August, 01 2016, 03:15pm EDT
Green Party Gains Ballot Access in Six More States as Signature Counts More than Double State Requirements
Voters will have a chance to cast their ballot for Green Party presumptive Presidential nominee Jill Stein, as well as several local- and state-level Green Party candidates, in six more states as of today. Green Party ballot-access signature drives in Kansas, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, New Jersey, Vermont, and Missouri easily surpassed, and in most cases more than doubled, the required number of signatures to secure a ballot line.
In Kansas, 10,908 signatures were submitted, double the required threshhold of 5,000 signatures. This is the first time the Green Party will be on the ballot in Kansas since 2000.
In Pennsylvania, around 22,000 signatures were submitted, several times over the current requirement of 5,000, which had been lowered through a successful court challenge last month.
In Nebraska, about 7,000 signatures were submitted, well over the requirement of 2,500.
In New Jersey, the 2,000 signatures submitted easily more than doubled the requirement of 800 signatures.
In Missouri, Greens also gained ballot access for the first time since 2000 with 25,000 signatures, two and a half times the 10,000-signature state requirement.
Ballot access was also achieved in Vermont for the first time ever. Over 1400 signatures were submitted that had already been certified as valid by town clerks across the state.
The Green Party now has ballot access in 23 states, are awaiting government certification for 9 more (including the six states mentioned here), and have active petition drives in 15 more states.
These ballot-access victories were achieved through the hard work of Green Party activists and ordinary citizens who organized throughout these states over the last 3 to 4 months. These campaigns were also given a boost by the recent surge in popularity and interest around presumptive Presidential nominee Jill Stein in the wake of the furor surrounding the Democratic National Convention, where news of leaked emails from the DNC revealing leaders conspired to sabotage Bernie Sanders' primary campaign spurred a delegate rebellion and "Demexit" of Sanders supporters.
"Having been involved in Green Party politics for over 20 years, it is encouraging to see the American people moved to action this year to make sure Jill is on the ballot," said Rick Lass, national ballot-access coordinator for the Jill Stein Campaign. "If Jill Stein and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson are included in the televised Presidential debates, then everyday Americans will realize they do have a choice besides the corrupt, corporate funded, pro-war, anti-people agendas of the Democratic and Republican parties. These are tangible steps in creating the multi-party democracy that we Americans and our nation deserve."
Presumptive presidential nominee Jill Stein will be formally nominated by the Green Party at the party's national convention in Houston on Saturday, August 6th. The Green Party is actively petitioning to be on the ballot in at least 47 states for the general election in November, enough to potentially win an electoral college vote.
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From Newborns to 17-Year-Olds, Al Jazeera Prints Names of 4,216 Children Killed in Gaza
"There can never be any justification for killing children," said Save the Children's country director for the occupied Palestinian territory. "The situation in Gaza is monstrous and a blight on our common humanity."
Jan 25, 2024
Al Jazeera on Thursday published the latest update to its "Know Their Names" project, identifying some of the thousands of children killed so far in what people around the world are increasingly calling Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.
Produced by Mohammed Haddad and Mohammed Hussein, the project now lists 4,216 Palestinians, from infants to 17-year-olds. Of those named, 75% hadn't even lived to their teens, more than half were under age 10, and nearly 500 were younger than 2.
The children are sorted by age, with notes about each group: 17-year-olds "lived through four wars (2008-09, 2012, 2014, 2021)" only to be killed in the fifth and 10-year-olds had their "lives ended before adolescence," while 4-year-olds were "deprived of the joys of preschool" and at least 258 babies "didn't reach their first birthday."
Al Jazeera noted that "the Gaza Strip is a graveyard for thousands of children, the United Nations has said. Since October 7, Israeli attacks have killed at least 10,000 children, according to Palestinian officials. That is one Palestinian child killed every 15 minutes, or about one out of every 100 children in the Gaza Strip."
Officials in Gaza said later Thursday that at least 25,900 people—including 11,500 children—have been killed and another 64,110 injured in Israel's bombardment and blockade, launched in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack. Israeli forces have devastated civilian infrastructure and displaced most of the enclave's 2.3 million residents.
Accounting for the thousands of people missing and presumed dead under the rubble in Gaza, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor puts the child death toll at 13,022.
