Le Café Politique De Camus De Café: Clearly Dennis Kucinich Is An Embarrassment To The Democratic Party Because: This Is How A Democrat Should Act.

Clearly Dennis Kucinich Is An Embarrassment To The Democratic Party Because: This Is How A Democrat Should Act.

A Special Singular DIOGENES AWARD! Dennis Kucinich:

Voted YES on keeping moratorium on drilling for oil offshore.
Voted YES on investigating Bush impeachment for lying about Iraq.
Voted YES on redeploying US troops out of Iraq starting in 90 days.

Voted NO on declaring Iraq part of War on Terror with no exit date.
Voted NO on authorizing military force in Iraq.
Voted NO on passage of the Bush Administration national energy policy.

Voted YES on raising CAFE standards; incentives for alternative fuels.

Voted YES on prohibiting oil drilling & development in ANWR.
Voted YES on starting implementation of Kyoto Protocol.
Voted YES on assisting workers who lose jobs due to globalization.

Voted YES on requiring lobbyist disclosure of bundled donations.
Voted YES on protecting whistleblowers from employer recrimination.
Voted YES on giving mental health full equity with physical health.

Voted NO on denying non-emergency treatment for lack of Medicare co-pay.
Voted NO on limiting medical malpractice lawsuits to $250,000 damages.
Voted YES on allowing reimportation of prescription drugs.

Voted YES on paying for AMT relief by closing offshore business loopholes.
Voted YES on providing tax relief and simplification.
Voted NO on making the Bush tax cuts permanent.

Voted NO on Tax cut package of $958 B over 10 years.
Voted NO on allowing electronic surveillance without a warrant.
Voted NO on continuing intelligence gathering without civil oversight.

Voted NO on continuing military recruitment on college campuses.
Voted NO on building a fence along the Mexican border.
Voted YES on establishing “network neutrality” (non-tiered Internet).

Voted YES on restricting employer interference in union organizing.
Voted YES on increasing minimum wage to $7.25.
Voted YES on strengthening the Social Security Lockbox

Voted NO on treating religious organizations equally for tax breaks.
Voted YES on $84 million in grants for Black and Hispanic colleges.
Voted YES on allowing stockholder voting on executive compensation: To amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to provide shareholders with an advisory vote on executive compensation.

Kucinich co-sponsored re-introducing the Equal Rights Amendment
Kucinich co-sponsored reinforcing anti-discrimination and equal-pay requirements
Kucinich co-sponsored for emergency contraception for rape victims

Kucinich co-sponsored ensuring access to and funding for contraception
Kucinich co-sponsored a Constitutional Amendment: Constitutional Amendment for equal rights by gender.
Kucinich co-sponsored reinforcing anti-discrimination and equal-pay requirements

Kucinich co-sponsored requiring Code of Conduct for US corporations abroad
Kucinich co-sponsored a bill limiting capital punishmentKucinich co-sponsored the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act
Kucinich co-sponsored the Innocence Protection Act: To reduce the risk that innocent persons may be executed.

Kucinich co-sponsored allowing rehabilitated drug convicts get student loans
Kucinich co-sponsored the National Improvement in Mathematics and Science Teaching Act: To improve the quality and scope of science and mathematics education.
Kucinich co-sponsored for health impact assessments for environmental health

Kucinich co-sponsored strengthening prohibitions against animal fighting
Kucinich co-sponsored a bill weakening the requirements on voluntary prayer
Kucinich co-sponsored establishing greenhouse gas tradeable allowances

Kucinich co-sponsored prohibiting commercial logging on Federal public lands
Kucinich co-sponsored allowing Americans to travel to Cuba
Kucinich co-sponsored acknowledging the Armenian Genocide of the early 1900s

Kucinich co-sponsored the Birth Defects Prevention Act
Kucinich co-sponsored the MX Missile Stand-Down Act: To take the 50 Peacekeeper (MX) missiles off of high-alert status.
Kucinich co-sponsored the Landmine Elimination and Victim Assistance Act

Kucinich co-sponsored requiring text on TV for visually-impaired viewers
Kucinich co-sponsored overturning FCC approval of media consolidation
Kucinich co-sponsored requiring full disclosure of outsourced employees

Kucinich co-sponsored allowing an Air Traffic Controller’s Union
Kucinich co-sponsored extending unemployment compensation during recession
Kucinich co-sponsored changing Social Security disproportionately affect women

