Green Party Watch

The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM) is a grassroots organization, led by the black working-class community. It was founded in 1991 in Chicago by the African People’s Socialist Party. Green Party VP Rosa Clemente will be a featured speaker, along with Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report, Omali Yeshitela of the African People’s Socialist Party, and Ivory Muhammad, International President of the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement (InPDUM).

In August the InPDUM challenged Barack Obama at a rally in Florida, asking him “What about the Black Community, Obama?” in a clip that was replayed on the 24 hour news for, well, 24 hours? Here’s some highlights:

Obama said clearly, “…which gives you the option of voting for someone else…” if people were not satisfied with the way he has “framed the issues” concerning the black community. I’m sure his permission was appreciated… but was he aware that there IS someone else they can vote for?

So the InPDUM folks invited all presidential tickets to their Convention in Florida next weekend, and the McKinney-Clemente Power to the People campaign will be represented on site by Rosa Clemente.
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It’s been weeks in the making, but now you can spend some quality time in Southern California with Cynthia McKinney, Roseanne Barr and others! If you are in Southern California this is something to be sure to catch.

From the McKinney-Clemente site:

You are cordially invited to a special fundraiser on Thursday, September 25th in support of a real maverick for truth, Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney!

Join Cynthia McKinney and Domestic Goddess Roseanne Barr at the legendary Jewel’s Catch One, located at 4067 West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles.Jewel’s Catch One is the nation’s first black gay and lesbian disco, made world famous by Madonna.

7:30PM – Screening of the film “American Blackout”
Learn the facts behind the censored history of the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections with a screening of “American Blackout.” This Sundance Special Jury Prize winning film by Guerilla News Network also exposes the truth about how Cynthia was railroaded out of Congress by crossover Republicans in Georgia’s open primary.

9:30PM – Cynthia and Roseanne’s “First Ladies of Truth Q&A”
Cynthia and Roseanne will discuss the election and why fear-based voting will keep us in a cycle of war, a creeping police state and ever increasing immigrant and Islamic fear-mongering. They’ll also take your questions.

After this very frank discussion, everyone will be invited on the dance floor for some much needed fun!
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Buried in all of the news about failed financial institutions and government business takeovers that until last week would have been condemned in Venezuela or Russia, was the news that the House passed a bill that approves millions of square miles of additional offshore drilling, not to mention opens up Federal land in the Rockies to the incredibly damaging shale extraction that is currently wreaking havoc on the forests and former wilderness of Alberta.

Lest we forget the damage the environment done by this drilling, hurricane Katrina destroyed more than 100 offshore oil rigs, some of them washing ashore in Mississippi and Alabama.  The Louisiana and Mississippi coasts, not to mention the entire city in New Orleans, is still covered in a layer of carcinogenic sludge from the oil and gas industries which will affect residents for generations.  Cynthia McKinney has been the only national voice calling for a real cleanup of these areas, while the Dems are now allowing more drilling of carbon-based fuels, even as oil companies are not developing the fields in the gulf they already have access to.

Details on the flip.
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According to an interested observer, the Charleston SC Democratic Party’s attempt to keep Eugene Platt off the November ballot in SC House District 115 as the SC Green Party’s nominee has failed today in state court. The Democratic Party did apparently secure an injunction, but the injunction prevents Platt from campaigning for write-in votes and from gathering signatures to appear on the ballot as a petition nominee. Since Platt is not seeking write-in votes nor ballot access signatures to run as a petition candidate, the court has apparently enjoined Platt from doing things he has not done and has no plans to do.

What at least one observer suggested that a ruling that the statute was un-Constitutional might have been a more complete victory, this ruling apparently does not include an enforcement provision.

Tomorrow Platt and the South Carolina Green Party go to Federal Court for what is hoped to be a final ballot access hearing. Both Platt and the state party are represented by attorneys working for the ACLU Voting Rights Project.

“ANWR is 19.5 million acre refuge in the northeastern Alaska. Within those borders, there is a 1.5 million acre section called “1002.” …It is the lands within the 1002 area that would be opened for exploration and drilling. The Native-owned Arctic Slope Regional Corporation owns 92,000 acres of subsurface land and the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation, also Native-owned, owns 92,000 surface acres of land within the 1002 area.”

Many Inupiat people, perhaps a majority, who live in this region support oil drilling. Their view is expressed by former Mayor Benjamin P. Nageak: “ANWR holds resources that can be extracted safely with care and concern for the entire eco-system it encompasses. The Inupiat people, working through the North Slope Borough, will act in the same careful, caring and cautious manner we always have when dealing with our lands and the seas.”

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A recent web article is worthy of some review and discussion in regards to Governor Palin’s “Record on Alaska Native and Tribal Issues”. It is good when substantive policy issues are referenced in the discussion of Palin. A lot of people are unaware of the importance of indigenous issues in Alaska. In the 2000 Census, 15.6% of the Alaska population listed themselves as Alaskan native or American Indian. “While over 40% of the residents live in the largest city of Anchorage, most of the rest of the state is sparsely populated or uninhabited with communities separated by vast distances. 52.3% of the state population lives in frontier areas.” This makes for a significant percentage of the population in rural regions. There are also well-established tribal governments in Alaska. “There are 562 tribal governments in the United States with 225 of them located in Alaska,” explains Paul G. Moorhead, a Federal Indian law and policy attorney with the Indian Tribal Governments Practice Group at Gardner, Carton & Douglas in Washington, D.C.”

