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January 4, 2012
Interview with Rocky Anderson; Justice Party Presidential Candidate
By Rob Kall
Rocky Anderson is running for president. His politics look like what progressives want, but he says that independents, Ron Paul supporters, and every one will like what he as to offer.
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Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson (born September 9, 1951) served two terms as the 33rd mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, between 2000 and 2008. He is the Executive Director of High Road for Human Rights. Prior to serving as Mayor, he practiced law for 21 years in Salt Lake City, during which time he was listed in Best Lawyers in America, was rated A-V (highest rating) by Martindale-Hubbell, served as Chair of the Utah State Bar Litigation Section and was Editor-in-Chief of, and a contributor to, Voir Dire legal journal.
As Mayor, Anderson rose to nationwide prominence as a champion of several national and international causes, including climate protection, immigration reform, restorative criminal justice, GLBT rights, and an end to the "war on drugs". Before and after the invasion by the U.S. of Iraq in 2003, Anderson was a leading opponent of the invasion and occupation of Iraq and related human rights abuses. Anderson was the only mayor of a major U.S. city who advocated for the impeachment of President George W. Bush, which he did in many venues throughout the United States.
Anderson's work and advocacy led to local, national, and international recognition in numerous spheres, including being named by Business Week as one of the top twenty activists in the world on climate change, serving on the Newsweek Global Environmental Leadership Advisory Board, and being recognised by the Human Rights Campaign as one of the top ten straight advocates in the United States for GLBT equality. He has also received numerous awards for his work, including the EPA Climate Protection Award, the Sierra Club Distinguished Service Award, the Respect the Earth Planet Defender Award, the National Association of Hispanic Publications Presidential Award, The Drug Policy Alliance Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award, the Progressive Democrats of America Spine Award, the League of United Latin American Citizens Profile in Courage Award, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee Patriot Award, the Code Pink (Salt Lake City) Pink Star honor, the Morehouse University Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award, and the World Leadership Award for environmental programs.
Formerly a member of the Democratic Party, Anderson expressed his disappointment with that Party in 2011, stating "(t)he Constitution has been eviscerated while Democrats have stood by with nary a whimper. It is a gutless, unprincipled party, bought and paid for by the same interests that buy and pay for the Republican Party."
more from Rocky's bio here.
He is a candidate for nomination of the Justice Party.
volunteers in TX, CO, CA, already on the ballot in MI
The American people have had it with reps and Dems. These two parties have engaged in such a culture of corruption.
Cites Jim Wallace's "wet fingered politicians" with their fingers in the air,
This is really about serving the interests of all the American people.
voterocky.org
justiceparty.org
LImiting contributions for each election cycle to $100.
Only Buddy Roemer has also agreed to something like this.
We can overcome the influence of corrupt money.
every opposition party was started at the grass roots and they were able to overcome the money that was in the system.
This really can be done if every one of us,
We want to see, eventually millions of people become part of this campaign.
Let us know that you're available to organize.
The justice party is looking for people to help get on the ballot.
We need to build this into a massive movement.
The republicans and dems have made it almost impossible for alternative parties to get on the ballot.
We can change it. This duopoly will not... the American people anymore.
You can either start or find a team in your area.
Once people hear our message, it doesn't matter whether they are democrats, repubicans greens, independents.
The system needs to be changed. I don't want to just be a player in this corrupt system.
How do you make the quantum leap. You make the quantum leap by getting people in power who won't perpetuate the system.
We need people who are going to provide the leadership.
We need to change the constitution. That's how you get around
Corporations are not people. I saw the sign, I loved it, it said "I'll believe corporations are people when they execute one in Texas."
Corporations can be sued if they do what's good for the people instead of what's good for profits.
The heart and soul of what people are has nothing to do with what corporations are. Corporations bear no resemblance to people and the idea that they are... that's just a call for plutocracy.
Mitt Romney-- nice guy face to face, but it's utterly immoral to say that corporations are people.
If we want to promote the public welfare, it's not about handing things off to corporations. It's about our govt doing what's in the public interest.
Elements of your campaign that will attract independents and conservatives?
We have an enormous interest to build upon the American dream, because it has been diminished dramatically. Need to balance the budget or have budget surplusses except in times of recession or emergencies and we should pay for war.
Need greater investment in education, innovation, research and development
make it a nation that is welcoming to immigrants. There's a brain drain, in terms of educatng people and then them going back.
We need to build up our economy and make it strong and sustainable over time. What has happened ove the past 10 years has been disastrous and has cut off a lot of opportunities.
When interest on national debt costs more than it costs to run 12 departments of our national government--
I'm as fiscally conservative a person as anyone will ever meet.
It amazes me that the Ronald Reagans and George Bushes who called themselves fiscal conservatives could drive up the nation debt.
I would not have folded, (like Obama) on the Bush tax cuts.
How will you approach Obama.
He has been the greatest disappointment in leadership following the greatest, most successful campaign ever run. What does he do-- disparages the rule of law, completely undermines it-- not doing anything about people who engaged in felonies, and now he signs a bill that gives him authority to have anyone in this country, basically kidnapped, no charges-- it is absolutely unamerican.
HIs healthcare plan is a disaster. Even if fully implemented t here will be 23 million without essential healthcare-- that means a lot of people are going to die.
Improved medicare for everybody-- everybody in, nobody out.
Rob: How about student loans? Ellen Brown has suggested that the Federal reserve could rescue students, like it rescued the banks, with trillions of dollars. It'll take a little more than a trillion to clear ALL the student debt.
Occupy Wall Street?
I am thrilled to see what's happening with the OWS movement.
When I was mayor, and saw " undercutting the core of our constitution, having a president who claimed to be entirely of above the law. like Nixon said, "When the president doesn't it isn't illegal" That's the definition of tyranny.
During the time I was saying, where are the people? Why aren't they out in the streets. That's what the occupy movement is now doing. They are saying "we've had enough."
We saw it with the anti slavery, women's rights, civil rights, the labor movement. There's a huge convergence between what the occupy movement is doing and what we're doing in this campaign. The way they're doing it is absolutely fantastic...
It seems that our leaders have either forgetter or betrayed the formula for long term American success for the American people.
What would you say to Ron Paul supporters---
he has provided the only alternative voice-- against any US intervention.
We provide a real alternative voice on the things that matter most to them, like our involvement of wars of aggression, taking on the policies of the FED-- not allowing these decisions to have so much impact on the American people--
We believe that government can be a real force for good--
I believe the civil rights act made a real difference.
We need leadership and reasonable government regulation when it comes to corporate environmental practices
Standing for a government that represents the interests of the public and
Marijuana laws-- substance abuse should be considered a matter of public health instead of making it a criminal justice matter" We saw the absurdity of prohibition in regards to alcohol.
Our drug interdiction policies are draconian.
It has become insane on this country, this so called war on drugs. We need to put a fraction of the resources we are spending now, on good drug education and prevention programs.
As mayor, killed the DARE program, because it was absolutely ineffective. We also need to provide treatment on demand. In this country, unless you're wealthy, the only way to get treatment is to be arrested and get a drug court program or go to prison.
I put into place a restorative justice program"
If people in this country knew about the benefits for everybody of restorative justice, they would get behind it.
Set up a court for mentally ill, for homeless, for drug offenders"
Costs to the criminal justice system plummeted. Instead of putting people in jail for $35,000 a year, keeping them working, paying taxes-- It makes all the difference in the world. I'm not talking about convicted murders and violent offenders"
I set up a citywide youth program-- to engage these kids-- arts, academic programs to keep them busy, engaged and uplifted-- If you invest in the front end in productive programs like that, the payoff is so enormous.. you know that there are enormous benefits to this sort of thing.
Immigrants?
Every child in this country who is capable should be able to get into a community college or local university.
Immigrants.
Immigrants are one of the greatest assets that our country ever had. I believe firmly in the rule of law, but also that there has been a conspiracy between the corporations and the federal government-- that we'll turn a blind eye towards jobs that are not filled by our native population. So now there are some 12-14 million who are not properly documented. Those who have been law abiding
We need a good jobs program, we've got to provide a means to stay here and continue with their productive lives and have a way to become citizens.
Most of them have great family values and ethics. We need to tap into them.
As to those with special talents, we need to do everything we can to attract t hem to our country and keep them here. We're losing our competitive edge.
Israel Palestine:
Instability in the middle east is putting every nation at risk. It really is intolerable. It is a reflection of a failure of leadership. We seem to finance ISrael and much of it's military regardless of what it does.
The influence of AIPAC has been very destructive in its influence on government.
I went to a breakfast and they asked people to stand up and commit to what AIPAC wants.
We need to recognize the i nterest that everybody has in a palestinian state, with secure borders.
Need to see that their own in
I don't think most of the Jewish population thinks that the AIPAC lobby or the influence it has in this country and on the middle east is good for"
With an administration committed to peace-- not weakness-- peace is strength--
A deal is reachable-- (on I/P) and that is going.
VP-- would have to presidential timber, one of accomplishment, somebody who not only says the right things during a campaign, but who has actually done them. I want to find a person of great accomplishment. someone who has shown their commitment. There are a lot of people"
I urge anyone to look at the wikipedia profile of my career.
Authors Bio:
Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.
Check out his platform at RobKall.com
He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity
He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com
more detailed bio:
Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.
Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel
Rob Kall/OpEdNews Bottom Up YouTube video channel
Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.
Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.
To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.
For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.
Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table
Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..
To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.
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His quotes are here
Rob's articles express his personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.
Join the conversation:
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and at Google Groups listserve Bottom-up Top-down conversation