In a response to another Green on the
GPCA Forum email list, I suggested that Greens needed to read, asI
have done, Supply Shock by Dr. Brian Czech. I have just completed a
review of that book and posted it to Amazon. The review also
recommends reading Herman Daly's earlier (1996) work, Beyond Growth.
Personally, I was fortunate to find
Daly's book in my local public library, but not Czech's. Maybe I should be shocked at the lack of supply.
Taken together, these two books give
the reader a lesson in why our economy is destined to falter. It
takes both to cover the varied histories which Czech does
deliberately and Daly more anecdotally. I know that I will read so
called progressive economists like Krugman much more carefully.
Krugman's policy prescriptions for the US Economy, while helping to
enhance social equity, will only lead us further down a dead end
path through growth beyond the carrying capacity of our planet.
Far too often I hear the Sierra Club condemned for not endorsing Greens. While it is not as common as we would like, since we believe that the Green Party has more in common with the goals of the Sierra Club than any other party, it does happen and even in partisan races. The most recent Sierra Club endorsement has gone to Marnie Glickman. While the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitation District is a not a partisan office, we know what it takes to gain these endorsements.
I even remember Tom Hutchings, a San Luis Obispo County Green, getting Sierra Club endorsement for State Assembly Dist 33 in 2004 after years of supporting efforts to block the expansion, if not able to close, the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. It can be done, you just have to work at it.
The California Democratic Party Hack Du Jour is Disgraced Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. While awaiting sentencing for lying on campaign finance reports and gambling with public funds, Shirakawa is faced with a new charge that is downright bizarre: impersonating a political opponent. The critical evidence? Shirakawa's DNA pulled from a postage stamp on an illegal campaign hit piece. The new charges could get the supervisor-turned-defendant three more years in the pen.
Here is the part of the story relevant to our California Green Party: Shirakawa was a solid good 'ole boy in the San Jose Democratic Party Machine. He has been strongly backed by the big labor unions. His illegal campaign "hit piece" was on behalf of a former aide, Xavier Campos, who is, himself, a relative of Democratic Assembly Member Nora Campos. Finally, Shirakawa was one of those "People of Color" we are told all progressives, including Greens, should defer to without question. And what was in his campaign "hit piece?" The piece, written in Vietnamese, accused Campos' opponent of being a Communist (you can't make this stuff up).
Thus, Shirakawa's saga represents everything wrong with the Democratic Party Machine politics in the U.S.A. today.
The latest felony charge against former Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. probably marks the last time anybody personally licks a stamp for a sleazy campaign hit piece.
The only surprise is that DNA is the evidence apparently tying Shirakawa to the political slime that helped propel his former aide Xavier Campos to a San Jose City Council seat in 2010. Shirakawa's DNA was found on stamps used on mailers that made Magdalena Carrasco out to be a communist, probably sealing her narrow defeat, since many Vietnamese American voters see communists as a lower life form. The charge is impersonation because the mailer said it was from Carrasco's own campaign.
We hope District Attorney Jeff Rosen's office and the state Fair Political Practices Commission are continuing this line of inquiry. Mailers like the one on Campos' behalf are not the product of one person, and the fact that a similar hit was used against Shirakawa's opponent for supervisor in 2008 implies a pattern.
Dishonest campaigning on this scale poisons the well for honest politicians and makes it harder to attract good people to run for office. Some consultants and candidates treat it as a joke. We're glad our county and state criminal justice agencies do not.
My one frustration is that, once again, I have to read this news in the mainstream media after my son-in-law told me about it on a trip from Los Angeles up to San Jose. Why aren't California Greens monitoring this? We Greens will never achieve our goals so long as we continue giving our local Democratic Party Hacks a free pass. The Green Party is no longer an a;ternative. The Green Party is an imperative.
Animated Cartoon By Mark Fiore
Greetings, from the Department of Justice!
It's me, Snuggly the Security Bear-- here to tell you all about spying on the press!
See, I'm not scary, and neither is Attorney General Eric Holder!
So what if we secretly snooped into the phone records of a hundred or so journalists-- it was all to keep you snuggly and secure-- trust us! Heeheeheehee!
Those people in the Associated Press are helping the terrorists by protecting their sources and stuff.
We're just trying to keep you safe . . . from people in government who leak things to the media!
Which is why my boss Obama has prosecuted more whistleblowe-- er-- criminals-- than all previous presidents combined!
But before we nail 'em, we've got to find 'em-- by doing things like secretly looking into the phone logs of journalists . . . at the office, at home, at the capitol, or in the men's room!
Would you rather have Freedom of the Press or would you rather be more snuggly and secure with the most transparent administration ever!
Best part is-- my warm hugs of security, are bipartisan! Republicans are outraged now, and Democrats were outraged about two-thousand and four!
. . . which keeps them not-outraged in reverse! Partisanship can be so bipartisan.
So of course you can have your Freedom of the Press and confidential sources-- as long as your confidential sources don't mind the government having their phone numbers! Heeheeheehee!
Editor's Note: The California Green Party could use this kind of media to ridicule Cal Democrats and Republicans. If you are a craftsperson who knows how to do this, then please step up.
