With Barack's overwhelming support in Illinois, there is no practical reason not to vote green. A vote for Cynthia here is not a vote for John McCain - this is a "safe state".

The Dem's standard bearer has just spent the last several weeks consciously spitting in the face of every base constituency they might have claimed to represent, from Lesbians and Gays ("faith-based funding"), to anti-corporate civil libertarians (FISA bill), to the peace movement ("re-evaluating" his position on Iraq after talking with the generals), to name just a few.

Not that his previous positions were anything to get excited about. Whatever you think about the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jr., his recent colorful comment was borne at least in part from frustration with an African American candidate who seems to think that racism is merely a matter of bad feelings, that institutionalized racism isn't embedded in every major American institution (including the Democratic Party), and that African Americans should just suck it up and lift themselves up by their bootstraps. 21st Century Booker T. Washingtonism is no more help than the last version.

Obama's supporters among the white liberal glitteri have until recently skated over their candidate's voting for every major Bush war funding bill, his threats to bomb Iran and invade Pakistan, etc. etc. As a result, Obama's taken this blank check written by his liberal friends and galloped to the right. Eminently predictable.

Until the Dem's feel some real pain for their PATRIOT Act-loving, Iran war resolution-supporting, FISA bill passing crap, they will continue to treat every progressive social movement in this country as their hobby toy and pander only to the right. We saw the same thing through the course of the Clinton administrations, which only paved the way for W and sh—.

Vote McKinney, safe state or not. Until we have a real 3rd party in this country, we'll just keep getting warmed over Clintonism, which was a disaster for every progressive movement.