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Wisconsin Assembly
continues assault on health
care and education;
With Greens like these,
who needs Democrats?
Wisconsin Assembly
passes "Conscience
Clause" bill;
Babblemur got Blog;
Have a Sunny Summer Solstice,
Everybody!
Green Party Nominates “None of the
Above” for President!
by babblemur (taken from the babblemur blog)
This could be the headline in 2008.
In the world of “What If”, many people wonder what would have
happened if there were no Green Candidate for President in 2004.
Interestingly enough, Green Candidate Cobb and Independent
(former Green) Nader combined got less than 1% of the national
vote for President. In other words, the Greens had virtually no
impact at all on Kerry’s supposed loss to GW.
In 2000, the case can be made that Green candidate Nader did in
fact impact the result, although earning less than 3% of the
national vote. This was because Nader’s votes surpassed the
difference between Gore and Bush in a few states that would have
changed the outcome, notably Florida. On the other hand, so did
Buchanon, Harry Browne, and everyone else on the ballot in
Florida, as Gore supposedly lost to Bush by a few hundred votes.
The Green Party has suffered from a backlash since 2000, as they
were blamed for ‘spoiling’ the election by ‘stealing’ votes from
Gore. In 2004 the Democrats legally challenged "Nader the
Independent" and "Cobb the Green" state by state in an attempt to
keep them off of the ballot. This isn’t what hurt the Green Party
though. What hurt was the rise in public perception that a vote for
a Green candidate was both a wasted vote and a vote against the
Democrats, i.e. for the Republicans. This public perception is not
an accident; it is promoted by the Democratic Party itself, and
pushed through the media.
So what if the Green Party chose not to run a candidate for
President in 2008? Crazy? Impossible? The May 2005 Newsletter
of the Wisconsin Green Party, “Green Wisconsin”, has an article
called “Ten Questions for Greens”. Among them are this:
- 6) How do we prevent our participation in the spectacle
of the presidential election every four years from eclipsing
all of our state and local Green campaigns?
When I read this, it set off a mental alarm: The Greens are
considering the possibility of not running a candidate
for President in 2008. I can't predict the future, but the
thought just jumped out at me. The Presidential campaign
of Nader in 1996 and especially 2000 were huge for the
Green Party, both in increasing party membership and
increasing hostility thrown at the party. Why doesn’t the
party make a statement by choosing not to run a
candidate for President, neutralizing the national hostility
from the Democratic Party, while building on its growth in
membership thanks to Nader and getting some free
publicity for local campaigns?
I am not taking a stand on this (yet), as it is merely
prognostication and foreshadowing, but I am curious how
others out there, Greens, Democrats, Republicans and
Others might take something like this? Would this help the
Greens or hurt the Greens? Would this help or hurt the
Democrats? Does a high-profile Presidential Race with a
celebrity candidate detract from, or help, local and state
campaigns?
Would you vote for "None of the Above", or is Joe Biden
better than Bill Frist? If you are Green, and there were no
Green on the ballot for President, would you vote for the
Democrat, no matter who it is? Who would you vote for if
not a Green?
Comment on this directly on babblemur.blogspot.com
"Stealing News" from other
sites
by babblemur
Since I always cull my favorite sites for stories, why
pretend? Here's what 'everyone else' is talking about:
ABV ARMY TIMES
Besides Justin Mitchell being profiled in the UW-
Oshkosh Bulletin (nice pic, by the way)...
- Two Visions of Energy: US House Vs Senate
- Things You Need to Know Before the World
Ends - Once Were Whales
TONYPALMERI.COM
- The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Ain't
Too Proud To Blog (and neither am I...) - Republican Senator Chuck Hagel: The White
House is completely disconnected from reality - And my favorite Tony piece so far and a
MUST READ... Fighting Reactionary Politics:
Real Conservatives, Real Liberals, and Real
Radicals Must Work Together
OSHKOSH NEWS
- A New Look! (Note Babblemur is second blog
down, mostly due to the alphabet.)
