Cynthia McKinney's Challenge to the War Parties

Former US Congresswoman from Georgia, Cynthia McKinney, holds up food packet and cluster bomb, both of which were being dropped on Afghanistan by the American military in late 2001.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

CYNTHIA MCKINNEY'S CHALLENGE TO "THE WAR PARTIES"...

Cynthia McKinney, who appears to be in the process of reversing an
earlier decision to forego a 2008 presidential bid on the Green Party
line, has in recent days taken a number of steps toward mounting an
anti-war run against the Democratic and Republican nominees next year.

The former Democratic congresswoman from Georgia has got a new website up --http:// www. runcynthiarun.org -- which seeks campaign contributions "so we can get on with the business of getting Cynthia on fifty-one ballots and reaching out to the voters of this nation who are ready for a Green alternative to the wars being waged both at home and abroad by the War Parties and their candidates."

And McKinney is celebrating the success of supporters in getting
her name placed on the ballot for the February 5 Green Party presidential primary in Illinois.

McKinney, who in a September 10 a letter to the steering committee of the Green Party of the United States indicated that she would not seek the party's presidential nomination, began to reconsider that decision almost immediately.

With steady encouragement from grassroots Greens, many of whom came to see the maverick House member as a political hero during her time in Washington, McKinney quit the Democratic Party in September and enrolled as a Green in October.

On October 22, McKinney supporters filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to establish an exploratory committee for a Green Party presidential bid.

McKinney is signaling that a formal declaration could come late in
November. But she's already making appearances around the country for local Green parties and their candidates -- including visits to South Carolina, Maine and New York before last Tuesday's elections. And she is certainly sounding like a candidate.

"We're going to have to do things we've never done before if we're to
have things we've never had before," she wrote in a thank-you to
Illinois supporters. "Democracy, authentic representation, human needs prioritized, universal access to health care, bringing our troops home, making peace with the world's nations, making peace with our home planet, making peace in our own communities, funding schools over jails...

Each of these alone is something we've never known before.
Anyone of them alone would be worth doing things we've never done
before. And all of them can be achieved when we get engaged and make democracy our own."