McKinney
Please distribute widely.
…from Sister McKinney
We cannot be satisfied so long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. August 28, 1963
Dear Friend,
Are you:
* Incredulous at the fact that two Presidential elections were stolen
and no one was held accountable?
* Disappointed that, as a result, our country is at war, involved in
torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the peace?
* Concerned, especially in light of New Hampshire, that your vote might
not be counted in November and that the will of the voters will be thwarted
yet again with election fraud or outright theft?
* Disquieted that the use of electronic voting machines, coupled with
laws that restrict public access to election data “owned” by voting machine
companies, might thwart your ability to verify election results if they are
in question?
As acknowledged in the documentary American Blackout, I worked with
investigative journalist Greg Palast and conducted my own Congressional
investigation into election theft in Florida and across our country in the
Presidential election of 2000. Those proceedings documented the role of Data
Base Technologies, now a part of ChoicePoint, and election officials in
Florida, in illegally “scrubbing” the voter rolls.
In 2001, with Al Gore presiding, I objected to the seating of the Florida
electors. Not one Senator objected and so there was no discussion and no
debate in the Congress about what happened in Florida and across our country
in the 2000 Presidential election during the seating of the Electoral
College. The same pattern of fraud and theft was planned and executed in the
2004 Presidential election. But this time, not relying on any political
party, the people themselves demanded and funded an investigation into what
happened in Ohio. More and more information comes to us about how the will
of voters in Ohio was deliberately suppressed to produce a desired outcome.
This effort at discovering the truth of Ohio was led by independents,
Libertarians, and the Green Party because the Democrats had already conceded
the election.
In my own 2006 Congressional election, Georgia courts have ruled that the
electronic election data cannot be made public because they belong to
Diebold. The matter is going to be appealed all the way to the Georgia
Supreme Court, but isn’t that a shame? In my election night speech I
declared electronic voting machines a clear and present danger to our
Republic.
I want to keep election protection and a radical common sense approach to
issues on the table. As the candidates with populist appeal, but without
their party’s support, are being pushed to the margins, I want to make sure
that the election results are truly a reflection of the will of the voters.
That will only happen if there is another voice raising critical issues.
Are you also:
* Waiting to hear the leading Presidential contenders say that it’s past
time to repeal the Patriot Acts, the Secret Evidence Act, the Bush tax cuts,
the Military Tribunals Act, bring our troops home now, and institute a
livable wage?
* Infuriated that 48 million of our neighbors have no access to health
care while those of us with insurance have our claims too often denied?
* Ready to have the Parties’ solutions to the shrinking dollar and the
ballooning national debt explained, especially in light of rising food
prices and unemployment?
*Tired of the belligerent talk being directed at Iran and Pakistan and
ready for our country to become a leader in pursuit of peace? And finally,
are you also
*Afraid that the issues you really care about won’t get addressed in
this election season and therefore the likelihood of them being addressed by
the incumbent is almost nil?
I have traveled across our country to almost half its states. I have met
too many people disillusioned by their fears that their issues won’t be
addressed in this campaign season. I’ve met many people who want to
participate, but who long ago figured out that the system was rigged against
the interests of working families and so, dropped out, but who want to have
hope that our country can be delivered from its current morass.
Too many are feeling that they have nothing for which to vote, that their
votes won’t count, even worse, they might not even be counted. To them, I
suggest looking another way. As I have done. On March 17th of 2007, I
declared my independence from national leadership that deepens the slough in
which our country finds itself today. That leadership has enabled our
country to throw away traditional American values of justice, and peace, and
freedom.
I have now become a member of the Green Party and am seeking its
Presidential nomination.
I’m encouraging the people I’ve met to join me and do some things we’ve
never done before in order to have some things we’ve never had before. I
hope you will lend your support so we can press for election integrity and
put real solutions to the problems faced by real people on the table in real
talk that we all can understand.
This election in November is critical. The future of our country and the
content of the current debate can be influenced by us. Please help me
create the political space for real issues to stay on the table. I know you
support the truth. I know you want to help the American people know the
truth.
Please visit www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com to review my record. Please
visit www.runcynthiarun.org to donate to this effort.
Please take the time to view two youtube offerings:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=03cOM9r51Nw and
After viewing these films, I hope you will agree that our work deserves your
support. The time is too precarious, the issues too important, our futures
too much at risk for us to lose any more critical voices on important
issues.
