GPUS RacistElectoralReformPlatformPlank

This video is posted in response to requests to provide context for my
comments on the Saturday Morning Program addressing the adoption of the
Green Party platform for 2016, August 6th, at the Green Party National
Presidential Convention, Green 2016, Houston, Texas August 4-7, 2016 in
regards to the Platform Approval of an Electoral Reform plank grounded in a
redemption era legacy to restore white supremacy in the former Confederate
States.

Re:
Green Solutions

1. Electoral reform for a better democracy.
f. Abolish the Electoral College and provide for the direct national
election of the president by Instant Runoff Voting. As a step in that
direction, support National Popular Vote legislation which would guarantee
the Presidency to the Presidential candidate who receives the most popular
votes in all 50 states (and the District of Columbia), which would take
effect only when enacted, in identical form, by states possessing a
majority of the electoral votes -- that is, enough electoral votes to elect
a President(270 of 538).

This platform plank is grounded in neo-redemptionist Supreme Court
decisions in 1892 & 1875 that overturned reconstruction by gutting the
Voting Rights of the formally enslaved pursuant to the Second Section of
the Fourteenth Amendment and reestablished white supremacy throughout the
former rebellious confederate states.

The following corrective electoral reform that honors the Voting Rights
legacy of the United States Colored Troops received a majority of the votes
but was essentially vetoed by the overwhelming disparate votes by the
Greens of California who sponsored the offending platform that dishonors
the legacy of the Reconstruction era White Abolitionists and Civil War
veterans of African descent.

{Rejected} platform amendment with majority support.

f. Abolish the Electoral College and provide for the direct national
election of the president by Instant Runoff Voting. In the interim support
The Malapportionment Penalty MAP initiative to Democratize the Electoral
College by enforcement of "the right to vote" Reconstruction amendment
(Amend. XIV§2 ) that mandates a state's proportional allocation of
presidential electors based on the popular vote split or suffer a
"Reduction of Representation" in the electoral college / members to
congress subject to (2USC§6).

Thanks to all for expressing interest in my concern with the GPUS National
Popular Vote (NPV) Electoral reform platform plank grounded on a
neo-redemptionist Supreme Court ruling that "gutted" the reconstruction
amendment that secured the franchise for the former enslaved of African
descent, and in the restoration of the Malapportionment Penalty (MAP)
alternative reform plank.

Ref.Document's_link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8ofqa7p521f8fv/map-greenpagesnation_merged.pdf?
dl=0
PowerPointLink:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fdho3jpiv0yllag/gpus-
racistplatormplank-video.pptx?dl=0

Historical Contextual WEB site:
THE HISTORICAL LEGACY

The Malapportionment Penalty MAP initiative is to "Democratize the
Electoral College" by enforcement of "the right to vote" Reconstruction
amendment (Amend. XIV§2 ) that mandates a state's proportional allocation
of presidential electors based on the popular vote split or for the state
to suffer a "Reduction of Representation" in the electoral college /
members to congress pursuant to (2USC§6) .
http://asagordon.byethost10.com/MAP_HISTORICAL_PERSPECTIVE.html

The Constitution's Voting Rights Apportionment Formula
The Constitution's malapportionment penalty clause establishes a de jure
apportionment formula that mandates proportional representational redress
for de facto partisan abridgment of voting rights.
http://asagordon.byethost10.com/MAP-formula.pdf

Regards,
Asa Gordon, Chair DC Statehood Green Party Electoral College Task Force
http://asagordon.byethost10.com/ASA.htm

MAP initiative to be honored and featured at National Conference for Civil Rights

"At long last, after a decade and a half of advocacy by Asa Gordon and a majority of the Green Party to enforce "the right to vote" Mal-Apportionment Penalty (MAP) clause in Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (Amend. XIV§2), a clause that mandates proportional allocation of elected representatives based on the popular vote split, or for a state to suffer a "Reduction of Representation" pursuant to title 2 section 6 of the United States Code (2USC§6) for any abridgment of citizen voting rights , the MAP initiative (voting rights "Roots") will be honored and featured in a National Conference for Civil Rights activists.

I am honored to serve as a keynote speaker, to be granted two workshops and invited as a singular conference presenter at the 6th National Civil Rights Conference to present the full scope of the historical and contemporary context for the modern  application of the MAP initiative for voting rights..." 

 I would like to take this opportunity for a personal shout out to those whose support of my efforts in regards to the MAP initiative over the last decade and a half are inestimable: The Late Lawrence Jamison, esquire, Gary Michael Coutin, esquire, Garrine P. Laney, Scott Mclarty, Alexis Scott, Herb & Lenora Foerstel, Netfa Freeman, Diane F. White, Kimberly Wilder, C.R. Gibbs, Lawrence Jackson, Frank Hanrahan, Frank Gordon, Pat LaMarche, Cynthia McKinney, Jabari, Hugh Esco, Morgan Moss, Rick & Michele, John Antrony La Pieta, Herb Gonzales, Jr., George Martin, Paul Pumphrey, David Schwartzman, Dr. Keith D. Parker, Dr. Frank Smith, Brent McMillan, Perry Redd, William Powell Jones, Richard Kreiter, AH American History TV C-Span 3, Carol Gordon."

