Thursday, April 24, 2003

Peace Candidates QUOTE OF THE DAY "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." - - Albert Einstein APRIL 24th IN HISTORY: 1971 -- Largest ever (over 1,000,000 people) demonstrations opposing US war in Vietnam. 500,000 people gather in Washington D.C., 150,000 march in San Francisco. D.C.'s morning traffic bringing demonstrators is backed for 20 miles into Maryland. The all-day procession starts at the ellipse then fills Pennsylvania Avenue from one end to the other with marchers. The rally at the Capitol lasts 5 hours. That evening, homeward-bound demonstrators stall their cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, halting traffic for four hours. Abandoning their vehicles, they dance in the northbound lanes & start a bonfire in the southbound lanes. State police arrest more than 100 people. RHINO HERE: As I've said before, there are 2 presidential candidates who so far seem to be anti-war enough for me to believe in. They are Governor Howard Dean of Vermont... http://www.deanforamerica.com ...and Congressman Dennis Kucinich. http://www.kucinich.us I am glad they're both in the race. I believe that the more uncompromised voices for peace we have in the coming national presidential dialog, the better. Some criticize Dean for not being an absolute hard line peace advocate. He has not been anti-gun enough for them, having voted many times against gun control measures. Dean responds that he grew up in and represents a state with lots of country folk who own & use hunting rifles responsibly. He cites having voted for gun safety measures and for the assault weapons ban & the Brady Bill. DEAN ON "SENSIBLE GUN LAWS" : Sensible Gun Laws Some criticize him for dodging questions like, "Would you advocate cutting the Pentagon budget?" It's been reported he thinks answering that one would be committing political suicide. DEAN ON "NATIONAL SECURITY": National Security Some criticize Kucinich for having not been Pro Choice, and then a year before declaring his campaign, changing his mind. He says he believes terminating a pregnancy is one of the most serious decisions a woman might make. He was against it but that through conversations with many women who he respects, he came to the conclusion that "it's not simply about the right to choose, but about a woman's role in society as being free and having agency and having the ability to make her own decisions. That a woman can't be free unless she has this right." KUCINICH ON "REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS": http://www.kucinich.us/issues/issue_rightsreproductive.htm Many Democrats say he doesn't have a chance. No one knows who he is. He doesn't have any money. We absolutely have to have a Democrat run who is electable. It's more important to get Bush out of the White House than it is who the candidate is that beats him. Kucinich responds, "With me, money is no object, because it has never been the subject." and "I'm used to fighting for lost causes. I am used to doing things that other people say are impossible. I have learned throughout my whole life that you can turn it around." KUCINICH ON THE ISSUES: http://www.kucinich.us/issues.htm Bush: It's Not Just His Doctrine That's Wrong by Howard Dean, Published on Thursday, April 17, 2003 by CommonDreams.org [Note: After reading a recent article that called into question my opposition to the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war, I wanted to state my position clearly to set the record straight. I appreciate that the editors of Common Dreams have given me this opportunity.] When Congress approved the President's authorization to go to war in Iraq - no matter how well-intentioned - it was giving the green light to the President to set his Doctrine of preemptive war in motion. It now appears that Iraq was just the first step. Already, the Bush Administration is apparently eyeing Syria and Iran as the next countries on its target list. The Bush Doctrine must be stopped here... THE REST IS AT: http://commondreams.org/views03/0417-07.htm A Dark Horse Fights the Odds Again By CARL HULSE, N.Y. Times WASHINGTON, April 22 - When Dennis J. Kucinich was the enfant terrible of Cleveland politics back in the 1970's and at 31 became the youngest person ever elected mayor of a major American city, it was not far-fetched to think that he would someday be a presidential contender. Beyond his proven ability as an electoral winner, he had plenty of time remaining to reach for higher office. "At the time he was mayor, Dennis had everything in the world going for him," said Louis Stokes, who represented Cleveland for 30 years as a congressman and backed Mr. Kucinich for mayor. "He was destined to climb high."... READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/23/politics/campaigns/23KUCI.html?th 9:00:45 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - The Peace Candidate The Peace Candidate The Progressive, April 2003 , The Word from Washington, by Ruth Conniff Dennis Kucinich is clearly holding down the left end of the bench of Democratic Presidential contenders for 2004. The co-chair of the Progressive Caucus in Congress, an advocate of nonviolence who has proposed that the U.S. government create a Department of Peace, a vegan because he believes in "the sacredness of all species," and a pro-labor environmentalist who marched in the streets of Seattle and Washington, D.C., Kucinich is, without a doubt, the progressive candidate. The argument for his candidacy, unlikely though it may be, is that it represents a point of view the Democrats should be forced to deal with. The former "boy mayor" of Cleveland, now fifty-six, is the most vocal opponent of war with Iraq in the House of Representatives. A year ago, he began making impassioned speeches on the subject, and lately he's been showing up on the talk show circuit as a lonely voice for peace. Meet the Press, Crossfire, Hardball, and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, among others, have had him on to debate the Bush Administration's Iraq policy--though the Washington establishment is not taking his Presidential bid seriously. (The New York Times ranks him somewhere below Al Sharpton as a "viable candidate," and his February announcement in Iowa that he was running was greeted with a resounding shrug by most of the mainstream media.) Kucinich thinks the pundits are in for a surprise. "They try to make it appear that the positions I'm taking are way out, but they're not," he told me on the phone recently. "As the war effort continues, I think you'll see that more and more people will join in and want to be involved with the campaign."... THE ENTIRE ARTICLE'S POSTED AT: http://www.progressive.org/april03/conn0403.html "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. 8:26:53 AM    comment

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