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

For Immediate Release:
Thursday, April 8, 2010

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

Greens: President Obama must press Israel to end East Jerusalem settlements

• Green Party urges divestment as Israeli outrages mount

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on foreign policy http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-foreign-policy.php

WASHINGTON, DC -- President Obama must put pressure on Israel immediately to stop the construction of settlements and displacement of Palestinians in East Jerusalem, Green Party leaders and candidates said today.

"President Obama should send Prime Minister Netanyahu a message: enough is enough. If Israel continues to violate Palestinian human rights, the US must cancel the $30 million military aid package pledged to Israel for 2009-2018. The plan to build 1,600 housing units for Israeli Jews in East Jerusalem is the latest outrage. Although a rumored US abstension from a possible UN Security Council resolution against the settlements would be an improvement over its usual veto on Israel's behalf, this would still be an act of moral cowardice," said Sanda Everette, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. (News story on the possible UN resolution: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8591714.stm)

"The White House's angry response to the East Jerusalem settlement announcement was a necessary first step, but it needs to be followed by concrete action, like support for a UN resolution against the settlements or actually withdrawing military aid. President Obama should show the kind of leadership that led Eisenhower to demand that Israel leave Sinai in 1955," said Ms. Everette.

The Green Party has demanded that the US end military assistance to Israel, which has used such aid to displace Palestinians from their homes and farm lands, hold them in concentration camp conditions, maintain Bantustans in the style of apartheid-era South Africa, and launch illegal military assaults such as last year's bloody invasion of Gaza.

"While the international community has been unable to deal with Israel's violations after decades of UN resolutions, civil society has increasingly endorsed BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) as a powerful nonviolent strategy to pressure Israel into ending the Palestinian occupation and guaranteeing equality for all in Israel-Palestine. In 2005, the Green Party endorsed a BDS resolution (http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_11_28.shtml) comparable to the one passed by the Senate of the Associated Students of UC Berkeley in March," said Derek Grigsby, Green candidate for State Representative in Michigan, District 7 (dereknjck@yahoo.com).

The Berkeley students' bill calls on the university to divest its assets from two General Electric and United Technologies for "materially and militarily supporting the Israeli government's occupation of the Palestinian territories" and to advocate that the UC, with about $135 million invested in companies that profit from Israel's illegal actions in the Occupied Territories (http://blogs.asuc.org/2010/03/18/announcements/sb-118-amended-passed).

Greens have urged the White House and Congress to reject the influence of AIPAC and to establish Middle East policy based on recognition that the rights of Palestinians must be equal to the rights of Israelis, on peaceful negotiation to resolve the conflict, and complete regional nuclear disarmament. Greens have noted the hypocrisy of applying sanctions against Iran for its alleged nuclear ambitions without insisting that Israel get rid of its nuclear weapons -- especially since Israel, unlike Iran, has launched military attacks on other countries. (See "Arab Leaders Call for Middle East Free of Nuclear Weapons" Earth Times March 28, 2010, http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/316159,arab-leaders-call-for-middle-east-free-of-nuclear-weapons.html#ixzz0jUbcWzVi)

"We encourage Israeli and Palestinian leaders -- and President Obama -- to follow the lead of human rights activists like Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, organizer of the Wheels of Justice tour (http://justicewheels.org). In his embrace of nonviolent resistance as a tactic for justice, Dr. Qumsiyeh continues an often unrecognized history of Palestinian non-violent resistance and keeps alive the tradition of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King. In response, the Israeli army has targeted him for arrest," said Tony Affigne, Rhode Island Green and member of the party's International Committee (http://www.gp.org/committees/intl).

Dr. Qumsiyeh (http://qumsiyeh.org), former associate professor of genetics at the Yale University School of Medicine and a member of the Green Party of Connecticut before he moved back to Palestine, wrote about his experiences in a New Haven Register op-ed published on March 9, 2010 ("Peaceful protest in Israel can lead to arrest," http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/03/09/opinion/doc4b95ab40a3642160727871.txt).

