by Eileen Fleming
Shortly after that day we call 9/11 I quit watching the News from the Mainstream Media because they were not asking my question and as if I can’t laugh it’s not my revolution, I get my TV News from Comedy Central.
It was on The Daily Show that I first learned of GOP candidate Governor Buddy Roemer. On September 26th I emailed my first Media Inquiry to his staff and on November 1, 2011, I wrote: Stephen Colbert and Presidential Candidate Buddy Roemer on OWS
On November 2, I received my second email from William Pierce, Director of Scheduling & Advance for Buddy Roemer
Ms. Fleming,
Thank you very much for your email. I do have to note that there are some errors on your part in your coverage of the situation. In September when you first emailed regarding your request to have a interview with the Governor, I emailed you in response asking what publication the interview would be with as well as the details of the interview and the dates and times that work best for you.
I replied:
I cannot locate the email you refer to, but what i did locate was your response on Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 9:10 AM:
Hi Eileen,
Are you looking for a comment from the Governor or are you looking for a interview?
I wrote back:
I responded back with my questions and then resent them two more times. I also always include my signature which states I write for: WeAreWideAwake.org Salem-news.com Arabisto.com and Veteranstoday.com
Pierce continued:
After suggesting a date that would work well for the Governor, I did not receive a response back from you. When you emailed again on October 13th, I informed you that the Governor was booked for the next week and would be traveling but could do a phone interview upon returning to New Hampshire.
I replied:
There was never a ‘date’ discussed with me and I never requested a phone conversation- but was always seeking a response to the questions I emailed and then hand delivered yesterday-but the print out was minus the links to further info for the Governor.
I cannot locate that email either, so maybe you have me mixed up with someone else?
Pierce concluded:
I did not receive any response to my offer for a interview via phone for Tuesday November 8th. The Governor did note however that he did speak with you in Lakeland yesterday and I do hope your questions were answered and that a interview will no longer be needed.
I responded:
My questions were NOT responded to at all!
My questions were not even raised and I only went public with the one that was raised regarding OWS.
I believe if the Gov. would stand up on the following issues it would open up a much needed dialogue in this nation and could break the presidential race wide open.
But of course I am talking about picking up ‘the third rail’ and so, I understand when politicians choose to remain mute on these issues.
Thank you for a reply regarding IF my questions will be responded to.
A week has now gone by with no reply from any of the Roemer staff who were also CC’d on the exchange and when I received an email from Chris Buck, NH State Director Buddy Roemer for President, seeking endorsements, I seized that opportunity to add him to my Nov. 6th email to William Pierce, Ryan Williams and Carlos Sierra the Campaign Manager: BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu’s FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker: 2005-2010
I would love to endorse Buddy for President, but until my questions responded to, I cannot. If the Governor is not going to respond, I will keep searching for a candidate I can work for and with and will publish my questions as an Open Letter to All presidential candidates. Thank you for a reply.
None has come and the other night Stephen ran his first Super PAC commercial featuring the presidential candidate which can be viewed at the end of this article.
In August I returned to my homeland- New York City and stood in the Stand By line for that evenings taping of The Colbert Report. I was 13th in line and only the first dozen made it through the doors but my message got through thanks to the Intern known as the “dashing roguish one.”
The aspiring playwright delivered to the Front Desk of The Colbert Report, my third book, my card stating Eileen Fleming for US House of Representatives 2012, photos of me with Helen Thomas, and the letters I received from Bibi, Peres, Obama and Biden’s Offices, acknowledging their copies of my third book and only fund raising vehicle in my run for congress:
That story here: Two degrees of Kevin Bacon and Message through The Door of The Colbert Report
What follows are the questions I emailed and hand delivered to Buddy which have become an Open Inquiry to All Presidential Candidates:
Dear Governor Roemer,
As a reporter turned candidate for US House of Representatives, I am hoping that your responses to the following questions might be the spark for a new dialogue in America and 2012 a year of real change. Thank you for your time and consideration.
1. Who is your favorite American Founding Father and why?
2. Who are the three Presidents you most admire and why?
3. Who is your favorite philosopher?
4. What is your favorite book and movie?
5. On Sept. 17th hundreds of protestors took it to the streets at Bowling Green Park in Manhattan, home of the charging bull in New York’s Financial District, to “take the bull by the horns.”