Among the dead is 12-year-old Dunia Abu Mohsen, who previously lost a leg in an Israeli airstrike. Before she was killed last month by an Israeli tank-fired shell that hit al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, she said in a video interview that "I want someone to take me abroad, to any country, to install a prosthetic leg, to be able to walk like other people."
"I want to become a doctor, like those who treat us, so that I can treat other children," she said in the recording shared by Defense for Children International - Palestine. "I only want one thing: for the war to end."
An 11-year-old girl in Rafah told the humanitarian group Save the Children earlier this month that "the war has affected us so badly. We had to leave our homes and couldn't do anything. We learned many things during the war, like how important it is to save water. I hope the war ends, and we live in peace and safety."
Jason Lee, Save the Children's country director for the occupied Palestinian territory, said at the time that "there can never be any justification for killing children. The situation in Gaza is monstrous and a blight on our common humanity."
Children who remain in Gaza now "risk being killed by starvation and disease with famine coming ever closer," Lee stressed. "For children who have survived, the mental harm inflicted and the utter devastation of infrastructure including homes, schools, and hospitals has decimated their futures."
"Despite the record number of children killed and maimed, the international community has failed to act again and again. One grave violation committed against children is one too many," he added, calling for a cease-fire and Israel to allow humanitarian aid and commercial goods into Gaza.
Al Jazeera's update to its list of child victims came a day before the International Court of Justice is set to release an order on the South African-led case accusing Israel of genocide.
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Half of US Governors 'Stand With Texas' in Defying Supreme Court at Border
One columnist said Gov. GregAbbott's defiance was the "greatest threat to federal authority since the South's 'massive resistance' in the 1950s and '60s" to the high court ruling that mandated school integration.
Jan 25, 2024
Twenty-five Republican governors have lent their support to GOP Gov. Greg Abbott as he doubles down on his defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court order to allow the federal government to remove the razor wire that the state had put up along a stretch of the United States-Mexico border with Mexico at Eagle Pass.
Abbott first posted on social media on Tuesday that the Texas National Guard would "continue to hold the line" at Eagle Pass. Then, in a statement released Wednesday, Abbott claimed that the Biden administration had "broken the compact" between the states and federal government by, in Abbott's view, failing to enforce immigration laws. He has won the support of at least 25 governors for declaring immigration an "invasion" and invoking "Texas' constitutional authority to defend and protect itself."
In a column published in The Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday, Will Bunch observed that some online commenters had likened the potential standoff at Eagle Pass to the one at Fort Sumter, North Carolina, that triggered the Civil War. However, he thought another historical comparison had merit.
"Abbott's reckless, cruelty-is-the-point policies and his defiant stand are also posing the greatest threat to federal authority since the South's 'massive resistance' in the 1950s and '60s to the Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Ed ruling that mandated school integration," Bunch wrote.
"If Biden is the one who backs down at Eagle Pass, then—at the risk of paraphrasing Trump—we won't have a country anymore."
In his statement, Abbott referenced founding fathers James Madison and Alexander Hamilton and based his argument on the U.S. Constitution. He pointed to Article IV, Section 4, which promises federal protection against "invasion" and Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3, which acknowledges a state's "sovereign interest" in protecting its borders. He wrote:
The failure of the Biden administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this state the right of self-defense. For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas' constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary. The Texas National Guard, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and other Texas personnel are acting on that authority, as well as state law, to secure the Texas border.
After Abbott posted his statement on social media, several GOP governors reshared it with messages of support.
"Virginia stands with Texas," wrote Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Wednesday, arguing that "t he Biden administration has turned every state into a border state."
This was a sentiment echoed by Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon on Thursday.
"Wyoming stands in solidarity with Gov. Abbott and the state of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy to secure the border and protect American citizens," Gordon said. "We are all border states now."
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem wrote on Wednesday that Abbott was "exactly right to invoke Texas' constitutional authority to defend itself." In a later post published Thursday, she affirmed her support for Abbott and called the border a "war zone."
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders wrote on Thursday that if President Joe Biden "won't defend us, states will have to defend themselves. Arkansas stands with Texas."
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said that Iowa had sent National Guard members to the Texas border in the past.
"When the federal government fails, states step in," Reynolds said, echoing Abbott's argument.
Abbott also garnered support statements from West Virginia's Jim Justice, Tennessee's Bill Lee, South Carolina's Henry McMaster, Oklahoma's Kevin Stitt, and North Dakota's Doug Burgum, among others.
