On July 12, 2008, Green Party Presidential candidate, Cynthia McKinney acknowledged depleted Uranium, white phosphorus and cluster bombs in her acceptance speech. She said, "Those that delivered us into this mess can not be trusted to get us out of it."

McKinney addresses on her website that 'reports now surface that our soldiers are returning from Iraq and testing positive for depleted Uranium.' She sponsored legislation to end the use of all depleted Uranium weapons until their health effects are known. McKinney has reintroduced this bill in the 109th Congress.

McKinney made history when she became the first African American woman to represent Georgia in the United States House of Representatives. And as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the Green Party nominee has passed legislation to extend health benefits for Vietnam War veterans still suffering the health effects from exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.

Even still, the DU issue fails to be raised by either the Republican or Democratic Party, as well as the Bush Administration or DoD. Meanwhile, soldiers deployed to Iraq / Afghanistan are exposed to the invisible radiological airborne dust, that upon impact of the designated target extends its damage two-fold. The munitions second target, unknowingly, are the soldiers themselves, the after effects penetrating their mucous membranes and lungs. Essentially, those firing the munitions, and those in proximity of the blast are at risk. As a result an undisclosed population of those soldiers returning homebound -- are harboring aggressive cancers.

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McKinney was eager to discuss electoral politics in general. She pointed to Mexican presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who established a secondary government in Mexico City following his narrow defeat in 2006, as a model action compared to Al Gore’s and John Kerry’s concessions in 2000 and 2004.

She also cited the ascendancy of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and other leftist leaders in Latin America as evidence of the “power of the people” being heard at the voting booth.

“What’s the difference between us and that?” she asked. “The blue pill we’ve been asked to swallow.”

She blamed the mainstream media, in part, for distributing the pill, and for allegedly distorting events . . .

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It was historic that an African American woman, a six-times-elected former Congressperson from Georgia, and a Puerto Rican woman, a leader of the youth-based Hip Hop movement, were chosen as the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates of a party that will be on the ballot in 30-40 or more states, enough states to mathematically win the Presidency.

It was historic for the Green Party that it made this decision.

But most important of all, it was historic that a new, multi-racial, grassroots movement was born, or re-born, in Chicago. Though predominantly white, it is a movement with strong women of color playing central leadership roles and with an anti-racist consciousness on the part of many of its white local, state and national leaders. It is a multi-issue movement making the connections between racism, sexism, heterosexism, climate change, war, poverty, economic injustice, immigrant rights and other issues. And it is by no means solely electoral. One well-attended workshop discussed the plans of No War, No Warming for nonviolent direct action at the Republican Convention and a "no more stolen elections" campaign. This campaign will gather pledges of people prepared to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience if the fall of 2008 sees the kind of voter suppression and election machine chicanery that we saw in 2000 and 2004.

The timing for the McKinney nomination was fortuitous, happening just as mainstream news stories and commentators are reporting on and writing about Barack Obama's political right turn, his abandonment or softening of a number of liberal and progressive positions.

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Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente started the week with an appearance on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman.

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Professor Griff of the legendary rap group Public Enemy tells the world why he supports Green Party presidential ticket of Cynthia Mckinney/Rosa Clemente instead of Barack Obama. Don't miss part two below.

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There is nothing quaint or convenient about The Truth. In a nation ruled by the raw power of money, the Lords of Capital market their own versions of truth designed to make wrongs seem right, and criminality appear normal. The corporate casting couch supplies political actors to mouth attractive untruths as required by the imperatives of Capital. Some of these actors are extremely talented, compounding the dangers they present to society. At every opportunity, they stomp on truth as if it were vermin - and for each vanquished truth they are paid a bounty in parceled power and prestige. U.S. presidents are manufactured in this way.

Truth thus becomes a precious commodity in 21st Century America. At the Green Party podium, Cynthia McKinney reached back to the year 1851, when Black abolitionist Sojourner Truth asked a white crowd a rhetorical question for which only one answer was conceivable: "Ain't I a woman?" Having focused her audience on a simple truth, Sojourner proceeded to explicate the burning issues of the day: "Well children, where there is so much racket, there must be something out of kilter."

Truth is compelling, in any epoch. "In 2008, after two stolen Presidential elections and eight years of George W. Bush, and at least two years of Democratic Party complicity, the racket is about war crimes, torture, crimes against the peace; the racket is about crimes against the Constitution, crimes against the American people, and crimes against the global community," said Cynthia McKinney, relating well-known but relentlessly suppressed truths. "The racket is even about values that we thought were long settled as reasonable to pursue, like liberty and justice, and economic opportunity, for all. Yes, Sojourner, there's a lot out of kilter now, but these two women, Rosa and me, joined by all the men and women in this room, are going to do our best to turn this country right side up again."

The truth alone cannot set you free, but it will at least tell you what time it is.

