Thank You for the poll, and having included Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg has taken positive green action. With his deeds Bloomberg has reached out to the Green Party.

That is why we've have collected 11,000 petition signatures in Virginia, and submitted them to the state board of elections. Putting Michael Bloomberg on the ballot for President, and Ron Paul on the ballot for Vice President as Independent Greens in in Virginia.

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When everybody started saying "Let's have a conversation about race", I wrote a blog post saying "No, Let's Not." (see on Green Commons Let's Talk About Race? NO! Let's Not on January 26th). My first post was a reaction to Uzodinma Iweala's Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times, "Racism in 'Post Racial' America" (with 'post racial' in quotes) criticizing the "media-concocted fiction" that "not speaking about race is the equivalent of making progress."

I still say: No! No! No!

====================

UPDATE:
MY COMMENTARY POSTED ON LOS ANGELES TIMES WEB SITE

Posted on The Los Angeles Times, www.latimes.com, Wednesday, May 07, 2008
NO MORE RACE TALK
By Alex Walker
Enough about Obama and Wright. This election is about Bush. (Read More...)
= = = = = = = = = = = =

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Alex has given us a lot to think about over the Rev. Wright's Jeremiad. However, he is not the only candidate with a problem endorsement from a fiery preacher. How is McCain escaping the scrutiny of his endorsement by the Rev. James Hagee?  You may remember that he was the one who blamed Hurrican Katrina on the citizens of New Orleans allowing a gay parade.  I don't have a youtube video to repeat ad naseum, but you can listen to Hagee rant on NPR. 

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Forget Alex Walker. Who the hell is he, anyway? A failed computer programmer! Instead, read Gary Kamiya's excellent essay posted on www.salon.com. Kamiya says almost everything I was trying to say in my post last week. He does it much better than me and since Gary Kamiya is executive editor and oncofounder of the online magazine Salon.com, and a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review, unlike me, he has a license to say it. I have deleted my entire essay from Green Commons and substituted Gary Kamiya' because I think this so important. Please note the powerful quote from Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address which today's ignorant US "intellectuals" never remember.

Posted on Salon, Tuesday, March 25, 2008.
Rev. Jeremiah Wright Isn't the Problem

The hysteria over Obama's former pastor's attacks on America shows we're still in thrall to knee-jerk patriotism.

by Gary Kamiya

Maybe we really are doomed to elect John McCain, remain in Iraq forever and nuke Iran. Nations that forget history may not be doomed to repeat it, but those that never even recognize reality in the first place definitely are. Last week's ridiculous uproar over Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermons proves yet again that America has still not come to terms with the most rudimentary facts about race, 9/11 -- or itself.

The great shock so many people claim to be feeling over Wright's sermons is preposterous. Anyone who is surprised and horrified that some black people feel anger at white people, and America, is living in a racial never-never land.

Wright has called the U.S. "the United States of White America," talks about the "oppression" of black people and says, "White America got their wake-up call after 9/11." Gosh, who could have dreamed that angry racial grievances and left-wing political views are sometimes expressed in black churches?

It's not surprising that the right is using Wright to paint Barack Obama as a closet Farrakhan, trying to let the air out of his trans-racial balloon by insinuating that he's a dogmatic race man. But beyond the fake shock and the all-too-familiar racial politics, what the whole episode reveals is how narrow the range of acceptable discourse remains in this country. This is especially true of anything having to do with patriotism or 9/11 -- which have become virtually interchangeable. Wright's unforgivable sin was that he violated our rigid code of national etiquette.

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Bruce Perens is running for the board of the Open Source Initiative. OSI is one of the principal guardians of software and information freedom. Its board is tilted towards companies that profit from open source products they control. Bruce will balance that tilt by representing us. He did a damn good job as leader of the Debian organization.

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This article was first published March 5, 2008 at TowardFreedom.com
http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1248/1/

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2008 Presidential Prospects for Progressives: Nader, the Greens, and Building a Progressive Movement

By Karl Hardy

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Forget ideology. Forget the personalities of individual politicians. I think I could write a whole book arguing for the Green Party simply based on all the important issues that get short shrift simply because the damned Democrats and Republicans don't talk about them. And according to the two-party totalitarian culture of the United States, if "liberal" Democrats and "conservative" Republicans don't talk about a problem, then it's not a problem.

Jeffrey Henig has an interesting op-ed in the Boston Globe on why education is a missing issue in this year's political campaign. "Liberal" Democrats are now divided on the question of charter schools and "Conservative" Republicans are now divided on Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. And so, the gutless politician's are doing what gutless Demopublicans always do -- playing it safe.

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Every newspaper article about Ralph Nader since 2000 mentions the imaginary Spoiler Effect, at least in passing. "Everybody knows" Nader caused the Bush administration. Of course it's a lie, but the argument is hard to make simple. I'm trying to squish it down to bumper sticker size. Here's a comment for the SF Chronic.

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Ralph Nader announced that Matt Gonzalez is his running mate in 2008. The announcement is at VoteNader.org

The announcement makes absolutely no mention of the Green Party.

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In a New York Times Op-Ed published today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared that he is not a candidate for president.

Good!

Now Greens won't have to worry about this billionaire trying to buy the election as a phony "independent." Bloomberg goes on and on about how "as a businessman, I never believed that either party had all the answers," how "the message of an independent approach has resonated," the need "for a new urban agenda," and how "more of the same won't do." However, he has not one kind word about any actually independent individuals or organizations and his rap is nothing but a blend of Democratic and Republican Establishment clichés.

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Ralph Nader entered the 2008 presidential campaign this week asking tough questions that none of the major party candidates have taken up. No wonder they denounce him as a spoiler. Nader, McKinney and the other third party candidates do spoil the insider game that seeks to limit American voters to the two choices of the two corporate parties. All voters benefit from their efforts.

Nader’s independent campaign helps all third parties and third party presidential candidates. His campaign particularly helps the Green Party and the campaign of Cynthia McKinney.

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We would all like to accentuate the positive, especially when you consider our presidential candidates. It would appear that we will end up with either Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney running.

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I'm curious to know what potential GP candidates for Congress, Senate, State Assembly, etc. think about the top of the ticket. With whom would they/you rather run? Are you a Nader person who would be torn as to what to do if he runs as a full independent?

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UPDATE -- LOS ANGELES TIMES EDITORIAL:
"...Does He Deserve to Be Heard? Yes"

On Meet the Press this morning, Ralph Nader declared his candidacy.

If Mr. Nader is the nominee of the Green Party, I intend to support him 100% regardless of the slogans and hacks packaged, advertised, and sold in million-dollar TV ads by the "One-Corporate-Party-With-Two-Names."

Alex Walker
Los Angeles Greens

Ralph Nader On Meet the Press

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Kent Mesplay asked for policy advice about the current "star wars" weapons proposal.

"Missile shields" are an economic, technological, and foreign policy disaster.

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