WHEN THE CHOICE IS BETWEEN A DEMOCRAT, A REPUBLICAN AND A PROGRESSIVE, WE'LL OPT FOR THE PROGRESSIVE

Today our old pal Dr. Steven Porter announces that he will not abandon the battle to rid PA-03 of the odious Bush Regime rubber stamp Phil English. Steve has formally left the Democratic Party and re-registered as a non-affiliated independent. On Saturday, Steve will join us at Firedoglake, the first candidate we are endorsing who is not running as a Democrat. Come by and talk with Steve about why he gave up on the Democrats and how he expects to win in northwest Pennsylvania next year. The show kicks off at 2pm, EDT.

“No one tried harder than I to change the Democratic Party from within, and it is with a great deal of sadness that I have come to believe that both major parties no longer represent the people of this district or this nation.
 
“I remember speaking with former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley soon after he declared that he would not run for re-election. ‘When I first ran,’ Bradley told me, ‘people asked what I believed in.  Now the only thing they care about is how much money I have.’
 
"Since the Buckley vs. Valeo decision of the Supreme Court in the 1970s which declared that money was the equivalent of free speech-- a decision which I believe has destroyed the ‘one-man, one-vote’ principle of our Constitution-- both major parties have deteriorated into machines whose primary purpose is to serve the special interests which finance their campaigns. I can no longer be a part of that process, and I believe it is that process which has created America’s distrust of its government and prevented the Democrats from ending the war in Iraq, even after they were given a clear mandate to do so by the 2006 elections.
 
"Einstein’s explanation of insanity was for people to do the same thing over and over yet expect different results. We keep electing the same corrupted politicians and expect them to act for our welfare. It is time to try to end that by offering the public a clear, un-affiliated, un-owned choice.
 
“Having conducted two congressional campaigns in this district, I am well aware of the political tactics of the area, and they aren’t pretty. I will not engage in any rhetoric which involves personal attacks on opponents or waste the public’s time responding to personal attacks or lies circulated about me and my positions. You all know that I have instituted a law suit to respond to such attacks, and I will let that law suit do its work in our courts. Rather, in my campaign for election in 2008, I will stress my programs for the people of this district and this nation, and I would like to start right now.
 
In case you don't recall, Steve's #1 priority involves Iraq and global terrorism. It was last year when we first talked with him and it is today. "I begin with the war in Iraq which, as you know, I have opposed from day one. I believe that only a political solution in Iraq will end the slaughter and bring our troops home. That is why I support an immediate end to the use of our soldiers in an offensive capacity. I would give the government of Iraq six months to establish autonomous zones in their country: one for the Kurds, one for the Shiites, and one for the Sunnis (with Baghdad as perhaps a fourth divided city along the lines of Berlin after World War II). The zones would share equitably in Iraqi oil revenue, and the re-building of Iraq would be open to all international efforts-- not just those of Halliburton and the four big oil companies (Exxon, Shell, Chevron, and BP). US forces could aid in securing these autonomous zones, but after six months they would be re-deployed, mostly back home, and it would be up to the Iraqis to defend their own zones against any terrorist or civil aggression. Having accomplished this, I would re-invigorate our failed alliances so that the irradication of terrorism is internationally undertaken with all nations sharing in the burden instead of leaving the United States to carry it virtually alone. Finally, I would work to end the cycles of poverty and despair which have created global terrorism and made the United States as hated a colonial intruder as were France, England, Spain, and others in the age of Imperialism."

A closer runner up for Steve priority-wise is health care. He vows, with great enthusiasm, to campaign, in PA and in DC for universal health care in America and specifically for the passage of HR 676, the enactment of the Physicians National Health-care Program.

Next on his agenda is environmental action. "I will campaign to save our planet from what may be its permanent destruction by immediately mandating significant improvements in automobile gas mileage by putting resources similar to the billions wasted in Iraq into the immediate development of clean, renewable, American-produced energy."

He is completely committed to public funding of elections which he feels will help reinvigorate our much beaten down democracy. He is adamant that elected officials must be beholden only to the people and not to the special interests which currently buy them off.

On Social Security reform, he's looking for a real solution, quite the opposite of the Republican plan to wreck the system. "I will campaign for the solvency of Social Security by requiring all people to pay their fair 6.2% of all wages earned." Similarly his plans for tax reform are the polar opposite of the unfair system that the Bush Regime has rammed down our throats. He is very clear about the need to end Bush's tax breaks for the wealthy and for powerful corporations. He hopes to reshift the tax burden off the backs of the middle class.

An economic populist, Steve plans to campaign against the outsourcing of American jobs by insisting that trade deals are mutually beneficial and that wage, environmental, and monetary standards in the nations with which we trade are compatible with those of the United States. He opposes illegal immigration the economic forces which thrive on cheap labor/substandard wages.

Steve didn't get any help from the DCCC last time and if it were possible, he'd get even less this time. But the issues sound very much the same and the song still works just fine. Let's give him a hand.



UPDATE: PEOPLE WANT ENGLISH TO STOP RUBBER STAMPING BUSH'S WAR AGENDA

This is a brand new nonpartisan TV ad that is running in PA-03 starting today: