{news} Fw: Cliff Notes

Thu Sep 28 08:40:17 EDT 2006

Thornton for Governor
PO Box 1971
Manchester, CT 06045
votethornton at yahoogroups.com<mailto:votethornton at yahoogroups.com>
www.votethornton.com<http://www.votethornton.com/>
860 657 8438-H
860 268 1294-C
860 778 1304-Tim Mckee-Campaign Manager
860 293 0222-Ken Krayeske-field Manager
Paid for by Thornton For Governor
Max H. Wentworth, Treasurer
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Patricia Kane<mailto:law_office_kane at yahoo.com> 
To: clifford thornton<mailto:efficacy at msn.com> 
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2006 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: Cliff Notes

Cliff:
   Aside from winning the election itself, it doesn't get any better than to earn someone's respect for the job you've chosen to tackle. This is a 21 gun salute. Enjoy the moment.
          pat

clifford thornton <efficacy at msn.com<mailto:efficacy at msn.com>> wrote: 
                    <http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/>

                    http://www.ctnow.com/custom/nmm/hartfordadvocate/hce-hta-bisbort_40,0,2965643.story?coll=hce-utility-ha-advocate<http://www.ctnow.com/custom/nmm/hartfordadvocate/hce-hta-bisbort_40,0,2965643.story?coll=hce-utility-ha-advocate>

                    Cliff Notes

                     Memo to all candidates of America: Grow a spine! By Alan Bisbort 

                          If elections were decided on personality, Cliff Thornton -- the Green Party candidate for governor in Connecticut -- would win by a landslide. Why? Because he's got one. A personality, that is. He has a backbone to match.

                          The other candidates for governor seem, in comparison, to offer make-nice platitudes, with spin doctors and consultants trailing behind. Thornton, on the other hand, is an adult American who has lived long enough to understand that the truth will set you free. And he's seen enough to fill a book or two.

                          Like the time he spent weeks with a drug dealer. This strange collaboration came about after Thornton spoke to a community group about the need to change drug laws so as not to "orphan" the black and Latino communities by locking up all their young males. A drug dealer heard the speech and came up to him afterwards. "Hey," he told Thornton. "You're trying to put me out of business!"

                          "I asked the dealer if I could just hang with him to try to understand the drug system from his side," Thornton said recently. "I discovered some amazing things, not the least of which was that $48 million went through his hands and two police captains were on his payroll. All the captains asked of him was that he give up X number of people, to make it look to the public like something was being done about drugs in the 'hood.'"

                          The point of his tale was that the "war on drugs" is as much a failure as the war in Iraq. Further, some U.S. cities would economically collapse without the drug trade bringing in white suburban money. Though there's more money (for the private sector) in putting young men in prison, it would cost taxpayers far less to provide rehab and jobs. Thornton also insists that the U.S. is spreading its drug war into other countries the way it spreads democracy in the Middle East -- by force. Also, Monsanto and DuPont don't want hemp legalized as a cash crop; ExxonMobil and Shell, don't want alternative energy sources explored . and so on and so forth. Everybody knows this, but few candidates touch such third rails.

                          Well, Thornton does, but his candidacy is a shot in the dark. Nonetheless, he reminds us that possible solutions to intractable problems are not given a chance because they are shut out of the market just as he himself has been shut out of the media's preexistent narrative for this race (i.e., Rell in a cake walk, DeStefano working on his game for 2010, state voters' nodding out .).

                          Where are the Cliff Thorntons on the national stage? Where are the candidates, for any office, with backbone and personality, the ones who care less about "spin" than they do about the public good? As things stand, our political system is a failure. The will of the people is not represented. Check the stats: 70 percent want us out of Iraq; 70+ percent want universal health care, 90+ percent want us to tackle global warming, only 35 percent even identify themselves as Republicans now. The results: We're stuck in Iraq, contemplating another war with Iran, our health care system is a joke, our energy policy is based on finite, polluting resources, and the Republicans control all three branches of our federal government and half our governorships.

                          Perhaps because Thornton has nothing to lose and everything to gain, he can "afford" to tell the truth. But perhaps, in these deeply troubled times, telling the truth is no longer a political liability. Who knows? Maybe Americans really have had enough. Maybe they want to be adults again, maybe they're sick of the sheer wimpiness of the candidates (Republican and Democrat).

                          Maybe, just maybe, they are ready for change. You never know until you try.

                          Send comments to editor at hartfordadvocate.com<maitlo:editor at hartfordadvocate.com> 

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  Thornton for Governor
  PO Box 1971
  Manchester, CT 06045
  votethornton at yahoogroups.com<mailto:votethornton at yahoogroups.com>
  www.votethornton.com<http://www.votethornton.com/>
  860 657 8438-H
  860 268 1294-C
  860 778 1304-Tim Mckee-Campaign Manager
  860 293 0222-Ken Krayeske-field Manager
  Paid for by Thornton For Governor
  Max H. Wentworth, Treasurer

Patricia Kane, Esq. 
The Kane Legal Group LLC
230 High Ridge Road
Stamford, CT 06905
(203 324-3316 
(203) 351-0818 Fax

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