Who do you want as your President, some Millionaire's Son, some Fortunate One? Or do you want someone like you; someone who understands where most of us come from; someone who gives us plans and legislation for PEACE?
Click on for your listening pleasure as you continue reading:robinofwaupaca.imeem.com/music/oAAiBOKi/fortunate_son/Below a letter and request from Dennis. He's getting slammed again. For what I ask; being a REAL person? He's NOTHING like the other politicians. People, you say you want change, you want peace. So why would you continue to support people who have proven that they will give us the same old song and dance? As you read through the following material and view pictures, ask yourself if any other politicians have done as much as Dennis has. Have they walked the war torn streets themselves? Have they walked and talked with the victims of war, through the rubble? Hell no! Sure his own party snubs him; he's so much better than they are. They are nothing compared to him. Give Dennis a hand here; won't you?
MichelleThe Cleveland Plain Dealer ridicules and distorts Dennis' DNC speech[note: Dennis' speech is posted below]Dear Friends,
On February 2nd, as a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination, I addressed the Democratic National Committee’s winter meeting in Washington, DC. I chose my speech to talk about the human cost of war. I spoke of my trip to post-war Lebanon [
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Sunday, the Plain Dealer chose to ridicule and distort my DNC speech in a column by Elizabeth Auster, belittling my exploration of the deep relationship between our political actions and the effects of our decisions on people around the world. Instead of choosing to rally DNC cheerleaders, I spoke of real life, real war and the importance of real peace and real leadership.
The Plain Dealer continues to attack me despite the fact that they were wrong about the war in Iraq and I was right. The Plain Dealer’s wounds go back to the early 1970s when I stood up to their relentlessly unethical campaign to force the privatization of the city’s municipal electric system. Fifteen years later they had to print a news story proclaiming I was right.
It is time for the Plain Dealer to stop these games. There is so much more at stake. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians are dying all around the world because Congress will not hold the Administration accountable for their policies of imperialism. The Plain Dealer must stop trivializing war; stop trivializing those who have the courage to stand up to those who beat the drums of war. It is time for the Plain Dealer to make a new effort for journalistic integrity and recognize true leadership. Let’s help them.
Please send a letter to the Editor, Doug Clifton at dclifton@plaind.com or call the editorial offices at 216-999-4800 and ask that they print my entire speech to let their readers decide for themselves, that they cover the voices of those who are right, so that America may stand a chance to regain a place of honor in the international community and most importantly so that we can get out of these wars based on lies.
Today we stand on the threshold of an unnecessary war with Iran, which could engulf the world. This is not a time for nursing grudges, petty feuds or journalistic sarcasm.
The Plain Dealer has an obligation to its readers and to my constituents to report the news, not to manufacture it; to report the political process, not to try to manipulate it.
Please act now and contribute to help our efforts to strengthen our voice for a renewed America. Help me stand up to those in the mainstream media who manufacture the news and manipulate public opinion against the interests of the American people, for their own narrow economic interests.
Its time to stand up for truthful leadership. With your help I can, and I will be elected your president.
Thank you,
Dennis J Kucinich
Please support Dennis's work by making a contribution at kucinich.us/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=1, and by forwarding this message widely.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kucinich Delivers a Message of Peace to the Democratic National CommitteeSubmitted by Evan on Mon, 2007-02-05 17:51.
Dennis Kucinich spoke the following words before the Democratic National Committee at their Winter Meeting on Friday, February 2, 2007 in Washington, DC:Watch video
I grew up in the city of Cleveland, the oldest of seven children. My parents never owned a home. We were renters, we kept moving, with each new arrival to our family. We lived in 21 different places, including a couple of cars. I know first hand what happens when someone in the family lacks adequate health care, or daycare or doesn’t have the money for college or can’t afford to pay the utility bills.
I remember where I came from. My priority as President will be to create economic opportunities and prosperity, to rebuild America’s cities, to repair America’s neighborhoods, to restore America’s industry, to renew America’s schools, to reclaim America’s health. I will ask our Democratic Congress to pass a single-payer not for profit health care plan, Medicare for All, a Universal Pre-Kindergarten bill, a Rebuild America’s Infrastructure bill, and legislation to create a cabinet-level Department of Peace and Non-Violence, which takes Dr. King’s dream and makes it an everyday reality.
