An interesting article about Dennis' district

Sometimes we just need to read a good piece of writing and one that can also give us hope. This article from a Cleveland paper is one of those.
http://www.freetimes.com/stories/15/39/fives-a-crowd
If you get a chance, please read it. I hope it is fair, because not being from Cleveland, I have not a clue as to what to make of it except that it reads hopeful regarding Dennis' chances of winning the primary on March 4th and then the election for his seat. As you all know, this is vital to the voice we have come to depend on in order to get the word out about what this intelligent man sees as both the problems and the solutions.
I think a bit more money sent his way would be helpful. I think words of support also go a long way. In addition, I think it is fair to say that no matter how you feel now that Dennis is not there in the race trying to make the candidates talk about the real issues, you can see what happens when they don't. It has become a free for all where it is only about the personal attacks and the kind of corrosive baiting and jabbing at each other. That is because we have basically a Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum to choose from. They are so similar in terms of what they stand for that they have already wasted the rare opportunity to talk about therefore what it means to have a woman as president as opposed to a black man. Would that this discussion with all of its interesting historical and intellectual and psychological importance could really take place.
When will there be this opportunity again? And yet they blow it each time. They refuse to see themselves as needing to address the one thing that makes each of their campaigns unique.
In Dennis' case, what made his unique was that he was trying to re-introduce to the American public the importance and the content of the Constitution. Would that we had really listened to him.
But no regrets. We move forward.
Strength through Peace.

Here is one of the problems

Here is one of the problems about the news today and said in his own inimitable way:
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/?ml_video=81284
However, it is clear that the problem goes beyond the news business and their ways of tearing down the system of reliable reporting. While Colbert is funny and witty in this spoof of what makes the new news today, he is not wise. Wise would have been to talk about the way the news is not any longer about giving us information we need to make our own minds up but about programming us to think in certain ways. That is what made me so angry last night while watching the president give his awful speech and the poor governor of Kansas have to rebut that with her cliche rich but meaningless set of ideas.
Would that I could have watched Law and Order simultaneous with the president's address. At least loads of my inner violence could have been sublimated into finding the perp and getting him arrested and prosecuted and sent to his just reward.
No, I had to watch the president stand up there smirking away, though the tv crews must have been alerted to be on smirk patrol and hold back showing too many of them, all the while piling up a long list of further lies and innuendoes that had so little resemblance to the truth that his twin daughters appeared there together for the first time to prove to themselve, I think, that they would be right to reject this family. (This is a bit of wishful thinking.) Thinking wishfully though, what a lot of drugs and/or liquor had to have been consumed last night before that performance. Would that we could have a check of the DC water system this morning to see what its alcohol and drug levels are at. Ted Kennedy looked like his forehead was going to explode as the Bush went on about No Child Left Behind. Poor guy and now we trust him to annoint for us another one to go on to do the peoples' business when he didn't have a clue about the president and his trickery. Yikes.
But my most pointed barb is for that governor of Kansas. I hope all of you were in as much pain from listening to her as I was. This woman needs a new speechwriter. She needs someone who lives with blood running in their veins and with some sense of the historical moment in which we are living.
To call Hillary cold and this woman alive is a point worth pondering. I think perhaps she was being tested by the FDA as the next best sleeping potion. Guaranteed to make you want to just check out but permanently. That may be her drawback. Here is a party, the Democratic Party, that wants to inspire more to its ranks and they put up as its rebutter the butt of probably lots of bad but just jokes. I think all of us could have written that speech at some point in our lives and then thrown it away because we would have known just how horrible it was.
Then I think of Dennis Kucinich fighting to be back in the House of Representatives now and I am so upset and scared. I am so sad to see that the world is as evil and nasty as it is. These masters of the universe just don't want to have lots of money in their pockets, they want to have all the money in their pockets. Dennis sees this. They know he knows what they are up to and they want to shut him down.
I am frightened because this country could do something so many good things if we had a leader who understood what the world was truly about and what was needed to make it right. We need someone who has more than a winning smile and who looks good in a suit. Please help Dennis now and contribute to his Congressional race and keep one sane voice there to make this system be what it is supposed to be.
Together we can do this.
Strength through Peace.

It ain't over till it's over

It may seem as if the fight is over but not by a long shot. I know that Dennis' campaign began to seem like too long a shot given what he has to face in Cleveland in order to retain his seat in Congress. But for many of us who have stood with him because he made us see exactly what was possible, there is no end in sight as far as I can tell. I shall certainly be here as often as I can be dishing out the same kind of stuff I was going into before only not just in response to his and our hopes for his successful bid to be President 44. That may have to wait a bit.
However, there is some awfully good news afoot as far as I can tell. The waters are parting a bit and there are people stepping up to do their bit and to keep on moving the impeachment call further along. It is work that must be done.
If you have not yet done it, go to afterdowningstreet.org and sign on there to lend your voice and to see what all is cooking in terms of impeachment. If you live in Maine, check out the truly progressive candidate you have there, Laurie Dobson and sign on with her and help her out. If you know of other candidates who are trying to break the mold and get those who understand what the consitution means elected, then get in there and help them too.
Our lives are too short to be tied up this way. Let us clean out the mess that has been made so that when we elect a new president, whoever it is understands that we will all be watching and the crimes committed on the last watch will not be tolerated.
This is the word now. It must be gotten out there and the work is tremendous but so necessary. No good will be done until the impeachment process is completed.
Write to everyone and tell them so. Now. Today.
Strength through Peace.

The Question is Still the Same

And now the answers become clearer and clearer. Are you keeping up with the Sibel Edmonds case? Do you remember her? She is the FBI translator who discovered that a number, a large number in fact, of our most trusted public servants have been selling nuclear secrets to some of the countries we say we want to see disarm. I know, this is truly an Alice in Wonderland world we live in but please bear with me as I go further into the rabbit hole to extrude some of the choicest findings I have.
First, we have this woman whose case has been ignored for at least 5 years now. The Times of London has printed up some of the choicier tidbits. We have read all over the place about her and her troubles on our behalf. Then we start to see the connections between her case, the Valerie Plame Wilson case and the rising tide of illicit and unsavory details of certain persons lives come spilling out to the point that they must resign from office or find another means of employment that keeps them closer to their families.
Then we have this other piece of news today, though not news to those who have been keeping up with Congressman Kucinich. Now we know, sort of, how often the administration lied in its run up to the war in Iraq. We still don't hear anyone other than the usual suspects calling for the impeachment and maybe now we know why it is off the table. Maybe it is true as so many of us have been thinking that the only reason to keep it off the table is that people are worried about their own skins.
Perhaps as Sibel Edmonds relates, there has been lots of illegal wiretapping going on and that is why some members of Congress would rather not do anything to fire any flames of anomisity. I mean, if there were a possibility of a leaked wiretap that exposed something you really didn't want anyone to know, then what are your options but to keep lots of things off the table.
I know this all makes me sound like this huge conspiracy nut, but stop for a moment and think about the irrational behavior as we observe it and ask yourself, if I were a member of the Congress and could make history and make this administration accountable for the death and destruction that they are culpable for, wouldn't I want to make sure that happened? What would really stand in my way? Certainly not some vague notion of more important business and the threat of not enough time.
Let us ask them, for certainly there is no harm in that.
And let us ask the media who control not just the public airwaves but also some of the larger military contractors what they would have to lose if Dennis Kucinich were president?
Perhaps you have some better answers. Perhaps you too have insights into this whole mess that can straighten it out and explain to the populace why the biggest criminals on the face of the earth right now are walking around with so much power?
Please explain will be the title of my blog. Until then, please remember,
Strength through Peace.

