I made a very troubling discovery today. I was looking for our leader in the Democratic Party. I was looking for the person whose job it is to speak out and express in a positive and eloquent way that things are not going well. This leader could tell all Americans that it's not too late. We can change the course of this country and the democrats have some great ideas about how we can do this. We have a platform of philosophies, ideas, and strategies on how we can lift up America economically, socially, ethically, and spiritually.

There's nothing wrong with the myriad of progressive organizations in our country working hard to change America for the better - but we need a leader to tie it all together. Someone who can deliver a cohesive unifying message to Americans that offers a hopeful and exciting alternative to what we have right now.

I Googled - looking for the leader of the democratic party- and I found nothing.

I Googled: "Quotes Howard Dean" and I found nothing
I Googled: "Comments Howard Dean" and I found nothing
I Googled: "NBC News" and I found nothing
I Googled: "CBS News" and I got "Howard Dean Items" Shop on eBay....
I Googled: "C-Span" the most recent entry was from 2/16/2004
I Googled: "CNN" and I found nothing

A recent survey shows that Bush is now losing support from his base. We are missing out on a golden opportunity in the political chess game. We are not making our move. There's nothing but the sounds of silence.

Oh I should mention, I also Googled "ABC News" and I got:

1. ABC News: Who is Howard Dean?
2. ABC News: Who is Howard Dean?
3. ABC News: Why Democrats Worry About Howard Dean
4. ABC News: Why Democrats Worry About Howard Dean
5. ABC News: Howard Dean and Judy Dean Discuss Anger Issue
6. ABC News: Howard Dean and Judy Dean Discuss Anger Issue

Perhaps one should ask: Where is Howard Dean?

http://www.kucinich.us/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1...

I couldn't agree more -where is the Democrat leader who can stand up and pull the party up with them? This is a golden opportunity to make political gains and the Democrats act like a bunch of
wimps.................JEEZZZZZZ

Thank you, Jim Hightower, for saying it like it is and for recognizing the salient voice of Progressive Democrats for America. Thanks to Congresswoman Lynn Woosley who has also received the "Golden Spine" award for her backbone and courage in confronting the Bush administration and its illegal/immoral war. Where is the Howard Dean that spoke truth to power as a candidate? Has he been hijacked by the DLC, made to compromise his authenticity for a little power, has he too been sucked into the Beltway Democrats vortex of indecision, waffaling, and cowardice? Clearly, it's up to us to be the change we want. I believe that the Progressive Democrats of America are the people we have been waiting for. We want an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, transparency in voting, a clean and safe environment, responsible corporate oversight, and universal healthcare. What's wrong with a government that focuses on the needs of its citizens, not the wanton greed of corporations like Haliburton, Bechtel, Exxon/Mobil, and Blackwater Security to name a few. Why can't we have a government that embodies a culture of truth, transparency, and benevolence instead of one that defines the culture of corruption, cronyism, and radical religiosity? I, for one, am hopeful that the day is coming when we shall again have the former and rid ourselves of the latter.

Thank you PDA for making bridges instead of walls to show other progressives how its done. United We Stand.

GET OUT AND SEE THIS FILM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------



JOYCE RILEY DEBUTS NEW FILM IN VENTURA, CA!


Joyce Riley served as a Captain in the United States Air Force and flew on C-130 missions in support of Operation Desert Storm. She now serves as spokesperson for the American Gulf War Veterans Association, whose purpose is to provide education and information for the Gulf War veterans and their families and to seek treatment for the illnesses that thousands of Gulf War veterans now suffer from.

And she’s coming to Ventura to debut an extremely powerful film called *BEYOND TREASON: THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S LONG HISTORY OF EXPERIMENTING ON MILITARY TROOPS AND THEIR OWN DOCUMENTS THAT PROVE IT

In this film you’ll discover comprehensive documentation from United States Government archives of a massive cover-up, including military and civilian experimentation, dating back over 60 years. Hear the testimony of experts and of United States military veterans who demand answers to questions that the Department of Defense will not address!

EVENT DATES IN VENTURA:
Friday October 14, 2005 - 7-9PM - Ventura College Theater 4667 Telegraph Road

7pm – 9pm Screening of Beyond Treason and Lecture

Saturday October 15, 2005 – 3-5PM - Panel Discussion at the Ventura Foster Library
(Topping Room) 651 E Main St, Ventura

Saturday October 15, 2005 - 7-10PM – Screening of Beyond Treason and Discussion at the Unitarian Church 5654 Ralston St., Ventura, CA


*Beyond Treason was the Grand Festival Award Winner at the 2005 Berkeley Film Festival


PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS ANNOUNCE EVENT TO HELP STOP THE WAR
 
When:  October 16th, 2005
Time:   12:30 PM
Where: Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum
              1419 North Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, CA 90290

For More Information Click Here!
 



Veterans: Don't forget to request your FREE copy of the DVD Beyond Treason!
 

(Click DVD for request information)


 
This event is Over.....but good info to read!
 
William Rodriguez, last survivor from the World Trade Center speaking
 Where: Schaumburg Township District Library
                Near Chicago
 When:  Sunday, August 21, 2005,
 Time:    2 p.m. to 5 p.m. 
 
In addition to Mr. Rodriguez, other 9/11 researchers have been invited to this historic event, including: 
 
 * Dr. Gene Corley, Construction Engineer and Team Leader of FEMA-sponsored World Trade Center Building
    Performance Report
 * Eric Hufschmid, Researcher and Author of Painful Questions: An Analysis of the September 11 Attack
 * Phil Jayhan, Researcher and Webmaster of http://www.letsroll911.org
 * Dave vonKleist, Radio Host and Producer of 9/11 video “In Plane Site”  http://www.911inplanesite.com
 
READ MORE: 
 
PRESS RELEASE
 
July 19, 2005
 
Christopher Bollyn                                                                            
American Free Press
Washington, D.C.
 
To honor the memory of the victims of 9/11, William Rodriguez, last survivor from the World Trade Center, will speak at the Schaumburg Township District Library, near Chicago, on Sunday, August 21, 2005, from 2 to 5 p.m. 
 
On September 11, 2001, Rodriguez, custodian of the stairwells of the North Tower, helped save hundreds of lives at the World Trade Center by leading firefighters up the stairwells and opening the fire doors with his master key.  Disregarding orders from his superiors, Rodriguez repeatedly returned to the building to assist those trapped within the burning tower.
 
He is the last person known to have escaped from the North Tower and miraculously survived the collapse by diving under a fire truck that was parked near the entrance.
 
For his heroic efforts Rodriguez has been honored by the White House and made a national hero by the legislature of Puerto Rico, his homeland.
 
The event at the Schaumburg library is the only scheduled event in the Chicago area in which Mr. Rodriguez will appear.  He will be available for interviews with the press on Saturday, August 20, and respond to questions after the event, which will begin promptly at 2 p.m. 
 
On July 18, the library board voted unanimously to provide Mr. Rodriguez with the largest possible forum.  The Rasmussen Room at the main library accommodates about 200 people.  The event is free and open to the public. 
 
The three-hour event is being organized by Christopher Bollyn, a long-standing patron of the library and independent journalist who writes for the American Free Press of Washington, D.C.  
 
As president and member of the board of several victims' groups, Rodriguez was instrumental in the creation of the 9/11 Commission – and providing it with subpoena power.  He was one of the last witnesses to testify before the commission but none of his testimony appears in the commission's final report.
 
William Rodriguez is a twenty-year veteran employee of the World Trade Center and survivor of the 1993 bombing.  He knew every inch of the buildings and was in the burning tower saving lives from the time it was hit until seconds before it was demolished. His story is one of the most compelling you will ever hear of the events of 9/11.
 
