Why I Joined the Green Party

Los Angeles, California -- How can a fifty-something man summarize a lifetime of political education in less than many thousands of words? In earlier drafts of this post I went on for about seven thousand words and even that was not enough. My word processor says this essay is exactly 2,137 words long. No editor of a journal would accept this for publication but one nice thing about having your own blog is setting up the rules. And so, 2,137 words it shall be.

Between the two of us, my dear wife, Cathy Deppe, and I have lived and worked in Alabama, California, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Some of these places were run by politicians who called themselves “conservatives.” Some were run by politicians who called themselves “liberals” or "progressives." They all have problems, but “liberal” places are consistently better (it’s not for nothing that “conservative” Condolezza Rice from “conservative” Alabama settled in “liberal” California). Cathy and I have both been involved in the civil rights movement, the peace movement, the women’s movement, the labor movement, and the environmental movement.

Some politicians are very good at making speeches, but God (and the devil) is in the details. High-minded speeches and deliberately vague legislation aside, on issue after issue, that matters to me, Republicans and Democrats are, indeed, the “One Corporate Party with Two Names.”

Alex Walker

I was born and raised in Hampton, Virginia.

During the Civil War, Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy, but Hampton was occupied by Union troops based at old Fort Monroe. In 1861 three slaves, Frank Baker, James Townsend and Sheppard Mallory had been contracted by their owners to build defense batteries for the Confederate Army. They escaped at night and rowed a skiff across Hampton Roads seeking asylum at Fort Monroe. General Benjamin Butler declared the three men were “contraband of war” and refused to return them. And so throughout the war thousands of Blacks, including my great, great grandparents, fled behind the Union lines to freedom in Hampton.

Mary S. Peake, a free black woman, had been running schools for blacks even before the war when it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write. She used to conduct classes under a large spreading oak tree. When Lincoln issued the Emacipation Proclaimation it was read to the freedmen gathered under this tree. The Hampton Agricultural and Normal Institute (now Hampton University), one of the nation’s oldest historically black colleges, was founded on this site in 1868 and “Emancipation Oak” is in the national registry of historical sites.

Both my parents graduated from Hampton Institute in the 1940s. I went to 100% all-black segregated public schools in Hampton through the 9^th grade. In college I studied engineering and political science. I graduated from Hampton University in 1972.

I lived and worked in Virginia until I was thirty. In 1979, I started working as a full time computer programmer at Michie-Bobbs Merrill Law Publishers in Charlottesville, Virginia. By the late 1970s Old Virginia had almost completely “flipped” from one-party segregationist Democrat to one-party “conservative” Republican.

Cathy Deppe

My wife grew up in Glen Ellyn, a village in one-party Republican DuPage County, Illinois just west of one-party Democratic Chicago. As of the 2000 census, the village was 26,999. When Cathy was growing up it was sleepy, leafy, little village. Today, it is part of the (ahem) “Illinois Technology and Research Corridor. “ Most of Cathy’s family still lives around Chicago. Some live in the City of Chicago where the crooks run around saying: “Vote Democratic or else those suburban rednecks who hate us will take over!” Others live in DuPage County where the crooks run around saying: “Vote Republican or else those inner-city mau mau savages in Chicago who hate us will take over!” The codependency of the “One Party With 2 Names” is so clear that it takes an expensive education at someplace like the University of Chicago not to see it.

The Chicago area has a curious tradition of gross political corruption dating back almost a century. Last Fall The Chicago Sun-Times reported that in the last three decades, at least 79 local elected officials have been convicted of a crime, including 3 governors, one mayor, and 27 aldermen. Whenever some pain-in-the-ass honest person arises out of the muck of Illinois politics, like Adlai Stevenson, Jesse Jackson, or Barack Obama, the clever solution of the Chicago gangsters is to send ‘em to Washington where their “do-gooder” notions won’t interfere with “business as usual” at home.

Cathy graduated from the University of Illinois. She was a student there when she volunteered to spend the summer of 1965 helping to register voters in Greene County, Alabama and what she saw down there changed her life.

Cathy taught school on a small island in the West Indies for two years. She has been an employment counselor, a “job coach” at a sheltered workshop, and a public school teacher. I have been a software engineer in Virginia, New York, and Massachusetts before settling in California. While living and working in the Hudson Valley of New York served as vice-president of the Northern Dutchess NAACP and co-chair of the Dutchess County Committee Against Racism in Poughkeepsie, New York.

The late, great Molly Ivins once wrote this about growing up in Texas:

If you grew up white before the civil rights movement anywhere in the South, all grown-ups lied. They'd tell you stuff like, ‘Don't drink out of the colored fountain, dear, it's dirty.’ In the white part of town, the white fountain was always covered with chewing gum and the marks of grubby kids' paws, and the colored fountain was always clean. Children can be horribly logical. I believe all Southern liberals come from the same starting point -- race. Once you figure out they are lying to you about race, you start to question everything.

And so it was, by different paths, Cathy and I started early in our lives “to question everything.”

Some good people seem genuinely surprised by just how bad the Bushies have been. Serious historians say President George W. Bush may be the worst president of the United State -- ever.

At the risk of sounding immodest, I am not surprised. Especially for those of us who have worked in the civil rights movement and the peace movement, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice, Ashcroft, and Gonzalez in every respect are the flowers of post-civil rights “white backlash” and post-Vietnam War “Chickenhawk” mediocrity.

The Green Question

Almost every argument about the Green Party gets hung up on Bush vs. Gore vs. Nader and goings-on in Washington. Today, almost all sharp political commentators are obsessed with Mr. Bush’s war in Iraq. This is perfectly understandable and we can talk about the sins of Bush and Cheney all day.

Nevertheless, I am here to say, dear friends, all that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Our critics invoke "practical politics." Very well. Let's talk practical politics. Where would the Democratic Party be without organized labor or progressive women or "minority" voters throwing away 80% of their ballots for Democrats? It would be extinct! Yet, for some weird reason, while Democratic leaders disagree with Republican conservatives, they despise progressive Democrats.

Every single time some ethically-challenged Democratic Party Hack politician gets in hot water, they come crying to people like your and me (see William Jefferson Clinton, 1998-1999). In the inner-city neighborhoods the crooks come 'round to Black churches two sundays before the election crying: “Vote Democratic or else those suburban ‘rednecks’ will take over!” (Okay, they don't actually say that, but it's implied). We are told it's our duty to give money, make phone calls, walk precincts, and welcome hacks into our houses of worship, community centers, and union halls.

What happens the day after the election?

The day after the election begins the next cycle of contempt, sell-outs, wheeling ‘n dealing.

First comes the return of the usual contempt for suckers like me. This is the familiar pseudo-sophisticated cynicism about “political correctness“ and “peaceniks” and those feminist “bitches.” Men like me are denounced as “faggots” on account of our insufficient enthusiasm for the presumed superior values of cold-blooded violent macho men. Always, always comes the cynicism about those little “ingrates” out there "whining" about discrimination who don’t know enough to shut up let “real American” businessmen run the world.

Finally, it’s back to business-as-usual: awarding government contracts and patronage jobs to cronies; low-interest loans for mayors-for-life; stealing money from school kids; selling out to Wal-Mart and Arnold Schwarzenegger; and implementing “reforms” like $170,000 salaries for Los Angeles School Board members.

Everywhere the Democratic Party “leadership” is clubby, short-sighted, gutless, and corrupt.

Everywhere the "liberal" intellectuals are clubby, short-sighted, gutless, and corrupt.

No matter what happens in the coming years, "liberal" institutions like The Nation and The New Yorker will offer up the same tiresome fraternity of know-it-all Ivy-League intellectuals to tell us "progressives" what to think.

We are living in a country under the hegemony of Republican conservative ideology and these "progressives" do next to nothing to challenge this hegemony of very bad ideas.

My view of The Green Question is a bit unusual because I am an active California Green who is also African-American.

Civil rights is still my number one issue. In our time the Republican Party has become the “White Man’s Party” in the United States. Indeed, this monstrous "ism" they call "conservatism" is, chapter and verse, nothing more than the Old Southern White ideology: Southern Baptist fundamentalist religion, reckless militarism, swaggering machismo, anti-intellectualism, a union-busting economic philosophy that hasn’t changed much since slavery times, and aboce all, a sick preoccupation with “race.”

After Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans and the knee-jerk reaction of all the "conservative" intellectuals was to defend their Dear Great Leader by launching vicious attacks against those pleading on their rooftops for rescue, New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman, described the political dynamic that has dominated U.S. politics for thirty years very succinctly:

Race, after all, was central to the emergence of a Republican majority: essentially, the South switched sides after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Today, states that had slavery in 1860 are much more likely to vote Republican than states that didn't.

And who can honestly deny that race is a major reason America treats its poor more harshly than any other advanced country? To put it crudely: a middle-class European, thinking about the poor, says to himself, "There but for the grace of God go I." A middle-class American is all too likely to think, perhaps without admitting it to himself, "Why should I be taxed to support those people?"

Above all, race-based hostility to the idea of helping the poor created an environment in which a political movement hostile to government aid in general could flourish.

-- “Tragedy in Black and White,” by Paul Krugman, NYT, September 19, 2005

Everything the Republican conservative clique says about African-Americans is based on prejudice and stereotypes. And everything they’ve recently done brings back bad memories of why I originally came to detest their so-called “conservatism.”

