[Peace-discuss] K. again delivers his anti-war vote to the establishment

Wed Jan 2 11:03:36 CST 2008

Point of clarification: Dennis Kucinich did not "deliver" or "sell out" his antiwar votes to the monolithic Democratic party in 2004.

He was the ONE CANDIDATE who campaigned in all 50 states and D.C. against John Kerry: bringing the anti-war message to states that were otherwise irrelevant to the process.
In the end, his underfunded campaign was able to muster 37 delegates, against John Kerry's 4,255.

What was kucinich supposed to do when he doesn't even have 1% of the votes of the guy getting coronated?

Now, if Dean and one of the other supposedly progressive candidates actually campaigned throughout the whole process ( and didn't turn their votes over to Kerry), and agreed to form a progressive caucus, then perhaps they could have affected the decision making process at the convention.

As it was, Kucinich's only other option would have been to make a stirring speech at the convention wherein he denounced Kerry and encouraged people to vote Ralph Nader in the general election. This would have had little impact on Nader's numbers, but would have absolutely destroyed Kucinich's career, and his safe anti-war seat in the Congress.

So, being hard on Kucinich in order to support right wing fundamentalists, racists, and economic libertarians makes absolutely no sense whatsoever!

-
mer

----------------------------------------
> Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 10:37:13 -0600
> From: galliher at uiuc.edu
> To: mattreichel at hotmail.com
> CC: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] K. again delivers his anti-war vote to the	establishment
> 
> While Kucinich is being "strategic" and delivering his presumed anti-war 
> votes to the Democrats (just as he did in 2004), the real anti-war 
> movement was active in Iowa.  Kucinich would have done much better to 
> join these people (as apparently Paul volunteers did):
> 
> ====================================================
> 
> http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/48578
> 
> While Governor Mike Huckabee was busy putting both feet in his mouth 
> during a press conference at a downtown Des Moines hotel where he was 
> showing reporters a negative campaign ad that he said he had decided not 
> to release, antiwar protesters caught his campaign staff flat-footed as 
> they occupied his Iowa campaign headquarters on the last day of 2007.
> 
> Huckabee’s effort to effectively release the negative ad while 
> announcing his decision not to release it brought guffaws of laughter 
> from the reporters assembled for the press conference. But no one was 
> laughing over at the ordained Southern Baptist minister’s campaign 
> headquarters a few blocks away where Voices for Creative Nonviolence 
> (VCNV) and Occupation Campaign activists walked into Huckabee’s Iowa 
> headquarters and unfurled a banner emblazoned with the question “Who 
> Would Jesus Bomb?”
> 
> Stunned staffers fingered their cell phones in an effort to reach their 
> supervisors, most of whom were at the press conference with Huckabee. 
> Soon, staffers began demanding that the activists, Robert Braam of 
> Manhattan, IL, Kathy Kelly, of Chicago, IL; and Mona Shaw of Iowa City, 
> IA, leave the office immediately. The activists politely declined and 
> began singing “Auld Lang Syne” in remembrance of Iraq war dead. They 
> also read from a list of the names of the dead, chanting “We remember 
> you,” after each name. And they engaged staffers with the question, “Who 
> would Jesus bomb?” imploring Huckabee to sign a pledge to completely 
> withdraw from Iraq within 100 days of assuming office; halt all military 
> actions against Iraq and Iran; and fund the rebuilding of Iraq as well 
> as health, education and infrastructure needs in the U.S. and "…the 
> highest quality health care, education and jobs training benefits for 
> veterans of our country’s Armed Services.”
> 
> A private security guard reiterated the Huckabee staffers’ demands that 
> the activists leave, and again they politely refused. Moments later, a 
> senior Huckabee staffer arrived and gave the order to call police 
> officers to remove the protesters. The staffer, a tall man, said he was 
> authorized to speak for the campaign but he declined to do so or to give 
> his name. The staffer then advanced on Braam and attempted to intimidate 
> him verbally. When his words failed to have the desired effect, the 
> staffer went nose to nose with Braam and jostled him in an apparent 
> attempt to physically intimidate or provoke the activist. Braam calmly 
> backed away, asking the Huckabee staffer, “Are you pushing me?”
> 
> “Prior to the event we have in-depth discussions about nonviolence,” 