In addition to Mr. Rodriguez, other 9/11 researchers have been invited to this historic event, including: 
 
·      Dr. Gene Corley, structural engineer and team leader of the official WTC Building Performance Study
·      Dave vonKleist, co-host of The Power Hour and producer of 911- In Plane Site
·      Phil Jayhan, webmaster of www.letsroll911.org
 
American Free Press has made a donation to make this event possible.
 
For more information about the event or to schedule an interview please contact Christopher Bollyn at: afp_europe@yahoo.com
 

ÂÂ

To borrow Hightower's joke.
The Dems in congress will be great land barons in the herafter when the meek shall inherit the earth.

Rip Van Winkle and Our sleeping Democratic Leadership

Written on January 20, 2005 - it is starting to change, I think.

What has happened to the Democratic Party? Are we all in a fast
sleep? Have we all turned into Washington Irving's hen-pecked Rip Van
Winkle, idle and whistling away life while avoiding the reality
before our eyes? Has meekness and passivity overtaken us to the point
of inaction? Capitalism, and with it, corporate greed, has replaced
our Democracy and we, the people, or at least the party who at one
time represented "the people", do nothing.

In a reversal of Irving's whimsical tale, Democrats have awoken to
find our democracy replaced by George the Third and our Democracy in
jeopardy. We are stuck with a Democratic National Committee (DNC)
leadership unwilling to attack this Administration head-on or heed
and understand its own political base - the base that made the
November election turn on a little over 100,000 votes in Ohio.
Democracy is in peril and our leadership sleeps.

How many of us felt like Van Winkle's nagging demanding wife kicking
and screaming for John Kerry and the so-called
Democratic "Leadership" Committee political gurus, running what
turned out to be another failed campaign, to clarify our message
based on real democratic values that all Americans can relate to and
understand? How is it that a president pushing anti-environmental,
anti-collective bargaining, anti-civil liberties, and anti-anything
that benefits 90% of the American people still win a little over 50%
of the vote?

We needed the John Kerry of 1972. What we got was a man so stifled
(and yes, waffled) by his political experts (and whatever the polling
produced that day) that even we couldn't comprehend Kerry's message.
Who thinks up hunting trips in camos, dropping the g's off the end of
his words, like huntin" and fishin" so Kerry can couch his east coast
upbringing? Windsurfing, in what I guess was to turn out, well, the
windsurfers vote? I could go on about what was so frustrating about
this campaign but what good will it do. We don't need to get better
at the "nuance" of an election campaign. We don't need to fool the
public to get their vote. We need to get better at delivering our
message - a message that clearly will resonate to all Americans.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not blaming Kerry. He is a good man and he
was a good enough candidate. But, how far to the middle can you move
before you just don't represent your political base anymore?

The DNC is already talking about what it will take to win, and the
talk is "move more to the middle". The New Democrats, as they are
called, only represent moderate Republicans and we're not going to
get their vote in any great numbers. Democrats represent
the liberal vote. Being a liberal doesn't mean we are a wild-eyed
card-carrying communists! We have to fight back to make clear what
it means to be liberal. The Republicans have successfully redefined
the term and it is high time Democrats take the "L" word back.
Watching our expert Democratic leadership struggle to define our
liberal message makes me want to go to sleep for twenty years!

Let's talk Ohio in 2006 for a moment. Can we make a dent in the
Republican controlled Statehouse or will we feel, just like in the
presidential election, we can't put together a convincing message no
matter how much money and grassroots campaigning we throw at it. How
hard is to beat twenty years of Republican control and twenty years
of failed leadership? The good news for Democrats is Sherrod Brown
may run for Senate against DeWine. In Sherrod we have a fighting chance. This is
a man who doesn"t mince words and has proven experience at the State
level.

Where is our Ohio Democratic Party? They have done "so well" in Ohio
they have plans to take their "accomplishments" to the national
level. I don't take much comfort in former Ohio Chairman David
Leland throwing his hat in the ring for the DNC leadership position.
His claim to fame is he has been a successful fundraiser. Well, the
question needs to be asked, "Dear Mr. Leland: You served four terms
as the full-time chair of the Ohio Democratic Party. Why is it that
after having served in the position of chair for the Ohio Democratic
Party, and not having a single Democrat elected to the Statehouse
during the years you served, what qualifications will you bring to
the Democratic National Committee?"

Even the DNC is pushing for a candidate to move farther to the right
of the Democratic Party in Tim Roemer, a man who is anti-abortion and
who has already voted to privatize Social Security. If that isn't a
way to push grassroots Democrats to jump ship to the Greens then I
don't know what is. Isn't it time we, the Democratic base, take back
our Party and elect someone like Howard Dean to the lead the DNC? We
need to rebuild the Party from the bottom up because the top-down
paradigm is not working. Sleep away Rip!

The grassroots efforts to get Kerry elected did a tremendous job
which was evident in record fundraising and the boots we produced on
the ground for the Democratic Party. It was the Democratic
Leadership who dropped the ball. Bruce Cole, a grassroots activist in
Maine, said it best in an article for Truthout.org. Cole
states, "The reason I know that the Democratic Party is standing on
the brink of self-annihilation right now is because it is about to
alienate the very people who can save it. I am just one of tens of
millions of such people. We stood in the breach the last four years
and we fought tooth and nail to defeat the most heinous government
this country has ever produced, and the irony is, just as the
evidence showed four years ago, we apparently succeeded. Only our
leadership failed us, and it may be about to do so once again".

Here is a perfect example of lack of leadership in our Party. Social
Security. Why aren't the Democrats banding together to fight the
privatization of Social Security? This, a successful program started
under the Father of Modern Democrats, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Who
is fighting the charge? Not the Democrats. They talk of
concessions. It takes Paul Krugman, economist and journalist for the
New York Times to lead the charge. Krugman is writing a series of
articles to expose the failure of Bush's "Ownership Society". In an
interview in Rolling Stone magazine Krugman was asked why aren't the
Democrats speaking out more clearly and forcefully on the falsehood
of Bush's proposals on Social Security. Krugman
responded, "There's a lot of timidity. They're desperately afraid
of seeming like - Oh, well, we have our heads in the sand, and we're
not active." I would like to see them (Democrats) step up to the
plate and say that these claims .., that we're going to have a
crisis sometime in the next fifteen years is just garbage. Bush is
handing them an opportunity by making this the centerpiece of his
agenda. Democrats should treat privatizing Social Security the way
Republicans treated Clinton's health-care plan -- they should
say, "This is a disaster, and we will stand against it." Social
Security is simply not the biggest problem facing the government
today".

How long can we play the part of Van Winkle's faithful dog Wolf,
allowing our leadership to lead us nowhere and with no real message.
The point being, we have to do it ourselves. We can't wait for our
Party leadership to go on the attack. We have to do it at the local
level. We need a series of grassroots movements on the many issues
we hold dear and rebuild the Party and its message from the bottom
up. If we wait for them it will never happen.

The web-site Wake Up Ohio, is appropriately titled for Ohioans to
shake our slumbering Party of Van Winkles' out of its deep sleep.
Your irritating and nagging wife, being we the grassroots Democrats
all across the country, want our Democratic Party back!

Patrick Carano wswalcott... Activist in Summit County Ohio

Jim,

I will be announcing my candidacy for US Congress, Arizona District 8 in the very near future. Visit my web site www.jefflatas.com.

I am a Gulf War Veteran with five tours in the Gulf region to include Desert Storm. My son is currently in Iraq, north of Baghdad. We must make a strategic withdrawal out of Iraq and concentrate our forces on the real terrorist, the enemy that will strike us here at home. This is not cut and run. Iraq must now stand up and fight for freedom on their own or be considered a pup state of the US. Visit my web site and support my efforts to return DC back to the people.

