Gee, Dennis Kucinich sounds like a, well, real Democrat....

I'm watching him on CSPAN at the DNC Winter Meeting now, talking about things the other candidates dare not say - cutting off money for Iraq, cluster bombs in Lebanon - and it just crystallizes how f..ked up the American political game is. He makes more sense than anybody, but probably is the least likely to get nominated. Sigh.

in my opinion. He seems to have made a conscious decision to change the way he presents his message - which is very strong.

Recall how they destroyed Howard Dean with that bogus 'scream.' I have seen multiple Kucinich speeches. He rarely is emotional. His comprehension of world history and current events is amazing. You witness one of his live speeches, you can visizualize yourself in some academic situation being lectured to by a real academic. Unless he is in full campaign mode, his speeches are not just another stump speech, but filled with depth and clarity.
I hope you will learn firsthand, his real manner , instead of spending so much time before the tube.

MLK was never not emotional, e.g.

:eyes:

I wasn't prepared for that and it got me.

If you don't mind giving a few highlights, I'd appreciate it. He impresses me more every time I hear him speak and I'm glad someone in our government is concerned about the destruction of Lebanon.

And walking up and seeing the face of this smiling beautiful child, but the child was dead. And being led to graves by a man who pointed to them, and said those graves were of his family members, who died in the bombing raids.

Thanks for responding. Those poor people. :-(

These two are brave! This area was covered with cluster bombs.

I was listening as I was getting dressed for work.

It's too bad the media has decided he isn't presidential material.

Very impressive addresses before the DNC winter meeting.

And I think Dr. Dean is just great in his role also.

Damn we Democrats have all the good players on our team.

This ain't a bad time to be a Democrat at all, is it?

:bounce:

match the crowd he's addressing far to often for my tastes.

and always on the job

and some accuse him of wanting to take it down

on the contrary he wants to bring it back to it's leftful place

I totally agree with you. If someone who looked the part spoke as he does with his convictions, they would be unstoppable, in my opinion.

And how big is his house?

:rofl: :hide:

:sarcasm:

ETA: :kick: & R

The US need change if it is to avoid more bushwackers. Americans need get beyond the era of sound bites and listen to those with knowledge.

:toast:

Will the real Democratic Party please stand up?
:applause:

And it looks like C-SPAN is not showing Kucinich or Clark on this evening's repeats. :grr:

He's pretty much in the minority.

effort into eliminating poverty as eliminating the war.

Dennis walked away from poor folk, and we have walked away from him.

"Dennis walked away from poor folk" Rarely have I seen a more ignorant comment here DU.

Calling people names is SUCH a good way to win votes for your candidate.

Geeeeeee, could it be that's why some have walked away?

Ya think?

I said your COMMENT was ignorant, not you personally.

How about trying to empathize with poor folk??

How about trying to imagine what it feels like to be poor and not hearing support from so-called "progressives"?

You can relate to others in that way, or you can push them away with snark.

Which do you think is more productive, let alone more caring?

of this country...much more so than many other elected officials. And yes, I speak from experience, not being terribly well off myself. Go to his website and read his platform...it containsd mucjh more than the illegal war we are currently involved in.

And again, my reply was about your comment, not you personally, sorry you cannot see that.

Too bad YOU CAN"T SEE THAT.

He talks about NOTHING except the war.

Probably because that's all his supporters are interested in.

I see you weren't able to express any concern for me, after I specifically asked for it.

Again, that's exactly what I'm talking about.

Get back to me when you're able to empathize.

Until then, I'll look elsewhere for concern, caring and a sense of inclusion.

