Reset America Presents Ballot Access Appeal Video

Reset America, a non-profit organization founded by Libertarian Presidential candidate Michael Jingozian, just released this ballot access fundraising video.

Jingozian attended the Green Party Convention in 2007 seeking the Green Party ballot line for his Presidential run. He maintained that his platform supported sustainability and economic solutions. He pointed to his own successful internet business which has not shipped its jobs overseas as proof of his commitment to keeping jobs in America. At that time, he indicated that ballot access would be the focal point of his campaign and that he had the marketing know-how and finances to put up an effective challenge.

Jingozian had come to the '07 Convention prepared with an arsenal of marketing materials for his program, RESET America and a small entourage of enthusiastic campaign workers. This degree of presentation and organization was unique amongst the Presidential hopefuls at that time and a little out of place with many Greens, who view "marketing" with suspicion. Jengozian asserted that his organization RESET America will continue to exist beyond the election and he sees himself as part of a movement that will have considerable impact on the 2012 election.

The erstwhile internet marketing entrepreneur Jingozian, was not the only non-Green who had sought the Green Party ballot line in the summer of 2007. Also presenting themselves at the convention were: Gail Parker (Independent Green), Daniel Imperato (Libertarian), and "Average Joe" Schriner (Independent). Notably, draft candidates Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney were also both in attendance, each earning spotlight time, despite not being party members.

At the time, Co-Political Director Brent McMillan said that these outside candidates demonstrated how valuable the Green Party ticket had become. However, the national and state parties quickly determined that outside of the Green Party members, affiliates or draft candidates, other third parties candidates would not have access to the party's ballot lines.

Despite its members distaste for packaging, the Green Party will have to find ways of branding itself that can translate into votes in the fall. Ironically, a clean, simple message, like Jingozian's RESET America or some other phrase could help the party clarify its position. The national platform will be discussed at this summer's convention in Chicago and perhaps a marketing genius will bust through the consensus maze with a captivating phrase that inspires - in a sentence - people outside the party.

McKinney Wins Wisconsin's Green Party Primary

Cynthia McKinney, former Democratic Congresswoman of Georgia, maintains her lead in the Green Party Presidential Candidate race with her win in Wisconsin this last weekend. Kent Mesplay came in second with 10 percent. Both of these candidates spent time campaigning in the state and that appears to have made the difference.

The state has 24 delegates out of the total 836 national delegates. Wisconsin Greens will allot 19 delegates to Cynthia McKinney, two to Kent Mesplay, one to Ralph Nader, another to Kat Swift. One delegate will remain uncommitted for the first round.

Ralph Nader is not expected to seek the Green Party nomination nor is he qualified by the by-laws of many states which have recently stipulated that the candidate must be a member of the party. His delegates, if they show up at this summer's convention, will be allowed to cast their vote for Nader in the first round and vote for other candidates still in the running in the second and third rounds.

Mesplay is hopeful that he can pick up Nader delegates in the second round. However, many of Nader's appointed delegates have indicated that they will have a difficult time justifying the personal expenditure for a trip to Chicago where the Green Party Convention will be held, when they already know their candidate will not be in the running.

A competition is what makes a Convention interesting for the delegates who scratch out who their nominee will be. It is also interesting to the press, so the decline in delegates which had been promised to Nader may have impact on the attention the press is willing to spare on the Green Party.

Failure to seat FEC commissioners denies 3rd parties funds

Is it a strategic effort on the part of Democrats and Republicans to resist seating the necessary 2 commissioners to create a quorum for vote and thereby be able to issue matching funds to campaigns? This delay effects primarily third party and Independent Candidates such as Ralph Nader who are trying to break through the two-party system.

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Democracy Now! introduces "Body of War"

Amy Goodman of Democracy NOW! interviews filmmakers Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro regarding the documentary "Body of War" which intimately follows the individual efforts of one young veteran paralyzed from injuries suffered in the war. The movie effectively intercuts shots of its subject, Tomas Young with shots or voice overs of the politicians who voted for the war and argues that the senate put on a show that was fairly well scripted.



