FROM CECIL BOTHWELL

Cecil Bothwell, who announced his congressional bid on March 27, has decided to enter the 2012 Democratic primary. "I originally believed that the best way to address issues too long ignored, and to challenge the corporate power over the national parties was to run as an independent," Bothwell explained. "But I've heard from hundreds of people, from WNC to Washington, DC, who believe the most likely path to success is up the middle instead of trying for an end-run. Groups are smarter than individuals, and I'm following advice gleaned from a wide network of friends and supporters."

Bothwell believes that his platform positions span the political spectrum and will find wide appeal:

• Boost support for mothers and children, retool EIC and fully fund public education through college
• Fix NAFTA, CAFTA and other trade deals or dump them and bring jobs home via tariffs
• Slash military spending, end the wars of choice
• Voter-owned elections—don't sell government to the highest bidders
• End the failed war on drugs—we can't even keep drugs out of prisons
• Medicare should be the public option for all
• No more corporate personhood—overturn Citizens United
• Main Street comes first—stop shoveling money to the welfare kings on Wall Street
• Devalue the U.S. Dollar

He explains: "We need better programs for mothers (or primary care-givers) and their children, from pre-natal through 16 years of public education, we should fund family planning and programs that protect women from violence;

NAFTA, CAFTA and other trade agreements need to be renegotiated to protect workers and the environment—if trading partners don't agree, tariffs are needed to create jobs in America;

We need to end the mid-east wars, bring our soldiers home and reduce military spending, we need national defense, we're not the world's policeman, we can close hundred of foreign bases;

We've got to get the money out of politics with voter-owned, publicly financed elections;

The war on drugs has failed for a century and devastated our society, we need to end that war and try a new approach with legalization, regulation, taxation and education;

Medicare should be open to anyone, it's the public option missing from the new health care plan;

We need to stop treating corporations like natural people—they are artificial entities set up to protect owners from liability. The welfare kings on Wall Street are beggaring American workers."