{news} Fw: [usgp-dx] Report on press conference with Paul, McKinney, Nader, Baldwin (Kevin Zeese)

[Tim McKee]

----- Original Message -----

From: "Scott McLarty"
To: natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org
Subject: [usgp-dx] Report on press conference with Paul, McKinney, Nader,
Baldwin (Kevin Zeese)
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:07:48 +0000



Press Conference Unifies Third Party and Independent Candidates
Around Four Key Positions

Polls Indicate Non-Duopoly Candidates Could Determine Outcome of the
Election

By Kevin Zeese
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Ron-Paul-Press-Conference-by-Kevin-Zeese-080910-177.html
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/73799


Ron Paul held what he described as a “very important” press
conference on September 10th in Washington, DC. The event brought
four third party and independent candidates “together in unity”
around a statement of principles. The event came as polls showed
the presidential race tightening and third party/independent
candidates getting combined votes of over 10% in swing states.

The four candidates – Independent Ralph Nader, the Green nominee
Cynthia McKinney, the Constitution Party’s Chuck Baldwin and the
Libertarian Party’s Bob Barr along with Ron Paul agreed on the
following four key principles:

Foreign Policy: The Iraq War must end as quickly as possible with
removal of all our soldiers from the region. We must initiate the
return of our soldiers from around the world, including Korea ,
Japan , Europe and the entire Middle East . We must cease the war
propaganda, threats of a blockade and plans for attacks on Iran ,
nor should we re-ignite the cold war with Russia over Georgia . We
must be willing to talk to all countries and offer friendship and
trade and travel to all who are willing. We must take off the table
the threat of a nuclear first strike against all nations.

Privacy: We must protect the privacy and civil liberties of all
persons under US jurisdiction. We must repeal or radically change
the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and the FISA
legislation. We must reject the notion and practice of torture,
eliminations of habeas corpus, secret tribunals, and secret
prisons. We must deny immunity for corporations that spy willingly
on the people for the benefit of the government. We must reject the
unitary presidency, the illegal use of signing statements and
excessive use of executive orders.

The National Debt: We believe that there should be no increase in
the national debt. The burden of debt placed on the next generation
is unjust and already threatening our economy and the value of our
dollar. We must pay our bills as we go along and not unfairly place
this burden on a future generation.

The Federal Reserve: We seek a thorough investigation, evaluation
and audit of the Federal Reserve System and its cozy relationships
with the banking, corporate, and other financial institutions. The
arbitrary power to create money and credit out of thin air behind
closed doors for the benefit of commercial interests must be ended.
There should be no taxpayer bailouts of corporations and no
corporate subsidies. Corporations should be aggressively prosecuted
for their crimes and frauds.

Further, they agree that the process of U.S. presidential elections
is as Rep. Paul said a “charade, collusion of the two parties and
the media” where they “pretend great differences where there is
none” and where neither party really “addresses subjects that are
majority positions,” referring to the points in the statement of
principles quoted above.

The press conference participants, which did not include Rep. Barr
even though he was invited, repeatedly pointed out that the
majority of Americans, some 60%, are unhappy with their choices. As
a result half of Americans do not bother to vote, many for the
intellectual decision that a false choice is provided and where
half of those that do vote decide to vote for the lesser of two
evils rather than on the direction they want the country to move.
All the participants described American democracy as failing.

Ron Paul announced that he received a telephone call the day before
the press conference from the McCain-Palin campaign seeking his
endorsement. Paul reported that the campaign made the argument,
not that McCain is a great leader who will move the U.S. in the
right direction, but that he isn’t as bad as Obama and would do
less harm to the country. Paul described the call as “a little
strange” and that he declined to endorse. He said that instead he
is urging voters to support the four candidates who signed the
statement of principles and that he would probably not endorse any
candidate.

A great deal of focus was placed on the manipulated presidential
debates. Rep. Paul reported that during the Bush-Dukakis campaign
they had an agreement to dictate the terms of the presidential
debates to the League of Women Voters. The League refused to go
along and withdrew its sponsorship saying:

“The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the
presidential debates...because the demands of the two campaign
organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It
has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to
add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of
substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League
has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the
American public.”

That fraud continues to this day with a complicit media working
with a corporation created by the two parties, the National
Commission on Presidential Debates, that prevents third party and
independent candidates from participating and allows the campaigns
to dictate the terms of the debates. Ron Paul concluded that
keeping the competition out of the debates is undemocratic and that
it is a serious problem that “a majority of the people are outside
the establishment – this is not very democratic.” He described
voting as more the pretense of democracy than a real democracy.

Paul argued the “majority deserves to be in the debate” and the way
to determine who is allowed to participate is if they are on enough
ballots to theoretically get 270 Electoral College votes. Paul
described the ballot access issue as an arduous test.

Therefore, Rep. Paul said he is making a “strong suggestion today”
on what people can do and that is to vote for what they believe in
and not be fooled by the two party charade. He described the two
parties as a manipulation quoting Carroll Quigley from “Tragedy and
Hope: A History of the World in our Time:”

“The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals
and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left,
is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic
thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so
that the American people can ‘throw the rascals out’ at any
election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in
policy.”

Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney described the four pillars
of the Green Party – peace, social justice, ecological wisdom and
grass roots democracy. She described the situation we face today
as akin to 160 years ago when a few hundred people got together to
work for the right of woman to vote. They achieved their end and so
can we by “declaring our independence” and pointed out how she
declared her independence one year ago in front of the Pentagon.
She no longer wanted to be complicit in illegal wars, detentions
without trial, torture and environmental destruction. Voters need
to declare their independence from “conformity and control” by
voting their values. “It would be a very different country if
Americans voted their values,” McKinney concluded.

Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party described how he was a
Republicans who worked for President Reagan’s election and worked
with Jerry Falwell becoming the executive director of the Moral
Majority. But, in the 1990s he found that the Republican Party had
lost its way and he concluded the Republican Party was not fixable.
He argued that the “parties have a stranglehold over the
political process and are choking the lifeblood out of our
country.” He sees the debate as between globalists like McCain and
Obama and constitutionalists.

Independent Ralph Nader described the agreement of the four
candidates on the statement of principles as “the beginning of a
realignment of American politics.” He sees the issues raised as
pointing to a “crisis in constitutional government.” Nader
described the U.S. Constitution as something that has been
“degraded, violated, nullified and twisted out of any semblance of
it real meaning.” Nader urged people to pledge on Constitution Day
(September 17th) to support candidates who will defend the
Constitution (www.ConstitutionPledge.com). He believes that the
media needs to reassess how it covers presidential election by
sponsoring its own debates and breaking with the Democrats and
Republicans private corporation that manipulates debates. He also
urged to “stop wallowing in trivia like the current lipstick-gate”
which he describes as “demeaning to the media, the people and the
United States ’ standing in the world.”

During the question and answer session the weakness in U.S.
democracy came up – the fraudulent debates, the unfair ballot
access laws, the poor media coverage, the massive
disenfranchisement of voters, the lack of transparency and
manipulation of electronic voting machines. Nader described
“democracy being destroyed on the installment plan in an escalated
way.” Paul said the real wasted vote is voting for one of the two
parties and not for what you want. Baldwin updated Wallace’s
comment, citing inflation, saying “there’s not a nickel’s worth of
difference between the two parties.” And, McKinney urged people to
see the movie “American Blackout” and warned that unresolved
problems in American democracy are being “compounded.”

One suggestion made to avoid the trap of the fear of the greater
evil is Vote Pact (http://www.VotePact.org) where unenthusiastic
McCain or Obama supporters agree that both will support a third
party candidate instead of the Democrat or Republican.

The Ron Paul press conference came at a time when third party and
independent candidates are showing strength in key battle ground
states where together they are garnering more than 10% of the vote.
At this point, with the race between Obama and McCain in the low
single digits the votes for the alternative candidates is likely to
affect the outcome of the election.

With the strong group of third party and independent candidates –
including two former members of Congress, one from each party,
Ralph Nader, the most successful community organizer running for
president and Chuck Baldwin, the former executive director of Moral
Majority – and the reality that they could impact the outcome of
the election – it is impressive how the mainstream media has been
steadfast in ignoring these candidates as well as the issues they
stand for. As Ron Paul said, perhaps now that the four have joined
together to highlight four key issues maybe the media will
recognize there is something important to cover here. Who knows,
maybe the media will even ask McCain and Obama their views of the
four points raised in their joint statement.


Kevin Zeese is Executive Director of the Campaign for Fresh Air and
Clean Politics (www.FreshAirCleanPolitics.net) whose projects
include Voters for Peace, True Vote and Climate Security.


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******************************************
Tim McKee, Manchester CT, main number cell-860-778-1304, 860-643-2282
 National Commitee member of the Green Party of the United States and is a spokesperson for the Green Party of CT.
BLOG-http://thebiggreenpicture.blogspot.com

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