Has the Tories increasing climate change scepticism made clear Green water for the other parties to occupy?

According to The Independent the Labour Party campaign managers have identified 31 seats where the increasingly sceptical Conservative tone over climate change might benefit them and the Liberal Democrats. 

In these seats, of which 7 are Lib Dem held seats, the Labour Party believes that it might be possible for incumbents to benefit from an above average Green Party level of support and squeeze it to support the non-Tory incumbent. 

This follows Gordon Brown’s comments about Nigel Lawson and David Davies and their “flat-earth” environmental comments.

According to The Independent, ‘in the 31 seats, the Green Party or Scottish Green Party had a 2 per cent or higher share of the vote – which could make the difference between the Tories winning or losing on a marginal swing.

‘The Tories need to win Tooting – target seat number 112 – with a notional Labour majority of 5,190, to win an outright majority. In this south London seat, the Greens won a 4.1 per cent share of the vote in 2005.’

Certainly the Tories apparently paper-thin interest in the environment might well now damage them, but I find it fascinating that Labour high command at Number 10 identify seven Lib Dem seats as being ones where this strategy should be adopted.

The full List of seats according to The Independent is:

Finchley & Golders Green (L); Croydon Central (L); Battersea (L); Milton Keynes South (L); Hove (L); Cheltenham (LD); Stroud (L); Carshalton & Wallington (LD); Hastings & Rye (L); Calder Valley (L); Hereford & North Herefordshire (LD); Colne Valley (L); Brighton Kemptown (L); Swindon South (L); Milton Keynes North (C, notional L due to boundary changes); Watford (L); Birmingham Edgbaston (L); Worcester (L); Bradford West (L); Richmond Park (LD); Brentford & Isleworth (L); Edinburgh South (L); Leeds North West (LD); Ochil & South Perthshire (L); Stirling (L); Devon North (LD); Oxford West & Abingdon (LD); Poplar & Limehouse (L); Reading West (L); Waveney (L); Tooting (L)

Ever hear of Diane Savino?  You will.  Currently our senator from Staten Island, she recently made the nation’s radar with her speech on the sanctity of marriage, well worth viewing here:

“Diane Savino has dedicated her entire professional career towards improving the lives of working families. She began her career in public service as a caseworker for New York City’s Child Welfare Administration, providing direct assistance to abused and neglected children. …

As a labor activist, she actively and successfully campaigned for an increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.15—the first raise for New Yorkers in over a decade. …

Senator Savino has passed important legislation, including a law that ended the 5-year statute of limitation on sexual assualt, a bill establishing a task force for the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer, the Olive Oil Labeling Bill, which prohibits additives in virgin olive oil,  the Prompt Pay Bill, which ensures prompt payment to construction contractors and their employees, a cost-of-living increase in the death benefit for widows and widowers of police officers and fire fighters killed in the line of duty.

In addition, Senator Savino has championed legislation protecting hard-working New Yorkers, Paid Family Leave, which establishes up to 12 weeks of paid leave to care for a sick family member or newborn, Domestic Workers Bill of Rights, expanding basic worker protection rights to domestic workers, and a law that would limit public authorities from contracting out for services that can be performed by public employees.”

From her recent speech to the New York State Senate:

“Turn on the television. We have a wedding channel on cable TV devoted to the behavior of people on the way to the altar. They spend billions of dollars, behave in the most appalling way, all in an effort to be princess for a day. You don’t have cable television? Put on network TV. We’re giving away husbands on a game show. You can watch The Bachelor, where thirty desperate women will compete to marry a 40-year-old man who has never been able to maintain a decent relationship in his life.”

“That’s what we’ve done to marriage in America, where young women are socialized from the time they’re five years old to think of being nothing but a bride. They plan every day what they’ll wear, how they’ll look, the invitations, the whole bit, they don’t spend five minutes thinking about what it means to be a wife. People stand up there before god and man even in Senator Diaz’s church, they swear to love honor and obey, they don’t mean a word of it. So if there’s anything wrong with the sanctity of marriage in America, it comes from those of us who have the privilege and the right and have abused it for decades.”

Interview with Senator Savino here!

You can e-mail her your thanks!

savino@senate.state.ny.us

Senator Diane J. Savino
512 Legislative Office Building
Albany, New York 12247
Phone: (518) 455-2437
Fax: (518) 426-6943

~~~

Carrying on the gay day:  Meredith Baxter comes out (though she was never in)!

View all here:

Interview with Meredith Baxter at The Advocate (click here).

“…this is where I want to be because I was dead to the world in many other ways. I’ve been married three times, and I have a slew of children, but I’ve never felt that kind of connection before in that kind of awakening. It was very profound for me…

The message I get is that I’m America’s mom. And because research seems to show that people who have someone who is gay in their family — or a friend or just know someone in the community who is gay — they seem to have a more open attitude about gay and lesbian issues. So I can say I’m still that mom. I am still the same person. I’m nonthreatening, I’m very friendly, I’m accessible, and if they can say, ‘OK, well, she’s a lesbian, maybe that’s not such a scary thing. And if she can come out and say that without too much fear, then maybe I can do that.’If it makes a difference to a couple of people, then I guess it’s worthwhile. I certainly got tired of hiding to the extent that I was.

Marcus McCabe stood in the 2002 General Election in Cavan-Monaghan for the Green Party. It was the first time the Green Party stood there. He polled 1,100 votes, 843 votes behind Monaghan based Independent councillor Vincent Martin (a former president of the Students Union in Maynooth)  who subsequently joined the Greens and stood in 2007.

Last night’s Pearls of Wisdom show was bananas. I’m sorting through all the video and photos, but I wanted to at least let you know what’s coming. DJ Bonnie Danger and DJ Jasmine Solano were on the 1s and 2s.

Green Party VP candidate Rosa Clemente was also in the building!

There were performances by:

Bless Roxwell

Nemiss

Eagle Nebula

Jessie Rose

Patty Dukes and A Fig

Kalea All Day brought Likwuid in the stage

Lah Tere

more to come ……

PEACE

I’ve just finished reading an excellent story by Chris Barton in the NZ Herald, which is a good primer for the Copenhagen conference that John Key is going to? The cricket on TV is on in the background and apparently Key is in Wellington watching New Zealand vs Pakistan, so he doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to get to the airport.

He quotes Phil Scadden, a geo-scientist from Dunedin, as saying that by 2025 we could cover all our energy needs using wind, hydro, geothermal and other relatively green sources if we were prepared to spend a great deal of money.

I find it hard to believe that NZ will spend the money, especially if we are insistent on Kyoto and other deals which would require us to pay other countries who have less carbon emissions than us. For my money I think that we should invest the same amount of money on cleaning up our own act.

I ask myself if we can afford to be prissy about seeing lots of wind turbines on hilltops. Personally I think they look really good. I was in the Netherlands earlier this year and the site of hundreds of wind turbines was quite inspiring. I don’t have a problem with having them far enough away so they don’t cause noise polution. We have plenty of great spots in the country that are almost always windy, such as Ohakea, which I believe from memory means place where four winds meet. It certainly never disappointed when I used to go down to the Ohakea Air Base to race land yachts, a very green speed sport:)

Something that annoys me when we talk about clean and green in this country is the lack of emission controls for diesel vehicles. If I was given a dollar for each diesel soot sprewing truck, with black soot backs delivering frozen meat, I would be able to retire today.

I’d also like to know why NZ is following other countries, with Feed-in Tarriffs, which I have previously blogged about. The concept was raised a long time ago by the Green Party, where there would be subsidies and incentives for people to put solar panels on their rooves and allowed them to sell surplus power into the grid.

Anyway, this whole situation disturbs me. Instead of fixing our problem at home, we want to pay other countries who are more fortunate than us, in having more trees etc. NZ has the ability to be self sustainable if we put our brilliant scientists and inventers on the job. We could be isolated from a lot of the problems of climate change in other parts of the world. Once we have it licked, then we can give them access to our know how. That might make a great new export for us.

For now, I’ve been for a 9 1/2 km bush walk/jog, finished my blog and am going to go and by an electric lawn mower. It is plastic, doesn’t need oil or petrol, won’t rust and will therefore last much longer.

Alf is bewildered this morning by news that –

Associate Local Government Minister John Carter is denying doing favours for a constituent after claims a clause was secretly inserted in legislation allowing a Northland man to build a boat ramp on public land.

A clause secretly inserted?

What chance would you have of sneaking a “secret clause” past 120 or so eagle-eyed Parliamentarians?

On second thoughts, forget that question. Let’s take a different tack.

Why would an MP want to deny trying to do a favour for a constituent?

