Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor

A couple of days ago, I reported on the call for impeachment,by a New York GPUS Delegate, of the steering committee members who voted for a new election to be held for the vacant SC position. Since then the party secretary has published how each member on the SC voted. Once that was published, the NY delegate who has called for impeachment has engaged in blackmailing behaviors, stating in emails published to the GPUS Delegate’s lists:

I now declare my complaint and action for removal to be directed specifically at Gwen, Marc, Jody, Jake, and Holly. Under the bylaws, none of them may take any part in the formation of the impeachment investigation.

At the same time, I remind all five of the named parties that if just two of them change their minds, the other three will also be off the hook as I will drop my initiative on this matter.

and

Feel free to reconvene the SC and have two of you reverse your position so that the SC may officially withdraw its effort to ram a special election down our throats against the NC’s will. When you do so, I will withdraw my proceedings. Until then, they continue.

Other delegates are beginning to weigh in to point out that this type of behavior is inappropriate and that they do not recognize this delegate’s call for impeachment and that he is engaging in behaviors in violation to the key values of the Green Party.

A simple solution for this is for a state to make a proposal that would halt the election and resolve the issue in a different way. Until then, the SC has moved forward according to the GPUS bylaws provision that states that when a vacancy occurs (regardless of the reasons), a special election is held.

Students, staff, children of staff and parents of students of the school in which I teach, City Academy, held a car wash yesterday (complete with water saving nozzles and biodegradable detergent!) to raise funds for Katrina victims. In 4 hours we raised $450.00. A company where one of our staff members’ husband works agreed to match any monies raised and then after the event doubled their matching funds. The total amount of money that will be donated is $1,350.00.

The kids all voted: My car was the dirtiest (yesssss!). Stands to reason since I had driven it to the east coast and back this summer.

After my kiddos became soaking wet (you can’t have a car wash without soaking each other!), they all wanted to give me hugs…….the only time I’ll see affection from them (I know they love me….they don’t have to hug me with sopping wet clothes to prove it….).

Anyway, we all had fun, bonded with each other a little more, and raised funds for a good cause.

Here are some photos:

Yesterday the GPUT received a letter from Michael Cragun, Director of Elections in Utah, acknowledging receipt of a letter our filing officer had sent him and confirming the conversation in the visit our filing officer paid him last week.

Mr. Cragun confirmed that the GPUT will need to submit a new ballot name for its petition when the petition drive is completed (deadline is February 15, 2006) along with the letter from the GPUT that the drive is complete. Until then, we are permitted to conduct the drive using the name Green Party of Utah. (The good news is that the GPUT can continue its drive without starting over.) This is due to the fact that the unaffiliated Beardall group completed its drive first with the name “Green Party of Utah”, and the Utah Election Code is interpreted by the Director of Elections to mean that anyone can conduct a petition drive with any name it chooses and, if it is not a registered party, it can gain ballot access by meeting the requirments of such a drive, as outlined in the election code. It does not matter what history, national recognition, or other legal status of the name and/or group associated with that name. The first group to finish “wins”, in the eyes of the Director of Elections.

The GPUT petition drive is nearly complete. Updates will be posted here on the name issue.

Ever since the convention in Tulsa and the discovery that the Steering Committee elections garnered an error in the tabulations of the results, the entire focus on the National Committee Listserv has been on rectifying that error. There have been proposals that have failed and the problem is still ongoing.

As a result of the failed proposals, the Steering Committee has called for another election, in accordance with the GPUS bylaws. This action has a few delegates upset and one NY delegate has called for Impeachment of the SC. This “impeachment” proposal has come from an individual who historically has initiated a lot of tension on the NC list.

I keep hearing reports of people saying that they won’t join the Greens because of all the “infighting”.
I honestly do not feel that there is “infighting” in the Green Party. What I do believe is that there is a movement spreading across the country attempting to destroy the Green Party. While most folks involved do their best to adhere to the bylaws, green values, and the real work of the party, there are a few individuals who insist on stalling all processes via their degrading behaviors and unnecessary proposals.
It’s happening at the national level and in many of the state parties. There is no infighting, only bullying tactics.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and again and again), as I also say to my students:

Bullying is not ok.

I hope the SC election issue is soon resolved. There are more imporant issues to address that cannot be because all the NC time is being taken up with this issue.

A little over a year ago Tom and I were invited by the Venezuealan Government to visit Venezuela on behalf of the Green Party of Utah to observe the work of Huga Chavez Frias. We were interviewed on Veneauealan radio and submitted an official request to visit the country on GPUT letterhead. The visit never materialized for a variety of reasons, but it was exciting to be invited. The possibility still exists and we hope to be able to visit Venezuela at some point.

Chavez has sent aid to Louisiana, including oil, which has been graciously accpeted by the Louisiana Governor. Chavez also spoke at the UN summit this week, where he was told he had 5 minutes to speak but declared that if Bush can speak for 20 minutes, so can he.

And he did.

