Carl Romanelli – Green Party Watch

Green Party calls for halt on Trans-Pacific Partnership after leaked secret documents from trade deal

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Dave Schwab

Congress should reject President Obama’s request for fast-track authority on the secretly negotiated pact, say Greens

The Green Party today called for an immediate halt in the Obama Administration’s closed-door negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), following the publication by Wikileaks of the TPP’s intellectual property chapter on Nov. 13.

Greens also demanded that Congress reject President Obama’s request for fast-track authority to implement the TPP, a proposed commercial pact between the U.S. and 11 Asian and Latin American countries.

The leaked intellectual-property documents reveal that President Obama is seeking terms in the pact that would impose limits on Internet freedom and allow increases in the price of life-saving medicines in the U.S. and throughout the Asia-Pacific region. 28 more TPP documents remain unavailable to the public. Continue Reading →

Green Party urges mass protest against “adversarial government”, end to National Surveillance State initiated under Bush, expanded under Obama

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Dave Schwab

From the Green Party of the United States:

WASHINGTON, DC — The Green Party today called for a mass movement to demand the dismantling of the National Surveillance State created by the National Security Agency, CIA, and Justice Department with President Obama’s approval.

Greens also called for a halt to the prosecution of whistleblowers, including Pfc. Bradley Manning and Julian Assange, who complied with international laws to which the U.S. is signatory when they exposed war crimes, as well as government and corporate criminality in the U.S. and abroad, and for no action against whistleblower Edward Snowden and journalist Glenn Greenwald.

“President Obama and Congress members who are defending this kind of mass surveillance don’t understand that adversarial government that turns millions of Americans into potential enemies is the opposite of democracy, freedom, and the rule of law,” said Carl Romanelli, 2006 U.S. Senate candidate in Pennsylvania and member of Green Party’s International Committee. Continue Reading →

Green Party urges national protest against the proposed Keystone XL and Trailbreaker pipelines

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Dave Schwab

The Green Party of the United States is urging party members and all Americans to organize and join various protests against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline in the coming weeks, including a major demonstration in Washington, DC, on February 17.

President Obama rejected the initial application for the pipeline in January 2012 but is expected to approve the renewed application. The multi-billion-dollar Keystone XL would connect the tar-sands oil fields in Alberta, Canada (the world’s second biggest pool of extractable carbon) to refineries and seaports in the Gulf Coast. Continue Reading →

PA Democrat convicted of using state resources against Green Party for political purposes

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Dave Schwab

Hat tip to Ballot Access News for this story:

On February 6, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania jury convicted State Representative H. William DeWeese of using state resources to work on partisan political activity during the period 2000-2006. DeWeese was in the Democratic leadership in the House during those years. He directed staff to use government employees and government computers to help challenge the 2004 petition of Ralph Nader, and the 2006 statewide Green Party petition. See this story. DeWeese is currently in the legislature, and has been a state legislator since he was elected in a special election in May, 1976.

Green Party Welcomes Troop Withdrawal from Iraq

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Ronald Hardy

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders welcomed the news of the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by the end of December, calling the presidential order more than eight years overdue. Greens urged President Obama to let the troops come home to be with their families for the holiday, rather than stationed or redeployed elsewhere.

“We’re glad that President Obama is calling all US military personnel home from Iraq and has ignored Republican demands to prolong the occupation. The President is honoring a binding Status of Forces Agreement between the United States and Iraq that President Bush signed. The US must make every effort now to help US troops return to their civilian lives, especially those who’ve been wounded or have suffered psychological trauma because of the war. We owe the troops a great debt and an apology for sending them to fight in a war based on deception and cooked intelligence,” said Carl Romanelli, Pennsylvania Green and member of the party’s International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl).

Greens noted that the withdrawal is the result of the Iraqi government’s insistence and that the Obama Administration was initially reluctant to comply with the agreement (http://www.nationaljournal.com/u-s-troop-withdrawal-motivated-by-iraqi-insistence-not-u-s-choice-20111021).

The Green Party opposed the invasion of Iraq since its inception in March 2003 and demanded withdrawal afterwards. Greens blamed both Democrats and Republicans for transferring congressional war powers to the White House in Oct. 2002 despite uncertainty about WMD allegations (later revealed to have been the product of manipulated intelligence), forged evidence of nuclear weaponry, and implausible claims of cooperation between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda.

Greens participated in protests throughout the US against the Iraq War, and — unlike many Democrats who claimed to oppose the war — continued to protest after President Obama’s election.
Continue Reading →

Some political parties remain outlaws in PA

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Dave Schwab

Oliver Hall reports at the Philadelphia Enquirer:

Pennsylvanians may notice something unusual when they go to the polls in November: Their choices for governor, lieutenant governor, and U.S. Senate will be limited exclusively to Republican and Democratic candidates. Only four other states’ 2010 general-election ballots are so restrictive.

What makes Pennsylvania unique, however – and suggests that something has gone seriously wrong here in the birthplace of America – is that the shortage of choices has been effectively imposed by the courts. The state’s courts have shut out minor-party candidates by allowing Republicans and Democrats to collect large money judgments from anyone who attempts to challenge the major parties.

Romanelli sues PA Dems behind controversial ballot challenge

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Dave Schwab

Carl Romanelli, the Pennsylvania Green Party’s 2006 candidate for US Senate whose ballot access petition was successfully challenged, has filed suit against numerous members of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party for illegal activities in connection with the challenge. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

Carl Romanelli, who ran for U.S. Senate in 2006, has filed suit against state Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, former state Rep. Mike Veon, the House Democratic caucus, and dozens of named and unnamed state employees.

The civil suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Scranton alleges that the defendants engaged in an illegal “Herculean effort” to have Mr. Romanelli thrown off the U.S. Senate ballot in 2006.

Read the full article at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Nader (and Romanelli) take on corruption in the Keystone State

Posted on April 26, 2010 by Green Party Watch News Network

In a two part series of articles by Ruth Ann Dailey at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the saga of Ralph Nader and Carl Romanelli and the PA Democratic Party’s fight to keep them off the ballot is covered in some detail. Both Nader and Romanelli faced challenges to their ballot access petitions in 2004, and Pennsylvania’s courts ruled that both Nader and Romanelli were responsible to pay the costs for those who took their ballot access petitions to task.

This is the first time that candidates have been charged for reviewing petitions which were found to be insufficient to secure a spot on the ballot. In essence, Nader and Romanelli were charged over $80,000 each for daring to run for office.

H/T to Ballot Access News. Continue Reading →

Carl Romanelli: Bob Casey, what’s good for Iran is good for Pennsylvania

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Dave Schwab

Carl Romanelli, 2006 Green Party candidate for US Senate in Pennsylvania, has written a piece at Citizen Voice entitled “What’s good for Iran is good for Pennsylvania; freedom of assembly, speech, due process”. Green Party watch has covered Carl Romanelli’s struggle with the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s illegal campaign of harassment to deprive him of his right to run for office.

Last week Senator Robert Casey passed a resolution through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which recognizes and demands that Iranian citizens be afforded freedom of assembly, speech and due process. To be clear, the U.S. Greens are in complete agreement with Pennsylvania’s junior senator on this issue. In fact, we recognize that such individual democratic freedoms are an essential component of any person’s basic human rights. The difference between Greens and Mr. Casey is that Greens expect the rights of free speech and due process everywhere in the world, including here in Pennsylvania.

At first glance the above statement might seem over-the-top, but not so to those following the developments in the scandal known as Bonusgate. Continue Reading →

Some Tea Partiers are in the wrong party, say Greens

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Dave Schwab

“A real Tea Party movement would look like the Green Party”: Greens urge Americans to reject corporate royalists and faux populists like Limbaugh, Beck, and Palin, citing Jefferson’s warning about “the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations”

Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on health care reform, democracy, corporate power, and related issues: http://www.gp.org/speakers

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders and candidates said that many Tea Party activists might be in the wrong party and urged them to consider going Green. Continue Reading →