Cocaine has ravaged the minds.. -uh-.. brains of Hollywood...I'd lay 5 to 1 odds that Sean's dealer made a pre-screed delivery with "super-size" written on the brown paper bag....

Can we get a storefront for people who don't have an "office" . This sounds so bazzare

OK I'll stop saying "handcuffs" and "think Orange" Revolution because it just isn't going to happen, we'd then still have . I'm either not voting at all let them have their damn wars or.....voting for Kucinich. I just cannot take the heartbreak of another Bush/Clinton era. So Kucinich can't debate in N.H. because he doesn't have an office. Give me a break! Then lets introduce a bill saying he doesn't have to or it's illegal to keep someone from debating for that reason. For Pete[s sake somebody think of something! How about pamphlets with Keith Olberman's speech the other night. That was dynamite! Our argument in a nutshell! Put it on everyones web page, everyone's newsletter, take out a page in NYTimes. whatever.... But let's do something!

Dionski,

I don't want to turn this into some sort of debate between you and me, but I guess I have to respond:

Sorry for being, as you put it, ludicrous, but Kerry DID have one of the most liberal voting records out there and he DID come darn close to winning. And maybe, just maybe, if he had run a better campaign he might have actually won, despite the Bush cabal's tricks. Maybe, just maybe, he would have been better off if he'd been MORE liberal and voted against the war, instead of voting for the war. Did he lose because he was too liberal or did he lose because he didn't quite dare to be as liberal as he wanted to be (he WAS a Vietnam War protester, after all)? We'll never know.

If we think there's nothing we can do to get our country back on track, if we think it's impossible to elect a true progressive, we might as well grab ourselves a collective bottle of bourbon and say to hell with it all. And, you know, that's exactly what the powers-that-be want us to do. They love it when we get all nihilistic and fatalistic and so on. Makes it easier for them to keep us depressed and buying junk we don't need at Wal-Mart to alleviate our depression.

But I agree with you about Ron Paul. He's right about the Iraq War, but the reason why he's right is because he's a Libertarian and Libertarians are always against war because they're isolationists.

But he's not for the poor.

Mr Penn,

Lets just face it. Americans are not evolved enough to vote and elect someone like Kucinich. The best we can hope for, is to have a Edwards/Kucinich ticket in 2008.

Maybe by 2012 or 2016, Americans will be ready for someone like Kucinich.

Howvere, if we don't work to get Edwards on the ticket now (along with Kucinich) we may be stuck with H. Clinton (I happen to think she unelectable, so it actually maybe Huckabee or Romney).

More idiocy!

The MSM have written off Kucinich, slimed him, etc. So it is not possible for him to win?

Really?!

Are you going to let the MSM tell you who to vote for? Vote for the candidate you want, and to hell with the talking heads of the MSM. You know they're all right-wingers or right-wing apologists, bought and paid for by large corporations.

Yet I keep reading bilge about how they've already decided. They've decided whom they want - but not how I will vote. I won't vote for their candidates.

If you won't vote for Kucininch because he's been declared 'unelectable,' then shame on you! You know what the MSM are, you complain about them incessantly, then you want to throw in the towel and vote for the candidates they like. It's irrational.

As much as I detest caps:

THE ONLY THING THAT DETERMINES A CANDIDATE'S 'ELECTABILITY IS THE WILLINGNESS OF THE PEOPLE TO VOTE FOR THAT CANDIDATE.

Vote Kucinich. Tell the MSM 'experts' to go straight to hell!

Huckabee on the R side was all but written off and now the pundits are saying that he's caught on because he's running a that shows his humaninty and his compassion---maybe, mayube not, but in any case, he was written off a month or so ago SO perhaps our DK may surprise them as well, in spite of their eforts to marginalize and ridicule him.

With Kucinich there is no double speak. He says it how it is. There is NO corporate money, so it is truly 'the people' that own him. He has courage. He has integrity.

My first choice is Dennis Kucinich.

My second choice is to WRITE IN Dennis Kucinich.

If the vote is split in the Democratic party because of this then the blood is on your hands for voting the way you did. By voting for someone that is 'electable' and not someone that is going to do something for America, we the people and the world.

Electable? Try Republican again and see how you like the sounds of that for another 4 years!

Have some faith in yourself and in a candidate that is standing up against the thugs in office now, like the Democrats that took Impeachment off the table.

Keep your money, we want change. We want courage. We want integrity.

Kucinich gets my vote! Only Kucinich gets my vote, there is no second choice.

The only way I will settle for second best, is if you elect them because of your vote for 'electable'.

Kucinich, like Cindy Sheehan, doesn't actually have to win to make a difference. Would having them elected help? Of course. Would having Kucinich get 25% of the votes in the first primary or two send the others scrambling to get those votes? I think so, even if in the end he doesn't win. If you have the chance to vote for him, do so. If he did manage to win the primary, he'd get barrels of publicity from press asking "Dennis who?" and the Repub's attack dogs wouldn't know where to have at him, because they certainly haven't planned any attacks and his record wouldn't be easy to attack short of a "big lie" that Goebbels used.
Craig

Ticonderoga
"Kerry had one of the most liberal voting records out there and yet he almost won, despite his poorly run campaign and the Bush cabal's machinations."

I have to agree:
You left out running against a wartime president.
Yet he still got more votes than any other democrat in history, including Al Gore.

"National Journal's annual analysis of legislators' votes found in 2003 that Kerry and Edwards, respectively, had the first- and fourth-most-liberal voting records in the Senate."

"Americans for Democratic Action; Kerry has a lifetime average of 92. As Republicans note, this is two points higher than Democrat Walter F. Mondale's lifetime ADA average."
Washington Post

"On a number of issues, including support for gun control, gay rights and the environment, Mr. Kerry has a long, consistent record. He has been a strong opponent of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and has earned a lifetime 96 percent "right" voting record from the League of Conservation Voters.

His lifetime score from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. is 90 percent, while his rating by the American Conservative Union stands at just 6 percent."
e. the People

"In 2002, Kerry was one of the leaders of the Senate filibuster that defeated the Bush administration's proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling."

"In 1998, the League of Conservation Voters gave Kerry an award for having one of the best environmental voting records in the Senate over the previous five years. In 2004, the Sierra Club endorsed Kerry, the first time it had endorsed a Presidential candidate before the party conventions."
Wikapedia

I could go on all day, Kerry is still one of my favorite liberal senators and I am still in mourning about his lose in 2004.

Only a George Steinbrenner would deny someone that came that close another chance at the big prize.

auspiciousbunny,

The best website I've found for looking up voting records is Project Vote Smart. Have you any better ones? I think this is key to researching what our politicians are really doing.

Maybe not, as some credentials worse than dubious.

What if they were to shave off any other candidate's hair, would all of them be proudly (but secretly) carrying the mark of the beast 666 on their heads?

I would suggest people who are undecided at least go to one of the internet sites where you can research your candidates voting record on important legislation. People should at least know what the candidate has really been up to and see if what they say coincides with their actions.

It makes me sick how the media cuts Kucinich out. He has all the credentials any other candidate has.

Sean, Pat Tillman was a fucking hero for BOTH sides of the Iraq war debate.... and which side killed him? When Don King owns both boxers in the ring, the King always wins. The greatest hoax perpetrated against the American public is the Democrat/Republican blue - red show. 300 million and two ideas are "electable"?
Our vetted system of elections only allows the "electable" to win. It's a forgone conclusion... The last idiot to think he was really president ended up with a magic bullet in his head.
Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich would make a nice pair of constitutional guards but if they were allowed to make it to the show.... they'd be blown away with two magic bullets by a lone gunman like Osama bin Oswald... Or whoever the powers that be decides photogenic enough to take the rap. Great rant... but displaying the left/right paradigm as actually existing plays into the power mongers hands and perpetuates the charade of our "electable" democracy. When Clinton wins it will be 32 years of a Bush/Clinton Dictatorship. Nice, eh?
Good luck with your next project!

I've heard about Mike Gravel, too. I'm sure he isn't seriously running for President but what he is doing is taking every chance he has to yell out loud the truth. If any of us are listening or awake and he sparks a question in our brains, he has accomplished what he set out to do. And with his own money, I'm sure. So, we may be witnessing a case of altruism. And I, for one, am grateful. The truth is always welcome.
And, may I say, this post is way too negative. We are in deep dew and need all of the positive intellectual diplomats and scientists we can get our hands on to set us on the right path. Enough nay-sayers.

Peace Czar,

I know who Mike Gravel is, and I think he rocks. He's an American hero as far as I'm concerned, a man who almost single-handedly ended the draft during the Vietnam War with his filibustering endurance.

The most amazing thing about Gravel is the simple fact that even fewer people know about him than know about Kucinich, which is almost unbelievable considering what he's already done, politically.

To be honest there's very little difference, as far as ideas go, between Kucinich and Gravel. I'd be VERY happy with either man as President.

It's a sad state of affairs that most of the poor and middle class in America have never even heard of the two candidates who have offered them the most help.

Sean,

A masterpiece. Did you write it?

How about doing a script with you as Ben Franklin? Cast Jim Cary as King George the Third (only he could do a deraged bushmonkey the right way)

It would be timeless.

pacplyer

For all those who say voting for a third party doesn't count for much, I would say that is exactly the only way to build an alternative base in this country aside from I don't know what. That is exactly how some Greens had gotten seats in Europe, that is how movements grow. So you're basically telling me you'd like to cop out and not allow any type of movement to grow because you are satisfied with the status quo.

But then I suppose the Europeans must have then had a shred of a wee sense of personal power left in 'em, that's how they got that together, right?

Can I buy a paragraph?

righbt on jmacneil
but when the signal comes 12 million hispanicxs with guns hopefull will kill them all
they never forgot 1847 as they are all taught in 2nd grade
tiume for real revol;ution as per Thomas Jefferson's words

'Term Limits' by Vince Flynn is right on

ticonderoga:

A real voting revolution? EMPOWER THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Mike Gravel's life passion, his reason for his candidacy. Empower Americans to become lawmakers. Representative government is BROKEN. Broke-broke-broken. Bring the people in as the 4th check and balance to create the laws our cowardly Congress will never dare:

www.nationalinitiative.us

Great to hear such ferociously potent words to advocate Kucinich.

Like someone above said, I too prefer Mike Gravel. I'd love to hear a similar statement on his behalf, but I'm glad this is out there to promote the progressive agenda.

Dionski:

Kerry had one of the most liberal voting records out there and yet he almost won, despite his poorly run campaign and the Bush cabal's machinations. To me this is a clear indication that, back then, there were a lot of Americans out there who were open to progressive ideas. And now, almost four years later, things have gotten much worse and people perhaps are, as a consequence, much more interested in progressive ideas. You know, knee-jerk reaction time. So maybe, if we try, we can elect Dennis. Sure can't if we don't try.

After all, we just might be ready for a revolution, a voting revolution. I mean, how do Communist revolutions start? What triggers them? It's when the wealthy take too much from the poor, isn't it? And then the poor finally say "We've had enough!" Maybe we've had enough, finally, so we can risk voting for the candidate we really want.

