http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM
Click on this link to watch a short video about our political system. There's definitely a good analogy to be had here.
Just think of the lions as the republican elite, ruthless and pragmatic.
Think of the crocodiles as the democrat elite, trying to steal from the republican elite's table. Failing, they sink, barely noticed, back to the depths.
The buffalo are the progressive herd. Separated, alone, wandering around aimlessly mooing about things (with no particular organized agenda or vision). Its no surprise that they wander right into a trap. They then run off leaving a baby to fend for itself! But wait! Whats that noise? A herd of progressives comes thundering over the hill. Check out that huge progressive as he flips that republican into the air! Strength in numbers! And, it looks like the baby might survive after all ....
The People ... United ... Will Never Be Defeated!
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Taming the Giant Corporation
I had the good fortune to attend a conference in Washington this past weekend sponsored by the Public Citizen and the Center for Responsive Law. It was overfull (they expected 250 people and there were about 380 registrants). As such, I didn't get to attend all of the seminars and forums and discussions but I saw much that was invaluable.
Bernie Sanders and Denis Kucinich spoke at the conference and I was able to interview James Ridgeway (the man who first broke the "GM is tailing Nader" story) and also Medea Benjamin of Code Pink fame for Hudson-Mohawk Independent Media Center.
I spent some time with Ralph discussing the 2008 elections. My friend Jay had the opportunity to film the last event of the conference (Amy Goodman interviewing Ralph about corporate power). It was amazing and he gave Amy the tape to use on Democracy Now this week so keep an eye out for it.
For more information on the "Taming" conference, go to "tamethecorporation.org". Tyson Slocum was particularly inspirational (www.citizen.org/cmep/index.cfm). He is the Director of Energy Policy at Public Citizen.
I also had dinner with Clint Coppernoll, a lifetime activist currently working to grow and organize "Congress Watch" for Publioc Citizen (http://www.citizen.org/congress/). We agreed to try and get a Congress Watch organized for CD 20 and to keep an eye on Hillary walking into 2008's election cycle.
I would reccomend taking part in such a conference to anyone whose batteries need recharging. It can really rejuvenate you to see how many other capable inteligent people are working towards social justice without thanks or other meaningful remuneration. It made me feel much less jaded about my own investment of time and effort.
Bernie Sanders and Denis Kucinich spoke at the conference and I was able to interview James Ridgeway (the man who first broke the "GM is tailing Nader" story) and also Medea Benjamin of Code Pink fame for Hudson-Mohawk Independent Media Center.
I spent some time with Ralph discussing the 2008 elections. My friend Jay had the opportunity to film the last event of the conference (Amy Goodman interviewing Ralph about corporate power). It was amazing and he gave Amy the tape to use on Democracy Now this week so keep an eye out for it.
For more information on the "Taming" conference, go to "tamethecorporation.org". Tyson Slocum was particularly inspirational (www.citizen.org/cmep/index.cfm). He is the Director of Energy Policy at Public Citizen.
I also had dinner with Clint Coppernoll, a lifetime activist currently working to grow and organize "Congress Watch" for Publioc Citizen (http://www.citizen.org/congress/). We agreed to try and get a Congress Watch organized for CD 20 and to keep an eye on Hillary walking into 2008's election cycle.
I would reccomend taking part in such a conference to anyone whose batteries need recharging. It can really rejuvenate you to see how many other capable inteligent people are working towards social justice without thanks or other meaningful remuneration. It made me feel much less jaded about my own investment of time and effort.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Walking The (Green) Walk
Living up to all of the tenets of the Green Party would be a tall order. We are friends of the environment and alternative energy. As such, we should all be living in small, ecologically-sound, passive solar homes. Are we? I would hazard a guess that most of us aren’t. We preach about global warming and vastly decreasing our country’s insane energy consumption. While many of us do own hybrids, walk, ride our bikes or take alternative transportation, as a group, we are still burning plenty of fossil fuels. We talk about the need for local food and the building of local economies. We talk about the need to fight corporate power and agribusiness. As such, we should all feel massive twinges of guilt at the supermarket even while filling our carts with “faux organic” produce often produced thousands of miles away on factory farms. In short, while it seems that most Greens make an effort we are probably still falling far short of really changing the landscape. That puts us in the same boat as everyone else in this country.
