Howie Hawkins - Green for GovernorMedia Releasehttp://www.howiehawkins.org - http://www.gpny.orgFor Immediate Release: July 15, 2010For More Info: Howie Hawkins, 315 425-1019Mark Dunlea, 518 860-3725Calls it an Attempt to Intimidate Lawyers Representing Unpopular ClientsHowie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, harshly condemned the increased jail time ordered for civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart, calling it an affront to the American legal system.”This is not about Lynne Stewart. This is about any lawyer defending an unpopular client. It undermines our system of legal representation, which is based on an adversarial system where the defendant has the right to confront their accusers. Her increased sentence is an effort to intimidate lawyers who defend controversial clients. Ms. Stewart has an exemplary record as a legal advocate for the poor and the oppressed and should be released from prison. I call upon President Obama to immediately provide her clemency and to put an end to this travesty of justice,” said Hawkins, who was arrested last November at a single payer universal health care protest at the Syracuse offices of WellPoint, the largest health insurance conglomerate in the US.Lynne Stewart was resentenced today as per order of the higher court from original sentence of 28 months to 10 years and a month. This could keep her behind bars until she turns 80.After her conviction in 2006, Hawkins, who was running for US Senate, stated that “Lynne Stewart is just the latest in a long line of victims in the war by the Bush administration and a bipartisan Congress to repeal the Bill of Rights and erode civil liberties. Bush has callously used the 9/11 attacks as a pretext to curtail the right to a fair trial, to illegally spy on Americans, and to sanction torture. Lynne Stewart has an exemplary life-long record of tireless and fearless legal advocacy for the oppressed. She has been a model for what being an attorney means. The problem here is not Ms. Stewart but a presidential administration which is intent on beating down anyone who dares challenges their effort to suppress the Constitution and rule of law,” added Hawkins.Hawkins said that at a minimum Ms. Stewart, who is suffering from cancer, should be allowed to serve her sentence under home confinement.Stewart was a member of the court-appointed defense team for Sheik Abdel Rahman. Rahman is serving a life sentence in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Stewart continued to act as one of Rahman’s attorneys after his incarceration. As the Stewart indictment and conviction shows, an attorney can be now charged with aiding and abetting terrorism simply for engaging in everyday acts of lawyering. For example, responding to press queries, unless the subject of court gag orders imposed during trials, is a normal part of being a lawyer in a controversial case. Yet for Stewart, it is a crime.~ END ~

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES

http://www.gp.orgFor Immediate Release:Friday, February 26, 2010Contacts:Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.orgStarlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org“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/speakersWASHINGTON, 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.”Not all Tea Party members are befuddled rightwingers screeching that President Obama is a socialist, fascist, pro-terrorist, or all of the above. Many Tea Partiers have legitimate concerns about how the Democratic Party’s health care reform plans will reduce Medicare and about trillion-dollar taxpayer-funded giveaways to Wall Street firms. They are as outraged as Greens are about how both Democrats and Republicans are coddling CEOs, major stockholders, and other wealthy elites while preaching sacrifice for the rest of us,” said Carl Romanelli, former Green candidate for the US Senate and a member of Health Care for All Pennsylvania (http://healthcare4allpa.org).Greens said corporate royalists like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sarah Palin who pose as populist leaders have hijacked the Tea Party movement.”Republicans and rightwing ideologues in the media are thrilled with a Tea Party movement that will channel votes and money towards extremist GOP politicians. Their idea of the Tea Party has nothing to do with the 1773 Boston Tea Party. They prefer a movement full of people who would have denounced the original Boston Tea Party as leftist terrorism against the British East India Company. They would have criticized Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine for wanting to rein in what Jefferson called ‘the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations.’ * To these Tea Partiers, and to most Republican and Democratic politicians, restraints on corporate power are a symptom of ‘big government.’ Many of the Tea Partiers who vented their rage against health care reform at town hall meetings in 2009 were in effect defending the power of health insurance companies — the modern equivalents of British tea companies — to drive people who need medical care into financial ruin,” said Rodger Jennings, Green candidate for Congress in Illinois, District 12 (http://www.rodgerjennings.org).Green Party leaders noted that media coverage of health care reform gave a megaphone to the anti-reform Tea Partiers at town hall meetings, while mostly ignoring advocates of Medicare For All (Single-Payer national health care), including many Green Party members, who protested vociferously against the plans offered by President Obama and Democrats in Congress. Examples of such protests include Medicare For All activists disrupting Congressional hearings and burning insurance forms outside meetings of insurance company lobbyists.Greens, like true fiscal conservatives, oppose subsidies for health insurance companies in the Democratic plans, including proposed ‘mandates’ that would require enrollment. The Green Party has warned that, whether Obamacare is enacted or Republicans succeed in blocking reform, the real winners will be the health insurance, pharmaceutical, and other industry lobbies.Greens also compared the invasive homeland security measures favored by Republicans and Democrats to the bullying tactics of the British Army and requirement that colonists house British troops on demand.”We need a Tea Party movement that opposes warrantless surveillance of American citizens, torture, invasion of other countries, and other violations of the US Constitution. We need a Tea Party that calls the ‘general welfare of the people,’ including the right to medical care, more important than the right of insurance and pharmaceutical companies to shake down patients and deny treatment. We need a Tea Party against predatory private prisons, the war on drugs, and mass incarceration of Americans. We need a Tea Party that defends future generations of Americans rather than corporate polluters,” said Lynne Williams, Green-Independent candidate for Governor of Maine (http://www.lynnewilliams2010.org).”We need a Tea Party that recognizes corporations as artificial entities created by government fiat, and that corporations must not enjoy the same free speech and other constitutional rights as humans. A real Tea Party movement would look like the Green Party,” said Ms. Williams.* “I hope we shall… crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country.” ~ Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Logan, November 12, 1816MORE INFORMATIONGreen Party of the United States http://www.gp.org202-319-7191, 866-41GREENGreen candidate database and campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtmlGreen Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtmlGreen Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakersGreen Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-electionsGreen Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyusGreen Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United StatesWinter 2010 issue now onlinehttp://gp.org/greenpages-blog~ END ~

Virginia coalition to hold ‘Jan. 9 March on the State Capitol for Jobs,Peace & Justice’On Saturday, Jan. 9, the Virginia People’s Assembly, a statewide coalitionof labor, community and peace organizations, will sponsor a march on theState Capitol to oppose more budget cuts and layoffs of state workers.The demands of the march include: “Jobs, Peace, Justice! Don’t balance thebudget on the backs of Virginia’s workers! Make the big corporations paytheir fair share of Virginia’s tax burden!”The announcement of the march follows outgoing Gov. Tim Kaine’s proposalfor the 2010-2012 state budget, which includes $2.3 billion in new cuts,including the loss of 2,543 state jobs, 664 through direct layoffs, aswell as slashing aid to cities and counties. The new cuts would be inaddition to the more than $7 billion already cut from the present two-yearbudget in response to declining revenue caused by the ongoing nationalrecession.Bob McDonnell, who takes office as Virginia’s new governor on Jan. 16, hasalready rejected revenue increases proposed by Kaine, so the actualthreatened cuts and layoffs will likely be even more severe.“Gov. Tim Kaine and incoming Gov. Bob McDonnell are both talking aboutmore layoffs of state workers, more cuts in social programs, higheruniversity tuition and less aid to the cities and counties,” said LillieBranch-Kennedy, a prisoner rights advocate and founding member of the VPA.“But nobody is talking about the fact that Virginia has one of the lowestcorporate income tax rates in the country. We say raise the tax rate forthe biggest corporations and you won’t have to balance the budget on thebacks of working people and the poor!”On Jan. 9, the VPA and its allies and supporters will rally at 3 p.m. atKanawha Plaza, at 8th and Canal streets next to the Federal ReserveBuilding in downtown Richmond. At 4 p.m., participants will march throughthe city’s Financial District, past the offices of the banks andcorporations the VPA charges are not paying their fair share of thestate’s tax burden. The march will end at sundown outside Capitol Square.City permits have been obtained for both the rally and march.The march and rally will be preceded by a meeting for VPA affiliates andallies, to be held from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Stephen’s BaptistChurch, 505 N. 33rd St. in the city’s East End.The Virgina People’s Assembly was formed in the fall of 2008 to sponsor amarch and rally on the opening day of the 2009 General Assembly session.Organizers of the march and rally scheduled for Jan. 9, 2010, include theRichmond organizations Richmond Jobs with Justice; Defenders for Freedom,Justice & Equality, Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged;Prisoners & Families for Equal Rights & Justice; and United ParentsAgainst Lead National, Inc.; the Coalition for Justice (Blacksburg) thePeople United (Charlottesville); Plowshare Peace Center (Roanoke);Mexicanos Sin Fronteras / Mexicans Without Borders (Prince WilliamCounty); OffBase GI Coffeehouse (Norfolk) and many individual activists.A complete list of endorsers follows this announcement.For more information, call (804) 644-5834 or e-mailvapeoplesassembly@gmail.com. Also, visit the VPA Web site atwww.vapeoplesassembly.org.The following organizations and individuals have endorsed theJan. 9 March on the State Capitol for Jobs, Peace & JusticeAfter Downing Street; David Swanson, Co-Founder - CharlottesvillePhyllis T. Albritton - BlacksburgBreanne Armbrust, Director, Richmond Jobs with JusticeMichael S. Berg, Peace & Social Justice Activist - NorfolkJ. Daniel Bickett, Activist - RichmondLillie “Ms. K” Branch-Kennedy, Director, Resource Information Help for theDisadvantaged (RIHD)Margaret Breslau, Chair, Coalition for Justice -BlacksburgRev. Indee Hopewell Brown, Concerned Virginian -MidlothianRain Burroughs, Code Pink - RichmondDefenders for Freedom, Justice & EqualityAna Edwards, Chair, Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project - RichmondSa’ad El-Amin, Human Rights Activist - RichmondLillie A. Estes, Community Strategist - RichmondFlying Brick Library – RichmondRev. J.E. Gash, Exec. Minister, The Active Hand Ministry - Richmond PastorBenjamin W. Harris Jr., Concerned Community Activist – Richmond Rev.Marilyn Heckstall, Activist - RichmondPearl & Lawrence Hopewell, Concerned Virginians - RichmondRev. Rodney Hunter - RichmondRev. George Jordan, Founder, A.F.R.I.C.A. - RichmondKing Salim Khalfani, Executive Director, Va. State Conference NAACP LittleFlower Catholic Worker Farm - LouisaMay Day 2010 - RichmondMexicanos Sin Fronteras - Prince William CountyDonnell Newton, Community Activist – NorfolkTom Palumbo, Interim Project Manager, OffBase Coffeehouse & ActivistCenter - NorfolkThe People UnitedRev. Nichole Phillips, Concerned Virginian - MidlothianTench Phillips, President, Art Repertory Films, Inc - NorfolkCharity Pierce, President, Afrikana (VCU)Plowshare Peace Center - RoanokePrisoners & Families for Equal Rights & JusticeProsser-Truth Division #456, UNIA-ACLRePHRAME - RichmondRichmond Anarchist Black CrossRichmond Peace Education CenterRichmond Reproductive Freedom ProjectRichmond Social Justice CollectiveAdria Scharf, Peace Activist - RichmondJennifer Schockemoehl, Labor Organizer - RichmondSelf-Improvement and Education Center - NorfolkQueen Zakia Shabazz, Director, United Parents Against Lead National, Inc.Brian Taylor, Democratic Congressional Candidate, 7th DistrictUE Local 160, Va. Public Service Workers UnionVA CARAT (Virginia Community Action & Response Against Toxins)Virginia Solidarity AssociationJoan Wages - Floyd CountyPhil Wilayto, Editor, The Virginia DefenderThe Wingnut - RichmondCathy Woodson, Activist – RichmondOutside VirginiaThe Virginia People’s Assembly is attracting attention from beyond Virginia.As of Dec. 21, the Jan. 9 march has been endorsed by:Pam Africa, Co-Chair, The International Concerned Family & Friends ofMumia Abu Jamal - PhiladelphiaRamona Africa, Minister of Communication for The MOVE Organization -PhiladelphiaA.N.S.W.E.R.CoalitionBlack Workers for JusticeNoam Chomsky, Professor, MIT - Lexington, Mass.Donna S. Dewitt, President, S.C. AFL-CIO - Columbia, S.C.Fellowship of Reconciliation - USASara Flounders, Co-Director, International Action CenterYoshie Furuhashi, Editor, MRZineTeresa Gutierrez, Co-Coordinator, May 1st Coalition for Worker & ImmigrantRightsMike Konopacki, Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons - Madison, Wis.National Assembly to End the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars & Occupations  RostamPourzal, Former President, Campaign Against Sanctions & MilitaryIntervention in Iran (CASMII) - Washington, D.C.