Reynolds and 24 other GOP governors—every Republican except Vermont's Phil Scott—also released a formal statement Thursday backing Abbott's constitutional argument.
"Because the Biden administration has abdicated its constitutional compact duties to the states, Texas has every legal justification to protect the sovereignty of our states and our nation," the governors wrote.
In his column, Bunch pointed out what is at stake in this disagreement, arguing that the comparison to Fort Sumter might be "a little unfair":
No one was actually killed during the bombardment of the federal fort off of Charleston by rebel forces of the newly formed Confederacy. But four migrants trying to reach U.S. soil at or near the disputed park in Eagle Pass, Texas, have drowned under circumstances that are arguably linked to the dispute between the militaristic approach of the Texas National Guard and the comparatively humane, locked-out agents of President Joe Biden's administration.
Bunch wrote that Biden could either back down or follow the example of former President Dwight Eisenhower, who federalized the Arkansas National Guard in order to end a standoff over the integration of Little Rock Central High School. He continued:
It won't be an easy decision. The possibility for a Fort Sumter-style gunpowder spark exists in this crazy, mixed-up nation. If Biden does successfully reassert control of Eagle Pass, the same brand of yahoo who screamed "states' rights" in the 1950s and '60s to justify Jim Crow racial apartheid will yell that the American dictator is Biden, not [former President Donald] Trump. And if the 45th president does return as 47th, he would cite Biden's justified actions as an excuse for wildly unconstitutional uses of the Insurrection Act to crush political dissent with tanks and occupy cities run by Democrats.
If Biden is the one who backs down at Eagle Pass, then—at the risk of paraphrasing Trump—we won't have a country anymore.
Democratic Texas Congressmen Greg Casar and Joaquin Castro have called for Biden to take federal control of the Texas National Guard.
"We can create an immigration system that is safe, orderly, and humane," Casar posted on social media. "It's Democrats' job to push back on razor wire, inhumane cages, and broken policies of the past."
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Wider Middle East War, Gaza Policy Imperil Biden Reelection Hopes: Polls
"The 2024 election could very easily be tipped by just a very small fraction of Biden voters" who disagree with his policies related to Israel, said one analyst.
Jan 25, 2024
A poll released Thursday shows that U.S. President Joe Biden is "misreading his own base," said one foreign policy expert, with a full 50% of Americans who voted for Biden in 2020 saying they believe the Israeli military operation that the U.S. is continuing to defend and fund amounts to a "genocide."
The Economist and YouGov found that 50% of 2020 Biden supporters answered yes to the question, "Do you think that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinian civilians?"
Only 20% of the respondents said no and 30% said they were unsure.
Overall, 35% of all people who answered the survey said they believe Israel is committing genocide. Forty-nine percent of Democrats agreed along with 60% of people who identified themselves as having liberal political views.
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, noted that the survey was released a day before the International Court of Justice is set to announce it verdict in a case brought by South Africa, which has accused Israel of genocidal violence and outlined numerous public statements of genocidal intent by top-level Israeli officials in its presentation to the court.
"What will that do to Biden's base if the ICJ rules on Friday that Israel is plausibly committing genocide?" asked Parsi.
At least 25,900 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel began its air and ground strikes, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claiming they are only aiming to stop Hamas from operating in the enclave even as refugee camps, shelters, and hospitals have been among the targets.
Israeli officials have called for the IDF to erase "the Gaza Strip from the face of the Earth" and have said the military should "release all restraints" that would otherwise keep them from targeting civilians.
A separate poll by YouGov found that 52% of Americans—including 23% of 2020 Biden voters—said they would hold the president responsible if gas prices go up as a result of a widened conflict in the Middle East.
"This could easily make the difference in a close election. If a small percentage—even about 1 in 20—of this large group of voters were to stay home as a result of their dissatisfaction with the rise in gasoline prices, that could be enough to tip the election," said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR).
The Biden administration has said it does not want a broader conflict to grow from Israel's escalation in Gaza, but earlier this week the U.S. and U.K. launched attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the Houthis' strikes on shipping vessels in the Red Sea that they say are leaving or going to Israeli ports.
The new polling suggests that "the 2024 election could very easily be tipped by just a very small fraction of Biden voters," CEPR senior adviser Justin Talbot Zorn said.
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