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Saturday, June 28, 2008

Parade season


It's parade season. So far I've marched for Farheen Hakeem and Allan Hancock. They are both running for the Minnesota House, as is Colin Lee. Adri Mehra is our candidate for the congressional seat currently held by Keith Ellison. The photo above is at Allan's house for the Brooklyn Center parade. Last weekend was Juneteenth, where Farheen was covered by the Al Jazeera television network, and tomorrow is GLBT Pride.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Barr endorses McKinney

Roseanne Barr supports Cynthia McKinney for President:

http://www.roseanneworld.com/blog/2008/06/clinton_2012.php

http://www.roseanneworld.com/blog/2008/03/third_party_green_anyone.php

I am a McKinney delegate and will be traveling to the Green Party National Convention July 10-13.

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Watch out for Clinton crony tricks

It looks like Obama has the nomination all sewn up, but Clinton remains defiant. What is she thinking? Does she have some sort of trick up her sleeve? One thing she might try to do is promise jobs and other favors to flip delegates over to her side.

This happened in 1976, according to Elaine Brown in her book "A Taste of Power." Jerry Brown defeated Jimmy Carter 2-1 in California, but was unable to stall Carter’s momentum. Brown writes:

"By the end of the second of the four convention days, a massive number of Brown delegates had already been sold over to the Carter machine, which was well organized and funded. Specific promises of freeways and such had been made to delegates who were mayors and governors; support for reelection went to senatorial and congressional delegates; federal judicial appointments went to judges and lawyers; and legislation to certain so-called special-interest delegates—with the blatant exception of black people, there being only a handful of black delegates among the thousands. Brown was not a man who operated with a machine. A dreamer and an intellectual who detested expedient politics, he had no idea how to dike the swelling tide."

Before Obama supporters get too worried about this prospect, they can probably take heart that Carter himself is endorsing Obama this evening.

In her next book, Elaine Brown became critical of Jerry Brown, and I too have become more critical of him over the years, especially since he remains a Democrat. I was a part of Jerry Brown’s insurgent campaign in 1992, when we tried to stop Bill Clinton. Before the Internet was widespread, Brown made use of a 1-800 number to raise funds. I painted the number on a huge banner and hung it over 35W. A police officer confiscated the banner and ticketed me for "illegal sign by roadway." I had been sitting on a folding chair, reading the newspaper, which had been reporting what Brown called "a scandal a week" surrounding Bill Clinton. Brown campaigned on a theme of ending government corruption.

One of the Brown supporters became manager of the John Marty for Governor campaign. Like Brown, Marty had a $100 limit on contributions from individuals. After learning about and witnessing corporate influence in the Democratic Party, I gravitated toward the Green Party and the rest is history.

People who are afraid to do the right thing can still help us get 5% by going to gp.org.

Running mate predictions

Klobuchar and Pawlenty.

GP screened out by Bill Press Show

I couldn’t get on the air just now, thanks to the screener for the Bill Press Show. (The host today is a sub.)

Yesterday they had a caller named Carolyn, a Hillary supporter who will vote for McCain before Obama.

I told the screener there are other women she can vote for. The screener asked who and I said Kat Swift and Cynthia McKinney. I also pointed out that yesterday they were asking about sexism in the media, and that they’ve interviewed Ralph Nader but not Cynthia McKinney.

The screener said he’d pass that along and thanks for the call.

I’m sensing that the Bill Press Show is corporatist or sexist.