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September 24th

9 A.M.

Dupont Circle, Washington DC

Let's Stop this War together! I'll be wearing Green!

Which Way forward for the Green Party?

I have been asked to share the following piece with you all. This was not written by me. However, I feel it important to understand the dynamics and viewpoints of the current currents in the GPUS. At this time, I am not a member of the GDI. But I do stand behind the goals of One Green One Vote, Porportional Representation, and a Independent Revolutionary Green Party.

There is a space for comments, so please feel free to discuss.

peace,
echo

Which Way forward for the Green Party?

A report on the 2005 Annual National Meeting, held July 22^nd-24^th, 2005

By Ashley Smith, Cat Woods, James Marc Leas, and Steve Greenfield

At the 2005 Annual National Meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Green Party arrived at a fork in the road. The delegates voted down resolutions offered by Greens for Democracy and Independence (GDI) designed to ensure proportional representation inside the party, national delegates accountable to the expressed will of the membership, and political independence from the two corporate parties. These votes fly in the face of everything that the Green Party’s platform and membership stand for.

As Maryland senatorial candidate and Green Party member Kevin Zeese rightly points out, “the overwhelming majority of Greens support real democracy – based on the principle of one person-one vote – and want the Green Party to stand for something different than the Democrats or Republicans.”

“The Tulsa decisions exacerbate the already growing rift in the party. The ramifications of these decisions must be reversed if the Greens are to truly challenge the corporate parties. This can only happen if Greens across the country are willing to fight to take back their party. Only an uprising by the membership will reinvigorate the Green Party,” added Zeese.

At Tulsa, two currents came into conflict over the future of the Party – an assertive, radical wing embodied by the Greens for Democracy and Independence (GDI) and a passive, liberal wing led by David Cobb and others closely tied to the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA).

GDI argues that the Green Party must become the political expression of living social movements to challenge the corporate duopoly at the ballot box, and can only be successful in this endeavor by conducting its affairs, setting policies, and nominating candidates from a standpoint of complete independence from corporate-sponsored parties, policies, and candidates. GDI came into being to resolve the political and organizational crises that wreaked havoc in the Green Party during and after the 2004 election and threaten to sideline the Green Party as a progressive electoral force in the national political arena.

Divisions form during the 2004 presidential nominating process

These crises originated in the period leading up to the nomination of Green Presidential candidate David Cobb, who argued for a “safe states” strategy in battleground states during the 2004 election campaign. This tactic was viewed by many Greens as a backhanded way of adopting a political strategy of sustaining the centrist Democratic Party in order to defeat Bush, at the expense of Green Party interests. Cobb’s eventual running mate, Pat LaMarche, had spent the primary season arguing for complete abstention from the Presidential race.

Cobb’s strategy enjoyed only minority support in the Green party, but his forces were able to win the Green Party nomination by rallying leaders of the small state parties, who had a disproportionate number of delegates allotted to them, and convincing several delegates to change their assigned positions and vote against the expressed will of their state party’s membership. Based on successful manipulation of this undemocratic process, Cobb won the nomination and official support for his lesser-evil strategy without the consent or interest of the grassroots party members and Green-leaning progressive voters. But the Green membership and potential Green-leaning voters quickly registered their disapproval as the Cobb campaign could attract sufficient petitioning volunteers and signatories to get on the ballot in only 28 states, 22 of which held pre-existing ballot lines.

The Cobb campaign for president garnered less than 120,000 votes, or about 1/3 of the registered Greens in the country, and less than 4% of the Green Party’s previous national tally. As a result of this disastrous showing, Green Parties in seven of the twenty two states with Green Party ballot lines lost them, which resulted in those states’ election boards purging computers of Green Party membership databases and terminating party enrollment rights. The enhanced vote totals, success of local candidacies, and membership increases Cobb and his promoters had assured the Green Party would derive from the “good will” the lesser-evil approach would engender in the wider progressive community failed to materialize. Despite accommodating the “Anybody But Bush” forces and the high-profile position Cobb and the Green Party took in the ballot challenges and recounts in Ohio and elsewhere, Green Party membership declined, local candidacies declined sharply in numbers and vote totals, and the party continues to teeter on the brink of bankruptcy.