Aren't you all sub-estimating the strength of the net?

This story currently has only 9 diggs and 2 stumbles...

What can we do to help?

The story needs to be dug, stumbled, propelled, stuck on myspace, hi5, etc... We can add it to all the social networking sites we already belong to, register in as many new social networks as we can and add it too. Email our friends asking them to do the same thing.

We can blog about it, link to it from our Websites, google the title repeatedly (brings it up in the google searches so people who are looking to see what's popular will see it too), use it as our signature in all the forums we belong to, create forum threads about it.

Those are just some ideas of things we can do to push the topic and alert other Internet users. If anyone has more ideas to contribute, I'll be happy to do my share.

Just my $0.02.

I'm not even American but what's right is right wherever you were born.

If everyone who truly respected DK, actually voted for him--he still wouldn't win. Even the mainstream puppets Gore and Kerry couldn't get enough votes against the joke that is W to keep the elections out of reach of larceny. This country is (unfortunately) solidly way, way, way to the right of the likes of DK.
Edwards has a message that could conceivably have crossover appeal. If he can't gain enough traction, I'll default to Obama. But, let's face it. This country is probably beyond redemption at this point. No amount of subtle tweaking is going to create something benign out of this mess. Amerika is a failed experiment and the world has tolerated its malignant existence for far too long.

Sorry to use the word "other" four times in one paragraph.

Gabrielle; You are my new hero! Very well said.

Bravo, Bravo! At least almost all of us want DK in the White House. We must convince the 'undeciders' to vote for Kucinich in state primaries and in the presidential election next year. We have to convince the other folks not to waste their votes on Clinton, Obama, Edwards, or the others, and that the corrupt MainStreamMedia monopolists want the other candidates, especially the first two, running against (actually alongside) the Repugnant candidate of the so-called other party in order to maintain an ever-growing fascist dictatorship.

srsell38; Thank you for the compliment. I've expressed the same feelings many times in some of my comments.

By the way, CDer's... Professor William Hudson, University of Missouri, is an economic adviser to our hero, Dennis Kucinich, and if you have never read or heard Mr. Hudson speak, go to...gunsandbutter.net, and check out Bonnie's interviews. You can also send away for the tapes. (highly recommended)

That's great, claudius! Maybe we can't win, I don't know, but we have to try. Bumper stickers, talk to people, write reader editorials to our local papers, donate what we can, talk Sean Penn into making a movie about Kucinich or starting up a rock concert to get him some fame, whatever.

And you know, we won't be wasting our time or our vote, for the simple reason that all the other candidates have betrayed us already.

We've got two choices: try to elect, despite the MSM's lack of cooperation, an almost perfect candidate, a candidate who's the best advocate for the poor since FDR, or try to get the corporate flunky candidates that have been anointed by the MSM and who don't give a flying fig about the poor to change their spots. Neither is easy, but I think the latter is impossible.

Peace out.

Ticonderoga,

DK definitely has my vote. And I will try like hell to get other people to vote for him too.

You got moxie, sophia. That, and a good idea. We live in a capitalistic society, a capitalistic society where TV (and movies) and celebrity rule, and publicity is the name of the game. If Kucinich isn't elected President it won't be because the poor and middle class don't like his ideas, it'll be because they don't know he exists.

So, yeah, Kucinich needs a manager, an agent, a big-time agent that'll get him lots of media attention. So, if the MSM won't touch Kucinich with a ten-foot pole when he's on his own, despite his ridiculously beautiful wife, maybe they will if he's part of a huge Live Aid-type concert (remember that one, the one Bob Geldof organized?) with Peace being the name of the game. Either that or a movie. Any progressive movie makers and/or actors out there that want to make a movie out of Kucinich's life? Could base it on his autobiography, The Courage to Survive, which besides being a really well-written book and a riveting portrayal of Cleveland's inner-city poor in the '50's and '60's, clearly illustrates that Dennis is the one Presidential candidate who really understands where the poor are coming from.

Big fat rock concert, with Peace and Dennis Kucinich being the raison d'etre for the concert, or a big fat box-office smash of a movie about Kucinich's life, made with big-name actors, ought to make the MSM sit up and take notice. They'll have to report on it because if they don't they'll lose money, and if it's one thing the MSM doesn't like to do it's lose money.

Sean, you feel like being Kucinich's agent? You did a great job with that article. Think you can get a movie rolling? A rock concert? Something, anything, to get Dennis's name out there. It's got to be visual, though, on TV or the movies, because for most Americans if it's not on TV it's not real.

Sophia, I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to email you. Has to be a way.

And, claudius, there's never going to be any proof. If there were proof there would be no need to have an election. Maybe all we need to do is try like hell, and proof be damned.

Question: How do we really know how many voters will vote for Kucinich? In a recent poll, the MSM gave DK 5% of the vote. In another non-MSM poll he stands at 43%. So how do we know that there are that many voters out there who actually will not vote for him? In other words, where IS the proof?

Sean,
Are you out there? Are you reading this? I'm pumped up. I have no other goal, I have not a more worthy cause than to get Kucinich elected. It makes no mathematical sense that there are more poor people like ourselves than rich people like the evil-doers and we still lose. Kinda like the recent Chavez blunder. And how dare we sit on our collective asses and just write blogs while he and his ridicously beautiful wife travel the world, give speeches and endure MSM's pathetic attempt to stifle and humiliate them. His comebacks, however, are almost as ridiculously brilliant as Elizabeth is beautiful and compassionate.
So, Sean. We need endorsers. Obama is taken care of. Hillary is taken care of - thank you Robert Kennedy Jr. - what about Congressman Kucinich? Where are Susan and Tim, where are Brad and Angelina, where are Willie and Annie? I know there are more than just you, although you are the bomb. But where? Time is running out. This is for all the marbles. We need a Yoko Ono "Strength through Peace" rock concert. gacaiola@gmail.com

I love you, CDers...so many thoughtful and passionate comments. I want DK to be our next president. Go to his website, order lots of bumperstickers, slap them on your preferred mode of transportation, change peoples' minds by introducing his ideas, and give them stickers too! Get his name and platform out there, freeway blog that he's the only candidate who can turn this mess of a country around. Donate, especially on 12/15. Peace to you all.

Dr Ron Paul & Kukinich, this way We'd have the control of the White House for 8 yrs with Dr Paul & 8 more yrs with Mr Kukinich-Sen paul has more draw by the fact of being a doctor, over 4000 baby's will draw alot of ladies votes. What we do aboot the beech is demand she/it be prosecuted for non reporting of those millions in illegal campaign bribes r "donations" by the chinee, same chinee BJ Bill sold out to. The resiedent is not to be impeached but tried for treason then the black hood & Hemp Rope-We can all take bets n see if he dumps in his pants when boosh does the dance. Bets r he will escape to that Parquay ranch with Blackwater. Then we could do as the isreali & carpet bomb resident boosh's Paraquay ranch-You notice in the resident press agthering-he actually learned a new word-covert, covert operation & Iran is not to have the knowledge to build a nuke-any yahoo/google search will give step by step on how to build several "covert" nukes-I wonder if he still hears voices from agwd & is this the same one he refers to b y that Gawd damned piece of paper

Well said, Mimirae, Rep. Kucinich is the only viable progressive candidate, apologies to Sen. Gravel. Let's try to support him.

Enjoyed your well voiced monograph on a very decent,ernest man,but he ain't gonna make it dude.The media has already done it's dirty work...making fun of him...reporting sly gaffs at him and his attractive wife,and acting as usual,giving us news that fit to use for toilet paper...instead of pointing out that,of all the Talking Heads up there on the stages they posture from,Dennis is the ONLY candidate that 'gets'it.We are in deep ka-ka in this country.
He has lucid ideas,fine 'core' values without hitting us on our heads with his religious views,and unassailable ethics
as a foundation for his platform.
He is not a smooth-talking,good-looking,smarmy alpha male.
Until this country sees beyond the covers of these tricked out Books of Bluster we are enduring in the debates,until America can finally recognize a person who can take over an office that has been shamed and disgraced and bring it back to it former dignity and luster,we will keep on getting what we deserve.Sub-standard people doing more harm than national good....and the world will look at us and continue to distrust and despise us.
Gabrielle's post(above this one)says it all.
The choice is ours.

Okay, so Sean Penn uses a lot of sentence fragments for stylistic effect. So what? That's only bad when you don't know what a sentence is, and my guess is that Penn knows exactly what a sentence is. Yeah, he'd get a poor English grade in elementary school, but not in a college writing class. And he wrote that article in a sort of stream-of-consciousness way, but that's sort of how Henry Miller and James Joyce wrote.

I thought the article rocked. And it's good to see someone with some celebrity endorsing Dennis, as opposed to Hillary Clinton (How weird is it that the man who made Schindler's List endorsed Hillary) or Barack Obama.

Electability? Dennis Kucinich's ideas are in the best interests of almost everyone in the country, with the exception of really, really rich white guys (corporations), people for whom abortion is the only issue, and the politicians who are the kept mistresses of the really, really rich white guys (most of them). Yeah, you know, the poor and the middle class. Those people. We, the People. And there's a lot more of us than there are really, really rich white guys and kept politicians and even people for whom abortion is the only issue. So he can be elected if we just quit listening to folks who say he can't. All we have to do is vote for him. And spread the word.

After all, what are the real issues for the poor and the middle class? Jobs, a clean environment for their kids, peace for their kids (rich men's sons don't die in wars), and health care for their kids. Every other issue is a red herring, fed to the poor and the middle class so they don't think Dennis is electable. So let's not get so negative we prove them right.

And, yeah, sophia, Kucinich's book was a show-stopper.

thank you Sean for constantly SCREAMING what I am not even allowed to whisper. how will we ever get out of this mess? not with hillary clinton. sometimes it feels like we are just totally f%cked. I still haven't given up on Gore.

www.poetsadiesworld.com

This post gives me hope. There are so many of us who care about working for peace, social justice, economic equality and preserving the planet for future generations to enjoy. As we approach the winter solstice, it is time to reflect and to take inventory. Thank you, Sean for initiating this dialogue. I applaud you for your uncompromising stance in art as well as in politics.

To paraphrase John Prine, I for one will no longer "eat everything that they put on my dish". I refuse to go into the voting booth and hold my nose one more time. I would feel like a traitor, an accomplice—if I were to vote for someone that I knew would carry out the policies of the elite faction that bought the next election. We know all too well what this means. We are witnessing the Dims in action (sic) since we voted them in last November to carry out our political will. They've caved in on so many fronts. In the past year, we have watched as they reallocated funds for the Iraq occupation, abandoned SCHIP, enacted anemic cafta standards (not on par with other overdeveloped nations), resuscitated the Patriot Act, approved the Peruvian trade agreement (they couldn't pull off a South American or a Central American deal, so they're doing it piecemeal), preserved tax cuts for the uberrich,….to name just a few acts of commission. I plan to vote for Dennis Kucinich because he is the only one on the ticket with the credentials to be President. He unabashedly supports security through peace, a universal single payer health care system, cancellation of NAFTA and all so called trade agreements, authentic economic reform, protection of civil liberties, renewable and green technologies, diversity and localism in media, etc. In order to get any exposure in public forums, he has to resort to posing questions to himself. Rep. Kucinich has passion, commitment, and impeccable ethics. He's the only one to have taken exception to Wolf Blitzer's inflammatory "illegal alien" terminology. Yet he continues to be marginalized in MSM. Some would like to relegate him to the "fringe". I contend that he embodies core values of mainstream Americans and people of conscience. A group of my friends participated in a blind on-line values oriented survey. Most of them consider themselves to be moderate democrats. They were surprised to discover that the candidate they were most closely aligned with was Dennis Kucinich.

