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McSweeney’s has been running a first rate series on reasons to vote for Obama.

I was struck by today’s (number 13), especially this:

After that I learned to appreciate Obama in a different way. I appreciated that he inhabited a world in which idealism-and ideology-could never by sheer force of will overcome objective reality, and the hard compromises, uneasy truces, and constant errors that must be made to live in that world. I especially felt better about this position when I learned that John McCain carried an indian feather around FOR LUCK. This was not how I wanted my country run. By myth and superstition and magic tokens.

And, in that real world, I began to appreciate, winning matters. And not just that election. Those who hate how far the legislative Frankenstein’s monster called the Affordable Care Act lurched away from the promethean ideal of what it could have been are not wrong. Those who, for this reason, cheered for its failure were dumb. Whether the fight should have been joined just then is a discussion that countless armchair quarterbacks and alternate history novelists can debate, sterilely, forever. Once it WAS joined, that win was galvanizing…

What I’m missing, in the Stein/Honkala account, is a recognition that half the country adamantly does not share our views on most anything. Like the author of this piece suggests, that doesn’t make ’em bad people; but it does mean that, willy nilly, their voices, too, count (nor are they simply dumb-asses misled by their corporate whoremasters–they have their own traditions and values, and simply identifying those with whom we disagree as simply brainwashed by FOX agitprop (which isn’t suggest that it’s negligible, either, is the highest form of condescension).

And they have representation, and lots of it. And a Green President, like any other, would be forced to compromise at every turn, from the moment she takes the Oath. After a year in office, a Green President will look remarkably unlike a Green candidate and probaby find herself with a back full of arrows aimed by her disgruntled supporters).

That is, if she wants to get anything whatsoever done. But of Greens really wanted to get something done, they’d actually be running for offices that they might win, thereby giving them that opportunity.

Continue reading Ninety Reasons to Vote for Obama

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[This op-ed appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on 8/15/12.]

by Jill Stein

When I decided to run for president of the United States, spending the night in a Philadelphia jail cell was not part of my strategy. But I and my running mate on the Green Party ticket, Cheri Honkala, found ourselves in handcuffs this month after we refused to leave the Philadelphia building housing the regional headquarters of the mortgage giant Fannie Mae.

We were there to support two women whose families faced unjust evictions by Fannie Mae, as well as the eight million other families who have faced foreclosure at the hands of Wall Street.

Continue reading A candidate goes to jail
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The SAGE Alliance is sponsoring a creative, fun action coming up on Sat. September 8th that we want you to know about. People are gathering that day in a flotilla on the Connecticut River and the shore across from the Vermont Yankee Nulcear Reactor – which continues to put overheated and radioactive water into the river.  

More details at: http://sagealliance.net/action…

Continue reading Flotilla & Rally September 8th at VT Yankee
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It’s a sure thing that the majority party will offer Robert DeLeo up for confirmation as House Speaker when the next legislative session convenes in January 2013.

As I stated when I obtained a spot on the ballot, I will vote AGAINST confirming Robert DeLeo or any candidate of similar ilk.

My opponent, William ‘Smitty’ Pignatelli, should be asked, if he is re-elected, if he would vote once again to confirm Robert DeLeo.  If the media doesn’t ask him I’ll do so in a debate or on the campaign trail.  

Advocates of progressive legislation such as the Bottle Bill and Mass Muni Choice are becoming tired of hearing the old refrain that their ‘allies’ in the State House are doing all they can to advance legislation, only to be told that it’s the House Speaker who is blocking progress.

When these ‘allies’ continue to vote to confirm a House Speaker who then subverts good legislation by refusing to allow the bills to come out of committee or to allow a vote, then those ‘allies’ are complicit in the problem.

Continue reading Reasons to Vote AGAINST Confirming the Speaker

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There was a story in the July 31, 2012 Berkshire Eagle about Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli being fined $250 for a ‘campaign finance gaffe.’  His campaign treasurer worked for the town of Lenox, which is a violation of campaign finance law.  The full story is pasted at the end of this diary.

In response to several media inquiries for a statement from me I released the following:

I would not want to be found in violation of campaign finance laws.  I’m surprised that Representative Pignatelli stated to the Berkshire Eagle that he was not aware of the matter until OCPF did its investigation.  I can reasonably assume that the town of Lenox had notified his treasurer, Ms. Pero about the matter in August 2011.  It should have been an easy matter to research and take appropriate action then.  I have high praise for the Office of Campaign and Political Finance.  OCPF staff and its web site have always been extremely helpful in assisting candidates like Rep. Pignatelli and me to comply with the campaign finance laws of Massachusetts when a modest effort is made by such candidates to learn the rules.

My statement continues, along with relevant appendices.

Continue reading My Opponent’s Campaign Finance Gaffe