Caucusing

I attended the local Democratic caucus today. Although I'm rather undecided, I have come to the conclusion that I just don't like Hillary. There are a few specific issues with both candidates but a lot of it's personality. Although having either a woman or a black man in office marks a significant turning point in the American presidency, I feel that Hillary has been more committed to the establishment in the past few years as senator. In contrast, I also feel that Obama is more able to bring a voice from the people to Washington. Sure that's fuzzy but I think personality matters more than ideals in this case because the President is really only able to do so much. Congress currently has a 22% approval rating, something tells me they might get stirred up and more Democrats in office at the next election. But we'll see.

So no Hillary supporters convinced me and I, like 90% of our precinct, voted for Obama. Seriously, we had 99 people, which resulted in 10 Obama delegates and 1 Clinton delegate. I volunteered to be one of the delegates so on April 5th, I am going to the County convention.

At the county convention, I will also be able to vote on the county platform. In order to be part of that process, I volunteered for the Platform Committee which will meet in two weeks. The LGBT part of county platform is weak, especially compared to the very Progressive ideals in other sections. It is almost as though no gay people actually were part of making it. Today, we brainstormed more ideas including support for a fully-inclusive ENDA (and local variations), expanding domestic partnership rights/benefits, HIV/AIDS eduction, trans prisoners, and the aging LGBT population. I think it's a good start. I also have some ideas for talking about agriculture and the environment.

Yay! I feel empowered!

Monsanto Tries to Force-Feed Consumers rBGH

(From my local food co-op paper)

The good news is that a critical mass of dairies and supermarket chains are banning Monsanto's Bovine Growth Hormone, bowing to consumer pressure. The genetically engineered cow hormone is banned in most industrialized nations, due to its negative health impacts on cows and cancer risks to humans, but Monsanto, the manufacturer of the drug, is apparently still determined to force-feed rBGH to U.S. consumers.

Under pressure from Monsanto, the notoriously pro-agribusiness Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) has recently announced new regulations outlawing the labeling of dairy products as rBGH-free. The twisted rationale for the ruling is that truthfully labeling dairy products as rBGH-free is "making it hard for consumers to make informed decisions." In other words allowing consumers freedom of choice is bad for Monsanto's profits, and the profits of Pennsylvania's factory-style dairy feed-lots who continue to inject their animals with the drug. PDA listed 16 companties that were required to remove rBGH-free labels by December 31, 2007. Monsanto is also working to pass similar anti-consumer laws in other states. The Organic Consumer Association plans to join their allies to stop this latest episode of biotech bullying.

For more information, see www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_7941.cfm

From Zoe: Please make sure you know where your food comes from. Stick to organic foods only and contemplate going partially (ovo-lacto) or fully vegetarian (Vegan). Animal farming, particularly industrial animal farming, is hurting our planet and our health.

Update: Apparently, due to massive public outcry, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Agriculture has withstood Monsanto and made regulations for allowing dairies to label their milk as being produced without genetically-engineered hormones [story].

Dennis Kucinich

As counterpoint to my previous post on Ron Paul, I present Congressman Dennis Kucinich. He dropped out of the presidential race early this time but the important part is what he does while he's in the office he already holds, not his single-digit presidential campaigns. However, I tabled for Dennis in 2004 and stand by that. There are few people I would support more for the President of the United States of America.

Truly Peaceful

Now that we've realized that the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars are a mess and that we can't really control the direction of another country easily, anti-war sentiment has become more popular. In contrast, Kucinich voted against going to war and against renewing funding for the war. He would support replacing the Department of Defense (formerly, the War Department) with the Department of Peace, dedicated to finding peaceful solutions instead of military buildup. He supports nuclear disarmament. He is a strong supporter of gun control and has proposed legislation to ban handguns.

Thoughtfully Pro-Choice

Dennis has held a pretty staunchly anti-choice voting position in the past. However, Bush's push towards a full-on ban and criminalization has pushed Dennis to reconsider his position. Through much thought and soul-searching, he has decided that it is more valuable to keep abortion a legal option for women. I like this much better than knee-jerk pro-choice Democrats.

Equal Rights

Kucinich is the only Democratic candidate to support full equal marriage rights for same-sex couples instead of mealy seperate-and-unequal "civil unions". He also voted against the PATRIOT ACT (which I have also worked against).

Government-Sponsored Murder

He is a strong opponent of the death penalty and has proposed legislation to ban it on a federal level.

Drugs

Dennis supports lowering the drinking age to 18 in order to lessen the allure. He has supported decriminalization of marijuana and opposes the so-called "War on Drugs".

Environmental Concerns

Dennis is a true environmentalist. Not simply jumping on the bandwagon of cheap solutions like ethanol and coal (electric cars -- the primary source of electricity in America is coal). He opposes genetically modified foods. He is also a Vegan (as am I).

Universal Health Care

He is a co-sponsor of the National Health Insurance Act.

Immigration

Dennis supports promoting a clear road to legal citizenship for illegal immigrants. He was a co-sponsor of a bill to give legal status to all immigrants who have been in the country more than five years.

There are many other positions which Dennis Kucinich has actually acted upon which show him as a true Progressive. We need to understand and support some of the actions he has done in Congress.

