Australia's Green Party For Marriage

Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Arrested Outside NY Debate

Occupy The Debates

A coalition of Occupy activists and other groups is calling for presidential debates that include candidates from third parties.

We, the undersigned, demand presidential debates that include the real choices before the voters this November. The debates must include every candidate who is on enough ballots to win the White House and who has demonstrated a minimal level of support -- meaning either 1% of the vote in a credible national poll, or qualification for federal matching funds, or both. In 2012, the Green and Libertarian party candidates both meet all of these criteria. We call on the national news media, the League of Women Voters, and every other civic organization that speaks up for the rights of regular people to organize a 2012 presidential debate that includes all the qualified candidates. We call on the Commission on Presidential Debates to change its arbitrary rules to include all the qualified contenders. And we urge our fellow Americans to rise up and demand democracy in our presidential elections, beginning today with the presidential debates. These debates belong to the people, not the politicians or Wall Street.

Notable signees thus far include the co-founder of Code Pink and Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine.

Barr/Nelson 2012

Tweet Of The Day - Roseanne Barr

Campaign Slogan

MC Rosie Rose

Campaign slogan?

Poll Of The Day

Rosanne Barr has launched a semi-serious run for the presidential nomination of the Green Party. Poll details.

IRELAND: JMG Reader Vivian Cummins Runs For Office As Marriage Proponent

Longtime JMG reader Vivian Cummins has announced his candidacy for Ireland's Parliament as a Green Party proponent of same-sex marriage. Via press release:

Vivian Cummins, the Green Party candidate for Kildare South is believed to be the only gay and officially recognised civil partnered candidate in the forthcoming General Election in the Irish Republic to be held on 25th February 2011. Cummins married his partner, Erney Breytenbach, in South Africa in 2009. Like other same-sex couples with a previous foreign civil marriage or partnership, their union became recognised in Ireland on 13th January of this year. Cummins said: “ The Green Party intends to introduce gay civil marriage if re-elected to Government and believes that same-sex couples should be entitled to the same rights as heterosexual couples. In Government, the Green Party introduced the Civil Partnerships legislation, which goes a long way to ensuring better rights for same-sex couples. But, it is not marriage, and we believe all consenting adults, should have the option to marry."

Last February, Cummins and his husband were the first gay couple to have their wedding announcement published in the Irish Times. We wish him the best of luck in the election!

ARIZONA: Log Cabin Candidate Steve May Recruits Homeless To Run In Green Party Vote Siphoning Scam

The New York Times reports that openly gay Log Cabin Republicans candidate Steve May has recruited several homeless people to run as sham Green Party candidates in an attempt to siphon votes from Democrats in Arizona. Even though he's been busted, May is unapologetic.

“Did I recruit candidates? Yes,” said Mr. May, who is himself a candidate for the State Legislature, on the Republican ticket. “Are they fake candidates? No way.” To make his point, Mr. May went by Starbucks, the gathering spot of the Mill Rats, as the [homeless] frequenters of Mill Avenue are known. “Are you fake, Benjamin?” he yelled out to Mr. Pearcy, who cried out “No,” with an expletive attached. “Are you fake, Thomas?” Mr. May shouted in the direction of Thomas Meadows, 27, a tarot card reader with less than a dollar to his name who is running for state treasurer. He similarly disagreed. “Are you fake, Grandpa?” he said to Anthony Goshorn, 53, a candidate for the State Senate whose bushy white beard and paternal manner have earned him that nickname on the streets. “I’m real,” he replied. Gathered around was a motley crew of people who were down on their luck, including a one-armed pregnant woman named Roxie whom Mr. May befriended sometime back and who introduced him to the rest.

May was a one-term member of the Arizona state legislature and has qualified for November's ballot after a successful write-in campaign. He is a former member of the Log Cabin national board of directors and was endorsed by the group last month. Hilariously, the tagline on his election site is "Honest leadership...for a change."

Arizona GOP Accused Of Fielding Fake Green Party Candidates

Democratic Party officials in Arizona have accused the GOP of creating fake Green Party candidates in order to split the Democratic vote in November.

The complaint names Rep. Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix; Steve May, a Republican candidate for the Legislature; and a House Republican staffer as complicit in an effort to register at least a half-dozen people as Green Party members so they could run as write-in candidates in last week's primary election. Republicans accused of the ploy denied any wrongdoing. Under state election law, it only takes one write-in vote for a person to qualify as a Green candidate on the Nov. 2 general-election ballot. The newly minted Green candidates have been disavowed by the Arizona Green Party and are running in races in which Democrats are believed to be competitive. Those races include secretary of state, treasurer, Arizona Corporation Commission and several legislative contests in swing districts.

One of the suspicious Green Party candidates is the roommate of the daughter of an Arizona GOP official.

UPDATE: JMG reader Homer notes that one of the accused GOP scamsters, Steve May, is an out gay man.

(Tipped by JMG reader Band)

HomoQuotable - Peter Tatchell

"It is with great regret and reluctance that I am standing down as the Green Party parliamentary candidate for Oxford East. My brain injuries from the Mugabe and Moscow bashings mean that I would not be able to campaign effectively in the general election or do the duties required of an MP, if I was elected.

"The brain damage caused by Mugabe’s thugs in Brussels in 2001 and by neo-Nazis in Moscow in 2007 has been compounded by head injuries in an accident while I was campaigning in Devon in July. A bus on which I was travelling swerved and braked sharply. I was thrown forward, hitting my head on a metal handrail. The injuries don’t stop me from campaigning but I am slower, make more mistakes, get tired easily and take longer to do things. My memory, concentration, balance and coordination have been adversely affected. I can’t campaign at the pace I used to." - World's most noted LGBT activist Peter Tatchell, who has been beaten by anti-gay and government thugs at several protests around the world.

From Finland's Green Party

(Via - Queerty)

Cynthia McKinney Announces Bid

Former Democratic Rep Cynthia McKinney announces her Green Party candidacy. I think there's about six or seven Greens running at the moment. One of the last things McKinney did before losing her seat was to introduce a bill calling for Bush to be impeached.