Thank you again for your support of truth. I hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Cynthia McKinney
P.S. You can mail your donation by U.S. Postal Service to:
Power to the People Committee
Cynthia McKinney for President
P.O. Box 311759
Atlanta, GA 31131-1759
Please complete and include in your mail our contribution form to help us
comply with federal election reporting requirements:
http://www.runcynthiarun.org/pdf/contributor_form.pdf
Please note: Campaign Contributions are not tax-deductible. Corporate
contributions are not permitted. Only U.S. residents and citizens aged 17 or
older may make contributions to federal elections.
–
“It is the absolute responsibility of everybody in uniform to disobey an
order that is either illegal or immoral.” General Pace, Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, National Press Club, February 17, 2006
“My brother need not be idealized . . . beyond what he was in life. To be
remembered simply as a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right
it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.
Eulogy of Bobby Kennedy by Teddy Kennedy, June 18, 1968
“Certain material weaknesses in financial reporting and other limitations on
the scope of our work resulted in conditions that, for the 10th consecutive
year, prevented us from expressing an opinion on the federal government’s
consolidated financial statements.” David Walker, Comptroller General of
the United States, December 15, 2006
Josiah:
If the Green Party did nominate her, it would be the best counter to the criticisms Elaine Brown has been making of the Green Party recently, as you can hear in this interview with Uprising Radio:
http://www.archive.org/download/DailyDigest011808/2008_01_18_uprising.MP3
And I don’t only say that for symbolic reasons (recognizing that the “firsts” represented by Condi Rice and Colin Powell, or Hillary and Obama, are worth a hill of beans if the policies don’t change). McKinney’s voting record and platform, if you look at them, are actually pretty damn impressive.
During the first Clinton dynasty (we may be in for a second, uglier one), she was only of the only members of Congress to vocally oppose US sanctions on Iraq. She has been pointing out for over a decade that US multinationals are raping the Congo, while Darfur (and Chinese investment) gets all the press. Etc., etc., etc.
I’d love to see the Green Party become something more than a Prius bumper sticker cause. Influencing the Democrats is a probably a lost cause at this point, but a viable third party that actually presents an alternative is not. I’m cynical about anything the Green Party does having much of an impact for a while, but that’s really up to them.
22 January 2008, 7:51 amMark:
Stan, I have trouble seeing how you could support this as you have loudly and repeatedly called voting Green an exercise of white privilege.
STAN: Ye of little complexity. Loudly and repeatedly?
22 January 2008, 8:48 amskol:
Boy oh boy I hope CNN gets a hold of this (ironically (not really), they probably won’t). That’ll be some dissonance, huh, when race and gender get thrown out the window to make way for Mckinney. “?!” .
22 January 2008, 5:00 pmFor that alone, I’d do all I can.
robert karaffa:
There are a few good people in Congress, or that were, that have real GUTS. Let’s just name McKinney, Maxine Waters (certainly helpful in matters of Haiti), Barbara Boxer and a few others. God Bless them all! What Cynthia is saying about rigged elections really matters. Greed and Ego rule this planet. McKinney is well versed on Ohio on the issue of electronic rigging of vote tabulation. I live where I get to listen to criminal trash like Blackwell (oh, who just dissapeared, with his Bible) and the Anti-Christ Rod Parsley preach their trash on the “public” airwaves. Let’s get behind this couragous, itensely strong person.
22 January 2008, 10:44 pmChrisD:
Mark, a vote for Cynthia McKinney – if she gets on the ballot – makes sense tactically and strategically. Stan can explain this far better than I ever could.
The Greens can most likely get her on the ballot in a number of states and I’ll definitely vote for her if she’s on the ballot in California, regardless of my very many reservations about the party.
Yours,
24 January 2008, 7:02 pmChris
Robert Karaffa:
I am really only hoping for more exposure for the issues Cynthia is talking about. Just to eventually get a message across to somebody, we need hand-counted paper ballots, like every close-to “Democracy.” You can provide the truth in spades, and if you get enough media attention, you can do some convincing; and maybe make a statement. I know damn good and well what has happened at the hands of the US “government” in the past 60 years, all over the world but especially in Latin America and the Carribean. I have also been personally affected, not as much as my friends who have been kidnapped and beaten to near death, by “policy.” We can’t vote Cynthia anywhere. But dammit, give her some money and perpetuate the message. Yes, this is simplistic, and I am not really a simplistic personality, but, let’s take steps where we can. Dennis is out, damn, what if we could have his economic adviser professing the truth to the Washington Press Corps?? Would make it almost worth watching the Candyland Nonsense Network.
