Baltimore City Green Party Responds to the Conviction of Mayor Sheila Dixon

The Baltimore City Green Party thanks the jury for their service in Mayor Sheila Dixon's trial and hopes that despite Tuesday's embezzlement conviction the people and government of the city of Baltimore can move forward and work to build a truly sustainable, ethical, and economically-just city for all its residents.

The party is disappointed that Mayor Dixon betrayed the public trust, embarrassing not only herself but the city of Baltimore. As long as our city’s elected officials continue questionable relationships with developers and accept campaign contributions and other unaccounted gifts from them, continued embarrassment will be the result.

The party hopes that in the coming year the leadership of Baltimore will show signs of subscribing to Green Party values, particularly grassroots democracy - where people, not profits, drive decision-making - and social justice - where poverty is considered a problem to take on first and foremost, not an excuse for developers to pass gift cards through City Hall.

The party also challenges all of Baltimore's elected officials to strive for the high standards set by the Green Party and its candidates. The Baltimore City Green Party and its candidates refuse all contributions from business entities, corporations, and political action committees (PACs).

"The Green Party will continue to provide an example for our city leaders to follow," notes Brian Bittner, Co-Chair of the Baltimore City Green Party. "If they can't follow suit and give up their contributions - both duly recorded campaign contributions and unmarked gifts - from developers, we hope they will at least use some of their taxpayer-funded resources to

publicly list those contributions in a timely manner so city residents know who is influencing their decisions."

The Baltimore City Green Party can be reached at 443-876-8522.

An Angry Worker's Call to Action

Maria Allwine, Baltimore City Green Party member and former Green Party candidate for Baltimore City Council President, has written a new commentary called Waiting to Die in the Good Ole USA: An Angry Worker's Call to Action. Check it out here.

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Baltimore City Green Party Urges Representatives Cummings, Sarbanes, and Ruppersberger to Support Universal Single-Payer Health Coverage

BALTIMORE, MD - The Baltimore City Green Party calls on our members of the U.S. House of Representatives to reject the private health insurance industry bailout provided by HR 3962 – the Affordable Health Care for America Act – and stand up for a universal, single-payer plan that provides health care to all Americans regardless of their ability to pay for private insurance.

"This bill is a recipe for failure," says Vince Tola, Treasurer of the Baltimore City Green Party. "The weak public option will end up being more expensive than private insurance. It’s unconscionable that Congress wants to force people to pay premiums that they will not be able to afford."

City Greens applaud Representative Elijah Cummings for his recent statement that "Health care is not a privilege – it is a right" and ask him to back up his words with a meaningful public statement and vote in support of HR 676 – the United States National Health Care Act – which he cosponsors. In 2007, Representative Cummings wrote that "All a single payer system would do is eliminate the insurance company middlemen, saving millions of dollars in paperwork and processing fees."

The Baltimore City Green Party asks Mr. Cummings and all our Congressional representatives to reject bills such as HR 3962 that protect insurance company middlemen by mandating private insurance for all Americans. Senator Obama opposed the so-called "individual mandate" during election-year debates with Senator Clinton, yet this has become a central feature of President Obama's bill.

According to the Centers for Disease Control nearly 90,000 Baltimore residents have no health insurance. The Green Party believes that many of these individuals - the most needy city residents - will not be able to purchase mandated coverage regardless of the subsidies provided by President Obama's reforms. "People making the choice between food, shelter, and health care will still have to make the choice between food, shelter, and reduced-cost health care," noted Brian Bittner, Co-Chair of the Baltimore City Green Party. "They are likely to pick food and shelter first, and will now be in violation of federal mandates for making this choice."

In relation to other countries, the United States spends more per capita on health care without improved health outcomes. In fact, Americans fall behind other countries on nearly every health indicator, according to the World Health Organization. American innovation in health care – pioneered by Baltimore institutions like Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland Medical System – is meaningless when people cannot access it. Universal, single-payer health coverage – "Medicare for All" – is the only solution that truly addresses the crisis of our current system. A single-payer system cuts administrative costs, covers all Americans, and simplifies a complicated system filled with gaps and loopholes.

The Baltimore City Green Party believes that the people of Baltimore cannot wait any longer for a real solution to our health care crisis. We urge our Representatives Ruppersberger, Sarbanes, and Cummings to publicly state opposition to HR 3962 and promote real comprehensive health care reform through progressive bills such as HR 676.

The Baltimore City Green Party does not accept any contributions from business entities such as insurance companies or political action committees (PACs) such as the pharmaceutical or health insurance lobbies.

The Baltimore City Green Party can be reached at 443-876-8522 or baltimoregreens@gmail.com.

Maryland Green Party Featured in Green Pages

The latest edition of Green Pages, the national newsletter of the Green Party of the United States, mentions Maryland in its preview of continuing ballot access efforts around the country. The entire article can be seen here.

The article notes that:

"The Maryland Green Party is preparing for its 2010 petition drive. State law requires the party to collect 10,000 signatures, but the party must collect many more this year due to new, stricter verification requirements. The party is responding by working with legislators to introduce bills to clarify the verification procedure and lower the signature requirement, in addition to collecting as many signatures as possible. “We asked every member of the state Senate to introduce a bill on our behalf to cut the number of signatures we need to collect in half,” said Brian Bittner, who organized last year’s legislative efforts. “We ended up finding both Democrat and Republican sponsors in both the Senate and House and getting a bill through initial committee hearings in both Houses. Now we are working to get the bill pre-filed for the 2010 legislative session and start building support for it well in advance.” Visit www.mdgreens.org/petition to find out how you can help with the petition effort."

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Two Wins in Maryland!

On Election Day, 2009, two Maryland Green Party members were elected to City Councils in the DC-metropolitan area.

