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 ~

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATEShttp://www.gp.orgFor Immediate Release:Thursday, February 25, 2010Contacts:Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.orgStarlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.orgGreen Party urges a program for millions of new public works jobs and financial security for Americans instead of Wall Street handoutsGreen Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on economic policy, racial justice, and related issues: http://www.gp.org/speakersWASHINGTON, DC — Green Party leaders said today that Democratic and Republican politicians are pursuing fiscal agenda, including responses to the subprime mortgage crisis, that amount to an “economic war” on Black and Latino/a people across the US.Greens especially criticized President Obama, whose bailouts for Wall Street firms have done little to provide economic security for those who were among his most enthusiastic supporters in the 2008 election.Derek Grigsby, chair of the Detroit Green Party and member of the Green Party Black Caucus (http://www.gp.org/caucuses/black/index.php): “The Green Party demands an end to the ‘two party’ economic war on Black people and Latinos and on working and poor Americans of all races. Instead of Wall Street bailouts, we need assistance for those who’ve lost their homes and jobs. Millions of new jobs can be created through public works in conservation, retrofitting and greening houses and infrastructure, and expanded public transportation. We need to cancel the wasteful war on drugs, end racially biased sentencing and other criminal justice system disparities, and abolish private ownership of prisons. Black, Latino, and poor Americans have been made fodder for the private prison industry, which profits by filling up cells. We need reparations for the descendents of slaves, recognizing the hundreds of years of stolen labor and post-slavery exploitation and discrimination. We must immediately call an end to the murderous escapades in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our sons and daughters home now. These steps would lead to an economic recovery that benefits all Americans, and show the rest of the world that we practice what we preach!”Tony Affigne, Green Party National Committee delegate from Rhode Island, Latino community activist: “Outside of the Green Party, few politicians want to recognize racial economic disparities and how they’ve been aggravated by the current financial crisis. In September, the unemployment rate for Blacks was 15.7%; the underemployment rate for Blacks was 23.8 percent and for Latinos 25.1%. The poverty rate for Black children is nearly 35%. But Democrats and Republicans in the White House and Congress are resisting the necessary massive public works program necessary to create jobs and reverse such figures, out of deference to corporate lobbies that prefer a desperate labor force. They promise a private sector miracle that isn’t going to happen. This amounts to a vicious bipartisan policy of inaction to help Americans most in need.”Alfred Molison, Green candidate for Houston City Council and member of the Green Party Black Caucus (http://votealfred.com): “President Obama and other leaders like to preach moral lessons to Black people while slashing the safety net and providing minimal assistance for homeowners and job-seekers. We’re seeing lots of blame on the alleged ‘cultural deficiencies’ of Black people, such as single-mother family statistics and ‘cycles of poverty’ rhetoric that ignores imposed economic factors and a justice system too eager to incarcerate Blacks. Meanwhile, the profits of financial corporations — including those responsible for the current crisis — are now underwritten by US taxpayers to the tune of nearly $24 trillion (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/20/bailout-may-cost-237-tril_n_241512.html). All Americans are becoming victims of the Democratic-Republican assault on working people and dedication to Wall Street’s economic elites, with Black people and Latinos suffering the worst.”Betty Davis, co-chair of the Green Party Black Caucus (http://www.gp.org/caucuses/black/index.php): “Blacks and Latinos were primary targets for lending corporations offering high-interest subprime loans, and were thus disproportionately hit by the subprime mortgage crisis. Blacks were especially vulnerable to such loans because they were denied the equity that whites have long enjoyed, a result of Federal Housing Administration redlining and racial discrimination in the granting of housing loans and mortgages during the mid 20th century. These policies have had profound effects on the finances of Blacks long after discriminatory practices were outlawed. The Center for Responsible Lending has found that, because of the mortgage meltdown, Latinos will have lost between $75 billion and $98 billion and Blacks between $71 billion and $92 billion in home-value wealth. The victims of subprime loans should be first in line for aid that restores financial stability and the ability to keep one’s home.”MORE INFORMATIONGreen Party of the United States http://www.gp.org202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN• Green candidate database and 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 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 ~