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Sean Penn
By GUY KOVNER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn made a cameo appearance at a political campaign event on Tuesday in Petaluma, calling North Coast congressional candidate Norman Solomon a “principled man.”
Penn, wearing a open-collared white shirt, dark jacket and slacks, got an ovation from the crowd of about 200 at the Mystic Theater before his five-minute speech.
“Thank you and welcome to the new District 2,” Penn said, proving he is aware of the new identity for the former 1st Congressional District that now stretches from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border.
Solomon, a West Marin author and activist, is one of four Democratic candidates seeking the seat to be vacated in 2012 by retiring Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma. Marin County Supervisor Susan Adams, Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Petaluma City Councilwoman Tiffany Renee are also vying for the seat.
Recalling their joint trip to Iran in 2005, Penn said he and Solomon were at a rally for Iranian women’s rights in Tehran when the police arrived and “out came the batons.”
As women were being pummeled, Penn said he lost track of Solomon, then “I saw Norman, not flinching, standing right beside me” amid the violence.
The actor, a former Marin resident, also cited Solomon’s yen for walking amid the region’s natural beauty, adding: “He really wants it to still be here for our children.”
People paid $10 at the door for the 70-minute event, which was followed by Penn’s attendance at a “private evening” at a Corte Madera home for $250 a person.
Solomon said the latter event was sold out with 80 people expected.
Solomon cited the legacy of Woolsey, Franklin Roosevelt, Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr. in expounding what he describes as his progressive politics.
“I’m tired of Wall Street running Pennsylvania Avenue,” Solomon said, referring to the White House.
Noting President Barack Obama’s appointment of William Daley, a former JP Morgan Chase banker, as his chief of staff, Solomon said: “I call that tone deaf.”
Solomon said he was also “tired of” global warming, excessive military spending and children in hospital emergency rooms because they lack basic health care.
Solomon, who advocated “single-payer health care for all,” said that those who share his views “need to implement our principles, not just talk about them.”
Carol Kimes of Cotati said she was pleasantly surprised to find out how liberal Solomon is on the issues. “He got my vote tonight,” she said outside the theater.
Chloe Karl, a self-described progressive Democrat, said she drove from Lakeport to hear Solomon. “I appreciate him very much,” she said.
A man who gave his name as Walker from Santa Rosa said he has followed Penn and Solomon separately for years and appreciates the actor’s activism.
“I’ve been more of a fan of his politics than his movies,” Walker said.
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“WSC: Still Badly Moderated”
Six months ago, I finally gave up on WSC because the PD moderator was not willing to do his job and screen out the really toxic commenters. The net effect of allowing the haters free reign is that they eventually drive out the sane decent people who want to have a spirited political discussion.
With the six month snapshot as a frame of reference, I can see that my predictions are being borne out. There are fewer posters, and the really crazy ones have become even more vicious and over the top, because there are no adults in charge to make them pay a social penalty for issuing veiled threats, unhinged fact-free diatribes, and slanderous personal insults.
Here’s a rule of thumb: anyone raving on about communist/fascist whatever should get edited out. It is politically illiterate and historically baseless. Communists and fascists are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, and many of the key sruggles in the 20th century were battles between those two camps. When someone spews out some kind of mish/mash all-purpose political epithet conflating those two diametrically opposed ideologies, they are revealing their ideological ignorance and lack of historical consciousness.It reminds me of a school kid who uses every cuss word he can think of to insult someone, and in the process makes himself look ridiculous. There’s a good place to draw a line.
One more thing: Editor, why would you publish a diatribe that insults and slanders, by name, a local political activist like Lisa Maldonado? What are the standards for this site? Do you have any or have you finally been bullied into submission by the right-wing haters? You have allowed them to steadily drive down the tone of the site through their deviant behavior.
WSC is now approaching the point where normal, decent people will not go to the site, because you feel like you need a shower after being exposed to the psychic filth of the crazy haters. Use your powers as editor to clean up the site, and I, and many others, would be willing to come back into the water. It’s your job, so do it.
Here’s a new video providing us an opportunity to see and hear Tuesday’s event for ourselves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bTOkt4z2D0
Anyone who is interested in learning what Sean Penn and Norman Solomon said can watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzBOK1owUo4
Solomon: “America is broken!”
Penn: “Duuude, I can fix that! My dad’s a TV repairman. He’s got a killer set of tools!”
Way to go Spicoli, now time for some tastey waves and a cool buzz.
Watch it Sonoma County, your Democratic Committee has already decided that he is the next Woolsey, and worse.
Beware of the endorsements, same old thing. We are a Democrat controlled district, but do we have to vote for only those that are so far left that it is lunacy ? Please Dems,a moderate of some kind ?
Oh my
I’m amazed at how narrow-minded posters to this report have been — entirely missing the import of Solomon’s job-creation, health-care and environmental protection message. The reference to “Chavez’ bedside” conflates HUGO Chavez (Venezuelan President), with CESAR Chavez (labor organizer who struggled to bring protections to migrant workers). I hope that the campaigns agree to formal debates so some of the real issues important to our community can be debated without the name-calling.
Speaking only for myself, I couldn’t live with some communist/socialist sleeping under my bed.
Better check tonight!
This stunt does more to expose the narrowness of Solomon’s support than to show strength. So he got 150 people to pay $10 bucks to hear his friend Sean Penn. Two months ago, Huffman packed over 200 people into an event in a Petaluma barn, and they were saying adoring things about their candidate too. The press didn’t cover that because Huffman didn’t have a movie star celebrity (he didn’t need one). But it’s a better indicator of actual support in this part of the district.
