An Unreasonable Man showing in Rochester

6:40pm Friday! The exclusive Rochester
Opening of "An Unreasonable Man" a new documentary about
a man many of you may have cast your presidential vote for.


"On Friday night March 2nd The LITTLE THEATRE will open
'An Unreasonable Man' which traces the life and career of
RALPH NADER, one of the most unique, important and controversial
political figures of our time."

The Green Party of Monroe County invites you to join us
in purchasing tickets in advance. Join local greens for
a post viewing social event. Tell all your friends and family
about the green carpet opening night of this important film.

And we need your help to make this a fun and important evening
for our community. Please reply to this email if you can attend.
Please mention the green party when you call the Little Theatre
for your tickets. Opening Night tickets are $8. The Little
has not yet determined which of its screens it will use,
but if enough people call for tickets and mention the Green Party of
Monroe County, well perhaps it will be screened in the original old
theatre which would be cool.

Please reply to this email if you can attend and with ideas
for promoting this film while its in Rochester.

Little Theatre for more information 585.258.0400 about ticket
sales. The Little Theatre is located at 240 East Avenue.
www.the little.org

Movie Times
March 2-8
Eves: 6:40, 9:20
Sat. & Sun. Matinees: 1:10, 3:50

Pride Adgenda Dinner May 19th

Spring Dinner in Rochester – Save the Date!

Mark your calendars for the Spring Dinner in Rochester on Saturday, May 19at the Riverside Convention Center. We will recognize Duffy Palmer with our Community Service Award in honor of his tireless commitment and efforts for the LGBT community in New York.

The Spring Dinner brings together over 500 people from Western New York in support of LGBT civil rights and protections. The celebration includes a reception, speakers and a live auction. Check www.prideagenda.org for more information in the coming weeks.

NY Green Fest

Join us for a Green Festival this summer in Cayutaville. Our first Green Fest in 2003 was a regional event. This year we are inviting Greens and Green friends across the state to join us. If you want to do a workshop or exhibit, please let me know.



NY GREEN FEST 2007

Sat., August 11, 2007
at Cayuta Sun Permaculture Homestead
2962 South Swamp Rd., Cayutaville, NY (15 miles southwest of Ithaca)

Opening and Closing Sessions in Ithaca
Fri. & Sun., August 10 & 12

Group Discussions
Community-Based Economics
Green Party 2008 Campaigns
Media and the Greens
Climate Change and the Greens
Additional topics to come

Workshops
Permaculture, Sustainability
Living Off the Grid
Adopting Local Resolutions
Running Green Party Campaigns
Using an Earth Oven
Workshops for Kids

Green Exhibitors
Non-Profit Groups
Renewable Energy Suppliers
Booksellers
Farmers with Local Produce
Craftspeople

The Festival is a benefit for the Green Party of New York

$35 for the weekend, includes Saturday lunch. All profits go to GPNY.

Scholarships for those who help during the festival or in advance.

Overnight camping at Cayuta Sun available for $5 per night.

For more information visit nygreenfest.blogspot.com

The Green Party’s National Meeting will be in Reading PA, July 12-15th

Join Greens from Western NY as we travel to Reading, PA, to meet with Greens from across the country at the GPUS Annual National Meeting!
You can pre-register now for disconnected registration fee and help us pay for meeting costs and deposits.

Planned Parenthood Presents - The Vagina Monologues

************************************************
***** Planned Parenthood is proud to present****
****** THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES by EVE ENSLER******
************************************************

************ TWO PERFOMANCES ONLY!! ************

V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls by
raising money through benefit productions of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina
Monologues".

Planned Parenthood is sponsoring V-Day in Rochester to raise money for
Rape Crisis Service and the V-Day Spotlight on Women in Conflict Zones.

THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES
Saturday, March 3, 2007
2pm and 7pm
First Unitarian Church
220 Winton Road South, Rochester

$10 Students/Seniors || $20 General Admission

Tickets onsale at:
-->Aaron's Alley
-->Equal=Grounds
-->Parkleigh

and Planned Parenthood locations:
-->Batavia - 22 W. Main St.
-->Canandaigua - 15 Lafayette Ave.
-->Greece - 2824 Ridge Rd. W.
-->Rochester - 114 University Avenue

AND ONLINE AT www.pprsr.org/vm

**For more info on V-Day, go to www.vday.org
**For more info on Rape Crisis Service, go to www.pprsr.org/rapecrisis

Green Party Meeting!

GPoMC will be meeting on Monday February 12th, 7-9pm and the GAGV Community Room on the 5th floor of the Rochester Auditorium Center, 875 E.Main st. All Greens are invited to attend.

Hunger Action Legislative Action Day

Fellow Greens and Freinds,

Please join Hunger Action on Tuesday, March 13th for our Legislative Education & Action Day in Albany. Join us to fight for:

- A Legislative Commission on Universal Health Care;

- Raising the Welfare Grant;

- Real Jobs for Low-Income New Yorkers; and

- Improving the Welfare Program in the State.


We will also be urging the legislature to support funding for emergency food programs, transportation to work initiatives, affordable housing, education and training opportunities, and affordable childcare.

With a new Governor in office, there is much we can achieve for all New Yorkers! Governor Spitzer has already proposed to increase funding for Emergency Food Programs by over $5 million!


We need to be in Albany to make sure that proposal goes through and to make sure that our other proposals for positive change get enacted!

Please take the time to come with us, make your voice heard at the State Capitol, and take our message to where the decisions are being made!

Letfs pack the buses to Albany and tell our legislators that we demand economic security for all New Yorkers!


Please Hunger Action at (212) 741-8192 or (518)434-7371 to RSVP, to learn more about transportation options from your area and so that we can arrange legislative appointments for your group!


click here for other steps you can take to help end hunger in New York, including:

• Join the Empire State Economic Security Campaign (ES2)

• Organize a Hunger Awareness Day Event

• Sign-on to support our TANF implementation and Raising the Welfare Grant efforts

• Become a member of Hunger Action Network



Please take action today! See you on March 13th!

In Solidarity,

Bich Ha Pham

Executive Director

Global Warming: Bush is doing to World what he did to New Orleans

Global Warming: Bush is doing to World what he did to New Orleans

Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org

Monday, February 5, 2007

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

Greens call Bush's tampering with scientific research on global warming an impeachable offense

*

Congress must hold Bush accountable for placing U.S. and world at risk by manipulating scientific reports to fit reckless, pro-corporate energy policies
*

"Bush is doing to the world what he did to New Orleans"

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party leaders demanded that Congress hold the Bush Administration accountable for tampering with scientific research on global warming, calling President Bush's interference and dishonesty an impeachable conspiracy to commit 'high crimes and misdemeanors.'

"The Bush Administration is doing to the whole world what it did to New Orleans as Katrina began to descend on the city," said Rebecca Rotzler, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States and Deputy Mayor of New Paltz, New York. "By altering scientific research on global warming to fit his political agenda and refusing to take necessary steps to protect the public, President Bush has aggravated an impending environmental, public health, and security crisis.

Greens cited mounting evidence of such tampering, including complaints from more than 120 scientists from seven federal agencies that they've been pressured to remove references to global warming from research reports, press releases, and communications with Congress .

Last week, scientists from 113 countries meeting at the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Paris warned that destructive effects of global warming, in which human consumption of energy has led to a global concentration of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere, were probably inevitable, with a likely temperature rises of 3.2-7.1 degrees Fahrenheit . (Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: )

"Congress must recognize the Bush Administration's tampering with studies on global warming and other scientific research as an impeachable offense," said Jody Grage, treasurer of the Green Party. "Ever since Vice President Cheney initiated private meetings with oil company representatives to determine energy policy, the administration has placed the demands for corporate profits over urgent human and environmental needs."

