"I have not yet begun to fight!"

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Friday, June 20, 2014

Oregon Progressive Party

Progressive Party Positions

Progressive Party Positions
We are VERY different from the Establishment parties.
Our 2012 Voters Pamphlet Statement

	Dem	Rep	Progressive
Real campaign finance reform	NO	NO	YES
Oppose extension of income tax cuts for the rich	NO	NO	YES
Oppose Wall Street bailouts	NO	NO	YES
Oppose Cuts in Social Security Benefits	NO	NO	YES
Employment for All (WPA style)	NO	NO	YES
Increase minimum wage to living wage ($10 or more)	NO	NO	YES
Single Payer comprehensive health care	NO	NO	YES
Oppose Cuts in Medicare Coverage	NO	NO	YES
End wars in Iraq and Afghanistan	NO	NO	YES
Oppose use of mercenaries ("contractors")	NO	NO	YES
Cut military spending	NO	NO	YES
Equal rights for all; same-sex marriage	NO	NO	YES
Oppose NAFTA & WTO; encourage local sourcing of products & services	NO	NO	YES
Oppose spying on American civilians	NO	NO	YES
End occupation of Palestine	NO	NO	YES
Oppose shipping coal for export through Columbia Gorge	NO	NO	YES
Oppose offshore drilling	NO	NO	YES
Clean energy; no nuclear	NO	NO	YES
Repair, improve infrastructure (transportation, water systems, etc.)	NO	NO	YES
End the drug war	NO	NO	YES
End the Senate filibuster; restore majority rule	NO	NO	YES
End “corporate personhood”	NO	NO	YES

OREGON ISSUES
1)    We have worked for real campaign finance reform, not the phony bills promoted by the Democrats and Republicans, both of which opposed the 2006 Oregon campaign finance reform ballot measures.
2)    We want a State Bank to invest in jobs for Oregonians and to stop the State Treasurer and the Oregon Investment Council from jumping into bed with corporate raiders and fast-buck artists who lavish luxury travel and gifts on State employees.
3)    We want fair taxation. Oregon has the 4th highest income taxes of any state on lower-income working families and is still at the bottom in taxes on corporations.
4)    We want to stop government promotion of gambling (including video poker and video slots) and stop giving away $100 million per year in ridiculously high commissions to shops with video machines.
5)    We want to make the initiative and referendum again available to grass-roots efforts, instead of making it so complicated and expensive that only corporations and unions can afford to use it.
6)    We want to improve K-12 public education by giving parents and teachers more rights to manage their neighborhood schools.
7)    We want social justice systems that are inclusive and that promote responsibility, safety, trust-building and equality.

8)    We advocate abolishing the Oregon Senate, leaving the 60-member Oregon House of Representatives. Splitting the Legislature into two bodies allows both of them to play games and avoid responsibility.
9)    We want the Oregon Legislature to adopt the National Popular Vote plan so that Presidents are elected by popular vote.

What exactly does the party

Submitted by Rhys Campbell (not verified) on Thu, 09/16/2010 - 11:34.

What exactly does the party mean when they say that they oppose the use of mercenaries. Because the entire U.S. military today is made up of mercenary soldiers. They are paid to fight for our country. By opposing mercenaries, does the Progressive Party oppose the use of these people paid to fight? Do they want a strictly volunteer army? Or is it that they want the U.S. to stop using private armies run by individuals?

Progressive Party opposes military private contractors

Submitted by info on Wed, 09/29/2010 - 17:35.

Our shorthand "oppose use of mercenaries" means that we oppose the U.S. military hiring private companies to kill people or "provide security." It is not a comment about a volunteer army. We also advocate the quickest possible withdrawal of all foreign military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Generally it's a politics and

Submitted by Dvd Player (not verified) on Sat, 02/12/2011 - 07:30.

Generally it's a politics and it's there since then. It's a very old brand new things to us. It repeats again and again. The bottom line is what we can do the best is to help our nation. Let change starts at ourselves and spread it eventually. Big change always has a small beginning.

American Extremists

MovetoAmend U.S. Constitution to Control Big Money in Politics

Submitted by info on Sun, 06/08/2014 - 01:58

Big special interest money and national/multinational corporations dominates the political process. We need our democracy back! Now!
It is time to amend the U.S. Constitution.
This Public Service Announcement directs you to Movetoamend.org to support amending the constitution to say the corporations are not people and money in politics is not speech and should be regulated.
Produced by David Delk and Geoff Holland.

Simpsons on the Two Party Duopoly

Submitted by info on Tue, 04/15/2014 - 16:05

Period Opens for Suggesting Nominees for State Council

Submitted by info on Sat, 06/07/2014 - 03:44

The Oregon Progressive Party's State Council has initiated the 21-day period during which Members or Supporters of the Party may submit to the State Council proposed nominations for the 5 State Councilor positions to be elected this summer.
These are volunteer, unpaid positions. One is for 1 year, one for 2 years, one for 3 years, one for 4 years, and one for 5 years. After this year, one State Council position will be up for election each year.
Please send the names (and, if possible, email addresses) of proposed nominees to info@progparty.org on or before June 28, 2014.
The 16 categories of duties of the State Council, as stated in the Bylaws, are:

Appointing officers and senior advisers;
Managing day-to-day activities of the operation of the Party;
Budgeting and finances, including seeking contributions and assisting candidate's fundraising efforts;

Oregon could follow Vermont on universal healthcare Me

Submitted by DavidDelk on Mon, 05/26/2014 - 23:06

Single payer universal healthcare could happen in Oregon. But before it can, a study, which has already been authorized by the Oregon legislature, must be conducted. But that study is not moving forward. You can help get it moving. Read what must be done in this piece by Dr. Samuel Metz, one of the Mad As Hell Doctors and Health Care For All Oregon. The Oregon Progressive Party is a strong supporter of HCAO.
HB 3260: the study that gets Oregon one step closer to universal health care needs your help
Do you want universal health care in Oregon? www.OregonStudy.org moves our state one step further, and here’s why.

More Comments on Proposed "Portland Water District"

Submitted by info on Mon, 05/05/2014 - 10:08

by Dan Meek
5/3/2014
This is also posted at http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/05/portland_public_water_district_8.html.
I just received a very misleading big postcard from the "yes" campaign on this measure. Nearly every statement in the postcard has already been refuted in my op-ed at http://tinyurl.com/meek-oped-water or is otherwise untrue or misleading.
The postcard shows a desert and says "Phoenix has lower water rates than Portland." First, a comparison of "water rates" alone leaves out the elements that comprise most of the "water" bills, which are charges for sewer and stormwater disposal. Second, there are many cities with lower water rates than Portland and many cities with higher water + disposal rates, including just on the west coast (for typical residential usage levels): Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, and Oakland. See Black & Veatch, 50 Largest Cities Water/Wastewater Rate Survey (2012/2013).
But if you want to look at just water rates, the same survey shows that Portland has lower commercial water rates than even Phoenix, whether the customer is using 100,000 gallons or 10 million gallons per month.
The postcard claims that Portland "water rates have risen 161% since 2000." There is no source cited for this, and I can locate nothing that supports it apart from a USA Today article in September 2012, which also states that water rates during that period have risen in San Francisco by 211% and San Diego by 141%. The article itself states: "Local water costs vary widely because of geography, climate, population, a water company's borrowing costs and other factors. That makes it virtually impossible to compare one city's water costs to another's."

Dan Meek Op-Ed on "Water District" Measure

Submitted by info on Thu, 05/01/2014 - 19:35

The "Water District" Measure is a Corporate Takeover
of Portland’s Water and Sewer Systems
Note: This op-ed appeared in the Portland Tribune on May 1, 2014. What follows is slightly annotated version.
For 27 years, I have helped create new publicly-controlled utilities in Oregon, including the Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative, now the largest electric cooperative in Oregon (annual revenue $48 million).
Measure 26-156 is not a typical "public district" creation measure. Instead, it grafts onto the existing City of Portland water and sewer systems a 7-person Board of directors that can set rates, borrow money to be repaid by Portland taxpayers, sell property, and decide how to use the existing $19 billion of assets in those systems and who pays the $682 million of annual costs.
The new 7-person Board would be elected half the time in low-turnout odd-year elections, as each term would be 3 years. There would be no limits on campaign spending by any persons or entities. I would expect the big corporate water/sewer users to get together in private, select their candidates, and overwhelm the voters with political ads. After all, they have provided over 99% of the funds for this campaign, including the paid signature gathering. See http://tinyurl.com/waterdistbackers and http://tinyurl.com/wdbackers2.

Siltronic Corp. is both by far the largest user of Portland water and the largest contributor to the campaign (30% of the total).

The resulting corporate-dominated Board would likely:
(1) gut expenditures necessary for environmental protection, and
(2) increase rates for residential customers in order to decrease rates for the largest customers.

IRS Targeted Progressive Groups More Than Tea Party Groups

Submitted by info on Thu, 04/24/2014 - 03:37

ThinkProgress reports from a series of IRS documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act:

The 22 “Be On the Look Out” keywords lists, distributed to [IRS] staff reviewing [nonprofit status] applications between August 12, 2010 and April 19, 2013, included more explicit references to progressive groups, ACORN successors, and medical marijuana organizations than to Tea Party entities.

Princeton Study finds U.S. is Oligarchy

Submitted by info on Fri, 04/18/2014 - 14:44

Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy
BBC
April 17, 2014
The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite.
So concludes a recent study by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page.
This is not news, you say.
Perhaps, but the two professors have conducted exhaustive research to try to present data-driven support for this conclusion. Here's how they explain it:

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

In English: the wealthy few move policy, while the average American has little power.

Dr. Don Show Features "No" on Portland "Water District" Measure

Submitted by info on Thu, 04/17/2014 - 17:22

Conversations with Dr. Don will air, starting on Tuesday, April 22, a 1-hour show with Dan Meek. The first half is about the Portland "Water District" measure on the May 20 ballot and includes these slides [or this PDF version of the slides].
Portland Area Broadcast Schedule
Portland, OR metropolitan area: Tuesday 11pm Channel 11
Washington County, OR area (Channel 21):
Friday 8pm
Saturday 1am Saturday 9am
Sunday 3pm
Monday 6am Monday 1pm
It is also at https://www.youtube.com/user/friendlydon1.

Simpsons on Democrats Always Giving Up

Submitted by info on Tue, 04/15/2014 - 16:01