"The US's uncritical support for Israel and flow of military and financial aid endanger US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and threaten US security and global stability. Even Gen. Petraeus and VP Biden have admitted this," said Rodger Jennings, Green candidate for US Congress in Illinois, District 12 (http://www.rodgerjennings.org). (See "The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story," Foreign Policy, March 13, 2010, http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/03/14/the_petraeus_briefing_biden_s_embarrassment_is_not_the_whole_story). "The Gaza assault, which couldn't have happened without US weapons, was a major turning point for people worldwide, including many American Jews. Like the misery that continues for Gazans, the memory of that horrific assault lingers."

Greens note that, until recently, a campaign to silence critics of Israeli policies and actions helped maintain unilateral support for Israel, especially in the US, and that censorship of such criticism has sustained the conflict. Many US Greens expressed alarm when the Heinrich Boell Foundation (http://www.boell.de), a legally independent political foundation affiliated with the German Green Party, canceled February speaking engagements in Germany by Dr. Norman Finkelstein, an American Jewish scholar, child of Holocaust survivors, and author of books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the politics of the Holocaust (http://www.normanfinkelstein.com).

"There is increasing recognition that the two-state solution is not viable. Israel-Palestine is already a de facto single state, mainly because of Israel's illegal settlement policies, with over 500,000 Israeli Jews living in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. It's time to consider the one-state solution -- one homeland for both peoples -- with a secular democracy that ensures full and equal rights regardless of religion or ethnicity, " said Farheen Hakeem, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. (See "Palestinians Increasingly Back 1-State," Jerusalem Post, March 22, 2010, http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=171559 and "Who's Afraid of a One-State Solution?" by Dmitry Reider, Foreign Policy, March 31, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/03/31/whos_afraid_of_a_one_state_solution)

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and 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
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

"Ensure Israel arms curbs, say MPs"
BBC News, March 30, 2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8594402.stm

"Open Letter to Berkeley Students on their Historic Israeli Divestment Bill"
By Naomi Klein, Common Dreams, March 31, 2010
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/03/31-9

"Palestinians increasingly back 1-state"
Jerusalem Post, March 22, 2010
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=171559

"US Can't Afford Military Aid to Israel"
Josh Ruebner, The Huffington Post, February 26, 2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-ruebner/us-cant-afford-military-a_b_478104.html

"Evidence of misuse of US weapons in Gaza"
Amnesty International, February 23, 2009
http://www.amnesty.org.au/news/comments/20277

US Campaign to End the Occupation
http://www.endtheoccupation.org

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
Winter 2010 issue now online
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

~ END ~

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

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, March 24, 2010

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

Now it's time to work for real health care reform -- Medicare For All, say Greens

• The Democratic "insurance company enrichment" bill burdens millions of Americans and imposes mandates that enrich insurance companies

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on health care reform: http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-health-care.php

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green candidates and party leaders said today that the passage of the Democratic health care bill, with its increased financial burdens on millions of Americans, should not slow the movement for Medicare For All (single-payer national health care).

The Democratic bill "falls short on many levels, and hurts many people more than it helps," as Jane Hamsher writes in "Fact Sheet: The Truth About the Health Care Bill" (http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/03/19/fact-sheet-the-truth-about-the-health-care-bill).

Physicians for a National Health Program said in a statement on Monday, "Instead of eliminating the root of the problem -- the profit-driven, private health insurance industry -- this costly new legislation will enrich and further entrench these firms. The bill would require millions of Americans to buy private insurers' defective products, and turn over to them vast amounts of public money." (http://www.pnhp.org/news/2010/march/pro-single-payer-doctors-health-bill-leaves-23-million-uninsured)

• Dennis Spisak, Green candidate for Governor of Ohio (http://www.votespisak.org/governor): "Now that this bill has passed, those of us who support real universal health care must keep up the demand for Medicare For All. Every American deserves the same high-quality guaranteed health coverage that Congress members enjoy. We will challenge those who insist that further health care reform is no longer on the table. The Democratic bill was mainly written to give the appearance of reform. It forces people to buy insurance or face a tax penalty. It works like a regressive tax, in which in the uninsured -- in the midst of a recession -- must pay for insurance they can't use due to the likely high co-pays and deductibles. Especially vicious is the amendment prohibiting states from enacting their own single-payer programs."