BTW....he may not have mentioned the issue of povrty in this particular speech. But he does, quite often.

http://kucinich.us/issues

I thought he addressed key causes of poverty in his Ten Key Issues

Universal Health Care
International Cooperation: US out of Iraq, UN in
Jobs and Withdrawal from NAFTA and WTO
Repeal of the "Patriot Act"
Guaranteed Quality Education, Pre-K Through College
Full Social Security Benefits at Age 65
Right-to-Choose, Privacy, and Civil Rights
Balance Between Workers and Corporations
Environmental Renewal and Clean Energy
Restored Rural Communities and Family Farms

He grew up poor. I've heard him tell about how many times his family had to move during his childhood because they kept getting evicted for non-payment of rent.

He may be spotlighting the war now--but that's partly because the $250 million per day that is being spent in Iraq is money not being spent for domestic needs, such as affordable housing and universal health care.

The Republicans--and even some Democrats--are talking about there being "no money" for domestic needs, yet there always seems to be money for an unnecessary war.

That's why he's talking about the war. It's the pivotal issue that is distorting the federal budget.

What planet would that be on? I suppose he supports single payer health care to benefit the rich. And I'm Marie of Roumania.

Good Democrats talk and ACT about and on issues that affect all Americans, including the poor.

That's why I'm so glad to know about DK's superb labor record.

His long-time support, including introducing legislation, for universal, single-payer, not-for-profit health care is something I hope to see happen in my life time: equal health care as a right for all.

Of course, his anti-war message is directly related to the issues of poverty:

<snip>

Let us use the trillion dollars which some would cast upon Iraq in bombs and warring troops, instead for the restoration of the American dream, to rebuild our economy, to rebuild our cities and to expand opportunities for all.

<snip>

Those who say we can have guns and butter do not know the cost of guns and do not know the bread you would put your butter on is being stolen. America may spend over a trillion dollars for war in Iraq. America can give a trillion dollar tax cut to the rich, spend a trillion dollars to put weapons in space, but not a dime more for temporary assistance to needy families.

I believe the American people are people of strength, wisdom, and courage. They have a right to expect their government to be truly representative! It is time to say stop this war. It is time to recognize that the terror we visit on the people of Iraq will bring terror to our own people. Bring our troops home. Come home, America. Come home and fix your broken streets and mend your broken dreams. Come home and rebuild your cities and create full employment, put millions who are unemployed back to work. Come home and establish a living wage, let workers share the wealth they create. Come home and provide affordable housing. Come home and provide single-payer, guaranteed health care for the 41 million Americans who suffer illness with no relief. Come home, America. Come home and provide free public college for all who aspire to attend.

Come home and act affirmatively to make sure that all opportunities are afforded to all Americans.

http://kucinich.us/issues/poverty.php

How has Kucinich been anti-poor? Hundreds of billions that have been spent on this war could be going for programs to help the poor.

Few are as dedicatd to the fate of the AMerican people's better interests than Kucinich. It's others I'd fear would sell us out. DK once spent his youth living in a car , while his parents tried to line up the next apartment. And to think he'd sell us out. Crazy. Besides, no other issues will be addressed until the war is over. It is bankrupting the US ; $652 Billion for the Pentagon , minus Iraqi costs. No other issue can possibly be addressed with such budget constraints.

It was GREAT!

for all the Naysayers who say he looks like an "elf" and is "unelectable." NOT SO...it THIS INTERVIEW!

:shrug:
I would like to see that.

I spent this past Sunday afternoon at the St. Matthias Episcopal Church in Whittier, California to see Dennis Kucinich speak. After a very eloquent, passionate speech he opened the floor for anyone in the audience to ask him a question. Here is what transpired:

Me: Are you familiar with the Hirsch Report for the Department of Energy on Peak Oil that was one of Project Censored’s top 20 censored stories of 2005, and what would you do as President to prepare America for the global peak of oil production which Robert Hirsch believes could occur within the next ten years?