Politically Solomon spent years helping Ralph Nader and the Green Party run campaigns against Democrats and that included Gore in 2000. http://dissidentvoice.org/June04/Solomon0629.htm
If there are any Dems out there who did not enjoy the 8 years of the Bush Administration Solomon helped bring us, you might want to do your homework before signing up for his latest scheme.
Solomon did not endorse or vote for Gore, Kerry or even Obama.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/01/edwards-reconsidered/
He is a “Kucinich” Democrat that is completely out of touch with the mainstream of the party.
He also does not have the most basic qualifications. He has never held public office and he devoted a whole chapter of his autobiography (which he called “Made Love, Got War” ) to explaining why he dropped out of high school after his junior year. He says he lost interest in completing his education because he wanted to devote more time to sex and attending protest meetings. Lately he has been posting videos on the internet in which he treats his status as a drop out as a joke, i.e., he says he didn’t really start to learn until he left school.
Maybe the Press Democrat should look up how many members of Congress and Congressional candidates there are without a high school diploma or even the equivalent.
Politics has come to this?
When a celebrity endorsing a candidate becomes news?
Dooood, that’s soooo bogus!!!
What would Mr. Hand would say? ;)
Wow Sean Penn……whose career peaked with Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
I guess OJ was unavailable for a celebrity appearance release.
How ironic that Sean Penn with a record of domestic abuse himself went all the way to Iran to attend a protest.
Lynn Woolsey was elected during the Year of the Woman about the same time Penn was beating up on his wife Madonna. Too bad Mr. Kovner missed that contradiction.
While Solomon never misses an opportunity to name drop and suggest that he should inherit the Woolsey constituency, it speaks volumes that Woolsey has not endorsed Solomon.
Poor old Norm got pushed off the stage by his hero, Penn. What was Norm’s speech all about? Bad capitalism, bad America, good Marxism, good revolution.
But in reality, who really cares? the guy is a loser and expousing a dead, discredited ideology except in SEIU and the colleges and universities. When the flower generation still hold forth.
Norman Soloman is a leftist and Socialist that isn’t Congress worthy. He highers a leftwing treasonous actor to support his agenda of Socialist craziness. This would be a huge black eye to this area to have Solomon as a Congressman.
“Sean Penn, the Communist panderer and Fascists appeaser who undermines American interests around the world in Iraq (comforting Saddam and his Terror Rape Regime 2002), Iran (comforting the Hitler, Holocaust denier of the middle east, Mamoud Amadinejad the supplier of IEDs and EFPs to Iraq and Afghanistan) and traveling to Venezuela to aid the dictator Pineapple Headed Communist, Hugo Chavez. Chavez is a huge human rights violator, Terrorist ally of Iran and outspoken supporter of soon to be erased Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. What’s more disturbing is the plane loads of Hezbollah, Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen and QUDs forces flying daily from Tehran to Caracas to train the Drug Cartels in Islamic Terror Tactics. After which these Narco, Islamic Trained terrorists come to the border of the Southwest to exploit and Human Traffic migrants coming over the border into America with Drugs.”
Yes this traitor and marxist/fascist supporter of Solomon is an example of the small “C” Communist movement in America today. The other Democratic candidats must stand for American values, not the leftist borderline Communists of the Solomon camp. Look at the way our society has allowed marxist/fascists into our government. For example Jeff Jones, Co founder of the Weatherman Underground and domestic Terrorist friend of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. He was the co-author of the failed stimulis package. Now more hardline leftists wanting to clog the toilet of Washington DC with their delusional ideology. Sean Penn travels to Venezula to aid Hugo Chavez, a anti American Communist who also conspires with known Domestic Terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn to organize terror flotillas to Israel and to further undermine America from within on University campuses. Look at the Candidate, look at his issues and what he will not bring to the table. We need a true “Change” in the right direction, not more failed leftists.
Ha ha ha ha ha.
Does anyone else see the humor in this?
“Solomon cited the legacy of Woolsey, Franklin Roosevelt, Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr. in expounding what he describes as his progressive politics.”
Why isn’t Penn at Chavez’ bed side in his hour of need?
Anyone who is interested in knowing what Norman Solomon and Sean Penn said at this event can watch the following video footage from Petaluma Patch:
http://petaluma.patch.com/articles/sean-penn-lends-name-hollywood-cool-to-north-bay-congressional-district-race#video-7471324
Sean Penn, the Communist panderer and Fascist appeaser who undermines American interests around the world in Iraq (comforting Saddam and his Terror Rape Regime 2002), Iran (comforting the Hitler, Holocaust denier of the middle east, Mamoud Amadinejad the supplier of IEDs and EFPs to Iraq and Afghanistan) and traveling to Venezuela to aid the dictator “Cabeza de la Pina” Communist, Hugo Chavez. Chavez is a huge human rights violator, Terrorist ally of Iran and outspoken supporter of soon to be erased Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. What’s more disturbing is the plane loads of Hezbollah, Iranian Revolutionary Guardsmen and QUDs forces flying daily from Tehran to Caracas to train the Drug Cartels in Islamic Terror Tactics. After which these Narco, Islamic Trained terrorists come to the border of the Southwest to exploit and Human Traffic migrants coming over the border into America with Drugs. The Democratic field should question the Fabian Socialist Penn about these facts.
Lisa Maldonado is the campaign head of the Socialist Solomon campaign, which uses a Hollywood clown that panders to the worse of the worse. That worse is being Human rights violators of Latin migrants. The cartels threaten to kill these people if they don’t traffic their drugs across the American border with on the spot executions and beheadings. District 6 needs to not vote for Mr Solomon. The Democratic field and Maldonado need to show openly their dismay with the Chavez regime to Sean Penn, that supports the wholesale slaughter of Hispanics or this will threaten credibility with the Hispanic community as has already happened with the majority of the voters of District 6.