GREENS ARE GATHERING SIGNATURES . . . The Green Party is qualified for ballot status this election cycle in all of the four biggest states: New York, California, Florida, and Texas. At this time, 20 states have ballot status in November 2012. For brief information about current candidates for President, click here.
NGP is gathering signatures so voters here will also have the choice of voting for the Green Party presidential slate. In Lincoln, 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. In Omaha, look for Charles Ostdiek at McFoster’s, 38th and Harney, to sign and pick up petitions.
You must be a registered voter to circulate the county specific petitions. Fill out a voter registration application online here.[pdf] If you can help us identify a public place in CD 3 where petitions could be available, if you would like us to mail you petitions to circulate, or to participate in the ballot access process in any way, please let us know by e-mailing mjberry [at] inebraska [dot] com. Printable NGP brochures on Facebook are here. Let’s take Our democracy back from Wall Street!
McFOSTER’S UPDATE. . . McFoster’s Will Stay Open! See CD 2 Green Note below for details of this week’s meeting at Omaha’s Nebraska Green Party home, McFoster’s.
PAGE DOWN FOR KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE UPDATE.
Lincoln area: Congressional District 1
WOMEN’S WEEK AT UN-L . . . There will be special Women’s Week 2012 events at UN-L Monday through Friday this week, March 12 through March 16th. Find a complete schedule of events here.
VIGIL AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY . . . Every Monday, 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. When weather is bad, 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 more information about NADP, click here. “It is the deed that teaches, not the name we give it. Murder and capital punishment are not opposites that cancel one another, but similars that breed their kind.” –George Bernard Shaw
OCCUPY EDUCATION . . . Occupy Education, an initiative of Occupy Lincoln, is offering a free and open university with weekly talks/discussions through March 19, 2012. The teach-in workshops are Mondays, 7:00 to 8:00pm, at Indigo Bridge Books, 701 P Street.
The Monday Phil 99 Course, “A Philosophical Look at Law, Punishment, and Power,” consists of informal lectures, followed by an open discussion. “Part 4: Criminals are People Too — How We Dehumanize Suspects and Offenders,” will be Monday, March 12th. The five-week seminar will be presented by Steve Swartzer, Lecturer of Philosophy and Assistant Director of the Center for the Teaching and Study of Applied Ethics at UN-L.
Tuesday Teach-In Workshops will be hosted by a different member of the Occupy Lincoln community, on a topic of their choosing, Tuesdays, 7:00 – 8:00pm, at Meadowlark Coffee and Espresso, 1624 South Street. Tuesday, March 13th, the topic will be “Protest Songs,” with Ian Egenberger. For more information, e-mail Hendrik van den Berg, hvan-den-berg1 [at] unl [dot] edu Education is a Basic Human Right.
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.
RUN FOR WILDERNESS PARK BRIDGES . . . A “Run for the Bridges,” to benefit Wilderness Park will be Saturday, March 17th, at the Fitness Loop/Day Camp area (First and Park) in the Park. The 1/2 Marathon and 6 mile run will help Raise Funds to Replace Bridges in Wilderness Park. Due to overwhelming interest, the number of entrants exceeded all expectations and registration was closed before the March 7th deadline. For more information, contact Rosina Paolini at 402.423.1260 or rapaolini [at] gmail [dot] com
OCCUPY LINCOLN . . . “City officials and Occupy Lincoln have reached an agreement that will keep tents pitched on Centennial Mall until May 1, two months later than the city had planned.” Read Lincoln Journal Star coverage here.
The Occupy Lincoln camp site is located on Centennial Mall north of the state capitol. There is a General Assembly every Sunday, 1:30-2:30pm, at Bennett Martin Library, 14th and N Streets, in the 4th floor auditorium; Wednesday, 6:30pm at Indigo Bridge Books; and Friday, 6:00 to 9:00pm. 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
MEET WITH OMAHA GREENS AND CELEBRATE McFOSTER’S . . . Tuesday, March 13, 2012, Omaha area Greens will meet at 6:00pm for a March meeting, and to celebrate McFoster’s continuing in business at 38th and Harney where Tom and Mary have been for 18 years, and where Nebraska Greens have had a home since 2000. Stop by to sign or pick up ballot access petitions and brochures, plan for spring events where teams can gather signatures, and discuss Green concerns. We’ll plan to be upstairs. Please join us. Now is the time to get re-involved and help Greens grow in Nebraska. For more information, contact Mark Zimmermann, markalanzimmermann [at] gmail [dot] com
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, March 14, 2012, the film will be “Aristide and the Endless Revolution,” a detailed account of the United States’ removal of Haiti’s democratically elected president, featuring Aristide, Sen. Maxine Waters, Noam Chomsky, Rep. Charles Rangel, and others. The trailer is here. (This film was scheduled for March 7, but didn’t become available until March 14th.) An informal discussion will follow the film. For more information, click here. The People’s Film Festival – Expanding Political Consciousness Since 2004.
OCCUPY OMAHA . . . 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 . . . From “Senate Rejects Keystone XL By Narrow Vote,” by Brad Johnson, March 8, 2012, “An amendment by Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) to force immediate approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline failed to get the 60 votes it needed, on a 56-42 vote. Democrats Max Baucus (MT), Begich (AK), Conrad (ND), Hagan (NC), Landrieu (LA), Manchin (WV), McCaskill (MO), Pryor (AR), Tester (MT), and Webb (VA) voted with Senate Republicans to strip authority for the pipeline’s approval from the president of the United States. Despite the intensity of climate activism in the region, New England Republicans Ayotte (NH), Brown (MA), Collins (ME), and Snowe (ME) stayed with the Republican bloc in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline. The amendment was attached to the unrelated highway funding bill. Moments earlier, Republicans killed an amendment that would have approved the pipeline if it used American steel and kept the oil for American use.
350.org‘s Bill McKibben responds: “Today’s vote was a temporary victory and there’s no guarantee that it holds for the long run. But given that this thing was a ‘no brainer’ a year ago, it’s pretty remarkable that people power was able to keep working, even in the oil-soaked Senate. We’re grateful to the Administration for denying the permit and for Senate leadership for holding the line. The reason this fight has been so hard is because of the financial power of the fossil fuel industry, so that’s what we’re going after now. …We’ve learned a lot, not all of it savory, about how the political process works and we’re going to put that to use.”
From “Confusion Surrounds Federal Review of Southern Leg of Keystone XL,” by Lisa Song, InsideCli*+mate News via Truthout, March 10, 2012: “TransCanada’s decision last week to build the southern half of the rejected Keystone XL has raised a tricky question about who will regulate the project review … The process could be stickier at the federal level. The U.S. State Department was the lead agency on the original Keystone XL because it crossed an international boundary. But so far, no agency has stepped forward to take responsibility for the Gulf Coast Project.” A second Lisa Song article, “Canadian Government Targeting Opponents of New Oil Sands Pipeline,” published March 11th, reports “As U.S. environmental groups renew their battle against the resurrected Keystone XL oil pipeline, their counterparts in Canada are facing a deeper problem—a government campaign to limit their influence over Canada’s Northern Gateway pipeline.”
In a March 9th Christian Science Monitor report, “Inside the Keystone pipeline: How much would it really help US consumers?” page 1 of 5 begins “Politicians paint a rosy picture of lower gas prices and abundant supply, but Canadian firms behind the Keystone pipeline expect it to supply Gulf Coast export markets and raise Midwest oil prices.”
Paul Hammel, reporting for Omaha World-Herald March 5th in “Pipeline lobbying costs incredible,” writes “How serious is TransCanada, Inc., about building its Keystone XL pipeline? If money for lobbying Nebraska state senators is any indication, very. With a capital “V.” During the fourth quarter of 2011, when the Nebraska Legislature held a special session on the pipeline, TransCanada reported $529,099 in lobbying and legal expenses. That spending works out to about $10,800 for each of the 49 senators during those three months — or nearly as much as a lawmaker’s annual $12,000 salary.”
Quoting a March 5th report by Brenda Norrell, “Lakotas arrested blocking tarsands trucks on Lakota land!,” “Debra White Plume, released from jail in Kyle, South Dakota, said Monday night, “Alex White Plume, myself, Sam Long Black Cat, Andrew Iron Shell and Terrell Eugene Iron Shell were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. We formed a blockade to stop tarsands oil mine equipment from passing our lands. BOLD The truckers told us the corporation office from Calgary, Alberta, Canada and the State of South Dakota made a deal to save the truckers $50,000 per truck, there were two trucks, from having to pay $100,000,” UNBOLD Debra White Plume told Censored News.”
Also on March 5th, a Vancouver Tyee article by Mitchell Anderson, “Spill from hell: Diluted bitumen,” reported on the poisoned air, sunken gunk, and clean-up nightmare at the Kalamazoo River DilBit spill disaster. “On a July morning in 2010 in rural Michigan, a 30-inch pipeline owned by Calgary-based Enbridge Energy Partners burst and disgorged an estimated 843,000 gallons of thick crude into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. This was no ordinary crude — it was the first ever major spill into water of diluted bitumen from the Alberta oil sands. The cleanup challenges and health impacts around Kalamazoo were unlike anything the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had ever dealt with, and raise serious questions about the preparedness in British Columbia to respond to such a disaster on the B.C. coast — or the Vancouver harbour.”
And Reuters reported that another Enbridge U.S. oil line was shut down this past week after a deadly vehicle accident in Illinois caused an oil leak and fire.”
Sign a Natural Resources Defense Council Action Alert telling Congress to reject all attempts to force approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline by attaching it to any unrelated legislation. The Keystone XL will deliver billions in profits to Big Oil while the people get stuck with poisoned water, contaminated land and an overheated planet.
STOP FRACKING NOW . . . Quoting Bill McKibben in “Why Not Frack?” “The planet is running short of the easy stuff, where you stick a drill in the ground and crude comes bubbling to the surface. The great oil fields of Saudi Arabia and Mexico have begun to dwindle; one result has been a rising price for energy. We could, as a civilization, have taken that dwindling supply and rising price as a signal to convert to sun, wind, and other noncarbon forms of energy-it would have made eminent sense, most of all because it would have aided in the fight against global warming, the most difficult challenge the planet faces. Instead, we’ve taken it as a signal to scour the world for more hydrocarbons. And it turns out that they’re there-vast quantities of coal and oil and gas, buried deep or trapped in tight rock formations or mixed with other minerals. Getting at them requires ripping apart the earth: for instance, by heating up the ground so that the oil in the tar sands formation of Canada can flow to the surface. Or by tearing holes in the crust a mile beneath the surface of the sea, as BP was doing in the Gulf of Mexico when the Deepwater Horizon well exploded. Or by literally removing mountaintops to get at coal, as has become commonplace across the southern Appalachians.”
“Confirmed: Fracking Caused Ohio Earthquakes,” by Brad Johnson, ThinkProgress, in Reader Supported News March 10, 2012 reports “A dozen earthquakes in northeastern Ohio were almost certainly induced by injection of gas-drilling wastewater into the earth, Ohio oil and gas regulators said Friday as they announced a series of tough new regulations for drillers.”
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.
From FitLife.tv, “In the wake of a 12-year battle to keep Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered crops from contaminating the nation’s 25,000 organic farms and ranches, America’s organic consumers and producers are facing betrayal. A self-appointed cabal of the Organic Elite, spearheaded by Whole Foods Market, Organic Valley, and Stonyfield Farm, has decided it’s time to surrender to Monsanto. Top executives from these companies have publicly admitted that they no longer oppose the mass commercialization of GE crops, such as Monsanto’s controversial Roundup Ready alfalfa, and are prepared to sit down and cut a deal for “coexistence” with Monsanto and USDA biotech cheerleader Tom Vilsack.”
“Monsanto’s Roundup Shown to Be Ravaging Butterfly Populations,” by Mike Barrett, Natural Society, for Truthout, March 9th: “Although the butterfly population may be suffering, humans are taking heat from Monsanto’s creations as well. Past research has shown that Monsanto’s Roundup ready crops are leading to mental illness and obesity, primarily by destroying the amount of good bacteria found in the gut. The corporation’s Roundup, containing glyphosate, has also been shown to cause infertility and birth defects.”
To help organize or coordinate a Millions Against Monsanto and Factory Farms Truth-in-Labeling campaign in your local community, sign up here. To pressure Whole Foods Market and the nation’s largest supermarket chains to voluntarily adopt truth-in-labeling practices, sign editable text here.
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.