Anti-War Candidate To Challenge Diane Feinstein

There already is a radical anti-war alternative to Feinstein . Marsha Feinland of the Peace and Freedom Party announced months ago that she was running against ''Princess Di "' . I'm a bit disappointed that the two parties to the Left of the Republicans, Dems , and the anti-union , anti-worker rights Libertarians can't see fit to coodinate or even talk to each other . If any members of these two parties can explain how this came to pass and what if anything can be done about this unfortunate situation where these two parties will be competing for the antiwar vote, please do ! At least some common sense unity dammit !

Todd Chretien is great hope for all anti-war progressives.

I admire the Peace and Freedom Party-- and if you like them better-- VOTE for your candidates.

Just don't vote for the least worst of the Democrats or Republicans! The Democrats and Republicans want to keep all third parties from participating in America--

-- I'm sure you have noticed!

While a socialist candidate like Marsha Feinland and the Peace & Freedom Party is always best, anyone can run for office and should be encouraged to do so. The more candidates, the larger the peace and civil liberties vote. Both candidates are merely protest candidates.

As to Dianne Feinstein, she will win an easy victory even if t there were a Republican candidate, which there is not. This is because most of the workingclass never votes, and a large part of the workingclass, many of those who make less than $30,000 a year, cannot read the voter's handbook.

These elections are merely one means of reaching people and testing our strength. Please remember that in the high voter turnout election of Nov 2004, 12.5 million Californians voted out of 27 million adults. That means the most likely voter is a property owner making over $100,000 a year, definitely not the workingclass. P&F and the Greens will need to do a lot of voter registration in the workingclass communities. For those who are new at all of this, you will learn the realities and weakness of elections in the USA, a very undemocratic country with its winner take all system and its reactionary millionaires club, a concession to the slaveholding states, known as the US Senate, which should be abolished. You will also learn that what is needed most is to raise the level of political consciousness of the workingclass in this country, which is what both the Feinland and Chretien campaign will do.

I URGE FEINLAND AND CHRETIEN to demand that KPFA and KPFK interview them. In the past, they only interview Democrats running for office. This is outrageous. Any radio station that claims to be for peace has no business promoting the warmongering Democratic Party. They are certainly not getting an interview with Feinstein and we have all heard more than enough from her. If somehow Feinstein consents to an interview, it should be with Feinland & Chretien at the same time. It should be routine that KPFA & KPFK interview all Peace & Freedom and Green Party candidates running for office in the KPFA & KPFK listening area, which for both is California.

As to Feinstein, other notable positions not stated above are:
--She is a staunch supporter of Israel, the US military base in the Middle East that exists to the tune of $4 billion a year above the table and $4 billion a year below the table to defend US oil profits in the Middle East. It is a training ground for the US military's occupation of Iraq and is an agent provocateur for the US all around the world.
--She supports the death penalty.
--She opposed Prop 215, the medical marijuana initiative.
--She has always been a law and order, pro-police candidate.
--It was her despicable legislation that caused African-American Sherman Austin to be jailed for a year in federal prison supposedly as a "terrorist" because a white boy renting Austin's website had some bomb-making link and instead of going after the white boy who caused the problem, they went after 18-year-old Austin, an outspoken peace activist.
For more on Feinland's campaign, see:
http://www.peaceandfreedom2006.org/candidates/mfeinland/

Todd Chretien is a Socialist also . He's the California leader of the International Socialist organization . Why that fact that is well known to any one that is active in progressive politics isn't mentioned in this press release is a little disturbing to me . The Bay area has quite a few EX members of this or that Marxist party that are now loyal Democrats and Elected officials .Hopefully Todd will be upfront about his politics at his press conference today.

Still valid:

Yes , of course , both Feinland and Todd are ''merely protest candidates '' So while it's true that their splitting the antiwar vote won't prevent either one of then winning there are other concerns . For example $ .While the Greens are probably more affluent than the Peace and Freedom party both have next to nothing compared to Feinstein-Blum inc. who have personal wealth of approx. 200 million and a campaign fund of millions .Wouldn't it then make sense to run a joint candidate thus pooling the limited human and financial resources ? I'm neither Green or Peace and Freedom party . I usually vote for one or the other of those parties candidates but there are times when i have to abstain . (The Greens have a tendency to run at least some candidates that are basically just Greenish corporate types and the Peace and Freedom have ran some candidates that are , while more left , are basically clueless and hardly bother to campaign . ) Believe me i know many in my union and among Italian -American progressives that would vote for the Left if the above problems could be corrected .

The Peace and Freedom Party's State Central Committee yesterday destroyed the last remaining claims it has to internal party democracy. By a vote of 26 yes, 1 no, and 1 abstention (out of a pathetic statewide membership of around 68), Peace and Freedom Party's politburo took away the right of its registrants to select the party's nominees in the upcoming primary by endorsing a mostly old rerun slate of party hack's. This official endorsement gives the Central Committee the right under party by-laws to expel anyone who supports a candidate other than the offical slate and also the right to not seat any candidate who might challenge anyone of the Politburo's chosen FEW. If you believe in Democracy of all political parties, let the following Peace and Freedom Party activists know your thoughts. Maureen Smith (mmsmith AT cruzio.com); C.T. Weber (ctwebervoters AT aol.com); Kevin Akin (kevinakin1950 AT hotmail.com); Jim Smith (jsmith AT igc.org). Also let Richard Winger of Ballot Access News (ban AT richardwinger.com) know your views. There is hope, there will be a challenge to this attempt to centralize power in the Peace and Freedom Party. Look for the candidacy of Anthony Russo for U. S. Senate to restore democracy to the Peace and Freedom Party. POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!

I like Toni's comments . I too split my votes between the G.P. and the P.F.P. based on the candidates .I would also like to echo her reference to Italian American progressives . As a native born North Beach guy , to me the Democratic party was the establishment . (I hardly knew any Republicans ). . I remember a visit in 1917 by a Uncle from Milan and two of my cousins . He was with the Italian Communist party and my cousins were with a revolutionary group called Lotta Continua . They really inspired me and were a hell of a contrast to the stale political scene among Italian Americans in the Bay area . Anyway my family and friends are older now but many of us are just as disgusted with the Democrats as we were then . ( Even if the current crop of Democrats try to disguise their pro-corporate agenda behind sensitive , ''diversity '' rhetoric . that is they are all for Lesbian C.E.O. s' ) But we need real solid activist candidates that can relate to Working and lower middle class people . Both the Greens and Peace and Freedom sometimes fal short of that .

The Peace and Freedom Party and many Green Party candidates will definitely be working together on many activities during the 2006 campaign. In particular, there will be joint efforts to press for media access, joint appearances by candidates, and voter registration.

As for the pseudonymous "D R Sykes" of Mendocino County and his or her complaints about lack of democracy in the Peace & Freedom Party, it is far more democratic for the party's activists to meet, choose a slate of candidates, and begin working immediately on the 2006 campaign than it is to sit on our asses and wait until next June to see who can buy a primary victory with outside money. If Sykes doesn't like the results, let it come to a meeting and participate in the process.

In passing, Sal Fazio really means "1971", not "1917", right?

Peace and Freedom Party candidates and Green Party candidates will be working together in this election on many issues, including especially media access. They will also probably hold joint press conferences and other events.

Hey-- I wrote a coherent mini-critique of T. Chretien and the ISO. Why did you delete it?

As the lone abstention (actually a vote of "present") let me concur that I found the move to endorse candidates prior to the primaries troubling. But as per PFP bylaws, our endorsement is not binding. Whichever eligible candidate that runs and wins the primary for a given race, gets the slot on the ballot.

If Dr. Sykes can spare time from his/her/its practice (of maligning the only socialist party on California's ballot), perhaps he/she/it can still wrest the ballot slot from Marsha.

But that would require doing something (aside from taking pot-shots from the sidelines). If Dr. Sykes wants to join the State Central Committee, the way to do so is quite clear - file papers in your county and run for the spot. Assuming he/she/it isn't a complete jerk (kind of a stretch), it might not even be that hard. People with a history of working in/with/for the party have been added to the SCC by acclamation in the past.

But I'm not a bylaws wonk. You'll have to look them up and research your options Dr..

Interesting that the emails you list included the alleged journalist, who miquoted and mischaracterized the remarks of our state chair (democratically elected himself).

I wonder whether you're hoping for a more democratic party, or just a Democratic one in 2006?

The comment by "Psych-out" is really by C.T. Weber who is a 65 year old Peace and Freedom Party has-been. Weber lives in Sacramento and works for the California Highway Patrol. When California elections were held under the "Open Primary" system a few years back, Weber got more votes in the Primary than in the General election runoff, proving that as the more voters got to know him, the more they rejected him. Weber uses the pretentious email: ctwebervoters AT aol.com (convert to standard email format) trying to imply that the masses are yearning to elect him to some office.<ctwebervoters [at] aol.com> If you email him, ask him to email you back some of the pictures he had taken of himself wearing a Nazi Party uniform in the late 1960's. Others of you may remember that Weber also took his political roadshow on another downhill slide when he ran as P & F's gubinatorial candidate in the recall election to replace Gray Davis. In that election Weber got the lowest vote of any statewide Peace and Freedom Party candidate in the Party's 38 year history. CT is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, he just has nothing meaningful to do with his life except pretend to be a politician.

I just had the astonishing lies of "observer" drawn to my attention. He slanders CT Weber, a stalwart Peace and Freedom Party activist, in about as many ways as he could in this short space. I am Kevin Akin, the present State Chair of the Peace and Freedom Party, and I have known CT Weber for at least 30 years. I am not going to go into full detail, but let me mention a few of the distortions that the writer has afflicted his readers with:
CT is not the author of the "Psych-out" comments. I know who wrote them, and he does not even know CT personally. The evil person (it is just a single person) who is making up all these slanders against Peace and Freedom Party activists and posting them from various e-mail addresses apparently became confused when someone told him how the various people on the Peace and Freedom Party State Central Committee voted on a pre-primary endorsement of a slate of candidates for statewide office, and mistook CT Weber (who voted "no" for the simple reason that he philosophically opposes pre-primary endorsements, even though he supports all the candidacies at issue) with the person who abstained. Note that "Psych-out" states that he is the person who abstained.
CT Weber is a very valuable key activist in our election campaign this year, and has recruited several candidates and organized candidate training. He did not offer to run for anything this year himself, which demonstrates that he has no illusions about the masses yearning to elect him.
CT was our gubernatorial candidate in the recall election, which he entered with the full knowledge that he would receive fewer votes than any gubernatorial nominee of the Party ever. We asked him and he was willing, even though he knew he could not cover himself with glory. Anyone aware of the circumstances of that election knows that the small vote count for all but the top handful of candidates did not reflect any rejection by the electorate, but rather the peculiar and unprecedented circumstances of that election.
The 1998 "open primary" (actually "blanket primary") elections were another unique circumstance. It was not just for the office CT Weber was running for, but all of the statewide offices, that the collective votes of the primary candidates exceeded the votes of the nominee in the November election. This certainly does not reflect, as our slanderer claims, that the more people get to know CT the fewer votes he gets. The opposite is true.
I have no idea what this claim about photographs in Nazi uniform may be based on, but I know that CT has been a strong anti-facist and opponent of racism for all the years I have known him.
And no, CT Weber does not work for the Highway Patrol. He used to have a clerical job involving truck registration with the state, and that responsibility was transferred to the Highway Patrol several years ago. So yes, CT did work for the Highway Patrol, but as an "analyst" (a high-level clerk) who kept track of paperwork on trucking companies using a pen and a computer, not a black-and-white and a gun. He has been retired for some time now.
Please note that there have been several postings of false statements against the Peace and Freedom Party this last week, all of which appear to emanate from the same person. Please be cautious about believing a single word of this. Thank you. -Kevin Akin, State Chair, Peace and Freedom Party

Will Todd help lift California's ban on many fine firearms? What about my freedom to own a AR-15.

Todd as a Green Party candidate can't and won't come out for Second Amendment rights nor will he oppose the recent San Francisco gun ban. If you believe in the fundamental right to armed self defense you should register into the PEACE & FREEDOM PARTY and work to defeat the anti-gun candidate, M. Feinland. That way in the General Election we can have a left socialist to advocate against the hypocrisy of Diane Feinstein who supports gun bans while packing a pistol with a concealed weapons permit issued by the San Francisco Police Department. Note that Feinstein is not alone among California Democrats in carrying pistols while voting against them. State Senator Don Perata, Alameda's political boss, packs a Beretta 92SF 9mm semiautomatic with his concealed weapons permit while leading the fight to disarm Californians.

the principal is that they're gunning for us. Why should we disarm before liberation!!?