You can also catch it on C-SPAN, and I'm very excited that Democracy NOW! has based their show out of Baltimore to cover the Green Party convention in depth.
The Green Party's presumptive nominee for President, Dr. Jill Stein, met a groundbreaking threshold over the weekend by securing enough financial support in 22 states to qualify for the Federal Election Commission's primary matching funds.
With taxpayers (voluntarily) doling out funds to two third party candidates in this election (Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson ironically qualified in May), the issue of whether the bipartisan (Democrat-and-Republican-controlled) Commission on Presidential Debates can justify its exclusive, anti-democratic charade will itself become a topic for debate.
Watch Stein's brief message about this breakthrough, and read her full statement below the jump:
3 days left to change the presidential health care debate
Posted by Jill Stein for President, June 27, 2012
Five leading advocates for Medicare for All today released a letter urging financial and other support for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. The letters writers were Dr. Andy Coates, Katie Robbins, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Mark Dunlea, and Gloria Mattera.
The advocates released their support letter as candidate Stein, a physician from Massachusetts who first became nationally known as an environmental health advocate, enters the final days of a push to qualify for federal matching funds. Stein has won 29 state primaries and has been declared the "presumptive nominee" of the Green Party by virtue of having won more than half the delegates to the Green Party convention. In the next few days she must reach fundraising goals in 7 additional states in order to qualify for federal matching funds.
Seven of the most prominent leaders of the American peace community today released a letter urging financial and other support for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. The letters writers were David Swanson, Medea Benjamin, Leah Bolger, Bruce Gagnon, Chris Hedges, George Martin, and Kevin Zeese. After noting a series of failures of President Barack Obama to curtail military spending and reduce military violence worldwide, their letter states that only Dr. Stein will have the ability to stimulate a serious debate on the nation's approach to foreign policy.
The peace leaders released their support letter as candidate Stein, a physician from Massachusetts who first became nationally known as an environmental health advocate, enters the final days of a push to qualify for federal matching funds. Stein has won 29 state primaries and has been declared the "presumptive nominee" of the Green Party by virtue of having won more than half the delegates to the Green Party convention. In the next few days she must reach fundraising goals in 9 additional states in order to qualify for federal matching funds.
The Green Party's Jill Stein has clinched her party's presidential nomination after celebrating a major victory in yesterday's California primary, winning 49% of the vote against her chief contenders, television comedienne Roseanne Barr and public servant Kent Mesplay. The California win followed other recent Stein victories in Michigan, Florida, and Iowa.
With 182 delegates required to win the nomination, and 194 delegates now in hand, Stein will go into the Green Party convention in Baltimore, July 12-15, with a clear majority of delegates. She has won over 66% of all delegates allocated, and 27 of 29 Green Party primaries, with the next nearest candidate, Roseanne Barr, at 22%.
Dr. Jill Stein, the victor in the Green Party presidential primaries, this morning issued the following statement about yesterday's recall elections in Wisconsin:
"For over a year now, the working people of Wisconsin have been under siege by the fossil fuel, mining, and toxic chemical corporations. Yesterday's recall election was deeply flawed. Thousands of qualified voters were turned away from their polling places. Thousands more were told not to vote, or that election day was yet to come. The corporate media declared the election results while voters still stood in line to vote, and at a time when only the most conservative ward results were reported. Many votes were cast on electronic voting machines that are easy to manipulate because they lack a paper trail. And nearly all of the money spent in the election came from out-of-state big corporate interests. If an election like that is free and fair, then I have a nuke plant in Vermont to sell you."
Kind of surreal, and admittedly awkward "debate" between MA's own Jill Stein, and television's own Roseanne Barr. But full of impressive ideas and dialogue that puts the Obama/Romney fake political discourse to shame.
The Green Party, while struggling to establish itself in the United States, is part of a global political movement that is continually gaining steam and finding traction in various nooks and crannies across the planet.
It's always reassuring to find gains and breakthroughs happening in other countries, so this Global Greens report on the UK local elections is a good sign that people are increasingly open to new approaches, and that the Greens are offering something fundamentally different than the standard bearer political parties. From the European Green New Deal policies to the Scotland Greens' focus on improving local councils, the Green Party is slowly finding its voice and its focus, and people are responding with their votes.
