The Oregon Progressive Party's monthly membership meeting approved this statement of opposition to fast tracking of the the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, because it sets "binding policy on Congress and state legislatures relating to patents and copyright, food safety, government procurement, financial regulation, immigration, healthcare, energy, the environment, labor rights and more."

NAFTA is 20.
20 years ago on January 1, 1994, President Clinton signed NAFTA (North American Free Trade Area). Agreement proponents had declared that 170,000 American jobs would be created, exports of American farm products would increase, food prices would decrease, the American balance of trade would be improved. the Mexican economy would be uplifted to be a first class level of prosperity and more.

Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch's new report, NAFTA at 20, points to quite different results. Instead of job creation, we see one million US jobs lost; the lost jobs caused a downward pressure on American wages, thereby increasing inequality within the United States; food prices went up; the US balance of trade with both Mexico and Canada moved from small surplus' to deficits; American manufacturers moved their production south of the border (and later out of Mexico to China and now the new low wage nation of Vietnam); and many environmental and health laws have been challenged in private trade tribunals. The United States has become less food sustainable. Mexican immigration into the US doubled. Read the report yourself here. Listen to or watch Democracy Now! interview with Lori Wallach of Public Citizen on January 3rd, 2014 here. Click here for a list of investor suits challenging laws and regulations under various of these so-called "Free trade Agreements."

NAFTA to become the Trans Pacific Partnership

by Ralph Nader

21 Ways the Canadian Health Care System is Better than Obamacare

Dear America:

Costly complexity is baked into Obamacare. No health insurance system is without problems but Canadian style single-payer full Medicare for all is simple, affordable, comprehensive and universal.

In the early 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson enrolled 20 million elderly Americans into Medicare in six months. There were no websites. They did it with index cards!

Below please find 21 Ways the Canadian Health Care System is Better than Obamacare.

Repeal Obamacare and replace it with the much more efficient single-payer, everybody in, nobody out, free choice of doctor and hospital.

Love, Canada

Alliance for Democracy sponsors a screening of

A Fierce Green Fire
The Battle for a Living Planet

Date:  Sunday, November 10, 2013
Time: 6:30 PM; Doors open at 6:00 PM
Location:  First Unitarian Church, SW 12th and Salmon, Portland
Admission:  $5 -20 donation requested; No one turned away for lack of funds
Co-sponsored by:  Alliance for Democracy, Economic Justice Action Group of First Unitarian Church, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, Community for Earth of First Unitarian Church, Oregonians for Renewable Energy Progress

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Our Oregon Representatives in Congress need to hear from us about Syria.  The Oregon Progressive Party offers this statement against the use of U.S. military force in Syria.

Please contact your representatives in Congress with your views; feel free to send them this statement.  Their contact information is at the bottom of this message.

Please support peaceful diplomatic solutions
and VOTE NO on any authorizations for U.S. military strikes on Syria.

History clearly guides us us to the course of action the United States must take in Syria. Only peaceful diplomacy will rid Syria, and the greater Middle East, of weapons of mass destruction in all its forms.

The use of U.S. military force is no solution for assisting the Syrian people to free themselves from tyranny and begin to build democracy. We are told military strikes will be extremely limited and involve no long term commitments or U.S. ground troops, but "limited wars" often escalate, since the U.S. can never "cut and run."

Portland public interest attorney and Oregon Progressive Party activist, Dan Meek, was a recent guest on the Alliance for Democracy's Populist Dialogues cable access program and reviews recent US Supreme Court decisions which have further empowered corporate power at the expense of “We, the people.” Included are comments on Citizens United v FEC, Gabelli v S.E.C., Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v Bartlett, Decker v NW Environmental Defense Center, Shelby County (Alabama) v Holder and more. Part 1 of 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkCKfbZvQ9w

Oregon Progressive Party's Jason Kafoury appeared on the Alliance for Democracy Populist Dialogues to talk about the Oregon Progressive Party, looked especially at party efforts to control the use of drones within Oregon by public agendies and private individuals, including corporations.

Click here to view.

And don't forget to LIKE it and share it.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Watch the second part of the interview here.

We ask Governor Kitzhaber to veto SB 154, the bill to criminalize the initiative process in Oregon.

SB 154 transforms any violation--however minor--of any election law or rule by an initiative, referendum, or recall campaign that pays circulators into the felony of false swearing under ORS 260.715(1) with penalties per violation of $125,000 and/or 5 years in prison.

Be sure to read the full story here.

Dan Meek is interviewed by Oregon Progressive Party member David Delk on the Alliance for Democracy's public access program, The Populist Dialogues (www.populistdialogues.org). Dan talks about changes to the initiative process to limit its use as well as how the system of political corruption by special big money interests in Oregon is misrepresented. He reviews current efforts in the Oregon legislature to further restrict the initiative process as well as changes to the law regarding nepotism. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GvRXgF7E1M

The Oregon House of Representatives on June 28 by a vote of 35-23 (all 23 "no" votes were Republicans) adopted SB 154, the bill to criminalize the initiative process in Oregon.

The facts about this bill were presented in the email, below, to all House members.

On the floor today, proponents brandished an "opinion" issued by Legislative Counsel immediately before the floor session.  The proponents did not read from the "opinion" and instead merely offered a vague summary of it.  The "opinion" was not made available to us until 7 hours after the vote.

We will ask Governor Kitzhaber to veto this dangerous bill.  SB 154 transforms any violation--however minor--of any election law or rule by an initiative, referendum, or recall campaign that pays circulators into the felony of false swearing under ORS 260.715(1) with penalties per violation of $125,000 and/or 5 years in prison.

Be sure to read the full story here.

HJM6-3 approved by Rules Committee unanimously
Today the Oregon House Rules Committee took a major step to end corporate domination by voting out of their committee HJM6-3.  HJM6-3 is the revised Joint Memorial calling on Oregon's congressional delegation to send us a constitutional amendment to end the court-created doctrines that money is speech and that corporations are people.  The committee voted unanimously to send the resolution to a vote of the full House.

Read the text of HJM6-3 here.

Time to take action!
Having sent it to the full House means we each need to advocate for its passage.  Call or email your state representative NOW, express your support for HJM6 and inform them of your expectation that they will approve this and move it onto the senate.  Because the legislative session will end soon, we need to take action NOW!

WHAT OREGON GOVERNMENT NEEDS IS MORE NEPOTISM!

by Dan Meek

That is the message of HB 2079A, which has already passed the House and the Senate on April 15. Governor Kitzhaber has 5 days to sign or veto it.

UPDATE:  Governor Kitzhaber has signed this bill, thus allowing public officials to decide to hire their own aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, half brothers, half sisters, stepchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, mother-in-law, and father-in-law, without even disclosing the relationship.

My testimony against the bill as it appeared in the House is attached.  It has only gotten worse since then.

Under ORS 244.177, a public official is currently not allowed to appoint, employ, or promote a "relative" in a paid position with a "public body that the public official servers or over which the public official exercises jurisdiction or control," unless the public official does not participate in the decision to appoint, employ, or promote his or her "relative."

Oregon's nepotism restrictions currently apply to these "relatives" of a public official, under ORS 244.175(4):

(4)    “Relative” means the spouse of the public official, any children of the public official or of the public official’s spouse, and brothers, sisters, half brothers, half sisters, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, mothers-in-law, fathers-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, stepparents, stepchildren or parents of the public official or of the public official’s spouse.

HB 2079A substantially changes the definition of "relative" applicable to the nepotism restrictions. It eliminates from that definition the public official's half brothers, half sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, stepchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, mother-in-law, and father-in-law, replacing the current definition with this:

"Relative" means:

(a)    The spouse, parent, stepparent, child, sibling, stepsibling, son-in-law or daughter-in law of the public official or candidate;

                         (b)   The parent, stepparent, child, sibling, stepsibling, son-in-law or daughter-in law of the spouse of the public official or candidate;

Some dictionaries define "sibling" as including only "a person's brother or sister," not a half brother or half sister. See Collins English Dictionary (HarperCollins 2003). The new definition covers "stepsiblings," but half-siblings and stepsiblings are not the same.

I see no reason to remove half brothers, half sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, stepchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, mothers-in-law, and fathers-in-law from the nepotism restrictions.

Governor Kitzhaber:  Please veto this bill.

The Oregon Progressive Party urges a "NO" vote on putting fluoride in the Portland water supply (Measure 26-151) on the May 20113 ballot.

Read about it at Clean Water Portland

Obama is negotiating another "Free Trade Agreement" like NAFTA, only bigger and badder. Call your US Representative and Senators and tell them not to give Obama Fast Track Authority to pass it and tell them to demand that the agreement text be released now so we can know what is in the agreement. It is outrageous that 600 corporate lobbyists can read it and we cannot. Read the Alliance for Democracy flyer on this and find the link to contact to your rep and senators. http://www.afd-pdx.org/uploads/1/3/4/0/13403615/flyer_1_c.pdf and learn more on Fast Track Authority here: http://www.afd-pdx.org/no-fast-track-authority.html  And tell your US Representative and Senators to

* release the text so that both the public and congress can read the text prior to President signing it

* not vote for Fast Track Authority for the President.  Fast Track Authority has been used to enact almonst every "free Trade agreement.