There is so much to report on today

Leaving aside the ridiculous free-for-all that Dennis was excluded from last night and turning to more positive news, let's begin with the thought that impeachment is gaining ground. Take a look at yesterday's Common Dreams.org and you will see an article by Marjorie Cohn about it and also and even more important, there are the names and telephone numbers of all members of the House Judiciary Committee, pick up the phones and begin to call and leave a message.
Second, there is this wonderful video of an interview with Elizabeth:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1320493559993974997
For close to 30 minutes you have Elizabeth Kucinich laying out the entire program her husband would enact once he is elected president. It is a very telling video in that Elizabeth Kucinich sees no need to lambast peoples' personalities but to take to task the very structures in this government which are not working in service to the people who elected these officials. And for good measure, she continues the critique many are making of the selling out of the DLC leadership to the corporate interests that have also infected the Republican Party as well. Her voice is a refreshing retelling of what a Kucinich presidency would mean to all of us. I urge you all to watch it.
More from me later about the Congressman's reactions to the exclusion from the debates and a discussion in my own mind of why those who feel that the media are not engaged in a form of conspiracy are only fooling themselves, trying to rid themselves of the nightmare times in which we live.
And I am going back into that Common Dreams article to get the quote from one of the responders to the kind of grit that Kucinich displays by hanging in and not giving up.
Strength through Peace.

History of War No More

Thanks to this blog's good friend, Brenda O'Connor, here is a link to a speech made by Dennis before the vote leading to war with Iraq. Read this and you too shall weep:
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2002/10/03_kucinich_vote-no.htm
I am sure when you look at this speech and how Kucinich went through the resolution point by point in order to make clear to all of us that there was no basis for voting for that war that he made it also clear to all who took the time to read the war resolution, that there was no basis for war at all.
In fact, according to my reading of it, there was never a cause to go to war with Iraq in the 1990's but that is another discussion for another time. What we do know is that within that war resolution was all the misinformation that was gathered by this administration, what amounts to a large portion of lies, used to dupe a nation into believing that Iraq was a co-sponsor of what happened on September 11, 2001, that Iraq was in pursuit of means to further inflict damage on this country and others in its own geographic region and that Iraq's willingness to do that was a clear call for the US to take on a unilateral position of punishing them, in effect, for violoating UN resolutions.
What can one say when you read this speech? How much more information and cause do you need to do two very important things: 1. Impeach the vice president and president for lying to this nation about the reasons for going to war and 2. Elect Dennis Kucinich for president.
Brendan O'Connor has made some more interesting suggestions about what can be done to put the word out about why Dennis was excluded from the debates, 4 now in total. Perhaps it would just be good if we could just get a call out to people to go to his dennis4president.com website where all the Congressman's responses can be found and where as well, it is clear from what he says that this is truly about the corporate drive to ambush anyone who dares to disagree with their goals.
Would that it were true that the whole system could be played as fair as we are promised it is. We know of voter fraud and we know of how the machines can be rigged. Yet, do we see much discussion of this in the mainstream press? Of course not, why would they want to discuss the means by which they are complicit in rigging the votes? It is not a surprise to me that they have turned this whole election cycle into a horse race. That is how they deem it should be discussed and that is how it is discussed. Just as they blame us for needing to dumb down the news, when most Americans vote against such a tactic, they blame us for needing these "better" machines to register the votes because the people in some counties in Florida in 2000 could not mark their ballots correctly.
Blame is very easy to pass around for all kinds of problems in this country and yet we seem inevitably to blame the victim no matter which way we turn. You have a say in how these things will turn out and must exercise that option every day. You must talk up Dennis Kucinich's platforms and plans. You must describe to your friends, co-workers and family why there has to be a real choice of candidates and not ones decided by the corporate powers that be whose real interests are money and power not about our lives and our ambitions as a people.
So, there it is, the case was laid out, people chose to ignore it, including many of the people running for president today. Think with the logic of what will happen if they are allowed in office again let alone become president.
There is truly Strength through Peace.

Here is the most important link you can read

If you vote or if you have decided not to vote. If you are a responsible person or you have just decided to try and be a responsible person, read the full interview with Dennis and see what you can do to help the campaign.
http://www.alternet.org/stories/74268/
After you have read this, send it to everyone in your address book. Tell them to sharpen their pencils because we are going to most likely have to write his name in many places.
But what a gas if the first person ever to have a write-in campaign wins the presidency of the United States and you helped that to happen.
I have never read anything that has made me as proud to be a part of this campaign as Chris Hedges' piece. He let Dennis speak and when you hear him, which of course you can do with a simple click onto YouTube and there he is, so many instances of him speaking and from so many different places.
One of my favorites is of course his interrogation of Donald Rumsfeld.
Anyway, read the linked article, read it and think what the world would be like if this man were president and then do everything you can to make him that.
Read and pass it along. Tell your friends to read it and pass it along. The revolution is going to come with a pencil sharpener.
Strength through Peace.

Dennis can make you weep with hope

At the end of a great interview with Chris Hedges in the Philadelphia Inquirer, our man Dennis Kucinich said the following:

Violence is learned; so is nonviolence. I am looking at helping to create a social transformation here. This isn't just about winning an election. Elections come and go. Where is the country? What happens to our nation? What happens to the people? Politics cannot just be an inside game between competing corporate interests. It amounts to the condition under which people live and survive. I see a much higher purpose to what it is we do. That is why I continue to participate.