Green business owners are an interesting sub-group within the party. We are in a unique situation to act as Green representatives as the public may be more likely to see our efforts to push forward new thought processes about lifestyle and new alternatives to corporate politics. As a Green business owner myself, I spend an inordinate amount of time contemplating this subject. Am I uniquely positioned as a Green business owner (if at all) to help grow awareness of the party and to help foment Green change? How can I best serve the interests of our party? How can I use my heightened prominence in our community to “walk the Green walk” and help represent the party’s ideals and vision?
Since first registering as a Green over a decade ago, I’ve struggled with the lonely feeling that I am the only Green business owner in America. I know that this is far from true. I’m sure there are actually many of us but we are not the sort to be too candid about our business dealings. We are untrusting of this bureaucratic and somewhat dysfunctional group that serves as our political home. When Peter Camejo ran for VP in 2004, I was thrilled. I immediately read his book on SRI (socially responsible investing and saw that one can be a successful capitalist (albeit a socially conscious one) and also be openly Green. Peter’s example was truly an inspiration to me.
I own and run Rock Hill Bakehouse, a wholesale bread bakery in upstate New York. We pay everyone who works for us a living wage and we do our level best to provide the best benefits that can be afforded in our market. We use local and organic ingredients in our breads and foods whenever possible and have been instrumental in creating a demand for locally-grown and milled grains and flours. We use fair trade coffees roasted locally. We use organic teas from our local self-titled “Tea Maven“. The majority of our produce is local and we sell our breads at over a dozen farmer’s markets (many in new York City). My father raises free range chickens on his farm and we use their meat to make our popular curried chicken salad. We use beef from a small farm about twenty minutes away as often as it is available. Ingredients that cannot regularly be sourced locally are purchased from local distributors who have made a commitment to paying their employees a living wage and to buying local wherever possible. In short, we try really hard and we are always trying to build more and better relationships to tweak the formula.
As with most good Greens, I am also an activist. I have been very outspoken on important issues in our area and have become somewhat of a spokesperson for the Greens locally (letters to the editor, Indy media booster and protest and event organizer). Contrary to conventional wisdom, I have found that the cost of being outspoken has been minimal (if there is really any “cost” at all).
I did once have a Vietnam Vet come to my café from the area VFW to let my customers know from the bed of his pickup with a bullhorn that I “didn’t support the troops”. A handshake and an hour spent in conversation was all it took for this man to see that my problem with our occupation of Iraq is a problem with war in general and the military industrial complex and not with our economically-conscripted, working class, soldiers.
I have hosted visits by Ralph Nader twice to our area in the last three years and while some people have shaken their heads at me for doing do, they usually do it while ordering food. A larger number have thanked me and a larger number still couldn’t care less (its them I need to work on). I advertise in local Indy papers, usually putting controversial comments and political advice in my print ads). Only a few times have callers left messages that they would “never buy bread from a commie” or other such anonymous venom. My business has grown every year for the last ten years and, as such, I can’t believe that my being Green has ever hurt my business in any way.
David Doonan, a good friend of mine, runs Mohill Design, a freelance web design company in Greenwich. He has worked for himself since August of 2001. He does a lot of pro bono work for the Green Party and has also designed more than a few web sites for our candidates (including Howie Hawkins when he ran against Hillary Clinton last year). David writes for several Indy media papers and is a photographer who has faithfully chronicled many peace actions and protests against this war and others.
I asked Dave what its like to be a Green business owner in small town America. He relates that when he and his wife first moved up from New Jersey fifteen years ago, “If you wanted anything done, you had to be a Republican. You had to be quiet. You couldn’t put your name and your politics out there. I don’t know that this is the case now because when the town needed a website, I was the guy who got the job.”
Doonan recently accepted a board position with the local Chamber of Commerce. He says that things can seem somewhat “schizophrenic” being involved in activist and social justice circles and at the same time being involved in fairly conservative business circles. I am the same way and I know what he means. We also talked about using foreign goods in our businesses. It is often difficult to buy products that are domestic and that truly support proper labor practices and environmental law. I asked David if its possible to get around the cheap (almost exclusively foreign) hardware and technology that drives the internet boom his business so depends on. He says that if it weren‘t for said equipment he “would probably be working 40 or 50 hours a week for someone else instead of for myself.” Rather than feeling like a hypocrite, he simply uses that knowledge as fuel that drives him to offset that somewhat mandatory compromise by doing good progressive work to make up for it, primarily his photographic record of activist activity in an ever- increasing radius.
