[tcgreens] Pete Meyers sets record in Sheriff Race

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Pete Meyers sets record in Sheriff Race

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021111052843142.html

Mid-term Elections: Free Ride for Bush Ruined Democrats

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021111052208599.html

Atrazine more toxic than previously thought

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021111051630327.html

NY Greens Automatic Ballot Line Hanging by a Thread; Conservatives

Dominate Nationwide

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021108052228856.html

Radical Democracy and Sexual Politics

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021108051921243.html

Early Results Show Growth for Green Party

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021107050820315.html

Preventing Cancer

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021107050132464.html

Quito: People confront the FTAA

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021106044941553.html

The crisis in housing

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021105063525348.html

Congressional Candidates Establish Greens As America's Opposition Party

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021105062927804.html

2,000 gather in Kingston, NY to oppose war

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021104052335648.html

Open Letter to the Democratic Party

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021104051232372.html

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Pete Meyers sets record in Sheriff Race

Pete Meyers, the Green Candidate for Sheriff in Tompkins County, got 26%

of the vote county-wide. In Ithaca, Pete got 38% of the vote. Pete, a

social worker whose campaign focused on restorative justice and stopping

a proposed $20 million jail expansion set a new record for a Green

Sheriff candidate -- the previous record was 20%, set by Geralid J. M.

Amato in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. Last year, James Caldwell of

Monroe County ran for sheriff and got 11% of the vote. Pete's

performance was almost equalled this year by Adam Benedetto, who got 23%

of the vote in Dane County, Wisconsin.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021111052843142.html

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Mid-term Elections: Free Ride for Bush Ruined Democrats

The mid-term elections are over. After spending hundreds of millions of

business dollars, the Republicans now control the Senate and hold on to

the House of Representatives. It is amazing that the Democrats did not

do worse. They had decided months ago on a strange strategy --that they

were going to defeat the Republicans by not criticizing their

belligerent leader, George W. Bush.

In their ads, literature and debates between Senatorial and

Representative candidates, mention of Mr. Bush by them was to praise not

to challenge, or to expose the hypocrisy, and the damage to American

workers and consumers by this corporation President.

Listening to the debate from around the country on C-Span radio, I was

astonished to see Democratic candidates in tight races eager to show

their support for Bush's 2001 tax cut for the wealthy, for the

give-a-way war resolution authority on Iraq, and for Bush's federal

drive to take over the historical role of the states in personal injury

law by restricting Americans' right to their full day in court.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021111052208599.html

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Atrazine more toxic than previously thought

Controversy erupted over new findings that atrazine may be linked to

global demise of frogs. Prof. Joe Cummins and Dr. Mae-Wan Ho review the

evidence on the endocrine-disrupting and carcinogenic effects of

atrazine, especially in the light of the non-linearity of biological

activities, and call for a global ban of the herbicide.

Atrazine is an herbicide registered in the United States for the control

of broadleaf weeds and some grassy weeds. It is currently used on corn,

sorghum, sugarcane, wheat (to get rid of wheat stubble on fallow land

following wheat harvests; wheat is not the target crop), guava,

macadamia nuts, orchard grass and hay, range grasses, and southern turf

grasses. Atrazine is most widely used on corn followed by sorghum and

sugarcane. Atrazine is registered for use on range grasses for

establishing permanent grass cover on rangelands and pastures under the

Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in four states: Oklahoma, Nebraska,

Texas, and Oregon. The CRP is administered by the US Department of

Agriculture (USDA).

There are prohibitions against grazing on these CRP lands, and cutting

the grasses for hay, except in national emergencies, such as severe

drought, and there are "right-of-way" uses with grazing restrictions.

Atrazine is also registered for use on the following non-agricultural

sites: lawns, golf courses, and sod farms. Worlwide, atrazine is a

leading agricultural chemical, and so extensively used that it has been

identified as a significant pollutant in surface water, groundwater, in

offshore areas and in the atmosphere.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021111051630327.html

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NY Greens Automatic Ballot Line Hanging by a Thread; Conservatives

Dominate Nationwide

With 99% of the New York precincts reporting, Republican George Pataki

has cruised to a third term as New York Governor. Even more

heart-wrenching to many progressives, the NY Greens may have fallen

short of the 50,00 votes needed to receive an automatic line on the

ballot for the next four years. Lack of mainstream media coverage,

competition from the center-left Working Families Party, and poor voter

turnout may have been contributing factors.

The Libertarian Party reported about nine cases of missing or broken

levers for Libertarian and Green Party candidates and some upstate

ballot errors which omitted candidates from these parties.

Nationwide, the Democrats were largely routed, and the election

post-mortem has begun. "It is time for the Democrats to wake up to the

reality that they do not win elections by pretending to be Republicans

and 'centrists.' The Republicans will beat them at this game every

time," writes one IMC commentator. "It is time to look upon the

Democrats as a failed party that has allowed itself to be squeezed into

the center by the debate-narrowing media."

Meanwhile, debates about the point of voting continue on IMC-Global and

on this website.

[ St. Louis IMC Election Coverage | Minnesota IMC Election Coverage |

Houston IMC Election Coverage ]

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021108052228856.html

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Radical Democracy and Sexual Politics

I am campaigning for governor at a time when the limitations of liberal

democracy have never been more apparent. The boundaries of public debate

grow ever narrower. Corporate money rules the electoral process. The

Republican and Democratic parties quarrel over details but are

essentially united in support of fiscal conservatism, austerity,

protecting the wealth of corporations and rich people, privileging the

private market over public goods and economic growth over ecological

sanity, Ã¯Â¿Â½welfare reform,Ã¯Â¿Â½ the defunding of cities and urban

education systems, punitive drug laws, and a post-9/11 program of

permanent war. Liberal Democrats often have Ã¯Â¿Â½good positionsÃ¯Â¿Â½ on

questions of civil liberties, feminism, gay rights, and the environment,

but faced with an intransigent right their impulse is always to give

ground rather than fight. Anyone who seriously challenges this state of

affairs is derided as a utopian crank. The left, meanwhile, has been

paralyzed, bogged down in a wrongheaded dispute about what is more

important, economics or culture.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021108051921243.html

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Early Results Show Growth for Green Party

With most results still pending in western states, Greens took a strong

step to higher level office with John Eder's two-to-one landslide

victory in the Maine state house, district 31. Eder's Democratic Party

opponent conceded earlier in the evening.

In Providence, Rhode Island, where Greg Gerritt ran a strong grassroots

campaign for Mayor, David Segal has taken a seat on the City Council

with 38%.

In northwest Pennsylvania, District 3, Congressional candidate AnnDrea

Benson set a new record for a Green Congressional campaign with 22% of

the vote total. Benson had been endorsed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson last

Friday.

For statewide races, Green candidates for Governor in Maine, Jonathan

Carter, and Jim Sykes for Senate in Alaska both earned about 9%.

Greens also elected their first local officeholder in Texas, George

Rice, to the San Antonio Water Board. And in Madison, Wisconsin, Green

candidate for Sheriff Adam Benedetto received over 32,000 votes.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021107050820315.html

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Preventing Cancer

Breast cancer, lung cancer, colorectal cancers, bladder cancer,

Hodgkin's Disease and all cancers combined mortality rates for the adult

population of New York State far exceed the United States average (from,

"Atlas of Cancer Mortality in the United States" 1950-94, National

Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute).

New York State has large numbers of in-state major source smoke stacks,

emitting human carcinogens, including: benzene, formaldehyde,

benzo(a)pyrene, dioxins, furans, PCBs and hexachlorobenzene. Added to

these cancer causing emissions are releases from smoke stacks to the

North in Ontario (second worst source of air pollution in North America)

and to the West, in the Great Lakes Basin and the Ohio River Valley.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021107050132464.html

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Quito: People confront the FTAA

by Justin Rubin

Please accept this [unedited] bulletin from the edge of consciousness. I

don't know whether I feel like crying because I am so moved by what I

saw today, because my mucous membranes are all shot to hell from too

much tear gas, or out of sheer exhaustion. But I want to get this out

while it is still fresh in my mind, and tomorrow will be another insane

day. Tonight I watched some of the most oppressed people in this world

confront some of the most influential. Tonight I watched a group of poor

farmers, indigenous people, and workers speak, shout, sing truth to

power. Tonight, I think, I think, although we will not know for a few

days, I watched the terrain of hemispheric politics shift before my

eyes. I feel so inspired, and so humbled.

