Kucinich: Cities have been pushed aside

[rjones2818]

This was posted originally as a diary at DailyKos, www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/25/18059/7311, and cross-posted to my blog, www.rjones2818.blogspot.com. There is a YouTube in the diary, so you might want to check out one of the other sites if you wish to see it.

Begin Diary:

As we all should know, Dennis Kucinich is the only Democrat running for President who has also been a big city mayor. His tumutuous run as Mayor of Cleveland shined the national spotlight on Dennis at an early age, and has garnered both acolades and scorn from across the political spectrum.


So who among the Democrats is better equiped to speak to the needs of cities and their citizens?

"Addressing the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 24, Congressman AND Democratic President candidate AND former big-city mayor Dennis Kucinich tells the leaders of the nation's cities that federal policies are hurting them, their progress, and their residents. It's time. Kucinich said, to "make the cities the heart of America." Click www.usmayors.org/75thAnnualMeeting/video/videolink.asp?video=sunplenary13kucinich" to watch the video."

Dennis has a well thought out agenda to help cities, their citizens and the rest of the citizens of this country.

On the issue of economic justice:

"I see a newly rebuilt America. I see a new horizon where America provides a means to have massive public works to rebuild our cities, our water systems, our public transportation systems, our schools, our parks, our public energy systems. Nearly $150 billion is needed over 20 years to repair and provide for adequate wastewater treatment systems. Another $120 billion is needed for drinking water systems. We need a new financial mechanism to get money to cities and states to begin rebuilding and to put America back to work."
More www.kucinich.us/issues/economicjustice.php

"Out of Iraq and Back to the American City."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqyRK_j_EsI

On Jobs Programs/Infrastructre:

Putting America Back to Work IN America

"Our country is facing twin crises: high unemployment and a decrepit infrastructure. At the same time, millions of manufacturing and high-tech jobs are being shipped overseas. I have a plan that will turn our problems around and put Americans back to work in America."
More
www.kucinich.us/issues/jobs.php

On Small Business Growth:

"The United States must create a more level playing field for small businesses by reconstituting the trust-busting powers of the Justice Department and breaking up the monopolies that make competition next to impossible for small businesses in many industries. Repealing corporate trade agreements -- NAFTA and the WTO -- that currently give further advantages to large corporations at the expense of small businesses and local economies are central to this goal.
www.kucinich.us/issues/small_business_growth.php"

On Public Services:

"Where the private sector fails to provide jobs, the public sector has a moral responsibility to do so. People want work, not welfare. And while there ought to be welfare for those unable to work, there ought to be work for those who are able to work and who want to work. And there is enough work to do."
More www.kucinich.us/issues/public_services.php

On Outsourcing Jobs:

"The exodus of jobs from our shores and the "race to the bottom" for workers around the world is an obvious result of NAFTA and the WTO, both of which make it impossible to place taxes or tariffs on outsourced work. The search for countries where workers are unrepresented and environmental rules are lax must end. NAFTA, WTO, "Fast Track" legislation, and the Free Trade Area of the Americas must be rejected and replaced with Fair Trade policies in which bilateral trade agreements are negotiated to provide for living wages for workers and environmental safeguards. Canceling NAFTA and the WTO will enable the U.S. to protect high-tech jobs from outsourcing. This, plus careful monitoring of H-1B visa practices, will slow the tide of outsourcing."
www.kucinich.us/issues/outsourcing.php

On Workers' Rights:

"The hopes and dreams of the men and women who sent me to Congress are the stars by which I journey. Whenever there is an organizing campaign, a picket line to walk, jobs to save, working conditions to improve, laws to champion, I'm there. This is my purpose: To stand up and to speak out on behalf of those who have built this country and who want to rebuild this country. This is my passion: To raise up the rights of working people. Workers' rights are the key to protecting our democracy."
More www.kucinich.us/issues/rightsworkers.php

On The Environment:
"The EPA under the Bush Administration has stood for Every Polluter's Ally. The air and the water and the land are viewed by this administration as just another commodity to be used for private profit. We as a nation must turn our efforts towards the great work of restoring our air and our water and our land. We must view our natural resources as the common property of all humanity -- even more, as the commonwealth of all humanity. And so my candidacy arises from a philosophy of interdependence and interconnection, which respects the environment as a precondition for our survival."
More www.kucinich.us/issues/environment.php

On Health Care:

And then there's HR 676 www.thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:H.R.676, the Conyers/Kucinich bill for Universal Single Payer Not for Profit Health Insurance for all Americans.
More www.kucinich.us/issues/universalhealth.php.

As you can see, there is much that Dennis offers as candidate for the Presidency of the United States. If you think, as I do, that Dennis Kucinich is the best Democratic candidate for President, or if what you read of him intrigues you, visit his webpage at: www.kucinich.us.

[LWolf]

1. He is clearly head and shoulders above the rest.

He was in '04, he is now.

[mikelgb]

2. Kick

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Yay, Number 5 rec here

[NotGivingUp]

4. he's the only dem who's getting my vote. nt

[slipslidingaway]

5. Thanks for putting this together. Below is the transcript to the

video you posted above.

transcript link
http://kucinich.us/?q=node/1935

video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqyRK_j_EsI

"I'm here today to appeal to you. To say that we're losing our nation to a philosophy of war and destruction. And so it's time for policies of peace and construction. It's time for the philosophy of peace, nonviolence, and economic justice...

Now I'm not new to this issue. I led the effort in the House of Representatives in challenging the Bush Administration's march towards war in October of 2002. I organized 125 Democrats to vote against the war. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But we will spend, according to the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, close to two trillion for this war. No weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

But there are plenty of weapons of mass destruction here in the United States, which need to be removed. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction. Poor health care, John Conyers knows, is a weapon of mass destruction. Theft of pensions, a weapon of mass destruction. Hopeless, a weapon of mass destruction. Two trillion dollars for war. Imagine if those two trillion dollars, instead, had been redirected to helping to restore our cities. Let's deal with the WMD's in our cities. It's time to get out of Iraq, which did not have weapons of mass destruction, and into our American cities, which are loaded with those kinds of destructive social conditions.

This, then, is a call for the politics of unity, where human unity becomes an imperative. This is a call for the politics of economic justice, where wealth creation is available to everyone. Where the government becomes an engine to create wealth for all. Where it functions to equitably distribute the wealth.

We know the challenges. The war in Iraq is the product of the same type of thinking which underlies racism: "us vs. them." The minute that there is a "they" or a "them," it creates separation. Separation is the basis for discrimination. Separation is the basis for subjugation. Separation is the basis for insularity. Separation is the basis for conflict. Separation is the basis for class warfare. Separation is the basis for war. Separation is the basis for the destruction of our environment. Separation is the basis for the destruction of our planet."

[puebloknot]

6. K&R A great candidate for all reasons! nt

[Norrin Radd]

7. k + r

[petunia.here]

8. K&R

[goodhue]

9. This city dweller supports Dennis!