The Green-Rainbow Party nominated two candidates for statewide office at its January 11th State Committee meeting, and is looking for a candidate for State Auditor to join the slate.

From the Green-Rainbow Party website:

Two Green-Rainbow Party (GRP) candidates have stepped forward to run for statewide constitutional offices in 2014.  They are  Daniel Factor, running for Secretary of the Commonwealth,  and Ian T. Jackson, running for State Treasurer.  Daniel Factor is an attorney who lives in Acton.  He is currently the Secretary of the Green-Rainbow Party.   Ian T. Jackson is a software engineer who lives in Arlington and has been active in local affairs.   Both candidates received a party nomination at the January 11 State Committee meeting in Worcester.

Factor and Jackson will run as members of a party-coordinated slate that the party says will give the voters of the Commonwealth a truly progressive alternative to a perceived ineffective, corporate-dominated Democratic Party establishment.

And later on:

According to Green-Rainbow Party co-chair John Andrews “We would be particularly interested in an Auditor candidate who would bring gender or ethnic diversity to the slate.  We are looking for someone who can speak in support of our themes of economic justice,  real democracy, and a healthy environment.  The slate effort itself will provide a lot of team support to the candidates, so this is a good opportunity for a first-time candidate.”

Apparently they are asking any potential Auditor candidates to submit an application by February 3rd.

Across the country, there were some strong showings and nice victories for Green Party candidates running for local office.  Minneapolis City Councilor Cam Gordon, and Cleveland City Councilor Brian Cummins, were both re-elected. 16 California Greens won local office, which was a record for off-year elections. And in New England, Josh Plourde was elected to the Bangor City Council, Anna Trevorrow was elected to the Portland School Board, and Mirna Martinez was elected to the New London Board of Education.

In Massachusetts, Green-Rainbow Party candidates for local office included three first-time candidates. Joe Carvalho’s bid for Mayor of Fall River saw him place second in a field of six to advance to yesterday’s election, but fell short of ousting incumbent Mayor William Flanagan. Elie Yarden’s campaign for Cambridge City Council saw him place 20th out of 25 candidates for 9 seats. And Francisco White’s bid for Boston City Council At Large placed him 16th out of 19 candidates for 4 seats during September’s preliminary election. Rick Purcell came in 12th out 13 candidates for Holyoke’s eight At Large City Council seats. And Mark Miller, who came within 981 votes of Pittsfield’s State Representative seat in 2010, came in 6th in a field of 7 for 4 at large Pittsfield City Council seats.

While some of the most exciting progress for the Green Party has been with municipally elected Greens, the party does not seem to be gaining much traction overall, after nearly three decades of running for local office. I think it’s an important time to reflect on those three decades, and the experience we have developed  engaging with this admittedly rigged process. The times are a-changing, but I’m not sure our tactics are changing with them. I’m also not convinced they should change dramatically, but I’d like to see them add up to dramatic change. Unfortunately, I don’t see it. I invite all Green and Green-Rainbow candidates and supporters, as well as all of our dear readers, to comment here with your reflections. And I am incredibly grateful, even though I haven’t made that particularly clear, for the work, sweat, vision and courage that the brave few throwing their hats into the ring have brought to the table.  

From CommonDreams.org

The following is a rush transcript by Common Dreams of the statement made by Pfc. Bradley Manning as read by David Coombs at a press conference on Wednesday following the announcement of his 35-year prison sentence by a military court:

The decisions that I made in 2010 were made out of a concern for my country and the world that we live in. Since the tragic events of 9/11, our country has been at war.  We’ve been at war with an enemy that chooses not to meet us on any traditional battlefield, and due to this fact we’ve had to alter our methods of combating the risks posed to us and our way of life.

I initially agreed with these methods and chose to volunteer to help defend my country.  It was not until I was in Iraq and reading secret military reports on a daily basis that I started to question the morality of what we were doing.  It was at this time I realized in our efforts to meet this risk posed to us by the enemy, we have forgotten our humanity.  We consciously elected to devalue human life both in Iraq and Afghanistan.  When we engaged those that we perceived were the enemy, we sometimes killed innocent civilians.  Whenever we killed innocent civilians, instead of accepting responsibility for our conduct, we elected to hide behind the veil of national security and classified information in order to avoid any public accountability.

Let me make it clear that I appreciate Senator Ron Wyden’s willingness to raise the issues surrounding the US surveillance state, albeit quite obliquely until Edward Snowden risked his life to put the details on the table.

In a fascinating interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Wyden contorts logic in defense of compliance with the classification rules that determine what can and can not be discussed, and pats himself on the back for getting certain things declassified, including statements about an important FISA court ruling (but not the ruling itself). He then goes on to say that while the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has now admitted that the national security apparatus has violated FISA court orders on bulk phone record collection, “I’ll tell your viewers that those violations are significantly more troubling than the government has stated.”

Last week, I wrote about the need to get to the bottom of one critical question, “whether Obama’s statements are intentionally obtuse and misleading, or just an outright lie.” I think the answer of this question will ultimately determine the fate of the Obama Administration, and whether or not he will finish his term. Knowing that Edward Snowden’s application of sunlight to the NSA’s unconstitutional spying apparatus has more revelations to come, it appears to me that the public is beginning to wise up to the “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.” Sadly, as a U.S. Senator, Al Franken — the author of that book and its critique of the right-wing punditocracy — has taken to defending the lies and the lying liars who tell them when they are told by Democrats.

But a spied-upon United States public (not to mention a spied-upon European Union) does not take kindly to liars or their apologists, and the Democrats are alienating both their friends and enemies. The first casualty of this growing scandal will clearly be the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who outright lied to Congress back in March: