CBS News is reporting, in an interview with her, that Green Party presumptive presidential nominee Jill Stein has announced her choice for the party’s vice presidential candidate, to be approved at this week’s convention in Baltimore.  Cheri Honkala is the Stein campaign’s choice, a poor people’s advocate based in Philadelphia and the national coordinator of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign.

There was some speculation that actress and comedian Roseanne Barr, who is also running for the Green Party’s presidential nomination, would be the vice presidential candidate.  However, Stein has opted instead for Honkala, saying in an announcement, “Compelled by her own experience as a homeless, single mom, Honkala has spent nearly three decades working directly alongside the poor to build the movement to end poverty, and has organized tens of thousands of people to take action via marches, demonstrations and tent cities.”

Honkala herself stated, “It’s immoral that children are hungry and homeless in the richest country in the world. It’s time for the 99% to stand united to serve our collective human needs instead of selfish, corporate greed. The Green Party is the only one standing up to Wall Street, and Jill Stein’s Green New Deal is the best plan for saving this sinking ship. I’m honored to fight beside her.”

For the time being, Honkala is also coordinating ballot access efforts for the Green Party of Pennsylvania, which is in the process of working to collect over 40,000 signatures by the end of July. Honkala joined the Green Party in 2011, when she ran for Sheriff of Philadelphia on a platform of turning the Sheriff’s office from the department that evicts people to a social service working to “keep families in their homes,” as well as establishing community land trusts so that people living near vacant and abandoned properties can control them.  Honkala ran for Sheriff after labor organizer Hugh Giordano reinvigorated the Green Party of Philadelphia with his strong run for state representative in 2010.  The campaign proposal of addressing blight and vacant lots is part of a Philadelphia-wide political effort to address vacant land in the city in recent years.  Honkala is also consistently involved in efforts to prevent individual families from losing their homes to foreclosure and other work ensuring the basic survival of some of the most economically oppressed in Philadelphia.  The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign also operates around the United States, and is part of various international poor peoples’ movements.

As mentioned earlier, Honkala has been an activist of one form or another, whether simply to ensure the survival of herself and her son in the Minnesota winter when she was homeless or organizing protests at the Republican National Convention in 2000, for decades.  Several documentaries have been made about her or her efforts, including “Poverty Outlaw,” and she was featured in the book The Myth of the Welfare Queen. Honkala has been named one of the 100 most powerful people in the region by Philadelphia magazine, as well as being named “Person of the Year” once by Philadelphia Weekly. Her son Mark Webber is an actor, director, and playwright who used his celebrity to help her campaign for Sheriff.  In that campaign, Cheri campaigned and organized in Philadelphia, as well as travelling the country to encourage progressives to leave the Democratic Party and encourage Greens to approach politics in a way that is more inclusive of and relevant to poor people.

A press conference was held today to make the announcment, which has been posted on Jill Stein’s campaign website.

Originally posted at IndependentPoliticalReport.com.

[Disclosure:  I was involved in Cheri Honkala's campaign for Sheriff on many levels and this summer I have been part of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, working on a farm they are organizing in the neighborhood where Honkala lives.  I am also a member of the Green Party of PA, was active in Hugh Giordano's campaign, and have been collecting signatures to get the Stein campaign on the ballot there.]

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org
http://www.cherihonkala.com
http://www.facebook.com/Cheri4Sheriff

WASHINGTON, DC — Cheri Honkala, candidate for Sheriff of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has emerged as the Green Party’s highest profile candidate in the 2011 election year.

Ms. Honkala’s campaign slogans, “Keeping Families in Their Homes,” “The People’s Sheriff,” and “Referendum on America,” reflect her pledge, if elected, to declare a moratorium on home evictions until the economic climate in Philadelphia changes.

“I’m running for Sheriff because something needs to be done to address the plague of home evictions being faced by too many poor and working families in Philadelphia,” said Ms. Honkala, who is using her campaign to help build the nation-wide movement to reverse the growing dominance of banks and other corporations over our government and local communities.

Cheri Honkala discussed her campaign and “zero evictions” platform at the Green Party’s 2011 Annual National Meeting in Alfred, New York, on August 5 (http://nygreenfest.org). Two videos of Ms. Honkala speaking at the meeting: http://vimeo.com/27355841 and http://vimeo.com/27415010

Ms. Honkala would be the first woman sheriff in Philadelphia. The city’s past sheriff, who resigned during a corruption investigation, cooperated with banks in evicting families from homes as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis, and Ms. Honkala’s Democratic and Republican competitors in the race intend to continue using the sheriff’s office as a tool for the financial industry.

The crisis was triggered when low- and middle-income working Americans were unable to refinance their homes after they were issued adjustable-rate mortgages. The subprime mortgage crisis, stemming from misleading lending practices by banks and other financial companies, touched off the 2008 economic meltdown.

“Our so-called political leaders don’t dare to do anything of substance against the banks,” said Jason Bosch, chief of staff for the Cheri Honkala campaign. “Cheri Honkala’s campaign is the most significant thing happening in this country to challenge these banks and the direction they are taking all of us. Philadelphia voters have the unique opportunity to do something that no other voters in America have — to change policy with one vote. If Cheri gets elected there will be no evictions. This will force banks to the table and expand the discourse around these issues to include the voices of people who are struggling just to survive and keep a roof over their heads. This is a campaign of national significance.”

The Honkala campaign supports the development of community-based land trusts. There are over 40,000 vacant properties in Philadelphia, and community-based ownership of these properties offers the means to house people in need of homes and to create more urban gardens and public spaces that will strengthen communities. Ms. Honkala sides with immigrants facing raids and deportations that tear apart families, affirming that she will stand with poor working class people of all nationalities and refuse to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Cheri Honkala, a tireless advocate for the nation’s poor and homeless, founded the local Kensington Welfare Rights Union and the national Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign, which works to help people who cannot get help through bureaucratic channels find solutions to their housing crises. She has organized numerous street demonstrations in Philadelphia, as well as efforts to reclaim and occupy vacant homes for poor families in need of housing.

Ms. Honkala was included in Philadelphia Magazine’s list of 100 Most Powerful Philadelphians and was named Philadelphia Weekly’s “Woman of the Year” in 1997.

David Cobb, the Green Party’s 2004 presidential nominee, called Cheri Honkala “a long-distance runner for social justice” and added, “I think Cheri’s campaign can become the ’signature’ national electoral campaign for progressives of all stripes in 2011.”

The Cheri Honkala campaign headquarters is located about 100 feet from the site where Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. Ms. Honkala has dedicated her campaign to forging a new independence — independence from the big banks and other corporations, which Jefferson himself warned about. “I hope we shall… crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws our country.” (Letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, November 12, 1816)

Dan Hamburg, LeAlan Jones, and Jill Stein are running three races that are very important to the Green Party this year.  In California, Hamburg is a former Democratic Congressman hoping to be elected as a Green to Mendocino County Supervisor.  In Illinois, Jones is the only African American in the Senate race and has polled as high as 14%, in a state where the Green candidate for governor got over 10% in 2006.  In Massachusetts, Stein is less than $1,000 away from qualifying for the rest of the debates, and about $38,000 away from qualifying for matching funds.

I’ll make this as simple as possible.  Here’s what each one needs from you:

1.  Dan Hamburg.  He is an incredible candidate, and really represents the future of the Green Party.  He came in first in a primary which included ALL candidates in the race, but an ultra-conservative candidate came in a close second.  With a great background and the local SEIU’s endorsement, Hamburg is both qualified for office and running a strong enough campaign to win.  However, he needs help financially – that’s where you come in.

In the words of Greechange.org, “[When] he wins, Dan Hamburg will show that the Green movement is ready to lead with fresh ideas for reviving our economy and protecting our ecosystem.”  The netroots has shown before that it has great skill at fundraising – just a bit of that can be stretched a long way in a local race like this.  So please donate whatever you can afford.