Vote in the Green-Rainbow Primary on "Super" Tuesday, March 6.
On March 6 you will have a chance to vote for peace, compassion, economic justice, women's rights and environmental sanity. All you have to do is go to the polls and take a Green-Rainbow ballot. This opportunity is open to any voter who is registered in the Green-Rainbow Party or is un-enrolled (independent).
By taking a Green-Rainbow ballot, you're saying no to politics as usual. You'll be joining the growing number of voters who refuse to endorse bailouts, sellouts, negative advertising, trashing the environment, troop surges, attacks on Social Security and Medicare, piling college debt on students, state-sponsored assassinations, and sending American jobs overseas with 'free trade' treaties.
Great to see some progressive media giving Jill some attention. I'm pretty disappointed that Democracy NOW! has ignored her strengthening campaign.
Stein made the case for her Green New Deal and the 25 million jobs it would create for the same price tag as the first Federal bailout of about $700 billion.
We are on the ballot in: Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia
...
Next major priorities include: New Mexico and Nevada
...
We are currently petitioning in: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai'i, Iowa, Indiana, New Hampshire, Vermont, Virginia
The Canadian Greens and the voters of the Saanich-Gulf Islands BC riding made history yesterday by electing Green Party leader Elizabeth May to Parliament. May, who was excluded from the national debates (as a national party leader) on the argument that they did not have an elected Member of Parliament, became the first Green MP in Canada's federal government. They excluded her despite the fact that May participated in the 2008 debates and did very well, resulting in significant federal funding of the Green Party annually. The Greens also fielded MP candidates in 304 out of Canada's 308 total ridings.
Asked what just one lone MP can do, May responded "Just watch me!"
Watch her victory speech and post-election interview (below the jump):
With incredible 2010 victories for the Green Party in the UK and in Australia, and an early breakthrough in 2011 in Germany on the heels of Japan's Fukushima disaster, the Global Greens seem poised to break through the corporate political chatter.
In Canada, the Green Party received just under 1 million votes in the 2008 federal elections, qualifying it for nearly $2 million/year in public financing. That was because of the inclusion of Green Party leader Elizabeth May in the debates. This time around, the political class has successfully excluded her from the debates, despite an ever-strengthening party with a Green Party candidate for Member of Parliament in every single electoral district ("riding"). And despite the citizens of Canada paying $2 million a year to the Greens in public financing.
Remarkably, Canada's public television didn't go along, and invited Elizabeth May to their debate. All the other candidates refused to participate. The 30-minute "debate" can be viewed in 3 chunks (linked below), and I can only imagine this shameful exclusion will help the Greens in Canada break through more impressively than ever before:
(Vision and leadership are two different things, and I hope the Greens in the U.S. start to get that. - promoted by eli_beckerman)
Why, after 30 years, are German Greens finding success in regional elections? In a recent article in the Guardian newspaper, Cem Özdemir, one of the party's co-chair has an interesting thesis: the Greens are increasingly recognized as grownups able to address the most pressing issues in a way other parties can not.
In the past, surveys show, people liked the Greens but didn't vote for them because they feared the party wouldn't have the brain and muscle to run the country. This perception has changed over the last few years.
What connects Holyoke, Massachusetts, with floods in Australia, and explosions in La Preciosa, Colombia? The answer is coal.
As the January flood waters subsided in Australia the governor of the state of Victoria, medical researcher Professor David de Kretser, pointed the finger directly at climate change. Referring to the spate of record-breaking climate events de Kretser commented "everyone says this week [is a] one in 100, one in 200 years [event] but they are happening pretty much more frequently now."
Green Mass Group is an online forum for Green thought and collective action in Massachusetts. It is a community forum for justice, sustainability, democracy and health in the Commonwealth and beyond.
Read more
Quotes
"Memorial Day should be a day for putting flowers on graves and planting trees. Also, for destroying the weapons of death that endanger us more than they protect us, that waste our resources and threaten our children and grandchildren."
