The Washington snake pit and Cynthia McKinney

[dogday]

By Larry Chin
Online Journal Associate Editor
Apr 6, 2006, 21:48

There is no question that Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) is the target of persistent and ongoing efforts by both Republicans and Democrats to prevent her from doing her elected duties. One of the very few honorable representatives in a hopelessly corrupt and venal US government, McKinney---a longtime critic of covert operations and the CIA, US foreign policy, and the only member of Congress to address 9/11---has been singled out for intimidation, repeated police harassment (“security”), racial profiling, and a special brand of national mass media character assassination. And now, even the threat of jail.

McKinney gave a powerful defense in her original statement about the incident :

“I have served as a Member of Congress for more than 11 years. Throughout my tenure in Congress, I seem to evoke memory loss, especially from certain police officers who claim not to be able to recognize my face while I go to work everyday, representing the people of Georgia's 4th Congressional District . . .

“Why my face is continually unrecognizable can only be answered by these offending police officers. Capitol Hill Police are given face recognition instructions as a part of their official training. Capitol Hill Police are required to recognize, greet, and distinguish Members of Congress as a part of their official role and responsibilities. In fact, according to the US Capitol Police, their mission is to protect and support the Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities. The US Capitol Police mission statement makes no distinction about selective application of its mission depending upon whether a Member of Congress is black, woman, or has a new hairstyle.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_669.shtml

Apparently not everyone sees it the way the Media does

[Slit Skirt]

1. the repugs and media were only hoping

and wishing that this wouldn't go away....
did bushco know that the leak information was coming out and try and create a diversion?

[cali]

2. Oh, please.

"There is no question that Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) is the target of persistent and ongoing efforts by both Republicans and Democrats to prevent her from doing her elected duties."

This may be truth, but simply making an allegation without any evidence whatsoever, isn't going to convince too many people. In any case, even if she was targeted by the cop, her subsequent actions escalated the situation, particularly holding that first press conference.

So answer this: Is John Lewis, who reprimanded McKinney sharply, in on this plot to diminish her effectiveness as a Representative?

[MrBenchley]

4. I agree....

By the way, what legislation has McKinney gotten passed? If there's any, it's news to me.

[dogday]

5. I don't know about legislation

Kind of hard to get anything passed when you are a Democrat in Congress, however read the excerpt from the article about what she does...

One of the very few honorable representatives in a hopelessly corrupt and venal US government, McKinney---a longtime critic of covert operations and the CIA, US foreign policy, and the only member of Congress to address 9/11---

[MrBenchley]

8. Especially hard to do if you don't propose any

and spend most of your time being the town idiot...

"One of the very few honorable representatives"
If you consider being an antiSemitic loony honorable....I for one don't.

[dogday]

9. What did she say to lable her antiSemitic????

[MrBenchley]

10. You mean you don't know her history?

Maybe you ought to check it out before you start spouting off....

[dogday]

11. I know her history and I am not spouting, you are

You are posting with a definite anger here.. I want to know why you think she is racist, not why she is being labeled that way...

[MrBenchley]

12. So in other words, you want to deny her quite public bigotry

do it without me....

[dogday]

13. I ask you why you thought she was antiSemtic

is it that hard to tell me how you feel? You have been doing such a great job until now... It is a valid question..

[MrBenchley]

29. And the answer is, I know her dreary disgraceful history....

Which you want to pretend hasn't happened...or want to try to spin away, for whatever bizarre reason.

[Gabi Hayes]

31. why do you BOTHER with creatures like this? isn't it obvious

that he can't answer your legitimate question?

it obviously equates with taking any sort of anti Israel stance--read AIPAC/JINSA/PNAC connections as antisemitic--as being antisemitic

you waste your time with racist geebs that refuse to engage in any substantive manner

this thing has NEVER answered a direct question that I've seen; only come back with ever more febrile accusations

you're wasting your time

[MrBenchley]

34. Geeze, gabi, if you want to deny reality

and pretend McKinney hasn't paid kissy face with Louis Farrakhan, be my guest.

[Gabi Hayes]

36. you're making progress! great! all the way up to guilt by association!

what's next?

keep going

EDIT: speaking of which, here's a place at which you'd apparently feel right at home

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x877244

[MrBenchley]

38. Spin and spin...but McKinney's still an anti-Semitic loony

[Gabi Hayes]

42. blah blah blah...last time waster for a well trained EC

you have YET, in any of your posts here, or on any thread, contributed anything but nebulous, and VERY demeaning descriptions of a, uhm, democrat

why are you here?

you have the opportunity to make your points without sneering accusations, unlike those who are respectful of McKinney, yet disagree with her actions, both WRT her current situation, as well as her politics

yet you merely sling mud, with nothing to back up your nasty words

off with you!

[MrBenchley]

46. Spin and spin, but she's still an antiSemitic loony....

[rman]

16. Well, i heard she eats puppies for breakfast,

and babies for lunch.
And she killed my dog.


I don't need to add a tag to this do i?

[Slit Skirt]

21. that's it man...that's all I needed to know..send her to jail

I am so sorry about your dog....


the dickster shoots someone in the face and nothing happens
she "pokes or hits" the capitol police with her cell phone and we get a grand jury

if that isn't a crock of shit......... I don't know what is

[AtomicKitten]

37. CNN aired an interview with her father after she lost the election.

They asked him why he thought she lost. His response was, "Jews."

For whatever it's worth.

I don't know if that answers your question, but it might be a start.

I really don't know her history, I just wish she had stopped when asked at the security checkpoint. That sentiment in no way impugns her integrity as is alleged here if you don't subscribe to the notion that that was okay for her to do. IMO it's just common sense. And, worse, it got the Republicans cackling when the focus should be on their own abject corruption.

[dogday]

20. Cynthia's legislation

I'm proud of the legislation I've authored that really does seek to move our country forward.

For instance, the legislation to override the President's executive Order denying our troops their rightfully earned overtime pay. George Bush has asked our young men and women to make the ultimate sacrifice, but he doesn't want to pay them for it.

And the legislation I authored to stop the use of weapons with depleted uranium which seems to be causing health effects and abnormal births and even deaths among the troops of our allies and maybe even our own.

I'm proud of the bill to stop the importation of coltan into the United States, the source of so much pain and suffering in eastern Congo because it's a key ingredient in our computers, palm pilots, Sony Playstations, and Oneboxes that people are willing to kill to get their hands on it.

I'm proud that we extended the benefits for our veterans who are suffering from Agent Orange because those benefits were about to expire and I authored the legislation that was passed into law to help them. But I'm most proud of my work to hold this Administration accountable to the American people.

There's more if you would like to read

http://www.counterpunch.org/mckinney0918.html

[MrBenchley]

32. No, I already know what a pantload counterpunch is

[mom cat]

44. Thank you for countering slander with facts. The swiftboating of

Cynthia McKinney on DU absolutely astounds me.

[Freddie Stubbs]

17. She served during the 104th Congress (1993-1995) when Democrats

were in control of the House.

[Slit Skirt]

6. she called Rumsfeld on the carpet

I do not know about legislation....but since repugs have been in power we haven't gotten much passed anyway

but the interrogation of Rumsfeld was the real deal....she was asking questions that no one else would ask

she is definitely a target

maybe she handled it incorrectly...but you can't take other things away from her

and you are buying into what this administration wants you to buy into....discredit this truthseeker

[MrBenchley]

7. In other words, she hasn't gotten anything passed...

but she showboated....

"you can't take other things away from her"
If you mean that she's an antiSemitic loony who called Al Gore a racist, yeah, she's welcome to THAT.

[Slit Skirt]

14. what did she say that was anti-semetic

"she is a loony"....boy does that sound like a right wing talking point

showboated?
she asked serious questions about the war games going on about 9/11...and when Rumsfeld did not provide her with the info that he promised, she called him on the carpet again in a later hearing.

I guess if you are fighting for the truth and making waves...you are showboating
as with anybody, things are said that they regret..I can't defend her without knowing specifics...and I must go to work; however, look at Clinton, Gore, Kerry...all have said things that they have seriously regretted....

I want SOMEONE to ask the questions on 9/11 that NOBODY else has the courage to ask....and you see what bushco and repugs will do because of her tenacity

[dogday]

15. Since I have a Son fighting in the Iraq War......

I tend to like any Politician who calls for it's end or at least questions it's beginning...

