tagged w/ Cynthia McKinney
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A consciously Black opposition to the First Black President, on issues of peace and economic justice, is taking shape.” Some of the players “on tour”: Cynthia McKinney’s “Eyewitness Libya” tour; Tavis Smiley and Cornel West’s “Poverty Tour”; and Congressional Black Caucus efforts to put distance between themselves and Obama on their “Job Fair/Town Hall” tour.
Meanwhile, Obama’s minions attempt to maintain a “Black Wall” around the president, with diminishing results. “The realization that the dream was a chimera is one thing, but to awaken to a catastrophe in which the Great Black Hope is revealed as the Great Black Betrayer, is another magnitude of pain.
The final unraveling of Obamaism – at root, a kind of delirium centered on a corporate-crafted Great Black Hope – will be nowhere near complete until the hallucinogen is substantially purged from the psyche of its core constituency, Black America. Tentative moves by outfits like the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party to explore the possibility of a primary challenge to Obama are encouraging, to be sure. But Obama’s awesome power to neutralize and disfigure progressive politics in the United States owes its potency to the First Black President’s psychological hold on African Americans, historically the nation’s most Left constituency. As long as Obama’s very presence in the White House continues to mangle African American political perceptions, effectively neutering Blacks as a social force, the chances of a progressive revival are nil.
Therefore, probably the most important political developments of the late summer are taking place in Black America – some of them “on tour.” Among activists, at least, Obama’s “Black Wall” finally cracked with the Euro-American assault on Libya. It was the straw that broke the bonds between Obama and Black nationalists and leftists, who were forced to choose between icons: the heady symbolism of a Black President versus Mother Africa. Spurred by former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney’s ongoing “Eyewitness Libya” tour, a distinctive, Black-led anti-war movement is emerging, one that is radical, anti-imperial and, specifically, anti-Obama.A consciously Black opposition to the First Black President, on issues of peace and... more
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President Obama promised “change” to the people who voted for him. He told them to hope again and that change would come. But President Obama’s change is really more of the same. Therefore, his elixir that was sold to the world was nothing more than snake oilPresident Obama promised “change” to the people who voted for him. He told... more
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n 2005 in the basement of the United States Capitol at a meeting convened by Congressman John Conyers on the subject of the "Downing Street Memo," Ray McGovern uttered the following truth: he testified that "the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel, and military bases craved by administration neocons" so that "the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world." McGovern went on to testify truthfully that "Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation. The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic."
The routine condemnations of McGovern could be heard from all of the sources inside the U.S. political structure that has at its base finance from pro-Israel sources; that included from Dr. Howard Dean who was Chair of the Democratic National Committee at the time. This finance nexus has been thoroughly identified by Dr. James Petras, for those who want to do further reading.
Condemnations, however, do not disprove McGovern's statement, but point, instead, to the political untouchability of the topic. However, if one wants to truly understand the formulation of U.S. foreign and military policies, one must carefully consider McGovern's testimony.
Continued..................
http://www.opednews.com/articles/From-Cynthia-McKinney-On-by-Cynthia-McKinney-110327-387.htmln 2005 in the basement of the United States Capitol at a meeting convened by... more
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Zionists rejoice!
Israel investigates itself and finds that it acted in accordance with international law.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday expressed his satisfaction with the findings of Turkel Commission, which probed the Israel Defense Forces raid on a Gaza-bound ship last May and found that Israeli soldiers acted in accordance with international law during the operation.
"The truth is simple," said Netanyahu. "IDF soldiers defended themselves and their country. It is not only their privilege but also their duty and the State of Israel stands behind their actions."Zionists rejoice!
Israel investigates itself and finds that it acted in accordance... more
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We can laugh at the desperate people who threaten violence against elected officials. But they are not the fools. We are.
March 31, 2010 |
The language of violence always presages violence. I watched it in war after war from Latin America to the Balkans. The impoverishment of a working class and the snuffing out of hope and opportunity always produce angry mobs ready to kill and be killed. A bankrupt, liberal elite, which proves ineffectual against the rich and the criminal, always gets swept aside, in times of economic collapse, before thugs and demagogues emerge to play to the passions of the crowd. I have seen this drama. I know each act. I know how it ends. I have heard it in other tongues in other lands. I recognize the same stock characters, the buffoons, charlatans and fools, the same confused crowds and the same impotent and despised liberal class that deserves the hatred it engenders.
