Green Party Watch

FEB 3, 2012 NOTE – This article is OLD. This article describes the four candidates actually seeking the nomination, and Green Party Watch is covering the campaigns daily.

Talk about 2012 and who might be a good Green Party standard bearer as the Presidential Nominee really began in earnest about one month before the 2008 election concluded. So talking about it now, in the summer of 2010, isn’t really out of line or out of place, and perhaps is overdue.

The conversation has already begun on the GPUS National Committee delegate email list, with names tossed around such as Barbara Ehrenreich, Margaret Flowers, Van Jones, and of course Cynthia McKinney. What I find interesting is the variety in “goals” that Greens expect from a Presidential candidate, and the variety of “types” of candidates that people think might accomplish those goals,

So what are the goals of running a national Green Party candidate for President? Winning the White House seems to rank low thanks to the reality of the duopoly in US Politics. So what, then? Five Percent might be brought up, because if a presidential candidate gets five percent of the national vote that political party is eligible for millions of dollars in support of the next presidential nominating convention, but more than that, the percent received by the candidate can impact ballot access in a number of states, Texas, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin just to name a few.

Another major goal often brought up is “party building”. A national candidate for President can travel the land raising money and recruiting volunteers for local chapters everywhere. Nader did it. Cobb did it. And McKinney did it as well, bringing new people into the Green Party fold, some of whom are now candidates for federal office or have taken leadership positions within the party.

So who might be a good Green Party candidate for President? Lets explore the topic by “type” of candidate.

The “Name” candidate

This group of candidates would include those who have a well known name for themselves in the public eye – the bigger the better. It is all about name recognition, but perhaps at a smaller scale. Lets face it, Nader was a “name candidate”, Cobb was not. McKinney was. Van Jones is close, but I would class him more as an “issue candidate”. Celebrities fall in this category, such as: Michael Moore, Amy Goodman, Susan Sarandon perhaps, Ben Affleck (or is it Matt Damon?), and any other famous person who wants to risk their career by taking the “Green Cause” to the political scene. My first choice for a “celebrity candidate” at this point would be Woody Harrelson, tied into the “Issue Candidate” category below for his Cannabis Activism.

The Issue Candidate

This category would include those candidates who are big activists on a narrower issue. Margaret Flowers is a universal heath care advocate. Woody Harrelson is a “legalize marijuana” advocate. Cindy Sheehan is an anti-war activist. Jesse Johnson is an anti-coal mining activist. Cynthia McKinney in a way is a social justice candidate, with emphasis on Palestinian Liberation. Would an “issue candidate” help the party meet its goals? My personal favorite potential “issue candidate” is Kathy Kelly, an anti-war / peace advocate who is a wonderful speaker, I would love to see her at the top of our ballot.

“Insider Candidate”

There is a case made for a Presidential candidate who is a political insider, an organizer within the party or a candidate for federal or state office who has done well. Kent Mesplay falls in this category, as does kat swift, and certainly David Cobb. What about Rich Whitney in Illinois? Jill Stein? Laura Wells? What about a party organizer like Mike Feinstein, Farheen Hakim, or Claudia Ellquist? Would a Green without national name recognition have any impact? Would a Green who had a broader package than a single issue candidate improve our returns? I think if the Green Party is going to consider an insider candidate, they would do well to tag someone who has run in high profile races and done well, who can speak well, raise money, and campaign. Rich Whitney, who got 360,000 votes for 10% in 2006 would be a leading candidate, and I would also bring attention to Jill Stein, who got over 3% of the vote running for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002, Medea Benjamin, who brought in over 300,000 votes running for US Senate in California in 2000, and Rebekah Kennedy, whose 200,000 votes in Arkansas in 2008 for US Senate brought her 20% of the vote.

Who will the Green Party recruit? Who will the Green Party attract? Will McKinney run again? Will there be another Draft Nader campaign? And if a Green is elected President in 2012, will the world still end as per the Mayan Calendar?

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders expressed sadness and sympathy for the family of former Georgia State Rep. James Edward “Billy” McKinney, father of Cynthia McKinney, after his passing on Thursday, July 15, following a long illness.  He was 83.

Billy McKinney served as a state legislator in Georgia for 30 years.  Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party’s 2008 presidential nominee and a former six-term Georgia member of the US House of Representatives, also served in the Georgia legislature.  They became the first father-daughter duo in the Georgia House when Ms. McKinney was first elected in 1992. read more »

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that Billy McKinney has died of cancer at the age of 83. He supported Cynthia McKinney’s Presidential bid with the Green Party in 2008, attending the nominating convention with her.

McKinney, like his daughter, was a Georgia state legislator. He was a police officer and a community activist. His Wikipedia entry is here.

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders, mourning the recent death of Njere Akosua Aminah Alghanee (‘Sister Courage’), national co-chair of National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA, http://www.ncobra.org), reaffirmed the party’s dedication to reparations for the descendents of enslaved Africans in the United States.

