I just got off a conference call with Weekly Filibuster and LPKY chair Ken Moellman a little bit ago.
8 of 12 exec comm members participated in the preceding call, which we were not on. Moellman relayed that, although the LPKY is considering withdrawing its endorsement, it is not ready to do so at this time, and that they will have another call about it Monday night.
He expressed that it is hard to get a quorum given that LPKY exec comm members have different schedules, and that they have received calls from LPHQ and LNC. He also said there would be possible consequences for other candidates if Landham is unendorsed. However, he said he believes the party will be on the ballot regardless.
In a pair of interviews on The Weekly Filibuster Wednesday and Friday, Sonny Landham expressed support for genocide against Arabs and Muslims, whom he called repeatedly, “camel dung shovellers”, “camel jockeys” and “ragheads.” He also called for an end to all immigration from Arab and Muslim nations, nationalization of businesses which employ “illegal” immigrants, and nationalization of rental property of landlords who rent to them.
Other opinions which Mr. Landham expressed in those interviews include: high oil prices are a form of “terrorism,” support for the trade union activities of Eugene Debs, John Lewis and Jimmy Hoffa, and a call for economic nationalism and protectionism, particularly of the steel industry. Landham said that the federal government should reorganize the economy as a partnership between unions and corporations while erecting barriers against the international flow of goods and labor and using total war – including weapons of mass destruction – to acquire resources it considers “vital” on behalf of its corporate-trade union-military-industrial axis.
Landham also defended his role in producing a video for the Council of Conservative Citizens and said the message of the Libertarian Party is “States Rights Now, States Rights Tomorrow, and States Rights Forever,” evoking a famous line from George Wallace’s inaugural speech as Governor (replacing “segregation” with “States Rights”). However, Landham also said he is not qualified to explain or defend the views of the Libertarian Party, repeatedly saying “ask them.”
Thanks Andy, I already pointed that out.
“A pattern is emerging here: Bill Redpath and his criminal cronies have no problem attacking women (Mary Ruwart, Angela Keaton) but are completely incapable of assailing white men — especially for overt genocidal racism, a value many of them share (albeit more politely stated).”
Sonny Landham is a Native American (ie-Indian)>
Yes, most people here did not know that Sonny was
for genocide, nationalization, race based immigration controls, economic nationalism, etc., then.
I notice several people commenting about typos on his website.
And to think that ten days ago we were all up in arms about Landham not being allowed into a campaign picnic!
https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2008/07/libertarians-barr-landham-shut-out-of-kentucky-political-picnic/
For a real pleasure, read the first comment.
PEACE
Steve
The smartest thing the LPKY could do would be to boot this guy ASAP.
The longer they wait, the more the media and voters will view this as a painful and conflicting decision for the party.
Do it quick and let people know that this is about principle, rather than about politics.
Indeed.
cbennet – The only difference is John Birch Society is much more libertarian than the Gun Grabbers and neocons at LPHQ — and more interesting in reaching out to minorities, too!
JBS is wrong on trade and immigration, and it has a lousy (despicable, really) history… But the LP is far less “libertarian” in my opinion.
http://jbs.org/
Give them a second look.
The smartest thing the LPKY could do would be to boot this guy ASAP.
The longer they wait, the more the media and voters will view this as a painful and conflicting decision for the party.
Do it quick and let people know that this is about principle, rather than about politics.
Like I said before anyone who knows how to use a search engine or reads news online could have found that this guy has said or done a lot of outrageous or at least questionable things in the past and is known to have ties to groups like the CCC and make bigoted comments, has a history of violence,etc.
My 6 year old kid could have found out if I said ” hey kid, lookup Sonny Landham.”
Either the guy wasn’t vetted at all OR They just figured Hey this will probably play well in Kentucky.
OK, the petition is up and ready:
http://lancebrown.org/libertarians-against-landham-petition
I don’t have a ton of time left to promote it (it took a while to get it put together), so hopefully there are a couple folks who can help to pass it around in the next day or so. It would be nice to have at least 100 signatures or more by the time the KYLP starts their re-deliberations on Monday or Tuesday.
