There's a truther radio ad getting significant play on WLW (50k watts) in Cincinnati ranting about "Bill Kristol's Jewish NeoCon conspiracy" that warns about another 9/11 to justify invasion of Iran. It's out there.

I agree this sort of pernicious thinking is perhaps more widespread than I would like to believe. I also believe that those who encounter Cris Ericson likely have to restrain themselves from making little circles next to their ears with their index fingers and saying "cuckoo, cuckoo." Perhaps that is the "talking down" to which she is referring.

The 5,000 or so Jewish people who live in Vermont (less than 1%) must really have their acts together to cobble together such a widespread conspiracy to discriminate against disabled people.

And for some reason she needs $500,000,000 from foreign investors to make her "Champ the Lake Champlaign Monster" Movie.

What's Cris Ericson doing in Vermont? She obviously belongs in Berkeley. In Berkeley she could even be a rabbi with her ideas and give sermons in Reform Temples. Yes you can hear something that outrageous from Berkeley rabbi.

It's strange the contrast between her position statements for representative and governor. Her first statement, while a bit out-there, is at least coherent, and no worse than certain other 3rd party statements.

Then, in her second statement, she goes off the deep end...

Looks to me like after she wrote her barely coherent Congressional statement, she lit up a doobie and got hit with some weed induced paranoia. Or maybe, there's some deep Zionist plot against marijuana?

Maybe there's no such thing as an unalloyed bad (if you smoke dope)--she, at the time of this posting, was the Marijuana Party's candidate, though she now calls herself an independent.

Why should we legalize marijuana?

Because marijuana is fun for adults; and adults need to have fun after a long, hard week at work. [Ed. week?!] Adults need to have fun when they are saddened by life's many adverse experiences that cause normal adults periods of great pain. We must demand our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

No word from her on how life's many adverse experiences affect adult folks who aren't normal, or maybe she really meant norml.

Christopher M;

Thanks for the link. I had no idea that "Believers will actually eat dung before they will ever measure their queer Godism for Cubic Creation Truth."

And the best part? The creators of this site a pro-choice!

I thought it was interesting that Peter Welch was nominated by both the Democrats and Republicans for the House of Representatives.

Is there any way to talk to these people? Are they capable of responding to rational argument?

Is she disabled? Did she exoerience something? and why link it to jews qua Jews.

Her religious explanation for anyone talking down to the disabled is completely faulty. For one thing most social workers etc aren't religious. It looks like a kind of pseudo intellectual anbti-semitism. I don't know where this is coming from but it is probably not coming from Cris Ericson herself. She had to get this from somewhere else. It would be interestibng to know where. The quotation from the Bible is accurate - and also ratehr out of context. She didn't find this herself.

he restriction in the Bible only had to do with Kohanim who did the service at the temple and the same rules also applied to the animals offered as sacrifices. The reason clearly would be so that the job would not become a job relegated to people who nobody would let do any other job.

The Kohanim whi did not do the Avodah had to be treated equally with all other Kohanim in all other respects.

As an interesting aside, during the Maccabean era, a loser would sometimes have his ears cut off - the least damaging permanent disability that dusqualified the Kohen from temple service (The rulers at that time were also Kohanim)

here is an interesting article about the situation today:

http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/spages/981923.html


The Mishnah (in Tractate Megillah) states that the physically handicapped cannot recite the priestly blessing in the synagogue. The Talmud's scholars add further categories to this list of prohibited individuals: "Rav Huna says: A person who cannot stop saliva from dribbling from his mouth cannot recite the priestly blessing."

Questioning this position, the Talmud noted that, in the very city where Rav Huna lived, there was a priest who could not control his saliva and yet who did recite the priestly blessing in the synagogue. Could Rav Huna then be classified under the rubric, "Do what I say, not what I do"? Answering the question with "That individual was a well-known figure in the city," the Talmud continues by citing a source that states that the habitual presence of physically handicapped individuals in society is the factor that can determine whether they can participate together with other priests in the recital of the priestly blessing or whether their physically flawed appearance might arouse a social problem.
------------------------

It hinges on the question of whether or not this person is viewed with respect, apparently. I wouldn't say a social problem. It's only whether or not it has the effect of lowering the esteem of what they are doing.

"That's gotta to be the perfectest example of bipartisanship ever."

It's been done before, even for higher office. Earl Warren won the 1946 Republican, Democratic, and Progressive primary elections for Governor of Californa. He obviously won the general election that year as well.

I wish MY sample ballot was this entertaining.

Hi -

Here is a link to Cris Ericson's website:

http://www.crisericson.com/

This link is via www.politics1.com, a very excellent resource for major and third party candidates. The owner, Ron Gunzberg, is a liberal/progressive Democrat in Florida, but his daily news roundup is pretty straightforward, and Ron himself is open about his biases so you can factor that in for yourself. There are links to all the major (and minor) parties, candidates, etc. at the federal and state levels. A wonderful site for political junkies, and especially idealists like me who often look for third parties.

I'm seriously wondering if the two statements were both written by the same person or whether one was written by someone else and submitted under her name. Or maybe she went off her medication in-between.

See. Told ya.

Matthew in Austin:
Cris Ericson is also on page 12, running for the legislature. I am surprised their isn't a rule against running for office in both the executive and legislative branches at the same time. I guess poor Cris will just have to choose one of the jobs to turn down in case she wins both!

Cris's page 12 statement is slightly less crazy. She comes out strongly for marijuana legalization. I support that as well, though typically with less upper-case. She also supports forcing prisoners to sell fertilizer. Seems like forced slave labor, but I am not that familiar with the civil war ammendments which ended slavery,

It wouldn't violate the 13th amendment as near as I can tell. Might well violate Vermont law.

was she anyone's paralegal?

Cris Ericson owns her own home in Chester, VT 05143;
and has her Bachelor of Arts Degree
from University of Massachusetts/Amherst Campus,
1976;
several Law credits from UCLA Adult Extension
in Workers' Rights &Industrial Relations, 1991;
and two home correspondence Paralegal certificates,
one in Corporate Law from P.C.D.I., Professional
Career Development Institute in Atlanta, Georgia, 1996.

Matthew:

The Thirteenth Amendment states:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

I've put the loophole in bold.

And oh yeah, how will a socialist ever get elected if they keep running against themselves? Please, no Obama jokes.

By the way, by our criticism and mockery, are we violating Chris Ericson's First Amendment rights?

Maybe we are!

Ridiculous, you say? Well, don't ask me. Ask a candidate for Vice-President:

Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama's associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate's free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.

"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."

So back of Chris, you speech-haters!

I thought it was interesting that Peter Welch was nominated by both the Democrats and Republicans for the House of Representatives.

This is not unheard of in Vermont. Charlie Smith was nominated by both parties for the Vermont House of Representatives in 1975 and served two terms, until 1978. (He also attended Harvard at the same time. The Vermont legislature at the time did not meet year round, so each year he spent one semester in the legislature and the other at Harvard.)

And oh yeah, how will a socialist ever get elected if they keep running against themselves? Please, no Obama jokes.

Bernie Sanders, now the junior Senator from Vermont, was originally associated with the Liberty Union party. He eventually left Liberty Union and ran as an independent but self-identified socialist for Mayor of Burlington. (In the context of Burlington, there were no banks to nationalize. Being a socialist mayor meant things like demanding that the housing inspector do his job and not let slum landlords off the hook.) He won, and he won again three times by increasing margins.

I thought it was interesting that Peter Welch was nominated by both the Democrats and Republicans for the House of Representatives.

He wasn't nominated by both parties... In VT there is no party registration, so on primary day you walk in to your local polling place and they hand you a ballot for each party, you go into the booth, choose one to fill out, bring them all back and put the one you chose to fill out in the ballot box, and the others in the trash... This means that anyone can vote in any primary...

This year, the republicans couldn't manage to find a single candidate to field for many offices, and since the Dems didn't have any real primary battles, lots of dems took Rep ballots and wrote in Welsh's name for congress... I can promise you that no real republican wrote in welsh for congress... But since there were more write-ins for Welsh on the republican ballot than for anyone else, he appears as both a r and a d... To the great embarrasment of the R's...

I wonder where her position would leave Sammy Davis, Jr. -- a handicapped, but rich, black man who was Jewish (I'd phrase it the way he famously did, but I wouldn't get through any reasonable filter).

As for running on a "different" party's ticket, most (all?)Democrats in Minnesota run on the DFL ticket.

Off subject, but having early voted in Texas, where even Bob Barr didn't make the ballot, shouldn't there be some sort of uniformity to permit voting for kooks like her if I wanted to, even as a protest vote? Write ins aren't the answer (and I'm not sure they are constitutional in a presidential election, since we are not voting for president, but for electors who we hope will vote for president as we would like them to -- one state I voted in years ago permitted write ins, but you had to come up with specific names of electors that you were writing in).

Am I the only one to be distressed that the candidates' middle names do not appear on the ballot? How could the RNC not push for this? Or did they and were not successful?

Paul B,

Madeline Kunin was actually born in Zurich.

While it is true that many of the better known Jewish figures from Vermont are immigrants to Vermont, Burlington has had a Jewish community since the Civil War. Ohavi Zedek synagogue was founded in 1885.

For a pothead, she spells very well.

Moore, La Riva, and Calero are all running for president on other states' ballots as well, although not many. La Riva is on in 12 states, Moore in 8, and Calero (or his stand-in) in 10.

(Calero has a stand-in candidate in some states because he is not a native-born U.S. citizen and ineligible for the presidency. Nevertheless, some states do allow him onto the ballot, either because the presidential ballot is actually a vote for the electors and not the candidates themselves, or because they didn't pay attention to Calero's citizenship.)

I don't think that Sanders or other left-wing candidates' success in Vermont is what prompted the socialist presidential candidates to run in that state. More likely it was the fact that only 1,000 signatures were needed to get on the ballot there. (Or, in Moore's case, just being the only candidate in the Liberty Union presidential primary.)

She is obviously suffering from a mental illness, and needs treatment

I agree. I think this thread is very, very funny, but I also realize the person is probably just ill, and ultimately needs compassion and treatment.

I think Ashley Todd is in the same category.

I believe the novelist Marion Zimmer Bradley once put the line "He who brays with his donkey will win no cases before the law courts," or something pretty close to that, in the mouth of one of her characters. It is good advice sometimes.