From smderosa at cox.net Mon May 1 17:34:30 2006 From: smderosa at cox.net (smderosa) Date: Mon, 1 May 2006 17:34:30 -0400 Subject: {news} Article from Wethersfield Post On Mike DeRosa's Run for Sec. Of The State Message-ID: <20060501213431.DDFH16402.eastrmmtao06.cox.net@userb649154f63> HYPERLINK "http://www.jrcwebexchange.com/Shared/images/logos/wethersfieldsm.gif" HYPERLINK "http://www.jrcwebexchange.com/Shared/images/logos/wethersfieldsm.gif" HYPERLINK "http://www.jrcwebexchange.com/Shared/images/logos/wethersfieldsm.gif" HYPERLINK "http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16546161&BRD=1662&PAG=461&dept_id =11233&rfi=6"http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16546161&BRD=1662&PAG =461&dept_id=11233&rfi=6 DeRosa runs for Secretary of State as Green Party candidate By: G. C. Gould, Staff Writer 04/27/2006 HYPERLINK "javascript: openEmailWindow();"email this storyHYPERLINK "javascript: openEmailWindow();"Email to a friendHYPERLINK "http://www.zwire.com/site/?brd=1662&pag=795&newsid=16546161&action=submit"p ost a commentHYPERLINK "http://www.zwire.com/site/?brd=1662&pag=795&newsid=16546161&action=submit"P ost a CommentHYPERLINK "http://www.zwire.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=1662&dept_id=11233&newsid =16546161" \nprinter friendlyHYPERLINK "http://www.zwire.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=1662&dept_id=11233&newsid =16546161" \nPrinter-friendly Tired of politics as usual? Wethersfield resident and Green Party candidate for secretary of the state Mike DeRosa is, too. According to DeRosa, Democrats and Republicans are mirror images of one another that coalesce on the global economy. HYPERLINK "http://oascentral.zwire.com/RealMedia/ads/click_nx.ads/www.poweronemedia.co m/300X250.html/@Top?x" HYPERLINK "http://servedby.advertising.com/click/site=0000708474/mnum=0000349245/optn= 64?trg=http://clk.atdmt.com/AVE/go/dvrtmdm60010002452ave/direct;wi.300;hi.25 0/01/" \n HYPERLINK "http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/redirect.cfm?ADLOCATION=4000&PAG=461&B RD=1662"Click Here! "They don't pay attention to sustainability," he said. "The global economy dilemma is that instead of looking locally to see what we can grow, we buy from 20,000 miles away," he added. DeRosa used Wethersfield as an example. "There's no land left to develop, no industries, and no major financial operations." He suggested Wethersfield should look into alternative power, such as windmills, as well as producing new robotics technology. "We have the intellectual resources to put that into place," he said. Another impact of the problem with sustainability is global warming, according to DeRosa. He said there is an increase of type four, five, and six hurricanes due to global warming. The damage done by such hurricanes, as was seen with Katrina, can be extreme, he said. As secretary of the state, DeRosa would become directly involved in the voting process - something that has caused bitter controversy in national elections over the past few years. DeRosa, therefore, got involved with Voter Opportunity through Election Reform, or V.O.T.E.R. One of the initiatives of V.O.T.E.R. is to ensure as safe a voting process as possible. In Connecticut, the legislature and Governor M. Jodi Rell passed a method of voting which involves producing a paper trail of each vote that takes place, according to DeRosa. DeRosa is in favor of the voter-verified paper trail. In his description of the process, a voting machine would allow the voter to see his or her vote through a window. The machine would ask the voter if this is their vote. If the voter answers yes, the vote would then fall into a secure lock box, ensuring that the vote is correct and fairly accounted for. He said that 25 states have passed voter verified paper trail legislation. Complaining about current Secretary of the State of Connecticut Susan Bysiewicz, DeRosa said she has publicly supported a voter verified paper trail, but "she has been talking out of both sides of her mouth." Speaking on the process of incorporating in the state, DeRosa said that if he was elected secretary of the state, he would ensure that the corporations operate in a socially responsible way. "Corporations need to protect the environment and not engage in union busting. They need to be responsible and good neighbors," he said. DeRosa added that as secretary of the state, he would try to open up the system so that individuals can gain power without getting 51 percent of the vote. He gave the example of Wethersfield and other districts, where there must be at least three members of the council out of the total nine council members from parties other than the majority party. "I think we need to have major voices represented," said DeRosa. "The laws that govern election law are fixed so that two parties win. Minority parties that get 1 or 2 percent of the vote should get 1 or 2 at large seats in the house," he said. "This has been practiced in Europe all over the place. Having everybody represented in the legislature is a good idea," he added. There are currently about 2,500 Green Party members in Connecticut. At the recent Green Party convention, there were 60 persons present to decide who is running for which office. In the past, third party candidates have made lasting impacts on the American system of government. Eugene Debs brought up the issue of Social Security as early as 1912, and it was not finally passed until President Roosevelt adopted the legislation in the 1930s. The idea for the plan, said DeRosa, was all third party. The Green Party is an international party with members in Africa, Asia, Australia, South America, Europe and North America. The 10 key values of the party are: grassroots democracy, ecological wisdom, non-violence, decentralization, community- based economics, feminism, diversity, responsibility, and focus. ?Wethersfield Post 2006 HYPERLINK "javascript: openEmailWindow();"email this storyHYPERLINK "javascript: openEmailWindow();"Email to a friendHYPERLINK "http://www.zwire.com/site/?brd=1662&pag=795&newsid=16546161&action=submit"p ost a commentHYPERLINK "http://www.zwire.com/site/?brd=1662&pag=795&newsid=16546161&action=submit"P ost a CommentHYPERLINK "http://www.zwire.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=1662&dept_id=11233&newsid =16546161" \nprinter friendlyHYPERLINK "http://www.zwire.com/site/printerFriendly.cfm?brd=1662&dept_id=11233&newsid =16546161" \nPrinter-friendlyHYPERLINK "http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16546161&BRD=1662&PAG=461&dept_id =11233&rfi=6#top"HYPERLINK "http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16546161&BRD=1662&PAG=461&dept_id =11233&rfi=6#top"Top HYPERLINK "http://bannerads.zwire.com/bannerads/redirect.cfm?ADLOCATION=7&PAG=461&BRD= 1662"Click Here! 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Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.5.1/327 - Release Date: 4/28/2006 -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.5.1/327 - Release Date: 4/28/2006 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.5.1/327 - Release Date: 4/28/2006 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: wethersfieldsm.gif Type: image/gif Size: 3479 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: email_this_article.gif Type: image/gif Size: 101 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: bannerad.asp_ADLOCATION=4&PAG=461&BRD=1662&LOCALPCT=100&AREA=410&VERT=469&NAREA=&barnd=3756 Type: application/octet-stream Size: 42 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 0.dat Type: application/octet-stream Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Tue May 2 18:21:03 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 15:21:03 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} Fwd: ethanol 85.. any one know any thing about it? Message-ID: <20060502222103.74970.qmail@web81409.mail.mud.yahoo.com> "Keith, Thomas A." wrote: Subject: Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 16:39:37 -0400 From: "Keith, Thomas A." To: st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) } To whom it may concern- I am a student journalist at Quinnipiac University and I was wondering if there was someone I could contact to inquire about your parties position on the E85 ethanol fuel. I am writing a feature story and a quote from a member of a well known political party whose interests directly relate to this issue would really be helpful. Thank you Thomas Keith ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paid for by Thornton For Governor ,Donna Byrne-McKee, treasurer- www.VoteThornton.com email: info at votethornton.com Tim McKee NEW cell (860) 778-1304 or (860) 643-2282 Cliff Thornton for Governor- Campaign Manager- National Committee member of the Green Party- Connecticut -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Tue May 2 18:38:17 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 15:38:17 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} Ohio Greens file 10, 000 signatures for Gov, ect.. ARE WE NEXT??? Message-ID: <20060502223817.39116.qmail@web81410.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Ohio Green Party Candidates File for November Ballot Green Party of Ohio www.ohiogreens.org May 1, 2006 Columbus, Ohio CONTACT: Russ Buckbee russbuckbee at adelphia.net 330 562 4637 http://www.bobforohio.com http://www.sostim06.com http://ohiogreens.org OHIO -- Today Green Party candidates will submit to the State of Ohio the signatures of thousands of Ohioans who want to see real alternatives for statewide races on the November ballot. Bob Fitrakis, Green Party candidate for Governor, along with his running mate, Anita Rios, and Secretary of State candidate Tim Kettler will spearhead the attack on corruption and corporate influence and create a new set of priorities that will begin to deal with the problems that have been swept under the rug by the two major parties and their vested interests for decades. Bob summed up the petitioning campaign by saying, "We are able to file so many signatures because the citizens of Ohio thirst for new ideas and recognize the corruption of the two party system." New Priorities Zero Tolerance for Corruption - Unlike the Democrat and Republican candidates Bob, Anita, and Tim initiated lawsuits and ran the recount effort against Ken Blackwell and his crooked election. As members of the Green Party, they don't accept contributions from corporate interest groups and they don't take orders from a party boss. Bob will put people who break the law in jail, no matter who they know, no matter who they are. The Green Party will work to cleanse Ohio of the flood of big business money that is corrupting Ohio politics. Bring our Troops Home Now - The Ohio National Guard has been deployed overseas as an occupying force in an illegal Presidential adventure based on lies. Governor Fitrakis will recall the Ohio National Guard and refuse to allow one more Ohioan to die in this conflict. Developing a Dynamic Economy - The fossil fuel industry has had a stranglehold on our energy policy for too long. Our economy is hemorrhaging billions of dollars a year in an immoral war to control these ever-dwindling resources. Bob and Anita will nurture a new energy industry in our state that develops renewable and sustainable energy sources. This new economic engine can only emerge if the needs of the people of Ohio are put ahead of the vested interests who are buying our lawmakers. Putting People First: Health Care - The insurance industry currently takes up to 50 cents of every dollar spent on health care and uses it to pay for stock dividends, exorbitant CEO salaries, maintaining an army of lobbyists, political campaigns, lawyers and litigation, advertising, marketing, and sales. Kicking insurance companies out of Ohio's health care system and going to a single payer, state administered plan will result in $11 billion in savings that can be used to provide universal health care for all Ohioans and bring health care costs under control. The Green Party supports the SPANOhio Ballot Initiative. Putting People First: Education - Green Party candidates will make sure that there is adequate and equitable funding for all of Ohio's students. Putting People First: The Environment - Our environment is under attack from the toxins that that the Democratic and Republican policy makers have allowed to be spread throughout our state. Not only are industrial polluters getting away with ruining air, land, and water, but Ohio is accepting millions of tons of waste from other states and allowing toxin-laden urban sludge to be dumped on our crop land. We are becoming the nation's sewer. Governor Fitrakis will not turn a blind eye to those who poison our state's resources. Putting People First: Voting Rights - Tim Kettler has made reforming the way our state runs elections the cornerstone of his campaign. He has a number of specific goals under the broad headings of inclusion, representation, and transparency which he believes are necessary for the conduct of free and fair democratic elections. "I had the opportunity to speak to several thousand registered voters while gathering signatures," said Tim. "I found them to be very interested in the participation of third parties and independents in Ohio's elections and especially interested in my campaign to protect their voting rights." Inclusion More neighborhood precincts; More voting booths per precinct. Register to vote on election day. Statewide holiday on election day. Vote anywhere in your county. Voters cannot be refused absentee ballots. Reexamine new voter identification provisions. Appoint independents and third parties to election boards. Representation Ease restrictions for getting citizen initiated laws on the ballot, registering citizens to vote, and granting party status. Allocate Electoral College vote by percentage of popular vote won. Non-partisan oversight of elections and redistricting. Transparency Eliminate computer voting. Use clear simple paper ballots marked directly by the voter. Issue durable paper ballot receipts to voters. Establish non-partisan board to investigate irregularities. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Wed May 3 10:03:13 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 10:03:13 -0400 Subject: {news} Letters needed, NYT, Thomas Friedman, "Let's (Third) Party Message-ID: <04a901c66eba$52495d70$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> Dear Greens--especially candidates, Thomas Friedman has thrown us a challenge in today's NYT. In writing about the energy crisis, he says: " I'm hoping for a third party. The situation is ripe for one. . . . I would not call it the 'Green Party' - the name's been taken, and it connotes an agenda that is too narrow and liberal. Today's third party has to be big, strategic, centrist and forward-looking - something like the "American Renewal Party," something that frames the energy issue as critical to restoring American strength and wealth, not just conservation." Please send letters to the editor (150 words): letters at nytimes.com Justine McCabe =============================================== http://select.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/opinion/03friedman.html?_r=1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 3, 2006 Op-Ed Columnist Let's (Third) Party By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN What would OPEC do if it wanted to keep America addicted to oil? That's easy. OPEC would urge the U.S. Congress to deal with the current spike in gasoline prices either by adopting the Republican proposal to give American drivers $100 each, so they could continue driving gas-guzzling cars and buy gasoline at the current $3.50 a gallon, or by adopting the Democrats' proposal for a 60-day lifting of the federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents a gallon. Either one would be fine with OPEC. So, to summarize, we now have a Congress proposing to do exactly what our worst enemies would like us to do - subsidize our addiction to gasoline by breaking into our kids' piggybanks to make it easier for us to pay the prices demanded by our oil pushers, so that we will remain addicted and they will remain awash in dollars. With a Congress like this, who needs Al Qaeda? Seriously, there is something really disturbing about the utterly shameless, utterly over-the-top Republican pandering and Democratic point-scoring that have been masquerading as governing in response to this energy crisis. The Republicans are worse, because they control all the levers of power and could move the country if they proposed a serious energy policy - but won't. "We used to say the system is broken because it won't respond until there is a crisis," said David Rothkopf, author of "Running the World," a history of U.S. foreign policy. But now it's really broken, "because the system can't even respond to a crisis!" What to do? I'm hoping for a third party. The situation is ripe for one: America is facing a challenge as big as the cold war - how we satisfy our long-term energy needs, at reasonable prices, while decreasing our dependence on oil and the bad governments that export it - and neither major party will offer a solution, because it requires sacrifice today for gain tomorrow. Combine a huge leadership vacuum on a huge issue with an Internet that has proved itself as an alternative platform for organizing, financing and energizing a political campaign outside the Washington establishment, and you have the makings of a credible third party. I would not call it the "Green Party" - the name's been taken, and it connotes an agenda that is too narrow and liberal. Today's third party has to be big, strategic, centrist and forward-looking - something like the "American Renewal Party," something that frames the energy issue as critical to restoring American strength and wealth, not just conservation. Energy really is key to American renewal - from stimulating more young people to study math and science, to bringing down the trade deficit by decreasing our dependence on imported oil, to bringing down the fiscal deficit by raising gasoline taxes, to improving U.S. competitiveness by making us leaders in clean technologies, to restoring U.S. global respect by leading the fight against climate change, to advancing democracy by finding alternatives to oil and thereby weakening some of the world's worst regimes, who are using their oil windfalls to halt the spread of freedom. "There is an opportunity here for someone who will seize it," said Micah Sifry, author of "Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Politics in America." That someone would have to be a more emotionally stable and energy-focused Ross Perot type. Because, added Mr. Sifry, "if the issue of the day in 1991-1992 was the ballooning budget deficit that we were not dealing with, then the issue today we are not dealing with is the energy and environmental catastrophe that awaits the next generation. It is as much a mortgaging of our children's future as the deficit issue. It needs the right leader, though." Like someone who will tell the truth: The only way Americans are ever going to enjoy relatively cheap gasoline again is if we raise the price now with a gasoline tax- and fix it at that higher level for several years - so investors know that it is not coming down, and therefore it makes economic sense for them to make the long-term investments in alternative, renewable sources of energy. That is the only way to break our oil addiction and ultimately bring down the price. Yes, our system is rigged against third parties. Still, my gut says that some politician, someday soon, just to be different, just for the fun of it, will take a flier on telling Americans the truth. The right candidate with the right message on energy might be able to drive a bus right up the middle of the U.S. political scene today - lose the far left and the far right - and still maybe, just maybe, win a three-way election. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: logoprinter.gif Type: image/gif Size: 1810 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 01/ Type: application/octet-stream Size: 42 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dbedellgreen at hotmail.com Wed May 3 15:47:44 2006 From: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com (David Bedell) Date: Wed, 03 May 2006 19:47:44 +0000 Subject: {news} Transportation bill includes new commuter rail In-Reply-To: <1146612275.1254446.e03595ee447b32.51d0421c@persist.google.com> Message-ID: Let's make sure they follow thru with the NH-Springfield line. http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/05/01/senate_expected_to_approve_23_billion_transportation_bill The Associated Press Senate approves $2.3 billion transportation bill By Susan Haigh, Associated Press Writer | May 1, 2006 HARTFORD, Conn. --The state Senate voted unanimously late Monday to approve a 10-year, $2.3 billion transportation package, with senators lauding it as a major step toward tackling Connecticut's traffic gridlock. The legislation, which would fund mass transit improvements across the state without requiring tolls or increasing the gas tax, is the second step in a major plan to improve the state's transportation system. "It says to Mr. and Mrs. Connecticut we cannot all drive, one person, one car, every where, every day and expect to achieve a comprehensive plan for the future," said Sen. William Nickerson, R-Greenwich. The Senate agreed to place the bill on its consent calendar, which was later approved on an unanimous vote. Last year, lawmakers approved Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell's 10-year, $1.3 billion initiative, which included money for new rail cars for Metro-North, highway improvements and 25 new Connecticut Transit buses. The latest phase focuses on mass transit, though it includes some money to study highway projects. The bill, a compromise between majority Democrats and Rell, includes money for a commuter rail line from New Haven to Springfield, Mass., with stops in Hartford and other towns; a study of a commuter line from New London to Worcester, Mass.; and parking and station improvements for most state rail lines. The bill would make the Transportation Strategy Board part of the state budget office, among other steps to improve coordination of transportation projects. It also would require the governor's office to start formal discussions with Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island on ways to enhance regional commuter and freight mobility. A spokesman for Rell said the governor will sign the bill into law. "Gov. Rell believes this landmark legislation will go a long way toward easing congestion on Connecticut highways and encourage greater use of trains and buses by Connecticut commuters," said Judd Everhart, Rell's communications director. "It will also be an incentive to companies operating in Connecticut and those considering a move here, knowing that employees and potential employees will have an easier time of getting to work," he said. Everhart said families and tourists will also benefit from the legislation. Eric Brown, associate counsel for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, said his group is pleased the legislature and governor continued to focus on transportation this session after last year's bill passed. "It's a very big deal because, for the second year in a row, the legislature and the governor stepped up and made transportation a priority and passed a very significant package that will go a long way toward improving our transportation problems," he said. The bill authorizes the state to issue up to $1 billion in special tax obligation bonds for the projects. The state can also borrow $1.3 billion against future federal funds, a provision that raised concerns among some legislators. An additional $80 million to $100 million a year will come from the gross receipts tax on petroleum products, which now goes into the general fund. The gross receipts tax will not increase. "There's still a lot to be done," Brown said. "There's still a lot of questions that are going to have to be resolved about funding, but I think the bill signals there is indeed no turning back at this point. There is going to be a new vision for transportation development and economic development tied to that." ? Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Wed May 3 18:34:48 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 18:34:48 -0400 Subject: {news} Kucinich Questions Bolton on US Troops Already in Iran Message-ID: <058401c66f01$c9561470$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> ----- Original Message ----- From: John Gallagher Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 11:31 AM Kucinich Questions Bolton on US Troops Already in Iran I haven't seen anything in the news media on this or in the thomas congressional record yet, but I did hear this on the Randi Rhodes show last night, May 2. >From what I gathered, dissident groups in Iran admitted to Iranian authorities that US troops are on Iranian soil already. Bolton was questioned on this and stated to Congressman Kucinich that he didn't work for the Defense Dept., so he knows nothing. John G http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=42905 Kucinich To Use Tuesday Hearing To Question UN Ambassador Bolton About US Troops Already Operating In Iran Government Reform Subcommittee On National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations Hearing With Ambassador Bolton Set For Tuesday, May 2nd United States Capitol Building at Night Washington, May 1 - Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH), Ranking Member of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, will use a Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday to question the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, about US troops already operating in Iran. The hearing is set for Tuesday, May 2nd, in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building. Recently, Seymour Hersh reported in The New Yorker magazine that US troops are already operating in Iran. Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner (Ret.) has made similar statements on CNN. Kucinich will use Tuesday's hearing, officially about the United Nation's Oil-for-Food program, to question Ambassador Bolton about the presence of US troops in Iran, the ramifications in the region and the effects on diplomatic negotiations. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Thu May 4 08:25:46 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 05:25:46 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} (PRESS RELEASE) THORNTON, FERRUCCI ALLEGE DISCRIMANTION IN Q POLL Message-ID: <20060504122546.81829.qmail@web81412.mail.mud.yahoo.com> THORNTON FOR GOVERNOR Press Advisory- For Immediate Release- May 4, 2006 Contact: Tim McKee, Campaign Manager for Cliff Thornton and CT Green Party National Committee Person, cell (860)860-778- 1304 or (860)-643-2282 Ralph Ferrucci, U.S. Senate candidate (203)430-9342 Cliff Thornton, Candidate for Governor (860)657-8438 THORNTON, FERRUCCI ALLEGE DISCRIMINATION IN QUINNIPIAC POLL OTHER "UNKNOWNS" INCLUDED, BUT NOT GREENS Hartford, CT, - The Thornton for Governor Campaign alleged discrimination in being excluded in the recent Quinnipiac Poll for candidates for state wide office. Cliff Thornton, running as a Green Party candidate for Governor and Ralph Ferrucci, running for United States Senate, were both excluded from the recent poll, while other lesser known candidates where included simply because they are registered Republicans and Democrats. Tim McKee, Campaign Manager for Cliff Thornton, said little known U.S. Senate candidates Alan Schlesinger and Paul Streitz are the best examples of being included in the poll simply because they are Republicans and not because they are well known across the state. Both are in the high 89-92% "Have not heard enough" category, but are included in the poll while Green Party U.S. Senate candidate Ferrucci is excluded. McKee claimed that even Thornton's Democratic rivals for Governor, Malloy and DeStefano, are called repeatedly by the Quinnipiac poll as "largely unknown" to possible voters. McKee explained "Ralph Ferrucci has run for Congress before and had been in three televised debates, while Cliff Thornton is an international speaker on the drug reform movement and has spoken to over hundred groups in the state. Both Thornton and Ferrucci have web sites, flyers, are raising money and are serious candidates who will be on the final ballot, unlike some of the others who might not even make it on to the primary ballot or survive the other party's conventions." Being included in polling means the Greens will be able to raise more money and compete with the other two parties rivals, McKee stated. He added "All we want is a fair playing field to compete and not discrimination and exclusion because we are a smaller political party." -30- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From efficacy at msn.com Thu May 4 09:32:49 2006 From: efficacy at msn.com (clifford thornton) Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 09:32:49 -0400 Subject: {news} Letters needed, NYT, Thomas Friedman, "Let's (Third) Party References: <04a901c66eba$52495d70$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> Message-ID: (Letter sent) Editor: I am in total agreement with Thomas Friedman that both the Democrats and Republicans are masquerading as governing in response to the energy crisis. I would add that they have both done so with other issues as well. The situation is ripe for a third party. I differ with Mr. Friedman only as he discounts the Green Party. I was once a Republican, then a Democrat. Now I, along with growing numbers of people, have joined the Green Party. I have found that their positions on crucial issues are the same that citizens and pundits like Mr. Friedman are asking for. I am the Green Party Candidate for Governor of Connecticut. Our platform is not so radical when carefully considered. We will put the environment and science at the top of our agenda, with the fuel problem as the priority. We have a basic plan to provide health insurance for all Americans. We emphasize broad educational opportunities from pre-school through college. We will listen to experts who say that there are serious infrastructure problems and take action. We will lead an open discussion on the billions of dollars being spent on the drug war year after year to no avail and establish more effective ways of dealing with the problems of drug use (again, with science as the guide, not political pandering). Those and other ideas are not extreme. They are the means to a sustainable society. As Friedman said, the system is rigged against third parties. Why would we need to start a new one from scratch when there is one that has done the groundwork, is growing and is flexible enough to attract many new members? We are fluid and listen to feedback from our supporters. Please, Mr. Friedman, give us another look. Clifford Wallace Thornton, Jr. Efficacy PO Box 1234 860 657 8438 Hartford, CT 06143 efficacy at msn.com www.Efficacy-online.org votethornton at yahoogroups.com www.votethornton.com Working to end race and class drug war injustice, Efficacy is a non profit 501 (c) 3 organization founded in 1997. Your gifts and donations are tax deductible -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From smfoster at mags.net Thu May 4 09:42:34 2006 From: smfoster at mags.net (Sharon Foster) Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 09:42:34 -0400 Subject: {news} Letters needed, NYT, Thomas Friedman, "Let's (Third) Party References: <04a901c66eba$52495d70$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> Message-ID: <005d01c66f80$9965a3f0$0200a8c0@yourx636578ujn> Serious issues, thoughtfully but clearly presented--this is one of the reasons I recently switched my party affiliation from Democrat (life-long) to Green. Thank you for confirming that I made the right move! ----- Original Message ----- From: clifford thornton To: CTGP Women's Caucus ; CTGP-NEWS ; Justine McCabe Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 9:32 AM Subject: Re: {news} Letters needed, NYT, Thomas Friedman, "Let's (Third) Party Connecticut Green Party - Part of the GPUS http://www.ctgreens.org/ - http://www.greenpartyus.org/ to unsubscribe click here mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (Letter sent) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From apbrison at hotmail.com Thu May 4 11:36:34 2006 From: apbrison at hotmail.com (allan brison) Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 11:36:34 -0400 Subject: {news} Letters needed, NYT, Thomas Friedman, "Let's (Third) Party In-Reply-To: Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dbedellgreen at hotmail.com Thu May 4 18:41:40 2006 From: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com (David Bedell) Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 22:41:40 +0000 Subject: {news} Article from Wethersfield Post On Mike DeRosa's Run for Sec. Of The State In-Reply-To: <21f4f7390605040711r401a205bx38900e9e146c7532@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: I couldn't read the article in the format Mike posted, so I'm posting it again here. Remember, we try to post all news at http://greens.org/elections (click on "Greens in the news" or look up specific candidate). http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16546161 04/27/2006 DeRosa runs for Secretary of State as Green Party candidate By: G. C. Gould , Staff Writer Tired of politics as usual? Wethersfield resident and Green Party candidate for secretary of the state Mike DeRosa is, too. According to DeRosa, Democrats and Republicans are mirror images of one another that coalesce on the global economy. "They don't pay attention to sustainability," he said. "The global economy dilemma is that instead of looking locally to see what we can grow, we buy from 20,000 miles away," he added. DeRosa used Wethersfield as an example. "There's no land left to develop, no industries, and no major financial operations." He suggested Wethersfield should look into alternative power, such as windmills, as well as producing new robotics technology. "We have the intellectual resources to put that into place," he said. Another impact of the problem with sustainability is global warming, according to DeRosa. He said there is an increase of type four, five, and six hurricanes due to global warming. The damage done by such hurricanes, as was seen with Katrina, can be extreme, he said. As secretary of the state, DeRosa would become directly involved in the voting process - something that has caused bitter controversy in national elections over the past few years. DeRosa, therefore, got involved with Voter Opportunity through Election Reform, or V.O.T.E.R. One of the initiatives of V.O.T.E.R. is to ensure as safe a voting process as possible. In Connecticut, the legislature and Governor M. Jodi Rell passed a method of voting which involves producing a paper trail of each vote that takes place, according to DeRosa. DeRosa is in favor of the voter-verified paper trail. In his description of the process, a voting machine would allow the voter to see his or her vote through a window. The machine would ask the voter if this is their vote. If the voter answers yes, the vote would then fall into a secure lock box, ensuring that the vote is correct and fairly accounted for. He said that 25 states have passed voter verified paper trail legislation. Complaining about current Secretary of the State of Connecticut Susan Bysiewicz, DeRosa said she has publicly supported a voter verified paper trail, but "she has been talking out of both sides of her mouth." Speaking on the process of incorporating in the state, DeRosa said that if he was elected secretary of the state, he would ensure that the corporations operate in a socially responsible way. "Corporations need to protect the environment and not engage in union busting. They need to be responsible and good neighbors," he said. DeRosa added that as secretary of the state, he would try to open up the system so that individuals can gain power without getting 51 percent of the vote. He gave the example of Wethersfield and other districts, where there must be at least three members of the council out of the total nine council members from parties other than the majority party. "I think we need to have major voices represented," said DeRosa. "The laws that govern election law are fixed so that two parties win. Minority parties that get 1 or 2 percent of the vote should get 1 or 2 at large seats in the house," he said. "This has been practiced in Europe all over the place. Having everybody represented in the legislature is a good idea," he added. There are currently about 2,500 Green Party members in Connecticut. At the recent Green Party convention, there were 60 persons present to decide who is running for which office. In the past, third party candidates have made lasting impacts on the American system of government. Eugene Debs brought up the issue of Social Security as early as 1912, and it was not finally passed until President Roosevelt adopted the legislation in the 1930s. The idea for the plan, said DeRosa, was all third party. The Green Party is an international party with members in Africa, Asia, Australia, South America, Europe and North America. The 10 key values of the party are: grassroots democracy, ecological wisdom, non-violence, decentralization, community- based economics, feminism, diversity, responsibility, and focus. ?Wethersfield Post 2006 From dbedellgreen at hotmail.com Thu May 4 18:54:52 2006 From: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com (David Bedell) Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 22:54:52 +0000 Subject: {news} Journal Inquirer article about Nancy Burton Message-ID: This one came out April 11. The reporter filed the story before speaking with Nancy, so there are unfortunate errors; however, this story led to a better one in the Lyme Times (I'll email separately). http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16461860 04/11/2006 Greens running disbarred lawyer for attorney general By Don Michak , Journal Inquirer The Green Party of Connecticut is poised to nominate a disbarred lawyer from Redding, Nancy Burton, as its candidate for state attorney general, a post statutorily required to be filled by a licensed lawyer. But the co-chairman of the third party, Mike DeRosa, said today that the law license of Burton, a longtime champion of environmental and anti-nuclear causes, is slated to be reinstated before the November election. In any event, he added, she and her supporters consider her disbarment a badge of honor. Burton, a founder of the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone, a group opposed to the nuclear power station in Waterford, said today that while she has been barred from practicing law in Connecticut state courts, she remains licensed to practice in both federal courts and in New York State courts. Her reinstatement, she said, could occur on Nov. 2, provided that she reapplies for the license. Burton said she's seeking the Greens' nomination primarily "to shut Millstone." Burton in 2001 was ordered disbarred for five years by Bridgeport Superior Court Judge A. William Mottolese, who found that she had represented clients without their authorization and that she had a pattern of "pervasive misconduct." The ruling centered on Burton's claim to represent people who attended a neighborhood meeting about the planned use of a rock crusher in a Monroe-area housing development. While 18 of the 22 attendees signed a sheet agreeing to become co-plaintiffs in a legal appeal, Mottolese concluded several believed they were simply signing a petition. He also found that by meeting later only with the owners of the home where the meeting was held, Burton had violated a rule requiring a lawyer to keep clients reasonably informed about the status of their case. The judge stayed his order, however, to give Burton a chance to appeal. Burton subsequently filed a federal lawsuit against Mottolese, accusing him of bias against her. The state Supreme Court, meanwhile, in 2003 dismissed Burton's complaint that the judge had incorrectly concluded she had broken ethical rules and that he was wrong to disbar her. The court also rejected her claims that the judge exceeded his legal authority by initiating the disbarrment proceeding, showed bias against her, and violated her due process rights in the hearing that led to her disbarrment. DeRosa said Burton and her supporters among the Green Party's chapters had discussed the matter and that it was likely to be rehashed at the party's state nominating convention, slated for April 22 in Hartford. "It's on her Web site, where she explains and says she feels her treatment was directly related to her opposition to the continued opposition of Millstone," he said. "She is to be reinstated before the election, and if she were to win, she should be properly empowered to take office." ?Journal Inquirer 2006 From dbedellgreen at hotmail.com Thu May 4 19:06:51 2006 From: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com (David Bedell) Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 23:06:51 +0000 Subject: {news} Waterford Times article about Nancy Burton Message-ID: (This appeared in the Waterford Times and maybe other Shoreline Publishing papers, such as the Lyme Times.) http://www.shorepublishing.com/archive/re.aspx?re=4e8755a3-6560-4ef0-ab97-8625365c1937 Millstone Foe to Run for Attorney General By Julie Wernau Published on 4/20/2006 Waterford - Nancy Burton, founder of the Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone, is expected to be tapped as the Green Party's candidate for attorney general. The party will make nominations official at its convention this Saturday in New Haven. Burton, a resident of Redding, was disbarred in 2001 by Bridgeport Superior Court Judge A. William Mottolese for five years. Burton's countersuit against Mottolese in 2003, claiming bias, was thrown out. According to the secretary of state's office, the only requirement to hold public office is that the candidate be a registered voter. ?I will eventually be completely vindicated,? said Burton, who has not yet applied to be reinstated and claims that for personal reasons she was unable to meet a deadline to formally respond to Mottolese's allegations of pervasive misconduct and representing clients without consent. Burton, who ran for state representative in 2001 [sic--actually 2004], said she is mostly interested in using her candidacy as a way to further her campaign to eradicate the Millstone nuclear power plant. She said she will not advertise or accept campaign contributions in her run for office. ?I'm very candid to say that I don't consider the likelihood of my election to be remotely possible,? she said. So far, no other candidates have come forward to oppose Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, but major party conventions are not until next month. ?We don't have a candidate as yet,? said John Cattelan, executive director of the Connecticut Republican Party. ?We're obviously actively recruiting and are confident that we will have a candidate.? Recently, Blumenthal spoke at a Connecticut Coalition Against Millstone rally in Waterford. The watchdog group came out in support of Millstone whistleblower Sham Mehta, who lost his job after he raised concerns to a supervisor that a security system around the perimeter of the plant was routinely disabled on windy days because of thousands of false alarms. ?(Blumenthal) advocated for just exactly what we are advocating for,? Burton said, ?which is safety and security.? Burton said her work with the grassroots CCAM is a full-time job. In recent months, the group brought ?Katie the Goat? to the state capitol with concerns about elevated radiation levels in the milk of local goats, which the group claims are directly related to Millstone. They plan to counter a Department of Environmental Protection report that came out last month and found the radiation levels were not harmful. Since bringing the goat to the capitol, Burton said, the group has had the opportunity to meet personally with Blumenthal on three occasions and, so far, has been pleased with the response. She has asked Blumenthal to join CCAM in a motion to the Connecticut Siting Council ? which approved a nuclear waste storage facility at Millstone against CCAM's wishes ? asking that the council reneges on its decision in light of new security concerns raised by Mehta. ?My campaign is not going to be an adversarial campaign at all,? Burton said. As with her campaign against an otherwise unopposed Republican incumbent in 2001 [2004], Burton said she strongly believes that no candidate should run unopposed. ?There are third parties because when there are two parties, there tends to be one party,? she said. The Connecticut Green Party will hold is state convention April 22 at the AFLCIO Greater New Haven Labor Hall at 267 Chapel St. in New Haven. Social hour begins at 11 a.m. and the convention begins at noon. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.ctgreens.org. From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Thu May 4 20:47:01 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 17:47:01 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} More problems with Computer voting (Ohio) Message-ID: <20060505004701.3472.qmail@web81401.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Problems, praise for new voting machines in Cuyahoga County Voters react positively, poll workers frustrated By Sean Greene electionline.org Cuyahoga County, Ohio - County voters along with hundreds of thousands of other Buckeye residents cast their ballots on electronic voting machines for the first time Tuesday. Response from those using the machines was generally positive. Response from those trained to work the polls was tepid. And by the end of the day, reports of voting machine problems from across the county demonstrated the difficulty of making the transition to the new technology. After years of casting punch-card ballots, made infamous in Florida in 2000 and recently ruled unconstitutional in Ohio, new Diebold AccuVote TSX machines equipped with a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) were rolled out in the county, home of Cleveland and more than one million registered voters. The county was allocated more than 5,400 machines by the state, with a ratio of one voting machine for every 186 voters. (For more statistics and details on Cuyahoga County voting, click here.) The May primary seemed almost tranquil compared to the high turnout and long lines witnessed in November 2004. At many times throughout the day, poll workers outnumbered voters at some polling places. Of those registered to vote, approximately 25 percent were expected to go to the polls. (Final turnout numbers are not yet available.) Voters like machines, some unaware of VVPATs In Cleveland, voter Kay McCastle was the first to cast a ballot in her precinct and praised the touch-screen voting machines "They were fairly easy. I liked it," she said. McCastle, however, did not examine the VVPAT that offered a paper and ink version of her vote. Broadview Heights poll worker Tim Klowchik saw similar behavior from voters. "Not too many look at the VVPAT," he said. One Richmond Heights voter who did look at the VVPAT initially thought it would be a receipt she could take with her. Poll workers clarified that the VVPAT was not a receipt and could not leave the polling place. [NOTE: Ohio State University's Dan Tokaji had his own impressions about Franklin County's machines as well.] David Stringer, voting in Shaker Heights, did express concerns - not about the machine's performance, but who made them. "I'd rather not have to use Diebold machines - because of their politics." He did add the machines were "perfectly convenient" and easier to use than punch cards, although he said he too was unaware of the VVPAT. Judy Gallo of the Greater Cleveland Voter Coalition, a voting rights advocacy group, also noted the lack of attention to the VVPAT and expressed concern. "I noticed that many voters did not compare their screen vote to the paper trail [behind] the glass. They 'heard' the machine doing something that sounded like printing, but they weren't aware they could lift up the 'flap' on the side of the machine and actually 'see' how their vote was being recorded on the paper trail. So there is much need for more voter education," she said. More detailed information about issues such as voters' use of VVPATs, voters' experiences with the new voting machines and the voting process in general will be available in the near future as two groups conducted exit polls in Cuyahoga County. One was conducted by the Greater Cleveland Voter Coalition. Another was conducted by the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners in conjunction with the Election Science Institute. Problems While voters were describing the voting system as easy to use and convenient, reports of problems began to emerge soon after polls opened at 6:30 a.m. At Woodbury Elementary School in Shaker Heights, a poll worker explained how there were delays when the polls opened with only one machine working. It took a technician about a half hour or so after polls opened to fix the other machines, leaving voters waiting and at least one voter who had to leave with the hopes of coming back later to cast a ballot. As reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, one polling place opened up nearly seven hours late due to problems poll workers had in setting up the machines and nearly 2 percent of the county's approximately 1,400 polling places were without functioning machines for up to two hours. Fifty memory cards containing vote totals were also missing, leading the elections board to consider using the VVPATs to get tallies. (The Plain Dealer has a timeline of events; for more coverage, click here.) Later in the evening, Cleveland city councilman Kevin Conwell stormed into the county elections office as votes were being counted stating that voting machine problems in his ward at Harry E. Davis Elementary School were never resolved and that the board of elections failed to help. Elections board director Michael Vu said he would look into what happened. Possibly the biggest problem didn't even happen at the polls. Over 17,000 absentee ballots had to be counted by hand due to the absentee ballot counting system, produced by Diebold, not working properly. Officials are still trying to figure out the exact issue - whether it was the system itself or the paper ballots printed by a local company. Vu said that during logic and accuracy testing performed the day before the election, results were not consistent and he decided it would be best to do a hand count. The hand count of the absentee vote and the missing memory cards have delayed the tallying process, and final results of the election were not known at the time of publication. Poll workers give mixed reviews Some poll workers liked the new machines - but the training they received left them less than impressed. At the Kiwanis Club in Richmond Heights, poll worker James Anderson said, "I like the new voting machines. I like this better [than punch cards]. The process is a lot faster and will be a lot faster when people catch on." In his polling place, one machine broke down and another's contrast was too dark - both quickly fixed by an election day technician. Anderson thought the training process was fairly easy, although felt perhaps there should have been more. He mentioned during his training a number of people left over concerns about not being trained enough. Newspaper reports indicate that upwards of 20 percent of poll workers did not show up on Tuesday. In Parma Heights, three poll workers for one precinct voiced displeasure with the training they received. While they said the voters were happy, they were not. "We were all pretty overwhelmed. The training wasn't well organized. There were too many things to learn in three hours," said poll worker Jan March. Extra training was offered on Sunday before the election, but when all three tried to go, the turnout for the training was much larger than expected and too crowded - in frustration they left. State Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, said she wants more detailed information about poll worker training and has asked the state to audit federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds to see where and how the money was spent on training - for poll workers and elections board staff. "It's not uniform across the state," Fedor said. In a press release she said, "It is incredibly important that we know where the federal dollars from HAVA were spent. It is obvious that not enough money went towards poll worker training. We knew that this significant change was coming for years and election after election our poll workers and boards of elections staff are not trained properly on the new machines." Ray Martinez, one of two Democratic commissioners on the four-member Election Assistance Commission, observed elections in both Franklin and Cuyahoga counties and witnessed some of the problems. "My general impression - growing pains," he said. "What I want to take back to the EAC is that in jurisdictions that make a complete transition from old voting technology to new, that's where we need -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From smfoster at mags.net Thu May 4 23:23:32 2006 From: smfoster at mags.net (Sharon Foster) Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 23:23:32 -0400 Subject: {news} More problems with Computer voting (Ohio) References: <20060505004701.3472.qmail@web81401.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <002101c66ff3$49a62880$0200a8c0@yourx636578ujn> I was a software engineer for over 20 years, and in my view electronic voting is just another nail in the coffin of democracy. They used machines that had already been found to be non-compliant? They misplaced 50 memory cards? And if those 50 memory cards happen to turn up tomorrow at someone's doorstep, surey they're not intending to include them in the official tally?? The Help America Vote Act should have been named the Line the Pockets of Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia With Windfall Profits Act. I have a short essay on this topic if anyone is interested. Last year I mailed copies to everyone: Gov. Rell, Sec. of the State Susan Bysiewicz, and all my elected representatives in Washington and Hartford. Some replied, one or two didn't. Mostly I got big yawns. I sent a copy to the Hartford Courant several months ago. They ignored it. But someone has been paying attention to national news, because the last I heard CT will not be using the machines this November. ----- Original Message ----- From: Green Party-CT To: NG GREENS ; ctgp-news at ml.greens.org Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 8:47 PM Subject: {news} More problems with Computer voting (Ohio) Connecticut Green Party - Part of the GPUS http://www.ctgreens.org/ - http://www.greenpartyus.org/ to unsubscribe click here mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Problems, praise for new voting machines in Cuyahoga County Voters react positively, poll workers frustrated By Sean Greene electionline.org Cuyahoga County, Ohio - County voters along with hundreds of thousands of other Buckeye residents cast their ballots on electronic voting machines for the first time Tuesday. Response from those using the machines was generally positive. Response from those trained to work the polls was tepid. And by the end of the day, reports of voting machine problems from across the county demonstrated the difficulty of making the transition to the new technology. After years of casting punch-card ballots, made infamous in Florida in 2000 and recently ruled unconstitutional in Ohio, new Diebold AccuVote TSX machines equipped with a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) were rolled out in the county, home of Cleveland and more than one million registered voters. The county was allocated more than 5,400 machines by the state, with a ratio of one voting machine for every 186 voters. (For more statistics and details on Cuyahoga County voting, click here.) The May primary seemed almost tranquil compared to the high turnout and long lines witnessed in November 2004. At many times throughout the day, poll workers outnumbered voters at some polling places. Of those registered to vote, approximately 25 percent were expected to go to the polls. (Final turnout numbers are not yet available.) Voters like machines, some unaware of VVPATs In Cleveland, voter Kay McCastle was the first to cast a ballot in her precinct and praised the touch-screen voting machines "They were fairly easy. I liked it," she said. McCastle, however, did not examine the VVPAT that offered a paper and ink version of her vote. Broadview Heights poll worker Tim Klowchik saw similar behavior from voters. "Not too many look at the VVPAT," he said. One Richmond Heights voter who did look at the VVPAT initially thought it would be a receipt she could take with her. Poll workers clarified that the VVPAT was not a receipt and could not leave the polling place. [NOTE: Ohio State University's Dan Tokaji had his own impressions about Franklin County's machines as well.] David Stringer, voting in Shaker Heights, did express concerns - not about the machine's performance, but who made them. "I'd rather not have to use Diebold machines - because of their politics." He did add the machines were "perfectly convenient" and easier to use than punch cards, although he said he too was unaware of the VVPAT. Judy Gallo of the Greater Cleveland Voter Coalition, a voting rights advocacy group, also noted the lack of attention to the VVPAT and expressed concern. "I noticed that many voters did not compare their screen vote to the paper trail [behind] the glass. They 'heard' the machine doing something that sounded like printing, but they weren't aware they could lift up the 'flap' on the side of the machine and actually 'see' how their vote was being recorded on the paper trail. So there is much need for more voter education," she said. More detailed information about issues such as voters' use of VVPATs, voters' experiences with the new voting machines and the voting process in general will be available in the near future as two groups conducted exit polls in Cuyahoga County. One was conducted by the Greater Cleveland Voter Coalition. Another was conducted by the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners in conjunction with the Election Science Institute. Problems While voters were describing the voting system as easy to use and convenient, reports of problems began to emerge soon after polls opened at 6:30 a.m. At Woodbury Elementary School in Shaker Heights, a poll worker explained how there were delays when the polls opened with only one machine working. It took a technician about a half hour or so after polls opened to fix the other machines, leaving voters waiting and at least one voter who had to leave with the hopes of coming back later to cast a ballot. As reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, one polling place opened up nearly seven hours late due to problems poll workers had in setting up the machines and nearly 2 percent of the county's approximately 1,400 polling places were without functioning machines for up to two hours. Fifty memory cards containing vote totals were also missing, leading the elections board to consider using the VVPATs to get tallies. (The Plain Dealer has a timeline of events; for more coverage, click here.) Later in the evening, Cleveland city councilman Kevin Conwell stormed into the county elections office as votes were being counted stating that voting machine problems in his ward at Harry E. Davis Elementary School were never resolved and that the board of elections failed to help. Elections board director Michael Vu said he would look into what happened. Possibly the biggest problem didn't even happen at the polls. Over 17,000 absentee ballots had to be counted by hand due to the absentee ballot counting system, produced by Diebold, not working properly. Officials are still trying to figure out the exact issue - whether it was the system itself or the paper ballots printed by a local company. Vu said that during logic and accuracy testing performed the day before the election, results were not consistent and he decided it would be best to do a hand count. The hand count of the absentee vote and the missing memory cards have delayed the tallying process, and final results of the election were not known at the time of publication. Poll workers give mixed reviews Some poll workers liked the new machines - but the training they received left them less than impressed. At the Kiwanis Club in Richmond Heights, poll worker James Anderson said, "I like the new voting machines. I like this better [than punch cards]. The process is a lot faster and will be a lot faster when people catch on." In his polling place, one machine broke down and another's contrast was too dark - both quickly fixed by an election day technician. Anderson thought the training process was fairly easy, although felt perhaps there should have been more. He mentioned during his training a number of people left over concerns about not being trained enough. Newspaper reports indicate that upwards of 20 percent of poll workers did not show up on Tuesday. In Parma Heights, three poll workers for one precinct voiced displeasure with the training they received. While they said the voters were happy, they were not. "We were all pretty overwhelmed. The training wasn't well organized. There were too many things to learn in three hours," said poll worker Jan March. Extra training was offered on Sunday before the election, but when all three tried to go, the turnout for the training was much larger than expected and too crowded - in frustration they left. State Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, said she wants more detailed information about poll worker training and has asked the state to audit federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds to see where and how the money was spent on training - for poll workers and elections board staff. "It's not uniform across the state," Fedor said. In a press release she said, "It is incredibly important that we know where the federal dollars from HAVA were spent. It is obvious that not enough money went towards poll worker training. We knew that this significant change was coming for years and election after election our poll workers and boards of elections staff are not trained properly on the new machines." Ray Martinez, one of two Democratic commissioners on the four-member Election Assistance Commission, observed elections in both Franklin and Cuyahoga counties and witnessed some of the problems. "My general impression - growing pains," he said. "What I want to take back to the EAC is that in jurisdictions that make a complete transition from old voting technology to new, that's where we need ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org _______________________________________________ CTGP-news mailing list CTGP-news at ml.greens.org http://ml.greens.org/mailman/listinfo/ctgp-news ATTENTION! The information in this transmission is privileged and confidential and intended only for the recipient listed above. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email and delete the original message. The text of this email is similar to ordinary or face-to-face conversations and does not reflect the level of factual or legal inquiry or analysis which would be applied in the case of a formal legal opinion and does not constitute a representation of the opinions of the CT Green Party. The responsibility for any messages posted herein is solely that of the person who sent the message, and the CT Green Party hereby leaves this responsibility in the hands of it's members. NOTE: This is an inherently insecure forum, please do not post confidential messages and always realize that your address can be faked, and although a message may appear to be from a certain individual, it is always possible that it is fakemail. This is mail sent by a third party under an illegally assumed identity for purposes of coercion, misdirection, or general mischief. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail at the address shown. This e-mail transmission may contain confidential information. This information is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is intended even if addressed incorrectly. Please delete it from your files if you are not the intended recipient. Thank you for your compliance. To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Fri May 5 13:14:44 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 13:14:44 -0400 Subject: {news} Fw: USGP-INT "Norwich goes Green" Message-ID: <025801c67067$681d7060$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=ENOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED05%20May%202006%2013%3A15%3A31%3A167 > > Norwich goes Green > > LEWIS HANNAM > 05 May 2006 12:38 > > Norwich City Council is the greenest in Britain, after the Green Party > made dramatic gains in the local elections. > > Labour are once again the city council's biggest party, but the limelight > was stolen by the Greens who won their largest presence on a council in > the country, increasing their presence on the authority from five to nine. > > The Lib Dems surrendered six seats as their vote in the city ebbed away. > City Hall now has 16 Labour councillors, 12 Lib Dems, nine Greens, and two > Tories. > > The next few days will involve party discussions as to how a new > administration will be formed, and who the new leader will be, as no party > has an outright majority. > > Adrian Ramsay, the Green Party's leader, said: ?It has been a great > achievement. > > ?Whatever happens now the council will remain in no overall control, and > we will hold the balance of power, and we can have greater influence over > the budget. > > ?I think these successes came down to positive campaigning such as pledges > for extra investment in recycling, our opposition to waste incineration > and calls for more affordable housing. > > ?We are not far off over-taking the Lib Dems now to become the second > biggest group on the council. > > ?This also puts us in a strong position to fight for Norwich South at the > next General Election ? and to get the first Green MP.? > > Lib Dem councillor Hereward Cooke, who was the council's deputy leader, > said: ?It has been a very disappointing night for the Liberal Democrats. > > ?The people have spoken and we have to accept the council is now very much > a mixed bag.? > > Mr Cooke admitted revelations earlier this year of a ?2 million black hole > in City Hall's accounts had cost his party dear. > > He said: ?I believe the financial problems did damage our reputation, > particularly with conservative-minded voters. It was an unfortunate > episode.? > > Former Lib Dem council leader Ian Couzens was not at the election count > due to illness, and he may now find his time as party leader coming to an > end. > > Mr Cooke said: ?We have our annual meeting on Saturday and this might be > an opportunity for a bit of a shake-up.? > > He added he was proud of his party's achievements during four years in > control, and said it had left the city with a great legacy. > > Steve Morphew, leader of the council's Labour Party, said strong local > campaigning had helped his group buck the national trend. > > He said: ?It's a remarkable result ? it goes against everyone's > expectations, except our own! > > ?It comes down to hard work. Since we lost in 2002 we have been working > hard to move forward local issues.? > > He promised with Labour now the largest party, City Hall would foster > greater openness, better services, and a co-operative approach to > policy-making. > > When asked what single issue he felt had held Labour's vote up, his > response was simple: ?wardens.? > > ?We hope we can now make a full strength wardens' scheme throughout the > city a reality; certainly we won't agree to form any administration > without a commitment to that.? > > Although Labour won the most seats on the council, the greatest > achievement of the night was undoubtedly the Greens taking their total up > to nine wards ? their best ever election return on a UK council, beating > Oxford's eight. > > Notable individual results included the Greens taking both the Lib Dem > seats in Mancroft ward. > > Steven Altman, one of the ward's victors, said: ?I am so shocked, I never > really expected it could happen. > > ?I think the fact we were out on the doorstep with issues that really > affected people made the difference.? > > The Lime Tree Road saga and the Unthank Tesco row were reasons cited for > another Green gain, in Town Close Ward. > > Lime Tree Road made the news after residents complained about council > plans to pollard trees along the road, while proposals by Tesco to build > an express store in Unthank Road have met with massive opposition. > > Janet Bearman, who won Town Close from the Lib Dems, said: ?I am delighted > and excited. Local issues are why the ward has gone Green.? > > Perhaps the Greens most starling victory was in Wensum ward, where 2005 > Lib Dem parliamentary candidate Andrew Aalders-Dunthorne was beaten back > into third place, as Tom Llewellyn scooped the seat. > > The issue over controversial plans to build an incinerator on the > outskirts of Costessey also proved key to voters in nearby Bowthorpe. > > Tory Antony Little found his campaign against the proposals ? which > contradict the Conservative-controlled Norfolk County Council scheme ? > paid dividends. He took the seat from Labour's Ron Borrett. > > He said: ?It is a phenomenal result and is a clear indication the people > have had enough of the way they are being treated. > > ?The incinerator issue was a factor, but I don't think it was the biggest > factor. It is more to do with the Labour politicians failing this area > over the past 16 years.? > > Elsewhere former Lib Dem executive member Jane Rooza was forced out of > University ward by Labour candidate Bert Bremner; while the same switch > happened in Lakenham. > > One man cheered by the election result was Norwich South MP Charles > Clarke, who was not present at the count. > > Predictions his dire publicity in relation to freed foreign prisoners > would cost Labour vital votes were not borne out. > > He said: ?I didn't know how it was going to play out; I didn't know what > the knock-on effects would be. I wouldn't say I am relieved, I am more > delighted. > > ?I'm delighted that Labour are again the biggest party at Norwich City > Council. > > ?It's a result of dedicated campaigning and clear policies. > > ?We have been holding public meetings throughout the constituency and > people have been campaigning hard, so it shows what can be achieved. > > ?In particular I would like to congratulate Bert Bremner for winning the > University ward, and for Mary Cannell in winning Lakenham.? > > He said he was hopeful the city council could move forward to a brighter > future, while also admitting his own future may be reshaped today. > > He added: ?There will be a reshuffle today, but I will have to wait and > see what the Prime Minister says, and cannot comment on that.? > > Norwich North MP Ian Gibson said: ?It is an absolutely astonishing result. > > ?It's a credit to both the hard work of Labour; and the Greens as well. > > ?The Lib Dems have made a mess of running City Hall, and that has been > picked up by the voters.? > > The count was held at the Open venue in Bank Plain this year, as St > Andrews Hall was being used as part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival. > > The last results were not announced until after 2am. > > What do you think about the local election results? Write to Letters, > Evening News, Prospect House, Rouen Road, Norwich, NR1 1RE, email > eveningnewsletters at archant.co.uk or visit www.eveningnews24.co.uk/forums > From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Fri May 5 14:06:03 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 14:06:03 -0400 Subject: {news} More: UK Green holds balance of power Message-ID: <027f01c6706e$92e51d00$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/content/islington/gazette/news/story.aspx?brand=ISLGOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsislg&itemid=WeED05%20May%202006%2015%3A37%3A47%3A353>> Election: Greens hold balance of power>> nlnews at archant.co.uk> 05 May 2006>>> Katie Dawson> THE Greens have gained a powerful foothold in the Islington powerhouse.>> In the midst of the Labour-Liberal Democrat joust for power, Green Partycandidate Katie Dawson managed to clinch more than 1,000 votes.>> This was enough to win her a seat as a councillor in Highbury West, whichhad been already been tipped as a Green Party favourite.>> And with Labour and the Lib Dems almost neck and neck, with 23 and 24seats each respectively, Councillor Dawson - who holds the only remainingseat - could well find herself in a position of power.>> Before the election, the Green Party did not have any Islingtoncouncillors.>> So Councillor Dawson was over the moon to have made her mark.>> She said she represented a positive alternative to the Labour-Lib Demstranglehold.>> And she added that there had been a real surge of interest inenvironmental issues and in caring about being green.>> Councillor Dawson said: "There has been a huge amount of support. We werehopeful and very optimistic.>> "I feel thrilled and excited. Everybody has worked really hard.>> "It's a complete breakthrough in Islington. It's the historic breakthroughwe have been working towards for a long time.>> ---> | Sent via usgp-int> | To unsubscribe, please send a message to usgp-int-request at gp-us.org> | with ONLY unsubscribe in the message> ---> From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Fri May 5 16:08:23 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Fri, 5 May 2006 16:08:23 -0400 Subject: {news} Fw: USGP-INT Greens win six seats in South London Message-ID: <02c901c6707f$aa0fd680$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> > http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-1390.html > > A pink day for the Greens in Lewisham > > Local elections good for gay Labour > 05-May-2006 > Benjamin Cohen > > The Green party in Lewisham are today celebrating after winning six > seats on the council in South London. Half of the new Green councillors > are openly gay. > > The party topped the poll and gained all three seats in two wards, > Brockley and Ladywell. Darren Johnson, Romayne Phoenix and Dean Walton, > Mike Keogh, Sue Luxton and Ute Michel overturned Labour majorities to > score a victory for the relatively small party. > > Mr Johnson is an openly gay member of the London Assembly whilst Mr > Walton and Mr Keough are both openly gay. > > Mr Johnson, commenting on the success in Lewisham, told PinkNews.co.uk: > "We are absolutely delighted. We proved what a difference we could make > with one councillor - people saw that and wanted more. Absolutely > delighted. Around the country these local elections have produced some > spectacular gains for the Greens." From roseberry3 at cox.net Sat May 6 00:02:02 2006 From: roseberry3 at cox.net (B Barry) Date: Sat, 6 May 2006 00:02:02 -0400 Subject: {news} EC meeting at 7PM on Monday, 5-8-06 at Message-ID: <20060506040208.OUOE15470.eastrmmtao02.cox.net@BarbaraBarry> Main Street Caf? (also known as Willimantic Brewing Company) 967 Main Street, Willimantic, CT Phone: 860-423-6777 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Sat May 6 09:40:36 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (greenpartyct at yahoo.com) Date: Sat, 6 May 2006 09:40:36 -0400 Subject: {news} Tim McKee has sent you a video - Apr 27 Green Party Governor Candidate Message-ID: Apr 27 Green Party Governor Candidate Clip_Summary_Image Play_Now_Button You'll need a version of Windows Media Player 7 or higher to view the video. If you need to download it, go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/en/default.asp. The video player is supported by Microsoft IE 5.0 and above. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From vogel at myeastern.com Sun May 7 23:18:19 2006 From: vogel at myeastern.com (Robert Vogel) Date: Sun, 7 May 2006 23:18:19 -0400 Subject: {news} More problems with Computer voting (Ohio) References: <20060505004701.3472.qmail@web81401.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <002101c66ff3$49a62880$0200a8c0@yourx636578ujn> Message-ID: <01a801c6724e$0ef30160$0300a8c0@your55e5f9e3d2> The fix is in for 2008. See http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12155.htm More at http://www.seconnecticut.com/elections.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: Sharon Foster To: Green Party-CT ; NG GREENS ; ctgp-news at ml.greens.org Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 11:23 PM Subject: Re: {news} More problems with Computer voting (Ohio) Connecticut Green Party - Part of the GPUS http://www.ctgreens.org/ - http://www.greenpartyus.org/ to unsubscribe click here mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I was a software engineer for over 20 years, and in my view electronic voting is just another nail in the coffin of democracy. They used machines that had already been found to be non-compliant? They misplaced 50 memory cards? And if those 50 memory cards happen to turn up tomorrow at someone's doorstep, surey they're not intending to include them in the official tally?? The Help America Vote Act should have been named the Line the Pockets of Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia With Windfall Profits Act. I have a short essay on this topic if anyone is interested. Last year I mailed copies to everyone: Gov. Rell, Sec. of the State Susan Bysiewicz, and all my elected representatives in Washington and Hartford. Some replied, one or two didn't. Mostly I got big yawns. I sent a copy to the Hartford Courant several months ago. They ignored it. But someone has been paying attention to national news, because the last I heard CT will not be using the machines this November. ----- Original Message ----- From: Green Party-CT To: NG GREENS ; ctgp-news at ml.greens.org Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 8:47 PM Subject: {news} More problems with Computer voting (Ohio) Connecticut Green Party - Part of the GPUS http://www.ctgreens.org/ - http://www.greenpartyus.org/ to unsubscribe click here mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Problems, praise for new voting machines in Cuyahoga County Voters react positively, poll workers frustrated By Sean Greene electionline.org Cuyahoga County, Ohio - County voters along with hundreds of thousands of other Buckeye residents cast their ballots on electronic voting machines for the first time Tuesday. Response from those using the machines was generally positive. Response from those trained to work the polls was tepid. And by the end of the day, reports of voting machine problems from across the county demonstrated the difficulty of making the transition to the new technology. After years of casting punch-card ballots, made infamous in Florida in 2000 and recently ruled unconstitutional in Ohio, new Diebold AccuVote TSX machines equipped with a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) were rolled out in the county, home of Cleveland and more than one million registered voters. The county was allocated more than 5,400 machines by the state, with a ratio of one voting machine for every 186 voters. (For more statistics and details on Cuyahoga County voting, click here.) The May primary seemed almost tranquil compared to the high turnout and long lines witnessed in November 2004. At many times throughout the day, poll workers outnumbered voters at some polling places. Of those registered to vote, approximately 25 percent were expected to go to the polls. (Final turnout numbers are not yet available.) Voters like machines, some unaware of VVPATs In Cleveland, voter Kay McCastle was the first to cast a ballot in her precinct and praised the touch-screen voting machines "They were fairly easy. I liked it," she said. McCastle, however, did not examine the VVPAT that offered a paper and ink version of her vote. Broadview Heights poll worker Tim Klowchik saw similar behavior from voters. "Not too many look at the VVPAT," he said. One Richmond Heights voter who did look at the VVPAT initially thought it would be a receipt she could take with her. Poll workers clarified that the VVPAT was not a receipt and could not leave the polling place. [NOTE: Ohio State University's Dan Tokaji had his own impressions about Franklin County's machines as well.] David Stringer, voting in Shaker Heights, did express concerns - not about the machine's performance, but who made them. "I'd rather not have to use Diebold machines - because of their politics." He did add the machines were "perfectly convenient" and easier to use than punch cards, although he said he too was unaware of the VVPAT. Judy Gallo of the Greater Cleveland Voter Coalition, a voting rights advocacy group, also noted the lack of attention to the VVPAT and expressed concern. "I noticed that many voters did not compare their screen vote to the paper trail [behind] the glass. They 'heard' the machine doing something that sounded like printing, but they weren't aware they could lift up the 'flap' on the side of the machine and actually 'see' how their vote was being recorded on the paper trail. So there is much need for more voter education," she said. More detailed information about issues such as voters' use of VVPATs, voters' experiences with the new voting machines and the voting process in general will be available in the near future as two groups conducted exit polls in Cuyahoga County. One was conducted by the Greater Cleveland Voter Coalition. Another was conducted by the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners in conjunction with the Election Science Institute. Problems While voters were describing the voting system as easy to use and convenient, reports of problems began to emerge soon after polls opened at 6:30 a.m. At Woodbury Elementary School in Shaker Heights, a poll worker explained how there were delays when the polls opened with only one machine working. It took a technician about a half hour or so after polls opened to fix the other machines, leaving voters waiting and at least one voter who had to leave with the hopes of coming back later to cast a ballot. As reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, one polling place opened up nearly seven hours late due to problems poll workers had in setting up the machines and nearly 2 percent of the county's approximately 1,400 polling places were without functioning machines for up to two hours. Fifty memory cards containing vote totals were also missing, leading the elections board to consider using the VVPATs to get tallies. (The Plain Dealer has a timeline of events; for more coverage, click here.) Later in the evening, Cleveland city councilman Kevin Conwell stormed into the county elections office as votes were being counted stating that voting machine problems in his ward at Harry E. Davis Elementary School were never resolved and that the board of elections failed to help. Elections board director Michael Vu said he would look into what happened. Possibly the biggest problem didn't even happen at the polls. Over 17,000 absentee ballots had to be counted by hand due to the absentee ballot counting system, produced by Diebold, not working properly. Officials are still trying to figure out the exact issue - whether it was the system itself or the paper ballots printed by a local company. Vu said that during logic and accuracy testing performed the day before the election, results were not consistent and he decided it would be best to do a hand count. The hand count of the absentee vote and the missing memory cards have delayed the tallying process, and final results of the election were not known at the time of publication. Poll workers give mixed reviews Some poll workers liked the new machines - but the training they received left them less than impressed. At the Kiwanis Club in Richmond Heights, poll worker James Anderson said, "I like the new voting machines. I like this better [than punch cards]. The process is a lot faster and will be a lot faster when people catch on." In his polling place, one machine broke down and another's contrast was too dark - both quickly fixed by an election day technician. Anderson thought the training process was fairly easy, although felt perhaps there should have been more. He mentioned during his training a number of people left over concerns about not being trained enough. Newspaper reports indicate that upwards of 20 percent of poll workers did not show up on Tuesday. In Parma Heights, three poll workers for one precinct voiced displeasure with the training they received. While they said the voters were happy, they were not. "We were all pretty overwhelmed. The training wasn't well organized. There were too many things to learn in three hours," said poll worker Jan March. Extra training was offered on Sunday before the election, but when all three tried to go, the turnout for the training was much larger than expected and too crowded - in frustration they left. State Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, said she wants more detailed information about poll worker training and has asked the state to audit federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) funds to see where and how the money was spent on training - for poll workers and elections board staff. "It's not uniform across the state," Fedor said. In a press release she said, "It is incredibly important that we know where the federal dollars from HAVA were spent. It is obvious that not enough money went towards poll worker training. We knew that this significant change was coming for years and election after election our poll workers and boards of elections staff are not trained properly on the new machines." Ray Martinez, one of two Democratic commissioners on the four-member Election Assistance Commission, observed elections in both Franklin and Cuyahoga counties and witnessed some of the problems. "My general impression - growing pains," he said. "What I want to take back to the EAC is that in jurisdictions that make a complete transition from old voting technology to new, that's where we need ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org _______________________________________________ CTGP-news mailing list CTGP-news at ml.greens.org http://ml.greens.org/mailman/listinfo/ctgp-news ATTENTION! The information in this transmission is privileged and confidential and intended only for the recipient listed above. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email and delete the original message. The text of this email is similar to ordinary or face-to-face conversations and does not reflect the level of factual or legal inquiry or analysis which would be applied in the case of a formal legal opinion and does not constitute a representation of the opinions of the CT Green Party. The responsibility for any messages posted herein is solely that of the person who sent the message, and the CT Green Party hereby leaves this responsibility in the hands of it's members. NOTE: This is an inherently insecure forum, please do not post confidential messages and always realize that your address can be faked, and although a message may appear to be from a certain individual, it is always possible that it is fakemail. This is mail sent by a third party under an illegally assumed identity for purposes of coercion, misdirection, or general mischief. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail at the address shown. This e-mail transmission may contain confidential information. This information is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is intended even if addressed incorrectly. Please delete it from your files if you are not the intended recipient. Thank you for your compliance. To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org _______________________________________________ CTGP-news mailing list CTGP-news at ml.greens.org http://ml.greens.org/mailman/listinfo/ctgp-news ATTENTION! The information in this transmission is privileged and confidential and intended only for the recipient listed above. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email and delete the original message. The text of this email is similar to ordinary or face-to-face conversations and does not reflect the level of factual or legal inquiry or analysis which would be applied in the case of a formal legal opinion and does not constitute a representation of the opinions of the CT Green Party. The responsibility for any messages posted herein is solely that of the person who sent the message, and the CT Green Party hereby leaves this responsibility in the hands of it's members. NOTE: This is an inherently insecure forum, please do not post confidential messages and always realize that your address can be faked, and although a message may appear to be from a certain individual, it is always possible that it is fakemail. This is mail sent by a third party under an illegally assumed identity for purposes of coercion, misdirection, or general mischief. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail at the address shown. This e-mail transmission may contain confidential information. This information is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is intended even if addressed incorrectly. Please delete it from your files if you are not the intended recipient. Thank you for your compliance. To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Mon May 8 10:47:11 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 07:47:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} (Boston Globe Mass Gov. Race) Undaunted Green-Rainbow's Ross meets the people Message-ID: <20060508144711.48644.qmail@web81412.