What's Your Breaking Point

With election day just a week away I thought I would ask, "What's your breaking point?" Everywhere I look, even my beloved NPR, there are only two sides to this election. While listening to NPR yesterday they had 2 people who were pro Obama and two people who were pro McCain on. Its as if there isn't anyone else to vote for. ...

The truth is, there are other people to vote for. People, by nature, don't like to rock the boat (too much) and so voting outside of the 2 main stream candidates doesn't even occur to most people. While there are some good reasons to respect both Barack Obama and John McCain, I have a feeling many people are looking at their mainstream candidates through rose colored glasses.

The economy is big. What is your candidates stand? The Iraq war is big. What plans does your candidate have? Are they inline with your ideals? There are other big issues, health care, domestic spying, drilling for oil, nuclear power, privatization, gas prices and standing behind personal principles. You may be suprised by what you see from your candidate if you actually look.

With that in mind there is a website called What's Your Breaking Point that checks your candidate versus your uncompromisable values. Check it out and see if they match. Even if you have already voted, its fairly educational.

After you are done here are some other candidates to look at:
Cynthia McKinney - Green Party
Ralph Nader - Independent ( with some help )
Chuck Baldwin - Constitution Party
Bob Barr - Libertarian Party

You also might want to check out who you really match up with at glass booth.
^{The previous picture used from lifehacker without permission and does not represent my results.}

The next debate

While some people may be focusing on the major party debate tonight, I think I've had enough. I'll still watch tonights debate, at some point, but after the second presidential debate I have a feeling it will be more of the same. Pre-planned stump speeches that I have heard time and again.

Since I'm a fan of alternative parties, I am happy to say that there will be a debate this Sunday between 3 of the 4 candidates who also have their names on enough ballots to have a chance at the White House. Independent candidate Ralph Nader, Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney and the Constitution Party's Chuck Baldwin will all be on stage at Columbia University in New York. The Libertarian Party candidate, Bob Barr has a scheduling conflict but debate organizers said he only wants to debate Ralph Nader.

According to Third Party Ticket the debate will be broadcast online via Break The Matrix and possibly other internet venues Sunday, October 19th from 7PM to 9PM EST. The Miami Herald article I read said that the moderator will be Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! and recent winner of the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the alternative Nobel.

I recommend everyone watch these debates, even if you are an Obama-Mama( Dad's too :) ) or a McCainanite. If you haven't heard these candidates talk you will hear fresh perspectives that may inspire you to action. Once we are aware of the alternative, we can all help the major candidates see them as well.

Ron Paul, Minor Party Candidates and the 2008 Election

Yesterday I posted a video from CNN that had Ron Paul and Ralph Nader talking about the 4 points agreement made by the candidates of the Green, Libertarian and Constitution parties as well as Ralph Nader. Well C-Span has a video of the press conference available for viewing online. Unfortunately, I could not figure out a way to embed it in my blog.

An interesting news story about this press conference is that Bob Barr didn't show up. Evidently there are two reasons why. One, he didn't want to dilute his personal message by being on the same stage as Cynthia McKinney. The other being that he thinks Ron Paul should choose to support just one candidate, not four. More specifically he wants Dr. Paul to endorse him. He has also requested Ron Paul to be his running mate even though he doesn't expect Dr. Paul to accept.

Of course, the purpose of this press conference was to change the system. Get minor party candidates with varying beliefs to agree on something ( 4 major points ), that the major parties are not talking about and don't agree with.

This announcement of agreement was made just in time for the Lou Dobbs Independent Convention that will be happening today. I'm not sure if all of the 4 candidates will be on the show but I know that Ralph Nader will be on and I'm fairly certain Ron Paul will be there as well.

Political Cartoons

After this past week's political bruhaha over the DNC and McCain's choice of Palin as his running mate I found myself a bit annoyed. I constantly heard everyone talk about first black presidential candidate and first female vp candidate. Rarely have I seen a news source make it clear that this is in regards to the major parties. That's why the cartoon above was nice to see. ...

This website has some good alternative politcal cartoons. By alternative, I mean not mainstream politcal punditry in cartoon form. A perfect example is a recent cartoon about bipartisan militarism in American politics.

For recent entries you should check out their page of new ones.

StudioBendIb is definately worth checking out.

McKinney/Clemente on Democracy Now!

As a member of the Green Party, I feel a bit guilty about my lack of coverage of the Green Party candidates. Sure I've had an article about Kat Swift, Kent Mesplay and Jesse Johnson but the presumptive nominee for a long time has been Cynthia McKinney and I don't know that I've ever made a post about her. Even if I did, all my posts about Green Party candidates pale in comparison to my Ralph Nader/Matt Gonzalez posts. So when I saw that both Cynthia McKinnney and her Vice Presidential running mate Rosa Clemente were on Democracy Now! I made sure to watch. ...

I am a Green Party member, but I currently support Ralph Nader over Cynthia McKinney as his focus is more on the things that matter the most to me. Cynthia McKinney, on the other hand, is doing something I find nearly awe inspiring. She is bringing hip hop activism to the forefront of national politics by announcing Rosa Clemente as her vice presidential running mate. While I am a fan of music in general, the hip hop movement is about more than music and given my suburban white male upbringing it doesn't speak to me as much as I'm sure it does others. I found it educational when I first heard Jared Ball talk about hip hop activism at the Green Party debate in January and now I hope it begins to take hold.

The conversation that is hip hop in politics could very well change the nature of politics in America. Why do politician's have to speak about certain topics and not others? I believe the hip hop movement could, at the very least, give us more to discuss, debate and think about. I found it very intriguing, as a former fan of Public Enemy, to find a video on youTube where Professor Griff talked about why he supports Cynthia McKinney over Barack Obama.

Now how do we get him to vote? There are thousands of people who think just like him, voting doesn't do anything for him so he doesn't vote. There are thousands more people who think similar to him and yet vote for somebody who doesn't even hold the same values. How can we change this? Keep watching Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente and perhaps we will find out.

Green on Green

The following is a video I found when visiting the Green Party's website today. It's a succint look at the 4 Green Party candidates, why they are running Green, why you should vote ( and vote Green ) and the benefits of minor parties running in an election. ...

NPR talks third parties

I hate the term third party, it lumps all the parties that are not Republicans or Democrats in one group. However, it is a term people understand until we make a choice as American's to support more than one party two parties. None the less, NPR had a piece about what is happening outside of the "major" parties.

In this piece they talk about Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader and Michael Bloomberg. They also talk about the possibility of Ron Paul running as a 3rd party candidate.

Lost in Super Mardi Gras

Today is Super Tuesday. Today is Mardi Gras. But lost in the buildup to super mardi gras was any mention of what is going on in third parties. Since I am now a Green Party( currently unrecognized by my state ) member, I will point you in the direction of a couple of news bits about the Green Party. One bit is about Presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney and the other is in relation to whether or not Ralph Nader will run for President. ...

First, Cynthia McKinney was interviewed on Democracy Now! and spoke about many different aspects of her campaign and the Green Party. She was interviewed the day after the Super Bowl and told of the work she was doing to form a support committee for the voters of Latin America. Many of these countries have produced change by the power of the ballot and deserve our support. She also discusses her reasoning behind moving from the Democratic party to the Green Party. Following that discussion they talk about the two front running Democratic Candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In the end, though they move onto our next subject - Ralph Nader's possible run for the presidency and whether or not Cynthia Mckinney thinks it is a positive.( Hint: She like many voices in the political system ).

In the Cynthia McKinney interview they discussed how in the previous week Ralph Nader had announced he was setting up an exploratory committee for a Presidential run in 2008. So I did a search and found the interview with Ralph Nader after his announcement. For the most part it did two thing. The interview allowed Nader to mention his website for the committee( naderexplore08.org ) and explain part of his decision process for running.

I have been reading a lot about and by Ralph Nader as of late and this is big news. Ralph Nader is a voice for people to remember that they have power in this government. Ralph want to be out there, reminding people of this. If he gets elected along the way, we all could be better for it.

In the interest of complete journalism I am posting the full Democracy Now! videos that have both these interviews.

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Democracy Now! with Cynthia McKinney interview

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Democracy Now! with Ralph Nader interview

Campaign Withdrawals

I was busy moving this weekend so I missed Dennis Kucinich's withdrawal from the Presidential Race on Friday the 25th. He has decided to focus on keeping his seat in congress. In his speach he also talked about a new organization that will be started called Integrity Now. I don't know what it is but the name sounds good, of course so does No Child Left Behind so take that with a grain of salt. ...

Another withdrawal from the Presidential race, Dr. Jared Ball. This notice is even more belated than the Kucinich posting because I didn't have a good topic to post it. Dr. Ball has decided to throw his support behind Cynthia McKinney. He said as much in his closing arguments at the Green Party Debate on January 13th but made it official later in the week.

I said in my follow up article to the debate that Dr. Ball has the voice of a revolutionary. He could get many people voting that have felt, in the past, that their vote did not count. Keep up the good work Jared.

Reviewing the Green Party Debate

Last night, I watched the videos that I posted yesterday of the Green Party debate which occurred on Sunday. After watching the debate I agree with what Jared Ball said, it was more of a discussion than a debate. A discussion makes more sense when the Green Party convenes anyway. Below is my review of each of the candidates as well as a couple of my differences with what I heard in the discussion. ...

I will review each candidate as they appeared on stage from right to left, as that was the order they responded to questions. As a non-candidate I will review Ralph Nader last.

Dr. Jared Ball
Dr. Ball did not speak to me, at least not directly, and that was the point. He is working to get the word out to the community about the Green Party through the hip hop movement. I have always said that if you can get the 50%+ of voting aged American's that do not vote into the polls to vote for a cause you could start a revolution. Ladies and gentlemen, Jared Ball could very well be that revolutionary.

Dr. Kent Mesplay
Dr. Mesplay was very intelligent and put thoughts together well. He was very clear on almost all topics presented to him and it was obvious where he stood with each. He was a little subdued throughout the discussion but I did see some fire from him in his closing arguments. He was a great counterpoint to Dr. Jared Ball whose answers he followed in the debate.

Cynthia McKinney
As a six-term former member of Congress from Georgia( the first black congresswoman from that state ), she definately has the most high level political experience in the group of candidates. All of her responses showed that experience as many of the issues she had already dealt with on the congressional floor and in committee. I don't really need to say much about her as she speaks for herself, and quite well.

Kat Swift
What were you doing ( or are planning to do ) when you were 34? Were you running for President of the United States of America? The fact that she is running for President speaks volumes to her courage. Unfortunately she had to follow Cynthia McKinney for most question all night and that had a spotlight on her inexperience in high level politics. However, she did make a run for mayor as a Green Party candidate in the state of Texas and received 30% of the vote with 1/20th of the budget. Perhaps her strategy of speak the truth and people will vote for it works.

Jesse Johnson
Technically he is not a candidate, as he stated in his opening statement. That is based on the fact that he is the chair of the West Virginia Mountain party and is not allowed to hold or seek political office. That is really not important, as he was a great speaker to have at this event. His acting experience combined with his passion give his words a tremendous amount of power. He has presence.

Ralph Nader
While it is very clear that Ralph Nader isn't a candidate at this point, it was important that he was at this event. His opening statement was a powerhouse. In many ways it reminded me of the way Bill Clinton speaks. He doesn't tell you what to think directly but rather inspires you to think about what he is saying. It even had a dash of humor that garnered some laughs with the line, "there are people who really get angry about that." It is obvious why the Green Party wants to draft Nader as a Presidential nominee.

My Arguments
While I can agree with almost everything I have 2 points of contention with statements made last night.

1. Be a politician
I heard a few of them say that they were not politicians and I can understand why. The word politician has some nasty stuff associated with it, but that is not what it means at its core. I liken it to when I was in sales. At first I hated being called a salesman because of the negative connotations associated with the word, and I did poorly. At some point I saw that it was possible to be a salesperson and hold on to my personal values and take care of the customer the way I wanted. When I accepted the fact that I was a salesperson and sold to people based on my personal values I excelled as a salesperson. We must accept that it is possible to be a politician who acts from their personal values. Be the shining example of what is possible. Be the reason people need to wake up and start voting for Green Party( or any third party ) candidate. You aren't business as usual. You aren't a Democrat. You aren't a Republican. You are a Green Party politician and you don't act like the politicians people are used to.

2. Make distinctions between the office and the office holder
Language is a powerful thing and with great power comes great responsibility. The office of The President of the United States should talked about with respect in all cases, even when the person holding the office is not held in high regard. When you speak down about the office holder it needs to be clear that you are talking about the individual and not "The President." The main reason is that when you finally achieve that position, you do not want people to mistrust you just because you have the position you spoke so poorly of. This goes for all political positions that Green Party members are striving for.

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Daryl Joseph Ducharme is a proud member of the North Carolina Green Party