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Indybay Feature

leftish ex-Nader supporters for Kerry

by list
Long list of liberal, progressive and leftist americans who supporter Nader last time but now support Kerry in swing states.
Nader 2000 Leaders United To Defeat Bush

We, the undersigned, were selected by Ralph Nader to be members of
his 113-person national "Nader 2000 Citizens Committee." This year,
we urge support for Kerry/Edwards in all swing states, even while we
strongly disagree with Kerry's policies on Iraq and other issues. For
people seeking progressive social change in the United States,
removing George W. Bush from office should be the top priority in the
2004 presidential election. Progressive votes for John Kerry in swing
states may prove decisive in attaining this vital goal. (For updated
list of signers, see
<http://vote2stopbush.com/>http://vote2stopbush.com/)

David Barsamian, Author, Radio Interviewer
Juliette Beck, California Citizens for Fair Trade
Herbert Bernstein, Professor of Physics at Hampshire College
Thomas Berry, Author, Dream of the Earth
Wendell Berry, Farmer and Writer
Norman Birnbaum, Author and Educator
Grace Lee Boggs, Detroit Activist and Writer
Blase Bonpane, Office of the Americas
Theresa Bonpane, Office of the Americas
Eric Brakken, Former Staffer, United Students Against Sweatshops
Ira Byock, Palliative Care Physician, Author of Dying Well
Edgar Cahn, Founder of Time Banking
John Cavanagh, Director of Institute for Policy Studies
Noam Chomsky, Author and Professor at MIT
Steve Cobble, Strategist, Jackson '88, Nader '00, Kucinich '04
Ben Cohen, Co-founder of Ben & Jerry's
Peter Coyote, Actor and Writer
Ronnie Cummins, Director of Organic Consumers Association
Herman Daly, Professor at University of Maryland
Iris DeMent, Musician/Songwriter
Phil Donahue, Former Talk Show Host
Mark Dowie, Journalist, Former Editor/Publisher of Mother Jones
Barbara Dudley, Former President, Greenpeace and National Lawyers Guild
Ronnie Dugger, Co-founder of Alliance for Democracy
Troy Duster, Professor at New York University
Barbara Ehrenreich, Political Essayist and Social Critic
Richard Falk, Center of International Studies, Princeton University
Jim Goodman, Organic Dairy Farmer
Rebecca Goodman, Organic Dairy Farmer
Doris (Granny D) Haddock, Senate Candidate, Reform Activist
Paul Hawken, Author, Economist
Randy Hayes, Founder, Rainforest Action Network and Director of
Sustainability, City of Oakland
Jim Hightower, Author and Commentator
Wes Jackson, The Land Institute
David Kairys, Law Professor at Temple University and Author
Ynestra King, Ecofeminist Writer/Activist
John Kinsman, Family Farm Defenders
Philip M. Klasky, Co-director, Bay Area Nuclear Waste Coalition
David Korten, Author of When Corporations Rule the World
Frances Korten, Director of Positive Futures Network
Saul Landau, California State Polytechnic University
Rabbi Michael Lerner, The Tikkun Community
Theodore Lowi, Political Scientist, Author
Howard Lyman, Former Rancher, Vegetarian Activist
Joanna Macy, Author and Scholar
Jerry Mander, President of International Forum on Globalization
Manning Marable, Institute for Research in African American Studies, Columbia
Redwood Mary, Plight of the Redwoods Campaign
Robert McChesney, Professor, University of Illinois
Carolyn Merchant, Professor of Environmental History, University of
California-Berkeley
Peter Montague, Environmental Research Foundation
Gus Newport, Former Mayor of Berkeley, California
Ruth Ozeki, Novelist
Frances Fox Piven, City University of New York
Bonnie Raitt, Guitarist/Singer/Songwriter
Sheldon Rampton, Co-author of Banana Republicans
Marcus Raskin, Author
Tim Robbins
Vicki Robin, New Road Map Foundation
Susan Sarandon, Actor and Activist
John Schaeffer, Founder of Real Goods Trading Company
Michelle Shocked, Musician
John Stauber, Co-author of Banana Republicans
Andrew Strauss, Professor at Widener University School of Law
Charlotte Talberth, Max and Anna Levinson Foundation
Meredith Tax, Writer and Human Rights Activist
Studs Terkel, Author, Oral Historian
Tom Tomorrow, Cartoonist
Sarah van Gelder, Editor of YES! Magazine
Eddie Vedder, Musician, Pearl Jam
Harvey Wasserman, Author of Harvey Wasserman's History of the US
Cornel West, Professor, Author of Democracy Matters
Sheldon Wolin, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University
Howard Zinn, Historian and Author

Other prominent Nader 2000 supporters endorsing this statement:

Medea Benjamin, Code Pink
Jackson Browne
Jerry Greenfield, Ben & Jerry's Co-founder
Bob Harris, Author
Norman Solomon, Columnist
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by reader
The sad consequence of a Kerry 'win' is that half of the entire base for these orgs will now go to sleep. A bomb will go off soon after Kerry is in and his staged rationale for endless war will go on.

Fact is, presidents come and go. The massive base of power in DC - the DIA, the Pentagon, the CIA - goes nowhere, decade after decade after decade. As we've already seen, a president that tries to change these gets shot. And when it's time for the CIA to install one of their own, they will attempt to kill a president to get theirs in. The current system of millionaires in the congress and presidency has no interest in risking their life for anything. Nothing will change, in fact, things will move faster downhill under Kerry and it's likely he will only be presiding over a nightmare, economically and culturally as our media becomes entertainment.

At least Nader speaks the truth.

These scared liberals should be ashamed of themselves.
by RWF
because the election is already over, the public has decided it has more confidence in Bush than Kerry

the demoralization caused by the escalation of the war and the inability of Kerry to mount a serious challenge to the President is everywhere you go

the public (meaning the great mass of humanity outside the Indymedia world) is tuning out the election

by Anyone but Skull and Bones
Stop hitting yourselves! You slither back to the Democraps like a battered woman shields her abuser.
by I hate puppies and kittens too.
I'm voting ferret.
Here it is, my fellow progressives! The phony "leftists" signing this pathetic letter of capitulation to their Democratic masters must be having a "coming out" party of sorts by posting this
publicly. Many of the names we all recognize - some may even be agents provocateur who masquerade as activist organizers like high-profiling Code Pink agitator Medea Benjamin, who has a R.A.P. sheet longer than a telephone pole but has never done serious jail time for her disruptions
on the floors of Congress, at the RNC, or elsewhere. Save this list and LEARN to never follow these misleaders again for they will sell you and your loved ones down the river!!!! Dump
the Democrats and Build a Real Progressive/Labor Movement led by the Working Class Rank-And-File ! ! ! ! !
by Please?
I need it for greater emphasis, and to convince people of my rectitude, just as you have done. Thanks.
by anti-rich
I already knew all these jokers were sellouts, but now maybe everyone else will know too and we can build a real movement... (selling out.. for nothing..? it doesn't make sense)
by VVAW
"The testimony was chilling. Veteran after veteran described the training
and orders that led to the murder of civilians. Several vets admitted that
they had tortured prisoners and had seen their comrades commit rape,
arson, and other savage acts, all stemming from their commanders'
policies. Dr. Bert Pfeiffer of the University of Montana presented the
first public testimony at WSI on the toxic effect of Agent Orange. ...WSI
(Winter Soldier Investigation) also broke the story--then classified--of
the 3rd Marine Division's major border crossing into Laos, called
Operation Dewey Canyon. Although the Pentagon immediately denied the
story, its credibility was undermined by the timing of the testimony,
which occurred the same day that marines publicly launched Operation Dewey
Canyon II in support of South Vietnamese troops invading Laos.....The
Winter Soldier Investigation provided a turning point, but not the one we
expected. We naively believed that the testimony of 105 American combat
veterans on the criminal nature of the Vietnam War would simply end
it--that an America already shocked by war crimes would demand an end to
the slaughter of innocents and the waste of our brothers." (August 29,
2004)

* John Kerry and the Vietnam Veterans Against War
http://www.g0lem.net/PhpWiki/index.php/VietnamVets

"In the bitter controversy over our Vietnamese policies which has raged
across the nation since the President's decision last February to bomb
North Viet-Nam, there is only one point which supporters of U.S. policy
will concede to the opposition: the sheer, mindnumbing horror of the war.
Despite the barrage of official propaganda, reports in the American and
European press reveal that the United States is fighting the dirtiest war
of its history in Viet-Nam. The weapons in the American arsenal include
torture, systematic bombing of civilian targets, the first use of poison
gas since World War One, the shooting of prisoners and the general
devastation of the Vietnamese countryside by napalm and white phosphorus.
Not since the days of the American Indian wars has the United States waged
such unrelenting warfare against an entire people." (August 24, 2004)

* American Atrocities in Vietnam
http://www.g0lem.net/PhpWiki/index.php/VietnamAtrocities
by Socialist
This List of Shame of con artists should be a reminder to everyone of the bankruptcy of their pro-capitalist politics and the mental illness that is "lesser evilism." John Kerry is proudly pro-war, pro-Israel, anti-civil liberties, and above all, for capitalism and its profit motive, the cause of the problems in this society, which system is in a major state of decay and crisis, having nothing to do with which capitalist hustler is in office. He has also stated he will appoint anti-abortion judges .

The presidential election is simply a referendum on the economy in a large country like the US. Half of the US population never votes, and that half is overwhelmingly workingclass, because these capitalist candidates have absolutely nothing to offer the workingclass.

Elections only confirm the class struggle that has preceded them, and there has not been much labor organizing, so the results will not be much different from 2000.

As to the swing state garbage, the Democrats should never have to worry about any former Confederate state, such as Florida, to win a presidential election. The reason they have this problem is because they not only offer nothing to the workingclass, but attack it routinely. Clinton's Repeal of Welfare guaranteed that the workingclass could not support his vice-president Gore's run for president, thus making Florida a swing state. The same attacks on the workingclass continue as the Democarts unite with the Republicans for just about everything, including paying for war, which means stealing from the workingclass and its needs.

The election fraud Bush is sure to perpetrate again, as in 2000, depends on the Democratic Party's election-frauding machines that exist in every city. Bush not only perpetrated election fraud in Florida in 2000, but also in the rest of the country.

Always vote your conscience as that is the only way anything will change. Never vote for any Democrat or Republican a any level of office. If you do not find a suitable candidate for a position, skip that position.

In California, the socialist party on the ballot is Peace & Freedom Party, whose candidate is Leonard Peltier. See http://www.peaceandfreedom2004.org
by let's name em.
supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel supports Israel

really, that's all you need to say to some people around here. two legs baaaaaaaaaaaad.................

Now. Others of us around here proudly support Lenin.

support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin support Lenin

now whaddaya think about that?
by a plus
at least you didn't resort to name calling. that can be so tiresome and adds nothing to the discourse.
by RWF
on issues like this, people can reasonably disagree, after all the signatories of the letter represent a variety of constituencies affected in different ways by Bush policies . . . . . if Cornel West, Noam Chomsky and Medea Benjamin are now class enemies, can the proletariat fit into two phone booths?

more seriously, I begrudgingly expressed support for Kerry here several months ago, primarily for global reasons, as the left abroad, indeed, just about everyone abroad, sees getting rid of Bush as emotionally essential to mounting future challenges to US hegemony, so the global mass line on the election is indisputable

what that said, I have never aggressively pushed others to vote for Kerry, I have just presented my reasons and let others draw their own conclusions, as I tend to agree with Patti Smith when she said, you should register to vote in order to vote for Kerry, but, if you can't stomach Kerry and mainstream politics, you should register to vote so that you can vote for Nader, refusing to repudiate her vote for Nader in 2000

accordingly, I would not sign this letter, if asked (as if anyone would do so!), because I don't believe that Kerry should be force fed to anyone who has serious objections to his personality and politics, and the letter is, I believe, especially ill timed, as the insurgency in Iraq, and our military response to it, is becoming more and more violent, creating the possibility that Kerry will desperately try to win the election in October by running to the right of Bush, criticizing his Iraq policy as weak and indecisive, and strongly pushing for more troops and weapons to conduct an aggressive offensive campaign against the resistance and Iraqi civilians

given this risk, I don't think anyone should, at this time, strongly urge progressives and leftists to vote for Kerry, as you could be leading them into an embarassing cul-de-sac, if Kerry cannot resist this temptation


--Richard Estes

by heckla
Good now I have a list of suckass liberals who are to be derided and hated more than anyone else. Suckass liberals will forever be worse than any other politician.
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