Today, so-called conservative “chicken hawks” say “we” have to send “our” sons and daughters (but not their privileged sons and daughters) and spend $3,000 a second (but not their tax dollars) in Iraq even while those same demagogues rant and foam about being taxed “to support those people” at home.

On immigration, the rhetoric of California college-educated, pseudo-sophisticated "conservatives" about “illegal aliens” is as ugly and crude as anything I heard by southern segregationist "rednecks" in Old Virginia. They piously preach little sermons about a crusade for “freedom” in the Middle East, but under stress, they’ll launch into a tirade on Arab “sand n*****s” and “ragheads.” Indeed, the new Washington consensus on the Iraq war is that those bad brown Iraqis are the ones who have failed The Great White Empire.

Hence, my dilemma. I have a hundred grievances against the Democrats, but for a lot of self-respecting people of color like me, supporting Republicans is simply not an option. Telling me we don’t need third parties because I can “choose” between Republicans and Democrats is telling me I have no choice at all. And telling me that if I want "education reform" or "campaign reform" or "environmental reform" then I have to "join Arnold" and those sicko Republicans is telling me that you don't really want reform at all and all your bitchin' about "reform" is just another way of saying "Why should I be taxed to support those people?"

Green and No Going Back

I have traveled a long road since I grew up in a 100% segregated community in Hampton, Virginia. We call ourselves African-American, but my people are not Africans. For better or for worse (and a lot of times it's for the worse), my people are as American as apple pie. When I left the East Coast in 1998 I drove across this vast nation all the way to San Francisco. I drove across Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. I took plenty of time to observe what was going on, reading local papers, and talking to all kinds of folks. I am deeply troubled that America -- the country my ancestors built and fought for -- has too much inequality, ugliness, pollution, and violence.

All my life I have been told that African-Americans like me should stop thinking so much about racism. Over and over we are told to forget slavery; forget segregation; forget lynchings and pogroms; forget those who died in my lifetime just to secure the right to vote. Pompous hypocrites who hated Martin Luther King self-righteously throw his noble words in our faces:

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Very well.

I have judged Republicans and Democrats by the content of their character.

I reject them both.

Action Alert - Support AB 541

We often get action alert to go protest something. Impeach Bush. Save the Redwoods. Last year I asked people to fight the "Monsanto bill." While these are all good goals, it is still all about stopping something. We do not as often get a chance to support something, though AB 840 last year was an exception.

This week, we have a chance to support the California Food and Farm Protection Act (AB 541). The details are below.

ACTION ALERT ON GENETIC ENGINEERING

— SUPPORT AB 541 —

Assemblymember Jared Huffman (6th AD) has introduced AB 541, The Food and Farm Protection Act. The bill would establish California’s only state laws related to genetic engineering (GE) in agriculture and protect California farmers, consumers, and the food supply. AB 541 already has the support of many agricultural, environmental, health, faith and business organizations.

Please register your support for this bill by mailing or faxing a letter to the Assembly Agriculture Committee. A sample letter is provided below.


OVERVIEW OF AB 541

The State of California has no policies regulating GE crops, and the federal government is failing in its oversight role. Given this regulatory void, eight counties attempted to pass local restrictions on GE crops, four of which now have county bans or moratoria on GE crop production in place. In the 2005/06 legislative session, biotechnology and agribusiness interests sponsored a bill that would have pre-empted local authority over GE, but failed due to a groundswell of opposition from public interest organizations, citizens, and elected officials around the state. AB 541 will put in place a coherent policy that addresses the risk of GE contamination, without banning any GE crop.

AB 541 protects California farmers and the food supply in four ways:

1. Establishes the right of farmers and landowners to compensation for economic losses due to genetic contamination of their crops
2. Protects farmers from being sued by a GE manufacturer if their crop is contaminated by that company’s GE product.
3. Establishes a county-level GE crop notification process so that farmers can trace contamination to the GE manufacturer
4. Protects the food supply by prohibiting the open-field cultivation of genetically engineered food crops used to produce drugs and biologics such as hormones and antibiotics.

To read a longer summary of the issue, please refer to the Position Paper posted on the web site of the Genetic Engineering Policy Alliance (www.gepolicyalliance.org). The full text of the bill can be found at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html.


WHAT YOU CAN DO

Register your support for AB 541 by sending a letter to the Chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, the Honorable Nicole Parra. A sample letter is included below, though it is best to include your own statements and perspectives if possible.

Letters can be sent by fax to: (916) 319 – 2184
or by regular mail to the address in the letter below.

It is very important that we also receive a copy of your letter. Please send a copy for our records to the Genetic Engineering Policy Project (info@gepolicyproject.org or fax 707-874-1558).


SAMPLE LETTER

[date]

The Honorable Nicole Parra
Chair, Assembly Agriculture Committee
1020 N Street, Room 362
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: AB 541 (Huffman) – SUPPORT

Dear Assemblywoman Parra and Members of the Committee:

I am writing in support of AB 541, The Food and Farm Protection Act. [Describe your organization, company, or farm here if applicable].

California has no current laws in place to address the issue of genetic engineering, yet citizens across the state have expressed concerns about the risks the technology presents for farmers, consumers, the economy, and the environment. This bill represents a reasonable, responsible and moderate way forward, without banning the technology or restricting choice.

AB 541 importantly establishes the right of farmers and other landowners to recover damages if their property is contaminated by GE crops, and it places the responsibility for the economic harms that arise where it belongs – with the manufacturer, the owner of the GE seed or plant. The bill also protects farmers from liability if they unknowingly become contaminated and use the contaminated crop. Farmers who are victimized by genetic contamination should not have to fear legal reprisals.

AB 541 also establishes a GE crop notification process where farmers and researchers growing GE crops report the growing of their crops to their county Agriculture Commissioners. As with other useful agricultural statistics and notification requirements, this would provide Agriculture Commissioners with the knowledge of the presence of GE crops within their jurisdiction and enable the state to keep track of how many acres of which GE crops are produced in each county.

Finally, AB 541 protects the food supply by implementing a ban on the open-air production of food crops genetically engineered to produce drugs. No one wants experimental hormones, vaccines or antibiotics in the food they serve their family. The drugs being researched are all currently produced using safe, controlled laboratory methods, and there is no need to risk the contamination of our food.

I urge you and the Assembly Agriculture Committee to consider this issue carefully, and vote to support AB 541. It will be a vote in favor of farmers, consumers and the environment.


Sincerely,


[name, title, organization or business]

Doubters and deniers

There are some who seem to continue doubting the science behind the experience of climate change. If some of you can wait a bit, a number of questions will probably be answered in the research that starts next week, the 200 experiments / studies that make up the task list for the International Polar Year.

While the US media is consumed with the Oscars tonight, and even those who consider themselves green might be rooting for Al Gore, BBC has published a story on the International Polar Year that actually focuses on science rather than the bears.

Projects to be undertaken over the next two years have six major aims:

• determine the current environmental status of the polar regions
• quantify past and present environmental and social changes, and improve future projections
• understand links between the poles and the rest of the planet
• investigate the frontiers of science in the regions
• use the polar areas to develop and enhance observation of the Earth's interior and of space
• explore the cultural, historical and social aspects of circumpolar human communities

If they can do what they are setting out to do, then many of the questions about global warming, the rate of sea level rise, etc. will be answered. I have little personal doubt as to what will be determined.

While they are doing these studies, I hope that everyone spends a little time thinking about Jared Diamond's premise in Collapse. It is not the event itself the determines civilization's fate, but rather how we respond to it.

Practical solutions for global warming

I have been emphasizing local actions regarding global warming, specifically in the building sector. It is not a new idea. David Cobb has a column in the current issue of the Eureka Times-Standard regarding Local ways to act on global warming. He defines the crux of the problem as ourselves.

Mark Twain once quipped, “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it.” That's what many of us felt about the looming crisis that global climate change represents.

Cobb goes on to recommend that people adopt the Personal Global Warming Action Plan from the Redwood Alliance's Climate Actions Project. That is probably a good start.

Welcome to the future.

I have been hammering away at the idea of addressing global warming by making changes to our local community development regulations, especially building codes. The way to do that is through local planning commissions, one place where local individuals have a chance to make a difference and where a political party with little or no power (not having many elected officials) can leverage their limited power through public advocacy to make change happen.

The problem is very well defined on the web site of Architecture 2030, a project sponsored by the non-profit organization New Energy Economy.

Two profound, life changing events are converging to create the most significant crisis of modern time— the warming of the earth’s atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, and the rapid depletion of global petroleum and natural gas reserves. As these events intensify over the coming years, they will dramatically change how we live and how we relate to the natural world.- Architecture 2030.

While the media gives us talking head focusing on the transportation sector, New Energy Technologies is talking about policies that promote high performance buildings. If you had followed the link for Architecture 2030 above, you would have seen that the building sector requires 76% of our electrical energy consumption just for building operations... not including industrial production. If we are going to address the problem of global warming in any reasonable time frame, it must focus on the building sector. New Energy Economy made that point.

The American Institute of Architects, a 74,000-member organization, recently declared that to meet our responsibility in keeping global warming under 2°C we must adopt the following goals:

• All new buildings, developments and major renovation projects should be designed to use half the fossil fuel energy they would typically consume by 2010.
• By 2030 buldings should be carbon neutral, meaning they will use no fossil fuel energy to operate.

