"An Evening With Al Franken": Sunday, January 18, 2004 at 7 PM

I strongly support kpfa-pacifica and plan to vote in their upcoming station board elections . (see election [at] kpfa.org for more infro ) But i am concerned by the lineup for this 1-18 event . Al Franken is for sure a funny guy but he is also a very loyal mainsteam democrat . For example he justly ridicules and condemms Bush inc. for all their lies vis a vis Iraq but says nada about all the d.p. politicos that backed Bush . including his buddies , Bill and Hilary . (Hilary actually wants Bush to send more troops to Iraq ) Franken is himself no man of peace . He supported all of the Clinton adm . miltary actions including the devastating sanctions . He supports the war in Afghanistan and is only slightly critical of the Israeli occupation . Krugman is a clever guy writing well researched critiques of Bush s various actions , especially economic . But he is also a d.p. liberal who strongly opposes any left electoral opposition to the two party scam . (for example if you go and if you get a chance to ask a question (another big if , except for maybe card questions ) ask them where they stood re the recent San Fran. election . Despite Amy Goodman as m.c. and the addition of the unpredictable Kevin Philips (former Republican now Populist ) I am afraid this will be a ''anyone but Bush '' rally . A debate where supporters of Nader, those who advocate writing in (or running on the ballot line ,in a least a few states of ballot status left parties ), Mumia Abu -Jamal and supporters of the '' Any Democrat will do '' line would be great . This isnt, What do you think ?

We live in the United States of America, not the United States of Berkeley. We must be realistic about the social and political climate in which we live. If you don't understand what most of the country is, please travel (especially to the "red states") live in the suburbs for a while, and work in a corporate office. You'll see how most people in this country live and think, and then you'll understand what we're up against.

Once and for all, Greens must learn to work with Democrats, especially those who are progressive and/or are willing to compromise and work together. And conversely, Democrats must let go of their (unfounded) resentment toward the Greens and listen to their grievances about the Democratic Party.

We will never take back this country if the left continues this ridiculous and counterproductive in-fighting. This is no time for perfectionism. No less is at stake than the future of the world.

"Anyone But Bush"? Hell, yes!

to ''bay area progressive '''., To reply to your reply (not necessarily in order of importance . )!. i am very well aware of the land beyond the S.F. Bay area . Are you ? Are you aware of the fact that over 50% of potential voters in the u.s. refuse to vote for either the G.O.P. or the D.P. ? 2. Are you aware that L.B.J. , Mayor Daley , and George Wallace were all Democrats ? 3. Do you support the expansion of the ''criminal -industrial '' complex ? Do you support the ''death penality '' ? The party that you propose we give our money , our time , basically our political and personal intergity to , certainly does ! ! 4/ Demos and greens work together ? You missed the fact that the D.P. leadership pulled out all the stops to elect Gavin Newsome . The goal of the D.P. is to DESTROY the Greens , Peace and Freedom party . and any other rivals (to their left ) that exist in other states . 5. The D.P. is in no way part of the ''left''. Their leadership makes it clear that they are 100 % commited to ''Free enterprise '' and ''U.S. ''leadership '' of the planet '' . 6. I dont live in Berkeley . (I did for a while though . Why do you ape the (Unfornately not true ) right wing ''peoples republic of berkeley '' taunt ? I could go on and on but enough for now .

LBJ, Daley, and Wallace are old news. Let's focus on the here and now.

Your grievances with the Democratic Party are legitimate. Why not work to build a coalition between Greens and progressive Democrats? This is what reasonable, realistic people are doing. Hence, we're now seeing the formation of "Greens for Dean" and other groups.

I voted for Matt Gonzalez. Lots of Democrats in San Francisco did. This is what I mean by building progressive coalitions.

My suggestion is to find Democrats you can work with. (Did you know, for instance, that 90% of African American voters are Democrats?) Revitalize the party from the inside out. Even Cornell West suggested this at the Ralph Nader rally that I attended in 2000.

If you don't let go of this ideological perfectionism, you might as well welcome four more years of Bush. Is that really what you want? And please don't tell me that the Republicans and the Democrats are the same. It's just not true. The past three years should have proven that to you.

As a friend of mine pointed out, the 'anybody but' campaign always loses - why? Because no one wants 'anybody,' they want 'somebody.'

But that's really beside the point because Bushmoron has the voting machines. Democrat are guaranteed to lose as long as the machines are running the elections (80% Republican owned, massive vote count irregularities in the past 3 years, felons on the payrolls, etc.). If you doubt it, just read up on the situation - http://www.blackboxvoting.org.

California did a recent RANDOM AUDIT of the machines in 17 Counties and found that NOT A SINGLE ONE had certified software on it. In fact, some even had software no one had even seen before . . .

The only way the Dems have a chance of winning is to stop the machines in the courts.

If you really want to beat Bush, then get working to help out Bev Harris to stop the machines. She has over 16,000 documents now and they are asking for help. Go to the 'activists forum' link on the top of the front page.