Greener Times for the Week of June 19 - 25
an e-publication of the Green Party of Washington State (GPoWS)
Trey Smith, Editor

In This Issue
* Ballot Deadline Looms
* Help Get Aaron Dixon on the Ballot
* Aaron Dixon for U.S. Senate: Volunteer Opportunity
* GNC Updates
* Sanctuary in Tacoma for Military Resisters
* News You May Have Missed

Ballot Deadline Looms
As of Saturday, we have received 42 of 298 ballots (14.1%) for the current GPoWS mail-in election.  If you have not mailed in your ballot AND you intend to do so, your ballot MUST BE POSTMARKED NO LATER THAN MIDNIGHT, MONDAY, JUNE 19 -- In other words, t-o-m-o-r-r-o-w.  Results will be posted in next week's edition of GT.

Help Get Aaron Dixon on the Ballot
We need you and 1000 other Washington voters to come to a Green Party ballot access convention, June 24-July 1. (All conventions last all day, unless otherwise noted.)

Saturday, June 24
Seattle Center     Olympia Food Co-Op     Bellingham Farmers’ Market

Sunday, June 25
Seattle Center     Olympia Food Co-Op
Other Seattle sites include:
Freedom Missionary Church, 9601 35th Ave SW
Outside of New Hope Baptist Church, 124 21st Ave
Intersection of 19th Ave & E Madison St
Intersection of 14th Ave & E Pike St
Intersection of Broadway & E Union St

Wednesday, June 28
West Seattle Fauntleroy Ferry Dock

Saturday, July 1
Spokane, River Front Park     Farmer's Market in Vancouver     Tacoma, Point Defiance Park     West Seattle Fauntleroy Ferry Dock

Contact Aram Falsafi (aram@aramfalsafi.com) for more information

Note:  We need you to sign twice, once to state that you attended the ballot access convention and once on the petition to waive Aaron’s filing fee.

Aaron Dixon for U.S. Senate: Volunteer Opportunity
Anyone interested in learning more about the Dixon for U.S. Senate campaign and all volunteers are encouraged to attend our weekly meetings:

What: Weekly Dixon campaign for U.S. senate volunteer meetings
Where: Dixon campaign office, 2111 E Union st. (in the Central Dist. on 21st and Union)
When: Every Tuesday evening at 6:30pm (next meeting is this Tuesday, June 20th)

Our first Dixon volunteer campaign meeting was a success and we have a core of people that are going to be the backbone of this campaign.  To really build a successful anti-war campaign that combats racism and corporate control, however, we are going to need even more volunteers at our Tuesday night meetings.  Maria Cantwell and Mike McGavick have millions of dollars to back their pro-war campaigns.  We don't have that kind of money, but we do have justice and committed people on our side.  We need your help.

This is a critical week for the campaign because we need to have a highly organized plan for collecting 1,000 signatures, at ten different Nominating Conventions between June 24th and July 1st, to get Aaron on the ballot!!

There are many exciting areas of work to get involved in.  Our next week's agenda will include:
1)Campaign updates/political perspectives
2)Nominating Conventions plan— We have only one week, starting on June 24th and lasting until July 1st to collect 1,000 signatures.
3)Break-outs:  a) July 15th campaign headquarters kick-off party b) signature gathering c) fundraising/phone banking c) other ideas for work on the campaign?

Please check out the brand new website design at www.dixon4senate.com.  If you have any questions you may reach Jesse at: jesse@dixon4senate.com or by phone at 206-962-1685

GNC Updates
HOW YOUR DELEGATES VOTED: Proposal #222
Voting has begun on Proposal #222: Resolution to Amend the Rules and Procedures on Steering Committee Elections Policy. Voting Ends on 06/18/2006 at Midnight Pacific Time.  To see how your Washington State Delegates have voted on this proposal: http://gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/propresult?pid=222.

HOW YOUR DELEGATES VOTED: Proposal #223
Voting has begun on Proposal #223: Creation of National Green Party House and Senatorial campaign committees.  Voting Ends on 06/18/2006 at Midnight Pacific Time.  To see how your Washington State Delegates have voted on this proposal: http://gp.org/cgi-bin/vote/propresult?pid=223.

Note:  Delegates can change their vote any time between now and the time that the vote ends.

Discussion Has Begun on Proposal 224
Proposal: Proposal to support VotersForPeace and the Voter's Pledge
Presenter: Arizona Green Party
Discussion: 06/12/2006 - 06/25/2006
Voting: 06/26/2006 - 07/02/2006

The Green Party of the United States is a party of peace and as such might be willing to support efforts to gather signatures for the following Voter's Pledge:

"I will not vote for or support any candidate for Congress or President who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq, and preventing any future war of aggression, a public position in his or her campaign."

Gathering signatures for this pledge seems to be the main impetuous of the VotersForPeace organization and its supporters. Supporting organizations appear on a list which signers can check off.

If approved the Green Party of the United States will be submitted as a supporting organization and Greens everywhere will be able to check off the Green Party as their organization. I will follow up after the vote (if approved) with VotersForPeace to list us as a supporting organization.

Since time is of the essence this proposal could follow an expedited vote or if there are objections then it should follow the normal 3 week voting cycle.

