One to grow on...

Richmond is headed into the last weekend before Election Day, and we at the Tazer wanted to give all of you something for your brains to chew on before making up your minds. Seriously, this is the FUTURE of Richmond we're talking about, and your vote IS important. We trust that the people of Richmond have the knowledge and wisdom to do what's right; Richmondites who visit Tazerville even more so.

You should be so aware, informed, and knowledgeable when you step into the voting booth that when you come back out, you can tell everyone you meet that YOU made the right decision. Nobody had to convince you, subject you to peer pressure, you had to guess, or you did it because it "felt" right. Your decision was active, conscious, and borne of a mental process that took into account every scrap of information you could feed it. We at the Tazer feel that supplying the knowledge that we can is our duty, that our opinions are secondary, and if you happen to agree, all the better.

Thus, we feel obligated to instruct the public about something that at least one candidate for Mayor is unwilling to discuss. At candidate forums where the party affiliation of Mayoral candidates is queried, Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin declines to state hers. We at the Tazer wonder why this is.

Incumbent Mayor Irma Anderson is a Democrat, and so is former Councilmember Gary Bell. The Democratic Party is the other of the two major political parties in the United States, the ones that nominated John Kerry for President in 2004, and Al Gore in 2000. Phil Angelides is their Gubernatorial candidate in California this year. George Miller, Loni Hancock, Don Perata, John Gioia, and Pete Stark are also Democrats.

Now, this may seem obvious and redundant to many of you, but bear with us. Some things are less obvious, such as why Candidate McLaughlin declines to state her party affiliation.

Gayle McLaughlin is a member of the Green Party.

We at the Tazer can't answer WHY she won't tell you this when you ask at a candidate forum, but we can tell you WHAT the Green Party is.

Though not officially organized in the United States until 1996, the Green Party's roots extend back to 1960's German environmental socialism and anti-capitalism. German Green Party founders Rudi Dutschke, Heinrich Boll, and Petra Kelly were all avowed Marxists, while more modern members of the party, such as Joschka Fischer, have had experience in labor-related and/or anti-nuclear Communist movements.

In turn, the German Green Party has its roots in German national socialism, aka Nazism. Richard Walther Darre, a leading "theorist" with the Nazis, promoted the preservation of "Blood & Soil" during World War 2. His book "Peasantry As Life-Source For The Nordic Race" advocated government-controlled land and resource management, and was an inspiration to SS and Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler. Although he was originally a PhD in agriculture, specializing in animal breeding, he extended his ideas on breeding into eugenics. As Director of Race and Settlement, his plan for "Race & Territory" led to the annihilation of millions of undesirable non-Germans. The underlying goal was protection of resources from undesirable groups of people through guardianship by the state.

Today, this link still exists, literally as Internet hyperlinks...

1) http://www.nazi.org
/community/links
/orgs

2) http://www.greens.org
/na.html
/elections

3) http://216.92.191.78/elections/candidates.php?candidateId=1984&electionId=&year=2006

4) http://www.gaylemclaughlin.net

In less than 6 degrees of separation, dots are connected from the remnants of national socialism...to the global Green Movement...to Green Parties of North America...to the Green Party of the United States...to Gayle McLaughlin, candidate for Mayor of the City of Richmond.

True, anyone can link to anything, but the basis of their common ideology is that they don't believe in the equality of understanding different people can have over a particular issue AND that this inequality must be addressed through government control.

We at the Tazer couldn't disagree more. We believe that these differences in understanding are the tools with which all solutions will be found. Through debate, compromise, and consensus in public forums, common goals will be accomplished. However, government itself cannot and should not mandate this agreement. It has to be sought and wanted, never forced.

So, when someone tells you that you have "freedom of choice," tell them they're wrong. Freedom IS choice!

From Tazerville to you, we have faith that you will use your choice wisely. Remember to vote on November 7th, and earn the Mayor you deserve.