Chris,
You’re dead on regarding minority outreach, especially when we potentially have so much to offer on small business development (removing cumbersome regulations) and public safety (ending the disproportionate effects on minority communities from the drug war).
This pisses me off no end. It was a no-brainer for the Ky LP leadership to cut ties with Landham immediately, especially since he wasn’t even a ballotted candidate. So what if there is nobody to replace him? A blank ballot position is more beneficial than Landham. We call it ‘addition by subtraction’.
That said, I don’t buy that the state party leadership is condoning Landham so much as showing their inexperience. They obviously didn’t vet the guy’s views. They don’t know when to get off a sinking ship.
They do need to act fast, though. Here in Indiana, we have a decent Libertarian Party affiliate, and I don’t want this crap bringing our candidates down. We stand to suffer great guilt-by-association here, and it’s not fair to the good candidates in Kentucky and in adjacent states.
Like the minority outreach too which the LP lacks. Just about libertarian agrees that we need to do more outreach to minorities but very few actually want to do it. Of course there is your old guard LP’ers that don’t want to expand the membership pool outside the angry middle-aged white male computer expert group. I think that the LP has opened it’s doors to candidates like Landham and Barr for just merely just to not encourage blacks, Hispanics or Muslims to join the LP, so they can keep the LP as a “John Birch type of social club”.
But this is entirely out of character for every Libertarian I have ever met or communicated with, or even read online for goodness sakes!
They again, I don’t read a lot of libertarian stuff.
It is entirely out of character for true libertarians.
There’s an element of the party, however, that is more than willing to bend over backward, forward, and all the way around to sticking its head so far up its ass that it pops back out again in the right place almost as if nothing was wrong.
Why do they engage in these contortions?
Supposedly, to get more votes. As if getting 5% is worth selling out every ounce of decency and dignity you have.
Also, somehow, to these people “getting more votes” usually means from aging, decrepit, far right, racist, unrepentant Dixiecrats and/or neocon warmongers.
Do they ever tolerate any sort of effort to present libertarian ideas electorally in a way that would excite left-libertarians, young people, immigrants – you know, the people whose vote is actually available? No, anyone who does that gets shouted down and called a socialist. Even an anarchist like me gets called a socialist by some in the LP.
There is definitely a serious problem in the party. Landham is just the latest and most extreme manifestation of it. This problem is not relevant to libertarian ideas per se, just to the way they have been marketed.
I would prefer an entirely different way of presenting libertarian ideas. For example, see:
http://praxeology.net/blog/2006/11/24/greensleeves-was-all-my-joy
Further diagnosing the current problem in the LP, from an exchange on lpradicals yahoo group about an LNC member presenting the idea of youth/field organizing to the officers and powers that be:
> Who in the f**k said that! Maybe we cannot afford the salaries,
but to suggest that “Young people are not important. They don’t vote”
is outright stupidity of the highest caliber.
>
> Rule number one in the business world. Never write off a potential
customer.
>
> MHW
>
p] Young people now vote as much as old people. However, some old people don’t keep up with young people’s trends.
Young people are tremendously important. They tend to provide a huge chunk of the volunteer labor, which should be even more important than money to any political organization – except that the mindset among
the LP upper hierarchy is apparently that volunteer labor is of little, no or even negative importance.
Young people are also the biggest chunk of the available vote. The vast majority of people do not change their political party after they hit age thirty. The other biggest slice of available votes, immigrants, is also being ignored since the LP is kowtowing to the know nothing vote.
Young people tend to become the future candidates and donors of a party. Apparently, some LP leaders have no interest in that.
As for not having the money; who’s tried raising it?
I don’t know exactly what the best prescription is, but something more than just dropping Sonny is in order.
Agreed.
completely incapable of assailing white men
Except that Landham isn’t white.
especially for overt genocidal racism, a value many of them share (albeit more politely stated).
That’s pretty harsh. How would you back that up?
LPHQ shouldn’t need to step in or speak up in a situation like this, though at this point, the LPKY is leaving a vacuum, and I think just about any party member (or any movement activist even) is justified in trying to remedy this at this point.
Bob Barr could actually come in pretty handy in this situation, if he took some initiative. “Bob Barr Battles Billy Bear” – it’s a good headline.