[Slit Skirt]

18. I hope your son stays safe

god.......I hate so much all of this shit

[dogday]

22. I hate it Democrats are ragging on their own

especially one who speaks out against the wrong-doings of this administration...

[MrBenchley]

30. Spin and spin, she's still an antiSemitic loony....

"I guess if you are fighting for the truth and making waves..."
LOL! Is that why she punched a cop and called Al Gore a racist?

"and you see what bushco and repugs will do"
What they're doing is giggling and pointing at her, and trying to paint her as the mainstream of the Democratic party, instead of the fucked up fringe loony that she is.

[mirandapriestly]

35. a "loony"? I keep accidently logging into the wrong forum at the OTHER

end of the spectrum.

[The Stranger]

26. Then vote Republican -- they get plenty passed.

Although it is usually funding a war based on lies, torture, mass murder, or some new way to obliterate the environment, or the next big step to creating the United States of Jesus in America Under God.

[The Stranger]

27. Kick and recommend for greatest.

[mondo joe]

28. Yes, because those are the only choices - ineffective liberal or effective

conservative.

No other options to be had.

Right?

:eyes:

[MrBenchley]

40. Amazing, isn't it?

[Ian David]

3. Cynthia McKinney is being persecuted for being Christian

Cynthia McKinney should have just gotten drunk and shot the guy in the face.

They would have given her 16 hours to sober-up before the cops could talk to her, and then the whole thing would have gone away.

She could have said she thought he was a quail.

And then the cop would have apologized.

And she would be making jokes about it at the Grid Iron Club.

Almost as funny as, "Those WMDs have gotta be somewhere..."

Call today: Resolution commedning Dick Cheney's Secret Service Detail

I called Rep. Stephen Lynch to suggest a resolution to commend Dick Cheney's Secret Service detail for keeping local authorities from interviewing him for 16 hours after getting drunk and shooting a man in the face.

I suggest we all call our various Congress-critters and do the same:

Congress:

202-224-3121
888-818-6641
800-426-8073

[Freddie Stubbs]

19. I have no respcet for a woman who would say:

"Al Gore's Negro tolerance level has never been too high. I've never known him to have more than one black person around him at any given time."

Anyone who was paying half attention to that campaign would have noticed that Gore's campaign manager was Arican-American.

[ecstatic]

23. roflmao--but was she a token? nt

[Terran1212]

41. She hit at Gore?! That's like attacking Jesus!

Just a satire of what you guys are saying...

[napi21]

24. I guess it doesn't matter if this story stays alive on DU, but it's

a GOOD THING it's dying or dead in the media. The Pubs grabbed this and tried to run with it...using it as an excuse to dimish and hide their own problems! I think some old fashioned Dems just might have explained this to Cynthia and that's why we saw the appology yesterday.

The LAST thing the Dems need or want is to become the headline news story right now!

[dogday]

25. I was not trying to beat a dead horse by posting

It is just that there are so few positive pieces in the media, I wonder why??? Oh that's right this is the same media that swift-boated John Kerry.... Now I know....

[peaches2003]

45. Surprise

It was the Black Caucus who had a little meeting with her and told her to knock it off NOW!

[Gabi Hayes]

33. thanks for posting this, AND a huge kudos re: Online Journal.

they are a sadly unrecognized repository of some of the very best reporting anywhere

one great example is the groundbreaking work they did on the Scarborough connection to the mysterious death of Lori Klausutis

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:m9na1FjH4bkJ:www.onlinejournal.com/archive/09-20-01_George-Wright-printable.pdf+lori+scarborough+online+journal&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3

another great one on a TRUE international terrorist, set free by poppy at the behest of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and.....Jebby!

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:WMU6vJ07BA8J:www.onlinejournal.com/archive/03-01-01_Smith.pdf+Ileana+Ros-Lehtinen+online+journal&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

[Terran1212]

39. I've seen her speak twice; she is a PROUD rebel

She may or may not have messed up in this instance, but it certainly doesn't hurt her real years of service -- no matter what a sensationalist media or Washington Establishment says.

[Gabi Hayes]

43. did you see this?

how ironic...wonder how the antiMcKinney "loons" here will factor this into their psychological sets

will they accuse the TA of deserving everything he got?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x877433#top

[roody]

47. Cindy's the GREATEST!

XXOOXXOO