When the day started, I was 20km south of Quito with maybe 300

indÃ¯Â¿Â½genas, one of two protest caravans that had crossed the country

spreading the word about the protest against the Free Trade Area of the

Americas summit in Quito. As we crowded into buses to head north, I

called the other caravan, who reported that they had 80 people. " And

this is how it ends," I thought.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021106044941553.html

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The crisis in housing

New York City is facing its greatest housing shortage since the Second

World War. There are more homeless families, more homeless children now,

than at any time since the Great Depression. Over 35,000 people live in

the streets or in homeless shelters, and the number continues to rise.

The latest Housing and Vacancy Survey (HVS) relying on 1999 data, shows

that the vacancy rate is the lowest itÃ¯Â¿Â½s been for the 1990s -- at

3.19%. More ominous is the fact that 825,000 households pay over 30% of

their incomes for rent, with almost 450,000 of that total paying more

than 50%. Before the Reagan/Cuomo/Koch years, it was a rule-of-thumb

that you never paid more than one weekÃ¯Â¿Â½s salary for a monthÃ¯Â¿Â½s rent.

For many years now, neither major party has demonstrated any capacity

for providing affordable housing.

215,000 renter households are overcrowded, at more than one person per

room. It it the highest number of overcrowded households since 1970.

More than 75,000 are severely overcrowded (more than 1.5 person per

room). That is the highest number since the HVS began the count in 1960.

Almost 170,000 households are living doubled-up with a non-relative.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021105063525348.html

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Congressional Candidates Establish Greens As America's Opposition Party

WASHINGTON, DC -- "There's so much bipartisan agreement and overlap on

many major issues of the day, that voters across the U.S. have begun to

recognize Greens as a viable alternative -- often, the only viable

alternative," said Rachel Treichler, Green Party candidate for the House

of Representatives in New York's 29th Congressional District. "Our

candidates for the U.S. House and Senate have established the Greens in

2002 as America's party of choice, of re-enfranchisement and giving

people a reason to come out and vote. We're the alternative to the two

major parties, which represent the interests of those funding their

campaigns -- the large corporations, PACS, and wealthy donors."

Over 60 Greens are competing in congressional races, out of more than

530 Green campaigns across the U.S.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021105062927804.html

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2,000 gather in Kingston, NY to oppose war

by Jack A. Smith, Mid-Hudson National People's Campaign

The new Bush-era antiwar movement took a giant step forward Saturday,

Oct. 26 with massive peace demonstrations in New York and San Francisco

-- and a huge protest, relatively speaking, in Kingston, N.Y.

Demonstrations were held in scores of cities and towns in the U.S. and a

number of foreign countries.

A total of 2,000 took part in Kingston's rally and march despite cold

rains much of the day. The event was organized by the Mid-Hudson

National People's Campaign and was backed by some 30 local groups.

Observers said the spirited and militant demonstration was the largest

peace protest in Kingston in anyone's memory. The 2,000 figure was based

on final headcounts as the rally ended plus a fairly scientific analysis

by two people trained in crowd estimates. In addition, five buses filled

with activists from the Capital District and Mid-Hudson region left in

the very early morning hours to attend the Washington protest.

15 photos from the demonstration, taken by Fred Nagel, appear on the

website of the Dutchess Greens, http://www.dutchessgreens.org (click on

Stop the War).

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021104052335648.html

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Open Letter to the Democratic Party

The Democrats should have an easy time winning control of the House of

Representatives and the Senate in next week's election. Recession is

deepening, unemployment is rising, and corporate corruption headlines

are proliferating. Health care costs, drug prices and the number of

Americans without health care coverage are all increasing. Median

household incomes are falling. Corporate crime has heavily depleted

401Ks and other pension losses.

These should all help the Democrats win against the corporate-indentured

Republicans marinated in corporate cash, soft on corporate and

environmental crimes and demonstrably anti-labor.

Why then is the overall contest for Party control of Congress too close

to call? Because Democrats are not clearly, relentlessly and

aggressively emphasizing these fundamental issues to distinguish

themselves from the Republicans. Why? Are they unaware, neglectful or

torpid? No, their chronic ambiguity flows from being largely indentured

to the same monied commercial interests as the Republicans.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20021104051232372.html