Mohill Design “recycles paper and turns the lights off.” The client list is almost entirely made up of local people and businesses that are within walking distance of his modest home office. I ask if he has ever seen any “blowback” as a result of his political work. He relates that he did have one client who was deeply offended by a link David sent out showing photos he had taken of an anti-war march in Washington. That’s probably the only client he feels he’s lost, though.
High Peaks Java is a small coffee roasting company and café run by Derek Java (that is his real name). He uses only fair trade, organic coffee beans and offers soy and organic dairy products. Java says that he “held most of his ‘Green’ opinions and values prior to becoming a Green about a year ago”. Derek says that he doesn’t really know if being a Green affects his standing in the business community because he doesn’t really get much feedback about it. He doesn’t hide who he is but he also says that he doesn’t necessarily project it either. “If anybody were to come into my shop, they would see a poster of Ralph Nader on the wall and … they can draw their own conclusions or they can ask me a question. Most of them draw their own conclusions.”
Java says that prior to becoming an enrolled Green, he was already trying to “walk the green walk”, as he puts it. Now that he is enrolled he says he does feel that its even more important to set the standard for others to follow. While “greening” his business was not an unwieldy task, as it was pretty much already done before he registered, but he now sees the need to help others see how they can do the same.
We discuss our mutual awareness of how limited financial resources are within the party and I ask him if he thinks that we (as Green business owners) should focus on becoming a better, more organized force within the party so that we can help financially support party growth on a state and national level.
“I think its absolutely the way Greens should go. The problem comes when you start thinking about levels of donation per individual and how to compete on a national basis against two players (the corporate parties). They set the playing field ridiculously high. I mean the major forerunners in this election will raise a half a billion dollars! 500 million dollars in eighteen months! I won’t raise that in my life. To compete at that level … the way to reach those people is through advertisement and … advertisement’s expensive, perhaps more expensive than can be managed with a maximum donor value.”
We talk about Green business changing the perception of what it is to be a business person. Green businesses can help get the message out by showing people who come into contact with them an alternative to modern corporate behavior and structure. Java says he is interested in seeing Green businesses throughout the country help get the message out by advertising directly about Green candidates and issues.
There seems to be agreement that, as a caucus within the party, it would be good to start a meaningful discussion about how best to utilize the unique skills and resources we bring to the Green table. We all seem to share the hope that, over time and with our assistance, the party can attract other entrepreneurs and business owners into the fold. We feel a new example can be set as to what “business” is and what it looks like when a moral compass and a little vision are added to the mix. We all talked about our desire to see a network form that would take stock of Green business owners nationwide and help Greens with resource network with each other to help grow the party.
If you are interested in helping to form such a group or caucus please contact me at the email address below and we‘ll get to work. mattfuniciello@earthlink.net
Green business owners are an interesting sub-group within the party. We are in a unique situation to act as Green representatives as the public may be more likely to see our efforts to push forward new thought processes about lifestyle and new alternatives to corporate politics. As a Green business owner myself, I spend an inordinate amount of time contemplating this subject. Am I uniquely positioned as a Green business owner (if at all) to help grow awareness of the party and to help foment Green change? How can I best serve the interests of our party? How can I use my heightened prominence in our community to “walk the Green walk” and help represent the party’s ideals and vision?
Since first registering as a Green over a decade ago, I’ve struggled with the lonely feeling that I am the only Green business owner in America. I know that this is far from true. I’m sure there are actually many of us but we are not the sort to be too candid about our business dealings. We are untrusting of this bureaucratic and somewhat dysfunctional group that serves as our political home. When Peter Camejo ran for VP in 2004, I was thrilled. I immediately read his book on SRI (socially responsible investing and saw that one can be a successful capitalist (albeit a socially conscious one) and also be openly Green. Peter’s example was truly an inspiration to me.
I own and run Rock Hill Bakehouse, a wholesale bread bakery in upstate New York. We pay everyone who works for us a living wage and we do our level best to provide the best benefits that can be afforded in our market. We use local and organic ingredients in our breads and foods whenever possible and have been instrumental in creating a demand for locally-grown and milled grains and flours. We use fair trade coffees roasted locally. We use organic teas from our local self-titled “Tea Maven“. The majority of our produce is local and we sell our breads at over a dozen farmer’s markets (many in new York City). My father raises free range chickens on his farm and we use their meat to make our popular curried chicken salad. We use beef from a small farm about twenty minutes away as often as it is available. Ingredients that cannot regularly be sourced locally are purchased from local distributors who have made a commitment to paying their employees a living wage and to buying local wherever possible. In short, we try really hard and we are always trying to build more and better relationships to tweak the formula.
As with most good Greens, I am also an activist. I have been very outspoken on important issues in our area and have become somewhat of a spokesperson for the Greens locally (letters to the editor, Indy media booster and protest and event organizer). Contrary to conventional wisdom, I have found that the cost of being outspoken has been minimal (if there is really any “cost” at all).
I did once have a Vietnam Vet come to my café from the area VFW to let my customers know from the bed of his pickup with a bullhorn that I “didn’t support the troops”. A handshake and an hour spent in conversation was all it took for this man to see that my problem with our occupation of Iraq is a problem with war in general and the military industrial complex and not with our economically-conscripted, working class, soldiers.
I have hosted visits by Ralph Nader twice to our area in the last three years and while some people have shaken their heads at me for doing do, they usually do it while ordering food. A larger number have thanked me and a larger number still couldn’t care less (its them I need to work on). I advertise in local Indy papers, usually putting controversial comments and political advice in my print ads). Only a few times have callers left messages that they would “never buy bread from a commie” or other such anonymous venom. My business has grown every year for the last ten years and, as such, I can’t believe that my being Green has ever hurt my business in any way.
David Doonan, a good friend of mine, runs Mohill Design, a freelance web design company in Greenwich. He has worked for himself since August of 2001. He does a lot of pro bono work for the Green Party and has also designed more than a few web sites for our candidates (including Howie Hawkins when he ran against Hillary Clinton last year). David writes for several Indy media papers and is a photographer who has faithfully chronicled many peace actions and protests against this war and others.
I asked Dave what its like to be a Green business owner in small town America. He relates that when he and his wife first moved up from New Jersey fifteen years ago, “If you wanted anything done, you had to be a Republican. You had to be quiet. You couldn’t put your name and your politics out there. I don’t know that this is the case now because when the town needed a website, I was the guy who got the job.”
Doonan recently accepted a board position with the local Chamber of Commerce. He says that things can seem somewhat “schizophrenic” being involved in activist and social justice circles and at the same time being involved in fairly conservative business circles. I am the same way and I know what he means. We also talked about using foreign goods in our businesses. It is often difficult to buy products that are domestic and that truly support proper labor practices and environmental law. I asked David if its possible to get around the cheap (almost exclusively foreign) hardware and technology that drives the internet boom his business so depends on. He says that if it weren‘t for said equipment he “would probably be working 40 or 50 hours a week for someone else instead of for myself.” Rather than feeling like a hypocrite, he simply uses that knowledge as fuel that drives him to offset that somewhat mandatory compromise by doing good progressive work to make up for it, primarily his photographic record of activist activity in an ever- increasing radius.
Mohill Design “recycles paper and turns the lights off.” The client list is almost entirely made up of local people and businesses that are within walking distance of his modest home office. I ask if he has ever seen any “blowback” as a result of his political work. He relates that he did have one client who was deeply offended by a link David sent out showing photos he had taken of an anti-war march in Washington. That’s probably the only client he feels he’s lost, though.
High Peaks Java is a small coffee roasting company and café run by Derek Java (that is his real name). He uses only fair trade, organic coffee beans and offers soy and organic dairy products. Java says that he “held most of his ‘Green’ opinions and values prior to becoming a Green about a year ago”. Derek says that he doesn’t really know if being a Green affects his standing in the business community because he doesn’t really get much feedback about it. He doesn’t hide who he is but he also says that he doesn’t necessarily project it either. “If anybody were to come into my shop, they would see a poster of Ralph Nader on the wall and … they can draw their own conclusions or they can ask me a question. Most of them draw their own conclusions.”
