She did this commercial during her 2008 Green Party presidential campaign. Sadly, she was correct.



 

It was bad enough that Israel committed an act of piracy in international waters by seizing a private relief ship en route to Gaza and stealing equipment from the ship.

Even worse, they took those aboard hostage and sent them to Israel. The three Americans on board were the people held as hostages the longest by the Israeli government.

Make no mistake, this is literally an act of war by Israel against the United States of America.

Israel impossiblly claims that the actions of the relief ship and its passengers were illegal. Let's look at the actual laws involved. The relief ship was not violating any aspect of international law by sending humanitarian relief to the Palestinians in Gaza. The ships destination was Palestine, not Israel, and providing humanitarian relief to Palestinian law certainly is no violation of Palestinian law. Since the ship was in international waters and headed towards Palestine, the ship was never going to be in Israel's jurisdiction.

Fortunately, the last of the hostages, Americans, have been freed from captivity by the Israeli government terrorists, but that does not let Israel off the hook for its act of aggression against the USA. The appropriate responses of the US government to this Israeli act of war are the following.

- Breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel.

- Formally indicting every Israeli official involved in the piracy, kidnapping, and hostage taking from the top to the bottom of that country's government.

- Ending all aid to Israel.

- Seizing Israeli assets in the US for the purpose of compensating the former hostages and the organization whose ship was taken as an act of piracy.

- Issuing a travel ban for Americans to Israel.

- Enforcing a complete ban on trade with Israel in addition to other economic sanctions against that terrorist government.

- Using the US Navy and marines to provide equipment and supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza.

This isn't the first act of war by Israel against the USA. Israel's terrorist murder of US citizen Rachel Corrie in 2003 wasn't the first either. Most Americans don't even know that Israel knowingly attacked the USS Liberty in 1967.

Why does "our" government let Israel continue with its history of acts of war against our country while still funding that belligerent government?

One of the Americans held hostage by Israel was former congressmember Cynthia McKinney. Here is her eloquent statement made by phone while being a hostage of the Israeli government.

This is Cynthia McKinney and I'm speaking from an Israeli prison cellblock in Ramle. [I am one of] the Free Gaza 21, human rights activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to Gaza, building supplies - and even crayons for children, I had a suitcase full of crayons for children. While we were on our way to Gaza the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn around. The Israelis high-jacked and arrested us because we wanted to give crayons to the children in Gaza. We have been detained, and we want the people of the world to see how we have been treated just because we wanted to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.

At the outbreak of Israel's Operation ‘Cast Lead' [in December 2008], I boarded a Free Gaza boat with one day's notice and tried, as the US representative in a multi-national delegation, to deliver 3 tons of medical supplies to an already besieged and ravaged Gaza.

During Operation Cast Lead, U.S.-supplied F-16's rained hellfire on a trapped people. Ethnic cleansing became full scale outright genocide. U.S.-supplied white phosphorus, depleted uranium, robotic technology, DIME weapons, and cluster bombs - new weapons creating injuries never treated before by Jordanian and Norwegian doctors. I was later told by doctors who were there in Gaza during Israel's onslaught that Gaza had become Israel's veritable weapons testing laboratory, people used to test and improve the kill ratio of their weapons.

The world saw Israel's despicable violence thanks to al-Jazeera Arabic and Press TV that broadcast in English. I saw those broadcasts live and around the clock, not from the USA but from Lebanon, where my first attempt to get into Gaza had ended because the Israeli military rammed the boat I was on in international water ... It's a miracle that I'm even here to write about my second encounter with the Israeli military, again a humanitarian mission aborted by the Israeli military.

The Israeli authorities have tried to get us to confess that we committed a crime ... I am now known as Israeli prisoner number 88794. How can I be in prison for collecting crayons to kids?

Zionism has surely run out of its last legitimacy if this is what it does to people who believe so deeply in human rights for all that they put their own lives on the line for someone else's children. Israel is the fullest expression of Zionism, but if Israel fears for its security because Gaza's children have crayons then not only has Israel lost its last shred of legitimacy, but Israel must be declared a failed state.

I am facing deportation from the state that brought me here at gunpoint after commandeering our boat. I was brought to Israel against my will. I am being held in this prison because I had a dream that Gaza's children could color & paint, that Gaza's wounded could be healed, and that Gaza's bombed-out houses could be rebuilt.

But I've learned an interesting thing by being inside this prison. First of all, it's incredibly black: populated mostly by Ethiopians who also had a dream ... like my cellmates, one who is pregnant. They are all are in their twenties. They thought they were coming to the Holy Land. They had a dream that their lives would be better ... The once proud, never colonized Ethiopia [has been thrown into] the back pocket of the United States, and become a place of torture, rendition, and occupation. Ethiopians must free their country because superpower politics [have] become more important than human rights and self-determination.

My cellmates came to the Holy Land so they could be free from the exigencies of superpower politics. They committed no crime except to have a dream. They came to Israel because they thought that Israel held promise for them. Their journey to Israel through Sudan and Egypt was arduous. I can only imagine what it must have been like for them. And it wasn't cheap. Many of them represent their family's best collective efforts for self-fulfilment. They made their way to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. They got their yellow paper of identification. They got their certificate for police protection. They are refugees from tragedy, and they made it to Israel only after they arrived Israel told them "there is no UN in Israel."

The police here have license to pick them up & suck them into the black hole of a farce for a justice system. These beautiful, industrious and proud women represent the hopes of entire families. The idea of Israel tricked them and the rest of us. In a widely propagandized slick marketing campaign, Israel represented itself as a place of refuge and safety for the world's first Jews and Christian. I too believed that marketing and failed to look deeper.

The truth is that Israel lied to the world. Israel lied to the families of these young women. Israel lied to the women themselves who are now trapped in Ramle's detention facility. And what are we to do? One of my cellmates cried today. She has been here for 6 months. As an American, crying with them is not enough. The policy of the United States must be better, and while we watch President Obama give 12.8 trillion dollars to the financial elite of the United States it ought now be clear that hope, change, and ‘yes we can' were powerfully presented images of dignity and self-fulfilment, individually and nationally, that besieged people everywhere truly believed in.

It was a slick marketing campaign as slickly put to the world and to the voters of America as was Israel's marketing to the world. It tricked all of us but, more tragically, these young women.

We must cast an informed vote about better candidates seeking to represent us. I have read and re-read Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's letter from a Birmingham jail. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined that I too would one day have to do so. It is clear that taxpayers in Europe and the U.S. have a lot to atone for, for what they've done to others around the world.

What an irony! My son begins his law school program without me because I am in prison, in my own way trying to do my best, again, for other people's children. Forgive me, my son. I guess I'm experiencing the harsh reality which is why people need dreams. [But] I'm lucky. I will leave this place. Has Israel become the place where dreams die?

Ask the people of Palestine. Ask the stream of black and Asian men whom I see being processed at Ramle. Ask the women on my cellblock. [Ask yourself:] what are you willing to do?

Let's change the world together & reclaim what we all need as human beings: Dignity. I appeal to the United Nations to get these women of Ramle, who have done nothing wrong other than to believe in Israel as the guardian of the Holy Land, resettled in safe homes. I appeal to the United State's Department of State to include the plight of detained UNHCR-certified refugees in the Israel country report in its annual human rights report. I appeal once again to President Obama to go to Gaza: send your special envoy, George Mitchell there, and to engage Hamas as the elected choice of the Palestinian people.

I dedicate this message to those who struggle to achieve a free Palestine, and to the women I've met at Ramle. This is Cynthia McKinney, July 2nd 2009, also known as Ramle prisoner number 88794.

 

Barack Obama refused to appoint even one openly lesbian, gay, bi, or trans person to his cabinet. But, homophobes are perfectly OK to this administration. Having Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State is bad enough. But, now President Obama has appointed rabid heterosexist Judd Gregg as Commerce Secretary. From Pink News 2/6/09:

Senator Gregg has a poor voting record on gay rights.

