And Now for Something Completely Different

The Four Pillars and Ten Key Values of the Green Party

Ecological Wisdom

A healthy society cannot exist without a healthy environment---all things are interconnected and interdependent. Both nature and humanity are worthy of respect and freedom from exploitation.

Social Justice

Greens want to replace the worldwide system of poverty and injustice with a world free of all oppression based on class, gender, race, citizenship, age, or sexual orientation.

Grassroots Democracy

Greens believe in direct participation by all people in the environmental, political, and economic decisions that affect their lives. In practice, Greens make decisions by voluntary consensus whenever possible.

Nonviolence

Greens promote nonviolent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and guide our actions toward lasting community and global peace.

Decentralization

Greens support a restructuring of social, political and economic institutions away from a system which is controlled by and mostly benefits the powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system.

Community-Based Economics

Greens seek an economics based upon the natural limits of the Earth which meets the basic needs of everyone on the planet. We value people over profits, when the two conflict.

Feminism

Greens acknowledge the importance of both men and women and their unique capacities. Both sexes are critical to creating a healthy, sustainable society. We actively promote cooperation and participation to further our goals.

Respect for Diversity

Greens believe it is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and to promote the development of respectful relationships across these lines.

Personal and Global Responsibility

Greens demonstrate a commitment to global sustainability and international justice through political solidarity and in personal lifestyles of self-sufficiency. We believe in the slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Future Focus/Sustainability

We must counter-balance the drive for short-term profits by assuring that development, technology, and fiscal policies are responsible to future generations.

The Green Party's website is here.

Why is Obama sliding?

Dave Lindorff has an article over at Counterpunch (here) that pretty much hits the nail on the head:

But how can I or any progressive vote for a presidential candidate who goes
from opposing a war to saying he not only supports the idea of keeping troops in
Iraq for another five years—the length of the entire WWII!—but who further says
he won’t rule out attacking Iran, even if that country poses no imminent threat
to the US, simply because it develops nuclear weapons—the same weapons that our
putative friends, Pakistan and India, have? How can I vote for a candidate who
wants to expand the military (by 65,000 troops) instead of shrinking this huge,
bloodsucking parasite of an organization which is costing as much as the rest of
the world spends on its armies?

How can I or any progressive vote for a presidential candidate who
cannot state categorically that he will defend the Constitution by reversing all
of President Bush’s abuses of power and who will not promise to prosecute the
president and members of his administration for any crimes committed while in
office?

Some Thoughts on Politics from Robert Anton Wilson

From "The Illuminati Papers", a short piece entitled Dissociation of Ideas, 3:

"Marxists, and socialists generally, have a fine, piercing, brilliant vision of all the defects of the present Monopoly Capitalism.

There is no necessity for conservatives or libertarians to blind themselves to these defects which the Marxist so clearly sees. Such blindness may be popular with conservatives, and even with some libertarians, but there is no need for it. It is a habit of stupidity.

The conservatives, and the libertarians, have a fine, piercing, brilliant vision of the defects of totalitarian socialism, and of the diluted pseudo-democratic socialisms that are not quite totalitarian yet.

There is no need for radicals, or even for Marxists, to blind themselves to these defects that the conservative so clearly sees. Again, such blindness may be popular, but there is no need for it. Intelligence might be better than conformity to one's group.

Try to think of one or more alternatives to Monopoly Capitalism and State Socialism. While you're trying, endeavor not to concoct a blend of the two. Combining smallpox and chickenpox may not be the only, or the best, alternative to those diseases.

If you can't think of any alternatives, you might browse in some of the books where alternatives are suggested, e.g.: Progress and Poverty by Henry George; Economic Democracy by C.H. Douglas; The Natural Economic Order by Silvio Gesell; Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by Buckminster Fuller; Individual Liberty by Benjamin Tucker; The Green Revolution by Peter Maurin."

This quote seems very appropriate and to the point given the root of some of today's political debates. I'll have to check out some of the books he recommends.