT: Craig Seeman)

By clicking on this article’s headline you will be able to read a statement from Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement forwarded by David Josue, a McKinney supporter, and from John Judge, McKinney’s press secretary during her 2008 Presidential bid.

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Fox News, the first of the corporate media to begin covering the saga of the Spirit of Humanity, carries a piece by David Lewkowict titled “Cynthia Mckinney Does it Again”. Fox News is also carrying a legitimate news piece which points out, as reported here earlier today, that McKinney and the rest are free to leave if they sign a statement that they violated Israeli territorial waters.

Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney and several other human rights activists remain in an Israeli prison after refusing to sign a deportation form that they claim is self-incriminating.

An article by Kent A. Miles at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution quotes a Washington DC based Israeli spokesman Jonathan Peled saying that preparations are being made to deport the activists.

“It is taking slightly longer. Former congresswoman McKinney is not cooperating with the authorities” and refusing to sign a document acknowledging deportation, he said.

“It’ll take a couple more days before she is put on a plane and flown out of Israel,”

While Starr answered his own question, “War! What is it good for?” with the response “Absolutely nothing!”, Wes Rolley gives a more detailed answer to the question, “What good is growth?” in his column in the Morgan Hill Times.

One of his Green Talk columns, the essay includes this gem.

It should not be the automatic goal of our government to grow the economy nor should it be the goal of government to continue growing. Just as a cancer will eventually take all of our energy to sustain its insatiable expansion, so growing government will eventually take all of our monetary resources and growing the economy will eventually take all of our natural resources. The end result of all of this will be collapse and possibly the death of our civilization.

Rolley regularly blogs at California Greening.

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The Reverend Billy Talen for Mayor of NYC campaign is kicking off its petition drive on Tuesday July 7, with petitioning going through August 16.

The campaign HQ is at 250 Lafayette St between Prince and Spring in SoHo.

Check the website for more information about the campaign, and I have to add that this is one of the best campaign websites I have seen! voterevbilly.org

Other upcoming events for the Rev Billy Campaign include a BBQ this Sunday July 5, 5 p.m., Sheeps Meadow in Central Park; and a Rev Billy Fundraiser in San Francisco on Tuesday July 21.

Latest news on the McKinney front:

About an hour ago an associate of Cynthia McKinney spoke with an official at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv who stated that Cynthia McKinney and the other 20 human rights activists can be released from prison if they sign a statement of guilt in violating Israel’s territorial waters, which of course they are refusing to sign.

Apparently Israeli law states that if the 21 do not sign the admission of guilt they must be held for 3 days before the Israeli Government can either choose to release them or continue to detain them.

A petition calling for the release of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and the other 20 people aboard the Spirit of Humanity when it was seized by the Israeli Defense Force has been posted to a webpage maintained by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

Passengers and crew abducted from international waters by the Israeli navy include:

US Campaign Advisory Board member, Huwaida Arraf; Former U.S. Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, Irish Nobel Peace Laurate, Mairead Maguire; al-Jazeera journalists Othman Abufalah and Mansour Al-Abi; Khalad Abdelkader; Khaled Al-Shenoo; Fatima Al-Attawi; Juhaina Alqaed; Ishmahil Blagrove; Kaltham Ghloom; Derek Graham; Alex Harrison; Denis Healey; Fathi Jaouadi; Lubna Masarwa; Theresa McDermott; Adnan Mormesh; Adam Qvist; Adam Shapiro; Kathy Sheetz

H/T to On The Wilder Side for the link.

The International Committee of the Green Party of the United States has issued the following statement in support of the Federación de Partidos Verdes de las Américas (Federation of Green Parties of the Americas), condemning the coup in Honduras:

1. We categorically condemn the attack on democracy and public institutions of the Republic of Honduras.

2. We demand restoration of constitutional order and democratic institutions.

3. We demand the return of the Constitutional President Manuel Zelaya.

4. We demand full respect for the human and political rights of the people of Honduras.

5. We encourage the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas, the Central American Integration System, the Group of Rio, the European Union, the United States of America, Canada and Mexico, the Global Greens and other sister nations and international bodies, to maintain their firm rejection of the coup in Honduras.

The International Committee is also preparing a more extensive statement about this crisis, which we will post when available.

One of the most common arguments against the Green Party comes from within the Democratic Party, in the form of the plea that activist energy ought to be focused on reforming the Democrats from within, rather than challenging them from without. The Democratic Party is a powerful organization, it’s said, and if progressive reformers could take over the party, they could change it and create a great deal of positive change.

I’m familiar with this argument, because I used to make it myself. During my time on the New York State Democratic Committee, I would write earnestly to Greens, urging them to join the Democratic Party, to reform it from within. Obviously, I’ve given up on that idea since.

The main problem that progressives encounter within the Democratic Party is a tremendous pressure to conform, to promote the Party in general, and not to speak out when its politicians support antiprogressive policies, with the idea that if the Democrats could just gain control over government, the Democrats would shake off their temporary concessions, and a progressive agenda would finally benefit.

In 2009, we finally have a federal government that is solidly Democratic. So, we can fairly evaluate now whether the strategy of working within the Democratic Party to reform it can work. We can ask, how progressive are the progressive Democrats?