Good lord, any libertarian not out of his mind would not hesitate to completely repudiate Landham. I can buy that it could take some time to get past the red tape to officially revoke Landham’s nomination, but Moellman is handling this extremely poorly.
“How long did it take Cory/Haugh to attack Mary Ruwart for her blasphemous adherence to libertarian principles?”
Well,
1) Cory isn’t working for LPHQ anymore, so the rapid-fire press release attack might have been a one-shot deal.
2) Landham is not a national candidate, so LPHQ might feel that this is something for LPKY to deal with.
That’s just possible rational. In my opinion, it would certainly be prudent for LPHQ to condemn Landham and his way of thinking. I’m not sure what they’re thinking.
However, I’d say it doesn’t seem justified to accuse those working in LPHQ of agreeing with Landham. Landham’s racial comments are more extreme than David Duke’s, and his call for nationalization are more extreme than any Democrats’ — somehow I doubt that Bill Redpath et al. are that bad.
What a crappy situation, though.
Another credible candidate? Another credible candidate? As in Landham iscredible?
I know the phone lines in KY have to be buzzing. There is no way they can let this fester until Monday…or Tuesday he says.
Maybe I should shut up. It’s not my party. But this is entirely out of character for every Libertarian I have ever met or communicated with, or even read online for goodness sakes!
They again, I don’t read a lot of libertarian stuff.
Taken from the AP article:
Holy cow! I can not believe that. In my personal opinion, booting all the people in leadership of the LPKY who agreed with Moellman would be a major start towards getting back credibility. To me, leaving someone capable of thinking and saying what he is quoted as saying means he is unfit for service at the head of a state party.
The hard part in the Green Party is that we adhere to a set of values that make decision making a bit squishy in some cases. Grassroots Democracy and Decentralization is often interpreted as “Mind your own business” when it comes to what happens in other states.
I take that position myself, but if confronted with a situation like this, I sure hope our state party would respond more appropriately. Sadly, we don’;t even have a Green Party in Kentucky, although I do have contacts there who want to get something going.
I like Lance’s petition, but the problem is that the LPKY even for one minute considered not withdrawing the endorsement… And they still haven’t!
And from LPHQ… Nothing. How long did it take Cory/Haugh to attack Mary Ruwart for her blasphemous adherence to libertarian principles?
A pattern is emerging here: Bill Redpath and his criminal cronies have no problem attacking women (Mary Ruwart, Angela Keaton) but are completely incapable of assailing white men — especially for overt genocidal racism, a value many of them share (albeit more politely stated).
Any wonder why the LP is 99% white and 80%+ male?
Gregg,
My intent was to leave the means open-ended, but to assert that they do need to do something to clean up this mess. The LPKY had a big hand in creating this mess, by approving Landham in the first place, and by their weak response in the heat of the moment. I don’t know exactly what the best prescription is, but something more than just dropping Sonny is in order. He has muddied the brand, and someone needs to clean that mud off.
Just a point of information (is my Roberts showing?) please. Is it your intent to call on the LPKY to spend their resources to fix the damage done by this man? If so, do you think they have the resources?
Not being a Libertarian, I’ll not sign obviously, but I must say that if I were I would be inclined to do so. If KY does not have the resources to fix the problem it may take some time to get back on track.
haha, Paulie. That killed any pessimism I had.
I fixed “pepair” near the end already.
“pepair” in last bullet should read repair.
Otherwise, looks good.
It may become moot very soon, but I’m not taking the LPKY’s common sense for granted at this point, so I’m putting up a petition to help guide things. Here is the draft wording at this point:
—
Libertarians Against Landham Petition
We the undersigned believe that Sonny Landham should not be endorsed, approved, or supported by the Libertarian Party of Kentucky as a candidate for Senate or any other office.
Mr. Landham has proven from his comments that he is not a libertarian, and many of his recent statements and positions have been both ideologically incorrect and socially repugnant. Libertarians do not support genocidal war, war based on economic motives, or race-based immigration restrictions, to mention just a few of Mr. Landham’s very un-libertarian positions. Nor do Libertarians (or any freedom-minded individuals, we would hope) support the sort of reckless racial stereotyping and denigration of whole nationalities that has been the underpinning of Mr. Landham’s most widely-reported remarks.
