Source: Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada judge says Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich must be included in Tuesday’s candidates’ debate in Nevada.

Senior Clark County District Court Judge Charles Thompson says if Kucinich is excluded, he’ll issue an injunction stopping the televised debate.
The judge sided with a lawyer for the Ohio congressman, who says debate host MSNBC at first invited Kucinich to take part and then told him last week he couldn’t.

Read more: http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080114/NEWS19/80114039

---

The lawsuit is available at this link:

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/global/story.asp?s=7622444

GO DK its your birthday.

"That is certainly a strange question, and it's Americans like you asking these questions that make our democracy great. Now, about my anti-war stance." *talk about antiwar stance for time limit.*

If interrupted, immediately interrupt them and ask them to please not interrupt your answers, then thank them for their consideration.

"That's not..."

"Excuse me please, I would ask you _SIR_ to please not interrupt me, thanks for for not being rude."

they're saying what DK should tell the moderator when he/she asks him one of those bizarre questions they throw at candidates, and how DK should focus on the war despite whatever they ask.

Good answer, buckrogers!!!

be sure to put who is saying each sentence so people can follow your storyline.

I agree, that's what DK should do - it'd be awesome.

Welcome to DU, buckrogers1965.

EXECUTIVE experience Hillary!

DK rocks! :headbang:

:bounce:

either no questions or stupid ones.

dupe

I am sure they will soon find one. If not Russert/ Williams will really be out to get Kucinich.

:applause:

I am not arguing, I just can't keep up anymore. Do you have any links, or is it gut instinct?

about time I read something positive.

A fair judge in the US of A!

Yea for Dennis!

that Harry Reid missed one.

NOT!

I hope he totally slams Hill-bama

debates aren't the same without him!

You show 'em, Dennis!!!

Now let's hope the people running the debate let him answer some questions and put his two cents in so he can be HEARD!!!!

The judge can't make Brian Williams and Little Russ ask Dennis any questions. They can just stick him up on that stage and treat him like a potted plant.

that he has to be included and given a fair amount of time in the debate. I'm sure Kucinich knew even if allowed to debate, they would try to give him the two minutes they usually give him. That doesn't stop them from asking a UFO question, or some other idiotic question posed to ridicule and undermine him. I wish people would wake up in this country and realize the true voice of "change" is the one candidate that corporate America doesn't want you to hear.

He didn't win on the basis of his "equal opportunities" claim. He won on a contract claim. And all that means is that he has a right to be on stage. No guarantee of anything else.

And if I was going to have to place a bet, its that NBC appeals and wins before tomorrow's debate.

(I should add that I think it was wrong of NBC to change the criteria for inclusion in the debate late in the game and that I have no problem with DK being included...I just doubt that a court decision ordering his inclusion is going to stand..and if it does, you can bet the ranch that in the future, when networks invite candidates to participate in the debate, the invitation will make clear that it can be rescinded for any reason at any time...if these things are going to be treated as contracts the networks will write them like contracts).

NBC has the money to hire the best lawyers who will most likely succeed with the appeal. But I think it's PR suicide for NBC to even go after an appeal. The American people see right through GE's agenda in excluding Kucinich, the only anti-war candidate. GE's military contracts are well known by now, and the public will see this second exclusion of Kucinich, as an affront to their intelligence and democracy.

This country needs to take the elections out of the hands of corporate thugs, with campaign finance reform, and debates aired only on PBS.

I wonder how many people even know that NBC is owned by GE, let alone being able to connect the dots like that.

to take into account the many people voting for whatever MSM spoon feeds them instead of searching out the truth online.

Great day for Democrats! Great day for Kucinich! Great day for America!

It only works if he gets the right questions. They will seek to make him look over the edge.

Yep. Sad but true.:mad:

marginalize my campaign. I'm going to talk about things that are of concern to the American people"--and then launch into a paragraph about how to stop the war, and why it isn't being being stopped, though 70% of the American people oppose it, and maybe say something about the VERY non-transparent vote counting system in Nevada, run on "trade secret," proprietary programming code, owned and controlled by a private corporation (Sequoia) with ties to the Republican Party, with NO paper trail, and NO verifiability AT ALL. This latter is especially relevant, in view of his request for a recount in New Hampshire.

