Cal Democratic Convention: Winograd vs. Harman

Originally Posted on Dick & Sharon's LA Progressive, April 19, 2010
"Clearly the Party Leadership Circled the Wagons"
by Caitlin Frazier



To many attending the California Democratic Party convention in Los Angeles last weekend, the vote to approve or object to the endorsement of Rep. Jane Harman (CA/36), was too close to call – certainly not reflective of a frenzied convention tabulation Party Chair John Burton delivered with the qualifier, “No one was bribed.”After over a thousand votes were counted in just a few minutes, congressional challenger Marcy Winograd questioned the validity of the approximately 60-40% vote count to endorse Harman. Said Winograd, “I saw a sea of objections to Harman’s endorsement. I don’t know who had the majority of the floor, but I suspect the reported tally was way off. Delegations overlooked by the counters had to scream to get counted.”

To push the vote to the floor, a hundred Winograd for Congress supporters gathered at the convention Saturday night to collect nearly 500 delegate objections in four hours to Harman’s pre-endorsement by the local caucus, composed of mostly elected officials and their appointees.
On the floor of the convention, Party leadership tried to cut off debate, then had officers leave the stage to argue for Harman’s endorsement on the floor because Harman herself did not even show up. “Clearly the leadership was taken aback at the strength of our challenge and circled the wagons,” said Winograd.

In her speech, Winograd told fellow delegates, “Brothers and sisters, rank and file Democrats, this is a struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party. Are we for jobs or wars, homes or big banks, our street or Wall Street? You have the power to change the course of history.”

With the endorsement process over, Winograd will concentrate on reaching the voters directly with her message of grassroots empowerment. “It is time to end the corporate stranglehold on Congress and usher in a new day for working families,” said Winograd.


Caitlin Frazier is Press Secretary for Marcy Winograd

Photo by Ralph Oden

Michael Moore: Begging Obama on Afghanistan

In 2004, Michael Moore and Bill Maher got on their knees on national television to beg Ralph Nader not to run for president again. Six years later, Mr. Moore is begging Democratic President Barack Obama *NOT* to escalate the war in Afghanistan. Behold the difference between Republicans and Democrats -- when Democrats are in power we get to beg on our knees facing the White House.

Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. ...

Michael Mooere's "Open Letter to President Obama" is a good letter. It is also a sad letter. It is sad that in 2010 after eight years of war that such a letter is even necessary.


Posted on MichaelMoore.com, November 30, 2009
An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore
by Michael Moore

Dear President Obama,

Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. Pure and simple. And with that you will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your campaign into disillusioned cynics. You will teach them what they've always heard is true -- that all politicians are alike. I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do. Please say it isn't so.

It is not your job to do what the generals tell you to do. We are a civilian-run government. WE tell the Joint Chiefs what to do, not the other way around. That's the way General Washington insisted it must be. That's what President Truman told General MacArthur when MacArthur wanted to invade China. "You're fired!," said Truman, and that was that. And you should have fired Gen. McChrystal when he went to the press to preempt you, telling the press what YOU had to do. Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals, from Westmoreland in Vietnam to, yes, even Colin Powell for lying to the UN with his made-up drawings of WMD (he has since sought redemption).

So now you feel backed into a corner. 30 years ago this past Thursday (Thanksgiving) the Soviet generals had a cool idea -- "Let's invade Afghanistan!" Well, that turned out to be the final nail in the USSR coffin.

There's a reason they don't call Afghanistan the "Garden State" (though they probably should, seeing how the corrupt President Karzai, whom we back, has his brother in the heroin trade raising poppies). Afghanistan's nickname is the "Graveyard of Empires." If you don't believe it, give the British a call. I'd have you call Genghis Khan but I lost his number. I do have Gorbachev's number though. It's + 41 22 789 1662. I'm sure he could give you an earful about the historic blunder you're about to commit.

With our economic collapse still in full swing and our precious young men and women being sacrificed on the altar of arrogance and greed, the breakdown of this great civilization we call America will head, full throttle, into oblivion if you become the "war president." Empires never think the end is near, until the end is here. Empires think that more evil will force the heathens to toe the line -- and yet it never works. The heathens usually tear them to shreds.