"We are ruled not by two parties but one party," Cynthia McKinney, who ran for president on the Green Party ticket, told me. "It is the party of money and war. Our country has been hijacked. And we have to take the country away from those who have hijacked it. The only question now is whose revolution gets funded."
The Democrats and their liberal apologists are so oblivious to the profound personal and economic despair sweeping through this country that they think offering unemployed people the right to keep their unemployed children on their nonexistent health care policies is a step forward. They think that passing a jobs bill that will give tax credits to corporations is a rational response to an unemployment rate that is, in real terms, close to 20 percent. They think that making ordinary Americans, one in eight of whom depends on food stamps to eat, fork over trillions in taxpayer dollars to pay for the crimes of Wall Street and war is acceptable. They think that the refusal to save the estimated 2.4 million people who will be forced out of their homes by foreclosure this year is justified by the bloodless language of fiscal austerity. The message is clear. Laws do not apply to the power elite. Our government does not work. And the longer we stand by and do nothing, the longer we refuse to embrace and recognize the legitimate rage of the working class, the faster we will see our anemic democracy die.
The unraveling of America mirrors the unraveling of Yugoslavia. The Balkan war was not caused by ancient ethnic hatreds. It was caused by the economic collapse of Yugoslavia. The petty criminals and goons who took power harnessed the anger and despair of the unemployed and the desperate. They singled out convenient scapegoats from ethnic Croats to Muslims to Albanians to Gypsies. They set in motion movements that unleashed a feeding frenzy leading to war and self-immolation. There is little difference between the ludicrous would-be poet Radovan Karadzic, who was a figure of ridicule in Sarajevo before the war, and the moronic Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin. There is little difference between the Oath Keepers and the Serbian militias. We can laugh at these people, but they are not the fools. We are.
The longer we appeal to the Democrats, who are servants of corporate interests, the more stupid and ineffectual we become. Sixty-one percent of Americans believe the country is in decline, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, and they are right. Only 25 percent of those polled said the government can be trusted to protect the interests of the American people. If we do not embrace this outrage and distrust as our own it will be expressed through a terrifying right-wing backlash.
"It is time for us to stop talking about right and left," McKinney told me. "The old political paradigm that serves the interests of the people who put us in this predicament will not be the paradigm that gets us out of this. I am a child of the South. Janet Napolitano tells me I need to be afraid of people who are labeled white supremacists but I was raised around white supremacists. I am not afraid of white supremacists. I am concerned about my own government. The Patriot Act did not come from the white supremacists, it came from the White House and Congress. Citizens United did not come from white supremacists, it came from the Supreme Court. Our problem is a problem of governance. I am willing to reach across traditional barriers that have been skillfully constructed by people who benefit from the way the system is organized."We can laugh at the desperate people who threaten violence against elected officials.... more
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My honeymoon with the Democrats has long since passed. Our relationship has turned sour, and I'm in no mood to marry again.
March 20, 2010 |
My honeymoon with the Democrats has long since passed. Our relationship has turned sour, and I’m in no mood to marry again.
Anyone who has ever gone through a divorce or marital separation knows how traumatic it can be. Marriages are supposed to be forever, but then life intrudes. First, the blissful honeymoon when it’s unthinkable to be apart from the loved one. Then the middle doldrums when spine-tingling doubts arise followed by flimsy excuses to oneself, self-rationalisations, for the other’s bad behaviour. Love weakens but loyalty remains. (For some of us, constancy is stronger than lust.) We soon grow accustomed to abuse, insults, betrayals and infidelity to the marriage vows. After all, where would we go, what would we do, if we freed ourselves from the bondage of a bad relationship? It’s too terrifying to think about, so we don’t.
