[BfB(oG)] time for Billionaires to march?!

[Jim Buell]

Folks, I don't want to sound radical or anything (who, me?) but it strikes 
me that next Friday in Springfield is a wonderful time for the Champaign 
and Caviar Chapter of Billionaires for Bush or Gore to strut our stuff.

I know we've just been a little discussion list (with a little postering on 
the side) heretofore, but hear me out. Friday, the Battle for the Ballot 
comes to Springfield. (sounds like a pro wrestling ad or something out of 
Return of the Secaucus 7: 'Be there!! September 22!! All the thrills! All 
the spills! Be there or miss out on the biggest event of the season!!')

To fill in those who aren't on illinoisgreens or illinoisballot lists, the 
state's Democratic machine has fought a long, hard challenge against the 
39,000 signatures Greens have been able to turn in supporting ballot access 
for Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke in the November election. They challenged 
21,000! - mainly for spurious reasons like 'CHGO' for Chicago, or a zip 
code instead of a county.  For 9 days now, Greens have battled against the 
challenge (quite successfully I might add) in the Chicago Board of 
Elections. We're on target to salvage 7,000 signatures - enough to meet the 
state's 25,000 mark to get a Nader/LaDuke ballot line.

Next Friday, Sept. 22, for one day only, the challenge comes downstate. The 
Dems have served notice they'll be challenging 1,400 signatures that day at 
the state Board of Elections office in Springfield. These are the 
signatures many of us labored to collect at the farmer's markets, Sounds of 
Summer, Decatur Festival and elsewhere in this region all summer long - as 
well as sigs from downstate people who were at festivals in Chicago, etc. 
Friday should also be the final day for Chicago challenges.

While our first priority must be to have people at each of the 8 
"challenge" stations in the Board of Elections office in Springfield, I'm 
thinking that we can turn out enough people, and can have enough help from 
the Springfield Greens (yes, they exist, are healthy and are a growing 
group - I met a dozen real good people when I dropped in on their weekly 
meeting yesterday) to pull this off! So, tomorrow at dawn's early light, 
I'm going to put in an application for a little, legal demonstration at the 
statehouse.

Our mission, should we choose to accept it: turn out in full billionaire 
regalia, funny money and rubber chickens in hand, to thank the entire 
statehouse for the laws that keep Illinois safe for the Republicrats. It's 
a sneaky set of laws alright: ostensibly it's to keep frivolous candidacies 
off the ballot, but in fact it only gets triggered when the powers that be 
spot a threat, not a frivolity: no challenges have been lodged against the 
sigs of Buchanan, Hagelin, Browne, etc., but Nader and the Greens are the 
real thing, and the Dems know it. If we get Nader/LaDuke on the ballot and 
they reach 5 percent, then in 2002 the duopoly will be facing a full slate 
of Green party candidates for governor, secretary of state, treasurer, etc.

So not only did the 2 parties move the 3rd-party deadline forward by six 
weeks last summer (following a scare from the Libertarians of all people in 
'98), they also laid plans this summer to ensure the Greens would be 
relegated to write-in status, by preparing these line-by-line challenges. 
And as soon as the federal judge decided last month to rule all our 
signatures through Aug 7 (the old deadline) eligible, the Chicago-based Dem 
machine and Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan sprang into action with 
these 21,000 challenges.

I'm not leading us into the jailhouse, people: first thing tomorrow, I'm 
applying to the state for permission for this Friday noontime rally. The 
word I've heard is that approval is nearly automatic, and it'll let us do 
our thing right in the middle of the statehouse rotunda at high noon. The 
goal's to attract some press for the Ballot Battle (Amy Goodman, bless her 
heart, responded to my pitch and featured it on Democracy Now! last 
Wednesday, but the Chi press has been strangely silent - the word I keep 
hearing from reporters and news directors is that the press won't cover 
'process' matters like ballot challenges: 'when there's a result, we'll 
report that.' Sheesh.) With proper media alerts, we'll have reporters and 
photographers in tow, can get onto the wires and into the Springfield 
Journal-Register on Saturday, and might even get into national papers and 
networks Sunday.

That's the plan, anyhow. Grandiose, but that's how billions get made. So 
dust off your tuxes and polish your pearls, methinks it's time to march. 
(And if you need apparel, Dallas Costumes in downtown Champaign's a good 
place to start - as is the vintage clothing shop across the street - or 
grow your own as some SDAS folk have.)

Drop me a line or give me a call if you'd like to be a part of the Million 
Billionaires' March on the Statehouse. I can take 3-4 riders and will be 
leaving bright and early Friday morning. Folks with cars can help me 
coordinate to boost the turnout further, but with even a half dozen people 
we'll have all the numbers we need - after all, a single Billion's a 
thousand Millions.

PS. I know there are only a half dozen or so of us on this list. That may 
be all it'll take. There are several local Greens/Nader meetings this week 
where we can recruit others if need be. Let's talk to our friends, too. We 
can also post out for reinforcements to the larger prairiegreens and 
nader-uiuc list is we want to  - heck, even the national billionaires list 
if we want to take potluck - but this ought to be good for starters. I 
think this is one of those events where a little energy applied at the 
right point can move mountains.

Dada Warbux (a.k.a. Jim)
337-5386