Dennis: (to me) Of course I’ve read the reports and I’m familiar with it. And Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, who is a Republican from Maryland has done some great work on the Peak Oil issue. (to audience) In a word, what Peak Oil means is it’s a point at which we pass the peak of an oil supply and we start to work on non-renewable resources being depleted. What does this mean? It means that they’ll seek other environments such as in Iraq and Venezuela in the inevitable way some of our leaders like the open markets. It also means there’s an urgency right now to work at conservation, I mentioned this earlier. What we have to make…when I was growing up, President Kennedy created this challenge of wanting to put somebody on the moon. So they organized the whole country, we were competing with Russia at the time, but he organized the country. So we had this great cause, to harness our intellect for our scientific power and to bring this nation together, this great cause to reach for the stars. We need a similar call! And I’m ready to lead this nation in a similar call. To conserve energy, to develop alternative energy and to move away from non-sustainable forms of energy which, by the way, not only jeopardize our politics, but jeopardize the planet. So all this is connected. I spoke earlier about oil being interconnected and interdependent, you know, our energy policies have an effect on our politics. Our politics affects the rest of the world. Our energy policies have an effect on our health. Our health determines what our demands are for health care in this country. All this stuff is bound up together. So we need to have a call where we come together as a nation. There’s a hunger in America right now for coming together! For uniting! But not some kind of false unity, but in a higher purpose that states who we really are and just identify ourselves with something that’s almost transcendent, beyond ourselves. We have this potential right now to be more than we are, dreaded(?) in the world. Americans are ready to call and to participate something in this grand cause, not just to save ourselves but to save our nation and the planet. What a great opportunity this is! What a wonderful time it is to be alive, to realize that we can consciously reconstruct the world! That we are called upon to save the world! That we have the intelligence and spirit to do it and we only have to have the willingness to do it. We only have to believe that our political system is ready for transformation and if we have the courage to take it in that direction, then I’ll take it and I’ll change it. But (we’re) just waiting and testing ourselves as to how far we’re ready to go to bring about the change, and I think there’s a readiness now. I think people have seen enough of the war! I think people have seen enough of the deception! They’ve seen enough of the undermining of our civil liberties! They’ve seen enough to the point that (they’ve) hijacked(?) an entire American agenda!

This is my transcription of my audio cassette recording. I placed question marks after words I was unsure of, but for the most part I think Kucinich's message is pretty clear. We need to have a plan to deal with Peak Oil on the level of the Apollo Moon Project President Kennedy initiated. Has any other 2008 Presidential candidate articulated an understanding of or a plan for Peak Oil? I would venture a guess that Dennis is the only one at this time.

On a personal note, I want to add that meeting Dennis and hearing him speak was an electrifying experience! He answered everyone's questions, some of them hard hitting, these were definitely not pre-screened plants. I was able to have him autograph my copy of A Prayer for America after the questions outside the church. I told him that reading it was what prompted me to vote for him in the 2004 primary. He looked me in the eye, thanked me and shook my hand. Dennis is the real Real Deal.

http://kucinich.us/node/2409

:kick:

dp

It was suggested upthread that Dennis had "walked away from the poor" and only cared about the war.

If Rep. Kucinich is talking more about Iraq and Iran than about other issues lately, it's because the * administration is about to escalate the war and very possibly start a nuclear war in the Middle East. It's a critical time in which ALL Democrats should be voting to deny any more funds to the war and taking any other actions possible to stop this war.

Nobody will be able to do much to help the poor if we have a nuclear war. And this war, like most wars, is killing more poor people than middle class or rich people.


Dennis Kucinich has not walked away from the poor and never will.


On January 23, 2007, he gave a speech called "Let Them Eat Tax Breaks. Here's an excerpt:

For the sick and disabled who receive too little income to pay taxes or who don't qualify for private insurance because of preexisting conditions, offering tax breaks to help them pay for health insurance isn't going to help. It's ideas like this that exemplify the disconnect between the uber-wealthy in power and us peasants who sense a revolution brewing.

Here's an idea: start by opening Medicare to everyone who can't get private insurance either because they've been turned down or because their income is so low that the cost of private insurance would put them below the poverty level based on their income. In determining income, don't calculate non-renewable assets such as savings accounts as monthly income because that just forces disabled workers into bankruptcy before they can get health care.

We could very easily compensate for the extra burden it would place on Medicare by making changes to the system to provide incentives to diagnose underlying causes and prevent diseases. The current system offers only incentives for doctors to keep the patients sick so that they'll keep coming back for treatments and that's the fault of the system, not the doctors (well mostly).




This is from his speech "What Is Wrong With This Congress?" -- given last summer when the GOP still controlled Congress:

"Mr. Speaker, the last 24 hours will tell you everything you need to know about what is wrong with this Congress: hold up voting rights, knock down the minimum wage increase, relieve the superrich of responsibility for paying estate taxes, keep sending our children to fight and die in a war based on lies. That, by the way, is the real death tax, and it is paid by the poor and the middle class. Our new motto should be: United We Stand, Sure, But Divided We Profit.

"H.R. 5638, the estate tax legislation, should be more accurately described as the American Idle Act, I-D-L-E, because it relieves the children of billionaires and multi-multi-millionaires of over one-quarter of a trillion dollars in estate taxes in just five years, starting in 2013. The $2,600 per taxpayer loss of revenue will take money from our schools and from our health care and from senior citizens programs.

"The Bible says it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven. Here in Washington, the superrich ride elephants -- and some, donkeys -- to get to their alabaster heaven, where they pay no taxes."


Here's a bit from his House speech "How Do People Survive on $5.15 an Hour?"

"We are all told in this country that if you work hard, you will get ahead; if you get a good education, you will get a decent job. What is happening in America, people are working hard and they are not getting ahead. They are getting an education and they are not getting a decent job, they are not getting decent pay. Seven million Americans have been frozen at this $5.15 minimum wage.

"How do people survive? How do they feed their families? How do they have health care? How do they pay the rent and the mortgage on $5.15 an hour?

"There is a moral dimension to this as well. How can we, in a country which has such enormous wealth, turn our backs on our brothers and sisters who are frozen at $5.15 an hour and say, No, no, you can't have more money to feed your family. No, you can't have more money to pay the rent. No, you can't have more money to pay for gasoline. No, you can't have more money because if we give you more money, the whole economy is going to be in trouble. Come on, we all know that is not true.


This is from his "Minimum Wage" speech in the House:

"In 2004, 37 million Americans lived below the poverty line, a 1.1 million increase from the year before. In 2004, 13 million children in America lived below the poverty line, and one in six children was poor. Yet here in the richest country on Earth, there is no guarantee that a full-time job will lift a family out of a situation of dire poverty and need.

"That is because the full-time minimum wage earnings of $5.15 an hour leaves a family of three 31 percent below the poverty line. As a matter of fact, Mr. Miller, if the minimum wage growth had kept pace with the increase in the pay levels of CEOs, the minimum wage today would be closer to $16. So this is a major issue of social and economic justice.

"I am pleased to stand here with my colleagues in support of Congressman Miller's legislation, the Fair Minimum Wage Act. It is time that we raise the minimum wage for 7 million Americans. It is time that we recognize their right to fully participate in the economic life of this Nation."


This is from his House speech "Protect Workers' Pensions"


"Mr. Speaker, I strongly support the Miller motion to instruct conferees. This motion to instruct supports the bipartisan Senate compromise language that will protect older workers.

"Now, H.R. 2830 does a great disservice to older workers by denying the reality that conversions from traditional defined benefit plans to cash balance plans harm older workers. A report released in early November by the GAO found that a majority of older workers experienced deep cuts in their pension when converted from a traditional plan to a cash balance plan without transition protections. This is not only unfair, it is wrong. Providing transition protections for older workers should not be a choice for employers. It should be a requirement. Any change in plans must protect the accrued benefits of employees, and the conference report should reflect that reality.