Discussion Has Begun on Proposal 225
Proposal: Resolution to Support the Work of the Nonviolent Peaceforce
Presenter: Green Party of Washington State
Discussion: 06/12/2006 - 06/25/2006
Voting: 06/26/2006 - 07/02/2006

The Twentieth Century is often called the most violent century in the history of the world. Yet this century also saw the rise of massive efforts to use nonviolent methods and campaigns to address wrongs, create more just conditions, and resolve and transform conflicts. Although the United Nations has proclaimed the first ten years of the Twenty-first Century the"Decade of Nonviolence for the Children of the World", the peoples of the world have witnessed continuing violence on local, regional and global scales, including the preemptive war against Iraq. The world needs concrete examples of how nonviolence can work to resolve and transform conflicts, and how it can form the basis of more compassionate international relations and foreign policies. Green Parties around the world have a responsibility to manifest and support visions for our country and our world that express our key values.

The Nonviolent Peaceforce, an international initiative, launched in November 2002 in India and headquartered in Minnesota, is an example of such a vision.

To discuss any of these resolutions with our GPoWS National Committee Delegates Mike Gillis & Aram Falsafi, visit their blog at http://gncwa.blogspot.com/.

Sanctuary in Tacoma for Military Resisters
First United Methodist Church of Tacoma needs your help!

This weekend, FUMC will become the first faith community to declare sanctuary since 9/11 for service members who find themselves conscientiously opposed to combat duties. The sanctuary will serve as place for service members to come and contemplate their options, and also receive counseling about conscientious objection, administrative discharges, and other GI Rights related questions.

In order to make this happen, FUMC needs your help! We are looking for assistance in a number of different areas:
1. Seattle Draft & Military Counseling Center will be providing trained GI Rights counselors to be present at the sanctuary. The counselors will be working in pairs with a supporter who will be present to listen to service members, help provide for their material needs while at the sanctuary, and other tasks. Please contact
Cindy Sousa at csousa@pdx.edu or 206-734-5040 if you are interested.

2. The sanctuary has a rather long list of material needs. Please contact Susan Dobkins at 253-973-7080 or susandobkins@fumctacoma.org if you can provide any of these items to arrange drop off at FUMC: Snacks/food (that don't spoil), drinks (again, ones that don't spoil), reading material, TV, Stereo, VCR, DVD Player, Movies, Office Supplies, Computer, Printer, DSL Modem, Calling Cards, Board Games & Cards.

3. If service members decide to take up temporary residence at the facility, we will need community members, especially those close to the Church, to provide: A place to shower, hot meals, and laundry facilities. Contact Susan if you can provide these.

4. Let's make sure the military community knows about the sanctuary! Stop by the church or go to www.sdmcc.org to get copies of promotional materials about the sanctuary. Post these flyers and leave the booklets around town, especially near Ft. Lewis.

5. Finally, over time, it would be good to have some people local to Tacoma get trained as GI Rights counselors. This involves attending a 16 hour training (in Tacoma) and attending monthly counselor meetings (also in Tacoma). This is a longer time commitment, and would require a minimum one year commitment to doing GI Rights counseling in some capacity?either at the church or over the phone. Contact Cindy Sousa if you are interested in this. It would be best to start out as a supporter so you can see exactly what a GI Rights counselor does.

For those wishing to make financial contributions to support this work, please make your donations out to First United Methodist Church. Contributions can be made online at www.sdmcc.org (make sure to email Alex afterwards to let him know the donation should go to FUMC). For general questions, please contact Alex Bacon at 206-214-8823 or abacon@riseup.net

News You May Have Missed

What Ownership Society?
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/06/15/what_ownership_society.php
"No," said former Fox News journalist Tony Snow, newly appointed as one of George W. Bush’s closest aides, his press secretary, when asked recently about his retirement savings. “As a matter of fact, I was even too dopey to get in on a 401(k). So there is actually no Fox pension. The only media pension I have is through AFTRA.”   A 401(k) is a heavily tax-favored account in which workers can save money for their retirement. Typically, employers—including Fox News—match workers’ 401(k) contributions, so setting up a 401(k) is an irresistible financial deal, a true no-brainer. Yet Tony Snow didn’t. Only the union he was forced to join, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, has been doing any formal saving and earmarking of his retirement assets.

Soldier's Duty: Say No to Illegal War
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/274130_soldierduty16.html
Watada is the first soldier to resist the war based on the Nuremburg Principles pioneered by U.S. prosecutors during Nazi war crimes trials after World War II and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (and the United States) in 1950.  Those principles hold soldiers, as well as heads of state, liable for "crimes against peace" (planning, preparing, initiating or waging a war of aggression or conspiring to do so), war crimes (violating "the laws or customs" of war) and crimes against humanity. A key phrase reads: "The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relive him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."

More E-Voting Concerns Surface With State Primaries Underway
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061806X.shtml
>From serious security flaws that could allow hackers easy access to electronic voting systems, to routine computer malfunctions and undelivered software, state and local officials are one-by-one joining voter-access groups and computer scientists in questioning the reliability of the three major suppliers of electronic voting machines.  The latest security flaw to be uncovered affects thousands of Diebold touch-screen voting machines across the country. Computer scientist Michael Shamos, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and one of the examiners that tested several companies' machines in Pennsylvania, described the defect as a "misfeature" originally designed by Diebold to let field technicians update machine software quickly. But, he said, it also would permit someone to upload their own software onto a voting machine with the aim of tampering with election results. Shamos said the problem is the "biggest we've ever seen."