tagged w/ Rocky Anderson
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On April 17th on CBS News, while being interviewed by Brian Montpoli, Ralph Nader made it clear who he was supporting and endorsing for President in 2012: it was Rocky Anderson, and not the nominee of the Green Party, Jill Stein.
Ralph characterized Rocky Anderson as having a "very, very progressive" record as Mayor of Salt Lake City. He also noted Rocky's background as a constitutional attorney and civil rights lawyer.On April 17th on CBS News, while being interviewed by Brian Montpoli, Ralph Nader made... more
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Dear Congressman Paul,
You have fought an amazing battle for what you believe in. Because of your passionate, deeply-held views, you have devoted yourself to inspiring millions of people who have looked to you for your tenacious, honest approach to governance.
Although you and I disagree on a number of matters, we agree wholeheartedly on certain fundamentals, concerning which we need to keep up our fight:
- That our nation has no business building an empire, with disastrous effects to our own nation and to others.
- That government becomes a major threat to individual rights and liberties when it engages in outrages such as indefinite detention and the assassination of U.S. citizens without due process.
- That private banks can not be allowed any longer to control U.S. monetary policy through the Federal Reserve.
Please continue speaking out on these issues and keep in mind that millions of people around the country – even those who disagree with you on certain issues – view you as a man of tremendous conviction and integrity.
Thank you for the sacrifices you have made – and for the example you have set for those who have been looking for real leadership and authenticity in our nation’s elected officials.
I wish you the very best and hope we can work together to bring about a healthier, safer, more peaceful world.
With gratitude,
Rocky Anderson
http://www.voterocky.org/letter_to_ron_paul Dear Congressman Paul,
You have fought an amazing battle for what you believe... more
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Rocky Anderson will be interviewed on the Barefoot Accountant's Livestream Internet Program next Tuesday, May 29th, at 4:00 PM ET. A chatbox and phone line are available to take your comments and questions to Rocky Anderson.
Rocky Anderson is the Presidential candidate for 2012 from the Justice Party. Ralph Nader recently endorsed Rocky over Jill Stein from the Green Party because Rocky's record was "very, very progressive", and because his background includes being a Constitutional attorney as well as a civil rights lawyer.Rocky Anderson will be interviewed on the Barefoot Accountant's Livestream... more
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Rocky Anderson is very much aware of the "spoiler effect" that a third party candidate can have in an election. But he is also aware of how much influence a third party candidate can have.
After much thought, the former mayor of Salt Lake City created the Justice Party, and he aims to stir up a revolutionary campaign that rests on social media and grassroots organizing rather than big money.
"Every major public policy disaster in this Country is attributable to the corrupting influence of money," Anderson told Patch during a round of talks and meetings in Santa Cruz.
Backed by Ralph Nader, Anderson believes that there must be an end to what he calls authoritarianism and plutocracy in the United States.
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India Joze owner Jozseph Schultz thought Rocky was more than a spoiler. He was someone who could wake up a lackluster party.
“It doesn’t even matter if he wins, we need to put pressure on the Democrats from the left,” he said.
Patch: What can you say to young people who are discouraged by politics and feel powerless and betrayed by the President Obama's failure to follow through with promises he made before taking office?
Anderson: I think he [Obama] had an extremely detrimental effect on people, particularly younger people, just getting involved in politics, because they all had real hope, and now realize they’ve been completely betrayed.
Once we resign ourselves and become inactive to the point of complacency, then we become part of the problem. There have been very discouraging moments in the nation’s history where passionate, determined people rose up and said ‘we’re not going to take this anymore,” and they made incredible changes, all for the better. And we can do it again.
Patch: Mitt Romney ran for Governor of Massachussettes as a "Pro-Choice" politician, and now he is anti-choice. President Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay but never did. I have to ask, what makes you any different from these other candidates who made promises they could not follow through with once in office?
Anderson: That’s a really good question. I’ve always said that instead of looking at peoples’ promises during campaigns, and getting sucked in by slogans like “Hope” and "Change," take a look at what they’ve done with their lives, what they’ve committed themselves to do, what their core is, why they’re doing what they’re doing, and all I would say is my record’s there for anybody to examine.
I was president of the board of the Utah Civil Liberties Union, I was on the board of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, I was on the board of Common Cause fighting for campaign finance reform, and a ban on lobbyist gifts to legislators. This was all on my own time.
When I was mayor I was fighting against invasion and occupation of Iraq even before the invasion, and I continued with my efforts throughout the Bush administration and into the Obama administration. I was the only major city mayor who advocated impeachment of President Bush, and I didn’t do that just in one speech, I actively pursued that all around the country.
Patch: What about the war on drugs?
Anderson: I think the war on drugs is a total failure, betrayal of the interests of everybody involved, except for the cartels, it’s really good for them. If we treated illicit drugs the same way we do alcohol and tobacco, regulate it, tax it, and treat all substance abuse as a public health problem rather than a criminal justice problem, the cartels aren’t around anymore, because they have nothing to sell. Just as the mob disintegrated in large part, after alcohol prohibition is eliminated.
