Cynthia McKinney, a social-democrat, seems to be the front-runner for the presidential nomination.

Here's one McKinney endorsement, focusing on her foreign policy:
Cynthia McKinney Deserves Your Support, Obama Does Not

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Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who seems poised to capture the Green Party presidential nomination in Chicago this month, "is at this juncture in history the only vehicle through which progressives can both register their outrage at Barack Obama and begin the process of rebuilding a mass, Black-led movement for real social change." Meanwhile, the frequency of Obama's Right turns seem to increase in direct proportion to the nearness of the general election. "Surely no one with a brain any longer believes that Obama is a closet progressive, or even a genuine liberal." The question is, How many progressives will put their votes and resources to honorable use?
....

The [foreign policy] platform on which McKinney runs is straightforward, eminently understandable, and in conformance with the substance and spirit of international law. It is what Barack Obama used to pretend to say, in front of progressive audiences, only without his mitigating language designed for ease of reversal - commonly called flip-flop, but more accurately, betrayal - terms that ultimately smother peace in a pillow of words like "respectable, responsible and honorable."

This is how Obama uses his impressive language skills: to lure constituencies that seek peace into the maelstroms of war; to assault the integrity of language itself with his relentless tinkering with meanings, until finally, his original peaceful promises turn into their warlike opposites.

Obama's modus operandi is consistent and, especially after his recent flurry of policy reversals, transparent to all who care to observe him dispassionately. He is a word-hustler, a slickster, a politician/actor who has always been eager to serve the global aims of the very rich. That's why, back in the summer of 2003, while a candidate for the Illinois Democratic U.S. senatorial nomination, he had to be pressured (by Bruce Dixon and me) to have his name removed from the corporatist Democratic Leadership Council membership list. And that's why, five years later, he stripped off his anti-NAFTA clothing to announce on CNBC, the businessman's cable source: "Look. I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I love the market."
....

Cynthia McKinney offers real change - peace for a change.

"The United States should and must engage the world, but not in empire, not in military," said McKinney, who was first elected to the U.S. Congress from a suburban Atlanta district in 1992. "Ninety percent of the US security budget is dedicated to some military engagement with the world. The United States should stop arming factions, supporting factions, new elections should be held [in Iraq] with international advisors, and the "coalition of the willing" should work with the United Nations to disarm and restore to the extent possible the Iraqi civil sector. The Reconstruction Draft Manifesto calls for an end to US militarism and the establishment of a Department of Peace by restructuring the US State Department."

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Among its many specific public policy planks, the Draft Manifesto calls for:

* election integrity: if our vote is to mean anything at all, all political parties must defend the integrity of the votes cast by the American people, something neither of the major parties has done effectively in the past two Presidential elections;

* funding a massive infrastructure improvement program that is also a jobs program that greens our economy and puts people to work, and especially in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, Hurricane survivors, treated as internally displaced persons whose right to vote and right of return are protected, play a meaningful role in the rebuilding of their communities;

* recognizing affordable housing as a fundamental human right, and putting a halt to the senseless destruction of public housing in New Orleans;

* enacting Reparations for African Americans, so that the enduring racial disparities which reflect the U.S. government's failure to address the reality and the vestiges of slavery and unjust laws enacted can be ended and recognition of the plight of Black Farmers whose issues are still not being adequately addressed by USDA and court-appointed mediators despite a US government admission of guilt for systematic discrimination;

* acknowledging COINTELPRO and other government spying and destabilization programs from the 1960s to today and disclosing the role of the US government in the harassment and false imprisonment of political activists in this country, including Mumia Abu-Jamal, the San Francisco 8, Leonard Peltier, including restitution to victims of government abuse and their families for the suffering they have long endured;

* ending prisons for profit and the "war on drugs," which fuels the criminalization of Black and Latino youth at home and provides cover for U.S. military intervention in foreign countries, particularly to our south, which is used to put down all social protest movements in countries like Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and elsewhere;

* creating a universal access, single-payer, health care system and enacting a livable wage, equal pay for equal work, repealing the Bush tax cuts, and making corporations and the rich pay their fair share of taxes;

* establishing public funding for higher education--no student should graduate from college or university tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt;

* ensuring workers' rights by 1) repealing Taft-Hartley to stop the unjust firing of union organizers, ban scabbing, and enable workers to exercise their voices at work and 2) enacting laws for U.S. corporations that keep labor standards high at home and raise them abroad, which would require the repeal of NAFTA, CAFTA, the Caribbean FTA, and the U.S.-Peru FTA;

* justice for immigrant workers, including real immigration reform that provides amnesty for all undocumented immigrants;

* creating a Department of Peace that would put forward projects for peace all over the world, deploying our diplomats to help resolve conflicts through peaceful means and overseeing the orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from the more than 100 countries around the world where they are stationed, and an immediate end to all wars and occupations by U.S. forces, beginning in Iraq and Afghanistan, and slashing the budget for the Pentagon.

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But the McKinney campaign is a clear demonstration of how third party Presidential campaigns can start to bust the perennial duopoly of the Republicrats by presenting a popular and clear program on the left, thus challenging the O-bomb-a fakers to stop taking the left's support for granted while courting the right-wing vote. McKinney is showing the armchair left how the nucleus of a mass movement for progressive change can be built around a presidential election campaign - a nucleus that in future years may grow enough to bring about some degree of real "hope" and "change" for the oppressed of the United States.