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We must get out into our towns, cities, and municipalities of all kinds with one fundamental objective: Getting and putting the “Power To The People” Cynthia McKinney / Rosa Clemente Green Party ticket on the ballot in high numbers in every viable state of this nation, while simultaneously building and nurturing this people’s movement. Let us start voting right now by organizing to support Cynthia and Rosa in the streets, the back woods, the schools, on the reservations, in the barrios, ghettos, and every possible nook and cranny and community of this nation. WE ARE NOT COLLABORATORS AND WE WILL NOT COLLABORATE WITH THE EMPIRE IN OUR OWN OPPRESSION OR THAT OF OTHERS. Organize, organize, and organize some more!

We are the people and it is WE ourselves who are the essence of, and motivation for, real change. Let us call out to our sisters and brothers in Haiti, in Venezuela, in Bolivia, in Cuba, in Palestine, in Myanmar, in the Congo and throughout the entire world. Let us send them a message of comradely greetings and let them know that we are reawakening from slumber here in the belly of the Empire. We have seen their examples and are emulating them for the mutual betterment of all our peoples.

We must build coalitions that serve the interests of the people. We must pry open the systemic, strangling, amoral death grip that the Democrats and Republican Parties [i.e. the Republicrats] have around our proverbial necks and minds. We must work together with the Reconstruction Movement which began around the despicable U.S. Government criminality of both the Republicans and Democratic Parties re hurricane Katrina (and subsequently hurricane Rita). Being Green is just the beginning. We must keep in mind that there are also other progressive peoples out there in parties such as the Peace & Freedom Party, and we must work together with them to the mutual advantage of the people’s movement. We must remember that “no one of us is as smart or as strong as all of us.” We must remember our sister and brother political prisoners, liberation fighters, and exiles such as Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Reverend Edward Pinkney [no relation], the San Francisco 8, Assata Shakur and so very, very many more. We must remember why we are waging this struggle. This is about more than votes. This is about our very survival and that of Mother Earth - this planet.

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Controversy has always been Cynthia McKinney's trademark. This election season, she may have finally found her perfect political home. Last weekend, the 53-year-old former Georgia congresswoman clinched the Green Party's presidential nomination; 35-year-old hip-hop artist and activist Rosa Clemente will be her running mate.

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McKinney's goal: a full 5 percent of the vote. Checking in with her just before she won the nomination, NEWSWEEK's Katie Paul spoke with McKinney about her reasons for running and how her campaign might affect the election season.

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The Green Party has made a good deal of history this weekend.

The party has nominated a former member of Congress for the presidency, a coup for the party that itself has yet to elect a U.S. representative or senator.

The party has nominated a woman for president, no small matter in a year when Democrats have rejected an opportunity to crack the political glass ceiling.

The party has nominated an African-American for president, no small matter in a year when the Democrats have embraced Barack Obama.

And the former member of Congress, the woman and the person of color that the Green Party has nominated is a smart, articulate and outspoken public figure who – despite the fact that she has taken her hits from a media and a political class that never could get comfortable with the idea that a young black women was walking the corridors of power and making no apologies – is more than capable of standing her ground in a presidential race that so far has been longer on style than ideas.

Cynthia McKinney, a former Democrat who represented Georgia in the U.S. House during the administrations of Bill Clinton and George Bush and often sparred presidents of both big parties, easily secured the Green nomination Saturday at the party's convention in Chicago.

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Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente ask the Chicago Presidential Nominating Convention for the Green Party Nomination on Saturday, July 12th.

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Rosa Clemente, then Cynthia McKinney offer their acceptance speeches at the Chicago Presidential Nominating Convention on July 12th 2008.

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CHICAGO — Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney reassumed the national political stage Saturday, winning the presidential nomination of the Green Party of the United States at the party's national convention here.

Amid chants of "Paint The White House Green" and signs proclaiming, "Truth. McKinney 2008," McKinney revved up a crowd of about 350 Green Party delegates from 38 states who elected her on the first ballot.

"I am asking you to vote your conscience, vote your dreams, vote your future, vote Green," McKinney told the convention in a 30 minute speech following an address by her running mate, hip hop artist and political activist Rosa Clemente.

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Heading into the convention vote Saturday as the heavy favorite to win the presidential nomination for the Green Party of the United States, former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney on Thursday named her running mate — "hip-hop artist" Rosa Clemente.

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McKinney's campaign spokesman John Judge confirmed her choice of Clemente, who he described as a "hip-hop activist and journalist."

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In a prepared statement, Clemente said she accepted McKinney's invitation to be her running mate because she believes the former Georgia Congresswoman's platform addresses issues not addressed by Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

"I chose to do this, not for me, but for my generation, my community and my daughter," said Clemente, 35, in the statement. "I don't see the Green Party as an alternative, I see it as imperative."

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