-- BEGIN included message
Title: ASGP News Circulator 2/5/01 pt 1 Association of State Green Parties (ASGP) News Circulator
- Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 16:05:29 -0500
- From: Greg Gerritt <gerritt@edgenet.net>
- Subject: ASGP-COO ASGP News Circulator 2/5/01 pt 1
Week Ending February 5, 2001
News Summary:
* The Bulletin: Nader Angers Former Allies With Plans to Target
Democrats;
* Marianne Means: More Whining Over Nader;
* Europe to Kill Calves to Fill Meat Deficiency Caused by BSE Crisis;
* Lancaster, PA Greens Fight Puppy Mills;
* New Zealand Greens: GM Bacteria Could Kill all Life on Earth;
* In the Twin Cities, Nader Doesn't Talk Like a Loser;
* Former Chief Minister of Vanuatu Launches Green Party;
* Phil Donahue Defends the Green Party and Nader;
* Iowa Green Party Attains Official Party Status;
* D.C. Democrats Gore Nader as Retaliation;
* Green Announces for Congress in Pennsylvania Special Election;
* Support for Icelandic Green Party Grows to Almost Thirty Percent;
* Green Party of Worcester, MA Turns to Local Issues.
Copyright 2001 Bulletin Broadfaxing Network, Inc.
The Bulletin's Frontrunner
February 5, 2001
LENGTH: 358 words
HEADLINE: Nader Angering Former Allies With Plans To Target Vulnerable
Democrats.
BODY:
The Hartford Courant (2/4, Halloran) reported Ken Cook, "president of
the Environmental Working
Group, and scores of national activists like him, are turning on the man
who once inspired them --
charging that" Ralph Nader, " in his zeal to build the Green Party, has
compromised not only the
causes he has long advocated, but his own reputation." League of
Conservation Voters president Deb
Callahan said, "There's a great deal of disappointment in him. I think
he's permanently damaged his
position." The Courant added environmentalists "say they are angry
because Nader refused to pull back
from his presidential run on the Green Party ticket when it appeared he
was siphoning support from
Democrat Al Gore in what would turn out to be an historically tight
race." Now, "particularly in light of
the confirmations of Gale Norton as Interior Secretary and John Ashcroft
as U.S. Attorney General,
they are furious at Nader's continuing claim that there is no difference
between Gore and Republican
President George W. Bush." They are now "worried that Green Party
candidates in the 2002 election
could put Democrats friendly to environmental issues in jeopardy." Cook
said, "I can't think of a group
that would sit down with him." The Courant added Nader, who "derisively
calls environmental groups
the 'crocodile birds of the Democratic Party,' says he is unconcerned
about the anger directed at him
and doesn't give a whit whether anyone asserts that he's tarnishing his
legacy." Nader said, "I'm not
interested in points here; I'm interested in big-picture reform. Do they
think I sit around looking at my
mementos?" The Courant added Callahan said, " We are concerned that
Ralph Nader and the Green
Party are targeting vulnerable Democrats -- those who have won their
seats by very narrow margins.
Ralph Nader has said, 'You've got to break some eggs to build a party.'"
The Courant added
Democrats "mentioned as facing possible Green challenges in 2002 include
Sen. Paul Wellstone of
Minnesota, and Reps. Rush Holt of New Jersey and Henry Waxman of
California -- all of whom
receive consistently high marks from environmental groups."
Copyright 2001 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
February 04, 2001, Sunday , FINAL
SECTION: EDITORIAL, Pg. D9
LENGTH: 776 words
HEADLINE: GOODBYE, RALPH
BYLINE: MARIANNE MEANS Syndicated columnistSyndicated columnist
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY: When Ralph Nader, last year's presidential spoiler, was
confronted with evidence that he has
become a political pariah to congressional Democratic officials, he
scoffed, "What are they going to say,
'We don't want your help'?"
Yes, Ralph, that's exactly what they are saying. Your kind of "help" is
poison. Democrats blame you for
siphoning enough votes from former Vice President Al Gore in Florida to
cost him the election, and they
don't want to have anything more to do with you. Ever.