I ask this question in the context of a growing crisis of secrecy and dishonesty from the Obama Administration on the issue of torture. Earlier this year, President Obama argued that he has the right to suppress lawsuits by people who have been tortured as a result of the U.S. government’s practice of extraordinary rendition. Then, Obama insisted upon violating the Freedom of Information Act in order to keep photographic evidence of torture by the military a secret. Last week, the Obama Administration informed Congress that it opposed legislation to prevent torture by requiring the videotaping of of military interrogations.

Yesterday, Obama added to his protection of torture secrets by delaying the release of a CIA memo that purportedly demonstrates that the intelligence agency informed the Bush White House that its use of torture was profoundly illegal. The Obama White House promised to release the memo yesterday, and people waited, and waited, but the memo never came. This is the third Obama postponement of the memo’s release. These delays are taking place, the Obama Administration says, so that officials have the chance to keep portions of the memo redacted - blacked out.

Why, if the Obama Administration truly opposes torture, is it so consistently working to keep America in the dark about the extent of government torture? Where, if the Democratic Party has any progressive potential at all, are the progressive Democrats?

There is a group of Democratic politicians in Congress who are willing to call themselves progressives. They’re called the Progressive Caucus. There isn’t a single Democrat in the Senate that’s willing to join the caucus, although independent Senator Bernard Sanders from Vermont is a member of the group. In the House of Representatives, there are 75 members of the Progressive Caucus. The Clerk of the House lists 255 Democrats in the House. That makes just 29 percent of Democrats in the House who are willing to organize in the name of progressive reform.

That number is just a count of House Democrats who are willing to even go by the name of “progressive”. The number who are actually willing to reliably act to promote progressive reform is even smaller.

This brings us back to Barack Obama’s repeated delays of the release the CIA torture memo. Given the President’s refusal to let the public know the truth about the crimes of the Bush Administration, it’s up to Congress act. Early this year, Congressman John Conyers introduced H.R. 104, a bill that would establish a “national commission on presidential war powers and civil liberties”, investigating the unconstitutional activities of the Bush Administration, identifying particular crimes for the purpose of prosecution. This commission would have subpoena powers to demand documents like the CIA torture memo currently being withheld by the Obama White House.

Unfortunately, H.R. 104 has been buried by the House Democratic leadership. It’s been sitting in the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties for months - and the Progressive Caucus hasn’t been much help in getting the legislation out of committee. Only 34 out of the 75 members of the caucus have gone to the relatively small trouble of cosponsoring H.R. 104. That’s just 45 percent of the caucus, which is just 29 percent of the Democratic membership of the House.

With the Presidency and Legislative Branch firmly in hand, 2009 is the time when the promises of progressive reform of the Democratic Party is most likely to be fulfilled. Yet, we can see that the group that’s supposed to contain the most progressive members of Congress can’t get the majority of its members to support an investigation of the crimes against the Constitution that took place under George W. Bush. Even Lynn Woolsey, one of the chairs of the Progressive Caucus, hasn’t added her cosponsorship.

This remarkable inaction is a clear sign that the Democratic Party isn’t going to be reformed from within. There are some progressives within the Democratic Party who mean well, but the overwhelming majority of Democrats are either not progressive, or have been co-opted by the Democratic leadership’s campaign of promises that it never intends to keep.

If you want progressive action from a politician, don’t vote for a Democrat. Vote for the Green Party candidate whenever you can.

In a posting to a webpage at her official MySpace page, reports of conversations between Cynthia McKinney and WBAIX reporter Don DeBar and her Press Secretary from her 2008 presidential bid, John Judge are posted.

Cynthia McKinney was able to get a call out to a colleague, Don Debar, she sends a message that she is fine, keep calling, faxing and emailing. Keep protesting, too! She is being held at the Ramle Prison in Israel…she has seen an attorney today provided by Free Gaza. She had no information on any of the 21 being released. Mairead Maguire is possibly being held or detained somewhere else. FREE the FREE GAZA 21! Demand that Israel return the ship along with the DANGEROUS CARGO–CRAYONS!

From John Judge:

John Judge (Press Secretary during the 2008 campaign) sent this tonight: I just got a call from former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney from inside an Israeli prison at Ramale where she and 20 other humanitarian aid workers from 9 different countries are still being held by Israeli authorities. US Embassy officials have spoken to Ms. McKinney and are aware of the situation. Four of the group are US citizens. Among them is Mairead Maguire, from Ireland, a Nobel laureate and renowned peace activist. They have named themselves the “Free Gaza 21.” They are demanding their release. They were in international waters on a boat delivering humanitarian aid to people in Gaza when Israeli Navy ships surrounded them and illegally threatened them, dismantled their navigation equipment, boarded and confiscated the ship. All those aboard were then taken off the ship and into custody, and brought into Israel and imprisoned. Immigration officials in Israel said they did not want to keep them, but they remain imprisoned. State Department and White House officials have not effected their release or taken a strong public stance to condemn the illegal actions of the Israeli Navy, enforcing a blockade of humanitarian assistance that has been condemned by President Obama.