That’s pretty much where my liberal friends and I are today with the Democrats and Obama administration spiralling out of control and showing every sign of wanting to do us harm before it flames out. We, like battered husbands and bruised wives, feebly grab at straws of hope. The straws are real, too. There may be only an inch of difference between Republicans and Democrats but real people in a real world live by that inch. For example, north of Los Angeles, where I live, an Obama-reinvigorated Environmental Protection Agency is seriously probing a toxic scandal in the mainly Latino hamlet of Kettleman where carelessly dumped corporate chemicals may have led to babies being born with facial disfigurements. The Republicans wouldn’t have bothered. That’s no small thing for the people concerned. And Obama appointed a known workers’ friend in Hilda Solis as secretary of labour in place of Bush’s Elaine Chao who never saw a union she didn’t despise. In other words, our Harvard professor in the White House has done something.
But the fact remains he is a war president with blood on his hands like Lyndon Johnson – only without LBJ’s guts and arm-twisting talent. Obama leads a dysfunctional, cowardly and bribable Democratic party establishment, personified by his mean-minded economic gurus Larry Summers and Tim Geithner, and his frazzled secretary of state the war-loving Hillary Clinton. The few Democratic politicians who stand up for sanity – against the war, for a public health option – are like Florida’s Alan Grayson and Ohio’s Dennis Kucinich – marginalised by the media and their own colleagues as lunatics or, in Rahm Emanuel’s immortal phrase, “retarded”.
In a bad marriage, if we’re lucky, a sad, angry, unwelcome realism takes over and an existential fear invades our soul. But we do not want to be alone in a loveless world. A divorce often means being cast out into psychological darkness, exile from the “mainstream”, the loss of (and even abuse from) friends, a terrifying sense of isolation and inadequacy. So, stuffing our ears and blinding our eyes to our own victimisation, we recommit to the relationship. We continue to deny, deny, deny. Life goes on, diminished and undignified. Soul-suicide.
But now I want a divorce from the Democrats, the “party of the people” versus the Republicans who with a few honorable exceptions are the party of cruelty. Are there some good Democrats? You bet. Are they outnumbered by callow, fearful Democrats? You bet.
I don’t care that at the moment there’s nowhere to go and hardly anybody to cheer for.
Like the Tea Partiers I’ve had it up to here. But as a taker of GI Bill, social security and Medicare benefits, and as a child of the New Deal which put my unemployed mother and father to work, I know that only big government, as dangerous as it can be, can help pull us all out of the shit – yes, the same government that by deregulating and bailouts pushed us into it. (I wonder how many populists, screaming about “socialist” government, are only too happy to take their portion of federal money as I am.)
I wish I could get behind Ralph Nader or the Green party or Cynthia McKinney or even Ron Paul for his antiwar stance. But having just split from my heart’s desire – the Democrats – I’m in no mood to marry up again. I’m caught in a vise between a lingering wish to be “effective”, not “waste my vote”, and a Huckleberry Finn itch to light out for unknown territory.My honeymoon with the Democrats has long since passed. Our relationship has turned... more
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We the undersigned call on the Obama Administration and Congress to immediately begin identifying and expunging from all government databases the massive accumulation of information collected by the Bush administration’s illegal domestic spying operations on millions of people who broke no law.
Some of these illegal spying programs were suspended and yet the government maintains the illegally collected data. These databases should be expunged.
We also oppose the continuation of other programs initiated during the Bush era which continue on in wholesale data collection and mass surveillance, unchecked and unabated. For instance, federal agents, local law enforcement and U.S. military personnel, with input from private right-wing political groups, continue to collect and report surveillance data, including fabricated disinformation, to the 72 government Fusion Centers around the United States. Fusion Centers have been found to target political, student, and religious organizations and activities.
The people of the United States have a legal right to be free from government surveillance, the type of which was initiated by the Bush administration on an enormous scale. Using the Sept. 11 attacks as a pretext, the Bush White House permitted the FBI, the National Security Agency, the CIA, Pentagon and other law-enforcement and military agencies to conduct unprecedented data collection against the people.
Thousands have been targeted because of their political beliefs and activities, their religious beliefs, their race and ethnicity, or because they inadvertently fell into one of the many broad categories to justify and execute the sweeping data collection programs. This is the modern-day variant of the discredited witch-hunts of the 1950s.
We call on the Obama Administration and Congress to order a complete audit of law-enforcement and military data and record-keeping systems and to disclose to the public the scope and parameters of data-collection on people and organizations in the United States.