The Group Brain
by John H. St.John



Every animal has a brain, it is the governing factor that makes its survival possible. In addition there are animals whose survival depends upon a form of group thinking. These creatures are social animals like wolves and ants and herbivores and birds that have a group brain. Wolves have a pack brain, bees have a hive brain, cattle and horses have a herd brain, birds have a flock brain, fish have a school brain and humans have a tribal brain. . The individual behavior of all these creatures is conditioned by a collective response to the exigencies of survival.

While lions and hyenas will fight to the death over a kill—humans will make war over hunting grounds. While lion and hyena behavior does not change, human behavior and human history is the product of technology that is continually changing. The collective human brain adjusts itself to change by what we call culture. The importance of this essay is that we have ceased to make war over hunting grounds and now we are in the position of having to make war in order to avert economic collapse.

This is the only explanation for continuing the manufacture of atomic bombs and why the governing sector of the population see nothing odd about our having twelve aircraft carrier groups at a time when there is no possible adversary. We now have a culture where local politics fight desperately against any effort by the government to close down military bases and politicians campaign on their promises to maintain a powerful “defense”. The problem is not a shortage of hunting grounds, it has become an economic nightmare caused by a corporation driven economy that cannot survive without war production.

The great depression of the thirties demanded some sort of solution. The mistaken dogma of Marxism was accepted by many of us but the problem was not capitalism it was the corporations. “In all our thoughts and feelings and projects for the betterment of things, we should have it at the back of our heads that this is not a crisis of poverty, but a crisis of abundance. It is not the idleness and niggardliness of nature that is oppressing us, but our own competence and wrong headedness which hinder us from making use of the bountifulness of inventive science and cause us to be overwhelmed by its generous fruits.”—Maynard Keyens, 1932. The study of economics carefully avoids the reality that an economic depression is caused by overproduction and under consumption. Keyens honestly admitted that in the past, war was the solution to this problem and his was an effort to find some less drastic solution. His answer was that a government should go into debt by expending the treasury on public works. It was tried by the Roosevelt administration but it didn’t work. They also tried killing little pigs and pouring milk in rivers at a time when many Americans did not have the money to buy food.

The reason that it did nothing to free the glut of overproduction was that it encouraged further production of consumer goods. The only answer was war. During the war years all production was geared to products that were either blown up, or rapidly became obsolete. At the end of the war veterans returned home to find that they couldn’t buy an automobile or even a washing machine for their new brides. Five years after the end of the war the nightmare of overproduction reared its ugly head and the Korean war was the answer. The cold war with the Communists allowed the government to spend the treasury on these deadly products whose only benefit was that they did not plug up the economy.
Then the great tragedy happened—peace broke out. We were left in the position where no other nation in the world could even think of war with the United States. The problem of the government and the defense corporations that dominated it was to instigate more war and to extend an imperialist encampment of over 700 bases in all parts of the world. We had developed to the point where we could have both guns and butter. We are now at the point where world peace would bring instant financial collapse.

The group brain has become afflicted with schizophrenia. One part wants peace and the other part wants war. Obviously the side of the brain that is enamoured by war is totally mad. Therefore this essay is aimed at that part of the brain that still retains some vestige of rationality. While war is unthinkable, peace without a revolutionary change in our economic system can only lead to the same problem of overproduction and under consumption. The answer to this enigma lies with the institution we know as the corporation. This mechanical construct has been given the status of person hood with all the rights of a human under the IV amendment. It is hard to imagine a mechanical construct that’s moving parts are human beings, but that is what a corporation is. It owns patents on inventions that were invented by humans and instead of a Patent protecting the right of an inventor to profit from his creation, it has become the property of a machine that sees it as a method to enforce a monopoly.

No one owns a corporation. It was made that way to avoid the liability that is inherent in ownership. A common stockholder is not an owner he is an investor. The CEO is an employee hired by the board of directors to take the heat for any decisions that would ordinarily be suffered by an owner. He is responsible for the infamous bottom line and while he might be perfectly normal at home, he must be a sociopath while on the job. Therefore the corporation as a legal person, retains the animal instinct for survival without any human weakness like having a love for one’s fellow man. Humans fear and hate war, if they are normal, but war has become an absolute necessity to the survival of the corporations.

If we work for a corporation we seek to advance within the organization and give credit to the company for all of the benefits enjoyed. If we are consumers we are delighted with the many products available to us at the mall. If we are politicians we depend upon the corporations to finance our campaigns. That is why it is almost unthinkable for us to consider living in a world without them. Nevertheless corporations have to go. Business has to be conducted by individuals and organizations that have owners. The obvious solution is for the corporation to become owned by the people who form the body of the machine. This could be done in a number of ways, one of them is The Take, an Argentine invention. Another is for the government to punish a criminal act of a corporation by taking it over and making it into a cooperative.
Unless something like this occurs the only other answer is revolution. And historically revolution has supplanted one set of government bastards with another even worse. A revolution has to be designed that’s object is not to overthrow the government, but a revolution to overthrow the corporations.




1217 words

While I respect Mr. St. John's essay as an expression of his personal opinion, I regard it as a counterproductive ideology for progressive politics in the U.S.A. today.

As it is with the many conspiracy "theories," the claims that wars are necessary for a robust economy and that corporations are necessarily evil are unprovable and remain merely speculative.

Rather than expend time and effort tilting at such windmills, I will continue to try to identify progressive leaders (Dennis Kucinich may be one) who understand how our government and our economy work (or don't work) and who have the courage to try to make change happen. I agree that it's hard to find such leaders and I'm afraid there are few Democrats left who might qualify. But I'm not so pessimistic that I will abandon my support for those who are really trying to make a difference.

I encourage progressive thinkers to come to terms with the realities of today's American political system. The real villains, I believe, are campaign contributions and professional lobbying. Those are two institutions that can be, and must be changed. Not just cosmetic reforms, but the elimination of election campaign funding by private sources; enacting and enforcing strict definitions of permissable lobbying activities and expenditures.

I invite you to look at the web site of the nascent Arcadians.

Excuse me, but has ANYBODY read the Constitution?

I am a free lance journalist and the slience is deafening. Worse it is scary for I cannot understand how, in a nation that has a Constitution with our First Amendment the national media has ignored an issue that goes begging for attention. Never mind Congress. Never mind the Department of Justice. No. It's only the Constition.

A year ago there was one of this nation's most incredible stories of a power play that went virtually unreported. I can think of no other story in American history that unfolded in the nation's capitol then was ignored by the Congress and the media.

That story is the "Mexican Standoff" that was being held by the military in the nation's capitol as Halliburton would present bills that were repeatedly rejected by the military as being too inflated. In AAFES, the retail store company that services Army and Air Force installations, were a soldier caught doing the same thing with his/her receipts they would be subject to criminal charges.

Not so the nation's largest military supplier. Their miscalculations in accounting/receipts were reported in the press more on the level as space filler for a slow news day. Not front page space for a military supplier suspected of cheating both the American taxpayers and the American miilitary, in a time of war.

With frineds such as Halliburton who needs enemies? The creators of our Constitution understood the necessity of anti monopoly. We can see the genius in that concept today. We saw on 9/11 that any site targeted in America can be hit. Suppose a terrorist group decides to interrupt the military supply line by dropping a jet into a corporate headquarters? The press should be all over this issue as well as Congress and be forcing the legislated answer, there can be no hoarding of the military supply contracts, both within the Constitution's parameters as well as for the good/security of the nation.

This issue went virtually ignored a year ago. I sent out a multitude of letters to editors around the nation regarding the lack of press given to this issue and those letters also went ignored. It was an election year so I guess this issue was considered to be a lesser priority story. It is virtually non existent in the media now.

Democrats need to reacquaint themselves with the Constitution and the concept of anti monopoly and legislate parameters on the size and distribution of mililtary contracts, for the good of not only our nation, but for the safety and security of the world.

There are many Democratic Leaders... unfortuately the Party doesn't know it.. or at least they don't support them. But they are there. It makes me crazy when I hear progressive radio shows say no one in the democratic party speaks out, has a backbone, has a message.
Are you kidding me? There are many of them and I think only Democracy Now and Ed Shultz seems to know it. If the Progressive talk radio shows don't promote them or give them a voice, then we are doomed. We know the "main stream" media won't give them air time but when the progressive media doesn't give them airtime or even acknowledge the incredible work they are doing then that is very sad indeed. They should give less time complaining no what Hillary, Dean, Kennedy, Kerry aren't saying.... and a lot more time to what Waters, Jackson Lee, Lee, Woosley, McKinney, Tubbs Jones, Kucinich, Waxmann, Conyers Jr, Cummings, Watt, Wasserman Schultz.. I have watched some on CSPAN, I would wanted any of them for our President. Why don't we get to hear them. These are some incredible leaders.. who fight for this country. Maybe we should fight for them.

In the last few weeks, watching the Katrina crisis ("Brownie, you're doin' a helluva job!"), the Supreme Court confirmation hearings (Sam Brownback "we know what the real issue is" anti-choice, in case you don't know his position), and the President's latest list of meaningless, double-talking platitudes - uh, speech - I finally called the DNC and asked, so where are the Democrats on all of this? And I got defensive excuses, citing Harry Reid and Lynn Wolsey. They are the voices in the wilderness!! Where are the rest of the Dem's? I love the whole idea of the Progressive Caucus, and there are some incredible people there! But where is the Party? Where's Gov. Dean? Who told him to quit yelling, and why did he listen?

Jim Hightower has hit the nail on the head with a sledge-hammer.

We do not live alone on this planet and we cannot continue to act like we are the only ones who matter.

We need to get vocal! We are bigger and better than this fear-based, greedy, elitist, bullying administration. People before profits!

And may I suggest, for those who are really tired of the one-version media, FreeSpeechTV - Channel 9415 on Dish, LINK-TV on Channel 9412 on Dish, and DemocracyNow! wherever you can find it (check the local interest channels)...

Bravo! Jim Hightower, many of us are totally discouraged by our lack of representation in Congress and the utter comtempt for our Constitution and Human Decency and Human Rights shown in every way by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, etc. Impeach and Remove the whole lot not!

1. One definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and yet to expect a different result each time! The Democratic Party has been subservient to the Repulicans throughout the Bush regime. Their votes have made the difference in funding the war in Iraq, passing the Patriot Act, etc. ad nauseum.

Fundamentally, the Democratic Party is a conservative party. It's incumbent memnbers of Congress, desperate to stay in office, cave in at every crucial vote. When the Republicans have a numerical majority, the Democrats never have the courage to filibuster let alone impeach this corporatist (fascist) take over of the Federal government. The Democrats are conservative in that they basically support the status quo. However the Republicans are constantly destroying the status quo. Why and How?

2. The Republican party is NOT a conservative party. It is a radical (i.e. goes to the roots, fundamental changes) right-wing party. It is unified ideologically and it knows what it is doing, even if the Democrats are CLUELESS as to what is happening. Their common ideology is advertised on the web pages of THE PROJECT FOR THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY(PNAC). (do a search and you will find it, also other sites that do a splendid detailed analysis of what this is all about.) Most significantly, they have a STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES, which is short, but basically REPUDIATES CONSERVATISM. MOST IMPORTANTLY. at the bottom of the page are a number of signatories who support the principles of PNAC. Among these signatories are: PAUL WOLFOWITZ, DICK CHENEY, DONALD RUMSFELD, JEBB BUSH (G.W.Bush didn't sign because he can't think critically about anything! Has no intellectual capacities of reasoning, judgement,etc. Has to rely on "gut feeling" and whatever God or Karl Rove tells him!)(And this person has his finger on the bomb!)

3. The basic and incredibly stupid notion of the PNAC is this: with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. becomes the world's super-power militarily. No other country on earth has this power. Therefore, the U.S. can now (literally!) rule the world! It can demand anything it wishes in terms of economic imperialism (NAFTA, CAFTA, ETC.). It can make demands on the UN or it's allies. If they don't support US, they will be punished in someway, otherwise the U.S. will simply go it alone. Thus IRAQ --- no exit strategy was ever thought of because they simply had no plans of ever leaving... at least until the oil runs out. But IRAQ is not JUST about oil. It is the first step in implementing world domination (hegemony).

4. WHY THE PNAC AGENDA? Isn't this merely crazy? No. THE motivation for PNAC is that U.S. capitalism is collapsing. The U.S. economy (US capitalism) cannot compete against the cheap labor of China. It no longer has a monopoly on science or technology. U.S. economy is deeply in debt to China and Japan, the value of the EURO is decreasing. Essential resources needed for the high-tech economy of the US are rapildly depleting (oil) or are only found in other countries. (The u.s. has over 700 military bases around the world!)

5. US Capitalism is NOT generating enough profit for capitalists and major businesses are going bankrupt. GM, Airlines, etc. In desperate times, capitalism becomes even more corrupt than it usually is. - thus the ENRON and dot com collapse on wall street. There is now massive corruption in Congress with the absolute control of the Federal Government by the Republicans (thanks to the complicity also of the Democratic Party.)

6. Thus U.S. capitalism, through the Republican Party, is trying to feed off the essential social infrastructure of this country. Essential social programs are either threatened or are being destroyed. Social Security, Section 8 housing assistance, aid to education, the failure to improve the New Orleans levee, no national health insurance, skyrocketing housing costs (housing bubble) etc.etc. are growing symptoms that working people are facing a major depression. Many jobs don't provide a living wage (ability to support a family after 40 hours of work a week) and everyone must work 2, 3 jobs or both spouses must work. This has been a major source of the destruction of marriages and families over the last 20 years.

7. While all this is happening, the AFL-CIO has recently further collapsed into two conservative unions, with neither part having any plans. The labor movement, in my opinion, needs to start organizing the vast majority of working people into a new National Organization of Working People (an educational group essentially), gain acces to national media (such as PBS), start providing a critical view of how the American working people and this country are being destroyed by Privatization (Capitalism run amok), try to organize some people into unions where possible. BUT THE ESEENTIAL TASK IS TO CREATE A NEW POLITICAL PARTY BASED ON THE NEEDS OF AMERICA'S WORKING PEOPLE.

8. This new party must by-pass the incumbent Democratic Party as too controlled by big business and Republican party. Perhaps several individuals might be support if they agree to the platform of this new party.

9. What must the essential first planks of this new party be:

1. Repudiate the Project for the New American Century. The unending war agenda of Bush/Republican/PNAC is bankrupting the economy and sucking all funds into the pockets of Halliburton, military-industrial complex, oil companies, etc.

2. The planet is dying. Global warming simply doesn't exist for Bush. A massive economic conversion plan needs to be developed and implemented. Fossil fuel must be phased out, replaced by solar, wind etc. BUT NOT NUCLEAR. This conversion (20 years?) will create demands that should attrack progressive capitalism not tied to old technogies. Similar to the conversion this country made at start of WWII. It is that serious.

3. New forms of public transportation, public housing, educational opportunities, need to be developed.

4. A New peace strategy. Dennis Kucinich idea for a Dept. of Peace needs to be developed. End blockades (Cuba) and covert CIA attempts to destroy other governments,etc.

