Kucinich protests absence from debate

"Kucinich, the only Democratic candidate who voted against the war in Iraq,"

stopped reading right there.

I hope Kucinich gets the court order allowing him to participate in tonight's debate.
The American public deserves to hear what he has to say. Many people lack cable TV, so this would be their first chance to hear his message. Is the US a Democracy or is this country run by corporations?

Matt, I'm surprised you were able to read that far, but I digress...

Anyways, Kucinich has input that's worth hearing (consider him the Alan Keyes of the left), even though he's infinitely-unelectable (ibid). However, he's going about this in a bizarre way. This isn't a legal matter--ABC is a subsidiary of a private corporation. If he can muster up unfavorable P.R. for them, though, then more power to him.

Once again, the corporate few dictate to the unwashed. Does anyone still really believe this is a democracy? We live in a country ruled by capitalist pigs (throwback term, but appropriate), the hogs that gobble at the trough, leaving nothing behind for sad little piglets.

ABC (owned by multi-national corporation Disney) unilaterally decides that some of the current Democratic Party candidates are not "viable" candidates based upon the results of caucuses in Iowa; a state where less than 1-in-10 citizens showed up to caucus. Thusly, based upon ABC's corporate opinion, some Democratic voices will be silenced tonight; not allowed by the corporation to be heard by the National electorate.

In the Republican debate however, Rudy Giuliani, who polled less than 3% in Iowa IS allowed to participate. Giuliani IS considered by ABC to be "viable" using the same Iowa caucus criterion by which they excluded Democrats?

You would think that ABC OWNS the broadcast air waves! They do not. WE THE PEOPLE own the broadcast air waves; they are only entrusted to the network media on loan. It is time for the FCC to review ABC's 'stewardship' of it's trust with our American Democracy.

Thats FASCIST pigs, and given how corporations want to believe they can railroad democracy and everything our country stands for, it's a perfectly descriptive term. It's almost too difficult to imagine how the FAT cats that sit behind their desks can stomach living in their own skin after a long day of screwing everybody else, I mean, it's all they do.

Let's hope karma exists and they end up choking on their boundless greed, heck lets be active about it and put them in jail.

Outragious!!! What a sham!... we are being force fed the top three ....unbelievable. I didnt even watch the debate because of this... makes me sick ... wow they really dont want us to hear the Kucinich message, makes me want to vote for him even more... this is a form of mind control....very unAmerican.

There is something we can do. Email and call ABC and let them know how you feel. I did and it sure felt good! www.abcnews.com then at the bottom, select contact us or find other emails and phone numbers and flood them with complaints!

The healthcare profiteers who buy billions of dollars of advertising time on ABC sure didn't want to see Kucinich cheered for wanting to put them out of business. ABC loves the revenue stream that goes from our health care premiums to the HMOs and pharmas to the coffers of ABC. Kucinich would remind the audience that the health care profiteers are making outrageous profits while 47 million Americans don't have any coverage and while those with insurance jump through hoops to receive care. He'd remind Massachusetts voters of our "universal" raw deal: universal access for the health insurers to tens of thousands of new premium payers. It's time to complain about this interference in campaign debates. I trust the League of Women Voters and C-Span to be the hosts.

Painter33: Unsurprisingly, yes, many people continue to believe what was never, ever true: that this is a democracy.

What it WAS, and no longer is, was a republic.

This may seem a trivial point of semantics, but it really is not. The words mean very different things, so to commonly conflate the two shows a profound ignorance of our history, not to mention a disturbing lack of awareness and critical thinking on the part of the public. How surprised should we be, then, that the public is so easily nudged in the direction the new masters want it to go?

Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain!

I think it's time for everyone to go back and watch "Bulworth" again. And "Brazil", while we're at it. Once they were merely funny. Now people may actually understand them.

Painter33: Unsurprisingly, yes, many people continue to believe what was never, ever true: that this is a democracy.

What it WAS, and no longer is, was a republic.

This may seem a trivial point of semantics, but it really is not. The words mean very different things, so to commonly conflate the two shows a profound ignorance of our history, not to mention a disturbing lack of awareness and critical thinking on the part of the public. How surprised should we be, then, that the public is so easily nudged in the direction the new masters want it to go?

Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain!

I think it's time for everyone to go back and watch "Bulworth" again. And "Brazil", while we're at it. Once they were merely funny. Now people may actually understand them.

Here's hoping that ABC and other major networks are not prejudiced against the U.S. House of Representatives in their news and debate coverage attitudes toward Democratic and Republican Reps. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Ron Paul of Texas. I can remember a time when members of the House were just as welcome on the Sunday talk shows as members of the U.S. Senate.

Having been a candidate for both houses of Congress in North Carolina, it was baffling to experience receiving a fair amount of local ABC affiliate news coverage as a candidate for the Senate in a Democratic Party primary only and then subsequently be virtually shut out from any news coverage at all as a Democratic Party nominee in a general election for the House of Representatives.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ought to weigh in as an advocate for a measure of fair news coverage and debate inclusion for members of "the People's House" just as present and former members of "the Great Deliberative Body" have been accorded.

And the Democratic Party nationally ought to realize why good Democratic presidential candidates have had such a difficult time carrrying the state of Ohio in recent campaigns: when you take a veteran Democratic congressman from Northeastern Ohio and exclude him or her from participation in candidate debates and other news coverage events, you're not only keeping a legitimate candidate out of the arena, you're also sending a strong signal to the voters of the more heavily Democratic sections of the state of the Buckeye State that they may as well agree to Republican representation in national political affairs for the time being.

