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<DIV>Charlie, do you have an alias you would like to tell us about?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><!--StartFragment -->
<H2 style="MARGIN: 20px 0px 0px">10 Pledges to Demand from Democrats</H2>
<H5 style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 20px">By Stephen Pizzo, News for Real<BR>Posted on
October 13, 2005, Printed on October 13,
2005<BR>http://www.alternet.org/story/26759/</H5>
<P>The current issue of <A href="http://thenation.com">The Nation</A> magazine
contains an important essay by Bob Borosage, head of the <A
href="http://ourfuture.org">Center for America's Future</A>. Like many of us,
Bob has spent the last few years watching in awe and shock as the Democrats
triangulated themselves into irrelevancy. With there being no realistic hope a
viable progressive third part will emerge he and other progressive thinkers have
been trying to figure out how to round up our wayward mule team and get it
hitched back to the right wagon.</P>
<P>Bob's article, "<A href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051024/borosage">A
*Real* Contract With America</A>," is an important step in that direction. In it
he lays out a set of clear pledges Democrat candidates can embrace in the
upcoming '06 and '08 races.</P>
<P>Such a "contract" is critical if Democrats are going to once again become a
great party, and here's why. Democrats will regain some seats in both houses in
coming elections. How could they not, considering the mess the GOP has made of
things since becoming the majority party? And therein lies the entire current
platform of the Democrat Party -- "Vote for us because we are not them."</P>
<P>But winning only because the other team committed too many errors is not the
same thing as governing. It's simply being the only other alternative -- the
lesser of evils. And that's not a foundation upon which greatness can be
built.</P>
<P>You hear it every day in Washington: "Democrats have no ideas, no programs,
no deeply held beliefs, no lines in the sand they will not cross." The only
discernible passion Democrats display is a passion to be in power again. But in
power to do what? You tell me. I have no friggin idea, and I deeply suspect
neither do they.</P>
<P>That's why we need to force them to sign a contract with us this time. To put
it bluntly, we don't trust them any longer. They've double-crossed at every
major moment -- on war, on taxes, on the environment, on health care. They took
or votes and our hopes and bargained them away to the enemy for the political
equivalent of nylons, smokes and chocolate bars.</P>
<P>So I took the points Bob listed in his article, "embellished" them and put
them into the form of 10 contractual pledges Democrat candidates can and should
embrace. (To see Bob's original -- un-Pizzo'ed -- list click <A
href="http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051024/borosage/2">here</A>.) Here is my
list, which began as Bob's list, and will hopefully become every Democrat's
list:</P>
<P><B>A Progressive Contract With America</B></P>
<P>If elected to office I promise to fully, enthusiastically and aggressively
work to pass legislation that achieves the following goals:</P>
<P></P>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<P></P>
<P><B>We Will Bring the Troops Home.</B> Our military has been stretched to
the breaking point through a series of unwise deployments, particularly the
war in Iraq. We will begin rebuilding America's all-volunteer military by
first setting a date-certain for withdrawal from Iraq, beginning with National
Guard and reservists. We will pass legislation requiring US troops begin
leaving Iraq at the rate of 15,000 a month. We will work as closely as
possible with Iraqi government officials to make this withdraw orderly while
continuing to provide them the resources needed to train and equip their own
soldiers and police forces.</P>
<P><B>We Will Crack Down on Corruption.</B> The revolving door between
corporate lobbies and high public office must be closed. We will pass
legislation prohibiting legislators, their senior aides and executive branch
political appointees from lobbying for two years after leaving office. We will
let the sun shine into the deepest corners by requiring detailed public
reporting of all contacts between lobbyists and legislators and the timely
posting of such contacts on the Web. We pledge to apply these rules to all,
regardless of party, as one way to take big money out of politics.</P>
<P><B>We Will Make Public Officials Accountable.</B> When public officials
fail to do their job, as in the pre-9/11 and WMD intellegence faliures, we
will require an independent investigation be launched so that no official's
actions, regardless of rank or position, escapes review. We will detail action
on the urgent needs that this Administration has ignored: Improve port
security, bolster first responders and public health capacity, and require
adequate defense planning by high-risk chemical plants. And we will attack
fraud, waste and abuse, beginning with the pork-barrel squandering of national
security funds.</P>
<P><B>We Will Unleash New Energy for America.</B> We understand that the "age
of oil," is nearing an end. Therefore we pledge to launch and fund a concerted
drive towards real energy independence for America. We must approach this task
with the same sense of urgency, funding and attention that the nation gave to
the Manhattan Project. We will focus these efforts solely on mainstreaming
renewable, non-polluting sources of energy such as hydrogen, wind and solar,
with the goal of achieving total energy independence no later than 2020.</P>
<P><B>We Will Rebuild America First.</B> We will pass legislation rescinding
Bush's tax cuts for the already wealthy and corporations in order to create
more jobs here than overseas. We will accomplish that, in part, by using the
additional tax revenue to create good-paying jobs rebuilding America's
decaying infrastructure.</P>
<P><B>We Will Make Work Pay Once Again.</B> There are only three nations on
earth with such a vast disparity between rich and poor, Russia, Mexico and the
United States. It is a disgraceful effect of GOP economic policies that favor
corporations and the wealthy while ignoring hard working Americans. While CEO
pay has moved steadily upward, the pay of working Americans has fallen, in
many cases below the official poverty level. We promise to reverse that trend,
beginning by passing legislation raising the minimum wage to a level that
reflects current economic reality. We will encourage workers, including white
collar workers, to take a hand in their own destinies by joining unions, as
well as becoming shareholders in the companies that employ them and fully
participating in both union and shareholder activities. We will insist that
any companies that receive government contracts pay the prevailing wage.</P>
<P><B>We Will Make Healthcare Affordable.</B> We pledge to fix America's
broken healthcare system, a to do so quickly. We will study and then propose a
single-payer, universal, healthcare system to be in place no later than 2015.
We will also immediately reverse the Republican shameful sellout to the
pharmaceutical industry by empowering Medicare to bargain down drug prices
andallowing people to purchase drugs from safe outlets abroad.</P>
<P><B>We Will Protect Retirement Security.</B> We pledge to strengthen Social
Security. We will not risk Social Security by privatizing it. Instead we will
modernize Social Security by, in part, recognizing that people live and work
longer than they did 75 years ago.We will also modernize the ways the Social
Security Trust Fund is invested to assure it always grows at least as fast as
core inflation. We will also require companies to treat the shop floor like
the top floor when it comes to managing their pensions and healthcare
benefits.</P>
<P><B>We Will Keep the American Dream Alive.</B> We will immediately stop and
reverse current GOP efforts to cut eligibility for college grants and to limit
loans. Instead we will offer a contract to American students: If they graduate
from high school, they will be able to afford college or the higher technical
training needed to be successful in today's economy. We will pay for this by
preserving the estate tax on the wealthiest multimillion-dollar estates in
America.</P>
<P><B>We Will Provide Real Security for America.</B> We will foster and lead
an aggressive international alliance to track down stateless terrorists,
capture or kill them and confiscate their assets. Captured terrorists will be
always be treated in accordance with international law. We will increase
efforts and funding to track down and secure "loose nukes." We will detail
action on the urgent needs that this Administration has ignored: Improve port
security, bolster first responders and public health capacity, and require
adequate defense planning by high-risk chemical plants. We will also affirm
the reality that no nation can ever be secure as long as its borders are not.
We will bring order and security to our borders by increasing border patrols
and controls and by instituting a fair, manageable and humane guest worker
program. We will also aggressively prosecute employers who employ or exploit
illegal immigrant workers.</P>
<P></P>
<P>Date:______________________</P>
<P>Candidate:______________________________________</P>
<P></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P></P>
<P>So, maybe you should email or mail this to your elected representative and
let him/her know that, if they intend to run for re-election the price of your
vote is their signature on this document. </P>
<P><I>Stephen Pizzo is the author of numerous books, including "Inside Job: The
Looting of America's Savings and Loans," which was nominated for a
Pulitzer.</I></P>
<P></P>
<H5 style="MARGIN: 30px 0px 20px">© 2005 Independent Media Institute. All rights
reserved.<BR>View this story online at: <A
href="http://www.alternet.org/story/26759/">http://www.alternet.org/story/26759/</A></H5>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 30px 0px 20px"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 30px 0px 20px"> </DIV></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ChasMauch@aol.com
href="mailto:ChasMauch@aol.com">ChasMauch@aol.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=macdoggie02@yahoo.com
href="mailto:macdoggie02@yahoo.com">macdoggie02@yahoo.com</A> ; <A
title=discuss@paa-tx.org
href="mailto:discuss@paa-tx.org">discuss@paa-tx.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, September 29, 2005 7:18
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [PAA-Discuss] REPUBLICAN
CONTRACT WITH AMERICA</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT id=role_document face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>Yes, the Republican's "Contract with America" was a total farce
since there were no enforcement provisions. A contract is
worthless if there are no real penalties for violating its
terms. They just put it out on a "trust us" basis and of course
they turned out not to be trustworthy.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But the basic idea is still good and one I think the Dems should pick up
on. The really scary thing about our present situation is that no matter how
bad the Repubs get, the Dems are not able to take advantage because most
people do not know what they stand for (if anything) and don't think they
would be much better. They just have no confidence in them either.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I think if the Dems would put out a list of things they are for -
not the longwinded laundry list of everything for everybody in
the national platform - signed and notarized by all of them with a pledge
to resign it they can be shown to have violated their pledge, they might have
some credibility. But of course they can't do that because they probably could
never agree on what they stand for and would not have the backbone
to stand up for all the things that the nation despeartely
needs such as ending the war, a sane foreign policy, campaign finance
reform, nuclear control and disarmament, a living wage, verifiable voting,
environmental protection, a reasonable energy policy, and on and on and
on.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>No matter how corrupt and incompetent the Repubs are (and there seems to
be no limit to that) the Dems can't hope to win just by not
being Repubs. They need to come up with something dramatically
different that will inspire confidence, and hopelessly confused
Republican lites like Kerry are not the answer. Maybe we need to do
it for them - create a movement to generate a real Contact with America
and demand that they all sign on to it. If properly drawn, I'll bet it
would attract the vast majority who have just about given up hope.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Charlie M</DIV></FONT>
<P>
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