The diverse crowd shared one thing in common being “We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%,” as stated on the website Occupy Wall Street, where posts also compare the group’s efforts to those used in the pro-democracy movement known as the Arab Spring.
What is your message to these people?
6. You wrote your “campaign is about challenging the institutionally corrupt forces that are opposing real reform. I want to empower the average citizens on Main Street, not the well-paid lobbyists from Wall Street.”
What do you say about AIPAC?
Here is what I said:
IMAGINE Paine, Petty and Lennon Talking To Congress about AIPAC
Out of the Belly of AIPAC and Why I am too RED to be Pink!
Read More
7. As you wrote:
“Our government simply spends too much of your hard-earned money. Our national debt is not just a fiscal problem, but a moral problem as well.”
THANK YOU for that!
What do you say about the 22 September 2011, letter Representative Markey wrote to:
Dear Members of the Super Committee:
The Berlin Wall fell. The Soviet Union crumbled. The Cold War ended. Yet 20 years later, we continue to spend over $50 billion a year on the U.S. nuclear arsenal. This makes no sense. These funds are a drain on our budget and a disservice to the next generation of Americans. We are robbing the future to pay for the unneeded weapons of the past. Now is the time to stop fighting last century’s war. Now is the time to reset our priorities. Now is the time to invest in the people and the programs to get America back on track.
The Super Committee is best positioned to cut this outdated radioactive relic. The Soviets are long gone, yet the stockpiles remain. The bombs collect dust, yet the bills are with us to this day.
We call on the Super Committee to cut $20 billion a year, or $200 billion over the next ten years, from the U.S. nuclear weapons budget. This cut will enable us to stay safe without further straining our budget. This cut will improve our security. This cut will allow us to continue funding the national defense programs that matter most. Consider how this savings compares to vital programs on which Americans rely. We spend approximately $20 billion per year on Pell Grants to help students pay for college. We spend $5 billion to ensure that Americans do not freeze in their homes during the winter.
We need to freeze our nuclear weapons, and fuel our stalled economy.
The Ploughshares Fund estimates that the U.S. will spend over $700 billion on nuclear weapons and related programs over the next ten years. Nuclear weapons and missile defense alone will consume over $500 billion. We can no longer justify spending at these levels. We can save hundreds of billions of dollars by restructuring the U.S. nuclear program for the 21st century.
Our current arsenal totals over 5,000 nuclear warheads. This enormous stockpile will allow us to annihilate our enemies countless times.
At any one time there are 12 Trident submarines cruising the world’s seas. Each submarine carries 24 nuclear weapons. Each submarine is capable of destroying all of Russia’s and China’s major cities.
Why then do we need all of these weapons? There is no good reason. America no longer needs, and cannot afford, this massive firepower.
The Super Committee should not reduce funding to vital programs relied upon by millions of Americans.
Cut Minuteman missiles. Do not cut Medicare and Medicaid. Cut nuclear-armed B-52, B-1, and B-2 bombers. Do not cut Social Security. Invest in the future, don’t waste money on the past.
We do not need to maintain our current level of nuclear weapons to secure our country. The President agrees. The Senate agrees. The New START treaty will reduce our level of deployed strategic warheads to 1,550. This is a 25 percent cut from today’s levels. Fewer nuclear weapons should equal less funding.
We should not cut entitlement programs first. We should not target our seniors, our children, and our sick first. Instead we should target outdated and unnecessary nuclear weapons. Let’s freeze the nukes so we can fund the future. ###
If you were a House Rep. would you sign your name to the above?
8. What do you say about the 5 July 2010, Declaration of Independence from Nuclear Weapons [and yes I did help write it!]
The Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 indicted a government that engaged in barbaric conduct contrary to the laws of Humanity that included “works of death, destruction and tyranny unparalleled in the most barbaric ages” until the Age of Now!
Current Law requires an end to all planning, preparation, production, threat, or use of nuclear weapons…[we] demand this Government adhere to the fundamental rules and principles of Humanitarian Law.