 - Asa Gordon

6^th National Civil Rights Conference

Meridian/Philadelphia, Mississippi

June 19 – 22, 2016

Conference Theme

Rise, Advocate, Educate and Cooperate:

Honoring the Past and Embracing the Future

The National Education and Empowerment Coalition, Inc., the Cities of Philadelphia and Meridian (Mississippi), and the 2016 National Civil Rights Conference Planning Committee cordially invite you to attend the Sixth Annual National Civil Rights Conference.  This exciting and informative conference will be held in Meridian, Mississippi and promises to generate considerable intellectual dialogue and debate, as well as create opportunities to strengthen existing networks and forge new opportunities for professional development and personal growth - see  conference agenda highlights at the following web site http://civilrightsconference.com/ (click on the information tab in upper right corner).

The National Civil Rights Conference will coincide with [1] the Annual Mississippi Civil Rights Memorial Services, an annual event remembering and honoring the three slain civil rights workers (James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner) and other Mississippi civil rights movement participants; [2] memorial activities on the grounds of the Historic Mt. Zion United Methodist Church - see attachment # 1; and [3] the Civil Rights and Social Justice Awards presentation - see attachment #2.

The planning committee is very please to share attachment #3 with you,  the keynote speakers and panel discussions.  Please share the attached information with family and friends.

Conference registration information and materials are posted on the above web site.  Contact the planning committee chair (kdparker@civilrightsconference.com) or visit the conference web site for additional conference information.

Sincerely,

Keith D. Parker, Chair

2016 National Civil Rights Conference Planning Committee

Eugene Puryear for D.C. Council At Large

Eugene Puryear for D.C. Council At Large

DC Statehood Green Party
 

We need your support all year!

Remember to vote:

✓ April 1: in the D.C. Statehood Green Party Primary

✓ November 4: in the General Election

Anita Rios, Champions the Green Party in Toledo, Ohio

GPBC Journal: Green Party calls for an end to the “bipartisan economic war” on Blacks and Latinos/as, who suffer the brunt of the subprime crisis and economic meltdown � - Green Party News

OntheWilderSide - 3rd Mar 2010

Blacks and Latinos were primary targets for Lending corporations offering high-interest subprime loans, and were thus disproportionately hit by the subprime Mortgage crisis. Blacks were especially vulnerable to such loans because they were denied the equity that whites have long enjoyed, a result of Federal Housing Administration redlining and racial Discrimination in the granting of housing loans and Mortgages during the mid 20th century.

Green Party Black Caucus (GPBC) Protest Odious Redemptionist-era rulings being invoked by the Department of Justice

The BLACK CAUCUS OF THE GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES (GPBC) in a letter of protest to Attorney General, Eric Holder registered their strong objection that in this case of controversy an Assistant United States Attorney in the Department of Justice in argument before the Appellate Court has invoked odious Redemptionist-era rulings of the Supreme Court that reestablished white supremacy and overturned Reconstruction. A position that denigrates the memory of that provision of the constitution that gave full expression to the founding principle of our nation for which that "band of brothers" of European and African descent "gave the last full measure of devotion" in the United States Civil War.

Asa Gordon's  Oral Argument on Democratizing the Electoral College, a major voting rights civil action  endorsed by the Green Party Black Caucus in 2004, has been scheduled for oral argument in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (No. 09-5142) on Thursday, January 14, 2010.

The civil action, Gordon v. Biden (formerly Gordon v. Cheney), addresses the mal-apportionment of Electoral College votes, voter dilution by race and/or party affiliation with the popular vote misrepresented by the winner-take-all system of allocating electoral votes. The civil action seeks relief against the Vice President who presides over the tabulation of "unbound Southern electoral states" who by practice, unsupported by state or federal statute, traditionally award Presidential Electors on a "winner-take-all basis" in violation of the mal-apportionment penalty clause pursuant to Amend. XIV§2 as implemented by 2U.S.C.§6. All Court Documents, links, Green Party of the United States Press Releases and other materials related to the action are available online at http://www.electors.us.

"This is an unconscionable position to be taken by the Department of Justice under the leadership of an Attorney General of the United States of African descent serving in the Administration of the first President of the United States of African descent", say Black Caucus officials in their letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

Gordon filed the Democratizing the Electoral College Civil Action on July 28th, 2008, to commemorate the Century and Two Score years anniversary of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

RWANDA: New Green party cries fowl over possible sabotage

By RNA Reporter

Thursday, 01 October 2009

Kigali: Officials of the newly formed Democratic Green Party of Rwanda were in disbelief Thursday evening after government officials informed them they will not be available Friday to notify some of their registration documents, RNA can reveal.

Interim party leader Frank Habineza told RNA the development means the delegates conference scheduled Friday may not take place because that is when the signatures of the 1000-plus delegates expected in Kigali were to be verified.

"The 'Notaire' rang me at 5pm informing me that he will not be available because he has not been granted permission to verify our signatures by the minister of Justice," said a visibly angry Habineza.

"When I called the minister of Justice, he told me the Notaire does not need his permission to conduct such a function. Now I dont know who to believe and what to do."