Anyway, Carter did not slip the so-called secret clause into the bill.

Nope.

The change was made by a select committee after Mr Carter advocated for boatbuilder Doug Schmuck, whose bid to use the Opua land had previously been embroiled in a $600,000 legal wrangle.

So the story gets better. A “secret” clause was slipped into the bill by a select committee, which – when Alf last looked – comprised MPs of all stripes.

What a load of bollocks.

The story goes on –

Mr Carter, who is also minister of Civil Defence, Racing and Senior Citizens, said he was not present at the select committee hearing when the change was made. But he admitted the committee had acted on advice “that probably wasn’t as fulsome as it could have been” and said he was seeking to have the clause amended to a more general one.

He stood by his decision to help Mr Schmuck, however, saying the wrangle over the land was a waste of taxpayer money.

And so he should have helped this fellow, even though he is a Schmuck. It’s our job to help our constituents.

Alf would have done the same.

And it sure sounds like the constituent was having a hard time.

In a submission to the select committee in September 2007 he detailed his battle over the slipway and described the Conservation Department as the “evil empire of red tape” after a decade-long battle over the slipway.

There had been seven publicly notified applications related to the case, five Environment Court hearings and two district court cases.

What should you be able to do in our democracy, when you are up against obstinate bureaucrats?

Yep. You should be able to go to your MP, who – if he/she is any bloody good – will go out and bat for you.

Which is exactly what John Carter has done.

So who blew the whistle on the so-called “secret” clause?

Yep. The bloody Greens.

… the select committee decision has outraged the Green Party, which lodged a formal complaint that it had brought Parliament into disrepute.

Co-leader Russel Norman said there had been no opportunity for locals to make submissions against the proposal because the law change had never been publicised.

Mr Carter advocated for Mr Schmuck, a constituent in his Northland electorate, to have clauses inserted in the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill allowing the boatbuilder use of public land.

Further down in the report at Stuff, we learn

Mr Carter said he would not apologise for helping a constituent.

“Doug has been frustrated by people who have a different agenda and so the way that we have moved it forward in a bid to save taxpayer money and to represent him is to allow this clause.”

He labelled Mr Schmuck’s opponents “pedantic”.

“I’ve had enough of it, I want some common sense and that’s exactly what we’re going to get.”

He did not know how many people were opposed to the boat ramp.

“I think I have done my job on behalf of a constituent as he would expect me to.”

Carter is quite right not to say sorry. We’ve had enough apologies from our northern MPs for now, and in this case he was simply helping a citizen.

The bloody Greens wouldn’t know about an MP’s duty towards electorate constituents, of course.

The buggers didn’t win any seats at the last election and are in the House, stirring shit, simply because a certain percentage of Kiwis were dim-witted enough to cast votes for the mealy-mouthed muesli munchers.

How about an apology from those voters, eh?

During the speech, President Obama will announce his intention to send 30,000 more troops, raising the number of US personnel in Afghanistan to over 100,000.

“Millions of Americans voted for Barack Obama in 2008 under the impression that he was an ‘antiwar’ candidate, even though Mr. Obama supported the war in Afghanistan and favored a limited withdrawal from Iraq. Troop escalation will not ‘finish the job’ in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. Unless he surprises us in his speech on Tuesday, we’ll be further mired in a war that shouldn’t have happened in the first place,” said Rosa Clemente, the Green Party’s nominee for Vice President in 2008 (http://www.rosaclemente.com).

The Green Party of the United States will participate in antiwar protests scheduled for Saturday, December 12 in Washington, DC, and other locations throughout the US.

In Washington, Greens and other Americans who support an end to the Afghanistan war will gather for an Emergency Anti-Escalation Rally in Lafayette Park near the White House. Among the featured speakers for this rally will be Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party’s 2008 presidential nominee, and Lynne Williams, 2010 Green candidate for Governor of Maine (http://www.lynnewilliams2010.org). The rally, organized by End US Wars will take place from 11 am to 4 pm (http://www.enduswars.org / contact: Laurie Dobson, 207-604-8988, contact@enduswars.org).

“This is what Obama’s fabled bi-partisanship gets us — more of the same. What we need is partisanship, with a strong Green Party presence in this country, since we are the only party that was against the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan from day one,” said Ms. Williams.

On November 25, Ms. McKinney sent an open letter to President Obama urging a reversal of his warhawk policy on Afghanistan (http://dignity.ning.com/profiles/blogs/cynthia-mckinneys-letter-to).

Nationwide rallies and protests are also planned for December 2, immediately after the President’s speech (http://www.unitedforpeace.org/calendar.php).

