Jill Stein, Green Party Presidential Candidate to release People's State Of the Union 8:30pm EST

http://www.jillstein.org/obama_state_of_the_union 

Jill Stein, Green Party presidential candidate, called today for a Green New Deal to counter the "trickle down economic agenda" laid out by President Obama last night in his State of the Union address.Stein plans to release her alternative at 8:30pm Eastern Time in a "People's State of the Union: A Green New Deal for America" that will be given via her campaign website: http://www.JillStein.org

After viewing President Obama's address, Stein commented that "It is startling how the candidate who four years ago promised to be an agent of change has morphed into the candidate of more of the same. The key features of the President's State of the Union address were drawn from the centrist Republican agenda. He's glorifying militarism, calling for more business tax cuts, promoting offshore oil drilling and hydrofracking, pushing trillions in cuts to discretionary Federal spending, promising cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and putting American workers into a struggle for survival in a global economy dominated by big corporations."

“The President has subverted the progressive ideals of the New Deal. He's imposing his vision of a 'grand bargain' that represents the effective philosophical merger of the Democratic and Republican parties. "

"The President presented a rosy picture of the current state of the economy by tossing out a few anecdotes and cherry-picked statistics. He seemed almost oblivious to recent news that 48% of Americans are living in poverty or near poverty, the greatest number in 50 years of record keeping. If he thinks things are going so well, maybe that's why he sees no reason to change course."

"America needs to go in a new direction. We are calling for a Green New Deal that would decisively end high unemployment and make a massive investment in solar, wind, energy efficiency and mass transit. We reject the President's assertion that "all of the above" is the right answer when it comes to energy. We need to wean ourselves from the fossil fuels that pollute our land and water, motivate wars for oil, and which are pushing us to a climate catastrophe."

"An honest analysis shows that most of the president's proposed solutions are just band-aids on the status quo and do not represent a serious attempt to end the crises we face. His mortgage foreclosure reforms will reach only a tiny fraction of homeowners in crisis. And his proposed commission to investigate bank fraud is hamstrung from the outset by the packing of the commission with big bank-friendly regulators. Furthermore it ignores the enormous inequity and economic damage that Wall Street does without committing prosecutable fraud. Contrast that with the Green New Deal that would impose an immediate moratorium on home foreclosures, would write down the principals of inflated mortgages to market rates, and would break up the big banks that caused this crisis and replace them with decentralized and democratized financial institutions."

Regarding education, Stein noted that "Obama's plan for the student loan crisis basically preserves the status quo. His solution is to keep interest rates the same and to cut Federal funding to colleges that are in financial crisis. The Green New Deal would end the crisis by taking over the student debt and implementing tuition-free higher education."

"America needs decisive action to get us out of the current economic slump. Most of all we need jobs -- tens of millions of them -- not the puny numbers that will result from President Obama's attempts at top-down stimulus. The unemployment office needs to become the employment office. The bold actions that worked to end the Great Depression can work again. The tax giveaways and corporate welfare that the President advocates are inefficient, take too long, and don't create the right type of jobs in the places where they are most needed. We can and must do better." 

"This election is a turning point. We can continue with the failing corporate-serving philosophy represented by Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and the other establishment politicians. Or we can stand up for a rededication of our nation to the public interest. As I have traveled around the nation in the past two months, I've found that people are hungry for real change and are excited to see something like the Green New Deal put on the table."

http://www.jillstein.org/obama_state_of_the_union

Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for President, is coming to NOVA

Great news! Jill Stein, a candidate for the Green Party presidential nomination, is coming to Arlington!

Details below:

Friends,

Dr. Jill Stein, GPUS Presidential Candidate, will be in the Northern Virginia/DC area, mid-January.  We have scheduled a house party so people can get to know Jill better.  We'll meet at the home of John Reeder.   We'll have snacks and drinks.    If you can, please rsvp to tamar@gp.org.   Even if you haven't let us know, come anyway.  We're just trying to get a rough estimate of attendance.

When:    Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 7:30pm
Where:    1812 N. Huntington Street, Arlington, Va 22205
Contact:   Tamar Yager, 703-534-2187 or 502-296-3849

Metro:  Orange line to East Falls Church.   Need to call Tamar for a pick-up (advance notice please).

Driving directions:  from Lee Highway and Harrison Street go south on Harrison Street to 18th Street; go right onto 18th Street and go 3 blocks to a right onto Huntington Street.  The house is the third house on the left.

-- 
Tamar Yager
GPUS Steering Committee Co-Chair
Virginia Delegate

Public Meeting of the Northern Virginia Green Party - December 10, 1PM

Hello - we have an upcoming meeting! All are welcome to attend!