According to Mr. Habineza, he has already postponned the delegates conference for "three times", with every of the previous timetables, the Notaire claiming he is not in position to notify the party's nomination signatures. However, Mr. Habineza declined to name the Notaire in question, but the minister is Tharcisse Karugarama.

"We have made alot of losses financially because for example we called the delegates and diplomats last Sunday for the same function but we had to cancel it because there was no one to verify our documents," he said.

The new political party law requires that a government Notaire is present to verify all the signatures of those nominating a given party for registration before they are submitted to the Ministry of Local. The party needs at least 600 �verifiable signatures� from across the country to be able to register.

RNA was not able to get official response by press time.

Interim president Mr. Frank Habineza said last month that the party will �call for a delegates Congress in September, after which we shall deposit our dossier to [the Ministry of Local Government]. �Right now, we are recruiting members from all districts of Rwanda.�

Last Updated ( Friday, 02 October 2009 )

_______________________________________________

MD: Invent, Invest and Include

Morning Sunday Hettleman
Monumental Green Party

Green Party Black Caucus
hettlemansunday@gmail.com

410 946 9958

Labor Day was designed to honor labor and celebrate by relaxing, but some people were very busy. President Barack Obama , accepted the resignation ( he was fired) of Anthony Van Jones a special adviser for Green jobs at the White House Council for Environmental Quality.

Invent , Invest Include, that was Anthony Van Jones, mantra. Invent new ways of doing things, Invest in it and Include those underprivileged African-Americans and other disadvantaged communities that have been shut out of the job market.

Its been accepted practice, that Government big money contracts are awarded based on cronyism. The administrators of the programs get paid top dollar, the workers get minimum wage, little if any training , and a certificate on recycled paper at the end of the program. Van signaled his intention of insuring that would not happen. That Negro had to go.

You don’t believe me ? Look around at some urban neighborhoods and see if there are traces of the billions of dollars that have poured in and then right back up the expressway. No, Van Jones had to go.

Mr. Jones was in charge of 80 Billion dollars, the creation of 6.8 million jobs according to the Council for Economic Advisors, he had signaled his intention of making sure that money was spent on training and jobs for under privileged people, teaching them to retrofit buildings all across America with solar panels, insulation and other weatherizing materials. Is he gone yet ?

Van Jones resignation, was a big loss to the White House, President Obama, had personally picked him. It is a much bigger lost to the hopes of under/unemployed people. Feel sorry for those people.

Don’t feel sorry for Mr. Anthony Van Jones, he is a made-man in the Democrat Party. The lost of his job, wont get him evicted either, he , his wife and daughter will not be at the local shelter for lunch. He isn’t hurting for money, his salary with the Ella Baker Ctr in 2005 was $60K; over $82K in 2007, jumping to more to than $100,000 as the Environmental Czar and add sales of his book "The Green Collar Economy," number 12 to be exact on the New York Times best sellers list in the book's first week.

Yes, Mr. Jones will be just fine.I know there are some good white folk out there who will help Mr. Jones land on his feet.

Van Jones said things in a group of Black people, things Black people talk about amongst ourselves, things he thought he was saying in a safe ( read Black) environment.

He said " Black kids dont do Columbine type killings. " He’s right, so far, when our kids murder, its personal, the numbers are in the single digits.

Yet another time he said " President Bush was a crack head" While , President Bush was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession and Bush has essentially admitted that he used cocaine. Van had his terms wrong, Blacks do crack, White people cocaine and for that Van should apologize.

We haven’t seen the last of Mr. Jones. But you can wave bye bye to 80 billion dollars of hope, creation of jobs. The trickle down theory will be trotted out once again.

Van in his own words.

"If the road to social transformation can be paved only by saints who never make mistakes, the road will NEVER be built." -Van Jones

MN: Jeanine Estime, Green Party candidate for Minneapolis City Council

A 15-year resident of South Minneapolis on the Green Party’s 5th Congressional District steering committee Jeanine Estimé, is seeking to unseat Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsed incumbent, Elizabeth Glidden.

"Our voice — my opinion — will be for the community,” she said during a brief campaign announcement at the Central neighborhood-based Sabathani Community Center.

Estimé said her main campaign issues will be education, health care, civil rights and dealing with the foreclosure crisis, which has hit the 8th Ward hard, adding that she wouldn’t be satisfied until foreclosures are “completely stopped.”

Estimé is an active volunteer for the Boys and Girls Club, Clean Water Action and Powderhorn Youth Farm. She is an immigrant from Haiti who now has U.S. citizenship, a background she said gave her extra motivation to run.

“I think that my citizenship means to do something, to be the voice for people that cannot speak,” she said.

A graduate of Roosevelt High School, Jeanine Estimé has lived in South Minneapolis for over 15 years. She is a single parent, who worked her way through school to receive a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Metropolitan State University. Jeanine Estimé is currently employed as an Education Assistant at her daughter's school.

Please help Jeanine win by donating to her campaign today!