Of all the candidates for President, I not only voted against the authorization but I have consistently voted against funding the war and I have a 12-point plan devised with the help of international peacekeepers, to bring our troops home and to end the war.
Of all the decisions a President must make, the most far reaching is whether to commit the lives of our young men and women to combat. I believe that I have demonstrated the clarity and foresight people have a right to expect of a President. This war would have never occurred in the first place if I had been President. But we do not have to wait for 2009 and my Inauguration as President to end it.
Right now, the Democratic Congress has the ability and the power to end the war and bring our troops home. This past November, Democrats received a mandate from the American people to end the war. Democrats have an obligation to reclaim Congress’ constitutional power to end the war. If we support the troops we should bring them home. Money is there now to bring our troops safely home. Supporting my 12 point plan, Congress can require the Administration to end the occupation, close the bases, and bring the troops home and stabilize Iraq.
I want to stress, the Democratic Congress must deny the President the money he wants to keep the war going through the end of his term, money which he can also use to attack Iran. If we give President the money the Democratic Party will have bought the war.
This past summer I implored our government to intervene to stop a blood bath between the Israelis and Lebanon. As it turned out, our government encouraged the destruction My wife and I traveled to south Lebanon immediately after the war. Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw in South Lebanon: Bridges, water systems, sewer systems, schools, social clubs, recreation areas, stadiums, cemeteries, fruit groves, factories, small businesses, mosques and churches, all bombed. Countless cluster bombs were strewn about and landmines lined roads and adjacent fields, making on-foot travel perilous. The smell of death was everywhere. Over 30,000 homes were destroyed. We traveled through village after village, with names like Aita, Maroun Raas, and Bent Jabil stopping to assess the damage, talking with people through interpreters, moving cautiously through the rubble of children’s toys, household appliances, televisions, computers, clothing with popular American insignias. Because the bombs were widely assumed to have come from America, big bold signs declared “This is your Democracy, America”
Our last stop was in Qana, where the Bible tells us Christ performed his first miracle.
We arrived unannounced, late at night. We asked to express our condolences to the families of dozens of villagers who had lost their lives when a thousand pound bomb dropped on a four story apartment building, collapsing the structure and crushing everyone inside. We were led to the town square, now a makeshift cemetery. Lights from our vehicles illuminated the graveyard where rows and rows of the family pictures of the deceased sat atop the graves. Elizabeth and I stopped at one gravesite. The picture of a beautiful little boy of cherubic countenance smiled at us. It was the type of family picture American department stores specialized in years ago The first response was to smile at the picture of this smiling little boy with his freshly cut hair and his bright red sweater, then the realization that this precious child was dead. As Elizabeth and I stood weeping an arm extended around my shoulder and comforted me. The person guided us to the next grave, that of a woman and three children. “This was my family” our comforter said through an interpreter. This experience transformed us. Someone who had lost his entire family had been comforting us.
We were led by villagers down a narrow street and over a large mound of rubble to the site of where the bomb dropped. Light from the headlights of motorbikes lit up the rubble where fragments of the bomb and pieces of clothing were intermingled. The word spread that an American congressman was present, a crowd quickly gathered. We had no body guards. We were surrounded by people who had suffered great loss, who had every right to express anger or even rage, yet instead they expressed a remarkable depth of forgiveness, compassion and a desire for peace and reconciliation, speaking calmly from the crowd through interpreters.
“Tell the American people we love them.”
“We don’t hate America. We love the American people”.
“We do not like what your government does.”
“America could have saved our families.”
“Please tell the American people we are not terrorists.”
“We are not terrorists. We do not hate Israel.”
“We want to be safe in our village. We want to be left alone.”
“We want peace.”
“We want peace.”
I promised the people that I would bring the message from Qana back to America.
And before we left Elizabeth and I knelt at the grave of that beautiful little boy and I made a promise to work for a world where all children are safe.
The people of the village retrieved a fragment of the bomb which destroyed so many lives and they gave it to me. And here it is. I want to show it to you because it is time that we took a stand to stop the destruction of the lives of innocents, whether they live in Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, India, Sudan, or America. We must make it our priority to work for peace in the Middle East and throughout the world.
We have lost so much since 9/11. It is time to bind up our nation’s wounds from 9/11. It is time, in the words of Lincoln, to move forward with malice toward none and charity for all.
