We’ve been remiss in highlighting the smart work of comedian, activist and very smart social satirist Lee Camp here at The BRAD BLOG. He’s done some terrific stuff on Election Integrity, voter suppression and e-voting issues, here for example. Or just do yourself a favor and browse his full YouTube channel here.
So, as I’m still clawing my way out from under the weather this week, allow me to let Camp fill you in on what happened last night when Green Party Presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein and her running mate Cheri Honkala — who will be on 85% of the ballots in the U.S. this November, qualifying them for more than enough electorate votes to actually, ya know, win the Presidency — were arrested and then reportedly shackled to metal chairs for 8 hours thereafter, for little more than having the temerity to show up and try to gain entrance to the “official” Presidential Debate at Hofstra University in New York.
I’m more than happy to associate myself with Camp’s outrage…
Video of the arrest of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates, for “blocking traffic”, and the somewhat remarkable transcript of what was said during the first part of it, courtesy of Democracy Now!, follows below…
CHERI HONKALA: It shouldn’t just be whether or not you have billions of dollars that determine whether or not the American people can hear about your platform.
DR. JILL STEIN: Our Green campaign is on the ballot for 85 percent of voters. Eighty-five percent of voters deserve to know who their choices are in this election and what the real solutions are that can solve the desperate problems that we’re facing. The Commission on Presidential Debates makes a mockery of democracy by conducting this fake and contrived debate.
HOFSTRA OFFICIAL: Do you have credentials?
CHERI HONKALA: Yes, we do have credentials.
HOFSTRA OFFICIAL: Can I see?
CHERI HONKALA: We’ve been on the ballot in 85 percent of the country.
DR. JILL STEIN: Eighty-five percent of voters.
HOFSTRA OFFICIAL: This is an event. This is something that Hofstra has sponsored. It’s an event, an educational experience for our faculty, our students.
DR. JILL STEIN: Well, we think it’s more than that.
POLICE OFFICER 1: You’ve got to move out [inaudible] run over by a car.
POLICE OFFICER 2: If you could just slide over here.
POLICE OFFICER 3: Just slide over is all we need you to do, just for a minute while she makes [inaudible]
POLICE OFFICER 1: [inaudible] a little bit. You’re going to get run over.
POLICE OFFICER 2: You can stand here, just slide over.
POLICE OFFICER 1: Move in with the traffic cone.
POLICE OFFICER 3: While she makes her phone call [inaudible].
POLICE OFFICER 2: Just right over here.
POLICE OFFICER 3: Ma’am, please.
DR. JILL STEIN: Well, we’re here to stand our ground. We’re here to stand ground for the American people, who have been systematically locked out of these debates for decades by the Commission on Presidential Debates. We think that this commission is entirely illegitimate; that if—if democracy truly prevailed, there would be no such commission, that the debates would still be run by the League of Women Voters, that the debates would be open with the criteria that the League of Women Voters had always used, which was that if you have done the work to get on the ballot, if you are on the ballot and could actually win the Electoral College by being on the ballot in enough states, that you deserve to be in the election and you deserve to be heard; and that the American people actually deserve to hear choices which are not bought and paid for by multinational corporations and Wall Street.
POLICE OFFICER 4: Ladies and gentlemen, you are obstructing the vehicle of pedestrians and traffic. If you refuse to move, you are subject to arrest.
Remove them. Bring them back to arrest them, please.
Full transcript, including interview this morning with Stein describing what happened once she and Honkala were taken into custody and held for eight hours is here…
Also, see Allison Kilkenny’s report at The Nation for more on the arrest, and on Stein and her running mate.
I saw this before the debate even started. Kinda surprised it took this long to see a BB piece, you must be pretty damn busy..
Unfair, unAmerican, unDemocratic.
In the past the Green Party has struck me as too genteel. That can’t be said of Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala who have put themselves on the line for the proletariat and have gotten arrested twice, the last time for Fannie Mae’s broken promises on mortgage foreclosure.
You have to have a moral compass to grow a pair. Someone needs to point out North to Obama. Romney couldn’t find the North Star if you placed his little dipper in his hand.
WingnutSteve @ 1 said:
Actually, kinda sick here still, as mentioned in the article. That said… What? You knew even before the debate that the Green Party candidates would be shackled to chairs for 8 hours during and after it? That’s very impressive!
Wish you would have let me know, as I coulda had quite a scoop here!
Brad…don’t pull an Amy Goodman on us…WingnutSteve didn’t say anything about 8 hrs of chairbound….luv ya, dude…..
I didn’t know she was shackled to a chair but I read a news piece saying her and her running mate were arrested for disrupting traffic because they wouldn’t let her in the debate. Before you attack my comment I absolutely feel she should have been allowed to be there. I put no condition on that comment, I only know what I read so if she was really blocking traffic I’m not sure, fox news did not tell me to say that…..
Love this guy Lee Camp!!! This is a version of the kinda thing I was working on before I embarked on my full time Mom Squad duties. Hope I can get back to it and start putting up my two cents.
Thanks, Brad. Hope you’re feeling better soon.
She would have completely destroyed both of them in a debate.
I think everyone in the world, with the possible exception of a large percentage of American citizens, knows that US democracy is a farce.
“CHERI HONKALA: It shouldn’t just be whether or not you have billions of dollars that determine whether or not the American people can hear about your platform.
DR. JILL STEIN: Our Green campaign is on the ballot for 85 percent of voters. Eighty-five percent of voters deserve to know who their choices are in this election and what the real solutions are that can solve the desperate problems that we’re facing…”
I don’t condone what happened to them and believe they should have been included in debates, but I do have to say that the REAL problem for these candidates is contained in their words above. These candidates and their supporters have had 4 years (!) to organize and develop basic capacity by engaging with their communities, door to door and on the phone. They don’t need billions of dollars to do that, and yes, voters do deserve to know who their choices are in any election…so where have their campaigns been the past 4 years? Why haven’t I received a knock on the door or a phone call? This doesn’t require lots of money, just some determined organization by a few core supporters in each community–even just a few core supporters at the county level–across the country. Instead, alternative parties and candidates have been doing the same ineffective things for decades with the same ineffective results. They have to start accepting some of the blame instead of projecting all of it onto the 2 dominant parties. Learn how to organize and build capacity.