We’d be emptying a lot of our prisons and jails, police that are making busts wouldn’t be facing the threat of violence that they face today. There was another police officer I read about today who was just killed, and we’ve had several officers killed recently in Utah, on a drug bust. None of this makes any sense, we’re spending billions of dollars on drug intervention, on source control, and putting people away in prisons and jails for insanely long terms.
I’m a firm believer in making public policy on the basis of the real evidence, rather than peoples’ prejudices.
Instead of being worried about whether people like you, or whether you’re going to be re elected the next time around, worrying that you did the right thing, trying to provide real leadership rather than get led around by the polls.
Patch: If you had to choose between Romney or Obama, who would you choose?
Anderson: That’s not as easy of a response as you might think. Because with President Obama in the White House, he has basically neutered the Democratic Party as an opposition party.
If we had George Bush, or Mitt Romney in office, I don’t think they would have been able to sign off on the NDAA Provision allowing the indefinite detention of anybody including U.S. citizens, without charges, trials, legal representation, or the right of habeus corpus. We basically have no opposition party in this country that will stand up to these kinds of abuses. That legislation is the most Anti-American, subversive piece of legislation ever signed into law. And yet we don’t have a major political party standing up against it?
I think if we had a Republican president in office, the Democratic Party would be standing up in opposition, and I think people would have been out in the streets making sure that wasn’t able to be passed into law. The same thing with targeting U.S. citizens for assassination.
We’ve now become a country that can send unmanned drones targeting United States citizens with zero due proccess. And we’ve killed U.S. citizens: Almar Alawaki, we knew that he was on an assassination list. And that made it into a few newspapers, it wasn’t front page headline news the way it should have been, but then two weeks later, his 16-year-old son, was also killed by an unmanned drone. You didn’t read about that in the newspapers. He was also a U.S. citizen.
It’s a very, very different country than the one that I grew up in, the one that I was so proud of as distinguishing itself from these civil and human rights abusing tiranies elsewhere.
Patch: Finally, your campaign hopes to seek its momentum through social networking and grass roots. I’m wondering what your inspirations are and how you think a campaign could actually work without being backed by big money?
Anderson: Well I think the greatest inspiration can be drawn from the Arab uprising. In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, there were people that felt so strongly about changing their country that they put their lives on the line, organized in grassroots and they utilized the democratized means of social media. We’re certainly capable of that in this country, to overthrow the dictatorship of corrupting money. If we have the will. If people simply embrace the possibility and envision what we can really achieve together.
There’s also a lot of inspiration to take from our own nation’s history, social projects like the antislavery movement, the womens suffrage movements, civil rights movement. There was a lot of money on the other side of those movements, and yet they succeeded, because the grass roots were willing to hang in there and fight until they accomplished their objectives.
If we really mean what we say about getting the government back from the worst it’s ever been in terms of being beholden to those who pay for elections, and throw millions upon millions of dollars at their lobbyists, we can do it.
But it’s going to take organizing, it’s going to take everybody playing their part. Nobody can sit back and just expect others to do it. And nobody can just sit back and say “Well, I’m so disappointed and so cynical about it I’m not going to take part in it anymore.”
Full article and interview at:
http://santacruz.patch.com/articles/presidential-candidate-ross-rocky-anderson-visits-santa-cruzRocky Anderson is very much aware of the "spoiler effect" that a third party... more
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, homepage of the Justice Party's 2012 nominee. Get involved today to take back American governance from private-interest corruption., homepage of the Justice Party's 2012 nominee. Get involved today to take back... more
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Cenk interviews Rocky Anderson, the former mayor of Salt Lake City who is running for president as a candidate with the newly formed Justice Party.
I was really motivated with the way Mr. Anderson spoke about political issues that seem to continually be swept asunder in the name of partisan politics. While I think there are differences between the two major parties, one fact remains: They're both on the payroll of the big corporate interests that are running this country right into third world status.
Oh well, just in case you didn't get to watch this interview, I hope you enjoy it.
I posted this, not just because I'm totally dissatisfied with the American political system, but also because I'm not happy with the way Current's site, for all intents and purposes, firewalls the "community" section from the Young Turks and Countdown sections. It really seems to me that such a barrier shouldn't exist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj__4TShDfECenk interviews Rocky Anderson, the former mayor of Salt Lake City who is running for... more
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A new political party has entered the fray as an alternative to Democrats and Republicans ahead of the 2012 elections. On Monday, former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson announced he will run for president with the newly formed Justice Party. Although hailing from a solidly red state, Anderson has been known as one of the most progressive mayors of any major U.S. city in recent yearsA new political party has entered the fray as an alternative to Democrats and... more
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Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson refused to greet President Bush as he arrived to speak at the American Legion National Convention. Instead, Anderson gave a controversial speech at an anti-war, anti-President Bush demonstration. His actions created a political firestorm throughout Utah.Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson refused to greet President Bush as he arrived to... more
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