Chlorophyll

If you read my post below and were inspired to start branching out and learning about other countries, you might not know where to start (other than greens.org, of course). A very good launching point is GlobalGreens.org which compiles Green blogs from all over the world -- including the US of A. This should not be confused with GlobalGreens.info, which is the clearinghouse on information about the Global Greens gatherings.

Esteban's remark about the Green Party's presidential candidate for 2008 forced me to look around for any news on that subject.

Here's what I found: According to The Next Prez blog there are three announced candidates for the Green Party's 2008 presidential nomination:

Georgia's Nan Garrett
New Jersey's Robert Milnes
Texas's Kat Swift

Garrett was the Georgia Green Party's write-in candidate for governor in 2004 and received about 1000 votes. She is a former Clayton County judge and currently works as an attorney.

Milnes is a Libertarian hoping to run a unity campaign, bringing together the two strongest third parties.

Swift is a Texas Green Party activist. According to the Green Party's election database, she has never run for office as a Green.

They also list a number of candidates as probable. They are:

As I wrote earlier, the Global Young Greens conference is going on right now, in Nairobi, Kenya. How many of you knew that? Having learned it from a source other than this blog, I mean.

I'll bet not many. We take pride as Greens in being the biggest political movement on the planet, but we're not good at actually participating in it. Granted, we in the US are at a disadvantage,

See his website. Yes, it's Democratic Party news, but it will play into our calculus. Ted Glick warns that Obama is no progressive, but that doesn't mean he won't get all manner of press saying he is the savior of the Democratic Party, the new JFK, etc. Now, granted, it would be refreshing to have an African-American as a serious contender for the Presidency, but my concern is that he would simply put a friendly face on the DLC policies that currently dominate the Democratic Party.

What do you think? Will having Obama's hat in the ring empower African-Americans, or did we already try that with Jesse Jackson? Will Obama end up as Hillary Clinton's VP candidate? Will they both be pushed aside by the Vilsack juggernaut? (Rimshot!)

More to the point, where do we Greens stand on our own Presidential nominee? The time is now to start talking about it.

The young Mr. Maloy is leaving the Republican (yes, Republican) Party to become a Green, though he is not unregistering. I'm really looking forward to hearing what the Mass Greens have to say about this one.

Witnessing the execution of "Tookie" Williams, that's how. She vowed never to support a party that supported the death penalty ever again, period.

She says, "The Green Party is right on the issues-- no ifs, ands, or buts."

YC Magazine, a locally produced and distributed magazine, prints a monthly column by the York County (SC) Greens. The most recent two columns have been published to my blog, Green News and Opinion

The first, titled "Crystal Balls for Everyone" makes pre-election predictions. The second, "What now?" asks what the impact of the new Democratic majority will have on the nation's direction.

It was announced almost a week ago that Peter Camejo, the Green Party's candidate for governor of California in the last several elections and VP candidate with Ralph Nader in 2004, has lymphoma. Fortunately for him, it was detected early enough that it's treatable, and he is expected to make a full recovery.

If your town is like mine, you're gearing up for local elections. Those of us who were involved in the fall elections can hardly stand to think about it, but it's true.

There are some good progressives running here in Madison, but it's not clear how many will be identifying themselves as Greens. It remains to be seen how this will all play out, but we will be talking with them and encouraging them to seek our endorsement.

How do things look in your town? Are you running Greens for local office? Are you running?

For Immediate Release Monday, January 8th, 2007

Contacts:
Ruth Weill, Co-chair, Wisconsin Green Party
Ron Hardy, Co-chair, Wisconsin Green Party

George Martin, Green Party member, honored in U.S. Congress, and Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice

At the close of 2006, Green Party member George Martin was given a “Lifetime Peacemaker Award” by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, and was honored on December 6th in the U.S. House of Representatives in a statement read by Gwen Moore, Representative to Congress from the 4th Congressional District.