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No Greens on the statewide ballot this year?
By adamg on Mon, 07/17/2006 - 8:46am
They might not get enough signatures to get any candidates on the ballot.
Via Solomonia, who wonders if it has to do with the party's plunge into Middle East politics. Eeka, though, blames The Insane Guy for scaring away potential petition signers:
... White guy, about 45, usually wears a t-shirt and baggy pants. Almost always wears a cap covered in political buttons. Kind of scruffy with long graying hair and a beard. He shows up at most every event and, well, bugs the crap out of people. He's also frequently seen on the Green Line trying to talk to strangers.
He'll approach someone with a greeting such as "do you support the war in Iraq?" or "how would you like to see a lesbian governor?" He takes extreme offense at responses such as "uh, I gotta go meet a friend" or "I'm trying to read here" or ignoring him. He then preaches at people about how their reluctance to talk with him equates with not caring about the community. ...
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Comments
You know, yesterday Jill
You know, yesterday Jill Stein called me. Herself even. My mailing address had changed since the last round of elections, and a mailing that she sent out got kicked back. So she called me. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. We had a 10 minute conversation about election issues. She's very engaging, and it actually got me excited about election issues.
If you think that Jill is
If you think that Jill is cool, you should meet Grace Ross (gov candidate) and Jamie O'Keefe (treasurer candidate). Also great folks--as, I suspect, Wendy van Horne is. I just hope that they can get their campaigns together.
The party co-chair...
...was part of the group that disrupted the JOI event you wrote about Mr. Goat.
Jill Stein has been silent about the anti-Semites running her party. It's not just about the environment anymore...
Really?
And who's their co-chair? I know that Grace Ross was at the event and criticzed the disruptorsas well as a guy who was collecting signatures who, like most, was silent during the disruption. What role did the co-chair play? Were you there, Solomon? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the event.
But since you mention my earlier post, I have to bring a few things up totally unrelated to the Greens or to that event. I only learned that you had quoted me much later, as you didn't leave a note or a trackback. I also noticed that you added a bracketed sneer into the text you quoted when I assessed the positions of the JCRC, and that one of your readers described me as "in favor of appeasement and total capitulation to terror." Pretty rude, and pretty tacky not even to have mentioned to me that you were quoting me so that I could have said responded when the post was fresh.
That's correct
[sorry if this is double (or triple!) posted, the site hicupped and I'm trying again]
That's correct, Ron Francis is the person. I wasn't there, but had it confirmed to me by someone who was that he was present (what The Jewish Advocate described as "a familiar group.") And he's not just against certain Israeli policies, he's against the existence of Israel and supports the "resistance" (specifically Hamas). It's his raison d'etre. Apparently his friends are the type who think using the word "zionist" is an appropriate insult.
No insult was meant to you in the post, Mr. Goat, although I guess I can see how you could take it that way, it's a weakness of the medium. The brackets were just a statement of fact, an aside. I don't spend a lot of time attacking other bloggers. I can only speak to what I wrote, not what commenters write.
As for trackbacks, I didn't (and don't) see the trackback URI for your post. I also have never sent an email or comment just to let someone know I linked, nor has it been in my experience that people do that to me (less than a handful in three and a half years). I figure most people watch their referrer logs.
If you still want to comment on it or discuss it, go ahead, or email me if you prefer (solomon =at= solomonia =dot= com)...
Referrer logs?
Hi, Solomon. I thought that trackbacks were common, but I dont really know. I'm honestly not sure what referrer logs are--I'm relatively new to this whole blogging thing. I do check technorati citations, though there wasn't one for your blog. For the most part, I was just unhappyt o find it after it had moved off your front page and to see that I'd been criticized, particularly by that reader. At this point, I don't know if anyone's likely to read somethign that far back in the archives, so I'll probably leave it.
No worry
Someone might see your reply because I do have a "5 most recent comments" thing on the front page, but to be honest, I really wouldn't bother. Some anonymous person said something about the anonymous you that you didn't like (that was only tangentially aimed at you if at all, really)...make it water off a duck's back. May you have a long and illustrious internet career such that you couldn't even consider wasting time responding to every perceived insult. I find some blogger or other trashing me on occassion -- 99% of the time I ignore it. It's a big internet. People say things. Everyone's got an opinion, etc... [Edit: Some bloggers make a career of going to war against other bloggers. I rarely see any point to it.]
On trackbacks, etc... OK, "trackbacks" are technically an automated thing where the blog software "pings" the other blog software and it adds a link to the other post. Note this fellow's post. Look next to comments where it says "1 Trackback". That's an automated thing, not something I inserted manually into his post. (Sorry if I'm being too basic here, just trying to help.)
Referrer logs are something through your hosting provider, or through a service like Sitemeter that tell you how many people are reading your site and where they're coming from (as well as other fun stuff...).
Take care...
Trackbacks were a good idea once
But, of course, they have been completely ruined by the spammers. I turned them off here long ago - and even had to get a separate module to block them from attempting to post trackbacks to items that wouldn't accept them because so many were coming in it was degrading the whole site.
Yeah, spam is a scourge.
Yeah, spam is a scourge. MovableType does a decent job of blocking them, but I have to regularly go through the (amazingly long) list of junked tracks to clear the ocassional good one. Still worth it for me, but frustrating. I suspect it's real hell on the hosting providers who's servers have to churn constantly checking all the spam.
Mr. Goat, would you mind popping me an email? I don't see a contact on your livejournal page (may have missed it).
GRP Co-Chair
Solomonia and other zionists are trying to smear Ron Francis and by proxy the Green-Rainbow Party for being an outspoken activist who criticizes the policies of Israel. Nobody in the GRP is anti-Semetic (or Anti-Jewish as that is what Solomonia is really talking about) just for being critical of Israel or supportive of the Palestinian cause.
Well, I wasn't trying to
Well, I wasn't trying to name names, and I didn't know of his involvement with the Green-Rainbow. But yes, Ron Francis was indeed one of the disruptors. I know who he is, but don't know nearly enough about his past statements to discuss his views toward Hamas or Israel and who's trying to smear whom.
But I will say what I saw, which is that Ron Francis strode to the front of the room and interrupted Ron Bell while he was speaking. After he and Bell exchanged some comments, some folks outside started to yell through the windows, including yelling that Bell was a racist. Francis' sign criticized the JCRC's presence at the event--despite the fact that the JCRC was one of about 18 groups with tables there, didn't have a speaker, and was there because of its work with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. The details are in my original post here.
We can debate until the cows come home whether this is anti-Semitic (or anti-Jewish if you prefer that term, SoomPrimal), or if was just incredibly rude and obnoxious. But i know that the JCRC has tables and other representation at MANY other events and meetings around town, and I have not heard of similar protests there. Why not? Did the fact that this was a Jewish event make it more deserving of protest? And I know that there are many non-Jewish institutions who support Israel's actions. Where is Ron's protest there?
I DO support the Green-Rainbow Party, and as I mentioned initially, I consider Grace Ross a friend. The GRP's policies for the state are, in my mind, far preferable to those being offered by the Dems and Republicans. And I don't think that Ron was acting in a Green party capapcity in any way at this event--there were no signs or anything, and as I said, Grace Ross was quite separate from him. But his actions that night was ridulous and condemnable. And I know that most who were there that night, most of whose views on Israel are firmly on the Left, were similarly disgusted. Your party co-chair did not make any friends that night.
oh yeah, that guy
I was walking past Roxbury Community College a couple weeks ago while there was some kind of candidate thing going on (shame on me for not remembering what). Insane Guy was there and approached me about Grace Ross...I don't think he was using the "lesbian governor" angle like he was at the Dyke March, but it was something vague yet catchy. I kept going, but then I stopped to talk to the Deval Patrick people.
Insane Guy literally flung himself between me and the Patrick worker I was chatting with, interrupting our conversation with his entire body. I said, "I'm TALKING to THEM!", which made him back up a few feet, but he continued to talk at me while the Patrick workers looked embarrassed and pained.
I signed a card in support of Patrick in part JUST BECAUSE OF THIS GUY. Not entirely, but the man is actively driving away people who might otherwise support his candidate. Now I associate insanity with Grace Ross, and I doubt she deserves that.
Green Party in Somerville
The Grace Ross signature gatherers in Davis Square, such as at last weekend's ArtBeat, have always been polite and not in-your-face.
Oh, I have no doubt that
Oh, I have no doubt that most of them, if not all but the one, are perfectly respectful and appropriate in their signature gathering.
And I realize Dan has collected a lot of signatures, but I can't help but wonder how many were to make him go away?
For a person like me, someone who is but casually interested in politics (interested enough to vote, but not much beyond that at this point in my life), being approached aggressively is the best way to lose my vote. I don't care if Grace Ross is a lesbian or not; I care about her background, her political experience, a hundred other things before I care about her sexuality, and for this guy to present that as the first and only thing he mentions about her (even if it WAS at the Dyke March)...that just struck me as disrespectful, to her and to his audience.