(2PM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)
The Green Party candidate for governor of California, Laura Wells, was arrested Tuesday night after trying to attend the California gubernatorial debate between Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman. Wells had been barred from participating in the event, which was billed as an “eco-friendly debate” by sponsors.
“Laura Wells got arrested to help put the unemployed back to work, and to save the planet from climate change,” said Marnie Glickman, organizer of today’s debate protest and co-chair of the Green Party of Marin County, where the debate took place. “Wells stood up for the people whom Democrats and Republicans have forsaken: the unemployed, workers, children, and people whose homes have been foreclosed.”
Debate organizers say they excluded Wells from tonight’s debate because she did not poll at 10% or more. But in other states, Greens are included in debates. For example, in Arizona, U.S. Senator John McCain debated Green candidate Jerry Joslyn and two others on September 26th. In Massachusetts, Governor Deval Patrick debated Green gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein and two others on September 21st. The New York State gubernatorial debate scheduled for October 18th will include the Green candidate, Howie Hawkins.
Tonight’s event with Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman was billed as an “eco-friendly” debate, despite excluding the Green candidate for governor. “An eco-friendly debate without a Green is like an economic recovery without new jobs. It’s a fraud,” Glickman said.
The Wells for Governor campaign is backing the Green New Deal, which has been endorsed by more than 100 Green candidates across the country. It has ten planks:
* Cut military spending at least 70%
* Create millions of green union jobs through massive public investment in renewable energy, mass transit and conservation
* Set ambitious, science-based greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, and enact a revenue-neutral carbon tax to meet them
* Establish single-payer “Medicare for all” health care
* Provide tuition-free public higher education
* Change trade agreements to improve labor, environmental, consumer, health and safety standards
* End counterproductive prohibition policies and legalize marijuana
* Enact tough limits on credit interest and lending rates, progressive tax reform and strict financial regulation
* Amend the U.S. Constitution to abolish corporate personhood
* Pass sweeping electoral, campaign finance and anti-corruption reforms
For more information about the Laura Wells for Governor campaign, see http://www.laurawells.org/.
For more information about the arrest of Laura Wells, see: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=74454
2 comments
America good! Two party system!
Three party, not America! Not good! Only troublemaker like Liu Xiaobo want! America arrest!
All clear now?
It’s any of the issues and solutions that come from the left that are excluded. I don’t think most people realize how powerful the reality of MSM control of information is. It’s not just that they handle most of the information people receive, after all now there are many more alternatives, it is the fact that people need some solid source of what is officially accepted as reality. The MSM acts as the arbiter of what is acceptable to talk about. Only centrist, conservative and right-wing ideas are allowed to be discussed. It is funny that the only right-wing ideas that are unacceptable and are not covered is the genuine libertarian right that is oppodrf to imperial wars and 9/11 truthers. When the right gets too close to the left it disappears from official reality.