Endorsements

Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, political activist, author and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Daniel Ellsberg is a former American military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation who precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of government decision-making about the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers. He was a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award in 2006.

Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel is a former Democratic United States Senator from Alaska, who served two terms from 1969 to 1981. He founded The Democracy Foundation. In order to promote the National Initiative for Democracy, he ran for president in 2008.

Ralph Nader is an American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist, and candidate for President of the United States in four elections. Areas of particular concern to Nader are consumer rights, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government.

Richard Matthew Stallman is an American software freedom activist, hacker, and software developer. In September 1983, he launched the GNU Project to create a free Unix-like operating system, and has been the project’s lead architect and organizer. With the launch of the GNU Project, he started the free software movement and, in October 1985, set up the Free Software Foundation.

Tom Atlee is founder and co-director of the non-profit Co-Intelligence Institute. Recently his work has focused on developing our capacity to function as a wise democracy, so we can turn our social and environmental challenges into positive developments for our society.

Brian Beedham was the foreign affairs editor of The Economist magazine from 1964 to 1989 and has published extensively on the advantages of direct democracy.

Robert M. Bowman was a former Director of Advanced Space Programs Development for the U.S. Air Force in the Ford and Carter administrations, and a former United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel with 101 combat missions. He holds a Ph.D. in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology.

Dr. Robert D. Crane is Director for Global Strategy for the Abraham Federation: A Global Center for Peace through Compassionate Justice. In 2006, he was one of the two co-founders of The American Revolutionary Party. President Nixon appointed him in 1969 as the Deputy Director for Planning in the National Security Council, and President Reagan in 1981 appointed him U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. (Photograph by Diana Huntress)

Ken Driessen has been everything from a first aide responder to a welder to a teacher, and he is now a candidate for Congress in Wisconsin’s seventh district.  He is running as an independent, with the basic tenet of his platform being "direct participatory democracy," a concept which includes the National Initiative for Democracy.

Doris Granny D Haddock (a.k.a. Ethel Doris Rollins) is an American politician and liberal political activist from the state of New Hampshire. Haddock famously walked across the continental United States in 1999 to advocate campaign finance reform.

Hansen earned his Master’s and Doctorate degrees while holding full-time positions in the field of information technology. He moved to Vermont after receiving his PhD and accepting a position at Norwich University. He teaches a variety of topics in computer science and information security, and conducts research on privacy in social networks, and security of medical systems.

Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and best-selling author. At age 20, he moved to Boston to study macrobiotic philosophy under Michio and Aveline Kushi. He then dedicated his life to changing the relationship between business and the environment, and between human and living systems in order to create a more just and sustainable world.

After over forty years of activism, politics and writing, Tom Hayden still is a leading voice for ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, erasing sweatshops, saving the environment, and reforming politics through greater citizen participation. Learn more at his website.

Hazel Henderson is a futurist and an evolutionary economist. She is the author of several books including Building A Win-Win World, Beyond Globalization, Planetary Citizenship (with Daisaku Ikeda), and Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy. Henderson is now a television producer for the public television series Ethical Markets.

Julia Butterfly Hill is an American activist and environmentalist. Hill is best known for living in a 180-foot-tall, 600-year-old California Redwood tree for 738 days between December 10, 1997 to December 18, 1999. Hill lived barefoot in the tree, affectionately known as "Luna," to prevent loggers of the Pacific Lumber Company from cutting it down.

Nicholas (Nico) Holthaus is a writer, teacher, and producer of social impact documentaries, political exposés and narrative films. He is the executive producer of the national Main St. Inc series, and the forthcoming Dear America documentary on the National Initiative.

Paul Jacob is an activist, organizer, and advocate for legislative term limits, initiative and referendum rights, and limited government in the United States. He writes a weekly column for Townhall.com and his short radio commentary feature, "Common Sense," is syndicated by the Sam Adams Alliance on over 120 radio stations around the U.S. He has held positions with the Libertarian Party (United States), U.S. Term Limits, Americans for Limited Government, Citizens In Charge and the Sam Adams Foundation.

Michael Jingozian is the founder and CEO of AngelVision Technologies. In 2007, they were voted "One of the 15 Best Small Companies to work for in Oregon." Recently, AngelVision was ranked the 120th fastest growing company in the United States by Inc. Magazine. Jingozian is also the founder of RESET America, which is a group dedicated to breaking the 2 party monopoly and increasing the number of candidates who run on 3rd party tickets to secure 3rd party ballot access and participation in national debates. He is currently the Vice-Chairman of the Libertarian National Committee and is on working on a book titled, "Story Pollution," to increase awareness for why American voters continue to support politicians who do not represent their best interests and what can be done to change these views and elect people who are committed to creating a more sustainable world.

• Intelligence Officer (Retired) [United States of America, 1977-1997; Australia, 2001-2008]
• High-tech entrepreneur and corporate executive (Silicon Valley, Wash. D.C., and Overseas [Middle East, Asia/Pacific], 1997-2001)
• Educator (University Lecturer and Asst Professor, Political Science, History, Geography, Physical Science, and Leadership Studies, 1985-present)
• PhD (abd) The Educational Psychology of Leadership Studies in America (1824-2010).

Lee Kierig is an Architect and published author living in Montana. He has been highly involved as an activist for the re-creation of humanity through a functional reckoning of the inherited force philosophy that has only served to oppress the people throughout history by destroying the Public Trusts Domain, all life and Earth. Claimed, principles of Democracy are severely diminished, with the popular sentiment of the people dismissed in favor of the elitist few and corporate control of the governance, while themes of aggression continue unabated and while World population continues growing beyond sustainable limits. Lee has been active toward these causes since the early 80’s, particularly in their relation to achieving True Sustainability. He holds a Masters degree in Architecture and has held positions in local government as President of the local Planning(not) Board; a board member of the Bitterroot Human Rights Alliance and a concerted advocate for Responsible Liberty for all people of Earth.

Knapp serves as the St. Louis County Libertarian Party’s Normandy Township committeeman, and as a federal appointee to my local Selective Service System board. In the 2008 election, he was a candidate for US House Representatives for Missouri’s 2nd District and won 2.3% of the vote.

Editor of TIKKUN magazine

Ward Morehouse is an author, publisher, activist, and a co-founder of POCLAD, an American anti-corporate research collective. Morehouse is a well-known activist who has worked on the Bhopal Gas accident in India and is the founder of Apex Press.

John Murphy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from St. Joseph’s University and an MBA from Drexel University. He was an adjunct professor in the MBA programs at Temple University, Rutgers University and St. Joseph’s University, and he is a past president of the Philadelphia chapter of the American Marketing Association. He was an independent management consultant for 14 years. In 2008, he ran for Congress for PA-16 and lost to Joe Pitts.

Dr. Nissani holds degrees in genetics, philosophy, and psychology. He left genetics in 1980, not wishing to carry out recombinant DNA research. Since then, his research and teaching defy specialization, involving such diverse fields as history, politics, media, science education, history of science, the greenhouse effect, and medicine. During the 1995-96 academic year, he served as a Fulbright Scholar at Tribhuvan University, Nepal and in 2000 served as an advisor to that university’s honors program. He also authored Lives in the Balance: The Cold War and American Politics, 1945-1991 (Hollowbrook Publishing, 1992). [Curriculum vitae]

In 2008, Mr. Oddo ran for Congress in Northern Virginia’s 11th district. He was not elected.

Author of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. New York Times Bestselling Author of Hoodwinked. For more information, see the biographical information posted on his website.

Matt Reichel graduated from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and has been a peace activist, involved with organizations like Illinois Peace Action and National Peace Action, since 2000.  He worked on Dennis Kucinich’s presidential and congressional campaigns in 2008, and in 2009 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in a special election in Ilinois’ fifth congressional district.  He won the Green Party’s primary and won about seven percent of the vote in the general election.

On February 2, 2010, Reichel won the Green Party primary for the same seat, and he is currently running a general election campaign.

Peter Seeger, better known as Pete Seeger, is a folk singer, political activist, and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. As a member of the Weavers, he had a string of hits, including a 1949 recording of Leadbelly’s "Goodnight Irene" that topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950. However, his career as a mainstream performer was seriously curtailed by the Second Red Scare: he came under severe attack as a former member of the Communist Party of the United States of America. Later, he re-emerged on the public scene as a pioneer of protest music in the late 1950s and the 1960s.

Is a writer, activist and social critic who has been at the forefront of new ideas and new politics for more than four decades. He has been editing alternative publications since 1964, longer than almost anyone in the country. He covered the capital during all or part of ten presidencies. Read more here.

Norman Solomon is an American journalist, media critic and antiwar activist. Solomon is longtime associate of the media watch group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR). In 1997 he founded the Institute for Public Accuracy, a national consortium of policy researchers and analysts which works pro-actively to provide alternative sources for journalists, and serves as its executive director. His weekly column, "Media Beat", has been in national syndication since 1992.

In 2008, Stephenson ran for Congress in Michigan’s 10th district. He did not win, but vowed to try again.

Brad Udall is director of Western Water Assessment, one of seven RISA (Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments) programs funded by the Office of Global Programs at NOAA.

Harvey Franklin Wasserman is an author, journalist and advocate for renewable energy. He has been a strategist and organizer in the anti-nuclear movement in the United States for over 30 years. He has been a featured speaker on Today, Nightline, National Public Radio, CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight and other major media outlets. Wasserman is senior advisor to Greenpeace USA and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, an investigative reporter, and senior editor of The Columbus Free Press and freepress.org.

Kent Welton is an author, activist, musician, and artist.

Gilbert Fowler White (1911-2006) was a prominent American geographer, sometimes termed the "father of floodplain management" and the "leading environmental geographer of the 20th century" (Wescoat, 2006).

Byron Williams has spoken throughout the country, he has appeared on numerous television and radio news programs, including CNN, ABC Radio, Fox News, MSNBC, and National Public Radio. He is a featured writer on The Huffington Post, and serves as a member of People for the American Way’s African American Religious Affairs and is religious co-chair for the National Black Justice Coalition.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science; his masters’ thesis at the Pacific School of Religion of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA emphasized a theology of liberation.

Richard Lee Winger has been for the last forty years the leading advocate in the United States for minor political parties, in particular for more equitable laws allowing access to the ballot for minor parties. Though he has no formal education in law, Winger is regarded as a formidable authority on election law, having testified as such in countless court cases across the country, and having been published in journals ranging from the Journal of Election Law to the Fordham Urban Law Review. Since 1985 he has published Ballot Access News, a monthly newsletter covering developments in ballot access law and among the minor parties generally.

Howard Zinn is an American historian, political scientist, social critic, activist and playwright, best known as author of the bestseller A People’s History of the United States.