HELP NEBRASKA GREENS GET BALLOT ACCESS . . . The Green Party is now qualified for ballot status this election cycle in all of the four biggest states: New York, California, Florida, and Texas. Nebraska Green Party is considering a full-out signature campaign, so that voters here will also have the choice of voting for the Green Party presidential slate. To do this, we will need the help of volunteers to circulate petitions and gather signatures. The Secretary of State has approved our application for new political party petitions, and we have a supply on hand. If You would like to participate in the ballot access process in any way, by signing a petition, circulating a petition, or becoming involved as a candidate for local elected office, please let us know by e-mailing mjberry [at] inebraska [dot] com.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY DAY FOR THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE . . . For many years, the Palestinian people and countries around the world have called for a two-state solution to the ongoing problem of occupation by Israel. UN resolution after UN resolution has been blocked by the United States.  Tuesday, November 29, 2011 is International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Click here for background information on the issues involved.

EARTH CIRCLE . . . On the first day of every month, people around the world stop everything for five minutes, joining with thousands of others to visualize peace and focus on new levels of kindness, understanding, and compassion necessary for collectively facing the challenges of the 21st century. New Dimensions invites peacemakers everywhere to join at 4:00pm Greenwich Mean Time, 10:00am in Lincoln and Omaha, 9:00am in District 3 where Mountain Time begins, Thursday, December 1, 2011, with the intention of deep healing for the Planet and all its people. Click here for more information about Earth Circle.

XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . The Pipeline Opposition Coalition will be meeting in Lincoln and Omaha this week. Page down for details.

Lincoln area: Congressional District 1

VIGIL AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY . . . Every Monday, from noon to 1:00pm, Nebraskans for abolition of the death penalty meet in front of the governor’s mansion when weather is good, 1425 H Street, Lincoln. In winter, the vigil is inside the capitol, near the Information Desk. The lunch-hour presence reminds the governor of a constituency that does not want state killings. Weekly vigils have taken place year-round since July, 1991. All abolitionists are welcome to participate for a few minutes, or the hour. For information about Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty, click here.

JESSE JACKSON AT UN-L . . . The Rev. Jesse Jackson is scheduled to speak at The Lied Center, 12th & R Streets, Lincoln, on Wednesday, November 30, 2011. Jackson will be the keynote speaker for the Nebraska Black Leadership Symposium.  His 11:30am speech at Lied will require free tickets. His address will be live-streamed at go.unl.edu/DLS

LINCOLN PEACE VIGILS . . . Lincoln peace vigils continue at the Federal Building, 15th and O streets, every Wednesday from 5:00 to 6:00pm. Contact Mark at 402.499.6672 or e-mail mark [at] weddleton [dot] com for more information.

WHAT’S NEXT IN KXL OPPOSITION . . . The next steps will be dicussed at a meeting of local pipeline opposition groups on Wednesday, November 30, 2011. Keep checking Green Notes for news about what’s next.

Omaha area: Congressional District 2

TEACH-IN AT UN-O . . . A Teach-In linking Occupy and North Omaha, “Education and Discussion on Police Brutality,” will be Tuesday, November 29, 2011, on the UN-O campus, Milo Bail Student Center, 3rd Floor, U’Mo’Ho room. The Teach-In/Discussion will be from 7:00 to 8:30, followed by a UN-O Nebraskans for Peace meeting from 8:30 to 9:30pm. UN-O Theater professor Doug Paterson will speak on the issues surrounding police-community relationships.

OMAHA PEACE VIGILS . . . Omaha peacemakers vigil every Wednesday, 4:30-5:30pm, at StratCom/UN-O, 6801 Pine Street, east of the Scott Technology Center on the UN-O campus. Free parking is available at the NE Corner of 67th Street and Pine in a student lot. For more information, phone Jerry Ebner, 402.502.5887. Every Saturday, 1:00-2:00pm, there is a Peace Vigil at 72nd and Dodge Streets. Park next to 72nd Street, in the pet store parking lot. Contact Steve Horn at 402.426.9068 for more information about Saturday vigils.

WHAT’S NEXT IN KXL OPPOSITION . . . Wednesday, November 30, 2011, there will be a meeting at 5016 Parker Street, (in the Country Club area) to discuss where Omaha opposition will go from here in the fight against the tar sands, KXL and climate change. Organizers of the events in DC will host a live chat to start the evening, followed by pizza from Whole Foods and a brainstorm session. The live chat starts at 6:00pm. On December 5th, there will a national conference call to report back about what was discussed at local meetings. Please RSVP here.

OMAHA PEOPLE’S FILM FESTIVAL . . . There is a People’s Film Festival every Wednesday evening, 7:00pm, at McFoster’s Natural Kind Cafe, 38th and Harney in Omaha. Wednesday, November 30, 2011, the film will be “Classified X,” a documentary review of African-American film history. The weekly event is always free and open to the public. A discussion will follow the film. For more information, click here.  The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.

OCCUPY OMAHA . . . The current Occupy Omaha location is in transition. The official Occupy Omaha website is here. The FaceBook page is here.  The Twitter feed is #occupyomaha.

ENGAGE OMAHA . . . One of the nation’s first city-wide, virtual town hall websites, EngageOmaha, is now online. Omaha residents may weigh in on issues for the city to consider. Pick a topic, and join the mix here.

Greater Nebraska: Congressional District 3

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . Tar Sands Action will be hosting meetings nationwide this week to discuss the next steps in a coordinated TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline opposition effort. On December 5th, there will a national conference call to report back about what was discussed at local meetings.
President Obama has announced he is taking complete ownership of the decision about the pipeline. Meanwhile, Nebraska’s governor signed two oil pipeline bills into law on November 22, 2011. November 23rd, Kevin O’Hanlon reported for Lincoln Journal Star, “A special legislative session that began with tumult and trepidation ended on a comparatively tranquil note Tuesday as Nebraska lawmakers approved two oil pipeline bills in response to TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL project. Lawmakers passed the Major Oil Pipeline Siting Act (LB 1), by Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton, which will give authority for siting future oil pipelines to the Nebraska Public Service Commission, which oversees telecommunications, mass transit and utilities.” LB 1 will not apply to TransCanada.  The Unicameral also passed LB 4, re-routing KXL away from the environmentally fragile Sand Hills. Both measures passed on a 46-0 vote.
BOLD Nebraska and Coalition groups held a press conference after the bills were signed. “Pipeline critics praise citizen response,” by Art Hovey, begins “There were smiles and nods in the Capitol Rotunda on Tuesday as the coalition that came together over the last three years to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline took stock of a special legislative session that ended earlier in the day. There also was more somber recognition at a follow-up press conference from the Nebraska Farmers Union, the Nebraska chapter of the Sierra Club, from Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska, and from others that this is no time to declare total victory. For starters, the new route of a project that TransCanada has agreed to move out of the Nebraska Sandhills is unknown. Furthermore, the State Department still is planning to make a decision on a presidential permit for the project after the 2012 election. And BOLD Nebraska and its partners from environmental advocacy groups don’t want any pipeline, regardless of route, that would move oil out of sand deposits in Alberta to refineries along the Gulf Coast. “We’re not finished yet. We’re not going anywhere,” Kleeb said.”
“Looking Back and Looking Ahead: Pipeline Wrap-Up,” by Kleeb, includes a list of Citizen Accomplishments during the opposition campaign, a Focus on 2012, as well as an action for saying thank you to the senators.
“Politics and opportunism,” by Tim D. Francis, was published by Lincoln Journal Star on November 25, 2011. Francis writes “Like most Nebraskans, I’m heaving a sigh of relief that the Keystone XL pipeline will be rerouted. I’m especially grateful to state Sens. Ken Haar and Annette Dubas, who led the way in representing the people of our state. The biggest round of applause, of course, goes to the leadership from the grass-roots campaign. They’re the ones who did the heavy lifting. But surely I’m not the only one disappointed with Gov. Dave Heineman and his minions in the Legislature who only embrace a movement once they’ve calculated the political value or risks involved. Joining a successful movement after it has gained significant momentum and then climbing in front of it isn’t leadership; it’s opportunism and politics at its shabbiest. …Our state is seriously hurting for leadership in the governor’s office. Thank goodness Heineman is term-limited and can’t run again.”
On a national level, more emails continue to show an increasingly biased relationship between TransCanada and the US State Department.
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein congratulated climate change activists for forcing the Obama administration to back away from quick approval of the XL pipeline. “This is a positive step, a reprieve won through activism and political pressure. Only six weeks ago it was clear that the Obama administration was willing to open the door to a measure that spelled climate disaster. What changed was not a sudden outbreak of environmental concern in the administration, but what they all but admit is a political calculation that pipeline approval would cost the President votes if announced before the presidential election. One way to keep the pressure on the White House into 2013 is to build the Green Party as a political alternative in 2012.” Read further comments from a Stein press release here.
Environmental champion Robert Redford wrote “Stand Together Against the Tar Sands Scourge, sourced from The Globe and Mail, for Reader Supported News November 22, 2011. “Not only is tar sands production laying waste to Canada’s forests, polluting waterways, air and land, but the resulting carbon emissions are threatening Canada’s long-time commitment to reducing the greenhouse gases that are warming our planet and threatening us all…. We need Canadians everywhere to join us in this fight. We need to call on the history and values we share and stand up, Canadians and Americans as one. We need to draw the line at tar sands. We need to reject the Keystone XL.”
Quoting “Taking It to the Streets, in the November 28, 2011 New Yorker by Jane Mayer, “James Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and one of the country’s foremost climate scientists says if the Keystone XL oil pipeline were built, “Essentially, it’s game over for the planet.” But at Middlebury College, in Vermont, Bill McKibben, a scholar-in-residence, concluded that the pipeline couldn’t be stopped by conventional political means. So, in June, he and ten other activists sent an open letter to the environmental community saying, “It’s time to stop letting corporate power make the most important decisions our planet faces. We don’t have the money to compete … but we do have our bodies.”
           Urge the President to do the right thing and reject the pipeline by filling out the petition here.  Send a “Thanks in Advance” message to the President in the Spirit of the Season.
Add your voice to the “Protect Our Water, Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline!” petition urging the president to deny a construction permit here.  Call the White House Switchboard directly at 202.456.1111. And sign The Other 98% petition to Obama, “End Lobbyist Influence, STOP THE PIPELINE,” here.
Comprehensive coverage of international, national and local opposition to the XL pipeline since May 30, 2010 is archived in the Green Notes tab above. At the Index, scroll from the bottom up for links to each week’s Update.
Thanks to EveryOne who has helped make Nebraska the first state to successfully oppose a pipeline project!

