The Democratic presidential field has a new anti-war candidate as a late entry. Progressive blogger and millionaire businessman Dal LaMagna has entered the field on a progressive and anti-war platform. LaMagna, who sold his company in 2004 for $50 million, is a founding partner and a progressive blogger at The Huffington Post and the producer of three feature length Iraq War movies: The Ground Truth, The War Tapes, and Iraq For Sale. He was co-Chair of US Senator Maria Cantwell's reelection campaign and a confidante of Congressman Jim McDermott.
LaMagna, a self-described "progressive capitalist" who gave his employees a 10 percent stake in the ownership and sale of Tweezerman Corp., has been focused almost exclusively on ending the war in Iraq. He got a mention in a New York Times story this week for his role hosting a Sunni Arab member of the Iraqi Parliament at his home in Washington, DC. LaMagna says "being a presidential candidate has been helpful" in his quest to help Iraqis secure their country.
Dal LaMagna, anti-war activist, wealthy businessman, blogger and confidante to Rep. Jim McDermott and members of the Iraqi Parliament, is running for president.LaMagna confirmed just now that he will run and his Web site has gone live. The campaign also e-mailed potential supporters today saying an announcement will come soon.
Dal LaMagna, a businessman and political advocate, recognizes the importance of listening to Iraqi voices. He feels that most Americans do not believe what they hear from the Bush administration regarding what is actually happening in Iraq and they suspect Western media's reporting on the crisis. So last August he joined the Global Exchange/CodePink Peace Delegation which met with a slate of Iraqis in Amman, Jordan. Then, the day after the November election he returned to Amman with Congressman Jim McDermott to hear voices from throughout the Middle East including Iraqis. Both times Members of Iraq's Parliament were interviewed. He video-taped these meetings and so he could share the interviews with the rest of us through power point presentations. His mission was to put Members of Congress and Americans in the room with these people.I interviewed Dal recently and he took me and Linda Schade, the executive director of VotersForPeace.US, through a power point presentation of August trip to Jordan.
In August, a delegation of peace activists, including Code Pink and YES! board member Dal LaMagna, traveled to Jordan to hear from Iraqi leaders what they think it would take to end the violence.It turns out, the Iraqi leadership have some pretty clear ideas, and LaMagna wanted to present them to people back in the United States. From more than 16 hours of video footage taken during the discussion, he compiled an interactive presentation in which Iraqis speak for themselves about the keys to restoring peace. The meetings also led to the Iraq Reconciliation Plan.
In November, LaMagna returned to Jordan, this time with Congressman Jim McDermott of Washington state, to meet with members of the Iraqi parliament and also ambassadors and leaders from other Middle East countries.