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Green-Rainbow candidate Grace Ross spoke with Verizon employee Jim Beggan last week in Boston. (Barry Chin/ Globe Staff) Undaunted, Green-Rainbow's Ross meets the people Boston Globe Grace Ross 's political machine is small, and the state has downgraded its status from ''party" to ''political designation." May 7, 2006 --> THE TRAIL REPORT Undaunted, Green-Rainbow's Ross meets the people May 7, 2006 Grace Ross's political machine is small, and the state has downgraded its status from ''party" to ''political designation." But the Green-Rainbow candidate for governor takes it all in stride. ''I think if you ask where the Democrats or Republicans were in their fourth year of existence, you might have a reasonable comparison," she said as she headed toward a union rally for Verizon workers last week. Ross, 44, a community organizer from Worcester, until recently ran Sisters Together Ending Poverty, a nonprofit organization. She says she has 150 people on her campaign committee, and is undaunted that every other candidate, except for Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, is a millionaire. ''I've decided that I am uniquely qualified to run," she said. ''I actually know what most people face day to day, trying to pay the rent." After earning a bachelor's and master's degree from Harvard, Ross made her first foray into politics in the mid-1980s when she joined Nuclear Free Cambridge, which campaigned to ban research that could be used in the making of nuclear weapons. ''We got creamed," she said. ''The funding of the other side was a who's who of the nuclear industry of the US." To qualify as a state-recognized political party, a political organization must receive 3 percent in a statewide election. Green gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein just met the threshold in 2002. But the party's 2004 presidential ticket, David Cobb and Pat LaMarche, won only .36 percent of the vote, dropping the Greens (now Green-Rainbows) back to ''political designation," a status it shares with 18 other groups, according to the secretary of state's website. In recent months, Ross has crisscrossed Massachusetts in her blue 2003 Prius, talking to people about affordable housing, education funding, global warming, and ending corporate tax breaks. She has attended no fewer than four Earth Day celebrations. (Her campaign was scheduled to represent her at Wake Up the Earth in Boston yesterday, but Ross decided to attend Northampton Pride instead.) At the Verizon rally, union leaders hollered into microphones, and actors in sumo wrestler costumes pretended to reenact contract battles. Ross circulated, handing out her (green) campaign brochures, explaining that during the last round of Verizon negotiations, she helped workers learn how to get health insurance in case of a strike. The workers accepted the brochures, with puzzled looks. A few nodded and smiled. ''I think people have a desire to see someone more like them win," she said. Patrick takes lead in hometown funding race It's not easy being labeled Green John Bonifaz, the Democrat challenging Secretary of State William F. Galvin, has had to fend off charges from Galvin that he is really a Green-Rainbow candidate in disguise. Bonifaz denies that strongly, although his vote for Ralph Nader's Green Party presidential candidacy in 2000 and his legal work for the Green Party effort do not help defuse the allegation. But now his drive to get nomination signatures is again raising the issue: His petition coordinator is Patrick John Keaney, a registered member of the Green-Rainbow Party, according to voting registration records. He can't sign the petitions because he is not a Democrat. Bonifaz, noting that important issues he is raising are not getting news coverage, said that he is not aware of Keaney's registration, but knows him as a key organizer for other Democrats. Frank Phillips, Brian Mooney, and Lisa Wangsness contributed to this report. Starting tomorrow at noon, check out ''Political intelligence," the Globe's blog on politics at www.boston.com/political_intelligence. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Mon May 8 13:20:37 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 10:20:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} Tuesday -- Immigration Forum at CCSU! Message-ID: <20060508172037.61259.qmail@web81406.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Tim McKee wrote: Date: Mon, 8 May 2006 10:10:35 -0700 (PDT) From: Tim McKee Subject: Fwd: [CT_Peace_Justice] Tuesday -- Immigration Forum at CCSU! To: greenpartyct at yahoo.com jasonmcgahan at comcast.net wrote: To: BringTheTroopsHomeNow at yahoogroups.com (Bring the Troops Home NOW Hartford ), ctup_organizing at lists.riseup.net (Organizing CTUP), CTpeace-activists at yahoogroups.com (CTpeace-activists), CT_Peace_Justice at yahoogroups.com (CT Peace Justice), jasonmcgahan at comcast.net From: jasonmcgahan at comcast.net Date: Mon, 08 May 2006 16:01:55 +0000 Subject: [CT_Peace_Justice] Tuesday -- Immigration Forum at CCSU! [Espanol abajo] (please forward widely) Stop the Deportations! Labor Solidarity Knows No Borders! Today the fates of immigrant workers and native-born workers are totally linked. If immigrant workers are able to win equal rights, it will unify and strengthen the labor movement to fight back against corporate attacks on pensions, healthcare and wages. Join us for a panel discussion that will explore the ways in which labor solidarity with the immigrant rights movement can shake up US politics for the better, and for everyone. Speakers include: Marela Zacarias- Regional Coalition for Immigrant Rights Miguel Fuentes- New England Regional Conference of Carpenters, Local 24, Wallingford, CT Andrew Pollack- 'Socialist Action' author of "Millions Fill the Streets to Defend Immigrant Rights," "Immigrant Workers and the AFL Split," and "The United Pension Default: Saving 'Our' Ai rline or Saving Labor?" Tuesday, May 9th at 7:30pm CCSU Marcus White Living Room Sponsored by Progressive Student Alliance and Youth for Socialist Action For more information, contact Socialist Action at 860-538-3920 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ?Alto a las Deportaciones! ?La Solidaridad Obrera No Tiene Fronteras! Hoy en d?a la lucha de los obreros inmigrantes por sus derechos est? totalmente conectada a la de los obreros de este pa?s. Si los inmigrantes ganan igualdad de derechos, se unir? y se consolidar? el movimiento sindical del pa?s ante los ataques corporativos a las pensiones, a los beneficios de salud, y a los salarios. ?nase a nosotros en una pl?tica que explorar? la manera en que una alianza de los sindicatos y el movimiento pro-inmigrante puede cambiar la pol?tica de Estados Unidos para el beneficio de todos. Los Oradores ser?n: ?Marela Zacar?as, Coalici?n Regional por los Derechos de los Inmigrantes ?Miguel Fuentes, Consejo Regional de Carpinteros de Nueva Inglaterra, Local 24, Wallingford, CT ?Andrew Pollack, Acci?n Socialista, autor de "Millones de Inmigrantes Toman las Calles Defendiendo Sus Derechos," "Los Obreros Inmigrantes y la Fractura de la AFL-CIO," y "La Bancarrota de las Pensiones de United: Rescatar 'Nuestro' Aerol?nea o Rescatar los Sindicatos?" El martes, 9 de Mayo a las 7:30 p.m. Central Connecticut State University 1615 Stanley St., New Britain, CT La pl?tica va a estar en la Sala de Marcus White, en el segundo piso del edificio Marcus White (ubicado en medio del campus directamente atr?s de las oficinas centrales que quedan en Stanley St.) Estaci?nese en donde est? el Centro de Estudiantes en Ella Grasso Blvd. Patronicado por Junventud por Acci?n Socialista Llame a 860-538-3920. SPONSORED LINKS Connecticut President bush inauguration President bush Missile defense system Global beauty network Global network --------------------------------- YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "CT_Peace_Justice" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: CT_Peace_Justice-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. --------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paid for by Thornton For Governor ,Donna Byrne-McKee, treasurer- www.VoteThornton.com email: info at votethornton.com Tim McKee NEW cell (860) 778-1304 or (860) 643-2282 Cliff Thornton for Governor- Campaign Manager- National Committee member of the Green Party- Connecticut -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dbedellgreen at hotmail.com Mon May 8 19:25:55 2006 From: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com (David Bedell) Date: Mon, 08 May 2006 23:25:55 +0000 Subject: {news} RE: Ballot Access In-Reply-To: <20060505190003.AB99F89C2B7@gandhi.greens.org> Message-ID: A letter-size (8 1/2 x 11) version of the statewide candidate petition is now downloadable at http://ctgreens.org/candidates/petition2006.PDF If you do not yet have a copy, please print this out and help us circulate it! Whether you collect 5 or 50 signatures, it will be a help in reaching our goal (7500 valid signatures are needed by August 7). 1. If you are a registered CT voter, you may circulate the petition. 2. Any registered CT voter may sign, but there must be a separate page for each town (since each page is submitted to the town Registrar of Voters to check). 3. People must sign in your presence (no fair leaving it on a table or bulletin board). 4. For further instructions, see the petition form. Feel free to ask me or Ralph if you have any questions. David Bedell ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 15:43:39 -0400 From: ralph ferrucci Subject: {forum} Hartford Labor Council Meeting/Ballot Access To: newhavengreens at yahoogroups.com, ctgp-news at ml.greens.org, ctgp-forum at ml.greens.org, votethorton at yahoogroups.com, Voteferrucci at yahoogroups.com Also I will be leading the petition drive until ballot access is done. I will spend the next few days finding rallies, fairs, festivals and securing super markets. If you would like to join me at any of these super markets or act as point person for the area, I.E. New London County, New Haven County, Fairfield County, etc. please email me. In the email include your name, how I can contact you and what city or town you live in. I also need to get a feel what has been collected so far. Please email me what you have in signatures also. Thank You for your help together we can win. Ralph Ferrucci ferrucciforsenate.org 203-430-9342 From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Tue May 9 09:53:21 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Tue, 9 May 2006 06:53:21 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} GP State Convention available on CT-N Message-ID: <20060509135321.13813.qmail@web81409.mail.mud.yahoo.com> http://www.ctn.state.ct.us/show_info.asp?EventID=9703 If this does not link, search the DATE April 22, 2006 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From apbrison at hotmail.com Tue May 9 11:02:50 2006 From: apbrison at hotmail.com (allan brison) Date: Tue, 09 May 2006 11:02:50 -0400 Subject: {news} RE: {forum} RE: Ballot Access In-Reply-To: Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Tue May 9 11:45:46 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Tue, 9 May 2006 11:45:46 -0400 Subject: {news} GP's Scott McLarty's letter published NYT, "'The Clean Green Party" Message-ID: <064101c6737f$a42ed010$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> Thanks to all who sent letters in response to Thomas Friedman's recent editorial in NYT (May 3, 2006 Op-Ed Columnist: Let's (Third) Party By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN "With no major party in America offering a solution to our energy needs, the situation is ripe for a third party. . . ." Yesterday, the Times published the letter of GP media coordinator Scott McLarty. For those inclined, please send letters to NYT asap in response to Scott's letter at letters at nytimes.com Thanks, Justine ====================================================================== http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/08/opinion/l08green.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fLetters&oref=slogin -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 8, 2006 The Clean Green Party (1 Letter) To the Editor: Re "Let's (Third) Party" (column, May 3): Thomas L. Friedman yearns for a third party that's willing to defy oil producers, but says that the Green Party represents a "narrow and liberal" agenda and that he prefers a "centrist" insurgence. A party that positions itself in the negligible crack between Democrats and Republicans will do little to expand the public debate. What America needs is a permanent, noncorporate third party. Any party that challenges the power of oil producers isn't going to do so effectively while accepting corporate money - which Greens refuse. Without the Greens, voters face years of dreary variations on Bush vs. Kerry. Electing a few Greens to Congress would shock Democrats into stronger opposition to the Republican agenda and strengthen the movement for conservation and other steps necessary to stem global warming. Scott McLarty Washington, May 4, 2006 The writer is the media coordinator of the Green Party of the United States. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 01/ Type: application/octet-stream Size: 42 bytes Desc: not available URL: From edubrule at sbcglobal.net Tue May 9 22:26:20 2006 From: edubrule at sbcglobal.net (edubrule) Date: Tue, 9 May 2006 22:26:20 -0400 Subject: {news} Fw: Invitation to AFSC Dinner Message-ID: <016c01c673ef$dc0e9900$04fbf504@edgn2b574u14bi> 6-Story Newsletter Template + Images ----- Original Message ----- From: AFSC Connecticut To: edubrule at sbcglobal.net Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2006 5:50 PM Subject: Invitation to AFSC Dinner American Friends Service Committee Connecticut In This Issue: Annual Dinner 2006 . ANNUAL FUNDRAISING DINNER with Juan Jose Gutierrez ANNUAL FUNDRAISING DINNER with Juan Jose Gutierrez Juan Jose Gutierrez is the national coordinator for Latino Movement USA. He was instrumental in the hugely successful march of over one million in Los Angeles this spring. Saturday, June 10, 2005 Dinner at 6:30pm Doors open for browsing at organization tables at 5:30pm Central Connecticut State University Constitution Room in Memorial Hall 1615 Stanley Street, New Britain, CT 06050 2006 AFSC HONOREES DACORIM (Danbury Coalition for the Rights of Immigrants), Jerimarie Liesegang, Eric Stamm, Chris Towne, Unidad Latino en Accion Cost: $45 per person (Students: $30) Limited Seating! Advance registration required by Saturday, June 3. Mail in payment (see below) or call AFSC at 860.523.1534. Dinner Menu: Herb-encrusted Chicken or Vegetarian Lasagna Salad, oven roasted potatoes, vegetables, dessert, coffee, tea GROUP DINNER TABLES There is a group table rate available for those who wish to be seated together at the dinner. 10 people/table for $405 (10% savings - buy 9, get one free!) *please indicate your group when making reservations INFORMATION TABLES AVAILABLE Literature tables will be available for organizations $15 is our suggested donation for literature tables Doors open at 5:30pm for information table browsing - please arrive at 5:00pm to table PLEASE INCLUDE WITH YOUR CHECK: *Dinner Selection: Chicken or Lasagna, *Number of seats (please include names and prices per ticket) *Your phone number *Group seating table (if applicable) *Organization Literature table (if applicable) Checks payable to "AFSC/Dinner" Send to: AFSC, 56 Arbor St, Hartford, CT 06106. Click Here to download leaflet for the dinner (Spanish available end of week) AFSC Connecticut 56 Arbor Street Hartford, CT 06106 tel: 860.523.1534 fax: 860.523.1705 connecticut at afsc.org Visit AFSC CT Online Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Confirm | Forward -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dbedellgreen at hotmail.com Wed May 10 01:27:06 2006 From: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com (David Bedell) Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 05:27:06 +0000 Subject: {news} May 17 "energy summit" at the Capitol? In-Reply-To: <6.2.3.4.2.20060505234013.0387a7c0@pop.emailsrvr.com> Message-ID: http://www.courant.com/business/hc-spsession0505.artmay05,0,2728552.story On Energy, A Challenge Blumenthal, Others Seek Special Legislative Session On Rising Gasoline, Electricity Prices By PAUL MARKS Courant Staff Writer May 5 2006 Hours after the 2006 General Assembly adjourned, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and several consumer groups called on lawmakers to return in special session and pass bills addressing soaring gasoline and electricity prices. Bills halting the practice of zone pricing of gasoline - which Blumenthal says is anticompetitive - and revising the state's system of generating power died Wednesday for lack of a vote. "We saw no vote in the House of Representatives on any substantive energy proposal - none. Not even debate," Blumenthal said Thursday. "Connecticut taxpayers and ratepayers have the right to a vote so they can hold their legislators accountable." He said energy company lobbyists carried the day by thwarting action on any of the heavily lobbied energy bills. "What happened in this session," he said, "is Big Energy beat the clock." The call for a special session got a cool reception from House Speaker James Amann, D-Milford. He and Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, plan a May 17 "energy summit" at the Capitol at which lawmakers will hear energy experts argue the pros and cons of policy choices. That might lead to a comprehensive energy plan and a special session, Amann said. Amann said Blumenthal's criticism is not justified. A 76-vote majority was needed in the House to pass energy legislation, he said, and "there was no consensus" in the Democratic caucus on what to approve. Gov. M. Jodi Rell was receptive to a special session. "Governor Rell agrees with the attorney general that these critical energy-related bills deserved an up or down vote," her spokesman, Judd Everhart, said. "If the legislative leadership does not call a special session on its own, the governor will seriously consider calling a special session herself." House Minority Leader Robert M. Ward, R-North Branford, voiced support for a special session on energy restructuring. "Connecticut needs an energy strategy, or in a few years we are in a crisis" because demand for electricity will outstrip supply, Ward said. "The solutions are long-term, not short-term. And we shouldn't put it off for another year." Blumenthal was joined by representatives of AARP Connecticut, the Connecticut Public Interest Research Group and Clean Water Action, which had lobbied for the energy bills. Also there was the president of Connecticut Light & Power, which had promoted a bill allowing the company to resume limited electricity generation. AARP spokesman Dave Thomas, a retiree from West Hartford, said relief from rising energy costs is important to the group's more than 600,000 members. Retirees surviving on a fixed income "don't like ... `budget breakers,'" he said. Among those, he said, are the 22.4 percent jump in electric rates imposed this year by CL&P. The Senate passed a bill banning zoned pricing of gasoline, in which big oil companies charge higher wholesale gas prices to retailers in some locales. But in the House that bill died without being debated. A broader bill addressing high electricity costs failed to reach a vote in either house. That would have allowed CL&P to get back into the power-generating business, with its profits capped by the state Department of Public Utility Control. The bill did not include Blumenthal's proposed "windfall profits" tax on power plant owners reaping high returns as fossil fuel costs climb on the spot market. CL&P President Raymond Necci has joined Blumenthal in calling for a partial repeal of the electric power deregulation enacted in 1998. Both favor letting electric distributors such as CL&P and United Illuminating own a limited number of power plants. Those would be allowed a set rate of return on their investment, but millions in profits now claimed by unregulated generators would be returned to consumers. Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant From chapillsbury at igc.org Wed May 10 17:56:24 2006 From: chapillsbury at igc.org (Charlie Pillsbury) Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 17:56:24 -0400 Subject: {news} FW: COW Alert! State Dem. Platform has no mention of the war! Message-ID: <005c01c6747c$95234080$6801a8c0@EXDIR04> From: Gregory Spear [mailto:gspear at spearreport.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 5:24 PM To: ctopposeswar at yahoo.com Subject: COW Alert! State Dem. Platform has no mention of the war! To all CT COWs (Connecticut Opposes the War) We've just received confirmation that the planned State Democratic Platform for the 2006 elections has no mention of the War! 77% of CT residents oppose the war and CT kids are dying there. What's the Democratic Party going to do about it? It's time for COW to mobilize. Please FORWARD this message to ctopposeswar at yahoo.com to let us know you can come to one or both of these events: THIS Thursday, May 11, 7:00 PM State Democratic Party Platform Discussion: 179 Allyn Street, above Coach's bar, Hartford. This meeting is open. Let's be there to insist that the platform include a call to end the war in Iraq! Friday, May 19, 5:30 - 6:30 PM Kickoff for State Democratic Party Nominating Convention Hundreds of anti-war party activists will be inside the convention urging and organizing for anti-war candidates to be nominated, and for the Party to adopt an anti-war plank in the platform. US Labor Against the War and COW will be demonstrating outside to support that fight. People are needed both before and after this time slot, so if that hour isn't perfect for you, or you have more time to offer, we'll be there from about 5:00 PM to about 7:30 PM. But do your best to be there 5:30 to 6:30. Please forward, and CALL YOUR FRIENDS to urge them to attend the convention demonstration with you! Remember, emails notify; but it's PHONE CALLS and face-to-face conversations that really ORGANIZE! Please FORWARD this message to ctopposeswar at yahoo.com to let us know that we can count on you for one or both of these events. Thank you! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From efficacy at msn.com Wed May 10 19:21:25 2006 From: efficacy at msn.com (clifford thornton) Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 19:21:25 -0400 Subject: {news} FW: COW Alert! State Dem. Platform has no mention of the war! References: <005c01c6747c$95234080$6801a8c0@EXDIR04> Message-ID: Well, I agree 100% about the war. But what about America's Longest war. This is what is destroying our infra structure. Cliff Clifford W. Thornton, Jr. The next Governor of Connecticut PO Box 1971 Manchester, CT 06045 860 657 8438-Home 860 643 2282-Campaign Manager 860 778 1304 (cell) 203 581 3193 (cell) votethornton at yahoogroups.com www.votethornton.com Paid for by Thornton for Governor Donna L. Bryne-Mckee, Treasurer ----- Original Message ----- From: Charlie Pillsbury To: ctgp-news at ml.greens.org Cc: newhavengreens at yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 5:56 PM Subject: {news} FW: COW Alert! State Dem. Platform has no mention of the war! Connecticut Green Party - Part of the GPUS http://www.ctgreens.org/ - http://www.greenpartyus.org/ to unsubscribe click here mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org From: Gregory Spear [mailto:gspear at spearreport.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 5:24 PM To: ctopposeswar at yahoo.com Subject: COW Alert! State Dem. Platform has no mention of the war! To all CT COWs (Connecticut Opposes the War) We've just received confirmation that the planned State Democratic Platform for the 2006 elections has no mention of the War! 77% of CT residents oppose the war and CT kids are dying there. What's the Democratic Party going to do about it? It's time for COW to mobilize. Please FORWARD this message to ctopposeswar at yahoo.com to let us know you can come to one or both of these events: THIS Thursday, May 11, 7:00 PM State Democratic Party Platform Discussion: 179 Allyn Street, above Coach's bar, Hartford. This meeting is open. Let's be there to insist that the platform include a call to end the war in Iraq! Friday, May 19, 5:30 - 6:30 PM Kickoff for State Democratic Party Nominating Convention Hundreds of anti-war party activists will be inside the convention urging and organizing for anti-war candidates to be nominated, and for the Party to adopt an anti-war plank in the platform. US Labor Against the War and COW will be demonstrating outside to support that fight. People are needed both before and after this time slot, so if that hour isn't perfect for you, or you have more time to offer, we'll be there from about 5:00 PM to about 7:30 PM. But do your best to be there 5:30 to 6:30. Please forward, and CALL YOUR FRIENDS to urge them to attend the convention demonstration with you! Remember, emails notify; but it's PHONE CALLS and face-to-face conversations that really ORGANIZE! Please FORWARD this message to ctopposeswar at yahoo.com to let us know that we can count on you for one or both of these events. Thank you! To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org _______________________________________________ CTGP-news mailing list CTGP-news at ml.greens.org http://ml.greens.org/mailman/listinfo/ctgp-news ATTENTION! The information in this transmission is privileged and confidential and intended only for the recipient listed above. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email and delete the original message. The text of this email is similar to ordinary or face-to-face conversations and does not reflect the level of factual or legal inquiry or analysis which would be applied in the case of a formal legal opinion and does not constitute a representation of the opinions of the CT Green Party. The responsibility for any messages posted herein is solely that of the person who sent the message, and the CT Green Party hereby leaves this responsibility in the hands of it's members. NOTE: This is an inherently insecure forum, please do not post confidential messages and always realize that your address can be faked, and although a message may appear to be from a certain individual, it is always possible that it is fakemail. This is mail sent by a third party under an illegally assumed identity for purposes of coercion, misdirection, or general mischief. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail at the address shown. This e-mail transmission may contain confidential information. This information is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is intended even if addressed incorrectly. Please delete it from your files if you are not the intended recipient. Thank you for your compliance. To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Thu May 11 09:48:23 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 06:48:23 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} (Multiple newspapers)"Green candidate wants state to SURRENDER in war on drug" Message-ID: <20060511134823.21756.qmail@web81415.mail.mud.yahoo.com> 05/10/2006 Green candidate wants state to surrender in war on drugs By Steve Collins , Special to The Press Saying "the politicians of today are just cowards and incompetents," the Green Party?s gubernatorial candidate Friday called for Connecticut to surrender in the war on drugs. "What we have to do is bring these drugs inside the law," said Clifford Thornton, who is taking aim at the state?s highest office despite the long odds against him. Advertisement '); } // --> '); } //--> Instead of pouring billions into fighting drugs and building prisons, Thornton said, society should use the money to restore its infrastructure, improve schools, clean up the environment and more. "If we recognized drug abuse as a medical and public health problem instead of a criminal problem," he said, "the potential savings and increased tax base would be substantial." In a wide-ranging interview with The Bristol Press, Thornton laid out an ambitious agenda that diverges widely from the planks of the both the Republican and Democratic parties. The 61-year-old retired businessman from Glastonbury said he wants "tell Rell farewell" by ousting Gov. Jodi Rell and besting whomever the Democrats back for the state?s top job. Two mayors are seeking the Democratic endorsement this month, New Haven?s John DeStefano and Stamford?s Dan Malloy. Thornton said that he will do whatever he can to force his opponents to talk about the costly effort to clamp down on drug use. If they won?t address the issue, he said, "I?m going to slam them." "They can?t defend a failed policy," Thornton said. Legalizing marijuana and hemp would create a new tax source that could provide money to rebuild bridges, bolster education, add light rail to relieve congestion and a host of other needed improve-ments, Thornton said. Allowing doctors to prescribe other currently illegal drugs, he said, would allow for regulatory oversight and immediately allow savings in the "bloated law enforcement" budgets and prisons. Thornton said that dropping the drug war would reduce violence, increase tax revenue and allow society to focus on real needs, including treatment of addicts. "We have to retool Connecticut, not only Connecticut, but America," he said. By giving up the war on drugs - just as the nation backed away from Prohibition - people would lose their fear of cities and the country could again talk seriously about how best to deal with the problems of race and class again. "The status quo is not right," Thornton said. He said the Republicans and Democrats like it because "they can divvy up the goodies" between themselves, but the public loses out. As it is, Thornton said, when he walks into the General Assembly in Hartford, he thinks of a song Frank Sinatra made famous: "Send In The Clowns." "They?re not doing anything," he said. "They?re just dancing." The Green Party bills itself as an alternative to the two major parties. Thornton said that it?s increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Democrats and Republicans because they pursue policies that are nearly the same. He said Republican President George W. Bush has tried to rule by instilling fear in the public, but his predecessor in the White House, Democrat Bill Clinton, "put the people back to sleep" instead of rallying America to reform. '); } // --> '); } //--> ?The Middletown Press 2006 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Sat May 13 11:24:48 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Sat, 13 May 2006 11:24:48 -0400 Subject: {news} USGP-INT: Elizabeth May Veteran environmental activist to seek Canadian Green party leadership Message-ID: <00e101c676a1$5fa55200$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> The Brooks Bulletin P.O. Box 1450 Brooks, Alberta T1R 1C3 Tel: (403) 362-5571 Fax: (403) 362-5080 editor at brooks bulletin.com Veteran environmental activist to seek Green party leadership JOHN WARD Tuesday, May 09, 2006 OTTAWA (CP) - Elizabeth May, one of the country's best-known environmentalists, will seek the leadership of the Green party, pledging to woo disaffected voters back to politics. May, a lawyer, former executive director of the Sierra Club and an officer of the Order of Canada, says she is disillusioned with the mainstream parties and wants to change the face of politics. "I really think the old labelling of left, right and centre are so outmoded," she said at a Tuesday news conference announcing her candidacy. "They really represent an anachronism in the way we talk about politics." She said she'll take pragmatism over politics if necessary. "If the appropriate solution to an environmental problem is a market mechanism, then we use it. We're not doctrinaire in the old sense." But she also suggested she will try and expand the scope of the party, which until now has been seen as focused more on the environment than social issues. "The Green party must be concerned with the plight of the poor," she said. "You can't have environmental sustainability with social injustice, it's just not possible." She's seeking to take over a party torn by infighting under the leadership of Jim Harris the leader since 2002, who announced his departure last month. His tenure was marked by internal party struggles, questions about his environmentalist credentials and threats of legal action against party members who criticized him. The party itself essentially practised kitchen table politics on a shoestring for years until new federal campaign finance laws delivered a cash windfall before the campaign for the Jan. 23 election. Even flush with money, the Greens made little progress over their 2004 showing, raising their vote share to 4.5 per cent from 4.3 per cent. May promises to expand the party's appeal and membership. "Youth, in particular, need to find a party that they can support enthusiastically," she said. May brings a higher profile to the party. Harris was a little known quantity to many and was seen by some as having a libertarian streak. Under him, the party managed to field candidates in every riding, but couldn't win a Commons seat. May brings a lifetime in activism, wide public recognition and a career's worth of contacts, from the Sierra Club board to famed wildlife painter Robert Bateman, who is honorary chair of her campaign. Her only rival so far is David Chernushenko, the party's deputy leader. He ran in Ottawa Centre in the last election, winning 10 per cent of the vote in a riding that went to the NDP. The party chooses its new leader at a convention in Ottawa Aug. 24-27. ? The Canadian Press, 2006 From nectgreens at hotmail.com Sat May 13 17:57:32 2006 From: nectgreens at hotmail.com (NECT Greens) Date: Sat, 13 May 2006 21:57:32 +0000 Subject: {news} 3rd Thursday Street Fest: May 18 Message-ID: The CT Greens have reserved a table for the statewide candidates to campaign for election at Willimantic's 3rd Thursday Street Fests. The Fests run monthly from May-October, 6-9 pm in the Historic Downtown section of Willi. Between 5,000-10,000 people attend each Fest to eat great ethnic foods, listen to 7 stages with music, and browse vendors and merchants and...information booths like ours! May 18th, from 6-9 pm, we need help staffing a table at this fun event. Help us for an hour, and enjoy yourself for the other 2 hours! At the Green Convention, we endorsed a great slate to run in statewide elections: Cliff Thornton for Governor, Nancy Burton for Attorney General, Mike DeRosa for Sectary of State, David Bue for State Treasurer and Ralph Ferrucci for US Senate. We need to get thousands of signatures on petitions to get our candidates on the ballot. There will be a wonderful opportunity to introduce the Green Party and our candidates at the 3rd Thursday Fests. Please contact JeandeSmet at galaxyinternet.net for more information, or to let us know that you can be there! Thanks _________________________________________________________________ Don?t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search! http://search.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200636ave/direct/01/ From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Sat May 13 22:56:12 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Sat, 13 May 2006 22:56:12 -0400 Subject: {news} Fw: Statement by Green Party of US on the 58th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba Message-ID: <022801c67701$f66fea00$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> Statement by the Green Party of the United States Commemorating the 58th Anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba May 14, 2006 The Green Party of the United States joins the peace-seeking community worldwide in commemorating the 58th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. We are part of a global Green movement, made up of more than 100 national Green parties throughout the world. Sharing a vision of ecological wisdom, democracy, human rights, and peace/non-violence, Green parties have emerged throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific. In 2001, we became signatories to the Global Green Charter http://www.europeangreens.org/info/globalgreencharter.html, which puts forth a global, holistic, and ecological philosophy, looking outward to the rest of the world. We understand that the most serious crises facing the world's people and natural environments, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, are global, and that many of these global problems can be traced to the policies of the United States government. >From this Green perspective, we recognize the catastrophe of ongoing Palestinian dispossession as a catastrophe for us all: It is a catastrophe for the rule of law over military might. It is a catastrophe for the self-determination of peoples over colonialism and imperialism. It is a catastrophe for cultural diversity and equality of different peoples, over tribalism, cultural homogeneity and exclusivity. It is a catastrophe for the remembrance of human suffering rather than the militarization of that suffering. It is a catastrophe for the intimate, life-sustaining attachment of human beings to the earth. Thus, with each year that Israel--with crucial US financial and political support--prevents Palestinian refugees from returning home, a part of each of us remains homeless, in exile. Clearly, Americans have a special responsibility toward Palestinians, as reflected in our platform on this issue, "The Green Party of the United States recognizes that our greatest contribution to peace in the Middle East will come through our impact on U.S. policy in the region." Moreover, only as we evaluate our government's policies on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the lens of our own history, can we encourage Israel, Europe and others to do the same. Our reading of American history underscores the shameful basis on which the United States was founded and upon which much of its wealth is based: genocide and ethnic cleansing of American native peoples, and racism, including slavery. While the worst of these crimes against humanity were committed in the unapologetic era of Western imperialism and colonialism, their effects are with us still. Our government has never formally apologized nor offered reparations to American Indians or African-Americans. Meanwhile, most Americans experience a collective denial about this ignominious history even as its legacy lives dangerously on - not just at home but also in our foreign policy, especially the Middle East. Indeed, American Indian dispossession by Euro-Americans is older than that of Palestinians by Zionists/Israelis. Yet, the same national formative act--and its denial--constitute a common component of the "special relationship" touted between the U.S. and Israel, and is the basis of much of the international antipathy toward both governments today. >From that historical perspective, we view the dispossession of Palestinian refugees as the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and regard Israeli acknowledgement of its responsibility for the Nakba and of the right of Palestinian refugees to return home as key to a just and sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl/response_on_palestine.html). Accordingly, our platform formally affirms the right and feasibility of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes; it calls for full withdrawal by Israel from the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza, dismantling of the separation wall, and suspension of all US aid to Israel until it stops these violations of international law (http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/democracy.html#310677) But how can we enact these policies in the face of our corporate-controlled, two-party system of American government that tolerates little opposition? (In fact, the duopolistic nature of our system is no better epitomized than in US policy on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: unequivocal financial and political support for Israel by both the Republican and Democratic Parties' at the expense of international law and Palestinian human rights.) While our party will continue working to reform this system, we have decided to do what the international community has done in the past when petitions, demonstrations, court rulings and UN resolutions were not enough: join together to sanction the offending government. To that end, and as a logical outgrowth of our party's values and platform, the Green party adopted the following resolution on November 21, 2005 (http://www.green-party.org.il/public_statement.htm): 1. The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) publicly calls for divestment from and boycott of the State of Israel until such time as the full individual and collective rights of the Palestinian people are realized. To maximize the effect of the Green Party's support for divestment and boycott of Israel: 2. The party calls on all civil society institutions and organizations around the world to implement a comprehensive divestment and boycott program. Further, the party calls on all governments to support this program and to implement state level boycotts. 3. The party urges the Campus Greens network to work in cooperation with other campus organizations to achieve institutional participation in this effort. 4. The GPUS National Committee directs the Green Peace Action Committee (GPAX) to encourage the larger anti-war movement to promote the divestment/boycott effort. 5. The GPUS National Committee directs the International Committee to work with our sister Green parties around the world in implementing an international boycott. We recognize the identification and empathy of millions of citizens of every formerly colonized country in the Americas, Africa and Asia-including the Middle East-with the Palestinian struggle, an empathy that is far beyond the reach of even the most repressive governments in these regions. We believe that it is in the context of a continuing progressive struggle in world consciousness that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict must be viewed and for which it provides a central touchstone. Attempts to equate such identification and empathy to anti-Semitism deflect attention from the socioeconomic, political and psycho-cultural factors that sustain this conflict. Moreover, accusations of anti-Semitism heighten and perpetuate regressive elements on both sides for political gain, trivialize the historic prejudice against Jews, and inhibit the expression of genuine sympathy these peoples do have for Jewish suffering, especially the Nazi holocaust. However, as our platform states, "we oppose as both discriminatory and ultimately self-defeating the position that Jews would be fundamentally threatened by the implementation of full rights to Palestinian-Israelis and Palestinian refugees who wish to return to their homes." We acknowledge that the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan is the homeland of over 7 million Palestinian refugees; that it is, and always has been, a multicultural land, and that Israelis and Palestinians have become inextricably linked by their history and mutual attachment to the same place they now all call home. In recognition of these facts, our platform also calls for a serious reconsideration of the creation of one democratic state as the national home for both peoples. With this call, we aim to open a conversation in the US and abroad about the only political structure we can envision that conforms to our party's values and international law, that fully recognizes the historic and present realities, and that gives maximum equality and freedom, including mutual self-determination, to all the people of that land. However, as US Greens, we do not seek to impose our views on the people of the region, including the form a political solution will take to meet these needs. Instead, we suggest equality before the law as the rallying cry for Palestinian and Israeli liberation-liberation from the apartheid-like system within Israel as well as in the occupied Palestinian Territories. Finally, as we remember this 58th anniversary of the Nakba and the ongoing suffering of Palestinians, we take comfort from the success of the international community's resolve in ending South African apartheid. We also remember that the Palestine for which we struggle is not only a cherished piece of land and home to Palestinians. Nor is it just an anti-colonial liberation struggle with which formerly colonized peoples identify. But, as Edward Said frequently reminded us, Palestine is also an "idea"--the idea of freedom and diversity: free in that it transcends the confinement of ethnic, religious or nationalistic boundaries; and diverse in both its history of multiculturalism and ethos that different people can live together without living in ghettos. May that idea sustain us in the work ahead. In solidarity, The Green Party of the United States www.gp.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From vogel at myeastern.com Sun May 14 14:15:37 2006 From: vogel at myeastern.com (Robert Vogel) Date: Sun, 14 May 2006 14:15:37 -0400 Subject: {news} S E Connecticut References: Message-ID: <00a301c67782$672c05f0$0300a8c0@your55e5f9e3d2> http://www.seconnecticut.com/editorial.htm From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Mon May 15 11:00:32 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 11:00:32 -0400 Subject: {news} USGP-INT: Green MEP Welcomes President Of Venezuela Message-ID: <034201c67830$50653090$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> NEWS RELEASE >From The Office Of Jean Lambert, London's Green MEP 15th May 2006 GREEN MEP WELCOMES PRESIDENT OF VENEZUELA TO LONDON Euro MP Jean Lambert welcomed the President Of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, to London yesterday when hundreds of people crammed into the Camden Centre to be part of an official gathering. London?s Green MEP, Jean Lambert shared the platform with Hugo Chavez and a mixture of leading figures from the left. Whilst the President continues his visit today with appointments in City Hall, Jean reflected on yesterday?s event and said; ?President Chavez deserves recognition of the changes and achievements he has made in Venezuela over the last few years. The country is now benefiting from real improvements in public services and the opportunities that we take for granted here in the UK. ?The fact that people in Venezuela are now gaining access to a fully functioning health service and the opportunity of an education proves that Chavez is bringing about reform and closing the gap between rich ?Yesterday?s meeting demonstrated that the President has an enormous amount of support in his challenge to develop a fair trade system that aims to counter poverty rather than the free trade system being pushed by the WTO. I applaud his moves to an equitable society and hope in time it will be less divided.? Jean was joined on the platform by, amongst others, Tariq Ali, Colin Burgess MP and Paul Mackey. ENDS For more information please contact: Morwenna Holland, Media Officer tel: 020 7407 6280 or 07813149812 email: media at jeanlambertmep.org.uk www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk Notes to editors: Jean Lambert: In October 2005 Jean was named MEP 2005 for Justice and Human Rights. Jean was first elected Green Party Member of the European Parliament for London in the 1999 European elections. She was re-elected in 2004. She is one of nine MEPs representing London and one of two UK Green representatives in the European Parliament. -- Morwenna Holland Media and Public Relations Officer Office of Jean Lambert MEP - London's Green MEP Suite 58, The Hop Exchange 24 Southwark Street London, SE1 1TY Tel: 00 44 (0)20 7407 6280 Fax: 00 44 (0)20 7234 0183 Email: media at jeanlambertmep.org.uk Web: www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk From dbedellgreen at hotmail.com Tue May 16 19:56:02 2006 From: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com (David Bedell) Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 23:56:02 +0000 Subject: {news} Cliff Thornton in the Norwalk Hour In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Green Party candidate Cliff Thornton is running with a different message The Norwalk Hour 5/15/06 By PATRICK R. LINSEY Hour Staff Writer REGION - Connecticut's more familiar candidates for governor are campaigning on platforms of job growth, property tax relief and transportation infrastructure. Green Party candidate Cliff Thornton is running with a different message: Legalize it. "I've been waiting for the last 10 years for someone to step forward who's going to really talk about the issues," said Thornton. "None of the politicians that are running will talk about anything worthwhile." Thornton, 61, lives in Glastonberry and is a frequent speaker at forums dealing with drug enforcement issues and the drug war. Marijuana should be legalized, he said, and heroin maintenance introduced for drug addicts. And Thornton doesn't stop there. "I also want to see the medicalization of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy and the decriminalization of all the rest of the illegal drugs for future debate and true and honest medicinal study." Thornton is neither a hippie nor a drug addict, and said his argument for legalizing dangerous and addictive drugs is on firm ground. "In the last 15 years, Connecticut has spent a billion dollars on prisons alone, at the expense of education in this state," he said. The drug war is sucking dry state coffers, said Thornton, at the expense of other, vital programs."Many people will say 'you're a one-issue candidate,'" Thornton said. "That's not true. The drug war is two degrees from everything." Connecticut's drinking and waste water infrastructures need billions of dollars in investment in coming decades, he said. So, too, do the state's roads, bridges and schools. Thornton also believes in universal health care. But those programs would come at tremendous cost. The best source, he said, is money now funding the drug war, including law enforcement, courts and prisons. "We've got to understand that the drug war is meant to be waged, not won," said Thornton. "We're talking about almost a hundred years of drug prohibition and almost four decades of the drug war and yet there's more drugs on the street at cheaper prices than ever before." Drug users should be put on maintenance programs, he said. "These illegal drugs are not a law enforcement problem, they're a public health problem," said Thornton. "(Addicts should) come under medical supervision. The dosage is stabilized." Thornton bristled at the notion his plan equates to giving up on drug users. "Build a society that causes the least amount of harm to people who use these drugs and causes the least amount of drugs as a whole," Thornton said. "It's not the drugs so much that's harming them. It's the drug policies that are harming them." The Green Party officially nominated Thornton on Earth Day, April 22. With two established Democrats already challenging a popular Republican incumbent, Thornton's chances of victory are remote. Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano head to the Democratic State Convention in Hartford this weekend, in their quest to defeat Gov. M. Jodi Rell. "My main goal in this campaign is to reach the tens of thousands of people in this state who think they don't have a voice or can't make a difference," Thornton said. "My goal in this campaign is to have a strong, viable third party." Patrick R. Linsey Reporter, The Hour Newspaper (203) 354-1005 From dbedellgreen at hotmail.com Wed May 17 00:37:08 2006 From: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com (David Bedell) Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 04:37:08 +0000 Subject: {news} Green campaigns for Congress to watch in 2006 In-Reply-To: <20060515190702.23517.1321.Mailman@petra-k.cagreens.org> Message-ID: Candidates: Please visit some of these Green websites for campaign ideas. GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES http://www.gp.org For Immediate Release: Monday, May 15, 2006 Contacts: Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@ greens.org Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@ greens.org Green campaigns for Congress to watch in 2006 Contested Green nominations for U.S. Senate in California, New York; Green Party 'Peace Slate' pulls support away from warhawk Democrats in many races. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green candidates running for Congress are picking up support from many voters frustrated by the lack of Democratic opposition to the Bush agenda, especially on the invasion and occupation of Iraq. A state-based list of campaigns to watch in the 2006 mid-term elections is appended below. Other candidates will be featured in future releases. Most of the candidates are currently seeking the nomination of their respective state Green Parties. In some races, multiple candidates are competing for the nomination. "The fact that the Green Party now has contested nominations shows the growth and maturity of the party," said Nan Garrett, co-chair of the Georgia Green Party and spokesperson for the National Women's Caucus. For more Green campaign listings, news, photos, and web sites, visit (candidate spotlight page) and (Green elections database, with a list of all 2006 candidates). CALIFORNIA California Greens will decide between three candidates for the U.S. Senate nomination: Todd Chretien , Tian Harter , and Kent Mesplay . The primary election will take place June 6. In House races, Krissy Keefer is challenging Nancy Pelosi for her seat in the 8th Congressional District (San Francisco). Jeff Kravitz, a well know professor of constitutional law and civil rights lawyer, is running in District 5 (Sacramento) . Byron De Lear, running in the 28th District (San Fernando, Pacoima, Arleta, Panorama City, Van Nuys, and North Hollywood) , was one of five Greens delivered the party's rebuttal to President Bush's 2006 State of the Union address (see video at ) and has received a lot of media coverage. Bill Paparian, former Mayor of Pasadena and Green candidate for Congress in the 29th District (Pasadena/Glendale/Burbank) , has been endorsed by Danny Bakewell Sr., national Democratic leader and publisher of the Los Angeles Sentinel, the largest and oldest black-owned newspaper on the west coast. Mr. Bakewell endorsed Mr. Paparian over pro-war Democrat incumbent Adam Schiff. DELAWARE Michael Berg has received wide coverage for his House campaign and was recently endorsed by antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan. Mr. Berg, the father of Nick Berg, who was taken hostage and murdered in Iraq in May, 2004, marched in the lead contingent of the April 30 antiwar protest in New York City with Ms. Sheehan, Daniel Elsberg, and Rev. Jesse Jackson. On Sunday, May 14, Mr. Berg appeared at a Mother's Day antiwar rally along with Ms. Sheehan and Susan Sarandon on Lafayette Square in front of the White House. MARYLAND Kevin Zeese, running for U.S. Senate , is seeking the nomination of the Green, Libertarian, and Populist Parties in a Unity Campaign to challenge the two old parties. Mr. Zeese had planned to run on all three ballot lines but 'emergency' legislation passed by Maryland's Democratic-controlled legislature is likely to force him to pick one ballot; he will run on the Green Party line unless litigation allows him to run on multiple lines. NEW YORK Steve Greenfield , Howie Hawkins , Sander Hicks , and Steve Krulick are seeking the nomination of the Green Party of New York State for Hillary Clinton's U.S. Senate seat. The New York 'Peace Slate' nomination will take place on May 20. Jim Brown, running for the 3rd District (Nassau and Suffolk counties) House seat , is the only candidate challenging Republican Peter King, chair of the House Homeland Security Commitee. PENNSYLVANIA Four Greens are running for the U.S. House: Dave Baker in District 2 (West Philadelphia) ; Greta Browne in District 15 (Berks, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton); Derf Maitland in District 19; and Titus North in District 14 (Allegheny). SOUTH CAROLINA The South Carolina Green Party has nominated three congressional candidates: James E. Dunn in the 1st District, a family and individual councellor in Myrtle Beach; pastor and community activist Antonio Williams in the 2nd District (the state party's first African American congressional nominee); and C. Faye Walters, a self employed cosmetologist, in the 4th District . TENNESSEE Chris Lugo, Green candidate for the U.S. Senate , was recently featured on WKRN (ABC) in Nashville speaking out against the war in Iraq. Mr. Lugo, running as a peace candidate, was interviewed regarding a peace rally organized by Tennessee Greens, Code Pink, and the Nashville Peace Coalition in response to a May 11 speech by Laura Bush at Vanderbilt University. In House races, Robert Smith is running in District 1 and Katey Culver in District 7 . WASHINGTON Aaron Dixon is challenging Maria Cantwell for her U.S. Senate seat . Mr. Dixon's rebuttal to a May 4 op-ed column by Ms. Cantwell in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in which he sharply criticizes her support for the Iraq War, can be read on his web site. WISCONSIN Politics1.com has named the Rae Vogeler for U.S. Senate website its 'Site of the Day': see . Ms. Vogeler is challenging incumbent Herb Kohl. Earlier in 2006, she traveled the state promoting a Wisconsin ballot initiative calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq; on April 4, the 'Bring the Troops Home' initiative passed in 24 out of 32 cities, towns, communities where it appeared on the ballot . MORE INFORMATION Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org 1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404 Washington, DC 20009. 202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN Fax 202-319-7193 ~ END ~ From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Thu May 18 08:58:16 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 05:58:16 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} REMINDER-TONGHT!!we need YOU for Petitioning at Willimantic Third Thursday! 6 PM Message-ID: <20060518125816.33196.qmail@web81408.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Look for the Green Party booth or just work the street- Rain or shine!! http://www.willimanticstreetfest.com/parking.html From May to October, on the 3rd Thursday of each month, 4 blocks of Main St. are closed to vehicular traffic for the evening & filled with festival-goers. Thousands of pedestrians browse merchandise within a background of musical, theatrical, visual & olfactory delights. There are clowns and bands and a giant frog to entertain you as you meander through the fest. Local & regional vendors set tables in the street showcasing the wealth of goods produced in CT. This area is rich in musical talent. Five stages, placed along Main Street, have continuous performances ranging from rhythm & blues to Latin jazz to folk rock to African drumming. The music is interspersed with performances by dance troupes, poets and puppeteers. Street performers and children?s events are strategically placed throughout Main Street so a new adventure is always unfolding. One block may hold the Bounce Room and another face painting. Kids of all ages will have something special to enjoy. Our cultural diversity brings wonderful food to the festival. There?s authentic Thai, Indian, Mexican, Syrian, Puerto Rican, Italian, and Ukrainian food vendors providing gastronomic delights from around the world. And there?s old-fashioned ice cream floats for dessert! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dbedellgreen at hotmail.com Fri May 19 23:56:14 2006 From: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com (David Bedell) Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 03:56:14 +0000 Subject: {news} Ferrucci 2006 nomination speech now on video! Message-ID: Thanks to Nick P. and Port Bridge Media, you can now watch Ralph's speech at the Connecticut Green Party nominating convention (Earth Day, April 22, 2006, in New Haven, CT--11 min video): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3040356043990841241 From dbedellgreen at hotmail.com Sat May 20 00:55:24 2006 From: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com (David Bedell) Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 04:55:24 +0000 Subject: {news} Mike DeRosa 2006 nomination speech now on video! Message-ID: Thanks to Nick P. at Port Bridge Media, you can now watch Mike DeRosa's speech at the Connecticut Green Party nominating convention (Earth Day, April 22, 2006, in New Haven, CT--10 min video): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1211291486125836709 As candidate for CT Secretary of the State, Mike talks about campaign finance reform, proportional representation, ballot access, etc. "As Karl Rove and as Joe Stalin said, 'It doesn't matter how the people vote; what matters is who counts the votes.' " "All parties are equal in Connecticut, but some parties are more equal than others. What this really is in the final analysis is a No Incumbent Left Behind law." Watch the video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1211291486125836709 From dbedellgreen at hotmail.com Sat May 20 01:57:59 2006 From: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com (David Bedell) Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 05:57:59 +0000 Subject: {news} Green appointments to boards and commissions Message-ID: Here in Stamford, we recently achieved a small victory for multi-party democracy. When asked if a Green or unaffiliated voter could be appointed to the Environmental Protection Board, Mayor Dan Malloy told us that it wasn't up to him; he was limited by procedures spelled out in the city charter. In other towns, party membership is not a requirement for public service on a board or commission--in fact, many Greens hold appointed office in CT (see http://ctgreens.org/elected.html "Greens Elected and Greens Serving at the Municipal Level in Connecticut"). Perusal of the city charter turned up nothing to support the Mayor's claim, and yesterday I received a letter from the Appointments Committee of the Stamford Board of Representatives (= city council). It confirms that minor party and independent voters CAN be recommended by the Mayor and the Appointments Committee for membership on the EPB or other appointed bodies: "Past and current practice is that the two major political parties submit names to the Mayor for consideration for appointment. However, the Mayor can submit the name of anyone from any party who is a registered elector in the City of Stamford." For the record, I've posted the letter at http://ctgreens.org/fairfield/Stamford%20Appts.PDF Persistence Pays. David Bedell From chapillsbury at igc.org Sat May 20 16:42:40 2006 From: chapillsbury at igc.org (Charlie Pillsbury) Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 16:42:40 -0400 Subject: {news} CTGP 3rd CD Convention, Wed. June 14 7:30 p.m. Message-ID: <001001c67c4d$f154f280$6801a8c0@EXDIR04> Pursuant to CT General Statutes Sec. 9-452a, as Co-Chair of the New Haven Green Party and as the presiding officer of this nominating meeting, I hereby provide statutory notice of a Green Party nominating meeting to be held: Date: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 (FLAG DAY!) Time: 7:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. (at the very latest; we may be done sooner) Location: 608 Whitney Avenue New Haven (first floor - The First Unitarian Universalist Society of New Haven) Purpose: Nominate the Green Party Candidate for U.S. Representative from the Third Congressional District. Nominations shall be accepted from the floor. Only registered Greens who are residents of the Third Congressional District and are present at the meeting may be nominated. Only registered Greens who are residents of the Third Congressional District and are present at the meeting are eligible to vote. The nominee must receive support from a simple majority of those who actually vote. If there is more than one person nominated, instant runoff voting will be used and abstentions will not be counted as votes. Snack food and beverages will be provided. Respectfully submitted, Charles A. Pillsbury, Co-Chair, New Haven Green Party 247 Saint Ronan Street New Haven CT 06511 203-865-6575 chapillsbury at igc.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From chapillsbury at igc.org Sun May 21 11:09:31 2006 From: chapillsbury at igc.org (Charlie Pillsbury) Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 11:09:31 -0400 Subject: {news} Greens at Democratic State Convention Message-ID: <003a01c67ce8$90b86ba0$6500a8c0@S0031616584> How Anti is Anti? by Tess Wheelwright | May 20, 2006 05:20 AM | Permalink - http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2006/05/post_206.html Caitlin Welch-Rubin PhotoDid even our trustiest new Bring-the-Troops-Home-Now candidate shy away from making too stark an anti-war mark at a largely pro-Lieberman convention? Friday night convention programs promised that after Max Medina voiced nomination for Joe's challenger Ned Lamont, we'd hear words from New Haven Reverend Allie Perry. Perry had been slotted to read off a list of Connecticut soldiers who have died in the Iraq war. But when she got to the convention, she found a message on her cell phone from Lamont's campaign manager Tom Swan saying there had been a change of plans. Thanks but no thanks: You've been pulled. Why? "It was internal development, a mix-up of communication," explained Swan later, amidst post-session celebrations. In his first months, Lamont faced accusations of being a single-issue candidate. Was the decision to pull Perry a backing off from too much emphasis on the war? Swann said the campaign had come out plenty strong against the war on Friday, but said, "We did get a certain degree of blowback. From various people." Perry seemed disappointed. Active with various groups against the war, she welcomed the opportunity to remind the party of its heavy toll. "I was going to be a witness..." "They chicken out at the last minute. They flinch. That's why we're greens!" said Charlie Pillsbury, Allie's husband and a chair of the New Haven Green Party. Platform Unchanged by Melissa Bailey Anti-war protestors showed up at the Democratic state convention in attempt to push the party to take an anti-war stance. Right now, the state party platform addresses the war with one softball sentence, advocating a "clear, safe and responsible exit strategy for American troops in Iraq." Protestors moved to strenghthen the language in the platform - to a platform that opposes the war, like most Connecticut Democrats do - but when it came time to address the divisive issue, party leaders mysteriously tabled the matter. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Picture 014.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 21277 bytes Desc: not available URL: From JeandeSmet at galaxyinternet.net Sun May 21 13:11:34 2006 From: JeandeSmet at galaxyinternet.net (Jean de Smet) Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 13:11:34 -0400 Subject: {news} Greens in Norwich Bulletin Message-ID: <00dd01c67cf9$a1e35910$c1ddf504@jean1oa1rgr0ov> Sunday's Norwich Bulletin had a front page header, top right of paper (that's a very good thing), announcing Green candidates, with the article on Page 6 by Ray Hackett. He reported on the convention. I encourage everyone to send the Elections Correspondent's name for their local paper to Tim. General press releases rarely reach the right person. I'm kind of assuming that Tim's doing the press for all candidates, but that may not be true! Jean -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Sun May 21 15:42:08 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 15:42:08 -0400 Subject: {news} Fw: USGP-INT Demonstration yesterday in London on behalf of Palestinians Message-ID: <0b6801c67d0e$a63e4230$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> Message from USGP International Committee member David Schwartzman, a physics prof. at Howard U. finishing up a sabbatical year in Europe. Justine ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Schwartzman" To: Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 11:31 AM Subject: USGP-INT Demonstration yesterday in London Yesterday I participated in an inspiring demonstration at Trafalgar Square focusing on the humanitarian crisis now facing the Palestinians, calling for the EU/Israel to stop starving Palestinians, recognise the results of the Palestinian election and of course an end to the Occupation. It was sponsored by a wide range of groups (go to the website: palestinecampaign.org ). Highlights included the participation of some of UK's biggest trade unions (e.g., National Union of Teachers), Jews for Justice for Palestinians, and a contingent of Satmar Hasidic Jews who walked some 5 miles to Trafalgar Sq since it was Saturday (see them holding their signs on the right of the stage area: e.g., "Judaism rejects Zionism") and of course a very diverse representation of the Moslem, Arab and Asian communities. The night before I attended a big neighborhood meeting of Hackney Stop the War with a audience of Moslems, Jews, Christians and others. John Rose, the author of The Myths of Zionism gave a great talk. I suggest we get Rose on a speaking tour in the US. So attached are some of the photos. Ciao, David, still in rainy London P.S. A speaker for Jews for Justice for Palestinians supported divestment and boycott of Israeli goods until the illegal Wall and Occupation is ended. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: PICT0010.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 66338 bytes Desc: not available URL: From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Sun May 21 18:19:28 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 18:19:28 -0400 Subject: {news} 'If he didn't answer the way we liked, we would shoot his youngest kid in the head': Testimony of Ex -US soldier Message-ID: <0c3701c67d24$a0725560$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> ----- Original Message ----- 'If he didn't answer the way we liked, we would shoot his youngest kid in the head': Ex -US soldier May 21, 2006 Former Army Ranger and Iraq War Veteran Tells All This interview will change how you view the U.S. occupation of Iraq forever. I cannot possibly recommend this more highly. An Iraq war veteran tells of atrocities he and other fellow-soldiers committed reguarly while in Iraq. I have never seen this level of honesty from a U.S. soldier who directly participated in the slaughtering of Iraqis. (with VIDEO) http://mparent7777.livejournal.com/8757944.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Mon May 22 10:25:50 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 10:25:50 -0400 Subject: {news} Fw: TAKE ACTION: House Votes TODAY on Palestinian Sanctions CAL your reps. Message-ID: <0cf601c67dab$a0c3e470$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> Please call your reps. to oppose this draconian bill. Justine McCabe ===================================================================== TAKE ACTION: House Votes TODAY on Palestinian Sanctions Do you think that Palestinians should be subjected to draconian sanctions for voting? If not, then we NEED you to please pick up the phone TODAY and call your Representative because the House is voting tonight, Monday, May 22, on HR4681, the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. Call the Capitol switchboard today toll-free at 1-888-355-3588 and ask for your Representative, or call them directly by looking up their numbers on our Congressional Report Card. Even if you've already contacted your Representative before on this issue, please call again today! If you've ever doubted your ability to have an effect on your Representative, here is some tangible proof that your efforts are paying off: * Every Member of Congress has received a fax from the US Campaign of a petition signed by more than 330 US-based organizations opposed to HR4681. * Despite intense arm-twisting and hysterical emails from AIPAC, close to 140 Representatives have refused to co-sponsor HR4681. AIPAC has even acknowledged the intense grassroots opposition to this bill. In an email to their supporters, AIPAC states that "Around the country the opponents of this bill are engaging in grassroots activism in opposition to it and it is important that Congress hear from the bill's supporters." * Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN-4) has banned AIPAC from her office until it apologizes for equating her committee vote against HR4681 to "support for terrorists". In a letter to AIPAC, Rep. McCollum states that "During my nineteen years serving in elected office, including the past five years as a Member of Congress, never has my name and reputation been maligned or smeared as it was last week by a representative of AIPAC." * Reps. David Price (D-NC-4), Lois Capps (D-CA-23), Ray LaHood (R-IL-18), and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-3) issued a Dear Colleague letter against HR4681. These Representatives criticized the bill on the grounds that it "would prohibit all assistance to the Palestinian people, other than narrowly-defined categories of humanitarian aid (excluding, for example, education and economic development)." * Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA-7) entered a scathing critique of HR4681 in the Congressional Record in which he asked "And what can we expect if we turn our backs on the real and growing humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people? It doesn't make sense to put restrictions on funding the NGOs that provide the Palestinian people with hospitals and schools. As a medical doctor, I am gravely concerned about the fate of millions of innocent Palestinians who rely on international aid for food, health care, and for developing their economy and businesses. Recent news reports say that international sanctions are preventing hospitals in Gaza from providing dialysis machines for patients, and they may not be able to supply immunizations to children. The World Health Organization sees a 'rapid decline of the public health system.....towards a possible collapse.' This bill will only make the already dire situation even worse. As a doctor I took an oath to heal. As a nation, we took an oath to lead. Allowing innocent Palestinians to go hungry, while denying them medical treatment cannot possibly correct injustice, or lead to peace." * Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR-3) submitted an additional view to the House International Relations Committee report on HR4681, calling it "the wrong answer to a most difficult challenge." Please pick up the phone today and make sure that your Representative knows that her/his constituents oppose sanctioning the Palestinian people for voting. Call today: 1-888-355-3588 WHY IS HR4681 SO IMPORTANT? HR4681 is the most draconian sanctions bill that Congress has EVER considered imposing against the Palestinians. The anti-Palestinian sanctions in it include: * Restricting US humanitarian aid and potentially eliminating entire US aid projects, such as infrastructure and small business development; * Threatening to withhold a portion of US dues to the United Nations because it maintains bodies that advocate for Palestinian human rights and seek to hold Israel accountable to international law; * Defining territory controlled nominally by the Palestinian Authority as a "terrorist sanctuary", thereby requiring US businesses to obtain special export licenses for most goods destined for the Occupied Palestinian Territories and gutting the provisions of the US free trade agreement with the West Bank and Gaza; * Refusing visas to members of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the Palestinian Mission to the UN, even those who belong to political parties that the United States does not classify as "foreign terrorist organizations"; * Restricting the movement of PLO diplomats at the United Nations and threatening to close the PLO's office in Washington, and; * Instructing the US representative to the World Bank to use the considerable strength of the United States in international financial institutions to vote against the continuation of humanitarian aid projects. CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY: 1-888-355-3588 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From apbrison at hotmail.com Mon May 22 11:19:13 2006 From: apbrison at hotmail.com (allan brison) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 11:19:13 -0400 Subject: {news} Greens in Norwich Bulletin In-Reply-To: <00dd01c67cf9$a1e35910$c1ddf504@jean1oa1rgr0ov> Message-ID: The main corresspondent for the New Haven Register is Angela Carter. Her email is: acarter at nhregister.com. Her direct phone line at the Register is: 789-5614 Allan ----Original Message Follows---- From: "Jean de Smet" To: <> Subject: {news} Greens in Norwich Bulletin Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 13:11:34 -0400 Connecticut Green Party - Part of the GPUS http://www.ctgreens.org/ - http://www.greenpartyus.org/ to unsubscribe click here mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org Sunday's Norwich Bulletin had a front page header, top right of paper (that's a very good thing), announcing Green candidates, with the article on Page 6 by Ray Hackett. He reported on the convention. I encourage everyone to send the Elections Correspondent's name for their local paper to Tim. General press releases rarely reach the right person. I'm kind of assuming that Tim's doing the press for all candidates, but that may not be true! Jean To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org _______________________________________________ CTGP-news mailing list CTGP-news at ml.greens.org http://ml.greens.org/mailman/listinfo/ctgp-news ATTENTION! The information in this transmission is privileged and confidential and intended only for the recipient listed above. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email and delete the original message. The text of this email is similar to ordinary or face-to-face conversations and does not reflect the level of factual or legal inquiry or analysis which would be applied in the case of a formal legal opinion and does not constitute a representation of the opinions of the CT Green Party. The responsibility for any messages posted herein is solely that of the person who sent the message, and the CT Green Party hereby leaves this responsibility in the hands of it's members. NOTE: This is an inherently insecure forum, please do not post confidential messages and always realize that your address can be faked, and although a message may appear to be from a certain individual, it is always possible that it is fakemail. This is mail sent by a third party under an illegally assumed identity for purposes of coercion, misdirection, or general mischief. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail at the address shown. This e-mail transmission may contain confidential information. This information is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is intended even if addressed incorrectly. Please delete it from your files if you are not the intended recipient. Thank you for your compliance. To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org From efficacy at msn.com Mon May 22 12:02:06 2006 From: efficacy at msn.com (clifford thornton) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 12:02:06 -0400 Subject: {news} Greens in Norwich Bulletin References: Message-ID: http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060521/NEWS01/605210314&SearchID=73245343099270 Green Party prepares for races By RAY HACKETT Norwich Bulletin HARTFORD -- The Democrats and Republicans aren't the only candidates on the November ballot. The Green Party of Connecticut endorsed four candidates at its convention in April, including the first black candidate for governor. Clifford Thorton, 61, of Glastonbury will lead the Green ticket. Also running under the Green Party banner for statewide office are Nancy Burton, a public interest lawyer, for attorney general; Mike DeRosa for secretary of the state, and S. David Bue for state treasurer. Ralph Ferrucci was nominated as the party's candidate for U.S. Senate. Thornton is harsh critic of the war on drugs. His mother died from a heroin overdose when he was 18, and he expects that will be the most important part of his campaign. He claims stiff penalties for users and selling has resulted only in sending parents and other potential taxpayers to prison. He supports decriminalizing all drugs, the legalization of cannabis and hemp, and the use of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy for medical use. Burton, who lives in Redding, has long been a critic of the Millstone nuclear power plants in Waterford, filing numerous law suits against the company and state in unsuccessful efforts to shut the plants down. DeRosa has criticized the state's campaign finance reform efforts, particularly provisions that require third parties to collect signatures of 20 percent of all voters from the last election to qualify for funding. Bue is a certified financial planner, "practicing socially responsible investing" in Westport, according to his campaign literature. Ferrucci, who ran for mayor in New Haven under the Guilty Party, supports the immediate withdrawal from Iraq, universal health care and a repeal of the Patriot Act. He also supports an education system that covers people from pre-kindergarten through college. Reach Ray Hackett at 425-4225 or rhackett@ norwichbulletin.com Originally published May 21, 2006 ----- Original Message ----- From: allan brison To: ctgp-news at ml.greens.org Sent: Monday, May 22, 2006 11:19 AM Subject: RE: {news} Greens in Norwich Bulletin Connecticut Green Party - Part of the GPUS http://www.ctgreens.org/ - http://www.greenpartyus.org/ to unsubscribe click here mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org The main corresspondent for the New Haven Register is Angela Carter. Her email is: acarter at nhregister.com. Her direct phone line at the Register is: 789-5614 Allan ----Original Message Follows---- From: "Jean de Smet" > To: <> Subject: {news} Greens in Norwich Bulletin Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 13:11:34 -0400 Connecticut Green Party - Part of the GPUS http://www.ctgreens.org/ - http://www.greenpartyus.org/ to unsubscribe click here mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org Sunday's Norwich Bulletin had a front page header, top right of paper (that's a very good thing), announcing Green candidates, with the article on Page 6 by Ray Hackett. He reported on the convention. I encourage everyone to send the Elections Correspondent's name for their local paper to Tim. General press releases rarely reach the right person. I'm kind of assuming that Tim's doing the press for all candidates, but that may not be true! Jean To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org _______________________________________________ CTGP-news mailing list CTGP-news at ml.greens.org http://ml.greens.org/mailman/listinfo/ctgp-news ATTENTION! The information in this transmission is privileged and confidential and intended only for the recipient listed above. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email and delete the original message. The text of this email is similar to ordinary or face-to-face conversations and does not reflect the level of factual or legal inquiry or analysis which would be applied in the case of a formal legal opinion and does not constitute a representation of the opinions of the CT Green Party. The responsibility for any messages posted herein is solely that of the person who sent the message, and the CT Green Party hereby leaves this responsibility in the hands of it's members. NOTE: This is an inherently insecure forum, please do not post confidential messages and always realize that your address can be faked, and although a message may appear to be from a certain individual, it is always possible that it is fakemail. This is mail sent by a third party under an illegally assumed identity for purposes of coercion, misdirection, or general mischief. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail at the address shown. This e-mail transmission may contain confidential information. This information is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is intended even if addressed incorrectly. Please delete it from your files if you are not the intended recipient. Thank you for your compliance. To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org _______________________________________________ CTGP-news mailing list CTGP-news at ml.greens.org http://ml.greens.org/mailman/listinfo/ctgp-news ATTENTION! The information in this transmission is privileged and confidential and intended only for the recipient listed above. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email and delete the original message. The text of this email is similar to ordinary or face-to-face conversations and does not reflect the level of factual or legal inquiry or analysis which would be applied in the case of a formal legal opinion and does not constitute a representation of the opinions of the CT Green Party. The responsibility for any messages posted herein is solely that of the person who sent the message, and the CT Green Party hereby leaves this responsibility in the hands of it's members. NOTE: This is an inherently insecure forum, please do not post confidential messages and always realize that your address can be faked, and although a message may appear to be from a certain individual, it is always possible that it is fakemail. This is mail sent by a third party under an illegally assumed identity for purposes of coercion, misdirection, or general mischief. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail at the address shown. This e-mail transmission may contain confidential information. This information is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is intended even if addressed incorrectly. Please delete it from your files if you are not the intended recipient. Thank you for your compliance. To be removed please mailto://ctgp-news-unsubscribe at ml.greens.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Wed May 24 13:31:09 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 10:31:09 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} Campaign and petition meetings- TONIGHT and next Wednesday Message-ID: <20060524173109.72539.qmail@web81403.mail.mud.yahoo.com> THORNTON FOR GOVERNOR We are now having weekly meeting at the Hartford Green Party office! The other camapigns will soon be meeting there to discusss joint stragety. We need to get on the ballot and already dozens of people are working the streets! Everyone is welcome! Please come and pick up petitions, discuss issues or find out the latest news! Tonight at 7 pm and next Wednesday May 31 The office is at 418 New Britian Avenue (Near Trinity University) Parking on the street is tight. The office is being rebuilt to be a FULL campaign office! We need computers, office equipement, phones and fax machines..if you can donate please birng them! Thanks in advance! Tim McKee Thornton for Governor campaign manager -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Wed May 24 13:33:23 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 10:33:23 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} National Greens- Election of CCC members Message-ID: <20060524173323.61533.qmail@web81408.mail.mud.yahoo.com> "Walling, Jennifer" wrote: Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 12:26:27 -0500 From: "Walling, Jennifer" To: , CC: Subject: [usgp-coo] PLEASE FORWARD - Election of CCC members PLEASE FORWARD! Call for Candidates: GPUS Coordinated Campaign Committee July 2006 Summary: To run for the CCC, submit the application below and have a representative from the leadership of your state party or caucus send a note verifying that you have been approved to GPUS Secretary Holly Hart (secretary at gp.org) by Thursday, July 20, 2006. Greens! Run for the Coordinated Campaign Committee this July at the national convention! If you have electoral campaign experience, please consider serving. Dear Greens, Once again, we roll toward a national meeting at which, among other things, we will elect a new Steering Committee and Coordinated Campaign Committee. The Coordinated Campaign Committee (CCC) is a national committee that works to develop resources for and otherwise support local, state and federal electoral candidates and campaigns. It is different from other national committees in that it is made up of 10 members, and is elected annually by the national Coordinating Committee. CCC members do not have to be on the Green National Committee. Since the CCC's bylaws were approved by the NC, the committee has developed a strong and vibrant curriculum of campaign schools, matching funds, consulting services, manuals, etc. The CCC is looking for members who are willing to continue and expand our projects. Since February of 2004, the CCC is aided by and supervises the Political Director, who has been working hard to assist the CCC in implementing its mandate. In part due to this effort, local, state, and national parties have witnessed a corresponding increase in the sophistication and winningness of Green campaigns. Eligible candidates for CCC: 1. Have electoral campaign experience and a desire to help Green candidates and campaigns. 2. Have the permission of their state parties or accredited caucus to seek a seat on the CCC (Note: a state party may give permission to no more than one candidate each year, per CCC bylaws). 3. Are willing to commit at least 15 hours a month to CCC work, and attend two teleconference calls a month 4. Submit applications or statements of qualification (see below) by Thursday, July 20, 2006. Candidates must submit either the completed CCC application or a statement containing similar information by July 8th to secretary at gp.org, together with proof of approval by the candidate's state party. The CCC bylaws can be found on the CCC website on the GPUS site. Please forward this email to all interested persons. If you have any questions, about the process or the committee, please contact Jen Walling at 217-493-9455 or jwalling at law.uiuc.edu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- APPLICATION FOR COORDINATED CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE - Candidates may submit a statement that includes the same information instead of this application. 1 - Name 2 - State 3 - Have you received approval to serve on this committee from your state party? (Please remember to have an officer forward this approval to the GPUS secretary). 4 - Summarize your past experience with elections and campaigns. 5 - Explain your interest in the Coordinated Campaign Committee. 6 - Identify specific contributions you think you could make to the work of the Coordinated Campaign Committee. 7 - How would your participation in this committee further the Green Party's commitments to feminism, racial justice, and diversity? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- CCC DESCRIPTION (Bylaw approved by GPUS CC 2002) The Coordinated Campaign Committee (CCC) is a standing committee of the USGP that cooperates with state and local parties in the coordination and support of federal, state, and local Green Party electoral campaigns. Specific functions of the CCC include: a) Tracking of Green Party candidates at all levels of government. b) Facilitation of discussions regarding electoral strategy among state parties. c) Identification of target communities and districts for national support. d) Support for candidate recruitment in targeted communities and districts. e) Volunteer, media, celebrity, and resource mobilization for specific candidacies in targeted communities and districts. f) Training and materials support for Green Party candidates and activists. g) Analysis of past campaigns for lessons learned. h) State-by-state tracking of ballot status and laws. i) Publication and distribution of an annual call for candidates. j) Organization of a Green Party campaign school. In carrying out these specific functions, the Coordinated Campaign Committee shall consider the following priorities: i) Securing and maintaining state ballot lines. ii) Existing on-the-ground support for candidate. iii) Likelihood of winning. iv) Racial inclusion, diversity, and gender balance . v) Four Pillars and 10 Key Values of the Green Party. vi) Potential for Green Party growth in targeted area. vii) Past electoral success in targeted area. viii) Likelihood of gaining legislative majority or of securing an executive office. ix) Districts/States where incumbent is unopposed or only one other candidate has announced for office. x) Districts/States where Green candidates are likely to run at least second. xi) Districts/States where all other likely candidates are highly objectionable. The Coordinated Campaign Committee is composed of 10 voting members drawn from affiliated state parties. CCC members are selected annually by the members of the Coordinating Committee, and may be members of that committee or of an affiliated state party; no state shall have in excess of one member on the CCC. Vacancies on the CCC are filled by the Steering Committee. The members of the CCC annually elect up to three co-chairs from among its members. The Coordinated Campaign Committee works with a pool of CCC Associates; these include one liaison from each affiliated state party not already represented on the CCC as well as staff or other persons necessary to the productivity of the CCC who shall be chosen as deemed appropriate by the CCC. Associates may participate in CCC discussions and meetings as needed but are not regular voting members of the CCC. __________________________________________________ Notes about election procedures for those needing more information: * State party approval can be by phone conference, in person meeting, or email discussion. The approval can be given by whatever procedures a state party has in place for such a decision. In no case, however, can approval be given after consideration by one person on behalf of a state party. * Information from all candidates will be compiled and given to all delegates to the NC at the beginning of the annual national meeting. * An announcement of the upcoming CCC elections will be made at the beginning of the national meeting, encouraging NC members to carefully read the provided materials in advance, before the elections. Candidates will be publicly identified so that NC members can ask questions of them over the course of the meeting. * Persons who do not submit their statements of intent prior to the national meeting may be nominated from the floor. These candidates must have prior approval to run for CCC of their state parties. These candidates must fill out the application form, or provide a written statement of interest with qualifications, for duplication and distribution to NC delegates. _______________________________________________ Natlcomvotes mailing list To send a message to the list, write to: Natlcomvotes at green.gpus.org To unsubscribe or change your list options, go to: http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/natlcomvotes If your state delegation changes, please see: http://gp.org/committees/nc/documents/delegate_change.html For other information about the Coordinating Committee, see: http://gp.org/committees/nc/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paid for by Thornton For Governor ,Donna Byrne-McKee, treasurer- www.VoteThornton.com email: info at votethornton.com Tim McKee NEW cell (860) 778-1304 or (860) 643-2282 Cliff Thornton for Governor- Campaign Manager- National Committee member of the Green Party- Connecticut -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From roseberry3 at cox.net Wed May 24 21:32:34 2006 From: roseberry3 at cox.net (B Barry) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 21:32:34 -0400 Subject: {news} priliminary agenda for 5-30-06 SCC meeting Message-ID: <20060525013239.JSHR15470.eastrmmtao02.cox.net@BarbaraBarry> Agenda for 5-30-06 SCC Meeting Place: Portland Public Library, 20 Freestone Avenue, Portland, CT Phone: 860-342-6770 Time: 7PM to 8:55PM Facilitator: To Be Determined A. Preliminaries: 1. (2 minutes): Introductions of attendees and chapters. Recruit timekeeper. 2. (1 minute): Identify attendees who are NOT voting representatives. 3. (1 minute): Adopt ground rules. 4. (2-4 minutes): Approval of tonight's proposed agenda, additions and deletions. 5. (5 minutes): Comments and approval of 1-31-05, 2-28-06, 3-28-06 and 5-2-06 SCC minutes. 6. (5 minutes): 2-13-06, 3-13-06, 4-22-06 and 5-8-06 EC meetings presentation and approval. 7. (15 minutes): Treasurer's report by Christopher Reilly . . Reports: 1. (5 minutes, each for): Chapter reports. 2. (10 minutes): U.S. Green Party report by CTGP representatives: Tim McKee and Charlie Pillsbury. 3. (5 minutes): Budget Committee suggestions 4. (15 minutes): Gathering of signatures for our state and federal candidates to get on the ballot 5. (10 minutes): Soliciting ideas/people from the chapters for our 2007 legislative agenda/V.O.T.E.R. 6. (10 minutes): Discussing the revival of the "CT Green Times" newspaper. 7. (20 minutes): Discussion about CTGP candidates for federal, statewide and municipal elections; any new candidates. 8.(15 minutes): Discussion about CTGP literature and pumper stickers. 9. (5 minutes): Status of CTGP website. 10. (5 minutes): Status of process committee. 11. (5 minutes): Status of various listserves. 12. (5minutes): Volunteers and development of CTGP position papers. PROPOSAL 1: PRESENTER (committee, chapter(s) or group of individuals): David Bedell, Charlie Pillsbury, Allan Brison, Barbara Barry DeRosa and Michael DeRosa. CONTACT: David Bedell, 12 Ardsley Rd, Stamford, CT 06906, 203-581-3193, dbedellgreen(at)hotmail.com SUBJECT: Independent audit of Green Party financial records BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE (100 words or less; include relationship, reasons and/or justification to the State Central Committee): The CT Green Party has had a number of Treasurers during its history but has not standardized its bookkeeping system. There is a need for a single paper- or computer-based ledger system and better documentation of expenditures. An independent audit is needed to review our records from the past several years and to recommend bookkeeping procedures going forward that will serve the Green Party well in the future. PROPOSAL: The CT Green Party shall appoint an ad hoc committee to obtain quotes from three professional accountants for an independent audit of the party's books. The committee shall then make a recommendation to the SCC regarding the hiring of an auditor. In order to avoid any perception of bias, it is our recommendation that the current and former party Treasurers not serve on the committee selecting an auditor. www.mapquest.com . -- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From apbrison at hotmail.com Thu May 25 13:45:30 2006 From: apbrison at hotmail.com (allan brison) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 13:45:30 -0400 Subject: {news} !!!! Petitioning !!!! - Sat May 27 Message-ID: -----------------PETITIONING DRIVE--------------------- We will be petitioning for signatures this coming Sat. LOCATION: Stop and Shop on Dixwell near Skiff TIME: May 27, Sat TIME: 11am to 5pm This store has a much bigger volume of business than the one near Putnam. We will be able to use lots of petitioners. We are asking folks to put in 1 hour shifts. Please respond to this email with the times you can come. Thanks, Allan From justinemccabe at earthlink.net Sun May 28 10:48:38 2006 From: justinemccabe at earthlink.net (Justine McCabe) Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 10:48:38 -0400 Subject: {news} Indian Country Today, " Pope asked to revoke papal bulls" (re: UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues) Message-ID: <00fc01c68265$ce4a6e50$0402a8c0@JUSTINE> http://indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413051 Pope asked to revoke papal bulls ? Indian Country Today May 26, 2006. by: Gale Courey Toensing / Indian Country Today NEW YORK - There is no ambiguity in the language of the 15th-century papal bulls issued by the popes of the Roman Catholic Church as they encouraged the kings of Portugal and Spain to conquer ''undiscovered'' lands, enslave their non-Christian populations and expropriate their possession and resources. Now, more than 500 years later, the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues has called on Pope Benedict XVI to revoke and renounce those documents. The bulls, according to the forum, formed the ''doctrine of discovery'' - a philosophy that sanctified the massacre of millions of indigenous people and continues to influence U.S. Supreme Court decisions today. The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues held its fifth conference at the United Nations in New York from May 15 - 26. More than 1,200 delegates from all over the world attended. The forum was established by the U.N. Economic and Social Council in 2000 with a mandate ''to discuss indigenous issues within the mandate of the council relating to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health and human rights.'' A May 18 event called ''Papal Bulls, Manifest Destiny and American Empire'' featured Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation (Haudenosaunee); Tonya Gonnella Frichner, Onondaga Nation; Esmeralda Brown, of Panama, chair of the Non-Governmental Organizations for Sustainable Development's southern caucus; and Yolanda Teran, Kichwa from Quito, Ecuador, and a member of Ecuador's National Council of Indigenous Women. The Rev. Robert Meyer, a representative from the office of the Permanent Observer of the Holy See at the United Nations, was invited to join the panel, but declined. ''I'm not really an expert historian, so I'll have to be an expert listener,'' Meyer said. The papal bulls include a Jan. 8, 1455, edict by Pope Nicholas V that grants the ''right of conquest'' to Alfonso, king of Portugal, and authorizes him ''to invade, search out, capture, vanquish and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions and all movable and immovable goods whatever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.'' The ''movable and immovable goods'' were to be used for the benefit and profit of Alfonso and his heirs forever. The term ''Saracens'' was used by medieval Europeans to mean Arabs and Muslims in general. Portugal and Spain were rivals in the conquest game, and by 1493, a new pope - Alexander V - issued another papal bull urging his King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to ''seek out and discover certain islands and mainlands remote and unknown and not hitherto discovered by others'' so that the ''barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the [Roman Catholic] faith itself.'' Lyons, the first speaker on the panel, wove stories from the past to the present, juxtaposing the spirituality of indigenous people with organized religion. The two have ''different ideas,'' Lyons said, ''and even in today's dialogue we still don't quite connect because we're on a different spiritual level. They don't quite understand relationship. We never gave up our relations with the earth.'' Lyons quoted a Buddhist spiritual leader who had supported the American Indians' 1978 Long Walk from California to the White House, seeking justice for the depredations of history. ''When he was asked why he had joined the Long Walk, he said, 'I have studied the issue of peace around the world, and I've studied the peoples around the world and it is my conclusion that the most consistently persecuted people in the history of modern times is American Indians, and I am very amazed and impressed that in spite of all this persistent persecution, you have maintained your beliefs and your ways. Even today I see them as very crystallized and very strong, and I consider from all of this that the spiritual center of the world lies her in your hands,''' Lyons said. Lyons provided a lyrical ancestral memory of life on Turtle Island B.C. - ''Before Columbus'' - as a pristine land of plenty where ''peace was prevalent'' because everyone understood the basic unwritten law that is the foundation of peace: respect for each other and the land, Lyons said. ''Then our brother came from across the water, and my grandmother said it was like a black cloud rolling towards us, a rolling black cloud coming at us, and it covered us. That's how she described it,'' Lyons said. Last September, Lyons co-signed a letter urging Pope Benedict XVI to rescind and revoke the papal bulls. ''These bulls provide the foundation for the theft of indigenous lands throughout the world that continues up to this day. These bulls subjugated innocent and unsuspecting Native peoples and subjected them to more than 500 years of slavery, genocide and a less than human identity. We continue to suffer from what could be called an international conspiracy of nations, now ... become nation-states, to continue to perpetuate this racist doctrine promulgated by the Roman Catholic Church. This doctrine is a crime against humanity,'' Lyons wrote. Lyons told Indian Country Today he has not received a response to, or an acknowledgement of receipt of, his letter from the pope. Meyer, the Vatican representative who attended the panel discussion, left the event during an emotional reading of Lyons' letter by Brown. Reached by phone later, Meyer declined to comment and had not responded to questions by press time. Frichner said the doctrine of discovery was an agreement among European nations that whichever nation arrived first had the right to explore, colonize and expropriate the land's resources. The non-Christian indigenous peoples did not have the right to own the land, only to occupy it. ''I think of it as a sort of gentlemen's agreement ... kind of like the Mafia - this is my neighborhood and you stay out,'' Frichner said. She explained how the doctrine of discovery continues to play out in Indian country. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the Oneida Indian Nation of New York (owner of Four Directions Media, which publishes Indian Country Today) was required to pay property taxes on aboriginal lands it had bought back from the city of Sherrill, N.Y. ''The first footnote refers to the doctrine of discovery ... so if you think we're talking about some archaic notions that have no place in today's contemporary world, you're making a mistake,'' Frichner said. She urged people who are working to rescind the papal bulls to become familiar with the doctrine of discovery, its history and impact. ? 1998 - 2006 Indian Country Today. All Rights Reserved -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: spacer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 49 bytes Desc: not available URL: From dbedellgreen at hotmail.com Tue May 30 00:43:26 2006 From: dbedellgreen at hotmail.com (David Bedell) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 00:43:26 -0400 Subject: {news} Cliff Thornton in Stamford Advocate Message-ID: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-green6may29,0,5349869.story Green Party candidate stares down the odds By Tobin A. Coleman Staff Writer May 29, 2006 Clifford Thornton Jr. doesn't mince words -- he knows his Connecticut Green Party candidacy for governor has little chance. But Thornton, 61, hopes his campaign will spur discussion on the war on drugs and on related issues of race and class. "There's no one out there who is speaking to these issues," said Thornton, who was nominated last month as the Green Party candidate at a convention in New Haven. "No one is talking about the war on drugs. No one is talking about education and how it relates to the drug war. No one is talking about the failure of our infrastructure." After major party conventions earlier this month chose gubernatorial nominees Dannel Malloy, Stamford's Democratic mayor, and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Thornton said he deserves his share of the media spotlight as an officially recognized candidate who is raising money and attempting to get his message out. "I want to get these people to talk about the issues," the Glastonbury man said. "How many people are talking about the war in Iraq? How many people are talking about the war right here? How many people are talking about the race issue?" Thornton is the first black man to run for governor from an established party in Connecticut. "If I inspire minorities, it's great. But it's not what I deem really important," he said. Thornton, whose mother died of a heroin overdose when he was 18, said his concentration on the drug trade does not make him a one-issue candidate. The drug trade is "two degrees from everything" and the "so-called war on drugs" promotes racism and wastes large amounts of money, he said. The 2004 report of the state Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparity in the Criminal Justice System ranked Connecticut highest nationwide for disparity in rates of incarceration of whites, blacks and Hispanics, who mostly are arrested on drug charges. In 2000, the incarceration rate for black men was 18 times higher than the rate for non-Hispanic white men. One in 11 black men ages 18 to 64 in Connecticut was in prison or jail in 2000, according to the report. Thornton said marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol. Hemp, a form of the marijuana plant that is not psycho-active and can be used to make clothing, automobile parts and other items, also should be legalized, he said. Heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and methamphetamine should be "medicalized," meaning users would come under a doctor's care, Thornton said. Other drugs, mostly hallucinogens, should be decriminalized but studied honestly, without researchers bent on finding reasons to make them illegal, he said. Their use would depend on the outcome of such studies, he said. Thornton said he uses marijuana less than once a year, but no other drugs. Ending the drug war would save billions of dollars in the cost of maintaining police departments and the criminal justice system, he said. The money could be used to pay for better schools, improved transportation infrastructure and universal health care, Thornton said. Getting addicts health care could prevent deaths like that of his mother, he said. Children would benefit by breaking the cycle of addiction, Thornton said. In the 40 years of the national war on drugs, 20 million children have been "orphaned" because one or more of their parents served prison time for drug offenses, he said. Those children are most likely to act out and be suspended or expelled from school, which puts them on the street, where they invariably get in trouble, usually with drugs, he said. "It's the culture," Thornton said. "We started with it. We have to pay for it." Asked to comment about the positions of his opponents, Thornton reiterated that they miss the point on fundamental issues. Malloy "has said it's one of the safest cities to live in, and he won't admit to the drug problem that they have in Stamford," Thornton said. "You can quote me when I call them cowards on the drug wars . . . because I want to draw them into a fight any way." Other than the drug issue and differences with Malloy's universal health-care plan, Thornton said he has no specific differences with candidates, including New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., who is expected to challenge Malloy's nomination in an Aug. 8 primary. Thornton said he is on the side of the plaintiffs and not "the business or status quo politicians" in the New London eminent domain case, Kelo v. New London Development Corp., in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that municipal governments can hand over private residences to businesses to redevelop for profit. Thornton favors campaign finance reform, which will take effect in Connecticut in 2008 and provide partial public funding of campaigns. Third-party candidacies have succeeded in Connecticut, most notably the victory of A Connecticut Party gubernatorial candidate Lowell Weicker Jr. of Greenwich in 1990 in a three-way race. But political experts say third parties in Connecticut are successful statewide if they have a well-known figure, such as Weicker, who was a Republican U.S. senator before running for governor. "While the Green Party is stronger in Connecticut than it is in any state, it's really on the local level," said William Salka, associate professor of political science at Eastern Connecticut State University. "In this year's gubernatorial election, the candidate doesn't strike me as particularly strong, and strong enough to get enough media attention to pull votes away from the Democratic candidate, whoever that may be. You really need a big name to start to get the attention." The major parties have an unfair monopoly on the political system, Thornton said. The Quinnipiac University Poll, for example, will not include his name among gubernatorial candidates, he said. Poll Director Douglas Schwartz said many factors decide whether third-party and petition candidates are included in gubernatorial polls. "Our policy is that a third-party candidate has to show that they can significantly affect the outcome of the election," Schwartz said. "We look at such things as media coverage, fundraising, inclusion in other polls." Thornton said his candidacy is about supporting the pillars of the Green Party -- grassroots democracy, social justice, non-violence and ecological wisdom. "My goal is to, first of all, make the Green Party a viable strong third party, reach the tens of thousands of people in this state that no longer think they have a voice or they can't make a difference and show them that they do have a voice," Thornton said. Thornton, a retired businessman, lives with his wife, Margaret Thornton. Between them they have five daughters, ages 24 to 43. Copyright ? 2006, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc. WWW.VOTETHORNTON.COM From efficacy at msn.com Tue May 30 06:46:18 2006 From: efficacy at msn.com (clifford thornton) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 06:46:18 -0400 Subject: {news} Re: [VoteThornton] Cliff Thornton in Stamford Advocate References: Message-ID: Letters to the editor would be great since that is what will help catapult us to great media attention. Now, lets see what we can do. Cliff ----- Original Message ----- From: David Bedell To: VoteThornton at yahoogroups.com ; ctgp-news at ml.greens.org ; FairfieldCountyGreens at yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 12:43 AM Subject: [VoteThornton] Cliff Thornton in Stamford Advocate http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-green6may29,0,5349869.story Green Party candidate stares down the odds By Tobin A. Coleman Staff Writer May 29, 2006 Clifford Thornton Jr. doesn't mince words -- he knows his Connecticut Green Party candidacy for governor has little chance. But Thornton, 61, hopes his campaign will spur discussion on the war on drugs and on related issues of race and class. "There's no one out there who is speaking to these issues," said Thornton, who was nominated last month as the Green Party candidate at a convention in New Haven. "No one is talking about the war on drugs. No one is talking about education and how it relates to the drug war. No one is talking about the failure of our infrastructure." After major party conventions earlier this month chose gubernatorial nominees Dannel Malloy, Stamford's Democratic mayor, and Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Thornton said he deserves his share of the media spotlight as an officially recognized candidate who is raising money and attempting to get his message out. "I want to get these people to talk about the issues," the Glastonbury man said. "How many people are talking about the war in Iraq? How many people are talking about the war right here? How many people are talking about the race issue?" Thornton is the first black man to run for governor from an established party in Connecticut. "If I inspire minorities, it's great. But it's not what I deem really important," he said. Thornton, whose mother died of a heroin overdose when he was 18, said his concentration on the drug trade does not make him a one-issue candidate. The drug trade is "two degrees from everything" and the "so-called war on drugs" promotes racism and wastes large amounts of money, he said. The 2004 report of the state Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparity in the Criminal Justice System ranked Connecticut highest nationwide for disparity in rates of incarceration of whites, blacks and Hispanics, who mostly are arrested on drug charges. In 2000, the incarceration rate for black men was 18 times higher than the rate for non-Hispanic white men. One in 11 black men ages 18 to 64 in Connecticut was in prison or jail in 2000, according to the report. Thornton said marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol. Hemp, a form of the marijuana plant that is not psycho-active and can be used to make clothing, automobile parts and other items, also should be legalized, he said. Heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and methamphetamine should be "medicalized," meaning users would come under a doctor's care, Thornton said. Other drugs, mostly hallucinogens, should be decriminalized but studied honestly, without researchers bent on finding reasons to make them illegal, he said. Their use would depend on the outcome of such studies, he said. Thornton said he uses marijuana less than once a year, but no other drugs. Ending the drug war would save billions of dollars in the cost of maintaining police departments and the criminal justice system, he said. The money could be used to pay for better schools, improved transportation infrastructure and universal health care, Thornton said. Getting addicts health care could prevent deaths like that of his mother, he said. Children would benefit by breaking the cycle of addiction, Thornton said. In the 40 years of the national war on drugs, 20 million children have been "orphaned" because one or more of their parents served prison time for drug offenses, he said. Those children are most likely to act out and be suspended or expelled from school, which puts them on the street, where they invariably get in trouble, usually with drugs, he said. "It's the culture," Thornton said. "We started with it. We have to pay for it." Asked to comment about the positions of his opponents, Thornton reiterated that they miss the point on fundamental issues. Malloy "has said it's one of the safest cities to live in, and he won't admit to the drug problem that they have in Stamford," Thornton said. "You can quote me when I call them cowards on the drug wars . . . because I want to draw them into a fight any way." Other than the drug issue and differences with Malloy's universal health-care plan, Thornton said he has no specific differences with candidates, including New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr., who is expected to challenge Malloy's nomination in an Aug. 8 primary. Thornton said he is on the side of the plaintiffs and not "the business or status quo politicians" in the New London eminent domain case, Kelo v. New London Development Corp., in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that municipal governments can hand over private residences to businesses to redevelop for profit. Thornton favors campaign finance reform, which will take effect in Connecticut in 2008 and provide partial public funding of campaigns. Third-party candidacies have succeeded in Connecticut, most notably the victory of A Connecticut Party gubernatorial candidate Lowell Weicker Jr. of Greenwich in 1990 in a three-way race. But political experts say third parties in Connecticut are successful statewide if they have a well-known figure, such as Weicker, who was a Republican U.S. senator before running for governor. "While the Green Party is stronger in Connecticut than it is in any state, it's really on the local level," said William Salka, associate professor of political science at Eastern Connecticut State University. "In this year's gubernatorial election, the candidate doesn't strike me as particularly strong, and strong enough to get enough media attention to pull votes away from the Democratic candidate, whoever that may be. You really need a big name to start to get the attention." The major parties have an unfair monopoly on the political system, Thornton said. The Quinnipiac University Poll, for example, will not include his name among gubernatorial candidates, he said. Poll Director Douglas Schwartz said many factors decide whether third-party and petition candidates are included in gubernatorial polls. "Our policy is that a third-party candidate has to show that they can significantly affect the outcome of the election," Schwartz said. "We look at such things as media coverage, fundraising, inclusion in other polls." Thornton said his candidacy is about supporting the pillars of the Green Party -- grassroots democracy, social justice, non-violence and ecological wisdom. "My goal is to, first of all, make the Green Party a viable strong third party, reach the tens of thousands of people in this state that no longer think they have a voice or they can't make a difference and show them that they do have a voice," Thornton said. Thornton, a retired businessman, lives with his wife, Margaret Thornton. Between them they have five daughters, ages 24 to 43. Copyright ? 2006, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc. WWW.VOTETHORNTON.COM ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> You can search right from your browser? It's easy and it's free. See how. http://us.click.yahoo.com/_7bhrC/NGxNAA/yQLSAA/YgSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VoteThornton/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: VoteThornton-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Tue May 30 16:44:25 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 13:44:25 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} Centrist Third Party Effort launched Message-ID: <20060530204425.86049.qmail@web81413.mail.mud.yahoo.com> CENTRIST THIRD PARTY EFFORT LAUNCHED JONATHAN ALTER, NEWSWEEK - To begin busting up the dumb system we have for selecting presidents, a bipartisan group will open shop this week at Unity08.com. This Internet-based third party is spearheaded by three veterans of the antique 1976 campaign: Democrats Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon helped get Jimmy Carter elected; Republican Doug Bailey did media for Gerald Ford before launching the political Tip Sheet Hotline. They are joined by the independent former governor of Maine, Angus King, and a collection of idealistic young people who are also tired of a nominating process that pulls the major party candidates to the extremes. Their hope: to get even a fraction of the 50 million who voted for the next American Idol to nominate a third-party candidate for president online and use this new army to get him or her on the ballot in all 50 states. The idea is to go viral or die. . . UNITY 08 - Unity 08 is a diverse group of Americans that believe that neither of today's parties reflects the aspirations, concerns or will of the majority of Americans. Both parties have polarized and alienated voters. Both are unduly influenced by single-issue groups. Both are excessively dominated by money. Unity 08 is committed to presenting a third presidential ticket and platform one that addresses the issues and challenges of the 21st Century to the American voters in 2008. We will not waste time pointing fingers. Instead, we will focus on how America can find common ground on critical issues to give the overlooked majority in the middle a voice and a choice in 2008. Our three goals... Goal One is the election of a UNITY TICKET for President and Vice-President of the United States in 2008 headed by a woman and/or man from each major party or by an independent who presents a unity team from both parties. Goal Two is for the people themselves to pick that unity ticket in early 2008 via a virtual and secure online convention in which all American voters will be qualified to vote. Goal Three, our minimum goal, is to effect major change and reform in the 2008 national elections by influencing the major parties to adopt the core features of our national agenda. With a group of voters who comprise at least 20% of the national electorate, we feel confident that our voters will decide the 2008 election. http://www.unity08.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From efficacy at msn.com Wed May 31 12:51:41 2006 From: efficacy at msn.com (clifford thornton) Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 12:51:41 -0400 Subject: {news} Is getting the guns off the streets really the answer? Message-ID: OPED to courant this morning. Is getting the guns off the streets really the answer? Certainly keeping guns out of the hands of criminals is a great idea. as far as it goes. Unfortunately it's not as simple as some make it seem. First of all there are some 200 million guns in America; couple that with a strong demand among criminals for guns and one begins to see the problem. So who has all these guns? Places with the highest rate of gun ownership tend to be rural and small-town. But gun crime in these areas is low. The gun crime is taking place in our cities. Why? In rural and small-town America, family structures are largely strong, and these communities are often more stable and unified. So, the problem of violence in American inner cities seems to have less to do with the fact that guns are available there (as are everywhere) than with the fact that so many families are dysfunctional, and that so little sense of community can be found. What particular group in these inner cities is largely responsible for the shootings that have become so common there? After declining for several years, the black teenage homicide rate began soaring upward in 1987. Guns were not more available after 1987. What did happen in the late 1980's was that the drug war suddenly intensified. In the late 1980's the popularization of crack cocaine produced an unprecedented media and political determination to fight a "drug war" in the United States. The "war on drugs" has lived up to its name by producing a genuine war in inner-city America. The black market created caused an epidemic of violence in cities across America. Lured by the large potential for profit in the black market created by prohibition, large numbers of poor, jobless black youth got into the drug business. Since drug dealers are likely to be carrying large sums of money, they are at serious risk of robbery. Since they cannot rely on the police for protection, they must, to survive, protect themselves. When drug dealers engage in commercial transactions with each other, there is no Uniform Commercial Code and state district court for resolving disputes about the quality of goods sold. Disgruntled buyers, unable to complain to the Better Business Bureau or sue, often resort to violence. Similarly, the addicts who sell drugs often end up consuming the drugs which should have been sold; or stealing the cash received in payment. Higher-level dealers, having no legal means of debt collection, frequently resort to violence. For those unfortunate enough to live in one of the "war-zones" created by drug prohibition life deteriorated considerably. Neighborhoods were ravaged by drug dealers shooting it out on the streets. Many families fled. Police raided houses making arrests and damaged properties in the process. Houses were abandoned only to be occupied by squatters using and selling drugs. Families fell victim to the drug war as fathers were locked up for drug use. As neighborhoods deteriorated so did schools. Disputes settled with horrendous violence, often involving guns, became commonplace. Of course young, aggressive youth who sold drugs to survive in these war-zones bereft of jobs became its first victims. Inner city black teenagers killed each other at higher and higher rates. Reducing inner-city black male teenage homicide requires a direct attack on the social ills which cause so many young people to grow up believing that their own lives and the lives of others are worthless. Since severe drug prohibition has not reduced the supply of drugs in the inner cities, why would one expect that gun controls will reduce guns in the inner-city? Legislators must consider not only immediate steps to get juvenile criminals off the streets, but to begin addressing the social ills that breed juvenile crime. The problem before us is reducing the motivations for juveniles to arm themselves. Convincing inner-city juveniles, or adults, not to own, carry, and use guns requires convincing them that they can survive in their neighborhoods without being armed. We must convince them that society's usual agents of social control, the police, can be relied upon to provide for personal security. So long as this is not believed to be the case, gun ownership and carrying in the city will remain widespread. The police are perceived as the enemy by many black teenagers. Because police have been charged with the impossible task of making the city drug free they are viewed as a sort of occupying army. Several studies have shown a direct link between increases in police anti-drug activity and increases in property and violent crime. Most recently a study was released by Le Moyne economists Shepard and Blackley of over 1300 counties in the United States over seven years. They say that their findings suggest that "the recent focus on marijuana law enforcement has been counterproductive for addressing non-drug crime. By removing the legal restrictions against possessing marijuana and ending its sale in the underground economy, the results indicate that fewer burglaries, larcenies, and motor vehicle thefts are likely to be committed. A similar result also holds for marijuana sales with respect to the incidence of arrests for homicide and hard drug possession." We need to do four things: get the repeat violent offenders of the streets, work to curb the supply of illegal guns, end drug prohibition, and encourage economic opportunities for those inner-city youth most at risk. The relationship between these things is at once strong and vague. For instance, if we were somehow to be successful in seriously reducing the illegal guns brought into the state that would only serve to raise their prices causing increases in burglaries to steal guns locally, increased smuggling, more crime to get the money for the now higher-priced guns.overall increasing the crime we're trying to reduce. Only by simultaneously attacking all the sources of the problem at once can society expect to see any benefit. To do only some of these things will, more than likely, only make the problem worse. Clifford Wallace Thornton, Jr Po box 1971 Manchester, CT 06045 860 657 8438-Home 860 268 1294 (cell) 860 778 1304 (cell)--Campaign Manager votethornton at yahoogroups.com www.votethornton.com Paid for by Thornton for Governor Donna L. Bryne -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From greenpartyct at yahoo.com Wed May 31 16:35:15 2006 From: greenpartyct at yahoo.com (Green Party-CT) Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 13:35:15 -0700 (PDT) Subject: {news} (PRESS RELEASE) THORTON-"IS GETTING THE GUNS OFF THE STREET REALLY THE ANSWER?" Message-ID: <20060531203516.7397.qmail@web81405.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Thornton For Governor PO Box 1971, Manchester, CT 06045 www.votethornton.com GUEST EDITORIAL OR LETTER TO THE EDITOR -FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- MAY 31,2006 Is Getting The Guns Off The Streets Really The Answer? Certainly keeping guns out of the hands of criminals is a great idea as far as it goes. Unfortunately it?s not as simple as some make it seem. First of all there are some 200 million guns in America; couple that with a strong demand among criminals for guns and one begins to see the problem. So who has all these guns? Places with the highest rate of gun ownership tend to be rural and small-town. But gun crime in these areas is low. The gun crime is taking place in our cities. Why? In rural and small-town America, family structures are largely strong, and these communities are often more stable and unified. So, the problem of violence in American inner cities seems to have less to do with the fact that guns are available there (as are everywhere) than with the fact that so many families are dysfunctional, and that so little sense of community can be found. What particular group in these inner cities is largely responsible for the shootings that have become so common there? After declining for several years, the black teenage homicide rate began soaring upward in 1987. Guns were not more available after 1987. What did happen in the late 1980?s was that the drug war suddenly intensified. In the late 1980?s the popularization of crack cocaine produced an unprecedented media and political determination to fight a "drug war" in the United States. The "War on Drugs" has lived up to its name by producing a genuine war in inner-city America. The black market created caused an epidemic of violence in cities across America. Lured by the large potential for profit in the black market created by prohibition, large numbers of poor, jobless black youth got into the drug business. Since drug dealers are likely to be carrying large sums of money, they are at serious risk of robbery. Since they cannot rely on the police for protection, they must, to survive, protect themselves. When drug dealers engage in commercial transactions with each other, there is no Uniform Commercial Code and state district court for resolving disputes about the quality of goods sold. Disgruntled buyers, unable to complain to the Better Business Bureau or sue, often resort to violence. Similarly, the addicts who sell drugs often end up consuming the drugs which should have been sold; or stealing the cash received in payment. Higher-level dealers, having no legal means of debt collection, frequently resort to violence. For those unfortunate enough to live in one of the ?war-zones? created by drug prohibition life deteriorated considerably. Neighborhoods were ravaged by drug dealers shooting it out on the streets. Many families fled. Police raided houses making arrests and damaged properties in the process. Houses were abandoned only to be occupied by squatters using and selling drugs. Families fell victim to the drug war as fathers were locked up for drug use. As neighborhoods deteriorated so did schools. Disputes settled with horrendous violence, often involving guns, became commonplace. Of course young, aggressive youth who sold drugs to survive in these war-zones bereft of jobs became its first victims. Inner city black teenagers killed each other at higher and higher rates. Reducing inner-city black male teenage homicide requires a direct attack on the social ills which cause so many young people to grow up believing that their own lives and the lives of others are worthless. Since severe drug prohibition has not reduced the supply of drugs in the inner cities, why would one expect that gun controls will reduce guns in the inner-city? Legislators must consider not only immediate steps to get juvenile criminals off the streets, but to begin addressing the social ills that breed juvenile crime. The problem before us is reducing the motivations for juveniles to arm themselves. Convincing inner-city juveniles, or adults, not to own, carry, and use guns requires convincing them that they can survive in their neighborhoods without being armed. We must convince them that society?s usual agents of social control, the police, can be relied upon to provide for personal security. So long as this is not believed to be the case, gun ownership and carrying in the city will remain widespread. The police are perceived as the enemy by many black teenagers. Because police have been charged with the impossible task of making the city drug free they are viewed as a sort of occupying army. Several studies have shown a direct link between increases in police anti-drug activity and increases in property and violent crime. Most recently a study was released by Le Moyne economists Shepard and Blackley of over 1300 counties in the United States over seven years. They say that their findings suggest that ?the recent focus on marijuana law enforcement has been counterproductive for addressing non-drug crime. By removing the legal restrictions against possessing marijuana and ending its sale in the underground economy, the results indicate that fewer burglaries, larcenies, and motor vehicle thefts are likely to be committed. A similar result also holds for marijuana sales with respect to the incidence of arrests for homicide and hard drug possession.? We need to do four things: get the repeat violent offenders of the streets, work to curb the supply of illegal guns, end drug prohibition, and encourage economic opportunities for those inner-city youth most at risk. The relationship between these things is at once strong and vague. For instance, if we were somehow to be successful in seriously reducing the illegal guns brought into the state that would only serve to raise their prices causing increases in burglaries to steal guns locally, increased smuggling, more crime to get the money for the now higher-priced guns overall increasing the crime we?re trying to reduce. Only by simultaneously attacking all the sources of the problem at once can society expect to see any benefit. To do only some of these things will, more than likely, only make the problem worse. Clifford Wallace Thornton, Jr The writer is the Green Party Candidate for Governor of Connecticut 860 657 8438-Home or 860 268 1294 (cell) 860 778 1304 (cell)--Campaign Manager Paid for by Thornton for Governor Donna L. Byrne-McKee, Treasurer -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ralphferrucci at sbcglobal.net Thu May 4 17:25:08 2006 From: ralphferrucci at sbcglobal.net (ralph ferrucci) Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 21:25:08 -0000 Subject: {news} Hartford Labor Council Meeting/Ballot Access Message-ID: <4939D4AE-DBA6-11DA-9016-0003935B4792@sbcglobal.net> Yesterday I spoke to the Hartford Labor Council. I followed Ned Lamont. Ned being new in the political arena I do not think was as prepared to answer questions as I was. The response afterwards was better for me than for Ned. So well that someone who was there named Len, a Union Organizer from local 217 has asked me to come speak to his local in the next few weeks. Also I will be leading the petition drive until ballot access is done. I will spend the next few days finding rallies, fairs, festivals and securing super markets. If you would like to join me at any of these super markets or act as point person for the area, I.E. New London County, New Haven County, Fairfield County, etc. please email me. In the email include your name, how I can contact you and what city or town you live in. I also need to get a feel what has been collected so far. Please email me what you have in signatures also. Thank You for your help together we can win. Ralph Ferrucci ferrucciforsenate.org 203-430-9342 From efficacy at msn.com Thu May 11 12:06:38 2006 From: efficacy at msn.com (clifford thornton) Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 16:06:38 -0000 Subject: {news} US NY: OPED: Drug Laws Don't Work It's Time to Try Legalizing Them Message-ID: Newshawk: Community Audits and Initiatives www.drugsense.org/caip Pubdate: Thu, 11 May 2006 Source: Buffalo News (NY) Copyright: 2006 The Buffalo News Contact: http://www.buffalo.com/contact_us/submit_editorial.asp Website: http://www.buffalonews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/61 Author: Joel Giambra Note: Joel Giambra is Erie County executive. Cited: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition http://www.leap.cc Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?247 (Crime Policy - United States) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?233 (LEAP) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Peter+Christ (Peter Christ) Violence Is Out of Hand DRUG LAWS DON'T WORK; IT'S TIME TO TRY LEGALIZING THEM The illegal drug trade in Western New York has turned many of our inner-city streets into war zones. The simple act of sitting on one's porch to converse with a neighbor or watch the kids play ball in the street is to risk one's life. Turf wars or retaliation for a drug deal gone bad have filled our morgues and cemeteries with both intended and unintended casualties. Yet the game plan stays the same, the strategy of reducing drug use and peddling goes unchanged, despite the same devastating results. When I spoke out and asked for a discussion on the legalization and regulation of illegal drugs, I was called crazy by law enforcement officials. The topic was deemed so outlandish that it did not deserve a second response. However, despite the public opinion of those whose job it is to protect our citizens, there are others who feel it's time for a change. Former Tonawanda Police Capt. Peter Christ is one of those individuals. Christ is a spokesman for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP www.leap.cc. LEAP has more than 2,000 current and former police officers, judges and private citizens who do not feel it's crazy to change the strategy in combating drugs. Prohibition did not work in the 20th century to curtail alcohol use. It funded an underworld that preyed on the public's desire for a drink and killed anyone who stood in its way. Today the prohibition on drugs has taken the violence to an even greater level. It's not just the drug pushers who are being gunned down by their rivals, but anyone who is unfortunate enough to be within range. My stance on legalizing drugs does not mean that I am in favor of drug use. On the contrary, I believe legalizing drugs gives us a fighting chance to control the indiscriminate killing and violence and treat those who crave the substance. Those who are proclaimed criminals because of drug usage are not inclined to seek help. Those who die from a "hot shot" because of unregulated substances flowing through their veins also cannot come forward. One argument against legalization is what kind of message it may send to our children. Legalized drugs would be, in my opinion, more stringently regulated than alcohol or cigarettes among minors. Drug usage would no more be condoned among teens than drinking or smoking. The current system makes it easier to score an illegal drug in our high schools than a can of beer. Does that make sense? I believe that regulating the drug trade would be more civilized than allowing it to be unregulated and controlled by killers and thugs. I believe that allowing experts to discuss and create proper distribution strategies is not crazy. I believe that by regulating and taxing drug use, we create revenue streams to properly educate our youth and treat the drug user. Teen use of cigarettes is going down because of years of education. Taking drug use out of the closet and dealing with it, as opposed to fooling ourselves that the war is being won, is not crazy. What is crazy is dealing with this problem as we have been for the past 70 years and thinking we are winning. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ralphferrucci at sbcglobal.net Mon May 15 21:18:33 2006 From: ralphferrucci at sbcglobal.net (ralph ferrucci) Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 01:18:33 -0000 Subject: {news} Ferrucci for Senate Message-ID: Friends, I have just finished my college degree and am going to start campaigning regularly. I am currently looking for area coordinators, a campaign manager, volunteer coordinator and a press coordinator. Here is a brief run down of what these jobs entail. 1) Campaign Manager- The most important person not including the candidate. This person has a lot of control in the direction of the campaign. Helps coordinate with the area coordinator on petitioning and flyering, etc. 2) Area Coordinator- In charge of certain areas of the state. for example Hartford county, New London county, etc. (also need campus coordinator) 3) Volunteer Coordinator- Works with campaign manager, makes sure volunteers. The one person in contact with all who sign up. Also helps coordinate the events that are to be flyered and gets volunteers to these events. 4) Press Coordinator- In charge of writing press releases and send to the media. If interested in any of these positions please contact me. Also if you would like to volunteer we are currently flyering and petitioning all across the state. Please contact me and I will make sure flyers and/or petitions are dropped off to you. Thank You. Ralph Ferrucci ferrucciforsenate.org From efficacy at msn.com Wed May 24 07:25:51 2006 From: efficacy at msn.com (clifford thornton) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 11:25:51 -0000 Subject: {news} UK: Heroin Addicts Could Inject Themselves at Supervised Centres in Police-Backed Plans Message-ID: Newshawk: JimmyG Pubdate: Tue, 23 May 2006 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: 2006 Guardian Newspapers Limited Contact: letters at guardian.co.uk Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175 Author: Rosie Cowan and John Carvel, The Guardian Note: See http://www.jrf.org.uk/pressroom/releases/230506.asp Cited: DrugScope http://www.drugscope.org.uk/ Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Safe Injecting Rooms) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) HEROIN ADDICTS COULD INJECT THEMSELVES AT SUPERVISED CENTRES IN POLICE-BACKED PLANS UK Has Most Drug-Related Deaths in Europe Home Office to Decide on Whether to Adopt Findings Police chiefs have backed proposals which could see heroin addicts injecting themselves in officially sanctioned centres. An independent working group, tasked by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, will today recommend the introduction of supervised drug consumption rooms to the UK, so that users could take illegal drugs in safe, hygienic surroundings. Members of the group included Andy Hayman, a Scotland Yard assistant commissioner who also chairs the Association of Chief Police Officers' drugs portfolio, and his Acpo colleague, Met police detective superintendent Kevin Green. The report has been sent to the Home Office, which will consider whether to adopt its findings. The UK has had the highest number of drug-related deaths in Europe since 1996 - 1,388 in England and Wales in 2003 - while up to 40% of heroin users experience non-fatal overdoses at some stage. Many robberies and much antisocial behaviour is drug-related, and discarded syringes present a big risk of infection. A large number of addicts are homeless, and tens of thousands of injections are carried out in public every month in England alone. There are 65 drug consumption rooms (DCRs) in eight countries worldwide, including Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Australia and Canada, and the working group, which visited some of these during its 20-month research period, believe they reduce the risk of harm to the individual as well as the costs to society. Unlike so-called "shooting galleries", which are largely unsupervised and where drugs are often purchased, or premises where prescribed heroin is available, users would bring their own drugs to DCRs, and although supervisors would not be able to intervene, they could advise and give immediate assistance if a user collapsed. The initial pilot proposal is for injection facilities, but European countries are increasingly adding smoking rooms, where heroin and crack cocaine can be smoked. Four years ago, the Home Office rejected similar recommendations from the home affairs select committee. But Dame Ruth Runciman, the chairwoman of the independent working group, hoped the government would now reconsider. "The Home Office rightly said in 2002 that there was not enough evaluated evidence from drug consumption rooms abroad," said Dame Ruth. "There has been a lot more evidence since. There have been millions of injections in drug rooms abroad and only one death, which was not due to an overdose." She suggested the consumption rooms could be run by local authorities, the NHS and voluntary bodies, but added: "Most importantly and without question, they must involve the police." She said the two police officers on the working group supported the group's findings as individuals, but she was aware there would be a range of reactions among the police. An Acpo spokeswoman admitted: "There are reservations across the police service regarding the report's proposals. However, Acpo is eager to be part of the discussion to ensure the police perspective is considered and will continue to engage in dialogue with all those involved. "The report provides much food for thought in trying to reconcile illegal drug consumption with trying to reduce the harm such dependency causes the individual and those affected by discarded drugs paraphernalia in public places." Dame Ruth firmly rejected the idea that DCRs would create "honeypots" for dealers and crime. "It's clear that drug consumption rooms do not have a honeypot effect," she said. "They attract almost entirely local users because people don't travel long distances. They want to inject quickly." She said evidence from abroad suggested that provision of drug consumption rooms reduced the public nuisance of large numbers of discarded needles in public places. The issue was controversial and made "governments institutionally nervous" but rational debate could do a great deal to mitigate public hostility. "Areas that suffer from injecting have a great deal to gain," she added. Welcoming the report, chief executive of the drugs education charity DrugScope, Martin Barnes said: "The international evidence in favour of piloting drug consumption rooms in the UK is strong and persuasive and we particularly welcome the emphasis on local agency working and engaging with local communities." A BBC poll found yesterday that three out of four people thought illegal drugs were a problem in their local area and 53% thought the police should be doing more to tackle it. Cliff PO Box 1971 Manchester, CT 06045 860 657 8438-Home 860 268 1294 (cell) 860 778 1304 (cell)--Campaign Manager votethornton at yahoogroups.com www.votethornton.com www.Efficacy-online.org Paid for by Thornton for Governor Donna L. Bryne-Mckee, Treasurer -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From efficacy at msn.com Tue May 30 14:58:27 2006 From: efficacy at msn.com (clifford thornton) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 18:58:27 -0000 Subject: {news} The Buffalo News Message-ID: http://drugsense.org/temp/0525adamz.jpg Editorial Cartoon for 5/25/2006 Cartoon of County Exec. Joel Giambra and the DA ... Adam Zyglis/The Buffalo News -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 0525adamz.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 52916 bytes Desc: not available URL: