Government of, by, and for the people, IS perishing from this earth.

Will write more about my experience at the Green Party Nominating Convention in Baltimore, MD, but for now, you can watch it live:

You can also catch it on C-SPAN, and I’m very excited that Democracy NOW! has based their show out of Baltimore to cover the Green Party convention in depth.

The Green Party’s presumptive nominee for President, Dr. Jill Stein, met a groundbreaking threshold over the weekend by securing enough financial support in 22 states to qualify for the Federal Election Commission’s primary matching funds.

With taxpayers (voluntarily) doling out funds to two third party candidates in this election (Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson ironically qualified in May), the issue of whether the bipartisan (Democrat-and-Republican-controlled) Commission on Presidential Debates can justify its exclusive, anti-democratic charade will itself become a topic for debate.

Watch Stein’s brief message about this breakthrough, and read her full statement below the jump:

From jillstein.org:

Seven of the most prominent leaders of the American peace community today released a letter urging financial and other support for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. The letters writers were David Swanson, Medea Benjamin, Leah Bolger, Bruce Gagnon, Chris Hedges, George Martin, and Kevin Zeese. After noting a series of failures of President Barack Obama to curtail military spending and reduce military violence worldwide, their letter states that only Dr. Stein will have the ability to stimulate a serious debate on the nation’s approach to foreign policy.

The peace leaders released their support letter as candidate Stein, a physician from Massachusetts who first became nationally known as an environmental health advocate, enters the final days of a push to qualify for federal matching funds. Stein has won 29 state primaries and has been declared the “presumptive nominee” of the Green Party by virtue of having won more than half the delegates to the Green Party convention. In the next few days she must reach fundraising goals in 9 additional states in order to qualify for federal matching funds.

Read the full text of the letter at jillstein.org.

By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive

June 7, 2012

Spare me the spin. This was a whupping.

After sixteen months of the most historic and exciting citizens’ uprising that I’ve ever been a part of in my thirty-five years of progressive activism and journalism, we’re left with this disaster.

Scott Walker is governor for another two and a half years.

He claims vindication for his rightist onslaught.

The national rightwing media is carrying him around on their shoulders.

And the Koch Brothers are popping the expensive champagne.

Meanwhile, the movement-a real giant grassroots movement, which flooded the capitol square with more than 100,000 people and which gathered a million recall signatures-is disintegrating.

From Jill Stein for President, June 06, 2012:

The Green Party’s Jill Stein has clinched her party’s presidential nomination after celebrating a major victory in yesterday’s California primary, winning 49% of the vote against her chief contenders, television comedienne Roseanne Barr and public servant Kent Mesplay. The California win followed other recent Stein victories in Michigan, Florida, and Iowa.

With 182 delegates required to win the nomination, and 194 delegates now in hand, Stein will go into the Green Party convention in Baltimore, July 12-15, with a clear majority of delegates. She has won over 66% of all delegates allocated, and 27 of 29 Green Party primaries, with the next nearest candidate, Roseanne Barr, at 22%.

From Jill Stein for President, June 06, 2012:

Dr. Jill Stein, the victor in the Green Party presidential primaries, this morning issued the following statement about yesterday’s recall elections in Wisconsin:

“For over a year now, the working people of Wisconsin have been under siege by the fossil fuel, mining, and toxic chemical corporations. Yesterday’s recall election was deeply flawed. Thousands of qualified voters were turned away from their polling places. Thousands more were told not to vote, or that election day was yet to come. The corporate media declared the election results while voters still stood in line to vote, and at a time when only the most conservative ward results were reported. Many votes were cast on electronic voting machines that are easy to manipulate because they lack a paper trail. And nearly all of the money spent in the election came from out-of-state big corporate interests. If an election like that is free and fair, then I have a nuke plant in Vermont to sell you.”