Java says that prior to becoming an enrolled Green, he was already trying to “walk the green walk”, as he puts it. Now that he is enrolled he says he does feel that its even more important to set the standard for others to follow. While “greening” his business was not an unwieldy task, as it was pretty much already done before he registered, but he now sees the need to help others see how they can do the same.
We discuss our mutual awareness of how limited financial resources are within the party and I ask him if he thinks that we (as Green business owners) should focus on becoming a better, more organized force within the party so that we can help financially support party growth on a state and national level.
“I think its absolutely the way Greens should go. The problem comes when you start thinking about levels of donation per individual and how to compete on a national basis against two players (the corporate parties). They set the playing field ridiculously high. I mean the major forerunners in this election will raise a half a billion dollars! 500 million dollars in eighteen months! I won’t raise that in my life. To compete at that level … the way to reach those people is through advertisement and … advertisement’s expensive, perhaps more expensive than can be managed with a maximum donor value.”
We talk about Green business changing the perception of what it is to be a business person. Green businesses can help get the message out by showing people who come into contact with them an alternative to modern corporate behavior and structure. Java says he is interested in seeing Green businesses throughout the country help get the message out by advertising directly about Green candidates and issues.
There seems to be agreement that, as a caucus within the party, it would be good to start a meaningful discussion about how best to utilize the unique skills and resources we bring to the Green table. We all seem to share the hope that, over time and with our assistance, the party can attract other entrepreneurs and business owners into the fold. We feel a new example can be set as to what “business” is and what it looks like when a moral compass and a little vision are added to the mix. We all talked about our desire to see a network form that would take stock of Green business owners nationwide and help Greens with resource network with each other to help grow the party.
If you are interested in helping to form such a group or caucus please contact me at the email address below and we‘ll get to work. mattfuniciello@earthlink.net
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Ralph Nader Visits Smalltown America
Lifelong consumer advocate and Green/Independent presidential candidate, Ralph Nader, visited our sleepy little town for the second time a week and a half ago. The visit was phenomenal. We (the Adirondack Progressives) set up 7 events in one day between Albany and Glens Falls.
My son, John, and I picked Ralph up at his home in Winsted, Connecticut in the wee hours of the morning Friday May 25th and brought him to an interview at WAMC's Albany studios (our local NPR affiliate). Alan Chartok, the station's "Political Guru" and resident Nader-hater, was nowhere to be seen. Ralph spoke with Joe Donahue and Julia Taylor, hosts of the station's morning show, The Roundtable, for about a half hour. It went very well. You can listen to it as soon as they get the podcast up on their website which they have assured me they will do once they fix some technical problems they often have posting live interviews.
Time Warner News, WRGB, Fox, WNYT and TV 8 all gave Ralph some TV coverage. The Times Union, The Daily Gazette, The Troy Record, Metroland, The Saratogian and the Glens Falls Post-Star all did fairly good pieces on the visit or, at the least, reasonable advance stories. I could not believe how good the Post-Star piece was (especially given how much the editorial staff seem to hate me, Ralph, Greens and intelligent discourse in general). I actually had to send them a "thank you" email for their great coverage. Those of you who know me, know how difficult and wonderful that must have been for me at the same time (it was).
That said, media coverage wasn't the big deal this time around. The Spectrum 8 Theater in Albany and Aimie's Dinner and a Movie in Glens Falls premiered the film, "An Unreasonable Man", which is an excellent, critically-acclaimed, documentary about Ralph's life. It deals with
his Quixotic runs for national office head on giving all sides plenty of room to rant. It is truly an eye-opener for many two-party pragmatists, conservatives and Ralph-haters alike. The film is an inspiration to all who see it and if there is any justice in the world, Al Gore will be required to use the profits from his recent blockbuster ("The Inconvenient Festival of Alternative Energy Consumption") to buy free copies of "Unreasonable" for every high school and college campus across the nation.
