Tasini and NY1 hardly had anything to do with the debate being canceled but rather, it was the amount of dissent and protest that was being planned for the day by the Pace SDS chapter and others.

"
She is a woman of great influence. She, of all people, should have prevailed upon NY1 to invite Jonathan Tasini. "

are you for real?
she's the one telling them not to.

War cheerleader Hillary has an army of advance people who scope out all of her scheduled events. If there is the slightest chance of anti-war or other opposition to her at the event, then she cancels. She did this at the Working Families convention in Albany a few months back. Her excuse that time was mechanical problems with her jet transport. The real reason was a spirited debate on the floor of the convention over the WFP's endorsement of Hillary over anti-war candidate Tasini. The debate was almost suppressed, but enough emerged to cause the advance-men to run into the hallway of the Desmond hotel to urge the efficacy of jet-engine trouble. Hillary and the WFP leadership hacks had their love-fest and photo-op cancelled.

www.tasinifornewyork.org

Hawkins Criticizes NY1 for Refusing Tasini- Clinton Debate

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for US Senate, said today that NY1 News refusal to allow the anti-war challenger in the democratic party to debate the pro-war Hillary Clinton was "another shot in the kidneys to democracy in America."

"It seems that increasingly the only criteria applied to the media in determining which candidates to cover is money. Either a candidate must be personally wealthy like Bloomberg or Golisano or they must be willing to placate special interest campaign contributors. What is most amazing here is the media has provided immense coverage to long-shot challenger Tom Suozzi in his sputtering race in the democratic Gubernatorial primary but ignores Jonathan Tasini despite the fact that he is actually polling at higher levels," noted Hawkins. "And one just needs to look to our neighboring state of Connecticut to see what happens when the voters are told that an anti-war candidate is challenging a pro-war incumbent."

"The media only wants to cover horse races and celebrity gossip, dismissing discussion of issues like war, health care and campaign financing as irrelevant - except of course for their own posturing on their editorial pages. While the media often points out the failures of our political leadership, they seldom acknowledge their own pivotal role in suppressing democracy in our country," added Hawkins.

Hawkins said he supported legislation to mandate that ballot qualified candidates participate in a series of public debates as a condition for office. "When our country was first founded, participation in public debates was an integral part of the election process. Unfortunately, over the last two centuries, the rest of the world has improved on our democratic revolution while we have moved backwards, to the point that we are one of the less democratic countries among those that profess to have a democratic system of elections," added Hawkins.

Hawkins noted that Jessie Ventura became Governor of Minnesota primarily because both major parties concluded that he would harm their opponents more and allowed him in the debates - at a point that he was 8% in the polls. Each debate cycle allowed him to double his support until he won the election.

Yeah, I agree with Lauren. Us radicals scared Hillary away, not an anti-war democrat. PACE SDS was planning many actions with other ally groups. It is sad to give such credit to someone who wasn't part of those doing the on the ground leg work to kick her off campus or keep her from coming in the first place.

Jonathan Tasini should sue NY1 and the FCC for ownership of the station!

Yea, I just want to echo what both Brian and Lauren have said. I highly doubt Tasini had anything to do with the cacellation, but rather, it had to do with the coordinated protests that were going to take place inside and outside. The SDS-Pace chapter has a strict policy of making war mongers feel unwelcome.

Let us not forget (well it wasn't really publicized that much) that the last time Hillary spoke at Pace I, along with Lauren and another, got physically dragged off campus by the Secret Service(during the Dems "Fix it, Don't Nix it campaign). Then, throw in the time this past March when Lauren and Brian got removed and detained by the Secret Service for calling her hubby Bill a war criminal at our centenial event.

We have made it clear that we don't want, and wont tolerate, these people on our campus, and I think Pace (and Hillary) is finally starting to realize that we mean it. We were going to team up with various groups for this one. Thanks to you all that were going to help us unwelcome Hillary. Our job got done. We prevented her from spewing her bullshit.

I don't want this to seem like one big cheerleading piece for us at SDS-Pace and friends, but I just wanted to make sure that people realized what the real forces at work were here. Hillary was afraid of grassroots organizing and dissent. Not some politician.

The NYT had an editorial today criticizing Hillary for not debating Tasini. Not doing so was a serious strategic mistake on her part.

Then again, maybe "strategy" is too weak a word. This event may well mark the Liebermanization of the New York Primary, not that Tasini has even a chance of pulling a Lamont, but because Hillary is started to get framed as another arrogant member of the Senator's Club who thinks she can override the sentiments and wishes of her own constituents.

The next few weeks should be interesting. I'd say, if Tasini gets over 20% of the vote then Hillary's front-runner status is gone. A highly unlikely 30% to Tasini and she can kiss the White House good-bye.

Face it, friends, how often do you get a chance to have your vote count like that?

Spot on, Hoipolloi!

If Hillary, Inc. seizes control of both the White House and the Democratic Party, war-mongering and apartheid walls will become liberal chic.

This election is not about a Senate seat in 2006, but rather the Oval Office in 2008.

 http://www.petitiononline.com/sky3043/petition.html

... even if she doesn't seize, it won't matter one iota, because the decisions are made elsewhere.

You suffer from a bad case of the "chicken little syndrome." The down side of which, after a while no one takes you seriously.

Tassini sucks, you suck and thankfully, whatever happens, its going to be outside of his and your ability to do anything about it.

Now if you don't mind, you republicrats (liberal or otherwise) should all drop dead. You are part of the problem, not the solution.