The article reports that Chavez has proposed 4 reforms to the UN: expand the Security Council. improvements in work methods to increase transparency, immediate withdrawal of veto rights and strengthening the role of the Secretary General.
He also suggested moving the UN HQ from New York to a Southern Hemisphere country.
Further, Chavez declared that Venezuela rejected the 35-page UN reform document, calling the document a null and void fraud.

“We will not accept it … it will be the last thing we accept here, this dictatorship.”

Chavez went on the denounce the International Monetary Fund, calling it the International Coupster Fund.

Key Points of the UN Reform Document were agreed to late Friday night.

Other articles on the conclusion of the summit and key points of the UN Document:
Watered-down UN reform endorsed
UN General Assembly agrees on watered-down reform document
World Summit Concludes with Declaration of U.N. Goals
UN may have two Security Councils
UN World Summit adopts landmark outcome document on raft of crucial issues

The data is out on how Utah schools fared last year under the No Child Left Behind Act. Here is an article in today’s Salt lake
Tribune.

Here is the data:
AYP summary for Utah schools

Tonight was the regularly scheduled planning meeting for September 24 Anti-War event, being held in solidarity with groups around the nation to demand an end to the Iraq War. The GPUT members have been very active in this effort. All of the meetings have been held in the meeting room located inside our party secretary’s retail activist shop in Salt Lake City.

Several us were anticipating the unaffiliated Green Party members to show up to this night’s planning meeting. Jeff Beardall showed up again, despite his behavior last Saturday and the Thursday before that. It is speculated that Beardall showed up in anticipation of a possible “scene” or attempt to bar him from this planning meeting, given his recent threats to our secretary and myself, and that his strategy would be to make it appear that the meeting could not continue at that location and to propose to move the meeting away from our secretary’s shop. (These meetings have been held weekly all summer since June. Last week was the first time Beardall made an appearance at these meetings, two weeks before the scheduled action.)

Our party secretary had options, given the incidents involving Beardall last week. She could have requested that Beardall leave and could have called the police and added to the report already filed against him from his outburst last Saturday. Instead, she chose to say nothing, to allow Beardall to be included. Beardall had nothing to say during the entire meeting. The meeting was conducted as scheduled, with plans being close to finalized for the September 24th event.

The affiliated GPUT members continue to avoid any self-initiated confrontation. Beardall was permitted to participate in the planning for the anti-war event, despite his recent threats, harassing and extortionist behaviors.

An article in today’s Salt Lake Tribune on relief effort expenditures in Utah states that social programs here are feeling the effects of those efforts.

Yet the Governor wanted to propose a temporary gas tax cut “for the benefit of consumers” and that a budget surplus would cover the tax – but he backed away from that proposal.

Hey, Guv, how about using some of that surplus for the stretched social program budgets?

One of the speakers at the August 22nd Bush rally in Salt Lake City, Debbie Johnson (Military Families Speak Out) took my photos, and some photos of others, and put it into this video:

Auugst 22nd Bush Rally.

NOTE: It is recommended that you right click and choose “save as”, rather than play from the site. It is a farily big file.

So the group that started the organizing for the September 24 anti-war event is called “M19mobilization” because it became a committee to organize the rally on the 2nd anniversary of the Iraq invasion. As mentioned in a prior post today, many organizations and individuals have come together to help plan and sponsor this event.

The GPUT has planned a sign-making party and showing of the Institute of Policy Studies Teach-in Documentary for the night before, September 23rd. It has been widely advertised and the M19 site has had it listed as one event on its website.

So a little while ago, I receive this email from the web master of the M19 site:

Hi Deanna,

I have just been informed that the Green Party of Utah that is recognized by the Utah Elections Office is not sponsoring the sign making event. I know there is some conflict regarding which group is the real Green Party of Utah. Since I’m in no position to determine who the real Green Party of Utah is, I’m removing the part of the event to that states it is sponsored by the Green Party of Utah. I think this the best solution until it can be discussed at the next M19 meeting.
I’m sorry but I can’t think of any other way of dealing with the conflict at this time.

Here is part of my response (the snippped parts contain information I have already posted this week on my blog in previous entries about this situation.):

I hope this answers some of your questions.

To which the webmaster responded:

Thanks for the info. It was (name snipped)that contacted me regarding this (I’m not trying to fuel the conflict, but I think you have the right to know). Also, just to be clear, I left the event on the site, I just removed anything that indicated it was sponsored by the Green Party of Utah.
I really feel that this decision can not be made by me, since listing either group as the Utah Green Party might look like some sort of endorsement by M19. I can not speak for M19 so I must leave the decision to M19 members. I am not interested in taking sides in this conflict however this seems to be the best temporary solution until it can be discussed further. Whatever decision is reached by M19, I will abide by it.

Ironically, it is the person whose name is snipped above, who also engaged in the harassing behavior last Saturday at our table, who is organizing the peacekeepers for the September 24 event. She has not participated in any of the meetings or planning for this event. Yet she is doing everything she thinks she can to be disruptive. Pretty non-violent if you ask me.

The unaffiliated group continues to be as disruptive in as many ways as possible. This is what the participants of that group are spending their time doing.