Attention: Linn County Precinct Committee Persons (PCP's) It is time for our PCP's to refile for their positions. The filing deadline is March 11, 2008. To get on the ballot you need to fill out filing form SEL 105. You can get a copy of the form by clicking here . Our PCP status: Linn county has 78 precincts. There are 34 PCP's registered with the Linn County Clerk's office. Of these four have moved or are moving from Linn County, and four others for various reasons have become inactive. This leaves us with a potential of 28 PCP's. Of these 12 people are covering the same precinct leaving only 16 precincts out of 78 precincts represented by a party representative. Thus we only 25% of our precincts have PCP representation. A little know fact is that if a given precinct has at least one PCP then another person living within that same precinct may apply to become a PCP in an adjacent precinct with no representation. We have several persons who could apply for a PCP in an adjacent PCT. If you are a PCP in one of the following precincts please contact Loyd Henion (541-926-4061 or email lhenion@comcast.net) to see if you the adjacent precinct you can file for ( These are Precincts 1, 35, 37, 44, 47, 52, 75, and 104. By filing for adjacent precincts we can stretch our outreach and coverage of the county. Important: We are actively seeking new PCP's. Please consider becoming a PCP and help us turn Linn County Blue. For any questions about the roles of PCPs, call Loyd Henion, Chair Linn County Democrats. This is such an important year and our local party needs your support. |
Quotations:
Peace
is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition
for benevolence; confidence; and justice. The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own country - Martin Luther King
Because
I do it with one small ship, I am called a terrorist. You do it with
a whole fleet and are called an emperor.
In a world
of war, waging peace is perhaps the Our best hope is to recognize the contribution of our own foreign policy to the reasons "why they hate us." Then we can begin to reverse some pernicious trends, the "fruits" of which were apparent on 9-11. NO ONE accepts the manner in which our attackers showed their hate. Their reasons, however, have been purposefully misrepresented by the Bush administration. The president claims that world terrorists "hate us because of our freedoms." But read the statement of a Viet Nam combat pilot, addressed to then President Clinton. Statement of Robert Bowman Mr Bowman states: "We are the target of terrorists because, in much of the world, our government stands for dictatorship, bondage and human exploitation. We are the target of terrorists because we are hated. And we are hated because our government has done hateful things." So we are hated because, while we operate from the unassailable mandate of our freedom, our international actions all too frequently delay or destroy freedom for many around the globe. We are not hated because of our freedoms. We are hated because we vigorously advertise our freedoms BUT prevent others from achieving the same for themselves. This section is an introduction to the disturbing truth of our chronic and frequent intrusions into the affairs of other sovereign nations across the world. Unless we learn the difficult history we will be unable and unmotivated to prevent its repetition. As a nation we must disentangle the terms "national defense" and "national security." The first is about secure borders the second is ever more blatantly being used to rationalize deadly adventures to secure cheap raw materials and labor. Of course, we must fight to defend ourselves but we also hope that fighting to exploit others be rejected as an accepted American value. As the nation with the largest military (by far), and too many "resolutions" to use it, we are the world's very best chance to lead the process toward peace. US military troops are loyal, brave, obediant and skilled in their service to America. All too often, however, they are given unwise and unjustifiable missions that increase our risk rather than diminish it. Much grief has been delivered in your name, paid by your tax dollar, probably, entirely without your knowledge. This may be a difficult section to accept. But please try. Who else but you, really, can do anything about it? Contact information for local peace-waging practitioners:
Albany
Peace Seekers:
Institute
for Peace and Justice at LBCC:
How
Do We Respond To...
Required
Reading
Web sites:
Arms
Control Association Interview with Chalmers Johnson The Basic Statistics of US Imperialism Use of US Forces Abroad 1798-1993 The Arithmetic of US Military Bases Abroad Iraq Confidential: Ritter and Hersh
How
we would fight China Definition of War Crime - US Code Intelligence, policy and the war in Iraq Books: Target Iran: the truth about the White House's plan for regime change in Iran Fiasco: the American military adventure in Iraq Devil's Game: How the United States unleashed fundamentalist Islam In the Name of Democracy : American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced By War Dying to Win, Logic of Suicide Terrorism
War
Made Easy The Psychology of War : Comprehending Its Mystique and Its Madness
Commentary
When
war criminals retire
Time
to talk war crimes What has the US wrought in the Middle East? Secret war plans and the malady of American militarism
Bush
rendition program --interview M. Scheuer A history of our violence in the Middle East Will NeoCon fanaticism destroy America The phony war against the war's critics Ending suicide terrorism, Ron Paul
An
Economists's case against an
News
12-11: Israel readies for strike on nuclear Iran 11-28: Chemical in Iraq sparks debate - LA Times 11-26: Amnesty Intn'l against UK torture policy 11-22: Phosphorus clouds bring war crimes 11-21: Pentagon document calls white phosphorous a chemical weapon, when used by Saddam 11-21 Can nuclear attack on Iran be prevented 11-17 Eyes on US Troops in Paraguay as Bolivian elections near 11-16 Iraq probes phosphorous weapons
11-14
The EU will investigate CIA secret prisons. Link 11-14: Arbitrary detentions, secret prisons, torture: accusations against the United States pile up. 11-15 Pentagon confirms phosphorous use 11-15 IUK: Account of chemical weapon use 11-09 IUK: US Criticized for use of chemical weapon 11-08 WP: High Court to Hear War Powers Case 11-08 Nuclear Arms Inspectors Win Nobel Prize 9-11 WP: Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan
Organizations
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Citizens for Accountability for Iraq Project Against the Present Danger Universal Declaration of Human Rights
So
Why Do They Hate US?