If you want to understand why he continues going like he does, read the entire article. (Sorry, I forgot to presever the link while getting the quote, but it is up on alternet.org today.) You cannot understand what he is about, I agree, and he tells it to Hedges in the interview, until you have read his autobiography. There is the knowledge born of what I cannot say that no matter what you do what is right and go up against whatever it is that needs to be countered and then you just keep fighting for what is right.
We all know that Dennis has the answers to so much that is wrong with our country. However, in the interview I read for the first time his analysis of the ways in which the corporate influences grew in the Democratic party. I highly recommend reading the article just for that.
A brilliant man, our man Dennis, but also a really tough guy who will not stop. He may lose and he may lose in Cleveland too but that will not stop the fight.
It is not just time that we take back the country but also the party. The people in charge are all about something the real Democrats of this country were never about. I don't understand them and to be honest, I don't care to. I just want them out. We need a clean sweep of the politicians in this country and to ask them to answer truthfully as to where they stand on issues and to vote for them based on the honest answers.
Do we know that all of the front runners now are in favor of war as a policy of government? Yes we do and we have not their words but their votes to show exactly where they stand.
Let's stand beside Dennis. If his name is not on a ballot, put it there and make sure everyone you know does the same. It is not too late, it is never too late, get those pencils sharpened and get ready to work.
Strength through Peace.

Some HIts and Too Many Misses

Impeachment is not just an option put into the Constitution by some wise men but a real remedy for what is wrong these days with our current administration. With every piece of news that comes out about the way this government is being run, we find more and more evidence of the crimes, the treasonous behavior that the president and vice president have been involved in almost from the start of their terms in 2001. Yet, it is difficult for this country to get its mind around it all.
Rep. Wexler, running for re-election in Florida, has become a more current member of the team going to bat for Dennis' articles of impeachment. He has now delivered to his colleagues on the House Judiciary Committee the 200,000 signatures he has gathered online in support of the impeachment of the vice president.
These are difficult times, there is no denying that. Even though it looks like there may be no way to move this forward, or that we will run out of time, the momentum and dedication to this impeachment drive continues to gather steam. Why?
It needed tax our minds too much to observe just what we read in the news every day that what is and has been going on in the White House is not just illegal but also deeply immoral.
Having said that, I also think it is important that those of us who want to support this motion, keep in mind that those who are in favor of it in the House and/or are running for the Senate need our support. For these reasons, I urge you to take a look at who is running for office in your district and in your state for the House and the Senate.
I think then it is time still to feature those candidates who support the impeachment and will work towards it from this moment forward.
If you live in Maine, I know that Laurie Dobson, who is running for the Senate as an Independent is totally behind the impeachment and would be working in the remaining two weeks of the president's term to impeach him and the vice president. I know that Congressman Wexler is running with this being one of his largest reasons for re-election. And of course, Kucinich is running for re-election in Cleveland's 10th district. Please do what you can to support them and as more candidates become known to me, I shall inform you of them as well.
Strength through Peace.

Dennis' supporters are the best

When I read the comments of those who understand Dennis' message of hope and real change, then I know he has struck a chord in the American people that is good and clear and comes through loudly. There is always a double edge to this kind of message and that is the powers that be are very jealous of their power and while Dennis himself is not a threat, his message is and it is the real message of change for this country.
The backers of Dennis get that. They are fully aware of how he will change the way American conducts herself as a nation and the way she will treat not just her citizens but all people. While the Masters of the Universe like us to believe they are all powerful, they are not. Dennis' message proves that and the lengths they will to to in order to stop us from hearing Dennis' message says a lot about their vulnerability.
It also says a lot about the ways in which the parties at this point have become a mirror image of each other. I find it hard to believe that if Hillary Clinton were excluded from the debate or Barack Obama were that Dennis would not challenge the tv networks making that decision on their behalf or stand next to them and usher them onto the stage because of his belief that these airwaves belong to the people (which they do) and because the truth is not so fragile that it cannot be talked about by everyone.
You don't see Hillary or Barack or John Edwards making a move to help Dennis get on the stage with them. Don't you wonder why? Don't you ask yourself why is Hillary so unwilling to acknowledge a fellow member of Congress who is a valid candidate for president just as she is and make it clear that discrimination of any kind is wrong.
Obama too. Where is that dulcet voice when it comes to the exclusion of someone from the debate who in this last instance had been invited? Where is their outrage at injustice and a clear violation of the principles of fair play?
Not a word has been spoken by any of them as far as I can find and doesn't that say something to you and to me about what these candidates are all about?
Yes, they do mean change, but in a very narrow sense. They want us to change our minds about what is right and wrong and what is good and bad and just follow them no matter where they take us and for what reasons.
I offer them a challenge: Tell us what you think of a viable candidate being excluded.
Please.
Stength through Peace.

It looks like a no-go tonight

We sure do live in a different type of world than I had thought possible. I mean if you watch enough of the movies and read enough of good old American folklore you begin to think that the good guys get to win every now and then and that they even get to feel the thrill of some kind of victory for their ideas and the fact that they aren't just fighting for themselves but for all of us.
You might think that if the world was the way a filmmaker like Frank Capra envisioned it in some of his work like Meet John Doe.
Then there is the real case of Dennis Kucinich. The real case of a man who goes to the mat every single day for each and every one of us and seems not to find the kind of justice and fairness that we might love to hold onto and to believe in.
It is as if there were just the huge corporate artifice that determines and manipulates all the workings of our society. If you don't fit into it and don't even think it is such a good thing, that same corporate culture turns on you and wills you out of the public eye. It pushes you out of the whole frame so that the public has to really work hard to find out about you, the public has to go against all the dreck they are fed by that corporate media in order to stick with you.
Dennis Kucinich wrote an amazing story of his early years in Cleveland. In some ways it is much like Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes except that it feels a lot less like an angry man's recounting of his hard life and more like the kid who survived that ordeal or rather who survived those endless ordeals is here to help us. He did have that courage to do something for us and to be here every day doing for us what he found the strength to understand.
You and I can learn a lot from reading that book. While it is not a great work of literature and there are moments too when the horrors of his life seem to even overpower his prose--but the man had a vision of something outside of him.
We laugh lots of times about the nuns and how they are so mean, etc. But in Kucinich's case, they saved his life and pushed him to do what he really needed to do. Of course there was something that came into his life from his mother and as little as that might have been considering that she had 7 children, there was something of the love for Dennis that he can also count on to give back when he fights for the things that we need to have in this country:
1. Fair wages and decent working conditions
2. Universal health care
3. Free pre-K through 4 years of college for everyone
And then the other side of the coin in his understanding of the policies that need to be in place:
1. An end to the war and the return home of all troops
2. An impeachment of the president and vice president
3. An end to NAFTA and our removal from the WTO
4. An end to the Patriot Act
5.Restoration of the constitution's guarantees
6. Civil Rights for all
The list is long and the work is hard. He needs all of our help. Please do help.
Strength through Peace.