Since the election, the division between GDI supporters and the liberal wing of the national Green Party has become more apparent and more severe. It has been exacerbated by the arrival of a new political action group rising from the ashes of the Dean and Kucinich Campaigns, and the easy willingness of the failed “lesser evil” Greens to stay their liberal-accommodating course through pathways provided and funded by Democrats, serving as a wedge to widen the rift.

Under the leadership of David Cobb and his supporters in the weeks following the election debacle, and continuing to the present, many in the liberal wing aligned themselves with the Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), whose stated aim is to transform the Democratic Party from within through a policy of encouraging progressives to think “realistically” about the immutability of the two-party system and apply their energies inside the Democratic Party rather than through third-party challengers like the Greens. David Cobb has appeared on many PDA panels as an “Alliance Partner” and Cobb ally Medea Benjamin, of Global Exchange and Code Pink, wrote a glowing fundraising letter for the PDA which was disseminated in Green Party circles.

Like many inside/outside formations such as the Working Families Party, however, the PDA exists to co-opt challenges into the Democratic Party, shepherd progressives into the left wing of the duopoly’s electoral pen, and reinforce the two party system and its consequences. If the AFL-CIO and mainstream civil rights groups – heavily integrated into the Democratic Party and backed with millions of members and millions of dollars – have failed to bring progress with this technique, the PDA with its meager forces stands no chance of succeeding. Instead the PDA will simply decapitate the Green Party’s attempt to build a challenge to the corporate duopoly. Many Greens and recalcitrant progressives believe this to be the real purpose of PDA, and the liberal wing’s new-found close association with the PDA has diluted the Green Party’s message, given “lesser evilism” an institutional foothold, and inflamed the growing conflicts over mission and methods in the Green Party.

Members of GDI have been fighting back to reaffirm the central mission of the Green Party as an independent political arm of progressive social movements. They have been the driving force in developing proposals to institute democratic reforms and assert the independence of the Green Party from the corporate parties. GDI has presented these proposals publicly on its website and at state party meetings, where they have won supermajority support from state parties in California, Florida, Vermont, and Utah, and unanimous support in New York.

Divisions Intensify in Tulsa

The Tulsa meeting was essentially a contest between the two wings of the party played out through the same undemocratic scheme that distorted the outcome of the 2004 Milwaukee Convention. Under this scheme California and New York control only about 16% of the Green National Committee (GNC), even though 65% of all registered Greens reside within these two states. The liberals have majority support based within the leadership of small state parties, many of them with active memberships of under 100 Greens, some with single digits, while GDI adherents hold wide majorities based in the states with the largest parties that, under current Green Party bylaws, are highly underrepresented in the national leadership. By process of this disproportionate allocation system, the liberals constitute as much as 75% of GNC representation, and through the Tulsa Convention controlled 100% of the executive power vested in the Steering Committee (now reduced to a still unassailable 89%) and a similar percentage of standing committee and working group positions. These allocations can only be altered by a 2/3 majority vote, and are thereby effectively self-sustaining.

Conflict between the two wings erupted early in the convention over which delegates to seat from Utah, a state where two groups claim to be the official Green Party. The original Utah Greens split into two factions in 2004 over which candidate – Cobb or Nader – to put on their state’s ballot line. The small Cobb-supporting wing was quickly officially recognized by the national steering committee as the sole representative of the Utah Greens in party affairs. By contrast, the Nader-supporting wing, 10 times the size of the Cobb-supporting wing, is recognized by the Utah Secretary of State as the official Green Party of Utah, but was barred from access to the national Green Party by internal executive fiat.

