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.
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 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. 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, if you would like us to mail you petitions to circulate via postal, or to participate in the ballot access process in any way, please let us know by e-mailing mjberry [at] inebraska [dot] com. Let’s take Our democracy back from Wall Street!

SAVING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT . . . “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.
PLEASE CONTACT PRESIDENT OBAMA.

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.

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 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 21, 2011, the film will be “Whale Wars,” a documentary spotlighting the Japanese whaling trade, and the opposition tactics of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Watch a 4:18 minute video, The Making of Whale Wars, here.  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. All charges against Katy Heil, Nathan Davis and Ben Walden, who were arrested at 24th and Farnam on November 3rd, have been dismissed. 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 . . . Saturday morning, December 17, 2011, the Senate passed a bill that requires a 60-day, expedited approval process for the pipeline in return for a payroll tax cut, and the President has said he will sign it.  Quoting Bill McKibben, “Our hope — and what you should ask the President for when you write him — is that when he signs the bill he will say the obvious thing: “Two months is not long enough to review the pipeline. The Canadians themselves have just delayed review of their tar sands pipelines over safety concerns, and we’ve just come through a year that set a record for billion-dollar climate-related disasters; I’m not going to do a rush job just to please the oil industry lobbyists. So this pipeline is dead.”
Since the State Department has already, in essence, said two months is not enough time, this should be straightforward. Send the White House a message here, and spread the word on Facebook and Twitter.
Lincoln Journal Star coverage of the shameful deal, “Senate OKs payroll tax cut, sets deadline on Keystone decision,” by Andrew Taylor, AP, December 17th explains “…As a condition for GOP support of the payroll tax measure, Obama has to accept a provision demanded by Republicans that forces him to decide within 60 days whether to approve or reject a proposed a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline. … the legislation requires the president to grant a permit unless he makes a determination that it is “not in the national interest.”
A December 15th LJS Editorial, “Disconnect pipeline, payroll tax cut,” addresses Nebraska Representative Lee Terry: “…we’re talking about you. With the help of your colleagues, you attached your bill to give President Barack Obama a 60-day deadline on approval of the Keystone XL pipeline to legislation that would extend the payroll cut. The two measures have nothing to do with each other. It’s just another silly political game. Want to know why Congress has the worst approval ratings in history? It’s because of stunts like this.”
“Almost heroes on pipeline,” an LJS letter to the editor by Warren Gilbert, published December 16th, begins “For a while there, we looked like winners. Nebraska gained international acclaim for its determined stand against TransCanada, calling the world’s attention to an unfolding ecological disaster. When newspapers, TV and magazines around the world applauded this grass-roots rebellion, it became clear that more was at stake than the aquifer and the Sand Hills. A widespread expectation was created that the massively destructive strip-mining of the boreal forest, toxic waste and tripled pollution might be shut down. …So for one brief shining moment, a tiny band of rebels held the world in awe. Now we’re shunted aside by the elected leaders, who declared it will not be Nebraskans who make the farsighted choices.”
An excellent Rolling Stone commentary about the tyranny of Big Oil, “The zombie pipeline lives!” addresses two great myths of Keystone XL.
From Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy’s statement in the December 14, 2011 Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 192: “Tar sands are a particularly dirty source of petroleum, from extraction to refinement. As I looked into this issue I saw some of the photographs of the boreal forest area where it is extracted, and I was shocked. Anyone who is interested in this issue, whether or not you think building the pipeline is a good idea, should look at the photographs. They depict an extraordinarily beautiful landscape that has been ravaged by heavy machinery, vast ponds filled with polluted water and sludge, and a scared wasteland where forests used to be. It is one of the more graphic examples of how our collective, insatiable thirst for oil has pillaged the fragile environment of this planet. Our demand for fossil fuels will continue to grow exponentially unless we come up with a comprehensive, national energy plan and have the will to implement it.”
“Why can’t lawmakers see what we all see: corporate contributions corrupt?” by Bill McKibben, was in the LA Times and LSJ December 16th: “…Is it really possible that people in Washington don’t understand what the rest of the country — left, right and center — believes about them: that they take campaign money from corporations in return for doing their bidding?
I went home and looked up Rep. Lee Terry in the database of the Dirty Energy Money Campaign, compiled by Oil Change International. Koch Industries had given him $15,500. Exxon Mobil had given him $25,500. The Petroleum Marketers Association had tossed in $12,500. ConocoPhillips, Chevron, BP — all in all since 1999, he’d gotten $365,798 from the fossil fuel industry, and in the latest tally, the site states he’d “sided with dirty energy interests in 100 percent of selected votes.
The same was true for all the other sponsors of the legislation to thwart the review of Keystone and build it fast, climate be damned. I understand that this kind of corruption is bipartisan, and also that it’s entirely legal; but I also understand that everyone, and I mean everyone, that I’ve ever met outside of Washington thinks it stinks. I mean, sitting there on the dais, I was feeling rude but also stunned. You really think this is OK? To take money from people whose interests you’ll then judge?”
“Keystone XL and Jobs: Just More Pipe Dreams” by environmental champion Robert Redford, on December 12th, begins “This week the GOP leadership, once again, has sided with Big Oil against the will of the American people. They are trying to circumvent President Obama’s decision to further investigate the impacts of the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. GOP leadership is instead advocating for granting the permit now, or else they will hold up important legislation meant to benefit real people’s real lives.” Redford also wrote “Stand Together Against the Tar Sands Scourge” for Reader Supported News in November.
Brasscheck TV addressed the “Tyranny of Big Oil” in a 2:16 minute video featuring Nebraska’s Randy Thompson and pipeline protesters. “Big Oil has cut a back-room deal with the dirtiest members of Congress to attach a provision that would force the Keystone XL pipeline approval to a MUST-PASS tax cut bill. These kinds of deals exemplify the tyranny Big Oil exercises over our government. President Obama came into office promising to “end the tyranny of oil.” This WAS his chance to prove he was serious.”
And Greg Palast wrote “Whistleblowers: Software Monitoring Keystone XL Pipeline’s Safety Contains Deliberate Errors,” for Truthout December 16th: “The GOP is pushing a pipeline that could blow you to pieces. Greg Palast conducted a five-continent investigation of Big Oil for British TV’s premier current affairs program, “Dispatches,”” and for BBC Worldwide. This report is based on the broadcast seen prime-time worldwide – but not yet in the USA. Whistleblowers have told Britain’s “Dispatches” that the safety software on major US pipelines contains deliberate errors – and so pipelines can – and have – busted, leaked, exploded … and killed.”
Urge President Obama to do the right thing and reject the pipeline by filling out a 350.org 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.
On January 14, 2012, 7:00 to 10:00pm, BOLD Nebraska will host an Art Auction Fundraiser in Omaha at 1213 Jones Street. To help STOP THE PIPELINE by contributing art or other items to the Omaha event, fill out the form here. View some of the items already donated for auction 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.“