Dennis Wins a Bit of Good News for Today

Here is some good news and some weird news too. The weird news first. The campaign asked all of us to call NBC and the DNC in order to complain that Dennis was not included in the debate in Nevada on NBC. So today a judge rules that Dennis is entitled to be in the debate and that if they don't include him they cannot have the debate.
I had called the DNC, told them I was a member of the Democratic Party and was working for Kucinich and wanted to know why they didn't let him debate. I called to speak to Karen Finney who is the press person for the DNC and while I called her because I knew her, I also thought we could have a conversation about this.
However, no conversation was possible. She claimed that my number was not clearly stated on her voicemail but of course I doubt that. She also contended that the DNC did not have anything to say about the debate, it was up to the network and they were entitled to decide who could debate.
Oh really? Is this how the Democratic Party represents its members? Is this the kind of party we want to represent us? Well, I don't think it is the party that makes these choices, I think it is the people in charge of the party right now and for one thing, her comment seems to be not the whole truth. According to the press reports about the debate, the DNC is a partner in this debate and should be defending the decision of the network to have invited Dennis who met the criteria for the invite and then they decided to disinvite him.
Where is the party at that they have no concern for its members or for the ways in which these decisions are made? I question not just the ways in which the party has become corrupted, yes corrupted by their own needs but also not a very good participant in the democratic process itself.
If this is what has become of Howard Dean, that he is now just this little dictator sitting up in DC with an agenda of his own that will exclude members of the party based on some set of criteria that are of his own making, then it is time for the party to ask for him to step down and to take his apparatchiks with him.
Yes, I am outraged. I am outraged because there is no sense of either fairness or commitment to the party in this kind of exchange between a member of the DNC who is a paid worker of the party and one of the party faithful, i.e., Dennis Kucinich.
The other piece of good news is that the recount in New Hampshire will go ahead and not for the reasons of Dennis trying to win but for the reason that there is a discrepancy and that discrepancy has to be addressed. It doesn't matter to Dennis that no one else is willing to address the issue of the veracity of the counts done by these machines but it does to those who want a fair election in November and once again Dennis is standing up for all of us when everyone else is just concerned with their own little slice of the pie and their own moment in the spotlight and not much concerned with the issues that they are sworn to uphold.
God you got to love them or you are going to find yourself going nuts.
There is Strength through Peace and thank God that Dennis leads the way.

Let's go Michigan

Tomorrow is an important day in Michigan and many of us who are supporters of the Congressman's bid for president are looking to that state to make a loud and clear statement about their support as well. Go to the polls tomorrow and vote for the one candidate who understands and supports through legislation, not just on the campaign-trail promises, but real work that a legislator is supposed to do. And that then gives voters the evidence they need that the person talking about these issues truly understands them and works for them.
This past weekend, Elizabeth Kucinich has been in Traverse City, Michigan and there has been much news of her effectiveness as a speaker on the issues as well as the warmth with which she addresses the crowds she meets.
More on this to come but first let me write here about all the good things we can say about why anyone in Michigan thinking about getting out to vote tomorrow must do so.
I have to put in my favorite plug for Dennis at this point which has to do with the one issue that most people in Michigan are extremely aware of and that is jobs. There is no other candidate who is fighting for the life of the worker in this country like Dennis Kucinich. If you have not had the time to pay attention, here are some points of interest. He is intent on ending NAFTA and ending the US involvement in the WTO. Let me explain briefly that sending jobs overseas in order to create a totally consumer society as has been done in the past two forms of administrations, i.e., the Clinton and the Bush administrations, has cost us the work force and the unions and the health care and the tax base and the kind of life this country has prided itself on and we have both the Clintons and the Bushes to thank for that. Also we can thank Senator Edwards for voting this way too despite his newfound belief in the cause of the middle class.
That to me is the one issue we can all unite on--jobs and the importance of understanding the role unions have played in our country in terms of protecting and defending workers from both the predations of the corporate bosses as well as for setting the agenda to protect the work force both in terms of occupational health and for demanding fair and just pension and retirement plans that as we can see are now the tennis ball of all negotiations.
If for no other reason, get out there tomorrow and vote not just your wallets but your hearts for the one man who is going to make a change by bringing manufacturing back to this country and leading the way in the fight for the worker and his/her rights to strike, to bargain fairly with none of this guillotine of the pensions and health care being held over all negotiators' heads.
We need a real leader and not just someone with promises.
Remember that tomorrow as you go to the polls.
Strength through Peace.

War, war all the time

We ought to know by now that when George W. Bush says he is off to the mid-east to make a peace deal that we should not believe him. Every word he uses has some other meaning to him that it would be good some day to find a lexicon for. In this case, too much evidence is pointing to the fact that he is off to the mid-east to drum up support for his ill-advised need for war with Iran. Monies have been allocated to the Saudis for weapons and to the Israelis of course too.
However, our misspoken president seems to be gaining no comrades in his way to war with Iran but I don't think he cares much or that much of the kind of discouragement he is hearing will deter him.
That being said, where are these mainstream candidates that are so interested in change? Where are their words of warning against what the president is about to do? I don't hear it. But I do know what Dennis kuinich is saying and has been saying all the time, with no wobbles (and that is a new euphemism for flip-flops) in his thinking. He voted against the war with Iraq and he has voted against the funding of the war and he is not wavering.
So you change agents, where are you truly? What do you offer us your intended receivers of these miraculous changes that are guaranteed to make our lives better once the world has anointed you as king or queen of the world? I am waiting to hear how these changes you plan to institute are going to influence the events that are occurring right now as you run around the country promising something that no one really wants.
Do you really think this country wants real change? Do you think that this is anything other than some kind of bland and meaningless wand you are waving at us and hoping to hypnotize us into believing we want our lives to change, that we want to do the work to change?
Certainly, no one has pushed as hard for the real change this country needs than Dennis Kucinich and yet everyone is afraid of him. Afraid of him and his ideas because what they ask us to do is to really commit ourselves to the real changes that need to be made in the fundamental structure of the corporatization of this country. And most of us are just too damn afraid of that because it might mean that what we have been fed and feeding ourselves for so long turns out to be really toxic and we have been complicit in its use.
So, think about the guy running around the mid-east thinking he is fooling anyone that he wants peace when what he wants is war. Think about that group of candidates running around the country thinking they are offering change when what they are offering is the semblance of a word and nothing more.
Then think about Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich out there on the trail truly listening to the problems of all peoples and making them see what the real change could be.
In that way we cannot give up hope because they have not. I urge you to think hard about who you vote for not just in the primaries but in the election as well.
Strength through Peace.

This deja vu is totally unnecessary

One should never report about the constant depression one feels about the campaign process in this country if you truly want to represent what the Kucinich camp is like. Because, as you will see in the next posting, which is from a Kucinich not often heard from, Elizabeth is not a negative person and her thoughts are forever on the positive. However, not being of that kind of inner strength, I am using this one blog to voice the kind of inner struggle that has gone on in watching the campaign from the vantage point of New Hampshire to the return to my home base in New York City.
First I have to say that it felt at all times, to this blogger, that the campaign had to fight too many battles all on its own with very little support from the powers that be, in fact with no support from the powers that be. And that is a discussion to be held elsewhere. But the people who came out of their way to come to Manchester to help Dennis and to lend their time and talent to the campaign, were pretty much a very enthusiastic bunch of dedicated people who look at him and see the way the country could be, should be and must be in order to open up the clogged and swollen arteries of injustice and poverty and cruelty we as a nation are paticipating in.
Then this morning my partner, Suzanne, and I went out for breakfast at our local diner and as I often do, I picked up the local paper, The Queens Chronicle, because I was interested in the front page story on Foreclosures. But as we broke apart the paper, she took one part and I took another, an article about the primaries and Super Tuesday landed in my lap. I read the article, rather I skimmed the article and there at the very end of the article, "Southeast Queens to Obama: Character Should Trump Race" was the following:
Volney Cain, a clerk at the J & S Variety Store on Sutphin Boulevard, said Obama's race doesn't matter if his desire to be president doesn't come from a "genuine place." Cain said the ideal presidential candidate would have to be able to strike a balance, as with most people, between conservative and liberal ideas, and he couldn't find any of the potential nominees he felt did so. The candidate he is most impressed with so far? Dennis Kucinich.
There buried at the end of this article is the kind of speaking out of the hearts of the followers of Dennis that I also discovered when I was in Manchester. It is easy to be so discouraged that you cannot take the number of assaults this campaign has to weather from the refusal of ABC News last Saturday to allow Dennis to join the debate to this coming one on NBC and the primary race in Texas asking for a loyalty oath that Dennis would not give to the large field of primary contenders in Cleveland gunning for his Congressional seat as well. It feels enormous and frustrating and like some huge sysiphean struggle that comes at us all who care about what this candidate has thought through and for which we know he will fight for to watch these battles mount and distract from the real work that needs to be done.
However, there is a faith in the system, or rather, in the constitution, that allows Dennis to continue to fight and to forge ahead and as we shall see in the coming weeks, this will lead us all somewhere we cannot predict.
There really is Strength through Peace.

All Military News all the Time

Watch the news all of you. The tricks and the fakes are beginning. First the Tricky Dick move, and I mean Dick Cheney, not Nixon, about the Iranian gunboats and now we can see there are several articles today about both the worsening condition in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan as well as the fear factor being ratcheted up while the President flies off to Israel to make nice with the Israelis and to castigate the Palestinians for their behavior. Will Mr. Bush make any comments whatsoever about the increased number of settlements going up on Arab land? I sincerely doubt it but he sure will find the time to talk about how unhelpful it is for the Palestinians to voice their concerns.
I am afraid, not by what is being reported, but by what it signifies. Only too clearly this administration has been making it known that their only strategy for dealing with any situation is at the point of a gun or in the current cases at the dropping of bombs from high in the atmosphere whose targets are mostly long gone before the bombs fall.
I have had the distinct honor of listening to Dennis talk about this kind of strategy. The use of endless war as a means both of foreign policy as well as a means of filling up the pockets of their friends with all the available money from the treasury in order to make them fabulously rich.
I have read in places that even Grover Norquist was opposed to this war based on fiscal concerns. Of course, he allowed the administration to muzzle him until after the elections so no one would know that according to fiscal ultra-conservatives, this war is a huge mistake.
None of us who support Kucinich for president or for a return to Congress has any doubt about where Dennis stands on these issues. The only candidate to propose a Department of Peace, Kucinich is running on the theory that we can rise to our better natures in order to put an end to this insanity.
More Marines are on their way to Afghanistan (they are reporting 3,000) and more deaths of American soldiers in Iraq (they are reporting 6-9 in one incident alone) and then there were the reports of the covert operations going on in Pakistan over the weekend. Then the government decided to create this false tape of what happened in the Gulf of Hormuz this Monday. How convenient that right before the primary vote, the tapes appear along with the suspicion that they are falsely reporting what happened.
Dick Cheney learned his lessons well from the former wearer of the Tricky Dick mantle. Now it is time to place it where it belongs today. We must move forward on the impeachment issue so that we can end this endless war and get the people responsible for so much death and destruction to pay the price for it.
Please help us. Help us by donating to the campaign and by helping physically to call your friends and family and explain to them why this is a crucial time in the campaign. With all of us pulling some of the weight we can help Dennis to help us.
Strength through Peace.

They are running out of ballots

After predicting a record turnout for this primary, there seems to now be a good chance that 8 of the cities have begun to run out of ballots. In fact, they were running out of ballots with 6 hours to go. What does that say about the primary election here?
Well, for one thing, it means that we should begin giving up all the old cliches about what has happened in the past, stop thinking of this in terms of what Clinton did here in 1992 or what McCain did here in 2000 and begin thinking about what the candidates today are saying and what that portends for the continuing election process.
Since I am completely out of the election forecasting business, what this signifies to me is that even when they knew there would be a huge turnout, they were not prepared for how large a turnout there would be in fact.
My mind wonders what this could mean and how to interpret it. I mean if you knew there were X number of people eligible to vote in your state wouldn't you be prepared with many more ballots and shown a bit more professional standards than this. What a weird response to being the premier state primary!
Oh well. This is less suspicious than using an electronic system by Diebold, right?

Why a Constitutional Initiative?

