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.
Boston public radio station WBUR entered the debate this week over whether or not ballot-qualified candidate Dr. Jill Stein was worthy for inclusion in the gubernatorial debates.
Because Jill Stein will get one quarter of the time and camera and she has not a million-to-one chance to become governor. For her to be given a seat at the table is unfair to the voters, who will then have to wade through the clutter of a fourth candidate in the race.
My question to WBUR: care to hire me as your Green-Rainbow Party political analyst? Who the hell appointed him as a guardian and protector of "the voters"?
It's Democracy Day today, and Massachusetts voters have a clear choice before them. They can support the one candidate who refuses to take corporate money to fuel her campaign, or the 3 candidates who swim through lobbyist-fueled campaign coffers like Scrooge McDuck. They can support the one candidate who unequivocally stands up for justice and sustainability, or the 3 candidates who treat ill-fated and harmful get-rich-quick schemes as though they were sensible, thoughtful, and helpful policy. They can support the one candidate who is standing up for real democracy -- clean elections, open meeting and public records laws that apply to the legislature, and meaningful transparency and oversight of government spending -- or the 3 candidates who laugh at real democracy as though it were a joke.
With the Green-Rainbow Party putting 3 candidates for statewide office on the ballot November 2nd -- Jill Stein for Governor, Rick Purcell for Lt. Governor, and Nat Fortune for Auditor -- Massachusetts voters have some real choices. These candidates will unwaveringly support, and fight for, government of, by, and for the people. They have great ideas to strengthen the Commonwealth and a compelling vision of our common future. While Bill McKibben laments the shameful collapse of the mainstream environmental movement's ability to push climate legislation, the Green-Rainbow Party's leadership never held out hope that our government -- nearly entirely beholden to corporate interests -- would have the answers.
I am increasingly disheartened by the Boston Globe's apparent dismissal of Jill Stein's gubernatorial campaign, in the opinion pages and news coverage alike. The Op-Eds ignoring her are mounting. Whether Adrian Walker's glaring omission was mindful or mindless, and whether Joan Vennochi's dismissal was ignorant or spiteful, these biased actions deserve to be countered. I submitted a letter to the editor in response to Walker's column, but the Letters editor called me to ask whether I was a paid staffer for Jill's campaign. I told him that I've been working on a grassroots fundraising campaign that is poised to turn into a paid job, but that it's message is an important one for Globe readers to learn about.
The following is an Op-Ed I submitted as a counterweight to their bias, but I didn't hear back from them and wanted to get this out before August 10th. I think I'll create a section on Green Mass Group called "What the Globe won't print" and just start collecting people's Op-Eds and LTEs that don't make the paper. What do you think?
Patrick, displaying a front-runner's confidence, responded with a call for eight debates, including two in western Massachusetts, though he did not specify they be televised. He also specifically urged that the debates include both Cahill and Baker, underscoring the benefit he believes will come through a three-way race in which Cahill draws from Baker's potential conservative vote.
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"The governor hopes that Tim Cahill and Charlie Baker will join him in one debate a week between Labor Day in September and Election Day in November, for a total of eight debates overall," said a statement from spokesman Alex Goldstein.
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Meanwhile, Stein complained in her statement that movie producers and biotech companies continue to receive breaks amid the national recession while state aid to cities and towns is cut.
She said voters "are looking for some way to end the giveaways" and redirect spending to town budgets.
"Charlie Baker and Deval Patrick are ducking debates already," Stein said. "Governor Patrick has refused to appear on stage with other candidates on multiple occasions, allowing only forums without cross-candidate dialogue and real challenge. Often Charlie Baker is not showing up at all. Their fear of real debate is telling."
It's official, Deval Patrick and Charlie Baker are afraid of real debate, and afraid of the people's candidate, Jill Stein!
Is it possible to replace the "money bomb" with a "Democracy Day?" Can we stem the tide of unjust, profit-driven policy, controlled by big-money corporations and their lobbyists? What would it take in Massachusetts to build a viable political alternative that is NOT beholden to special interests, and is instead truly accountable to the people of the Commonwealth, driven by the needs and desires of ordinary citizens across the state?
One mechanism I've been working on to help us organize our money is a remix of Ron Paul's "money bomb." Hating that term, we've been cooking up a more positive spin, called "Democracy Day":
Today is Democracy Day in Massachusetts, and so far, I have to say that I am moved by this very grassroots action. I see startling signs of life in an otherwise morbid political discourse. It's dark and wet out my window but the sunshine is breaking through over at DemocracyDays.com.
The WRKO petition just reached 50 signers, and Democracy Day has seen over 50 small donors pool their contributions to raise their voices in unison for a functional, vibrant democracy in Massachusetts.
Here's my little take on Democracy Day:
But please add your own, and think of creative ways of spreading this around, of capturing and articulating our deepest hopes for our communities and the Commonwealth as a whole. Please help this grassroots effort make a big splash. If you haven't already, please sign the petition, and make a small investment in a healthy democracy for all of us.
The major media outlets have been working overtime to silence the one gubernatorial candidate who refuses to take money from corporate lobbyists and from corporate executives who hire lobbyists. Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein has launched an impressive grassroots attack on politics-as-usual, and has recently surged from 3% in the polls to 8% despite an overall media whiteout. Major newspapers are excluding her from coverage, and the first broadcast gubernatorial debate held by WRKO-AM's "Tom and Todd" show is trying to keep her off the roster.
December opened up with another escalation in Afghanistan. Then there was the sabotage of binding carbon reductions in Copenhagen. On Christmas Eve, there was the Insurance Company Entitlement Act masquerading as health care reform.
By the end of the month a sharp debate had broken out in the progressive media and blogosphere. The number of progressives airing their nagging doubts about the wisdom of putting all their eggs in the basket of the Democrats reached a critical mass.
It is not enough to say that Obama and the Democrats have betrayed progressives, or that, as always, the path to change begins with grassroots mobilization. A critical part of the solution is a progressive third party. Without the political independence of progressives, both major parties ignore progressives who are left holding their nose and voting for the Democrats as the lesser evil.
All the doubts in the back of progressives' minds are coming into sharp focus. The recycled Bushies and Clintonites appointed by the administration. The trillions for war and Wall Street while unemployment, foreclosures, and economic stagnation deepened. Single payer "off the table." Card check union recognition abandoned. Complicity in Bush-era war crimes by refusing to "look back" and prosecute. New crimes committed with the continuation of extraordinary rendition, secret prisons, torture by proxy, targeted assassinations, indefinite detention, habeas suspension, state secrets, military commissions, and warrantless wiretapping. Tacit support for the Honduran military coup. "Secret" wars in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen. The list goes on.
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.
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Quotes
"The time has come for global action to build a new world economic system that is no longer based on the illusion that limitless growth is possible on our precious and finite planet or that endless material gain promotes well-being. Instead, it will be a system that promotes harmony and respect for nature and for each other; that respects our ancient wisdom traditions and protects our most vulnerable people as our own family, and that gives us time to live and enjoy our lives and to appreciate rather than destroy our world. It will be an economic system, in short, that is fully sustainable and that is rooted in true, abiding well-being and happiness."
--Prime Minister Jigmi Thinley of Bhutan, where the government tracks the nation's "Gross National Happiness"
