The Green Party's Open Letter To Bill Maher

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org



A Real Party for 'Real Time': Greens send an open letter to Maher


WASHINGTON, DC -- The Green Party has sent an open letter to Bill Maher after a June 19 broadcast of 'Real Time' in which Mr. Maher said "[W]hat we need is an actual progressive party to represent the millions of Americans who aren't being served by the Democrats. Because, bottom line, Democrats are the new Republicans."

The Green Party's reply to Mr. Maher: "Hey, Bill, we're over here! What you described is the GREEN PARTY! We already exist!"

The progressive party sought by Bill Maher describes the Green Party: "Shouldn't there be one party that unambiguously supports cutting the military budget, a party that is straight up in favor of gun control, gay marriage, higher taxes on the rich, universal health care -- legalizing pot -- and steep, direct taxing of polluters?"

The open letter urges Mr. Maher to acknowledge the Green Party and have a Green candidate or leader on the show. The text of the letter is appended below.

The Green Party is currently preparing for its annual national meeting, to take place in Durham, North Carolina, from July 23 to July 26 (http://www.gp.org/2009-ANM http://ncgreenparty.org/2009-ANM.html). Reporters are invited to cover the meeting (http://www.gp.org/forms/media).


"America's First Party" An Open Letter to Bill Maher from the Green Party

Dear Mr. Maher,

We were thrilled to hear you talk about us when you discussed the need for a new party -- a "first party" -- during the June 19 broadcast of 'Real Time.'

The only part you left out were the words "Green Party."

Here's what you said:

"We don't need a third party. We need a first party. You go to the polls and your choices are the guy who voted for the first Wall Street bailout, or the guy who voted for the next ten."

"Shouldn't there be one party that unambiguously supports cutting the military budget, a party that is straight up in favor of gun control, gay marriage, higher taxes on the rich, universal health care -- legalizing pot -- and steep, direct taxing of polluters? These aren't radical ideas. A majority of Americans are either already for them or would be if they were properly argued and defended."

"[W]hat we need is an actual progressive party to represent the millions of Americans who aren't being served by the Democrats. Because, bottom line, Democrats are the new Republicans."

Hey, Bill, we're over here! What you described is the GREEN PARTY! We already exist!

Maybe you forgot about us because the major media have an aversion to mentioning the Green Party and our candidates. Maybe the FCC has banned "Green Party" along with the late George Carlin's seven dirty words, "Chomsky," "End the Drug War," and other language that offends delicate sensibilities.

For the major networks, and apparently PBS and NPR too, the very idea of more than two candidates in an election makes talking heads explode.

If Green candidates started getting elected to higher office, the radical ideas that aren't really radical would get a fair hearing and a chance of passage.

Imagine if a few Greens got seated in Congress. Greens don't take corporate contributions, so they'd be immune to the influence of Exxon-Mobil, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Raytheon, Monsanto, etc. When Rep. Nancy Pelosi sends out orders not to seek a probe of Bush-Cheney officials who authorized torture dungeons, Greens could tell her to take a hike.

A few Green congressional victories would cause a seismic shock to the political landscape. Democrats would no longer have Republicans as their sole competition. The scope of national debate would no longer be Dems on the left, Repubs on the right, a phony middle ground between them, and a narrow range of political ideas comparable to the corner grocery limiting your choice of beverage to Coke or Pepsi.

With some Greens in Congress:

Democrats couldn't pretend to be the antiwar party while voting for more war funding.

Single-payer national health care would be on the table and might even pass. President Obama and most Democrats already know single-payer is the best proposal. But they feel compelled to appease the health insurance, pharmaceutical, and other lobbies and find common ground with Republicans who believe the free market has sufficient mojo to cure every illness and injury.

We'd hear the truth: that "emissions trading" is a license for corporate polluters to keep polluting, that "clean coal" is a plot to turn West Virginia into a crater, that the trillion-dollar Wall Street bailout and confiscation of savings and pension money are the greatest transfer of wealth from working people to big banks in history. There's a bipartisan consensus that corporate profit margins always take precedent over Americans facing financial ruin over a health emergency or credit card debt or a mortgage or a lost job. Whenever you hear the word "bipartisan" on the evening news, check the silverware.

What are we going to do about this situation, Bill? If you really want a "first party" for America, will you throw us a bone on your show? Will you have a Green candidate or Green leader on once in a while? (Ralph Nader doesn't count -- he's not a member of the Green Party.)

How about Rev. Billy Talen of the Church of Life After Shopping (http://www.revbilly.com)? Rev. Billy is now a Green candidate for Mayor of New York City (http://www.voterevbilly.org)

Rosa Clemente, our 2008 vice-presidential candidate, said that the Green Party "is more than an alternative, it's an imperative." Based on your comments, Bill, it sounds like you might agree with Rosa.

We look forward to hearing back from you. You can see what we're up to on our web site (http://www.gp.org).

Sincerely,

The Green Party
http://www.gp.org

bill maher, 'real time', the green party, legalizing pot, gun control, gay marriage, higher taxes on the rich, universal health care, nancy pelosi, president obama, america, billy talen, rosa clemente,
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Virginia Tech Killer Cho Seung-Hui Was A Ticking Timebomb And It Seems Everyone Who Knew Him Knew It

Cho Seung-Hui was not some guy who suddenly went berserk. Ask almost anyone who came in contact with him and they will tell you that this guy was a mass murderer waiting to happen. How could someone sell this nutcase a gun with a past like his unless there really is no background check.

