Candidate for
Council Member; City of Santa Monica

I am running for Santa Monica City Council because I am fed up with the cronysm, corruption, incompetence and conflict of interest in municipal government, and how special interests determine policy by determining who gets elected. Voter apathy allows these interests to manipulate the electorate. It's a Catch 22 that politicians like myself, running a paperless and penniless campaign, can't get elected unless we sell out, which would defeat the purpose of why I am running.

My political is a mixture of many influences; Peace and Freedom, Green, Libertarian and Neo-Marxist Revisionist. Take the best and disregard the rest, avoiding dogmatic demagoguery in favor of rational pragmatism. Most humans are motivated by emotions of fear, hate and greed, and to a lesser extent by compassion, and a desire for peace, love and brotherhood.

The rise and fall of civilization is replete with a history of far more brutal empires than the present American hegemony. Americans perceive themselves as the guiding light of freedom and democracy; defenders of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Many feel we are misunderstood and envied by the rest of the world and that we hold the keys to world peace, along with the responsibility to make the world a better place. Others blame our government, the media and corporate greed for much of the ills of the world. They consider globalization as a plot to exploit the undeveloped countries in order to concentrate personal wealth among the elite.

In my opinion, none of this reflects the truth of the American character, which is too diverse and polarized to fit into stereotypical generalizations. Human beings have universal attributes, molded by survival instincts, culture and learned behaviors; conditioned by both nature and nurture. I do not believe that people can be defined in terms of national character. We are all influenced by the peculiarities of our variant social, economic, political, religious and cultural programming as well as by genetic predilections. Western civilization has diverged in numerous evolutionary patterns, which differentiate it from eastern philosophies, and other world views. As civilizations progress, interact and clash, there has been much overlap, creating contamination conflict and change. Some good, some evil...

The events leading up to, and then immediately following 9/11, altered the perception of how Americans are viewed by the international community, only to be skewed again, after the attack, by the unilateral actions of President Bush. I have mixed feelings of my nationality, critical of some aspects of our history and proud of others, but I reject praising the American character as an ideal prototype. Nevertheless, there have been far worse models that would replace our current world domination of trade and resources.

Since World War II our image abroad has become tarnished by the arms race. The so called cold war to contain communism and the invasion of Iraq. Conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, throughout Latin America, Africa, Asia and Europe, were all different venues of the Third World War.

Now we are engaged in a Fourth World War, against terrorism, which is a continuation of Jihad and the Crusades and may really be regarded as a trade war over resources, markets and cheap labor. Modernity versus a medieval resistance to change is also a factor.

American values can be described as opportunistic entrepreneurism, situational ethics, democratic, egalitarian and innovative. These are all part of the mix of what makes us unique. We are also reflections of the same Darwinian motivations that are an incentive for all humans. It is only our attempts to rise above our base nature that can mold us to be better than we can be.

The primary reason I am running for City Council is to present an alternate model for participatory democracy that is truly populist and creative. To implement an electronic town hall and restore government of the people, by the people and for the people, and out of the control of special interests

I have been advocating that the City Council allow an electronic interface to empower voters, and level the playing field for grass roots candidates to run for office, without being compromised by special interests. The techonology is in place to create a Virtual Town Hall on the city website to hold public officials accountable and implement transparency in government.