Progressive & Environmental Party

Welcome to the Progressive and Environmental Party, this page was the gateway to the group but myspace has deleted the group. Go figure.
Update 05/12/08 Google these words or similar, qualifications public office forms states, you can find the information and the forms you need to run for public office.
Inflation is my update topic for 05/09/08 By the way I'm not actually 73, I'm 53, 73 years ago the new deal was born. Anyhow I remember when Jimmy Carter was president everyone was freaking over an inflation rate of over 10%. The method for calculating inflation changes and I don't pretend to understand it all but some things are obvious even to us common folk. The Fed's inflation gauge isn't realistic. Rising food prices and energy prices are not regarded as inflation; it is seen as a change in relative prices. Consumers are worse off but some others are better off. Housing prices are down but how does that help anyone who is not in the market? Credit creation has been inflationary, but hasn't shown up in consumer price inflation because it's been hiding in asset prices. The Fed's are going to pause so the world is A-OK and core inflation is only 2% to 4.4%. That's what the media keeps spewing so it must be correct, right? In the Real Ecomony inflation is rampant. In the Real Economy when everything we buy costs more and we're making the same amount of money, we define that as "inflation". What is the true annual inflation rate using the methodology from 1935? Probably 34%. Headline: Era of cheap food and energy ends as prices surge!Those in the False Economy of government statistics and endless acronyms may have differing definitions, but even they know it is just semantics. Coastal homeowners recently had a 85% increase in home owners insurance, essentially paying for Katrina and Florida's hurricane problems. Health insurance rose about 10%, Food is up around 15%, gas around 60%, airfares around 15%, Heating oil 80%, Clothing/footwear about 5%, eating out about 12%. School is up about 10%. What for normal life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have I left out? To anyone who isn't a total idiot it's obvious the 4.4% cpi figure is nonsense. That's why were seeing the plethora of attacks on the integrity of the numbers. As I said, I don't pretend to understand the models they use but as my set of examples demonstrates they are a joke. It would help if we stimulated the economy to actually produce products instead of asset bubbles. But the very rich can't benefit that way, since they would actually have to pay people to do that.
Update Apr. 12, 08. Socialism means a lot of different things to different people. Many volumes have been written about what it means or does not mean. To me it means many things, but one thing especially drives me. The class thing. I don't think life should be so difficult for wage slaves. Nor do I think there should be any such things as filthy rich, or government for hire. A quick note to everyone who did anything mean or cruel today, let's all stop doing bad stuff. Ted
Update Apr. 3, 08. If the republicans keep unraveling the way they have been we will have a historic moment to fill the vacuum. Imagine a Socialist Party in this nation for real, in our lifetime. But we must work for it. Ted
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Update March 28, 08. For those who freak out about the Che photo below, no, I don’t think God is actually Che, I actually think God is a blue guy and his girlfriend. Now I have a quote from Al Franken from his book, the truth. From the chapter about Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Saipan and the rip-off of the American Indian tribes I quote "It was about personal gain. Living high off the unspeakable misery of the poor and the powerless." Everyone should read this book. Everyone is a socialist at heart and this book will bring that out. Just my thought for the day. Ted
Platform of the Progressive and Environmental Party
1. The state or private sectors shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of employment, education, or contracting. We believe in people’s rights, all people, power to the people.
2. The Progressive and Environmental Party recognizes the rights of animals to live free from unnecessary pain and suffering, and the responsibility of people to protect those rights.
3. We support greater inclusion and enforcement of the Endangered Species Act.
4. We call for a ban on animal experimentation for product development, and for an oversight board to examine and limit the use of animals in scientific and medical research.
5. We oppose factory farming practices of overcrowding, drugging, and otherwise cruelly treating animals.
6. We call for public ownership and democratic control of all our natural resources in order to conserve resources, preserve our wilderness areas, and restore environmental quality.
7. The U.S. must immediately return to participation in international agreements, such as the Kyoto Protocol, limiting carbon emissions, and accept a major role in worldwide efforts to control global warming.
8. We call for placing full financial responsibility on private companies for prevention and clean up of their own toxic wastes and for full compensation of workers and residents adversely affected by environmental hazards.
9. We oppose any new nuclear power projects and call for a ban on the export of nuclear technology.
10. We support the recycling of glass, metals, plastic, paper, and chemicals and the use of recycled materials for public works projects such as roadways, parks, and playgrounds.
11. We support large-scale environmental restoration efforts.
12. We call for the United States to immediately and unconditionally withdraw its forces from Iraq.
13. We call for an international treaty outlawing all weapons of mass destruction, including the use of depleted uranium in conventional weapons.
14. We call for an immediate 40% cut in the military budget, followed by additional cuts, with the aim of rapidly reducing the military budget to less than 30% of its current level, with the "peace dividend" directed to essential social services.
15. We recognize the right of students to a free, quality education in a safe and supportive environment, and of all workers to good wages, benefits, and working conditions.
16. We support a national health program with full standard and alternative medical, dental, vision, and mental health coverage for all, publicly funded.
17. We call for an end to media monopolies.
18. We recognize the right of all people to high quality, low cost housing.
19. We call for the creation of a fully funded high-speed national rail system with fares set low enough to be a viable alternative to the use of the automobile.
20. We call for government subsidized programs to expand safe routes for foot and bicycle paths.
21. We call for the elimination of subsidies and tax breaks that benefit corporations and all other forms of corporate welfare.
22. We call for a 30 hour work week, with six weeks annual paid vacation.
23. We call for the development of alternative energy sources including solar, geothermal, wind, hydropower, and biomass to end dependence on fossil fuels.
24. We call for a ban on Genetically Engineered crops
25. We oppose industrial meat production in all its environmentally destructive forms, including hog confinements, cattle feedlots, and industrial poultry production.
26. We call for the elimination of the use of chemical pesticides.
27. We encourage the reintroduction of hemp farming.
28. We adopt as our symbol and flag the American Ecology flag with Hammer and Sickle superimposed to express our belief in socialism as opposed to corporate rule. We believe in the limited capitalism of a healthy middle class but not in a society governed by the super-rich.
29. We reject any notion of religous law such as muslim sharia, which tramples the rights of women.
30. The "Patriot Act" is not what American patriots have fought and died for. To allow our Bill of Rights to be nullified without judicial supervision invites tyranny.
31. Just as our founders understood the need for separation of church and state, we need to institutionalize the separation of corporations and the state. This begins with government taking the responsibility to establish the conditions under which corporations may do business in the US, including the establishment of a federal corporate charter which describes corporate rights and responsibilities.
32. To repair the earth, America must lead. We must strengthen environmental laws and increase penalties on polluters. We should provide tax and other incentives to businesses that conserve energy, retrofit pollution prevention technologies, and redesign toxins out of their manufacturing processes.
33. Unfortunately, current drug policy fails to take into account the lessons of Prohibition. The law regards all users as abusers, and the result has been the creation of an unnecessary class of lawbreakers. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, more than 734,000 individuals were arrested on marijuana charges in 2000. This number far exceeds the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Eighty-eight percent of those arrested were charged with possession only.
34. Now that 30 years of environmental protections have been systematically dismantled, now that our reputation as a Christian nation has been tarnished in an illegal war, perhaps we might want to consider limits on executive power.
35. We endorse such practices as helping to create village societies, recycling and composting, practicing organic gardening, solar and wind power, vegetarianism, natural health care, midwifery, meditation and cooperative living.
36. We are alerted to the dangers of consumerism, it is clear that this is linked to ecological destruction and social alienation.
37. We stand for the sovereignty of the American Indian tribes.