The Democrats may be slow learners, but they've finally got it right.
Nader's blind ambition brought down with him not only Gore but the
romantic notion of a viable third
party, which may be just as well. Along with his philosophical opposite,
Pat Buchanan, whose miserable
0 percent showing destroyed the Reform Party, Nader squashed the naive
dream that mavericks make
better leaders than established politicians.
Nader's ego was so inflated that it took him a while to realize his
reckless, irresponsible Green Party
campaign would produce a mainstream backlash against him. At 67, he
still lives in the past, the good
old days when he basked in fame as the popular champion of consumer
rights and other good-guy
causes. As a political force, however, his time passed long ago.
Reality finally set in when the Senate Judiciary Committee refused his
request to testify at the hearings on
John Ashcroft's nomination to be U.S. attorney general. Why on earth did
Nader think he'd have
anything worthwhile to contribute? Who could possibly care?
His candidacy was based on the self-serving argument that it would make
no difference whether Gore
or George W. Bush were elected. This was insane. Nobody, for instance,
can imagine Gore picking as
the nation's chief law enforcement officer a man of Ashcroft's
anti-civil rights, antitrust, anti-abortion and
anti-gay record. Or picking Bush's first choice to head the Labor
Department, Linda Chavez, who
opposes the minimum wage and affirmative action.
Nader has been virtually invisible since he garnered only 3 percent of
the presidential vote nationwide
and failed to qualify for federal funds for another Green Party run in
2004. He has made a couple of
speeches that were widely ignored. The public rush to have a photo
opportunity with Ralph Nader is
over.
"There's some pretty foolish ostracism going on," he sniffed recently.
The real foolishness, however, was
his conceit - thinking that he is presidential material. It was his
second futile go-around with the Green
Party, a small organization centered in the West that champions
environmental issues. In his 1996
campaign, he got a whopping 1 percent of the total votes cast.
He recently attended an open conference of the moderate Democratic
Leadership Council that debated
election mistakes. He was not welcomed and sat off to one side in the
room. He interrupted the
discussion to blame the Democratic loss on Gore's failure to hammer hard
enough at what he called our
"corporate society," which Nader finds at the root of all America's
social ills. His audience, which had
heard this radical theme before, looked bored.
Some leftist Democrats say that Gore must take the full blame for
running a campaign that turned out to
be so close, but this does not make them look kindly on Nader. They know
perfectly well that Nader
made all the difference when it came right down to it.
Nader is desperately trying to rewrite history to clean up his own role,
claiming he did not intend to
defeat Gore. The claim ignores the crucial fact that in the three days
before the election he concentrated
his campaign on Florida, where he knew Gore needed every single liberal
vote he could scrape up.
Nader won roughly 97,000 votes in Florida. Gore lost the state's 25
electoral votes by only 537 ballots
when the counting was stopped. According to exit polls, without Nader,
Gore would have picked up
11,700 extra votes, more than enough for victory. (A smaller number
would have voted for Bush and
the rest would not gone to the polls at all.)
It is usually sad to see a fading public figure whose crusades have
stalled struggle painfully uphill. But
Nader deserves no sympathy from Democrats. By equating Gore and Bush, he
lied to his progressive
followers about the stunning shift toward conservative policies that
would take place under a Bush
presidency. Many of his followers are now ashamed to admit they voted
for him, but it is too late for a
political epiphany.
There is, however, plenty of time - at least four years - for them to
repent in leisure. And vow to think
more carefully about both the messages and the messengers next time.
NOTES:
Nader's ego was so inflated that it took him a while to realize his
reckless, irresponsible Green Party
campaign would produce a mainstream backlash against him. At 67, he
still lives in the good old days as
the popular champion of consumer rights.
February 4, 2001, Sunday
SECTION: WORLD NEWS; ECONOMIC
LENGTH: 187 words
HEADLINE: Europe to Kill Calves to Fill Market Vacancy Caused by BSE
DATELINE: BERLIN, February 4
BODY:
Amid disputes over ongoing mass killing of cows in European countries to
regain market confidence, the
EU Commission is considering to slaughter calves to fill market blank
caused by mad cow crisis, a
senior EU official said.