NY: Open Letter to Greens across the country from Robert Gumbs

Greens,

In line with the issue of the racial problems that the New york Green Party suffers from there is another dimension that needs to be looked at. Whenever, i have brought suggestions for this party to implement here in new york, it's routinely ignored. However, - Karen Young - with the help of a few other people seem to think that they have the right to completely make the New York party into their own image. They hold meetings when they want, they invite who they want to those meetings and everybody stands for it. I try to make a point in a meeting and I am castigated as an arrogant black male, slightly obtuse and definitely unwelcome.

The fact that white men in the New York Green Party asked me to leave the party because of my opinion on certain issues really astounds me. For this to happen in the supposedly democratic Green Party is a tragedy. However, i have had to face up to lynch mobs, made up of my white American comrades in arms in Germany, so this incident will not hold me down one bit. I believe in fighting back.

We have a campaign for Mayor of New York, where the Green candidate has not stated what his Urban Policy is. We have had over 50 black men gunned down in New York over the last 23 months or so, the Green Party in New York has no comment about this, has no plan to say anything about this and the Green Party Candidate for Mayor has made no comment as to what he would do about this.

6 young black men were almost lynched and forced to rot in jail for a crime they didn't commit, the rape of a white woman in central park. There are politicians who are trying to have an investigation as to why this travesty happened. What does the Green Party's Mayoral candidate have to say about this?

Why should urban residents in inner city New York follow a candidate that has not outlined a coherent urban policy?

This is the state of affairs that I believe Greens across the country will say is deplorable. Am I arrogant because as the only black man active in the New York party for the last 5 years i choose to question this state of affairs?

Newcomers have come to New York, with their own agenda, and they think they can twist the party to their tune. Fine - but if you are not going to deal with the issues that concern Black Americans that live in this city, then what the hell good are you for this party?

Does any party that refuses to deal with the just needs of Black Americans deserve to be elected to any public office?

This is why there should be a Black person on this so-called NYC Green Committee. If Ms. Young had taken the time to ask what my objection to their new procedure was, I would have gladly discussed it with her. However, in New York the voice of people of color are ignored in the New York Green Party - unless of course they are a celebrity.

I love Cynthia and Rosa for what they stand for, not as a means to an end.

For those of you that are upset for my opinions - tough, i didn't join this party to be a stooge or yes man. I have a very low tolerance for hypocrisy and when I see it - i point it out. This is a party for Black Men, just as much for anyone else. And I promise by almighty God to fight racism and elitism wherever i see it in this party. Because if we are to guide and criticize the other political parties - we have to make sure that we as Greens are correct.

I would also like to thank the support i have received from fellow Greens not only here in New York, but members from the Green Party Black Caucus and Green party members from other parts of the country.

Livestream - GPUS National Meeting

Over the weekend there will be speeches, workshops, and forums:

On Saturday afternoon at 3:00 pm, Cynthia McKinney will speak about her recent efforts, with the Free Gaza Movement and Viva Palestina, to bring medical and other supplies to Gaza in the wake of Israel's brutal invasion.

Ms. McKinney and other Free Gaza human rights activists were aboard the Spirit of Humanity when it was seized by Israeli gunboats.

The 'Free Gaza 21,' including Ms. McKinney, were held in a prison in Ramla, Israel, until their release last week http://gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=234;

The Green Party will present a public forum on the need for a single-Payer health care funding system on Friday, July 24 from 3:30-4:30 pm

http://gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=236;

Green candidates and officeholders will be speaking, like former Green Party presidential candidate Jesse Johnson, who will be presenting a film "Coal Country" addressing the horrors of mountaintop removal in coal mining.

Go to http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus, and stay tuned in all weekend!

More at gp.org, http://www.ncgreenparty.org/2009-ANM.html,
& http://gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=234

Workshops detailed @ http://www.ncgreenparty.org/2009-ANM WORKSHOPS.html

Contribute to Malik Rahim for Congress Today!

Malik Rahim for Congress

Contribute Online using Paypal

Send your donation today. Individuals may contribute up to $2300. To contribute by mail print the donor form or you may donate online here...

Three years since Katrina and the government continues to fail us. Malik Rahim has spoken out with courage, asked the difficult questions, and built viable community alternatives. He is a strong organizer that acted while the politicians waited. Now he wants to take his courage to Congress. Malik is on the ballot for US Congress in Louisiana's 2nd District.

The Louisiana Secretary of State changed the elections calendar after Hurricane Gustav, so the general election where you can vote for Malik is on December 6, not November 4.

Malik's Platform

• Hurricane Recovery & Flood Protection:

• Rebuild a Sustainable Economy:

• Quality Public Education:

• Healthcare for All:

• Comprehensive and Sustainable Energy Policy:

• Reform of the Criminal Justice System:
  
  
• Alternative sentencing for non-violent offenders.
  
  
• Troops out of Iraq:
  
  
• Affordable Housing
  
  
• Call for a full investigation now on the awarding of contracts for the demolition of public housing developments in New Orleans and their reconstruction

Website:	http://www.votemalik.com
Office:	Committee to Elect Malik Rahim
Location:	331 Atlantic Avenue

Statement by Cynthia McKinney, Power to the People Candidate for U.S. President, on the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's President

(statement issued June 9, 2008)

On Saturday, June 7, 2008, Hillary Clinton announced that her 2008 presidential bid is over, making Barack Obama the first-ever Black presidential nominee of a major party in the history of the United States.

Congratulations to Senator Obama for achieving such a feat!

When I was growing up in the U.S. South in the racially turbulent 1960s, it would have been impossible for a Black politician to become a viable Presidential contender. Nothing a Black candidate could have done or said would have prevented him (or her) from being excluded on the basis of skin color alone. Many of us never thought we would see in our lifetime a Black person with a real possibility of becoming President of the United States.

The fact that this is now possible is a sign of some racial progress in this country, more than 40 years after the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. But it is also a sign of the deep discontent among the American people, and particularly among African Americans, with the corporate-dominated, business-as-usual politics that has prevailed in Washington for too many years.

Coming from Barack Obama, the word "change" did not appear as just another empty campaign slogan. It galvanized millions of people --mostly young people--to register to vote and to get active in the political system. The U.S. political system needs the energy and vision of all is citizens participating in the political process. Citizen participation is always the answer.

Senator Obama called for healing the wounds inflicted on working people and the poor in our country after eights years of a corrupt and criminal Bush-Cheney Administration. Just as in November 2006, people full of an expectation for change, including those the system has purposefully left out and left behind, flocked to the polls to vote for Senator Obama. Across a broad swath of the people of this country, and from those who are impacted by U.S. foreign policy, there is a real expectation, a real desire, for change.

While congratulating Senator Obama for a feat well done, I would also like to bring home the very real need for change and a few of the issues that must be addressed for the change needed in this country to be real. First of all, a few of the more obvious facts:

United for a Fair Economy (UFE) produces studies each year on the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. entitled, State of the Dream reports. UFE has found that on some indices the racial disparities that exist today are worse than at the time of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For example, infant mortality, where the overall U.S. world ranking falls below Cuba, Israel, and Canada. They also have found that, without a public policy intervention, it would take over 5,000 years to close the home ownership gap between blacks and whites in this country, especially exacerbated because of the foreclosure crisis disproportionately facing Blacks and Latinos today. They have found that it would take 581 years, without a public policy intervention, to close the racial gap in income in this country. UFE has found unacceptable racial disparities extant on economic, justice, and security issues. After analyzing the impact of the Democratic Party's "First 100 Hours" agenda upon taking the Congressional majority, UFE concluded in its 2007 report that Blacks vote in the Blue (meaning, they support Democrats in the voting booth), but live in the Red (they do not get the public policy results that those votes merit). And UFE noted that Hurricane Katrina was not even mentioned at all in the Congressional Democratic majority's 2007 First 100 hours agenda.

United for a Fair Economy is not the only organization to find such dismal statistics, reflecting life for far too many in this country. In a study not too long ago, Dr. David Satcher found that over 83,000 blacks died unnecessarily, due to racial disparities in access to health care and because of the disparate treatment blacks receive after access. A Hull House study found that the racial disparity in the quality of life of black Chicagoans and white Chicagoans would take 200 years to be eliminated without a public policy intervention. The National Urban League in its annual "State of Black America" publication basically concludes that the United States has not done enough to close long-existing and unacceptable racial disparities. The United Nations Rapporteur for Special Forms of Racism, Mr. Doudou Diene of Senegal, just left this country in an unprecedented fact-finding mission to monitor human rights violations in the United States. Dr. Jared Ball submitted to Diene on my behalf, my statement after the Sean Bell police verdict. The United Nations has already cited its concern for the treatment of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors and the extrajudicial killings taking place across our country, that especially target Black and Latino males, and especially at the hands of law enforcement authorities.

I hope it is clear that the desire for change is so deeply felt because it is deeply needed. Politics, through public policy, can address all these issues and more in the favor of the people. We do not have to accept or tolerate such glaring disparities in our society. We do not have to accept or tolerate bloated Pentagon spending, unfair tax cuts, attacks on our civil liberties, and on workers' rights to unionize. We don't have to accept or tolerate our children dropping out of high school, college education unreachable because tuition is so high, or our country steeped in debt.

The 21st Century statistics for our country reflect a country that can still be characterized as Dr. King did so many years ago: the greatest purveyor of violence on the planet.

It doesn't have to be that way. And the people know it.

I have accepted as the platform of the Power to the People Campaign, the 10-Point Draft Manifesto of the Reconstruction Movement, a grouping of Black activists who came together in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to advocate for public policy initiatives that address the plight of Blacks and other oppressed peoples in this country.