With both delegations asking to be seated and confusion reigning over recollections of what process had been applied to seat one faction over the other, the pro-GDI delegation from Florida proposed that each Utah group be allow to seat a single delegate and that they resolve to work out their disputed affiliation after the convention. The liberal wing of the Green National Committee (GNC), however, strongly opposed this proposal and the vote to seat one pro-GDI delegate was defeated 57 to 34 (with 4 abstentions). GDI forces saw the die had been cast, but the votes on the three GDI proposals would not be held until the next evening.

Following this telling skirmish, speeches by Peter Camejo and David Cobb laid out very different visions and strategies for the future of the party.

Camejo stressed the significance of building the Green Party as the political expression of mass social movements and argued for the importance of promoting debate and encouraging many political tendencies to exist within the party. He even went so far as to apologize to David Cobb for any misstatements he may have made about him during the campaign. Finally, Camejo called upon the Green Party to stand up to the Democrats and argued its independent challenge to the two party system is “the spirit of the future.”

During his speech Cobb repeated several of Camejo’s points, but then emphasized an exclusionary message. Instead of inviting debate, Cobb condemned what he called “sectarianism” — his label for anyone who opposed his safe states strategy, or believed in building a left wing of the party – and did not accept or even acknowledge Camejo’s olive branch. In answer to a question after his speech about critical reviews of Green Party performance, authored by prominent Greens, that have appeared periodically in the online progressive magazine CounterPunch, Cobb assailed these articles and denounced CounterPunch editor Alexander Cockburn, saying that he “represents why the sectarian left has failed.” The not-so-subtle message was that the Green Party should exclude the Left, continue to support Democrats in their election campaigns, and suppress dissent.

Key leaders of the liberal wing of the GNC made their support for Cobb’s position clear after the speeches. “I’m not willing to define us as a party independent of the corporate parties,” Illinois delegate Phil Huckleberry, who heads the Presidential Campaign Search Committee and co-authored the 2004 Convention Rules, declared. “I did not join the Green Party to fight against Democrats and Republicans…We are more than an independent party; we are a Green Party.” Similarly, Jody Haug, Green Party Co-Chair and delegate from the state of Washington, declared her opposition to independence from the two corporate parties by arguing “we should not paint ourselves into a corner.”

The GDI Proposals

The real conflict broke out when GDI members presented their proposals to the National Committee. GDI’s strategy was to present a short overview of each proposal (since they had already been passed by several state parties and been discussed on the GNC’s list serve) and then allow delegates to provide comments, concerns and amendments.

The liberal wing, however, did not argue against the content of the proposals. Instead they relied on objections concerning bylaws, implementation, and procedural concerns. They also attempted to draw GDI supporters into accepting an alternative proposal from the DC Statehood Greens that would send the proposals to a committee without any political direction regarding democracy and independence, even though party bylaws forbid introduction for vote of new proposals without the mandatory three-week discussion period.

The GDI wing stood its ground and rejected this “compromise” as it would have nullified the basic principals of their proposals. After a long period of confusion — during which the Steering Committee frequently left the room to caucus (without explanation) and anti-GDI forces led delegates in doing “The Wave” and singing “Oklahoma” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” — the GNC defeated all three proposals by an average vote of 58 to 34 with 3 abstentions.

It was not lost on GDI members that the vote on their proposals mirrored the vote to seat both Utah delegations. It is obvious the divide in the leadership of the party is growing wider, and that the liberal wing – which mostly represents the smaller state parties – has gained the upper hand in the undemocratic setup of the national party.

While the Green National Committee defeated the GDI proposals, there can be no doubt that this decision expresses the minority view of grassroots Greens throughout America. Many Greens will be horrified by the travesty in Tulsa, while most will be kept in the dark. The test now for GDI is to determine how to rally the majority inside the party and appeal to activists outside the party to build a democratic alternative dedicated to challenging the corporate duopoly.

If the liberal wing is able to maintain its dominance of the party and orient the Greens towards subordinating themselves to the Democratic Party, the Green Party is likely to wither away like the New Party and other progressive alternatives before them.