> Braam said later. “We are fully prepared.”
> 
> Outside in the sub-freezing cold six activists, Razia Ahmed; Catholic 
> Worker Community leader Frank Cordaro, Elton Davis, Lee Lewis, Catholic 
> Peace Ministry executive director Brian Terrell, and John Tuzcu, acted 
> in support of their colleagues who were risking arrest inside. While 
> Tuzcu video taped the event for later posting on YouTube, others held a 
> banner proclaiming, “End the Iraq War / No War with Iran” and spoke with 
> members of the press and with passersby. Lee Lewis held aloft a placard 
> bearing the question, “Who Would Jesus Bomb?”
> 
> The activists received unexpected support from a group of Ron Paul 
> volunteers, college students who came to Iowa at the campaign’s expense 
> for something called “Ron Paul’s Christmas Vacation.” The Paul campaign 
> volunteers trooped out of Paul’s Iowa campaign headquarters, which is 
> located in the same building as Huckabee’s. The groups met and mingled 
> with a large contingent of print reporters, photojournalists, and 
> broadcast media personnel from local, national, and international news 
> organizations who arrived at Huckabee’s headquarters for a scheduled event.
> 
> As Des Moines Police Department officers arrived and prepared to arrest 
> the activists, their supporters, along with some 35 or 40 reporters and 
> media personnel and the group of Paul campaign volunteers, milled about 
> on the sidewalk and in the street. At one point, the activists and the 
> group of Paul volunteers chanted antiwar slogans responsively.
> 
> When Huckabee’s bus arrived, his campaign headquarters entrance was 
> effectively blocked forcing Huckabee to sit in his idling bus as 
> Cordaro, a former Catholic priest who left the priesthood in 2003, 
> shouted question after question at the ordained Southern Baptist 
> minister to the delight of the crowd of activists, reporters, Paul 
> campaign volunteers, and a growing number of curious onlookers.
> 
> “We’re here to ask the governor, ‘Who would Jesus bomb?’” shouted Cordaro.
> 
> “What kind of Christianity does he back? The Jesus of ‘love your enemy,’ 
> the Jesus of the Beatitudes, or the USA-stamped-Jesus, the Jesus of 
> empire?” shouted Cordaro.
> 
> After about 20 minutes, the bus pulled away with Huckabee still on 
> board. Huckabee’s schedule was delayed for about an hour.
> 
> Arrested for trespassing, Braam, Kelly, and Shaw were escorted by 
> officers through a cheering crowd to a waiting paddy wagon and 
> transported to Des Moines Police Headquarters where they were issued 
> citations and promptly released.
> 
> The contrast between the belligerent attitude Huckabee’s senior staffer 
> in charge inside the campaign headquarters and the calm, quiet 
> professionalism of the arresting officers was remarkable.
> 
> “They were very gentle with us,” Kelly said in the foyer of the Des 
> Moines Police Department headquarters after she and her colleagues had 
> been released. She noted that the arresting officers had not found it 
> necessary to handcuff the arrestees.
> 
> “One commented that the Auld Lang Syne song verses that we were singing 
> always got to him,” said Kelly. “It was almost genteel.”
> 
> In a news release issued by the Des Moines Catholic Worker Community, 
> Kelly, co-director of VCNV, was quoted as saying, “We’re very respectful 
> of the Iowa Caucus process and the long history behind it, but we feel 
> quite strongly that the issues of this war must be inserted into the 
> process of narrowing down the candidates for the presidential election.”
> 
> 
> Matt Reichel wrote:
>> This is purely a matter of strategy particular to Iowa. If, in any 
>> individual caucus, your candidacy doesn't have 15% of the attendees 
>> behind you, your supporters must change allegiance or leave the room.
>> 
>> Another option is making a purely strategical arrangement with one of 
>> the other candidates wherein you agree to give up your delegates to each 
>> other in any case where one or the other doesn't reach the threshold.
>> 
>> There may be a few districts, probably in the university towns of Iowa 
>> City and Ames, where Dennis will outpace Obama, and resultantly gain 
>> Obama's votes in that caucus.
>> 
>> -
>> mer
>> 
>> > From: galliher at uiuc.edu
>> > To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>> > Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2008 16:58:33 -0600
>> > Subject: [Peace-discuss] K. again delivers his anti-war vote to the 
>> establishment
>> >
>> > January 01, 2008
>> > An unexpected twist from the Kucinich camp:
>> > Kucinich Urges Supporters to
>> > Back Obama on Second Iowa Ballot
>> > ...

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