ETA: More about McKinney's platform

[ 06 November 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

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Originally posted by Michelle:
But, sometimes you have to hold your nose when you vote, and that's a relatively benign flaw compared to completely selling out progressive principles on the most important issues of the day.

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Michelle I do not disagree but is that not a sad statement to make about the current crop of politicians on both sides of the border.

Voting has become a case of voting for the one who stinks the least and has bent on things that matter the least to me. As long as they agree on the big 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 issues I am fine.

quote:

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Originally posted by Michelle:
...that's a relatively benign flaw...

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[ 08 July 2008: Message edited by: Ken Burch ]

Come on, don't you think you're laying it on a bit thick?

Anyhow, I think it's kind of pathetic that he's going to run whether he wins the leadership or not. If he doesn't win the leadership, he should throw his support behind McKinney.

It always annoys me when middle-aged men with white privilege don't support women in general, and women of colour, who run for office. It's one thing to challenge her for the nomination. It's another thing to run against her as an independent if he loses.

[ 08 July 2008: Message edited by: Michelle ]

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Originally posted by Michelle:
It always annoys me when middle-aged men with white privilege don't support women, and women of colour, who run for office. It's one thing to challenge her for the nomination. It's another thing to run against her as an independent if he loses.

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Your argument could easily be adapted to condemn Nader for running against the black man, O-bomb-a. The Green Party itself has taken the position that it is anyone’s right to run a candidate for president, and Green/Independent/third-party presidential bids add to the public debate and give voters more options. Do you disagree?

Is it not possible that Nader actually has political differences with the Greens in general, and perhaps McKinney in particular? Why should he not run on his own platform?

[ 08 July 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

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Originally posted by M. Spector:
He's not challenging her for the nomination. He's not even in the running and won't be at the Green convention. He announced his independent candidacy for President a long time ago, as well as his running mate, Gonzalez. He didn't seek the Green Party nomination in 2004, either.

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Okay, then I misunderstood. Sorry. I thought they were saying that he was running for the nomination but that if he didn't win, he'd run against the winner as an independent.

Clemente's website

[ 10 July 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

From her acceptance speech:

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In 1851, in Akron, Ohio a former slave woman, abolitionist, and woman’s rights activist by the name of Sojourner Truth gave a speech now known as "Ain’t I a Woman." Sojourner Truth began her remarks, "Well children, where there is so much racket, there must be something out of kilter."...

In 2008, after two stolen Presidential elections and eight years of George W. Bush, and at least two years of Democratic Party complicity, the racket is about war crimes, torture, crimes against the peace; the racket is about crimes against the Constitution, crimes against the American people, and crimes against the global community. The racket is even about values that we thought were long settled as reasonable to pursue, like liberty and justice, and economic opportunity, for all. Yes, Sojourner, there’s a lot out of kilter now, but these two women, Rosa and me, joined by all the men and women in this room, are going to do our best to turn this country right side up again.

And just like the women and men at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848 who declared their independence from the Old Order, I celebrated my birthday last year by doing something I had done a dozen times in my head, but had never done publicly: I declared my independence from every bomb dropped, every threat leveled, every civil liberties rollback, every child killed, every veteran maimed, every man tortured, and the national leadership that let this happen. At that pro-peace rally in front of the Pentagon, I noted that nowhere on the Democratic Party’s Congressional Agenda for their first 100 days in the majority was any mention at all of a livable wage, the right of return for Katrina survivors, repealing the Patriot Acts, the Secret Evidence Act, the Military Commissions Act, or bringing our troops home now. Nowhere on the Congressional Democrats’ agenda was an investigation into the Pentagon’s "loss" of $2.3 trillion that Rumsfeld admitted to just before September 11th. And nowhere was there any plan to get that money back for jobs, health care, education, and for veterans. Not even repeal of the Bush tax cuts that have helped to usher in, according to some, levels of income inequality not experienced in this country since the Great Depression. And instead of Articles of Impeachment to hold the criminals accountable, impeachment was taken "off the table."...

As I have said so many times during this campaign for the Green Party nomination, politics is not a beauty contest; it is not a fashion show; it is not a horse race. Politics is the authoritative allocation of values in a society. Politics is about values being reflected in public policy. It is about having power over public policy. And we engage in the political process because we want our values reflected in public policy.

Had the Green Party’s values been reflected in public policy since the beginnings of the Green Party in this country, the United States would have long ago implemented a livable wage; there would be no civil liberties erosion; diversity would be respected, appreciated and welcomed; education would be interesting and relevant to students’ lives and no student would graduate from college $100,000 in debt in a Green Party USA because education, not incarceration and militarization, would be subsidized by the state. In a Green Party USA, health care would be provided for everyone here through a single payer, Medicare-for-all type health care system. We would have no homeless men and women sleeping on our streets and everyone who could work would have work. Rebuilding our infrastructure, manufacturing green technology, retooling our economy so that those who protect us, train us, heal us and prepare us for tomorrow are compensated in what is their true value to our culture and our society, based on their contribution to our civilization. Vietnam War-era veterans would be our last war veterans because we would never have been engaged in war and occupation against Afghanistan and Iraq. We would forego imperial designs on our neighbors to the north and south, never building any wall of division, not ever encroaching on their geographic or cultural sovereignty. In fact, if Green Party values were now reflected in U.S. public policy, our country not only would not be engaged in war and occupation, there would be peace in the Middle East based on self-determination, respect for human rights, and justice. We would strive to perfect our democracy at home through election integrity and no one would be denied their rightful place in our Union due to discrimination. Our neighbors in the global community would look up to us for our cultural and technological accomplishments. We would have apologized for genocide against the indigenous peoples of this land and the abomination of chattel slavery. Our country would have dignity on the world stage and in every international forum, and no one in this country would be made to live in fear.

