Didn't she accuse Bush of being involved in 911? Perhaps she will lead the charge to find out who really bombed the Pentagon?
Former Rep. McKinney Seeks Green Party Presidential Nod Wednesday, December 26, 2007 8:24 AM
By: Randy Hall
Former U.S.Rep. Cynthia McKinney, a Georgia Democrat who was voted out of Congress last year after engaging in an altercation with a Capitol Hill police officer, is now campaigning to become the Green Party's presidential nominee.
"The Republicans have deceived us; the Democrats have failed us," McKinney said in a video news release posted on the runcynthiarun.org Web site last week to announce her candidacy for the White House. "It is time for a new beginning, a time for hope to rise from the ashes of despair.
"Those of us who believe in peace and social justice need a voice," the 52-year-old politician said, promising to provide that voice from the Green Party, which she called her "new political home."
"Democrats do not speak for us," she said, adding that members of her former party "are no different than their Republican counterparts" because both are "eating out of the hands of the corporate lobby."
McKinney also criticized the Iraq war, which she called "illegal, immoral and undeclared." She said that if elected, she would put the $1 billion a day that is "spent to feed the war machine" to better uses, such as rebuilding New Orleans after the ravages of Hurricane Katrina and providing health care to all.
"America deserves a government as good as its people and as noble as its ideals," she added while inviting those who believe in peace and preserving the "delicate balance of the global environment" to "come home to the Green Party."
The Web site notes that McKinney was one of only three House members to vote "yes" on a 2005 resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
One of her last acts in office was introducing articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Web site notes.
According to McKinney, who is also described as "no stranger to controversy and unafraid of speaking truth to power," it is time to "break the vicious cycle where the poor go to war and veterans come home wounded and ignored."
The announcement "ends months of speculation about her plans," the site adds, since McKinney registered to vote in California after a group called Run! Cynthia! Run! began attempts to draft her as a Green Party candidate there. Since then, she had made personal appearances in Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
As Cybercast News Service previously reported, McKinney served six terms representing a suburban Atlanta district before she was defeated in 2006 by DeKalb County Commissioner Hank Johnson.
Six months earlier, she became involved in an altercation with a Capitol Police officer that she said was "instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me, a female black Congresswoman."
McKinney later apoligized for hitting the officer with her cell phone, saying: "I know that the Capitol Hill Police are securing our safety, that of thousands of others, and I appreciate the work that they do. I deeply regret that the incident occurred."
After losing her seat in the House, she participated in a number of anti-war events, including a March 17 rally in Washington, D.C., where she charged that "the Democrats are full partners in George Bush's war."
"As an American of conscience, I declare my independence from every bomb that was dropped," McKinney said. "I declare my independence from every civil right violated. Sadly, I declare my independence from the leaders who let this happen."
To win the Green nomination at the party's July 10-13 convention in Chicago, McKinney must defeat six other candidates, including Ralph Nader, who was the party's nominee for the White House in 1996 and 2000 and an independent candidate for the same post in 2004.
While Nader has yet to make his intentions for 2008 official, Howie Hawkins of the Green Party of New York State is currently serving as a "placeholder" candidate for the consumer advocate.
"We're especially proud of the diversity and depth of political experience represented by our candidates," said Ruth Weill, co-chair of the Green Party's Annual National Meeting Committee, in a news release on Dec. 17. "We look forward to a vigorous and friendly competition for the nomination."
The party's presidential hopefuls include a former member of Congress, two former Green presidential candidates, the former leader of the Black Panther Party, an environmental engineer, a college professor, a candidate who will turn 35 next June and a 73-year-old.
"The Green Party, in most states where Greens have ballot status, participate in the primaries just as Democrats and Republicans do," said Jim Coplen, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States, in a statement that included his vow to get the party on the ballots in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Former_Rep._McKinney_Seek/2007/12/26/59769.html