He opposed expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation and prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation and voted in favour of a ban on same-sex marriage.

"Once again our efforts for equality are being set aside for political gain," said David Mixner, a prominent gay rights activist, public affairs adviser and fundraiser.

"Just look at Senator Gregg's record and you will see that over the last three sessions of Congress he has been with us only 28% of the time.

"In the 108th Congress (2003 to 2005), his voting record was only 13%! It is one of the lower rankings in Congress.

"That is totally unacceptable. Surely the rights and freedoms of an entire group of people under attack around the country should be enough to disqualify someone from a key position in the Obama Cabinet.

It should be noted that these are Human Rights Campaign ratings, and the HRC is notorious for warping their ratings to make politicians look more favorable towards our issues than they actually are. (It makes the HRC look like it is accomplishing far more than they actually are.) The real record of Senator Gregg is even worse than the ratings would indicate.

The Obama administration just keeps getting worse on lgbt issues. I'm so glad I voted for Cynthia McKinney in the general election. I just wish I voted for Kucinich rather than Obama in the Democratic primary.

You can read Mixner's blog posting on the subject too.

 

I have had tremendous respect for Cynthia McKinney for a long time. I am so proud to have voted for her in the 2008 election. This is an example of why.

Ms. McKinney has gone with the Dignity, an unarmed boat from the Free Gaza campaign, which was trying to bring desperately needed medical supplies to Gaza. She was on board when the Isreali military attacked them. I have included her full account below.

From FreeGaza.org (Hat Tip to Ten Percent which is doing an excellent job of covering the Gaza carnage:

Oh What a Day!

by Cynthia McKinney Date : 12-30-2008
I'm so glad that my father told me to buy a special notebook and to write everything down because that's exactly what I did.

When we left from Cyprus, one reporter asked me "are you afraid?" And I had to respond that Malcolm X wasn't afraid; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn't afraid. But little did I know that just a few hours later, I would be recollecting my life and mentally preparing myself for death.

When we left Cyprus, the Mediterranean was beautiful. I remember the time when it might have been beautiful to look at, but it was also filthy. The Europeans have taken great strides to clean it up and yesterday, it was beautiful. And the way the sunlight hit the sea, I remember thinking to myself that's why they call it azure. It was the most beautiful blue.

But sometimes it was rough, and we got behind on our schedule. We stayed on course, however, despite the roughness of the water and due to our exquisite captain.

There were no other ships or boats around us and night descended upon us all rather quickly. It was the darkest black and suddenly, out of nowhere, came searchlights disturbing our peace. The searchlights stayed with us for about half an hour or so. We knew they were Israeli ships. Who else would they be?

They were fast, and they would come close and then drop back. And then, they'd come close again. And then, all of a sudden there was complete blackness once again and all seemed right. The cat and mouse game went on for at least one half hour. What were they doing? And why?

Calm again. Black sky, black sea. Peace. And then, at that very moment, when all seemed right, out of nowhere we were rammed and rammed again and rammed again the last one throwing me off the couch, sending all our food up in the air; and all the plastic bags and tubs--evidence of sea sicknesses among the crew and passengers--flew all over the cabin and all over us. We'd been rammed by the Israelis. How did we know? Because they called us on the phone afterwards to tell us that we were engaging in subversive, terroristic activity. And if that if we didn't turn around right then and return to Larnaca, Cyprus, we would be fired upon. We quickly grabbed our lifevests and put them on. Then the captain announced that the boat was taking on water. We might have to evacuate. One of my mates told me to prepare to die. And I reflected that I have lived a good and full life. I have tasted freedom and know what it is. I was right with myself and my decision to join the Free Gaza movement.

I remembered my father's parting words, "You all will be sitting ducks." Just like the U.S.S. Liberty. We were engaged in peaceful activity, a harmless pleasure boat, carrying a load of hospital supplies for the people of Gaza, who, too are sitting ducks, currently being bombarded in aerial assault by the Israeli military.

It's been a long day for us. The captain was outstanding. Throughout it all, he remained stoic and calm, effective in every way. I didn't know how to put my life jacket on. One of the passengers kindly assisted me. Another of the passengers pointed out that the Israeli motors for those huge, fast boats was U.S. made--a gift to them from the U.S. And now they were using those motors to damage a pleasure boat outfitted with three tons of hospital supplies, one pediatrician, and two surgeons.

I have called for President-elect Obama to say something. The Palestinian people in the Gaza strip are seeing the worst violence in 60 years, it is being reported. To date, President-elect Obama has remained silent. The Israelis are using weapons supplied to them by the U.S. government. Strict enforcement of U.S. law would require the cessation of all weapons transfers to Israel. Adherence to international law would require the same. As we are about to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, let us remember that he said:

1. The United States is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world, and
2. Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent about things that matter.

I implore the President-elect to not send Congress a budget that contains more weapons for Israel. We have so much more to offer. And I implore the Congress to vote "no" on any budget and appropriation bills that provide more weapons transfers, period.

Israel is able to carry out these intense military maneuvers because taxpayers in the U.S. give their hard-earned money to our Representatives in Congress and our Congress chooses to spend that money in this way. Let's stop it and stop it now. There's been too much blood shed. And while we still walk among the living, let us not remain silent about the things that matter.

We really can promote peace and have it if we demand it of our leaders.

Why hasn't Obama condemned this outrageous attack on a peaceful civilian vessel?

Why hasn't Obama condemned Israel's unconscionable slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza?

 

Barack's Obama's decision to invite notorious hate monger Rick Warren to participate in an unconstitutional inauguration invocation certainly is generating controversy in the queer community. It also is a rather blatant attack on state/church separation.

By injecting religion into a government function, Obama is following in the footsteps of his bigoted predecessors in violating the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. It sends a message of hatred and disrespect to all Americans who are atheist or agnostic. It sends a personal message that President Elect Obama does not consider me a full citizen of my own country.

Obama's choice of a dangerous religious extremist like Warren to participate in this attack on my rights as an atheist is even more disturbing. Any sensible lgbt person who voted for Obama must have at least some sense of regret at this point. I'm so relieved I voted for Cynthia McKinney.

Rick Warren has dedicated a major potion of his life to promoting hatred, bigotry, discrimination, and violence against women and queers. President Elect Obama has legitimized this kind of behavior by inviting Warren to participate in an inauguration.

It is sad that Obama campaigned on uniting the country, but is doing something so divisive and hateful. Obama should be rejecting the divisive and dangerous behavior of the Christian Right, not legitimizing it. The Taliban's regime in Afghanistan should have taught everyone about the dangers imposed by pandering or catering to militant, religious fundamentalists like Rick Warren.

When you combine women, queers, and freethinkers you have a majority of US citizens. How can Obama unite the country by attacking and demeaning a majority of the people who live here? Barack Obama is acting like as much of a divider as George W. Bush.

 

The "Keating Five" McCain campaign has been so desperate to smear Obama rather than give people reasons to vote for their candidate. This desperation has gotten so intense that they have people saying that Barack Obama is a "radical Muslim" in one statement and that Obama is a "Marxist" in another.

Oops!

Now, it would be difficult to be a true Marxist and embrace any religion. However, one might note that Marxism has become less pure over the centuries and that it can be possible, though internally inconsistent, to be a religious Marxist. These days, there are even Marxist nationalists, despite Marx's contempt for nationalism. Many have adopted a "cafeteria Marxism" similar to "cafeteria Catholicism" that leaves power mad, rightist Catholics like Joseph Ratzinger in a tizzy.

However, Radical Islam is a religious belief that tolerates no impurities. To be an Islamic fundamentalist, you have to reject all philosophies that threaten Islam, including Marxism, which is based on the view that religion is the "opiate of the masses." (Being a non-Marxist atheist, I can note that the rich are far from immune to religion's opiate effects.)

This is a basic difference between an political/economic doctrine like Marxism or objectivism and a fundamentalist religion. You don't go to Hell if you think that Marx got point 20,320 wrong. If you think that Mohammed got point 923,901 slightly off, you burn forever in the fundie mindset.

Personally, I'm voting McKinney because I'm a liberal and Obama agrees with McCain on more issues than he agrees with liberals. However, I think people who support all candidates need to fight the ignorance and stupidity that pollutes our politics and our culture.

 

I'm supporting Cynthia McKinney because she is the only party candidate whose political views usually agree with mine. However, I am perfectly willing to congratulate the Obama campaign for finally holding John McCain accountable for his reprehensible actions in the video below and on a special website, keatingeconomics.com.



I've been ranting about "Keating Five" McCain's corruption since my first posting on the jerk in 2006: John "Keating Five" McCain and the New School's Failure in Ethical Education

Considerable protest has targetted New School President Bob Kerry and his decision to invite John "Keating Five" McCain to speak at the university's commencement address.

The criticism has been focused on issues such as McCain's support of the illegal and unAmerican war in Iraq. McCain also has been criticized for his misogyny, homophobia, and contempt towards the legitimacy of the political views of young adults.

However, there is another important aspect of the issue that has largely been overlooked. The decision by Kerry to invite McCain to speak at commencement shows a lack of concern about ethical education in the University.

McCain is a corrupt politician. His actions and those of the rest of the Keating Five cost people their retirement savings and who helped his corporate cronies carry forward schemes that cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars in the Savings and Loan Bailout. Universities should invite commencement speakers of the highest ethical standards, not sleaze like John "Keating Five" McCain.

A university is not just supposed to provide rote memorization and a degree that helps with future career and income. Part of a university's responsibility is to teach ethical behavior. One of the most influential ways of educating people is by example. What a terrible example Bob Kerry has provided in John “Keating Five” McCain.

It's about freaking time people stopped ignoring what John McCain did.

 

CODEPINK Was Impossible for Anyone But Most of the Corporate Media to Ignore


From a CODEPINK email 8/29/08:

Yes, there were some places where we were not welcome (and even kicked out!) but most delegates embraced us with love and gratitude. They, too, are frustrated by the lack of leadership in our country when it comes to getting out of Iraq, and are ready to stand up for issues and not just candidates. Over 1,000 delegates wore or held our message, I am A Delegate for PEACE.

On our pinked up rollerblades and bicycles we painted Denver pink with PEACE. We even created a giant "Make Out Not War" aerial image with our bodies--and check out more great DNC photos here. We covered the streets with our powerful posters, designed by Favianna Rodriquez. They are now collectors' items

Unfortunately, a CODEPINK member was beaten and arrested by Denver police for videotaping an arrest of a protester from another group.

The video from the Rocky Mountain News doesn't capture her videotaping the previous arrest, but it shows the woman being knocked to the ground by a police officer's baton and then being arrested when she was being interviewed by media on scene.



The protester, Alicia Forest, was later released. According to CODEPINK, she plans on taking legal action against the Denver police.

CODEPINK will be heading to the Republican National Convention (Repugnant Nazi Carnival) next.

---

IAVW at the DNC:

From Iraq Veterans Against the War 8/28/08 (hat tip to GDAEman):

Iraq vets lead biggest successful action of DNC: push Obama toward real antiwar position

Denver, Colorado – Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) led a non-violent march of 8,000 allies, including members of Rage Against the Machine, to the front entrance of the Pepsi Center. There they delivered a letter containing their three points of unity to the Obama campaign’s veteran staff. IVAW’s three points of unity are:
1.Immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces from Iraq
2.Full benefits and healthcare for returning veterans
3.Reparations to the Iraqi people

More on the Protest from the Indypendent

---

Third Party and Independent Candidates

Cindy Sheehan spoke at the Open the Debates Rally:


She now refers to the Republicans and the Democrats as "the twins."

According to a Green Party press release, the scheduled speakers were:

Rosa Clemente, the recently nominated vice-presidential candidate running with former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney on the Green Party ticket, will join Ralph Nader, Matt Gonzalez, Val Kilmer, Sean Penn, Cindy Sheehan, Tom Morello, Jello Biafra, Nellie McKay, and Ike Reilly at the "Open the Debates" Super Rally on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. at the University of Denver Magness Arena in Denver, Colorado.