Although I've never really been one who thought gun control would be a good thing for this country. After seeing this madman was allowed to purchase a gun legally I've come to the point where I might just change my opinion on the gun control subject... BJC

Police got little from gunman's videos


"This is it. This is where it all ends," Cho says in one videotape, in which he appears to be more melancholy than angry. "What a life it was. Some life."

Cho, 23, speaks in a harsh monotone in other videotaped rants, but it isn't clear to whom he is speaking. Some of his photos resemble scenes from a South Korean movie in Chan-wook Park's "Vengeance Trilogy."

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," Cho says in one, with a snarl on his lips. "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

Officials Knew Troubled State of Killer in ’05


BLACKSBURG, Va., April 18 — Campus authorities were aware 17 months ago of the troubled mental state of the student who shot and killed 32 people at Virginia Tech on Monday, an imbalance graphically on display in vengeful videos and a manifesto he mailed to NBC News in the time between the two sets of shootings.
“You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience,” the gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, said in one video mailed shortly before the shooting at a classroom and his suicide. “Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people.”

VIRGINIA TECH MASSACRE
STATE OF MIND: Video offers a window into tortured soul


To those who study murder and madness, the video and pictures that Cho Seung-Hui mailed to NBC News provide a rare, penetrating look at the mind of a madman -- obsessed with paranoia and fantasy and driven to massacre by wrongs he felt he had endured.


When NBC's New York offices opened Cho's package Wednesday, the network immediately turned it over to authorities, and NBC soon released segments of Cho's video and some still pictures -- setting off a wave of analysis by experts about what drove Cho to kill 32 fellow students at Virginia Tech on Monday before turning one of his guns on himself.

These are two plays written by Cho Seung Hui...

Play #1 "Richard McBeef"
Play #2 "Mr. Brownstone"





Gun Control

Technorati Tags:cho seung-hui, virginia tech massacre, virginia tech school shooting, virginia tech killings, gun control, cho seung hui killer, virginia tech killer, cho seung hui madman, nbc news
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Two Lunatics Kill Eight Innocent People In Seperate US Cities - Salt Lake City & Philadelphia Shocked By Violence

Gunman casually fired as scared shoppers hid

The sun had just set Monday when a tall young man in a white shirt and a trenchcoat strode through Trolley Square, aiming a shotgun from the shoulder and firing round after round in the busy Salt Lake City mall.
When the gunfire finally subsided, six people had been killed and at least four others were hospitalized.
"We have one gunman, and he is dead," said Salt Lake City Police spokeswoman Robin Snyder just after 10 p.m.
The 239,000-square-foot mall, built from the city's old trolley barns, was busy with shoppers and diners when the man, still not identified late Monday, opened fire around 6:40 p.m.

Double massacres shock US

EIGHT people have been killed in two separate shootings that have shocked America today.

A gunman murdered five people and injured many others inside a US shopping mall before being shot dead by police in Slat Lake City, Utah.

While another shot dead three people at a business meeting today before turning the gun on himself in a Philadelphia office building.

The Philadelphia gunman appeared to get upset at a board of directors meeting for a company that might have been an investment firm, police said.

Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross Ross described the scene inside the second-floor conference room at the Philadelphia Naval Business Centre as "utter chaos''.

Witnesses describe horror in Trolley Square

Police were reporting "multiple" deaths after a man opened fire Monday night at a downtown Salt Lake City mall. Another five people were wounded in the 7 p.m. attack at Trolley Square before police killed the gunman.
Ron Mason and DeEta Barta, of Salt Lake City, said they were eating at the Desert Edge Brew Pub when they saw a man coming in from the west parking lot. The man, wearing a dark trench coat, was carrying a long rifle or shotgun.
They yelled, "There's a man with a gun!" A few seconds later they heard about 12 rounds.
Mason and Barta, who are registered nurses, went to assist the victim, a younger man who had suffered a superficial gunshot wound to the right temple and ear.
Though the boy was clearly in shock, the couple said, he told them that he saw his father go down.
A woman on the lower level of the mall, near the Black Chandelier store, said she saw a shot and looked up upstairs and saw the gunman. He had a long dark coat, dark brown hair and was carrying a rifle or shotgun, she said.

PAX

Why PAX? The Gun Violence Issue Demands New Solutions.
For too long, gun violence in America has been perceived as a political debate rather than what it really is - an urgent public health crisis that is claiming the lives of 8 children and teens every day.

PAX has created two groundbreaking national campaigns, ASK and SPEAK UP, that make the gun violence issue a matter of public health and safety - not politics - and create the foundation for changes in social attitudes, behaviors and public policy that have previously been considered impossible. The fact is, the most successful social awareness movements of our time (such as AIDS, tobacco and drunk driving) all gained critical momentum when they became strongly focused on the public health and safety of the community as a whole, and particularly, our innocent and vulnerable children. PAX is bringing this same insight to the gun violence issue.

Gun Control