Thursday, February 16, 2012

A note re Dennis

Reposting this email without the fundraising elements, which the Hatch Act forbids me to include. (It won't be hard to find them should you want to.)
I am writing to urge your support for the re-election campaign of Congressman Dennis Kucinich, who has been our nation’s most consistent voice for peace, economic and social justice. Months ago, Congressman Kucinich’s district was dramatically altered by the Republican state legislature and the primary election is in only 19 days with mail-in balloting well underway. As a result, he is facing a highly competitive primary with a majority of new territory.

Dennis Kucinich was a voice of sanity after 9/11, cautioning against lashing out at the world. He led the effort in Congress opposing George Bush’s Iraq War. His October 2002 analysis of the call for war against Iraq stands today as a statement of clarity of vision and courage which, if heeded, would have spared the lives of US soldiers and Iraqi citizens alike. His was a relentless challenge to the rationale for the war and a call for accountability for those who lied to drag us into the war. You may remember that it was Kucinich who led the effort to try to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney for their fabrications, prevarications, and other misstatements. When others were promising ‘permanent war for permanent peace’ Kucinich was the one who pointed out the idiocy and the hypocrisy.

In the past decade, Kucinich opposed not only the war in Iraq, he voted against every single funding bill for war, whether Iraq or Afghanistan. It was Kucinich who again rose up to create a rare bipartisan coalition to thwart the war against Libya for a time. As the fundamentalists now take hold there, once again the question arises, why did we go into Libya? What was that really about?

Today, the neocons again are attempting to rush America into a war against Iran. It was Kucinich who took to the floor of the House in debate to knock down again and again the false claims that were being made to try to justify sanctions which could lead to still another war.

This champion of peace obviously cannot rely on war profiteers for funds necessary to gain re-election. He must rely on those of us who are peace profiteers, our friends and family, to be his support and his voice as he has been ours over the past decade and more.

We must protect Congress’ most consistent, most courageous voice for peace and for civil liberties which peace protects. Please help preserve his voice, his vote in the United States Congress.

Thank you,

Gore Vidal

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3 Comments:

At 3:38 PM, February 16, 2012 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

Without casting aspersions on either candidate, I seem to recall that Kucinich's district was redrawn following the 2010 US Census so as to place him in competition with a neighboring Democratic Congresswoman. To me that's the real outrage of this race; they BOTH ought to be reelected, on general principle.

 
At 6:34 PM, February 16, 2012 Anonymous Anonymous had this to say...

Had to look up the 'Hatch' Act... (I'm in Aus)seems rather totalitarian to me, I'd have thought that US society would be sophisticated enough to differentiate between one's private activites, & those as an employee. I suppose it does come from a less sophisticated time though... a historical hangover?
Pete McK

 
At 7:09 PM, February 16, 2012 Blogger The Ridger, FCD had this to say...

It is old; it was actually instituted to protect employees from pressure, remove political patronage, and block office holders from misusing their position for partisan ends. In the last couple of years it's been tightened up to take electronic media into account.

 

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