Choose carefully, President Obama. You of all people know that it doesn't have to be this way. You still have a few hours to listen to your heart, and your own clear thinking. You know that nothing good can come from sending more troops halfway around the world to a place neither you nor they understand, to achieve an objective that neither you nor they understand, in a country that does not want us there. You can feel it in your bones.

I know you know that there are LESS than a hundred al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan! A hundred thousand troops trying to crush a hundred guys living in caves? Are you serious? Have you drunk Bush's Kool-Aid? I refuse to believe it.

Your potential decision to expand the war (while saying that you're doing it so you can "end the war") will do more to set your legacy in stone than any of the great things you've said and done in your first year. One more throwing a bone from you to the Republicans and the coalition of the hopeful and the hopeless may be gone -- and this nation will be back in the hands of the haters quicker than you can shout "tea bag!"

Choose carefully, Mr. President. Your corporate backers are going to abandon you as soon as it is clear you are a one-term president and that the nation will be safely back in the hands of the usual idiots who do their bidding. That could be Wednesday morning.

We the people still love you. We the people still have a sliver of hope. But we the people can't take it anymore. We can't take your caving in, over and over, when we elected you by a big, wide margin of millions to get in there and get the job done. What part of "landslide victory" don't you understand?

Don't be deceived into thinking that sending a few more troops into Afghanistan will make a difference, or earn you the respect of the haters. They will not stop until this country is torn asunder and every last dollar is extracted from the poor and soon-to-be poor. You could send a million troops over there and the crazy Right still wouldn't be happy. You would still be the victim of their incessant venom on hate radio and television because no matter what you do, you can't change the one thing about yourself that sends them over the edge.

The haters were not the ones who elected you, and they can't be won over by abandoning the rest of us.

President Obama, it's time to come home. Ask your neighbors in Chicago and the parents of the young men and women doing the fighting and dying if they want more billions and more troops sent to Afghanistan. Do you think they will say, "No, we don't need health care, we don't need jobs, we don't need homes. You go on ahead, Mr. President, and send our wealth and our sons and daughters overseas, 'cause we don't need them, either."

What would Martin Luther King, Jr. do? What would your grandmother do? Not send more poor people to kill other poor people who pose no threat to them, that's what they'd do. Not spend billions and trillions to wage war while American children are sleeping on the streets and standing in bread lines.

All of us that voted and prayed for you and cried the night of your victory have endured an Orwellian hell of eight years of crimes committed in our name: torture, rendition, suspension of the bill of rights, invading nations who had not attacked us, blowing up neighborhoods that Saddam "might" be in (but never was), slaughtering wedding parties in Afghanistan. We watched as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were slaughtered and tens of thousands of our brave young men and women were killed, maimed, or endured mental anguish -- the full terror of which we scarcely know.

When we elected you we didn't expect miracles. We didn't even expect much change. But we expected some. We thought you would stop the madness. Stop the killing. Stop the insane idea that men with guns can reorganize a nation that doesn't even function as a nation and never, ever has.

Stop, stop, stop! For the sake of the lives of young Americans and Afghan civilians, stop. For the sake of your presidency, hope, and the future of our nation, stop. For God's sake, stop.

Tonight we still have hope.

Tomorrow, we shall see. The ball is in your court. You DON'T have to do this. You can be a profile in courage. You can be your mother's son.

We're counting on you.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

PROPOSAL : GA RESOLUTION ON PEACE AND AMNESTY

Since I recently posted the Napa County Greens resolution on Amnesty for military personnel who view fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq as illegal and/or immoral, I not that there is already a new proposal which the sponsors are asking be added to the agenda on the floor of the upcoming General Assembly. I would guess that this proposal will have strong backing, especially given the ongoing Green Party opposition to the War in Iraq, otherwise known as Bush's Folly.