This segment is part 2 of 5 posted on YouTube. Here is the entire segment from Democracy Now

Young joined up to make a difference in Afghanistan but was plowed down after several days on the ground in Iraq. Shipped back to an unprepared VA hospital, Young languished for a month without proper rehabilitation and is now on a list of medications, including an increasing dosage of morphine. His fiance and mother help him with his physical needs and he has become an anti-war activist. Somehow, he keeps his sense of humor, despite the real discomfort that he feels.

Jib-Jab: Obama and Hillary Fight Off the Republicans

Jib Jab is always good for a laugh. This animation shows the perils faced by the intrepid duo of Obama and Hillary as they face the attacking zombie-like Republicans. I actually thought that Ralph Nader might appear at the end - that might have made for a more poignant and ultimately humorous end, since the Democrats have so demonized the Independent candidate over the last 7 years.

Ralph Nader continues to lave pending lawsuits against the DNC and a select group of Democratic leaders. We'll be writing more about those ballot access/harassment lawsuits in the near future.

Kent Mesplay Considers Effects of Nader's Independent Run on Green Party Convention

Kent Mesplay, campaigning for the Green Party nomination for President, suggests that Ralph Nader's Independent run for President might boost his delegate count in the second round of this summer's Green Party Convention.

Though Nader won significant popular vote in several key states, including California with the largest constituency, many state parties have successfully pushed for bylaws which require a candidate to be a signed member of the party.

"Ralph Nader is basically doing his own thing, as he always does. I think strategically, he’s making a mistake if it is his intent to be the nominee (of the Green Party). If I criticize the man it’s not because he’s running an independent candidacy. He’s saying some important things and pointing out that there’s too much money in politics. People who were drafting him allowed his name to be used, so there are many who are disappointed." He continued, "Nader has elder status in that he helped the Green Party get going. Some people just have not been able to let him go."

Mesplay contends that, as in 2004 when he ran against Nader and Cobb, Nader's delegates may be attracted to his particular platform, which emphasizes sustainability .

"Things get interesting in the second round," said Mesplay, when the number of promised delegates pledged to Nader could select one of the remaining candidates, including himself. "I intend to win the nomination."

Cynthia McKinney, former Democratic Congresswoman of Georgia who recently signed up to be a Green appears to be the frontrunner. McKinney draws into the party a much sought constituency of the black and urban communities. Her platform emphasizes social and economic justice, a much heralded but little played tune from the party's ten key values. Her record of standing up in Congress to others in office and of opening up matters that most have ignored gained her the respect of many Greens, while her public persona took a beating from fellow Democrats and the media. To date, her campaign has demonstrated the most organizational and fundraising muscle.

When asked about fellow candidate Jesse Johnson's recent vote of support from Democratic Presidential candidate Mike Gravel, Mesplay said, "I’m pleased for Jesse, because it shows that people are starting to pay attention to the Green Party. It shows how creative we can be and how creative we must be in order to attract media attention."

Mesplay hopes that in the 100 days before the convention, his additional campaign work will attract enough state delegates to offer good competition at this year's convention. This weekend, he will be a guest speaker at the Harvey Mudd College Goal 5 Conference, along with a number of other distinguished environmentalists. In late April, he intends to protest the exclusion of the Green Party at the Science Debate 2008 , a nationally sponsored debate between the Democratic and Republican candidates for President. Difficult to not see the irony that the Green Party would not be included in an event like this. It remains to be seen if Ralph Nader will be attending, either as an invited or unwelcomed guest.

To hear more of BlogTalk's interview Kent Mesplay, use the media player below, and check out other blogtalk radio shows. There are a surprising number of third party candidates voicing their opinion and it's a good thing to know there's an alternative to the corporate media out there.


For more information, go to Mesplay's campaign website.

Supreme Court Inc. - How the Supreme Court Helps Big Biz

In this NY Times piece by JEFFREY ROSEN, we read about how a divisive court lines up behind big business, as the economic populist has disappeared from the bench. This wonderful read tells a historical picture of the evolution of the Supreme Court and points, with hope, to how the new Populist movement might push back.

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Independents Fighting On - Call for Candidates

by Guest Writer Joseph Oddo

The beginning of March 2008 has begun with mixed results for independents. First Ralph Nader continues our fight for ballot access and is getting a little less abuse from the mainstream media than usual. Then Mayor Bloomberg announced that he was not seeking the White House. That was a setback to those who support sought a self-financed, credible and capable individual to perhaps fuse the splintered minor parties.

Bloomberg issued an accurate statement that “an independent approach really can produce progress on the most critical issues, including the economy, education, the environment, energy, infrastructure and crime.” We interpret this a call for candidates to get on the ballot as the most influential election-altering strategy to impact the national dialogue. But news changes quickly and certain deadlines have passed showing several congressional races (including all the Arkansas congress members) will once again go unchallenged by the big two parties. This is indicative of the established parties lack of commitment to being opposition parties. And it could be a good sign for third parties and independents if we can field candidates and have one-on-one challenges. Though often times the incumbent refuses to debate the non-established party candidate even if they are on the ballot.

In general third party watchers still see a great opportunity for a surging independent movement in 2008. As Lou Dobbs wrote, it will take “nothing less than an independent voter rebellion” to wrest control of the two establishment parties from their corporate underwriters. But with the challenge of gathering petition signatures to make the ballot, deadlines are nearing and time is running short.

With someone like Bloomberg heading a third party ticket, we envisioned fusing the various third parties to promote election reform measures that would have compelled various third parties to consider setting aside their ideological differences in the short term for a lasting fair electoral process. Without him groups like IndependentAmerica.org will continue to encourage citizens to run for congress and local office in 2008 and prepare for the 2009 races.

Local grassroots activity is essential so that independent voters do not waste their vote on one of the two establishment parties. There is a wide range of issues that only independents would commit to solving as discussed in a new version of his 1972 book Citizen Power by former Senator Mike Gravel. Chief among them is election security and reform. But the key for Gravel as he pitched on his recent bid for the Democratic presidential nomination is a New Initiative for Democracy. In his words, “The only possibility of government reform is through empowerment of the people. People empowered will demand a balance of power between the citizen and their elected officials. Unfortunately the people haven’t come to realize that their empowerment must take the form of lawmaking – the central power of government.”

Instead of keeping their power, citizens give it up at the ballot box. Ceding power to the big two parties has generated more corruptible electronic voting machines with no verifiable backup system eight years after the election failure in Florida. Add that to the onerous procedures for independents and third parties to get on the ballot, and we are left with gerrymandered districts that yield 50% of all elections unchallenged. We the people need to fill this void and run for elective office not allowing anyone – regardless of whether you agree with him or her politically – to run unopposed. Here is where a rational public campaign-financing plan would attract concerned citizens into participating. It would cost much less to publicly finance campaigns than it currently costs our treasury when the winners reward campaign donors with no-bid government contracts.

Other election reform measures needed now include creating fair ballot access, universal/election day registration, and instant runoff voting all intended to increase voter turnout. Next we should insist on fair media coverage over the public airwaves and debate participation for all who make the ballot. Extended to third party presidential candidates who mathematically qualify on enough state ballots to get elected, the number in the debates would never have exceeded four candidates.

Advocates of election reform were pinning our hopes on Mayor Bloomberg to change the dynamic of politics-as-usual. Anyone who thinks that the recent surge of interest in one of the two established parties will push our issues, insert fairness in the debate process and correct our rigged electoral system will soon be disappointed. Remember one of the two already continued their politics of exclusion keeping Senator Gravel out of the debates just as they will keep Nader out again this fall. So while Mayor Bloomberg’s decision not to run has delayed our efforts, we shall fight on.


Joseph Oddo was founding director of the Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg.

Joseph was raised in Pittsburgh and has alternated between managing retail sales organizations and political campaigns since he organized the Pittsburgh group of Anderson for President in 1980. Currently he operates a freelance writing and sales consulting business in Washington DC. He has been a candidate for Congress as an Independent twice. He is promoting the National Election Reform Platform as the Executive Director of Independent America Political Committee. Oddo advocates for alternative energy, replacing the federal tax code, preserving civil liberties, and expanding citizen participation in electoral politics. Oddo earned a Public Policy degree from Penn State Harrisburg in 1984.

www.WriteConsult.com

Blog Talk Dec. 2007 Interviews of Presidential Candidates: Mesplay and Schriner

Pulling this out from the recent past is an interview by BlogTalk of two candidates who are seeking the Green Party nomination for President. Kent Mesplay and Joe Schriner first met at the Green Party Convention in 2007 held in Reading, PA.

Mesplay, who has been a member of the Green Party for more than ten years, is an environmental scientist from San Diego. He ran for the Presidential nomination in 2004 as well as the California Senate in 2006.

Schriner thinks it would be good to have just an average guy in DC. A part-time journalist and activist, he became a Green in 2007 at the Convention. Though he has not been recognized as a Green Party candidate on the National He (and his family) have been traveling for over six years campaigning for the Presidency. They drive around in a old trailer

Ballot Access Laws Challenged State by State

Ballot Access News has reported that the most outspoken left Democrat, Kucinich, filed a ballot access suit in Texas, where he was kept off the Democratic party ballot for not pledging his support to whomever the Democrats nominated. Texas party and state ballot access rules are the toughtest in the U.S. - for a reason. No other party or state, BTW - requires such an oath.

Richard Winger, Editor of Ballot Access News also reports about a McCain case in Indiana which sets a new and perhaps unanticipated legal precedent beneficial to all petitioners. While wishing to not deprive voters a chance to vote for McCain over "meaningless technicalities," a stringent rule was rescinded. The board cannot do that for McCain without all parties making use of that decision.

The General amongst ballot access lawsuits has got to be Ralph Nader, who in 2oo7 filed a lawsuit against the DNC and several Democratic leaders, for their flagrant and harassingly unfounded lawsuits against the 2004 Nader-Camejo Presidential campaign. In Hawaii, progress seems to have been made. On the East Coast, several different suits are being combined into one and will be heard later this month or in April in Washington D.C.

Read more from Ballot Access News

The War On Democracy

a film by John Pilger

Fear of communism and propoganda has excused every act of terrorism made by or supported by the United States. This movie tells the story of several Latin American countries that have endured USA's efforts to support "democracy". It's a full hour and a half with lots of wonderful historical footage and interviews with high ranking policy makers fed up with the choices this government has executed.

Not for the feint of heart.

New Hampshire Recount Election Reality TV

Guest Article by Nancy Tobi,
Chair of the NH Fair Elections Committee


New Hampshire Diebold-lovers and voting machine apologists like to point to our paper ballot hand count recounts in order to rationalize outsourcing the counting of 80-90% of our votes to private corporate interests using secret vote-counting technologies. They say we need these secret vote-counting privatized machines on election night to spare our election officials the "burden" of staying late to count the ballots. They say, what's the problem? We can always count the paper ballots by hand in a recount.

Hmmmm...Look at what happens to the paper ballots between Election Night Diebold count and the hand count recount. Watch the video. Do you feel the recount is secure?

Chain of Custody: Butch & Chase 1 of 2

A road trip video made by clean voting activists of New Hampshire

See more BlackBoxVoting Videos

Here is the truth: Publicly observable, hand counts on ELECTION NIGHT are the ONLY secure way to ensure the integrity of election results. There is no Butch and Hoppy show that way. There are no high-speed chases led by Butch and Hoppy with our paper ballots in their van as they try to elude citizen oversight.

Get it right on Election Night. Counting the votes is the "burden" of democracy. If our election officials and state legislators can't handle this "burden" then they ought to step down. NH Legislators, under the advise and guidance of NH Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan, this year alone killed five important bills that would have protected our elections against Diebold-controlled secret vote-counting. See below the list of bills the Election Law Committee killed, at the recommendation of the Chair of that committee.

If NH legislators and election officials at the state and local levels think we can't handle the "burden" of counting our votes, maybe it's time for them to go and make room for others who believe we need to and will do whatever it takes to protect our democracy.
Click to view video below, and scroll down to see full list of election law bills killed in Committee and by the full House in 2007.

Bills Killed by NH Election Law Committee Chair

HB136: would have required the Ballot Law Commission (BLC) to apply a standard for approval of voting technology: "Before approving any voting machine or device, the ballot law commission shall, following a public hearing, find that there is clear and convincing evidence that the voting machine or device being examined has been designed and manufactured with adequate safeguards to insure the integrity of election results."

HB138: would have required full public disclosure of voting technology information (Deputy Secretary of State Scanlan, representing industry interests rather than voter interests, argued "we can't require disclosure because the vendor won't go for it" and "we can't make drastic changes like this too quickly".

HB141: would have allowed voters to choose paper over vapor: "The use of such (voting) machines or devices so authorized shall be valid for all purposes, provided that the city or town adopts a procedure whereby each voter is given the option of bypassing the voting machine or device and having his or her paper ballot counted by an election official." Secretary Gardner in testimony supporting the bill to the legislature argued that allowing people to choose the manner of having their vote counted is an essential element of grassroots democracy, and this would allow election officials to better fulfill the will of the electorate.

HB192 -FN: would have required election night checks and balances on voting machine counts, by requiring a parallel hand count on election night of at least one race for all machine count towns "At each polling place using a voting machine or device to count ballots, the election officials shall count the votes cast for at least one contested office on the ballot. At the discretion of the moderator, election officials may count the votes cast for additional offices." This particular bill is a check and balance the NH Fair Elections Committee had in 2006 requested be included in the SoS Election Procedure Manual, but the office of the Secretary of State refused to do so.

HB574 -FN-L: would have required all machine count jurisdictions to preserve electronic vote data held on the memory cards used in voting machines for the 22 months required by federal law. This would have clarified that e-vote data falls within this requirement for preservation of voting records, which Asst. Attorney General Jim Kennedy has already stated is the case. In other words, many places in NH that allow the vendor to erase vote data from the memory cards are already in violation of federal law but this state law would have made this absolutely clear.

Bill Passed by NH Election Law Committee Chair

HB285: sets up a committee to work on election technology - a committee that has no citizen representation, whose members are all appointed, and which has no mandate to even consider voting rights (citizen oversight, checks and balances) but rather to take as a given that elections should be run by technology.
In short, it doesn't take much in NH to maintain the status quo. Just a few strategically placed individuals in the right offices and positions, and the industry interests are protected.

On the other hand, it is a local decision to use voting machines or to hand count, so all we need to do is convince 300+ local officials that they have betrayed our democracy by choosing Diebold over citizen-controlled elections. Small task.

Nancy Tobi is cofounder, former Chair, website editor for Democracy for New Hampshire (DFNH), and Chair of the NH Fair Elections Committee. Nancy is the author of numerous articles on election integrity, including "The Gifts of HAVA: Time to Ask for a Refund," "What's Wrong with the Holt Bill," "We're Counting the Votes: An Election Preparedness Kit," and "Hands-on Elections: An Information Handbook for Running Real Elections, Using Real Paper Ballots, Counted by Real People". Her article about election reform fallacies is included in the April 2008 book "Losers Take All" edited by Mark Crispin Miller.

You can find more videos posted by Nancy on her YouTube Channel.