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Watch on YouTube

or HERE

or HERE (starting about 20 minutes in, after Rosa Clemente's speech)

[ 15 July 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Boom Boom:
...Great speech! Thanks for the link. Too bad the Green Party Canada appears to be so different from the International Greens.

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Change the Canadian Greens, Boom Boom, time to get rid of those stuffy Menshiviks. A little split-and-wreck here, fresh recruitment there, bake sales and carwashes---oops, nix the car washes---and you might be able to overtake the NDP; aren't people getting tired of that silly, fake-progessive circus?

The grass might look greener* (omg, had to use that joke!) from down here, but the U.S. Greens are who you seem to like, so here's your model.

* This is very tricky concept humor in a transposed time/space continuum kind of way. Fortunately, you are familiar with Star Trek.

[ 14 July 2008: Message edited by: Robespierre ]

What is Wall Street saying about its leadership in converting America to a social democratic state (a political structure you claim familiarity with) now that the Federal Reserve is helping to bail out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (and Piggly Wiggly?) from their $5.3 trillion mortgage debt - about half the total U.S. mortgage debt.

Enlightenment on reaction to what is happening down there is awaited with bated breath.

Paul Krugman has just brought enlightenment through history. Apparently Freddie and Fannie go back to FDR's neo-socialist run in the 1930s, Fannie Mae starting life as the Federal National Mortgage Association.

Government sponsored but now private enterprises with stockholders and profits, it's "hands they win, tails we lose" as Krugman puts it. And they ha'fta be bailed or it's the Dark Ages.

Hell, you guys really know how to work it, eh?

Last edit,unless more breaking old news.

[ 14 July 2008: Message edited by: George Victor ]

[ 14 July 2008: Message edited by: George Victor ]

[ 14 July 2008: Message edited by: George Victor ]

quote:

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But we make history today only because we must. In 2008, after two stolen Presidential elections and eight years of George W. Bush, and at least two years of Democratic Party complicity, the racket is about war crimes, torture, crimes against the peace; the racket is about crimes against the Constitution, crimes against the American people, and crimes against the global community. The racket is even about values that we thought were long settled as reasonable to pursue, like liberty and justice, and economic opportunity, for all. Yes, Sojourner, there’s a lot out of kilter now, but these two women, Rosa and me, joined by all the men and women in this room, are going to do our best to turn this country right side up again.

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What Wall Street thinks: We need Obama to blame every damn thing on---including new things that he actually fouls up---all so we can get a Republicn, with some teeth, in the Whitehouse for another 8 year run after Obama is driven from office after four. Then, we'll be able to make some real dough again. Meanwhile, let's pretend like there's an oil shortage and a funds shortage for housing loans---it's about time we closed that damn Mac and Mae charity chest, anyway.

Good god, George Bush screwed the economy thing up big-time, now all we need to do is take advantage of the chaos. And, blame Obama for the suffereing, of course.

What Wall Street says: Wall Street says different things to different reporters, but in general, what they say to Fox News is what they say to Forbes Magazine, just with a few extra fancy words thrown in for good measure.

The only fun part of the next four years may well be cracks in the damn that force economists and pundits alike to say things things that they would rather not say. Truth can leak out of the cracks sometimes.

quote:

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Originally posted by George Victor:
Give us some news from the Big Apple, Rob.

What is Wall Street saying about its leadership in converting America to a social democratic state (a political structure you claim familiarity with) now that the Federal Reserve is helping to bail out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (and Piggly Wiggly?) from their $5.3 trillion mortgage debt - about half the total U.S. mortgage debt.

Enlightenment on reaction to what is happening down there is awaited with bated breath.

Paul Krugman has just brought enlightenment through history. Apparently Freddie and Fannie go back to FDR's neo-socialist run in the 1930s, Fannie Mae starting life as the Federal National Mortgage Association.

Government sponsored but now private enterprises with stockholders and profits, it's "hands they win, tails we lose" as Krugman puts it. And they ha'fta be bailed or it's the Dark Ages.

Hell, you guys really know how to work it, eh?

Last edit,unless more breaking old news.

[ 14 July 2008: Message edited by: George Victor ]

[ 14 July 2008: Message edited by: George Victor ]

[ 14 July 2008: Message edited by: George Victor ]

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Get your own thread.

Cynthia's speech is a barn burner, and I would not have missed it for the world - if only to see the differences in "green" thought south of the 49th.

A sort of strong feminist, anti-Democrat thrust there! ! !

And lots and lots of experience as a southern Democratic representative. A son, Coy, "just graduated from college in Canada.

And, of course, Elizabeth May came out of the U.S. experience too - New England, as I recall, and shaped by Nova Scotia more recently.

I'm never sure whether Elizabeth, as a minister in training, really buys the party line (a la Jim Harris and the Ontario folk) about taxing carbon and then leaving it up to the market to work its magic. Real appeal for your middle class and pensioner, but I've talked to people gone from New Democrat to Green who haven't the foggiest notion of what that would mean for them and their GICs. "Green is good" sort of ends conversation.

Obviously, Cynthia McKinney is not depending on a subtle appeal to people watching their investment portfolios. But where in the market is she I wonder?