Rosa Clemente, Green Party VP candidate, also had a controversial speech during the time of the DNC. She is introduced by Green presidential candidate, Cynthia McKinney.


 

From Indybay 6/25/08 - hat tip to Nancy Pelosi's Table:

Cynthia McKinney Remarks in support of Cindy Sheehan's 4th Amendment Burial March

June 24, 2008

Last week, Nancy Pelosi helped deal a double blow to Democratic Party grassroots supporters and to the U.S. Constitution itself. On Thursday, June 19, George Bush got another $162 billion from the Congress for war and occupation. On Friday, June 20, Nancy helped Bush give immunity to telecommunications companies that helped him spy on us!

Fannie Lou Hamer of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party remarked that she was sick and tired of being sick and tired. And she did something about it by standing up at the Democratic Party Convention that routinely had accepted all-white, non-representative state delegations from the South.

Well, I'm sick and tired and outraged, too. And I'm doing something about it.

Cindy Sheehan is my choice for Congress.

Nancy thinks that by November you will have forgotten about all of this.
Don't forget! Remember--in November!

Vote Cindy! Vote Cynthia!

Nancy Pelosi's Table is a wonderful example of using blogs to challenge political corruption and betrayal. I encourage you to check it out.

 

Here's a description of the Green Party presidential candidate questionnaire from the McKinney campaign website.

Many state Parties formulate their state ballots from a list of Presidential candidates recognized by the Presidential Campaigns Support Committee of the Green Party of the United States. Besides access to the Green Party's nominating process, the list is also used to govern access to Party resources and support.

Part of the process involved responding to a questionnaire which included many questions on issues of public policy.

Ms. McKinney has a lot to say in her answers to the questions from the Green Party. Cynthia McKinney's description of her campaign's goals shows a tremendous grasp of long-term thinking that is treated as heresy by most pundits and politicians these days.

I am entering this process because I believe a successful Green Party campaign can do the following:

--Institutionalize the Green Party as a meaningful, effective, and permanent part of the United States' political landscape;

--Popularize and grow the Green Party as an electoral/social vehicle to unite people across socio-economic lines that are often used to divide;

--Recognize and publicize the internationalization of problems facing average households across our nation;

--Inject radical common sense solutions into our national political debate;

and

--Positively affect public policy to improve our quality of life with justice for all.

Building a real alternative party to the Republicans and Democrats is a critically important political project. Ralph Nader's candidacy represents a protest against the status quo, but a Green candidacy builds for the future while speaking out against how terribly fucked up things are in the present.

McKinney's answers to the public policy questions represent what liberal values and politics are all about. Even if you don't plan on voting for her, it still is worthwhile to familiarize yourself with what she has to say. I'll end with a really great quote from her.

My service in the Congress gave me a clear understanding of how our system works -- or doesn't work -- for average, ordinary Americans whose values our policies purport to represent.

Read Ms. McKinney's Answers to the Green Party Questionnaire.

 

Cynthia McKinney's March 17, 2007 speech at "March on the Pentagon" Rally.

She brought up issues that most alleged Democrats won't touch (e.g., right of return for Katrina survivors, impeachment). Although she is running for president as a Green, she is taking a much stronger stance in favor of Democratic Party values and policies than Obama or Clinton ever did.

Now that Cynthia McKinney is running for the Green Party presidential nomination, the Greens are in danger of nominating a credible presidential candidate. If Ms. McKinney wins, the Democrats better not nominate a conservative presidential candidate like Hillary Clinton.

Liberals are sick of Clinton's pro-war, pro-corporation, and anti-labor record. We are tired of her dirty campaign tactics. People of a variety of political perspectives are tired of the rotating Bush/Clinton family dynasties.

If the Greens get their act together and nominate McKinney, Clinton would be in serious trouble. Liberal support would hemorrhage.

Cynthia McKinney appears to be running as a Green. She is one of the few politicians I respect, and has gotten onto the California ballot in the Green Party primary.