Dennis “Firewall” Kucinich

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeThis is Part 6 of the series "I No Longer Fear The Kucinich Revolution." Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Looking at where we are at as a nation, we are in the same place with our domestic issues as where Cleveland was in 1977 when Dennis Kucinich was elected Mayor. When Kucinich took office, the city was out of control. The city was the leader of the newly emerging "Rust Belt." City corruption was rampant, especially with the city's police department. In essence, Kucinich took the most unwanted and thankless job in America because he had a vision of a better Cleveland, Ohio. During his tenure as Mayor, he began the long painful process of turning the city around and he risked his political career as well as his life to do so - to build a better Cleveland. Undoing decades of neglect, abuse and corruption cannot be completed overnight or in four years, but Kucinich's contribution to the city was to play the role of firewall or intervention counselor. He did his job so well, Republicans that had the job after him, praised his work as being visionary and the city would not be where it is today without his management of they city when it was in its darkest days. I would submit to you we need a firewall in the White House because the Virus In Chief is spreading out of control. Those who think they are throwing there vote away who also think Kucinich is the best for the job, well, that is just malware in the system.

Al Gore: Poll Teaser

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeBeing an Al Gore supporter is tough The high's, the low's, the empty liquor cabinet, it all starts to take its toll. Then yesterday Gore drops this bombshell: "I may re-enter politics at some point in the future because I'm only 59 years old," Gore told reporters on the sidelines of a forum in Singapore. Gore said he has "no plan" to run in the 2008 presidential election but aims to make the environment a focus of public discussion during the campaign. "There is no single candidate that is putting forward a comprehensive argument about the environment or making climate change a priority," Gore said. Heart be still! Who is the environmental candidate in this race? Mitt Romney has probably said more about the environment than anyone else and that is a sad state of affairs. We all know Gore has that as an issue and it is a vitally important one. But do we think he will sit on the sidelines for this? Will he let Hillary win the nomination knowing the Presidency will then probably go to a Republican? If that happens, it is another 4 years of the climate getting the shaft. As many scientists claim, 2013 may be too late to change course. If Gore is so passionate about the environment, will he allow his inaction lead to catastrophe? There is only ONE place for him to reenter politics and that is as President. A friend of mine yesterday had an interesting observation. If Gore gets in, he will be the target of three strong candidates: Hillary, Edwards and Obama. He doesn't believe Gore can win the nomination after getting beat down by three other contenders. Echoes of Howard Dean here I believe. Either way, I want Al Gore to run and by my calendar, he has about 60 days to do it. SPECIAL FAVOR SECTION Never let it be said liberals don't support the troops. During the first Gulf War, I began collecting books to send to my college friends serving in Saudi Arabia. I must have sent hundreds of books. When US troops got deployed to Iraq, I started doing it again but I knew the job was too big for one person to do it, so I set up Books For Soldiers, a 501 (c)(3) charity to send free books, dvds and video games to deployed US soldiers. But I wasn't that smart since I only thought the war would last 6 weeks tops in Iraq. What was I thinking? Now, FOUR years later, we are still shipping books. But today I need your help. There is a contest sponsored by VAJoe.com, they will contribute $2,000 to charitable military organizations next month in its Charity for Charities event. You can vote on your favorite charitable military organizations. The top four charitable organizations and a randomly selected organization will share $2,000 in donations from VAJoe. Books for Soldiers has been included in the event. The Alexa Traffic Rank for BooksForSoldiers.com is 242,975 and you would not believe our bandwidth bills! So these next few days, I am asking (begging actually) for your vote for Books For Soldiers. It won't take you 30 seconds to help a liberal out! CLICK HERE TO VOTE! A short, fast and easy site registration is required. P.S. Thank-you Michael Moore.

If you are a Gore Fan, Soprano fans feel your pain.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane & My Left Wing click to enlarge There is a whole groundswell of people who lean into the TV when Al Gore is on. Endless blog entries are made over the tiniest nuance of Gore's expression, body language and SWEET GOD ALMIGHTY - his actual words. But at the end of every show, every clip, every soundbite, every video on the Gore-strained YouTube server farm, we never hear "I am running." The bandwidth used on the nuanced "I have not ruled it out" is utterly amazing. There are only so many ways you can put it, yet the wordsmiths over at the Gore compound have written that phrase in such a way that it means more and more that he will run. At first it was the "I have no plans to run" and that has morphed into "I don't need a 500 day campaign." And that brings us to today's question, what, Al, do you need? What is Al Gore's decision tree? Is there a Hillary element? Of all the books I have read, there is not a lot of love shared between the Clinton and Gore household. Yes, Al and Bill had a kumbaya moment after 9-11, but that was Al and Bill, not Al and Hillary or Tipper and Hillary or Tipper and Bill. If Hillary looks to be poised to win the nomination, will Gore jump in to save We The People? Is there a GOP metric? Would Al be watching the contenders to see what he would face? Would sleepy-headed Fred Thompson (also from Tennessee) raise the ire of Al to push him to Iowa? Is there a "the world is cooking on high and no one is in the damn kitchen" meme that Al watches? No one else seems to be able to do anything about global warming in our current government and frankly, the current crop of 2008 candidates doesn't seem that worried about it. Yes, they all mostly have somewhat passionate position papers on the environment, with, IMO, Edwards on top, but no one that I have seen has Al's presence on the issue and it is a WEIGHTY issue. Is there a war switch? By the looks of our current Defeatocrat Congress, the troops aren't coming home until we get a new President. Will Gore get fed up with the sorry state of international affairs compared to the condition he and Bill left the world in 2000? Could it be as simple "screw this, I'm in?" There are probably a great many factors that would go into this. But my bet, our Larry King Moment won't come until October. Special Note: Today's strip has two new characters; Larry King and Al Gore.