The book signings were great. Ralph was selling copies of his newest book, "The Seventeen Traditions". This short biography is about his very different, but quintessentially American, upbringing in Winsted. A friend of mine called it sentimental and meant it as high praise. He is an academic and is extremely well read and once told me that he saw my connection to Ralph as a sentimental one and he labelled the book as a confirmation of same. I guess thats true because
every attack the Dems level at Ralph just strengthens my resolve to protect him and hit them right back. I know Ralph to be a good man and their vicious attacks against someone they
revered simply because they aren't intelligent enough to see his motives (or explore them). This strikes me as propagandistic, hypocritical, shallow and cruel.
We did two book signings, three sets of Q & A after premiere showings of the film, a fundraiser for the Sanctuary for Independent Media and a speech/forum at Glens Falls High School for seniors from four area high schools. The student forum was simply excellent and was the highlight of the day. I wish we could have stayed there all day. Ralph told the 400 some odd students that they needed to stop worrying so much about a "career" and get out there and "fight for justice". Damn! He said that it was time to put down their blackberries and laptops and "get serious" about the issues. Many students interviewed afterward said that they were extremely pleased with Ralph's stance that they were more than old enough to tackle these problems themselves and that, in fact, they were the only ones who could (or would) do so. There's no doubt in my mind that he inspired them.
The Spectrum showings of AUM were both sold out and we stayed after the second showing for almost an hour and a half. It was so cool to hear some of the more open-minded Democrats who showed up to see what all the fuss was about. They weren't nearly as upset after watching the film. The propaganda started to melt away and they started to understand both the math and the "good fight". The first woman who asked a question told Ralph that she was till a "little bit mad at him" (for his role in Bush's election) but she also said that she could see he was a really good man who was just doing what he though was right, even what was necessary.
If we had discourse like this every day, we wouldn't be such a stupid, classless, narrow bunch of dopes intent on killing kids to line our pockets or keep gas prices down, would we? Too bad we don't!
My son, John, and I picked Ralph up at his home in Winsted, Connecticut in the wee hours of the morning Friday May 25th and brought him to an interview at WAMC's Albany studios (our local NPR affiliate). Alan Chartok, the station's "Political Guru" and resident Nader-hater, was nowhere to be seen. Ralph spoke with Joe Donahue and Julia Taylor, hosts of the station's morning show, The Roundtable, for about a half hour. It went very well. You can listen to it as soon as they get the podcast up on their website which they have assured me they will do once they fix some technical problems they often have posting live interviews.
Time Warner News, WRGB, Fox, WNYT and TV 8 all gave Ralph some TV coverage. The Times Union, The Daily Gazette, The Troy Record, Metroland, The Saratogian and the Glens Falls Post-Star all did fairly good pieces on the visit or, at the least, reasonable advance stories. I could not believe how good the Post-Star piece was (especially given how much the editorial staff seem to hate me, Ralph, Greens and intelligent discourse in general). I actually had to send them a "thank you" email for their great coverage. Those of you who know me, know how difficult and wonderful that must have been for me at the same time (it was).
That said, media coverage wasn't the big deal this time around. The Spectrum 8 Theater in Albany and Aimie's Dinner and a Movie in Glens Falls premiered the film, "An Unreasonable Man", which is an excellent, critically-acclaimed, documentary about Ralph's life. It deals with
his Quixotic runs for national office head on giving all sides plenty of room to rant. It is truly an eye-opener for many two-party pragmatists, conservatives and Ralph-haters alike. The film is an inspiration to all who see it and if there is any justice in the world, Al Gore will be required to use the profits from his recent blockbuster ("The Inconvenient Festival of Alternative Energy Consumption") to buy free copies of "Unreasonable" for every high school and college campus across the nation.
The book signings were great. Ralph was selling copies of his newest book, "The Seventeen Traditions". This short biography is about his very different, but quintessentially American, upbringing in Winsted. A friend of mine called it sentimental and meant it as high praise. He is an academic and is extremely well read and once told me that he saw my connection to Ralph as a sentimental one and he labelled the book as a confirmation of same. I guess thats true because
every attack the Dems level at Ralph just strengthens my resolve to protect him and hit them right back. I know Ralph to be a good man and their vicious attacks against someone they
revered simply because they aren't intelligent enough to see his motives (or explore them). This strikes me as propagandistic, hypocritical, shallow and cruel.