Therefore, we the undersigned assert that the Libertarian Party of Kentucky needs to take immediate action to:
–rescind their endorsement of Sonny Landham’s candidacy; and
–remove his name from any petitions or ballot-access efforts that may be underway; and
–publicly, officially, and in the firmest terms possible, disavow the racist and un-libertarian statements Mr. Landham has been making under the “Libertarian” banner; and
–initiate a public relations campaign sufficient to pepair the damage that’s been done to the party’s image in Kentucky, especially among minority populations.
—
It’s going to have to go up fast to serve as any help, but I invite any suggestions if anyone has a chance to look at it by early tomorrow.
Other versions
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=never+give+up&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
Frogs do tend to make good points.
http://dynam1tt.blogspot.com/2008/03/love-thursday.html
“Depressingly, x2.”
More like x12
To gather on what Paulie said, I haven’t put one damned year in the party. I join, suddenly people are saying it’s dead. What the hell am I supposed to be under for the rest of my life?
Continuous, depressing, “fuck it” mentality for the next few decades? I think not.
I can’t help giving a damn. I’ve put 16 years into it, am a life member, did hundreds of OPHs, collected hundreds of thousands of signatures in dozens of states, went to dozens of state and national conventions all over the country, worked on campaigns for Congress, Governor and President, etc.
I do not give a damn what happens to this freak show of a political party.
Depressingly, x2.
Actually, I’m really stoned talking to Miche S. on the speaker phone. She’s one of the best things that came out of my LP experience.
GE– I’m about to get really drunk and head into WeHo to find some gayelles but this might shed some light. Or not.
For the record, I only brought up Lantham at the bequest of my betters [read: Boss and Husband (via email no less) were disgusted, really disgusted and one more “You should quit the LP,” will drive me to a shed in Montana.]
I do not give a damn what happens to this freak show of a political party.
Anyway, the LNC list is alight with Lantham. At least I don’t have to hear about how we are 100K quid short of ballot access in the British Virgin Islands.
I removed some names and emails but this is what I posted and the text of the two relevant letter. Realign the spacing, etc. if necessary.
Keaton ()
Sent: Fri 7/25/08 1:39 AM
Reply-to: angelaATngelakeaton.com
To: [email protected];
Members of the LNC:I realize posting here yields nothing but cheerleading and apologia for gaffes and incompetence but what the hell.Both S—– and J—– are socially adept, good looking and financially prosperous, so the usual ways we ignore member requests won’t work here.
Keaton
P.S., If we actually stuck to our mission statement, nonsense like Lantham wouldn’t happen.
Dear LNC members: Despite numerous requests spanning several months, I have been unable to convince S——– to add my candidacy to the website in any form. I have been supporting the LP since 1992. This year I’m running myfirst campaign – one which I expect to be very competitive. I didn’texpect a great deal of support from National, but I didn’t expect tobe shut out entirely. Whereas a more moderate member from my statewho has invested much less into his campaign was immediately put intoCandidate Tracker, my requests are met with excuses. In contrast, the Boston Tea Party, which I have not supported and ofwhich I am not even a member, offered me their endorsement and haspromoted my campaign. At this point, I feel justified in asking for your intervention.
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:27:18 -0700From:Subject: Kick Sonny Landham Out!To: starrcATpacbell.net; akeatoat.comHi, you
two,As you know, I don’t involve myself in Libertarian activities
anymore, though I am still a party member. You may have seen the
interview with Sonny Landham:
http://dailyfilibuster.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/listen-live-the-wednesday-filibuster-with-dennis-shulman/#more-364Honestly,
I only read the first part of the article, but that’s all I need to read. This
kind of racial slur is unbecoming of a representative of the Libertarian Party
and I’m sure there’s something in the bylaws that justifies kicking him
out.If you need a more coherent letter to more board members, just let
me know. I find behavior like this personally deplorable, morally
reprehensible, and destructive to the libertarian
mission.Cheers,M—-
Hopefully they will realize this by Monday night.
