Kucinich At The Heartland Presidential Forum

Kucinich addressed a crowd of over 5,000 citizens today in Iowa, at the Heartland Presidential Forum. He was in good company, as the gathering of community and political leaders and Democratic Party activists involved in the forum announced as their priorities, including: “health care for everybody,” the “right to a living wage,” workers’ rights, an end to corporate control of government, and the adoption of progressive immigration reforms that “don’t use immigrants as scapegoats” for failed federal policies-all bread and butter stump issues for Kucinich and, further, the issues that along with the war/occupation and civil liberties best distignuish him as the leading Democrat:

One especially poignant moment dramatically reflected the affinity between the coalition’s populist agenda and Kucinich’s deep involvement in those same issues. A community leader from Iowa recounted the events of Dec. 12 , 2006, when federal immigration authorities raided a plant in search of undocumented immigrants. Among those detained and exiled to Mexico was the mother of five small children who lived in a modest home with her husband. It happened, the speaker said, her voice choked with emotion, on the hallowed feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Kucinich walked across the stage and asked her to look at his watch. “What does it say?” he asked her. “It’s Our Lady of Guadalupe,” she responded. Kucinich said the watch was a gift from friends in El Paso, Texas four years ago “when I was standing up for the rights of immigrants.” The crowd’s reaction swelled from sighs and gasps to sustained applause and cheering.

Kucinich has been leading on Immigration issues, from his rousing speech at the Latino Congresso to his vote against the S-CHIP that left out over 600,000 children of LEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

Accountability and special interest reform was also highlighted by Kucinich when he drew cheers and applause regarding impeachment and talked about his career-long battle with the corrupt influence of special interests on our political process:

“As Mayor of Cleveland, I put my career on the line to save a municipal electric system” from a corporate take-over, Kucinich said.

That same public-interest philosophy, he elaborated, has given him the strength to challenge the for-profit health insurance and pharmaceutical companies and call for a national, not-for-profit program that covers all Americans. His opposition to corporate-backed trade agreements that have off-shored millions of U.S. jobs is part of that same philosophy, he said. And, the war in Iraq was motivated by a political and corporate thirst for oil, the same motivations that allow oil and gas companies to exploit federally owned lands in the U.S., he said.

The surest route to ending the monied-control of politics and government is public financing of elections; and, he said, he would push for a Constitutional amendment to ensure that federal campaigns were publicly, rather than privately financed.

“It’s your government,” he said, “Take it back,” he concluded to thunderous applause and a standing ovation.

Wow! Here's Proof That Kucinich Made Noise In Nevada

Tucker Carlson spends over three minutes of his show, along with L.A. Times columnist, Rosa Brooks, and A.B. Stoddard of The Hill, to discuss "why Dennis Kucinich isn't a frontrunner?". Even more amazing is the "conclusion" they reach: He should be!

Forgive me if I'm editorializing a bit too much on that last point, but they do seem to concede that Kucinich doesn't get a fair shake by anyone, the media or his own party, even though he stands for everything the Dems say they do and then vote against. Tucker and the two correspondents even cite the media role in marginalizing Kucinich, the self-fullfilling nature of polling, the need to let canididates get more equal time to let the public decide the election; to which Brooks presumes, "we might get different results". They even bandy about words and phrases like "trailblazer" and "the machine"...

It's very interesting, particularly in light of Tucker's history of continually trying to undermine Kucinich at any cost-no matter how base and ridiculous his methods.

However, skeptical I can be towards their intent, I do think that this is proof that Kucinich is making noise. They would simply ignore him otherwise.

Democratic Leadership Plays Games As Humans Die

Dennis Kucinich is keeping the heat on the Democratic Leadership by calling them out on the war funding game. Kucinich has been adamant in telling the truth about the situation: Anytime the Dems want to end the war they are able to do so!

The situation isn't about obtaining Republican votes to pass a bill which would end the war (the myth they continually hide behind), but rather NOT PRESENTING A BILL AT ALL. No bill=no money and an end to the war; exactly what the American people want. This does not endanger the safety of our troops or the stability of Iraq, as the money that has already been appropriated will be then used to begin the process of withdraw and the U.S. works with the U.N. and other countries in the region to provide an international peacekeeping and security force.

Upon passage of another supplemental for $50 Billion more the other day, Kucinich released a statement:

“When the American people went to the polls last November, they overwhelmingly voted for Democrats. They voted for Democrats because they wanted to see a new direction in Iraq -- and that direction is out."

"For the past 11 months, all the House Leadership has done is play into President Bush’s hand. They have approved every war funding bill the President has asked for.

“Leadership could have told President Bush they will not continue to fund the war. They could have said: Use the money you already have to bring the troops home. That is what the American people want.

“They did not have to bring a bill to the floor. They could have forced the President to bring the troops home by refusing to provide any money for the war. Enough money exists to bring the troops home -- without further appropriations.

“But by offering the emergency supplemental appropriations bill today, the House Leadership is taking this Congress and this country down the same path: a path of destruction, chaos and death."

He went on to mention the extreme waste in lives and money of this illegitimate war/occupation:

"More than 3,800 Americans have died and more than one million innocent Iraqis have perished in an unjust and unnecessary war. It is commonly accepted that there is no military solution in Iraq, so why are we there?

“Each year this war is getting more and more costly -- both in the amount of money spent and in the number of lives lost. The Congressional Budget Office released a report last month showing the Iraq war could total $1.9 trillion through 2017 and just yesterday the Joint Economic Committee published a report revealing the total economic costs of war could exceed $3.5 trillion through 2017.

He concluded by asking the same painful questions that 70%-80% of all Americans have been asking themselves:

“When will the House Leadership stand up for the American people? How many more lives have to be lost before they stand up to this Administration and refuse to send any more money for the war?”

To which one might add a few other equally painful questions: When will someone other than Kucinich start to tell the truth on this issue and push for an ctual end to this war? When will our Democrats in Congress and running for a highest office stop playing games? When will our politicians put lives above politics?

Kucinich Hits The Dems Where It Hurts

From the Kucinich Campaign Website:

WASHINGTON, DC - On the 5th anniversary of Congressional authorization to go to war in Iraq, Ohio Congressman and Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich today demanded that the Democratic leadership of the Congress honor its commitment to voters and demand that funds already appropriated to continue the war be used, instead, to bring all U.S. troops home beginning immediately.

That part we've heard throughout DK's speeches, debates; whenever he can, because he's passionaltely against this occupation that has killed an estimated 1 million Iraqis and almost 4,000 U.S. soldiers.

However, Kucinich goes on and hits the Dems where it realy hurts: their anti-war postures!

"If they don't, then they're just as responsible as the President for continuing this illegal and immoral war," said Kucinich, "and open to accusations of fraud upon the American people for promising during last year's elections that Democratic control of the Congress would mean an end to the war. Instead of ending the war, the leadership has knuckled under time and time again and given the President every dollar he's asked for to continue it."

By delaying a vote until early next year on the Defense Department's $190 billion appropriation bill, the Democratic leaders of the House and the Senate have tacitly acknowledged that the war effort is already fully funded for the next several months, Kucinich said. "The leadership needs to force a showdown with the President and demand that those billions of dollars be used to bring our troops home now." He estimated the cost to withdraw all troops and equipment at between $5 billion and $10 billion. "That money is there right now. There is no excuse not to use it to bring our troops home."

Thank you, Dennis Kucinich! "If they don't, then they're just as responsible as the President for continuing this illegal and immoral war." That is exactly the point. The Dems want, desperately, to avoid accepting any responsibility for this war. Let me repeat that: all the other Democratic Candidates, hoping to hold our highest office; hold our highest position of responsibility; will not accept any for a tragedy affecting our whole Country, as well as the world. How's that?

It's "George Bush's War" they say. Yet, they say it as millions are killed, maimed, homeless, humiliated. I've argued in an earlier diary why this type of thinking and negligent passivity sticks us right where we are: An occupying nation in Iraq. And so I am truly proud that Dennis Kucinich is claiming his responsibility as a leader. But, responsibility and leadership are nothing new to Kucinich.

From his own 2002 Intelligence analysis:

"A unilateral attack on Iraq by the United States will cause instability and chaos in the region and sow the seeds of future conflicts all over the world."

"Unilateral action against Iraq will cost the United States the support of the world community, adversely affecting the war on terrorism."

"There is no credible evidence that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction."

"There is no connection between Iraq and the events of 9/11."

All true and only the beginning of his effort to cancel this unjust and illegal action. Again and again he has spoken out against the war, the occupation that it became, the unjust oil privatization, agressive actions in Iran, and of course, the misleadings and the lies.

Of course, there's Bush, who, Kucinich states, "lied about the reasons to go to war in the first place..." But, then there's the Dems themseleves:

Democratic protestations that they don't have the votes to block additional funding "is a hoax. You don't need votes. All we need is the backbone to exercise our Constitutional authority and the integrity to keep our word to the voters to do what we said we would do: end this war. Now."

the Democratic Party has broken its word to the voters last year about taking steps to end it"

Kucinich is, quite literally, the soul of the Democratic Party. He's everything that Democrats say they stand for, but don't, and his challenge and criticisms of the Democratic party are nothing more than a defense of it:

It's time for an end to the lies, an end to broken promises, and an end to the war."

It's time for a Democratic Party and a Democratic President.

Kucinich Wins Iowa Debate According to ABC Poll

This is amazing! And, I'm starting to think a turning point not only for the Dennis Kucinich presidential campaign, but the way Americans are viewing this election.

ABC, which televised the Iowa Debate, had an internet poll to decide who won. The totals, as of today-7:00 pm Pacific, have Kucinich in first place with about 12,500 votes. He's ahead of second place Obama, who has about 9,000. So, Kucinich is a whopping 3,000 votes in the lead. More to the point, if you added up Clinton's, Biden's and Edwards' votes (3rd, 4th and 5th respectively), Kucinich would still be in the lead!

Now, to me, the significance of this poll is not so much Kucinich winning. The poll is not scientific and further refers specifically to the debate and not the primary, so I'm not trying to argue that, if the primary were held today, it would in any way reflect the outcome. However, there is significance.

The overwhelming response to this is a sign that people are fed up with a corporate media forcing certain candidates into the center, marginalizing alternative and equally viable voices, and ultimately trying to decide our elections. The response shows a public distrustful of current process and taking action to change it! I mean, really, one can't help but see Kucinich's plight at yesterdays debate as that of the American people themselves: He was allowed to attend, but utterly silenced. No wonder he is the candidate who represents the issues of so many Americans who are calling for an actual end to the occupation of Iraq, true universal-single payer-healthcare, defending the constitution and civil liberties, ending disastrous trade agreements that outsource jobs, etc. The American people know the frustration Kucinich must have experienced in Iowa. The American people know about being silenced.

Unfortunately, ABC (as other branches in the MSM) knows how to silence. "Tie Goes to Frontrunner" is on the ABC Politics front page The article goes on about how Clinton didn't win, but didn't lose either. Apparently, Obama, Edwards, and Richardson all had strong performances. But, the article doesn't even mention the poll though. So they never reported on their own poll? Do you think it would if any of the "frontrunners" had won?

Actually, the poll which used to be on the front page is now available in the bottom of "audience favorites". Apparently they had some troubles, earlier judging by the comments, because for a bit the poll numbers changed with Kucinich's votes diappearing, but then changed back? Whatever happened though you should read the comments to the article. If you think what I'm writing about people being angry and fed up is extreme, please read them before you decide. What's amazing is not any single comment itslef: Not the one denoucing the overwhelming coverage of the "fronturnners", not one claiming the MSM is afraid of Kucinich, who stands for the people more than any of the other candidates, not even the one telling ABC they will not be deciding this election. What's amazing is the unity in the responses. America is distrusful and beginning to become really angry. America is ready to hear different voices and ready for change. America is, well, ready for Dennis Kucinich.