What: Public Meeting of the Northern Virginia Green Party

Where: George Mason Regional Library - Conference Room 7001 Little River Turnpike Annandale, VA

Agenda:

1. 2012 congressional races - local
2. Ballot initiatives we can support/oppose - local (state?)
3. Analysis of state legislative races/school board/county board/city council races that were hotly contested.
4. Membership renewal or initial membership dues
5. Call members to touch base with them (Starting with newest to oldest - Paul's suggestion)
6. Labor Union updates
7. National Green Party volunteering opportunities
8. Support Occupy DC/Occupy The Ballot

See you there!

Is Occupy Wall Street transforming into an electoral movement?

By: Daryl Northrop

Maybe so.

Occupy Wall Street, and its related regional and local movements, have captured the attention and imagination of American's everywhere who fight for the rights of the 99% (in simple terms, that everyone who isn't a millionaire). The current political system serves the needs of the top 1% of income earners and wealth-owners quite well. They and their corporations fund the candidates, and the PAC's, and the think tanks, and the research instutions that support their system of greed. The "Occupy" movement has been characterized by a populist, non-partisan orientation. Meaning, they support values and policies that lift up the poor, the middle-class, and the small business owners, while standing against huge corporations that buy off our politicians, and send our jobs and profits overseas.

So the question on the lips of jaded political pundits and consultants everywhere is "What's next?" Will the Occupy movement become another pressure group like the NRA or the Sierra Club and lobby for change within the framework of the status quo? Or, will they become an independent political movement, similar to the "Tea Party" before they were co-opted by the GOP establishment?

Some in the Occupy movement have started an electoral wing to recruit and support candidates who stand with the 99%. Here is what Occupy The Ballot says about itself.

The problem isn’t that people don’t vote; the problem is that candidates are in debt to the top 1%. When people see both parties as the same, why should they vote? Instead of just encouraging people to keep voting for the lesser of two evils, we need to get the 99% to run for office! We know what needs to be done – let’s elect ourselves to office and fix Wall Street!

This country was founded on the idea that the people are qualified to decide what is best for them, and that everyone has the ability to run for public office and represent their neighbors. You don’t need to be in politics for years to know that pollution is poisoning people, that everyone deserves a fair shot at a healthy, prosperous life and that corporations and the top 1% can afford to give back to society!

 Here in Northern Virginia, there is already a group that stands with the 99%, it is the Green Party. Our party and our candidates take zero funding from corporations, PAC's, and other special interest. We represent the needs of people first! Fairness, decency, respect, grassroots democracy, and equal justice for all are our values that we form policies and solutions on. Occupy The Ballot makes an excellent point - you do not have to be an expert on politics to know the system is rotten, and that it needs to be changed.

To join the Northern Virginia Greens and take a stand for the 99% in our region, click here.

Audrey Clement, Green candidate for Arlington County Board, on "Smart Growth."

Audrey Clement is the Green Party candidate for Arlington County Board. Sustainable economics and sensible, transparent, and democratic urban planning are hallmarks of her campaign and the Green Party.

(Originally posted here.)

It seems Arlington County is obsessed with development. Having approved plans to increase the density of Crystal City by 50 percent, construct a 600,000 sq. foot high rise on the EFC Park and Ride lot and redevelop Columbia Pike at triple density, County Board will soon approve plans to construct a 532 unit apartment complex on Wilson Blvd. between Kansas and Lincoln Streets in Ballston (Virginia Square Towers) and a new six story headquarters for Lockheed Martin in North Crystal City (Monument View). Also on the drawing boards are plans to construct a 22 story office tower (Penn Square) behind Costco’s in Pentagon City. County Board touts these projects as proof of its commitment to “Smart Growth,” i.e. dense development along transit corridors. The idea behind Smart Growth is to coax people out of their cars from the nether world of sluburbia and into so-called walkable communities.Yet most of the planned additions to Arlington’s landscape include large scale parking facilities and will have major impacts on the county’s limited school and transportation infrustructure.

The question whether Arlington County can absorb the influx of people attendant with high density development was answered for me on October 11, when due to an incident at Clarendon Metro all westbound trains were offloaded at Rosslyn Station at the height of rush hour. Thousands of westbound passengers pushed and shoved to the escalators as hundreds of eastbound passengers entering the station blocked their exit. This crisis situation, which could have easily have resulted in a stampede, was directly attributable to the inadequacy of Metro infrastructure. If Metro isn’t safe now, how can it possibly handle the hordes that move into the county when County Board’s plans to double or triple the density of the Crystal City and Rosslyn-Ballston corridors are realized? Development isn’t smart if the infrastructure can’t support it, and Metro is woefully inadequate right now.

Green, accountable, and transparent representation is what Arlington, and all of Northern Virginia deserves. What real change and progress? Vote Green Party!

--

Daryl Northrop

Northern Virginia Green Party