Steve:  These are the primaries.  Put your cynacism aside, walk into the booth and cast your vote for the candidate who best represents the interests of the middle and working classes.

Voting is not just a right, it is a responsibility.  What you do individually has ramifications.  If you continue to vote on the basis of anything other than substance, the government you get will be the government you deserve.

lorifromstcroix:  There is only one valid question each voter must ask him or herself before undertaking the solemn right and responsibility of citizenship that is embodied in the vote—Where does the candidate stand on issues that truly matter? Thinking about anything else—image, poll numbers, lesser evils, gender or race of the candidate, the cost of the candidate, whether Oprah or some other celebrity likes them—are simply distractions designed to get voters to vote for candidates who do not represent the interests of the vast majority of the American people—the middle and working classes.  It is these distractions that have permitted a tiny wealthy few to control the direction of national policy.  What is good for Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil, Blackwater, the military-industrial complex and the for-profit health insurance industry is definitely not what is good for the country.

lorifromstcroix,

Well, from your post it sounds like Kucinich is lucky to have you worried about his well being. What do you mean by the wrong lesser evil?

It is obvious that Kucinich has few or no friends from special interests; ie: Military complex, Health Insurance Industry,  Oil companies and of course the mass media, and I suspect many, many more of the powerful groups who run our country. 

Every other candidate has support from these special interests, I suppose, because maybe because they want something from the candidates and expect it.

As one person, a citizen of this alleged great country, who went to Vietnam to fight another senseless war for this county, very little thought needs to guide mem there is something brokenheartedly wrong with our government, a federal government of good old boys for sale to the highest bidder. 

Accountability, integrity and truth buried in a landslide of lies, has shown us that business as usual needs to be changed.

Only three people running for office of president offer any change from business as usual and only two offer a taste of reason, supported by thoes things absent in our government, Gravel and Kucinich.

Only one person, who’s vote may count?

?conspiracy keeping dennis low in the polls may save his life…  my biggest fear, i cant utter/type.  i am new to this site:  i am worried that my vote for dennis in the primary will allow the wrong lesser evil to get the nomination and then??  Hillary??

Dennis acts too much like a human with a brain.  The electorate wants a mechanical talking doll from Wal-Mart whose speech is pre-programmed with meaningless, redundant cliches and slogans.

Too few people really understand what Dennis did there.

#118992 by PaulMagillSmith
Attention: I mis-spelled Mona as “Moan” in the first part of my first post. While that seems a little ironic as in groan. Her name is Mona Charen at http://www.creators.com. I find their title also ironic. It was her invitation in my local paper so everybody go read her article and then give her an education. I personally believe that most Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich supporters are intelligent Constitution supporters.

You’re 100 percent on the mark. We need to respond quickly to rants posted or passed to us as “News” by those in power.

Make no mistake, it’s not just Republicans who pimp for the controllers. It’s mostly driven by the media acting on behalf of their corporate benefactors.

With the growth of merged corporations has come growth of the media function as mind controllers.

The biggest problem facing the world today is the mis-information provided by corporate interests being desiminated by the media giants like Ruppert and the Fux channel.

Another reason to actively support the continued freedom of the internet.

People are giving up the chance to be in the main-stream by allowing the media to do our thinking for us.

Thanks, vet240, I’ve been saying this for a long time now. Instead of staying perpetually on this (and other) progressive sites preaching to the choir we should be fanning out and doing battle with the enemy where he feels safe…right wing blogs.

Sure, we will catch a lot of flak there, but no more so than the obvious trolls who occasionally come here spreading lies, obfuscations, and attempts to cover up their errant thinking & ways.

Our truth (THE truth) cannot be denied, except by liars.

In a recent article in my home town paper Moan Charen an apparent “professional writer, submitted an article in which a she attacked Ron Paul and his followers as “Neo-fascists”.

The real message in her article was to sway any “soft” Republicans away from Paul back into the mainstream Republican party. To do so she stated that when Paul supporters used the phrase “Neo-Con” they were speaking in code. She said “Neo-con” was really code speak for “Jew”. She also spoke with disdain of Ron Paul referring to “Dark Forces” in our country.

She invited anyone who wanted to contact her, they could at http://www.creators.com . I went to that site and found it to be an agency representing many right-wing writers and entertainers. People like Robert Novack and Bill O’Reilly. I found her location to be ironic when considering the possibility of there being “Dark forces”

I would encourage everybody to go to the site mentioned and sound off to Mona Charen.

I would like to see Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul given as much monetary and voluntary support as possible. Lets get back to a time (did it ever exist?) when the government was representative of the people and not just hacks for the Military/Industrial complex, Multi-National corporations and big energy.

We have nothing to lose by voting for DK in the primary, then voting for ANY Democrat in 08.

In spite of the corporate domination of our gov’t. making GOP and Dems seem alike, there are yet more crises ahead for this country, and the Dems have a track record of effectiveness as opposed to profit-taking and war-mongering.

Dennis…you rock!!!

Dennis Kucinich….the Ross Perot of 2008.

Kucinich makes more sense in one short statement than all the others put together,  yes the small minds will ask, why should I pay for someone else to have health care.  But the same small minds do not ask why are we dumping all our money in the war to support the military complex?  Small minds are the supporters, greed of the elite, the special interests are the instigators through the control of the mass media they call all the shots, we get what they want us to have. 
It would be nice to have a federal government for the people, not just the powerful.

Although I saw it when it first came out, I recently purchased the Sicko DVD—watched it again last night.  Still can’t get over the astounded laughter from patients and health care workers at a U.K. hospital when they were asked by Michael Moore how much their treatment cost.  They gave him this, “have you lost your mind?” expression.  No doubt, citizens in single-payer countries think we are all out of our minds.

Our health care system is not only corrupt but utterly irrational.  The system not only includes the presence of unnecessary middle-men (for-profit carriers and HMOs that account for 31% of the cost as compared to 1% to 2% in single-payer countries), but provides financial incentives to those unnecessary middle-men to prevent people from getting needed care.  The one scene that continues to haunt me is the young widow tearfully relating how the HMO where she worked refused to provide her husband with a life-saving bone marrow transplant even though her husband’s youngest brother was a perfect match.  Her husband died a short time later.

As Dr. Linda Pino’s testimony revealed, the current system is not merely irrational.  It kills people!  Yet, Clinton, Obama & Edwards all advance “universal coverage” and ignore “single-payer” because they need the blood money from the health care insurance and pharmaceutical lobbies.

It is the duty of each citizen to become informed on issues that truly matter.  With the fulfillment of that duty comes a significant responsibility.  Any citizen who chooses to ignore the fundamental truth about our corrupt and irrational health care system, who casts a vote for one of these “universal coverage” candidates strictly on the basis of poll numbers, knowing full well that there is a candidate who advocates single-payer, becomes an accomplice to the future deaths that will flow from the continuance of this thoroughly corrupt and callous health care delivery system.

I’ve only sent him a couple of hundred bucks so far, which is a couple of hundred more than I’ve sent any candidate, except for Gravel…who…what..wasn’t invited?  In any case, I should send him 10 times more to pay simply for the pleasure of seeing that clip. Beautiful, man!
http://www.ontheissues.org/2004/Dennis_Kucinich_Health_Care.htm

Fantastic! Just fantastic!  Thank you truthdig for continuing to spotlight Dennis Kucinich when the major corporate media deliberately choose to ignore him.

Kucinich is by far the most superior of all the candidates. If the United States is EVER to pursue a new path, one that puts the public interest FIRST and choses leaders based on their mission to serve the PUBLIC GOOD, than Kucinich would be a great way to start.

I’m voting for Kucinich and I hope all of you who read truthdig vote for Kucinich and tell your friends to vote for Kucinich. He truly is by far the most progressive and liberal and humane of all of the candidates. Kucinich is the only candidate that actually makes me smile and feel good. Thank you, Kucinich, for making me believe in you.

Not sure if the show was even worth stealing but this at least shows Kucinich can think on his feet. That sets him apart from the others who are petrified of straying from their own inbred babble. Too bad he didn’t come up with something like this when the media shill asked him about UFOs.

It’s hard to get excited about this election campaign or debate. Would we have been better off if the Supreme Court had allowed Al Gore to become president instead of George Bush? That would have left us with Joe Lieberman as vice President. Not much debate where Joe (kill America for Israel) Lieberman stands. And history shows us that if Al Gore would have actually had the balls to go up against the CIA, the Pentagon and the military industrial complex, he would have been swiftly assassinated and Joe Lieberman would have become president of the United States of America.

Not a dime’s worth of difference between the parties and anomalies risk being snuffed out.

Congressman Kucinich is definitely there to play, regardless of the celebrity status of some of his opponents.

Man do we need to get this country back on track.  Campaign spending reform, real lobbying reform,(insert your favorite issue here.) Imagine a government not filled with selfish jerks whose sole purpose is to either get themselves or other members of their club re-elected.

“They won’t give peace a chance, it was just a dream some of us had.”

Joni Mitchell by way of John Lennon

“Need an alternative to war?  Try peace.”

I said that.

#117797 by Hank Van den Berg

You’re so right about the debates Hank. They generally serve no useful purpose.

I’m delighted that Kucinich was able to get around it this one instance, and that he was smart enough to do it. In past debates, he is generally ignored.

So. Bravo Dennis!!

He’s awesome! 

He’s our only hope.

Which means we’re doomed.

Kucinich 2008

Every so often, prepardness meets opportunity.