Here is what I would have offered as
A Platform for the Democratic Party
in the 2008 election

(For more recent, post-election ideas, CLICK HERE)

Even as we are called “Liberal,” we are in fact, truly “Progressive.” Those who call us “liberal,” lie and are trying to denigrate the great advances made under Liberalism, particularly as espoused in America by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We will not permit Republicans to use their smear campaign tactics against those who oppose their irresponsible conservatism, but will demand answers to questions of national consequence. We are progressive, which is the only way to progress. Conservatives like things as they are, with the rich in control of our world. We will deny them that control and, while not espousing Socialism, we believe that the world is better when the rich do not control us but we, the middle class, including the working class, control the world.
Conservatives did not end Slavery, Liberals did. 
Conservatives did not bring us out of the Great Depression, which was caused by Conservative policies, Liberals did.
Conservatives did not create the best-educated, most productive workforce in the world, progressive labor unions did.
Conservatives, in America, have broken the social contract, by which all classes lived together in peace and prosperity. We will reclaim that progressive world where honest, hard work, can produce prosperity for individuals and societies.


Under a Democratic government;

War and wars will be paid for by taxes on the rich, and only the rich. We will raise taxes on the rich to pay for the Iraq war. During the Second World War, taxes on the rich rose to 95%. We will reinstitute that to pay for the Iraq war.

We will establish a principle that no member of Congress can vote to authorize war unless s/he or his children are members of the regular armed forces.

We were patriotic in accepting the Republican Administration’s claims about Iraq and the need for war. We should have known that President Bush, Vice-president Cheney, defense secretary Rumsfield and their cohorts were lying. We apologize to those who elected us and will henceforward move to withdraw our troops from Iraq and leave the once secular Iraqi society to stew in its religious 17th century ideologies. Iraq is no threat to the United States, it is only a threat to itself.

Further, as an aid to the budget and as a warning to our enemies, we will stop all foreign aid to any country that casts 2/3 or more of its votes against U S interests. This includes at least the following countries which currently receive foreign aid; Kuwait 67%, Qatar 67%, Morocco 70%, United Arab Emirates 70%, Jordan 71%, Tunisia 71% , Saudi Arabia 73%, Yemen 74%, Algeria 74%, Oman 74%, Sudan 75%, Pakistan 75%, Libya 76%, Egypt 79%, Lebanon 80%, India 81%, Syria 84%, and Mauritania 87%. We will reduce embassies in these countries to consulates. We may also eliminate all air traffic by national airlines of these countries into U S airports.

We will make our ports secure. Not only seaports, but airports and rail ports and road entry ways. We will not let WMD cross our borders under the guise of “illegal” or “undocumented” immigrants, and to do this we must stop all border crossing except at legal crossing portals. This is a national security (homeland security) problem, not an illegal immigrant problem.

We will encourage legal immigration by opening border crossing stations at all border cities to welcome Mexican (and Canadian) citizens who wish to visit or work in our country legally. These border stations will be similar to our international airports in terms of facilities, hopefully eliminating the unnecessary deaths caused by border crossings in dessert conditions. These stations will document all entering persons, eliminating “undocumented” immigrants.

You cannot reform immigration until you can control immigration. The only way to close our borders to illegal entry is to guarantee that no illegal border crossing will be successful. Having made legal entry easy to all but criminals and terrorists, we will close our borders absolutely at all points but the border stations. Using Agent Orange, fences topped with razor wire, helicopter gunships (with orders to shoot to kill) and other methods, we will close our borders to all illegal entry. We will then deny remittances from the U S to any other country, denying to immigrants one of the major reasons for crossing our borders.

We will offer legal status to the many immigrants, legal or illegal, that our country needs to service agriculture and other low-paying jobs. As we institute this, we will institute not a higher minimum wage, but a living wage, for all jobs. Anyone not paying the living wage will be subject to prison and significant fines sufficient to strip any profit from such employment. This alone will help grow our economy, for those on the lowest end of the economic scale must spend all they receive just to survive, while the rich hoard their surplus. Giving more to the poor and lower middle class will increase spending in our economy and lift if from its largely stagnant condition.

Once the preceding conditions are met, we will deny citizenship to any child born of an illegal immigrant. We will revoke citizenship to any child born in the U S to an illegal immigrant and this will hold even if the illegal immigrant eventually gains citizenship. Social security numbers will be issued to only those who are legal entrants to our country (which, with the new entry conditions, should be everyone crossing our borders) or born to citizens. Employment of anyone without a legal social security number will be a criminal offense. Cash payments for services rendered will become a criminal offense, thus, only legal citizens or those with green cards will be employable. Every employer will be required to hire a legal citizen if any should apply for a job before an immigrant may be employed.

We have been known as “tax and spend” Democrats, but it was Bill Clinton who created a massive surplus which the Republicans have depleted and replaced with the largest deficit in American history, saddling every living American with $28,000 of debt. Since 1980 every Republican president has produced deficits. Taxes are the price we must pay for a civilized society. Reducing taxes, especially for the rich, exacerbates class and ethnic differences. We will not be “borrow and spend” Republicans, but fiscally responsible Democrats who will take back from the rich their unnecessary wealth so that our children and grandchildren will be spared the burden created by a profligate Republican congress.

Further, we will push for a constitutional amendment that will hold the Federal government to the same standards as state governments; namely, pay-as-you-go. The budget for year “X” will be required to be paid for by taxes in year “X+1”. Spending will, accordingly, be limited to what the politicians are willing to tax their constituents.

We will create a National Health Care program. Studies have consistently shown that a national program of health care would reduce absenteeism in the workplace, saving companies more than the cost of the health care. This program will also limit American drug companies to charging no more in America than they charge anywhere else in the world, thus bringing drug costs in line with American family incomes. Further, all drugs prescribed by doctors would be covered under the National Health Care program. Natural and organic supplements would also be covered under the program, as a first step to elimination of energy-intensive, inorganic farming methods.

As education is the future of the nation, we will implement a true reorganization of primary and secondary education which will guarantee that no child is left behind. Neither teachers’ unions nor schools and colleges of education have the nirvana of educational technology, and computers alone do not improve education. The problem with our educational system is that it is fact oriented, aimed at “What” learners, largely ignoring Why, How and What if learners. The only proven program for education process in our secondary education schools, one which involves all four types of learners in both left- and right-brain methodology, is 4-MAT, the process developed by Bernice McCarthy over a quarter century ago. We will require teaching of this to all as part of the teacher certification process. Further, it is well-known that creativity suffers under our fact-directed educational system. For the primary grades, we would require schools of education to provide instruction in the Froebel kindergarten system, such as taught at a school in Mississauga, Ontario.

In the past half century, knowledge in the sense of facts, has multiplied exponentially. Yet the school year remains the same, 180 days in length in most states. We will not change the length of the school year, but the amount of time in school. Visual information always trumps verbal, so the following will be implemented in high schools. Two hours will be added to the school schedule Monday thru Thursday. This time will be given to the showing of movies with educational and cross-discipline value, ranging from such as Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet to Tora! Tora! Tora!. Seniors will attend the after-school session Mondays, Juniors on Tuesdays, Sophomores Wednesdays, and Freshmen on Thursdays (this schedule would disrupt after school athletic programs the least). Teachers across disciplines will determine the film choices to suit needs for classroom instruction at the appropriate grade level. Such a program will eliminate the showing of films in segments over several class periods, which both denies the continuity of the artistic elements created by the film director, and fragments the learning process in the classroom.

To help administrators eliminate bad teachers, we will require that the tenure process be revised as follows; a teacher will be given one year of tenure for each year s/he has taught, up to seven years. Thus, at maximum tenure, a teacher may be fired, but will have seven years to find a new job, but will never have tenure for life. To ensure that teachers will always be fresh in their teaching, new procedures will be implemented. Teachers will be required to take a sabbatical every eighth year. No teacher who teaches a full schedule during the regular year will be permitted to teach summer school.

To restore the value of a vote, we will eliminate the Electoral College and institute direct election of the president, restoring importance to those states considered “safe” by one party or the other. Accordingly, the president will be elected by popular vote of the nation; one vote will equal one vote. Further, computerized voting will be protected by a required paper trail of the vote.

The issue of abortion should not be controlled by men. Men should not dominate women, but be their coequal partners. We believe that abortion should be legal, rare, and safe. Only women live the pain of an abortion, and only they should be given the choice to have an abortion or not. Contraceptive devices should be free to all, as well as education in their use.

Constant growth is cancer. We will foster conditions for a zero-population growth world. The world already has a population greater than can obtain a quality of life equal to that achieved in Western Europe and America. If China were, today, to provide its middle class (which is as large as the entire American population, rich and poor) a standard of living equal to the American middle class, there would not be enough food or fuel for the remainder of the world. Further, the world already has a population greater than it can sustain once oil runs out. Stopping population growth, then reducing total population to a level that can be sustained by environmentally stable crop production will be a priority goal. Neither will we let this goal be achieved at the expense of the poor of the world. All income levels must sacrifice to meet this goal of a sustainable, high quality world for our children and grandchildren.
*************************************
A new government always faces problems that the previous one failed to tackle. Here are some specific items that need our immediate concern.

America’s infrastructure is in sad shape. We will rebuild America’s infrastructure. In particular, our Interstate (National Defense) road system is aging and cannot even meet its original purpose. As an example, we will require the DOT to begin construction of I-80 from South Bend, IN to Joliet, IL, 20 or so miles south of the current I-90 to alleviate the constant deadlock on I-80—I-90—I-94 south and southeast of Chicago.  The Pennsylvania Turnpike for most of its distance is hardly improved over the roadway that opened full-length shortly after the Second World War. Double-decking will be needed in many urban areas, such as Los Angeles route I-405, New York I-95 in the Bronx and I-495 out to Long Island beyond the existing double-decking. All dual-lane express roadways will have a third lane for automobile traffic only. Trucks will be limited to the two right lanes and 55 mph maximum on all high ways. Further, all trailers will, within a decade, be limited to 45 feet in length for safety purposes. Long-distance rail traffic will replace long-distance truck traffic by limiting trucking to any two contiguous time zones. This alone will reduce fuel consumption dramatically. High-speed commuter and long-distance rail systems will be developed, replacing the Amtrak high-speed system that is a failure (the Swedish trains ran in trials on existing rails at much higher speeds than the system purchased). Travel from the east coast to Cincinnati, Cleveland and Detroit should be simple overnight trips at cheaper cost than air travel (which uses higher cost aviation fuel). The Federal government will purchase the bonds of all toll roads and open them free to the public and high-speed monorail will be developed in the dividing space between opposing traffic lanes to help reduce long-distance automobile traffic.