We did two book signings, three sets of Q & A after premiere showings of the film, a fundraiser for the Sanctuary for Independent Media and a speech/forum at Glens Falls High School for seniors from four area high schools. The student forum was simply excellent and was the highlight of the day. I wish we could have stayed there all day. Ralph told the 400 some odd students that they needed to stop worrying so much about a "career" and get out there and "fight for justice". Damn! He said that it was time to put down their blackberries and laptops and "get serious" about the issues. Many students interviewed afterward said that they were extremely pleased with Ralph's stance that they were more than old enough to tackle these problems themselves and that, in fact, they were the only ones who could (or would) do so. There's no doubt in my mind that he inspired them.
The Spectrum showings of AUM were both sold out and we stayed after the second showing for almost an hour and a half. It was so cool to hear some of the more open-minded Democrats who showed up to see what all the fuss was about. They weren't nearly as upset after watching the film. The propaganda started to melt away and they started to understand both the math and the "good fight". The first woman who asked a question told Ralph that she was till a "little bit mad at him" (for his role in Bush's election) but she also said that she could see he was a really good man who was just doing what he though was right, even what was necessary.
If we had discourse like this every day, we wouldn't be such a stupid, classless, narrow bunch of dopes intent on killing kids to line our pockets or keep gas prices down, would we? Too bad we don't!
Monday, June 4, 2007
Am I Really The Only One Who Sees It?
I have spent some time thinking since Ralph Nader's visit a few weeks back. I had ample time to talk with him about many things as we traveled from place to place but the subject we kept coming back to was the 2008 presidential race (which, according to the mainstream media, has already begun).
I have been fairly convinced since John Kerry's (seemingly purposeful) loss in 2004 that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic contender this coming year. I have been equally certain that John McCain will be the Republican standard bearer. Ralph listened to what I had to say about them and then asked what I thought of Barack Obama. I told him that he was a faux progressive whose candidacy was likely designed to funnel real progressive support away from truly progressive candidates like Kucinich or Gravel. I said I thought it quite likely that Obama would join forces with Hillary before the whole thing was over. "Its a twofer. A woman president and a black vice president. They're shoe-ins."
I asked Ralph what he thought would happen. He said that most people inside the beltway understood the selection process fairly well and that the insiders were betting with me on all fronts - McCain and Hillary (likely with Obama as VP).
Now, I don't believe that we have real democracy here in the U.S. We are most often given a narrow difference between two corporate candidates both of whom are corporate. The one we actually "choose" has very little effect on how well corporate America does after the election because they are both guaranteed to have been corporate America's choice to begin with.
I see McCain and Hillary as obvious and pre-destined because the lapdog media has given them four years of extensive free advertising at the national level. I don;t even need to think about pundits and their blathering. I also don't need to worry about the "polls". I know they will be the candidates because corporate media doesn't give anyone a multi-million dollar advertising deal for nothing.
They are much, much wiser investors than that.
I have been fairly convinced since John Kerry's (seemingly purposeful) loss in 2004 that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic contender this coming year. I have been equally certain that John McCain will be the Republican standard bearer. Ralph listened to what I had to say about them and then asked what I thought of Barack Obama. I told him that he was a faux progressive whose candidacy was likely designed to funnel real progressive support away from truly progressive candidates like Kucinich or Gravel. I said I thought it quite likely that Obama would join forces with Hillary before the whole thing was over. "Its a twofer. A woman president and a black vice president. They're shoe-ins."
I asked Ralph what he thought would happen. He said that most people inside the beltway understood the selection process fairly well and that the insiders were betting with me on all fronts - McCain and Hillary (likely with Obama as VP).
Now, I don't believe that we have real democracy here in the U.S. We are most often given a narrow difference between two corporate candidates both of whom are corporate. The one we actually "choose" has very little effect on how well corporate America does after the election because they are both guaranteed to have been corporate America's choice to begin with.
I see McCain and Hillary as obvious and pre-destined because the lapdog media has given them four years of extensive free advertising at the national level. I don;t even need to think about pundits and their blathering. I also don't need to worry about the "polls". I know they will be the candidates because corporate media doesn't give anyone a multi-million dollar advertising deal for nothing.
They are much, much wiser investors than that.
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