Senator Chuck Schumer ought to be ashamed of himself. He represents one of the most progressive states in the nation, so why has Schumer gone and voted against reforms to the Patriot Act – twice in two weeks?

Last week, Schumer voted against protecting Americans from known abuses of the Patriot Act’s Section 215. Section 215 enables the government to go and grab massive amounts of information about Americans’ personal lives from commercial databases – web surfing habits, telephone records, credit card records, medical information and so on.

Then, today, Schumer voted against restricting the totalitarian practice of National Security Letters, which allow government agents to go out and conduct searches and seizures without any search warrant, and legally prohibit people from blowing the whistle.

Both reforms were limited: All they asked is that if Section 215 powers or National Security Letters were used by the FBI, that the people or papers being targeted should be related in some way to terrorists or foreign spies. Is that too much to ask? Charles Schumer thinks so. Apparently, Senator Schumer thinks that the government should be spying on Americans who don’t have anything to do with terrorism or foreign spying – and doing it without a search warrant too.

Those may be the values of Chuck Schumer, but those aren’t the values of progressive New Yorkers. Schumer’s embrace of the worst abuses of the Bush years promises to push more New York progressives away from the Democratic Party and its sinking standards.

This week, downstate New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler did a great thing. He introduced H.R. 3567, the Respect for Marriage Act. The legislation, if passed, would overturn the infamous Defense of Marriage Act, a law passed late last century which enables the federal government to deny equal protection under the law to same sex couples.

Sadly, only one third of the Democrats in the House of Representatives supports this bill, the rest have declined to sign their names as cosponsors.

14 members of New York State’s delegation have not supported the Respect for Marriage Act. 11 of these 14 are Democrats. They are

Timothy Bishop
Steve Israel
Carolyn McCarthy
Joe Crowley
John Hall
Scott Murphy
Michael Arcuri
Brian Higgins
Louise Slaughter
Eric Massa

These Democrats who have declined to support the repeal of DOMA could be effectively targeted by the Green Party in the 2010 congressional elections through a focus on LGBT equality on marriage and other issues. The Green Party of New York State supports equality for all people, regardless of sexual orientation, without equivocation.

Green Party candidates and activists have become known as much for their style as for the content of their agenda. The Green Party has become associated with an informal, casual appearance, suggesting a lack of pretension and an alignment with the interests of everyday Americans. Here in New York State, this style was on display recently at New York Green Fest, where there wasn’t a single professional suit to be seen, and even solid-color button-down shirts were rare.

In a recent interview, Green Party congressional candidate Jeremy Cloward suggests a different approach. He urges Green Party candidates to adopt a more standard professional appearance, in the hopes of being taken more seriously by voters. Cloward explains:

“In terms of strategy, what I think the Green Party needs, and has needed, and you see it I think with some people, but one of the things it needs as much as possible… it needs people who are serious enough, and I think this is important, to wear jackets and ties when they meet people publicly. By doing that, by looking serious, I think there’s a better chance of people taking the Green Party seriously.

The Green Party has good ideas and a good political philosophy. Who knows the numbers, but 80 percent, 90 percent of the population, would support it, but I think a lot times, people see representatives of the Green Party, and they don’t see themselves as being in there. So, it’s a strategy that would work, to dress well.”

Is Cloward right? Would the Green Party benefit from a more professional appearance, or is casual attire in line with the Green Party’s ideals of independence from traditional structures of social power?

Here’s a map that shows all the counties in New York State where the Green Party has a web site to communicate with voters (those counties are in Green):

There are other county-level Green Party organizations besides what you see here. Clearly, one of the first things that needs to be done to organize the Green Party effectively in New York State is to get county Green Party groups online.

(hint to county Green Party leaders: Get in touch with me here, and I can help you get started)

Yet another example of the growing rightward tilt of the New York State Democratic Party is the candidacy of Bill Owens in the special election in the 23rd district to replace Republican U.S. Representative John McHugh, who is leaving Congress to become Secretary of the Army. Owens is the candidate chosen by the Democratic Party, running against Republican Dede Scozzafava and Conservative Doug Hoffman.

There isn’t a genuine progressive choice in this race. As a kickoff to his campaign, Owens has begun by throwing progressive Democrats under the bus, trying to prove that he can be just as intolerant as any Democrat.

At a time when people across New York State are struggling to get marriage equality legislation passed at the state level, and a majority of New Yorkers are in support of such legislation, Owens has come out in opposition to this progressive effort.

“I believe that everyone should be afforded civil rights… however I think that the word marriage has some very important religious connotations, and I would not be in support of a bill that addressed it in that fashion,” says Owens. What’s the point in electing a Democrat, if the Democrat supports right wing homophobia? What nonsense, for Bill Owens to say that he supports civil rights, while denying equality to ten percent of his constituents.

The Green Party is unambiguous in its support for same sex marriage. The Green Party platform states, “We support the recognition of equal rights of persons gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender to housing, jobs, civil marriage, medical benefits, child custody, and in all areas of life provided to all other citizens.”

The news came out in the news cycle shadow of a Friday afternoon, but it’s well worth paying attention to: The Democratic Party machine has pushed U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney out of her primary Democratic Party campaign against appointed U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.

Consider what this means: Democratic voters didn’t have the chance to select the current junior Senator from New York, and they won’t have the chance to select their own candidate in 2010. That indicates a rather disdainful attitude toward rank and file Democrats by the Democratic Party leadership.

Senator Gillibrand has been a true Blue Dog Democrat, supporting a right wing agenda that is difficult to differentiate from a Republican agenda. Of course, a Republican challenger to Gillibrand won’t present a progressive alternative. It’s up to the Green Party of New York now to find a candidate for U.S. Senate, to give progressive voters a choice they can feel good about in 2010.

In tonight’s New York Green Fest Forum on the Politics of Sustainability, Virginia Rasmussen just finished her talk, composed to answer the question, “Who has the power to implement sustainability.” Her closing words call for citizen movements that will push for radical change. Some of those words:

“Radical change and radical living is being evidenced in workshops and learning opportunities here this weekend at Alfred University… It’s time for radical reconstruction. Our current crises of economy, ecology and empire provide us the impetus to proceed. No group of thinkers and doers is better equipped… than those in the deep democracy and sustainability movements.”

From the early hours of New York Green Fest 2009 taking place in the town of Alfred, New York, one of the things that became apparent right away is that music would be a big part of the weekend’s events. At around 4:30 this afternoon, that included an electrically-amplified banjo. Is that a contradiction, electric amplification at a Green Fest?

Not in this case. At New York Green Fest, the music that’s not acoustic is taking place on a Solar Stage. All the equipment is powered by a set of photovoltaic cells about 6 feet long and 4 feet wide.

It’s a message of consistency for the participants in Green Fest as they go back to their everyday lives next week. If a musician can amplify his banjo using nothing but energy from the sun, imagine what we could take off the grid in our own homes.

The Obama for America campaign site made an impressive display of political force in 2008, with the promise that its organizing power would not just be used for the benefit of Barack Obama personally, but beyond election day, in order to help people push for the progressive agenda that they were promised. In 2009, that promised progressive agenda quickly dissolved, leaving behind it a skeleton built of hardened lobbyist interests.

The Obama for America infrastructure has remained silent, even as it was supposed to be morphed into a new form, Organizing for America. An Upstate New York example of this stunning silence can be seen in Representative Michael Arcuri’s congressional district.

The district stretches from the Adirondack mountains, through Utica and Auburn, down to the Catskill Mountains and all the way over to Trumansburg in Tompkins County. With such a big district, you would think that some local Democrats, somewhere, would be involved in the Organizing for America organization. However, there’s no evidence that’s the case.

President Obama says that he’s going to push for health care reform, though his speeches are increasingly thin on the details of what kind of reform he’ll offer. That’s because Obama’s health care reform itself is growing increasingly thin, under the repeated blows of the right wing Blue Dog Democratic Coalition.

Congressman Arcuri is a loyal member of the Blue Dogs, and as a part of that caucus, Arcuri has been an opponent of meaningful health care reform. Arcuri and his Blue Dog colleagues have even threatened to vote against health care reform unless it is weakened, and made more acceptable to pharmaceuticals companies and health insurance corporations.

So, although Barack Obama has said that he is going to organize a grassroots push for the passage of health care reform legislation, there isn’t a single Organizing For America event in favor of health care in Arcuri’s 24th congressional district. If you think about it, that’s not so much of a surprise. After all, the Democrats in the 24th district have been supporting Mike Arcuri for years. It would be awkward for them now to push for the health care reforms that Arcuri opposes.

Along with New Paltz, Ithaca is a natural center of progressive activism in Upstate New York. There’s a history of Green Party electoral action in Tompkins County, and the Ithaca Common Council has one of New York’s Green public officials: Jennifer Dotson, who represents the First Ward as an Alderperson.

This week, after a brief hiatus, the Tompkins County Green Party has rejoined the world of online Green activism in New York State with a new web site. Check it out, and if you’re living in Tompkins County, get involved!