NEBRASKA GREENS ARE GATHERING SIGNATURES . . . 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 has started gathering signatures so that voters here will also have the choice of voting for the Green Party presidential slate.
As you think about volunteering to help NGP collect signatures, please read and consider the AlterNet article “20 Ways the Obama Administration Has Intruded on Your Rights,” by Bill Quigley, November 30, 2011: “…The Obama administration has affirmed, continued and expanded almost all of the draconian domestic civil liberties intrusions pioneered under the Bush administration. Here are twenty examples of serious assaults on the domestic rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, the right to privacy, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion, and freedom of conscience that have occurred since the Obama administration has assumed power. Consider these and then decide if there is any fundamental difference between the Bush presidency and the Obama presidency in the area of domestic civil liberties.” Then check Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s website. Let’s take democracy back from Wall Street!
In Lincoln, ballot access petitions are available at Meadowlark Coffee and Espresso, 1624 South Street. Registered Nebraska voters are invited to stop by for coffee, visit with Adam Hintz from 6:00am to 2:00pm daily, sign a petition, or pick up one to circulate with friends and family during the holidays. In Omaha, look for Charles Ostdiek at McFoster’s, 38th and Harney, to sign and pick up petitions. After Tuesday’s meeting in Benson, (see CD 2 Green Note below), petitions will be also be available at the Pizza Shoppe, 6056 Maple Street. If you’re not a registered voter, fill out the voter registration application online here.[pdf] If you can help us identify a public place in CD 3 where petitions could be available, or if You would like to participate in the ballot access process in any way, please let us know by e-mailing mjberry [at] inebraska [dot] com.
SAVING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT . . . Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders speaks on the new Saving American Democracy Amendment to Overturn Citizens United in a 3:14 minute video here. Quoting a December 10, 2011 AlterNet article, “There’s no question that the political tide is turning thanks to Occupy Wall Street–because there’s actually a political push to ensure that corporations are NOT people, to overturn the “free speech rights” given to corporations by the Supreme Court’s troubling Citizens United decision.” Add your voice. Sign the petition. In the House, Representative Ted Deutch’s H.J. Res 90, The OCCUPIED Amendment, also says that corporations are not people and they do not belong in our elections. Sign the OCCUPIED petition. Spread the word.
XL PIPELINE UPDATE . . . Page down for this week’s Pipeline Opposition Update.
Lincoln area: Congressional District 1
A PEOPLE’S WITHDRAWAL OF THE BANK BAILOUT MONEY … On Monday, December 12, 2011, Occupy Lincoln will present a People’s Withdrawal of Bailout Money. Meet Occupiers at the Lincoln campsite, on Centennial Mall, north of the capitol building, at 11:30am. Specific locations will be announced there. There will be a short march followed by an afternoon of street theater and puppets. Help take back the bailout money and reinvest it for the 99%.
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.
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.
OCCUPY LINCOLN . . . The Occupy Lincoln camp site is located on Centennial Mall north of the state capitol. There is now a General Assembly three times per week: Sunday, 1:30pm; Wednesday, 6:00pm; and Friday, 6:00 to 9:00pm. All GAs will be at Indigo Bridge Books, 701 P Street, in the Haymarket’s Creamery Building, until further notice. The Facebook page is here. The Twitter feed is @OccupyLincoln. For more information, e-mail occupylincoln [at] gmail [dot] com or phone 402.585.5865. Corporate Greed is Revolution’s Seed!
Omaha area: Congressional District 2
OMAHA AREA GREENS MEETING . . . Tuesday, December 13, 2011, CD 2 Greens will meet at the Pizza Shoppe, 6056 Maple Street, in Benson, 6:00pm. Meet new Greens, and join the discussion of ballot access strategy. Pick up a petition to circulate among friends and family who are registered Nebraska voters over the holidays. If you’re not a registered voter yourself, fill out a voter registration application online here.[pdf] Circulator guidelines are in sections a. and b. here.[pdf] The Pizza Shoppe has great food, friendly staff, and an interesting, casual atmosphere. Don’t forget to thank Amy Ryan for welcoming Greens!
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.
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, December 14, 2011, the film will be “Freedom,” a one-hour documentary that looks at America’s perilous and unsustainable addiction to foreign oil with emphasis on ethanol. The weekly event is always free and open to the public. A discussion with Sasha Forsen from Green Plains Renewable Energy 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
FREE ADMISSION ON SUNDAYS AT LAURITZEN . . . Lauritzen Gardens, Omaha’s botanical center at 100 Bancroft Street in Omaha, is offering free admission on Sundays through December. Exhibits include a holiday poinsettia show.