24 January 2008, 11:42 pmLegume Sam:
Folks, I hate to be a one-note Johnny on this topic, but Josiah is right to focus on this wish: “I’d love to see the Green Party become something more than a Prius bumper sticker cause.”
The Green Party is really only an entity with some popular support in four states: California, New York, Illinois, and New Mexico. For the other 46 states, the Green Party’s status depends largely upon how effective the Demopublicans have been in silencing public demand for a multiparty system. That’s the voting situation. There is in reality a lot of work to be done in the states to ease ballot access laws so as to permit candidates to be on the ballot.
The situation with the Green Party itself is, however, also worth paying attention, because the real decision as regards the Green Party’s nominee will be made in July in Chicago. If we support Cynthia McKinney, and especially if we support Cynthia McKinney as part of a long-term movement-building focus, we need to pay attention to the way in which Green Party candidates are nominated, and to the way in which Greens do process.
As there are really only four states with organized Green Parties, the other 46 states have “Green Parties” which are essentially Potemkin villages, staffed largely by people whose power in the national party process is inordinately high when compared to the number of people they “represent.” If the Green Party is serious about achieving political power, this has to end. These other states, in other words, will need real Green Parties.
The other thing that needs to change about the nomination process is that the primaries are at present mere beauty contests, and so the bylaws need to be changed to require delegates to vote the will of the people. Last time around, the will of the people said “Nader” and the delegates voted “Cobb.” So where is David Cobb these days? It was obvious from the get-go that nominating Cobb was a trick, to get the Green Party out of the way so that John Kerry could run unhindered by Left opposition. And we can all see what a smashing success that was, what with the rigged election that the Kerry forces failed to contest.
The Green Party is also flawed in its process. Green Party meetings waste way too much time, and many who would otherwise participate are otherwise discouraged by the sense of futility generated by such meetings. This may have something to do with the Green obsession with “consensus”; there may be other causes. But if you are going to support Green Party candidates, it behooves you to at some point find out what they’re doing in those meetings. OK?
You may think it’s trivial that Cynthia McKinney chose the Green Party as a vehicle for election. But remember that, to the mainstream media, she is a nobody running under the banner of a non-party. I remember watching newscasts in 2000, reporting on the Ralph Nader campaign, which would tell us about “Ralph Nader” and “his party” without even telling the TV viewers what the name of that party was.
Now, Cynthia McKinney seems to be doing a good job these days courting the Green Party’s gatekeepers, the folks who decided for Cobb in ’04 and thus who will make the decision that sticks in ’08. But even so, if you support Cynthia McKinney, you should take some sort of interest in the conundrum that is the Green Party, er, “Cynthia McKinney’s party,” as the press will no doubt call it.
25 January 2008, 10:58 amLegume Sam:
Oh yeah — as for the ballot access situation, do check out Ballot Access News…
25 January 2008, 10:59 amStan:
Sam raises some very goodpoints. In NC, the GP is a tiny collection of people, some even associated with Workers World types, who don’t even answer email queries sent to the so-called state rep. I speak from experience. I quit their discussion blog a couple years back when it revelaed itself as yet another sectarian squabble site.
The question of whether McK shapes the GP or the GP shapes McK is an open one. Given that we’ll get some hideous match-up like Clinton vs McCain, writing in McKinney seems at the very least an expression of moral outrage.
Raising issues in the context of the election, as Sam does at Kos, is an important activity because election is where the focus is: even if raising the questions there makes one the skunk at the party… no pun intended.
I still can’t get past the gnawing idea that a real political challenge cannot come from a party cobbled together around some ideal “program.” It is a recipe for an endless series of ideological catfights.
Practical… is what we need. And stating one will “end racism, et al” is not a practical program. Saying one will end redlining or halt gentrification… is. A presidential candidate that says s/he will reduce the defense budget is making a claim they have no unilateral power to enact. A candidate can say, however, that s/he will order the redeploymnet of US toops to all home stations. That is clearly within presidential power.
25 January 2008, 12:15 pmLegume Sam:
Thanks Stan… just some thoughts here:
Electronic communication as such is probably a poor measure of human communication. A recent piece at the Chronicle of Higher Education revealed that Internet communication tended to polarize publics into extreme positions. To find out what they’re about, you’ll probably have to go to one of their meetings, to have face-to-face conversations with them.
It’s possible that the Green Party is fatally flawed in its obsession with the “Ten Key Values” and the platforms which have been constructed around them. The economic agenda, for instance, is typically an endorsement of “true cost pricing” (following the Key Value of “community based economics,” in what way I don’t know) in which the government imposes commodity taxes so that the price of commodities can reflect the “true cost” (in environmental terms) of each item. The problem, of course, is that environmental costs do not have dollar values, as the values represented by a healthy environment transcend the whole question of money. “True cost pricing” is just a device to wield against polluters. A more powerful device, of course, would be nationalization — simply appropriate the polluting machines and shut them down. We’re not there yet, of course, but I don’t know if the Green Party would ever get us there.
As for real political challenges, my current main interest is in what Joan Martinez-Alier calls “the environmentalism of the poor.” I’m specifically interested in Zapatismo in that theoretical/practical context. The Zapatistas are not “Green” in the Ten Key Values sense, esp. insofar as they don’t cleave to any ironclad notion of “nonviolence.”
It’s possible that the Green Party, in its sectarianism, could push away Cynthia McKinney and her group after the election. It would be nice if that didn’t happen. We’ll see. I think this problem of “gatekeepers,” though, is essential to answering “the question of whether McK shapes the GP or the GP shapes McK.” Today McKinney works with the gatekeepers, which will be good for her chances of winning the nomination. Tomorrow, I can only hope, future candidates will have to appeal to a Green public, and not to gatekeepers, in order to win the Green nomination. It’s more credible that way, and actually builds something, whereas the Green gatekeepers don’t really have a lot of money & so don’t really have much to offer besides their ability to orchestrate meetings.
Expressions of moral outrage, like all communications, have an audience of hearers/ readers. We should tailor our communications to elicit the best possible reaction from this audience. To date I’m not really sure how that’s to be done. My stuff at Kos is largely in book review format — I want to frame everything in terms of text-based inquiry to put my audience in a “scholarly” frame of mind, since after all what I am advocating is ecosocialism and thus vulnerable to ideological panic-attacks from “anticommunists” in the DKos audience. I suppose a really good expression of moral outrage, like those expressed by my friend “One Pissed Off Liberal”, blends multimedia expression with appeals to revered moral values (peace), documents (the Constitution), or activities (protest). I don’t know. Democrats are hard to reach in election run-ups; the current obsession is whether Clinton or Obama will win the nomination.
25 January 2008, 4:21 pmMs Kitty:
Cynthia McKinney has been a lone and courageous voice for truth and transparency. God bless her! I’d vote for her no matter what party she represented.
7 February 2008, 9:52 pmmatteo:
Now that Cynthia McKinney has won the GP nomination, i would be curious to hear more from the people here about what their impression of the situation is.
i am particularly interested in the comment about how protest votes and protest campaigns are meant to target an audience: so how and who should we go about targeting?
perhaps a new post? thanks
13 August 2008, 12:34 amGreenGenes:
Voting for Cynthia McKinney /Rosa Clemente Green Party is NOT a protest vote. McKinney is quite practical.
5% of the vote gets Millions of Dollars for the campaign and the Green Party. They will have Millions of Dollars for the next presidential election making them even more viable. It’s Federal Election law regarding establishing funding for a National Political Party.
My gosh how unfortunate it is that people don’t know US election law. There’s virtually no information in the media and it’s not taught in schools. It allows the media and the Democratic Party to promulgate “protest” vote and “spoiler” (and yet it was the Major Parties who made these laws!).
There are over 200 elected Greens already (something else you don’t hear in the media).
In addition many state Green Parties can gain ballot access through the results of the Presidential Election. Such ballot access will mean even more local Green candidates can get elected, adding to the over 200 already.
McKinney is building an institutional base with resources to make the Green Party a VIABLE option, NOT A PROTEST VOTE.
13 August 2008, 9:02 am