Category Archives: Uncategorized

Earlier this week we were contacted by a New York correspondent for the London Guardian to be interviewed as part of his report on the liberal/left in red states. The correspondent came to our regular weekly sidewalk peace vigil yesterday and interviewed three of us – Tom, me, and Eileen.

The aim of the article is to challenge the common notion that all liberal activity takes place on the coasts and the rest of the country is a rightwing political wasteland.

The article will appear on the Guardian on Monday, October 3rd.

The Green Party of Utah is accepting donations of these items to send to Greens in New Orleans who have established a relief center and where over 250 people a day are being assisted in New Orleans:

The GPUT will be sending these donations directly to the people who are helping New Orleans residents. Monetary donations will also be accepted to help with the mailing costs.

Drop off items to be mailed at
Free Speech Zone
2144 South Highland Drive Salt Lake City

or bring donations by the Green Party Katrina Relief Table (between the wobblies and People for Peace and Justice tables) at the Earth Jam event at Liberty Park in SLC
Saturday, October 1, noon to 8pm

More Info: 801-502-8556
GPUT

See all the details at:
GPUT

House Majority Leader Tom Delay was indicted for his role in the Texas campaign finance scandal.

DIRELAND (Journalist Doug Ireland’s web log) reports that House Speaker Dennis Hastert has named Rep. David Dreier to replace indicted Tom DeLay as House Republican Majority Leader. Dreier is known for having an anti-gay voting record and has also voted against providing resources for the care of people infected with HIV-AIDS.

But wait ~ there’s more! DIRELAND also has a breaking news update (scroll down to the bottom of the article)about the controversy surrounding Dreier’s appointment. Here is what DIRELAND reports:

UPDATE: Late-breaking news — there was a mini-revolt in the House Republican Caucus this afternoon against Speaker Dennis Hastert’s choice of Dreier to replace DeLay. The result: Dreier will be sharing some duties with Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, who will be interim Majority Leader (photo of Blunt at right).. My Capitol Hill sources tell me there was a lot of grumbling aboutr Dreier’s accession to DeLay’s Majority Leader job because Dreier is from California and Californians already hold a half-dozen important committee chairs in the House, and because Dreier is a teensy bit more moderate on some issues than Dreier. But on one set of issues they agree — their opposition to full civil rights for gay people. Blunt is a recipient of the “True Blue Award” from the anti-gay Christer lobby, the Family Research Council, which quickly issued a staement praising the choice of Blunt. Eric Stern, executive director of the Stonewall Democrats, immediately issued a statement, saying:””Roy Blunt is flamboyantly out in his opposition to equal protections for gay and lesbian Americans. He is a leading anti-gay advocate in Congress, and we are convinced that he will continue the corruptive policies of Tom Delay on issues of equality as he is aided in his duties by Congressman Dreier.” At this hour (6:00PM) is unclear just how the joint Blunt-Dreier sharing of power will work. It’s unclear whether Dreier’s homosexuality played any role in the GOP congressmen’s revolt. DIRELAND will keep you posted.

Ken Sain also has a post on Dreier at: David Dreier

Earth Jam has been rescheduled for this Saturday, October 1 in Salt Lake City. It was scheduled to be held in April on Earth Day weekend, but was rained out.

All organizations who had reserved tables for April have been contacted about the event this weekend. The Green Party of Utah rsvp’d right away and organizers of the event have worked with the GPUT on tabling placement in the park.

Word has it that the unaffiliated green party will be there tabling. They have the right to do that since they had reserved a table for the April event. Organizers have been informed by our party secretary that the Affiliated Green Party will not engage in confrontation, but could possibly be confronted in a conflicting way by the unaffiliated green party, based on past experience.

Interestingly enough, the unaffiliated party has no mention of this event on their website.

HEAL Utah has issued a call to contact Orrin Hatch to voice opposition to shipping nuclear waste through Utah.
———————————-
Please take a minute to call Senator Hatch (202) 224-5251 and urge him to oppose shipping nuclear waste through Utah. Here’s a sample message you can leave:

“Hi, my name is _____ and I live in _____. I’m calling to ask Sen. Hatch to stand united with the rest of the Utah and Nevada Delegations and Governor Huntsman in support of onsite storage of nuclear waste and in opposition to dumping high-level nuclear waste in Nevada or anywhere in the West.”

For more information, or to send an email to Sen. Hatch instead, click here: http://www.healutah.org/volunteer/HatchAlert.htm.

Our best chance to stop the shipment of high-level nuclear waste to Utah’s Skull Valley is to stop its shipment anywhere. If we can put enough pressure on our most senior elected official, Sen. Hatch, to join this united effort, there’s a good chance we can stop Private Fuel Storage’s proposal in Congress.

Thanks to everyone who has already made the call. Please forward this on to your friends.

