McKinney on CNN, boat attacked by Israel

McKinney on the way to Gaza

Cynthia McKinney is on the way to Gaza for a humanitarian mission in reaction to the recent siege and bombing by Israel. She is mentioned in the article "Dignity Leaves for Gaza on Emergency Mission of Mercy" at www.freegaza.org.

Post-Katrina murders

While not the 5,000 that Cynthia McKinney had heard about, white vigilantes shot at least 11 people in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, according to an article by A.C. Thompson in the January 5, 2009 issue of The Nation magazine. The New Orleans Police Department is also suspect in the death of a man found severely burned in a charred abandoned auto. The article also mentions Malik Rahim, Green Party candidate for Congress who I have written about on this blog.

2008 Christmas Blog Post

This year was productive in terms of doing everything in my power to impart what I feel is the best information there is.

It started with a January 5 forum for two of our presidential candidates. I was one of the organizers of the event, and served as their driver during their stay in Minnesota.

In July, I was a delegate to our national convention in Chicago, where we nominated the first ever all-women-of-color presidential ticket in history. While in Chicago I visited with my cousins, aunt and uncle, saw the sights, and used several different types of mass transit.

In August, I was the top petitioner in Minnesota for our presidential ticket, with 1,231 signatures. We were the first to file with the Secretary of State’s office.

On September 1, I protested the Republican National Convention, alongside our candidate for Vice President. I also served as one of the personal assistants for the candidate, and marched eight miles to the bridge collapse site. Also in September I fasted for the holy month of Ramadan, though not as strictly as the Muslims do, but pretty close.

In October and early November I continued volunteering for Farheen Hakeem for state representative, door-knocking, lit-dropping, and putting up lawn signs. Farheen got 30%, which is good for a Green, especially considering they brought in Al Franken and John Conyers, 20 paid canvassers, and up to 400 Obama volunteers.

Since the election I’ve been making predictions as chronicled on this blog. My tentative plan for 2009 is to concentrate on myself, though there are some city council races that merit attention.

Spencer continues his banquet and cruise line catering duties as he makes plans for post high school education. I look forward to seeing him tomorrow for Christmas Day.

Peace,
Tom
2007 Christmas Blog Post

Rick “Realpolitik” Warren

Democrats upset by the Warren invocation should not be surprised. Realpolitik is what you signed up for. I would ask people to sign my petitions for Green Party ballot access, and people would tell me we need to get the Republicans out of there. So it’s all part of the political calculation. It’s all about winning, right?

Actually, I spoke with conservative Christians as part of my research for my book, and I concluded they’re generally nice on a personal level, if you can set aside their politics for a while. If Obama can speak with Ahmadinejad, he can speak with Warren. Also, ceremonial roles like the invocation might be the only way to involve conservative Christians, since the thought of giving them any real power is so terrifying.

There are a lot of conservative Christians out there. If there were more Greens, maybe we would have a seat at the table too. But we don’t, even though we have the best ideas. (I am somewhat encouraged, however, that "green" processes are becoming more popular in the media, though I hasten to make the distinction between small "g" green actions and big "G" Green Party activism. Live Green, Vote Green.)

Getting back to the idea of dialogs with conservative Christians, I am reminded of Luke 16:26. In the verse, Abraham, in heaven, tells a rich man who is burning in hell, "And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us."

What I found fascinating is that while neither could cross to the other side, they could still talk with each other. So perhaps through communication there might be some respite from suffering for the hellbound, and perhaps it’s ok here on earth for the respective sides to communicate with each other, even though each might believe the other is hellbound.

Four days after the election, I predicted on this blog that in the first weeks of Obama’s presidency, there would be some sort of distraction like "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" was for the Clinton administration. So far this Rick Warren controversy seems to fit the bill. There’s still hope, though. I could easily be wrong. On June 3 I predicted this year’s VP running mates would be Tim Pawlenty and Amy Klobuchar. I at least got it right that it would be a white man and a white woman, and the white woman would be a relative newcomer, but I definitely did get the parties switched around.

Bush is now a safe vote

I never thought Bush would play the role of casting a safe vote, but that’s sure what it looks like with this week’s failed attempt to loan money to the car companies. Since he’s a lame duck, and doesn’t need to raise contributions from the rich anymore, he can afford to act a little more altruistic, and maybe try to improve his public image a little bit for his legacy in the history books. I’m reminded of his father’s food aid to Africa on his way out of office.

When I say safe vote, I mean his willingness to sign the loans into law, to go along with those who voted for it. And I mean safe in terms of appealing to the general public. It might be dangerous among his base. What makes it safe is that the Senate Republicans killed it so he didn’t have to. They didn’t have a majority, but they had enough votes to block any attempt to end a filibuster.

I believe that one of the biggest problems we will continue to see with the Democrats is that they will fail to force filibusters. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders has talked about this. They need to make the Republicans actually carry out their threats, giving their long stalling speeches and pulling their all-nighters. Make the Republicans burn the midnight oil. Keep them up past their bedtime. This ought to call attention to Republican stubbornness and obstructionism in conducting the people’s business.