5. Rebuilding schools, hospitals, etc. essential. Implement universal health care. etc.

Finally, dear PDA fan, you must realize what we are talking about here is
the ENDING OF CAPITALISM AS WE KNOW IT TO BE! You cannot create a sustainable economy, enviornment, etc. with an uncontrolled CAPITALISM, with no checks and balances, etc. Corporate capitalism does not recognize that human beings and their human needs even exits! We are merely HUMAN RESOURCES to be minimized or eliminated if possible. If humans are unprofitable they will simply be allowed to die if not destroyed. Anything that inhibits the maximization of profit must be destroyed (thus the enviornment is destoyed, people maimed, water polluted,etc.... even if modest fines imposed, if it's cost effective....)

Can the Democratic Party ever have the balls to say that PNAC must be repudiated? or Capitalism must be controlled? Why? Because the conservative Democratic Party does not think this way at all! Do you??

Thanks for reading all this babble. This rant was written by a senior (64) who has been registered to Green Party for 10 years but rather discouraged by the Greens. Yes, I am anti-capitalist socialist (anti-Stalinist i.e. against top down "socialism") and a humanist (i.e. keep the US a secular country!). You may have been seduced in that the above "analysis" was sort of an attempt at a Marxist explanation of what is going on. (It didn't hurt that much did it?)

If you want to get a more rigorous and informative analysis of what is really happening in the world check out this site on a daily basis, for about a month, and compare it with other sources (such as www.commondreams.org) and you will start to really see what is going on. go to: www.wsws.org
(sign up for free email news letter every day!)

Jeremy Wells
jeremy@infowells.com

I really think the Democrat party has become a pushover party and lost its backbone, since the Republican party always bullies the Democrats in voting for the wrong laws to be
passed, while the more logical laws fall by the wayside, making the Democrat party the poor man's Republican party, which is getting more and more common every day, and that's sickening to me! It really is!
Whatever happened to the belief of the government for the people? It seems that a government for the corporation by the corporation seems to be our government's credo these days.
The song "Looking for Freedom" sure seems to be a very prevalent song for Americans struggling to make ends meet financially, and everything else, but can't.
Democrats, please find a way to get a backbone and stand up to the Republican bullies---the sooner the better!

The Dem's should terminate their relationship to the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), which through corporate influence has been steadily moving the party to the right.
This has been evident even during the Clinton years with the passing of NAFTA, and other corporate driven Free Trade Policies, which are really about cheap labor and the resultant lowering of our standard of living just to keep Wall St. happy.
Ever since I can remember, The Dem's represented the working class (Blue Collar), and the Repub's represented the management (white collar), but now it seems as though the working class majority has no representation in government, which can only lead to fascism.

"Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
-Abraham Lincoln-

"Government by organized money is as much to be feared as a government by organized mob."
-Franklin Delano Roosevelt-

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

Our legislative focus needs to be centered on programs and plans for getting us out of the messes we find ourselves in today. There are some people in congress doing this work. Find the candidates we want to support to take back the majority in the House and Senate. Work on local elections so we have seasoned people in the pipeline. Develop and hone our powerful message for the working people of this country. Be clear with your representatives about your agenda - they are there to represent your interests not theirs. Be as active as you can at every level in your community. Write letters to you local newspaper editors. Run for office. Become the leader you are looking for! Don't wait for someone else to do it. Please.

Tearing my hair out, screaming, crying, yelling, almost giving up! Where the HELL are the Democrats? I sincerely hope we finally get pissed off enough to ignite a revolt ala the 1960's! How much longer are we going to sit around and just "take it" from the Bush Regime? Seems all I read/hear are Democrats whining about the Republicans.....we'd best become UNITED, stop talking about the Repugnants and get on with our work to take back America. I'm so sick of all this mess it feels time to tune out. Howie Dean is nowhere it seems; I've sent countless emails to the DNC, to Howard Dean, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein...not ONE response. Not O-N-E. Yeah, OK I know they're all busy, but doing what?
Just heard this morning several trucks around the country...some in Maine!....have refrigerated ice meant for Katrina victims...the trucks' engine(s) are on continuously to keep the ice from melting.....what kind of lunacy is this? Just deliver the damned ice! Can't we even do this?
Also we are now at 2,000 Americans DEAD in Iraq. Tell me what we as a nation have gained by these deaths, and those of the Iraqis.......TELL ME!
Jim (Hightower), I absolutely love you....ever think of running for office? We could certainly utilize your penchant for speaking out! Cindy Sheehan, don't let ANYone forget to support you! Talk about backbone!
DO NOT impeach Bush! Cheney would become President.........God! I don't even want to entertain the thought.
Anyone seen America lately? I know I haven't!

Barack Obama, toss your hat into the ring...you'd make a mighty fine President. YOU could be inspire the Dems and kick ass! I would vote for you, not Kerry, not the usual candidates (the "party elite").

And what good does Mr. Hightower's essay do? I fail to see how attacking members of our own party helps us to achieve what we must: remove the G.O.P. from office in '06 and '08. Our leaders are leading more effectively than those who are naive about or new to the political process might understand. And I agree with Ann Galloway, if you are not satisfied with some particular Representative or Senator, let him or her know, and throw your support to someone who is voting and speaking more along the lines you'd prefer. And encourage the progressive media to showcase these preferred members. But airing our dirty laundry in public, bashing Senators Reid and Kennedy and so forth, is doing nobody BUT the G.O.P. any good.

I attended the PDA Convention in Austin this summer and was appalled at the lack of knowledge among the most vocal attendees of how our system works and just how key a factor seniority is in getting anything done, or in these times, getting anything crazy stopped, in Congress. I was also dismayed that these "progressives" were so vocally bad-mouthing old-school, pragmatic liberals like myself. People were making rash statements that Reid and Pelosi have to go; how wrongheaded can such thinking be at a time when the lack of a majority is a main factor in the muzzling effect that everyone's so het up about? One attribute that the maligned Senators and Representatives have over Dean, Kucinich, et al is that they were ELECTED and in many cases RE-elected many times.

We cannot govern until we get elected, so progressives going off on the Democratic leadership because they are not performing up to par on a few litmus test issues is unfair, but doing it in a public forum is political suicide. People are sick of the G.O.P., yes, but they see our leaders under attack from our own left, then they trust the Democrats less, too.

So to Mr. Hightower and those who bemoan the lack of a leader, I respectfully say, either step up and lead yourself or shut up, please. Congresspeople have phone numbers and addresses for a reason; contact them and complain directly. Don't do it in the press, unless you're willing AND ABLE to step in and do the work yourself. Yes, we have a problem but stop whining and come up with better candidates. I'm represented by a fine man, Lloyd Doggett; I'd prefer that he not have voted a certain way on a few issues, but I understand that he has to stay politically viable in a tough district, so I give him my input, then trust his judgment but verify it by watching his record, OVERALL. Let's evaluate on total performance, and if nobody is saying what you want to be said, then say it yourself. Don't point fingers at others on your own side, please. Thanks for your time in reading this.

Where are the Democrats? Apparently right along side the Republicans, being bought by big business along with the major media outlets. I have been a democrat for over thirty years and have never been so ashamed and disapointed in the party. It seems our leaders have forgotten how or why to fight back. Even when you are being beaten down by insurmountable odds, selfpreservation dictates that you defend yourself and fight back. Instead, I believe our "leaders" have joined the other side. It is time to find new leaders.

Where are the Democrats? Go look in the mirror. Did you go to your monthly legislative district meeting? Democratic county or state meeting? Volunteer to do the the duties of a precinct committee officer - update walking lists, walk the neighborhood, knock on doors, give out election information, and sample ballots?

Or, pick an office to run for next time, whether state, county, or city, or work for your candidates at any level.

Want the Democratic Party to chnge? First start by owning it.