Mike Gravel Supports Jesse Johnson's Campaign

Jesse Johnson, Green Party Presidential Candidate met with Democratic Presidential candidate, Mike Gravel in which they agreed that the two major parties block third party voices at the expense of the people and nation and that must change.

Gravel said, "If we want to end the war in Iraq, provide health care to all citizens, educate our young people, we’re going to have to start not only working together with these alternate parties: but literally working to support them. That's why I'm supporting Jesse Johnson's campaign for President."

That support plays as a bonus boost for Johnson, whose recent attainment of the West Virginia ballot line for the Green Party is earning the relatively new Green Party member some clout in the party. Johnson, who plans to do a whistlestop tour through the United States via train, will be meeting up with Gravel for public presentations from time to time throughout the campaign.

Johnson comes from a long line of police officers and grew up as a Republican, but one whose compassion was apparent through his work as an EMT, youth educator and film maker. However, as he witnessed what the Bush Administration's "Open for Business" policy meant to West Virginia's Governor Joe Manchin, he rushed into environmental activism. Just a couple of miles from his ancestral home and throughout the mountain region, coal companies began to blast off whole mountaintops with high-grade explosives in a high-speed effort to extract as much coal as quickly as possible. In the wake of these continuing explosions, the air and water has been contaminated and the socio-economic conditions have plummeted. These are the same mountains about which John Denver sang, "ripped up by greed," said Johnson. He is also concerned that in the process of mountaintop removal, no attempt is made to capitalize on the potential economic benefit of farming the lumber prior to the blows or trapping the natural gasses from within.

Recently, the Greens have seen a number of former Republicans join their ranks. The Green' strong plank on old-time Republican values such as conservation, fiscal responsibility, decentralization and local control holds interest for those who have lost faith in the Republican Party of today, according to a Green Party Political Director Brent McMillan. "Greens are the most frugal people you'll ever meet," he said. "Once people see them in office, they begin to realize that."

The Green Party has also seen a number of disenchanted Democrats join their party as well, Cynthia McKinney, former Democratic Congresswoman of Georgia, most notably. She is also running for President on the Green Party ticket and has accumulated a lot of support amongst many Greens. Members of the Green Party have tried to recruit her to run for spot for years. She now says, "I’ve come home to the Green Party."

There are also two Grassroots Green candidates, Kent Mesplay of California and Kat Swift of Texas, also running for the seat of Presidential nominee. While neither has previously held office, their party-building work is notable.

Small Vermont Towns Send White House Big Message

Brattleboro and Marlboro, towns in that very independent state of Vermont, have approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution,". According to Reuters and the AP, the town police have been instructed to "extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them."

In a non-binding floor vote, 43 out of 28 residents of the small southern Vermont town of 978 people approved the article calling for Bush and Cheney to be arrested for crimes against the Constitution. The bill is non-binding, as it had not been placed on the agenda before presentation. Nonetheless, it is emblematic of the independence of this community based town, who in 2006 also voted to impeach GW Bush.

Marlboro is a small liberal arts college town in the Southern most part of Vermont. It annually hosts a renowned classical musical festival. Its full time residents volunteer at its firehouse and probably know too much about one another's business, but that is life in a small town.

Jesse Johnson Announces his Official Entry into the Presidential Race

Gains West Virginia Ballot Access for Green Party Candidates

After more than 8 months of negotiating, cajoling and applying the necessary legal pressure to his home state, Jesse Johnson has succeeded in getting, not only his name on the West Virginia ballot, but all four Green Party Presidential candidates on the ballot.

Despite the affiliation between the West Virginia Mountain Party and the Green Party, WV lawmakers had threatened to withhold the ballot line on the basis that the names of the parties are dissimilar, leaving Johnson as the only green Presidential candidate on the state's ballot. However Johnson and his lawyer successfully argued that this decision would also call into question all past elections in which an affiliated party had a different name, e.g. the Democrat-Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota as an affiliate of the Democrats, and many more.