Green Party leaders called recent news of a White House directive that gave President Bush greater control over the rules and policy statements that federal government agencies develop to protect the environment, public health, and safety (as well as civil rights and privacy) further indication that the Bush Administration was manipulating public policy in these areas to benefit favored corporate interests.

The Green Party has called for the U.S. to sign on to the Kyoto accords and to take the lead on a 70% reduction of CO2 emissions, as well as a rapid transition to clean and secure alternative energy sources, energy conservation, reduced reliance on cars, and a phase-out on fossil fuel dependence and nuclear energy. The party advocates restructuring of local, national, and global economies, with investment and creation of new jobs in conservation and conversion to renewable solar and wind power, taxes on fossil fuel consumption, and bans on new drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other wilderness areas.

Greens have already called for impeachment of President Bush and Vice President for deceiving the public about the U.S.'s reasons for invading Iraq and numerous other abuses of power. News of a proposed law giving U.S. and U.K. oil companies lucrative 30-year deals to extract Iraqi oil has confirmed that oil company interests are driving U.S. energy policy, and that desire for U.S. corporate control over Iraqi oil fields was a major motivation for the Iraq War .

Green Senatorial Campaign Committee Recognized by FEC

Green Party of the United States
www.gp.org

Green Senatorial Campaign Committee
www.greenscc.org

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Contact: Anita Wessling, GSCC Co-Chair, 870-426-2284

Greens warn Senators not to vote for further funding of Iraq occupation

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Green Senatorial Campaign Committee (GSCC) was granted national Senate campaign committee status by the Federal Election Commission on Thursday, February 8, giving the committee the ability to raise and spend money under rules similar to those for the Democrat and Republican House and Senate national campaign committees. The GSCC assists Green Party candidates running for the U.S. Senate.

Federal Election Commission Advisory Opinion 2006-36 represents the first time a political party other than the Democrats or Republicans has been granted a national party campaign committee. Such committees have higher limits on campaign contributions that they can accept and give to candidates.

As its first act after receiving FEC recognition, the GSCC called upon all U.S. Senators to vote against further funding of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, or any resolutions promising such funding, including currently proposed concurrent resolutions promising funding 'for troops.'

"Dozens of Democrats in the U.S. Senate are preparing to vote for a stay-the-course resolution being marketed as an anti-'surge' resolution," said Chris Lugo, Tennessee Green candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2006, referring to Senate Concurrent Resolution 7, sponsored by Sen. Mark Warner (R-Va.).

"The Warner resolution actually promises more funding for the occupation," noted Mr. Lugo.

During the 2006 election cycle, 6 Democratic Senators who voted for the occupation of Iraq (Dianne Feinstein, Calif.; Maria Cantwell, Wash.; Herb Kohl, Wis.; Bill Nelson, Fla.; Joe Lieberman, Conn; and Hillary Clinton, N.Y.) were opposed by Green Party candidates.

"When Democrats in Congress vote for war, their actions have consequences. One of those consequences is that the Green Party will oppose them at the ballot box. If the Democrats vote for more funding, or even promises of more funds, they are supporting the occupation's continuance, not opposing it," said Anita Wessling, co-chair of the GSCC.

"Don't let the Democrats hide behind the fog of war," said Rebekah Kennedy, 2006 Green candidate for Attorney General of Arkansas. "We don't need 60 votes to overturn a filibuster and pass a fake anti-surge resolution. We just need 50 votes, or a courageous committee chair, to block any funding bills or resolutions. We got out of Vietnam when Congress refused any more funding. We got out of Kosovo when a Republican-controlled Congress cut off funds. It's up to this Democrat-controlled Congress to decide when the Iraq occupation will end."

Brent McMillan, Political Director of the Green Party of United States and life-long peace activist, was elated that the Green Party now has an FEC-recognized Senate campaign committee to help Greens compete on a more equal basis with the established parties's candidates. "We have been laying the groundwork to become a force in Congressional elections. With the FEC's decision today, the Party of Peace has a more level playing field with the twin parties of war."

Green Senatorial Campaign Committee: http://www.GreenSCC.org
Green Party of the United States: http://www.GP.org
Federal Election Commission Advisory Opinions: http://www.fec.gov/law/advisoryopinions.shtml

Thurman Goes to the Hall of Fame

Congratulations Thruman!!!!!

Ok, I guess it has nothing to do with the Green Party, but I felt like we were on a roll with Patti Smith and Winona LaDuke.

Wangari Maathai in Buffalo

Last Night I had the wonderful opportunity of attending Wangari Maathai’s lecture at The University of Buffalo with J. David Swift of the Green Party of Cattaraugus County. Wangari is the winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, the Founder of the Green Belt Movement, and the Founder of the Green Party of Kenya.










Make sure you pick up her new book Unbowed to read more about her inspiring story.
















Below is an article about the lecture in today’s Buffalo News.

Blending peace, environmentalism


Nobel laureate talks about tree-planting project in Kenya


By HAROLD McNEIL
News Staff Reporter
2/3/2007



Bill Wippert/Buffalo News
Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of the Green Belt Movement, addresses the crowd in UB's Center for the Arts.





Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai germinated a simple idea that resulted in the planting of 20 million trees in her native Kenya.

That idea reduced soil erosion and helped to shore up countryside economies that depend on the trees for sustenance.

Maathai was the keynote speaker for the 31st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration Event on Friday evening in Mainstage Theatre at the Center for the Arts on the University at Buffalo North Campus.

It was while serving in the National Council of Women that Maathai was introduced to the idea of planting trees with women's groups to help the environment and improve their quality of life.

In 1986, she created the Pan-African Green Belt Network, and the tree-planting idea has taken root in several other African countries, including Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.

She was attending a conference in Mexico and heard women from rural villages like hers complaining about the loss of an important resource - trees.

"They were talking about matters of life and death, while I was talking about luxuries," Maathai said.

As a result, she latched onto the idea of reforestation, germinating seedlings and planting saplings one at a time.

"It was a wonderful symbol because it was easy," she said.

However, it was not always easy dealing with professional foresters who, she said, made the task difficult by fussing over issues like soil and seed quality. She and her followers chose a more common-sense approach.

"You gather seeds, let them dry and put them in the ground. If they're good, they'll germinate. If they're not good, they will not germinate. And so, we started teaching ourselves," Maathai said.

There also were concerns about nurturing the plants.

"If you don't take care of them, no trees will ever show because they all die," Maathai said.

"There are programs, especially in Africa, that have been tried but nothing comes from them, because people plant the trees and walk away from them. You can't. You plant and you help to take care of them. So we needed the women to stay with the trees and . . . came up with an incentive. So if you made your tree survive, you get compensated financially," she said.

She mixes her brand of environmentalism with a healthy dose of advocacy for democracy and human rights.

Maathai, who has served as Kenya's deputy environment minister, has spent the better part of her life on a mission to protect the environment and human rights.

Over the last three decades she has campaigned against government oppression and, in 1987, founded Kenya's Green Party. She also endured arrests and beatings for protesting former President Daniel Arap Moi's environmental policies and human rights record.

"In order to live in peace with each other, we need to manage our limited resources more responsibly and accountably [and] we need to share these resources more equitably," she told the UB audience.

"But in order for us to be able to do that, we need to govern ourselves [in a] system that allows for respect for human rights."

Maathai earned a degree in biological sciences from Mount St. Scholastic College in Atchison, Kansas, in 1964, later earning her master of science degree at the University of Pittsburgh before completing doctoral studies in Germany and at the University of Nairobi in Kenya.

She has served on the Commission on Global Governance and Commission on the Future.
In 2004 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

She is the first black African woman to win the Nobel Prize in any category since the beginning of the award in 1901.
e-mail: hmcneil@buffnews.com

Michael Berg Documentary Preview

Green Party candidate/peace activist Michael Berg
runs for Congress in Delaware in 2006. The new
independent documentary, Keeping the Peace,
(directed by JJ Garvine & Tai Parquet) follows
his journey.

See the exclusive here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdEIAVurwaA