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Hawkins Laments Loss of Democracy in 2006 US Senate Race in NY
Peace Candidates are Ignored by the Media Despite a Majority of Voters Supporting their Position |
For immediate release: October 23, 2006
For more information: Howie Hawkins, 315-481-7710
Albany - Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for US Senate from New York, said today that the exclusion of anti-war candidates from the Senate debates was part of the increasing erosion of democracy in America.
Hawkins was joined by Jeff Russell, the Libertarian Senate candidate and William van Auken, the Social Equality Party nominee, in protesting the failure of the media to cover their anti-war positions even though a majority of New Yorkers oppose the war. Hawkins and the Green Party actively opposed the invasion of Iraq and support an immediate withdrawal of American troops. The latest CNN Poll, October 13-15, 2006, found that 64 percent of Americans oppose the war in Iraq.
"Our democratic rights are under assault in post 9/11 America. Corporate interests and their bought politicians and media outlets are shutting down democracy. The refusal to debate is just the tip of the iceberg. The Big Brother state predicted by George Orwell has arrived, where the media duly joins in repeating obvious lies made by the government," stated Hawkins.
"Corporations finance both major parties while their bought politicians block campaign finance reform. Media ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few large corporations, many with strong ties to the military industrial complex. Corporate electronic voting machine vendors refuse to let election administration officials review their vote counting software on the grounds that it is proprietary information. Both parties have supported efforts to curtail civil liberties and the right to free speech," noted Hawkins.
The League of Women Voters withdrew their support for the two recent Senate debates over the failure to include to Hawkins.
"Clinton defends her decision to send troops to illegally invade Iraq under the guise of protecting America and exporting democracy, yet she undermines democracy here in America. Clinton's decisions have contributed to the death of thousands of American soldiers and half a million Iraqis, and yet she lacks the courage to stand in front of New York voters and debate the war with those candidates who disagree with her. She hid from Tasini in the primary and now she is hiding from me and the other anti-war candidates in the general election. Where are the editorials denouncing her refusal to debate?" asked Hawkins.
"Let's remember that the war against Iraq has been the policy of three administrations, the first George Bush, Bill Clinton and the second George Bush. The war is linked to powerful commercial and corporate interests who want control of Iraq's oil resources. The pro-war Democrats are more committed to supporting this war than they are in winning control of Congress; otherwise they would more forcefully use it as a campaign issue," observed Hawkins. The war on Iraq has already cost over $300 billion and it's ultimate cost is projected to be at least $1 trillion even if the troops are withdrawn immediately due largely to the costs of taking care of sick and disabled veterans. Corporate war profiteers connected to the Bush administration have benefited at American taxpayer expense.
"Both parties are working together to suppress the Bills of Rights without bothering to amend the constitution," Hawkins added "While supporters of the Democratic Party like to portray Bush as the evil President, much of post-9/11 erosion of our civil liberties has been under Bill Clinton's 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. Many Democrats like Hillary Clinton voted for the Patriot Act in 2001 and its renewal in 2006. Most recently, the Democrats in the Senate failed fight and filibuster the Military Commission Act. That Act's suspension of habeas corpus sets our civil rights back almost 800 years to before the Magna Carta in 1215. And Congressional Democrats have failed to take action when they see the President breaking the law, whether its lying about the invasion of Iraq, torturing detainees, or NSA surveillance of the emails and phone calls of every law-abiding American."
Hawkins has called for a repeal of the 1996 Anti-Terrorism bill and the Patriot Act. He supports the dismantling the Department of Homeland Security since it concentrates intelligence under the president and undermines the various intelligence agencies' independence to give honest intelligence. Hawkins said that Clinton meanwhile treats the Department as a source of pork barrel funding for New York. Hawkins is also calling for Congressional investigations into covert operations by the intelligence community modelled after the Church and Pike committees of the 1970s.
Hawkins renewed his called for an independent investigation into the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "Bush and the Democrats are using 9/11 as an excuse for war, suppression of civil liberties, and increased corporate welfare and military spending. Yet they have blocked a full investigation into 9/11. The Commission admitted it lied to the American public about the role that our Middle Eastern policy played in these attacks. The Commission refused to investigate the source of funding for the attacks, particularly the role of the Saudi ruling family and the Pakistani intelligence service. And they refused to examine the role of the CIA and the American government in promoting the rise of bin Laden, the Taliban, and Saddam Hussein when it served the short term needs of American corporate and political rulers," Hawkins stated.
Hawkins cited the recent prosecutions of Albany area Muslim Leaders Imams Umar and Aref, Dr. Rafil Dhafir of Syracuse, and defense lawyer Lynne Stewart in New York City as examples of politically motivated prosecutions designed to scare the public into supporting foreign military interventions and domestic restrictions on freedom in a "war on terror."
Hawkins joined with the other Senate candidates in calling upon New Yorkers to vote against the platform of corporate rule and militarism promoted by Hillary Clinton and John Spencer.
"The rest of the world laughs when America claims it is a democratic nation. The first step is to require fair elections: non-partisan administration of the vote counting with a verifiable paper trail, equal access to the media and debates, proportional representation in legislative bodies, instant runoff voting for executive offices, and public campaign financing. Bill Clinton's most lasting legacy will be that he showed the Democrats how they could get an equal share of the corporate largesse called campaign contributions. This form of legalized bribery pushes politicians to sell their soul – and the voters – to the highest bidder," stated Hawkins.
Hawkins also criticized the trend of enacting more draconian ballot access laws and state court rulings that block independent electoral challenges to the major parties. The Democratic Party spending more than ten million dollars to block Ralph Nader from the ballot in 2004, despite the fact he had finished third in the previous national election. The newest trend is the charging of exorbitant fees when the major parties are able to use the complicated ballot access laws they wrote to knock opponents off the ballot. A Pennsylvania Court recently ordered Green Party candidate for US Senate, Carl Romanelli, to pay nearly one million dollars in legal fees to the Democratic Party after they were able to disqualify his petitions despite collecting nearly 100,000 signatures.
Hawkins also called for media reform. "You cannot have democracy if you don't have an independent media. Clinton's Telecommunications Act of 1996 had led to unprecedented media ownership concentration. That bill must be repealed. We need tough rules prohibiting the concentration of media ownership. The airwaves are public property; instead they are used to enrich a handful of corporate owners while prohibiting a diversity of viewpoints from being heard," added Hawkins.
For More Information:
(315) 425-1019
(315) 481-7710
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Hawkins For Senate 2006
www.HawkinsForSenate.org
(315) 425-1019; Howie Hawkins
(518) 364-2968 c; Campaign Manager
(347) 446-4461 c; Media Director
HawkinsForSenateMedia@gmail.com |
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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