Avoiding Corporate Liability

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. 

Richmond BizSense has posted a guest opinion column on health care, written by a local health insurance CEO.

While I somewhat agree with concerns about personal responsibility and rationing, most American citizens (if properly explained the choice!), as well as the Green Party, would choose to join the rest of the world’s countries with single payer, universal, national health care system.

Greens prepare for the national Day of Action promoting Single-Payer national health care on May 30

 GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, May 28, 2009

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org

Greens, joining other groups throughout the week, protest the exclusion of Single-Payer from the public debate on health care reform

Green Party Speakers Bureau: Green leaders available to speak on health care http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-health-care.php

WASHINGTON, DC — Green Parties are planning various events and actions for the national Day of Action for Single-Payer national health care (Medicare For All) on Saturday, May 30 (http://www.healthcare-now.org/campaigns/may-30th-day-of-action).

The Day of Action is being organized by Healthcare-Now (http://www.healthcare-now.org) and other groups dedicated to winning a national health care program that covers all Americans and replaces private insurance/HMO coverage. Polls show strong popular support for a national health care program that guarantees universal coverage (http://www.wpasinglepayer.org/PollResults.html).

The Green Party of Maricopa County (http://maricopagreens.org) and other Single-Payer activists in Arizona will gather at 10:00 am on May 30 in front of the office of Rep. Harry Mitchell, 7201 East Camelback Road in Scottsdale. “Unlike Representatives Ed Pastor (CD 4) and Raul Grijalva (CD 7), Harry Mitchell has not signed on as a co-sponsor of HR 676. The time has come to change our inefficient and costly healthcare system,” said Maricopa Greens co-chair Angel Torres.

The Maine Green Independent Party (http://www.mainegreens.org) will participate in a ‘Your Feet to the Street’ rally at noon on May 30 at the Maine Statehouse in Augusta. Maine Greens will join Midcoast Health Care Reform, the Maine State Nurses Association, Physicians For A National Health Program, the Maine AFL-CIO, and other Single-Payer advocates at the rally. Pat LaMarche, the Green Party’s 2004 vice presidential candidate, will emcee.

New York Greens (http://www.gpnys.org) will attend an 8pm vigil on May 30 at Union Square for Single Payer NYC sponsored by the Private Health Insurance Must Go! Coalition, Healthcare-NOW! and ACT-UP in honor of the thousands of people who die each year because they lack access to health care.

Pennsylvania Greens (http://www.gpofpa.org) are supporting and will join a demonstration from noon until 1:30 pm on May 30 at Cigna headquarters, Two Liberty Place, 16th and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia.

The Illinois Green Party (http://www.ilgp.org) has endorsed and will participate in a Single-Payer rally in Chicago at the offices of Cigna Insurance, 525 West Monroe, on Tuesday, June 2, at 4:30 pm. A coalition of Single-Payer groups is sponsoring the event.

Greens throughout the US are also writing letters to newspapers, sending messages to Congress members, and urging public support for Single-Payer and for HR 676, Rep. John Conyers’ (D-Mich.) Single-Payer bill.

Earlier this week:

On Tuesday, May 26, the Green Party of Pima County (http://pimagreens.org), the Arizona Green Party (http://azgp.org), and other pro-Single-Payer groups rallied in Tucson and then testified at US Rep. Grabrielle Giffords’ ‘Health Care Town Hall.’.

On Thursday, May 27, New York Greens helped organize a rally and lobby day at the state capitol in Albany in support of a statewide Single-Payer health care plan and passage of HR 676 nationally. The rally was sponsored by Single Payer New York (http://www.singlepayernewyork.org) and other groups; New York Green activist Mark Dunlea serves as co-chair of Single Payer New York.

Greens have been involved in the campaign for Single-Payer throughout the US. David Doonan, Village Mayor of Greenwich, New York, submitted a resolution supporting Single-Payer to the Village Board of Trustees in September, 2008, which passed. Green Party activists Dr. Jill Stein and Dr. John Battista have led efforts to win statewide Single-Payer legislation in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

After Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus stated that Single-Payer would be “off the table,” Greens supported and participated in public protests against attempts in the media, Congress, and White House to bar Single-Payer from the health care reform debate (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=212). Greens were among protesters at congressional health care reform roundtables on May 5 and 12, at which the ‘Baucus 13′ were arrested for speaking out against the exclusion of Single-Payer advocates.