John Urgo
Outreach Director
HEAL Utah
68 S Main St, Suite 400
SLC, UT 84101
(801) 355-5055
john@healutah.org

Hopefully this is an honest mistake, but it’s still a little weird that my blog, Jenni’s blog, and the Green Party of Utah’s Live Journal Blog have all been demoted on the green bloggers web ring from the active members list to a “other sites of interest” list.

All three of this blogs are Utah-based.

Jenni has also written about this onher blog.

We all met the criteria for being able to be active members and were never notified of this change. Both Jenni and I have written to the webring master to ask what’s up.

We’ll post updates as we find out more.

Organizers of a memorial and rally to further the End Aids Campaign approached the Green Party table at last week’s anti-war rally and asked if the GPUT would be a sponsor of the October 22nd event. Of course we said “yes!” and now we have been asked to be the official drop-off point for shoes.

Yes, shoes.

At this memorial there will be 8500 pair of shoes to honor the 8500 people a day who die from AIDS globally.

Details of the event can be viewed at: GPUT Events

The “impeachment” issue of the GPUS Steering Committee continues. The first message below is from Steve Kramer, one of the SC members who is not subject of any charges. The message below that is from a Utah delegate pointing out what must be done according to the bylaws of the GPUS. There has been a lot of controversy over the bylaws interpretation on this issue.

My hope is that the proceedings will now continue and be “done with”. In my opinion, the persons who brought forth this impeachment have no rational grounds for such action and that the “tribunal” will prove that.
———————————
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 11:55 PM
To: natlcomvotes@green.gpus.org
Subject: Announcement on impeachment

Fellow Greens of the National Committee,

Earlier tonight, my sister Co-Chair on the Steering Committee, Rebecca Rotzler, informed us of the receipt of articles of impeachment against Co-Chair Marc Sanson, Co-Chair Jody Grage Haug, Co-Chair Gwen Wages, Secretary Holly Hart, and Treasurer Jake Schneider. The articles were signed by Owen Broadhurst (Massachusetts), Steven Greenfield (New York), and Gary Novosielski (New Jersey). The wording of the articles has been posted to this list previously, and is available from Rebecca.

In accordance with the Bylaws, and in absolute trust of Rebecca’s word, the selection of a grievance tribunal has begun. I have contacted those who will be helping to select this tribunal on how we will proceed under the Bylaws. Any posts prior to this one concerning “impeachment procedure”, save direct quotes of the Bylaws, should be considered speculation or interpretations. The procedure we shall follow, which will be in compliance with the bylaws, will be clarified shortly.

Thank you for your patience.

Steve Kramer
Co-Chair, GPUS SC
———————————-
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 4:43 PM
To: natlcomvotes@green.gpus.org
Subject: Impeachment Procedure

Owen and other fellow NC Delegates,

The specific reference which Owen has used to illustrate his position, actually supports the position Holly has expressed.

If the bylaws actually allowed more than one Green Party Officer to be included in a singular “written charges of impeachment”, then the following excerpt from the bylaws would have to be written as in the second example below.

****Excerpt from Bylaws as it appears on web.**** “Once charges are brought, a grievance tribunal will be selected by members of the Steering Committee who are not the subject of the impeachment.”

******Same excerpt modified to mean what Owen and others seem to think it means********** “Once charges are brought, a grievance tribunal will be selected by members of the Steering Committee who are not the subject(s) of the impeachment.”

Now you notice that the way it is written it contains the singular form of the word “subject”. This also is consistent with the other reference to “a Green Party Officer” in that it refers to a singular Officer.

You will also notice that the modified excerpt is how the bylaws would need to be to allow for multiple officers to be the subjects of a single written impeachment charges document.

So if the bylaws were to allow for a single written “charges of impeachment” to name more than one officer the line that reads: “Any three National Committee delegates from different states can bring charges of impeachment against a Green Party officer.”

would have to be changed to: “Any three National Committee delegates from different states can bring charges of impeachment against one or more Green Party officers.”

and the line that refers to the singular “subject” would have to be changed to “subject(s)” as illustrated above.

Since the bylaws do require that one officer be named per written charges of impeachment, then all that Owen, Steve and Gary need to do to bring these charges against the multiple officers is to create seperate “charges of impeachment” against each of the multiple officers. If they are really serious, then this should be no big deal.

Tom
Delegate, GPUT

Previous thread below…….

Date: *Sep 22, 2005 11:13 PM*
Subject: *Impeachment Procedure*
To Owen Broadhurst and Officers of the Green-Rainbow Party of
Massachusetts:

Please be advised that, according to GPUS bylaws, in order for a member of the Steering Committee to be impeached, three delegates must bring written charges to tne National Committee against each individual member of the SC whom the delegates which to impeach.

If removal proceedings against one or more officers are desired, specific written charges must be filed against each officer individually per the method speciifed in the bylaws.