• Jill Stein, physician and Green candidate for Governor of Massachusetts (http://www.jillstein.org): ""The position of most Democrats and Republicans on health care is that Americans have no right to medical treatment, but private insurance companies have every right to enrich themselves on our need for health care and to send hundreds of thousands of Americans financial ruin over medical costs. According to Physicians for a National Health Program's critique of the bill, about 23 milion Americans will remain uninsured after nine years, resulting in 'an estimated 23,000 unnecessary deaths annually and an incalculable toll of suffering'. In the media coverage of health care reform, the angle was whether President Obama could prevail against the GOP and uncooperative Democrats. It was all about personalities and a horse-race competition. Whether the Democratic legislation -- or obstruction of reform by Republicans -- actually helps people became a
side issue."

• Rich Whitney, Green candidate for Governor of Illinois (http://www.whitneyforgov.org): "The real story of health care reform over the past year is how the insurance and other health lobbies sent millions of dollars in campaign checks to both Democrats and Republicans to make sure their interests came first. We'll get real health care reform when Americans get angry enough to stop voting for Democratic and Republican candidates who are addicted to corporate contributions, and elect Greens, who call health care a basic human right." (Visit the web site of the Center for Responsive Politics to learn how much these corporations donate to each Congress member: http://www.opensecrets.org)

• Nancy Allen, farmer and long-time Green organizer from Maine: "Some of the Tea Partiers showed their true colors this past weekend, when crowds hurled racist and homophobic epithets at Rep. John Lewis, Rep. Barney Frank, and other Congress members. How much did Republican politicians, insurance companies, and other industries encourage such behavior? How did these corporations successfully convince so many Americans that their own medical care is less important than corporate profits and power?"

• Rodger Jennings, Green candidate for US Congress in Illinois, District 12 (http://www.rodgerjennings.org): "The winners are the largest for-profit health insurance companies. Both Democrats and Republicans made the bottom lines of the insurance cartel the top priority, rather than every American's need for quality medical care. Private insurance adds cost to health care but provides no value -- physicians, nurses, and other professionals do the actual medical work. The administrative overhead, including CEO bonuses and salaries, of private insurance raises health care costs by up to 31%. The administrative overhead for Medicare is under 3%. By eliminating the corporate insurance middle-man, we'd reduce health care spending from over 15% to about 9% and cut the price of coverage and care dramatically, and every American would enjoy guaranteed, quality health care."

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and 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
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

Single-Payer Now! Green Party page on health care reform
http://www.gp.org/campaigns/health/single-payer

Physicians for a National Health Program http://www.pnhp.org
PNHP's Frequently Asked Questions page http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single-payer-faq

Healthcare-Now http://www.healthcare-now.org

Single Payer Action http://www.singlepayeraction.org

"The Sober Reality of Health Care Reform"
By Jane Hamsher, FireDogLake, March 22, 2010
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/03/22/fdl-statement-on-the-passage-of-the-health-care-bill

"Deaths Rising for Lack of Insurance, Study Finds"
By Michelle Andrews, The New York Times (blog), February 26, 2010
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/deaths-rising-due-to-lack-of-insurance-study-finds/#preview

"NY Times Reporter Confirms Obama Made Deal to Kill Public Option"
By Miles Mogulescu, Huffington Post, March 15, 2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/ny-times-reporter-confirm_b_500999.html

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
Winter 2010 issue now online
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

Today's signing of the new Health Care Bill is unconstitiutional forcing Americans to buy health care from private companies. The constiitution says it will "regulate commerce", but that does not mean forcing people to buy a product. Only the corporate insurance companies won this battle, not the American people. Vote ...for me in November to help repeal this new law! www.rodgerjennings.org

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

For Immediate Release:
Friday, February 26, 2010

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

Some Tea Partiers are in the wrong party, say Greens

• "A real Tea Party movement would look like the Green Party": Greens
urge Americans to reject corporate royalists and faux populists like
Limbaugh, Beck, and Palin, citing Jefferson's warning about "the
aristocracy of our moneyed corporations"

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on health
care reform, democracy, corporate power, and related issues:
http://www.gp.org/speakers

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders and candidates said that many
Tea Party activists might be in the wrong party and urged them to
consider going Green.