I don't think we have anything to lose. We are already on the precipice. If we vote Kucinich and he wins, great!!!!! If we are not successful in electing him, then we allow the dialectic that is already in motion to play out. The most merciful thing one can do when a creature is in its agonizing death throws is to euthanize it. I've done this for cats, rats and turtles who have shared my home over the years. The skull and bones cabal is in its last stages. We can either place it on life support and all share in a long and agonizing death…or we can put it out of its misery. The choice is ours.

Doom n Gloom December 8th, 2007 7:26 am said:
Dithering is destructive.

Unfortunately, dithering seems to be all the Democrats in office right now can do.

I believe that keeping Kucinich in the race as long as possible is very important even if he does not end up the candidate. I hope this helps.

Chunga's Revenge December 8th, 2007 1:57 pm

"Bob K - What exactly are you blathering about with your statement about low wage replacement workers? The undocumented workers from south of the boarder are not replacing any jobs that American citizens are willing to do."

Chunga's Revenge - If you don't know by now that meatpacking, manufacturing, construction, janitorial, landscaping, and many other jobs were once good-paying jobs with benefits that were done by American citizens, and are now mostly done by illegal migrant, low-wage replacement workers, you may be beyond help. It's a return to sweatshops we're witnessing -- neoslavery, whatever you want to call it -- and a disastrous decline in wages, benefits and standard of living for all working-class American citizens.

In any event, here are some links to reports from two good, well-informed progressives who have written clearly on these issues. I recommend these articles highly.

David Podvin:

"The Rape of the Working Class"
democrats.com, April 24, 2006
http://www.democrats.com/node/8697

"Comprehensive Moral Squalor"
makethemaccountable.com, September 3, 2007
http://makethemaccountable.com/podvin/more/060610_ComprehensiveMoralSqual
or.htm

"Labor Day"
makethemaccountable.com, June 10, 2006
http://makethemaccountable.com/index.php/2007/09/03/david-podvin-labor-day/

Thom Hartmann:

Today's Immigration Battle: Corporatists vs. Racists (and Labor is Left Behind)
truthout.org, March 29, 2006
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/58/18762

Reclaiming the Issues: "It's an Illegal Employer Problem"
CommonDreams.org, July 5, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0705-23.htm

Supporting Edwards is supporting the elite. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations...seemingly benign but is not. So are John Bolton, George H W Walker Bush, Dick cheney, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice..to name a very few. The CFR, Trilateral Commission, Bilderbergs, Illuminati...etc etc..All made up of the power elite that spans the globe and they have an agenda and it has nothing to do with the welfare of the 'common people' which is their eyes are their expendable work force. Search these groups and the many more than I listed. Some members belong to more than one of these groups. Bill Clinton by the way has been a Bilderberg member since 1991..Check out the membership lists.
Start with
http://www.bilderberg.org/bilderberg2007.pdf

Dennis Kucinich is not a member of any of them. The only decent 100% American with the integrity and values that this country is now lacking thanks to years of these societies that have trashed all they have touched.

Sean Penn, Thanks for writing on Common Dreams. The Sf Chronical had the article on you in today's paper with the Kucinich sign in the background. As you could see by the Common Dreamer's response on Kucinich being our next president, this momentum for supporting and endorsing Dennis has been ongoing all along. We will be writing in or voting for him in the primaries and on election day. No more lesser of two evils.

Alaskanfront, I like your posts. I've been a vegetarian since 68, and even if Kucinich was a "meat eater", I'd vote for him because the other candidates are "cannibals", eating their own, by comparison. You know what I mean.

Kucinich in 2008! President of the United States. Keep up the support, my fellow Americans! .

Thank goodness I just got a small raise so I can finally donate the $100 to the Kucinich campaign that I've been wanting to. If anyone who reads CommonDreams is too stupid to understand what Sean Penn is saying about Kucinich, maybe there is no hope for us. But I remain optimistic because I have nothing else to hold onto. If Penn's free-form is too radical for you to understand, read Kucinich's book - The Courage to Survive. It is well-written and punctuated and is written in paragraphs and chapters - just like some of these commentators like. Personally, I understood Sean Penn's point and wholeheartedly agree. In my opinion, Kucinich is beyond reproach and is the only choice for President. And we have no time to lose, no time to waste. The perfect candidate is right under our noses and he has to get to work to undo all of the horrendous atrocities that have been commited during the Bush administration post haste. There, did I spell everything correctly?

Meet the Couple: Kucinich & Elizabeth--

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/05/politics/washingtonpost/main3578662.shtml

Bob K - What exactly are you blathering about with your statement about low wage replacement workers? The undocumented workers from south of the boarder are not replacing any jobs that American citizens are willing to do. I think you need to do more research on Kucinich's position on the working class, undocumented or otherwise. I do not think you will find him supporting the replacement of willing, well paid Americans with low wage immigrants. And don't even get me started on who exactly the immigrants are on this American continent that was inhabited by brown skinned people long long before it was invaded by light skinned Europeans.

Something tells me this was stream of consciousness, and not a word was edited. I do prefer shorter paragraphs, but nevertheless, well said Sean Penn.

I have one qualm about Kucinich. On the issue of illegal immigration he claims "no one is illegal," which is a rhetorical response of course -- it's actions that are illegal, not people -- and puts him in the camp of those promoting (or at least tolerating) lower wages and benefits for working Americans, and the destruction of our middle class. Kucinich says he cares about working class issues, but then argues we should continue to flood the job market with low-wage replacement workers.

To me, this is a red flag warning that Kucinich's judgment is suspect. If he can be so wrong about such an important issue, what else is he wrong about? And frankly, it leaves me with no one to vote for.

"As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields."
~Tolstoy~
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/25/2754/

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals."
~Gandhi~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWKnzG3q9ag&feature=related

VOTE DENNIS KUCINICH!
FIRST VEGAN PRESIDENT!

DOGS SHOULD RULE THE WORLD!
THEY NEVER LIE ABOUT LOVE!
HUMANS ARE BRUTAL!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWKnzG3q9ag&feature=related

REMEMBER… DENNIS KUCINICH TRULY WALKS THE WAY OF PEACE!
HE IS A VEGAN!
I WILL VOTE FOR HIM!
HE IS THE CANDIDATE WHO IS DEFINITELY ON A HIGHER LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS!
AND WE ALL KNOW THAT WE NEED TO TAKE A GIANT LEAP TO CLEAN THINGS UP IN THIS COUNTRY AND ON THIS PLANET!
GRADUALISM IS NO LONGER AN OPTION!
VOTE FOR DENNIS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61nRRTMTK2g

I'm all for Dennis K but this speech HAS to sound better in person.

i dont want to vote for political candidates from the gene pool of lawyers or actors,or freemasons(that last one is a little more difficult to ascertain)however i would make an exception for sean penn and would gladly vote for him,for president because his sense of social justice is highly evolved....doctors seem to have more of a socialjustice type of conscience...so i may vote for ron paul.

Sean Penn came to the rescue of hurricane Katrina victims in my beloved city of New Orleans while Bush was partying in San Diego. I love you, Sean!!You are a stand up guy!!

No individual can make Dennis Kucinich president, even if he IS our last, best hope of restoring some semblence of sanity to this country. Even Sean Penn's passion can't do it. My vote won't do it.

But WE can. OUR VOTES can.

To those who believe the m$m's corporate bullshit about electability, I say, "John Kerry" I voted for Kerry in the national election, partly because he and Edwards promised to MAKE SURE EVERY VOTE WAS COUNTED. Remember?

This time around, I don't think there's going to actually be an election. Bush just sent Congress a budget that slashes domestic security by half. You got that? If you thought our ports, trains, chemical and power plants were underdefended, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Are the Dems up in arms about this? Have you heard anyone talking about domestic security issues? Oh, yeah... Dennis Kucinich... but he's not getting any media coverage....

deep sigh,
Peach McD in Durham NC

Dear Mr. Penn,
News flash paragraph breaks work wonders. That a man of your abilities would dispense with this simple tool is inexcusable.

That said your are doing great work. To make such an impassioned plea for Dennis is heart warming to say the least. If everyone of your stature who agrees with his positions would have done the same he would be way more than electable - he would already be president. So you are absolutely on the right track by trumpeting him as loudly as you can. Of course more people would stick with it if you put a few paragraph breaks in but hey, I understand, all in good time.

I also felt that you did a great job with 'Into The Wild'. I actually didn't like the book and was even a bit annoyed by all of the hype surrounding it. The people I knew seemed to be liking it for all the wrong reasons and that irritated me even though I could identify with the character. Your film gave Chris a humanity and kind of esoteric purpose that the book never did. It was really really powerful. Best film I've seen in a long time.

Now, back to Dennis. We can get him elected, we just have to stick with it. I did a short film about him back in 2004 and have a clip of it on my web site: www.brooktroutfilms.com

Check it out and if you feel inspired to work together to get the country on the right track and to help get Kucinich elected feel free to give me a call.

WATCH THIS!
THANKS SEAN!
"HOLLYWOOD" NEEDS TO USE THEIR PLATFORM AND CLOUT TO HELP SAVE AMERICA!
YOU ALWAYS HAD BALLS SEAN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p917QJJCNc&feature=related

hmm...a man ELECTED to mayor of a major US city at 31, a man ELECTED and ELECTED again, how many times to be a Congressional Representative of the United States of America?

DENNIS KUCINICH looks, sounds and feels with a hand shake ELECTABLE to me.

Attica!!!

Hey Sean I love your acting but even admire your humanitarianism much more.

I have no illusions about the electability of our Dennis.

Deep in my heart I know that he has no chance of winning the big prize.

Kucinich comes as close as possible to exemplifying my ideals and my perspective on life, which is a progressive liberal democrat that just also happens to be a Vegan.

At times it seems that there are only about a dozen of us in the country.

I know the reaction I get from friends and family regarding my left wing politics and my vegetarian lifestyle, they all think I am an extremist and a little UFO weird.

So what chance does our iconoclastic menace have of capturing the white house in the face of all this adversity? Slim to none.

But here on Common Dreams we can still "dream" a deep somnolent phantasmagoria kaleidoscopic fantasy which still haunts me; that we are getting closer to having a President Dennis Kucinich.

I thought Danny Glover was supporting John Edwards:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/15/1207/

Maybe he's switched since that article was written?

Nice one. Kuchinich is the only candidate worth voting for.

In a democracy, you're supposed to vote for a candidate who shares your interests. As several posters mentioned already, his views are the views of the great majority of the people. In a proper democracy, this IS electability.

Next year, when we start witnessing the rise of the next great depression, he might just become much more viable for the masses. Some degree of pain will wake a lot of people up to what's happening.

Sean Penn is the sort of man who, watching the news in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, alarmed and maddened by the inexplicable inaction on all levels of government, simply picked himself up and hitched his trailerable boat to his car and drove directly to the disaster area, personnally saving dozens of people who were stranded and left to die. If our Republic survives this American dark age, it will be because of such patriots as Mr. Penn.

Kucinich is clearly the best. Remember those who are the "electability" experts picked -- tuh tuh -- John Kerry in 2004. The "electability" experts have chosen three warmongerers as the Dems frontrunners in 2008. Just the fact that none of those 3 frontrunners will commit to being out of Iraq by 2013 (2013???????) renders them unqualified for any truly anti-war votes. As the Repubs will run on a secret plan to get out of Iraq by 2013, distance themselves from Bush and accurately point out that all unpopular actions (the war and the assault on the Constitution) were overwhelmingly bi-partisan, they will win, as which ever of the 2013 triplets gets the nomination has already refused to commit to being out by then. If s/he switches, s'he's a "flip-flopper". The fact the "secret" plan will include attacking Iran and whomever else the warmongerers choose and use overwhelming civilian deaths as a terror tactic will not be known until the next war.

I would be willing, at least at this point, to vote for Richardson if he got the nomination. He's not nearly as good as Kucinich, but at least he believes in the Constitution, will get out of Iraq quickly without taking a detour through Iran to do so and is somewhat pro-working family (as opposed to unbridled free-traders Clinton and Obama, and recent rhetorical (but not reflected in his record in the Senate) convert from unbridled free trade Edwards.)

Edwards and Obama have also been putting forward the distinction without a difference that they will leave only "non-combat" troops in Iraq. It matters little to those of us who have family members in the military whether they are killed or maimed while serving as "non-combat" troops or "combat" troops and it matters little to the families of Iraqis who are killed or maimed whether they were killed or maimed by "non-combat" or "combat" troops.

Both Kucinich and Richardson are committed to getting out all US forces, and not leaving "residual" forces who are called something else but continue to be killed and maimed and continue to kill and maim.

Good post, Sean Penn.

Another discouraging screed from Mr. Penn, who, as far as I know, has solved exactly none of the country's woes.
Another rich and famous person with the impression that a "bully pulpit" makes for a "bully preacher."

Thoughts have power. Collective thoughts have synergistic power. A vision changes only when the hearts and minds of the majority changes. The collective synergy does not have to be dominant to be noticed. Support your dream and gain that notice. It's called a trend and trends build. Dithering is destructive.

Here is a link to a video of Sean Penn speaking in San Francisco:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smHYTTBzajk

I think the font used in this article is one of the reasons it is hard to read. I am not sure whether the text of the speech at the link above is any better or not.

Red Dog has made some good comments. For one thing, he made me realize that, given the state of M$M (mainstream media) in the U.S., we should consider the lack of coverage received by Dennis as a positive endorsement.

I make sure that I watch at least one video of Dennis speaking every day. The more I watch the more I know that he has the greatest mind I have ever encountered. (That includes Gandhi.) Things are interconnected, and Dennis see the connections.

Hey, Anniesee and Time4peace, I also say BRAVO! to Sean Penn and want to share about the lack of celebrity figures endorsing Dennis Kucinich. Someone asked Elizabeth about this in front of me this week and she replied that Ed Asner and Danny Glover have been publicly supporting him. Let's keep spreading the word and keep helping Dennis and Elizabeth work around AIPAC!

Dennis Kucinich will remain unelectable...
...until people stop believing he is.

How the hell can anyone say, "I like Kucinich, but I'm voting for ____, because he at least has a chance"?

In the end, the only thing that determines a candidate's electability is the willingness of people to vote for him.

If you decide to vote for someone that the talking heads of the corporate media tell you to vote for - (even if they phrase it in terms of "electability") - then you deserve crappy corporate-controlled government you will get.

Dennis Kucinich is as exactly as electable as the voting public want him to be. I mean *want* - not idly wish for - and certainly not muse, mumble, or whine about.

This is the primary coming up. It is the time to let everyone know that there are still progressives in this country, and that we do not approve of compromise.

Aren't you people sick to death of the "compromises" - (or, rather whole-sale sell-out) - of the Democrats in Congress? How many times have I read comments here condemning precisely that? Now I am reading posts here by voters who want to compromise long before there is any such need.

Are some of you in both camps? Those who would vote for a more "electable" candidate, despite preferring Kucinich, forfeit your right to complain about your senators and representatives compromising.

You really want Dennis Kucinich as president? Is that your true ideal? Well, QUIT YOUR MEWLING, AND GO FOR IT!

It is too late now. Support Obama or let Hillary rule the world. This is the chance to make a statement. Elect a candidate who opposed the war from beginning, or let Hillary win. I'm sorry Sean. I voted for Kucinich in 2004. This year Obama is the antiwar candidate. And he is right on Afghanistan and Pakistan and been consistent on abortion rights his entire career.

edwards - kucinich

i am liking edwards A LOT if he would runs with kucinich. edwards would appear much less a phony, with his hair and everything being such an easy target.

they can counter that with the "kucinich still lives in his old tiny house."

all the democrats would need to do is introduce kucinich and his fine politics to america. if they gave kucinich lots of airtime, even work the two of them together as a team. ahh edwards doesnt have the nutz to hook up wiith kucinich.

edwards could also feel safe knowing their would be no attempts by the right wing to take him out. unless they were planning on getting kucinich too.

With life as it now is in the United States, seven years after the so called election of 2000, all of the mendacity and deceit, perhaps it is time to consider dismantling the Lincoln Memorial on the Washington Mall.
The nation's heritage from the 16th president, that of a unified body of states as I see it has become totally irrelevant. An anacrony. It is time to dissolve the union. Move Lincoln's statue a few hundred yards southeast and include it within the memorial currently being constructed in honor of Martin Luther King.

ticonderoga December 9th, 2007 11:33 am,

Kerry voted for the war, defended his vote for the war, and then tried to out-tough W in tough guy war rhetoric. To point to his performance as evidence that a true progressive might have a real shot at becoming president is ludicrous. Democracy never really had a chance here because the majority of people have always bought the myths of "America" which are pumped into our veins from birth onward. Money and influence will always be the primary determinates of this country's course. Things can get a little better or a little worse (compare Bush to Clinton), but it's going to continue to more closely resemble a corporatocracy than an enlightened democracy.

On another topic, the people who continue to point to Ron Paul as some legitimate progressive choice, need to get a clue. He is all about affording those with money greater freedom to leverage that advantage so as to be able to more efficiently exploit people and resources. That's what libertarianism is. That's what he is. Just ask him.

I remember something my father once told me that is tangentially relevant to the discussion sparked by Penn's article here. He is a fairly conservative evangelical Christian (enough so that he was fooled by the right-wing rhetoric and the Bush agenda..), so I rarely take his advice on matters political or theological..but what he said in this case makes a lot of sense. We were having a discussion/argument about the doctrine of exclusivity inherent in the Christian faith (i.e. "There is no other way to the Father, except through me")...and I raised the obvious point about the pre-Christian cultures and peoples of other faiths/cultures and asked if they would go to hell (like Danto seemed to imply by having Plato and Aristotle discuss philosophy in a relatively bening level of hell...My point was that it would be foolish to accept this doctrine (that Christ is the only way to salvation) if it could not be accepted by an overwhelming majority of people both living and past. His response was to say that I shouldn't worry about other people..but just focus on my own salvation..At first I thought it was a rather individualistic perspective to take..but when applied here it makes sense. Why should we care about what other people think? ALl this "electability" talk, when we should really be voting with our hearts...atleast we should do our best to promote and support the candidate that we think will best represent us as citizens of this fledgling democracy. So forgot the rest, just be authentic with yourself! If enough people can do this, who knows Dennis might just have his day in the White House (a house that has a lot of clean up to do for sure!)

I'm a WW2 vet who didn't believe that IT was the answer.

Status quo is just that. Americans are NOT the good guys

At this point in time, we are "the good Germans of this

3rd Reich. Heil Bush/Cheney,etc al.

But "FAITH" saves us from facing reality.

Jesus here, Allah there, Elihanu .... AMEN, you all !
\

Hey Sean,
Great article! I was listening to Scarborough criticize you the other morning on MSNBC and I got kind of upset about it. My wife and I are fans of yours (in the political sense also) and we always keep an ear out as to what you are doing.

Obviously, you are a man of many talents, so I was wondering if you have ever considered a new career as being a television host. One of the left's biggest problems is not having enough commentators that blue-collar men can relate to. The Democrats should easily win most elections, but to this day, they keep beating themselves because they end up sounding phony and beholden to special interest groups.

I'd much rather listen to you in the morning than Scarborough (who claims to represent me, but doesn't). I'm a white industrial electrician from the South, but I don't buy his "Redneck Riviera" B.S. There's a big difference between being Redneck and being working class, but most liberal commentators don't understand the difference, and they end up letting the right-wing define who the working class is (to the Republican's advantage). Unfortunately, Scarborough is about the only commentator on cable to listen to when we're getting ready for work in the morning.

You (and Leonardo DiCaprio) though play roles that many men can relate to. Recently, DiCaprio played a role as a cigarette smoking, beer drinking, tough Irish undercover cop who took on the mob and police corruption. I admire that character and what he represents about a thousand times more than I do all the PC crap and blather that I hear coming from Democratic political candidates. I vote Democratic, but man sometimes it's hard to do. I vote Democratic because the Republicans are about a hundred times worse than the worst democratic candidates. The Republicans really are a bunch of momma's boys and draft dodgers.

Democrats need to talk about the following:

A man with a good paying job who can support a wife, kids, a decent house, a car, and who can save 5% a year with or without a college degree. They need to talk about honesty, integrity, and honor. The need to talk about getting rid of payday lender and cash for title loan-sharks. They need to talk about lowering credit card interests rates and getting rid of stupid trade agreements. They need to explain why sales taxes are not in the interests of working people, and why most of the tax burden should move to corporations. They need to talk about why torture is the most un-American action possible. They need to talk to men about being good husbands, fathers, men, and citizens.

Thanks for listening.

Beside H 333/ H R 799, Rep. Kucinich also voted NAY against H R 1955, 2 other Dems Abercrombie, Costello, 3 Republicans, Duncan, Flake and Rohrabacher, Total NAYS = 6.
Someone a bit ago on this site said "I have my pencil, I have my sharpener, My pencil is sharpened, I will use it...."
Follow his lead. I have given money to Dennis, I have voted for him in every poll, I will vote for him. Electability, my tush, He IS ELECTABLE, Jasus, vote for him, he can win.
Doubters be damned, you are the ones responsible for a Naderesque debacle, not the majority that believe he is the ONE.
My goodness, "I have my pencil...."

I wish people would quit saying Dennis doesn't have a chance of winning, but with the media controling the gray matter of most voting Americans, . . . . Be the first one on you block to learn how to live like a 12th century peasant.

Kucinich is ready to crush the venom out of the capitalist snake. All he needs is YOUR help on the campaign.

I really do hate to keep harping on this whole thing of election fraud, but Dennis Kucinich would be smart to bring forth legislation to deep-six all computerized voting in the United States, and pronto.

Just in case Sean Penn and all of you haven't seen this yet, it's a hearing in The House of Representatives, with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-L.A.) attending:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8112825559202389150

And this:

http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/PROJECTS/NCEL/WashTimesAd-NCEL.pdf

Until we fix this mess once and for all, regardless who may be running (what about you Sean???!!), in my very humble and American opinion, we will be freakin' DOOMED.

Kucinich only deserves a vote when he stops supporting the always corrupt and rotten 2-party system. He can only do this by leaving it. So far he has shown no such courage.

Time4Peace----Thanks for saying exactly what I am thinking. It is unthinkable to me that any progressive would vote for anyone else but Dennis Kucinich.

And STOP immediately buying into the MSM propaganda machine. They have had, afterall, a rather spotty record giving us the straight scoop, wouldn't you say? Turn them off, you'll regain your common sense as well as your dreams!

Powerful stuff from Mr. Penn and give him credit for saying what he thinks, just like Kucinich. Last year, Al Gore gave a speech about the attack on democracy by the Bush administration. I tuned into a replay of it but did not realize that it had been given a year ago; I practically wept to hear someone say those things. I thought, "He must be running for the presidency after all." Then, when I heard that it was an old speech, I felt completely let down. Reading Penn's article and listening to Kucinich at the debate, I at least knew that these ideas had not died. It's almost as if Americans are being offered one last chance to save and revive the democracy. Is it still possible?

Peace Czar,
You want the same people who have elected (or did nearly so) George W Bush twice--TWICE---to be playing a greater role in creating our laws and policies?? Have you sat down and talked with some of those people? They are completely brainwashed. You feel more comfortable putting our future in their hands than in elected representatives?

It's time for anyone who is worthy of some press to stand up for the rest of us who are not and declare Dennis Kucinich to be the best man for the job of President of this country. Kucinich's compassion should also be appealing to the Republicans who know they have wronged the American People.

"DK is the obvious torch-bearer for the polititactical 'recu$al for life' question, brought to the floor of the house as briskly as that fatuous "condemn move on" resolooshun.

As anti-war progressives, this is our trojan horse into the $tony Maw of Fortre$$ Bushelzebub, folks.

"Root" howz that go, "ROOT" of all...what was it root-Root...ROOT of "All EVIL!"

By their "fruits" we shall know them. Who SAID that? ...Think He MEANT IT?

then, if so... "Bush's BRAIN" aka "Turd Blossom" actually "nicknamed it$ELF, right?". RIGHT!
Two clever by .666..."

--Rev. HOGTIE POTUS, "Cowboy Noir"
from: PULPIT NONFICTION FOR A CHANGE

I tried to send money to the Kucinich campaign but couldn't because I'm Canadian.

I listen often to 'left wing' US radio hosts who have interviewed him, think he's right on, yet invariably add "but he's not electable" after his name. It makes no sense.

Regarding the looks - have you seen his wife? She's gorgeous enough for both of them and her resume is just awesome. She reminds me very much of Princess Diana - another lady who cared and did something about it.

Best of luck to you all in 2008.

We've all heard the media claim the actors turned political don't know what they're doing. I've never understood that. Do the narcisists who make the decisions in their little legislative or oval rooms really think they are wiser then those who have read a broad range of material?

Or what is the experience that Hillary and the rest of them that they claim? That they voted for the war, where we all marched against the war before it began; that we knew Colin was lying before the UN; that Bush was lying when he convinced the weak minded of this country that we should go to war. The real experience Hillary et. al., talks about is having enough friends in high places (the rich) that they know they will have to be paid omage too. Folks, I can't tell you have distressed I am.

I got back from Iraq almost a year ago and have now fully lost my marriage. 16 months away is a long time. 50% of the rest of my company has also been divorced and that is all in the last year we got back.

But after that, I then read that people I have respected in the past are supporting Hillary because she is woman. What sexists type of turd is that? It is discusting that that passes the red-faced test.

Like Sean says, even if it is not convenient, at every opportunity we need to chat with our friends about what's going on - even if that means asking them to take their blasted walkmans off.

truthforall____You are dead right about Ron Paul. He does not hold a candle to Dennis K in what he stands for so that leaves the Repugs with zero worth while candidates. As for the Dems, it does not take much courage to "support the troops" and be for "defending our country". What takes courage is to stand up to everyone as Dennis K has done and speak the truth even though he will get derisive remarks made about him. Anyone can surround themselves with supporters and say the popular junk . Vote for Dennis Kucinich on principle and don`t worry about electability of some other mediocre candidate. You may as well flip a coin on the rest of them as they will all disappoint us.

Wow, I've read to the end of this piece by Sean Penn and all the comments thus far. It wasn't that easy, as some have suggested, because of not being a perfectly correct work of grammar, but who are 'any of us' to criticize? I'd much rather read something from someones heart, then a piece fine toothed for grammar that was insincere!

I'd like to say to Sean Penn, BRAVO! It's about time! I have wondered and was ABSOLUTELY DUMBFOUNDED that not one celebrity figure has stood up for Dennis Kucinich, until now. Barbara Streisand is doing all she can for Hillary; the big "O" Oprah is on Obama's bandwagon (boy can she sell books!) and then there's the corporate media introducing American voters to the lexicon, "electable!" What the "F" does that mean? Unless you are using their dictionary (and their brains, not your own) it doesn't mean crap! Their agenda are NOT your agenda! Believe me! Don't let them tell you whom to vote for, who is electable, who's on top of the polls; they lie, and they DO NOT HAVE YOUR BEST INTERESTS AT HEART!

Edwards is - and many of you have stated this, the 2nd best choice, BUT people, why wouldn't you want the best choice? This makes no sense to me! 100% of the people here should be voting and supporting and working to elect Dennis Kucinich. If not, why not? Don't you dare say he's not electable - that's not something you came up with, it's what you've been told! Stop using the information someone else tells you to think! EVERYONE with a fraction of a brain KNOWS DENNIS KUCINCH is the MAN who WILL bring dignity, integrity, and justice back into out the working venues of our government. He walks the walk, the same as he talks. When you hear him, you really hear HIM, not some corporation talking, or some hedging of the truth, to win votes. WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET. Isn't that refreshing? Politicians - we have come to expect - lie to get our vote. They say what sounds "electable" - to the crowd they are speaking in front of. They are terrific at centering their comments or making them non-specific. This is the norm - it is the continuation of the status quo! America is in the shit hole! We haven't fallen as far as we will - and the next few years, even under the best of the best (Kucinich), times may be very difficult, resulting from the mess we are in, but, people will be the first consideration under a Kucinich presidency, not the war machine, or the money machines, or AIPAC, or any number of lobbying organizations. Tell me this, who's your lobbyist? If you don't have some powerful, highly paid shark, then you need an honest and forthright person working for you in government, and lucky for you, there's one running for President. Don't blame voting corruption. With yours and millions like us voting for Dennis Kucinich, it's for only a lack of votes than can keep him out of the office. WE HAVE THE POWER! USE IT! Just use it!

http://www.ontheissues.org/Ralph_Nader.htm

We needed Ralph Nader as President in 2000.
We needed Ralph Nader as President in 2004.

We NEED Ralph Nader as President in 2008.

Never before as we do now.

Ron Paul is the favorite Internet candidate for president. Obviously, there is a great deal that the Internet bloggers don't know about him. They don't know that he is adamantly against Roe vs. Wade; he introduced a bill to limit the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court on issues of religion, privacy, and gay marriage; he is anti choice; he voted to allow the bigoted Alabama judge to post "Ten Commandments" on the courthouse lawn; he opposes hate crimes laws; and he voted for an amendment that attempted to block the DC Government from allowing same-sex partners to adopt. Ron Paul--the epitome of a right-wing conservative and a worthy successor to George Bush II.

Just because Ron Paul opposes the war in Iraq does not mean he is an acceptable candidate for president. For example, comments such as these have been attributed to him, which appeared in his newsletter, the Ron Paul Survival Report:

"Opinion polls consistently show that only about 5 percent of blacks have sensible political opinions, i.e. support the free market, individual liberty and the end of welfare and affirmative action,"

"Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the 'criminal justice system,' I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal,"

"If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be."

"We don't think a child of 13 should be held responsible as a man of 23. That's true for most people, but black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such."

"We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers."

Paul also claimed former President Bill Clinton not only fathered illegitimate children, but that he also used cocaine which "would explain certain mysteries" about the President's scratchy voice. "None of this is conclusive, of course, but it sure is interesting," he said.

When challenged on those remarks he blamed them on an aide that supposedly wrote them for his newsletter over a period of years. Are we to assume that he hadn't read his own newsletter? His newsletter with his name on it?

It isn't just Blacks that Paul has a problem with; it's also Asians, homosexuals, Jews, women, fornication, gambling, and the stock market.

This is presidential material? No, thank you!

first of all, ron paul and dennis kucinich only agree on the war, NAFTA and probably one other thing. everything else is different. do the research. second: so, many of you are going to "vote for dennis," but not one person has mentioned, yeah, let's also WORK FOR HIS CAMPAIGN, MAKE PHONE CALLS, ETC........in other words, HELP HIM GET ELECTED !!!! he's electable if his "supporters" HELP THE CAMPAIGN !!!!!

longingforsanity: Your posting doesn't make any sense. You say you won't vote for Kucinich because he doesn't stand a chance, and that you "just want something to actually happen" implying by that that the other democrats would make serious changes. But what evidence do you have that they would make serious changes? I don't think you have any. The truth is that the entire system in Washington is a giant mess, and even with Kucinich in there nothing would get done. It is best to vote for the candidate who reflects your personal views even if that candidate doesn't have a chance to win. The system is irrevocably broken, probably beyond redemption, so at least you can be true to your own beliefs and not compromise them at the polls.

Dude! This is U.S. History, I see the globe right there!

What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this Bush place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some Kucinich ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too! Get it?

Hey Sean,

While you are at it, would it be possible to put in a plug for Cindy Sheehan?

Edwards is a drug warrior.

As I'm not an American, so some of you may say I shouldn't be pushing my nose in here. But, for people outside your borders who care about the future of the world, what happens at the Empire's core is of vital importance. So, I hope you'll grant me an eye or an ear, and accept my two-cents worth. (Gee, my two cents is now worth about the same as your two cents. My next homage to Fenway will be lot cheaper than my last, some five years past.)
To those of you out there arguing that "Dennis walks my walk, but Edwards is the guy I'll support because he's far more electable than Mister-Big-Ears," please pause for some reflection
John Edwards is "relatively" progressive, granted. But, despite his populist cant, he is not at all outside the orbit of the corporatocracy. Four years with him at the helm will be better four years with Hillary or Rudy or Obama steering the ship of state, but it will still be listing relentlessly to the right. By 2012, your democracy will be gone: bread and circuses will have completely eclipsed any chance of taking it back under your present Constitution, severely tattered now, and surely shredded by 2012.
Dernnis in 2008, or the deluge!