Dan Robinson was re-elected to his seat on the Takoma Park City Council (3rd District). He ran unopposed and won re-election with 381 votes. Full results for this race are available online here.

In College Park, Christine Nagle was elected to her first term on the College Park City Council (1st District). Out of five candidates, she received the second-highest vote total (281 votes, or 28%) for one of the two available seats. Full results of her race can be found here.

Congratulations to Dan and Christine, and thanks to all the Greens who supported these candidates.

Anne Arundel Green Party Condemns Race Baiting and Homophobic Smears in Annapolis Ward 3 Campaign

from our friends in Anne Arundel County:


ANNAPOLIS, MD - Representatives of the Anne Arundel Green Party today condemned the race baiting and homophobic flyer materials distributed about Republican candidate Scott Bowling (the only openly gay candidate in this year's election) in the Ward 3 race. The flyers were distributed in support of Classie Hoyle's campaign urging people to vote for Hoyle specifically because Bowling is gay.

"Homophobia in any form is despicable. What makes this flyer even more disgusting is that the authors equate homosexuality with child abuse. The flyer is an affront to the thousands of gay Americans who proudly serve as civil servants, elected officials, or as members of our armed forces," stated Virginia Smith, co-chair of the Anne Arundel Greens.

Karen Jennings was the Green Party's candidate in the Ward 2 special election in 2007 and spoke out against this type of campaign tactic. "An individual's race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation should always be off limits when it comes to campaigning. Smear tactics based on fear and hatred only cheapen democracy and the democratic process. As someone who is actively working in the LGBT community to create a more diverse and inclusive Annapolis , I find this divisive literature to be extremely damaging to the small-town character of our city. This type of hate speech has no place in Annapolis or any other town across the U.S. "

The Anne Arundel Green Party is disappointed that the Hoyle campaign has not commented on this issue despite the quick response of the Anne Arundel County Democratic Central Committee and the Josh Cohen Campaign to condemn the flyers.

The Anne Arundel Green Party currently has 800 registered voters in Anne Arundel County and has been an active participant in the Chesapeake Pride Festival since 2006. The national platform of the Green Party of the United States embraces full rights and equality regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, including marriage rights and support for legislation ending discrimination in employment, housing, medical benefits, and child custody.

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Greens Call for Real Action on Climate Change

from the Green Party of the United States:

WASHINGTON, DC - Green Party leaders criticized the Kerry-Boxer draft "cap and trade" climate change bill in the US Senate, calling it dangerously inadequate as evidence mounts that global warming is advancing more rapidly than scientists believed a few years ago.

"While Democrats are calling the Kerry-Boxer bill ambitious and far-reaching, the proposed legislation doesn't come close to what we need to do now to halt the destruction of our future," said Wes Rolley, co-chair of the Green Party's EcoAction Committee. "When President Obama goes to the UN Climate Change Summit, he needs to show up with real solutions to cut CO2 emissions and lower energy consumption, not with an armful of Kerry-Boxer retreats and compromises."

A recent UN report warned that the earth is likely to heat up more than 2 degrees Celsius, which could lead to a global catastrophe, while the UN Environment Program recently forecast a rise in temperature as high as 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit by the century's end. The 2009 UN Climate Change Summit will take place December 7 to 18 in Copenhagen.

"The White House and Congress have the opportunity to lead the world in an immediate, intense, and concerted effort to prevent global warming and future wars over dwindling fresh water and other resources. Unfortunately, they're retreating from the most important measures required in such an effort. They're doing so out of deference to corporate lobbies," said Mr. Rolley.

Greens said that the bill would only cut emissions by 7% below 1990 levels by 2020, contrary to a recommendation from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that developed countries, including the US, must reduce emissions by 25%, i.e., by 40% below 1990 levels, by 2020.

Greens also warned that the bill would subsidize costly, dangerous, and false alternative energy sources. Nuclear power is a proven security risk and threat to the environment. Carbon capture creates a new kind of pollution through the disposal of carbon 'washed' from coal and allows coal companies to continue destroying and poisoning landscapes in states like West Virginia through mountaintop removal.

The bill also creates a new and virtually unregulated commodities market, a huge risk in light of the recent economic crisis, which was caused by the repeal of laws regulating major financial institutions. The European Union's underregulated approach to carbon credits has already proven a failure in the effort to reduce CO2 emissions.

"Cap and trade is a loophole for polluters to keep polluting," said Lynne Serpe, Green candidate for New York City Council in Ward 22 and an employee at New York State's largest weatherization service, handling energy efficiency and green-collar job training. "In many instances, emissions trading encourages greenhouse gas emissions, because it allows companies with low pollution to sell their conservation credits to the highest bidders, giving top polluters a license to maintain or increase pollution levels. The Kerry-Boxer bill's offset loopholes, including deals for methane capture in coal mines, gas pipelines, and landfills, will allow even more emissions."

The Green Party calls for bans on new coal fired-power plants, new nuclear power plants (with early retirement of current nuclear reactors), and all mountaintop coal removal. The party endorses a reduction by 90% of mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants by 2012, targeted carbon taxes, investment in renewable noncarbon-based energy technology, and reduction of CO2 and SO2 emissions by 80% by 2020.

"We need a reorganization of the US economy that will create millions of new jobs in conversion to safe clean energy, conservation, and expansion of public transportation to replace car traffic," said Cam Gordon, Green candidate for reelection to the Minneapolis City Council in Ward 2. "Our children and grandchildren are depending on us not to bargain away their future."

See also the Green Party's press release on the House bill, "Greens give a thumbs-down to the House energy bill, urge Obama and the Senate to pass stronger anti-global warming legislation" (July 15, 2009).