There is the question that should have been asked the other day. I didn't ask it and now I am. I will even take a page out of Dennis' playbook and ask and answer the question myself. I hope not just for my own edification either.
The question is: What was that Constitutional Initiative about on Sunday night? Why was that station in Manchester packed that night and what were people there to hear?
Having attended a few of these initiatives, I can tell you that the one thing that always stands out for me is how vital this document is and must be if we are to continue with a rule of law of any kind that means anything for all of us. The ability to pick and choose just what he would like to obey today and what he would like to ignore today as being legally binding is not a choice anyone sworn to uphold it can make.
Thus when we say that we want our troops out of Iraq or we want to end the Patriot Act or we want to have universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care, we are also saying we want to see the gentlemen who are not upholding their oaths brought to the Congress for the Impeachment hearings they so justly deserve (as do we) so that they can be held accountable for their crimes.
It is my belief and not the campaign's stated policy that without impeachment none of the other things can get done. When these crimes are allowed to go unpunished we forfeit the one redress we were given in the Constitution to end an illegal government's reign. Or rather to redress the illegal actions of representatives of our government.
Thinking of that one possibility given to us, we must seize upon it. There is no time like the present to do that.
Write, call, spread the word.
I am up on my soapbox today about this. I woke up thinking about it and will be writing about it until we get some action in the Congress as we are entitled to when there is a bill sitting in the Judiciary Committee.
Make it known how you feel about this and about all elected officials who will not act on it.
Keep March 19th, the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the illegal war in Iraq, marked in your calendar. Actions will occur and you can be a part of it.
When you and I act, things happen.
When people talk about the constitution as a living document, not in the sense that originalists mean it, i.e., with an agenda to fulfill, but in the way that those who understand what its real importance is--to guide the country in its making of laws.
Let's say that the nation is waiting for this kind of change, that means a return to what matters rather than this constant listing towards disaster.

They are at the polls

Well, the race is surely on and the workers here are at the polls, talking up the day and thanking people for voting for Kucinich. The streets of Manchester are emptier by far than they have been since I arrived here on Friday. The circus atmosphere on the street is gone. There is even parking. But the candidates are all meeting and greeting and the supporters are no longer on the streets in quite the same vociferous ways.
However, the troops are at work and it is quite an impressive group of interns and volunteers who have fanned out across Manchester and whose lunch is getting prepared and will be delivered to them so they can continue standing there to remind voters that Kucinich is their man. In each one of their bags is a copy of the constitution so they can hand them out. As one intern said, "I am giving away constitutions like hot cakes."
You cannot quite believe the amount of effort it takes to mount one of these days but this is the quietest the office has been and it is almost as if everyone has left town. They haven't but they are out on the streets with signs and that trusty constitution.
The candidate himself is talking on the radio and meeting with reporters and will also be at the polling places.
The sun is out and the weather is warm. There is a crowd of people giving away t-shirts and caps from the AARP. I had to get into an argument with them about the way in which they are backed by the insurance companies. Even though I am not a resident here, the man in charge of the sidewalk effort gave me his card in part, I think, to get the complaining old woman out of their sight and away from the people they were trying to sign up for their health care reform package.
Not being content to just rail against AARP, a nice young man was handing out smoothies from Stonyfield Farms, and I had to complain to him about the amount of sugar in the company's product. I think they have all been given the same customer service training. He, too, told me he would tell the company that their product is too sweet. In one 6 ounce bottle, there are 23 grams of sugar. One could go into a diabetic fit just from drinking one of these. I don't think it is fair to advertise a product as being organic but not also labeling it as too sweet for anyone to drink.
I realize I am going a bit afield here but there is a reason for this. The other day when I was talking to Viggo Mortensen, he said that he couldn't believe the honesty with which Dennis presents himself. There is no difference in what he says or how he says it depending on where he is. What you see is what you get would be the way he can be defined. That is not the way other candidates present themselves. I have heard Hillary speak or try to speak with a Southern accent when in the south and I have to confess that little by little the two men who are labeled the top two men are beginning to sound the same as well. It is as if some kind of chameleon streak has begun to run through them and now what we see is what we think we see, and not who they are and what they really stand for.
In all instances, they stand for the status quo. Holding the line at some centrist track is not change of any kind. It is a shell game to use the language to pretend things, to pretend you are against the war while voting to continue funding it. To pretend you want to change the health care system but are in the pocket of the pharmaceutical companies and the health insurance companies then what you want is what they want--to keep their high profits while denying a good number of their subscribers coverage for those things that were in the contract but which have been changed since you signed up. Of course, there is nothing wrong with wanting to vote for someone who plays a successful shell game and can promise what he or she has no intention of ever delivering, please go ahead.
There is no time like the present to just get the word out that there is truth and there is just the appearance of truth. Ask everyone which it is they prefer.

Interviewing for Dennis

For a change of pace now, I can report that I had to do two interviews this weekend for the campaign. One went up on the Huffington Post Saturday night when the news was flying about Dennis being excluded from the debate. I got a call from the national campaign that I had to be ready to interview Melissa Etheridge in about an hour or so. The only quiet place I could go to was the back seat of my car and so I went there and talked to her and kept notes and came back to the office to write it up.
Then on Sunday morning, Viggo Mortensen flew in on the red eye from California to help get Dennis' message out. He was furious that he had been excluded from the debate as well. So, I spent about 30 minutes talking to him in person. He was an interesting guy and had a lot to say about the history of his ideas, that is, he really thinks through the greed issue ruining this country and as for me that is my big theme now too.
Corporate greed has ruined any chance we have for a true democracy. It was enjoyable to watch Mortensen rail on and on against it so that I could sit back and let him use his energy to get it all going out there. I rested and listened.
Then I took a nice walk. There is actually time to go for walks when you get left out of the more general transport. Manchester is not a big town. At least the downtown is not big. As an old mill town it is impressive to look at. To walk through it on a Sunday during the primary season it is even more impressive especially when I was thinking about how to construct the article about talking to Viggo Mortensen.
Now I am thinking about all the other important issues that this campaign deals with on a daily basis and how they can all get lost if we don't all keep up with them. That is part of what really makes a campaign, the keeping track of all the issues as well as all the people involved in getting the word out about them.
Melissa and Vigo lent their voices to the disgust with ABC.
But here in Manchester, day in and day out, there are many people working most of the 24 hours of the day to help get Dennis' message out.
I hope to begin giving them a chance to talk up too on the blog.

Monday before the Primary

We are getting close to the time when all good men and women are about to cast a vote for the kind of change they want to see. The real change and no matter what we all now think of that word, it is a really good thing to know that we can all make a difference. Each of us can do something by calling ABC News/Disney and let them know what you think about their preemption of citizens' rights to choose and to be given the information they need in order to make an informed choice.
So here is the phone number, 212/456-7777 and ask for the complaints department.
Another way to make a difference no matter where you are is to remember that impeachment is the most viable way to make those changes happen. If we don't impeach and continue to push for that, we will go through this over and over and I don't think any of us really want that. Right now, thinking about how much is wrong with government and why so much needs to be fixed, what we need to understand is that without holding our representatives accountable for their oaths of office, we abdicate our greatest power to hold them legally to that.
Thus, you want change, then you have to do some things too.
One of those things is to stay tuned here for all the updates about the impeachment events. I will provide it soon.
Also, there is more information about the undecideds and other great stuff from another follower of this blog. I will advise you too about all of that. What I am saying today is that we have loads of other interesting information about to flood this blog about the cool folks who are working here for Dennis' campaign and who believe in him so much that they have foregone comfort, sleep, good food, showers, clean clothes, time to read and money. So, in honor of their efforts, I am going to bring their stories to you over the next two days.