Green Party leaders have disputed President Obama’s claims that the invasion of Afghanistan was “the right war.” The invasion has resulted in a catastrophe for Afghan civilians, with thousands killed and maimed and the destruction of property and infrastructure. The Taliban has won greater popular support because of its defiance of foreign troops, while President Karzai’s corrupt administration have betrayed any hope for democracy and regional warlords have turned Afghanistan into the world’s leading producer of opium. Human rights for most Afghans, especially women, have not advanced because of the US invasion.

Greens also asserted that the war has not reduced any real or perceived terrorist threat against the US, and its expansion into Pakistan with drone attacks inside Pakistani borders has created greater regional instability and animosity towards the US. Greens called the Democrats as much a party of war as the GOP, with both parties spending enormous amounts of taxpayers’ money to feed a military machine that bullies other nations and ultimately sustains corporate war profiteers.

“The only way to show support for US troops is to demand their safe return. As the Soviet Union’s attempt to subjugate Afghanistan proved, the US’s attempt to occupy the country means mounting US casualties,” said Farheen Hakeem, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.

“The Green Party — not the Democrats or Republicans — represents the will of the people, with polls showing a majority of Americans opposed to the war. We challenge all Americans who desire peace to speak out with their voices and votes, demand that President Obama order our troops home now, and call on Congress to cut military spending,” added Ms. Hakeem.

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN

Green candidate database and campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections
Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
Fall 2009 issue now online
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

Join Public Citizen Texas December 15th at Barr Mansion (we just can’t get enough) for the Second Annual Austin Green Holiday Social! This event will be co-hosted by seven of Austin’s best and brightest green groups.

Join us again at the beautiful Barr Mansion, the first certified organic events facility in the nation, as we bring together seven great organizations for one great evening. We are coming together to celebrate the holidays, bring our groups closer together, network and prepare for a great and productive 2010.

Enjoy great live Latin/World Fusion music by Nelson Saga. Delicious organic foods, beer, wine and teas will be provided.

Please bring a canned food item for a needy family over the holidays. We will also have several great raffle items with all proceeds to benefit Mobile Loaves & Fishes.

Co-Hosted by:

Texas Green Network • Austin EcoNetwork • Eco Series • NetImpact • Public Citizen • Sierra Club • Design Build Live

Tuesday, December 15th 6-10pm
Barr Mansion and Artisan Ballroom
10463 Sprinkle Road

For directions and information, click HERE.

Admission: $22 in advance / $30 at door

Please REGISTER in advance here. If you plan on joining us and paying at the door, you can also rsvp at rsvp@TexasGreenNetwork.org to make sure plenty of food and beverage is on hand.

Stay with us after the jump to learn more about the event hosts!

About the Event Hosts:

Texas Green Network

The First Green Chamber-of-Commerce in Texas

Advancing the Green Business Economy and the Adoption of Sustainable Business Practices

Austin EcoNetwork

Helping Austinites lead the way as stewards of the planet’s resources, creating healthy home and work environments and contributing to a thriving local economy.

Eco Series

Eco Series is a grass-roots effort that stemmed from our passion for enhanced understanding and the search for solutions to some of mankind’s most pressing issues: climate change, energy independence and sustainability.

NetImpact

Net Impact Austin is the action-based organization of professionals and entrepreneurs working directly with Austin businesses and non-profits to further social and environmental sustainability.

Public Citizen

By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, cleaner cars, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Sierra Club

To explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the earth; To practice and promote the responsible use of the earth’s ecosystems and resources; To educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment; and to use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.

Design Build Live

“a sustainable learning center”

…to share, practice, promote and nurture Natural Building and living. Visit us online at designBuildLive.org.

Salma Yaqoob

The General Election is a matter of months away. Once again, this is an election in which only two parties are competing to form a government – Labour or the Tories.

A series of opinion polls have pointed strongly to the defeat of the Labour government. The outcome, however, is not a foregone conclusion. A recent poll suggests that the result will be finely balanced, with a hung parliament a real possibility.