Devil's
Game: How the US helped It's what we do 1-08-06 Now are best allies can hate us too Robert Bowman, to Clinton 1998 10-26 Only US Seeks to Justify Abuse: Human Rights Watch 7-05: Central Asian States ask US Military to Leave 6-18 US Trained and Aided Uzbek Forces War Crimes US Code, Title 18, Part I, Chapter 118, § 2441 war crimes Convention (IV) Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land Signed at The Hague, 18 October 1907
Geneva
Convention (I) 1949
Geneva
Convention (III) 1949 Geneva Conventions - essential rules
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"I
hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations,
which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength
and bid defiance to the laws of our country." The corporation has evolved. The precursor of the modern corporation emerged in the 1500s as European trading companies. Initially the corporation was a business venture created for a specific purpose, for a defined time period, registered with appropriate government, under rigid regulation. Now we have everlasting mega-corporations whose financial activities dwarf those of many nations. The Bush administration's prime "value" is the elimination of remaining controls over the public effects of corporate activities. Over history the corporation has achieved the legal status of a person. This allows corporations to share our free speech rights and, therefore, to influence political campaigns. This has lead to the legal fiction that money (the corporation's specialty) is speech. This corporate participation in the political process has flourished, especially in the last 25 years of "Reaganism." Corporate lobbyists write legislation, lately, to abolish the government's right to negotiate for lower drug costs. The individual's legal access to courts for damages from harmful products is steadily diminished. Environmental protection legislation is under attack to protect corporate profit instead. And most pernicious of all, "wars of choice" are launched as profit opportunities for favorite corporate donors or even corporate employees, like Dick Cheney who gets as much per year from his old employer, Halliburton, as he gets for his Vice-President's salary. Each election cycle reveals more influence of corporate money in the process. The problem, of course, is that the corporation, internally, is an entity run in a clearly anti-democratic manner. Yes, stockholders do "vote their shares" but this is simply the corporation's preferred "one dollar-one vote" philosophy, which it has effectively promoted to erode the "one person-one vote" pillar of our political system. International "free trade" agreements grant corporations a right to profit backed by a theory similar to our Measure 37: payment to the wealthy to follow the law, or else suspend the law. The trade agreements state that any law, in any jurisdiction, must be suspended if it interferes with corporate profit. If the jurisdiction does not want to suspend the problem law, then the corporation must be directly paid its predicted profits by the local jurisdiction. Article The corporate advertising machine promotes company products, to the extreme. Obnoxious as products ads are, they are accompanied by massive public relations programs to sell the corporate image itself. From childhood we are bombarded with messages to create loyalty to the preferred "brands." Worse, we are flooded with such fantasies as: large oil corporations are concerned with preservation of the environment or Wal Mart is concerned about its employees. The ultimate justification for the unquestioned acceptance of the corporate mind set is that such massive companies provide so many jobs. The fact is that small business provides the vast majority of our economy's jobs. And, as the mega-corporations accelerate their exportation of US-based jobs to foreign countries, they destroy any need for citizens to accept the lies they have promoted for some time: that they continue to be beneficial to the country, it citizens and its democratic process. We fail our families, our communities, our country and ourselves if fail to question the growing negative influence of the trans-national corporation on the lives of American citizens. Perhaps the first step is a constitutional amendment to establish that corporations are NOT persons!
This
link is to a preview of Thom Hartmann's book on the issue: Further reading below. Links are underlined Web Sites Corporate Personhood @ Reclaim Democracy
News
1-31-06: Oil executives refuse to testify at Senate hearings Reuters 1-31-06: ATT protected by "security" issues? CNET 12-09: Firestone's slave-condition lawsuit. One World US 11-20: Enron defense has its work cut out. USA Today Articles Bush clears way for corporate dominance How corporate America perpetuates the heath care crisis The Supremacy of the Super-Citizen Controlling Corporations and Restoring Democracy Gulf firms losing contracts to "large, out-of-state corporations." Corporate Control of Democracy Oregon corporations' stealth tax break "Public Use" for corporate profit Telecom Corps are "well connected" Books
1) Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: John Perkins 2) The Corporation: The pathological pursuit of profit and power, Joel Bakan, ISBN 0-7432-4744-2 3) The Post-Corporate World: Life after capitalism, David C. Korten, ISBN 1-57675-051-5 4) When Corporations Rule the World, David C. Korten, ISBN 1-8872-0804-6 5) Parecon (Participatory economics): Life after capitalism, Michael Albert, ISBN 1-85984-698-X 6) After Capitalism: From managerialism to workplace democracy, Seymour Melman, ISBN 0-679-41859-8 7) Eco-Economy: Building an economy for the earth, Lester R. Brown, ISBN 0-393-32193-2 8 ) Plan B: Rescuing a planet under stress and a civilization in trouble, Lester R. Brown, ISBN 0-393-32523-7
9) Myth America: Democracy vs. Capitalism, Willaim Boyer
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"You
can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few, or you can have
democracy. You can't have both." "The hundreds of billions of dollars spent on commercial propaganda make a mockery of any notion of markets based on information and rational actors; the whole system is designed to suppress honest information and promote irrational behavior." Robert Jensen ----
This may be a reason such a large portion of Americans seem to vote "against their own interests." If one believes the misrepresentation that loving democracy means one must love capitalism, as we know it, then one is much less likely to expect the government to address the effects on the populace of the "excesses" of the economic system. The Bush administration is the "MBA administration" and it lives and broadcasts this misrepresentation. It seems to have come to office primarily to exploit the "economy equals government" fallacy. While the Bush administration's behavior is perhaps consistent with an extreme capitalism, it is highly suspect and detrimental to the populace as a whole. The Bush group is efficiently using the power of the government for personal financial enrichment for themselves and their crony supporters.
It's "all
tax cuts all the time" for the ultra-rich. Profiteering is rampant
both in a "war of choice" and in disaster recovery. To increase
profits on no bid contracts, many to Halliburton, Mr Bush, in an Executive
Order, suspended fair wage laws for the gulf region that is full of
new homeless who obviously need work at decent pay. (Later he reversed
this order.) The Secretary of Defense is Chairman of the Board of the
company that will not offer nor be asked, to suspend its patent for
the only recommended medicine for the "bird flu." Prescription
drug "reform" took away the government's power to Since 1980, the real wages of American workers have actually decreased. The proportion of both federal and state tax revenues have decreased for corporations and increased for individuals. The US manufacturing industry is increasingly being exported to foreign countries. For each year of the Bush administration there has been an increase in the number of Americans living in poverty. The gap between the rich and poor continues to grow. The Bush administration has demonstrated many effective techniques to widen that gap! "In the 21st century the US economy has ceased to generate net new jobs in middle and upper middle class professions. This is a serious economic, social and political problem that receives no attention ... This process of substituting foreign workers for American workers cannot go on for too long before the US consumer market dies from lack of income and purchasing power. US policymakers have no clue. " Paul Craig Roberts At the beginning of 2000 Bill Gates was worth $100 Billion. This represented the combined net worth of the poorest 45% of the population of the United States, as here . That means about 125 million Americans have an average net worth of a measley $800 !!?? (You probably pay more than that for your yearly phone bill.) Compare this disgraceful figure with the current individual share of the national debt of $24,000 per person. US citizens can and must reclaim their legitimate control over the economic system before it proceeds to the ugly, logical conclusion of the so-called "Reagan Revolution" so eagerly fostered by Bush, essentially a system of neo-feudalism. An "economy" is the system by which people allocate available resources. We must aim to promote a better distribution of our vast resources among all Americans and to reverse the current, sometimes legal, process of concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands.
Links:
Labor
Oregon
AFL-CIO
NW
Labor Press
Buy
Union!
News
and Commentary
Outsourcing
more harmful than all worlds terrorists
What
recovery 4-12-06 Government Depts, Councils Organizations US Gov't link page: "Economy and Trade"
Bureau
of Labor Statistics Resources
CIA
World Fact Book
Think
Tanks
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US citizens usually defer to the federal government in matters about which they know only little. This is especially true for foreign policy. This explains the ease with which the Bush administration managed to sell its war in Iraq. But, Mr Bush, fresh off "re-election" as "war-president," stumbled pathetically as he travelled the country for months to sell his plan to "reform" Social Security. This, by contrast to foreign policy, is an issue about which the average citizen knows a good deal. This is because the program touches so many lives. Mr Bush never offered a specific alternative to Social Security but only general gloomy warnings and a vague program of private investments. The more people heard the President say "I know all this stuff sounds really complicated ..." the less they trusted him to touch their expected retirement incomes. His popularity numbers began to drop and no legislation was presented by the Republican majority in Congress. Below is a listing of websites and articles that outline the operation of the Social Security system and news about the effort for "reform." Note: links are underlined below. Social Security Administration General Description of Social Security
Think Tank Analysis Center on Budget & Policies Priorities
Center for Economic
& Policy Research |