Holly Hart
Secretary, GPUS

==================================
Nowhere within the bylaws is there specified any requirement for various articles of impeachment to be filed against only one Steering Committee member at a time. I have no doubt that the section Ms. Hart specifically references in this letter would be this one: “Any three National Committee delegates from different states can bring charges of impeachment against a Green Party officer.”
However, that sentence merely specifies how many delegates are needed to file such articles. Overlooked has been this, the third sentence: “Once charges are brought, a grievance tribunal will be selected by members of the Steering Committee who are not the subject of the impeachment.”
The wording of this third sentence is an explicit reminder that several Steering Committee members may be subject to the same articles of impeachment.
Yours,
Owen R. Broadhurst

Today I sent a few posts on the GPUS Steering Committee Impeachment issue. I made a mistake when I incorrectly made use of the word “impeach” because I was not thinking clearly and used it in terms of actual removal when, in fact, the word “impeach”, as quickly pointed out by various delegates on the list serve, refers to accusations and filing of charges.

I admitted my mistake on the list and let it go.

I also sign all my posts with my position and affiliation (Alternate Delegate, Green Party of Utah).

Steve Greenfield later decided to post the letter from the Utah Elections Office sent to our filing officer regarding our ballot status. He had no introductory remarks. He simply posted the letter.

Complete with typos, as he typed it into the email post instead of providing an official copy.

Now, one has to wonder how Steve Greenfield obtained a copy of this letter…..
Further, Greenfield did not provide the letter on any official letterhead or in an image. Instead, it was typed into the email post. Additionally, he did not put it into context. He did not provide the letter to Mr. Cragun pointing out how the elections office is violating Utah state commerce law.

Well, here is the official document (not the one Greenfield typed into an email), along with others that speak for themselves (the first one being the initial letter sent to Mr. Cragun by our filing officer):

Below are the following documents:

– Letter sent to Mr. Cragun
– Letter received by GPUT to Mr. Cragun
– Steve Greenfield’s post of the letter received by MR. Cragun, complete with typos.
– Image of Affiliated Green Party of Utah Incorporation
– Image of Affiliated Green Party of Utah Trademark

Image of letter sent to Mr. Cragun:

Letter to Mr. Cragun

Mr. Cragun’s response after receiving the letter and talking with the GPUT filing officer in person:

Post to GPUS Delegate Discussion List by Steve Greenfield, delegate from New York:
[usgp-dx] Letter from Utah Elections Division Steve Greenfield bicyclesax at earthlink.net Tue Sep 27 14:01:08 EDT 2005

State of Utah
Office of the Lieutenant Governor
Elections Division

September 12, 2005

Thomas King
(address deleted)
Layton, Utah

Dear Mr. King:

I am writing in response to your letter that I received August 24, 2005 and to review our conversation this afternoon in my office. The Lieutenant Governor’s office maintains the position that only one Green Party of Utah exists. As of August 26, 2006 the Green Party of Utah is a registered political party. Any disputes as to leadership must be resolved among the party’s members.

You inquired whether or not you can continue to collect petition signatures.
While you may collect signatures, the party that you seek to register must have a name and emblem distinguishable from other registered political parties. Utah Cod Annotate section 20A-8-103(1) defines distinguishable as “a reasonable person of average intelligence will be able to perceived a difference between the proposed name or emblem and any name or emblem currently being used by another registered political party.”:

Please notify us when you have completed collecting signatures. After receiving your complete petition, we will review the petition to ensure that you have collected the required number of signatures. Wee will also review your proposed party name and emblem. If the name and emblem are not distinguishable from other registered parties, you will have seven days to submit a new name and emblem.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Please contact us with any questions.

Sincerely,
Michael J. Cragun
Director
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I’m always interested in Green activity in Maryland, particularly Frederick, since that is the county I was born, raised, and lived in until 1997. I am originally from Middletown, Maryland, a historic town about 6 miles west of Frederick.

I had learned through my father (who is a republican but always interested in Greens and is very proud of my involvement in the Green Party) that Joanne Ivancic was successful in getting herself on the ballot for Frederick City Alderman/Alderwoman. Apparently a student at Hood College in Frederick revived the Greens in the area (who had gone stagnant and had been inactive for quite some time) and inspired Joanne to run.

Here are some links to articles:
Candidate forum focuses on social issues (scroll down to that part of the article).
Gazette.net
MARYLAND GREEN PARTY NEWSLETTER-September 2005
DC Indymedia
Google gave me: Joanne Ivancic, who lives down the road from the facility and is running as A
Green Party candidate for alderman, says residents should take advantage of … but I cannot find it at that link.
Two’s a Crowd Already, but Third Party Aims for Office
The above article came out in the Washington Post before the the city of Frederick adopted Doug McNeil’s charter amendments that remove the high obstacles for Joanne Ivancic to be on the ballot. Joanne is running for city alderman and her name will appear on the ballot with party affiliation.