Green Party Gearing for Green Convention

Next week is the Green Party's National Convention. In Chicago, Illinois, Greens will choose their Presidential Candidate. After primaries in 28 states, the nominee is likely to be former US Representative of Georgia Cynthia McKinney. But beyond choosing a Presidential nominee, the Green Party will be compiling their national platform. We spoke with Convention Coordinator Ruth Weil.

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The Greens say they have grown in stature over the years. As Phil Huckelberry, Co-Chair of the Green Party says, they will be celebrating and plotting how to make additional gains in the future.

Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who seems poised to capture the Green Party presidential nomination, in Chicago, this month, "is at this juncture in history the only vehicle through which progressives can both register their outrage at Barack Obama and begin the process of rebuilding a mass, Black-led movement for real social change." Meanwhile, the frequency of Obama's Right turns seem to increase in direct proportion to the nearness of the general election. "Surely no one with a brain any longer believes that Obama is a closet progressive, or even a genuine liberal." The question is, How many progressives will put their votes and resources to honorable use?

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The platform on which McKinney runs is straightforward, eminently understandable, and in conformance with the substance and spirit of international law. It is what Barack Obama used to pretend to say, in front of progressive audiences, only without his mitigating language designed for ease of reversal - commonly called flip-flop, but more accurately, betrayal - terms that ultimately smother peace in a pillow of words like "respectable, responsible and honorable."

This is how Obama uses his impressive language skills: to lure constituencies that seek peace into the maelstroms of war; to assault the integrity of language itself with his relentless tinkering with meanings, until finally, his original peaceful promises turn into their warlike opposites.

Obama's modus operandi is consistent and, especially after his recent flurry of policy reversals, transparent to all who care to observe him dispassionately. He is a word-hustler, a slickster, a politician/actor who has always been eager to serve the global aims of the very rich.

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There can be no effective reasoning with those African Americans who want only that a member of The Race occupy the Oval Office - no matter the character and politics of that Black individual. But self-described progressives of all races cannot excuse their own docility in the face of Obama's rightward lunge - especially when there exists one last opportunity to threaten the Democratic nominee-to-be with a backlash against his betrayals of progressive principles - one last chance to affect Obama's behavior before Election Day, November 4, and beyond. Cynthia McKinney has made herself available to the Green Party's convention in Chicago, July 10-12, and will almost surely be their nominee.

If progressives cannot bring themselves to vote honorably, they can at the very least go to McKinney's campaign site and send money. Even a little principled behavior is better than none at all.

The only way that the presidential race becomes interesting in my eyes is if Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, and Bob Barr are brought into the picture. Then I would sit up, pay attention, and stop yawning. (A handful of Americans may remember that I once was the teenage independent candidate for the U.S. White House, running against Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale. I opposed the two party system, and I don't like the whole idea of voting for the lesser of two evils. If we get me going once again, I will remind one and all that the U.S. Constitution says nothing about a two party system. It's not in there; it is entirely an acquired habit of the chattering class.)

At this rate, I would nominate Barack Obama to become an architect, and I think that John McCain is fit for the role of kindly grandfather. As for selecting a U.S. President, I will look more deeply into the platforms of Barr, Nader, and McKinney before I make up my mind as to whom I will vote for in November. I believe in voting on the merits, not simply voting to be on the winning side.

Cynthia meets her opponents for the Green Party's Presidential nomination in a radio debate.

Rosanne Barr again used her website to weigh in on the Presidential race, for the second time plugging the candidacy of Cynthia McKinney for President. She wrote:

the first woman in history to run as the nominee of a viable party is cynthia mckinney of the green party. the green party is the future of america. I do not think it matters who wins between obama and mccain at all. aipac runs both parties, bottom line.

(San Francisco) Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney Joins Cindy for Congress as Honorary Co-Chair as No-Strings Occupation and War Funding, Telecom Immunity Bills Are Ushered Through Democrat-controlled Congress

McKinney: "The point was to change Washington, DC, but instead Washington, DC changed Nancy Pelosi"

As a sign of tightening opposition to the string of hope-reversing policies being put forward by Speaker Pelosi, Green Party Presidential and pro-peace candidate Cynthia McKinney agreed to serve as an Honorary Co-Chair of Cindy Sheehan's campaign to oust Nancy Pelosi from Congress. "Nancy Pelosi needs to phone home, because it's clear that she's forgotten the values of the people of California who sent her to Congress. The point was to change Washington, DC, but instead Washington, DC changed Nancy Pelosi," commented McKinney, a former colleague of Pelosi.

McKinney said a Green vote counts, not just for each party candidate, but for the party as a whole. If the Greens receive 5 percent of the vote in November, the party will be qualified to receive federal election funds, and in many states, have a place on the ballot at the next statewide or national election.

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“If the Green Party gets 5 percent, then we’ve upset the two-party apple cart,” McKinney, 53, said.

McKinney, her party’s presumptive nominee, wore an orange baseball cap printed with the slogan “Impeach Both” and she spoke to about 20 people on the third floor of the Skagit Valley Food Co-op for about two hours.

Cynthia McKinney's Call to Action
in Support of Dennis Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment Against Bush

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Today we find that the ball is back in our court. It's up to the People now to "flip the script" once again. A massive grassroots movement of the People must coalesce very quickly, which can move Chairman Conyers and the House Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on H.Res. 1258.

I call upon all the forces of the Black movement nationwide--whether they currently support my presidential bid or the candidacy of Senator Obama--along with all my Green and Reconstructionist supporters, Katrina survivors and their supporters, the election protection movement, and all progressive forces, to organize a mass mobilization to push the House Judiciary Committee to move on the 35 Articles of Impeachment, with an explicit emphasis on the Black demands for fairness, equality and justice as laid out in Articles 28, 29 and 31.

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