On June 24, Njere Alghanee had just returned from the US Social Forum in Detroit with plans to attend the annual meeting of N’COBRA in New Orleans the next day when her life was taken in a tragic auto accident.  June 24, 2010 was her 58th birthday.

“The Green Party, especially the party’s Black Caucus, has had a strong alliance with N’COBRA and has supported the demand for reparations.  We send our condolences and solidarity with Sister Courage’s family, friends, and fellow leaders in N’COBRA.  We honor her leadership,” said Alfred Molison, candidate for Houston City Council, District C (http://votealfred.com).

Members of the Green Party in attendance at the US Social Forum and the Green Party’s Annual National Meeting in Detroit heard the news on June 25.  The Detroit meeting began a process of considering revisions to the Party’s national Platform; including an amendment offered by the Georgia Green Party and the Green Party Black Caucus on which Ms. Alghanee had been consulted, to strengthen language supporting reparations already in the Green Party Platform (http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/socjustice.html#999024). read more »

From Independent Political Report:

WASHINGTON, DC — The Green Party of the United States condemns the attack by the Israeli navy on Gaza-bound humanitarian aid ships in international wates near Cyprus, which have left at least 19 human rights activists dead and at least 50 wounded.

“The attacks on the aid boats is a criminal act of piracy and a deliberate provocation,” said Dr. Justine McCabe, co-chair of the Green Party’s International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl).

“We demand immediate action from the US, including emergency orders from President Obama to cut off all aid to Israel.  The policies of the US regarding Israel and Palestine up to now have convinced Israel that it can act with impunity in committing massacres and massive human violations against Palestinian civilians.  These illegal and atrocious actions now include the murder of other countries’ citizens in international waters,” added Dr. McCabe, who recently returned to the US from Haifa, where she participated in a coalition of over 400 Jewish and Palestinian Israelis and internationals who met to promote the growing call for the one democratic state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Israel had earlier threatened to seize the Freedom Flotilla ships and arrest the activists when they entered Gaza coastal waters, but instead executed a surprise maneuver at night in international waters that resulted in death and mayhem for nonviolent activists attempting to deliver 10,000 tons of supplies to the people of Gaza.

2008 Green presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney has released a statement on the massacre (“Cynthia McKinney Mourns the Dead of the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza: People of the US and the world must end Israeli impunity now!,” http://gp.org/cynthia/display.php?ID=36).  Ms. McKinney, a former member of Congress from Georgia, was one of 21 human rights activists on board the Free Gaza relief boat seized by the Israeli navy in international waters when it tried to deliver medical and other humanitarian aid to Gaza in June 2009, in the wake of Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

Ms. McKinney and the other activists were held in an Israeli jail for several days.  See Green Party press releases issued between June 25 and July 14, 2009, on the party’s media page (http://www.gp.org/press.php).

“The US government’s lack of response to the seizing of the Free Gaza boat and jailing of a former member of Congress was interpreted by Israel as a license for even more extreme illegal actions,” said Starlene Rankin, co-chair of the Lavender Green Caucus (http://www.gp.org/caucuses/lavender/index.php).  ”We urge all Americans who value justice, human rights, and peace to put pressure on the White House and on their Representatives and Senators to move right now to stop all aid to Israel and seek international condemnation of these acts.”

“We also urge Americans to be wary of the justifications for Israel’s crimes that will come from politicians, media commentators, AIPAC, and other apologists for Israel.  These justifications are meant to cover up atrocities, including yesterday’s murderous attack on the Freedom Flotilla,” said Ms. Rankin. read more »

Don DeBar offers this article about the Israeli Defense Force’s action against a flotilla from the Free Gaza Movement which apparently resulted in the deaths of at least ten people. McKinney, Green Party presidential nominee in 2008, was involved in two earlier attempts to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza via ship.

Cynthia McKinney Mourns the Dead of the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza:

People of the U.S. and the world must end Israeli impunity now!

I am outraged at Israel’s latest criminal act. I mourn with my fellow Free Gaza travelers, the lives that have been lost by Israel’s needless, senseless act against unarmed humanitarian activists. But I’m even more outraged that once again, Israel’s actions have been aided and abetted by a U.S. political class that has become corrupted beyond belief due to its reliance on Zionist finance and penetration by Zionist zealots for whom no U.S. weapons system is too much for the Israeli war machine, and the silence of the world’s onlookers whose hearts have grown cold with indifference.

I recently visited the offices of IHH, the Turkish humanitarian organization that sponsored one of the Freedom Flotilla boats, and that was targeted by the Israelis for its murderous rampage. Reports are still coming in as to the full extent of the senseless Israeli violence. read more »

Cynthia McKinney, the 2008 Green Party candidate for president, will lead “Bike For Peace 2010″, a bike ride across America that will take place from July to September. Details from the website:

We’re bicycling from San Francisco to Washington, DC between 24-July and 22-Sept, 2010, without motorized support. Cynthia McKinney, six term Member of Congress and 2008 Green Party nominee for President, is riding. The ride will demonstrate the bicycle as a transformational tool to solve the problems of Climate Change, Oil Wars, the Health Crisis, and the Economic Crunch. Along the way, riders will facilitate community discussions around the question “How can we support each other to live true to our best values?”