(Indeed, following the 1960 election, President John F. Kennedy once mused at an appearance in Columbus that he wondered why he had not been able to carry Ohio. However, his opponent, Richard Nixon, had strong family connections to Ohio. In 2008, with all things otherwise being considered equal, Rep. Kucinich shouldn't be cut out of debates simply because he has been a successful Democratic congressional candidate from that state.)

The new Democratic governor of Ohio who took the initiative of campaigning for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in Iowa ought to speak up as well for the right of his home-state congressman, Dennis Kucinich, to be included in debates hosted by the major networks. Likewise, Republican members of the House who also are legitimate contenders for the GOP's presidential nomination are entitled to the same fair and proper consideration as well.

ABC may believe that it is just simpler and tidier to follow the presidential campaigns of members of the Senate, but just because the House has a greater number of members ought not to translate into network exclusion of those candidates from national news coverage and inclusion in presidential debates.

Here's hoping that ABC and other major networks are not prejudiced against the U.S. House of Representatives in their news and debate coverage attitudes toward Democratic and Republican Reps. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Ron Paul of Texas. I can remember a time when members of the House were just as welcome on the Sunday talk shows as members of the U.S. Senate.

Having been a candidate for both houses of Congress in North Carolina, it was baffling to experience receiving a fair amount of local ABC affiliate news coverage as a candidate for the Senate in a Democratic Party primary only and then subsequently be virtually shut out from any news coverage at all as a Democratic Party nominee in a general election for the House of Representatives.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ought to weigh in as an advocate for a measure of fair news coverage and debate inclusion for members of "the People's House" just as present and former members of "the Great Deliberative Body" have been accorded.

And the Democratic Party nationally ought to realize why good Democratic presidential candidates have had such a difficult time carrrying the state of Ohio in recent campaigns: when you take a veteran Democratic congressman from Northeastern Ohio and exclude him or her from participation in candidate debates and other news coverage events, you're not only keeping a legitimate candidate out of the arena, you're also sending a strong signal to the voters of the more heavily Democratic sections of the state of the Buckeye State that they may as well agree to Republican representation in national political affairs for the time being.

(Indeed, following the 1960 election, President John F. Kennedy once mused at an appearance in Columbus that he wondered why he had not been able to carry Ohio. However, his opponent, Richard Nixon, had strong family connections to Ohio. In 2008, with all things otherwise being considered equal, Rep. Kucinich shouldn't be cut out of debates simply because he has been a successful Democratic congressional candidate from that state.)

The new Democratic governor of Ohio who took the initiative of campaigning for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in Iowa ought to speak up as well for the right of his home-state congressman, Dennis Kucinich, to be included in debates hosted by the major networks. Likewise, Republican members of the House who also are legitimate contenders for the GOP's presidential nomination are entitled to the same fair and proper consideration as well.

ABC may believe that it is just simpler and tidier to follow the presidential campaigns of members of the Senate, but just because the House has a greater number of members ought not to translate into network exclusion of those candidates from national news coverage and inclusion in presidential debates.

Here's hoping that ABC and other major networks are not prejudiced against the U.S. House of Representatives in their news and debate coverage attitudes toward Democratic and Republican Reps. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Ron Paul of Texas. I can remember a time when members of the House were just as welcome on the Sunday talk shows as members of the U.S. Senate.

Having been a candidate for both houses of Congress in North Carolina, it was baffling to experience receiving a fair amount of local ABC affiliate news coverage as a candidate for the Senate in a Democratic Party primary only and then subsequently be virtually shut out from any news coverage at all as a Democratic Party nominee in a general election for the House of Representatives.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ought to weigh in as an advocate for a measure of fair news coverage and debate inclusion for members of "the People's House" just as present and former members of "the Great Deliberative Body" have been accorded.

And the Democratic Party nationally ought to realize why good Democratic presidential candidates have had such a difficult time carrrying the state of Ohio in recent campaigns: when you take a veteran Democratic congressman from Northeastern Ohio and exclude him or her from participation in candidate debates and other news coverage events, you're not only keeping a legitimate candidate out of the arena, you're also sending a strong signal to the voters of the more heavily Democratic sections of the state of the Buckeye State that they may as well agree to Republican representation in national political affairs for the time being.

(Indeed, following the 1960 election, President John F. Kennedy once mused at an appearance in Columbus that he wondered why he had not been able to carry Ohio. However, his opponent, Richard Nixon, had strong family connections to Ohio. In 2008, with all things otherwise being considered equal, Rep. Kucinich shouldn't be cut out of debates simply because he has been a successful Democratic congressional candidate from that state.)

The new Democratic governor of Ohio who took the initiative of campaigning for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in Iowa ought to speak up as well for the right of his home-state congressman, Dennis Kucinich, to be included in debates hosted by the major networks. Likewise, Republican members of the House who also are legitimate contenders for the GOP's presidential nomination are entitled to the same fair and proper consideration as well.

ABC may believe that it is just simpler and tidier to follow the presidential campaigns of members of the Senate, but just because the House has a greater number of members ought not to translate into network exclusion of those candidates from national news coverage and inclusion in presidential debates.