Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 53; Democratic Party

Peter Thottam is US State Assembly Candidate for the 53rd District. He is a Green Party member and Attorney Peter Thottam residing in Venice, California. The 53rd District includes the Beach Cities of Venice, Mar Vista, Playa Del Rey, Del Rey, Playa Vista, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, Westchester, El Segundo, Lomita, and the city of Torrance.

Peter received his undergraduate degree with honors from Yale University where he majored in both (1) Economics and (2) Ethics, Government & Philosophy. He has a law degree from UC Berkeley's Boalt School of Law and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Business. A longtime activist, a former Democrat and an active member of the Green Party since 1998, Peter was so appalled at the deteriorating media coverage in the USA and so convinced that a tragic and mistaken war with Iraq was pending that he actually resigned from his job as a West LA Corporate Attorney in 2002 in order to focus exclusively on his antiwar work with various antiwar and progressive groups. Peter spent a full year completely dedicated to organizing marches, teach-ins and political lobbying efforts in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York and working actively with ANSWERLA, with the Green Party, Progressive Democrats and with Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace

Born in Africa and coming from an Indian background, Mr. Thottam is also fluent in Spanish. He believes it is critical to internationalize his district's local economy and global sister city outreach efforts as well to encourage cultural cross-communications and understanding for existing residents. He has traveled extensively in Mexico and throughout Africa, South Asia and East Asia. Finally, in addition to his central antiwar platform , Peter's election campaign platform is focused on (1) supporting Shiela Kuehl's universal health care plan initiative, *(2) on creating greater job growth in the region as well as a more dynamic professional services sector in the 53rd District, (3) working with the Green Party and the Sierra Club to encourage regional use of environmentally friendly bio-diesel fuels, and (4) continuing his work with Larry Gross at the Coalition for Economic Survival to come up with plans to encourage the development of affordable housing in the region and to dramatically improve the educational and public-transit transportation infrastructure of the 53rd District.

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What follows is not part of the above intro. However, the below section gives you a high level overview of some of my concerns regarding the direction our country is heading in. See also: http://www.peterthottam.com/53 (campaign website) for further details:

Bush's speeches. Bush Sr./Jrs. and the Neo-Con post Soviet era alliance with the military-industrial complex and Christian-Right was indeed a stroke of genius. The economy is rapidly losing steam, and that the number of Orwellian incidents that have occurred in this administration are unsettling....Very worrisome times, indeed...by design. The media : a veritable farce in its vacuous coverage. Vindictive politicians are, put simply, Orwellian. Pinocchio's nose growing longer

But the important question, has less to do with Pinocchio and more to do with who/what is really "Gepetto" I.e., who is pulling Pinnochio's strings and causing Bush Jr. to play the vain emperor w/ no clothes. Nothing occurs in a vacuum. Those who would castigate the British/US administrations bear the burden of explaining how it was that the American people and its media bought the lie, despite significant evidence that Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. The traditional tactic of blaming public complicity upon a nefarious coalition of Republican-owned media conglomerates only begs the question, as it was the Clinton White House that removed the anti-trust obstacles that allowed such consolidation in the first place. The uglier truth is that most Americans simply did not care who we attacked at that point, and Hussein was as good as the other guy. I do fear the worst. It is all related w/ roots in saving our economy/capital markets as globalization forces wage recalibration. Spectator sports and passive submission to authority structures w/ the Orwellian "support the home-team" subtext. Israel/Lebanon is just a convenient distraction as the Iraq fiasco detiorates (14 yr old rape/family murder, Al-Sadr's growing clout, the Haditha/Falluja fallout) and pre-November '06. Isn't it fascinating, how quickly the country is being led down a road of morphing IraQ into IraN (remember 1984/Oceana?). Military recruits are populated by young mid-Westerners and immigrants -- increasingly -- whose only option for financial survival is fighting a war in which they do not believe. Very worrisome. That's why I decided this year to run for State Assembly. Speak truth to power. Its has to happen. Lamont is a step in the right direction. As is the recent cease fire.

Truth: A shrinking group controls the media and, increasingly, the language and words our media uses to frame the context of national debate. The same group controls foreign policy and, sadly, most major media distribution outlets (bar the Internet). The mass population has been sucker-punched with most people focused on American idol and indoctrinated with short attention spans. Most Americans get distracted so easily. Their focus is the day-to-day. Whether it's debating the ramifications of Cheney on a quail hunt, temporarily getting riled up about a fleeting censure momentum, swift boating, focusing on missing blondes, capturing so called 'insurgents', or watching high speed auto chases and watching televised presentations of local convenience store robbery, or...can you say 'how convenient' .... fearing the Next Terrorist Attack - every day we are distracted and taught to fear.

ps. "Remember the 5th of November...People shouldn't be afraid of their government, governments should be afraid of their people."