Green Party Watch

Republicans Call For 100 New Nuclear Plants

Written by Ruedigar Matthes

Published on June 25th, 2009

 “We all remember this time last year,” said Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Monday. “We were in the midst of an energy crisis, paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline, and Americans were seeing their utility bills skyrocketing.” Since then, he went on to say, the energy problems haven’t disappeared and no changes in policy have been made. He warned that, though the prices have gone down, if we do not make any changes, we will fall into the same hole in which we found ourselves last summer.

His solution? Nuclear. Stating that “the cornerstone of any real solution to the American energy problem needs to involve offshore resources and nuclear power…which generates electricity without producing greenhouse gas emissions and has a minimal impact on the environment.”  The first step to escaping America’s current energy crisis according to Wicker is to build more nuclear power plants.
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An article in today’s Portland Press Herald focuses on the impact that three Portland Maine Greens have had on the Portland City Council. (thanks to Dan J for the tip) This is another classic example of Greens positively improving their community though local government.

PORTLAND — Three years after first winning seats on the Portland City Council, the Green Independent Party can claim some success in pushing its agenda through City Hall.

Political observers say the three Greens on the council have proved to be effective consensus-builders on their core issues, such as reducing the city’s energy usage and revamping land-use and transportation plans to encourage more housing downtown and less reliance on automobiles.

“These are the guys who are moving and shaking,” said Christopher O’Neil, the Portland Community Chamber’s liaison to City Hall. “There is some question among Portlanders as to whether Portland should be moving or shaking, but the fact of the matter is … they are the ones driving the agenda.”
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From Greg Gerritt’s site Prosperity for Rhode Island (with permission):

I was listening to Marketplace Radio tonite, just for a few minutes while I did dishes. I do not know who the guest was, but he said he was not expecting an economic turn around soon. There was just way too much bad debt around on every body’s books and the odds of the values of the houses and other assets it was based on going up enough in the near future to make everybody reasonably whole was minimal.
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Charlie Wilson: Dirty Coal Lover, Votes NO on Energy Bill

The House of Representatives has just passed a landmark bill that will propel our nation toward a clean energy future.

But, the really tough work has just begun. The bill will face tough opposition from Dirty Coal and Big Oil in the Senate and we will all need to work just as hard in the coming months to pass a clean energy bill.

And who voted NO and will lead Big Coal’s fight? Our very own Congressman from the 6th District, Charlie Wilson, who was very proud to cast a NO vote and told his voters the following on his web page:

I wanted to let you know that I voted “no” on the bill.

I believe that coal must and will play a major role in our nation’s transition to energy independence. In Ohio, 86 percent of our electricity comes from coal. And the vast majority of that coal comes from Appalachian Ohio. Because we are located in an area of the country that heavily relies on coal to turn on the lights and heat our homes, Ohio families and her energy intensive industries, like steel, will bear the brunt of the cost from this version of climate change legislation.”

Charlie Wilson proved today he is in the back pockets of the coal lobbyists and has no intentions of supporting clean renewable energies for the future.

Charlie Wilson is not qualified to be re-elected to Congress in 2010!

Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party
www.ohiogreens.org
www.votespisak.org/thinkgreen.

We have had fun with our fly catching frog banner over the last year but it is time for a change. We want a new “masthead” for the Green Party Watch website, and we want your help!

We are now soliciting designs for our new Green Party Watch banner and we are making it a contest. Our team of editors will review all entries, and select our three favorites. Then we’ll put the ball back in your hands and allow the Green Party readership and contributors to select our new banner!

How to Submit an entry:

Design us a banner, 970 pixels by 140 pixels (give or take). It should say “Green Party Watch” on it. Other than that – we’re open to anything! Send your image to gpw@greenpartywatch.org and include any additional information you want (like why you made it the way you made it, etc.) All submissions should be sent in by Friday July 10. Starting the week after we will showcase the best submissions and see what you think! (Bonus: Add a 170×170 box version for bonus points…)

If you have any suggestions for banners, feel free to drop them in the comments below.

~the management

Jeremy Cloward is the Green Party of California’s candidate in an upcoming special election in CA’s 10th congressional district. Cloward is a professor of political science at Diablo Valley College. In a candidate statement on his website, he explains that he is running to help bring into existence ideas that will create a “more just and equal society.” His site contains a list of the first ten bills he plans to submit to Congress. A sampling:

H.R. #1: Universal Health Care

H.R. #2: Universal Daycare

H.R. #3: Universal Education

The independent website That’s My Congress has this to say about Jeremy Cloward:

An important difference between Cloward and his opponents is that Cloward does not owe his allegiance to one of the dominant political parties. Cloward is a member and candidate of the Green Party.

Liberated from the restricting structures of the Democratic and Republican parties, Cloward has come up with a number of specific, innovative ideas about how to deal with the most serious problems Californians, and the rest of America, are now dealing with. read more »

From the Green Party:

The 2010 elections offer an unprecedented opportunity for the Green Party. In the 2010 election cycle we will have the chance to get the Green message out and to hold the corporate parties accountable. Now more than ever our country needs an alternative that will fight for a Single Payer system, to bring ALL of our troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq, to take serious action on global warming, to bail out Americans who are suffering from the worst recession in nearly three decades, and to create a banking system that works for all of us and not just Wall Street.

The Democratically-controlled Congress has failed us on all these counts. Next year the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate is up for election. In addition, 37 states will be electing Governors. Seats for other statewide officials will be up for election. These elections provide the Green Party with many opportunities to win and maintain ballot lines. The more ballot lines we win in 2010, the more opportunities citizens will have to vote for a sustainable and just future and the stronger we will be when we go into the 2012 elections.
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Model Green Jobs Legislation

With increased focus on the environment, and in the aftermath of the ARRA, hundreds of green jobs bills were introduced in the states this legislative session.  Below is a sampling of some model bills introduced in 2008 and 2009. 

·         Washington has been a leader in the green jobs arena for the past couple of years.  During the 2009 session,  Senate Bill 5649 was signed into law.  This law aggregates all federal Recovery Act dollars directed towards energy efficiency, and attaches labor standards.  Community leaders,  including those from faith-based organizations, non-profits, and unions, worked tirelessly on developing and passing this legislation alongside their state legislators.  Among other things, the legislation puts Washington on the path to weatherize and otherwise make more energy efficient, 100,000 homes and buildings over the next five years.  In addition, the law creates an Energy Efficiency Improvement Program, which will provide grants and technical assistance to neighborhood energy-efficiency projects throughout the state. The law also includes requirements that contractors employ workers from training and apprentice programs, pay prevailing wages, hire from the community in which the program is located, and provide opportunities to veterans and low-income individuals. For low-income weatherization programs, the law prioritizes programs which provide career pathways out of poverty and into construction trades.

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Jim Nintzel is reporting at Tucson Weekly that Dave Croteau has dropped his bid to remain on the ballot as a Green Party candidate in the face of a Democratic Party challenge to his bid. Instead, Nintzel reports that Dave Ewoldt, Croteau’s campaign manager will mount a write-in campaign. If Ewoldt secures seven votes in the September primary he will be on the ballot come November. In addition two other Tucson Greens are apparently considering a similar move, meaning that instead of facing one Green on November’s ballot, the Democratic Party’s effort at eliminating Green opposition may result in three times the opposition. According to Nintzel’s piece, Greens would also run in Wards 3 and 5. Ewoldt, if successful, will run in Ward 6.

Changes to the original piece are in italics and result from a comment by Ross Levin. Misspelling of Tucson corrected thanks to Richard Winger.

Avast ye! We’ve been boarded! After much speculation on who the Swedish Pirate Party would caucus with, we heard today that their sole Member of European Parliament (MEP) will join The Greens/European Free Alliance group.

The Swedish Pirate Party is a party focused on the free exchange of information and are opposed to copyright laws. The party did very well in the past European Parliament elections garnering 7% of the vote in Sweden and one seat. I think it makes sense for the Pirates to work with the Greens because both their policy positions on internet file sharing/free flow of information are similar.

Check out what the Pirates and the Greens had to say about this after the jump.

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Breaking news: Cynthia McKinney aboard detained Free Gaza Movement relief boat

• Boat with 33 international human rights activists is acting on Obama’s call for medical supplies and cement to be delivered to Gaza

WASHINGTON, DC — 2008 Green presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney is participating in a second campaign to deliver goods to Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade.

According to recent news reports, port authority officials in Cyprus have detained a multi-national Free Gaza Movement boat in Lanarca under pressure from Israel. The boat is carrying 33 human rights activists, including Ms. McKinney, and shipments of medical supplies and cement.

See Ms. McKinney’s June 25 blog post for an update (http://dignity.ning.com/profiles/blogs/they-denied-us-so-they-wouldnt).

Ms. McKinney notes that President Obama himself has called for medical supplies and cement to be sent to Gaza. Despite the Obama statement and a request from Ms. McKinney to the White House for an assurance of safety, the US State Department has warned the boat against sailing to Gaza.

Cynthia McKinney, a former six-term Democratic member of the US House from Georgia, was aboard a Free Gaza Movement boat delivering medical supplies to Gaza that was rammed by Israeli naval forces in January, 2009. Ms. McKinney and running mate Rosa Clemente were nominated for President and Vice President at the Green Party’s 2008 national convention in Chicago, Illinois.

For news on the unfolding situation, see:

• Communications and updates from Cynthia McKinney:
http://www.gp.org/cynthia/index.php
http://dignity.ning.com

• Special report on Gaza featuring Ms. McKinney and Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement (audio and text):
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-281664
http://www.sendspace.com/file/7veibj

• Free Gaza Movement: http://www.freegaza.org

• “Cyprus halts aid boats bound for Gaza Strip: US-based Free Gaza Movement planned to take 33 activists to Gaza with medical supplies and cement; Cypriot shipping officials cited inspection requirements for stopping the two vessels from leaving port”
Reuters/Israel News, June 25, 2009
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3737002,00.html

• “Activists plan to send Gaza cement, in violation of Israel blockade”
Reuters and Haaretz Service, June 18, 2009
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1093988.html

From the Green Party:

• “Greens join Global Day of Action for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions on March 30 to end the Israeli occupation,” March 26, 2009 http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=192

• “Green Party: Israel-Palestine truce must include end of Israeli occupation and observance of international law or violence is likely to resume,” January 19, 2009 http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=169

• International Committee of the Green Party: http://www.gp.org/committees/intl

The Face Book group I’m done with Democrats has grown to 331 members in only a few days. Today one of the Grand Poo Bahs of the group sent me a request to write my local paper, the Democratic Party or a legislator telling them why I had left the Democratic Party. I explained that I had left LONG ago and never saw a reason to return, but did give her something she could, perhaps, use. To read what I said were the reasons I left the Democratic Party, hit this article’s headline.

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Earth Times is reporting that the German Green Party is applying pressure on the Angela Merkel government to persuade the US government to abandon cluster bombs.

Children are often victims of the weapons, which can remain lodged in the ground for years after being fired, since they sometimes mistake the so-called bomblets for toys.

According to the Laotian government, more than 300 children a year die because of “bomblets” left over from the war in Vietnam and the surrounding nations.

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Shades of Green

By Liz Smith-Anderson

The election is over, the winner declared. The Democrats are dancing in the streets while the Republicans grimace and grind their teeth in an attempt to hide their disgust. Barack Obama won millions of votes by promising change. He has promised change in the way we deliver healthcare, the way we treat the environment, and has offered to protect our constitutional rights. Wait a minute. This sounds very ‘Green Party’ to me. Could it be that the radical thought paradigms of the far left have evolved into centrist thinking? Has the average citizen finally accepted that the way ‘things were done’ in the past just won’t work in today’s world. Is it possible that Obama will be ‘the one’ who pulls it all together and actually is able to move our nation towards that more perfect union dreamed of by our founders?
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