When:  Sunday, Feb. 17, 7 PM
Where: First Unitarian Church, SW 12th and Salmon
Admission: $5-20 sliding scale.  No one will be turned away for lack of funds

A provocative evening discussing corporate personhood with Scott Silber, lead faculty at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Constitutional Studies and Democratic Development's Youth Organizing Institute, human rights and environmental organizer, and former Director of Colorado's Public Workers' Union.

Scott is the Executive Director of National Intervention, which treats money in politics as an addictive substance. Intervention calls for a national deadline for the ratification of any amendment that abolishes corporate personhood and requires publicly funded elections, viewing any such amendment proposal as an urgent "sobriety checkpoint" for any elected official.

In the event Congress fails to pass that amendment "sobriety test" in time, National Intervention organizes a block-by-block "12-Step National Recovery Platform" campaign, calling on all of us who may be enablers of the addiction system to draw strong boundaries in our relationship to the addicts in power for a new social contract (a New New Deal) while we still have time.

www.nationalintervention.org

Event co-sponsored by Alliance for Democracy, Economic Justice Action Group of the First Unitarian Church, Move to Amend PDX.

Join the event on Facebook and share with your friends.

On January 10, 2013, turn out as the Multnomah County Commission considers a resolution calling for Oregon's congressional delegation to support amending the US Constitution to overturn Citizens United, and eliminate the two court created doctrines of corporate personhood and money equals speech. We need you in the building showing your support for this.

Multnomah County Building 501 SE Hawthorne Portland OR Day/Date: Thursday, January 10, 2013 Time: 9:30 AM

Read the proposed resolution here.

Invite your Facebook Friends here.

More information from Alliance for Democracy, David Delk .

David Delk brings us this cogent summary of the latest example of the difference between Democrats and Republicans. As Ralph Nader says, it is "the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door."  The Oregon Center for Public Policy documented that the tax break Nike wants to be continued--on a guaranteed basis--reduces its Oregon state corporate income taxes by 95%.  Because the Oregon Constitution requires taxation to be uniform, this guaranteed tax break would have to apply to all corporations, at least to any corporation making a $150 million investment in Oregon property over the next 5 years.  Under the proposed bill, the contractually-guaranteed tax break would last from 5 to 40 years.

The Oregon Progressive Party's candidates performed well in the 2012 general election.

Minor parties in Oregon are required to run at least one statewide candidate earning 1% or more of the vote. We ran 3 statewide candidates, and all of them exceeded 1%.

Our candidates for U.S. Representative did even better, earning from 3.1% to 4.2%. We cross-nominated the Democrat, Peter DeFazio, in the 4th Congressional District, and he won with 59% of the vote.

Also, the candidates we endorsed in non-partisan races did well.  Brad Avakian won the statewide Labor Commissioner race.  Amanda Fritz won re-election to the Portland City Council.

Big Bad Wolfe: An activist launches a campaign to oust Secretary of State Kate Brown

Willamette Week    October 31, 2012
by Nigel Jaquis

A light drizzle fell on Bob Wolfe as he stood outside a citadel of the Portland establishment like the lupine nemesis in the story of the Three Little Pigs.

Wolfe was rattling the doors of the Portland City Club’s luncheon debate Oct. 26 at the Governor Hotel between Secretary of State Kate Brown and her Republican challenger, Dr. Knute Buehler. Wolfe is also on the ballot as the Progressive Party’s candidate. But no matter how loud he knocked, the City Club would not let him in.

City Club officials denied Wolfe access because (as they said in an Oct. 17 email to him) he isn’t a “viable candidate.”

Wolfe won’t win, but his only goal is defeating Brown, whom he accuses of suppressing Oregon voters by routinely invalidating tens of thousands of petition signatures.

He barreled into the secretary of state’s race late, on Aug. 28, after Brown’s office said a measure to legalize marijuana, for which he was chief petitioner, didn’t qualify for the November ballot. He now wants to draw votes away from Brown using the potency of Oregon’s marijuana legalization supporters.

In the May primary, Wolfe helped raise $200,000 in national marijuana money for now-Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum (who’s married to WW publisher Richard Meeker). He spent another $50,000 on radio ads bashing her opponent, Dwight Holton, who as U.S. attorney for Oregon targeted medical marijuana clinics.

“We killed Holton’s candidacy,” Wolfe says. “Now we’re hoping to motivate people to vote no on Kate Brown.”    Read more ...

Alliance for Democracy sponsors screening of HEIST, Who Stole the American Dream?

Friday, Oct. 26th, 7 PM, First Unitarian Church, SW 12th and Salmon

(Sponsored by Alliance for Democracy as a fundraiser for Alliance for Democracy; co-sponsored by KBOO Community Radio and Economic Justice Action Group)

HEIST: Who Stole the American Dream? is stunning audiences across the globe as it traces the worldwide economic collapse to a 1971 secret memo entitled Attack on American Free Enterprise System. Written over 40 years ago by the future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, at the behest of the US Chamber of Commerce, the 6-page memo, a free-market utopian treatise, called for a money fueled big business makeover of government through corporate control of the media, academia, the pulpit, arts and sciences and destruction of organized labor and consumer protection groups.

But Powell’s real “end game” was business control of law and politics. HEIST’s step by step detail exposes the systemic implementation of Powell’s memo by BOTH U.S. political parties culminating in the deregulation of industry, outsourcing of jobs and regressive taxation. All of which led us to the global financial crisis of 2008 and the continued dismantling of the American middle class.

Today, politics is the playground of the rich and powerful, with no thought given to the hopes and dreams of ordinary Americans. No other film goes as deeply as HEIST in explaining the greatest heist of our time. Moving beyond the white noise of today’s polarizing media, HEIST provides viewers with a clear, concise and fact-based explanation of how we got into this mess, and what we need to do to restore our representative democracy.

More Info: David Delk 503.232.5495, davidafd@ymail.com

Secretary of State

Robert Wolfe

Progressive

Occupation: Selling Oregon wines worldwide (25 years)

Occupational Background: Journalist, with investigative reporting awards

Educational Background: College

Prior Governmental Experience: None (enough)

RECLAIM THE INITIATIVE PROCESS

Kate Brown’s policies stop normal citizens from using Oregon’s initiative process. Her arbitrary and hyper-technical requirements discard over 40% of all voter signatures, so only big corporations and unions can afford to use the system.

2000-02 saw 13 progressive measures on the Oregon ballot, including guaranteed school funding, single-payer health care, and the nation’s highest minimum wage.

2008-10, with Kate Brown’s bad rules, saw only ONE progressive measure on the Oregon ballot (medical marijuana dispensaries).

GET BIG MONEY OUT OF OREGON POLITICS

In 2006, Oregon voters enacted Measure 47 the nation’s strictest limits on campaign contributions, while requiring political ads to disclose their funding sources and amounts.

Kate Brown refuses to enforce Measure 47, so campaign spending on Oregon races has continued to skyrocket from $4 million in 1996 to $57 million in 2010 (not including Congress). Individual Legislative candidates spend up to $1 million and more. Oregon politicians spend more on legislative races, per capita, than in any state except New Jersey. (Oregonian (4/6/2010))

Kate Brown “has been silent on campaign finance reform and otherwise largely invisible,” says Willamette Week (5/25/2012). In 2008 she smashed the record for Secretary of State campaign spending ($1.2 million), taking contributions as high as $135,000 from a single union and over $116,000 from lawyers and lobbyists.

STOP GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE

As “Auditor in Chief,” Kate Brown’s accountants “audited” the Oregon Department of Revenue 3 times in the past 2 years but failed to detect huge fraudulent tax refunds, including a $2.1 million refund in 2012 to a woman who had never reported significant income. TurboTax discovered this fraud that Kate Brown missed. What else is out there?

SAVE THE STATE FORESTS FROM CLEAR-CUTTING

Kate Brown approved a 65% increase in clear-cutting in Oregon’s largest state forest (Elliott).

(This information furnished by Robert Wolfe.)

OPP candidate for Secretary of State, Bob Wolfe, issued this press release on September 19. It was quoted by the Oregonian at Oregon Secretary of State candidates trade tough words over campaign spending limits.