Architects will only design to the requirements of their clients. Developers will only develop what they can make a profit on. We must give both the incentives to follow the AIA guidance. That means making fundamental changes to building codes, not in a prescriptive manner, but as a performance requirement. If we do not, then we will always hear that "Green Buildings are too expensive." Tell architects to innovate and they will do it.

The Eco-Action Commmittee of the Green Party US, lost a vocal activist over the failure of the party to take on the question of carbon taxes in an active, aggressive manner. The rest of us need to stay the course and work at the level where we can accomplish something, our own home towns. We dare not allow the developer community to steamroll this effort.

I am scheduling time with my local planning commission on March 13, 2007. I will present a formal request that the planning commission adopt the AIA guidelines as requirements for all projects. Acting now, we can be ready to implement by 2010. Delay this to 2010 and we may not like the consequences.

Welcome to the future. We are building it now.

How long can you tread water?

The Green Party of Canada is taking a strong stand regards global warming, a stand that the GP US has, to date, not made much of. On February 16, the Green Party of Canada hosted a forum on the Moral Obligations of Climate Change.

According to Canadian Green leader, Elaine May, you can absorb it all in one minute. While Canada signed the Kyoto Accord and the US did not, this is not a legal issue. rather, I agree with May that it is a moral imperative to do something. Referring to the Kyoto accords May gets it right.

WHY we should meet them (Other than being legally bound?): Because the necessary reductions in atmospheric carbon to avoid catastrophic local and global impacts will be at least 30% below 1990 by 2020, 50% by 2030, 80% by 2050. Missing our Kyoto targets places us in an even more difficult situation in the next phase. Further delay, denial, and procrastination is not an option.

Then, I turn around and quote our own Vice President, Dick Cheney.

I think there's an emerging consensus that we do have global warming. You can look at the data on that, and I think clearly we're in a period of warming. Where there does not appear to be a consensus, where it begins to break down, is the extent to which that's part of a normal cycle versus the extent to which it's caused by man, greenhouse gases, et cetera.

Not even George W. pushes this bull anymore. After all, he has been going to ethanol plants for photo-ops.

We saw in New Orleans that our failures to act did not affect the rich and poor alike. Those who suffered the most were, for the most part, black and poor.

It will be the same if we fail to act again. It will be 20 million in Bangladesh displaced by rising water. It will be the poor of Mozambique who have just taken the force of a Cat 3 Typhoon after flooding left 120,000 displaced. And, if that is not bad enough, the next typhoon in that area looks to be developing to a Category 4. The Image below shows Typhoon Gamede in the center and the remains of Flavio over Mozambique on the left. A full discussion of this image is at Chris Mooney's blog, Intersection.

What the Democrats mean about Reform

I have a couple of things to comment on tonight. Not the least of which is that I found a good description of what the Democrats mean by reform at Daily Kos. There are a number of us who understand that to mention you are a Green at dailykos.com and you will bring down the wrath of the horde. However, there are more than a few who tell the story straight there also. I always included dengre in that list.

I might now have to include the Devilstower. This is a better example of real journalism than most of the stuff there.

After the Democrats pushed the corruption issue, taking special glee in the downfall of Tom DeLay, they have to now take a look at themselves. According to Devilstower...

It was former Majority Leader Tom Delay's golf trip to Scotland — courtesy of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff — that inspired many recent reforms.

Still, that hasn't stopped Congressman Hoyer from planning his own lobbyist-financed, springtime getaway. He's headed to the Rio Mar Beach Golf Resort and Spa in Puerto Rico.

Hoyer would be quick to tell you that, unlike Delay's outing to Scotland, this golfing trip is strictly legal. And he's right. Because it's not really Hoyer that's doing this retreat. It's Hoyer's PAC.

Pete McCloskey was fond of saying that politicians were like diapers... they need to be changed regularly, and for the same reasons.

Once more, the Feds evade responsibility

The history of water in California is a history of promises broken and solutions dissolved. As with anything political, anything that appears to be frozen into law will melt when enough heat is applied.

This time the Bureau of Reclamation has come up with a cockamamie plan to transfer one of it's biggest liabilities to those who benefit from their lack of planning. While that might seem to be a good idea, it is, in fact telling the foxes that they are not the guards of the hen house.

I have obtained a copy of the Bureau of Reclamation's Powerpoint Congressional Breifing. As one environmental water advocate said...

"The message is even clearer. If i grow subsidized crops with water subsidized by the Feds, and create a toxic waste stream from my farming, BuRec will seek ever more creative ways to make me richer."

This one is getting close to home. My local water district gets part of it's water from the same San Luis Reservoir. We are paying extra now to alleviate problems with water condition when the reservoir reaches low water points in the summer. Now, I am learning that the farmers of the Westlands Irrigation District are creating more problems for everyone and, in effect ruining that land that they are farming.

It appears to me that the political party structures in this state, no matter which party we talk about, are ineffective in dealing with independent districts, such as Westlands. The application of political power, the deals that take place outside of public view, all serve those special interests that no politician will admit they listen to.

I do not yet have any solutions to this. I do know that it is necessary to do everything we can to make sure that all of this happens in the public view.

Wes

Water water everywhere

nor any drop to drink.

That line from William Cooper's Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner has almost become an advertising slogan for environmental organizations and reverse osmosis marketers. Today, Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (Dem. - Davis), chaired a hearing of the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee on the subject of Climate Change and Water Resources. The conclusion was that we will get less snow and more rain. That means we are not going to be storing as much water as snow in the mountains and will need more storage capacity just to maintain our current populations and lifestyles.

I have been collecting an increasing amount of information about water resources in California. Now, I find that there is an organization that concerns itself specifically with the subject of Wolk's hearing. The California Water Impact Network

C-WIN has published a set of Principles for a Sustainable Water Future in California They look reasonable and a number of environmental organizations have signed on to them.

In an email exchange with the Secretary of Cal-WIN, Dorothy Green, I was told that...

We would welcome having the Green Party endorse these principles, and helping to get the word out about how badly we are managed now, and not in the public interest. I would love to have an opportunity to speak to the group, or provide you with more information as you wish

It seems that there is enough here now for me to start on the task I promised Shane Que Hee that I would do... revise the water plank of the Platform. However, for those of you in the LA area who can easily contact Dorothy, it seems to me that she would be a good resource.

Chose the target, make a plan, then act.

The following is a slight expansion of a post that I sent to the national Eco-Action Committee today. I have expanded it to give a bit more information, added some additional links for better navigation, etc. I would like to suggest that the plan I mention here is very much applicable to California and the GPCA. I am sure that it is quite in line with what OneSoCalGreen says.

I have just finished watching a teach-in hosted by the NY Academy of Scientces and sponsored by the American Institute of Architects, the Green Buildings Council and the Home Depot Foundation and a large group of other traditional funders, Rockefeller Foundation, etc.

The presenters were:
Dr. James Hansen, NASA Climatologist renowned for being muzzles by the Bush Administration.
Edward Mazria, American Institute of Architects and the Architecture 2030 project.
Chris Luebkeman. Director and leader of Arup’s global Foresight and Innovation initiative. Arup is a Consulting Engineering firm specializing in sustainable design.

You can find a list of the people from California who participated in the teach in here. If you want to read the presentations / materials, you can do so from this page:


I came away from this with the following observations.

1. Putting the primary focus of our global warming / climate change efforts on transportation is missing the biggest target. While transportation accounts for 27% of our energy usage, with corresponding CO2 emissions, the building sector accounts for 40% from building operations and another 8% from embedded energy load. Maybe we are picking the wrong target and should focus instead on sustainable buildings / sustainable cities.

2. Per Dr. Hansen, 25% of our ghg emissions will still be in the atmosphere for 500 years, no matter what we do now. From this, he had a chart that shows we can not afford to wait 20 years before we start taking actions.

3. Edward Mazria presented some very concrete things that the architectural design industry should be doing in order to bring the CO2 footprint of our buildings below 1990 levels by 2030. That is possible when you consider that 75% of the world-wide sq ft space will either be constructed or remodeled between now and then. That is called the 2030 Challenge. The goal is....

That all new buildings, developments and major renovations be designed to meet a fossil
fuel, greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting, energy consumption performance standard of 50%
of the regional (or country) average for that building type.

4. Dr. Hansen made the case that acting now is a moral imperative... that we are responsible for the world in which our children and grand-children will live. Part of this is to stretch the oil and gas reserves that we have to make them last as long as we can. We are on a track to use them up even faster.

5. While some of the suggested solution tasks are particular to the design industry (develop new tools that provide for instant analysis of the energy impact of design alternatives) there are a number which involve local approaches and regulations. What would the world be like if the performance standard quoted above were to be required before any local building permit was issued? If so, we would go a long way toward meeting the goal of pre-1990 levels of fossil fuel use.

Since I have joined this group, I have been a bit frustrated that what we do is in many ways totally disconnected from the things that really matter. The Green Party exists in order to be able to take political action. There are a number of scientists and intellectuals who can churn the numbers on carbon emissions and forecast what various levels of carbon taxes might achieve in reducing those emissions. When I ask myself what we can do that they can not, the list is very short, but points the way toward increased effectiveness as a political party.