For safety, bumper and headlight height on all vehicles will be standardized to the height of a standard American sedan. No lights or bumpers higher will be allowed. No designs that will allow a bumper to slip over or under a bumper of a properly-equipped vehicle will be allowed. A decade-long grace period will be permitted for conversion of vehicles that do not currently comply.

We will require auto makers to increase CAFE standards by 10% per year for all vehicles, automobiles and trucks alike, each of the next ten years in an effort to relieve us from dependance upon foreign oil. Fines for failure to meet the standards will be $1000 per auto the first year and will double year per year after implementation.  300 hp automobiles that can get 28 mpg city are possible (Ford could do it in the late 50s, why not now?) Further, we will support with full government funding the process for turning coal into gasoline, particularly in Montana and Pennsylvania. The process is already proven and can produce gasoline at $2.50 per gallon now, and lower with volume production, so is economically feasible. E85 is only feasible with hugh government subsidies, so such subsidies will be discontinued and transferred to aid initial coal-to-gas conversion, and E85 will exist only under market competition. We will mandate European noise and emission standards for diesel-powered vehicles. We will subsidize those on low incomes so that they may replace older, fuel-guzzling vehicles. We will place a moratorium on all auto racing until the United States is self-sufficient for auto fuel.

We will end the rash of mining deaths by requiring mining companies to pay in perpetuity to the family of any deceased miner the salary that miner was earning. That cost alone should force implementation of necessary safety standards at working mines.

In order to conserve and replenish the nation’s dwindling water supplies, we will eliminate from the marketplace top-loading washing machines, except those that can meet front-loading water-usage standards. We will require toilets that use minimal water in all new installations, low-flow designs that use one-third to one-fifth standard models. We will require landlords to replace water-inefficient devices and appliances at the first change of tenant. We will require surface-level irrigation where irrigation is required; the large rotation systems that spray water into the air will be discontinued, and all irrigation that contributes to the lowering of the water table will be phased out over a maximum of thirty years. We will foster a return to organic farming methods and elimination of energy-intensive farming methods.

Recognizing that our government is based upon “We,” not “me,” “the people,” all future governmental activities shall be designed to promote the good will and health of “the people.” “by” and “for” whom the government exists. Individual rights exist only as they support “the people” collectively.

A simple example of this; zoning laws trump individual property rights. Namely, no one has the right to do whatever they want with their property if that should conflict with the expressed desires of “the people” in existing law, specifically zoning law.

With a proper understanding of the “we” principle in mind, as well as a reading in 18th century language of the Constitution created by 18th century people, private ownership of guns is hereby abolished;

The Constitutional provision regarding guns shall be accordingly interpreted to mean that the only persons who may own guns are those who belong to “a well-constituted militia,” in 21st century terminology, the national guard. All guns so owned will be kept at the National Guard Armory when not in use by the Guard. Further, weapons may be issued to members of law enforcement agencies and armed forces for use in performing their duties, but they will not own such weapons. For the purpose of hunting to thin overgrown herds of deer or other collections of wild fowl and animals, guns may be issued by the National Guard to its active membership during hunting season.

To further our republican form of government in promoting democratic ideals, Federal elections will be moved from the first Tuesday in November to Columbus Day, which we rename “America’s Day,” in October. Polls will open nationwide at 6 am EST and close at 9 pm Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time;

The earlier date moves the election in many states, such as the Dakotas, Minnesota and Maine into autumnal rather than winter weather, promoting a high voter turnout. Placing the polling day on a national holiday helps working voters go to the polls without having to miss work.

All good citizens know that only an educated people can make good decisions. Our educational system must be the best. The first step is to reduce size of schools;

A high school of 2000 students does none of them any particular good, unless they are the upper 3% of any endeavor. That’s 60 students, enough for a football team, yet much too large for a basketball team. Or the editorial staff of the school newspaper. Schools must be of a size that give every student an opportunity to be part of some school function that is rewarding to that student. Break a 2000 student high school into three 6 to 7 hundred student high schools and you have three times as many students participating in school activities.