Ron Paul

I don't understand the obsession with Ron Paul. He's just a free-market libertarian Republican. The kids don't get this excited over the Libertarian Party. It's almost creepy. Not quite as creepy as the LaRouche-ites, but still disturbing. Why would I want to support a guy who champions the very ideology I have struggled against?

Free Markets

Ron Paul's "Invisible Hand" has crushed billions of people, not helped them. Lifting government restrictions only hurts more people. Remember London of the 19th century? That's free market. Unmanaged free market economy was also one cause of the Great Depression and US fiscal policy changed dramatically to try to soften the natural periodic recessions and depressions which will occur under a market economy. I am strongly opposed to capitalism, especially unrestricted capitalism.

Civil Rights?

Ron Paul claims he champions "civil rights," yet these "civil rights" are often those of corporations and the government, not individuals!

Reproductive Rights?

He is also staunchly anti-choice, whereas I do not support legal restrictions on abortion and support state and federal funding of sex education. He has worked hard against Roe v. Wade and supported the so-called "Partial Birth Abortion Ban". The government is a poor place to handle complicated, personal, moral decisions like abortion with a sweeping ban.

Government-sponsored Murder

He is pro-death penalty. He objects only on its unfair application, not its inherent evil.

Private Murder

Ron Paul strongly supports gun ownership, including automatic weapons. He believes that more weapons will help curb crime and violence rather than promote it. Yet he claims the Iraq war is un-Christian.

Civil Rights for Us?

Notably (because it directly effects me) he is anti-gay. He opposed same-sex adoption. He supported the DoMA and opposed ENDA and the hate crimes bill. He opposed Lawrence v. Texas, saying that the government has the right to tell people they can't have sex (not very Libertarian, eh?). He supports "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

Strom Thurmond 2.0?

Ron Paul he has opposed the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. He supports a border fence. He was author and supporter of several several far-right racist publications. Maybe he really is no better than Lyndon LaRouche...

Friends in Odd Places

In addition to the Lyndon LaRouche defectors, Ron Paul has also gained the support of neo-Nazi David Duke, Pat Buchanan (unsuprisingly, I was comparing them in a discussion a few nights ago), Larry Pratt, and the John Birch Society.

I have no idea why he has become so popular among young people. I live in a pretty liberal "hippie college town" and I see Ron Paul stickers all over. People are fascinated by him and they're barking up the wrong tree if they have any respect for civil rights.

Reproductive Rights

I have also cared about reproductive rights since I was old enough to understand them. Watching my partner go through pregnancy only increased my belief in reproductive freedom. There’s something wrong with an administration that wants a woman to carry a fetus to term if she conceives, but will not give her permission or wherewithal to raise that child in a legal relationship with the person she loves, whom she knows will be a responsible, loving parent.

~ Dana Rudolph

Why Gay Marriage?

Why is gay marriage such a divisive issue? It's like we judge presidential candidates and even individuals on what they think of gay marriage. The only reason I care about gay marriage is because I'm gay but I care about poverty, health care, and violent empire building much more. Why do so many straight people care one way or the other? o_O

Policies I would implement

• Ban non-human powered transportation (bikes okay; no cars, planes or trains). Tear up the freeways and highways and replace with trails.
• Open the borders.
• Establish and enforce the right of all workers, citizens and non-citizens, to fair union representation.
• Slash the military budget, end all occupations. Abolish all first-strike policies. Wait? Won't people invade us then? Well, quit doing all you can to piss people off!
• Functional universal health care. Focus on preventative care, not drugs. End corporate drug advertising and cap drug prices.
• Make the FDA actually work. Mandate full ingredient lists on food (no "natural and artificial ingredients"), including alcoholic beverages (pop has to have a nutritional label but alcopop doesn't :-/). Severely limit allowed ingredients.
• Ban GMO crops, we don't have enough information and they can take over native crops creating a monoculture of plants engineered solely to make greater profits.
• Ban artificial hormones in cattle and other animals. We know they have serious side effects in humans but money, not health, talks.
• Ban petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides. Dumping chemicals on our food is starting to have serious health effects. The massive doses of pesticides used in cotton production trashes the soil and they often are rotated with food (esp. peanuts), which brings deadly chemicals otherwise banned for food use into our food.
• Ban animal testing. Broaden existing laws to include rats, mice and birds as animals (!). Extend animal abuse crimes to include corporations (e.g. what Michael Vick did could have been done legally if done by a corporation or university claiming it was for "scientific advancement" or "testing of consumer products").
• Severely restrict the cruelest forms of animal torture and exploitation, including the fur trade. Ban zoos and circuses which use animals.
• Restrict animal breeding to discourage domestication as harmful to animals and the environment.
• Reinstitute high tariffs to protect our national economy.
• Drastically shrink the federal government. Move closer towards confederacy, government should function bottom-up, not top-down. Localism should be encouraged, centralism discouraged. "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved for the States respectively, or to the people." (10th Amendment to the Constitution)
• Abolish corporate welfare and personhood.
• Abolish the practice of dumping goods in the form of "aid", which destroys local economies.
• End the "War on (Certain) Drugs". It only exacerbates the problem. What is of prime importance is to raise the living conditions in the inner city through economic restructuring and social programs that actually work.

The general idea is agrarian localist socialist, partly inspired by Wendell Berry and mostly inspired by my disdain for the current state of affairs.

What else can you think of?