Now that Johnson has opened the door to all the Green Party candidates, we expect to see some more campaigning on the East Coast. Johnson hopes to take a nationwide tour, by rail in the next two months.

"Green values are the values of American citizens," Johnson said. "I intend to gain their votes by defending our Constitution and our environment passionately, protecting the jobs and families of working-class Americans through sensible trade and health care policies, and ending not only the warin Iraq, but war as a means of foreign policy as well as the unforgivable bedrock of our economy."

Johnson has run to state level campaigns before as a candidate for Governor
of West Virginia in 2004 and U.S. Senator in 2006.

Missed Financing Opportunity Pins Third Parties to Delayed Nominating Conventions

Third Party Watch's Thomas L. Knapp posted an entry entitled "Third parties: Late, for a very important date."

While we agree it would be great to hear from third parties who their candidates are and to begin to demand media time, there's a financial loop hole for some of the delay, as explained in the comments by Ballot-Access.org's Richard Winger.


Richard Winger responded:

Parties that hold early presidential nominating conventions lose the chance to get primary season matching funds. I realize the Libertarian and Constitution Parties’ candidates aren’t interested in filing for primary season matching funds anyway. But that’s certainly not true of the other minor parties.

Parties that have received primary season matching funds (and which then legally used the money to pay for general election petitioning) have been the Citizens Party in 1984 (Sonia Johnson); the New Alliance Party in 1988 and 1992 (Lenora Fulani); the Natural Law Party in 1992, 1996 and 2000 (John Hagelin); the Green Party in 2000 (Ralph Nader); the Reform Party in 2004 (Ralph Nader).

Primary season money shuts off as soon as the party makes its nomination. Since the money can never be paid in the odd year before, a party that nominates in the odd year before the election has just totally shut off the opportunity.

Humor In A Time of Insanity

Cynthia McKinney Spreads Some Love into Politics

Revolutionary Love Event
June 10, 2007

"Rarely in politics do you hear folks talk about love. And it really is the one thing we need now more than anything else. We need love. We need public people who are not afraid to show themselves as the human beings that they are, with all of their frailties, with their imperfections, with whatever warts it is that we have. But the one thing we have more than anything else is that we love people, we love our country. We expect more from our country and we are willing to act on that expectation."

"The reason I got into politics was because I expected more from my country. I read history of my country - the domestic politics , the foreign politics - and I became a mother..."

McKinney carries on with an impassioned speech that addresses the Green Party's desire to hear if she would run for President on the Green Party ticket. She uses a lot of humor in this presentation and it a unique view of her.

It's not News. It's History.

C-SPAN Video Coverage of the Florida Supreme Court Hearing
Addressing Nader/Camejo ballot access in 2004.
9/17/2004

From C-SPAN's description:


The Florida Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Tallahassee on whether independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader's name would be included on the Florida presidential ballot this year. The Florida Democratic Party sued to keep Mr. Nader's name off of the ballot, claiming the Florida Reform Party was not a legitimate political party in the state because of the low numbers of supporters and funds. Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood had ordered that Mr. Nader's name appear on the ballot. A lower Florida court subsequently ruled that his name be removed. The state Supreme Court heard arguments in an expedited manner because absentee ballots for Florida voters overseas were to be mailed out on Saturday, September 18, 2004. Later that afternoon the court ruled that Ralph Nader's name would appear on the ballots.

Ralph Nader On The Daily Show

Jon of the Daily Show sets a great stage for Ralph Nader to explain his motives for entering the race. Ralph discusses a lot of significant points that have gone under the media radar. He was able to present his run as an action defending the First Amendment's free speech and right to petition. He was also able to mention the lawsuits which DNC operatives flagrantly used to deter and bankrupt the Nader/Camejo run in 2004.

Ralph looked great, not that he concerned himself with that; he smiled and joked in his lesser known affable way; he made a great case for an independent run.

Regarding the Green Party, he has said that it will be useful to have more than one progressive candidate out there right now. He sees his campaign moving in parallel with that of the Green Party.