The people’s rights protected under the Constitution are fundamentally diminished unless these illegal operations are halted and the rights of all people are restored by the identification of data collection programs, and the expunging of those databases.We the undersigned call on the Obama Administration and Congress to immediately begin... more
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asherp
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2 years ago
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Do you support:
Green Jobs?
Direct Taxes on Pollution?
Localizing our agriculture?
Ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Cutting the Pentagon Budget?
Taxing the Rich (who can afford it) instead of the middle class and poor?
Legalizing marijuana use and other victimless 'crimes'?
Single Payer health insurance?
Ending the WTO and NAFTA and returning to Bilateral trade agreements based on workers rights and environmental quality principals rather than a race to the bottom?
Then the Green Party is for you!
Want to keep up to day with Green Party goings on? Then join this group!Do you support:
Green Jobs?
Direct Taxes on Pollution?
Localizing our agriculture?... more
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asherp
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2 years ago
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Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney returned home today after 6 days being held by the government of Israel while attempting with 21 colleagues to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza on the vessel, the Spirit of Humanity.
“Don’t sign Miss Cynthia don’t sign!” So chanted a boisterous group of Palestinian teens and pre-teens in Beirut’s Shatila Refugee Camp demonstrating support for the Freegaza Humanity boat abductees on the 4th of July.
The students understood that those illegally arrested while in International waters had been offered a “get out of Jail Free” pass if they confessed in writing to violating Israel’s territorial waters.
The Spirit of Humanity boat, trying to bring emergency humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, was the topic of a lively discussion during a Sabra Shatila Foundation summer school civics lesson on “International law and the Question of Palestine”. The students were interested in the plight of some of their relatives and countryman in Palestine and the continuing siege of Gaza. Some had just finished their Baccalaureate exams and were wondering how they could continue their education given the severe impediments the government of Lebanon places on Palestinian civil rights, and their post exam relief seemed to energize them for the discussion.
A couple of the students had met Cynthia during her recent visits to Lebanon. When they learned that as a Congresswoman, she had introduced articles of impeachment against Bush, was a consistent anti-war voter during her twelve years in Congress, and that no member in Congress had achieved a more consistent, principled, voting record of issues of civil and human rights, including Palestinian rights, they really connected with the subject of the Freegaza aid boat, the Spirit of Humanity and her travails. “Those supporters of Palestine should not accept a false confession and should stay in Jail if necessary. They are patriots” was a commonly expressed sentiment.
The students understood that in refusing to sign the Israeli government prepared “acknowledgement/confession” the Freegaza group acted consistent with International Law. They learned that territorial waters, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is a belt of coastal waters extending at most twelve nautical miles from the baseline (usually the mean low-water mark) of a coastal state. The territorial sea is regarded as the sovereign territory of the state, although foreign ships (both military and civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it. They learned from media reports that in any case the Humanity was in International waters and that consequently Israel had no right to molest it.
The class adjourned sharing a general consensus that the Spirit of Humanity, enjoyed and will continue to enjoy on every subsequent humanitarian voyage, these freedoms as well as other internationally lawful uses of the sea within contiguous zones, exclusive economic zones, and on the high seas. Needless to report, were it possible for them, the whole class would like to be on the next Freegaza boat.Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney returned home today after 6 days being held by... more
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asherp
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Israel is literally attempting to committ genocide by way of starvation on the Palestinian people of the Gaza Strip. Nobel Peace Prize laureates, and others including former U.S. Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, has been taken hostage by the Israeli government, in International waters, for assisting starving people. This all took place last week during the Michael Jackson death blitz put on by mainstream media.
Neither President Barack Obama,the White House,nor State Department, or any mainstream media outlet has yet said one word about this act of piracy.Israel is literally attempting to committ genocide by way of starvation on the... more
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I'm Mad at you. Not you specifically. I like you.
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asherp
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What will it take to change US policy in the Middle East? Former U.S. congresswoman Cynthia McKinney says that little will change as long as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) continues to influence US policy makers. The fact that Israel is violating US law by continuing to supply weapons to a country targeting civilians could be addressed by congress.What will it take to change US policy in the Middle East? Former U.S. congresswoman... more
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GRITtv
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What will it take to change US policy in the Middle East? Former U.S. congresswoman Cynthia McKinney says that little will change as long as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) continues to influence US policy makers. The fact that Israel is violating US law by continuing to supply weapons to a country targeting civilians could be addressed by congress. That is unlikely.