"Not all Tea Party members are befuddled rightwingers screeching that
President Obama is a socialist, fascist, pro-terrorist, or all of the
above. Many Tea Partiers have legitimate concerns about how the
Democratic Party's health care reform plans will reduce Medicare and
about trillion-dollar taxpayer-funded giveaways to Wall Street firms.
They are as outraged as Greens are about how both Democrats and
Republicans are coddling CEOs, major stockholders, and other wealthy
elites while preaching sacrifice for the rest of us," said Carl
Romanelli, former Green candidate for the US Senate and a member of
Health Care for All Pennsylvania (http://healthcare4allpa.org).

Greens said corporate royalists like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and
Sarah Palin who pose as populist leaders have hijacked the Tea Party
movement.

"Republicans and rightwing ideologues in the media are thrilled with a
Tea Party movement that will channel votes and money towards extremist
GOP politicians. Their idea of the Tea Party has nothing to do with
the 1773 Boston Tea Party. They prefer a movement full of people who
would have denounced the original Boston Tea Party as leftist
terrorism against the British East India Company. They would have
criticized Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine for wanting to rein in
what Jefferson called 'the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations.' *
To these Tea Partiers, and to most Republican and Democratic
politicians, restraints on corporate power are a symptom of 'big
government.' Many of the Tea Partiers who vented their rage against
health care reform at town hall meetings in 2009 were in effect
defending the power of health insurance companies -- the modern
equivalents of British tea companies -- to drive people who need
medical care into financial ruin," said Rodger Jennings, Green
candidate for Congress in Illinois, District 12
(http://www.rodgerjennings.org).

Green Party leaders noted that media coverage of health care reform
gave a megaphone to the anti-reform Tea Partiers at town hall
meetings, while mostly ignoring advocates of Medicare For All
(Single-Payer national health care), including many Green Party
members, who protested vociferously against the plans offered by
President Obama and Democrats in Congress. Examples of such protests
include Medicare For All activists disrupting Congressional hearings
and burning insurance forms outside meetings of insurance company
lobbyists.

Greens, like true fiscal conservatives, oppose subsidies for health
insurance companies in the Democratic plans, including proposed
'mandates' that would require enrollment. The Green Party has warned
that, whether Obamacare is enacted or Republicans succeed in blocking
reform, the real winners will be the health insurance, pharmaceutical,
and other industry lobbies.

Greens also compared the invasive homeland security measures favored
by Republicans and Democrats to the bullying tactics of the British
Army and requirement that colonists house British troops on demand.

"We need a Tea Party movement that opposes warrantless surveillance of
American citizens, torture, invasion of other countries, and other
violations of the US Constitution. We need a Tea Party that calls the
'general welfare of the people,' including the right to medical care,
more important than the right of insurance and pharmaceutical
companies to shake down patients and deny treatment. We need a Tea
Party against predatory private prisons, the war on drugs, and mass
incarceration of Americans. We need a Tea Party that defends future
generations of Americans rather than corporate polluters," said Lynne
Williams, Green-Independent candidate for Governor of Maine
(http://www.lynnewilliams2010.org).

"We need a Tea Party that recognizes corporations as artificial
entities created by government fiat, and that corporations must not
enjoy the same free speech and other constitutional rights as humans.
A real Tea Party movement would look like the Green Party," said Ms.
Williams.

* "I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our
moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government
to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our
country." ~ Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Logan, November 12,
1816

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and 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
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of
the United States
Fall 2009 issue now online
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

It looks like in the state of Illinois the Green Party is gaining strength just based on how many people voted Geen in the Primary. Early results have show over 5,000 ballots pulled state wide, which is an estimated 150% higher than 2008.

As far as District 12 which I am running in there were some big gains, and a couple setbacks. See the stats below:

County % increase/decrease

Jackson +43%
Madison +52%
Marion +91%
Monroe 0%
Perry -31%
Pulaski -100%
Randolph +5%
St. Clair +86%
Union +13%
Williamson +60%

There were a couple of negative numbers, but the gains for out weigh the losses. I do think the numbers are showing the disgust people have with the Democrats and Republicans. Remember you have a third choice in Illinois, the Green Party (www.ilpg.org).

Rodger Jennings
Candidate for US Congress, District 12