Help Wanted! Green California Graphics Artist

Dear Green Friends,
The time has come for Green Party activists to get ready for the 2012 California elections. One thing we will need are good cartoons, caricatures, graphics expressing the issues in California highlighting the contrast between the Green Party and the 2 Titanic Parties.

The graphic below is from the lead story of the Black Agenda Report, America's leading web site for news, commentary, and analysis from the Black Left. I think this graphic exquisitely expresses the growing revulsion among many African-Americans like me, with the smugness of Democratic Party "Obamamaniacs."

Posted on The Black Agenda Report, September 21, 2001
Barack Obama VS Those Craaaazy Republicans: Is He the Lesser Evil, or the More Effective Evil?
By Bruce A. Dixon, BAR managing editor and a state committee member in the Georgia Green Party



Of course, Bruce Dixon is writing for a national audience. In my opinion the most important mission of the California Green Party is to build an independent progressive force at the state and local level -- especially in the One-Party Democratic coastal cities.

What we need for inner-city Los Angeles campaigns are the services of a graphics artist to produce a similar graphic substituting images for Governor Jerry Brown, Senator Diane Feinstein, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for the image of President Obama.


See sample images of the California Democratic Party Hacks:

_{Governor Jerry Brown}

_{Senator Diane Feinstein}

_{Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa}

If you can help me. Please leave a comment here or e-mail me directly at:
AlexCathy@aol.com.

2 Cal Democrat Scandals - Why Have a Green Party?

Consider the Los Angeles Times front page below. Not one, but two major scandals rocked the California Democratic Party in the same week.

UPDATE: SCROLL DOWN TO SEE LIST OF DURKEE CAMPAIGNS

Both scandals involve big bucks from the Democrats' fat cat campaign donors. Moreover, the scandal of the bankrupt Solyndra solar energy company helps retro Republicans attack Green Energy.

Thanks a lot Democrats. Why have a Green Party? Tell me again how we don't need Greens, Peace & Freedom, Libertarians, and the A.I.P. because we have this great "choice" between "liberal" Democrats and "conservative" Republicans.

Published by The Los Angeles Times
Audits Detailed Mishandling of Campaign Funds
By Abby Sewell

When state Sen. Ted Lieu (D- Torrance) learned a few months ago that a state audit had found irregularities in his campaign finances, staffers immediately called Lieu's longtime treasurer, Kinde Durkee.

Durkee assured them that everything was fine, Lieu said, and he took her word for it. He forgot about the incident until this month, when Durkee was arrested in a sweeping federal fraud case that is sending shock waves across the Democratic Party establishment.

Durkee is accused of stealing perhaps millions of dollars from her clients, who include dozens of prominent California Democrats. Authorities have not laid out the full scale of the alleged crime, but clients including Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Los Angeles) have said that that they believe Durkee wiped out their campaign funds. Feinstein announced Friday that she plans to put $5 million of her own money into her reelection campaign to make up for funds that may have been taken.
. . .
"Politics in both parties is an old boys and old girls club, and most of the candidates … figure if everyone else is using Durkee, she must be all right," said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC. "If you were the only campaign thinking about hiring a person with this record, you might think twice about it, but there's safety in numbers."

In Lieu's case, an audit by the State Franchise Tax Board found that $186,190 in credit card contributions to his unsuccessful 2010 race for attorney general had not been deposited in the campaign bank account, in some cases for well over a year. An additional $161,964 that was reported as having been transferred from Lieu's Assembly committee to his attorney general campaign in December 2008 was not deposited until two years later.
. . .

And This

Published by The Los Angeles Times, September 17, 2011
Solar Firm's Obama Links Probed

By Matea Gold and Stuart Pfeifer

Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles—
The White House faced mounting political complications as a second top fundraiser for President Obama was linked to a federal loan guarantee program that backed a now-bankrupt Silicon Valley solar energy company, and as two California lawmakers called for investigations of a state tax break granted to the firm.

Steve Spinner, who helped monitor the Energy Department's issuance of $25 billion in government loan guarantees to renewable energy projects, was one of Obama's top fundraisers in 2008 and is raising money for the president's 2012 reelection campaign.

Spinner did not have any role in the selection of applicants for the loan program and, in fact, was recused from the decision to grant a $535-million loan guarantee to Solyndra Inc. because his wife's law firm represented the company, administration officials said Friday.

But Spinner's role as a top official in the Energy Department program, which had not been previously revealed, is likely to spur new inquiries into whether political influence played a role in the handling of the "green" energy fund. Solyndra faces a congressional probe, a criminal investigation and separate internal inquiries at the Energy and Treasury departments.

. . .

The largest investments in Solyndra were funds operated on behalf of the family foundation of billionaire George Kaiser, another major fundraiser for Obama in 2008. Kaiser has denied personally investing in the solar energy company or talking to White House officials about the loan.

Some Republicans in Congress charge that the White House pushed to get the loan approved for political reasons, which the White House denies.

Before its collapse, Solyndra was a showcase of the White House initiative to develop clean-energy alternatives. Obama visited the factory in May and praised Solyndra as a green technology company that would create jobs and help lead the country's economic recovery.
. . .

The point is this. Even when so-called liberal Democrats in California want to do the right thing, such as promote alternative green energy, the implementation is all wrong. They just cannot help turning it into something that can feed the Democratic Party Machines and its rich campaign contributors.

It is instructive that one of the Democrats biggest campaign contributors is billionaire George Kaiser, with a direct interest in the national healthcare debate. Our Green Party candidates in Assembly District 53 strongly advocated universal, single-payer heathcare. But they didn't have to get permission slips from fat cat campaign contributors.

UPDATE: LIST OF DURKEE CAMPAIGNS

Posted on the Web Site for the Sacramento Bee, September 4, 2011
'I've been robbed,' California Lawmaker Says
By Dan Smith

See a list of all the state campaign committee reports Durkee filed in 2011, according to Secretary of State's office data.

KindeDurkee

Cluelessness and Courage in AD 53

Democrat Ted Lieu in 2006

No Taxes! No Worries! Be Happy!

Green Peter Thottam in 2006

Warning! Tough times are coming!

Green Lisa Green in 2010

Clean Money! Clean Politics! Universal health care!

Climate hawks arise

As the talking heads have had almost a week to analyze last week's elections, I guess that I can put in my two cents worth. It should be as valid as the pontifications that I have heard.

The one thing that almost everyone agrees on is that action on climate is dead. Joe Romm's Climate Progress made that point clear.

California came out fairly well. AB32 seems safe until the next election. Still there is a lot of work to be done and Greens had better be in the forefront or we should change our name. If the Democrats do not have the gumption to act, then Greens are the only political voice left.

I ask you all to consider the oped that Bracken Hendricks wrote in the Washington Post today.

Many conservatives say they oppose clean-energy policies because they want to keep government off our backs. But they have it exactly backward. Doing nothing will set our country on a course toward narrower choices for businesses and individuals, along with an expanded role for government. When catastrophe strikes - and yes, the science is quite solid that it will - it will be the feds who are left conducting triage.

While Greens are motivated by many issues, there is none so wide reaching as this. Hendricks continues to outline many of the results of listening to the Tea Party, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh echo chamber.

This is just the beginning. If conservatives' rosy hopes prove wrong, who but the federal government will undertake the massive infrastructure projects necessary to protect high-priced real estate in Miami and Lower Manhattan from rising oceans? And what about smaller coastal cities, such as Galveston and Corpus Christi in Texas? Will it fall to FEMA or some other part of the federal government to decide who will move and when and under what circumstances? Elsewhere, with declining river flows, how will the Bureau of Reclamation go about repowering the dams of the Pacific Northwest?

And while we're busy at home, who will help Pakistan or Bangladesh in its next flood? What will the government do to secure food supplies when Russia freezes wheat exports? Without glaciers, what will become of Lima, Peru, a city dependent on melting ice for drinking water? Will we let waves of "climate refugees" cross our borders?

As Greens sort through the results of this election and plan our next steps, we would do well to seek candidates who can articulate both the ecological and economic arguments for saving us all. Maybe we should start listing homo sapiens as an endangered specie.

Laura Wells, Green Party Candidate, Arrested at Sham Debate

Ms. wells was arrested at the final debate between Democrat Jerry Brown and Republican Meg Whitman. Ms. Wells had a valid ticket and had already gone through security.

The charge: Trespassing.



