Statement of Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate for Governor of New York, on President Obama Speech on Iraq War

Obama’s speech affirmed popular slogans: bring the troops home and focus on jobs and economic recovery at home. But it was as disingenuous as Bush’s weapons of mass destruction excuse for starting the Iraq war in the first place.

The reality is quite different from what Obama said. It is only the tactics of occupation that are changing. US troops are being redeployed to an escalating war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The occupation in Iraq is being turned over the mercenaries – the armed forces of the Iraqi government that the US trained and commands from the Green Zone and the largest embassy compound in world history, plus a very large and costly force of US private military contractors for security and special ops combat under the State Department. The overall goal remains the same as during the Bush years: domination of the region for its oil and its strategic geopolitical position.

Meanwhile, Obama talked of focusing on jobs, education, and economic recovery at home, but offered no substantive program. The reality is that when the economic needs a stimulus of public jobs programs and public spending to rebuild US manufacturing around green industries, his administration is focused on deficit reduction by cutting Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare.

The military budget is growing to maintain the occupation of the Middle East and Southwest Asia, while the domestic spending on American’s needs is being cut. That is the grim reality behind Obama’s slogans.

Hawkins supports a shift towards organic  farming, ending the use of toxic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, and  strengthening NYS Food Policy Council

Government Ag Policies Need  to Shift towards helping family farms and promoting healthier  foods

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said  today that he would promote organic farming and a reduction in the use  pesticides and carbon-based fertilizers during his tenure. Hawkins said that the  state must also show more leadership in helping farmers transition to meet the  demands presented by climate change and peak oil.

Hawkins said he  would appoint a Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets with a strong track  record in organic farming, community food security, farmland preservation,  Community Supported Agriculture, and support for family farms.

“The  good thing is that every politician promises to help small and medium-sized  farmers, so the issue has popular support. Unfortunately, we have been hearing  such promises for decades, literally since the founding of our country, yet more  and more small and medium-sized farmers are being forced off their land. State  officials keep on identifying problems like processing, distribution, and  protecting farmlands from development pressure, but decades go by without the  needed investments and leadership,” added Hawkins.

BY CELESTE KATZ, on NY Daily News Blog, The Daily Politics

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party’s candidate for governor, is out with a new web video in which he chastises GOP gubernatorial hopefuls Rick Lazio and Carl Paladino for focusing on attacking the proposed Park51 mosque and cultural center instead of dealing with issues like unemployment.

“September 11th, 2001 remains a pivotal moment for New York and our country. All of us share great sadness and often anger for the many innocent people who were killed that day. As the Green Party pointed out then, it would be wrong to blame an entire religion or culture or nation for the criminal terrorist act committed that day. Yet that is exactly what the opponents of the Park 51 Islamic Cultural Center are doing today: blaming Islam and condemning all Muslims who had nothing to do with the attack on 9/11 for the acts of a small group of criminal terrorists. The words that the Green Party of New York spoke on September 11, 2001, as we cautioned against turning this criminal act into a call for war, remain just as true nine years later,” Hawkins said in a statement.

“Now that Cuomo has made his intentions to battle against us known, we’d be crazy to support him. TJC has found the ideal candidate for us to endorse for governor. To read more and download our leaflet explaining our position, click here.”[PDF]
“HOWIE HAWKINS: A CANDIDATE WE CAN ENDORSE WHOLE HEARTEDLY”

Teacher for a Just Contract.

Colia Clark, Green Party New York U.S.Senate candidate, speaks in support of Medical Marijuana and Joe Barton who was arrested for growing marijuana for medicinal purposes in Kingston NY.

Clark, running against Charles Schumer, meet with Barton, a 63 year old Vietnam Veteran, in solidarity before his appearance in the Ulster County Courthouse in Kingston NY.

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Green Party U.S. Senate Candidate Cecile Lawrence is taking on incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand. Cecile’s green agenda includes banning hydro-fracking which Gillibrand seems to support. Cecile also wants to re-access Wallstreet’s shady tax dodging laws which again are not challenged by Gillibrand. Ms Lawrence is also active in healthcare reform, organic farming and renewable energy.

Howie Hawkins spills the beans on Wallstreet Hedge Funds investing and ripping off our Charter Schools. The only way out of this financial mess is to elect Howie to implement “The Green New Deal”.

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, said today that the Freedom Party should have the right to run its statewide candidates in this fall’s elections.

“Democracy requires a full debate of ideas. The Freedom Party has certainly exceeded any minimal standards that should be required to qualify for the ballot. We should let voters, not election law attorneys, decide who will represent our state,” said Hawkins, a Teamster who works at UPS in Syracuse.
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Howie Hawkins, the Green Party of NY’ s candidate for Governor of NY State, speaking at the Albany press conference at the filing of more than 27,000 signatures to get on the ballot for November’s election.

Hawkins’ challenges Andrew Cuomo on NYS’s Stock Transfer Tax of which NYS collects in excess of $16 billion annually, but rebates the tax back to Wall Street speculators.

Colia Clark, a great grandmother who campaigned for civil rights and peace alongside the late Medgar W. Evers and Martin L. King Jr., said, “America’s greatest national treasure is her youth. Due to the high cost of a college education that treasure is endangered. I am campaigning for the US Senate fighting for critical legislation designed to protect the nation’s most valuable resource from harm of not getting a college education needed to survive in the 21st century. I will fight in the hallways, back rooms, in the US Senate chamber and all over Washington, DC for democratic education. A democratic education will guarantee all young folk living in the United States a full education without expense and loans. Education is also a human right. An educated nation is the best national security possible. The time to protect America’s national security is now. True change is putting people first,” said Ms. Clark.

Colia Clark, a former lecturer on Africana and Women’s studies, is a long time social justice activist from Harlem who is presently working on self-determination for the Haitian people