In fact, he could make a cause celebre out our non-transparent vote counting system all over the country, and say that he's going to stay in the race, and challenge it everywhere.

He doesn't have to accept stupid questions. He can pause, briefly, and stare them down, and let the silence speak for itself, and then either make a quick joke out of it, or attack it directly and move quickly to a meaningful topic.

:bounce:

she'll have three "on-the-up-and-up" people debating her now.

I tried to self-delete but it wouldn't accept it for some reason... nice job getting the jump on me. lol.

my hands were shaking so much from adrinalin I could hardly type.

This is such a healthy thing to happen right now .... not for a particular candidate, but for
America .. it gives me hope and shivers down my spine.

they'd better get some good questions to him or MSNBC can really go FUCK OFF

i want to see the letter REinviting him

not because of any candidate .. it's just such a lovely example of our checks and balances system actually
WORKING for once... it gives me great hope for it catching on like wildfire ... when that magical tipping
point happens like in V for Vendetta, or in Venezuela when they tried to depose Chavez.

Source: Associated Press

Judge Grants Kucinich Entry to NV Debate

43 minutes ago

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada judge said Monday that Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich must be included in Tuesday's candidates' debate in Nevada.

Senior Clark County District Court Judge Charles Thompson said if Kucinich is excluded, he'll issue an injunction stopping the televised debate.

The judge sided with a lawyer for the Ohio congressman, who says debate host MSNBC at first invited Kucinich to take part and then told him last week he couldn't.

A lawyer for the network said MSNBC decided to go with the top three candidates after the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries.

The judge called it a matter of fairness and said Nevada voters will benefit if they hear from more than just Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.

The cable network and the Democratic Party are calling the 9 p.m. EST debate a chance to hear issues from Nevada's minority communities. Tim Russert and Brian Williams are moderating.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gDnNS8D2ehuX_-DVhFZ3z3WK1vtgD8U5V07G0

---

Good for Dennis. Our democracy is stronger for this..

Can NBC simply ignore Kooch? I hope not.

Edwards and Obama go mano y mano.

what with this decision forcing some fairness into the debate .. i love it.

wonder if it will be politely "not mentioned" or if it is mentioned, how that will play.

hoo-ahh.

It just isn't right.

that agent of change crap and denegrating Martin Luther King. Is this the best we can do. Kucinich is needed to bring substance.

Kucinich is the voice of the people, and the only candidate offering real change with his single payer not-for-profit health care plan. I find it ironic that the other candidates evoke Martin Luther King, yet one of MLK's greatest quotes is a ringing endorsement to the morality of Kucinich's health care plan..

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

It really resignates. And why the media hates Kucinich. Instead of denegrating MLK, Hillary Clinton need ask herself, what would MLK do and say as to our present day problems.

and empathy, two things MLK had, but Clinton doesn't have a clue about. She's nothing more than a shrewd politician crying tears to show her vulnerable side to appeal to voters who think she's too robotic. Clinton is a corporate lackey, and will cater to the powers behind her election if she's president. That's why she's earned the name Bush-Lite.

in lost military contracts. GE's whole empire will suffer severe financial consequences if Kucinich is elected. Yet NBC say's their decision to exclude Kucinich from the debates, has nothing to do with their parent company, GE. Riiiiiiiiight.

doctrine.

This is a great result...especially if the mods can stop playing to the GOP gallery and stop asking stupid questions.

a nice victory for Kucinich. Now I hope Russert and Williams give him some time.

doesn't want DK in the debates. But it's a damn sad day when it takes a judge to tell the Democratic Party to respect democracy. We have a long way to go to take this Party back for the people.

or at least that's what the news release sez.

the Party and/or the other candidates could put a stop to this anti-democratic BS if they chose to do so.

and there was no mention or picture of DK.
I hope it's true. He needs to be there.

At first I thought I imagined it.

And I love it. :rofl:

don`t be a :cry: baby...

That will liven up the debate. If they give him just a little time and he manages to bring up the biggies the others are ignoring, even if they don't respond, it will be great!

His opponents have a lot of problems ahead of them, working out what lines they are going to tout, in the face of his challenging questions to them. If they lie too baldly it will look very bad. If the moderator tries to cut him short all the time, that, too, will look very bad.

The person best equipped for a situation like that is Barak. Like Blair he's a master at spinning a line. Only much better. He can make the most empty, vapid, meaningless sentences sound like the most moving exhortations ever delivered by John Kennedy or even Martin Luther King. He has such natural dignity, such presence (Blair alas was known for a kind of absence, rather than presence. A light-weight, wheedling "Listen with Mother" tone, Britain's own Bill Schneider), and when Barak, even as a mere aspirant for the presidency, begins to speak, those deep, reassuring nut-brown tones (nothing to with racism here) simply confirm that he almost certainly conveys an impression of greater dignity and presence than any Republican President other than Abraham Lincoln ever could have had, and, in those terms, would have been be at least a match for any Democratic President. He would be the ultimate King Player in a Shakespearean play - alas a tragedy, by the look of it. The conflict between the visual and auditory impressions he leaves, and the emptiness of what he actually enunciates, means I can no longer watch him on the box without involuntarily laughing. You can only hope that his followers wise up, or that he loses his voice.

I don't know how Hillary will cope, at all, though, there again, she didn't seem to feel shamed by the points made by John Edwards in an earlier debate. In the end, I suppose, to Republicans and DINOs, it would take a lot more than truth to really unsettle them. But that doesn't mean that they won't be thoroughly exposed by our hardy, wee gallowglasses. Have at thee, knaves!

i think i just may listen to this dog and pony show just to see how they fuck over dennis with ufo questions..

I tried to google for the info myself, but came up short.

Jan 15, 2008 going from 6:00-8:00pm pst.
http://www.nvdems.com/go/press-releases/nevada-democratic-party-and-msnbc-announce-debate/

Meet the Candidates
Dennis Kucinich

ha

is the possibility that they don't include Kucinich. The Judge says he will stop the debate. Could be monkey-shit games between the Judge and corporate M$M?

and when they get it right, it is awesome! I'm glad, the crazy little ufo guy has some good ideas. I actually would feel better about my party and America's future, if he was winning.

NBC appeals the State Judge's ruling with a Federal Judge?
?
?
?

We're far beyond the point now where the single digit-percenters need to have a place at the table. DK's 15 minutes ran out awhile ago.

Dennis brings issues to the table that few (and in some cases NO, NONE, ZERO, ZILCH) of the remaining candidates want to talk about.

It may not serve any of the top three candidate's interests for Dennis to be there, but it sure as hell serves the voting public!

Or would you rather we stick to the beauty contest, he said/she said narrative and ignore policy and substance?

Dennis brings issues to the table that the entire country largely doesn't care about. If they did, he would get within spitting distance of double digits. :)

Face the facts; he does not resonate with a significant portion of the voting public. I'm sure he serves his district's interests well as they keep voting him back in. But the national stage? Not gonna happen.

<i>Dennis brings issues to the table that the entire country largely doesn't care about.</i>

:wtf:

Dennis brings issues to the table that the MSM so completely IGNORE that the entire country largely doesn't KNOW about. His positions (not his rankings in the beauty contest/fundraising race) also match up with those of most Americans better than ANY candidate.

"Face the facts"???

He doesn't "resonate" only because hardly anyone has been allowed to HEAR him--in the debates he's been in (none on network TV, BTW), they don't ask him any questions!!

Good grief. Take your corporate media blinders off and get a clue!

Is it his love of mankind that pushes your buttons or his uncompromising honesty?

Don't answer that, I don't give a rat's ass.

The debates where Kerry and Edwards continued until the very last debate to make excuses for the IWR while Kucinich and Sharpton were the only ones telling the truth about the IWR, Iraq, Hussein, WMD, and Bush's manipulation of facts?

That is why alternative voices are critical to such debates.

Without those voices, the population gets fed the status quo, party-line bullshit that does nothing to create a genuine debate.

There have been a long, long string of primary debates where a multitude of voices have been heard. Kucinich has had ample opportunity to deliver his message to America. Guess what? America yawned.

Move the fuck on.

What else can he do but respond to the appeal. If the judge's ruling was based on the Communications Act, I'm 100 percent certain DK will lose because its well established that the FCC has primary jurisdiction over equal opportunities cases under sec 315 of the Communications Act. If its a state law contract claim, DK can try to argue that the feds have no jurisdiction. And FWIW, I think that NBC will appeal to the state Supreme Court, not to federal court.

And fight the bastids Mr Kucinich!
k/r

If he's there, I'll be tuning in.

There is still a remnant of fairness in this country. We can be sure they will try to keep Dennis silent even while on stage. I hope he interrupts everyone and talks over the time limit. Say IMPEACH or JOBS or HEALTHCARE at every moment of silence, make a spectacle out of yourself. UFO's @$$ make 'em talk about something worthwhile, your insistence to discuss relevant issues in detail even if it makes the big 3 and the media shills cringe!

....now go forth Dennis, and kick some ass!

Good for you, Judge Thompson!

And good for Dennis!

This will make the debate more interesting for all.

Not that they'll ask him any questions but when people see him on their tv and say "hey, who's that guy", maybe they'll try to find out.

But a victory all the same.
And a big F U to the MIC and the M$ Propaganda Complex!

Dennis is a scrappy little dude.

This story (link below) points out the fact that the MSNBC story about her appearance on Meet The Press includes a direct link to her campaign where visitors are asked to donate.

http://mediabloodhound.typepad.com/weblog/2008/01/breaking-msnbc.html

Here's the MSNBC story (link below). If you click on the name Sen. Hillary Clinton in the heading of the article, it takes you directly to her website:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/

Is this customary? Maybe it is, for all I know. Do they do this will all candidates (when they write their name in an article, the link takes the visitor right to the candidate's website)? Is it not unusual? I don't know one way or the other but I don't think I ever recall seeing this.

so far she is the only one that gets a link straight to her home website to get contributions. FOUL.

:P

:bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:

George Steph. said on Sunday they would have debates just between the candidates that had won a caucus or primary. They probably figure Romney will win in Michigan, so they can safely impose these rules with the intent to narrow the Dem race to two candidates. That is what you hear over and over on corporate media - the Dems are down to a two person race. Of course, they have been manufacturing that all along.

It takes a lot to make me smile on a Monday. Thanks for posting this!

BUG THE HELL OUT OF 'EM, DENNIS. . .

. . .YOU ARE OUR TRUTHSEEKING GADFLY !

:yourock: :applause: :headbang: :applause: :headbang:

in the debates, and in the race to stay. After Obama and Clinton are finished with their race war, Edwards will be left standing as the Presidential choice.

"We disagree with the judge's decision and are filing an appeal," said a statement provided by Jeremy Gaines, a vice president for MSNBC, sponsor of Tuesday night's debate. Gaines said the parent network would seek an immediate hearing before the Nevada Supreme Court.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gDnNS8D2ehuX_-DVhFZ3z3WK1vtgD8U61MM81

Can't they wait in line like everyone else?

debates.

They are the Crooks and Liars and need to be broken up if not abolished.

Only NFPs (not for profits) should have any action here.

They'll turn this two party sham into a horse race no matter what the Rethug is and then shove that POS down your throat at the last minute.

I say cancel all of your "TV machines" and tell them to go to HELL!!

I love it. That smug asshole doesn't get to do the bidding of his defense contractor overlords.

J

now that is some sweet good news, go get'm DK!

dp

as much or abstain, as it should be if any of them believed in a free press, then it either wouldn't have gone on or would be cancelled. This just proves how chickenshit the other three candidates are and that they can't even work within their own party for a mutual change of something that is drastically wrong with our country: MSM control. If this is the what is on the horizon with any of these candidates, we're all just wasting our time. And if it was the Nevada Democrats who caused the exclusion, then they need to change their leadership.

Dennis Kucinich has a right to be in the debate.... no matter which candidate you support

Get 'em Dennis.

please call if this concerns you. Thanks.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2684948

If corporations are considered persons for the purposes of law, doesn't this amount to one single person telling the rest of us in the country that THEY, and only they, have the right to decide who we will hear and who we will not?

Even if you don't support Kucinich- even if you want to see him bow out- this push by MSNBC to keep him out of the debate should give you pause. Between this and the blackout on Edwards, it should be obvious to anyone with two neurons to rub together that this is a very blatant case of corporate interference (not merely influence) in the electoral process.

Congress should go into emergency session right now to fix this by mandating equal time. It's the only way.

This entire situation is a textbook case for reinstating the fairness doctrine- among other things.

It just doesn't apply to news coverage or debates (among other things). In addition, there is an open question as to whether it applies to cable networks.

decades, but it is becoming even more blatant.

Edwards has been given quite a bit of time, he was always one of the top three media candidates. Maybe he is getting less than he used to, but he is still on TV everyday. Imagine if the media had given the same amount of time to Biden, Dodd, Gravel or Richardson. The two who really challenged the MIC were Gravel and Kucinich and I'm sure many are glad to see them silenced.

From the start this was always about the top three candidates.

"Top three"... as defined by whom?

I wonder what would happen if we banned television electioneering, leaving radio and the press as the only option. I'm starting to think leaving television out of it entirely (perhaps it's too powerful a medium to be used in the political process?) might actually end up being a benefit.

Thinking out loud here. It's obvious something needs to be done....

and we cannot blame it all on the Repubs IMO.

They blame us for a few things as well and they should.

are seen as "too radical"?

Because, after all, "impeachment" is off the table...

(You can substitute whatever regulatory action you like for 'impeachment' if you wish...)

someone or some party wants my vote they have to earn it. Otherwise we can write letters, make phone calls and protest but none of that has helped in any significant way. Of course we always get a few bones to chew on to keep us happy.

:shrug:

and they're not likely to get the local appellate court to issue a writ reversing the trial judge's order before the debates start at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow.

A writ proceeding is a lot quicker than an appeal, but not as quick as a hearing on a TRO.

gets things done slowly, if at all, on purpose?

Courts can move pretty quickly when the circumstances require.

either it was that or Tarot


Here's the text:

To MSNBC Letters to the Editor:

"You can count me as one of those viewers who are DISGUSTED that you would change the ground rules for inclusion in the debates specifically so as to exclude Dennis Kucinich. Including him means that issues like single-payer health care coverage, which none of the other remaining debate participants plan to pursue, will be advocated. It appears that excluding him was more out of a desire to exclude the content of his views, which differ from the 'top three' candidates than it was out of any purported concern to improve the debates and help sharpen voters decisions at the ballot box. I also find it difficult to fathom why six Democrats were, until recently, OK to have in the same debate, but now four is too many."

from .... Cloudy

Give 'em hell, Dennis! :D

ruling on anything in a way they don't like because it doesn't fit their extremist agendas.

:)

Source: Las Vegas Sun

A District Court judge Monday ordered NBC to include Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich in tonight’s debate in Las Vegas after the candidate complained that the network had breached its contract and undermined the public interest by barring him from the stage.

Judge Charles Thompson said he would file an injunction to stop the 6 p.m. debate if it does not include Kucinich. NBC said it will appeal today, setting the stage for more last-minute legal maneuvering before the debate, which is scheduled to air on the local NBC affiliate and on MSNBC, an NBC cable network.

Bill McGaha, the Ohio congressman’s Las Vegas attorney, said the network should “let the people decide who they want to vote for. Don’t exclude a candidate. Let the voters do that. That’s what the process is for.”

According to the lawsuit, Kucinich was invited Wednesday to participate in the debate with the three front-runners New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Kucinich qualified because he placed among the top four Democratic presidential candidates in a national news media poll conducted after the Iowa caucus, McGaha said.

Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jan/15/lawsuit/

I'm sick of the media changing their rules at the last minute so as to exclude the candidates they don't want to have the people hear. Kindly remember that in polls, a majority of Americans want out of Iraq and also want single payer non profit health insurance--issues that Dennis is adamant about.