Our route, schedule, and discussion group are open to anybody with a free Google account. Please join us. If you would like to bicycle all or part of the route, plan a convergence ride, or host riders passing through your community, please e-mail bike4peace@googlegroups.com.

In an article for Truthdig entitled “Is America ‘Yearning for Fascism?’”, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges quoted extensively from Cynthia McKinney, the 2008 Green Party candidate for president.

“We are ruled not by two parties but one party,” Cynthia McKinney, who ran for president on the Green Party ticket, told me. “It is the party of money and war. Our country has been hijacked. And we have to take the country away from those who have hijacked it. The only question now is whose revolution gets funded.”…

“It is time for us to stop talking about right and left,” McKinney told me. “The old political paradigm that serves the interests of the people who put us in this predicament will not be the paradigm that gets us out of this. I am a child of the South. Janet Napolitano tells me I need to be afraid of people who are labeled white supremacists but I was raised around white supremacists. I am not afraid of white supremacists. I am concerned about my own government. The Patriot Act did not come from the white supremacists, it came from the White House and Congress. Citizens United did not come from white supremacists, it came from the Supreme Court. Our problem is a problem of governance. I am willing to reach across traditional barriers that have been skillfully constructed by people who benefit from the way the system is organized.”

Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party’s 2008 candidate for president of the United States, has published an article in the UK Independent entitled “Leaders’ lack of respect for rule of law makes us all victims of 9/11″.

The war on terror did not go away with George Bush. When President Barack Obama came to power there was so much hope, but as the US Green Party presidential candidate I did not share it.

I heard candidate Obama’s speeches and knew that he would be a War President. What I did not realise was the extent to which the policies of President Obama would mirror those of his predecessor, including the renewal of the Patriot Act and commission of war crimes. Sadly, President Obama’s Justice Department is now in US courts defending the criminal acts of the Bush administration.

In his State of the Union address to the nation, President Obama defended war, erosion of civil and human rights, creation of the police state, ignoring the US Constitution and the norms of international law, by invoking the tragedy of 11 September, 2001. read more »

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges recently wrote an article for Truthdig entitled “Ralph Nader was right about Barack Obama” advising progressives to join the Green Party. You can read the full article here.

We owe Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney an apology. They were right about Barack Obama. They were right about the corporate state. They had the courage of their convictions and they stood fast despite wholesale defections and ridicule by liberals and progressives… read more »

Ellen Brown, author of “Web of Debt”, has an article on Truthout entitled “More candidates favoring state-owned banks”. In the article, Brown features Rich Whitney of Illinois and Laura Wells of California as gubernatorial candidates who are proposing state banks in their platforms. She also mentions the proposal of 2008 Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney to nationalize the Federal Reserve. Read on for excerpts from the article: read more »

Over 100 leading peace activists have announced an ‘Emergency Anti-Escalation Rally’ at the White House on December 12, from 11a.m. to 4 p.m., to reject President Obama’s planned military escalation in Afghanistan. The rally is organized by End US Wars, a newly formed coalition of national and grass-roots antiwar organizations, with endorsements from leading peace leaders.

Rally organizers are calling for the left wing to end its support for Obama if he declares a surge in troops, and for condemnation of Obama’s war policy by his own party faithful. In addition, efforts will begin to cut short his term in office, along with Congress; and protests will intensify against U.S. war involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq and any other countries.

Speakers include Green Party members Cynthia McKinney, Lynne Williams, Marian Douglas and others including Sen. Mike Gravel, Kathy Kelly, Chris Hedges, David Swanson, Phyllis Bennis, Rev. Graylan Hagler, Coy McKinney, Debra Sweet, Brian Becker, Mathis Chiroux, Hon. Betty Hall, Elaine Brower, Michael Knox, Ralph Lopez, Ron Fisher, and statements from Col. Ann Wright, Stephen Zunes and Granny D. read more »

Appearing at the War Crimes Conference and Exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney delivered a 17 minute address to the delegates. The speech, broken into two pieces to accommodate YouTube limitations is under the fold. Hat Tip to Black Agenda Report.

read more »

Posted to Cynthia McKinney’s Facebook page:

Hello, as promised, I’ll give you a brief report from my visit to Cape Town, South Africa.

First of all, I was hosted by two activists who founded Channel Four News, a hard-hitting, truth-telling, non-special interest news outlet serving Cape Town and all of South Africa. But because of their hard-hitting questions to elected leaders, the post-apartheid era government chose to enact regulations that resulted in their temporary shutdown. Undaunted, they organized a very informative film festival chock full of documentaries recalling the South Africa-Israel connections that beefed up repressive capabilities in both states; the role of Coca Cola during the sanctions era; scenes from Gaza after Israel’s Operation Cast Lead; and stories of general Palestinian life with plays, songs, and films. Please click here to hear one of the most moving songs I have heard in a very long time:

read more »