2.  But don’t give all your money away!  Save some for LeAlan Jones.  And even if you don’t donate to Jones, there is something else extremely important that you can do.  Call Meet the Press (202-885-4598 ) and let them know that they shouldn’t exclude Jones from their Senate debate.  When the Florida Libertarians did this for their Senate candidate, they got the Meet the Press debate cancelled – let’s one up them and get a Green on national television!

From the Jones campaign:

Plus, we are asking YOU to call NBC’s Meet The Press at 202-885-4598 and tell them to “Let LeAlan debate!” NBC decided to shut out the only African-American candidate running for this historically African-American Senate seat. It’s time to stand up to this media BLACKout. More details in my letter to the president of NBC News

Tell them you’d like to talk to Meet the Press.  Let’s do this!

3.  Jill Stein.  She needs to raise $100,000 by October 1 in order to qualify for the gubernatorial debates, which is really the best way for her to gain support.  She is less than $1,000 from that goal, so every dollar counts!

Since the state government uses a different fundraising standard, she is about $38,000 away from raising the needed $125,000 to get matching public funds.  If she can do this, her campaign will be one of the best tools in the nation for building the Green Party, and she will have a shot at winning in Massachusett’s 4-way race (that means only 25%+1 to win).

She needs to raise this money by September 24, and we can do it! Last week alone, Stein raised $25,000, a quarter of the total her campaign has brought in this year.  It’s up to us.

(For the next $350 or so donated at DemocracyDays.com, a fundraising site for Stein, another donor will match that donation.)

Let’s do this!  Together, we can build an alternative to the corrupt, destructive two party system.

I’ve been gone all summer – traveling, gardening, volunteering a bit, and doing some other things – and as much as I had a lot of fun, it is nice to be back.  In all that time, some interesting things have happened with what I consider to be one of the better Green campaigns in the nation this year, and one that I’m very involved with, Hugh Giordano’s campaign for state legislature as a Green.

In case you don’t know who Hugh is, he’s a 25 year old union organizer running as a Green in PA’s 194th district, which is mostly in Philadelphia and also a bit in Montgomery County (for locals, it encompasses Roxborough, Manayunk, parts of Lower Merion, and some surrounding areas).  He’s been running a great campaign, knocking on doors, holding fun fundraisers, getting in the newspaper, and raising as much money as a typical Green congressional candidate.

Anyway, here is the news I was talking about originally.

In July, Green Party candidate for State Representative in PA’s 194th district Hugh Giordano received the endorsement of Bill Morris, a Democrat who ran and lost in the May primary. The news made several newspapers, including the Philadelphia Public Record, which ran the headline “Green Party Candidate May Liven Up 194th State House Race:”

Giordano is not your usual Green Party advocate. An organizer for United Food & Commercial Workers Local 152, Giordano has practical political experience and union connections. He has been working the District, which encompasses Roxborough and Manayunk along with parts of Lower Merion Township and Wynnefield, ever since the winter…

But the Dems are still split from their bruising primary, giving Giordano his opening. Over the weekend, Giordano received the support and endorsement of former Democratic Primary candidate Bill Morris…

“I sat back and thought hard about who is the best candidate to represent this District in Harrisburg,” said Morris. “At the end of the day, I feel Hugh is the best candidate.” Morris, a union carpenter, thinks Giordano, a union organizer, understands the issues of working people and the middle class and will stand by them against the corporate executives that control Harrisburg.

Giordano has been in the local paper more recently for his efforts to reach out to young voters (at 25, he is a very young candidate himself):

“It’s very encouraging to see so many young people getting excited about politics and my campaign. The voters have a real chance here to vote for someone who truly stands by them and the issues that affect them everyday.” Giordano feels its important for young voters to stay engaged and on top of the issues of jobs, environment, and public education because these are all issues that are going to affect them in their future; whether it’s a year from now or ten years from now. “Citizens need a state representative who understands them and is a true independent, and these issues must be tackled now,” said Giordano.

Chris Rodgers and Mike Torpey feel Giordano is the best choice in November, because he knows the issues and has lived in the district his entire life. “We both have known Hugh since high school, and when Hugh say’s he is going to do something, he does it!” said Rodgers.

And though it didn’t make it into any newspapers, as far as I know, Giordano also participtaed in a demonstration against the fact that every single third party statewide candidate was tossed off the ballot by the major parties in Pennyslvania this year:

Hugh Giordano, Green Party candidate for State Representative in the 194th district attended a rally on August 15, to ensure that Third Party candidates keep their place on the ballot in the November election. Giordano is officially on the ballot in November, but for some other Third Party candidates, they still have a fight ahead of them. The Republicans have challenged three Libertarian Party contenders who are running for Governor, U.S. Senate, and Lieutenant Governor. Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, Joe Sestak, challenged a Green Party candidate who is attempting to join the race against Republican Pat Toomey.

‘I think this is an attack on democracy to the fullest, and quite honestly I think the Democrats and Republicans are cowards,” Said Giordano. Giordano is outraged that the two party system has such strangle hold over the Pennsylvania voters and feels that every voice deserves to be heard and recognized in a democracy. “ I cannot understand why anyone would register with the two party system, let alone voter for the Democrats or Republicans,” said Giordano, “ Why would anybody vote for a party or candidate that not only forces you to vote for them, but also attacks your freedom to vote for the candidate you feel is best for the job.”

Giordano also has some upcoming events listed on his website, including an end of the summer happy hour on August 31st and a spaghetti dinner fundraiser on September 19th. If you don’t live in the area, donations are always appreciated.

This is just one part of national and international movements. The Greens in Australia won big the other day, gaining their first seat in the lower house of Parliament and the balance of power in both houses – so, yes, we can do it. We CAN build an alternative to the corrupt, destructive two party system!

On June 8, Californians will vote on several referendums, in addition to primary races.  One of those referendums, Proposition 14 (aka the Top Two Primaries Act), could hugely change how those primary races are conducted, and it would definitely not be for the better.  As if to add insult to injury, but it could take down a public campaign financing measure along with it.

Prop 14 was put on the ballot through the backroom dealings of State Senator (not Lt. Gov.) Abel Moldonado, the very last holdout on the budget this year.  He used the budget crisis for his own profit and one of his demands was to put this measure on the ballot.  Now, his reckless action is being opposed by every political party in California and numerous electoral reform groups, groups ranging from the NAACP to the Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition.

But big business wants this to pass because of the control it could give them over elections (explanation below the fold).  So your help is needed – $5, $10, $100 – whatever you can chip in to prevent California from descending further into a mess of broken government.

So just what is Prop 14?  And why is it so bad?

Basically, Prop 14 would set up a system in which every voter gets the same primary ballot, with every candidate running listed on it, and the candidates with the two highest percentages from that ballot move on to the general election.  (Currently, independent California voters actually are able to vote in any primary they want to.)  Write-in votes would be prohibited in the general election.

Something worth noting is that this is not a proposition for an “open primary,” as some claim.  An open primary would allow voters to choose which primary to vote in regardless of registration, but that is NOT what this is.  This would establish a “top two primary.”

That doesn’t sound so bad at first, but it turns out that the alleged reasons for implementing it are false.  This system is already in place in Washington state and Louisiana (that bastion of transparent, honest politics!) had a similar system for most of the past forty years, so there is information available to compare these claims to.

Ballot access expert and San Francisco resident Richard Winger explores these claims briefly:

Louisiana has used “top-two” for state office since 1975. Many Louisiana gubernatorial elections have advanced candidates to the runoff who did not appeal to the center. In 1991, former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke reached the gubernatorial runoff, just as he had reached the U.S. Senate runoff in 1990. In 1995, the gubernatorial runoff was between Mike Foster, a very conservative Republican, and Cleo Fields, who had supported Jesse Jackson for president. In 1999, the runoff was between Foster and William Jefferson, who was not a moderate either.California experience also shows that “top-two” doesn’t ease partisanship. California used a system in 1998 and 2000 called a blanket primary, in which all candidates from all parties ran on the same ballot and all primary voters used that ballot.

Political scientists who studied the California Legislature say the state Senate was just as polarized and the Assembly almost as polarized during the blanket primary years…

Prop. 14 would do great damage to the social fabric, because it would stifle dissident voices. Prop. 14 would eliminate the Peace and Freedom Party from the ballot (because that party has 58,000 registered members, and Prop. 14 eliminates all parties with registration under approximately 100,000 members). Prop. 14 also eliminates write-ins. We know from the experience of Washington and Louisiana that minor party members never place first or second in the primary, so they can’t campaign in the crucial six months between June and November when the voters are most interested in political ideas.

The people who place first or second in “top-two” systems are the incumbent and the challenger with the most money and name recognition. A system that doesn’t include the disaffected in the general election is courting trouble. When people can’t air their grievances and ideas in election campaigns, they often turn to less desirable modes of protest. The general election is for everybody, even political minorities

In another piece, he talks about how Prop 14 avoids the problem of California’s broken government rather than fixing it:

The real solution to solve California’s budget gridlock is to eliminate the rule that the budget can only be passed with two-thirds of the legislators in each house. To those who fear that Democrats would pass an unacceptable budget if they could pass a budget with a majority vote, consider that we Californians have the recall, the initiative, and the referendum, to rein in a legislature that might otherwise be too powerful. We have enough checks on the legislature already. We should let the majority party in the legislature govern. If the voters elect a majority party, let that majority party pass its budget. If we don’t like that budget, we not only have recall, initiative or referendum, we can defeat the majority party in the next election and replace it. But having given one party a majority in the legislature, we should let it pass the budget it wants.

It’s worth noting that Winger is actually an active Libertarian.  You read that right – a LIBERTARIAN is advocating that allowing Democrats to pass the budgets they choose is a better solution to this problem than a top two primary.

Why is he so opposed?  Well, the main reason Winger opposes Prop 14 is that it would pretty much eliminate all third parties in California, as he said.  That’s not to say it would get rid of much-hated spoilers – in fact, during the primary, it would probably be rare to see a candidate get a majority of the vote.  And with a bunch of Democrats, Republicans, and whatever else running in the same primary, you can bet that many races would see the top two winners get ten percent of the vote or less.  This is hardly the majoritarian solution it claims to be.

In fact, there isn’t much “there” there in the case supporting Prop 14.  In a recent radio debate between Richard Winger and the referendum’s author, Lt. Gov. Moldonado, Winger frequently cited statistics and facts, while Moldonado spouted off shallow talking points.  Take a listen for yourself (the whole show is about Prop 14, but the debate begins at about 12 minutes and lasts for the rest of the show):

Yet, if there is a lack of “there” in Prop 14, there certainly isn’t a lack of money.  The “Yes” campaign has raised well over $2 million, with big donors like Hewlett-Packard ($100,000), the California Chamber of Commerce’s California Business PAC ($205,000), Pacific Life Insurance Company ($25,000), and the CEO of Netflix ($257,328.40).  This is not some kind of grassroots push for electoral reform – in fact, it’s exactly the opposite.  Prop 14 is a major way for big business to take control of our elections. Spending in elections is predicted to increase if this passes, so companies that can afford to spend a hundred thousand dollars on a single ballot measure would surely benefit.