Among its many specific public policy planks, the Draft Manifesto calls for:

* election integrity, if our vote is to mean anything at all, all political parties must defend the integrity of the votes cast by the American people, something neither of the major parties has done effectively in the past two Presidential elections;

* funding a massive infrastructure improvement program that is also a jobs program that greens our economy and puts people to work, and especially in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, Hurricane survivors, treated as internally displaced persons whose right to vote and right of return are protected, play a meaningful role in the rebuilding of their communities;

* recognizing affordable housing as a fundamental human right, and putting a halt to the senseless destruction of public housing in New Orleans;

* enacting Reparations for African Americans, so that the enduring racial disparities which reflect the U.S. government's failure to address the reality and the vestiges of slavery and unjust laws enacted can be ended and recognition of the plight of Black Farmers whose issues are still not being adequately addressed by USDA and court-appointed mediators despite a US government admission of guilt for systematic discrimination;

* acknowledging COINTELPRO and other government spying and destabilization programs from the 1960s to today and disclosing the role of the US government in the harassment and false imprisonment of political activists in this country, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, the San Francisco 8, Leonard Peltier, including restitution to victims of government abuse and their families for the suffering they have long endured;

* ending prisons for profit and the "war on drugs," which fuels the criminalization of Black and Latino youth at home and provides cover for U.S. military intervention in foreign countries, particularly to our south, which is used to put down all social protest movements in countries like Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and elsewhere;

* creating a universal access, single-payer, health care system and enacting a livable wage, equal pay for equal work, repealing the Bush tax cuts, and making corporations and the rich pay their fair share of taxes;

* establishing public funding for higher education--no student should graduate from college or university tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt;

* ensuring workers' rights by 1) repealing Taft-Hartley to stop the unjust firing of union organizers, ban scabbing, and enable workers to exercise their voices at work and 2) enacting laws for U.S. corporations that keep labor standards high at home and raise them abroad, which would require the repeal of NAFTA, CAFTA, the Caribbean FTA, and the U.S.-Peru FTA;

* justice for immigrant workers, including real immigration reform that provides amnesty for all undocumented immigrants;

* creating a Department of Peace that would put forward projects for peace all over the world, deploying our diplomats to help resolve conflicts through peaceful means and overseeing the orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from the more than 100 countries around the world where they are stationed, and an immediate end to all wars and occupations by U.S. forces, beginning in Iraq and Afghanistan, and slashing the budget for the Pentagon.

The Power to the People Campaign has visited 24 states and I believe there is already broad support across our country for these policy positions. The people deserve an open and honest debate on these issues and more. I encourage the Democratic Party and its new presumptive nominee, Senator Obama, to embrace these important suggestions for policy initiatives.

--

"And advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool."

PNAC, Rebuilding America's Defenses, p. 60

The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.

-- Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in our Time

A Discussion of Race Worth Having

Cynthia McKinney

March 18, 2008

Much has been made around the edges of this campaign about the issue of race. Sadly, nothing has been made of the public policy exigencies that arise because of the urgent racial disparities that continue to exist in our country. Just last week, the United Nations criticized the United States, again, for its failure to address the issues arising from the rights, particularly the right of return, of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors. Author Bill Quigley writes in "The Cleansing of New Orleans," that half of the working poor, elderly, and disabled of New Orleans have not been able to return. Two weeks ago, United Nations experts on housing and minority rights called for an immediate end of public housing demolitions in New Orleans. Now, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, ratified by the U.S. in 1994, further observes that the U.S. must do more to protect and support the African American community. In 2006, the United Nations Human Rights Commission "noted its concern that while African Americans constitute just 12% of the population, they represent 50% of homeless people, and the government is required to take 'adequate and adequately implemented' measures to remedy this human rights violation." In short, the United Nations has issued reports squarely calling for the United States to do more to eliminate racial discrimination—and this discrimination is a human rights violation.

I am deeply offended that in the middle of a Presidential campaign, remarks--be they from a pastor or a communications mogul, or a former Vice Presidential nominee--are the cause of a focus on race, and not the deep racial disparities that communities are forced to endure on a daily basis in this country.

Myriad reports and studies that have been done all come up with the same basic conclusion: in order to resolve deep and persisting racial disparities in this country, a public policy initiative is urgently needed. A real discussion of race, in the context of a Presidential election, ought to include a discussion of the various public policy initiatives offered by the various candidates to eliminate all forms and vestiges of racial discrimination, including the racial disparities that cloud the hopes, dreams, and futures of millions of Americans.

For example, every year on the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. United for a Fair Economy publishes a study of the true state of people of color in America called the "State of the Dream Report." And it was their 2004 report that noted that without public policy intervention, it would take 1,664 years to close the racial gap in home ownership in this country. And that on some indices, for example, infant mortality, the racial disparities were worse at the time of the report than at the time of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In their 2005 report, entitled, "Disowned," United for a Fair Economy explored the disparate impact of Bush's "Ownership Society" economic program that saw Black and Latino lives shattered as unemployment, income, home ownership, business ownership, and stock ownership plummeted even in the face of Administration economists trumpeting the phenomenal "growth" of the U.S. economy as a result of their policies.

In 2006, United for a Fair Economy focused on the devastating and embarrassing effect of government inaction before, during, and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. They focused on something as simple as car ownership and the relationship between vehicle ownership and race. In the case of New Orleans, car ownership literally meant the difference between losing or saving one's life.

In 2007, United for a Fair Economy explored the Black voters' attachment to the Democratic Party, and in a piece entitled, "Voting Blue, but Staying in the Red," they explored goals that the Democratic Party should have put at the top of its agenda for its first 100 hours in the majority. While noting that the Democrats didn't even mention Katrina in their agenda, United for a Fair Economy concluded that Blacks and Latinos voted in the November 2006 elections in the blue, but due to a failure of public policy that pays attention to their needs, they continue to live in the red.

