Thursday, January 28, 2010
For Immediate Release:

Response to President Obama: The Green Party is the Clean Party

During his State of the Union address to the joint US Congress Wednesday night we couldn't help but notice how much emphasis President Barack Obama put on the importance "Green" policies could play in solving many problems America faces in building a better future for job creation and for America’s children. During what many deemed the speech of his life, Obama said, "We can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow, … There's no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains, or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products. … We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities, and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy efficient, which supports clean energy jobs, … You can see the results of last year's investment in clean energy - in the North Carolina company that will create 1,200 jobs nationwide helping to make advanced batteries, … or in the California business that will put 1,000 people to work making solar panels."
Bravo, Mr. President, but we here in the Green Party have proposed those ideas since our beginnings.

Jan 14, 2010

Green Party of Texas Announces Candidates for Public Office

The Green Party of Texas announces that 21 candidates have filed to run for nomination by the Green Party in 2010 for a variety of state, district and county offices.

Thomas Muhammad, Co-chair of GPTX, spoke on the quality of the candidates as a whole. "The Green Party of Texas is extremely excited about the wonderful slate of candidates who've put themselves up for our 2010 election cycle. We look forward to an aggressive campaign through the June convention. We will then work with our final slate to run hard as our party moves to break the dominating two-party system in our state. This is the type of work our party was created for, so we say to all Greens and to Texans one and all who love true democracy let the campaign season begin!"

The full slate of candidates and offices sought:

Bart Boyce      Governor
Deb Shafto      Governor
Herb Gonzales, Jr      Lieutenant Governor
Edward Lindsay      Comptroller of Public Accounts
Art Browning      Railroad Commissioner
Jim Howe      US Congress, District 11
Ed Scharf      US Congress, District 23
Phil Snyder, PhD      State Board of Education, District 4
Paul Cardwell      State Board of Education, District 9
J D Porter      State Board of Education, District 10
Ryan Seward      State Representative, District 94
Joel West      State Representative, District 144
Don Cook      County Clerk, Harris County
Roger Baker      County Clerk, Travis County
Earl Lyons      County Clerk, Bexar County
kat swift      County Commissioner, Pct 2, Bexar County
Chuck Robinson      Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1, Place 1, Bexar County
Joy Vidheecharoen-Glatz      Justice of the Peace, Pct 3, Dallas County
Jeffrey Dale Glatz      County Surveyor, Dallas County
Esther Choi      County Clerk, Dallas County

Green Party precinct conventions will kick off election events at 7 PM on March 9, 2010, across the state.

In order to obtain a ballot line in the November election, the number of participants at precinct conventions can be supplemented by petition signers requesting Green Party ballot status. Petitions will be circulated for a 75 day period starting on March 10, the day after the precinct conventions. The number signing or attending precinct conventions must total at least one percent of the total number of votes received by all candidates for governor in the most recent gubernatorial general election, around 44,000 voters.

"This is a TALL order, but we're Texans and we're up to the challenge!" is the enthusiastic endorsement of Co-chair Christine Morshedi.

Update:
George Reiter has withdrawn his application to run for US Congress in District 9, due to a conflict with serving on the national board of the Pacifica Foundation.

12-2-09 For Immediate Release:

“Green Party of Texas Disagrees with Obama War Escalations”

The Green Party of Texas totally disagrees with President Barack Obama’s decision to send 30, 000 more US troops to fight in Afghanistan. Like many in the US, the Green Party of Texas had high hopes that “change” had truly come to America. For the first time in the nation’s history, the White House houses a “person of color” whose ancestors historically were people who had been oppressed. Therefore, we expect more sympathy for other oppressed people in the world. With this decision it appears this president does not share those sympathies. And still there will be others in the country who would say, “Hold your tongues; our nation is at war with those who attacked us. Don’t forget 9-11!” Our very hearts go out to those innocents who lost their lives in that terrible attack, and we are in great sympathy with them and their loved ones. However, we also must not forget that no Afghans were among the nineteen suicide bombers who flew planes into the towers that fateful day; no matter how hard it’s tried, you can’t bomb people into peace! Yet we know from the past that this is precisely the time to challenge the government on decisions of an unjust war.

That champion of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., came to the very same decision decades ago and stands as a model for our position today.

King said, “Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.”

The Green Party of Texas reached this decision in this light and takes solace that we stand on the shoulders of such a giant thinker and awesome person of courage. To speak against one's government is not easy, especially when it is against one of such progressive historical importance, but as King said, “We must move on.” We call on other Texas organizations to join us in this call. “President Obama, this is the wrong decision. You must turn around and end this and all US wars, now!”

Green Party of Texas Co-Chairs: Thomas Muhammad and Christine Morshedi

For more contact e-mail txgreens@txgreens.org, or call (214) 460-7672 or toll-free (888) 94GPTEX (888-944-7839).