Trying Again for Congress

Like a good Green, I am reusing my program from 2012. Unfortunately, it is still relevant.

We still have tens of millions of unemployed citizens, so my call to put Americans to work rebuilding and repairing America stands.

We still have repression, persecution and spying going on, so my call to repeal the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act and the NDAA still stands. We now know that the government is monitoring every American's every communication, which is blatantly unconstitutional and must stop.

We still have ocean acidification, air pollution and devastating climate change, so my call to rebuild our energy and transportation infrastructure still stands.

I called for the repeal of NAFTA and CAFTA, in order to rebuild our productive capacity in the U.S., and stop the emmiseration of the peoples of Mexico and Central America. We now know that Obama is working on a plan to extend the power of multinational corporations, and give up far more national sovereignty to those corporations through the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is being negotiated in secret, not only from the American people but from Congress, which Congress has permitted without asserting its authority.

There is something very, very wrong with a Congress that gives up its Constitutional powers so readily to an Imperial Presidency. Only the Congress has the authority to declare war, yet it has permitted this president to commit numerous acts of war against a number of nations. The Congress is to make the budget, and it is also to give an account of its expenditures to the American people. Yet we spend billions of dollars each year on “black budget” expenditures that are kept secret from the American people. Without an open and accountable government, Americans have no reason to call our political system a democracy or a republic.

Who would vote for this? Who would vote for homeless veterans to sleep in the woods, while private jets fly into Southern Illinois Airport to refuel with taxpayer subsidized jet fuel? Who would vote to take food from hungry children while the Federal Reserve gives $85 billion a month to Wall Street bankers? Who would vote to allow fossil fuel companies to contaminate their fresh water with toxic chemicals in order to fracture the very bedrock on which they live?

Anyone who votes for the corporate candidate they think is less evil is voting to continue business as usual: The business of lobbyists openly buying votes from the representatives of the people. The Constitution names bribery as a reason for impeachment, yet the numbers of lobbyists in Washington, D.C. and expenditures for lobbying have skyrocketed since 1970, and it is now accepted practice for lobbyists to actually write bills for Congress. This is corruption at its most blatant.

Anyone who votes for the corporate candidate they think is less evil is voting to continue endless war and homeland repression, since both corporate parties support these policies.

Anyone who votes for the less evil corporate candidate is voting to attack Social Security and Medicare, since both corporate parties claim that deficit reduction needs to come from these programs. This is based on a blatant lie, since anyone can look at their paycheck and see that Social Security and Medicare are separately funded programs.

I am running for Congress in 2014 as the Green Party candidate because the people of Southern Illinois need and deserve a representative who will raise a voice for genuine representative democracy, for standing up to an executive branch that has become too powerful and unaccountable, for putting an end to senseless wars with their enormous waste of money and resources, for protection of the land, water, air, and climate on which our lives depend, rather than allow them to be ravaged and devastated for the profit of a few. We need and deserve a representative who believes that every American deserves a decent life, and that responsive government, serving the needs of all the people, not government in the service of the 1 percent, is the way to attain that goal.


It’s a tough job to run against the candidates of the two corporate parties that will spend millions of dollars flooding the airwaves trying to persuade voters that more of the same is the way to go, or that, “the other guy is more evil, so you better vote for me.” But somebody has to do it, or things will never change for the better. I am ready, willing and able to run in 2014 to ensure that voters will have the ability to make this choice for a better future

Second debate closing

I'm sure most of you have played the game of Monopoly, which first became popular during the Great Depression.

We know that at some point in the game, one person inevitably controls all the property and money, cackling as they collect more and more money from those who land on their spaces.

Unfortunately for us, our country today strongly resembles a game of Monopoly -- except it's a rigged game in which the “banker” get to play the game with all of the money. This new player – call it Wall Street – not only owns Boardwalk and Park Place but Pennsylvania Avenue, and a nearby property called Capitol Hill. And they’ve rewritten the rules to benefit them.

They have taken the power to put common people directly in jail for trivial offenses while they get an unlimited supply of Get Out of Jail Free cards. They’re taking the houses of people on Baltic Avenue through fraud and perjury. They are trying to make it so no ordinary player can collect $200 when we pass Go. They have robbed millions of the opportunity to earn any money and jack up the price whenever we land on the Electric Company by keeping us addicted to ever more costly fossil fuels. They are trying to privatize the Water Company. They've replaced most of the railroads with expensive gas guzzling cars. They lend us money but charge predatory interest rates as part of the bargain.

They even threaten the people who prefer to play Parcheesi.

It's time to reset the game.

We need people in Congress who will make sure that fair rules are made and followed, who will protect public property, who will make sure that the top 1 percent are taxed fairly, that money is distributed fairly, that everyone has an opportunity to continue playing and earn a decent living, and who respect the rights of people in other countries to go their own way.

Our economy should not be an institution in which a privileged few are allowed to “game the system.” In fact it shouldn't be a game at all. The economy affects how we live, and our quality of life. We need to rein in those who are manipulating the system and institute new rules that give every child born in America an equal and fair chance to thrive. That is what I will do my best to create if elected as your next Representative in Congress.

Obamacare and its Adherents and Opponents

Last year, when I ran for Congress, I was included in the debates.

At one debate, the entire audience, except for 6 Greens, were Democrats and Republicans, divided by an aisle, as if at a wedding.

The Democrat was defending Obamacare, while his people cheered, and the Republican was criticizing it, while his people cheered.

I was standing there, looking at these people, treating the election as some sort of sporting event, where they cheer on their team. I thought, I would really like to tell these people the truth, but that would be insulting both sides and I might lose potential votes. Nothing like telling hundreds of people that they are all behaving idiotically.

But I did it anyway.

I pointed out that so-called Obamacare was originally a Heritage Foundation-written, Republican-sponsored bill, but only Romney managed to push it through, so the insurance companies bought themselves Democrats instead, and now Democrats were cheering a Republican bill and Republicans were booing a Republican bill.

For a minute, everyone just looked at me. Then they went back to cheering for their team.