I am asking that everyone on the Eco-Action Committee review the charts from Dr. Hansen and Edward Mazria. Following that, I would like to see the Eco-Action Committee confirm the goals of the 2030 Challenge.

If we can agree on that, then I want to see the Green Party take the following steps.

- Act to place a Green Party Member on the Planning Commission of every city and town where we have an organization. While many locals, county councils, etc. are focusing their energy on impeaching Bush, getting of Iraq and Immigration, acting on the local level begins with understanding our place in the environment and, more specifically how to create sustainable communities (click About Cities & Urbanism).

- Provide the materials and support that will guide that member in getting the 2030 Challenge Goals inserted into local building codes. This already exists. It should be a no - brainer for those communities that have signed on to the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.

When our CoCo, Mike Ewall, was looking for success stories from Green Office Holders, we had a nearly resounding silence. As part of what we do regarding the 2030 Challenge, we must...

- Provide a clearinghouse of what is working and what is not working for Greens across America. This is intended to augment what I linked from the Green Institute above and should focus on environmental concerns.

At a minimum, I want to put this on the agenda for our next telecon. Between now and then, I also want to turn this into a proposal, to accept or reject. I would also ask that this belongs in the Green Issues WG 2 year plan.

Getting Ready for the future

One of the heroes of the environmental movement has been NASA's James Hansen. Now, Hansen is involved with the 2010 Imperative, an effort by the American Institute of Architects and the NY Academy of Sciences to educate the public about global warming. This is a web cast "teach in" that takes place tomorrow. It should be worth viewing.

The very way that the ask their primary question "Are you being trained for the world you will inherit?" would indicate that they answer is "no' and that they have an alternative.

Is it mainstream to be green?

I was a bit surprised by the prevalence of environmental material that I have received in the last 24 hours. Some of it came from the internet, where Sen. Boxer's newsletter to her public was headlined "Improving Fuel Economy to Reduce Greenhouse Gases". It is what you would expect from the Chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee.

But, I also live in the small "edge city" of Morgan Hill. We have a local newpaper (Morgan Hill Times) that published only twice a week: Tuesday and Friday. This week, it had the following environmental stories:

• a guest column by the Environmental Programs Administrator, City of Morgan Hill.
• editorial regarding the cleanup of a spill into Uvas Creek.
• announcement that the local Chamber of Commerce is seeking nominations for it 2nd annual Sustainable Quality Award.
• a story on the fact that the City of San Jose will address climate change in its draft EIR for a major expansion into Coyote Valley.

I mention all of this because, if we are beginning to let our guard down, to focus on other issues just now, we are creating an opening for those who would distort environmental concerns for their own advantage. As it becomes politically necessary for a candidate to establish their "green" credentials, these distortions become easy to enact into policy. For example:

• two presidential candidates, McCain and Obama, make an issue of alternative fuels, meaning ethanol from corn. Ethanol from corn is neither cost effective nor is it moving us toward a long term solution to our oil dependencies.
  
• California's central valley congressional delegation is lining up behind a "deal" to transfer responsibility for the operation of a major irrigation project from the Bureau of Reclamation to the Westlands Water District. (other links to this story: Fresno Bee, LA Times, Sacramento Bee, Contra Costa Times. ) I know the work of a number of the authors of these stories (Martin, Doyle, Whitney, Taugher) and they are good journalists with an environmental conscience.
  
• Westlands Irrigation District has a history of exploiting resources and avoiding responsibility. Their current plans for circumventing regulation include the purchase of a private fishing club on Shasta Lake to clear the way for raising the level of Shasta and providing more water for irrigation.

Getting to real solutions to problems such as I just outlined require us to continue to pay attention to what is happening to our environment and to not allow organizations like Westlands to corrupt the process through their ability to control the election of candidates to Congress, or even to elect a president. These battles are have not been won and turning away will only mean that we allow the likes of Westlands or Archer-Daniels-Midland to control the political process.

Going to Sonoma...

There are a number of us who will not be in Sonoma next weekend. Many of us would like to feel that we have some input into the process that will take place there. Whether we do or not will be a test of how much the GPCA believes in Grassroots Democracy. So far, I have seen grassroots reaching down as far as a County Council, but that is still the leadership. Some County Councils are very much in touch with their members. Others may not be.

One SoCal Green who, like me, will not be there, has offered his input. Not to steal Roger's words, since his are better than mine would have been, I can say that I agree with his three major points.

1. Speak to America in plan American-speak -- not political-cant nor activist rant.
2. Politely educate on the 10KV
3. Go Local

Orval Osborne had previously posted here about "Why the Green Party and our Priorities." I would consider that this too, should be an input to the Sonoma session.

I have posted previously about the difference between trying to be the political embodiment of the progressive movement and being Green. As Roger pointed out, they are not the same.

To all of this I would only add that, if we want people to vote Green, then we must live Green.

Greens 4 Democracy

I tried to visit the GDI web site this week and found that it requires a password to look at it. That makes me wonder about the status of this group. At one time, Greens for Democracy and Independence made a lot of noise about the future of the Green Party. Now, it seems to be silent, either no longer having a web site to maintain or having gone underground.

My curiosity was aroused because one of the features of the Strategic Retreat being held in Sonoma Feb. 24-25 is a speech by Cynthia McKinney. This would once have set off a firestorm of protest about "fusion" efforts in the GPCA.

What is going on with GDI as an organization? The originally stated goals were attractive but now I wonder if anyone cares. I wonder to what extent the members of the "Million Votes of Peace" slate will participate in the retreat and, if they do, whether it will be constructive or confrontational.

Budget time

I listened to Ted Kennedy talk to Charlie Rose today. I had not done the math before, but Kennedy is the 3rd longest serving Senator in history. (longest was Strom Thurmond). But I digress.

Kennedy made the comment to Rose that the Government's budget was a moral document. It defined our priorities. I wonder if you could consider the budget of a political party to be a moral document as well. Does it not defined what is important enough to spend our scant resources trying to accomplish?

With Committee and Working Group budgets due now, how well do we live up to our own moral code?

Re-envisioning the Delta again.

I always come back to the issues surrounding water in California and the problems of the Sacramento / San Joaquin Delta. There are two reasons to bring this up again.

One is the publication of a new study from the Public Policy Institute of California entitled "Envisioning Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta"

The second is a related editorial in the Sacramento Bee yesterday, February 11, 2007. The conclude...

Several government reviews of the Delta are under way. A bill to build
the Peripheral Canal is before the California Legislature, but even proponents are waiting for more facts and studies before any big push begins. The environmental community, in general, is holding fire. Contra Costa County and Delta farming interests reject the premise that today's system can't be fixed in a way to protect their interests. If only the Earth were flat, or not warming.

Beware of anything feeling like a timid tinkering with a troubled system. The Delta's problems demand state leaders to go way beyond the comfort zone. At this point, everything uncomfortable should be on the table. PPIC and UC Davis, to their great credit, may have just shaken the water world to its senses.

I just hope to hell that some of you are paying attention to this. If there is any political organization that should be standing up and helping to define the objectives here, it is the Green Party. The Republicans of the Central Valley are totally beholden to the interests of big agriculture and big developers. The Democrats are themselves so concerned about development (after all a developer named Tsakopoulos funds a lot of them) that you should question everything that comes out of the mouths of their leaders, like Perata, though his latest moves have the appearances of being positive.

Perata, D-Oakland, has been reorganizing Senate committees and announcing new committee leaders in recent days. Earlier this week, he caused a stir among water experts when he tapped Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, to head the newly formed Natural Resources and Water Committee.

Perata's move strips water legislation from (State Sen. Michael - Linden) Machado's old agriculture committee and places it under the purview of a panel with more environmentalists than farmers. The two groups often bicker about how best to allocate California's scarce water supply.

Green Party Rising?

There are several recent developments that indicate the Green Party is getting the increased stature that we all would like to see.

The Federal Elections Commission has recognized that Green Senate Campaign Committee. Comments by commoner1.

Chlorophyll discussion of the 2008 Presidential Race.

The Huffington Post political blog site has a Green Party section on it.

I note that Cynthia McKinney has been announced as a speaker for the Green Party California Strategic Retreat, February 23-25. I know that she has been approached before, but has consistently ended up by staying in the Democratic Party. I would think that she would have to be totally convinced that she has no future as a Democrat before she would make this jump. Still this meeting is being sponsored by the GPCA Campaign and Candidates Working Group, so that might mean something. California has the largest Green Party registration and has a large influence on the ultimate choice.

There is also the perennial discussion as to whether or not Nader will run yet again. Nothing said or not but a Nader 2008 tee shirts and coffee mugs are all over the internet.

The Green Party of the United State will hold it's national meeting in Reading, PA this coming July. The big question will be the one of what to do about a Presidential Campaign in 2008.

With Pete Camejo undergoing treatment for cancer and David Cobb having said that he is not running again this time the field is wide open for someone if the Party chooses to have a candidate. I might support a Cynthia McKinney or a Dennis Kucinich, but only if they were to renounce the Democratic Party and register as a Green in their home state.

Report from Monterey County

One of the more active voter registration leaders within the GPCA, Tim Smith, has posted a Report from Monterey County on several of the GP email lists (full text below).

I see two things here. The first is that this voter registration happened along with a signature gathering effort for a very contentious local issue. I believe that a major reason for it's success stems from that fact.