That being said, I’m not personally in favor of the loan package that they were negotiating. Sure it’s fair compared to what they gave the bankers, but I wasn’t in favor of that either. As I’ve said on this blog, recent legislation is showing that bankers have a lot more power than carmakers. This is consistent with the explanations in "The Web of Debt." So compared to the $700 billion bailout of the private banking cartel, also known as Bush’s final pillage, the loan to carmakers would have been more fair in helping workers keep their jobs, but I still don’t think that’s the best use of the money.

A number of smaller companies are working on electric cars, and those are much better for the environment, especially if the electricity comes from wind power. The Tesla company comes to mind, but I’ve heard there are other companies that are even better, and there are plans for cars that are more affordable. So we are still very far off from where we need to be. Congress is not spending money on the people, the money they were considering for the people was not on the right things, and they’re not doing enough to expose and pressure the obstructionists.

Oh, Rahm, oh, Rahm, Emanuel

(Sung to the tune of "Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel")

Oh, Rahm, oh, Rahm, Emanuel,
Don’t ramrod guns for Israel,
And make the region nuclear
Until Iran has disappear.
Think twice, think twice, Emanuel
Don’t ramrod guns for Israel!

Greens vs. Blagojevich

Here’s another example of Democratic Party corruption. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich tried to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. Rich Whitney, the Green Party candidate who ran against Blagojevich in 2006, received 10% of the vote, which is pretty good for a Green, especially in a heavily populated state like Illinois. That’s one of the reasons we had our national convention in Chicago this summer.

The ILGP told you so:
"ILGP Statement on the Arrest of Gov. Rod Blagojevich"
http://www.ilgp.org:80/

Rich Whitney told you so:
"Former Green Party Gubernatorial Candidate Rich Whitney on the arrest and criminal charges against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich"
http://www.independentpoliticalreport.com/2008/12/former-green-party-gubernatorial-candidate-rich-whitney-on-the-arrest-and-criminal-charges-against-illinois-governor-rod-blagojevich/

To the State Canvassing Board:

I’ve heard that there are already laws on the books that specify how to treat unclear ballots in the recount. My understanding is that if the election is close enough for a recount, they can look at the messed-up ballots and try to determine intent. I’m not sure if the laws include guidelines for different categories of errors, but if they do, I would want to look at that first. Maybe there were unbiased instructions in place before Coleman and Franken came on the scene.

For the rest of the ballots, I would want to run a blind test first. I would ask independent officials together with the campaigns to come up with broad categories for the various types of voter errors being encountered. Then I would ask the officials to provide examples that mask out the names of Franken and Coleman and instead randomly use the names "Candidate A" and "Candidate B" or something similar. Members of the State Canvassing Board would rule on the blind tests and then be expected to rule similarly on the actual ballots. This hopefully would cover most of the disputed ballots. Then the remainder could be looked at on a case-by-case basis, using blind tests only if there is enough time and money.

You can take the MPR ballot quiz at…
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2008/11/19_challenged_ballots/

However, a word of warning: My contention is that you can be biased subconsciously if you can see the actual names of the candidates.

In my opinion, X-marks and circles should count. If somebody filled in both ovals and then scribbled out one, then their vote should go to the one that was not scribbled out. If one oval is filled in and another is less than half filled-in, I think it should go to the one that is complete. If it is feint or outside the oval I would want to try to count it. I would not be too strict on identifying names or initials, because I don’t think anyone these days is trying to get paid for their vote. If people wrote in stupid commentaries or write-in candidates, I think I would want to ignore those comments and count the ovals, though I might want to get other opinions.

Bottom line, people can be stupid, but I would want to err on the side of forgiveness. It’s hard getting people out to vote, and we want to encourage more people to participate in the political process.

Rahim tips the balance

U. S. Representative, 2nd Congressional District
492 of 492 precincts reporting

31,296 = 46.82% William J. Jefferson, D -
1,880 = 2.81% Malik Rahim, G -
548 = .82% Gregory W. Kahn, L -
33,122 = 49.55% Anh "Joseph" Cao, R -

http://www400.sos.louisiana.gov:8090/cgibin/?rqstyp=elcms2&rqsdta=120608

31,296 + 1,880 = 33,176 which would have been enough to beat the Republican, earning Rahim "spoiler" status among critics and showing once again that Greens are so much better on the issues. In this case, the Democrat was indicted on 16 charges related to corruption, including $90,000 cash in his freezer. If voters hadn’t been so stubborn in voting for corruption, they could have voted Green and defeated the Republican. Let this be a lesson to all those who feel that their only choice is to vote corporate.

Good ideas

I predict the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress will not consider PRT, Personal Rapid Transit, automated elevated taxicabs. I also predict they will do little or nothing to mitigate the harmful effects of sonar on whale hearing.