On Capitol Hill last week both the US Senate and House passed resolutions, "recognizing Israel’s Right to Defend Itself Against Attacks from Gaza, and Reaffirming the United States’ Strong Support for Israel." The Senate voted unanimously and the House by a vote of 390 for and five against. Twenty-two representatives voted “present.” Republican Ron Paul, Democrat Dennis Kucinich, Democrat Maxine Waters, Democrat Gwen Moore and Democrat Nick Rahall voted against the resolution.
Chris Hedges, a Senior Fellow at The Nation Institute, Cynthia McKinney, former Congresswoman and the 2008 Green Party Presidential candidate, and MJ Rosenberg, Director of Israel Policy Forum’sWashington Policy Center discuss how we can change U.S. policy in the region.What will it take to change US policy in the Middle East? Former U.S. congresswoman... more
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GRITtv
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The least information you need to know about some of Obama's new appointees.
Also: it is WAY TOO EASY to find goofy pictures of Tom Vilsack.The least information you need to know about some of Obama's new appointees.... more
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asherp
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3 years ago
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Former US presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney was on board the humanitarian ship that was attacked by the Israeli military.Former US presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney was on board the humanitarian ship... more
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asherp
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“Today, November 23rd, I was slated to give remarks in Damascus, Syria at a Conference being held to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and, sadly, the 60th year that the Palestinian people have been denied their Right of Return enshrined in that Universal Declaration. But a funny thing happened to me while at the Atlanta airport on my way to the Conference: I was not allowed to exit the country,” writes McKinney."
This is an example of far we've fallen in America. Citizens prevented from leaving the US. This is an example of a democratic society that is turning into an authoritarian society.
Here are some examples:
***Political stability maintained by "control over and support of the military to provide security to the system and control of society; 2) a pervasive bureaucracy staffed by the regime; 3) control of internal opposition and dissent; 4) creation of allegiance through various means of socialization."
No guarantee of civil liberties or tolerance for meaningful opposition
Weakening of civil society: "No freedom to create a broad range of groups, organizations, and political parties to compete for power or question the decisions of rulers," with instead an "attempt to impose controls on virtually all elements of society"
"Highly concentrated and centralized power structures," in which political power is generated and maintained by a "repressive system that excludes potential challengers" and uses political parties and mass organizations to "mobilize people around the goals of the government"
The following principles: "1) rule of men, not rule of law; 2) rigged elections; 3) all important political decisions made by unelected officials behind closed doors; 4) a bureaucracy operated quite independently of rules, the supervision of elected officials, or concerns of the constituencies they purportedly serve“Today, November 23rd, I was slated to give remarks in Damascus, Syria at a... more
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It turns out most people are still unaware of their choices for candidate. Last week I bit into the sausage with the help of Undecided Dave at Hot Dougs in Chicago.It turns out most people are still unaware of their choices for candidate. Last week I... more
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CLund
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[visit the link to take action]
Congress Must Act Before January 20th Or There May Be No Accountability Ever
7,891 Submissions so far
But we the people do not have to wait. We can and must demand the immediate impeachment of both Bush and Cheney for what is already known. At the very least the defiance of congressional subpoenas at the behest of the White House is an open and shut case for accountability now.
Because as his final constitutional insult, his final spit in the face to the American people and all rule of law, it is transparently obvious that Bush is planning the most wholesale and wrongful pardon of the worst political criminals in American history, his whole criminal gang, INCLUDING himself.
The one click form below will send your personal message to all your government representatives selected below, with the subject "Impeach Bush Before He Pardons Himself." At the same time you can send your personal comments only as a letter to the editor of your nearest local daily newspaper if you like.[visit the link to take action]
Congress Must Act Before January 20th Or There May... more
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asherp
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Noam Chomsky is voting for Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney.
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asherp
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Independent journalist Allan Nairn and American Conservative correspondent Kelley Beaucar Vlahos discuss a little-addressed facet of the 2008 campaign: many of the top advisers to leading presidential candidates are ex-U.S. officials involved in atrocities around the world.Independent journalist Allan Nairn and American Conservative correspondent Kelley... more
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asherp
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