That begs the question as to why the registration was skewed so solidly to the Green Party. There are two factors at work here. The first is the fact that those who signed the Initiative were probably more inclined to think about government in a manner similar to what the Green Party is all about. The second is the fact that there is a profound dis-satisfaction with both major parties in the nation and specifically in California. Schwarzenegger, presumably the standard bearer for the Republican Party, seeks to distance himself from its more ideological positions and is as frequently criticized by his own party members as he is by the opposition Democrats.

The dissatisfaction of the electorate has been well documented by the Public Policy Institute of California. p. 5

Political party membership has also declined over the past 16 years. The percentage of California adults registered as major party voters has dropped from 54 percent to 43 percent. There were 12 million voters registered as Democrats and Republicans in 1990; there are 12 million today. Almost all the growth in registration rolls has been in “decline to state”—independent voters who choose not to declare membership in one of the two major parties. For the first time in modern California history, the majority of adults do not belong to one of the major parties.

It is our challenge as to what we will do about it. Tim has suggest one course of action.

A Report From Monterey

Last month, January '07, the Land Watch organization in Salinas, filed a referendum on the pro-developer, Monterey County General Plan passed by the Board of Supes, 4 - 1, at its Jan 3rd Meeting... This General Plan approves major development throughout the Salinas Valley, which will create, (critics charge) a southern extension of Silicon Valley and San Jose, which is about an hour north... Obviously, billions of dollars are at stake in the developement of this plan...

To contest the vision of such an environmental nightmare, (where water is scarce, where roads and schools are lacking, where prime farm land, in the heart of "America's Salad Bowl", is being swallowed up by urban sprawl) Land Watch and it's allies hired a crew of about 15 signature gatherers, who collected 15,000 sigs in about 11 days, or 6,000 more than the required 9,000... and my crew, including 8 Greens, were significant contributors to this effort...

I bring this up because, in the process of collecting signatures for this issue, we were also able to talk to Monterey county voters about broader political issues, and at times register them into the GPCA... We also collected the names and contact information of about 15 new Greens who are interested in being involved, in one way or the other, with GP discussions, meetings and/or potential action -- and hopefully to revitalize Monterey's GP local...

From my personal experience, i found voters still fed up with both the Democrats and the Republicans, and either willing to give a 3rd party a try, or wanting to register in some form, independently of the current 2-party duopoly. The following are the registration figures from my personal efforts, and i find they continue to speak eloquently about the true political aspirations and values of average voters and citizens statewide...:

Total Registered	52
Greens	24	(46.2%)
Democrats	13	(25.0%)
Decline to State	9	(17.3%)
Republicans	4	( 7.7%)
Other	2	( 3.8%)

Overall, we registered about 40 Greens, and Monterey's Green Registrations jumped from 1,323 to 1,355, for a net gain of 32 Greens, in the time between the county's 12/19/06 registration report to the 1/23/07 report...

Imagine if we could sustain a spirited registration drive statewide!


"I am well aware that there is no revolutionary action without revolutionary theory, but I am essentially a man of action. Since my student days I have always been in the front line of the struggle, and this has taught me a lot" -- Salvador Allende

What are they trying to do with the Delta?

Periodically, I come back to the question of the Delta and try to hammer home the fact that what happens in the Delta does not stay in the Delta. It affects all of us in California in ways that most don't even realize. So, we the people continue to ignore the situation, just as those in New Orleans ignored the status of their levees, until a catastrophe happened. And, just like in New Orleans, when it happens, and it will, we will all ask why didn't "they" do anything.

To paraphrase Walt Kelly's Pogo, "We have met the "they" and they is us."

Loss of faith in our political leadership

This is a busy morning, three posts and I may not be done. Let me give a top of the morning hat tip to Lisa Taylor for alerting me to the latest Steven Hill OpEd in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Hill tries to answer the question "Why have Californians lost so much faith in their political leadership?" He does a pretty good job of marshalling the statistics to support the fact of such a loss. His references to the Public Policy Institute of California surveys. From them, he extracts the following facts:

There is a widening breach between most of the 35 million people residing in California and the fewer than 9 million who actually vote. Today, the California adult population is approximately 46 percent white, 32 percent Latino, 12 percent Asian and 6 percent black. Yet, 7 in 10 likely voters are white while only 1 in 6 is Latino. A third of California adults are foreign-born, but 9 in 10 who frequently vote are native born.

It is not much of a stretch to say that Hill is not wrong to ascribe a cause - effect relationship to this.

I do not have any such statistics, but rather just a gut feel, that there profile of the likely voter is nearly exactly the profile of the Green Party and that just maybe this is a reason why the Green Party is not benefiting from the disillusionment with the Rumpocracy.

Like Hill concludes concerning electoral reform...

The population of California is changing before our eyes, and so must our antiquated political institutions and practices. We should avoid timidity and act now. Our state can ill-afford any delay.

I would only substitue "party" for "state" above.

Where will new leaders come from?

As those in this party age, like myself, we have to ask where the new leadership will come from. I see two things happening that are positive. One is the practice advocated by Pasadena Green, Roger Gray.

Roger is developing his own political resume by serving on the various boards and commissions that help run the Pasadena City Government. He seems to have served on everything except the Rose Bowl. At the same time, as Roger moves from one commission to another (currently on the Environmental Advisory Commission), he has worked to ensure that there is another Green in position to take his place.

Another approach is to utilize interns in a meaningful manner. I don't see this happening very much at all. We are pretty good at taking volunteers and working them as hard as they are willing to work, but having some sort of official internships may be a way to continue attracting young people to the party and keeping them involved.

Democracy Unlimited Humboldt County, headed by Green David Cobb, has advertised for interns to work with them in the summer and fall of 2007 and to develop new skills in community organizing.

It would seem to me that there are other areas where we could do something similar. For example, one might be to establish an internship to work with the Media Commitee. Our Press Secretary, Cres Vellucci, is very experienced as an editor and PR creator. So is Media Commitee member, Larry Cafiero.

Something to think about.

New ways of reaching out.

I love pottery, make some myself, a so I belong to two email lists related to clay. There were some surprising exchanges about Greens on one of them (ClayCraft) this week.

The owner of Claycraft is a Green from Mingeisota, now living and working in Mashiko, Japan. However, he was an active Green when living in Minneapolis and that shows in his posts to his own group.

Another potter posted the following to ClayCraft.

I've been wary of the Greens since Republican money was accepted by them back east. On the political compass I came out just below Gandhi. Economic Left/Right -5.00. Social Libertarian/Authoritarian -6.82. I'm still a Democrat. In my book, the Minnesota Democrats are real Democrats. The kind that inhabit DailyKos

The list owner replied by posting the 10 KV and elicited the following response.

Holy Cow! I'm a Green! Well, I actually knew that. My dad was a died in the wool Democrat, hobnobbed with the likes of Henry Jackson, Warren Magnusson, and Tom Foley. That's the kind of politics I grew up with.

Well, that discussion ranged far from clay. Yet that we do as people becomes part of what we do as artists, a fact that does not exempt politics.

I think that we do ourselves no good when we ignore the full range of all ten values and focus on just the hot button issue of the day. If that happens to be your hot button issue (Iraq, impeachment) then OK. But, to do so as a "progressive strategy" is only a way to try and change the Democratic Party, not to build the Green Party.

Day of Remembrance

I copied the following as the result of an event notification from the Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles. It would seem to me that the subject of this session is of particular interest in that Greens do not trust this administration (who does?). While I will not be in Los Angeles to attend, perhaps some of you there might find it interesting. The rhetoric is much the same.

Day of Remembrance: "Military Necessity" to "National Security" ... The Use of Executive Power from WWII to Iraq

FREE ADMISSION

The Day of Remembrance is held each year to commemorate President Roosevelt's signing of Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. Roosevelt proclaimed "military necessity" and set into motion the removal and incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans with little or no challenge from congress or the nation.

The program for Day of Remembrance 2007 examines the use of Executive Power from both a historical and present-day perspective and explores the ways in which challenges to this presidential authority have been enacted. This year's program will serve as a catalyst for all Americans to evaluate governmental authority and ensure that elected officials adopt policies that uphold the constitution. Panelists will discuss the role of other branches of the federal government and the importance of activism in safeguarding civil liberties for all.

Participants include: Helga Aguayo, wife of Agustin Aguayo, the first U.S. soldier stationed in Germany to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq; Laila Al Marayati, spokesperson for Muslim Women's League; Honorable Xavier Becerra, Congressman of the 31st District of California and Assistant to the Speaker of the House; Lane Hirabayashi, George and Sakaye Aratani Professor of the Japanese American Internment, Redress, and Community, UCLA; Tadashi Nakamura, Filmmaker, Pilgrimage (2006); Cedrick Shimo, Private, 1800th Engineering Batallion (WWII).

For reservations, please call 213.625.0414.

A Change in the Political Climate

There is no longer any doubt in the mainstream media about Global Warming, or Climate Change, or whatever one wants to call it. The subject was even the headline story on the Nightly News with Brian Williams (NBC) twice this week.