It’s disappointing that the LPKY feels they need more time to decide whether Landham will be allowed to be the LP candidate. There’s nothing to think about. It really doesn’t matter what the consequences of dropping him are. The consequences of leaving him on would be far more destructive. He could stain the LP in KY for a long, long time–not to mention pissing all over the Libertarian news cycle from here til November. Voters aren’t going to give a shit about any rationale for keeping him on the ballot. They are just going to know that the party approved him. And now the AP is tossing the story around. Oh joy.
Boo to Moellman and Co. This is not good enough, by far.
Comment 34 = Comment 28
Thanks GE!
I’m not going to prejudge LPHQ….give them until Monday to react, at least :-p
High quality reporting by paulie cannoli, btw.
“Hey, this guy’s not a libertarian… He’s one of us!”
LPHQ issued an illegal press release to counter the “bad press” of Mary Ruwart’s libertarianism expressed ten years earlier.
The LPHQ cannot issue a press release condemning Landham’s words because so many of them agree with them.
LPKY has “heard from LPHQ,” but Moellman did not relay what it was they heard.
Interesting that LPHQ is quiet on this, but so quick to smear Mary Ruwart. Mary was in hot water for actually being libertarian — the only real crime in the LPHQ’s eyes, as far as I can tell.
Ky. Libertarians not ready for decision on Landham
AP
Posted: 2008-07-26 18:18:46
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – The head of Kentucky’s Libertarian Party said party leaders are not ready to take action against U.S. Senate hopeful Sonny Landham for a series of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim remarks.
Ken Moellman said on Saturday a decision on whether Landham would run as a Libertarian on the November ballot against U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and Democrat Bruce Lunsford would come on Monday or Tuesday. He was speaking on “The Weekly Filibuster,” an Internet radio program on politics with student panelists.
In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Landham advocated turning away Arabs from entering this country and said the U.S. should have bombed Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran and Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He repeatedly referred to Arabs and Muslims using offensive language.
His comments were similar to those he had made a day earlier on “The Weekly Filibuster.”
Addressing Landham’s comments on Saturday, Moellman said, “Obviously the party does not stand for that.”
He described the Libertarian Party as “pro-immigration or pro-legal immigration.”
Asked how the state party could continue to consider Landham as a candidate after he had called for the genocide of Arabs and Muslims, Moellman said party leaders are exploring their options and looking at how any decision they make would affect other races.
Moellman said the leaders of the state party all have full-time jobs and it is difficult to get them together for a decision, although he had just gotten off a conference call with them.
It’s likely the party would not run another candidate if it were to abandon Landham, he said.
“I don’t know if we could find another credible candidate who would be willing to walk into that situation,” he said.
Landham has said his supporters have gathered more than enough signatures to qualify him for the ballot, but Moellman said on Saturday that Landham is “not on the ballot yet, and we control the ballot access.”
Landham, who is an actor, appeared in adult films early in his career before acting in several action movies, including “48 Hours” and “Predator.”
Later he was convicted of making threatening and obscene phone calls to his ex-wife and served more than 2 1/2 years in federal prison before the conviction was thrown out by a federal appeals court that found he committed no crime.
True.
Also, his economic views are not libertarian.
He seems to be quite collectivist in many different ways…I don’t see how this can be a good fit for the LP, even with a “broad tent.”
Ummm..wow. I know we Greens have our problems, but I can’t imagine this guy not getting a royal heave-ho from the Green Party, state, local or national.
Stone cold racists are dinosaurs. No political party should run them.
Yep.
The longer they wait to give this asshole the broom, the more he’ll leave his stink on them.
From indy.com
Sonny Landham is P.O.’d at Mitch Daniels.
Why would an action film star from the 1980s have a beef with the governor of Indiana? In mid-May Landham — who appeared in “Predator,” “48 Hrs.,” “Poltergeist” and “Action Jackson” — got a speeding ticket while driving to Indianapolis from his home in Ashland, Ky., after landing a role in “Mental Scars,” a low-budget horror flick shooting here.
Landham doesn’t so much object to the ticket for supposedly going 74 mph in a 55 zone. It was more the rudeness with which he says he was treated. The state trooper gruffly demanded, “Gimme your license!” with no preamble, according to Landham’s version of events.
The 67-year-old sometime actor, who now works as a paralegal, said the encounter doesn’t reflect well on the Hoosier state. He’s reconsidering attending an October autograph convention he’d signed up for in Indianapolis.
During the interview, Landham repeatedly called Daniels a “hockey putz” or “Rich” Daniels, even after being corrected.
“Your state police ….. radiates the governor’s personality,” he said. “If these guys weren’t state troopers, they’d be convicts with attitudes like this.”
Landham knows from governors. Two of his “Predator” co-stars went on to run a state — Arnold Schwarzenegger in California and Jesse Ventura in Minnesota. If it were up to Sonny, he’d have been the third, having sought the Kentucky GOP gubernatorial nomination a few years ago.
“I know what it takes to be governor and how a state should be run. And we don’t set speed traps over there,” he said.
Sgt. Jerry Goodwin, public information officer for the Indiana State Police station in Sellersburg, said the department doesn’t comment on complaints, but confirmed that the stretch of I-65 where Landham got his ticket is among the state’s most heavily patrolled.
For Landham, the spat is just a bump on the road in a colorful life that has included the Army, adult film roles in the 1970s, supporting parts in Hollywood blockbusters, a battle with substance abuse and nearly three years in federal prison for making a threatening phone calls to his ex-wife in a custody battle. He was released in 2001 after his conviction was overturned.
With his 6-foot-3-inch stature, muscular build and Cherokee and Seminole ancestry, he was the go-to guy for tough American Indian roles in the ’80s. He’s best known for his breakthrough performance as escaped convict Billy Bear in “48 Hrs.” and as the Indian tracker in “Predator.”
He’s forthright to a fault. Asked about the nearly two-dozen adult films he appeared in, he responds brightly, “Oh, you mean my pornos! Well, I always said if I you’ve seen my pornos, you’ve seen my shortcomings.”
When asked why he agreed to do “Mental Scars” despite appearing in only one film in the past 12 years, he responds: “Money. You call me and say, ‘Will you do this?’ and here’s the money and it’s good money, then you go and you do it.”
And as for that traffic ticket — Landham is using his paralegal skills to try to get it dismissed. Rich Daniels, you’ve been warned.
From hotlard.wordpress.com
According to rumors and such, it was during the filming of Predator that brought out the best in Sonny. His anger began built like a raged inferno. He had to be separated from the rest of the cast due to his violent behavior. Rumor has it he was in danger of harming himself due to his while and crazy thoughts. Man, if you’re so fucked up you need to be removed from Arnold, Carl, Jesse and Mr Duke (which btw, is the baddess mutha-fucker ’round … more so than Samuel L Jackson. He could whoop is his in a matter of seconds. Shit, he eats Green Berets for breakfast!!) … man, you are a loon!!
After Predator, Sonny starred in Action Jackson, alongside his buddy Carl Weathers.
Why you lookin’ for Poppa Doc?
I love that line…
Action Jackson was exactly as the title describes … full of action and Sonny helped fuel it to new heights of awesomeness.
After Lock Up, Sonny began is downward spiral into regular-ness. That’s a shame too. He intensity and passion for the arts is what helped bring in the kids to watch the mindless murders, torture, and spines-being-ripped-from-torsos to the movie theaters.
This is also about the time Sonny began to alledgly abuse women. According to his web site, he spent some time in federal prison (31 months). Now, he’s asking for donations to help his legal defense fund.
http://www.politickerky.com/tags/sonny-landham
vidently unrepentant after his initial controversial comments were first printed in the Louisville Courier-Journal, Libertarian Senate candidate Sonny Landham, of Ashland, elaborated on his initial labelling of Arabs as “camel dung-shovelers” and lauded early twentieth-century labor leaders during a Wednesday appearance on an internet talk radio program.
“I’m a pro-American all the way. The Arabs, the camel dung-shovelers, the camel jockeys – whichever you want to call ’em – are terrorists,” Landham said on the Weekly Filibuster talk show, in response to an inquiry about his earlier statements. “And they are doing a terrorist act on this country with the high gas prices. They’re about to wreck this economy, not only our economy, but the world economy.”
In an interview that touched on topics ranging from the Green Party to World War II, Landham indicated he would bar Arabs from immigrating to the United States.
