Cynthia McKinney is the candidate with whom I share the most in common politically of the prospective presidential nominees. I will leave my reasons for supporting her candidacy for another day, but let me say that they are numerous and important.
This week Cynthia McKinney made some important remarks about the current privatization crisis in Mexico and the will of the people and left wing politicians to keep the countries natural resources within the control of the community. She made the speech at Cal state University at the request of its students.
According to Greg Palast, the U.S. corporation involved in the Mexican move was none other than that now infamous Georgia-based company: Choicepoint. We know that in Florida, Choicepoint, then doing business as DataBase Technologies, constructed an illegal convicted felons list of some 94,000 names, many of whom were neither convicted nor felons. But if your name appeared on that list, you were stopped from voting. Greg Palast tells us that for most of the names on that list, their only crime was “Voting While Black.”
Under a special “counter-terrorism” contract, the U.S. FBI obtained Mexican and Venezuelan voter files. Palast learned later in his investigation that the U.S. government had obtained, through Choicepont, voter files of all th e countries that have progressive Presidents. Many Mexicans went to the poll s to vote for their President, only to find that their names had been scrubbe d from the voter list, and they were not allowed to vote. So now, not only i n the United States, but in Mexico, too, one can show up to vote and not be sure that that vote was counted, or worse, one can show up duly registered to vote, and not even be allowed to vote.
I guess this is the way we allow our country to now export democracy.
For the full text of the speech click here
In other campaign news, Cynthia participated in a free Mumia Abu Jamal rally in Philadelphia on Saturday. No doubt her comments at that event will be available quite soon. Kat Swift, another Green Party presidential candidate was also in attendance. One new thing that I learned this week is that Kat Swift is an accountant, a profession I would never have guessed based on her alternative appearance and political position.
The Green party achieved ballot access in Arizona this week, which bodes well for a more organized party campaign for this November. The Party is working on getting ballot access in somewhere between 40 and 50 states. The party has 4,000 members in the state of Arizona, a figure they hope to quadruple this year. Source
The associated press ran a story recently about how young voters were unlikely to vote third party in this election cycle. The primary reason metioned was the usual ‘I don’t want to spoil it for the Democrats’. I can not think of a bigger waste of a vote. If you are any shade of marxist you must recognize the duopoly party system that is unified by class and divided only by mild differences of opinion on some trivial matters. The referenced survey was initiated by the AP and Yahoo, so we can’t take the veracity of their results too seriously. This, like all polls is designed not to inform, but to influence. People only vote the way they do because of fear inspired by polls. Source
Finally, I will go in depth on the reasons why Cynthia McKinney was voted out of her congressional seat as the weeks go by. The reasons are both treacherous and monetary in nature, not because of any distain voters held for her. An article in the Observer (UK) profiles the new pro-Israeli lobby group J-street. They seem to be a much more rational and less fervent bunch of people. The article makes reference to research done by Jeremy Ben Ami, a founding member, that highlights the role of AIPAC in unseating Cynthia McKinney for her pro-Palesinian stance. It is encouraging to see a group that will investigate such abuses and not condone them, despite their possible disagreements with opponents. For me, J-Street look like a good bet
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Open the debates! First one is Friday!
I’m not a bot, I know you care about the democracy of our government, so we need to get this done. There are 6 Presidential candidates this year all of which are qualified and capable of winning, so why are there only 2 people on the debate! Bigotry, two party bias! Let’s flood the email inbox and the phone lines with: Open the Debates.
It takes 5 mins. Please help me make a difference . Below is a script but please feel free to appropriately modify it to support your candidate .
Step one:
Call Barack Obama at 866-675-2008.
Hit 6 to speak with a campaign volunteer.
Once connected, politely deliver the following message:
Hi, my name is …
I was wondering if Senator Obama, being a believer in equal opportunity and equal rights, could insist that Cynthia Mckinney and other ballot qualified third party candidates be included in the upcoming Presidential debates?
After all, Cynthia Mckinney is on 34 state ballots.
And she’s polling well nationwide. And he could help Senator Obama challenge the corporate Republicans.
True, Cynthia Mckinney would critique Senator Obama for his corporate ties also. But isn’t that what democracy is about? Could you please leave this message for the campaign manager? Thank you.
Step two:
E-mail Janet Brown jb@debates.org, the executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Here’s a sample e-mail:
Dear Janet Brown:
Greetings. You must be busy. Preparing for the first Presidential debate this Friday. So, I won’t take much of your time. Just wanted to let you know that the American people were not born yesterday. We know the deal. Take that little private corporation that you run. Controlled by the two corporate parties. And funded by big business. For the purpose of excluding independent minded candidates. Friday, two Wall Street candidates are scheduled to be in the ring. Barack Obama and John McCain. The one candidate who represents the American people, Main Street, if you will, will be on the outside looking in. So, here’s a simple request. Drop your exclusionary restrictions. And let Cynthia Mckinney into the debates.
It will be good for your conscience. Good for the American people. (I believe it was The League of Women Voters that called your corporatized debates “campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity, and honest answers to tough questions.”) And good for democracy. Let the American people have a real debate for once. Main Street vs. Wall Street.
Thank you.
Signed
your name.