In their 2008 report, United for a Fair Economy explores the sub-prime mortgage crisis and note that the largest loss of wealth in U.S. history is being experienced by the Black and Latino communities with an estimated $92 billion being lost by Blacks and an estimated $98 billion being lost by Latinos. And while families are losing their life savings and the only major investment that they own, policy makers are asking them to tighten their belts. But the predator banks' CEOs are walking away with record remuneration. And our policy makers are notable for their inaction: first on the predatory lending that disproportionately affects Blacks and Latinos, and then on offering relief so that homeowners remain homeowners, including in the midst of this crisis.

Sadly, United for a Fair Economy isn't the only research organization to find glaring and intolerable disparities in our society by race and no appropriate public policies enacted to address them. Hull House did a study that found that it would take 200 years to close the gap in the quality of life experienced by black Chicagoans and white Chicagoans. There has been no public policy initiative taken up by the mayor or the governor of Illinois to begin closing that gap.

Several years ago, the New York Times published a finding that nearly half the men between the ages of 16 and 64 in New York City were unemployed. There was no initiative by the mayor or the governor of New York to begin addressing such pain.

Every year, the National Urban League publishes a study, "The State of Black America," in which the ills and disparities that persist in this country are catalogued. Every year, the story is basically the same. The United States has a way to go that only public policy can address. However, when Harvard University/The Kaiser Family Foundation did a study on White attitudes about race several years ago, it found that Whites have little appreciation for the reality of Black life in America, from police harassment and intimidation, to imprisonment, to family income, unemployment, housing, and health care. But without an appreciation of the reality faced by many of our fellow Americans, the necessary public policy initiatives to change those realities will find difficulty gaining acceptance in the public discourse.

Additionally, compounding the problem, there is little public discourse because the corporate press refuse to cover the deep implications of the results of all these studies. I am convinced that if the American people knew the truth of the conditions, change would surely follow. I believe that to be the case because of the impact of the images of "Bloody Sunday" on the passage of the Voting Rights Act. I believe that to be the case because of the impact of the images of the Vietnam War on the turn of the tide of public opinion against that War.

This moment sheds light on a much-needed discussion: on race and the legacies of race and slavery and the continuing problems associated with our failure to treat racism as a curable American disease.

I am glad that candidate Obama mentioned the existing racial disparities in education, income, wealth, jobs, government services, imprisonment, and opportunity. Now it is time to address the public policies necessary to resolve these disparities. Now it is time to have the discussion on how we are going to come together and put policies in effect that will provide real hope and real opportunity to all in this country.

To narrow the gap between the ideals of our founding fathers and the realities faced by too many in our country today: That must be the role of public policy at this critical moment in our country today.

I welcome a real discussion of race in this country and a resolve to end the long-standing disparities that continue to spoil the greatness of our country. I welcome a real discussion of all the issues that face our country today and the real public policy options that exist to resolve them. That must be the measure of this campaign season. For many voters, this important discussion has been too vague or completely non-existent. Now is the time to talk about the concrete measures that will move our country forward: on race, war, climate change, the economy, health care, and education. Our votes and our political engagement must be about ensuring that fairness truly for all is embodied in "liberty and justice for all."

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Cynthia McKinney is a Green Party of the United States 2008 Presidential Nominee.
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"And advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool."

PNAC, Rebuilding America's Defenses, p. 60

"The less you know, the more you believe." Bono

"Certain material weaknesses in financial reporting and other limitations on the scope of our work resulted in conditions that, for the 10th consecutive year, prevented us from expressing an opinion on the federal government's consolidated financial statements." David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, December 15, 2006

Hope and Leadership in Elaine Brown Presidential Campaign Causes Surge in New Young Activists Registering Green

Elaine Brown

by Henry Duke henryduke2004@yahoo.com

Be positive, read a book, register a new green, change a diaper, and ask Cynthia McKinney to join a Green Party Presidential Debate before the California deadline to register voters on Martin Luther King Day, January 21, 2008.

Cause word on the streets of Watts, Watsonville, Santa Ana, Oakland/Berkeley is that despite the cages, or the acts of the grinches, the birds are singing, and singing, and singing...

With hardly any money at all, a new generation of youth -- alienated by war, incarceration, violence, and all the sequelae of anarchistic, valueless privatization and free trade -- have found in the senior 60's Black and Peace movement spokesperson, not defeated by the US War and Terror machine, not duped by the shock doctrine, not dead from disaster capitalism, no not this Woman of Our Time, but rather sharpened like a sickle, and made flexible not hard by the hammer of corporate big money and COINTELPRO, HER canary song announcing that we CAN win, and that human needs and the crisis of human suffering WILL trump private profits, if we stand up.

This wise voice which has endured beatings, continual harassment and threats, and a willful refusal by the mainstream media and even our party to allow her to have the same platform built for others, is inspiring a most electrifying and empowering movement of disenchanted non-voters to take charge of their lives and to register green and become delegates for Elaine

Brown.

We don't have the money of the democrats, and we're not asking for the money funding the other candidates.

We are just registering voters and inspiring them to see their power.

To the GPUS both within California and in the Central GPUS entities, we only ask you to ask Cynthia McKinney to present herself for a debate with the other major candidates for the Green Party nomination before the deadline to register to vote in California January 21st MLK day, especially with the leader who leads with no money but with her heart, spirit, and un-silenced voice, Elaine "Green Party" Brown!!!!!

Thanks to all the people running and inspiring,

Elaine Brown's book, A Taste of Power, about her earlier life as she became the top leader and only-ever Womyn Chair of the Black Panther Party, can be purchased in soft cover or borrowed from me, if 'ya can't find it in your local B and N.

http://www.freespeech.org/videodb/index.php?action=detail&video_id=10741&browse=0

Keynote: Elaine Brown

Former Black Panther Party leader, noted author, community and prison justice activist Elaine addresses students at Regis University as a part of women’s history month. Ms. Brown has recently announced that she intends to seek the Green Party's nomination for a presidential bid in 2008.

Series: Keynote
Episode: Keynote: Elaine Brown

Viewing options
Play RealMedia format (55m 33s; for broadband users)

Producer: Kevin Price (www.freespeech.org)

PS Join us! Off of the listserves and into the screen door porches and
streets!

10,000 Women; Lewis Harris Jr. & Alan Krigman Seek Change Over UCD Part 1

Pictured in the photo above: Lewis Harris Jr., former employee for the Office of Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell and Alan Krigman, West Philadelphia businessman. Krigman is in a battle for poor black and white neighbors. Krigman feels that neighbors whose lives are invested in West Philadelphia believe that neighborhood safety and improvement initiatives should originate at a grass roots level by those most directly impacted, and should be moved forward by leaders who are members of the community and share its collective vision. Krigman and Harris Jr. are against some of the so-called community associations who really represent just a few very atypical residents.

10,000 Women; Lewis Harris Jr. & Alan Krigman Seek Change Over UCD Part 1
by Van Stone vspfoundation@yahoo.com (215) 747-8746

This past Sunday in Philadelphia marked the beginning of the number 10,000 being used by a positive community for the meaning of men ending crime and unclean environments in the city. Taking the lead for the men is the Islamic leadership. The number 10 or any number leading off by the digit 10 in a spiritual sense means earthly completeness. So, black men can completely make a city safe and clean regardless if individuals disagree. What may soon follow this call for 10 is a call for 10,000 women. Having local 10,000 women using leadership roles will project that men will be able to aid abused women and children from abusive men in Philadelphia. And these loving women will help to identify abusive women that abuse the court system going on to wrongfully incarcerate positive black men. Taking the lead for the women should be the Christian leadership.

In other news concerning safe and clean environment: In West Philadelphia Alan Krigman, a businessman living in the section of University City, has taken the battle to make good change for poor folks to heart. First, Krigman has written about the company University City District (UCD) and its work to eliminate property from the poor. Second and most recently, Alan has meet with Lewis Harris Jr., likely winner of the 3rd Voting Commissioner seat come November 6, 2007 over incumbent Joe Duda, to discuss getting help to dismantle UCD so that the poor can keep themselves from becoming homeless in University City. Lewis Harris Jr., a former employee of the Office of Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell, is one of the originators of successful proposals that helped both the poor and the homeless in Blackwell’s district. Alan uses a poetic format to explain it.

“Make believe you head-up a civic organization of some kind,” says Krigman. “Being a right-minded person, your goal is to use your resources – your time and that of the others in the group, any influence you may have with the powers-that-be, and whatever money you can find – to improve the quality of life in the area. While we’re playing “let’s pretend,” say that you’ve found a combination of public and private sources of funds willing to donate $855,000 to support a big project – one that will really make a difference,” says Krigman. Krigman is concerned that UCD projects hurt the poor.

“What would that project be? Some kind of educational program, perhaps to keep kids in school or to teach useful skills to adolescents who’d already dropped out and were heading nowhere but toward trouble? How about jobs in the neighborhood that would not only serve useful purposes but also provide sources of income while giving people a sense of accomplishment and experience that will help them build a work ethic? Maybe setting up a day care center to bring seniors who have time on their hands and love in their hearts together with youngsters who need supervision, decent meals, and a safe place to play – while their adult family members are earning a living,” says Krigman.

“You can probably think of a lot of other worthwhile ideas. I’ll bet, however, that installing new sidewalk lighting in front of the stores on 52nd St, Baltimore Ave, or 46th & Spruce doesn’t come to mind. You’d have to be totally out of touch with reality, or to have an agenda you’d rather nobody knew about, to think this was the best way to use such a vast sum of money. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening. The University City District (UCD), which dances to the tune of the University of Pennsylvania, got $855,000 from the state’s Department of Transportation, the city’s Neighborhood Transformation Initiative, and the private William Penn Foundation for lights on Baltimore Avenue from 45th to 50th,” he says. A project with this kind of dollars really needs to be probed. Krigman wants to be sure it is a “bottom-up rather than top-down development” mission.

Lewis Harris Jr. is the Green Party candidate for City Commissioner in Philadelphia, PA.