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 . . . BOLD Nebraska Executive Director Jane Kleeb posted a December 6, 2011 Update on the latest pipeline developments including three easy actions to take this month. A consulting firm, HDR, has been hired (even though there was no Request For Proposal process), to assist the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality on the pipeline issues. One of HDR’s lead VPs is Rex Fisher, a good friend of Governor Heineman. No one is asking the Nebraska DEQ why they did not conduct a full RFP. No route has been made public.
A STOP THE PIPELINE Action Alert from the Natural Resources Defense Council updates the a plan in Congress to hold spending legislation hostage unless the destructive tar sands Keystone XL pipeline project is approved. In the House, Republican leaders are trying to force approval by attaching it to a bill extending unemployment benefits and the payroll-tax cut. Tell your members of Congress to reject attempts to fast track the tar sands pipeline and other anti-environmental measures by attaching them to last-minute spending legislation. Say No to the Keystone XL and other anti-environmental riders.
A Sierra Club Statement in response to fast-track legislation, “Congress Considers Bills to Short Circuit Environmental Review of Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline Proposal,” was issued December 2nd. “The U.S. House and Senate GOP are each pushing bills that would stop the U.S. State Department’s reevaluation of the environmental and public health impacts of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in an attempt to expedite construction of the project. GOP leaders are considering adding the legislation as a rider to the payroll tax bill, the last bill that Congress is likely to vote on before the winter recess. In response, Michael Brune, Executive Director of Sierra Club, issued the following statement: “Big Oil expects this special treatment from their friends in Congress, who are now trying to rush a decision on Keystone XL, despite the Administration’s decision that this project needs more review to protect the health and safety of millions of Americans. It’s time for Congress to stop doing the bidding of the world’s largest polluters and stand up for real energy solutions. The Sierra Club is strongly opposed to any legislative effort to rush a decision on Keystone XL.”
Quoting a post at Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s website, “Climate victory on Keystone Pipeline requires continued green pressure through 2012 and beyond,” “…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.”
From CredoAction, “The fight to stop Keystone XL is far from over. President Obama may have delayed his decision on the pipeline, but Republicans have redoubled their efforts, and could be dangerously close to forcing its approval. …they are planning to push a bill to force a decision on the pipeline and strip the President’s authority to make that decision. Worse, they will attach this poison pill to the President’s payroll-tax and unemployment benefit extension package — considered a must-pass piece of legislation that contains crucial help for our long-term unemployed. Sign a petition to Leaders Reid and Pelosi telling them not to make a backroom deal allowing Republicans to force this pipeline on Americans. Learn more and sign here.”
Politico coverage of the House deal attaching XL to the payroll tax cut is here.
In “Nebraska Ranchers Who Turned the Tide in Pipeline Fight Say They’re Not Done Yet,” by Lisa Song, InsideClimate News, landowners explain why–and how–they became activists. InsideClimate News also published “Electric Vehicle Advocates See Threat to Progress from Keystone XL Pipeline.” on November 23rd.
Quoting from page 1 of 3, “City and county officials think the pipeline would undermine federal policy and their local efforts to move to clean vehicles and alternate fuels.”
Environmental champion Robert Redford wrote “Stand Together Against the Tar Sands Scourge,” sourced from The Globe and Mail, for Reader Supported News in November. “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.”
President Obama has announced he is taking complete ownership of the decision about the XL tar sands pipeline. 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.
Tell President Obama the new environmental review must address the climate impacts of Keystone XL and be independent and science-based. Ask him to keep his promises on the new review in a Friends of the Earth petition here.
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.
STOP FRACKING NOW . . . Last week there was breaking news that the Environmental Protection Agency has implicated fracking in groundwater pollution. Quoting “EPA Links Tainted Water in Wyoming to Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas,” by Kirk Johnson, The New York Times News Service, “The draft report, after a three-year study by the Environmental Protection Agency, represents a new scientific and political skirmish line over whether fracking, as it is more commonly known, poses a threat in the dozens of places around the nation where it is now being used to extract previously unreachable energy resources locked within rock. The E.P.A. has also begun a national study on the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources.”
“Shale Gas Drilling’s Dirty Secret Is Out,” by Josh Fox, sourced to Reader Supported News, begins “Having investigated fracking myself for three years, I have heard the same story hundreds of times, from residents in gas-drilling areas from Wyoming to Arkansas, from Pennsylvania to Texas. It goes like this: the frackers move in – and all of a sudden your water turns color, or can be lit on fire, or smells like turpentine or leaves burn marks on you after you take a shower. It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots.”
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.”
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 Substitute Hemp for oil.“