The first hit came from Rep. Waxman's hearings on the political control of science information in the current administration. The second time was with the report today from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

I don't think that there is any real doubt about what is happening and why. The real question is one of what we are going to do about it. It is not just a matter of reducing the carbon footprint of our daily lives, as some viewers of Inconvenient Truth imply. It will affect everything we do. Areas now being farmed may become too arid to support agriculture. Coastal areas will inevitably become inundated. It is how we react to the crisis that will determine if we are really fit to be the survivors. It is time to reread Jared Diamond's "Collapse."

I have little faith in the current political process in the US being able to deal the extreme severity of the dislocations in society. The only political solutions will by necessity be Green.

The stench of sewage

When Carl Pope talked about the stench of sewage in S. California, he was not talking about the New River, though that is bad enough. This was about the connections between Republican politicians and business interests and where soon to be fired US Attorney Carol Lam was responsible for investigating and convicting "Duke" Cunningham.

Pope was particularly interested in the connections between Dick Cheney, Duncan Hunter and a project called Bajagua. This looks like another Dick Cheney no-bid contract waste of tax payer money. It would be more than interesting to know exactly how much money changed hands here.

It would also be a good thing to see the Green Party take a position in support of Carol Lam. Lam is just getting too close to too many Republican Politicians. After Cunningham, she has been investigating Jerry Lewis, once Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation and very much connected to the same people who were bribing Cunningham.

I ran in to the back story here while working against Richard Pombo last fall. When checking Pombo's actions in Congress connections appears to Jerrry Lewis, Duncan Hunter and John Doolittle (CA-4). All of us working on this campaign became familiar with those connections and shared our information as we found it. Then, downwithtyranny was very helpful to us as he continued his own fight against Cunningham's Republican successor, Brian Bilbray. He is now actively working to help continue Lam's work.

Warren Buffett and the Klamath Dams

Most people would not know how much Warren Buffett affect the economy of California. He is one of the major stockholders in Midwestern Energy Holdings Co. which in turn recently purchased Pacific Power, an electric company that owns and operates four private dams on the Klamath River. They primarily serve the very Northern California and Southern Oregon.

There dams are now the center of a major controversy. Their license to operate these dams is up for renewal (every 50 years) and the US Government has ordered Pacific Power to make major changes in the manner in which these dams are operated.

I bring up this subject because there are many separate issues that come together and they are all political.

• With the dams blocking the river, salmon have limited access to spawning grounds.
• Were that not enough, the US Government had cut off much of the Klamath flow in 2002 to provide additional irrigation capability for Klamath basin farms.
• The result is a shortage of salmon and a curb on commercial salmon fishing this year.
• Removal of the dams would make a significant difference in the cost of electricity generation for Pacific Power.
• Alternative to this hydro-electric power may have a high carbon cost.

As I said, it is not simple. The opponent to the dams include Indian Tribes with treaty rights to salmon, fishermen (both sports and commercial), environmentalists, all joined together in a Klamath Basic Coalition.

The only Green I know of who has opened their mouth about this effort is David Cobb. Back in October, he contributed an OpEd column for the Eureka Times-Standard in which he called for the removal of the dams.

We need more outspoken Greens, getting their commentary into the local papers. It is one additional way to build the party and we need not rely on some Media Committee to do it for us because too many media producers consign Green Party press releases to the round file.

Do polls tell us where to spend our energy?

• The GPCA has only a limited amount of energy to expend and that means we can give the highest level of attention only to a limited number of issues. Are public opinion polls of value in determining where that energy is best spent?

The most recent survey from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) has released a new study entitled Californians and their Government: January 2007. Given that the aim of the PPIC is to improve public policy in California, this is about as good as any survey will be.

One of the more interesting facts out of this survey is that the number on issue for people in the State of California is "immigration / illegal immigration". I note that the wording of the question (pg. 27) uses exactly that terminology, both the positive "immigration" and the negative "illegal immigration". The question asked the responder to select "which one issue facing California today do you think is the most important for the governor and state legislature to work on in 2007?". The ranking of the responses was:

• 22% immigration / illegal immigration
• 18% education / schools
• 13% health care / health costs
• 10% other
• everything else was less than 10%.

The immigration issue has not gone away after the demonstration of 2006 and that is both a challenge and an opportunity for the GPCA. It is our choice. While Greens have been very much involved in some of the immigration demonstrations, it appears to me that we have not followed through with organizational action, a curious lapse when the President of the Mexican American Political Association is a Green. There is an open question as to how we should proceed and I don't hear much discussion. If this is truly the most important issue, we probably should be doing more.

The Tahoe GA approved an update to the platform regarding immigration. A translation of that platform by Rocío Guido-Ferns (09-2006) can be found here. At the very least, we should have this translation available for distribution when tabling.

SOTU

While most of the media attention given Bush's SOTU speech was focused on Iraq and the position of Nancy Pelosi, environmentalists had their own take, based mainly on the expectation that some had over the possibility of a new position on Auto Emissions and Global Warming. Seed Magazine's Chris Mooney dispels any notion as to whether that happened.

In California, the Governator has staked a position much closer to what environmentalists want. He has championed new emissions standards in his State of the State Speech. In reality, he has assigned the task of defining those standards over to the University of California (Davis and Berkeley) experts.

There is a GPCA Energy email list with 42 members ids, but 15 of those are bouncing. The rate of activity on the list is low. It exists mainly for sharing information, not for providing any organized GPCA action regarding global warming, energy policy or any other related subject. It would appear that there is not enough energy in the GPCA itself for organized activism on more than a couple of issues and energy is not on the list of issues this year (Iraq war, immigration, health care, IRV).

There are a lot of Greens who are taking specific personal action to cut down on their own carbon footprint, but I wonder if that is enough.

Ending Racism

The following content originated with Kevin Zeese and has been circulated on a number of Green Party email lists.

If you think we've come a long way on race issues, look at these two
links below and you will think again. Very brief reports, but very
disturbing.

http://www.komotv.com/home/video/5001856.html?video=YHI&t=ao

Kiri Davis' film, reviewed in the above link is at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjy9q8VekmE

She says a lot in 7:15 minutes. More than many say in a lifetime.

If there is any political party that should be above this, you would think that it would be the Green Party. We pride ourselves as being above all of that. When reading some email's about the Democratic Party, I can almost see the sneer curling the lips of the writer. But still, there is a need to act. There was even a proposal to "end racism, sexism and classism in the GPCA". That anyone would feel the need to do this in the 21st Century is almost incomprehensible.

When I read Hunter Bear's recounting of Arizona life in the 1950's, it jogged my memory. Living through those events as a teen, I sensed that this was a time of change. I guess I was too optimistic.

Personal rights and the commons

We are heading into a time when there are hard decisions to be made about issues of personal right, collective rights and rights held in common. While that distinction may seem to be rather arcane and philosophical to most, what we do about it will help determine whether or not we are successful as a party. It is not without reason that the number one blog site for Greens is called Green Commons.

Let me give two current examples that illustrate what I am talking about. David Cobb most recent OpEd piece in the Eureka, CA Times-Standard talked about a "hate fest" featuring a writer named Holly Swanson. One might easily pass off Swanson as being a professional agitator who is taking advantage of any and all opportunities to enrich herself by railing against Greens, pink-Communists, environmentalists and everyone else who does not listen to right-wing AM Talk Radio. That would be a mistake.

Swanson is currently focusing her rhetoric on Greens.

The concept of sustainability, the idea of leaving the world a better place, is not the issue. The problem is that public support for the general concept of sustainability is being used to impose the Green’s political agenda. A prime example of this is Education for Sustainability. This program, although presented as non-partisan, reflects the goals of the international Green parties. - from her web home page.

Swanson is a very visible spokesperson for the wise use movement in the West. Along with Chuck Cushman of the American Land Rights Association, she puts a public face on a set of principles that many would like to see die out. They are both part of the wise use movement and represent a philosophy that anything you do on or with your own property is OK. The idea that there is any part of nature that we own in common, such as fresh water or the air we breathe, is a total anathema to the them.

The questions regarding water in California are also going to demand that we address the idea of what we own in common. The basic law of water in the West is one of prior use. If you have had the right to use the water, that right can not be taken away from you. Now, it is recognized that fresh, drinkable water is not infinitely available and various interests are lining up to get their share before someone else does. However, even as I write the, we have to understand that water is over allocated now. That was recognized in the last century (1999).

To take this back to Humboldt County, where I started, nowhere is this playing out more obviously than in the Klamath River basin. Demands on the water for farm irrigation have crossed paths with demands for the water to sustain fish populations. The last time, farmers prospered and not, we subsidize the fishing industry. Private Dams control the flow of water, generate electricity and profits for the 2nd richest man in the US, Warren Buffett. Greens should be involved just to support the rights of indigenous people. We should be involved because the only viable solutions are those which are sustainable, no matter what Holly Swanson might say.

That issue of what we own in common is in the middle of the Delta fight as well. The battle will go on between Southern California Developers, Local (Delta) developers and Central Valley agriculture. Of particular interest is the fact the the increase in water exports from the delta results in increasing salinity, especially in the West Delta where the pumps headed South are located. The Stockton Record (Jan. 25, 2007) had an informative article on the salinity problem. One sentiment posted in response was that we should ...

Warn SoCal that in ten years water from the delta will no longer be exported to them. Let 'em build desalinators along the coast and pay several hundred dollars per month for household water. That's what those living in the desert southland should expect to pay for water!

Greens have an opportunity to make a difference in this fight. We just have to figure out whether it is important enough to devote our energy to it. Right now, we are not a player and I see no evidence that we are going to be. Yet, this is to California's future what the Iraq War in to America's future.

Redwoods Forever

This is a reminder for all of you who thanks Julia Hill for here participation in the South Central Farm fight. Even when you win, you might lose. It would have appeared that Julia had a victory of sorts out of her historic tree living experience. If you thought so, you did not consider the real character of Charles Hurwitz and just how far he will go to to make $$ from our natural legacy.

The Pacific Lumber Co. has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing the environmental restrictions on their logging as the reason that they can not pay the service on their debt. They are asking the courts to set aside those restrictions so that they can harvest more trees without restriction and stay in business.

The courts should allow Pacific Lumber to fold. Maybe, with Hurwitz stripped of ownership as the recent changes in Congress has stripped him of his legislative protections (De Lay and Pombo, unfortunately not Doolittle... yet) there is a chance for a rational solution to this confrontation of ideals. Hurwitz still holds on to a 19th Century vision of the relationship between man and nature. He is a taker, not a creator.

California Greens, in particular those of the Emerald Region, have an opportunity to take a stand for the environment, for the recognition that there are things we own in common (the air, fresh water) and against the rapacious greed of corporate raiders like Hurwitz and his Maxxam gragging and holding company.

Week in review

There is a lot going on this week that hits right at what should be the major targets of GP efforts.

Ongoing protest of Iraq War: I got this in my email yesterday. While it talks of a media event with Ciny Sheehan this morning, the protest at Representative Matsui's office is onling and has been for a couple of weeks. BTW. Matsui is another of those "not really against the war Democrats... rather like Howard Berman, whose LA County district is so close to Leftywood that I wonder how he continues to win re-election. I guess that the thought of electing a Green was too scary.

Please join Cindy Sheehan tomorrow, Monday, January 22, 2007, 9:30 am at the Federal Building, 501 I St, Sacramento. Cindy will support those asking Rep. Doris Matsui to publicly commit to voting against any more funding for the occupation of Iraq.

With $70 billion already approved, there is ample to bring the troops and bases home now! The peace-in will continue inside Doris Matsui's office from 8:30 am - 5 pm every day this week and until Matsui agrees to make a serious commitment to bringing our troops home by stopping further funding for the occupation. Bring ID to go through security check, no cameras. Stay a few minutes, few hours, or all day!

For more information, contact: sacendthewar@yahoo.com; 916-448-7157

Washington decides on Global Warming: Bush is dumb (pun intended) on the subject.

It appears that American Industry will support anything that gives them another way to manipulate the system to make more money. When it comes to fighting global warming, an op-ed in today's Washington Post indicates that Congress has already defined the solution to be a cap-and-trade policy. Just consider that the authorization bill is co-sponsored by Barack Obama and John McCain. It is also the same policy that Ahnuld wants for California. I wonder what inventive way Bush will find to ignore this issue in his SOTU speech tomorrow night.

Meanwhile in California, we continue to build more highways to empower more suburban developers. There was a time when Greens railed against sprawl. Now, in the latest version of our platform, the word hardly appears, though the concept of "ecological footprint" implies the opposite. Still, it is not a subject that appears with any frequency on GP email lists that I track.

It appears that in both Washington and Sacramento, cap-and-trade is in and greens are out. The national Green Party had a good response to this issue, aimed at DiFi too.

So, it is a time for action, on more issues than we can possibly have tiem for. Still, as I heard one teen volunteer say during an interview recently, "If not now, when? If now me, who?"

First among Firsts

The entry of New Mexico Governor Richardson into the presidential race gives the Democrats a chance to choose the first among firsts.

Hillary Clinton would be the first woman president.
Barack Obama would be the first African-American president.
Bill Richardson, despite his anglo name, would be the first Hispanic president.

There is a Green Party challenge in this, with special emphasis on identity politics.

To begin with, each of these candidates will have an obvious arguement that a vote for them is a vote for their identiy constituency. In many cases, these are the same voters that we would want to reach out to in the Green Party. We would be offering them ideas and ideals, policies that make sense. But a vote for Clinton, Obama or Richardson offers them a chance for power.

If you bring this back to California, where the issues raised by these constituencies have turned California into a very blue state we will be engaged in a fight for our political lives. These are are unusual times and they require unusual actions.

Besides the commonality of representing a frist, these three campaigns were similar in that they made their official announcements on the internet, reaching out to the netroots of the party. Beginning with Howard Deans campaign, the Democrats have learned how to do this very well. The Republicans have learned how to use the internet in other ways, being very skillful at using what they know about you to microtarget the messages you receive. All of that is stored in The Vault.

Every one of the Democratic initiatives is backed up with large amounts of cash, enough to pay for flashy, professional web sites. The Green Party depends on volunteers to keep things going. Most of the work on the GPCA web site is handled by one person when they are not attending to their day job or to family life. Similarly, the entire GPCA IT Committee is in the same position, doing the best that they can in the time that they can afford to give.

The challenges for the GPCA are very specific and how we meet them will determine if we have a future.

• Do we allow identity politics to cut us off from constituencies who need Green Solutions to real problems?
• Do we make a real effort to develop an effective netroots strategy, or allow the Democrats to claim that as their own special province? At least Vibes Watch has returned and is taking on LA area Green Issues.
  
• We have been most successful in terms of number in urban areas: LA and the San Francisco Bay Area. Do we continue to build there or do we reach out to the faster growing ares of the Inland Empire and Central Valley to grow our base?

I don't think we have a lot of time to spend making those decisions. Will the current focus on developing a Standing General Assembly get us there, or is that going to be a distraction? I would tend to believe the latter, since all of the energy spent on internal machinations only sucks that energy away from effective action in reaching out to the rest of the world.

Green Party Presidential Goals

We know that the media is all abuzz about the Democratic / Republican presidential ambitions of a wide range of folk. It easy fodder for Jay Leno who quipped that Hillary had to return early from Iraq because of a big problem at home.... Obama.

In the middle of this, there a bit of discussion going on about the 2008 GP nomination. It generally takes one of several well known paths.

Many people believe the the GP has no leadership with national name recognition and any charisma at all. So, they are constantly looking elsewhere for a candidate to support. Two name keep coming up: some want to forget the GP and support Ohio Rep. Kucinich. Other want to recruit Cynthia McKinney into the Green Party as a true candidate.

There are still some Greens who lack the name recognition, but who would like to use the race as a platform for their ideals. I've heard that Kent Mesplay is considering another attempt but would need to find a way to better fund his campaign than he has had in the past where lack of an organized staff has hurt his chances.

As for 2004 candidate, David Cobb, there are enough comments left on this blog to understand that he faces strong opposition from some in his own county. That fact, coupled with the emotional baggage we all have faced since the 2004 campaign would indicate that another attempt from Cobb is probably not a good idea. It would surely find people taking sides based on whether or not they originally supported either Nader / Camejo in 2004.

The final take is that we should focus on building the parties at the state / local level and just forget about a national race in 2008. I am not sure that this is a good idea either. The rationale for a national race is that the right candidate can bring many people into the Green Party.

We always have the arguement about "self-selected elitists" whose ego drives this. Well, let me name a few "self-selected elitists" who are busy right now: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, Rudy Giulianni, Sam Brownbeck, John Edwards, etc. To actually participate at this level, you must be willing to make a lot of sacrifices: work, family, time. You have to want to do it. So, that complaint does not carry much weight.

As for the GPCA, there are 7 seats available to us on the national Presidential Campaign Support Commimttee and only 5 of them are filled: Forrest Hill, Larry Cafiero, Susan King, Starlene Rankin, Jared Lahti. So, I will guess that we will have most of our say, even though I am not sure that we will get all of the votes we need on that committee.

When is the next GA?

The GPCA governance process leaves me shaking my head at times. To give a good example, the Coordinating Committee (CC) voted on Dec. 4, to hold the next General Assembly in San Francisco. No date was set, that being somewhat up to the local San Francisco Greens to find the appropriate date / venue and announce it.

At the same time, there was a meeting in San Mateo to consider the requirements for a "Standing General Assembly" that would allow decision making to take place without the need for a face-to-face GA. There are a number of things that, according to the bylaws, can only be decided by a GA.

What I found amusing was the criticism of the Media Committee for chosing to put information about the SGA meeting on the Green Party California web site while not putting information about the San Francisco GA there.

Now, I can think of a fewpractical reasons this happened.

1. There was an identified venue for the SGA meeting; not yet for the GA itself.
2. There was an actual date for the SGA meeting; not yet for the GA itself.
3. The CC has made no official announcement of the GA, maybe because of points 1 and 2 above.

Some people do find petty ways to try and score political points.

Potpourri

This is just a bundle of things that made me stop and think a bit, I hope that they do the same for you.

The first is Gregg Jocoy's commentary about what we Greens should do because the Democrats now in power will disappoint. It is from his York County (SC) Magazine Column republished on his blog. The Democrats won, so What Now?

Then, I note that April 14, 2007 is a Climate Change Day of Action, sponsored by stepitup2007.org. From their map, I note California events in Benecia, Mill Valley, San Mateo/Burlingame/San Francisco (sponsor not sure which one yet). Do you have energy to do something? Stepitup2007 is lead by Bill McKibben.

I almost fell asleep with the Chris Matthews show on Sunday Night. But, two topics were so scarry that they kept me awake. One was the way that Hillary is positioning herself to the center of everyone while Obama, Edwards, Biden, et. al. pose to the left. She may soon fall in with the Lieberman crowd base on the way that she reacted to the Bush speech by sending out press releases... from Iraq, of course.

That does not bother me as much as hearing Dan Rather speculate on the way that Bush is now escalating the rhetoric against Iraq. He was suggesting that what is planned is a joint US / Israel preemptive strike. Now, that is really scarry. I can think of no single act that would radicalize more new jihadists in the Middle East.

I have a new suggestion on Iraq and its nuclear ambitions. The US should announce that it will not support any Middle Eastern Country that has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. No signature, no aid. Even handed, and that includes Israel.

One last comment on the weather. It has been cold in Santa Clara County and we probably lost most of our citrus fruit. But, for those who say this is or is not an effct of Global Warming, maybe we should wait for Chris Mooney to finish his blog reports from San Antonio, where the American Meterological Sociey is holding its annual meeting, where there is a special series of talks on "Climate Change Manifested by Changes in Weather".

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. Gradually, the people of this nation have moved King from the position of being a slain leader into that of an icon, safely enshrouded in legend, admiration, a man whose very speeches are quoted, memorized even and repeated on the National Holiday that we have set in his honor.

Why then, was it still necessary in 2006 for the Green Party of California, to have a proposal to "end racisim" within the GPCA? It is something that I fail to comprehend. Yet, maybe by making a symbol out of the persona of King, we have gotten to the point that we no longer feel the need to deal with that which King spent most of his life fighting, a racism that is so deeply engrained in the human experience that eradication is a daily struggle.

My first experience of racism came as a high school student in the Flagstaff, AZ fo 1954. We had moved from a very small (< 300) town in rural Illinois to the much larger Flagstaff just as I moved from elementary scholl to high school. That was the year of Brown vs. Board of Education decision and the closing of Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary School, It was also the end of the time in which Dunbar's achievement meant much of anything around there. The principal of Dunbar Elementary School was Wilson Riles, later to become State Superintendent of Public Instruction here in California and whose son is an influential Oakland political figure and now a member of the Green Party.

The one thing that sticks in my mind now was the fact that the closing of Dunbar School only reinforced the pecking order of racial identiy that existed in Flagstaff at that time.

It is human to try and attain that which is denied to us. For the homeless, it may be the home. For the powerless, the goal becomes power and power is defined in our society by politics. The Green Party is not now seen as a pathway to power for the powerless. King's path to power was in the streets at a time when there was no other way. Now, with merely tacit recognition by the dominant political parties, the paths to power may seem to be dead ends.

What then, would pull the powerless to the Green Party?

2 year plans

Various Green Party Working Groups are putting together their 2 year plans and budget requests right now. I am involved with 2 working groups: Grassroots Organizing and Green Issues.

The mission of the Grassroots Organizing Working Group. (GROW) is...

To facilitate coordination and communication between local Green Party organizers and groups; and to provide resources for collaboration, skill sharing, and training in order to promote the strategic growth and diversity of the Green Party of California.

Given the two views of what we need to win elections that were posted by Patrick and Peter to the Elections 2008 thread, what should GROW be doing to help us achieve our goals. It seems to me that there is a lot of energy to organize protest around hot, in the new, right now issues but little energy to do the long range, back office, step by step, often thankless work of organizing to build the party and win elections.

Maybe, before commenting, readers could check the GROW activity by following the link above. Has GROW been doing the right thing all along?

What are the doing now?

It is rather an interesting exercise to see what some of our statewide race candidates are doing now.

We hear the Peter Camejo is undergoing treatment for cancer and wish him well. A press release went out from the Camejo Group and was repeated on Green Party CA lists.

Since the election I have heard next to nothing from Senate Candidate Todd Chretien. I have had email contact with Kent Mesplay. Tian Harter is in another category all together. He continues his involvement in local politics and his ever present photo montages. He has just put up another Contribution at AOL.

Forrest Hill is stil talking about elecdtoral reform as befits a candidate for Secretary of State. As an example of non-partisanship, I have referred the Revolt of the Elders Committee to Hill's perscription for electoral reform in California.

For those who are not familiar with them, the Revolt of the Elders is a group of mostly Republican leaders from government and the Congress in the 1970's who have decided to try and restore politics to the sense of public purpose and ethical behavior on which they based their own service. The leaders of the Elders are Pete McCloskey (Rep. from the last 1960's to the early 1980's) and Lew Butler, at one time the Undersecretary of Health Education and Welfare in the Nixon Administration.

The Revolt of the Elders Committee was a key factor in the defeat of Richard Pombo and plans to continue to target others in Congress who have failed their constituents while growing their bank accounts.

Election 2008

In case anyone needs a reminder, election 2008 has begun. If there is any single defeat that stung the Republicans, it was having Richard Pombo tossed unceremoniously onto the ash heap of history. In fact, the Republican National Committee has already started the counter-attack.

I have not seen the text, but here is what was reported on the votepomboout email list last night.

And we received our first "hit piece" since the election attacking
McNerney for "rewarding illegal aliens." At least it didn't mention
Pombo ("paid for by the National Republican Congressional
Committee") but I worry after the comment in a Vorderbrueggen
article several weeks ago saying Guy Houston waiting for Pombo to
decide about a rematch before Houston considered running in the 11th
when he terms out in 2008.

Did this flyer to go everyone in the district or just registered
Republicans?

My guess is that it was just registered Republicans, since I did not get a copy and I know that the person posting to that list is, even though they worked to dump Pombo like the rest of us.

The question I have for Greens: who is already planning for 2008?

Border Wars

If whiskey is for drinkin' and water for fighting over (Mark Twain) then immigration is not the ony border issue that we have with Mexico.
While baking my own version of a power bar (recipe posted on demand) last night I was tuned in to the California Connected on PBS station KQED, San Francisco. Last night, they covered the situation with the New River, flowing from Mexico into the US near Calexico. I will not go into the details...

• view it from California Connected site:
• read the history and the project from the Calexico New River Committee:

but will call attention to two relevant issues.

1. When this segment was originally shown in June, 2006, it was 109 in the desert. The river was so polluted that it had as much as 16 million bacteria / virus count when 260 is considered so polluted as to be hazardous to your health.
   
2. The Metropolitan Water District is looking at the New River as a future source of drinking water for LA.
   

Since that segment was filmed, the Calexico New River Community and it's supporters have had some effect. The City of Mexicali has brought a sewage treatment plant online. You can read about that in the segment update that accompanies the video at California Connected. Right now, the major effort is to raise $800,000 to help fund an Environmental Impact Report so that they can begin the total cleanup.

If the Metropolitan Water District really has plans to tap the New River as a source of drinking water, I suggest that they should put up the $800,000. Further, I would hope that LA County Greens would demand such action and give the entire question a public airing. Do the Citizens of LA really want to be drinking this?

Finally, to show that the New River is NOT a New Problem, I would quote the following from the highly ineffective International Boundary and Water Commission.

New River Border Sanitation Problem and Solution

On August 26, 1980 the IBWC submitted to, and the two Governments subsequently approved Minute No. 264, "Recommendations for Solution of the New River Border Sanitation Problem at Calexico, California-Mexicali, Baja California." Under this agreement Mexico is taking steps to provide an interim solution to the problem of the discharge of sanitary and industrial waste waters from the Mexican City into New River which flows north across the boundary. The recommended goal for a permanent solution is the elimination of sanitary and industrial wastes in the waters of New River crossing the boundary.

Excermental Gains

For some reason, I keep coming back to Los Angeles as being a source of environmental problems. In the past, I had limited this to consideration of LA's determination to continue growth at any cost and the inevitable thirst for water that this creates. LA has a long and dubious history of draining other regions dry in an effort to slake that thirst.

Now, rather than creating a problem with it's imports, Los Angeles is being challenged over it's exports, 26 times a day, 26 tons of sewage treatment plant sludge trucked to the Central Valley to go on fields to raise hay that is exported to Japan.

The title of this post is stolen from a Matt Jenkins article in High Country News. (subscription required). LA gets a purified water and the farmers of Kern County get ????. That is the problem. It is everyting that goes down the drain somewhere.

The problems are a regulatory mess. Once again you have the question of whether local jurisdictions (Kern County) can regulate what is imported to go on their land, or do less restrictive state and local regulations take precedent.

On Nov. 20, U.S. District Judge Gary Allen Feess ordered Kern County to lift its ban, saying it conflicts with the waste management act. He has forwarded the case to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is expected to send it to the California Supreme Court.

Regardless of what happens in court, the situation’s not going away. A Kern County victory will probably just divert the sludge to farms elsewhere, such as Arizona, at an increased cost to taxpayers. After all, whether one county wants it or not, sludge happens.

The environmental implications involved in this legal discussion are everywhere. In 2006, the Democratic controlled California State Legislature was working on a bill that would have stopped local jurisdictions from attempting to control the use of GMO's in local agriculture. Earlier in 2006, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would have overridden state measure like California's Proposition 65 that enforced strict labeling laws on food products.

Greens need look no further to find an issue that meshes well with the ten key values. The Kern County voters solidly supported a ban on importing sludge by a margin of 85% - 15%. It was that ban which the Federal Judge overturned.