Kucinich sponsored impeaching Dick Cheney for lying about Iraq
Kucinich co-sponsored providing benefits to domestic partners of Federal employees
Kucinich co-sponsored recognizing Juneteenth as historical end of slavery

On November 1, 2007, Congressman Kucinich reintroduced legislation to ensure all children ages 3-5 years-old will have access to quality early education programs. The Universal Prekindergarten Act, HR 4060, would ensure that all children ages 3-5 have access to high-quality, full-day, full-calendar year prekindergarten education. It would provide students with early educational opportunities to help lay the foundation for future academic success. Funded by both state and federal money, the services will be free-of-charge and completely voluntary for families who choose to participate. The bill will supplement existing federal and state prekindergarten programs, will provide for professional development of early childhood educators, and will increase salary levels in order to recruit and retain qualified staff..

Congressman Kucinich, a member of the Committee on Education and Labor and the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education, introduced the bill with 37 original cosponsors. He has sponsored universal prekindergarten legislation for over five years.

A less comprehensive prekindergarten bill, the Providing Resources Early for Kids (PRE-K) Act, was marked up by the Committee on Education in June 2008. Congressman Kucinich won three amendments to that legislation which would pave the way for expansion of prekindergarten services. The first two amendments improved the bill’s definition of a “high-quality” prekindergarten program, while the third amendment created a more robust reporting requirement that would improve effectiveness and oversight.

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In November 2007, the Committee on Education and Labor, of which Congressman Kucinich is a member, took up the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007, which would reauthorize the Higher Education Act. Congressman Kucinich worked to include two key provisions in the Act. On August 14, 2008, President Bush signed the College Opportunity and Affordability Act into law.

Congressman Kucinich advocated for the inclusion of language from H.R. 3637, the Higher Education Sustainability Act, which would provide $50 million for colleges and universities to train future sustainability professionals. The money would be competitively awarded and would develop, implement and evaluate sustainability programs in higher education. The language was included in the final bill that was passed by the Committee and eventually signed into law.

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Also included in the College Opportunity and Affordability Act was the language from Congressman Kucinich’s own bill, H.R. 2707, to reauthorize the Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. This important legislation will re-authorize a competitive grant program administered by the Department of Education to research, display, interpret and collect artifacts relating to the history of the Underground Railroad.

The bill also passed the House unanimously as a stand alone bill on July 30, 2007.

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Congressman Kucinich received more than $600,000 in the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education FY08 Appropriations Bill for two different organizations in his district.

The Cuyahoga County Office of Early Childhood received more than $430,000 for a Universal Pre-Kindergarten program. The Cuyahoga County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) provides an extensive array of social service programs that promote the health, well being and safety of Cuyahoga County’s citizens. Recognizing the importance of the first five years of a child’s development, the BOCC established the Office of Early Childhood to administer Invest in Children (IIC), the County’s early childhood initiative. Since 1999, IIC has served 131,000 children, 75 percent of the population under age six. IIC is a comprehensive early learning system that offers a range of services from home visitation to the promotion of health and safety, to high-quality early care and education experiences.

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In October 1999, Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich visited Cleveland State University campus to meet with students who were denied financial aid due to the school’s financial aid system. Congressman Kucinich and his congressional staff helped to facilitate finding solutions for students with financial student aid problems and served as an intermediary with CSU administration officials. After a formal request was made by Congressman Kucinich for assistance, Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley deployed staff to CSU to help students. Secretary Riley also received from the Congressman a collection of e-mails, letters and a videotape which outline the students’ problems with the financial aid system at CSU. Congressman Kucinich is awaiting a report from the Inspector General on this situation.

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He worked with the Greater Cleveland Growth Association and Ohio State University to formulate a new federal program that would enable junior high and high school students to receive training in entrepreneurial skills. This legislation, originally the "Future Entrepreneurs of America Act" (H.R. 4175) was introduced in June 1998 with a bipartisan group of co-sponsors, including Congressman Steven LaTourette (R-Madison). It was later introduced as an amendment to HR 1995, the "Teacher Empowerment Act," and was passed. In the 107th Congress, he introduced the Future Entrepreneurs of America Act (HR 1617), to supply funds going directly to schools and local educational agencies to educate students. It also would establish of a National Clearinghouse for Teacher Entrepreneurship to encourage teacher interest and involvement in entrepreneurship education.