Even though I think the country is doomed I'll support Kucinich because he stands for all the right things. He is marginalized just as I and my friends have been marginalized in this country for years. This is no longer a democracy but an oligarchy of the rich and corporate. They manipulate elections with infusions of money. We have seen that clearly in the 2000 and 2004 elections, and there is no reason to think things will be any different next November. My family has been in here since the 1640's, but, sad to say, my heart is no longer in this country. I love the land dearly, but I feel that the people have allowed themselves to become dumbed down and docile. Most citizens here lack the information and critical faculties to make sound judgments in any case. That is the result of dismal public education and even more than that the failure of the older generations to stay alert and informed and to engage the younger generation in socratic inquiry, which is what went on here up until sometime in the 1970's or early 80's. Now the young inform themselves through pop culture-rap and the like, and there is no hope of the militant mass movement that would be necessary to force change here.

Hat's off, Sean. You've checked it out, reflected, and come up with the right answer. Why sell ourselves out when it counts most? With the ultimate hanging in the balance: above and beyond our Constitution, our collective capacity for global altruism, self-respect and earned leadership. Without it, who cares who wins? We all lose.

Dennis is the man. Sean is right. if you listen to the people who say he can't win, it's like surrendering before a shot is fired.
which is something Dennis would never do. we shouldn't either. Go Dennis!

As far as whether Kucinich is "electable" or not is concerned, I think the some of the folks out in the American public should plain grow up. This isn't American Idol, a beauty pageant, or a sorority for the popular sophmore girls.

You don't vote for who you think will win because you'll feel alone and sad if you lose. Or because you're worried the results will screw up the corporate-Democratic candidate's chances.

Forgive me folks, but get the hell out there and vote for the person who is absolutely best at representing real solutions to the very serious issues we are currently faced with. And that goes doubly and triply for the senate and house candidates, because they are making decisions.

The upcoming election has to do with creating a human future for this country. One that is not going to financially chain us further to huge corporations, so they can make the decisions and we can be little girls and little boys and worry about appearing foolish and being unpopular.

Vote for someone who has the interests of the American people at heart, authentically and unequivocally.

That is not Edwards, my friends. Edwards is duplicit. Edwards helped to pen the Patriot Act. Edwards has the wrong idea about solving the problem of healthcare in the U.S. He is a smooth talking lawyer, part of the new corporate-Democratic machine, with connections to big energy companies such as the coal industry. Which, by the way, is currently chopping off the tops of the Appalachian mountains.

Sorry if I don't have a warm fuzzy feeling for ya Edwards fans. I think people should do some real homework before they talk about who is "electable" and who is not. Or we will continue to be in the sorry political state we have been in now for years.

RED DOG December 7th, 2007 7:05 pm -- In the end it is not the militant war mongers or the greedy capitalists or the big corporations but it may just be the fear in the hearts of the common voters that is selling democracy down the river.

You said it! Of all of the consequences of recent US history, the most serious is the 'elite' establishment's discovery that it can deploy the same repressive/manipulative measures at home as it always has used elsewhere and that only minimal pseudo-democratic cover is required to avoid any repercussions on the part of a fearful peasantry.

Whatever happened to all that legendary American revolutionary 'give me liberty or give me death' spirit of yeasteryear? Can anybody even remotely imagine one standing in front of a tank to defy tyrannical US government authority. Not even the supposedly 'cowardly' French are as easily herded and controlled as the docile and apathetic American flock.

RED DOG: HEAR! HEAR! Well said, My Friend. WELL said!!!

Great piece Sean, Movie makers have the power to counter the MSMs lies and propaganda, Tackling the right subjects, like the danger our constitution is in and the corporate takeover of the govt,can bring people to awareness of whats going on. A good movie about what fascism is and how close we are to it, can help wake our fellow citizens up.
I have no doubt that you could gather up enough writers and other necessary help to make movies of this type.

Auspiciousbunny:
Yes, your democracy is indeed "already about gone," which is my point exactly: "about gone": the unlikely election of Kucinich, or the almost inevitable unending and increasingly ham-fisted dictatorsip Eisenhower warned America, and the world, about in 1960.
Studs Terkel titled a book he published at age 92 a few years ago "Hope Dies Last." Dennis is that last and only ray of hope you have left. If that ray of hope isn't seized -- through your last shreds of democracy -- in the coming weeks, it might not be safe for me to make another homage to Fenway by 2013. I might be unfortunately classified as I drive into Calais ME, and be given an all-expenses-paid, and permanent, vacation to Washington's favourite Cuban "resort."
And I'm not talking about Varadero!

Thank You

Waaaay baaaack in 2002/2003, I read Dennis Kucinich's responses on the moveon.org's Q&A from many possible candidates for the dem presidential races.

He was the only straight-talking pol I could see.

He's willing to put others before himself.

How would I - or any of you - deal with the setbacks thrown in his path AND NEVER GIVE UP? Who do you want in the trenches with you? Quitters? Sellouts? Chickenhawks?

Have I given monetary support to him? Yes, and I'd like to have my hand in your pocket, too! Yes - for Dennis.

BTW, Sean, you can tell it however you want, with your heart!

I would like to add a few personal observations to this discussion. I understand the need to compromise ones true convictions and hedge ones bet occassionally. It is done all the time. If we didn't, the insurance companies would be out of business. That said, I met and worked for Dennis Kucinich in New Mexico a few years ago. Hearing him speak for two hours to a live audience at a fund raising dinner was one of the most inspiring moments of my life. This man is so genuine that I can't imagine him even being able to compromise the truth for political purposes. Sure he's
blocked out of the MSM but that seems to be a virtue, not a flaw. When did the MSM ever support a candidate who had the public interest at heart?

Yes, most of you are probably right about wasting your vote on a dream and you will get some compromise candidate and we will continue to have our rights and liberty eroded while we settle for fewer crumbs while hoping that somehow it will all change if we just wait alittle longer. Meanwhile the military industrial complex will continue to grow ever larger as it has under every president since (Truman). Global warming will go on largely unabated. The poor of the world will continue to suffer in ever greater numbers but if we only wait alittle longer.

I too would be willing to go along with the compromising majority if I actually beleived they had any hope in hell of ever making any real improvement. I also understand thet few people have ever heard or knew Dennis personally, as I have in order to justify the risk of loosing even more in an attempt to gain everything in one longshot bet.

I do know one thing though. If everyone who beleived in Dennis's platform and voting record were to actually vote for him, he would probably be our next president. In the end it is not the militant war mongers or the greedy capitalists or the big corporations but it may just be the fear in the hearts of the common voters that is selling democracy down the river.

Anniesee: "It's good to see a "celebrity" endorsing Dennis Kucinich, and not afraid to say so."

My pleasure....

http://www.december152007

At "Better World Links" you - and the American voter - can find 5000 Links on the U.S. Presidential Election !

Dennis Kucinich - for much the same reasons as in Sean's article - is the "Hero of the Month" (a feature usually only reserved for Right Livelihood Award or Nobel Peace Prize Laureates).

http://www.betterworldlinks.org

He can win if we start NOW calling registered democrats, talking to them about dennis and urging them to vote for him in the PRIMARY. where I live, we have a bunch of people who got our local lists of registered democrats and are doing this every day (me too). Get your friends in on this with you. 30 people, 10 calls a day for 30 days is 18,000 calls ! He has to take the primaries, so we have to suck it up and DO THE WORK (otherwise we're just dreaming and chatting with each other, which does nothing.)

Sadly, I have to agree with jmacneil: the United States has always been essentially a criminal organization to enable the rich to get ultra rich, the rest be damned. The Congress has largely acted as the enabling mechanism for the rich and their corporations. Look at most of the laws applying to economic matters, and fairly quickly you will see that they are directed to benefit some special interest. And those special interests in nine out of ten cases are representing the rich and their minions in the corporations. Oh yes, there have been a few periods of reform in our history in which the non-rich benefited for a while. I benefited from one of those--the post-WWII environment which gave a boost to the middle class (but largely out of the elite's fear of a return to the Great Depression and a radicalization of the populace.) So, yes, indeed, Kucinich is the only one among the candidates who is saying what this country actually needs to do, but it is clear that the mass media have decided to portray him as a UFO sighting weirdo with funny ears and haircut. This country is doomed to self-destruction, and that can't happen too soon. Break up the monster into six or seven small, rational, non-nuclear weapon holding entities with universal single payer health care, family leave, and all the other rights that the rest of the civilized world have offered their citizens for decades.

Max,

In numerous post-debate straw polls, and polls that query people on their views on various issues and then match the candidate, Kucinich comes out on top.

If the US really has a genuine democratic system, like say, Canada, Kucinich would be the top Democratic candidate. But our system, notably the media, is heavily controlled by corporate interests which limit, not only visibility, but the entire political discourse to pre-vetted candidates that won't offend powerful interests.

You say progress comes bit by bit, but for the past 40 years that I've been following politics - under both Democrats and Republicans, we've been only moving backward. I want to taste a win at least once before I die. Edwards won't cut it.

Read "Manufacturing Consent" by Herman and Chomsky

Most progressives know that Kucinich is the closest thing progressives have to a silver bullet to Bushism. But we are too cowardly to vote for him. I don't intend to be a coward.

rmax...Kucinich is extreme? Peace compared to war, which is extreme? Health care not subsidizing insurance companies and pharm. companies..which is extreme? Upholding the constitution..extreme? Getting rid of NAFTA/WTO...so Americans can have jobs? Extreme?
Lots of people say what you said but it still doesn't make any sense to me. Except for Dennis, I think they are all pretty much the same. I'll vote for him in the primary, and in the general election. I am sick of the Democrats not listening to me, knowing in the end they'll get my "progressive" vote anyway. No more!

Right on Sean! Kucinich is the ONLY candidate I will vote for. The Paul Wellstone of this era. A man of integrity, honesty, and a man of the people. The only things standing in the way of his election are the Corporate Media (who ignore his existence) and idiotic Democrats (who deny his electability). HE IS THE ONLY CANDIDATE WHO EVEN KNOWS THE MEANING OF "TRUTH". Hillary wouldn't know TRUTH if it bit her oversized fascist ass. Worse yet, we might end up with tall, pretty, electable Mitt Romney....then I'll have to find Jesus and join a Christian church if I ever want to see freedom again. Jeezuz! Thanks for the rant Sean. Somebody has to do it and not nearly enough Americans are even paying attention. You have the stature and stage presence to help Dennis pull off a win. Just do it! Please.

Right on Sean. I'm for Kucinich all the way. We need a person for the people not just the elite.

I am glad to see all the Kucinich Support.
I don't understand where folks view him as EXTREME??

HOnestly.. is impeachment really that EXTREME?? honestly? It was a tool that was given us when we ended up with tyrants. Quit being afraid of actually DOING what is needed.

To be a "REAL "Patriot" requires courage of your convictions. Lip service is Cr**!! If you are not willing to stand up for what you believe in then what is good about being an American?

We have to stand up. We have to USE the tools of VOTING, and SPEAKING OUT, and IMPEACMENT if need be. That isn't extreme.