These rules and principles require that civilians never be the object of attack. Consequently we must never use weapons that are incapable of distinguishing between civilians and military targets.
Whereas it is a basic human right to be free of threat or violence, and it is our duty to protect children and future generations we call on this government to use our tax dollars that are now being used to wage permanent war unequivocally demand they be used to pursue a nuclear free world and clean up all chemical and radioactive contamination.
[Learn More: The Y-12 Thirteen and Letters to the Honorable H. Bruce Guyton]
9. RE: Reforming Taxes
What is your opinion regarding the Flat Tax and the Fair Tax?
10. As you said, “We should redouble our efforts on nuclear non-proliferation, particularly in the Middle East.”
What do you say about Israel’s still uninspected WMD Facility and the ongoing misery of Israel’s Nuclear Whistle blower, Mordechai Vanunu who told me in 2005:
“Did you know that President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from building atomic weapons? In 1963, he forced Prime Minister Ben Guirion to admit the Dimona was not a textile plant, as the sign outside proclaimed, but a nuclear plant. The Prime Minister said, ‘The nuclear reactor is only for peace.’
“Kennedy insisted on an open internal inspection. He wrote letters demanding that Ben Guirion open up the Dimona for inspection.
“When Johnson became president, he made an agreement with Israel that two senators would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit, the Israelis would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963 to ’69, the senators came, but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest of the Dimona from them.
“Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the situation. As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986, there were over two hundred bombs. Today, they may have enough plutonium for ten bombs a year.”
PS: Vanunu expects to learn by Nov. 13th if Israel will honor its own law and revoke his citizenship:
11. You have called for the elimination of the Department of Energy and an acceleration in the approval process of pending permit so that America can become energy independent, reduce government spending and create jobs here at home.
What do you say about retooling America’s manufacturing plants that are currently making components for nuclear weapons into plants that will manufacture and research green energy sources?
12. RE: Repealing Obamacare
Agreed that the problem is cost and Big Government is not the solution and some features of health care are a “right” such as emergency care, immunizations, childhood illness, indigent/ disabled services; and others are a “privilege” such as 24/7 access to personal provider and periodic screenings, so would you agree that part of the solution would be to provide a safety net of basic services for all Americans?
13. In your Q+A you wrote:
RE: Abortion—I’m pro-life and always have been. I am also for protecting the life of the mother.
Do you agree or not that being pro-life should be about honoring ALL life?
Do you also uphold a woman’s right to choose whether or not to bring another life into the world?
As a Christian do you think God is in charge of everyone’s salvation?
14. Will you comment regarding the board of Oakland’s Museum of Children’s Art/MOCHA, abruptly canceled an exhibit of Palestinian children’s art that had been six months in the planning.
Background:
“A Child’s View in Gaza” featured drawings and paintings by Palestinian children who were living in Gaza during Israel’s three-week bombing and ground invasion that began Dec. 27, 2008.
Pro-Israel lobbying groups claimed that the Gaza exhibit was anti-Israel and fought to kill it. They asserted that children could not possibly have created the art.
A few facts:
In November 2006, Father Manuel, the parish priest at the Latin Church and school in Gaza warned the world:
“Gaza cannot sleep! The people are suffering unbelievably. They are hungry, thirsty, have no electricity or clean water. They are suffering constant bombardments and sonic booms from low flying aircraft. They need food: bread and water. Children and babies are hungry…people have no money to buy food. The price of food has doubled and tripled due to the situation. We cannot drink water from the ground here as it is salty and not hygienic. People must buy water to drink. They have no income, no opportunities to get food and water from outside and no opportunities to secure money inside of Gaza. They have no hope.
“Without electricity children are afraid. No light at night. No oil or candles…Thirsty children are crying, afraid and desperate…Many children have been violently thrown from their beds at night from the sonic booms. Many arms and legs have been broken. These planes fly low over Gaza and then reach the speed of sound. This shakes the ground and creates shock waves like an earthquake that causes people to be thrown from their bed. I, myself weigh 120 kilos and was almost thrown from my bed due to the shock wave produced by a low flying jet that made a sonic boom.
“Gaza cannot sleep…the cries of hungry children, the sullen faces of broken men and women who are just sitting in their hungry emptiness with no light, no hope, no love. These actions are War Crimes!”
On April 3, 2009 the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council commissioned a fact-finding mission “to investigate all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after.”
The Council appointed the Jewish Justice Richard Goldstone, a South African Constitutional Court judge and the former chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Justice Goldstone issued the 575-page report on September 29, 2009 and the Goldstone Report accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes perpetuated during the 22 days of assault on Gaza which began two days after last Christmas day, when the Israeli military launched Operation Cast Lead; a full-scale attack on Gaza that killed 13 Israelis and 1,400 Palestinians.
Over 5,000 Palestinians were injured, 400,000 were left without running water, 4,000 homes were destroyed, rendering tens of thousands who are still homeless because of Israel’s targeted attacks upon them, their schools, hospitals, streets, water wells, sewage system, farms, police stations and UN buildings.
The 22 days of Israel’s attack on the people of Gaza was enabled by US-supplied weapons and we the people of the US who pay taxes provide over $3 billion annually to Israel although Israel has consistently misused U.S. weapons in violation of America’s Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts.
America is the worlds largest arms supplier to Israel and under a Bush negotiated deal with Israel, we the people who pay taxes in America will also provide another $30 billion in military aid to Israel over the next decade.
During the 22 days of Israeli assault on Gaza, “Washington provided F-16 fighter planes, Apache helicopters, tactical missiles, and a wide array of munitions, including white phosphorus and DIME. The weapons required for the Israeli assault was decided upon in June 2008, and the transfer of 1,000 bunker-buster GPS-guided Small Diameter Guided Bomb Units 39 (GBU-39) were approved by Congress in September. The GBU 39 bombs were delivered to Israel in November (prior to any claims of Hamas cease fire violation!) for use in the initial air raids on Gaza. [1]
In a 71-page report released March 25, 2009, by Human Rights Watch, Israel’s repeated firing of US-made white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of Gaza was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes.
“Rain of Fire: Israel’s Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza,” provides eye witness accounts of the devastating effects that white phosphorus munitions had on civilians and civilian property in Gaza.
“Human Rights Watch researchers found spent shells, canister liners, and dozens of burnt felt wedges containing white phosphorus on city streets, apartment roofs, residential courtyards, and at a United Nations school in Gaza immediately after hostilities ended in January.
“Militaries officially use white phosphorus to obscure their operations on the ground by creating thick smoke. It has also been used as an incendiary weapon, though such use constitutes a war crime.
“In Gaza, the Israeli military didn’t just use white phosphorus in open areas as a screen for its troops,” said Fred Abrahams, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report. “It fired white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren’t in the area and safer smoke shells were available. As a result, civilians needlessly suffered and died.” [Ibid]
During the 22 days of attack on Gaza, the UN Security Council, Amnesty International, International Red Cross, and global voices of protest rose up and demanded a ceasefire, but both houses of Congress overwhelmingly endorsed resolutions to support a continuation of Israel’s so called “self defense.”
Thank you again for your time and consideration,
Eileen Fleming, Citizen of CONSCIENCE for House of Representatives 2012
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org Staff Member of Salem-news.com
A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com and Columnist for Veteranstoday.com
Producer “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”
Author of “Keep Hope Alive” and “Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory” and BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu’s FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker: 2005-2010
http://www.youtube.com/user/eileenfleming
In Solidarity YES WE CAN begin the world again.
1. http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/9-us-arms-used-for-war-crimes-in-gaza/
Buddy Roemer and Colbert SuperPac Message:
Eileen Fleming founded WeAreWideAwake.org. She produced videos “30 Minutes with Vanunu” and “13 Minutes with Vanunu”. She has authored many books including; A USS Liberty Remembrance of 50 years USA Government Cover-Up of Israel’s 8 June 1967 Attack on USA Spy-Ship, Wabi Sabi Body ETERNAL SPIRIT, and Heroes, Muses and the Saga of Mordechai Vanunu. Click here to see her latest books. Visit Eileen’s YouTube Channel
ATTENTION READERS
We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully InformedIn fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.
About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy
