A little over a
year ago my work led me to election by the New York State Green Party
to serve on the National Committee, along with my friend and colleague
from New Paltz, Deputy Mayor Rebecca Rotzler. The time of this election
coincided with the onset of the peak of the presidential election
season, September 2004.

The state of affairs I discovered upon arrival at my new post was
shocking. There was nothing so much as resembling democracy being
practiced in the internal affairs of the national party. Low-population
states with little or no party membership held voting advantages over
larger states in some cases by as much as 300 to one. The entire
decision-making process was controlled by a Steering Committee of 9
people who, although only assigned administrative roles by party
bylaws, had somehow appropriated executive powers.

Delegations from New York and California held only 16% of the National
Committee votes, although they represented over 2/3 of the national
Green membership. The bylaws made little sense, contained numerous
conflicting clauses, no provisions for due process whatsoever, and
wherever clear were regularly ignored. Rising protests over this state
of affairs swiftly led the ruling directorship of the Green National
Committee to institute draconian rules of censorship and even expulsion
against dissident voices struggling to establish the democratic
principles written about so eloquently in the party platform.

Further aggravating the situation was a severe ethical shortfall in
party finance stemming from the diversion of $15,000 dollars raised
privately for the Ohio Recount into the Green Party national treasury
last February, questions about which the party still refuses to answer
to its own delegates, let alone the recounts donors. The aimless and
clueless central directorship has formally adopted a position that the
national party’s primary role will be to facilitate local elections in
its member states rather than take a meaningful role in the national
arena.

They have chosen as a matter of policy to relegate any presidential
nominees and federal candidacies in general to fringe party status, and
have removed any mechanisms through which the grassroots party
membership of over 300,000 enrollees can challenge this policy. I also
found the majority of the delegates and standing committee heads to be
inadequately competent to attend to the challenges of their positions.

In general I found myself unable to support the policies, practices,
and personnel of the entrenched directorship of the national Green
party, and powerless to change them. In other words, on all counts
precisely the opposite of my wonderful experience with the New Paltz
Greens since I first changed my party enrollment from Democrat to Green
in 2001.

This is a terribly painful crossroads for me, since, as you are all
well aware, the building and promotion of the Green Party has been the
central theme of my life in the Mid-Hudson Valley since moving to New
Paltz in January of 2001. While the local and state Green Parties here
in New York are thriving and operating admirably, the controlling
directorship of the national Green Party does not have the principles,
the willingness or the competence to fight the current battles for
peace, economic and social justice, environmental protection and
democracy that are the foundation of the Green agenda.

Unfortunately, at this time, the critical decisions of our time
affecting these societal needs, even at the local level, are being made
in the national arena, and that is where my personal sense of duty
requires my energies be directed for the foreseeable future. So on this
day, the 12th of October, 2005, I have officially entered a change of
enrollment from Green to Democrat with the Ulster County Board of
Elections, a time-stamped copy of which I hold in my hand, and announce
at this time that I will be entering the Democratic Party Primary for
United States Senate against Hillary Clinton.

Greenfield’s
decision to leave the Green Party was motivated by his experience and
observations as a national Green Party delegate that caused
disenchantment with strategies of failure, lack of democratic process,
and serious ethical questions regarding party finance that remain
unaddressed.

Parties to the
current suits have estimated that suits against the Los Angeles
Archdiocese, which involve alleged abuse by more than 200 priests,
could cost $1 billion.

The Wall Street Journal
says special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s pursuit “now suggests he
might be investigating not a narrow case on the leaking of the agent’s
name, but perhaps a broader conspiracy.”

“Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of
the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed
the White House Iraq Group” which “worked on setting strategy for
selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the
March 2003 invasion.”

Josh Marshall
spells out the implications, saying it goes far beyond losing Karl Rove
to a possible indictment. It could bring down the president’s entire
Iraq policy. “If Fitzgerald has lassoed this operation into a criminal
conspiracy, the veil of protective secrecy in which the whole operation
is still shrouded will be pulled back. Depositions and sworn statements
in on-going investigations have a way of doing that. Ask Bill Clinton.
Every key person in the White House will be touched by it. And all
sorts of ugly tales could spill out.”

Meanwhile, the grand jury is set to expire on October 28, so it’s possible that charges could come as early as next week.

I deal with folks who need a lawyer every day. Bush needs a pal in the
Supreme Court who will side with him in the inevitable upcoming court
battles, including quite possibly him pardoning himself and Cheney, or
them being pardoned by an incoming president.

Emergency supplies are coming from the EU and the Strategic
Petroleum Reserve. But these won’t last. Global production has peaked.
There isn’t more to be found.

What’s happening,
therefore is that we have entered an eerie hiatus. Some band-aids have
been applied to our oil and natural gas supply injuries and the
bleeding seems to have stopped. But the truth is that our energy
supplies are badly compromised and at the worst time of the year –
just as we slide into the home heating season

Another unpleasant truth about the situation is that the US public
wants to pretend that everything is okay as much as its leaders do. The
public is not so much being misled as demanding that its leaders in
government, business, and the news media continue a game of
make-believe — that we can still run a cheap oil economy without cheap
oil.

Today’s Energy Reality:”We Are In A Deep Hole”



Katrina was our energy 9/11



Katrina took away more capacity than we had left.

How and why did we dig such a deep hole?

Transportation energy use must be reduced.

Natural gas problems are not easy to fix.

R&D explosion must occur
Can the job get done
It has to.

Ingenuity is the by-product of panic.
The alternatives are too bad.
The longer we wait the deeper the hole becomes.
TODAY is when Plan B should begin.

Sales of the
General Motors Corporation Envoy and Chevrolet Tahoe fell more than 50
percent compared to last September, while Toyota’s Prius sales
increased by 90 percent from the same period last year.

My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.



My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.



When I’ve captured my adversary and
he says, “Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this
is all about?” I’ll say, “No.” and shoot him. No, on second thought
I’ll shoot him then say “No.”



I will never employ any device with a
digital countdown. If I find that such a device is absolutely
unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and
the hero is just putting his plan into operation.



I will maintain a realistic
assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Even though this takes some
of the fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line “No,
this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!” (After that, death is usually
instantaneous.)



I will be neither chivalrous nor
sporting. If I have an unstoppable superweapon, I will use it as early
and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.



My main computers will have their own
special operating system that will be completely incompatible with
standard IBM and Macintosh powerbooks.



Finally, to keep my subjects
permanently locked in a mindless trance, I will provide each of them
with free unlimited Internet access.