I don't know why anyone would say that Kucinich is extreme. WHat are you afraid of?? SOmeone who actually KNOWS the US Constitution??? WOW... Someone who is educated and lives by his convictions.

Dennis doesn't drive around in a big fancy car.

I was at the March on Wash and we were supposed to be meeting him before the talk (I have a friend who knows him) and here he comes driving around the corner in a little beat up station wagon. Honestly! I kid you not!. I took a double take and had to ask my friend who was Yelling at us from that car. She said "That was Dennis".

He is smart. He has integrity and maybe that just scares people.

If it forces the others on that stage to be honest and if he calls them on their cr** so much the better!!!

What are you afraid of???? seriously.
Yeah. I don't want hillary either. Gonna be an interesting primary....

hey Jack37, have you not heard of the recent film titled War Made Easy? Check it out- I believe you can purchase it through Films Media Group.
Sean Penn is a great actor, and admirable activist, u might even say patriot. Oh yeah and he's damn sexy. Thanks for saying what needed to be said. I completely agree. Electability is a cop out.

Hey Sean! Why don't you try detaching yourself from the cult of personality and actually push for the making of some films that actually do educate Americans instead of exploiting their fears and adolescent lusts? Obviously Hollywood is one small coke'd out clique of writers completely at a loss for ideas except bad remakes....Surely you don't think that's because there are no stories to tell that would powerfully begin to change American consciousness---where we've been, how we got here, and what we can do about it? Nobody has the power you have as an insider to make this happen---and we certainly cannot hope that our schools are going to do it either. Great speech, Sean, now let's really do something! http://ancientgreece-earlyamerica.com

well i've tried twice to edit my above comment but it keeps telling me (after giving me an "edit" box, that I didn't write it. So before anyone tells me, I know I wrote "Hillary" where I should have written "Obama" (I might switch from Edwards to Obama)........... We'll just see if this comment gets accepted.....

I like the "Yoda" idea.

We're not at the track and this isn't a horse race. A vote isn't a bet. You're not handicapping, your deciding who you think would be the best leader of our country.

Think for yourself, and vote in the primary based upon the candidates' positions on the issues.

John Edwawrds should get a $10 flat top. He couldn't buy the publicity that would get him even with Hillary's money.

The corporate media are trying to limit our choices and turn the election into a farce for a reason. They like the status quo.

I don't mean to (or want to) disparage Dennis Kucinich, but I live in the real world and Dennis is, for want of a better word, extreme. I support many of the changes he proposes, but look at the lack of support he has among his own peers in the House. Isn't that a reflection of the larger electorate, and perhaps his inability to do what he proposes if he were President? Change comes in small steps, not sweeping measures. I respect those who will vote their conscience. But I too have a conscience, and if I vote for Kucinich in the NH primary, that takes away a vote from Edwards whose stands on many issues reflect mine, and who has proposed changes that could actually happen (health care, Iraq, environment, energy). Compare Edwards' policy proposals to Kucinich, and they aren't that different, and they are more realistic and achievable. That's why I'm working on phone canvassing for Edwards. I have a conscience too, and if I vote for Kucinich, it means less support for Edwards who could actually win the general election against any of the lame-o Republicans. I DO NOT WANT HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT--and my conscience tells me to support Edwards both for his policy statements, and his electability in the general election.

How many Kucinich supporters here are working phones and knocking on doors for him? Given money to his campaign? If you're not doing that, then don't complain that Kucinich isn't getting enough attention. The world doesn't revolve around the MSM, believe it or not.

How in the world do we know Dennis Kucinich is unelectable?? Because the MSM tells us so, the same MSM that sticks Dennis in the wings and then asks him maybe one silly assed question, which he usually overcomes with humor and good sense making the moderator look stupid. There is an advantage to being short, for one he can see under the radar of politics and rise above the foray. Big ears? Oh, all the more to hear. There are not a lot of politicians in Washington who listen, really listen to what we have to say. I think Big Ears is listening and responding to the issues that need to be addressed and he does it honestly and openly. I happen to think Mr. Kucinich is just about the tallest man in town. As for Mr. Penn, damn the paragraphs, when someone speaks with conviction and from the heart it doesn't come out in paragraphs. He is articulate and star or not he has as much right as anyone to say what he feels. I agree with everything he says. Thanks!!!

Hello. This is my first posting ever. Sean Penn's words speak much of my own frustration at the dismissal of Dennis Kucinich as an electable candidate. I was so annoyed to read something by Tom Hayden, who also dismissed this admirable man's candidacy. It seems the only way Dennis himself can get any air time is by doing something unusual like asking himself a question on a policy issue at a so-called debate. We somehow have to make this man more visible and more audible. Must we shave his head and put him in a loin cloth on him to get any media attention?! Is there anything more we can do to be able to vote for a man who is both sane and wise? It seems like it requires something audacious. Any ideas out there?
But thank you Mr. Penn for sharing your voice.

I am tired of voting for the "lessers" of evil. I am voting for Dennis Kucinich in the primary AND if needed, will write his name in November. I registered as a Democrat so I could vote in primaries this time after the Kerry fiasco. Then I will go back to my "no party" status. This country has reached a point where "electability" cannot be the reason to vote for someone. Restoring the constitution is.

longingforsanity :

YES. Talk to her. Talk to AnyOne Who Will Listen. THAT is the root of activism. It begins by helping to educate people who don't even know what their options are! and moving up from there. TALK TO PEOPLE about the choices you have, they have, we all have. Ignore MSM, it's cornsyrup-coated pablum for entertainment purposes anyhow... you're an educated man... you KNOW this stuff!

Talk to eachother. It's quite simple. Motivate your friends, neighbors, and onlookers with words. Start a fire. It has to begin there!

x

To justthink and others: I may yet "vote for Kucinich in the primary" blah blah; but here's the problem. I know some of you don't think so, but there really is a difference among the top runners. Hillary would be a nightmare; I would vote for her over a Republican, but that's because there are degrees of nightmare. Hillary is saber rattling. You have to have your ideological blinders on to not see the difference that either Obama or Edwards has from her. Personally I lean to Edwards because he seems the most (other than Kucinich obviously.........) to understand the economic roots of all our problems. He's running an ad with the phrase "corporate greed" in it. And his southern accent merely seems to provide great cover for what is basically a class argument. And could let him in. For crissake people, honest to god, electability really does matter. But so does what they bring to the election; and Edwards (for me) provides the balance that best salves my conscience as an American.

Three cheers for Sean Penn, artist and man, brave in word and deed. Perhaps Kucinich is a long shot, but this phony race started very early, and, for instance, one can only wonder what Hillary, and some of the other haircuts, will come to look and sound like in six months. Kucinich is clearly the only progressive alternative. Please recall the unlikely candidacy of Eugene McCarthy in 1968 that, after so many Democratic local organizations were overwhelmed by the activism of those who were outraged by the Vietnam War, drove Lyndon Johnson out of the White House.

Viva Kucinich!!!

Dr. Wu, the last of the big-time thinkers.

scgold,

I think you are confusing extremely poor writing composition with complexity. Ther is nothing complex in this poece - it is just poorly composed. If this was submitted by a 6th grader, it would deserve an F.

It looks like the text of a speech - but even spoken slam-poetry has more paragraph orgainzation than this piece.

The monied elites-The folks who own the media,wall street and our elected "representatives" couldn't be happier with how things are going at the moment.They're making more money than at any time since the equally corrupt 1920's.And don't think for a moment that there is anything more important to them than making money. As a result, they will do anything in their power to keep the status quo.Hillary, Obama,and any of the other candidates other than Dennis Kucinich will change nothing.So quit buying into the lies of the elites, and vote for the only person that will lead this country in the direction it must take.The people decide who is electable.Not the corrupt,war profitering elites.

scgold:

I am not a US voter - yet. I am an interested onlooker, who might possibly have been a US voter had your USCIS been at all efficient.
as it is I'm stuck in a huge backlog due to their incompetence.

I made a sincere comment about the difficulty I had in reading this article. As a blogger myself I have taken a deal of trouble making sure my text is easy for readers - it's courtesy, nothing more.

Sean Penn wrote an excellent speech there, and I feel sure more people would read it - carefully - had it been set out differently.

"Our culture is engrained with a tradition that blurs the line between what is right, what is just and what is constitutional, with what is a scam."

TRUE OR FALSE:

SNAFU PIKER$--OOP$EE

NOW PLAYING: THE WEALTHIEST WAR CABINET ON THE MOST CHICKENHAWKED WARPATH IN AMERICAN HISTORY

SUNDAY EDITORIAL
Nov. 25 2007

Radical Ethics: No bucks from war

P-I EDITORIAL BOARD

"...this left-wing, left-coast idea actually reaches into the heartland and history of the country..."

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/25/5422/

BATTLEPLAN: Have Dennis Kucinich bring to the Floor of the House a 'resolution of endoresment' (you know, like that 'no-red-tape' condemn-move-on fiasco recently) thereby forcing the GOP--in obviously opposing its premise--to VOTE in effect to "INSULATE FROM "POSSIBLE PERSONAL $ACRIFICE" A WAR-CABINET OF MULTI-MILLIONAIRE CHICKENHAWKS.

The same War Cabinet, BTW, that forced neighborhood bake-sales to finance 'privatized' protection for the troops, and from whose sustained "inaction" gave a salient 'neo-contribution' to on-the-ground-combat-reality vernacular: "HILLBILLY ARMOR".

THAT'S right: THOSE folk$. The GOPetered Principle God-&-COUNTRY-club (Devil-in-the-DEtail$) The Ba$e Elite...You can find 'em on the Golf Course, or Quail Hunting.

Think 43 is morally "due" the "warfall" gathering even now from 41's considerable Hedge-funded, Blind "Trusted" "Fortune$ O' War Folio"?

SKULL-DUGGERED BONER$---

"Anybody want some WOOD"--Junior was pretty nervous when that relatively trivial conflict-of-intere$t question emerged in the debate with Kerry, wasn't he? imagine THIS "Recu$al-for-Life" question asked in that setting, and its moral point PRESSED? We might well have been spared the Decider'$ catastrophic second term, if the fourth estate had half-done its job on that issue alone!

WHAT WE'RE UP AGAINST:
[Political OpArt: SF Bay Guardian]

http://www.sfbg.com/blogs/politics/2007/08/political_art_of_the_week.html

Over 20 years ago, a motion picture called, "Network" premiered. It showed a future in which the news division and the entertainment division of the Television networks were merged, to the detrement of the American people. That future came to pass.

We now face two opposing futures. We have all seen them in film and on television. The first is the "good" future, "Star Trek". The other is the "bad" future, "Mad Max" or "The Blood of Heroes." We can learn from Hollywood and choose the good or be damned to live in the bad.

We may one day wake up and find ourselves thinking that Tim McVeigh and those around him were right about the US Government. I'd sell my right eye to prevent that morning from dawning.

IF we were truly a GREAT COUNTRY, Dennis Kucinich WOULD BE PRESIDENT. Time to look ourselves in the mirror as a country and see how lowly and cowardly we've become if we can't rally and thrust this man of high integrity and strength into the highest office in the land. The only one truly deserving of that post.

Pump those morale muscles of courage and support DENNIS J. KUCNICH for the office of the Presidency of the United States. If not, we are doomed.

Look, for those still concerned more with electability than voting their consciences, vote for Dennis IN THE PRIMARY, and vote Democrat in the general election. The point of voting for Dennis in the primary is to show the other candidates the power of the progressives, to force them to pay attention to Dennis' ideas, and to amend their own platforms accordingly. Dennis' strong stands throughout the campaign have already started to shift the campaign to the Left. Let the Primary be a time where progressives scare the shit out of the centrist democrats.

DID ANNIESEE GO CROSS-EYED?

How typical of a U.S. voter wishing for something easier to read, then it could be absorbed with little effort. How do you imagine that our Constitution ever get written? Did the co-signers go cross-eyed?
We want our great literature condensed to a Readers. Digest size, television dramas broken up by commercials and even the current electoral debates divided into 90 second or less sound bites.

Do an author the courtesy of a careful reading, giving at least a little of the time that he/she spent in writing before offering unhelpful suggestions/corrections.,

Good on you, Sean

Love ya Sean

Please remember that Ron Paul was right about Iraq too. He was right about Iran too. He was right about Chavez too. He only votes with the constitution too.

peace

My heart is there, really really there. But...I teach college students on a commuter campus; bright people, of not so bright backgrounds; and heavily military by life circumstances. I was talking the other day to one of my very brightest, who is a military wife who hates Bush, who is anti-establishment, who hangs around all the time to talk about these things. Yet. I mentioned liking John Edwards, despite the hair cut thing; and, here in SC, she didn't know who he was. Do half you folks have a clue what we are up against???? I have a chance to tell her who John Edwards is; then she might even notice him some day on TV......... Is there a point, I mean, a *real* (as in please people, get real, this is a real world with real bombs) point, in trying to explain Dennis Kucinich to her?????????

Kucinich is easily the best choice but probably not the best bet. Still, I'll go with him, or Edwards who, as rmax says is probably more electable. But DK remains my first choice. I'll write him in if Hillary gets the nomination, will in no way ever vote for her. Obama will have to show more than he's done so far, or he won't get my vote either. Either DK or JE.

Mr Spicoli needs some pizza.

looks like some people herewant someone in the whitehouse who walks the talk?

Or do we want one of the other dummies raising a lot of money?

I do'nt mind Edwards, as he seems to be a little less greedy.

Ok so what are we doing to give Kucinich the edge in Iowa and NH?
How many people know him there?

Edwards-Kucinich?
We'll See

"I feel the Kucinich love, but I'm sorry, electability *is* an issue." Vote for him and he will *be* electable. This is so frustrating! Don't let the power brokers cheat you out of your only hope for a real change in American politics and society. This isn't capitalism, where value depends on image, lights and mirrors, is all a matter of voodoo confidence. This is democracy, where people should vote with their very heart and soul for what they actually believe in, not what their enemies believe in just because it is "electable".

jmacneil said: "the real U.S.A is a criminal organization"

And it is... just that.

Sadly, but admiringly (no matter if its one paragragh or 100) what Sean is asking for is to resurrect the mirage we were led to believe was America. We weren't who we thought we were anyway.

It was the biggest scam in human history.

Now the curtain has been lifted for all to see. And, the best thing for us, as a nation, on the behalf of all human beings, is for America to be indeed, dismantled. Its already finally crashing under its own evil weight, so hopefully, its just a matter of time before it falls completely.

We have no nation as we knew it. What have are the remains of a nation, and the establishment who control the guns are running the joint. The administration. The parties. The media. The banks. The Gang. Them. This isn't a nation anymore. "They" are simply in control. Murdering, looting, threatening, and shoring-up their police state as the paranoid entity that They are. And the rest of us are just running for cover.

Thanks Mr. Pean, it was a great read. I'll take frank and to-the-point talk any day over the dull, boring and trivial crap that permeates most writing these days. At this point I could care less where the words stop or start. I just want something to the point and -- honest.

I'm with you. All the way. But, I'm afraid its over.

But, keep writing, sir, who knows, maybe we can make something out of this pile of shit yet.

I feel the Kucinich love, but I'm sorry, electability *is* an issue. That's why I'm supporting a candidate who is electable and progressive, and isn't taking lobbyist money: John Edwards. No candidate is perfect, not even Kucinich, and Edwards is as close as we'll get to someone who can win and bring change to Washington.

Kucinich looks and acts like Yoda. He should capitalize on this figure that EVERYONE loves by identifying himself with him. You know better than we do that this is a beauty and personality contest even as money and political consultants hang jewelry on the pigs.

Mr. Penn reminded me of something I heard in the 1992 campaign when Jerry Brown was running Mr. Clinton very close in the New York Primary -- "It doesn't matter if the guy who's electable isn't also delectable."

Actors-turned-activists usually annoy the hell out of me because they do a lot of feeling, not much thinking and then never put themselves on the line. Mr. Penn is a glorious exception.

Damn Sean! Hugo was one of my heroes until you said that he was paying mercen... contractors to fight the racist, fascist WOD. I think I'll replace him with Evo.

My sentiments exakly but could use more references to 'Bush's Blood Soaked Undergarments"...

Shortage of new paragraphs or not...I'm with Sean...I'm with Dennis Kucinich! If...just possibly if, he came anywhere close to being electable/elected, we all know that the powers-that-be/backroom-boys/military-industrial-complex demons would call out all the jackals...starting with the swift boat character assassins. And if that didn't do the job, we all know they would literally stop at NOTHING, to maintain their stranglehold on power. But that should NOT deter us from voting for the sake of the republic...Kucinich! (Sorry I didn't start a new paragraph anywhere.)

Let it flow, bro -- let it flow!

Sean Penn's sentiments regarding Dennis echo my own. I believe the Kucinich '08 campaign may represent the last, best chance for American democracy. With any candidate other than Dennis taking office in 2009, the accelerating corporatization of American democracy will be allowed to continue for four more years. By then, I fear it will be impossible for the American people to take it back.
So, Dennis, and Dennis NOW!

I feel the passion of Sean Penn's speech - but it's very difficult to read without going cross-eyed. I'd love to have an audio or video version. Or a few more paragraph spaces might help !

It's good to see a "celebrity" endorsing Dennis Kucinich, and not afraid to say so.

Wow, Hell of a rant, Sean. I'm feelin' ya, but ya gotta make it make it flow a little more to make it work.

I am definitely feelin' ya and agree 100% with you.

Electability be dammned!

Ahh! The idyllic American Dream! All that's needed is one straight-walkin' straight-talkin' cowboy to cure all that ails America!

If only life were like that. The U.S.A., the real U.S.A., is a criminal organization and it always has been, from it's beginnings in handing out smallpox blankets to the indigenous residents to it's current guise in Iraq and all of the dirty rotten wars in between which were either started overtly or funded covertly by the good ole' U.S.A.

Save your energy for a cause worth saving, because the only deserving fate for the U.S.A is for it to be dismantled.

Dennis is smply the best candidate to represent the interests of most Americans. And that is why he can never be allowed to win national office. The elites in this country will not permit that to happen.By the way, on the other side, Ron Paul, who a lot of progressives seem to think is a nut, holds views that are entirely consistant with the Constitution. My point is that reverence for the Constitution does not preclude conservative ideology.
John from Portland

I've gotta be clear on one thing. I like Kucinich. I have undying respect and admiration for him. I fervently desire impeachment. I loathe Nancy Pelosi, and I loathe Hillary Clinton. I know who I would like to be President, but he never will be. If everyone who reads Common Dreams votes for Kucinich, he will not win. I happen to live in SC; this year it makes a difference. When it didn't make a difference in 2000, I voted for Nader, and I live today with people telling me I have "blood on my hands" for that vote because it supposedly let Bush in. But I knew it didn't count. I managed to slow down that critic by pointing out one other thing I did in 2000. For the only time in my life ever, I voted for a Republican by picking up a Republican primary ballot and voting for McCain. It was in SC that Bush took over by trashing McCain. I'm not for McCain, now less so than then, but I wasn't for him then either. But I wasn't for Bush, like now I'm not for Hillary. This time SC is playing the stupid democratic party games with early primaries. In fact, if it looks like Obama will be the one to take out Hillary, I'll switch from Edwards to Obama. I can make all the "statements" I want to by posting here. If my vote really has a chance (and realistically I don't think it does, but I cling to that delusion from some kind of nostalgia for high school civics) of making a dent in the process, then my vote isn't about some ideological purity; it is about pushing for whatever consequences I can. Positive consequences are fairly limited. Voting for Kucinich won't do anything. Voting against Hillary, as effectively as I can (by voting for her strongest opponent) might. Maybe. So if your vote will make no difference by any definition, go make your statement and vote Kucinich. I hope he continues to be a force; I hope he pushes impeachment until it happens; or war crimes trials. I'm as "extreme" in my hopes as he is. I just want something to actually happen.

Sean Penn is an insider. He knows what a lie the media riff is. He has got the goods on "electability" exactly right!

I prefer Mike Gravel. But Gravel or Kucinich, they are the ONLY candidates worth considering in the Demoblican contest.

Pick your favorite and vote for them.

If one of them is elected will "we" consider him electable?
We all know the answer is NO!

So don't think about the question.

I certainly hear Sean on Dennis. Yet not only does Ron Paul have similar views on and approaches to almost all of the same issues, he has two things on Dennis. First, he understands that the "income tax" is illegal, and would move to eliminate it. [Look for the video, available free on YouTube, called "America: Freedom to Fascism."] Second, and perhaps even more importantly, Ron is the only candidate in EITHER party who has called for, and would institute, a REAL, serious, non-political, non-partisan investigation into the events of 9/11 - and follow the evidence WHEREVER it leads. As well, Ron has spoken about reversing the outrageous erosion of our freedoms, civil liberties and privacy that has occurred since 9/11.

So even as a Democrat, I am torn between the two.

Peace.

Nova Scotian, our democracy is already about gone.

Even my dad says so and he's an old school Republican.

We are torturing people and imprisoning them indefinitely without trials or lawyers. Our government is responsible for the death of some horrific number of Iraqi's in a war that has never had a clear purpose to most people in this country. We had serious allegations of election fraud in the last two elections and our politicians are mostly paid off in backroom deals with corporate interests or are actually those corporate interests themselves.

Even with that bleak scenario, I still want to believe we can better off, with Kucinich and some real substantial changes in Congress. The few responsible and caring representatives we have elected really need some help.

I am generally tentative when listening to an Actor-turned-political activist as Hollywood isn't synonymous with academia or deep, political insight. However I must say that Mr. Penn's article is right on target. He addresses key issues such as electability, the absurdity of bombing Iran, the Constitution and the corporatization of candidates in just a few paragraphs.
His support of Dennis Kucinich is sincere and well founded. It's great to have someone of Sean's stature support REAL democracy, however I still feel that his support for Kucinich (and everyone else's!)will be marginalized if not completely ignored by the MSM. Nevertheless... Good Work!