Here's Howard Dean message for taking over the party and the government:
Show Up! Never concede a single state, county, district, or voter. Build a truly national party that wages a permanent campaign in all 50 states.
• Strengthen State Parties and the Grassroots. Better integrate state and national party operations and support Democrats organizing in local communities.
• Focus on Our Core Values. Articulate core Democratic values strongly and clearly, and show people how our agenda for reform reflects those values.
• Take Advantage of Cutting-Edge Technologies. Leverage the Internet and cutting-edge technologies to better organize, empower, and communicate with people.
• Train Tomorrow's Leaders. Strengthen our leadership institutes so we can recruit new talent, cultivate new leaders, and elect Democrats at every level of office.

So we're looking for a leader, eh? Does that mean that the leader we find will do what we want or what they instinctively know? there are so many wrongs that need to be righted, the ability to discuss them becomes mind-boggling. We are distracted almost daily with "new" issues to bitch about.

So I've asked groups this question "What are the 3 issues that will elect a Democrat to the Whitehouse in 2008?" My answers?
1) War and Peace
2) Economy, jobs, poverty
3) Some challenge to the American people (not Republicans, not Democrats, Americans). I like to believe this challenge will be related to energy. Alternate sources, conservation, and yes some sacrifices (a TV in every room is NOT necessary).

But hey - that's my take - what's your?

In the meantime, I'll continue supporting John Edwards as the ONLY viable candidate for 2008. Whatever you think about Sen. Edwards, take some time to break through the fog and get to know the man, his character and integrity. I've talked to so many people who tend to repeat the tired and mistaken rhetoric of the "opponents" (Democratic and Republican) that I feel people don't think for themselves any longer - they parrot this or they parrot that.

AS 2008 draws near, I'm certain that Sen. Edwards will expand his platform to include his position on the war - I simply think that until the campaign season heats up next year, that he is doing what he truly believes in doing. He's helping people, whether they are down trodden and ignored or they are running for office - he's out there helping. Isn't that the real American Dream? Making this land, this nation a better place for all Americans?

Peace!
/ / / / / \ \ \ \ \
\ \ \ \ \ / / / / /
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Senator John Edwards
“Restoring the American Dream -- Combating Poverty and Building One America”

Center for American Progress
September 19, 2005

We have all seen the images from the wreckage of Katrina – people packed into the Superdome and convention center with only the clothes on their backs. And we’ve all asked what brought them there. Many things did, but one of them was poverty. Widespread poverty existed before Katrina and it will persist after the Gulf region is rebuilt, if we let the images that we have watched on the news fade from our memories as they fade from our television screens.

But today we have a historic opportunity. We do not have to live in an America that accepts poverty as a fact of life or chooses to ignore it. The day after Katrina hit, new government statistics showed that 37 million Americans live in poverty, up for the fourth year in a row.

The Superdome made those people impossible to ignore, but we could look down the streets of every city in America and see enough poor and forgotten families to fill all the football stadiums in America. Those families in the Superdome were abandoned, but in a less striking way, that’s how millions of struggling Americans feel every day.

They know there are jobs somewhere, but not jobs they can get to, not jobs they’re trained for. They know some children go to good schools, but the schools for their children have overcrowded classrooms and overwhelmed teachers. They know some people live in safe neighborhoods, but they walk their kids past gang members every day.

That sense of isolation exists in our inner cities and in our small towns. While it touches African-Americans and Latinos most, it also touches every community. Talk to families across America who are sorting their bills into “pay now” and “pay later” piles, knowing that a sick child or a pink slip will send them over the edge. They feel like they’re alone. There is a powerful hunger for community in our country today. People understand they have to work hard and take responsibility for themselves. But they also know there’s more to America than that.

This Administration may think every American is an island. But Americans know that Katrina’s victims shouldn’t have been out there on their own, and that no American should be out there on their own. That’s why even when our government failed to respond to Katrina, American citizens stepped up in an extraordinary way. We know that it matters how we as a nation meet our responsibilities. It defines us as a nation.

Throughout our history, people around the world have been drawn to America for what we stand for: that we are all created equal, and that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The government’s response to Katrina undermined those ideals. One foreign magazine called it “The Shaming of America.” It has been our shame.

I want the world to see a different America—an America that is working every day to live up to what was written—I want them to see the one America that we all believe in. And that means that while we must first address the urgent tragedy of poverty in the Gulf states, we must also address the tragedy of poverty across the fifty states.

A week ago, I went to some shelters in Baton Rouge where people from New Orleans have been living. One man told me “I've worked hard all my life – it’s what I know. “And the people here tell me that if I wait outside the shelter at 5 am every morning, sometimes, maybe, someone will come by in a pickup looking for workers. So since the day I got here, for a week and a half, I've been out there every morning at 5 am - just on that chance, because I just want a chance to work.”

This man had lost everything he had – and all he was asking for was the chance to work. He still believed that in America if you did your part and were willing to work hard, you were going to be okay. And he spoke for most Americans of every race and class.

The trouble is that for too many Americans—not just in the Gulf but everywhere—the American Dream has become too distant. You can see it in the numbers: millions of parents work full-time but still live in poverty. The typical white family has about $80,000 in assets; the typical Hispanic family, about $8,000; the typical African- American family, about $6,000.

“Income is what you use to get by, but assets are what you use to get ahead.” This huge asset gap is one reason so many families are barely getting by. And again, it’s not just the poor: middle-class incomes are stagnant, and more people file for bankruptcy than graduate from college each year.

Since January, I’ve traveled the country and talked to Americans living on the edge. Their grit and determination is extraordinary. But so are their struggles.

Just one story: I met a woman in Kansas City with two kids who had a job that pays $9.50 an hour. And she told me about the winters where, “the choice was between lights and gas.” She chose the lights. And she said to me, “When my kids go to bed, I tell them to wear as many clothes as they can. And when they go to school, I tell them, ‘don’t tell anyone you don’t have gas because somebody might come and take you away.’” She said that in America, “Nobody who works hard should live like that.”

She is absolutely right. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” What that woman endures is evil. As a nation, we cannot do nothing.

In the 1960s we fought a war on poverty. Our intentions were good, but sometimes we expected government to do things that only individuals and communities can achieve. Sometimes we gave too much money to bureaucracies, not people. Yet those efforts still helped cut the poverty rate by 43 percent from 1963 to 1973.

Again, in the 1990s, the Earned Income Tax Credit and welfare reform helped lift 7 million more people out of poverty. If we are going to fight poverty, we have to commit ourselves once more, more deeply than ever before.

But while America does more, people will have to do more too. This is something I’ve come to understand much better as I’ve spent more time with poor teen moms who didn’t graduate high school and aren’t married. These are good and decent Americans just looking for happiness, but too often they think the way to find it is to have a child.

And while they struggle, many young dads don’t stick around. Someone who spends his life working with young men said to me that what he hears is, “I’m going to end up in prison or in jail, so I have to leave a seed here.” And he also told me how that choice has consequences.

I visited a wonderful program in Chicago called Bethel New Life and saw a t-shirt a child had written about his father. It said, “you won’t be there. Should have, could have, would have.” And the t-shirt had a hole in the shape of a heart. In families with teen parents who didn’t graduate high school and aren’t married, children are nine times more likely to be poor.

Down in New Orleans, hundreds of thousands of people lost their homes and untold numbers lost their lives because the levees we built were too weak and too low. We knew better, but we didn't act because we didn't want to look. That’s how it is with the moral foundations of our society.

All over this country, too many children are growing up in harm’s way -- and too many lives are being washed away -- because the levees we've built are too weak and too low. When a 13-year-old girl thinks there’s nothing wrong with having a baby that will drive them both toward lives of poverty, we haven’t built the levees high enough. When 15- year-old boys become fathers, then walk away, get shot, or go to jail, we haven’t built the levees high enough. When young people spend more time going to meth labs than chemistry labs, we haven’t built the levees high enough.

We know better, but we don’t act because we don’t want to look. If we believe in community, we must find the courage to do what communities do: Together, we must stand side by side and man the levees.