"It is a myth to believe that cash balance plans are innocuous. For older workers especially, these plans are hazardous. A pension plan is worth nothing if it does not provide security for employees, and these plans translate into increased vulnerability for workers as they retire.

"Hard working employees should not be rewarded for their service with a denial of pension benefits. I urge my colleagues to help ensure that workers' pensions are protected by supporting the Miller motion to instruct conferees. Let's stand up for people who work a lifetime and were told at the beginning of their work experience the money was going to be there to enjoy their golden years. Support the Miller amendment and put some teeth behind that guarantee."


You can read much more at http://kucinich.us

Just sayin'.

of comments like this on DU of all places. Perhaps you could refrain from posting your off-topic fuckability ratings, and quit objectifying women who haven't put themselves out there for the purpose of being rated by you.

Just sayin'.

And I'm pretty certain men have been called "hot" or whatever on DU. Please quit accusing me of objectifying, and refrain from telling me what I can post. You aren't the arbiter of what I'm allowed to express.

I realize the Big Bad Impeachment Monster sent them and the Euphemedia scurrying for their 2008HorseRace Pacifier. But perhaps they should have stayed under their All-Is-Gray-Anti-Pro-War Blankie for a bit longer.

Given this much time, it could well be possible to cast Kucinich in the lead role for "Deaniac II: Belway Besieged."

Stay Tuned.

==

I have nothing but respect and admiration for DK and what he's done. He campaigned until the better end in 2004, even coming to the local county library headquarters to give a speech despite being the only one left running against Kerry and having long since lost the primary. He fought to get his message out, and the MSM failed to let him. He was called unelectable, too emotional, and all that garbage the talking heads like to throw around when they don't want someone to make it.

He was the one person, in fact probably the only person, in the last presidential election that actually stood for and believed the same things as me. In fact, I voted for him in the primary, knowing full well it didn't matter, but also knowing I owed it to him.

To hear someone say he doesn't represent the poor, that he turned his back on us is, is an ignorant comment as was already said. It only takes one look at his record to prove that wrong. But disinformation continues, and apparently manages to affect the people that should probably be backing him the most...

DK is definitely the real essence of what a leader should be. Thanks for the comments and a BIG welcome to DU! :hi:

:kick:

and don't fall into the political calculus trap. In other words, make it happen.

if they could hear him, because he could hear them. As Kucinich spoke, Clinton volunteers distributed "Hillary for President" placards to the audience to be waved during her address...

"My speech wasn't a rah rah speech," Kucinich said."It was intended to reach people's hearts and I think I did that. By humanizing war, it enables people to see the nature of the tragedy. We have to stop funds for the war."

This weekend, Kucinich will press his presidential campaign in Maine and New Hampshire. He claims a network of 70,000 volunteers around the country.

"We have a very powerful grassroots organization that's as strong as anyone's," Kucinich said...

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/index.ssf?/mtlogs/cleve_openers/archives/2007_02.html#232858

during DK's speech.

If it had been the other way around (DK volunteers distributing placards during Hillary's speech), the entire DLC crew would have come on slamming the Kucinich volunteers for their rudeness.

Kucinich sounds like he was trying to reach his fellow politicians...

"By humanizing war, it enables people to see the nature of the tragedy"

In my dream world Dennis does have a real shot and he becomes the next president of the United States.

I adore the man, and I intend to support his campaign thru out the primaries, but I know that the MSM won't give the man any coverage, and most democrats I know, while they like Dennis too, they think volunteering for his campaign and supporting him in the primaries is a waste of time, because he doesn't have a real shot of getting the nom. I tend to agree. I'm going to support him anyways, because I refuse to support candidates I don't truly believe in, but I doubt that come 2008 it will be his name on the ballot. Unfortunately for us.

the only one in the race so far

DENNIS KUCINICH @ DNC WINTER MEETING 2007
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lGqROyH5Cx0