Respect is neither neutral nor indifferent to the outcome of this election. We think that a Tory victory would be a disaster for working people. Yes, New Labour has betrayed the aspirations of its traditional electorate in working class communities, among Black and Asian communities, and among trades unionists. But its strongest support still comes from these communities and the vast majority of the trade union movement will support Labour at the next election. Despite the efforts of the New Labour clique that now dominates the Labour Party, it is still seen by millions of people as a party that looks after the interests of working people – albeit a disastrously right wing example of such a party.

A Tory victory will lead to a massive assault on public services

A Tory victory in the context of a deep economic crisis will herald a deep attack on the welfare state. The Tory obsession with cutting the national debt not only risks a deeper and more prolonged recession, but will inevitably lead to a massive assault on public services and public sector workers. It will represent a much more profound shift to the right in the political agenda. Respect therefore stands with the vast majority of the labour movement in seeking the defeat of the Tory challenge at this election.

Labour has demoralised much of its traditional support

Under Blair, and now Brown, Labour have demoralised large parts of its traditional support. Many people have broken from Labour to the left in disgust at Blair’s support for the Iraq war, and New Labour’s subservience to the bankers and privatisers. Respect was born out of the movement against the Iraq war, and we have successfully built a real base in limited parts of the country. We believed then, and believe now, that there is an urgent need for a radical left wing party that can help shift the political consensus towards an agenda of peace, anti-racism and social justice.

In 3 parliamentary seats in Birmingham and East London, Respect is fighting to win. We do not know what the outcome will be, and we are well aware of the difficulties in the way of small parties under a first past the post electoral system. But in these 3 seats we have a genuine chance of victory. We have deep roots and credible candidates. There are only a handful of seats up for grabs in the general election that could conceivably be won by parties to the left of Labour (including the challenge by Caroline Lucas for the Green Party). The most important contribution that we in Respect can make to the left as a whole in the immediate future is to do everything within our power to win these seats.

Caroline Lucas

We do not believe, however, that a radical alternative can be built by acting in way that allows the Tories – or the BNP – to be the beneficiaries of discontent with Labour or our efforts to build an alternative. In areas where we are highly unlikely to win it is important that we are not seen to be reckless over the consequences of standing in marginal seats where the likely beneficiary would be the Tories. Where we do stand, we want our supporters to know they can express their discontent with the Labour government without handing seats on a plate to the Tories.

United against the BNP

We are also in favour of the maximum possible unity against the BNP. Nick Griffin has announced he is standing in Barking and Dagenham. His election to the European parliament was an historic breakthrough for British fascism. But it would be nothing in comparison to a BNP MP. Hard choices have to be made. There is absolutely no prospect of a candidate to the left of Labour winning this seat, and any such candidate could only split the anti-BNP vote.

Abjol Miah is standing in East London

Respect will therefore not consider standing in Barking and Dagenham, and call on other left wing parties to do likewise. We are well aware of the way in which New Labour have created the conditions for the BNP to grow, and equally aware that Labour’s candidate, Margaret Hodge, is one of the least palatable New Labour MPs. Nonetheless we call for a vote for the Labour candidate as the only practical way of defeating the BNP.

Respect believes that the interests of working people are best served by working for the maximum unity against a Tory victory in the General Election, while continuing to build left wing alternatives to the Labour Party in the most tactically effective manner.

Salma Yaqoob will be appearing on BBC1’s Question Time, 10.35pm Thursday December 10.

This blog has been created to expose the lies behind the drivel pumped out by the Green Party in New Zealand.

We assume that the same rubbish is being sent out by Green Party politicians and members all around the world so will occasionally look in on them too, but for the main part we will be following the NZ Greens.

Why? Simple. The Green Party in NZ are the biggest hypocrites in NZ politics. They say that the current Government is not doing enough to reduce NZ’s emissions, yet they propped up a corrupt Government for 9 long years that sat over the biggest increase in NZ’s emissions!

They are trying to destroy the NZ economy for the sake of the environment, and given recent news about the lies of the climate scientists, the truth is pointing more and more in the favour of those denying climate change is caused by man.

Who are we? That doesn’t really mater, though, it wouldn’t be hard to figure out We are happy to publicise who is behind this blog when the Green Party reveal who is paying for Frog and Toad and Frogblog and G.blog