campaign reform, State Politics January 29, 2013

No More Shell Games: Time for Real Campaign Reform

by Mark A. Dunlea The type of public campaign finance model that Governor Cuomo allegedly supports – the NYC 6-to-1 match of small qualified contributions – will do little to curb the influence of special interest funders in dominating the State Capitol. The Clean Money Clean Election system of public financing – which provides equal public funding grants for candidates who qualify with a reasonable number of nominal private donations – is much stronger in reducing the role of special interests in buying politicians. A more fundamental reform would be for NY – and the US – to finally join the…

Environment, Green Party, National Politics January 24, 2013

The Precautionary Principle

by Ron Forthofer  The Daily Camera January 20, 2013 Here it is 2013 and the United States still refuses, with a few exceptions, to adopt the precautionary principle, a key tool used to protect the public from potentially dangerous products, policies or actions. The essence of this principle is that if there are reasonable grounds for concern about the safety of some product or action, its safety must be scientifically established before the product is released or the action taken. The precautionary principle reflects the idea that “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.” A key…

Climate Change, Environment, Green Party, National Politics January 22, 2013

Green Party of New York State comments on Hydrofracking

  On January 9, 2,000+ fracktivists rallied for a fracking ban outside Cuomo’s State of the State address. The next day, January 10 the Assembly Environmental Conservation committee heard 11 hours of testimony on the proposed regulations. Friday January 11, our allies in the New Yorkers Against Fracking Coalition delivered 204,000+ comments to the DEC on the proposed regs, all including a call for a hydrofracking ban. Below are the official comments submitted to the DEC from the Green Party of New York State – our candidates, including 2010 candidate for Governor Howie Hawkins, all support a statewide and national…

Democracy, Economy, Green Party, National Politics, on Obama January 22, 2013

‘US accelerating in wrong direction’ – Jill Stein in exclusive interview

The Voice of Russia January 19, 2013 Just days away from the inauguration of President Barack Obama, Capitol Affairs takes a look with the help of Jill Stein, former presidential candidate for the Green Party, at the state of politics, the state of the country and what the re-election of Obama means for the country. The entire interview will be aired on Monday, inauguration day, but here is the first part. Dr. Jill Stein is a Doctor of Internal Medicine having obtained her degree from Harvard Medical School. She is the member of the Green Party and ran for a…

Economy, Green Party, National Politics January 4, 2013

Bipartisan fiscal scam lays groundwork for austerity

jillstein.org by Jill Stein As daylight begins to shine on the fiscal cliff deal just passed by Congress, it’s clear the expected bipartisan betrayal has occurred. And even worse, it lays the groundwork for much more to come. In brief, the deal protects wealthy households earning up to $450,000 annually from tax increases, as it makes Bush tax cuts permanent for 98.5% of Americans. With this provision, Obama broke his promise to raise taxes on those earning over $250,000 per year. The deal also ended the payroll tax holiday, hitting vulnerable working and middle class families with significant tax increases…