FIGHTINGBOB.COM
- "Two Steps Back: What Would Thomas
Jefferson Do? (WWTJD?) - The Battle for PBS
PROGRESSIVE POPULIST
- James Weinstein R.I.P.
BLOG FOR IOWA
- Propaganda From The Heartland TV Series "...
regarding an industrial agriculture series on public
television stations that is sponsored by Monsanto
and the American Farm Bureau Federation..."
The RAW STORY
concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of
devils, were I to make a whore of my soul..."
-Thomas Paine
Wisconsin Assembly Continues
Assault on Health Care and
Education
by babblemur
The Wisconsin Assembly passed a bill that would make
Wisconsin the only state in the Union that makes it illegal
for University Health Centers to prescribe emergency
contraception to students who have been raped just days
after passing a bill that would allow pharmacists in the
state to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions based on
'religious convictions'. (What's next, a bill that makes
crossing state borders to get birth control pills a crime?)
Rape victim advocacy groups have loudly protested the
bill, and Attorney General Lautenschlager has called it
unconstitutional.
It is time for Wisconsin to look at their State Legislators
and start planning on throwing these reactionary
social-deviants out of office and elect a legislature that
can govern for citizens instead of special interests. This
"Culture Crusade" that fundamentalists are waging on
Wisconsin has real consequences for real people and it
needs to end now.
Green Bay Gazette : Assembly passes UW contraceptive
pill ban
With Greens like these, who needs Democrats?
by babblemur
There is a very interesting guest-blog on FightingBob.com by
Stacie Rosenzweig (of Vast Dairy State Conspiracy) called “An
Ecumenical Democrat” which I highly recommend. In her article
she compares good-deed Christians versus Evangelical Christians
with good-deed Democrats versus “You’re with us or against us”
Democrats. She argues that Democrats are going to have a hard
time pulling Greens, Libertarians, and Independents into their party
if they continue to tell them that they are “sending the country to
Hell” if they don’t vote Democrat. She says:
- “At least, we won’t get them to join or even come to our
carnival to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl if we continue to throw
some of the nastier epithets we’ve been throwing that they
are loony leftists, spoilers, Nader apologists, shills for Bush.
I have heard all of these and more flung at people who
probably, in the long run, agree with the Democrats on
many issues.”
After demonstrating at the Wisconsin Democratic Party
Convention in Oshkosh last week, and talking to some of
the delegates, it seems to me as if there is a growing divide
within the Democratic Party between the Old School
Insiders and the Young Idealistic Progressives. The OSI’ers
want business as usual, the safe road, while the YIPs
believe in action, that they can make a difference. The YIPs
are frustrated with their Democratic Governor selling them
out on Education and the Environment, and their own
inability to change the direction of the Democratic Party due
to the control the OSI has on the party apparatus.
Stacie eludes to something that Ed Garvey of FightingBob.
com states clearly:
"The Green platform ought to be the Democratic party
platform ... I think what people want is some clarity about
fewer prisons and more schools and lower tuitions and
more money for the universities. They want everyone to
have health care -- those are the things that get people
excited." (Oshkosh Northwestern, June 12, 2005)
Garvey has more to say on this here: “Forget the
Progressives – who needs them?”
There is a ‘third’ option, dare I day it, to the “go with the
flow” Democrats and the “Change, Dammit!” Democrats:
Join the Green Party. The Green Party embraces the
Progressive elements that the Democrats often only pay lip-
service to these days: social justice, environmentalism,
grassroots democracy and anti-war. The Green Party doesn’
t just talk it, they walk it, promoting sustainable growth
communities, family farms and organic farming, legal
equality for all (including gays and lesbians) and strongly
supporting unions and labor. The Green Party pays no
allegiance to any corporation or ‘interest group’, but seeks
only to serve the people and our future.
Trying out the Green Party is simple. Go to: http://www.gp.
org/states.html to find your state party’s website, find a
local chapter or send someone an e-mail. And the best thing
is, if there isn’t a local chapter, you can start one! (If you
get nowhere, send me an email and I'll try and set you up,
babblemur@babblemur.com)
Trust me, it is easy being Green.