STOP FRACKING NOW . . . “Big Win Against Fracking: Vote Canceled for New Fracking Regulations in the Delaware River Basin,” by AlterNet staff, was published November 17, 2011. Read more about the vote in an earlier AlterNet story here.  Petition Congress: “We, the undersigned, call on Congress to pass the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act this year. It’s time to hold the oil and gas production industry to the same standards as any other industry to ensure the safe protection of America’s drinking water.” Sign the Petition here.

PETITION THE EPA . . . Tell the Environmental Protection Agency to immediately prohibit the use of clothianidin and conduct a full scientific review to determine its impact on honey bee populations.  Learn more about clothianidin and sign the petition here.

TELL PRESIDENT OBAMA NOT TO CAVE TO MONSANTO AND THE BIOTECH INDUSTRY . . . The Obama administration has unbelievably chosen to approve three biotech crops, Roundup Ready genetically modified alfalfa, Roundup Ready genetically modified sugar beets and a new industrial biotech corn for ethanol production. These decisions are a devastating blow to our democracy and the basic rights of farmers to choose how they want to grow food on their land and the rights of consumers who increasingly choose organic and sustainably grown food for its positive health and environmental impacts. Please tell the President it’s time to stand up to Monsanto and reject GMO crops.

BUY FRESH. BUY LOCAL . . . . Farmers, gardeners, and craftspeople meet through The Nebraska Food Cooperative an on-line, year-round farmers’ market and local food distribution service offering the best in local freshness. For ordering and pickup schedules, refer to the calendar here.  Click here for products and prices from North Star Neighbors, a Cooperative member that doesn’t therapeutically medicate or unduly confine animals. Click here for Tomato Tomäto, Omaha’s year-round indoor Farmer’s Market at 156th & West Center. Shop for fresh foods grown in or very near your own community at Open Harvest, Lincoln’s member-owned natural foods retail cooperative at 1618 South Street. Buying local grows family farming, grows the local economy, and is thousands of miles fresher.

HELP NEBRASKA GREENS WITH GOODSEARCH . . . Each time you search the Internet (or shop online at a participating store), a donation can be made to Nebraska Green Party at no cost to you! To help NGP in this way, enter Nebraska Green Party where it asks you to name your cause here.  Bookmark the GoodSearch Homepage, or make it your own Home Page. Enter the url you want in the GoodSearch search box. Each time you do, one penny will be donated to Nebraska Greens. THANK YOU for your support!

Remember, every man-made by-product of the petroleum industry could be replaced by hemp. “Help Save the Earth, Time to Subsitute Hemp for oil.

WE HAVE STOPPED THE PIPELINE, FOR NOW.