Kate Brown today announced that her campaign for Secretary of State will limit its spending on the general election to $1 million. "This is a cynical political trick and does not reflect any concern for the huge influence of big money in Oregon elections," said Bob Wolfe, the candidate for Secretary of State of the Oregon Progressive Party.

“Brown has already spent millions promoting her name to Oregon voters, and her pledge won’t restrain limitless spending by public employee unions, her biggest supporters,” Wolfe said. Her pledge does not stop unions or corporations or other entities from making unlimited "independent expenditures" that would not be counted toward the $1 million limit.

In fact, Kate Brown refuses to enforce Oregon Measure 47, adopted by voters in 2006, as a solution to independent expenditures. That requires that every ad funded by independent expenditures prominently disclose the names, business interests, and amounts donated to the independent expenditure campaign by the top 5 donors to the campaign. This would let voters know where the money is coming from, which Kate Brown apparently does not want.

"If Kate Brown were concerned about money in politics, she would be enforcing the contribution limits and other provisions of Measure 47 (2006) instead of attacking that measure in court," Wolfe said.

Kate Brown has already spent over $2.6 million since 2000 promoting her name to Oregon voters. Now she wants all other candidates to comply with her spending limit going forward. That is like cutting the rations for everyone after only you have eaten a series of huge meals.

Brown’s ‘limit’ of $1 million this year comes on top of the $1.2 million Kate Brown spent in 2008. “Kate Brown is a poster child for excessive spending and the current record-holder for campaign spending in Oregon for any State office except Governor,” says Wolfe.

Brown has also avoided all opportunities to reform campaign spending in Oregon. According to Willamette Week (April 25, 2012) , "Brown has been silent on campaign finance reform and otherwise largely invisible."

“She has neither pursued nor accomplished anything on campaign finance reform during her 20 years as a candidate and state office-holder. Now she is suddenly concerned about money in politics? The only reason appears to be that for the first time one of her opponents might outspend her,” said Wolfe.

Vote No on Measure 84.
Keep the Oregon Estate Tax!
No new tax loopholes for the rich!

The Oregon Progressive Party has nominated these 7 candidates for the November 2012 Election:

The Party has also adopted this Oregon Progressive Party Statement for the Oregon Voters's Pamphlet.  Here is the Statement of Robert Wolfe.

The Rocky Anderson ticket includes Luis Gonzalez for Vice-President of the United States.  Robert Wolfe, Cameron Whitten, and Chris Henry are exclusively the candidates of the Oregon Progressive Party.  Steven Reynolds has been cross-nominated by the Pacific Green Party and the Libertarian Party of Oregon.  Woody Broadnax has been cross-nominated by the Pacific Green Party.  Peter DeFazio has been cross-nominated by the Democratic Party and by the Working Families Party of Oregon.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has for decades opposed limits on political campaign contributions and expenditures.  ACLU even filed an amicus brief on the side of the corporations in Citizens United, arguing that corporations have the rights of humans and the right to make unlimited expenditures in political campaigns.

If that was not bad enough, now ACLU opposes disclosure of the sources of those independent expenditures.  ACLU sent a letter to Congress on July 16, 2012, opposing the DISCLOSE Act.  The letter stated:

Although the ACLU supports measures to guarantee the independence of groups making independent expenditures, we are concerned that heavy-handed regulation will violate the anonymous speech rights of individuals and groups that associate with these independent expenditure groups, subjecting them to harassment and potentially discouraging valuable participation in the political process.

Who knew that the real problem is that those poor multi-billion dollar corporations could be subjected to harrassment, if they have to reveal that they are funding political campaigns.

ACLU not only urged Senators to oppose the DISCLOSE Act but urged them to allow the filibuster against it to succeed by voting "no" to cutting off debate ("cloture").

We urge you to oppose S. 3369, the Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections (“DISCLOSE”) Act, and to vote “no” on cloture if the bill is presented for consideration on Monday.    

Thus, argues ACLU, it is so important that political spending remain secret that a minority of the members of the Senate should thwart the will of the majority by using the anti-democratic tactic of filibuster--a filibuster for the sacred right of corporations to do unlimited, secret spending in political campaigns.

Thanks, ACLU, for again siding with the corporations and making clear your view that corporate rights are more important than democracy.