Ooh, ooh, are we supposed to guess who?

TONIGHT!

◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►

Larry King moderates the Free and Equal Foundation's Third Party Presidential debate!

◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►

This debate will allow voters to hear the policy positions of candidates from across the political spectrum who were shut out of the private debates by the Democratic-Republican alliance known as the Commision on Presidential Debates.

Debaters:
Jill Stein - Green Party
Rocky Anderson - Justice Party
Gary Johnson - Liberatarian Party
Virgil Goode - Constitution Party

◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►

“I think they deserve a voice,” King said of the third party candidates. “It’s obvious they’re not going to win, but in the Constitution it never says there’s a Democrat or a Republican Party. It never mentions a two-party system. We’ve had Federalist presidents, Whig presidents. … We’ve always had independent candidates. They deserve a voice and they haven’t had a voice in this campaign at all.”

“[...] they have a right to be heard, they have issues that should be brought up. For example, the war on drugs has never been mentioned in this campaign. That’s an important issue.”

◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►

Viewers can tune into the third party debate on Tuesday night at 8pm EST on C-SPAN, Al Jazeera English and Russia Today, and streamed online at Ora TV and on the Free & Equal debate site.

Coverage begins with a correspondent roundtable discussion with Thom Hartmann, Josh Tolley, and Ben Swann.

Make Your Progressive Vote Count for President
A strategic voting proposal from RootsAction:

Initiating signers of the following proposal include Daniel Ellsberg, Cornel West, Frances Fox Piven, Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon.

In swing states, progressives should make sure their voting -- for Obama/Biden -- helps to keep the right-wing Republicans from winning the White House.

In the nearly 40 non-swing states where our vote has no impact on Obama vs. Romney, voters can wisely send a message of protest to Obama and the Democratic Party leadership -- over policies like militarism, Wall Street coziness, abuse of civil liberties, expansion of nukes, fracking and drilling -- by voting for a genuinely progressive candidate such as Jill Stein of the Green Party.

@3, don't tell Matt in Denver or Catalina Del Ray that! They will shit themselves all over Slog.

I'm ill, have stuff going on at home tonight and awkward around Strangers, but I just put my ballot into the mail. Voter Party in spirit :)

Sorry, 3, but it matter is Obama wins the popular vote, and by how much—mandates and like that. You're still tossing your vote away if you vote third party.

Dear Third Parties,

Start running people for school boards, city council races, state rep, etc., and work your way up to the top spots and glamour races. This coming-out-of-the-woodwork-every-four-years shit doesn't make anyone want to take you seriously.

Sincerely,

Sane People

@7: Really? Are Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, Cornel West, Frances Fox Piven, Jeff Cohen, Norman Solomon and many other highly esteemed political strategists and activists "throwing their vote away" by voting for Jill Stein? Do you know better than they do, Mr. Savage?

Yes, the mandate that we give Obama in his second term matters.

Will we give him a mandate to continue his current rightward drift? Or will we give him a mandate to finally stand up for the American people and pursue our well-being over the interests of Wall Street?

In Washington, we can do the latter by showing how many of us support true progressive policies like those of Jill Stein and the Green Party.

The Democratic party can either self-correct, or lose our vote.

I won't get there until 8:00 or so. My daughter doesn't get off work until 7:00 and I am bringing her with me. So don't drink all the booze before we get there.

@8, Presidents go to the right during the second term. (Even FDR moved to the right)They don't move to the left and after the midterms they all become lame ducks.

And recent history has shown they are notoriously drug down in scandal the last couple of years, Iran-Contra (Reagan) Watergate (Nixon) Monica (Clinton though that was nothing but bullshit) and even Bushy had issues with Scooter Libby.

But don't worry, we'll find out what bullshit thing they go after Obama for in a few months.

Cato dear, leave me out of your sophomoric political fantasies, won't you? I've already said I don't care who you vote for. But I will not keep my yap shut to spare your feelings, nor will I be the villain in your personal melodrama.

I've actually been listening to "Democracy Now's" extended debate coverage, and find it very interesting. But my vote is my vote. Just as yours is yours.

@12, you do seem to go after Cato though much more than he has gone after you.

And scrolling through some of the comments if he has a comment up you tend to respond to him by name even if he hasn't said a word to you directly or indirectly.

Call me crazy, but you seem to be stalking Cato. But then it's really none of my business but I doubt I'm the only one who has noticed that trend.

@12, Oh, and you could just ignore him (or her). Just a suggestion.

Yes, Time Lord. You are indeed crazy. The last time I mentioned Cato by name was on October 16th - thirty three of my posts ago. Before that was October 6th - fifty of my posts ago. If I am a stalker, I am a very bad stalker.

(Now if you want to accuse me of stalking the troll, Guilty as charged)

And you might not have noticed, but I tend to reply to everyone by name. It's conversational, you know?

@15) Please say you're coming to the party tonight, Catalina.

◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►

It's a go! The Free and Equal Foundation Third Party Debate coverage is now live! (Also streaming here and here.)

The correspondent roundtable discussion is now underway.

Larry King will moderate the debate between Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson, Gary Johnson and Virgil Goode beginning at 6pm our time!

◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►◄●►

@18 - Fucking fuck, spambot, we know! Give it a fucking rest.

@19: I'm glad that you're aware of this debate. Obviously SLOG has done nothing to inform its readers of this event, so I consider it mission accomplished if a number of readers tune in to the debate who otherwise would have been completely unaware of it.

@18, you think this an alternative newspaper or something that cares about third parties?

Right now there's a great discussion in the roundtable on voting rules, and how they can be made more democratic.

They're referring us to http://www.fairvote.org/ for more info.

The candidates have taken their places, the debate is on!

@7 Dan, how is it that I always agree with you?

The first Free and Equal Elections Foundation Third Party Debate was truly a historic occasion.

I've posted a summary comment here.

At the end of this event, it was announced that viewers can now vote on their preferred candidates from tonight's debate, and the two winners of the instant runoff election will be invited to a second debate, to be held next Tuesday, on topics of international policy.

The entire Free and Equal Elections Foundation Third Party Debate can be viewed in full at Ora TV.

After you've watched the debate, be sure to rank the candidates by order of preference in Free and Equal's instant runoff poll to determine which two candidates will advance to the second debate, to take place next Tuesday, October 30th.

Just wait and listen to the people scream if Inslee deceives enough people to get elected -- "THIS DIP-STICK IS WORSE THAN GREGOIRE". Well, too bad. The idea is to wake up BEFORE election day.