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Presidential Debate for Monday, October 22nd, which includes ALL the candidates (merge video of Dem and Rep, with third party candidates on Democracy Now!). Starts with Amy Goodman’s debate coverage at 8:30m: www.democracynow.org
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2UTZhhyov0]
This video includes discussion from independent political voices on what is missing from the Commission on Presidential Debates. The video consists of video and photos from the events outside of the Tuesday, October 16, 2012 Debate on Hofstra University Campus, Uniondale, NY. It includes video from the Public Area (Free Speech Area) on ending the wars, global climate change, and single payer health care. Look for Mac Bica and the PO’s Polar Bears. My full speech is re-printed below. I also exposed the mutiny of corporate sponsorship due to the censorship involved in excluding presidential candidates. Footage from the live taping of Democracy Now! during the pre-Debate activities at Hofstra also address the undemocratic nature of the corporately controlled debate. Discussion includes issues that continue not to be discussed from the 2008 debate.
Four Years Later, Same Duopoly
Hofstra Public Area
October 16, 2012
It’s four years later, and here I am back speaking at the public area on the edge of the Hofstra campus before the presidential debate. It saddens me to report that the ills I spoke of in the presidential campaign four years ago remain unchanged. The corporate media still uphold the charade of the so-called Commission on Presidential Debates. The commission is still controlled by the Democratic and Republican Parties. Its’ still is funded by large corporations like Anheuser-Busch. The commission still excludes any candidate outside of the Democratic and Republican parties even if the candidate is on enough ballots to win the electoral college. Both the Green Party and Libertarian candidates are on enough ballots to win, but are excluded from the debates. And by the the terms of the Democratic-Republican debate agreement, Debate hosts such as my alma matter Hofstra are even excluded from scheduling other qualified presidential candidates to speak on campus. I am disappointed that my college would sell out the quest for knowledge so cheaply.
Of course, the corporate media never reports on these restrictive terms of the agreement. nor do they report that debate sponsor Anheuser-Busch is not an American company. It is owned by Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate. Lastly, the corporate media failed to report on the biggest debate stories of the year that 3 of the 10 sponsors have pulled out of the debates because they realized that the debate is not nonpartisan. The YWCA, Philips Electronics, and British advertising firm Bartle Bogle Hegarty have all pulled out of sponsorship. The YWCA and Phillips have issued statements that the debates are bi-partisan, not nonpartisan.
I support one of the candidates wrongfully shut out of the debates, Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein. Dr. Stein is on 85% of the ballots in the country. She has called for all qualified candidates who could win the electoral college to be in the debate. She understands that the corporate control of the debates and our democracy needs to be remedied. She has consistently supported the reforms called for by the occupy movement. She has chosen anti-poverty crusader Cheri Honkala as her running mate. As Green Party candidates, they follow the party policy of refusing all corporate donations.
And by the way, Dr. Stein had already debated Romney and bested him when they both were candidates for Massachusetts Governor in 2002.
When I was here four years ago, I outlined the issues that a Green Party presidential candidate would raise in a debate that Obama and McCain would not. Obama and Romney still will not discuss these issues.
Ian Wilder w/ Frederick Douglass: End The Wars @ 2012 Hofstra Debate
Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein would rein in the oversized US military budget that is driving us over a fiscal cliff. Our military budget is larger than every other nation in the world – – combined. There is no reason for us to be maintaining 1000 overseas military bases. Our supersized military has been both a financial and foreign policy disaster. It is time to take a different path. As the Green Party 2008 VP candidates said, “The Green Party is not the alternative, it is the imperative.”
Like reining in our military budget, a single payer health care system would bring us in line with every other industrial democracy in the world. Dr. Stein is a supporter of single payer. Neither Obama nor Romney will even mention single payer, despite the boost it would be to American businesses. All Obama and Romney want to do is argue over which one of them passed a better version of the same Heritage Foundation healthcare plan. Romneycare and Obamacare just shore up the detrimental private health insurance industry, and drag down the economy. Government healthcare is done with 2% overhead, private health insurance has 20% overhead. Single payer would do away with hundreds of public and private bureaucracies. It would free doctors to concentrate on your health, instead about worrying about if they are using the right bureaucracy’s form. It would free up job creators to concentrate on innovations, instead of worrying about staying underemployed to keep health insurance.
Just as I discussed 4 years ago, the Green Party candidate is more interested in bailing out the American taxpayer, than bailing out the banks and the corporate tax cheats. Both Obama and Romney mouthed the too big to fail bank propaganda that the foreclosure crisis is the fault of American homeowners rather than the criminal action of American bankers. Neither Obama or Romney has even question the Federal Reserve’s secret Trillion dollar bailout of banks, domestic and foreign. Dr. Stein would break up the big banks and nationalize the Federal Reserve.
We on Long Island know what a terrible idea nuclear energy is. We came together as a region to shut down the Shoreham plant. Neither Obama nor McCain nor Romney understand this. Nuclear power does not make sense for public safety or financially. Fukushima has reminded us all of the uncontrollable danger of nuclear power. And that is with the corporate media downplaying the damage to Japan. The corporate media has also ignored we are being forced to underwrite the cost of nuclear energy because the financial markets will not. The federal government has to provide both the insurance and financing of nuclear power plants In a free market, nuclear energy would not exist. Yes, Obama has taken nuclear insanity one step further, and moved ahead on the building of the first nuclear power plants in 30 years. Dr. Stein understands the folly of nuclear power, and that is why she wants to shut nuclear plants down instead.
Dr. Stein has known that the key to our future lies in where our energy comes from. She knows that we need to immediately address our energy sources to deal with the global climate change emergency that both Obama and Romney have ignored. Stein has based her campaign on instituting a Green New Deal which would shift the focus of our economy from a militarily enforced oil economy to a renewable energy job creating one.
Four years ago, Amy Goodman wrote about our 1 party state. Still true. Four years ago I warned that you get what you vote for. Still true. Four years ago I warned that Democratic and Republican politicians don’t care about your phone calls, petitions or emails. They only care about your dollars and your votes. Still true.
Please, I don’t want to be standing here in another four years finding we still have made no progress on these issues. Please don’t waste your vote on Obama or Romney.
Jill Stein calls for us to replace the politics of fear with the politics of courage. Vote Green Party for President.
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Filed under: 3rd party, activism, afghanistan, Anti-War, Ballot issues, debate, Election 2012, Global Warming, grassroots democracy, Green Party, News Tagged: | Anheuser-Busch, climate change, commission on presidential debates, hofstra university, Jill Stein, polar bear
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