She knows debt, and throws out the $53 trillion built up by the same thieves who have known how to sell houses to the same people she appeals to for votes - nothin' down and I'm sure you'll find a job next year.

I like Spector's point about bringing differing voices onto the scene, even if it may piss off some people (no bash against Michelle).

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I cannot find it, but wasn't McKinney under investigation at some point during her political career.

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Originally posted by Farmpunk:
I cannot find it, but wasn't McKinney under investigation at some point during her political career.

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Here's a reasonable narrative of what actually happened:

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Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) is not particularly beloved by the D.C. Capitol Police because of her refusal to wear her lapel pin, an act of civil disobedience that has led her to be detained by the Capitol Police five times since she first took office in 1993. Most members of Congress don't have to worry about wearing a lapel pin - and, in fact, many don't bother. But like two-thirds of Washington, D.C. residents, and unlike most members of Congress, Rep. McKinney is African-American. This means that if she doesn't wear a lapel pin, the Capitol Police are likely to mistake her for a member of the general D.C. population - something that she is apparently all too happy to see happen, as it highlights racial profiling on their part. To prevent these kinds of embarrassing incidents from occurring on a more regular basis, police were provided with a photograph of McKinney's face so that they might stand a better chance of recognizing her.

But McKinney committed a cardinal sin before entering the capitol building on Wednesday: She had her hair done. The new hairstyle confused officers who, noticing that she was also not wearing a lapel pin, forcefully restrained McKinney to prevent her from proceeding further. Unfortunately for McKinney, this time she reflexively bumped or struck an officer once while he was grabbing her - and is now being investigated on possible assault charges for the incident.

The Capitol Police aren't the only D.C. law enforcement officers who are apparently having some difficulty adapting to the concept of black legislators. In 1998, while on her way to a meeting with then-president Bill Clinton, McKinney was detained by his security detail while her white colleagues were allowed to proceed. She later received an apology for the incident.

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See also: McKinney statement

[ 15 July 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

quote:

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"I stand on the shoulders of a generation of young people of color that are united, that clearly understand that we are suffering form structural racism, institutional racism and capitalism," said Clemente. These are truths that Barack Obama, the corporate Democrat, would rather end 20-year friendships than accept. Obama allows the celebration of his candidacy to serve as a vindication of historical and contemporary racist rule. In fact, his ascension is fully endorsed (and financed) by the overwhelmingly white Lords of Capitol….

Had she chosen to do so, McKinney could have remained in the Democratic Party and attempted to recapture her House seat, outside Atlanta, as she did in 2004 after a two year absence. But the overarching necessity for Black America - and therefore, for the entire nation - is the rebirth of a Black-led mass movement for peace and fundamental social change. Without a movement, the corporate version of reality triumphs by default - not just through the two-business-party electoral racket, but in all aspects of life in which human beings must somehow locate themselves in the real world.

Much more is at stake than the Green Party's goal of garnering five percent of the presidential vote, which would make the Greens eligible for federal election funds next time around. Corporate hegemony is the enemy of the self-determination of peoples and individuals. It seeks to subdue every relationship except those of corporate ownership and control, and capriciously alters the terms of even those shrunken arrangements, at will. The current multiple crises afflicting humanity are all rooted in the commodification of the Earth's resources - including human beings. There is no choice but to resist the crushing grip, at every level of human activity.

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Workers World newspaper in the past has supported the candidates of Workers World Party running for national office in the U.S. presidential elections and who have put forward a revolutionary socialist program. This time we are taking the unusual step of endorsing the candidacy of Cynthia McKinney because these are unique times and this is a unique candidate....

Should Obama win the election (a prospect that shouldn’t be considered certain), the U.S. imperialist ruling class will have a gifted Black politician to help them save their troubled empire. An Obama presidency as the face of an imperialist state will not change anything fundamental, but on the surface it will mark a change, a new situation.

The U.S. capitalist class desperately needs to try something new to help them with their overlapping crises of deepening economic turmoil and imperialist war. In the board rooms of Wall Street, some are, no doubt, hoping that someone like Obama can delay or derail an uprising against widespread depression-level social conditions, or at least be the scapegoat for the unbearable misery that the ruling class has in store for workers.

The Obama phenomenon is more than anything else a sign that the period of political reaction, which has held the working class back and weakened revolutionary movements, organizations and their revolutionary ideas, is coming to an end....

What is required of all of us who consider ourselves among the dedicated? At a minimum it is a higher level of clarity, seriousness, confidence, solidarity and coalition building.

McKinney’s campaign is Black-led, anti-imperialist, working-class-centered and has a multinational radical base with the potential of unlimited growth.

Of course, we believe that the struggle should not be confined to the electoral arena, especially as the capitalist ruling class completely dominates the electoral process. We must be in the streets fighting the war, fighting foreclosures and evictions, fighting in solidarity with immigrant workers, etc. However, Workers World believes that supporting the McKinney campaign is a step forward towards the path that the movement needs to take.

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Also Mumia Abu Jamal and Cindy Sheehan.

YouTube: Clone Politics or Cynthia McKinney?

[ 22 July 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

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For all the talk about the historic nature of the Clinton (woman!) and Obama (Black!) campaigns that’s gone on in the mainstream media for the past year, you might not have any idea that a third, equally unprecedented ticket was being run: Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente, the presidential and vice-presidential nominees of the Green Party. This is the first all women of color presidential ticket in the history of the United States. Now, I understand that a nomination’s historical importance and newsworthiness tends to be defined by the likelihood of its success - or, as is often the case, by the degree to which people decide to blame the Democratic party’s failures on the Greens. Yet one would hope that in between all of the celebrity gossip and other tripe that makes it onto the news regularly, the mainstream media would find a little more time to devote to a presidential ticket that is unique not only for its makeup but also for the platform it’s running on, a platform that offers a radically different choice from the rightly-named corporate parties that dominate the politics of this nation.