And an added benefit of this passing would be that it makes defeat for a modest public campaign finance proposition (Prop 15) more likely.  From Ballotpedia:

Opponents of the Top Two Primary measure say that it is conflict with another measure on the June 8 ballot, the Fair Elections Act. If the two propositions are in conflict, Section 4 of Article XVIII of the California Constitution decrees, “If provisions of 2 or more measures approved at the same election conflict, those of the measure receiving the highest affirmative vote shall prevail.”Richard Winger says:

“The two election law measures that will be on the June 2010 California ballot do not fit together. The public funding measure has at least eight sections that presume that political parties nominate candidates for state office, and that independent candidates do not appear on the primary ballot. But the top-two open primary sets up a scheme under which parties would not have nominees for state office, and also provides that independent candidates would run in the primary.”

And finally, Richard Winger’s point that this would mean the death of California’s third parties, which are some of the strongest third parties in the nation currently.  In the San Francisco Chronicle, Winger writes,

Washington used a Top 2 system for the first time in 2008. For the first time since statehood, the November ballot had no minor party or independent candidates for any congressional race, or any statewide state race.Louisiana has used a Top 2 system for state office since 1975, and never has a minor party candidate qualified for the second round.

Furthermore, Prop. 14 is far more hostile to minor parties than the version of Top 2 used in Washington state and Louisiana…

…under Prop. 14, how parties remain ballot-qualified will change drastically. Under existing California law, a party remains ballot-qualified if it polls 2 percent for any statewide race in a midterm year. But under Prop. 14, parties won’t have nominees. The only way for parties to appear on the November ballot in a presidential election will be either to have approximately 100,000 registered members, or to submit a petition (each election) of approximately 1 million signatures.

Prop 14 is clearly undemocratic.  It doesn’t really do anything about the divisiveness of California politics, it increases spending in elections, and it shuts out the voice of many candidates and hundreds of thousands of California citizens.

—————————————————

So here’s what you can do. The “No on Prop 14″ campaign desperately needs money in order to compete with the big bucks of the “Yes” campaign.  For now, the place to donate is StopTopTwo.org.  Every little bit helps, and please be generous!  Plus, if you donate $14 or more you get a free bumper sticker.

You can also print out and distribute this flyer, and sign up for updates from the newly formed “No on Proposition 14.”

Everything helps!  Talk to friends, family, and everyone else – but for now, donating is the most important thing you can do.  The election is June 8, so this is urgent.

Thank you to every who contributes.  You are doing your small part to keeping America’s elections intact.

This Earth Day, while an oil rig was burning and sinking and spilling out into the Gulf of Mexico, I joined a small band of protesters during my lunch break to tell the government to stop a similar crime against nature, one that is taking place in my home state of Pennsylvania.  There are no offshore oil rigs here, of course, but the new and dangerous method of extracting natural gas through fracking is becoming a larger and larger threat to our water, our land, and our climate.  And Pennsylvania is ground zero.

So I took to the streets at a Green Party-organized protest.  We stood outside the regional Department of Environmental Protection and made our voices heard.

So just what is fracking?  It’s short for “hydraulic fracturing” and it’s a dirty process for extracting natural gas from the ground.  ProPublica, which has this nifty graphic and a whole investigative series on the subject, defines it simply:

Hydraulic fracturing is a process used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States, where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart the rock and release the gas.

And where do those chemicals go?  And what chemicals are they?  Well, that’s a big part of the problem.

So what’s in this stuff? Hydrochloric acid, solvents, surfactants, petroleum-based lubricants, corrosion inhibitors, microbe killers. Basically, it’s a lot of the same carcinogenic chemicals found in household cleaners like Formula 409 and Drano.

Forbes, which is quoted above, goes on to say that generally “most of the fracking fluids are recovered.”  But when there are thousands of wells, “most” isn’t good enough.  ”Most” – especially when wells are exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, like they are here in PA, and subject to pretty much no regulation – is just not good enough when it results in things like this:

GAS COMMISSIONER: If a well is drilled next to your residence or near your residence within the legal setbacks, and there’s a perceived or real impact on your property value, we don’t address that.NARRATOR: In 2001, gas wells were drilled using the fracking technique a mere 500 feet from the Amos home. Underground, the drilling breached their water well, causing their drinking water to fill with grey sediment and fizz like soda pop. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission tested the water well and found methane but said it was safe. But they warned the Amoses to keep a window open, so the methane gas wouldn’t build up and cause an explosion in their home. The Amoses stopped drinking the water but continued to bathe in it.

Not even a decade into the widespread use of this technology, we’ve already seen a lot of what’s wrong with it.

The spills, which occurred at a well site run by Cabot Oil and Gas, involve a compound manufactured by Halliburton that is described as a “potential carcinogen” and is used in the drilling process of hydraulic fracturing, according to state officials. The contaminants have seeped into a nearby creek, where a fish kill was reported by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP also reported fish “swimming erratically”.

Don’t buy into the greenwashing.  There is nothing clean, nothing green, nothing environmentally friendly about natural gas.  It IS a fossil fuel.  It IS poisoning our water.  It IS produced by the same gas companies that never have, and still don’t, care about the innocent people they’re hurting in so many ways.

Mayer, a heavyset Vietnam vet, shouldn’t be smoking this cigarette because his house and property are inundated with high levels of methane gas. There’s so much of it that he can hold a barbecue lighter up to his tap and watch his drinking water explode in a blue fireball.Mayer blames his problems on natural gas drilling operations a few miles away. He believes the methane escaped during hydraulic fracturing (a process that involves shooting water, sand and a mix of chemicals deep into the ground to break up rock and release gas), then migrated through two underground fissures that converge about 100 feet from his well. Industry representatives disagree, as does New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation. Without ever visiting Mayer’s home, the DEC issued a notice of cleanup on Feb. 25, 2009. No such cleanup ever took place.

So I went to a protest today.  A few Green candidates were there, and they all spoke.  This includes Hugh Giordano, a strong union-backed candidate for state representative in Philadelphia, and Mel Packer, who’s running for US Senate.  (Although the Democrats are clearly better than the Republicans on this issue, the Greens are really standing up for the moratorium.)  A few others spoke, too.  Only about a dozen and a half people were there, but we had a microphone and a lot of signs!  Seriously, though, this is just part of a growing movement against this unnatural gas production, a movement that is saying to Democratic Governer Ed Rendell (who helped give out over 5,000 permits to drillers) and others responsible for this disgusting policy: NO FRACKING WAY!

We’re demanding a moratorium on natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania.

In fact, we’re so serious about this that we’re protesting Governor Rendell this Saturday night while he receives an award for allegedly being a “green” governor (gimme a break!).  If you want to come, show up at Walnut and Front Streets in Philadelphia at 7 PM this Saturday.

So what’s being done about it?  And what can we do as citizens?  Well, small progress is being made on the national scale through things like the EPA’s recently announced study of natural gas drilling, which is kind of like the wild west of the energy world right now.  And Democratic lawmakers are trying to impose some regulations on these drillers, like actually getting rid of the bizarre exemption they have from Safe Drinking Water Act.

You can learn more about the FRAC Act, which would implement some much needed reforms nationally, here.

But why is the government even encouraging natural gas drilling when there’s a climate crisis and multiple other environmental crises linked to this?  What’s needed more than ever is more people demanding a stop to these inane, purely profit-driven practices.

So here’s what you can do, especially if you’re in Pennsylvania:
1.  Call Governor Rendell to demand a moratorium on this: 717-787-2500
2.  Check out local environmental groups involved with this.  In PA, that includes the Green Party and the Environmental Working Group.  Check out your state here.
3.  If you’re a Pennsylvania Democrat, vote for Joe Hoeffel in the gubernatorial primary – he’s the only candidate who supports a moratorium.
4.  Check out the movie Gasland and the blog for more info on this, along with the links in the diary.

This piece was written as part of GreenChange Blog Action Day.  Learn more here.

I’m not going to pull any punches here.  I detest the two party system.  I believe that it undermines representative government.  It makes our government more responsive to corporations than to citizens.  It decreases the chances of progress and it results in many good ideas being shut out of the national political debate.