The second step is to install a different tenure system than that now in use in most public school systems, one which gives a teacher protection from personal persecution yet gives administration flexibility to choose its faculty;

Once an ineffective teacher gets tenure, or a good teacher becomes tired, stressed, or otherwise ineffective, there is virtually no way to remove that teacher from the system due to union contracts. Yet a teacher, particularly college professors, need the protection of tenure as they often have to espouse positions contrary to contemporary thought. Yet incompetence should not be allowed to continue nor should personality conflicts be allowed to impair an entire staff.
The fair way to revise tenure is to grant a year of tenure for each year served up to a maximum of seven years, the usual year for sabbatical leave in college teaching. If a teacher in any year were deemed worthy of termination, the notice would be given, and the teacher would have as many years as accrued tenure to find a new position, and would be allowed no appeal. If performance improved during the period up to termination, the notice could always be rescinded.

No more “minimum wage” law; enact a “living wage” law.

A “living wage” law should reduce illegal immigration, as legal Americans would find such a wage worth working for, whatever the job. Yes, many costs would go up, but the additional buying power of those moved from minimum to living wage would make up for this among lower income Americans.

Couple this with national health care.

Scuttle national health insurance. What is needed is national health care. Insurance, no matter who administers it, is always unfair to some, and requires administrative overhead providing a profit for the administrator.
Further, to reduce and bring into control prescription drug prices, require that any drug company that receives federal funding for research sell any of its drugs at the lowest cost at which they sell the drugs outside the United States.

And a new direction in public education.

Incentive pay for “successful” teaching, usually determined by improvement in test scores by students, is meaningless. Too often, a student realizes a decade later that a certain teacher who was not considered special was the one that did the most for him/her, and then it is too late to give a performance reward.
Those who have taught in grades K-12 using the 4-MAT system of Betty Edwards know how much better it is than our systems currently taught in college teacher education programs. The Federal government will pay for programs to have all teachers educated in the 4-MAT program. Other approaches to teaching may be used by schools of education, but will receive no special consideration by the government.
NCLB will be abandoned as a basis for funding. Rewarding successful schools and punishing unsuccessful ones is reverse psychology run amok. It is the poorest performing schools that need the most help, as the Abbott program in New Jersey has proven. In this respect, local property taxes should not be the basis for funding school districts, but a full federal funding of all public schools should be implemented. Teacher pay should reflect local cost of living standards, and not be based upon a single pay scale nationally.

As to the biggest problem, which is not the economy, nor immigration, nor wars in Iraq and Afthanistan/Pakistan, but global warming, which can ruin everything within a decade and reduce all first world nations to an economic level of second world nations, here is the solution;

Reduce world population.
Sounds simple, but won’t be.
Everyone on the planet wants the amenities we have in America (and much of the remainder of the first world economies). It cannot be done. We would need the resources of six planets Earth to achieve America’s standard of living for everyone currently living on planet Earth. If population were 1 billion rather than the 6 now on the planet, everything would work out with everyone having a high quality of life and global warming would be an event of the past.

Further, since our laws are based upon the principle of separation of church and state; No law that is based upon any religious belief shall be enacted and all laws that are in place due to religious belief shall be rescinded.

The first issue under this principle is “Roe v. Wade.” Any attempt to repeal this law is based upon the religious concept that “life begins at conception” because all human life has a soul. Yet “soul” is a religious concept. There shall be no law that does not give ultimate choice when to abort a fetus (which is not a child or baby until born) to the woman carrying that fetus.

The president of the United States may not take contributions from any foreign power. To reduce/eliminate outside influence in the democratic elective process, let us apply this principle to all elective offices;

No funds shall be allowed any candidate for elective office from outside the office’s area of concern. Federal senators may accept campaign contributions only from contributers who are resident in the senator’s state. State senators and both Federal and State representatives may accept campaign contributions only from contributers who are resident in candidate’s district. Mayoral and city/town councillors may accept contributions only from residents of their city/town. And so on.

Position Paper 1; Planet Overpopulation

The most important thing I know right now is that the planet is over-populated. The planet Earth has physical resources sufficient to provide indefinitely a high quality of living for a billion people, perhaps a billion and a quarter. Not the six billion living on it now.

Had we limited growth when the planet hit one billion, there would be no global warming, and the planet would be in great shape.

There will be massive wars along with massive starvation of whole national populations if we do not start tomorrow to reduce the planet's populations. Reducing greenhouse gasses is irrelevant as long as we have six billion people on this planet.

Thomas Robert Malthus, who lived 34 years either side of 1800, posited that the planet could only support a limited population because the planet could produce only so much food. He did not know of the coming technological revolution, namely the Industrial Revolution that began almost as he died. New fertilizers, genetically modified foods, has vastly increased the world supply - quantity - of food, allowing population increase. Malthus was right in terms of natural wealth, the supply of minerals such as iron and copper ores. He was right in that the sea has only so many fish.

President Obama may get us out of our current deep recession, but what then? He may slow, even reverse, greenhouse gas production, but only in the long term. In the short term, we will face famine in many countries which will, by armed aggression against neighbors, claim what they need. Nuclear war is possible in such situations. It may be necessary to do what Obama does not want to do, wage pre-emptive war against any state that has, or threatens to get, nuclear weapons, if we wish to prevent such “neighborly” wars.

Position Paper 2; Capitalism's failure, part one.

Consider the human body. Consider a baby boy, weighing something between 5 and 8 pounds if normal at birth. When that boy enters his teens, he weights over a hundred pounds. By 19 most men stop gaining weight and level off. This is the point where the body stops producing new cells and starts replacing older dying cells, a process that continues until “old age” settles in and not every dying cell is replaced. Why do most professional sports teams prevent kids under 19 from being drafted? Because they are not physically mature.

Capitalism fails to recognize this natural growth cycle.

Capitalism is a failed philosophy. Capitalism depends on constant growth and, as show in Position Paper 1, we are already overgrown on this planet. Eight years of Bush, with the stock market reaching over 14,000, then plummeting to well below 8,000, is proof of Capitalism's failure. Were it successful, the market would never have dropped below 14,000. People who had put their life's savings in the stock market lost 40% of what they once had. That would not happen in a truly mature society.

Europe has already embraced Socialism and suffered less than America. Socialism alone, however, is not the cure for Capitalism.

This past year I met two Swedish girls who were exchange students at high schools here in Up North Michigan. The local student's father was a successful businessman in Socialist Sweden with enough wealth to allow his daughter to travel around Europe as a high school student, and to come to America for a year. He has no complaint about Swedish “cradle-to-grave” Socialism, the most stringent socialism in Europe.

The pattern that works is that, when a culture reaches maturity, it switches from quantitative growth to qualitative growth. That is where Capitalism fails; it doesn't switch and, therefore, creates its own failure.

Position Paper 3; Capitalism's failure, part two.

Capitalism is by its nature predatory. To grow a company, its market must grow. This can happen in two ways; more people come into the product market (growing population) or one destroys the competition, picking up its market.

As a classic example of this is the failure of General Motors, once the world's largest auto maker. It failed because other car manufacturers came into the market without GM's liabilities (health care for retirees and pensions, which the new companies with all new labor did not have).

Maybe GM should NOT have been rescued. Of course, that would collapse the Michigan economy, which is already in shreds. GM, in the 1950s, engaged in predatory tactics to put trolleys out of business, replacing them with GM diesel-powered buses. GM put Hudson, Studebaker, Packard (which made better cars than Cadillac), Nash, and even the Tucker (a truly revolutionary car) out of business by misleading advertising and price competition. They deserved to go out of business for such tactics.

The corollary, however, is that GM should have been rescued outright with full government funding and no bankruptcy. Why? Because from the end of World War II to 2002 GM was a donor company, sending massive tax monies to Washington which were then funneled to Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisana, Tennessee, all states which have since gained auto manufacturing because they are right-to-work states and thus have no labor unions. The south has cheap labor. Rather than unionize (which violates their laws) and raise wages to Detroit levels, they suppress their labor market. If national union membership were required for any corporate enterprise hiring more than fifty people, Detroit would still be in business! Southern senators are first-rate hypocrites when they rail against Union labor!

Were the playing field level, the Detroit Three (Ford, GM, Chrysler) would be building vehicles Americans like to drive (they were doing so until gasoline spiked over $4 a gallon). Instead, they are being forced to produce fuel-efficient cars which the American driver will not purchase unless gasoline goes back up and stays over $4 a gallon. But will the Obama administration raise the gasoline tax to make gasoline that costly? It would create revenues to rebuild our roads and rebuild our national railroads for high-speed passenger travel. Don't bet this will happen.

Position Paper 4; Regarding stimulus plans

President Obama's Stimulus Plan has failed.

We are a consumer-driven society. The only way to get out of the Recession, the greatest since the Great Depression, is for people to spend. Instead, because they are afraid of losing their jobs, they are saving.

Saving is great when the economy booms, and it then provides spending cash when the economy tanks. Since we are also a credit card economy, no one saved when the economy was booming, so now they have nothing to spend.

The stimulus package was to have created jobs. It didn't. Only 11% of the money will have been spent by the end of the year. Half of it should have been spent by mid-summer to stop job loss. We now have the highest unemployment in over two decades, probably more because we measure things differently now.

The stimulus package failed because the President didn't put into it requirements as to how money to the states had to be spent. So most of the states used the money to fill gaps in their current budgets, not to create new jobs.

Only when people see unemployment lines shrinking and therefore feel safe in their jobs will they start spending and the recession will end. As things stand, this now cannot happen before mid-2010, which will be too late to keep the Democratic filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Without that, Obama's legislation will founder and he will become a one-term president.

Only if Obama indicts the Republicans for causing the recession and blocking his efforts to bring us out of it, something he seems unwilling to consider, will he be able to pass a second stimulus package sufficient to bring unemployment down. Even if he gets a second stimulus package, it may be too late to save the Democrats in the 2010 election.

Position Paper 5; HealthCARE reform.

Health care reform is in jeopardy because President Obama gave the reform over to Congress rather than push for a comprehensive, single-payer plan, the only plan that can guarantee cost reduction. Yet his idea, in principle, was a good one. By making Congress decide what kind of health care would be legislated, Republicans could not condemn him. Yet it is conservative Democrats now who are not keeping in-step with their party. We seem to be getting universal health insurance, not universal health care.

Obama needs to say, “we get health care now. I am not dictating what kind of health care, that is for the Republicans to decide in congress with the majority Democrats. If they cannot, my party will make the decisions and, with a filibuster-proof Senate, pass it. It will be a single-payer plan that covers 100% of the population, not the 95% of the compromise plan now coming out of committee. I am, by executive order, restraining Congress from taking its summer recess until a bill is passed by both houses for me to sign into law.

President Obama's lack of will to stand up in the bully pulpit and challenge the Republicans - they caused the problem, so why trust them to cure it? - could be his Waterloo, as Republicans have already said.

Position Paper 6. Ending the War on Drugs.

There is only one way to end the drug war; legalize all drugs.

Prohibition proved that we could not prohibit what people want. The way to control alcohol consumption was not to ban it, but legalize it and tax it.

The same approach is needed to end the power of drug lords.

If the United States Federal government offers currently Illegal drugs to that element of the populace which wants to use those drugs, and offers it at a reasonable price, there will be no profit for drug lords.

“Illegal” drugs by current definition could be offered by various means, from a required prescription by the user's doctor to little more than a simple record by a pharmacist of the user and his uses. In an emergency of a drug overdose, the record would be there to help in treatment.

Such a program would not make the use of such drugs as cocaine, heroine, and their derivatives, morally acceptable. Alcohol was once morally objectionable. It still is to some. But undercutting drug lord profits will, instead, control and possibly reduce drug usage and deprive drug lords of profits that drive their criminal activities.

Position Paper 7. The wages of crime.

What causes criminals is too few good-paying jobs that would make it possible for them to not be criminals. Socialism provides needed jobs, but it is not the only solution to the problem.

We need a Living Wage law, not a minimum wage law. A Living Wage would guarantee any wage earner sufficient funds to support his/her family without resorting to crime.

We should get rid of illegal aliens and close the borders, but for reasons different from what you might expect. While this author had a home in New Mexico, he saw how hard Mexicans, legal and illegal, worked to provide for their families, and crime was low. We need to stop all immigration, because we already have too many people to support in the long run, especially as other nations move into middle-class life styles and start using resources we need to maintain our democratic American life style.

While we have 5% of the world's population, we cannot continue to claim 20% of its wealth. That leads to war.

As long as there are zillionaires, the working poor will eventually rise and destroy the economy from below. Yes, good executive leadership should be rewarded, but payouts over a million in a year to executives who sit in their offices and do little or no real work, leaving that to junior executives, are fruitless to the economy. We need a living wage, not just a minimum wage, law to provide enough income at the low end to eradicate the need for crime. This would make the mostly illiterate or at least non-English speaking illegals, who would not be worth that required wage, superfluous, and they would return home.

Position Paper 8; Separation of Religion and State

The separation of Religion and State is fundamental to why American Democracy is different from all other forms of government.

Essentially, this principle says that any religion may hold its communicants to its religious doctrine. but not the communicants of any other religion. Extend this to the political sphere, it means that no religious sect's beliefs may be thrust on the populace as a whole.

This principle has been woefully absent from 21st century religious and political dialogue.

Consider; many major world religions ban the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Yet they do not prevent others who enjoy wine, beer, spirits from imbibing them.

One shouldn't care if Roman Catholics, for instance, excommunicate one of theirs from the fold because they had an abortion, which is a sin according to the church's teachings. That should not, however, exclude others of different religions from allowing abortions.

Namely, only within one's religion should one's religious beliefs be allowed to be heard and promulgated. They should not be heard in any political discussions.

Doesn’t anybody get it! Let alone our sub-normal-intelligence president? Or Bill Gates, who wants open borders. Send him my bit on Global Warming below and say you won’t buy any Microsoft products until you are certain he has read it.
Global warming is a fact, caused by too many people on the planet, a problem not faced by the planet until the past 80 years, so cannot be dis-proven by any historical record. China and India have addressed the population problem; no one else has. China has already won the Third World War by holding 51% of the American debt.
President W has politicized everything, and ruined America. He, and his administration, are the worst in American history. Get it. If you are a Christian fundamentalist you should be appalled. Yet Republicans, inheritors of Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay, Alberto Gonzales, Carl Rove and such, cannot even censure Gonzales or impeach Bush, which would show they had some ethical standards.
The Democrats don’t gain much either by constantly sidestepping the issues. They could have put the president on the spot over Iraq funding by simply saying, “we’ve given you two bills, remove your veto from one if you want funding, because we will not give you a third.” That would have stopped the war by September or before, or Bush would have removed a veto. Americans want the war stopped NOW, not next March or later.
President George W Bush has lied daily more than Clinton in his entire 8 years. So why do not Republicans (who tried to impeach Clinton), let alone Democrats, move to impeach him and his surrogate, Vice-president Cheney, who is really the power behind the throne (excuse me, Carl Rove)? The Republicans would do themselves good by proving they can clean up their own house.
Close the borders. Expel all illegals and their children (who should be denied their automatic citizenship). If you think this cruel, read below, and don’t commit American suicide.
As to presidential candidates, both parties should wake up and stop wasting money on the primaries. Hillary and Obama will probably destroy each other. If not, Hillary is still loved or hated, no grey area from which she can draw votes to win the general election. Richardson, waiting for this, is unacceptable because he bows to the insurance companies on health care for all New Mexicans. No one of stature is yet on the scene.
McCain is revoking all his previous stances, so is unacceptable to anyone looking for truth. Mitt Romney is beyond the pale as a Mormon. Rudy will implode as his pro-life and three marriage/divorce life comes to the fore; he was a fascist until 9/11, and four months of middle-of-the road compassion doesn’t cut it.
So who is left?
Why doesn’t anyone (but Lou Dobbs and Jon Stewart) get it? American presence in Iraq is now the problem, not a solution. We didn’t move to shut the borders to insurgents the moment we toppled Baghdad. Tho we brought about a “democratically elected” government, we didn’t create conditions for that government to govern. Now it is too late. Throw in a hundred thousand troops, it would make no more difference than the 25 thousand W is sending in. The Iraqi army and police owe their allegiance to local militias, not the government. The only hope is to get out and let the Iraqis fight it out among themselves, or, divide the country at least three ways, giving part to Iran, part to Kurdistan (with a proviso that Turkey, before they enter the European Union, give totally autonomy to their Kurdish territories to create a nation with Iraqi Kurds), and part to either Jordan or Syria. We should not allow a single additional American to sacrifice his/her life in Iraq. Already, more Americans have died in Iraq than died on 9/11. The Iraq war has nothing to do with Al Queda, which caused 9/11. Get out of Iraq and saturate Afghanistan and the western border of Pakistan and destroy Al Queda.
Has anyone considered what would happen if Israel deserted its West Bank settlements and moved Palestinians from Gaza into them? Then add territory north of the West bank around the Golan Heights and up to the Lebanese border (equivalent in size to Gaza), and fill it with the Palestinians from Gaza who won’t fit into the abandoned Israeli settlements. Gaza becomes part of Israel, and all Palestinians are united in the West Bank.

Here is a “minor” issue. Simply stated, if you get to the root of a problem (such as population being the source of global warming), you can solve almost any problem. We look all too often at the surface, not the root.
We can eliminate poverty by a national, then international, living wage law.
Every nation should solve its own problems, not export them.
Leaving health to insurers, profiteers at best, hasn’t worked and won’t work nationally. We don’t need health insurance, we need a national health plan, national health care, shutting out the insurers.
Neither party has yet a good candidate on the radar.

GLOBAL WARMING IS NOT THE PROBLEM. IT IS JUST A SYMPTOM OF THE PROBLEM.
This is a message for my friends, whether Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Socialist . . . and I feel it important enough to alienate a few of you. This is something I’ve been studying for four decades. Besides agreeing with Harvard Classmate Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse; How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed <www.thelavinagency.com/college/jareddiamond.html?gclid=CNywtuO4sIkCFRb9SAodayzKOA>) that (in my words) the end of our world as we know it is nigh, it is time to do something for the future of our grandchildren.
World population, not global warming which is just a sideshow (my apologies, Al Gore), is the problem, one we are already three generations too late to solve in any humane way. Global warming is caused by too many humans inhabiting the planet, so is only a secondary problem. We cannot solve just global warming; without reduction of world population warming might only be slowed, but never stopped. We must not only stop warming, we must reverse it.
Had we reached zero population growth worldwide before the Great Depression, we’d be in great shape. Since then there’s been the invention and widespread use of television that shows the world’s poor the riches that the United States, as well as many other nations, has. Now everyone wants our life style. There is no sufficient reason they don’t deserve it as much as we do. The world cannot sustain such a lifestyle for six billion people. It might sustain it for the entire population of China if there were nobody but Chinese on the planet.
ZPG will not solve the problem. NPG, negative population growth, is the only solution.
This is one reason you should contact your congressperson and senators and tell them to send all illegal immigrants home. It would be a first step to stopping national suicide. However cruel this may seem to some, it is the only humane thing to do for ourselves, and it might force Mexico to do something within their borders rather than sending their people over our border.
We are depleting the ocean of edible fish, as well as lesser delights such as sharks and whales. We’d have to stop all fishing now, for a decade, to let the fish populations revive to sustainable levels for six billion people. Here sustainable levels means we’d be harvesting, after re-population of the stock, less than half of what we harvest now.
Six billion people creating greenhouse gasses will eventually so overheat the planet that melting ice will flood at least a billion of them out of their homes and on to higher ground, worsening crowding in the land that is left.
How to quickly reduce world population? Well, a massive atomic war between China and the Indian subcontinent, leaving them both barren wastes, would reduce the world population by one-third, a good but hardly moral way to start. At best, that illustrates the problem. Both nations are trying to limit population growth even as the Bush administration refuses funds for contraception and abortion to such nations.
Wake up Pope Benedict XVI, Wake up George W Bush. Contraception is a must. Abortion for any child born before the parents are 25 and for any second child might start getting the problem solved before overheating reduces the Great Plains to desert so they cannot even feed America. This is not a question of individual freedom, but a question of preventing humanity’s suicide. Massive worldwide starvation might solve the problem 30 years from now if we don’t start solving it next year.
Illegal immigration for the United States is directly related to this and must be stopped as a step to reducing our nation’s population. There are humane ways to do this. The first is not the stupid way proposed by the Democrats, a simple raising of the minimum wage to $7.25 over three years. Instead, $10.50 would be a good step, next month, for it would make employment of illiterate, unskilled Mexicans unsustainable by business. Business would have to hire at least semi-literate Americans! Then replace the minimum wage with a Living Wage so families with children in school could have one parent at home when the kid comes home. It would also help if we denied citizenship to those born in America of illegal immigrants.
Yes, some costs of things we need would go up, but the shift to a Living Wage system would cover that cost for the low end of our economy. If we don’t pay for it now, we’ll pay quintuple a decade from now. I still hear people saying that labor costs are pricing American car companies out of business, but production-line labor wages cost only 8% of the delivered price of an American-built car. The real cost is in benefits not covered by the Federal Government, medical costs in particular, that are covered in foreign countries by foreign governments. That burden must be eliminated by National Medical Care for all citizens. We are an innovative people, we can do it.
P.S. Here’s a cheery note for those who think we will survive. China has the strongest population controls of any nation, yet at best has slowed population growth, not stopped it. The U.S. is, thanks to our current president, a debtor nation. China holds 51% of our debt. Quit buying from Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. We’ve already lost the third world war.
And
Loopholes have already been found in the “new” laws that were devised to eliminate “overt” lobbying. Tell the Democrats to close the loopholes. We must get money out of lobbying.
And
Ethanol will not solve the oil problem. E85 gets 2/3 to 3/4 the mileage as regular gasoline yet, in Santa Fe, which had two service stations offering E85 before governors began waking up to its possibilities, the mid 2007 price is $2.29, while regular was $2.69. Who would use E85 under those circumstances? It would be cost-effective only under $1.80 a gallon. Diesel, by the way, is even worse off, at $2.85.
There should be an immediate activity by Congress to require a minimum 20 mpg CAFE standard for any vehicle sold in the U S. Minimum, not average, and including trucks. The standards for autos (AND small trucks) should be upped from 28 mpg to 35 mpg within five years. Toyota can do that, and Honda, so why not the great U S auto makers? (They had such motors being tested long ago, namely in the 1950s!) The five-year window allows each manufacturer to make the change at its normal new model retooling cycle.
Republicans complain that schools and colleges are filled with Democrats (aka Liberals). Shouldn’t Democrats complain that the commercial and business world is filled with Republicans (aka Conservatives). Teachers are the finders and disseminators of knowledge. They’d do if for free if they could, and they do it for less than they are worse, thus, our kids are doing worse in school year after year. The low pay may keep Republicans from teaching, but it is the Conservatives who believe in private property and intellectual property rights. They want to sell their knowledge. So they are not fit to be teachers. Get it?

In 110 years, Vermont weather will be like that now in Virginia. What will Virginia be like? Perhaps Florida now. Will Florida then be tropical and always hot? Yes.

How we could have had $1.79 a gallon gasoline rather than $3.00 a gallon gasoline

if Congress had balls. A weak Congress, bullied by both automobile manufacturers and the petroleum industry has allowed us to be placed in an untenable position regarding terrorism. Terrorists could shut off the spigot of Arabian oil tomorrow and our economy, let alone our military, would come to a grinding halt. Even Hitler knew the solution; coal gassification. Coal can be made into gasoline, diesel fuel and natural gas. Montana has a third of our nation's coal, West Virginia and Pennsylvania another third. They could, had Congress not blocked all steps in this direction, been producing gasoline from coal now! The cost would be about $35 per barrel of equivalent oil, and oil is now hovering above $60 per barrel.

Digging for oil in ANWAR, taking fewer unnecessary trips by car, buying (unavailable) hybrid vehicles, none of these are solutions half as powerful as producing in America the gasoline, diesel and natural gas that we need now while other technologies are brought online. For further information, click HERE.

Back to top

Hybrids are NOT the answer

Everyone is screaming for hybrids. Yes, they do get better mileage and are a technological wonder. But what happens when a single cell in the battery goes dead? The batteries have a limited life in terms of recharging. When they go, which can happen as early as five years from installation, the cost of replacement - the whole pack has to be replaced - the cost is $4000 to $6000. Now, how much does that add to the cost of the gasoline you save? 5 years at 12,000 miles per year is 60,000 miles. So the cost of new batteries adds a dollar every 10 to 15 miles. If the hyprid gets 45 mpg (a high estimate) the batteries cost an extra $3. That is the cost of a gallon of gas in the worst-price areas of the country. If my gasoline-powered car gets 22.5 mpg or more, it costs no more to operate than the hybrid.

How the Republican majority became a monopoly and has led to Hitlerian Fascism in America

So you don't like the words Fascism or Hitlerian applied to our government? Well, when gestapo tactics are used by President Bush, a la Joeseph Goebbels, Hitler's chief propagandist, what else can you believe? Don't believe me; read the N Y Times on the subject HERE.