But predictably, the mainstream media has almost completely ignored the McKinney/Clemente ticket.

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unofficial support site for McKinney

[ 04 August 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

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"I want to congratulate Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente on winning the Green Party nomination for the Presidency of the United States. I wish them well and hope they go into all 50 states and spread the message of the Green Agenda. The country needs a diversity of voices that are unrelentingly progressive, forthright, candid, and documented in good sound civic values and the wellbeing of all the people.

"Third party candidates usually are more forthright and they highlight social justice issues that are regularly ignored or contravened by the two major parties. As history shows from the anti-slavery Liberty Party of the 1840's to the women's suffrage and farmer and labor parties up to the early 20th century, eventually the big ideas of these little parties break through.

"Although the Nader/Gonzalez and Green Party platforms have many similarities, we are not competing for votes, but instead we are allies joined in a common struggle to tap the huge and growing numbers of millions of unsatisfied voters who want to vote for something better than the lesser of two-evils. The more progressive voices and choices, the more widespread will be the definition of freedom as participation in power.

"In Cynthia McKinney, the Greens have an energetic and courageous candidate unafraid to challenge America to be better for the millions who are marginalized, overcharged, underpaid and ignored by the two-party duopoly. Her vim and vigor offers the Green Party an excellent chance to break through in 2008 and provides voters one more viable alternative to the DemReps. I wish her and Ms. Clemente good luck."

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An outspoken critic of the Iraq War who frequently challenged many of the Bush administration’s policies, Cynthia McKinney has always been a courageous advocate for the people. Having served six terms representing Georgia’s 4th Congressional District, she is well aware of the inner workings of the corridors of power in Washington D.C. and she seeks to change it.

The Green Party’s nominee for president of the United States sat down with the Final Call’s Assistant Editor, Ashahed M. Muhammad to talk about her candidacy, her reasons for leaving the Democratic Party and her approach to foreign policy specifically relating to Africa.

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It's clear that Joe Biden will be the Democrats' Dick Cheney. That means Democrats, just like the Republicans, represent more war and brutal occupation. They are playing with the notion that 60 enemies on Dick Cheney's list aren't enough and that nuclear Russia and nuclear China should be added to the enemies list.

Joe Biden is handmaiden to the special interests in Washington, D.C. that rely on war, death, untold carnage, and the insecurity of average, ordinary American citizens to have their way. It is clear that a vote for the Democratic Party is a vote for more war.

It is time to derail the war machine or we will become victims of it — just as our children are victimized by the police state and the prison-industrial complex.

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I'd forgotten about my request about McKinney being under investigation. Thanks.

She really gets rolling at the end of this:

Here are the questions. You’ll have to click on the above link to read McKinney’s answers.

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Why did you leave the Democratic Party last year and are the reasons something voters should look at in considering your candidacy?

Define victory in this election for your candidacy. What does victory mean for the Green Party and how do you propose to achieve it?

Can you talk about the core issues that define your candidacy away from the two major parties?

Barack Obama picked Senator Joe Biden as his choice for a running mate. You, on the other hand, picked Rosa Clemente. What do you make of Biden as Obama's vice presidential candidate and why did you tap Clemente's shoulder for your own ticket?

How do you seek to redefine sources of electoral power come November?

You mentioned protest. Define a vote for Cynthia McKinney in this election. Is it a protest vote or something more substantive?

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I am proud to have introduced the Arms Trade Code of Conduct to regulate U.S. transfer of conventional weapons. I introduced the National Forest Protection and Restoration Act to protect our remaining national forests from clearcutting timber barons. I authored legislation to end all use of depleted uranium, stop the funding for Plan Colombia, investigate the way conscientious objectors are treated by the Pentagon, extend Agent Orange benefits for U.S. soldiers, prohibit tax breaks for corporations that move U.S. jobs overseas, and I passed legislation that resulted in the U.S. Department of Agriculture admitting that for decades it systematically discriminated against minority farmers.

My very first campaign theme was "Warriors Don't Wear Medals, They Wear Scars." And I publicly wear the scars meted out to a black woman who dares to dissent in a political system that doesn't allow it. Fighting Bob was celebrated and ridiculed. The press lied on him and his patriotism was questioned. He even changed political parties, but he remained true to his values and understood that the only reason we engage in the political process is to have our values reflected in public policy. It is right that his values are annually commemorated and I thank you for including me in today's celebration of both a great man and a great idea: America.

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Green Party leaders and candidates, including presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney, are calling for extensive measures and reforms to resolve the economic crisis caused by the collapse of mortgage providers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, investment banks Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, American International Group (AIG), and other financial companies.

"The takeovers, $900 billion bailout, and other actions that President Bush are taking right now confirm what Greens have said all along. Deregulation and other 'free-market' solutions are a recipe for disaster," said Abel Tomlinson, Arkansas Green Party candidate for Congress (3rd District).

"Perhaps the gravest danger is that the burden placed on the FDIC [Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation] and the commercial banks and the continuing bailouts to prevent the meltdown from hemorrhaging will be paid for by middle- and low-income US taxpayers. Meanwhile the execs responsible for the crisis will get to keep their huge bonuses, pensions, tax breaks, and other handouts," said Mr. Tomlinson.

Greens noted another serious danger, that the bailout will drain money that should be used to keep Social Security secure.

"Instead of the bromides, unconvincing reassurances, and ineffective half-measures that we're hearing from John McCain, Barack Obama, and their fellow Republicans and Democrats, we need to take drastic steps. We need Green measures to fix a system that doesn't work," said Steve Alesch, Green candidate for Congress in Illinois (13th District).

Cynthia McKinney released a statement on Friday on the crisis, with a ten-point list of solutions and reforms, titled "Seize the Time".

Agreeing with Ms. McKinney's proposals, Greens said that the White House and Congress must:

• Pay for the massive transfer of wealth without placing the greater burden on working people and the poor. Those who made huge profits from the financial policies that led to the meltdown should be expected to pay for the major portion of the bailout, through the closing of tax loopholes and repeal of Bush tax cuts for top income earners, caps on CEO salaries and bonuses and on the corporate tax deductability of excessive CEO salaries and bonuses, and recovery of exorbitant payouts that financial industry executives have given themselves in recent decades, as well as a windfall proft tax on oil companies.

• In bailing out financial institutions and absorbing their debt, assert the US government's assumption of equity/ownership over them in exchange (as was done with AIG), and replace the secret negotiations and backroom deals that pervaded the industry with transparency and democratic control. "The Federal Reserve is becoming the lender of last resort. This means that the people are becoming the owners of the primary instruments of US capital and finance. This now means that the people have a say in how these instruments are to be used and what their priorities ought to be. The people should now have more say in how their tax dollars are spent and what the priorities of government and the public sector must be. We the people must now set our demands to ensure and promote the public good," said Cynthia McKinney in her statement.

• Stop appointing Treasury Secretaries, Federal Reserve board members, and other top financial policy-makers whose chief loyalties are to the major financial corporations from which they're recruited. Restructure semi-private and private institutions like the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac to be owned, run, and staffed strictly for the public interest. "[T]he Federal Reserve should operate in the interests of the US taxpayer and not the interests of the private, international bankers that it currently represents. This, of course means that the Federal Reserve, too, must undergo a fundamental ownership and mission change," said Ms. McKinney.

• Impose a moratorium on foreclosures now before increases in the adjustable rate mortgage interest increases take effect; eliminate all adjustable rate mortgages; renegotiate the latter as 30- or 40-year loans; establish new mortgage lending practices to end predatory and discriminatory practices.

• Promote an economy that's based on sustainability rather than on lending and borrowing beyond one's means. Raising the debt ceiling will lead to greater potential liability and further economic meltdown.

• Establish criteria and construction goals for affordable housing; massively increase funding for housing programs that assist tenants (e.g., Section 8, public housing) that have been slashed repeatedly since the Reagan Administration. Recognize shelter as a right according to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, to which the US is a signatory.

• Redefine credit and regulate the credit industry so that discriminatory practices are eliminated. Fully fund initiatives to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in home ownership.

• Establish a fund to cushion job loss and provide for retraining of those at the bottom of the income scale as the economy transitions.

• Increase taxes on corporations so that they pay their fair share and deny federal subsidies to those who relocate jobs overseas. Repeal NAFTA and renegotiate trade agreements so that national and local economies, jobs, human rights, and the environment are protected.

• End military-industrial complex handouts. Major cuts in military contracts -- especially if combined with a quick withdrawal of US troops and military contractors from Iraq and Afghanistan -- will provide a huge windfall.

• Downsize the insurance industry. Corporate health insurance is not an essential service and can be replaced with a single-payer national health care program that would drastically cut health care costs, since the profit-taking insurance and HMO middle-men would be eliminated.

• Introduce creative ideas to democratize the financial industry, with alternative models such as public banks and insurance firms, consumer/worker ownership of such companies, and restructuring that would use the financial industry to promote conservation projects, transition to non-fossil-fuel energy and ecologically sound infrastructure, and creation of millions of jobs related to these efforts.

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[ 23 September 2008: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

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Mention to someone that you’re thinking about voting for former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader and they’ll respond, “So, you’re voting for McCain!” Or they’ll say, “You’re wasting your vote.” And if you’re black and not planning on voting for Obama, you may be labeled a “hater” or an “Uncle Tom.” I know. I’ve been called those names. Poet Amiri Baraka, never one to be shy, has labeled all those not supporting Obama as “rascals.”

It doesn’t matter that McKinney is herself African American or that Rosa Clemente, her running mate on the Green Party ticket, is a hip-hop activist and an Afro-Puerto Rican. What matters, for most, is that Obama represents the first realistic chance for a black American to win the White House, and that he is better than McCain.

But should those be the overriding considerations?

While Obama is cosmetically attractive, he is still a status quo politician. What’s more, he has gone out of his way to disparage members of the African American community as a way to ingratiate himself with white voters. And he sometimes defends the same rightwing positions as his Republican counterpart, as when Obama supported Bush on the FISA bill and agreed with Scalia on the D.C. gun ban.

Aside from Obama’s limitations, there’s the question of movement politics. If we believe that the two party system rigs the electoral game, if we believe that corporate money contaminates both parties, and if we believe change comes from below, then why must we get in line behind Obama?

With these thoughts in mind, I went out to explore the McKinney candidacy. McKinney, who served as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives for twelve years, left the Democratic Party last year to join the Greens. In Congress, she had one of the most progressive records. And as a Presidential candidate, she offers up a coherent agenda.

In her acceptance speech at the Green Party convention in Chicago on July 12, she denounced what she called “Democratic Party complicity” in “war crimes, torture, crimes against the peace” and “crimes against the Constitution, crimes against the American people, and crimes against the global community.” She said, “Those who delivered us into this mess cannot be trusted to get us out of it.” She told her supporters, “A Green vote is a peace vote,” and “A Green vote is a justice vote.”

Whether the subject was the Iraq War, or Afghanistan, or Katrina, or veterans’ rights, or Blackwater, or civil liberties, or the environment, or universal health care, or equal pay for equal work, or free college education, or the repeal of the Bush tax cuts, McKinney hit the progressive high notes. (But she was a little off key when she indulged the “9/11 truth” people.)

“We are in this to build a movement,” she said. “We are willing to struggle for as long as it takes to have our values prevail in public policy. A vote for the Green Party is a vote for the movement that will turn this country rightside up.”

McKinney’s platform resembles that of Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio Representative who ran as the most progressive candidate in the Democratic primaries. Like Kucinich, McKinney wants an immediate end to all wars and occupations by U.S. forces, beginning in Iraq and Afghanistan; the orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from the more than 100 countries around the world where they are stationed; Articles of Impeachment to be filed against Bush and several members of his Administration; and the creation of a Department of Peace. She would also like to see a number of other Bush initiatives repealed, like the Patriot Acts, the Secret Evidence Act, and the Military Commissions Act.

Like Obama, McKinney name-drops Martin Luther King a lot. But whereas Obama constantly utters King’s line about “the fierce urgency of now,” McKinney uses King in a different way. She says “the racial disparities that exist today are worse than at the time of the murder of King.” And she quotes King’s comment that the United States is the “greatest purveyor of violence on the planet,” saying that it is still true today.

McKinney also adopts positions that Obama won’t go near, such as: demanding reparations for African Americans, offering amnesty for all undocumented immigrants, ending “prisons for profit,” and calling off the “war on drugs.”

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On October 12, Mr. Dershowitz, a prominent attorney, published an op-ed column in The Daily News (New York) titled "Both Barack Obama and John McCain are true friends of Israel ...".

In his column, Mr. Dershowitz accused the Green Party and Green presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney of anti-Semitism and endorsed elections limited to two political parties.

Greens noted that Mr. Dershowitz has promoted 'torture warrants' to permit torture of individuals when a threat to US is detected, a position he shares with the Israeli government. The use of torture has been categorically rejected by numerous military, intelligence, and legal experts because of humane concerns, international laws and treaties, unreliability as a method for obtaining information, and because torture would place US military personnel and other Americans at risk of similar treatment in retaliation.

Justine McCabe and Julia Willebrand submitted the following Green response to the Daily News' editorial department, which declined to publish it. The response was embargoed until last week to give the Daily News first right of publication.

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It Isn't Easy Being Green
By Justine McCabe and Julia Willebrand
Co-Chairs, International Committee, Green Party of the United States

Presidential election years aren't easy for those of us in parties outside the Democratic and Republican mainstream. Shut out of the national debates and most media coverage, our ideas seldom get a fair hearing, even though most Americans agree with us. But worse than no coverage is when our policies are dismissed, not on their merit or the facts, but by slander.

Case in point: a recent Daily News column by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. Known for his unwavering support of Israel, Dershowitz isn't merely content to ban Palestinians from the public discussion on the Middle East conflict. He uses name-calling to drown out any voices in this election except those of the established parties -- the two parties whose foreign policies have led to international animosity against the US.

Dershowitz epitomizes those who believe that any criticism of the state of Israel or its actions constitutes anti-Semitism. What they call anti-Semitism in the Green Party's national platform is actually adherence to international law, observance of human rights for all Palestinians and Israelis, and support for a nonviolent negotiated resolution to the conflict (http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/democracy.html#310677)

The Green Party takes no campaign contributions from AIPAC, its rightwing allies, or the oil industry. Unlike Democrats and Republicans, who accept such money, Greens condemn all violence against unarmed civilians, whether by Palestinians or Israelis, whether through the use of American-made F-16's or Caterpillar bulldozers. We oppose military aid to Israel and Arab countries. Unlike Barack Obama and John McCain, Greens have deplored Israel's violation of over 60 UN Security Council resolutions against collective punishment, confiscation of Palestinian land and illegal settlement by 400,000 Israeli colonists, and demolition of over 10,000 Palestinian homes. We continue to oppose Israel's violations of human rights that are recognized as universal by the international community: the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and the right of self-determination.

Ironically, unlike the Israeli press, the US media have tolerated little discussion on the issue. Otherwise, Americans would know that the Green position is shared by people like South Africa's Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Irish public sector union IMPACT, the British National Union of Journalists--all of whom recognize the apartheid-like conditions in Israel and the Occupied Territories and have endorsed a boycott to insist that Israel dismantle them (http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_11_28.shtml).

Dershowitz repeats accusations, lies, and distortions that have been leveled against former Democratic congresswoman and now Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney because of her principled positions and her refusal to take orders from AIPAC -- a lobby for a foreign government -- and its allies. However, he gets one thing correct: Obama and McCain have expressed the same uncritical support for the government of Israel and its actions, which guarantees no hope of peaceful resolution in the next administration, regardless of which candidate wins the White House. Why not just toss a coin instead of holding an election?