The calves should be slaughtered because of deficient beef supply in the
markets, the German
newspaper "Die Welt" Sunday cited EU Budget Commissioner Michaele
Scheyer, a Germany's Green
Party member, as saying.
EU agriculture policy has made a mistake in encouraging farmers to keep
their livestock fat and big
before killing them, Scheyer said. The policy should be totally reversed
when considering the market
situation and the cows should be slaughtered as early as possible, he
said.
To the people who consider killing young cows is immoral, the
commissioner said, "It has nothing to do
with ethics, but a matter of weight."
Europe has decided to kill two million cows to dispel misgivings over
the beef market.
Germany has reported 27th BSE case so far with the latest one occurring
on a 5-year-old cow in the
northern state of Schleswig- Holstein.
Copyright 2001 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.
INTELLIGENCER JOURNAL (LANCASTER, PA.)
February 2, 2001, Friday
SECTION: LOCAL, Pg. B-1
LENGTH: 425 words
HEADLINE: Greens will help fight puppy mills;
Party plans action at state Capitol
BYLINE: Carrie Caldwell
BODY:
The Lancaster chapter of the Pennsylvania Green Party will be taking an
active role in the campaign
against the county's "puppy mills."
Members of the organization decided Thursday to coordinate a protest,
complete with dogs, on the
steps of the state Capitol building in Harrisburg in the near future.
The decision was made after attorney Lee Wheeler made a presentation
about the campaign she
initiated against the county's "disreputable" commercial dog-breeding
kennels.
Wheeler has been seeking support from local and statewide organizations
for the "Prisoners of Greed"
campaign, which targets seven states, including Pennsylvania, that are
known for their puppy-mill
problems, Wheeler said.
Not all commercial dog-breeding kennels are puppy mills, but a majority
of the county's 254 are,
Wheeler said. Those are the kennels Wheeler's group, Hearts United for
Animals, and other
organizations hope to shut down.
Most recently, Wheeler posted a petition on the HUA Web site,
www.hua.org, which asks signers to
boycott Lancaster County until the puppy mills are shut down and the
government strictly enforces
existing animal-cruelty laws.
A long-term goal of the campaign is to see stricter animal-cruelty laws
passed, Wheeler said.
Anne Goeke, the Lancaster Greens coordinator, said Wheeler's campaign
fits into the Green Party's
values, one of which is respect for animals.
"Our group has the opportunity to speak out because nobody's controlling
us financially," Goeke said
after the party's monthly meeting. "We want to be a positive influence
on the county. And because we
are a mass-action group, we can spread the word."
One of the ways to get the message out is to hold a protest at the state
Capitol, which should be
attended by the party's supporters, Goeke said. The protest is
tentatively set for sometime this spring.
"We'd probably get literally thousands of people standing on the steps
of the capital building with their
dogs," Goeke said. "That would send a strong message to our
representatives. Hopefully, we'll be able
to help."
The party plans to support Wheeler at meetings with local and state
officials, including Lancaster County
commissioners, and to distribute information educating activists and
consumers about puppy mills.
At the state level, the Greens will propose that Green Party candidate
Alanna Hartzok include closing
puppy mills on her priority list. Hartzok is campaigning for state
representative in the ninth district in a
special election.
Copyright 2001 Wellington Newspapers Limited
The Evening Post (Wellington)
February 2, 2001
SECTION: NEWS; NATIONAL; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 315 words
HEADLINE: GM bacteria could kill all life - US expert
BYLINE: NAPP Bernie
BODY:
Genetically modified bacteria could destroy all life on Earth, the Green
Party told the Royal
Commission on Genetic Modification yesterday.
The Greens produced four expert witnesses who were connected by video
link. Soil ecologist Elaine
Ingham spoke on plant-killing GM bacteria that her Oregon State
University research team prevented
from being released into the environment.
Dr Ingham said the alcohol-producing bacteria had been approved for
field trials when her team
discovered its lethal effects. Widespread plant deaths would in turn
affect all life on our planet.
The GM
-- END included message