Cynthia McKinney, Green for President

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who quit the Democratic Party and announced her candidacy for president as a Green last month, will make a campaign appearance in Houston this week.

She will speak at the Robert Terry Library on the Texas Southern University campus, 3100 Cleburne (at Ennis), on Tuesday December 4 at 7 p.m., discussing her quest for peace, politics in Washington and her campaign for the 2008 Green Party nomination. Questions or more information can be requested of Don Cook at 713-705-5594.

McKinney will also "freeway blog" with local activists at the Montrose overpass to US 59 at 4:30 p.m. prior to her appearance at TSU later in the evening.

McKinney first achieved renown (in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11) as one of the few Congresspersons who publicly objected to the selection by the SCOTUS of George W Bush as president in December 2000, and was one of 31 in the House who similarly objected to the allotment of Ohio's electoral votes in 2004 to the incumbent. She has also expressed strong reservations about the federal government's role regarding the events of September 11th, 2001 (for example, the 9/11 Commission sealed all notes and transcripts of some 2,000 interviews, all forensic evidence, and both classified and non-classified documents used in compiling its final report until January 2, 2009). McKinney's interest in 9/11 relates specifically to what she expresses as her opposition to excessive government secrecy, which she challenged with numerous pieces of legislation while a member of Congress.

McKinney also chose to be an active participant in the select bipartisan committee to investigate the preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina, despite the Democratic Party leadership's call for Democratic members to boycott the committee. She has been a longtime anti-war activist, dating back to her opposition to the Gulf War in 1991 (and continuing through to the current administration's misadventures in Iraq, and its enablers in Congress).

She made headlines when she had a dustup with a Capitol police officer in 2006, and later that year lost a second bid for re-election from her Atlanta district.

McKinney has been vilified from all angles, left and right.

Her Green Party presidential exploratory committee website is Run Cynthia Run.