Green Party Watch

Ballot Access News reports:

Roseanne Barr has taken several steps to make it possible for her to seek the Green Party presidential nomination. She filed with the Federal Election Commission on January 25, and she has fulfilled the requirements of the Green Party to seek the nomination. She is a registered Green Party member in California, although she also has a home in Hawaii.

From the Green Party of the United States:

The Livestream broadcast will feature Green presidential candidates Jill Stein and Kent Mesplay; viewers can participate in the chat and phone in with questions

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/events/338640229488962/

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Party presidential candidates will participate in an online discussion immediately following President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union speech on Tuesday, Jan. 24. During the show, to be broadcast on the Green Party’s Livestream channel (http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus), viewers can call in with questions for the candidates.

Viewers can also join in an online chat that will take place simultaneously with the State of the Union broadcast, which will be visible on the Livestream page. The public is invited to participate.

The two candidates competing for the Green presidential nomination are Kent Mesplay (http://www.mesplay.org) and Jill Stein (http://www.jillstein.org). Dr. Mesplay and Dr. Stein will be on the Livestream broadcast via remote webcam. Craig Seeman and Starlene Rankin are producing the show and will serve as hosts. read more »

From Jill Stein for President:

Tens of thousands of Americans in over 130 cities gather today at federal courthouses and in public squares, nearly the two-year anniversary of Citizens United v. FEC, to reject the doctrines of corporate personhood and money is speech. Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate, is a lead speaker today in Washington, D.C., where she joins protestors on the steps of the court building of the Supreme Court of the United States. Dr. Stein joins leading members of the Move to Amend coalition, as well as Thom Hartmann, Medea Benjamin, and others in this role.

“Since 1996, the Green Party has called for a constitutional amendment to abolish the doctrine of corporate personhood,” said Stein. “Greens have been ahead of the curve, but today, the curve has caught up with us, and now this movement for a constitution that serves we, the people, has gathered a historic momentum.” read more »

Al Jazeera English has covered Jill Stein’s Green Party presidential campaign in an article entitled “The ‘other’ political parties of the US”. From the article:

“I joined [the Green Party] in 2000, around the time of the Nader run … I had not been a member of a party or really politically active until that time. I was never inspired to have been a part of the Democrats to start with.

“I was one of those people who was just off-put by political parties in general, and I didn’t really come to see them as a necessary thing essential for political and economic change. It took me ten years of participating in the policy process to understand why we need political parties.

“Our hope is to qualify in enough states to give [the Green Party] access to 90 per cent or more of the Electoral College. That means at least 40 states … We currently have access in something like 17 states … and can relatively easily get enough to bring us up to a total of 30 or 35. read more »

From Jill Stein for President:

From Jill Stein for President:

This just in: Organize a house party, get buttons and bumperstickers! In case you missed last week’s announcement, we’re sending an updated notice below. One update is that if you register your house party by January 18th, we’ll send you a package of buttons and bumperstickers. Read on . . .

Dear Friends, On Tuesday, January 24th, President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address. There will also be responses and commentary from the Republican and Democratic parties.

On Wednesday, January 25th, at 8:30pm Eastern, we invite you to participate in The People’s State of the Union: A Green New Deal for America. You’ll hear a realism about America’s situation –and the ways to overcome it– that Wall Street and the Washington establishment don’t want you talking about.

We can have an economy that provides jobs for everyone without depressing wages or destroying the environment. We can get Wall Street off our backs and win control of our lives and common future.

Through this special online broadcast, you will hear presidential candidate Jill Stein describe the Green New Deal that can reclaim our future and fulfill the promise of America. Lines will be open for your questions and ideas. All you need is an internet connection and a computer.  read more »

The Tucson Weekly reports:

Green Party candidate Gary Swing is ready to rumble with his fellow Green candidates on Arizona’s Feb. 28 presidential primary ballot. When Richard Grayson, a Green Party rival, declared himself a “favorite son” is the race, Swing begged to differ, firing off the following press release:

Richard Grayson, a 2010 Arizona Green Party candidate for US Representative, recently announced that he has filed as a candidate for the Arizona Green Party’s Presidential Preference Election on February 28. In his campaign announcement, Grayson stated: “I am happy to be Arizona’s favorite son candidate in the Green Party presidential primary.”

Gary Swing, a cultural events promoter from Denver who ran as a Colorado Green Party candidate for US Representative, has also filed as a candidate for the Arizona Green Party’s Presidential Preference Election, and hopes to challenge Grayson for the position of favorite son candidate. According to an impartial and scientific survey that the Swing campaign conducted of Tucson resident Mary Swing, 100% of the respondent indicated that Gary Swing is her “favorite son” among the candidates in the Arizona Green Party’s presidential primary. read more »

Green Party presidential contender Jill Stein was recently interviewed by Matt Rothschild, editor of The Progressive, for the nationally syndicated Progressive Radio show. Listen to the interview at The Progressive.

Jill Stein’s Green Party campaign for president has been covered by Counterpunch in an article entitled “A Green New Deal?”:

The centerpiece of Stein’s plan is a commitment to end unemployment through direct federal action to create the jobs needed to end the “Bush/Obama recession,” she said in her Oct. 24 announcement release. Calling President Barack Obama’s jobs plan a “Wall Street-first approach” and “fundamentally misconceived,” she said it is too small and gives more money to the financial elite in hopes that they will decide to create jobs.

Read the full article at Counterpunch.

In other news, the Stein campaign has asked supporters to make suggestions for an upcoming redesign of JillStein.org:

We are beginning the process of redesigning our current website. We expect to continue to use NationBuilder as our underlying technology. Yet we also expect to have some flexibility in terms of what the website looks like, what tools it has, where various things are located on the website, etc..

We’d like to see your ideas. Pretend we’re starting with a blank slate, so criticisms of the current website won’t help. Please tell us what we should have on the new website: http://www.jillstein.org/website_suggestions read more »

From Jill Stein for President:

From Ben Manski at Jill Stein for President:

Jill Stein broke the law. Literally.

On Friday, Dr. Stein and her supporters joined hundreds of Wisconsinites at their State Capitol building. Together, they raised their voices in song. And broke the law.

They literally broke the law. Faced with yet another act of collective defiance, the Scott Walker administration folded, and failed to enforce its new policy banning unpermitted rallies at the State Capitol. On paper, as of Friday, any outdoor public gathering of more than 100 people required a permit, 72 hours notice, and payment of police costs. In practice, the freedom of assembly still rules in Wisconsin. read more »

From the Green Party Livestream Channel, GP-TV:

A public conversation with Green Party Presidential Candidate, Dr. Jill Stein and journalist, Matt Rothschild
Watch here: http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus
Friday, December 16, 2011 at 6:30 PM Eastern Time, 5:30 PM Central Time, 3:30 PM Pacific Time
Live from UW-Madison Memorial Union, Madison, WI
More info about Jill’s visit to Wisconsin: http://www.jillstein.org/events

Take advantage of this opportunity to hear Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein address questions posed by crusading journalist Matthew Rothschild, followed by public discussion. read more »

From Jill Stein for President:

Jill Stein’s presidential campaign recently announced that Wisconsin Green Party leader Ben Manski will serve as Stein’s campaign manager. Madison.com ran an article praising the choice, which calls Manski “one of the savviest and most successful Green Party campaigners in the country”.

From Jill Stein for President:

The Hill recently published an article profiling Jill Stein’s campaign for the Green Party’s presidential nomination:

If Green Party political veteran Jill Stein were to visit Occupy Boston several times, and if she were to describe the Occupy Wall Street movement’s grievances as “synergistic” with her own policy beliefs, and if she were to unveil her campaign for the 2012 presidential race at the height of the national movement’s growth, would that make her the country’s first Occupy Wall Street candidate?

Others might use simple logic to come to a “yes” conclusion, but Stein says no.

“I would not [say I’m an Occupy Wall Street candidate], because I think they have to decide who their candidate is,” Stein says in a phone interview from Boston, her hometown. read more »