In the end, so eager are apologists like Dershowitz to shut down real debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other vital topics that they would limit the political field and banish "extremist" alternative parties. In fact, alternative parties have introduced such extremist ideas as abolition of slavery, women's right to vote, the 8-hour workday, and Social Security. The Green Party is here to remind Americans that unequivocal support for Israel's actions is a corruption of American values like justice and equality before the law -- values that most Americans still hold dear.

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This is from 2006, and I suspect the same shenanigans continue in 2008.

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GOP Donors Funded Entire PA Green Party Drive
By Paul Kiel - August 2, 2006, 4:00PM

OK, we've done it. We've nailed it down: Every single contributor to the Pennsylvania Green Party Senate candidate is actually a conservative -- except for the candidate himself.

The Luzerne County Green Party raised $66,000 in the month of June in order to fund a voter signature drive. The Philly Inquirer reported yesterday that $40,000 came from supporters of Rick Santorum's campaign (or their housemates). Also yesterday, we confirmed that another $15,000 came from GOP donors and conservatives. Only three contributions, totaling $11,000, remained as possible legit donations.

Today, I confirmed that those came from GOP sources.

- The Green Party listed a $1,000 check from a Bill Wickerman of Covington & Burling. There is no such person. However, a Bill Wichterman works there. He's a Republican lobbyist who has also given to Santorum this campaign.

- James Holman, who in the past has supported GOP House candidate Howard Kaloogian, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), was incorrectly listed by the Greens as "James Howmen." He disclosed that he was an editor at the San Diego Reader; a James Holman is the publisher there.

- The Green Party disclosed that a "Franklin Schoneman" of Pottsville, Pa. gave $5,000. A "Franklin Schoeneman" of Pottsville has given $8,000 to Santorum so far this election.

That leaves only one contribution, for $30, as a legitimate donation from a Green Party supporter. That came from the candidate himself, Carl Romanelli. He made it to his own campaign fund, not the local Green Party.

Romanelli's latest FEC report shows his campaign currently has $17.20 on hand.

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talking points memo archives

[ 30 October 2008: Message edited by: Mojoroad1 ]

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Originally posted by Mojoroad1:
This is from 2006, and I suspect the same shenanigans continue in 2008.

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The Green Party Presidential ticket of Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente brings something special and unprecedented to U.S. politics. Not only are they the first all women-of-color ticket for President and Vice President with ballot access in most states. These women take racial justice seriously, and have made strides to put gender at the center of a progressive agenda. For these two, it's more than skin deep.

They're the Presidential ticket that talks about amnesty for undocumented workers, that opposes guest worker programs as riddled with abuses, because they believe a just immigration reform means addressing the trade and economic policies fueling poverty and migration. They're the ticket that demands reparations in the form of federal investment in low-income families and communities of color, to end racial disparities in health, housing, education, and incarceration. They call for the right of return for Katrina survivors; an end to prisons for profit, to the War on Drugs. And they speak of reproductive justice – not just the right to abortion, but actual healthcare access; of freedom from coerced or uninformed medication and sterilization.

Nowhere do we see Nader, or white male Third-Party-politics-as-usual, bringing in these issues – this slice on life, or sensitivity. McKinney, for instance, points out that Social Security cuts will disproportionately harm women. The Green Party candidates offer to do us the public service of contesting Palin's brand of "feminism." Let's take them up on it.

We starry-eyed ones know McKinney and Clemente aren't going to win the Presidency.

But each vote for them contributes towards building unprecedented ballot access, federal funds, and an inroad to the national debates, for the Green Party. If McKinney/Clemente get 5% of the national vote, the Green Party qualifies for millions of dollars in federal matching funds for 2012 – a significant dent in the two-party system. Under the electoral college's winner-takes-all system, not every vote for a major candidate counts; but by supporting a minor candidate, we can strategically use our votes to institutionalize a progressive platform.

It will take us more than four years to forge an alternative to the major parties' imperialism, and their repeated failure to put people before profit. One important step is building the institutional vehicles to truly represent our voice. Previously in U.S. history, third parties have waged organizing efforts that mattered. The Republicans themselves, originally the party of Abraham Lincoln, catapulted from minor Third Party to major player in the 19th century, by jumping off a backbone of 16 years of organizing by the Free Soilers – another minor political party with an anti-slavery platform. Just as right-wing organizations in more recent times have planned ahead how to impact society over several decades, and invested in sustained efforts, we too must set our sights on strategies of significant long-term change. McKinney and Clemente won't be elected now, but they are young enough to be elected in 12 to 20 years – or perhaps their successors, within our lifetimes.

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The most impressive list of candidates comes from Illinois, where the Green Party is running 54 candidates for public office, more than any other Green Party, among whom 18 candidates are seeking seats in the state legislature.

At least 245 Green candidates will be on ballots on Election Day, November 4. At least 293 Greens have run for public office throughout 2008, including the November 4 election.

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Cynthia McKinney today expressed her appreciation for the support of Professor Noam Chomsky, noted linguist tenured at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In private emails with campaign supporters this week, the respected social critic noted that he had voted Green in 2004, and would be voting for the party ticket next Tuesday, as well.

"I find it very gratifying that our campaign has garnered the support and vote of such an eminent thinker and noted critic of our nation's foreign policy," said Ms. McKinney, Green Party nominee for President of the United States. "I share Professor Chomsky's analysis that our vote is best invested in building an institution which will survive the close of the polls next Tuesday."

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