Reply
Sun 13 Jul, 2008 01:52 pm
Green Party Taps McKinney
July 13, 2008 9:49 AM
For those voters who think Ralph Nader and Bob Barr are too conventional, the Green Party this weekend named former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Georgia, its 2008 presidential nominee.
At the Green Party's nominating convention Saturday in at the Chicago Symphony Center, McKinney received 313 out of 532 votes cast in the first round of balloting.
"I am asking you to vote your conscience, vote your dreams, vote your future, vote Green," McKinney told the convention's 800 or so attendees. "A vote for the Green Party is a vote for the movement that will turn this country right-side-up again."
McKinney, a former six-term congresswoman and the first African-American woman elected to represent Georgia in Congress, might be best known for asking "What did this administration know and when did it know it, about the events of September 11th?"
Controversy has followed the outspoken public official seemingly wherever she goes. In 2000 she wrote that "Al Gore's Negro tolerance level has never been too high. I've never known him to have more than one black person around him at any given time." (She said that despite the fact that Gore's campaign manager at the time, Donna Brazile, is African-American.) In March 2006, McKinney and a Capitol Hill Police officer got into an altercation.
McKinney was defeated for reelection in the Democratic primary in 2002. After her successor unsuccessfully ran for US Senate, McKinney reclaimed her US House seat in 2004, only to be defeated in the primary again in 2006.
McKinney's vice presidential nominee will be hip-hop activist and journalist Rosa Clemente, 35.
In 2004, 119,859 Americans voted for then-Green Party nominee David Cobb, giving him 0.1 percent of the total. In 2000, 2.8 million voters chose then-Green Party nominee Nader, giving him 2.7 percent of the total, and in the view of many Democrats, helping to swing the election to then-Gov. George W. Bush.
Cynthia is by far the lesser of all the evils running.
McKinney and Bob Barr should stage a series of debates in which they attempt to out-crazy each other.
Perhaps I am misinformed about the origins and focus of the Green Party, but wouldn't you expect its 2008 presidential candidate to have some sort of environmentalist record?
McKinney is a kook, and her being the candidate of the Green Party speaks volumes about its substance.
When I saw this development all I could think was...WTF?
Committed to environmentalism, non-violence, social justice and grassroots organizing
The above taken from Green Party home page.
Yeah but edgar, once the right labels someone a nut, they will stick to it and substantiate it with the same worn out anecdotes. You'll notice they won't let your posting of the record of the good she's done deter them, either.
They did the same thing with Howard Dean, and all he had to do was scream once.
I'm just laying out information. Not going to engage in arguments in this thread.
Being a racist is a badge of honor for her...that's her core being.
snood wrote:Yeah but edgar, once the right labels someone a nut, they will stick to it and substantiate it with the same worn out anecdotes. You'll notice they won't let your posting of the record of the good she's done deter them, either.
They did the same thing with Howard Dean, and all he had to do was scream once.
The "record of the good she's done?"
I guess you mean:
As a police officer, McKinney's father would challenge the racially discriminatory policies of the Atlanta Police Department that were in effect at the time by publicly protesting in front of the station, often carrying young McKinney on his shoulders.
McKinney earned a B.A. in international relations from the University of Southern California, a Masters of Art in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Her political career began in 1986 when her father, a representative in the Georgia House of Representatives, submitted her name as a write-in candidate for the Georgia state house. She got about 40 percent of the popular vote, despite the fact that she lived in Jamaica at the time...
In 2007, McKinney moved from her long time residence in the Atlanta suburb of Stone Mountain to California
She was the first African American woman to represent Georgia in the House.[6] She coasted to re-election in 1994.
McKinney immediately challenged House rules requiring women to wear dresses by wearing slacks.