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Kucinich co-sponsored a Bill to open 2,500 Boys and Girls Clubs

Amends the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 to make grants to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) to establish and extend club facilities where needed, with particular emphasis on establishing clubs in and extending services to public housing projects and distressed areas. Redefines the term "distressed area" to include an Indian reservation with a population of high risk youth of sufficient size to warrant the establishment of a BGCA. Earmarks specified funds to provide a grant to BGCA for administrative, travel, and other costs associated with a national role-model speaking tour program.

Corresponding House bill is H.R.1753. Became Public Law No: 105-133.

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Rated 64% by the ACLU, indicating a mixed civil rights voting record.

Rated 100% by the HRC, indicating a pro-gay-rights stance.

Rated 94% by the NAACP, indicating a pro-affirmative-action stance.

Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record.

Rated 80% by CURE, indicating pro-rehabilitation crime votes.

Rated +10 by NORML, indicating a pro-drug-reform stance.

Rated 90% by the NEA, indicating pro-public education votes.

Rated 100% by the CAF, indicating support for energy independence.

Rated 100% on Humane Society Scorecard on animal protection

Rated 85% by the LCV, indicating pro-environment votes.

Rated 100% by APHA, indicating a pro-public health record.

Rated 100% by SANE, indicating a pro-peace voting record.

Rated 100% by the AFL-CIO, indicating a pro-union voting record.

Rated 92% by the AU, indicating support of church-state separation.

Rated 100% by the ARA, indicating a pro-senior voting record.

Rated 100% by the CTJ, indicating support of progressive taxation.

THE DIOGENES AWARD

In Search Of Honest Men and Women In Politics, The Media Or Advocacy!

Diogenes of Sinope (Greek: Διογένης ὁ Σινωπεύς Diogenes ho Sinopeus), also known as Diogenes the Cynic was a Greek philosopher, born in Sinope (modern day Sinop, Turkey) about 412 BC (according to other sources 404 BC),^[1] and died in 323 BC,^[2] at Corinth. Details of his life come in the form of anecdotes (chreia), especially from Diogenes Laërtius, in his book Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers.

Diogenes of Sinope was exiled from his native city and moved to Athens, where he is said to have become a disciple of Antisthenes, the former pupil of Socrates. Diogenes, a beggar who made his home in the streets of Athens, made a virtue of extreme poverty. He is said to have lived in a large tub, rather than a house, and to have walked through the streets carrying a lamp in the daytime, claiming to be looking for an honest man. He eventually settled in Corinth where he continued to pursue the Cynic ideal of self-sufficiency: a life which was natural and not dependent upon the luxuries of civilization. Believing that virtue was better revealed in action and not theory, his life was a relentless campaign to debunk the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt society.

Diogenes was born in the Greek colony of Sinope on the south coast of the Black Sea, either in 412 BC or 404 BC.^[1] Nothing is known about his early life except that his father Hicesias was a banker.^[3] It seems likely that Diogenes was also enrolled into the banking business aiding his father. At some point (and the details are confused) Hicesias and Diogenes became embroiled in a scandal involving the adulteration or defacement of the currency,^[4] and Diogenes was exiled from the city.^[5] This aspect of the story seems to be corroborated by archaeology: large numbers of defaced coins (smashed with a large chisel stamp) have been discovered at Sinope dating from the middle of the 4th century BC, and other coins of the time bear the name of Hicesias as the official who minted them.^[6] The reasons for the defacement of the coinage are unclear, although Sinope was being disputed between pro-Persian and pro-Greek factions in the 4th century, and there may have been political rather than financial motives behind the act.

According to one story,^[5] Diogenes went to the Oracle at Delphi to ask for its advice, and was told that he should "deface the currency," and Diogenes, realizing that the oracle meant that he should deface the political currency rather than actual coins, travelled to Athens and made it his life's goal to deface established customs and values.

In his new home, Athens, Diogenes' mission became the metaphorical adulterating/defacing of the "coinage" of custom. Custom, he alleged, was the false coin of human morality. Instead of being troubled by what is really evil, people make a big fuss over what is merely conventionally evil. This distinction between nature ("physis") and custom ("nomos") is a favorite theme of ancient Greek philosophy, and one that Plato takes up in The Republic, in the legend of the Ring of Gyges.^[7]

Diogenes is alleged to have gone to Athens with a slave named Manes who abandoned him shortly thereafter. With characteristic humour, Diogenes dismissed his ill fortune by saying, "If Manes can live without Diogenes, why not Diogenes without Manes?"^[8]Diogenes would be consistent in making fun of such a relation of extreme dependency. He would particularly find the master, who could do nothing for himself, contemptibly helpless. We are told he was attracted by the ascetic teaching of Antisthenes, a student of Socrates, who (according to Plato) had been present at his death.^[9] Diogenes became Antisthenes' pupil, despite the brutality with which he was initially received,^[10] and rapidly surpassed his master both in reputation and in the austerity of his life. Unlike the other citizens of Athens, he avoided earthly pleasures. This attitude was grounded in a great disdain for what he perceived as the folly, pretense, vanity, social climbing, self-deception, and artificiality of much human conduct.

The stories told of Diogenes illustrate the logical consistency of his character. He inured himself to the vicissitudes of weather by living in a tub belonging to the temple of Cybele.^[11] He destroyed the single wooden bowl he possessed on seeing a peasant boy drink from the hollow of his hands.^[12] He once masturbated in public, saying "If only I could soothe my hunger by rubbing my belly."^[13] He used to stroll about in full daylight with a lamp; when asked what he was doing, he would answer, "I am just looking for a human being."^[14] Diogenes looked for a human being but reputedly found nothing but rascals and scoundrels.^[15]

When Plato gave Socrates' definition of man as "featherless bipeds" and was much praised for the definition, Diogenes plucked a chicken and brought it into Plato's Academy, saying, "Behold! I've brought you a man." After this incident, "with broad flat nails" was added to Plato's definition.^[16]

‘Don’t you fear me?’

‘Are you a good or a bad man?’ Diogenes asked back.

‘Good.’ Alexander retorted.

‘Then I don’t see any re ason why I should fear you.’

The precise scope of the conversation is the demonstration ‘Don’t waste my time. If you must find reason to waste your words and efforts for nothing, find a reason better than wasting my time.’

During another interaction Alexander came to see him and asked him to pay tributes. Diogenes never bothered and simply asked him not to block the sunlight that he was enjoying. Alexander acknowledged his courage and said that if he were to be born someone else he would want to be Diogenes. His practice of ridiculing the world in an attempt to bring man face to face with his follies is highlighted by the most popular instance when he was roaming around the town in bright day light, with a lantern by his side. When asked what he was doing, he replied ‘I am looking for one honest man in town’. He is infamously known to defecate at market place, masturbate and spite people who wore the mask of status symbol and false honor. This was one man who did what he practiced and saw the things in the lights of man as an animal that didn’t need much to survive. He found better friends in dogs than another human being, because dogs like him, were not hypocrites. But where did such a practice come from? He could have easily found isolation somewhere in the forests to practice life the way he wanted to, instead of attempting to prove how unaware people were, but somehow the thought didn’t cross his mind. Perhaps a few more generations of practice could have led the followers to isolation, but the idea itself didn’t blend with the Western school of thought.

The Greek philosopher Diogenes was a homeless beggar who walked the streets of Athens with a lamp, looking for an honest man. As Wikipedia tells us, "Sympathizers considered him a devotee of reason and an exemplar of honesty. Detractors have said he was an obnoxious beggar and an offensive grouch. Believing that virtue was better revealed in action and not theory, his life was a relentless campaign to debunk the social values and institutions of what he saw as a corrupt society. This attitude was grounded in a great disdain for what he perceived as the folly, pretense, vanity, social climbing, self-deception, and artificiality of much human conduct. As he put it, instead of being troubled by what is really evil, people make a big fuss over what is merely conventionally evil. Diogenes is said to have urinated on some people who insulted him, defecated in the theatre, and pointed at people with his middle finger." No wonder they kicked him out of his home town, Sinope.

Well, we,(“the guy left”) haven't done any of that - yet. Besides, to quote Pete Stark, in those cases where people deserve it, "I wouldn't dignify you by peeing on your leg, it wouldn't be worth wasting the urine."

But as an acknowledgment that we should at least have been flipping some people the bird, but could not compete with the teabaggers in offensive opprobrium, I have decided to take the positive approach in addition, and have inaugurated THE DIOGENES AWARD, which will be presented to any honest person we find.

I am going to ask all of you to make nominations for this award! Simply send the name to ed.dickau@gmail.com or submit it/them as a comment and I will take it from there.

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