Although Congresswoman McKinney has said and done some strange things--things I disagree with in tone and temper-- during her tenure, these words of hers are true, right and real.

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's Remarks
Election Night, Tuesday, August 8, 2006, after listening to Pink's "Dear Mr. President:"

Ladies and gentlemen, there comes a time when people of conscience are compelled to dissent. Bobby Kennedy said, "The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country." We love our country, and that is why we dissent: because we care.

We care about the dignity of all the world's people.

We care about minimum wage workers; we care about no wage workers;

we care about the homeless--too many of whom are veterans;

we want a healthy future for all our children;

we want our seniors to live in dignity.

Our country is too rich to tolerate such poverty in our midst. We have more to give to our people and the world than DynCorp, Halliburton,and the Carlyle Group. We care about the air and the earth and the water. And so we reject George Bush's science lessons that distort the facts and justify policies thatsupport drilling for oil in Alaska; exacerbate global warming; and allow more human consumption of known toxins and pollutants.

We care about the projection of US power around the world. Either we can be a force for good in the world; or we can rely on force and upset the world. Sadly, this Administration has chosen the latter. At a time when this country has failed to train enough certified teachers to educate our children, George Bush is spending billions, nearly one trillion dollars for war.

And in a point of personal privilege right now I echo what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "A time comes when silence is betrayal; we are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation, for those it calls 'enemy.'"

One year to the day before Dr. King was murdered, he declared that the greatest purveyor of violence in the world was his own country. With Israel's invasion of Lebanon, there might even be a call for more US or UN troops to be stationed in the Middle East, we--here tonight--say to our Commander-in-Chief: Sir, No Sir.

And so, before we engage in yet more war, I declare tonight that we stand with the families of our hurt soldiers and the hundreds of thousands of innocent hurt and dead Iraqis.

We stand with the homeless Vietnam and Gulf War veterans.

We stand with the Agent Orange victims and the 160,000 sick Gulf War veterans.

Dr. King told us that in order to stop the madness we would have to match actions with words. Mario Savio before that told us that we have to put our very bodies against the wheels and the gears and the levers of the machine and we have to say to those who own it, that they must stop it, or we will stop it.

President Kennedy warned us that "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."So let the word go out: we aren't going to tolerate any more stolen elections; we're watching you. And we want our leaders back--or we will become the leaders. And not only do we want our country back, we want our Party back.There *is* a growing force for peace in this country. And the peace movement that we are building is backed by millions of young people.

I wish the new representative for the 4th Congressional District well. A snake in the bush is easy to fight. But one already in the house becomes a problem!
posted by Stewart Francke at 8:45 AM