The time is running out

And we need everyone's help to get the word out about what Dennis Kucinich's campaign stands for. I have been plugging away and from the comments I am receiving (thanks to John and Brendan in particular), the word is getting out. More and more people are asking for the URL for this blogspot and we are looking at the moment of reckoning here in New Hampshire. Of course, this is not the end of things no matter what happens. But considering the number of undecideds still being polled in this state, it is a big question that the mainstream media won't acknowledge. They want you to know certain things and not other things.
Just as they were adamant to frame the questions that the candidates would have to answer last night, such as the way they framed the discussion about health care. Each and every one of those four people kept promising to change things. Change is now the new debased word that needs to be forgotten and ultimately restored when the meaning of it has been redeemed.
You shall know them by the real change they make. Just please tell me what kind of real change they are advocating? A little bit of disguised pandering to the health insurance industry never hurts a candidate who takes money from them for her campaign, Hillary.
Just like you can rail about corporate greed and not ever taking one penny from the health insurance companies, but there is obviously nothing wrong about taking money from the larger hedge fund managers, John Edwards.
Then my last word on this kind of duplicity is to say, if we really want to see change, if we really want to make a change in how our government governs us and relates to the world, then we have to return to the real agenda that a true Democrat like Dennis puts forth. Ask and demand an end to this illegal war and bring to justice the criminals who lied and cheated in order to send innocent people to their deaths. Demand that our health care system be fair and equitable and not the privilege of those who can afford it. And not run by people whose sole job is to deny us the coverage we pay for.
This is just the beginning of the fight and it won't be over until we are able to turn the ship of state around. We can do it and we must do it in order to change for real the terms under which the government governs us.
Please, please, lend a hand and get the ship moving in this new direction, back to the principles that helped to give it birth. We can all do it if we just start thinking that thought and seeing where it leads us to act, to help and to serve the common good.
There really is strength through peace.

Live from NH, 3

Dennis is always able to point out how the quibbles between the candidates sound like the distortions of people who can't quite understand how the debasement of language captures them in their own webs.
The real change that Dennis always talks about is the kind of change all of us know about. It has to do with full-employment of our citizens. It has to do with the reality of the subjects rather than talking about some kind of nebulous ideas that mean nothing.
Finally we are going to talk about what is happening in Iraq. Blaming the Iraqis for the failure of the surge when we should know there is no way a war that was illegal could be anything other than an occupation hated by everyone. The Kucinich resolution HR 1234 is the way to end the war.
What the congressman finally said that made everyone take a huge last gasp--that we should vote with courage or we will get what we deserve. He meant it and felt it and it was great to hear him say it.

Live from New Hampshire, 2

What Dennis is focusing on is how the media is going to town in frightening us and that they must stop. Why should the media have this kind of power to scare us with the ways they frame the questions? It began with the opening "report" on terror.
Dennis is adamant that we must lead the world in nuclear abolition. While the Democrats continue to discuss going after terrorists, what they really mean is setting up a permanent state of war.
The most serious issue is an end to the reliance on nuclear power leading to a continuance of nuclear proliferation.
Now we turn to the social services that the government has promised us. the propaganda is flying all over the screen.
Their idea of change is to keep the same systems while putting the difference of costs into their pockets.
Now we know that Hillary has been constantly consistent in always keeping the same system we have. How are we to understand Obama? He, too, does not understand where the for profit system leads us all. Kucinich is the only one proposing a single payer universal health care system.
dennis is now calling the debate of chameleons. A really funny but sad observation of who we are being given as the "viable" candidates.

Live Response to Democratic Debate by Dennis

Dennis will be talking in response to the comments being made by the democratic candidates even though he is not at the debate itself. We have already been there on the campus marching through the grounds expressing our discontent with Dennis being silenced. It was a loud and impassioned throng that came out in the hundreds to give a civil response to the control of the debate by media conglomerates. It was thrilling to see the numbers of people who came out and shouted and chanted as Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich marched with banners at their backs and cameras flashing at them. In the snow we trudged around with the sounds of the snow underfoot being lost in the raucous exuberance of Dennis' supporters who felt both disappointed and confident. Disappointed that we are shut out, not just Dennis. Confident that what Dennis represents speaks for all of us.
So, the horse race talk continues. There is not much to recommend their commentary but to laugh at the incredible double entendres these people spew forth as if they were not aware of their own arrogance. It is an incredible show of hubris, spread across the airwaves with no corresponding self-awareness.
Now that the media gets to determine what the discussion should be and to frame how the nuclear terror threat presents itself. Dennis strongly opposes any further inflaming of the situation in Pakistan. He comes out against the whole notion of further militarization of our response to the condition in Pakistan.
Let me continue in another post. Stay tuned.

Things Happening Fast and Furious

It is almost unbelievable to see the news today about Kucinich. Talk about there being a constant storm of problems facing a campaign, then just peruse the news today and you will see that he is in court in Texas for a really good reason. The Texas Democrats require a loyalty oath for him to be on the primary ballot.
I can hear the voices of people going, can you fXXXXXX believe that? What country is this? He must be standing up for all of us when he refuses to sign up to support the Democratic candidate no matter who it is. We remember, don't we, Mr. Kerry reporting for duty? That is not an option this time around is it?
While we know why Dennis is the Democratic candidate who is the most true to the real Democratic Party, we know too that it does not require a loyalty oath to be a member of the party nor to run for president.
How much brain matter does it take to realize that the premise of the primary process is not to have to swear your loyalty to a party when you are a valid member of that party.
Thus the lawsuit is justified and the following one is as well--going to the FCC to sue ABC News for excluding Dennis from the debate tonight. What the hell are we looking at here? A campaign that cannot be allowed to exist due to the fear factor and thus is relegated to the courts to sort out its access problems is making a mockery of the whole election process.
This is a mockery of a democracy. Please start complaining to the appropriate authorities.

Being back in New Hampshire

I am back in the Granite State where there is snow and lots of people, lots more people than when i was here in November covering Dennis when the other candidates bussed in and bussed out. Dennis has been here pretty consistently since then.
The streets in Manchester are filled with candidate signs, there are people all over the place with buttons on their chests, placards on their cars, dazed glances on their faces and lots of jolliness among us all. It is like being at a carnival with the stakes being a lot higher than guessing the weight of the fat woman.
Lots of work going on in the Kucinich headquarters where more and more people show up who are either sick or injured in some way but so eager to work. Then there just is the horde of devoted kids (to me, they are kids) who seem to work like there is no tomorrow. Actually there is a big tomorrow coming up and they know it and are geared up to get the signs out, to talk to people and get them to vote for Dennis and to find their efforts so focused is a very good sign.
Dennis on Bill Moyers last night was good and filled with all the most incisive information he has been putting out there for Americans to pay attention to during his long campaign. Bill Moyers was a bit stingy when it came to giving him time, after remarking about how little time he gets during the debates. However, Kucinich kept the juices flowing and listed every one of the points he knows is important to all of us.
Here is the list of them, in my ordering:
1. Impeaching the president and vice president for taking us into an illegal war.
2. Getting all Americans health insurance based on a universal, single-payer system that will end the monopoly by the insurance companies.
3. Ending the war in Iraq and bringing the troops home.
4. A free education for everyone beginning with pre-K through four years of college.
5. An end of NAFTA, the WTO.
6. A return of the health to the planet.
7. Fair wages and treatment of all workers.
While this list may seem like just a laundry list and/or the most obvious things that should happen for this country, no other candidate is getting to this level of specificity.
Listen to them all, they sound like the same side of the record. As he said to Bill Moyers last night, he should be included in all the debates if for no other reason than there is no one else countering what the other candidates are putting forth.
Strength through Peace.

So little time, so much to say

There is so much going on and then again way too much to say about it all. For one thing, it is not believable that again we must fight to get Dennis, and others, onto the airwaves because some media company thinks it has the right to control who gets to participate in the debates. If you have not yet written to ABC News to let them know in no uncertain terms to allow all the candidates to speak on Saturday night, then please do so now. Contact Independent Primary.com in order to voice your concerns. They have links to both ABC and to Fox, which is preventing Ron Paul from participating in the Sunday night Republican debate. (And as has been said by many, it is a good thing not to let the media companies determine who we hear but that all candidates are treated fairly. We do have recourse to these insults to the process and we can get into that later.)
So, that is the biggest worry right now--denying Dennis and Joe Biden and Chris Dodd as well access to the American public who will be voting for them right before the New Hampshire primary.
Second though, on the plus side, Bill Moyers will be interviewing Dennis tonight on his Bill Moyers Journal. Please check that out and I will write about it tomorrow, from New Hampshire where I will be in order to report on what people in New Hampshire really think about Dennis and not rely on the obviously slanted media to tell us.
Moving along to further concerns of mine regarding all things Dennis, his current book, the autobiography, The Courage to Survive.
If you haven't read it, please do. It will tell you the real story of what makes the man run and work so hard and where that stamina in him comes from. I will be writing a separate review of the book both here and I hope on opednews.com too. I will keep you all posted.
Finally, make sure to keep up with what is happening on the campaign by logging into the campaign website: www.dennis4president.com
Strength through Peace.

Believe me, Mr. Cheney, there is still time

No time like the present is what I have to say and if you are reading around today, perhaps you saw this article popping up:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/01/02/6125/
That's right, it is impeachment talk time again and not as if we couldn't all use a lesson in how to hold elected officials to the standards we expect them to adhere to. So, if we can all say to Madame Speaker, yes we have time and the need and the interest to see the vice president and then the president held accountable for their criminal actions, then perhaps we will see some action taken and sooner rather than later.
I wonder just where the two of them think they will be able to go once they leave office without the thought/fear/worry that some marshall will not show up at their door some day with a warrant for their arrest. Because to be honest, the fear of this is an awful fear to live with. They have instilled it in others and maybe it is fitting they experience it as well. But the most important thing is that they need to be held accountable so that the next office holders who have similar inclinations towards the constitution will not do a damn similar thing or else face the consequences of their actions too.
But read it and think how can we make this happen and make it stick. Dennis needs to be credited with starting the ball rolling on this one and having the courage to put it out there. There are not many people today with that kind of courage.
Vote as if you know your own heart and the needs of this country and we shall all be fine.

How do you feel about torture today?

I don't know about you but after reading the op-ed piece by Kean and Hamilton in today's New York Times, I felt sick all over again about the ways in which this country has been run over the past 7 years. (I am not giving any other previous administrations a glance right now because there isn't enough time.) After I finished reading their outraged comments I again found the stomach ache that will not go away had intensified. A sure sign of my own outrage and disgust with a government that has no sense of decency or legalities and a way to see why we must not falter now when it comes to reversing the horrible trends set by them.
A friend of mine is a friend of George Tenent, the former head of the CIA. She has been in the past pretty certain that her friend would not do what people say he has done--condone the use of torture, etc. I hope she can truly know this man and know that he would not have gone along with this regime's ideas but I have to confess, I don't buy any of it. They are all guilty whether by actually authorizing it or not stepping in to stop it.
Yet, we are too in our own ways guilty of sitting idly by and not getting this administration out of office as soon as we knew what was going on. I know lots of people are getting thoroughly disgusted with the way things are shaping up politically right now. They watch the broadcast news which has already been way too vocal about who is ahead and who should win. They listen to these same guys who over and over have lied to them about many things of importance and believe them. I know there are those we can argue with about this fact and those who just don't care, but this is directed to those of you who care.
Now is not the time to give up or give in. Now is the time to redouble every last bit of that energy that was there for real change in the way things are going here. I should add that if you read the foreign press at all you will see that this country is not the only one plagued with rising debt, rising abuses of power and rising costs of living for the middle and lower classes and more and more protections for the wealthy. It ought to awaken more of us to the fact that this kind of greedy need for power is an epidemic and needs to be stopped.
Unfortunately, there are human beings in places like Guantanamo and other sites we don't know about who are facing a daily regimine of inhumane treatment, along with the 2 million or so felons in this country, and we need to find a way to put an end to this kind of warfare against humanity. It threatens us as well. My stomach is testimony to that.
If you can make it to the news sites on the web, begin to campaign for the one candidate that can and will make this change--Dennis Kuinich--and don't give up until the votes, all the votes are counted in November.
Every one of us means something to the world and right now we are also the voices of change and a better world.
Strength through Peace is more than a slogan, it is a way of life.

Video Blog - Vote Kucinich in 2008

Make a Difference--Vote Your Own Interests

Today could be a great new start for all of us. By voting in every way for Dennis we are voting to make everyone's life better.
I have never met anyone as determined as Dennis Kucinich to make all our lives better. What more can we ask of a candidate? In fact we can ask nothing less.
Strength through Peace.