All of us—parents, clergy, teachers, public officials—we need to say some simple truths: it is wrong when boys and young men father children but don’t care for them. It is wrong when girls and young women bear children they aren’t ready to care for. And—and—it is wrong when all Americans see this happening and do nothing to stop it.

Because this is also about America’s responsibility to create new opportunities for young people. I met a woman from a New Britain teen pregnancy program called Pathways/Senderos. She told me how she tries to give kids with struggling parents the love, the discipline, and the chance to succeed that you would want for your own children. Instead of having kids, many of these teenagers are getting diplomas. And here in Washington, a baseball coach and teacher named Luis Cardona told me how he’s helped boys in gangs get jobs and become mentors to keep other kids out of gangs.

So many young people are struggling against the odds to do right, and they need America’s support. Words are not enough. That’s why it is time for a new social compact. When President Bush talks about an “ownership society,” he means the more you own, the more you get. For most Americans, his approach is the more you work, the more you pay and the less you make.

Where I come from, what matters the most isn’t how much you have, it’s how much you give. Work gives pride, dignity, and hope to our lives and our communities. And so the President is wrong: America is not, and never wished to be, a Wealth Society.

To be true to our values, our country must build a Working Society – an America where everyone who works hard finally has the rewards to show for it. In the Working Society, nobody who works full-time should have to raise children in poverty, or in fear that one health emergency or pink slip will drive them over the cliff.

In the Working Society, everyone who works full-time will at last have something to show for it – a home of their own, an account where their savings and paycheck can grow.

In the Working Society, everyone willing to work will have the chance to get ahead. Anyone who wants to go to college and work will be able to go the first year for free. In the Working Society, people who work have the right to live in communities where the streets are safe, the schools are good, and jobs can be reached.

In the Working Society, everyone will also be asked to hold up their end of the bargain— to work, to hold off having kids until they’re ready, and to do their part for their kids when the time comes.

The first test of the working society will be in the Gulf. And the central principle of our effort should be the one I just outlined: We can only renew the Gulf if we renew the lives of the Gulf’s people by encouraging and honoring work.

The President doesn’t get that. At a time when a million people have been displaced, many already poor before the storm; when the only shot many people have is a good job

rebuilding New Orleans, the President intervened to suspend prevailing wage laws so his contractor friends can cut wages for a hard day’s work.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but the President never suggested cutting million-dollar salaries for the heads of Halliburton or the other companies profiting from these contracts. A President who never met an earmark he wouldn’t approve or a millionaire tax cut he wouldn’t promote decided to slash wages for the least of us.

Seventy-five years ago, our government was led by a President who actually succeeded in navigating America through a disaster. Faced with the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt saw that relief requires more than food and shelter; it requires the dignity that comes from a job at a decent wage. And he saw something else: as Allida Black put it at a forum here last week, we have to “build to last.”

Many of our children still go to schools that the WPA constructed; many of our homes are lighted because of dams that the PWA built; many of our families still hike on trails that his CCC blazed. That’s why trailer parks are not the answer.

In fact, if we know anything from a half century of urban development, it is that concentrating poor people close to each other and away from jobs is a lousy idea. If the Great Depression brought forth Hoovervilles, these trailer towns may someday be known as Bushvilles.

We can do better. I’ve proposed a New America Initiative based on the principles that FDR and the WPA taught us.

First, we need to make not just construction but job creation a top priority. As we do, we need to make sure victims get the wages, skills and benefits they need to rebuild their lives. Good wages are part of our relief effort. And so is building skills: Tax breaks for businesses alone will never attract high-wage, high-skill jobs. We need a new approach that unites businesses, community colleges, nonprofits, and unions in new cooperation. Second, folks need a chance to save for the future. The CCC sent money home to families. FEMA actually had a good idea with these debit cards. But now they’re doing direct deposits in bank accounts. The problem is, many people displaced by the storm lived in neighborhoods without banks.

A worker making $12,000 a year could spend $500 just cashing checks and buying money orders to pay the bills. David Shipler begins his book about poverty by saying “it’s expensive to be poor,” and he’s right. So as we offer relief, we should help people open bank accounts so they can escape the check-cashers and save. So they can get ahead - not just get by.

Finally, we need to build a Gulf Coast that is “built to last,” with the infrastructure to compete. That’s not trails these days, it’s modern mass transit. It’s not dams, it’s energyefficient businesses and homes. Urban homesteading is a start, but let’s bring together the great private engines of development, challenge them to build integrated communities, and leverage federal dollars to do it.

We’ll beat poverty in the 21st century by building a Gulf for the 21st century. While we fight poverty in the Gulf, we also have to fight poverty across America. We should begin by returning to a promise once kept and now broken: If you work full-time, you shouldn’t have to raise your children in poverty.

Today, a single mom with two kids who works full-time for the minimum wage is about $2000 below the poverty line. The erosion of the minimum wage is a disgrace; we need to raise it to at least $7.50 an hour. Unionized workers make 30% more, so we need to give them back a real right to organize. And we need make sure that people can enter the workforce and change jobs without losing their health insurance.

It’s not enough to say that people who work full-time shouldn’t live in poverty. We need to help every American develop the assets they need to get ahead—to send their kids to college, buy a home, or just have the piece of mind that there's a little breathing room should catastrophe -- in the form of a hurricane or lost health insurance - -comes into their lives.

First, let’s help folks buy a home they can actually keep. Today, the rich get subsidies while the poor get ravaged by predatory lenders. We should do something different: crack down on those lenders and offer a new deal to poor families just going into the workforce: for the first five years you are working, we will set aside up to $1,000 in an account to help you make home payments. After five years, you’ll have up to $5,000 for down payments.

Next, I’d help families save. We should offer low-income Americans “work bonds”—an extension of the Earned Income Tax Credit that helps families save for the future. Lowincome working families would receive an extra credit of up to $500 per year that would be directly deposited into a new account held by a bank or a safe stock fund with low fees.

If families put away more, the amount in the account would grow, and it would be available not just for retirement, but also for a small business or a personal emergency. It’d be there for a rainy day and a better future.

Third, work should give you a good education. I could give a whole speech about education alone, because we will never end poverty unless we improve our schools. But here’s just one idea that would help with both education and housing.

This President likes to talk a lot about school vouchers; I’d like a major effort to give working parents who are poor housing vouchers so they have a chance to move into neighborhoods with better schools. That will not only expand opportunity; it will build healthier communities through “cultural integration,” as David Brooks called it.

Poor people don’t need new bureaucracies; they need access to the same banks and jobs and markets that most Americans take for granted. The chance to go to college meant everything in my life, and young people need to know that if they work hard they’ll be able to afford it.

For years now, I’ve talked about an idea I call College for Everyone: if you stay out of trouble in high school and agree to work your first year in college, you ought to get your first year of tuition at a public university or community college free. In a couple weeks, I’ll be announcing a new pilot project in North Carolina to test out that idea in an entire county.

And we also need policies that help strengthen families. Though the 2001 tax bill eliminated the marriage penalty for the middle-class, poor families can still get hit with a $3,000 marriage penalty. That makes no sense. We need to finish the job of welfare reform. It caused millions of mothers to go out and get jobs, but it left poor young men right where they were.

In communities where 40 percent of young men are unemployed, we can get more poor men into the workforce by connecting them with more jobs and supporting their wages, the way the EITC already does for families.

And we should make sure young fathers get the same deal as young mothers: you have to take work and take responsibility for your children. In return, we’ll help you find a job. How will we pay for it all at a time of record deficits? We will pay for it if we decide it matters.

Just in the next 5 years, George Bush has found the money to pay for over $336 billion in tax breaks for the wealthiest 1% of Americans. He has found the money to deliver subsidies for every kind of corporate interest. Now he says he wants to cut waste, but he won’t touch two more tax cuts for millionaires that haven’t even taken effect yet.

To do this right, we will need to cut the wasteful spending—the breaks for oil companies, for a highway to nowhere, even for ceiling fan exporters. But that won’t be enough. We will also need to repeal the tax cuts given to the most fortunate among us. And even that won’t be enough.

For a long time, I’ve talked about how this President’s tax policy rewards wealth, not work. Today a stockbroker sitting by the pool watching the stock market pays a lower tax rate than the secretary who types the letters.

So we need tax reform. I’ve already talked about how to reward work better by expanding the EITC. But we should also stop favoring the wealth of the wealthiest. An easy way to do that is to restore the Alternative Minimum Tax to its original purpose, shielding the middle class but ensuring that the very richest pay at least the same 28% rate on their stocks that they already pay on their work under the AMT. That will mean that the secretary and shop clerk living off their work don’t pay a higher tax rate than millionaires living off their wealth.

When I first started talking about poverty in the 2004 campaign, political types said it was futile. They said nobody cares about poverty except for poor people. They were wrong.

Through their overwhelming generosity since Katrina, Americans have shown that we all care about poverty. We care about our national community. We know that no one succeeds on their own. We know that when one person is down it drags all of us down. This is not something we do for them. This is something we do for us—for all of us. It makes us stronger, it makes us better. We just want to fight poverty in a way that reflects our values.

As I watched the horrific images of human suffering caused by Katrina, like many of you, I was heart broken. Unfortunately, those images are not the picture of one city, but of our America today. It does not have to be that way. This is a historic moment when the country is ready to act.

But will this attention to poverty be sustained or transient? That depends on our leaders—whether we step up and sustain our moral commitment as the country’s conscience would naturally want us to do. I hope we all do.

So, today, I implore all Americans – don’t turn off the television and put the disturbing images out of your mind. Don’t let yourself think that because the levees in New Orleans are being repaired, we have built all of America’s levees high enough.

Rather, stand with me today and pledge to work for an America that doesn’t ignore those in need and lifts up those who wish to succeed. Pledge to hold your government accountable for ignoring the suffering of so many for far too long. And pledge to do your part to build the America that we have dreamed of – where the bright light of opportunity shines on every person – an America where the family you are born into, or the color of your skin, will never control your destiny.

Thank you.

does anybody wonder why it seems as if all christians support the republican party its becuase democrats sadly back away from any chance to show that democrats are christians too. i believe to have an effective leader of the democratic party means to have a leader who will boldly stand up and say on behalf of all closeted christian democrats that jesus was and is neither a republican or a democrat . the republicans in every election season makes it seem as if they have the monopoly on morality and christianity we as democrats have to show that we too have values care about moral issues and are christians just as much as propogandist republicans. i believe to do this we need a leader who can find a way to unite our diverse progressive party. if there is one thing we have that "they" dont its the ability to recognize that there are people w different viewpoints out there and we value those differences and are allways willing to look for ways to intergrate those viewpoints w traditional democratic principles and viewpoints...to make a long story short we need to be saying as a party that its ok to be a democrat and christian and this is how and why... and words mean nothing w out action we need to redefine grass roots we need to get out in the communities were the lonstanding belief is democrats are secular heathens and seriously convince these people otherwise... theyve been told for a long time that christians have to vote for republicans...this is so wrong. we need a leader who will go against the grain when he or she needs to but who will ultimately unite our party.

how bought this one.... Jim Wallis for president any questions read his new book "Gods Politics: Why the right gets it wrong and the left doesnt get it." HARPER SANFRANSISCO PUBLISHING A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER and a must read for all democrats especially party leaders.

Why isn't PDA working to set up chapters in every Congressional distict in the United States? Then this chapter could support a candidate whose outlook is similar to that of the PDA. We only have about 12and 1/2 months before our next Congressional elections.

THe reason the Demecrats are not going to pull troups out of Iraq is they are bought and paid for by the Isreali lobby. The Isreal wants us to take over Iraq, put a puppet government in place, and have a military presence in Iraq at our (the United States) expense in both money and lives for the benefit of Isreal. Ralph Nader was right in that voting for a Demecrat or a Republican was no different as they're both bought and paid for by the same lobbies. Unfortunately Ralph didn't give us a viable alternative candidate.

I'm amazed Mr. Hightower could write this article without mentioning Sen. Barbara Boxer or Rep. Barbara Lee. Maybe you should start looking at the real leadership--the women. (And yes, I left Hillary out on purpose.)

You people seem so Hate Filled......

I guess this is a SAD day(Iragi Elections) for you Progresives..mmmmmoh I mean Liberals/Socialist.

If you liberals have it your way, America would lose the War On Terror or do some of you traders still think 9/11 did not happen.

You liberals keep talking , just keep letting mianstream America know WHAT you really consist of....Us Patriots will continue to protect your butts.

I'm glad that I am not the only one who has noticed the deafening silence coming from the Democratic Party. Have they been so inundated with fear by the opposition party that they choose to remain cowed and silent when the hour of our deliverance from the BushCo NeoCons is at hand? We've already seen how the disastrous policies of this failed administration have caused so many problems that will take decades to undo the damage from, but the Democrats choose to say and do nothing.

Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil - they are like the three monkeys with their hands over their ears, mouths and eyes, not willing to get up and point the way to the future. This country cannot afford to shred the social contract that means that you are your brother's keeper, you look out for one another, take care of one another, do unto others as you would have them do unto you - all that stuff your mom and teachers taught you growing up about good behaviour and basic socialisation skills.

I urge ALL of you to read "Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America" by Garrison Keillor. This book speaks so clearly about the plain, basic homegrown values we all share and how this administration seems to have forgotten those basic social niceties in favour of rampant robbery of the National Treasury to build their Global Oil Empire via corporate welfare and subsidizing the rich at the expense of the rest of us on the lower ends of the income scale.

Mr. Keillor is kind of a modern day Mark Twain, and his words should be read by anyone who cares about and understands the social contract and how its fraying is doing nearly irreparable damage to this country. It's not too late to end the hemorraging, but we've got three long years left of the failed BushCo administration, and until and unless we replace these bungling Empire builders with truly compassionate people, we will be facing a very long, dark three years, by which time the damage will be done and we will be hard pressed to repair it.

We will be paying for their Middle East misadventures long after we're all gone, and our children and grandchildren will pick up the tab for this sorry escapade. Our generation retire? Not on your life - I figure I will be forced to work until they have to scrape me off the floor. No retirement for us Baby Boomers. Our retirement savings were spent on this whole fiasco "War on Terrorism". Why not spend the money more wisely and identify what causes terrorism in the first place - rampant poverty and despair - and do something constructive about it?

Please support the efforts toward a Cabinet level Department of Peace. You can find more information on this web site: http://www.dopcampaign.org/ Please ask your Senators and Congressmen to support the creation of this office, whose function would be to find alternatives to waging war, such as addressing poverty and despair in countries where terrorism could very easily be fostered and grow. We can end war, it will take work, but I know we can do it. Support the Department of Peace and look for local DoP groups in your area who are working toward seeing to it that this office is created. Think globally, act locally. Do it now, for our future and that of our descendents future.

And Democrats - WAKE THE HELL UP, ALREADY!!!!! You're blowing your chances now that the Republican ship is sinking! Please deliver us from the Bush regime! Your hour is at hand - seize the day! WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE!!!!! Oh, and thanks Progressive Democrats of America, for trying to put the kick back in the Democratic donkey. Your efforts are valiant, and I applaud your work in trying to do something about this party's silence. You've got a real uphill battle ahead, while everyone else calls for the party to reclaim the center ground and be Republican Lite instead of real Democrats.

The "L" word is not dead. I am a liberal, unashamed and proud of it.