By Luke Thomas
June 23, 2008
Two’s company. Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney announced today she has joined the campaign to elect Cindy Sheehan to Congress.
Citing Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s record on “hope-reversing” policies, McKinney will serve as Sheehan’s Honorary Co-Chair in Sheehan’s bid to “oust” Pelosi from office.
“Nancy Pelosi needs to phone home,” McKinney said, “because it’s clear that she’s forgotten the values of the people of California who sent her to Congress.”
The announcement comes at a particularly difficult time for Pelosi whose job approval rating has steadily declined since vowing “to take back America” in 2006. According to a recent Harris poll conducted between June 4 and June 8, Pelosi’s job approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of just 24 percent positive and 57 percent negative.
“The point was to change Washington, but instead Washington changed Nancy Pelosi,” McKinney said.
McKinney, who is seeking the Green Party nomination for President, left the Democratic Party in March 2007 after the new Democrat-controlled Congress elected in November 2006 failed to repeal the Patriot Act and to investigate the Pentagon’s mysterious loss of $2.3 trillion in fiscal-year 1999, a cause McKinney championed while serving on the U.S. House Committee on Armed Services.
McKinney first publicly endorsed Sheehan’s bid for Congress in 2007. According to McKinney, “Cindy’s campaign is increasingly important today as the only way left to put peace, impeachment, and our values back on the table.”
“Cindy continues to show us the power of one, the power that is within every one of us. Moreover, Cindy Sheehan can win,” McKinney added.
Sheehan, who launched her bid to unseat Pelosi in December, said of McKinney’s decision to join her campaign: “Having Cynthia on board is a significant gain for my campaign. She has experience in tough campaigns and brings a wealth of knowledge. I am running to win. We have already raised close to $200,000 and everyday we get more and more support as people get more fed up with Pelosi’s mis-leadership.”
Luke Thomas
Luke Thomas is a former software developer and computer consultant who proudly hails from London, England. In 2001, Thomas took a yearlong sabbatical to travel and develop a photographic portfolio. Upon his return to the US, Thomas studied photojournalism to pursue a career in journalism. In 2004, Thomas worked for several neighborhood newspapers in San Francisco before accepting a partnership agreement with the SanFranciscoSentinel.com, a news website formerly covering local, state and national politics. In September 2006, Thomas launched FogCityJournal.com. The BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, New York Times, Der Spiegel, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, 7x7, San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian and the San Francisco Weekly, among other publications and news outlets, have published his work. Thomas is a member of the Freelance Unit of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, TNG-CWA Local 39521 and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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June 24, 2008 at 9:17 pm
el Greco,
yes thankyou, I am aware. I generally try to choose my words pretty carefully with full knowledge of their obvious and superficial interpretion as well as the “hidden” meanings. Irony, facetiousness, poetic license, dramatic effect etc, are essential to the creative use of language, even my feeble attempts.
As a Hospice nurse I know that death has many meanings.
Marc, thank god we can beg to differ and still co-exist.
George’s 7 Dirty Words, as allowed by SF Indy Media.
S**t
F**k
P**s
C**t
C**k s****r
M****r F****r
T**s
Keep on raving George.
June 24, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Though I fully intend to proudly and happily vote for Nader/Gonzalez in November and I have contributed generously to his campaign, I’m still frustrated with Mr. Nader. As was the case in 2004, Nader spends the vast majority of his time venting his considerable outrage at the Democratic Party while offering little in the way of real solutions (it almost seems personal for him). Specifically, he chooses to have very public temper tantrums and run for President as himself as opposed to running as a part of a unified third party.
Though I agree with him and (I think) Matt Gonzalez about the fact that the Green Party has become a schizophrenic graveyard for progressive reform and, ultimately, even worse than the Democratic Party itself, I still think that there needs to be a third party to run with because you need to have legs and a vehicle to bring about change via the electoral system. At the very least he should spend more time discussing electoral reform (as Matt Gonzalez is doing) and promoting such organizations as FairVote and the New America Foundation. It should not JUST be about hating on the Democrats (though that is also important). If his approach doesn’t change in this fashion, than Mr. Nader really is an egomaniac.
June 24, 2008 at 7:23 am
“sent to bed with the fishes”?
Mr Monk, are you aware of the meaning of that statement? If you meant “voted out of office” that is one thing. Review your copy of the Godfather if you are not clear on what “sent to bed with the fishes” (or “sleeps with the fishes”) means. You may want to clarify that.
June 24, 2008 at 7:22 am
Running quixotic campaigns in the hope that your number comes up on its own is not fighting the good fight.
Expending scarce resources on a campaign that is bound not only to lose but to have zero palpable impact on the debate outside a small cadre of activists is not fighting any fight at all.
Organizing and putting together a competitive electoral package–candidate, policies, field operation, communication and GOTV–is fighting the good fight.
-marc
June 23, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I am very happy to see these two admirable people make this logical alliance… and I love Patrick Monk’s comment above.
At the same time I continue to admire Ralph Nader and his running mate Matt Gonzalez who are fighting the good fight against out-of-control corporatism and a whole slew of evils beloved by the establishment media and our unaccountable “leaders” in Washington– a good fight quite in tune with Sheehan’s and McKinney’s campaigns.
Forgetting complicated political gradations for the moment– doesn’t their good fight really boil down to Us (the majority of us who want a healthier society and world) against Them (the few, the greedy, the unconscionable)?
This may be a good year for creative unity– and watershed victory– certainly here in San Francisco where kicking Pelosi from office is achievable.
June 23, 2008 at 8:28 pm
TOGETHER AGAIN.
I first had the privilege of meeting these two remarkable women when I was managing the campaign of an equally powerful local heroine and freedom fighter, Dr Ahimsa Sumchai. They came together one afternoon in the Bayview at one of our early get-togethers to give their support to Ahimsa’s campaign, something that most of you didn’t have the moxie or cojones to do, preferred some safer more malleable mouthpiece. Well we’re stuck with Newscum, don’t screw up again and re-elect Gavin’s funky “Godmother”. This cabal of mafios’s needs to be sent to bed with the fishes. Nowhere in the Little Pink Progressives Book is it written that we need to find a white-ish, male, middle aged, middle class member of the inner circle to support for elected office.
CINDY FOR CONGRESS.
CYNTHIA FOR PRESIDENT.
NO MORE COMPROMISE.
PUT UP -STAND UP – OR
SHUT THE FUCK UP.
GEORGE CARLIN
RIP MOTHER FUCKER.