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PROPOSAL : GA RESOLUTION ON PEACE AND AMNESTY

PRESENTERS

Laura Wells, (510)-986-0879, lwlaura@yahoo.com
Tim Smith, (707)-202-4507, rioryon@aol.com
Lowell Downey, (707)-257-1166, napagreens@aol.com



SUBJECT
A - Initiating a Peace Process in the Middle East
B - Amnesty for All Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The ongoing civil war in Iraq threatens to engulf the entire Middle East Region in a murderous conflagration, destructive of human life and of the surrounding natural environment...
Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of combatants and innocent bystanders have already lost their lives, or have been maimed, injured and traumatized, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Isreal, etc etc...
And general strife seriously threatens in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and throughout the whole region...
In fact, the whole world is threatened by the potential of a nuclear escalation of this conflict...
While there are groups seeking PEACE in this region, and among the combatant nations, those peace groups receive little recognition, support, or encouragement from the US Government...
While there are US Soldiers who refuse to fight in this conflict, they are hounded, persecuted and often forced to flee their homeland...


PROPOSAL

THE PEACE PROCESS

The California Green Party calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The California Green Party calls for the immediate withdrawal of ALL foreign combatants from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The California Green Party calls for the immediate commencement of a Middle East PEACE Process, encouraging ALL effected parties to enter into formal dialogue, with the ultimate goal of establishing a Just and lasting Peace, for all concerned.
The California Green Party calls for the Middle East PEACE Process to begin under the auspices of the United Nations and that it prominently include ALL Middle East Groups whose stated mission and goal is a Just and lasting Peace for all.

AMNESTY

The Green Party of California calls for immediate Amnesty for all soldiers that have refused to fight in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. We demand that Congress address this important issue. This is not just a military issue. This is a human rights issue that involves us all.

Amnesty is the right thing do. Our elected leaders have ignored the facts and supported this war for years while our soldiers and Iraqi civilians have been and continue to be crippled and slaughtered. Our elected representatives bear responsibility for this war and it is up to them to begin the important step toward national healing by showing compassion to our soldiers and their families. One essential step is in giving amnesty to our soldiers that have refused to fight in this war.

Our soldiers have returned home maimed and psychologically scarred for life. The mistreatment by our government is criminal. One out of every three homeless is a veteran. Veterans and their families are harassed and financially crippled. Veteran families are victims at home while their husbands and wives and children are dying and wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our leading military hospital has been disgraced for its treatment of soldiers.

Amnesty is about compassion. Amnesty is about healing a great wrong. Would we condemn soldiers if they refused to follow the orders to commit the horrific My Lai Massacre in Vietnam? Would we not offer them compassion and amnesty if they chose to flee the military order? Would we condemn Nazi soldiers for refusing to follow orders to commit atrocities in labor camps? Would we not offer them compassion and amnesty?

Quoting St. Augustine, Martin Luther King Jr. said, "An unjust law is no law at all." Are our soldiers who refuse to follow an unjust law and an unjust order guilty of a crime that will forever be on their records? Is it right that they and their families bear the shame of a dishonorable discharge, prison and humiliation? We cannot turn our heads on these brave Americans who have been ostracized and turned into criminals for standing up against deceitful political leaders.

There can be no conditions for amnesty. Our country needs to find a way back from the horror that this war has inflicted here at home. We have another generation of children who have grown up with this violence. We have another war generation to support. In ten years, we may look back and say that giving amnesty to our soldiers who refused to fight in the Iraq and Afghanistan War was the catalyst for healing. Amnesty is a way to restore faith in our democracy and our humanity.

In an address Martin Luther King, Jr. once spoke, 'the first question which the priest and the Levite asked was "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But the good Samaritan reversed the question, "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" We also ask, "What will happen to the children of our soldiers and our children if we do not grant amnesty and show compassion?"

TIMELINE

The GPCA-CC shall agendize this Proposal at the beginning of the General Assembly(GA), Saturday, May 26th.
If the GA delegates chose to pass this Proposal, the GPCA Media Committee and other GP Media officials (such as Beth Moore Haines, Cres Vellucci, Erika MacDonald, etc) shall be charged with calling a press conference, and issue press releases in concert with the GA's closing ceremonies, when the GPCA shall publicize its Resolution on PEACE and AMNESTY.


RESOURCES

The Necessary Media Contacts and Announcements