In 1995 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Johnson that the 11th District was an unconstitutional gerrymander because the boundaries were drawn based on the racial composition of the constituents.[6] McKinney's district was subsequently renumbered as the 4th and redrawn to take in almost all of DeKalb County, prompting outrage from McKinney. She asserted that it was a racially-discriminatory ruling, given the fact that the Supreme Court had previously ruled that Texas's 6th District, which is 91 percent white, was constitutional.[6]
On October 17, 2001, McKinney introduced a bill calling for "the suspension of the use, sale, development, production, testing, and export of depleted uranium munitions pending the outcome of certain studies of the health effects of such munitions. . . . (Now that one is just simply heroic.)
During the 2000 presidential campaign, McKinney wrote that "Al Gore's Negro tolerance level has never been too high. I've never known him to have more than one black person around him at any given time."
McKinney protested the result in court (Her 2002 primary loss),
claiming that thousands of Republicans, knowing they had no realistic chance of defeating her in the November general election, had voted in the Democratic primary against McKinney in revenge for her anti-Bush administration views and her allegations of voter fraud in Florida in the 2000 Presidential Election.
On the night before the primary election, McKinney's father stated on Atlanta television that "Jews have bought everybody ... J-E-W-S" in the election, referring to Dekalb County's large Jewish community. (Well, if she's going to take credit for the good things he did...)
Cynthia McKinney in 2006McKinney traveled widely as a public speaker between her terms in office.
In a January 2004 issue of Jet magazine, McKinney said that the "white, rich Democratic boys club wanted [her] to stay in the back of the bus."
As a result of the fragmented primary opposition, McKinney won just enough votes to avoid a runoff.
Had she been able to regain her seniority, she would have been a senior Democrat on the International Relations and Armed Services committees, as well as ranking Democrat on an International Relations subcommittee. (I wonder why the Democrats broke with tradition)
McKinney hosted the first delegation of Afro-Latinos from Central and South America and worked with the World Bank and the U.S. State Department to recognize Afro-Latinos.
She stood with Aboriginals against Australian mining companies; and with the U'wa people of Colombia in their fight to save their land from oil rigs.
She was one of the 31 in the House who objected to the official allotment of the electoral votes from Ohio in the United States presidential election, 2004 to incumbent George W. Bush.
Initially, McKinney kept a low profile upon her return to Congress.
... on July 22, 2005, the first anniversary of the release of the 9/11 Commission Report, McKinney held a well-attended Congressional briefing on Capitol Hill to address outstanding issues regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks.
McKinney has submitted to Congress two different versions of the same bill, the "MLK Records Act" (one in 2003, the other in 2005), which, if signed into law, would release all currently sealed files concerning the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr..
Documents relating to the death of rapper Tupac Shakur, in which McKinney has taken an active interest, would be released under another bill introduced by Rep. McKinney.
McKinney has been an advocate for victims of Hurricane Katrina and a critic of the government's response. (No legislation? Wait, it's coming)
McKinney was the only member of Congress to participate in a march across the Crescent City Connection Bridge on November 7, 2005, to protest what had happened on that bridge in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Here it is, although it never went anywhere:
McKinney introduced a bill on November 2, 2005, that would temporarily deny federal assistance to the City of Gretna Police Department, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, and the Crescent City Connection Division Police Department, in the state of Louisiana.
McKinney chose to be an active participant in the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina...McKinney asked Chertoff: "Mr. Secretary, if the nursing home owners are arrested for negligent homicide, why shouldn't you also be arrested for negligent homicide?"
The second title of the bill was submitted by McKinney, seeking a Comprehensive Environmental Sampling and Toxicity Assessment Plan, or CESTAP, to minimize harm to Gulf Coast residents from the toxic releases into the environment caused by the hurricane.
Rep. McKinney along with Rep. Barbara Lee (CA), produced a "Katrina Legislative Summary," a chart summarizing House and Senate bills on Hurricane Katrina.
On August 2, 2007, McKinney participated in a press conference in New Orleans to launch an International Tribunal on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which she described as an effort to seek justice for the victims of those hurricanes and their aftermath.
On November 18, 2005, McKinney was one of only three House members (out of 406) to vote for H.R. 571, introduced by House Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan Hunter, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, on which McKinney sat. Remember this was indeed a trap set by Rep Hunter, and Rep McKinney was one of only three House members to fall for it)
At the end of the 2006 legislative session, McKinney introduced articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush as (H Res 1106), which makes three charges against Bush: manipulating intelligence and lying to justify the war in Iraq, failing to uphold accountability and violating privacy laws with his domestic spying program. The second article also makes charges against Vice President Dick Cheney for helping to "fix" the intelligence in order to justify the Iraq War, and against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for making false statements concerning Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction program.[citation needed]
McKinney made an apology on the floor of the House of Representatives on April 6, 2006, neither admitting to nor denying the charge, stating only that: "There should not have been any physical contact in this incident." Minutes before making the Congresswoman's apology, McKinney's security officer made contact with a TV correspondent outside of the U.S. Capitol.
Her offscreen comments were captured on tape. She was heard saying, "Oh, crap, now you know what ... they lied to Coz, and Coz is a fool."[38] She was referring to one of her aides, Coz Carson. McKinney realized the embarrassing mistake and returned on screen with the microphone, this time with instructions on what parts of the interview CBS 46 was allowed to use, "anything that is captured by your audio ... that is captured while I'm not seated in this chair is off the record and is not permissible to be used ... is that understood?"[4] The comments from the interview were immediately aired on CBS and eventually across the nation.
At an August 27 peace rally in Kennebunkport, Maine McKinney confirmed the depth of her disenchantment with the Democratic Party, urging San Francisco voters to replace Nancy Pelosi with antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan
On April 14, 2006, she received the key to the city of Sarasota, Florida, and was doubly honored when the city named April 8 as "Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney Day" in Sarasota. (Wasn't she a congresswoman from Georgia?)
What a record!
So much good done!
Nothing kooky about her!
(Source: edgar's own post -
)
She has a mixed record, but the majority of it is good. Unlike people like Bush who are in the minus on that score.
edgarblythe wrote:She has a mixed record, but the majority of it is good. Unlike people like Bush who are in the minus on that score.
edgar - you posted the (clearly biased) summary of her record. Anyone would be hardpressed to find anything "good" let alone concur that the majority is "good."
What "good" has she done?
Must be this
McKinney immediately challenged House rules requiring women to wear dresses by wearing slacks.
or
Cynthia McKinney in 2006 traveled widely as a public speaker between her terms in office.
or this heroic accomplishment
McKinney hosted the first delegation of Afro-Latinos from Central and South America and worked with the World Bank and the U.S. State Department to recognize Afro-Latinos.
As stated earlier, I don't intend to argue this thread, but merely to post information. I deviated that one time, but it won't happen again.
I'm checking in as uninformed. If I have any biases, they're against her, a flume person, meaning inchoate emotion as a kind of battery.
I'll let y'all know if I figure anything out.
edgarblythe wrote:As stated earlier, I don't intend to argue this thread, but merely to post information. I deviated that one time, but it won't happen again.
The info you posted in no way substantiates the claim you've made:
"...the majority of it (her record) is good."
Posting highly biased (and frankly laughable) "information" is not a neutral activity.
Maybe snood cares to inform us of the specific "good" Rep. McKinney has accomplished and why there is no reason to consider her a "kook."
If it's so biased, how is it you find negatives? Looks like they would have left that out. I posted that description because I thought it gave a better than biased look at her. Still, I won't be drawn into an argument.
edgarblythe wrote:If it's so biased, how is it you find negatives? Looks like they would have left that out. I posted that description because I thought it gave a better than biased look at her. Still, I won't be drawn into an argument.
I find negatives because the biased authors are idiots and obviously don't realize how laughable their list of accomplishments actually is.
Neither do you for that matter.
This is your notion of unbiased? Speaks volumes.
Don't argue - stop responding.
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace