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I Endorse Barack Obama (but I’m voting for Nader-Gonzalez)

Published
by
Adam Pieniazek
on November 3, 2008
in Politics
. 13 Comments

No, you’re not seeing things, that title is correct. I, Adam Pieniazek, endorse Barack Obama.

Now, that does not mean I will vote for him (tip of the hat to Stephen Colbert for this idea). Quite on the contrary, I will be voting for Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez. However, I realize that all my readers do not live in a state like Massachusetts where one of the mainstream candidates will win in a landslide. I also realize that some of my readers will steadfastly support either a Democrat or Republican only.

I fully support third parties and their battle to gain equal rights but if you live in a battleground state and are only deciding between Barack Obama and John McCain (for instance, if you live in Oklahoma where write-in candidates are not allowed and only Obama and McCain are listed on the ballot) then I highly urge you to vote for Barack Obama. There is a simple reason behind this endorsement, and it is not based on any tax system, religion, race, or any political affiliation. Rather, you should vote for Barack Obama because he is eloquent, charismatic, and well liked by the global community. This country is literally teetering on a precipice and one candidate can keep us on the cliff while the other wants to push us off it.

We can elect John McCain and in essence give a big fat middle finger to the rest of the world. Now some of you might say, “Exactly! That’s why I’m voting for John McCain.” Well, the simple truth is we are not number one right now. Every last bastion of American pride has shown huge, undeniable faults over the past eight years. From election errors to military difficulties to the recent financial fallout, America is not viewed as a super power by many individuals and countries in the global community. Electing John McCain will announce to the world that we do not care what they think, at which point they may very well ostracize us, or worse.

On the other hand, we can elect Barack Obama as our President and regain some much needed credibility and respect in the international community. Further Obama will use his charisma and eloquence to regain the international community’s trust and friendship. The truth is we live in a global society and we as a country need to be viewed in a positive and friendly manner. We simply are not strong enough to be arrogant right now.

In a truly democratic system, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader and other parties would have been allowed full and equal access to the debates and ballots and given a fair shot at being elected president. Alas, our system is not such and for many people their only choice is between Obama or McCain. If you find yourself in such a situation, please put your country first and elect Barack Obama.

Before I conclude this post, I must emphatically urge my readers to vote for a third party, however if you will not or cannot then please vote for Barack Obama. I however will be proudly casting my ballot for Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez and highly encourage you to do so as well, especially if you’re in a landslide state.

Vice-Presidential Debate Tonight

Published
by
Adam Pieniazek
on November 2, 2008
in Government and Politics
. 1 Comment

As noted before, I’m a big proponent of equal access to debates for all candidates who could potentially win the presidency. As of today, there are six parties with access on enough ballots to theoretically win the presidency [Constitution, Democrat, Green, Independent, Libertarian, and Republican]. Tonight there will be a debate between the vice-presidential candidates between at least three of these parties in Las Vegas. The vice-presidential candidates confirmed for the debate are Wayne Allen Root of the Libertarian party, Darrell Castle of the Constitution party and Matt Gonzalez, running under the Independent Nader-Gonzalez ticket. Note, I am voting for the Ralph Nader - Matt Gonzalez ticket. All six parties were invited to the debate, but no word from Joe Biden, Sarah Palin, nor Rosa Clemente yet on whether they will attend.

No word yet on whether C-SPAN will cover tonight’s debate (my guess is they’ll end up covering it at the last minute) but there will be a free live video stream at They Will Be Heard at 9 PM (Eastern), so make sure you check it out! Proletariat Power will also live-blog the debate, much like they did with the presidential debate on October 23rd. It’s nice to see that the third part candidates have begun setting up their own debates, perhaps next time they can do so before the major parties and get a head start on getting their message heard.

There was also a presidential debate this past Thursday, October 30th between Constitution candidate Chuck Baldwin, Indepedent candidate Ralph Nader, and Libertarian candidate Bob Barr at the City Club in Cleveland Ohio. You can check out the full one hour video of the debate at We Demand Videos!

Vote third party!

Chuck Baldwin vs. Ralph Nader - Presidential Debate Tonight!

Published
by
Adam Pieniazek
on October 23, 2008
in Leadership and Politics
. 9 Comments

After a lot of back and forth, there will be a third party presidential debate tonight in Washington D.C. The debate will also be broadcast live on CSPAN starting at 9PM. So far, all six presidential candidates have been invited but so far only Constitutional candidate Chuck Baldwin and Independent candidate Ralph Nader have confirmed their attendance. Still, these two candidates represent opposite sides of the political spectrum, with Chuck Baldwin being a true conservative in the Ron Paul tradition, while Ralph Nader is a true liberal in the Ralph Nader tradition.

I’m glad that a debate will occur, as I was actually thinking of withdrawing my vote for Nader if he was not able to debate someone, my thinking being that if you can’t get a debate going, how could you ever manage a country? Now, I know this debate is not organized by Mr. Nader and that he has a campaign to run but in my opinion the best thing for Ron Paul and Ralph Nader would have been to spend some of those megabucks raised by money bombs and fundraising on getting a new debate going counter to the mainstream, corporate owned debates.

Hopefully Cynthia McKinney is able to show up at the debates tonight too, though Bob Barr has stated numerous times he will not attend due to a prior engagement at Georgia Tech. Honestly, if I was in charge of the Barr event at GT, I’d cancel it and encourage him to attend the debate, but perhaps that’s why I’m not running a campaign…

In either case, tune in tonight to C-SPAN or head on over to Restore the Republic Radio for a live web stream of the event.

3rd Party Debate is ON!!! ….or is it???

Published
by
Adam Pieniazek
on October 17, 2008
in Government, History and Politics
. 0 Comments

A few months ago I wrote a post here discussing my attempts to get a 3rd party debate going between Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin. Well, a few other parties have managed to get a debate scheduled for this Sunday, October 19!

So far Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin and Cynthia McKinney have confirmed their attendance. Bob Barr is stating he has a scheduling conflict, though the even organizers are stating he wants to only debate Ralph Nader. In either case, Barr is running a very odd campaign, first ditching uber-popular Ron Paul and now refusing to participate in a debate with his fellow third party candidates.

Right now there are actually two debates scheduled, on being an online debate this Sunday from 7pm to 9pm while the other is a physical debate starting at 8pm. Seeing as how the physical debate is being televised by CSPAN and moderated by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman it seems the online only debate organized by Trevor Lyman will fall to the wayside, especially seeing as how only Cynthia McKinney has confirmed she’d participate.

In either case, three of the four candidates will be at the physical debate, hosted by The Free and Equal Elections Coalition and the Columbia Political Union. So confused yet by the varying debates and times and places? Well so are the candidates who are now waffling about whether they will or will not attend, even though three of them confirmed their attendance a few days ago. In either case, the debate is scheduled and set up and now it’s up to the candidates to show up. For the sake of progress for our democracy, let’s hope they do show up. Send e-mails to your candidates encouraging them to show up! Even Barack Obama and John McCain are invited, let’s have one debate between all six candidates!

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