Here’s a salute and appreciation for the volunteer efforts of Silver Persinger.Now, go read what he says by clicking here.

Virginians are preparing to vote in another election for the purpose of perpetrating the grand lie that we the citizens of this state and country have any control of our criminal government.  To begin any serious discussion about the deceitful politicians from the Republican and Democratic parties, we must acknowledge that they are prostitutes to amongst others Northrop Grumman, Dominion Power and Verizon.  That is correct.  Ronald Sugar, Tom Farrell and Ivan Seidenberg have a stable of ho’s in Richmond and Deeds and McDonnell are competing to be their Bottom Bitch.

Ronald Sugar is the boss of weapons maker Northrop Grumman and will enter his retirement in January with a golden parachute he has earned by fleecing Virginia and US tax payers.  Sugar and Northrop Grumman, since receiving the largest ever contract in Virginia’s history, have failed to meet any of the benchmarks set forward in the one-sided contract written to benefit the corporate giant.  The contract was written by a law firm now owned by McGuire Woods which, according to Jeff E. Shapiro of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, is the “seat of Virginia’s shadow government.”  Sugar and NG violated this contract.  They also silenced dissent by firing Lem Stewart when he exposed NG’s underperformance and overcharging sending the message that Northrop Grumman is accountable to no one.

Tom Farrell, top fat cat at monopoly energy company Dominion Power, lines his pockets by carrying out environmentally-destructive practices like mountain top removal, building a new coal burning power plant and routinely releasing cancer-causing tritium, xenon, krypton and argon into our atmosphere from Dominion’s nuclear power plants.  To add insult to planetary destruction, the energy company is gouging its customers with rate increases from 18 to 40 percent which were approved by Dominion front group, the State Corporation Commission.  Not only can Farrell and Dominion blow the tops off of mountains and poison its customers, they also can charge customers ever increasing fees.

Ivan Seidenberg is the top dog at telecom giant Verizon.  While he eliminates jobs and cuts pay for workers he rewards himself with increasingly large compensation packages.  Seidenberg and Verizon, in clear violation of the First and Fourth amendments to the US Constitution, gave the National Security Agency direct access to their vast database of communications.  No matter.  Ivan’s Democratic and Republican friends in Congress wrote legislation to make unconstitutional actions legal and give retroactive immunity to Seidenberg and other telecom executives.

Sugar, Farrell and Seidenberg and the institutions they control promote and profit from illegal wars, ecological devastation and spying on Americans.  This clearly makes them enemies of the people of Virginia and America.  Sugar, Farrell and Seidenberg are part of a small sliver of the population that is driving our species to the brink of extinction through aggressive wars and eco-terrorism and an Orwellian police state made possible by illegal spying.  It is past time for revolution and past time for these misery profiteers to be locked up.       

Chris Dorsey

christopher.dorsey@verizon.net

804-564-1491

Dear friends,Thank you for your continued support of my campaign to become the first-ever Green Party candidate elected to Virginia’s House of Delegates.  You can follow all the latest updates about my campaign on my website by clicking here.Last week, I filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Alexandria along with other Arlington Green Party members to stop the so-called “spot improvements” to I-66.  As I mentioned in the press release, the I-66 spot improvement plan is “a waste of tax-payer dollars as it will only create new traffic bottlenecks.  This plan is road widening by stealth, in violation of the Coleman decision limiting I-66 to two lanes in each direction.  It is an example of extremely poor transportation policy planning by VDOT.  I joined this suit to try to stop the so-called ’spot improvements’ since the Arlington County Board has proven itself feckless on this issue.”Read the entire press release by clicking here.This Saturday, the Arlington Green Party will be rallying prior to the Arlington County board in support of our lawsuit to stop VDOT’s “spot improvements”  to I-66 and you are invited to join us!  Meet us outside the county government building at the flagpole at 8AM, Saturday, September 26, 2100 Clarendon Blvd.  Afterwards, we’ll go inside to the county board meeting to explain to the Arlington County Board our decision to sue VDOT.Also, we’ll be campaigning between 11AM-7PM on Saturday at Clarendon Day.  Are you interested in helping to staff our Green Party table and help us get the word out about my campaign and that of John Reeder for Arlington County Board?  If so, please contact Kirit at kamno5@hotmail.com to volunteer.I’ve been having a great time on the campaign trail meeting voters and speaking with them about their concerns.  I’ve passed out thousands of postcards to voters while walking the precincts.  But I still have a lot of anticipated expenses for my campaign.  Please help me print more literature, print lawn signs, and place ads in the local papers by making a generous contribution to my campaign by clicking here.My Democractic and Republican opponents are taking tens of thousands of dollars from the health care industry, banking associations, and various other corporate lobbyists.  Like all Green Party candidates, I take no corporate money because I am accountable to and hope to represent the people of my district, not lobbyists.  This puts me at a huge disadvantage, so please consider making a generous contribution to my campaign today by clicking here.You can also make a contribution via check and send it to:Ruebner for Delegate1617 10th St. SouthArlington, VA 22204Please include your profession, employer, and place of employment with your contact information with any contribution.  I need this information for campaign finance reporting purposes.Finally, I’ve been having some technical difficulties with my campaign email account which should be fixed now.  But Iif you sent an email tojosh@ruebnerfordelegate.org and I didn’t reply, please resend it.

Thank you so much for all your support for my campaign.

Let’s turn Virginia Green!

Josh RuebnerGreen Party Candidate47th District House of Delegates

Washington Post article:

“Proponents of creating a housing and redevelopment authority in Arlington County

are planning to appeal a judge’s ruling that struck down their proposal

for a ballot referendum in November, prolonging and escalating a battle

over affordable housing that dates back several decades.

Arlington Circuit Court Judge Benjamin N.A. Kendrick ruled last week that a

proposed referendum on whether to create a housing authority was

illegal under a new state law that toughened the requirements to get a

measure on the ballot. A similar referendum proposal in November failed

by 2 to 1; similar referendum questions were defeated in 1958 and 1982.

Josh Ruebner, a member of the Arlington Green Party, which has been pushing

for a housing authority in the face of opposition from much of the

county’s political establishment, said the party will consult with

lawyers “to figure out the best appeal strategy.”

“The Arlington Green Party is committed to pursuing all of our available legal options

in order to place a referendum on the ballot this year,” said Ruebner,

a two-time candidate for the Arlington County Board who is running this

fall for the Virginia House of Delegates in the 47th District.

Read more here:

http://ruebnerfordelegate.org/?p=184 

Letter to the Editor, the Arlington Connection                             June 2, 2009The Connection reports that Virginia Governor Tim Kaine appointed Arlington delegate David Englin to yet another commission to study poverty in Virginia (“Arlington’s high cost of living obscures the amount of need in the county,” May 20).While we certainly welcome that the Governor’s and the General Assembly’s desire to measure the extent of poverty in Arlington and Virginia, we’re puzzled by the call to “study” what census data and other readily available information already make clear—significant levels of poverty and hunger exist statewide and in Arlington.  It’s time for Virginia Democrats and Republicans, including Kaine and Englin, to change state laws and policies that would actually reduce poverty rather than wasting time and resources trying to “measure” it.  Researchers and advocates for the poor already highlight the steps that would greatly reduce poverty and hunger in Arlington and in far southwestern Virginia:Raise the Virginia minimum wage of $6.55 an hour to the living wage rate of $12.50 an hour (which is based on the federal poverty level for a family of four).Lower the regressive Virginia 9-percent effective tax rate on people making less than $20,000 a year (those making over $200,000 pay only 4 percent).Raise the miserly Temporary Assistance for  Needy Families (TANF) assistance provided to children ($80 a month), and the disabled, and stop the State of Virginia from using federal TANF funds designed to go to the poor for other state programs, such as highways.Finally, eliminate laws and restrictions that deny unemployment compensation and food stamps to Virginia’s working poor and unemployed.The Democrats and Republicans (each for different reasons) wish to divert the public’s attention away from concrete steps that would directly reduce poverty and hunger in our state that large affect children, the working poor, the elderly, and the disabled.  The time to study poverty is past; it is time to make Virginia laws and policies work to relieve poverty and hunger, and give our friends and neighbors a helping hand.Signed by: John Reeder                                               Josh RuebnerArlington Green candidate                        Arlington Green candidateFor County Board                                      for the 47th District of the General 1812 N. Huntington St                               Assembly  Arlington, VA 22205                                    1617 S. 10th Street                                                                   Arlington, VA 22205Suzanne Sundberg, member Arlington Green Party5300 N. 8th StreetArlington, VA 22205

From the Washington Post:Nader: McAuliffe Offered Money To Avoid Key States in ‘04 RaceBy Anita Kumar and Rosalind S. HeldermanWashington Post Staff WritersFriday, May 29, 2009 RICHMOND, May 28 — Former presidential candidate Ralph Nader went public Thursday with an allegation that Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Terry McAuliffe offered his campaign money to stay off the ballot in key states during the 2004 elections — a disclosure timed to raise questions about McAuliffe’s fitness for public office. ”Terry McAuliffe is slipperier than an eel in olive oil,” Nader said in an interview.He said McAuliffe, who was the Democratic National Committee chairman at the time, had offered Nader’s campaign an unspecified amount of money, believed to be party funds, to spend in 31 states in exchange for an agreement to withdraw from 19 battleground states where he could potentially hurt Democrat John Kerry.The allegation — which McAuliffe has not disputed — is the latest attempt to suggest that the candidate’s lengthy career as a confidant to President Bill Clinton and top party fundraiser could now be a political liability. 

Not to add insult to injury for Land America’s fired workers, but is anyone that surprised that the house of cards has fallen? After all, its CEO was giving money to Congressman Cantor. If you recall, Cantor also received money from Enron, but to be fair, so did many Congressional figures. Just remember, Congress has already given itself its own stimulus.