This is the philosophy behind the 9/10 Forum, an idea of Elizabeth’s. As we travel across America, Elizabeth and I will bring together groups to rediscover who we were before 9/11, to envision the community we want and to create a plan to get there. Through sharing in a process of Appreciative Inquiry we can rediscover the beauty of ourselves and our nation. Please contact Kucinich.US to join our efforts to restore the soul of America through reconnecting with our highest aspirations in truth and reconciliation with compassion.
This presidential campaign and my Presidency will lift up this country, reclaim all that is good about America, remember the land we love, the America which heals the sick, feeds the hungry, shelters the homeless, comforts the afflicted, lifts up people’s hopes; the nation whose soul magnifies what is good; a shining city on a hill whose spirit rejoices and sends forth its light. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good. Thank you.
Source and video:
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Cleveland Plain Dealer article:Kucinich talks mostly to himself Sunday, February 11, 2007
Elizabeth Auster
Plain Dealer Columnist
If only Dennis Kucinich could re press his urge to fantasize in public about his upcoming inauguration as president of the United States, maybe people would take him a little more seriously - at least as a gadfly.
But Kucinich can't help himself.
The starry-eyed congressman from Cleveland who barely grazed the electorate's consciousness when he ran for president in 2004 apparently wants to be taken seriously in 2008 - not merely as a longtime war critic who might influence his party's position on Iraq, but as a genuine contender for the Democratic nomination.
No wonder he has trouble getting his fellow Democrats to pay attention to him.
At the recent winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., where 10 presidential wannabes made their cases to party activists from around the country, Kucinich's plight was so plain that even he couldn't ignore it.
So many people in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton kept yammering after he was introduced that Kucinich had to stop and ask for his audience's attention. This wasn't a problem faced by Barack Obama, John Edwards or Hillary Clinton.
Kucinich proceeded to deliver a speech that underscored why so many in the audience had tuned him out before he even began. It was a speech that was peculiar in more than one way.
First, Kucinich referred repeatedly to his plans "as president," even alluding at one point, with a totally straight face, to his inauguration in 2009, though he surely knew that few people in the room believed he has any chance of winning.
Second, he spoke relatively briefly about the war in Iraq, even though that is the one issue where party activists think he could have some impact. Kucinich, after all, is the only Democratic candidate who voted against going to war in Iraq.
Third, unlike his rivals who tried to rally the crowd with talk about hot-button subjects like health care, Iraq and the struggles of American workers, Kucinich devoted the bulk of his speech to describing at length, in hushed tones, a trip that he and his wife, Elizabeth, took last year to southern Lebanon, where they witnessed scenes of destruction from the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
His point in describing in such detail what he and his wife saw, he said, was to relay a message from Lebanese villagers who want Americans to know that they want to live in peace.
This led him to tell the crowd about an idea his wife has come up with to create something called "the 9/10 Forum" - an effort to "bring together groups to rediscover who we were before 9/11."
Kucinich, a longtime New Ager, did not explain how rediscovering a pre-9/11 world would bring peace to the Mideast, a region where peace was elusive long before 9/11.
He did, however, offer that he believes Americans can create a better world "through a process known as appreciative inquiry." He did not explain, for the unenlightened, what this process is.
Fourth, Kucinich seemed preoccupied with his wife. He welcomed her at the start as "a great humanitarian," thanked her at the end and managed to refer to her six times in between.
This show of spousal devotion not only distinguished Kucinich, who was divorced twice before remarrying in 2005, from his fellow aspirants; it served to remind any Democrat who may have forgotten that Kucinich became notorious in the 2004 campaign for being so open to finding a new mate that he was willing to go on a blind date set up by a political Web site.
Despite all his quirks, Kucinich seemed to thoroughly enjoy his turn at the microphone.
And perhaps that is the definition of happiness - enjoying yourself, regardless of how you come across to others.
Kucinich can happily spend the next year and a half using his platform as a presidential candidate to relay messages from Lebanon, broadcast the virtues of his wife and hold press conferences with Hollywood stars who share his passion for creating a Department of Peace.
He shouldn't be too surprised, however, if Democrats around the country continue chatting among themselves when they see him approach the stage.
Auster is a senior writer in The Plain Dealer's Washington, D.C., bureau. To reach Elizabeth Auster
eauster@plaind.com, 216-999-5335 Source: tinyurl.com/yplwyo