{news} Fw: [usgp-dx] GP RELEASE Greens to Obama: appoint a Cabinet for real change, not big-business warhawks like Emanuel

Thu Nov 20 17:53:15 EST 2008

----- Original Message -----

From: "Scott McLarty"
To: natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org
Subject: [usgp-dx] GP RELEASE Greens to Obama: appoint a Cabinet for real
change, not big-business warhawks like Emanuel
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:19:23 +0000

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, November 20, 2008

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614,
mclarty at greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene at gp.org

Greens urge Obama to appoint Cabinet members dedicated to real
change, not more corporate operatives and warhawks like Rahm Emanuel

• A Cabinet full of corporate honchos, lawyers, and shills will not
"look like America," say Greens

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders called on President-elect
Barack Obama to appoint a Cabinet that will pursue real reform, in
accord with Mr. Obama's promise of change in the new administration.

"Democratic and Republican presidents alike have a record of naming
industry chiefs, corporate board members and lawyers, and others
loyal to wealthy, elite interests," said Holly Hart, secretary of
the Green Party of the United States. "If President Obama truly
believes in 'change we can believe in,' he'll appoint a Cabinet
that looks like America -- not just in ethnic and gender diversity,
but in its dedication to the needs of working Americans and the
goal of international peace and justice."

Greens called Mr. Obama's choice of Rahm Emanuel for White House
Chief of Staff especially unfortunate, citing Mr. Emanuel's
position as managing director of investment banks Dresdner
Kleinwort Wasserstein, earning him $18 million between 1999 and
2002 and his track record in Congress since 2003.

The appointment of Mr. Emanuel confirms Mr. Obama's pledge to AIPAC
that he will maintain the same uncritical support for Israel as the
Clinton and Bush administrations, whose policies resulted in
increasing human rights violations against Palestinians and greater
instability in the region. Mr. Emanuel was also one of the original
drafters of NAFTA and now favors similar antidemocratic 'free
trade' pacts with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea, which would
cost more US jobs and suppress environmental and labor protections.

Green Party leaders said that Rahm Emanuel's appointment was
consistent with Mr. Obama's choice of Sen. Joe Biden as his Vice
President. Despite his reputation in the media as a defender of
working people, Mr. Biden helped draft a law signed by President
Bush that relaxed regulations on financial institutions, giving
them more power over Americans facing financial problems and
transferring risk from predatory lenders to borrowers. As an
architect of mandatory minimum drug laws (including the RAVE Act),
Sen. Biden helped put the children of working families behind bars.

Among the corporate-connected names on the list for the Obama
Cabinet are Eric Holder, Jr. for Attorney General and former Iowa
Gov. Tom Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture. Mr. Holder is a
partner at Covington & Burling, which represents the National
Football League, Chiquita, and Merck, and Gov. Vilsack is an
enthusiastic advocate of genetically engineered crops and corn- and
soy-based biofuels, with ties to Monsanto, whose products and
policies have destroyed independent and family farms around the
world.

"Barack Obama's mantra of 'change' is already a lie. With Rahm
Emanuel as his Chief of Staff, and with Hillary Clinton rumored to
be Secretary of State, the Obama White House is ready to pursue
much of the same agenda as previous administrations," said Cliff
Thornton, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "It's a
twisted irony that some tried to tag Obama as a socialist, a
perception that will make it that much easier for his
administration to continue the practice of redistributing wealth
from middle- and low-income Americans to America's wealthiest. Bill
Clinton was denounced as a liberal by the same right-wing pundits
whose corporate buddies he was handing America over to. The same
sell-out is going to happen all over again."

"Voters who elected Barack Obama because of his promise of change
and the hope of a progressive administration need to wake up and
realize they're in for yet another fight. Only if the voters hold
Obama to his promises can we avoid the same pro-corporate and
warhawk policies that came out of the disastrous Clinton and Bush
White Houses," added Mr. Thornton.

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
• Running tally of Green election victories
http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/election-results.html
• Green candidate news
http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/candidate-news.php
• Green candidate database for 2008 and other campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections

Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente 'Power to the People' Campaign for
the White House
http://www.runcynthiarun.org
http://votetruth08.com
http://www.rosaclemente.com

~ END ~

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******************************************
Tim McKee, Manchester CT, main number cell-860-778-1304, 860-643-2282
 National Commitee member of the Green Party of the United States and is a spokesperson for the Green Party of CT.
BLOG-http://thebiggreenpicture.blogspot.com

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