The Future of GDI

The opportunity and responsibility for GDI members is immense. The Democrats continue to ratify the Bush administration’s program of deficit-financed corporatism, upward economic redistribution, and permanent war, thereby stoking frustration with the two-party system. The Democrats continue to support the occupation of Iraq and the renewal of the Patriot Act, gave the margin of victory for the passage of CAFTA in the Senate, and stand prepared to confirm the nomination of conservative activist John Roberts to the Supreme Court.

As a result, tens of millions of Americans – workers, women, gays, Latinos, blacks, Muslims, the foreign-born, other oppressed populations – now including mainstream anti-war advocates who are finally reaching the majority of the American public – can find no electoral expression within the two major corporate parties for their demands and aspirations. Millions more have grown frustrated with the failure and consequences of the “lesser-evil” strategy of voting for the Democrats in 2004 and its impending resurgence behind the early card of centrist Democrat hopefuls for 2008. They are looking for an alternative. They think it was a mistake to suspend all progressive social movements and anti-war activities in order to mobilize the vote for Kerry, who opposed all of their interests. Ten months after the election those movements are still demobilized, although it is hoped that the demonstration against the war scheduled for September 24th will mark the return of mass social movements to the political landscape.

These millions of people and activists form a latent electoral force that GDI and supporting state Green Parties must connect with to renew the Green Party. Such a coalition offers the hope of galvanizing the Greens and the broader social movements to build a genuine third party rooted in this country’s excluded majority and its mass movements that will fight, not join or promote, the corporate parties.

The contest between the two visions of the Green party as expressed by the two wings of the GNC is not just a fight for the soul of the Green Party. It is a fight to win the hearts and minds of people to break with lesser-evilism and build a no-holds-barred challenge to corporate politics. It is also a fight to maintain and expand social movements and their influence during election periods.

While the current undemocratic national committee of the Green Party is taking the PDA-paved off-ramp back to the Democratic Party, the Greens for Democracy and Independence are considering new ways to inspire individuals and state Green Parties to take the road of democracy and independence, and progress.

(The authors of this report are State and National Committee delegates of the Green Parties of Vermont, California, and New York who attended the Tulsa meeting and are reporting first-hand. All consider themselves to be active participants in Greens for Democracy and Independence, and this report was prepared in conjunction with other GDI associates. The authors may be contacted through Steve Greenfield at bicyclesax@earthlink.net or845-255-2516)

GREEN PARTY CONDEMNS WEAKENING OF E.P.A. RULES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 21, 2005

GREEN PARTY OF LOUISIANA
http://www.LaGreens.org
Contact: Leenie Halbert, 225-615-4905


GREEN PARTY CONDEMNS WEAKENING OF E.P.A. RULES AFTER KATRINA DISASTER

The Green Party of Louisiana today issued a strong condemnation of plans to suspend U.S. environmental protections in the wake of the Katrina disaster.

"The first disaster to hit our state was a natural one. The one following suspension of EPA rules will be a human-generated environmental disaster," Leenie Halbert, Co-Chair of the Louisiana Green Party warned.

A U.S. Senate proposal introduced Thursday would grant the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator the authority to waive or modify requirements for any emergency response related to Hurricane Katrina. The blanket proposal, introduced by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), applies to any project carried out by the EPA.

Halbert predicted that relaxation of environmental safeguards will lead to an unknown, but predictable, increase in the death rate in the lower Mississippi Valley, and stated that a limited suspension of EPA rules to allow burning of some wastes would be sufficient for the needs to clean up this region.

"There is no reason why there needs to be a complete waiver of EPA protection for the entire Mississippi Valley for a period of a year and a half," she said. "Furthermore, the EPA has been extremely slow in initiating testing of soil and water samples in the storm-damaged areas and we question if in any case the agency has the will to demand that pollution be kept in check duringthis period."

"Our people already are suffering from living in what is known as 'Cancer Alley,'" Halbert said. "Now, they have suffered the loss of their homes and the neglect-seen on televisions worldwide-of their basic needs in time of disaster. But this is not enough for the right-wing idealogues who control our institutions in Washington, and our people are once more going to be betrayed by thisAdministration."

The Senate Committee on Public Works, which met behind closed doors with EPA officials after the hurricane, claims that the waiver is needed during clean-up of the disaster, according toBill Holbrook, from the majority staff of the committee.

Halbert quoted officials of the environmental law firm Earthjustice, who say that the waiver of
eighteen months is too long a time for environmental protections to be suspend, and echoed their concerns about the proposed waiver which includes occupational health and safety laws applying to debris disposal, water management and reconstruction workers coming to the area.

"This entire maneuver is nothing more than a cynical attempt to use this disaster to achieve the dismantling of laws and procedures that have been created to protect our people," Halbert
warned.

###

Listen Live to SEPT 24th Coverage

WRYR's Saturday Live Coverage Antiwar events
http://ny01.mediacast1.com:9656/listen.pls

WRYR will be covering the demonstration in Washington starting at 12:00 !! WRYR Key players have checked in to make this the largest, remote broadcast in WRYR history! We will be feeding other community radio stations around the nation with our live full coverage broadcast. We will have the all the speakers such as Cindy Sheehan etc , sounds, music and interviews all live to the studio with Garland Nixon and Robb Tufts as main hosts in the studio. We will also have an additional two roving audio correspondents reporting in live from the Green Festival in Washington, D. C.

For more info and to Listen Live
http://www.wryr.org

WRYR 97.5 FM radio is a project of South Arundel Citizens for Responsible Development
(SACReD), a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to work toward a sustainable and environmentally responsible Southern Anne Arundel County, Maryland community through research, education, and action.

Urgent Alert! Your Help is needed

CAMP CASEY ATTACKED, ZOOL ARRESTED AFTER SHEEHAN
SPOKE

ALERT !

Today in Union Square just after Cindy Sheehan left the podium, NYPD rushed Camp Casey NYC, arresting the main organizer and destroying the event.

NY Green Party activist zool, primary organizer of the solidarity Camp Casey NYC, was arrested and taken the 13th Precinct. His lawyer is on his way down ---

Help Zool and defend the right to assemble!

Call the 13th Precinct right now and demand they free
Zool immediately at (212) 477-7411

GREENS JOIN THE SEPTEMBER 24 ANTIWAR PROTESTS

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

For Immediate Release:
Monday, September 19, 2005

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@greens.org
Rebecca Rotzler, Peace Action Committee Co-chair, 845-255-3122,
rebelrot@yahoo.com


GREENS JOIN THE SEPTEMBER 24 ANTIWAR PROTESTS,
CALLING FOR IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ

Green Party events highlighted in schedule of rallies planned for Washington, D.C.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." (Theodore Roosevelt, remarks in 1918 on President Woodrow Wilson's suppression of dissent against U.S. involvement in World War I)


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party members will join united peace coalitions United For Peace & Justice and A.N.S.W.E.R. and tens of thousands of other angry Americans at the September 24 rallies in Washington, D.C. against the war on Iraq.

"President Bush and the Republicans and Democrats who have supported his war have betrayed the American people," said Henry Duke, Alabama Green and member of the Green Peace Action Committee (GPAX). "They lied to us. They set the stage for terrorist attacks against civilians in London, Madrid, Bali, and within Iraq, and placed all Americans at risk. They bear responsibility for the deaths of nearly 2,000 American troops and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Protest is our moral duty, as Americans and as citizens of the world."

The Green Party will have a strong media presence on September 24, with GPAX organizers and other party leaders available for interview.

Green events on September 24

GPAX is sponsoring a rally at the Iraqi Embassy at 9 a.m. and will present a solidarity letter to the people of Iraq, calling for full and equal rights and a representative government. "President Bush said the war was necessary to liberate the Iraqi people, but the invasion turned Iraqis into the enemy, especially in places like Abu Ghraib and Fallujah," said Jody Grage Haug,
co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.

Greens will then march south on 18th Street, pausing briefly in front of the D.C. offices of Halliburton/KBR (18th and M Street, NW), and head to McPherson Square at 14th and K Street, NW, for a GPAX rally from 10 to 11 a.m. Speakers include Kevin Zeese, Maryland Green candidate for the U.S. Senate; Rebecca Rotzler, Deputy Mayor of New Paltz, N.Y.; Elena Everett, co-chair of GPAX; Michele Tingling-Clemmons, co-chair of the Green Party's Black Caucus; Kevin McCarron, member of of the D.C. Statehood Green Party and Veterans for Peace; and others.

Greens will then join the main rally on the Ellipse. Among the featured speakers will be Malik Rahim, recent Green candidate for New Orleans City Council
<http://www.gp.org/press/states/la_2005_09_03.shtml>.

The Operation Ceasefire Concert <http://www.opceasefire.org>, 2:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. under the Washington Monument, will be hosted by Jello Biafra (a member of the Green Party) and will feature a line-up of music stars, including hip-hop artist and Green Party member Head-Roc, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Thievery Corporation, and country star Steve Earle. Ms. Rotzler, who is also co-chair of GPAX, will speak. The concert is being organized by a team that includes Adam Eidinger and other Greens.


Greens stress immediate withdrawal, weak response from Dems, impeachment of Bush.

The Green Party of the United States has led the political opposition to the war from the beginning. Greens sharply criticized Republicans and Democrats who voted in October, 2002 to transfer war power from Congress to the White House, calling it a violation of the U.S. Constitution and an invitation for the White House's abuse of power
<http://www.gp.org/position/st_09_20_02.shtml>.

"As predicted, the U.S. invasion of Iraq motivated greater support for al-Qaeda in the region and greater support among many Iraqis for clerics who intend to establish a theocratic government in Baghdad," said Marc Sanson, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States. "President Bush has turned Iraq into 'terrorism central', enabling al-Qaeda to set up operations in Iraq, where its presence was negligible before the invasion."

The Green Party has called for the Bush Administration to begin military withdrawal from Iraq immediately, arguing that any continued presence will result in more dead and injured American troops and Iraqi civilians, increased likelihood of civil war in Iraq, and growing animosity against the U.S. from Iraqis and people in other Muslim nations.

Greens thus oppose the position of mainstream Democrats like Senators Joe Biden (Del.) and Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), who call for new strategy and more troops in order to achieve victory in Iraq, and the position of many liberal and progressive Democrats, including Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.), Progressive Democrats of America, and MoveOn.org, who prefer a plan to
remove U.S. troops by the end of 2006.

"Every day we remain in Iraq, more American soldiers and Iraqi civilians will get killed," said Nan Garrett, spokesperson for the National Women's Caucus of the Green Party and co-chair of the Georgia Green Party. "As the clerics gain power and leverage over the new constitution, U.S. troops are dying not for democracy but for theocracy, religious law, and suppression of women's rights. They're dying so that U.S. corporations can plunder Iraqi oil and other resources."

The Green Party has also called for:

• Impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, based on the administration's numerous fraudulent claims about the presence of WMDs and conspiracy between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, and violation of numerous international laws and the U.S. Constitution (which limits use of the armed forces to defense of U.S. borders and requires adherence to international treaties to which the U.S. is signatory)
<http://www.gp.org/position/st_2003_07_impeach.shtml>.

• Rejection of the Bush Administration's revised draft of nuclear weapons policy, which would allow military personnel to use nuclear weapons for preemptive purposes.

• U.S. pressure on Israel to comply with international law, including scores of U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding its withdrawal from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and honoring the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. Greens have emphasized the link between U.S. policies in Iraq and continued U.S. political and financial support for Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.

• Massive redirection of money now spent on defense contracts, military programs, and the occupation of Iraq to be spent instead on human needs, especially technology to enable conversion away from fossil fuels and nuclear energy, establishment of a national health insurance plan, and aid for survivors of hurricane Katrina.


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

Green Party Peace Action Committee (GPAX)
http://www.gp.org/committees/peace/

United For Peace & Justice http://www.unitedforpeace.org

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition http://www.answercoalition.org/


~ END ~

Here's the latest from Cindy Sheehan:

September 16th, 2005

A Bright Spot in Bush World Amid the Miserable Failures on the Same Planet

A Message from Cindy Sheehan

It has been one month and one week since I sat in a ditch in Crawford, Tx. I can hardly believe it when I think of it myself. So much has happened in that time, and really, so little.

I got to Camp Casey III in Covington, La today, after getting up at 3am to head for the airport. Now it is 3am the next day and we are driving in a car to try and find a hotel to sleep anywhere around Jackson, Miss.

I was prepared to be shocked by what I saw in Louisiana, but I guess one can never really fully prepare for such devastation and tragedy. After living in a country your entire life it is so difficult to see such callous indifference on an immense scale. When I reflect on how the mother of the imbecile who is running our country said that the people who are in the Astrodome are happy to be there, it angers me beyond comparison. The people in LA who were displaced have nice, if modest homes that are perfectly fine. I wonder why the government made them leave at great expense and uproot families who have been living in their communities for generations.

After we arrived at Camp Casey III, we took the Veterans for Peace "Impeachment Tour Bus" into New Orleans after stopping at the distribution center to pick up some supplies in Covington. The stench and the destruction are unbelievable. I saw some hurricane zones in the panhandle of Florida last year that were pretty bad but that couldn't have prepared me for this.

I saw in the paper that George Bush said the recovery in the Gulf States would be "hard work." That's what he said about sending troops to Iraq and looking at the casualty reports everyday: "It's hard work." That man has never known a day of hard work in his life. The people on the ground in Covington scoffed at George's little junket to Louisiana yesterday.

He stayed in the French Quarter and a Ward that weren't even damaged a bit. The VFP took me to the city of Algiers on the West Bank. The part of Algiers we went to was very poor and black. The people of Algiers know what hard work is.

Algiers had no flooding. All of the damage was from winds. There are trees knocked over and shingles off of roofs. There are signs blown over and there was a dead body lying on the ground for 2 weeks before someone finally came to get it. Even though Algiers came through Katrina relatively unscathed, our federal government tried to force (mostly successfully) the people out of the community. Malik Rahim, a new friend of ours and resident of Algiers, told us stories of the days after the hurricane. The government declared martial law, but there was no effective police presence to enforce it. Malik said the lawlessness was rampant. People were running out of food and water and they were being forced to go to the Superdome. They didn't want to go to the Superdome, because their homes were pretty intact: they wanted to stay and have food and water brought to them. A town of 76,000 people dwindled down to 3,000. The die hards were rewarded last Wednesday when the VFP rolled into town with food and water. The Camp Casey III people were the first ones to bring any relief to Algiers. The people who were supposed to look after its citizens, our government, failed them.

In Algiers, in the space of 2 short weeks, Malik and his community has opened a clinic which also doubles as a food and supply distribution center. We need more help in Algiers. Malik and the other dozens fine volunteers are planning on opening 2 more clinics in Algiers and Malik would dearly love someone to give him a flat bottomed boat so he can go to the flood drenched poor communities that still have not been helped and bring them food, supplies, and medical attention. Medical professionals are dearly needed. Malik has also set up a communications center in an apartment next to his house which is for the community to use. The aid that is being given in Algiers is completely driven by the needs of the community. They have a saying in Algiers: Not Charity, Solidarity.

The citizens of Algiers desperately needed help and hope before the hurricane. When I think of how many other poor neighborhoods are being decimated and made so desperate and hopeless by the failed policies of the Bush administration, it makes me so angry. But when I see what the people of Algiers are doing to help themselves and the people of America are doing to help them help themselves, it gives me hope. I think Algiers can be a model for all of our communities.

One thing that truly troubled me about my visit to Louisiana was the level of the military presence there. I imagined before that if the military had to be used in a CONUS (Continental US) operations that they would be there to help the citizens: Clothe them, feed them, shelter them, and protect them. But what I saw was a city that is occupied. I saw soldiers walking around in patrols of 7 with their weapons slung on their backs. I wanted to ask one of them what it would take for one of them to shoot me. Sand bags were removed from private property to make machine gun nests.

The vast majority of people who were looting in New Orleans were doing so to feed their families or to get resources to get their families out of there. If I had a store with an inventory of insured belongings, and a tragedy happened, I would fling my doors open and tell everyone to take what they need: it is only stuff. When our fellow citizens are told to "shoot to kill" other fellow citizens because they want to stay alive, that is military and governmental fascism gone out of control.

What I saw today in Algiers lifted up my spirits, but what I also saw today in Algiers frightened me terribly.

The people who are running the clinic in Algiers gave me a list of desperately needed supplies:

Blood pressure medication---properly packaged.
Allergy medication---properly packaged
Vitamin B
Pens, paper, sharpies, index cards
Glucometers and test strips
Full O2 tanks
Power strips and extension cords
Non-DEET insect repellent
Mini bottles of Hand Sanitizer
A copy machine is urgently needed
People: Call: 512-297-1049

Send supplies to:
Fed Ex or UPS
Veterans for Peace Ch 116
C/O 645 Kimbro Dr.
Baton Rouge, La. 70808

Mark them: For the Medical Clinic in Algiers

The children in Algiers have also been out of school. Malik would like to open a school and they need school supplies and teachers.

I have a testimony from a Doctor that came to Louisiana to help that I will post tomorrow. The failure in every level of our government is criminal negligence. Tens of thousands of families in our country have been devastated because of the incompetence and callousness of our so-called leadership. America is stepping up to the plate to help Americans. America stepped up to the plate to hold George accountable for the abomination in Iraq. One thing George has taught us is that we are self-sufficient and we have a country that is worth fighting for and we are not going away.

I was told that Pat Boone was on a conservative radio talk show in San Francisco (yes they do exist) with Melanie Morgan (who has a vendetta against me) and he told the listeners that after we "stole the supplies" from the Red Cross, we gave them to the "enemies of America who are like the people who want to fly airplanes into our buildings." Boone says that we were giving them to enemies of America, because we were distributing the supplies from a Mosque. First of all, accusing me of stealing is slander, I think, and second of all: we were helping Americans. Just because their government abandoned them, we shouldn't feed them and give them medicine and supplies? I thought Pat Boone was supposed to be a Christian man? Thirdly, isn't Freedom of Religion one of our Constitutional guarantees?

It is a Christ-like principal to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the homeless. That's what is happening in Algiers and other places in Louisiana, but by the people of America, not the so-called "Christians" in charge. If George Bush truly listened to God and read the words of the Christ, Iraq and the devastation in New Orleans would have never happened.

I don't care if a human being is black, brown, white, yellow or pink. I don't care if a human being is Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, or pagan. I don't care what flag a person salutes: if a human being is hungry, then it is up to another human being to feed him/her. George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power. The only way America will become more secure is if we have a new administration that cares about Americans even if they don't fall into the top two percent of the wealthiest.

Help Louisiana Greens set up a free clinic in New

New Orleans Green Party leader Leenie Halbert needs help....

Leenie is bringing a convoy of three trucks into New Orleans with supplies and people. They
desperately need money to help set up a free clinic.

If you can help, visit http://www.rebuildgreen.org/ and make a donation via PayPal.

If you prefer to send a check by mail, make it out to the GREEN PARTY OF LOUISIANA and send it to:

Romi Elnagar [Acting Secretary of the La. GP]
1447 Bullrush Dr.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70810

If you have any questions, call Romi at
225-767-5173.