“If I had my way, I would stop Arabs coming into this country,” said Landham.
I liked Landham’s radio comment about the 70-odd virgins in paradise being a ‘rug dealer’ compromise between 50 and and 100. By itself it’s a good joke, although using it to make a seriously racist point rubs some of the funny off.
Has Landham switched his views on the war? From Huffington Post….
Even President Bush is a target: “He took us into a war on lies,” Landham said in an earlier interview, claiming the actual intent was “to put ‘Big Oil’ back into Iraq.”
To qualify for the November ballot, Landham must collect at least 5,000 valid petition signatures by Aug. 12. State Libertarian Party Chairman Ken Moellman said the petition drive began recently and he believes Landham will make it.
But the bid includes some campaign baggage that seems scripted for Hollywood, instead of socially conservative Kentucky. Early in his acting career in the 1970s, Landham bared it all in adult films.
Asked whether that could hurt him politically, Landham replied, “What can I do? That was a part of my life you cannot call back.”
But he does express regrets.
“If I was going to do it now _ knowing that I’m going to have four children, knowing that I was going to run for office _ no, I wouldn’t make that choice,” he told The Associated Press in an interview. “But at the time I made the choice of getting a paycheck, staying alive for your big break.”
Landham also served more than 2 1/2 years in federal prison after being convicted of making threatening and obscene phone calls to his ex-wife. The conviction was thrown out by a federal appeals court that found he committed no crime.
Libertarians, with their “live and let live” philosophy, look past his history.
“We look at the character of the man today, not what he did 30 years ago,” Moellman said, noting the actor “asked his Maker for forgiveness, and that’s all you can ask a man to do.”
He said Landham lives “a better lifestyle” today, residing in Ashland with his fifth wife and three of his children.
Landham’s family joined him for his campaign launch Wednesday, including an infant son he toted from the parking lot to the Kentucky Capitol in a car seat.
The cast of 1987’s “Predator” featured two future state governors: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura. But the prospects of winning office seem far more remote for Landham.
Political scientist Michael Baranowski, of Northern Kentucky University, predicted minimal impact on the Senate race, though Landham could take some votes from McConnell.
“I’m not sure which is more of a hurdle for Landham, being a former porn actor or being a Libertarian Party candidate,” he said. “But if the race between McConnell and Lunsford is tight enough, the votes Landham pulls from McConnell might be critical.”
McConnell campaign adviser Scott Jennings said Landham won’t push the Republican incumbent off his message of how he has “delivered for the commonwealth time and again.”
This isn’t the first dabbling in politics for Landham, who struggled to get odd jobs after being released from prison. Now he still dabbles in acting, but Social Security checks and an acting pension are his main income.
He flirted with running for governor as a Republican in 2003, left the GOP and promised an independent run. He ultimately stayed out and backed Republican Ernie Fletcher, who won.
Landham is as blunt on issues as he is skewering rivals. He equates abortion with murder. He supports scrapping the North American Free Trade Agreement. As for political correctness, he said, “PC is BS. Say what you mean, mean what you say.”
Moellman said such unscripted frankness will grab voter attention.
“Sonny is very upfront,” he said. “You ask Sonny a question, he’ll tell you the answer. He isn’t going to pull any punches, which is why I know this race is going to be a lot of fun.”
Sorry, that was ‘worse than “neocon”‘.
“Didn’t the LP release precede Barr’s statements on the bailout?”
It appears that both statements came out on the same day (July 15th). That makes it pretty unlikely that the LP’s statement was a reaction to Barr’s statement.
I don’t know why, but for some reason, I remember thinking at the time that the LP’s statement was a way of distancing themselves from Barr, at least on that issue. Obviously, my interpretation was wrong.
‘. . . racist neocon bullshit . . .’
Neocons want to conquer Arab countries and install pro-Zionist exiles to teach them about ‘democracy’.
Wanting to exterminate Arabs is worse that ‘neocon’, and its unfair to the neocons to impute such views to them.
Some use the term ‘to-hell-with-them-hawk’ for those who share the views expressed by Landham.
Endorsed by Wonkette:
Back in 1987, nobody could have guessed that a bunch of meatheads in a movie about an invisible alien with laser-beam eyes would someday be great American leaders. But then the wonderful state of Minnesota elected Jesse Ventura its governor, and California followed suit with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now, if Kentuckians play their cards right, they will replace their womanly senator Mitch McConnell with Sonny Landham, who played some dude called “Billy†in Predator. This Landham guy is a real trip! Come along with us on Sonny’s magical journey from porn stardom to the Libertarian party via five wives and a stretch in federal prison.
So let’s see, in the 70s he was in The Porns because “at the time I made the choice of getting a paycheck, staying alive for your big break.â€
Then he was in Predator and everything was fantastic, for a time. Many years later he got thrown in prison for 31 months for making threatening phone calls to his ex-wife.
He ran for governor of Kentucky in 2002 but no joy. Somewhere along the line he joined the Libertarian party, and now he is going to totally show that nancy boy Mitch McConnell what’s what.
Wonkette heartily endorses Sonny Landham for Senate so that he can return to his original profession: debasing himself for money.
Wikipedia
Personal and political life
Landham was born in Canton, Georgia. He is a descendant of the Cherokee and Seminole nations.
Landham suffered a number of legal setbacks after his acting career ended. He was involved in a protracted and bitter child custody dispute with his ex-wife, and was convicted in 1998 of three counts of making threatening telephone calls to her. After 31 months in federal prison, Landham’s conviction was overturned on appeal. He later sued the federal government alleging false imprisonment. Landham also pursued an unsuccessful lawsuit against toymaker Galoob for royalties on the Predator related action figure that depicted his character.
In 2003, Landham ran in the Republican Party primary election for the post of Governor of Kentucky, hoping to repeat the success of his Predator castmates Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He based his candidacy on opposition to an amendment which endorsed the Kentucky Family Court, saying his bad experiences at the hands of the family court had convinced him that it was run for the benefit of lawyers rather than families or children. He was unsuccessful in gaining the party’s nomination. He ran briefly as an independent candidate, but withdrew on June 18 and endorsed the Republican slate.
And various people in the Reform Caucus are outraged that anyone else would compare his comments on Arabs to their desire to kill as many Arabs as possible.
Didn’t the LP release precede Barr’s statements on the bailout?
Yes.
Moellman said they did do some vetting.
Seems to me they did a poor job of it.
Trvia at imdb.com
Former 1970s porn star.
He tried to sue some local TV stations who showed clips of his movies during news broadcasts without paying him. The lawsuits were settled.
During the filming of Predator (1987) a bodyguard was hired, not for his personal protection, but because the film’s insurance company worried for the safety of the cast with him around.
On 18th June 2003, he held a press conference at the Kentucky State Capital, in Frankfort to announce his withdrawal as an independent candidate for governor of the state of Kentucky. This was done with the advice of campaign consultants who determined that the Landham campaign was 6 months behind schedule and lacking the funds to run a successful campaign.
Fred, do you mean the Redpath one that most folks liked?
What the hell?
Didn’t they vet this guy?
Didn’t the LP release precede Barr’s statements on the bailout?
From Sonny’s website
In L.A. Sonny met the major influence on his life in the person of Mr.Carroll R.B.Righter, the world’s foremost astrologer. Carroll did Sonny’s astrological chart, and insisted, that Sonny study acting.
…. the fascist women’s abuse groups of Kentucky and the federal government through judicial terrorism framed Sonny, and he did thirty-one (31) months in federal prison…
Couldn’t the Kentucky LP at least release some kind of statement distancing themselves from this crap, or at least pointing out the parts of their platform that are opposed to it, like when the national LP clarified their position on the bailout after Barr seemed to support it?
Really disappointing.
I’ve seen people have their endorsements revoked for less. And in this case, he not only spouted off racist neocon bullshit, but he reiterated it at great length.
Twice.
Setting the racist nonsense aside for a second … nationalization?!
I don’t care what the consequences are, he should not be running on the Libertarian ticket. He is simply not a Libertarian.
LPKY, why haven’t you already kicked him off the Libertarian ticket?!
That is very disappointing news.
Forgot to mention.
Moellman said the decision to not immediately revoke the endorsement was either unanimous or near unanimous.