[Sosfbay-discuss] [GPCA-MediaComm] My Op-ED Posted on LA Times Web Site

[Bert]

Alex,

Here's the comment I posted...just in case LA Times decides against 
actually putting it onto the site...

"A Republic, if you can keep it", said Benjamin Franklin.  The sad truth 
is that we have returned to, not a monarchy based on birth, but a 
monarchy based on money.

And the press, between irrelevant info-tainment stories, is no longer 
covering the fact that the two-party system has become pro-money and 
pro-money-lite.  Government By, For, and Of "The People" has been 
replaced by by, for, and of who ever can afford it.

My favorite party? Green. The candle I light to avoid constantly cursing 
the darkness.

Bert Heuer



alexcathy at aol.com wrote:
> 
> 
> Dear
> Friends, 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> The Los
> Angeles Times has a feature they call "Blowback."  They will accept a 700-word op-ed article to
> be posted on their official web site. 
> It is not the same thing as an op-ed printed in the nespaper, of course
> (for that you have to a big shot with a Ph.D. repeating arguments and clichés
> everybody has heard a thousand times already). 
> Nevertheless, it is the Los Angeles Times, one of the half-dozen largest
> circulation newspapers in the United States.  
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> Almost
> every day, the Times publishes a hand-wringing article pleading for
> "reform" in City Hall, "reform" in Sacramento, or
> "reform" in Washington. 
> Accordingly, I crafted a little template that I've used to submit a
> Green op-ed several times.  Last week
> they ran a pathetic editorial pleading with California's Republican
> congressional delegation to support the reauthorization of SCHIP.  Of course, all but one of the GOP wingnuts
> voted to sustain Bush's veto.  
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> I guess
> that must have pissed somebody off at the LA Times because today I checked the
> web site and, blow me down, they posted the lastest version of my rant.  They even identified me as a
> "contributor to Green Commons, a site dedicated to "promoting the
> visibility and growth of the Green Party of the United States."  Funny thing is, I almost didn't check the
> web site today, since I happen to have my hands full babysitting two
> grandchildren alone this weekend.  See
> the text below.  Agree or disagree,
> please click on the LATimes web site at:
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
>  http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-walker22oct22,0,6131751.story?coll=la-promo-opinion.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> Leave a
> comment so they'll think I've kicked up a storm of controversy.  
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> Alex
> Walker 
> 
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>  
> 
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> http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oew-walker22oct22,0,6131751.story?coll=la-promo-opinion
> 
> 
> 
> From
> the Los Angeles Times
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> BLOWBACK
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> CALIFORNIA
> POLITICIANS CAN’T REFORM THEMSELVES
> 
> 
> 
> EDITORIALS
> ABOUT THE SCHIP VETO AND CITY HALL LOBBYING POINT TO THE NEED FOR
> 
> 
> 
> THIRD-PARTY
> REFORM
> 
> 
> 
> by Alex
> Walker
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> October
> 22, 2007
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> Thursday,
> the Los Angeles Times ran an editorial pleading for California Republicans to
> help save the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, vetoed by
> President Bush. The very next day, The Times had another of many editorials
> pleading for Los Angeles Democrats to reform themselves. While I agree, it is
> time to face the truth: In the context of our dysfunctional two-party system,
> these editorials are not worth the paper they are printed on because California
> Republicans and Democrats cannot reform themselves.
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> Edith
> Isabel Rodriguez died in May at King/Harbor Hospital after writhing in pain on
> the floor of the emergency room lobby for 45 minutes while staffers did
> nothing. Martin Luther King/Drew opened in Watts not long after the 1965 riots
> and had been a symbol of African American pride. In August, the hospital closed
> thanks to gross incompetence by the Los Angeles Democratic Party machine. Just
> days later, voters rewarded this incompetence by electing Democrat Laura
> Richardson in a special election to succeed Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald. In
> this gerrymandered one-party Democratic inner-city district, voters have been
> told over and over their only "choices" are Democrats and Republicans.
> Weekly newspapers like the Los Angeles Sentinel are to Dem hacks what Pravda
> was to the Communist Party in the USSR.
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> You say
> "voters should remember" if California Republicans don't act to save
> SCHIP. And then do what? In their gerrymandered one-party Republican suburban
> districts, voters have been told over and over that their only
> "choices" are Democrats and Republicans. Talk-radio and
> "conservative" blogs are to GOP hacks what Izvestia was to the
> Communist Party in the USSR.
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> And so,
> the likes of Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) can easily get away with
> pointing to King/Harbor and saying: "Do you want your healthcare to be run
> like that?" In the debate over SCHIP on the floor of the House, Republican
> Rep. Jerry Lewis of Redlands actually declared that "the real plan here is
> to set the stage for a movement of the next gigantic step in the direction of
> what should be called Hillarycare."
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> All
> politics is local.
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> Arguments
> over third parties are usually tied to Washington gossip and the perpetual
> White House beauty pageant, but the greatest need for alternative choices is in
> local one-party districts. Reform will only come from an independent,
> progressive and inclusive party, like the Green Party.
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> Greens
> are not "big government" Democrats. Greens favor decentralization and
> deep democracy - unlike Democrats who are busy awarding jobs, contracts and
> subsidies to cronies at midnight. Greens believe in nonviolence. Greens say
> keep kids from guns and gangs and mean it - without nods and winks to "our
> guns" and "our gangs." Greens accept no corporate contributions
> and reject "reforms" bankrolled by Wal-Mart and the chamber of
> commerce. Greens support trade unions but are not beholden to big unions that
> always endorse Democrats.
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> Green
> Party activists in both cities and suburbs are the key to redeeming the promise
> of American democracy.
> 
> 
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>  
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>  
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> 
> Alex
> Walker is a contributor to Green Commons, a site dedicated to "promoting
> the visibility and growth of the Green Party of the United States through
> independent commentary, organizing and networking." 
> 
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> 
> ________________________________________________________________________
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> 
> 
> 
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