Greens reject the ‘public health care option’ promoted by many Democratic politicians and pro-Democrat liberal groups, since a public option will leave the private health insurance industry intact and not curb the current inefficiencies and soaring costs of health care (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=216).

Democrats and Republicans accepted $46 million in contributions from the insurance industry in 2008 (http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=F09). Sen. Baucus took $183,750 from health insurance companies and $229,020 from drug companies in the last two election cycles. The Green Party and Green candidates do not accept corporate contributions.

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

Tally of Green election victories http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/election-results.html
Green candidate news http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/candidate-news.php
Green candidate database for 2008 and other campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections

Green Party information page on Single-Payer http://www.gp.org/organize/sicko.html

“Fire Departments and Health Care”
By Scott McLarty, OpEdNews.com, May 15, 2009
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Fire-Departments-and-Healt-by-Scott-McLarty-090511-756.html
http://www.gp.org/commentary/scott-mclarty/fire-health.shtml

Interview with Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen and Dr. David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program, Bill Moyers Journal, PBS, May 22, 2009
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05222009/watch2.html

“We Spend Twice as Much on Health Care as Other Rich Countries — and What Do We Get for It?”
By Dean Baker, AlterNet, May 19, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/140098

Single-Payer advocates:
Physicians for a National Health Program http://www.pnhp.org
Healthcare-Now Coalition http://www.healthcare-now.org
Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care http://guaranteedhealthcare4all.org
Single-Payer Action http://singlepayeraction.org
California Nurses Association http://www.calnurses.org

Green Pages, Vol. 13, No. 1
The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

~ END ~

The overcapacity is a result of the declining crime rate, which the ministry’s research department expects to continue for some time.

Contrast with Richmond, VA. The end of the drug war is long overdue.

I highly recommend UrbanSurvival.com

http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm 

He’s not quite Green Party in his politics and his ‘web-bot’ stuff is wacky, but at least he’s of a constitutionalist sort which I can appreciate. And his down-to-earth approach to economic issues is refreshing.

Morning excerpt:

Collapse of Globalism Marches On 

“Since we’re now past the current delivery month for the precious metals, they seem ready to continue their advance this morning.  Reason?  Collapse of paper assets, which will pick up again in terms of public visibility in August - see the announcement about the web bot project returns retooled in the “Coping” section following this report.You’ll remember last week (or was it the week before?) I posted the declines noted in container cargo traffic - mostly from Asia - that was being reported by West Coast ports like Long Beach, L.A. and the Port of Tacoma.  A couple of readers have sent along a link to the recent story at the “Foreign Policy” web site which goes to the same 15-20% declines in trade which the container numbers have been telling us.

The latest problem to come waltzing in is the “Treasury selloff spiking interest rates”.  The problem the Fed and Treasury face - very broadly - is how to push enough money into the economy such that consumers will go back to their old habits of [excessive] consumption which is needed to pull the economy out of a second Depression spiral.  What seems to be missed is that as long as the Fed’s Consumer Debt (called ‘credit if you’re on the taking end of the stick) is in decline, the economic condition of the country will continue falling.

The OPEC’ers met today and reportedly, at least per the Saudis, they are not dropping - nor are they increasing oil output. Seems likely to me that they recognize just how damn fragile the global economy is right now (duh) and that anyone who changes anything in the way of policy will be blamed for the next major move down, which,; if you’ve been following the libretto around here, will be the derivatives beginning their blow-up in August, triggering the collapse in the commercial real estate paper, which will push the government into more interventionism in early fall, which in turn will cause business to stop trusting contractual arrangements between one another (fear of interventionism for the public ‘good’) and so business just sort of grinds to a halt with a quizzical looks of “WTF?” on their brow. Oh, and while all this is going on, the banks are sitting on loan money because they can see that interest rates are going to break higher, too.  So why make a low interest rate loan now, when you’ll be able to loan the money out at a much higher rate of return in a little while as ’street’ rates start going up?—There’s a well-hidden - or at least not very widely appreciated underlying dynamic that has changed the way how Depression Two is rolling out.  Something my friend The Bond Dude figures it is due to a major change in the way “relief” worked in the first Depression and how it’s working here in the Second Depression. I’ll sort of paraphrase his view because it’s important:  “In the last depression, government had something called ‘relief’ and do you know what the modern analog to ‘relief’ is? “  I stumbled around a bit because there are several candidates…  Eventually he got tired of waiting and said “Credit cards! And since the credit card companies are going around slashing credit limits and jacking up rates, they have effectively be turning off relief to people who had been using credit cards to buy food, try to keep up on house payments and so on.  You know what happens when youi shut off ‘relief’ in a depression, right?” I may not be the brightest guy in econ, but I’ve got the picture.   The other key thing that is so confusing to people who don’t yet see this as the “Second Depression” is something I explained to Peoplenomics subscribers last weekend as the “Pocket Effect.” You see, when the Depression caused bank failures in the 1930’s, the losses were both immediate and personal.  There was about $3.6 billion in personal savings that just went “Poof!” from 1929 till the early months of 1933.  Got that?  On a per capita basis I penciled it out for subscribers as about $481 per capita for the whole country on a constant dollar basis. Now here’s the key thing about the current crisis which you need to know, whether you subscribe or not:“We now have enough data to do one very meaningful calculation here, namely figuring out the per capita cost of banking failures of today. The answer? If you’re in the USA the bank bailouts alone have cost you $649.92 per person so far. And, it’s costing your kids that much each, such that the banksters have held up the average 2.59 person household for $1,683.29 in aid till now. —Unfortunately, when a country goes off spending $649.92 per capita on banks and perhaps another trillion in other anti-depression spending, for a per capita total of perhaps $3,899 (for $1.2 trillion in all). or $10,098 so far on bailing and papering, things continue to decline. We’re in a vicious cycle that has no name yet. You’re welcome to make up your own. Getting it?  Instant personal losses in the early 1930’s and this time around it’s coming as a ’slowly boiling frogs” event, such that most frogs - like that guy in the other cubicle at work, won’t get it and will be in denial about things until they’re served up for dinner at the bankster’s table.  Metaphorically, of course.   The actual ’serving’ will be the surrender of ownership in real estate and savings to the banker class.

 There.  Don’t you feel better now that you understand the dynamics of this?”

The Green Party continues to offer some real solutions to the mess. End the foreign wars, end the drug war, bring on single payer health care, etc. What’s the Republicrat duopoly doing? Serving the bankers.

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org

Greens blast Democrats, liberal caucuses in Congress, unions, and health care advocacy groups that have backed away from Single-Payer in favor of the public option

Sen. Baucus and other Democratic and Republican foes of Single-Payer are taking big money from the private health insurance/HMO industry; Greens cite likely 84% reduction in administrative costs only possible through Single-Payer’s public finance-private delivery plan

Green Party Speakers Bureau: Green leaders available to speak on health care http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-health-care.php

WASHINGTON, DC–Green Party leaders and health care reform activists said today that the ‘public health care option,’ promoted by many Democrats, is not an acceptable alternative to a Single-Payer/Medicare For All national health care program (HR 676).

The Green Party of the United States has endorsed the national Day of Action (http://www.healthcare-now.org/campaigns/may-30th-day-of-action) for Single-Payer national health care on Saturday, May 30 (http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=212).

Party leaders sharply criticized Democratic politicians, health care advocacy groups like the Health Care For America Now coalition and Maine People’s Alliance, unions, and liberal and progressive caucuses in Congress (http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/04/28-25) that have backed away from demanding Single-Payer in favor of the public option.

“The so-called public health care option is an attempt to confuse Americans who actually want Single-Payer. The ‘public health care option’ leaves the for-profit insurance and HMO industry intact and in charge, with expensive segregated and multi-tiered coverage designed for maximum complexity and minimum efficiency,” said Phil Huckelberry, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.

“The public health care option constitutes political malpractice,” Mr. Huckelberry added.

Greens call insurance companies and HMOs the principal reason why the US spends far more money for a ’sick care’ system that performs worse than all other industrial countries’ health care programs.

“Democrats in Congress are killing real health care reform by insisting on a dominant role for insurance companies. A public option alongside numerous private insurance and HMO plans will not curb the high cost of coverage. Single-Payer will cover all Americans in a single insurance pool, with comprehensive health care for all and full choice of physician and hospital, while cutting administrative costs to the tune of $400 billion,” said Jody Grage, treasurer of the national Green Party.

According to Physicians for a National Health Program, “[o]ver 31% of every health care dollar goes to paperwork, overhead, CEO salaries, profits, etc.” in private coverage, and has estimated a reduction of 84% in administrative costs under Single-Payer (http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php). The public health care option cannot guarantee any such savings, because private coverage would continue to exist.

Single-Payer, argued Greens, will also give government the leverage to negotiate and reduce the cost of medicine and medical technology. The public health care option will not allow such negotiation and will not stem the rising costs of health care.

Another danger, warned Greens, is that a multi-option system would result in many employers shifting their health care benefits plans to the less-expensive public option, which would already cover many working Americans and older, poorer, sicker, and at-risk populations. The resulting strain will lead to a demand to privatize public insurance and to huge taxpayer subsidies for private insurers.

“It is absolutely inevitable that additional taxpayer subsidies would be required to pay for private plans, whether through tax credits, tax deductions or vouchers. It is morally wrong to require taxpayers to subsidize inferior private health plans when they could be replaced with a superior, more efficient public insurance program–an expanded and improved Medicare for all.” (Physicians for a National Health Program blog, http://www.pnhp.org/blog)

Greens noted that the health care industry recently sabotaged an announcement from President Obama that insurance and other health care companies had pledged to trim the rapid growth of health care costs (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601110&sid=ai_lzQQmWn3U). The promised reduction over ten years would have slowed the expected 6.2% per year increase by 1.5%, too negligible to have an effect on Americans’ health care expenses. However, the health care industry decided that even this amount was too much (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/health/policy/15health.html).

Greens called this a sign that insurance companies and allied industries will not cooperate in any effort to cut health care costs and expand coverage.

“Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus, who keeps insisting that Single-Payer is off the table, took $183,750 from health insurance companies and $229,020 from drug companies in the last two election cycles. Many of his fellow Senators and Representatives have taken similar contributions (http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=F09). The health insurance and HMO industry wants to kill reform so they can continue to enlarge their profit margins by excluding Americans and by overcharging and restricting treatment for those who do have coverage,” said Starlene Rankin Co-chair, co-chair of the Lavender Green Caucus (http://www.lavendergreens.us).

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

Tally of Green election victories http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/election-results.html
Green candidate news http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/candidate-news.php
Green candidate database for 2008 and other campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections

Green Party information page on Single-Payer
http://www.gp.org/organize/sicko.html

Physicians for a National Health Program on the public health care option
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php#public-option
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php#public-option-right-direction

Interview with Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen and Dr. David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program, Bill Moyers Journal, PBS, May 22, 2009
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05222009/watch2.html

“We Spend Twice as Much on Health Care as Other Rich Countries–and What Do We Get for It?”
By Dean Baker, AlterNet, May 19, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/140098

“Baucus Flees From Single Payer Advocates”
Single-Payer Action, May 21, 2009
http://www.singlepayeraction.org/blog/?p=726

Green Pages, Vol. 13, No. 1
The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

~ END ~

Greens Come Together for the 2009 Annual National Meeting in Durham, North Carolina

The Green Party of the United States is pleased to announce that the 2009 Annual National Meeting will be held Thursday, July 23-Sunday July 26, 2009 on the campus of North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC. Plan to attend this year’s largest national gathering of Greens to make new friends, network, and help grow the Green Party nationally and in your community.  Join with other greens across the country as we prepare for the 2010 election cycle with workshops on candidate recruitment, ballot access, fundraising, media outreach, and other skills you can take back to your local party.Registration is open now!  Discounted earlybird registration is available for only a few more days…register now to save money and start making your travel plans early.  Registration and other information is available at the 2009 Annual National Meeting wepage.

Record Number of Greens Running in ‘09

Green Parties across the U.S. are running a record number of candidates in local and state elections.  Fewer elections are scheduled in odd-numbered years, but that hasn’t stopped over 100 Greens from running for office in 2009 elections.  In 2005, 69 candidates had declared their run by the middle of May.  In 2007, that number was 74.  So far in 2009, 119 candidates have declared their runs.  That’s 119 people (and their volunteers) asking for votes, asking for financial support, and letting their communities know that the Green Party is ready to step up and lead.  It’s not too late to declare your candidacy!  Call or visit your town’s website to see if school board, city council, county board, or soil, water, air, or utility board elections are scheduled for this year.  Find out how to file a candidacy, get local Greens involved, and let your state and national Green Party know you are running!  It’s also not to early to start planning a run for 2010.     If you can’t run this year, help out a candidate who is.  To find out if any candidates are running near you, check our comprehensive online elections database.  Remember to get out and vote Green in 2009!

Green Pages Now Available On-Line

Green Pages, the national newspaper of the Green Party of the United States, is available exclusively on-line in 2009.  By going paperless for this year we can maximize your donations to the Green Party of the United States, save trees, and offer dynamic content like embedded videos, constantly updated content, and user comments and polls.    If you want to take copies with you for festivals, parades and other outreach events, you can download and print a PDF version.  But make sure to bookmark Green Pages online at http://gp.org/greenpages-blog/.

Green Party Says Goodbye to Emily Citkowski

The Green Party of the United States’ Operations Director, Emily Citkowski, is leaving this month after nearly six years with the party.  She started working for GPUS in November of 2003 and coordinated day-to-day operations at the national office through two Presidential campaigns, five national meetings, and several location changes. After leaving a regional labor organization to direct operations for the Green Party, she is returning to work for a national labor advocacy group and then to law school shortly thereafter.Emily remarked: “I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work for the Green Party as a staffer. During my time on staff I was constantly amazed, inspired, energized and sustained by dedication and creativity of our volunteers, candidates, officeholders and grassroots activists. Our party will not just survive but thrive on this kind of people-power and I look forward to being part of it as a volunteer.  I’ll miss working with my colleagues at the national office, but have no doubt they’ll get along fine without me.”In addition to her duties as Operations Director, Emily played a key role on the Merchandise and Outreach Committees. She will continue with her GPUS committee work, as well as her efforts with the DC Statehood Green Party.Congratulations and thanks for many years of service can be e-mailed to Emily at emily@gp.org.

Be Seen Wearing Green This Summer

Summer is coming and your local is probably planning to table and march in festivals and parades in your neighborhood.  Make sure to stock up on Green Party merchandise to hand out to potential new members.  One of the best ways to advertise the Green Party to everyone who passes your table is with a Green Party t-shirt, hat, or sweatshirt.  All are union-made in the USA so you can feel good about supporting workers and the Green Party. Don’t forget to have enough literature available so everyone in your community can read more about what the Green Party stands for.  Get your Ten Key Values cards, “Green Party - A Real Difference” cards, and tabling handbook at our online store. We have several new items perfect for this summer.  We have Green Party logo jar openers for picnics, Ten Key Values magnets for holding report cards up on the fridge, and resealable, reusable, BPA-free water bottles for staying cool and hydrated.  Buy them separately or together for a discounted price!

Follow the Green Party Online

The Green Party of the United States is utilizing all popular social networks to build a community of online support and communication for its members.  Follow the Green Party on Twitter or MySpace.  We also have a page on Facebook.  Tell your friends that they can hook up with us online and make new Green friends!

Register Green. Vote Green. Give Green.

The Green Party does not accept corporate donations. We depend entirely on donations from people who are committed to building a powerful and progressive alternative to the two corporate parties.We ask you to challenge corporate influence in politics by supporting the Green Party of the United States! Show your resistance to the status quo by enabling us to continue organizing and mobilizing for real change. Please help us get out our positive, progressive values to new communities, and to deepen our involvement where we’re already anchored.Support us today and please consider becoming a sustainer (look for the recurring donation option).Green Party online shopping just got easier! Visit our improved online store.

Federal law requires political committees to use their best effort to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation and employer for each individual whose contributions exceed $200 in a calendar year. Contributions form the following individuals and entities are prohibited: corporations, labor organizations, national banks, government contractors, people under 18 years of age, and foreign nationals.

http://www.truthout.org/051909J?n Robert Naiman, Truthout: “Almost completely lost in the drama over the war supplemental for Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan is a sneaky play by the US Treasury Department to get $108 billion in tax dollars for the International Monetary Fund through the supplemental. Of course, if Treasury can get the money through the supplemental, it can avoid any Congressional debate over the policies of the International Monetary Fund.” 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Obama administration has cleared more than three-dozen new mountaintop removal permits for issuance by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, drawing quick criticism from environmental groups who had hoped the new president would halt the controversial practice.