November 3, 2000
AS ELECTION NEARS, CANDIDATES TARGET WISCONSIN
With only two percent of the nation’s electoral college, the state of Wisconsin is hardly the place one would expect to find presidential candidates in the final days of the campaign. But with major states like California and Texas all but locked up by the major candidates, and with Green Party candidate Ralph Nader gaining strength, Midwestern and Pacific states may determine the election’s outcome. John Hamilton reports from Madison, Wisconsin.
GREEN UTAH?
The role of Nader voters in swing states has received a lot of attention recently, but what about states where the presidential race is a foregone conclusion? In Utah, the Greens are asking progressive voters: Why waste a vote on Al Gore when he doesn’t have a prayer of winning? Green Vice-Presidential nominee Winona LaDuke spent two days in Utah last week, telling voters that she’s driven by her convictions and that she’ll work just as hard for green priorities after election day. From Salt Lake City, Alan Naumann files this report.
MASSACHUSETTS VOTES ON UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
Across the country, voters will be deciding on a range of statewide ballot measures addressing an array of issues. In Massachusetts, Question 5 would mandate universal health care in the state by July of 2002. From Boston, Chuck Rosina has more.
GRANNY D. MARCHES ACROSS MISSOURI
Doris Haddock — better known as Granny D. — just finished another long walk aimed at getting big money out of elections. The 90-year-old great-grandmother, who crossed the U.S. on foot to garner support for campaign finance reform, recently completed a five-week walk across Missouri to drum up support for a ballot measure which would provide public funding for state candidates. She then headed to Oregon, where voters are considering a similar measure. Free Speech Radio News correspondent Renny McKay joined Granny D. for the last leg of her walk across Missouri and has this report.
KOSOVO: AFTER THE ELECTIONS
Kosovo has entered a new and critical phase after last weekend’s local elections which saw the LDK party, led by pacifist Ibrahim Rugova, clinch a convincing victory. Over 20 parties contested the polls which passed peacefully, to the surprise and relief of the international community and the Kosovar people. Independence has been the watchword, even if these were only local elections. In Serbia, the response to the vote has been cool. New Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has rejected the results of the election, which was boycotted by Kosovo’s Serbian minority. Kostunica says he’ll meet with Kosovar Albanian leader Rugova, but says any break from Serbia by the province would threaten regional stability. We have two reports, first from reporter Sputnik Kilambi in the provincial capital of Pristina, then from Jeremy Scahill in Belgrade.
FATHER OF ISRAELI WAR RESISTER SPEAKS OUT
Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres announced on Thursday that a cease-fire has been brokered in talks with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. But at the same time, the conflict in the streets intensified. In the Occupied Territories, six Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers were killed. And in Jerusalem, a car bomb killed two Israelis. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, brught to power on a pledge to continue the peace process, courts the Israeli right and blames the violence on Palestinian provocations. So where is the Israeli peace movement? Where are the Israeli voices speaking out against new settlements and the military occupation? Free Speech Radio News correspondent Paul DeRienzo spoke with Ron Kuzar, father of just such a resister. His son, Noam Kuzar, is a conscript in the Israeli Defense Forces who was sentenced to twenty-eight days in military prison for refusing to participate in military operations to repress Palestinian protests. Kuzar explains why his son is the only Israeli soldier to have taken such a step.
PACIFICA PROGRAMMER KICKED OFF HOUSTON STATION FOR PROTESTING
Last week, Free Speech Radio News reported on demonstrations held outside the five station of Pacifica Radio, the national’s largest and oldest progressive, listener-supported radio network. The demonstrations protested Pacifica management’s treatment of Amy Goodman, host of the network’s most popular show, Democracy Now! Goodman charges that, through a pattern of harassment and unreasonable work rules, management has tried to control the political content of Democracy Now! One of the participants was George Reiter, a physics professor at the University of Houston and volunteer programmer at Pacifica’s Houston station, KPFT. The day after the demonstration, Reiter received a call from KPFT Program Director Edmundo Resendez. According to Reiter, Resendez said that he and the rest of the KPFT staff had cancelled Reiter’s weekly show, Thresholds, saying that people inside the station shouldn’t participate in demonstrations outside the station.