The most significant act in recent history that impacted indigenous and Native Alaskan peoples was “in 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was signed into law by the U.S. President, under which the Natives relinquished aboriginal claims to their lands.[2] In return, they received access to 44 million acres (180,000 km²) of land and were paid $963 million. The land and money were divided among regional, urban, and village corporations.”

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Erik Shelley is running for the House of Representatives in the Michigan 11th CD.

The Detroit Greens just posted this very nice campaign youtube ad:

We need more candidates doing this!

The Media may not “have the resources” to cover the Green Party, but the Letters to the Editor section of most newspapers, which is often the most read section of any newspaper, is a great way to get the word out, or just spout off.

Here’s some recent ones:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (scroll down):

Presidential choices disappoint

Why do we have more options for buying peanut butter than we have for electing the next U.S. president? Two individuals, a Republican and a Democrat, in a country of 300 million, cannot possibly cover the scope of every American’s values or needs.
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From Peter Camejo Updates.

9/13/2008

It is with great sadness and regret that we have to inform you that Peter Camejo died this morning. Peter decided that he would be more comfortable at home, and the doctors agreed. Arrangements were made, and ultimately Peter returned home yesterday. Peter’s health had declined rapidly over the last two days due to the aggressiveness of his cancer and the strength of the drugs used to combat his disease. His wife was at his side when he passed peacefully this morning.

One of the disadvantages or citizen journalism is that in this case the citizens are making the news too. This is one reason we have an “editorial” category. As we focus in our “real” lives on certain issues or campaigns it is natural that we will write a lot about that topic. If I am going too far in covering Eugene Platt’s campaign, please do let me know.

Eugene Platt is the South Carolina Green Party candidate for State House District 115. He faces two court cases in his fight to appear as the South Carolina Green Party.

Platt came within 40 votes of beating the Republican last time, and that Republican candidate has an interesting history that Platt has been too polite to point out.

A simple Google search for “Wallace Scarborough” scandal gets you 214 hits. Let’s take a look at a few of those Scarborough hits to see what’s there. read more »

C-Span is saying that the Cynthia McKinney interview with Road to the White House that was supposed to run last Sunday (but was bumped by a Sarah Palin re-run) WILL air at the regular time this Sunday September 14 (6:30 EST, and again at 9:30 EST). For real this time.

C-Span fielded a LOT of calls from upset Greens over the snub last weekend, particularly since a number of Cynthia McKinney house parties were scheduled around the show.

Word is the interview will be coupled with footage from the Ron Paul press conference this week.

Green Party Watch Radio will host South Carolina’s only elected Green, Eugene Platt, this Sunday from 3 to 3:30 East Coast Time.

Platt is at the center of a legal battlefield. He has been sued in state court by Charleston County Democratic Party Chair George Tempel to keep him off the November ballot. Platt and the South Carolina Green Party have had to go to federal court against the South Carolina Election Commission to overturn a staff decision to bar Platt from the November ballot.

Platt will join Democratic Party nominee Anne Peterson Hutto and incumbent Republican Wallace B. Scarborough once barriers to the voter’s rights to a legal third choice are removed.

Platt, who ran as the Democratic Party nominee against Scarborough in 2006, losing by fewer than 50 votes out of more than 12,000 cast, has needlessly been slandered by the Charleston Post and Currier/s reporter with the phrase Political observers don’t expect Platt to place any better than third should his name appear on the ballot… without naming who these “political observers” are.

In an article in Curve Magazine, a leading lesbian magazine, Victoria Brownworth announces her move from Clinton supporter to McKinney supporter. I can’t find full text online yet (I’ll try to upload a pdf file if I have time) but following a long description of failures of the Democrats from Gore, Kerry, and the Pelosi Congress to act on progressive issues, she has finally decided to “vote for herself”:

McKinney has a long history of progressivism. Many of her platforms, like universal health care and ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” are similar to those of Clinton. McKinney is a strong African American woman who has much to offer the country. I know she won’t win in November, but I can cast my vote for her with pride and integrity.

I won’t deny that part of my decision has to do with the realization that I can no longer continue to vote against my own best interests. I have done that repeatedly, being guilted into voting Democrat when I should have taken a different route. I have argued in my newspaper columns that third party candidates are not the answer, but the past two elections, plus the current presidential race, have made me rethink that position.

The two major parties have failed a majority of Americans, but they have failed queers, women and minorities most definitively.

You may not feel that voting for McKinney is a viable option for you, but I urge you to reconsider it. A strong showing for McKinney will add o the viability in 2012 not only of the Green Party, but of women candidates. Clinton withstood a sexist barrage in the primary, and McKinnney’s candidacy has been minimized on the basis of her gender as well as her party affiliation.

Like me, McKinney felt she had to break with the Democrats, and for similar reasons. Come November, I will vote for McKinney, and I think if every progressive in the United States did the same – voted for real progressivism, rather than the empty promise of it – we could have the first African American woman president.

Vote for yourself this November, instead of a party that has failed you. It’s the only way we will ever move toward real and lasting change in the United States.

Here’s the video:

Will the “Declaration of Independence” from the Two Party System have any impact? Where might Ron Paul supporters turn to? Will the Bob Barr “snub” turn of the Paulites? Will McKinney’s “hero status” among the 9/11 Truth movement attract Paulites? Or will her positions on such things such as Universal Health Care turn them off?
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