In a recent email exchange with Brian, I said that I was going to become a bit more partisan as a member of the Green Party.  Today, I want introduce you to one of the Green Party Candidates that are NOT named Nader.

Kent Mesplay was interviewed by Indian Country Today and that interview resulted in a front page (at least on the web site) placement (at least today). It is worth a read by all because Kent is a very unique individual.  

It is not often to find someone who grew up with stone aged people in Papua New Guinea, where Jared Diamond was a family friend, and then completed a Ph. D. in the sciences.  

‘So I grew up with Stone Age people in the middle of the rain forest. We didn’t have television or even telephones. We captured rainwater for drinking and had a garden. There was a small air strip where we had provisions flown in, but we were largely self-reliant and that’s part of who I am as a person.’

Sustainability and self reliance are crucial to security, Mesplay said.

“As a nation, we’re really living outside our needs. We import 80 percent of the food we eat. We import energy. In some parts of the country, we import water. In the time of any crunch – be it environmental or from terrorists – people are better off if they have their needs met in the community or in the region.”

But the government and large businesses don’t like that, he added.

”They act more in terms of stripping away wealth and breaking down people who are largely independent. That’s what they’ve done with the tribes and the nations over the years. That’s what they’re doing internationally now.”

While I support Mesplay, I have not idea how the Green Party nomination will play out.  I have heard that a Bay Area debate is tentatively scheduled for January 13,2008.  I am sure it will NOT be covered on Fox News.  

(cross-posted from ATM Watch)

Starting with Hillary Clinton back in February, several presidential candidates so far this year have visited Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA for a one-on-one chat (Clinton) or a full-fledged townhall meeting (McCain, Richardson and Edwards) in front of 1,000 or so Google employees. While we always hear about Google executives being a great source of Silicon Valley cash for the candidates, these forums are more akin to, as Carla Marinucci puts it,

the New Hampshire pancake breakfast, the Iowa school auditorium, [or] the South Carolina church hall.

Yes, retail politics IS happening right here in California and, thanks to Google's YouTube channel (umm, yeah they have one) the forums are available for all of us to see. They give us a rare glimpse of the candidates off script (rare for those of us not in N.H. or Iowa or permanently glued to CSPAN that is.) And while the candidates do their best to stick to the basic elements of their stump speeches, it's the unexpected little moments that are most interesting, such as Hillary Clinton's sense of humor, the warm war hero's welcome John McCain receives or the stumbles of Richardson (calling on Google to go solar when they already have) and Edwards (it was in this forum that he mistakenly claimed to have read the Iraq NIE.) And yes the candidates even talk California such as when Hillary repeated her praise for California's having kept electricity usage steady over the past two decades while nationwide it's increased 50%.

Want to get a close-up and personal look at the candidates, check out the videos over the flip:

Sen. John Edwards, May 30

Gov. Bill Richardson, May 14

Sen. John McCain, May 4

Sen. Hillary Clinton, Feb. 25

(We’re still giving them the big bucks… But now they need to pay attention to what we have to say! Ya know, California’s about much more than just money. : ) – promoted by atdleft)

by Erik Love

April 15 was the deadline for the 2008 Presidential Candidates to submit their official first quarter fundraising reports.  Those of us following ATM Watch, the Courage Campaign project that monitors visits to California from the '08 candidates, are not surprised to learn that California gave more dollars to the campaigns than any other state.

None of the major candidates in the race is originally from California, which makes our generosity all the more impressive.  Californians donated some 20 million dollars to the presidential campaigns, with Democrats raising $8 for every $5 raised by the Republicans.  No other state gave as much to the campaigns.  

This is notable because it's been the pattern in presidential campaigns for so long — come to California for money, but go to Iowa for votes.  ATM Watch's goal to to change all that — to make California not just a place for political donations, but also a place where the candidates must tell us about their positions on the issues that we think are important.

Check out this interactive map to see specific California donations for each candidate in the race, and be sure to join us at ATM Watch to hold the candidates to account as they continue to visit our state.