Democrat Jerry Brown has spent $10.3 million and has $22.5 million in cash, and has also received help from public employee unions, which have spent $13.8 million on his behalf.

Republican Meg Whitman has spent $140 million.

What are they afraid of?

Truth?

Wanna speak Truth to Power? Check out: http://www.laurawells.org/

Desperate Arnold/DEMS Make 'Terroristic' Threats

The nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California found that Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's approval rating down around 34%. More than half of all Republicans, Democrats and independents disapprove of the job the "Governator" is doing. The same found that 80% of the voters disapprove of the Democratic Party-controlled California state legislature.

Now, on the eve of a vote on the "bipartisan" budget package, comes the "Governator" making threats about layoffs and cutbacks if Californians do not bend to his will




Are folks finally ready to admit that Peter Camejo, our Green Party candidate for governor, was right when he said at the first recall election debate in 2003: "Look at this debate today. Do you really want to go back to when there's only two people allowed in them, where you hear the same points of view over and over again? We have a two-hundred year, dysfunctional, money-dominated, winner-take-all system."



The Green Party of California released a statement Friday blasting Arnold's latest move.

News Advisory
THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA www.cagreens.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 15, 2009
Contact: Susan King, spokesperson, 415.823-5524 sking@cagreens.org
Cres Vellucci, press secretary, 916.996-9170 cvellucci@cagreens.org

Governor making terroristic threats, and may be
in delusional state in last ditch effort to intimidate voters
to approve ‘rotten' May 19 ballot props, charges Green Party

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's announcement that he will lay off
5,000 state workers and cut money to the elderly, blind and disabled if voters do not approve the ballot measures in Tuesday's special election are terroristic threats, the Green Party of California charged Friday.

"He's threatening the people of California, especially the poorest and sickest, if they don't bend to his will. This is just another form of terrorism," said Joe Feller, a member of the state party coordinating committee.

The Green Party opposes passage of all the propositions Tuesday because it says it's a "rotten deal" for Californians.

"The package is a rotten deal, and it gives voters no real choice, except to get shot in the leg or shot in the arm. Now the governor is using Hollywood scare tactics to threaten voters, and leave them without jobs and services," added Wes Rolley, co-chair of the U.S. Green Party EcoAction Committee.

The Governor is also delusional, said the Greens.

"He is delusional if he really believes that this is not, as he said Thursday, about him and the legislature. The voters of California know whose fault this mess is, and they'll vote that way Tuesday - terroristic threats or not," said Alex Walker, a Los Angeles area Green.

The Green Party insists there are many ways to cut through the budget gap, among them raising taxes on the very, very wealthy, and eliminating the huge tax breaks given owners of commercial property through Prop. 13.

"Democrats and Republicans are offering no fundamental fixes. There are billions of dollars in savings if we employ single payer universal healthcare, decriminalize pot and hemp, reform the prison industry and convert to green technologies. Until they are willing to do that, these ‘leaders' cannot be taken seriously," said Tom Bolema, a Sonoma County Council member.

Once again, I cannot overemphasize, that our current situation is not an acute "crisis," but in fact, a condition that well-informed Californians have been aware of for two decades. It didn't start with Arnold and it's not exclusively the fault of either "tax and spend" so-called liberal Democrats or "small government" so-called conservative Republicans.

I expect that Mr. Schwarzenegger's pathetic, desperate move will fail. Big city Democrats will blame the mess on "selfish, greedy" Republicans. Suburban and rural Republicans will rant and foam about "Liberals" wasting "Our tax dollars" to support the wicked "minorities" in the cities. In certain One-Party Republican circles, aging reactionaries of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association will continue replaying "oldies but goodies" from their glory days as the avant garde of 1978 -- still raging about property taxes from the housing boom at a time when housing is in a depression. Meanwhile, in my One-Party Democratic predominantly Black Los Angeles neighborhood, our "Amen corner" of aging "Black Power" intellectuals will replay "oldies but goodies" from the Sixties how this whole mess is a conspiracy of "White folks." Last and least, the superficial mainstream media will continue prattling about Democrats versus Republicans over the size of government (See, for example, "California Government: Too Much or Too Little?" in the Los Angeles Times).

President Barack Obama, in his inaugural address declared the time has come to "set aside childish things" and recognize an historic turning point:

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply,” Obama said on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Words like "cynical" and "immoral" are, indeed, appropriate words for a Democrats versus Republican politics operating out of gerrymandered one-party districts based almost exclusively on a strategy of dividing and ruling Californians by race, religion, or tribe. This time, however, I think Schwarzenegger is delusional if he really believes that this is not, as he said Thursday, about him and the legislature. The voters of California know whose fault this mess is, and they'll vote that way Tuesday - terroristic threats or not.

Mayor Daley Welcomes You to Chicago

Mayor Richard M. Daley Welcomes You to Chicago
--Sign in Chicago Midway Airport

Thursday, July 10th

Between the plane and the Orange Line subway train into the city, on my way to the Green Party National Convention, I had to read "Mayor Richard M. Daley" a dozen times. Daley is Chicago. Chicago is "Duh Mayah" -- perfect symbol for the primitive "Old Politics" we are here to organize against.

Thursday night there was a reception for international Greens. A brother from Brazil explained to us the difficulty of fighting for Greens issues there, reminding us that having a strong Green Party in the U.S. is absolutely essential since the U.S. is the 800-pound gorilla in the world, especially in the Western Hemisphere.


International Greens

One of the things I like about the Green Party is that, unlike the one warmaking imperial party with two names, the Greens are international. At the reception there was a tribute to Ingrid Betancourt, the Columbian Green activist.

The Brazilians say they like President Lula's social program, but environmentally. At a discussion afterwards, a few of our folks said they could not understand this. I replied that "This is why we need Greens. We need political leadership around the world that thinks Green." Even the best of the "Old Politics" leaders are going to be interested in "development" in their countries in the conventional way. Brazil is a big, poor country with a lot of "undeveloped" resources. Lula, like evey conventional politician, Left, Right, or Center, is wants to raise the standard of living in his country by the industrial exploitation of the nation's natural resources. That's just the way these guys think -- even the best of them.

There is going to be a workshop on NAFTA and the so-called North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) facillitated by Janet Eaton of the Green Party of Canada. Ms. Eaton is a foremost expert on water issues.

California Caucus

There was a California State Caucus Thursday night. We had heard rumors of credentials challenges. The good news is, for once, internal procedural issues have nothing to do with California. Thanks to our "Super Tuesday" primary, California has ben meticulous about certifying the elected delegates. We are going to cast 60% of our votes for Ralph Nader on the first ballot because that was the way the Californians voted in the primary. I have no problem with that at all. There is this thing called "democracy" that ought to be respected. Some states, apparently, only came up with lists of delegates this week. One cheer for the Golden State.

This morning I plan to attend a meeting of the Black Caucus. I already met some interesting folks. At the reception an African-American journalist from Chicago and I had a good time swapping stories about crooked politicians in Chicago and L.A. He told me he has a higher of our Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger than the Democratic pols in Illinois. "At least Arnold will listen and sometimes change his mind. The politicians here will listen, thank you for your input... and then say 'F**k You!' That's Chicago poltiics."

Oh yeah... the "City that works."

Mark Sanchez for Supervisor

Let me introduce the second in the list of GP Candidates that I consider worthy of supporting with your time and your donations. This is Mark Sanchez, candidate for Supervisor, City and County of San Francisco, California. If elected he would join Ross Mirkarimi as the 2nd GP Supervisor in this very "progressive" city.

Once again, this is where Greens get the experience at governance. It is building a solid local constituency for the Green Party. If we want Greens to win, this is where it starts.

The following is a press release from the San Francisco Greep Party dated yesterday.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 15, 2008

Contact:
Erika McDonald, 415-337-1499; erikasf@aol.com
To schedule an interview with Mark Sanchez, contact Vicki Leidner, 415-648-5050; vleidner@astound.net

District 9 Candidate Mark Sanchez is the First to Qualify for Public Financing

SAN FRANCISCO—The Mark Sanchez campaign has received confirmation from the Ethics Commission that Sanchez – currently President of the San Francisco Board of Education and candidate for District 9 Supervisor – is eligible to receive public financing.

"I'm grateful to all the folks who have contributed to my candidacy for supervisor and to the great team working on this campaign," said Sanchez, a Green Party member and school teacher.

Sanchez is the first candidate for supervisor to qualify for public funds in 2008. Read the Ethics Commission press release announcing his eligibility for public financing here: