Boricua Hip-Hop Activist Rosa Clemente Runs for VP of the US in Green Party Ticket

The Green Party, which captured less than 1 percent of the vote in the last U.S. presidential election, has chosen the former Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney. McKinney's running mate for the November election is vice presidential candidate Rosa Clemente, a hip-hop artist and activist who is boricua.

Here's an entry posted in www.greensforgreens.org:

Cynthia McKinney Wins Green Party Presidential Nomination

Cynthia McKinney won the Green Party of the United States presidential nomination at the July 12 GP-US Convention in Chicago. McKinney, a former Member of Congress from Georgia, received 313 of 532 first round votes to earn nomination by Greens delegates from across the country excited that she will be their standard bearer this year. Hip-hop activist and journalist Rosa Clemente was selected to be the vice-presidential candidate of the Greens.
McKinney served six terms representing DeKalb County’s 4th Congressional District before moving to California and becoming a Green. About 800 Greens are attending the convention at the Chicago Symphony Center.
Clemente said she accepted McKinney’s invitation to be her running mate because she believes the former Georgia Congresswoman’s platform addresses issues not addressed by Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.
“I chose to do this, not for me, but for my generation, my community and my daughter,” said Clemente, 35, in the statement. “I don’t see the Green Party as an alternative, I see it as imperative.”

Here's a link in Wikipedia about Clemente and her background:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_clemente

For more info on the Green Party and its recent national convention in Chicago, go to
http://www.gp.org.


(photo courtesy of the Green Party site)

Featured story

Puerto Rican vets shorted on benefits

Unequal health plans come with overseas status


Military widows and veterans in Puerto Rico receive fewer health benefits than their counterparts in the United States, even though Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and serve shoulder-to-shoulder with their countrymen in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That means that, like all island spouses whose soldier husbands or wives were killed in the latest U.S. wars, the widow of Army Sgt. Jeffrey Michael Rada Morales would get less than fully paid health insurance -- simply for living in Puerto Rico.
For the complete report by Robert Friedman, go to
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/1053045,CST-NWS-Rican13.article


Editor's Note: This is so unfair to Puerto Rican soldiers and their families. Again, this has to do with Puerto Rico's political status issue. Puerto Ricans fight the same battles, yet are not equally paid. Come on!

Pregones' Summer Tour

MIGRANTS! Cantata a los Emigrantes is a bilingual play with music celebrating the Puerto Rican men & women who first toiled to establish a thriving and diverse Latino community in New York and throughout the eastern United States.
MIGRANTS! Cantata a los Emigrantes is a collective creation of Pregones Theater (in the Bronx) and it draws from written and oral histories, lore and legend, and the memory of landmark writers like Luisa Capetillo (Mi opinión), Julia de Burgos (Canción de la verdad sencilla, El mar y tú), René Marqués (La carreta, Los soles truncos) and Clemente Soto Vélez (Caballo de palo, La tierra prometida).
Premiered in 1986 and heralded by critics & audiences alike, MIGRANTS! is now re-staged to commemorate 10 years of Pregones' free-admission Summer Stage Tour. Presented in Spanish & English.


Click on image for larger text and full lineup of performance dates and venues. The tour runs from July 31-Aug. 12.

For more information, go to www.pregones.org.

source: Pregones