Dr. Porter, I just returned to this thread and am very impressed and moved by your response to my comment.

You have my support and my thanks. We need your voice in Washington, now more than ever.

My pleasure. Let’s keep the dialog going. I enjoy chatting with you and all of the Firedoglake participants. I will continue to try to answer your questions in the last weeks of the campaign. Forgive me if the answers are late–I am often running from here to there for appearances. But I will get to it, I promise.

Steve

I’m contributing in memory of habeas corpus. May its return be swift.

I live in a district similar to the 3rd (Shuster’s 9th) and I wish we had a candidate with a chance to win here. I’d like to see PA turn the House blue all by itself. Our district assuredly won’t help, though, because it trends about 2/3 GOP.

If you don’t mind more free advice– worth every penny– to a very small degree, I have to concur with those above who urge more vivid and direct language in certain situations. Not to try to change who you are, which anyone can see who reads carefully and which I’m certain comes across very clearly in small meetings and face-to-face.

It’s to separate yourself from standard political bafflegabbers and to reach people through TV spots and stand-ups and the short candidate statements that most newspapers feel obligated to run just before elections. Punchy and basic is what Dems need. It also helps in communicating the outrage that should be simmering somewhere on the back of the stove.

Go get ‘em–

For all of the sound byte devotees on Firedoglake, I am happy to tell you that all my TV ads are now on my website for you to view. You may have to upgrade your Windows Media Player to view them, but it is a no-cost upgrade available on the web. I hope you enjoy all seven spots. I would like to tell you a bit about them before you see them.

First, the topics were chosen for their relevance to this district–although I believe they have relevance for all the nation.

Second, they are comparative ads stating the positions of my opponent and his votes on those positions and then countering with my own position as an alternative. THEY ARE NOT CHARACTER ASSASSINATIONS OF HIM OR ANYONE ELSE.

Third, they meet all the FEC ad requirements: I am on camera; I identify myself; the screen states that I am running for Congress; and both screen and voice state that the ad was paid for by the Porter for Congress committee.
(Of course, the ads were paid for by your generous donations to the Porter for Congress committee.)

There were many savvy minds which went into the creation of the scripts so that we could get our message across in simple 30-second segments of time. It is not the best way to discuss an issue, but it is the manner of the times in which we live.

Thank you all for your help.

Steve

You have my support and my thanks. We need your voice in Washington, now more than ever.

Dr. Porter and Howie:

Thank you! I have rarely been as impressed with a candidate as I am with Dr. Porter. We contribute from the work computer and will do so Monday morning. I am particularly impressed that Dr. Porter brought up Palestine/Israel and the need for a negotiated peace and a two state solution. I think it is one of the preeminent failures of this administration. I am sorry I missed the chance to chat with him, I would have liked to know his take on the administration’s refusal to call for an immediate cease fire in the Lebanon/Israel war. So many candidates will not even engage when asked a question about this and he just stepped up to the plate and spoke out, loud and clear! I appreciate his passion for and commitment to the environment very much. Good luck — our country needs you!

Well, we can chat now. Sy Hersh’s article (stating that the reaction of Israel to the kidnapping of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah was orchestrated by the US neocons as a test case for bombing Iran) is a telling insight into the manipulations of this administration. I am a Jew, and want with all my heart to see a peaceful and prosperous Israel. I know that this will never happen given the policies of militarism and hatred which have fueled the Middle East crisis every day of my 63 years on this planet.

That is why it is so vitally important for the US to understand the tides of history which have created the anger, despair, and violence on the part of Hamas, Hezbollah, Ahmadinajad, et. al. And it is vital for the Islamic peoples of the Middle East to understand (and not deny) the incredible suffering of the Jewish people, particularly during the Second World War.

You know, one of the supreme ironies of modern history for me has been the fact that both the Jewish and Palestinian peoples have been equal victims of the cruelties of the Age of Colonial Imperialism which Palmer and Colton write about so eloquently in their books. They are brothers of the same geography, equally disserved by the greed and violence visited upon them from the Roman Empire to the present day. And the current conflict between them has pitted them against eachother largely because of the geopolitical manipulations of Colonial powers since the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WWI. Add to this irony the fact the the US was never a real participant in the millenium of colonialism–or at least a very late one in comparison with the activities of England, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland etc. When our historially ignorant President declared it an American Christian Crusade ordained to him by God to force democracy down the throat of the Middle East at the point of a gun no less, he cloaked America in the very cloth of colonial imperialism which has spawned the conflicts we see. The result, as the latest NIE report finally admits, is that instead of being the broker of peace in the region, the US has only served to make the problem worse–and in the process, to make the position of Israel much more difficult.

The change of perspective on international relations and a Congress which will at least talk about the tides of history as it seeks to enact policy is perhaps the most vital one we need. It is a key reason why I would like to add my voice to the discussion in Washington.

Steve

I have sent my contribution to ActBlue. Dr. Porter, thanks for running, and for your detailed and forthright answers to the questions today. Best wishes for your campaign.

Many thanks.

I live in a district similar to the 3rd (Shuster’s 9th) and I wish we had a candidate with a chance to win here. I’d like to see PA turn the House blue all by itself. Our district assuredly won’t help, though, because it trends about 2/3 GOP.

If you don’t mind more free advice– worth every penny– to a very small degree, I have to concur with those above who urge more vivid and direct language in certain situations. Not to try to change who you are, which anyone can see who reads carefully and which I’m certain comes across very clearly in small meetings and face-to-face.

It’s to separate yourself from standard political bafflegabbers and to reach people through TV spots and stand-ups and the short candidate statements that most newspapers feel obligated to run just before elections. Punchy and basic is what Dems need. It also helps in communicating the outrage that should be simmering somewhere on the back of the stove.

Go get ‘em–

A donation, a link, and a question below:

First, Cujo, I’m with you on that “partial match” to Jane. (I realize that ifthethunderdontgetyou already did a full match, but let’s work on the second match so we have collectively doubled what Jane gave.)

We need two more at the $25 level for that double-match. (I am spreading mine around, but Steve is a compelling candidate.)

While we are confining our discussion here to a great progressive candidate for Congress, I’ll keep posting on Foley on the previous thread and link back to the video of Nancy Pelosi’s House Resolution here: http://www.firedoglake.com/200…..ent-317494

Third, my question. Dr. Porter, I have a question for you:

Professors and teachers in many states are subject to mandatory reporting of evidence of child abuse. If there is not already a Rule in the House of Representatives requiring mandatory reporting of child abuse by Members of Congress, would you support adding such a requirement after you arrive in Washington?

In a heartbeat.

Steve

Dr. Porter,

Reading your No. 68 answer as well as others, I want to thank you for your strong position on morality in government and politics. After the 2004 elections, the media was quick to credit Bush’s victory to “moral values.” Later, that conclusion was widely critizized as invalid, but there is no question the Republicans have tried hard to present themselves–exclusively–as the party of “moral values.” I appreciate your thoughtful efforts to put that term in a broader and more meaningful context.

And on that subject, I would just mention that the Party of Moral Values would not, as the House Republican leadership has apparently done, condone or cover up patently immoral behavior by members such as Mr. Foley.

There are several issues of governmental morality which greatly upset me. The first, of course, are the lies and cover-ups about the war. This extends not just to those in office, but to the media, as well, who have ducked hard questions and ignored credible reports (such as the Carnegie Report on WMD in Iraq–which is available online). The second applies to the whole election process: rigged votes, the Supreme Court decision for the 2000 election, the purchase of Congress through special interest campaign contribution money, and the complicity of the media for making huge profits from that money. To give you an example, in my current race, one 30-second ad (God help us for having to speak in such simple sound bytes) on Desparate Housewives is being sold for $6,000. Finally, the ads themselves are often reprehensible. They speak not of issues but content themselves with meaningless and mostly erroneous character assassination.

Some one asked me why I thought the nation had sunk so low. I do not pretend to have the answers, but I do have a teacher’s lifetime perspective which allowed me a personal observation. In my career, I have seen American education dumbed down to an alarming degree. Concommitantly, I have seen the media consolidated into fewer and fewer hands–almost all of them now corporate in nature. When one combines an ignorant public with a propagandizing media, one gets a frightening cocktail of failure for a democracy–a cocktail which allows the (forgive the word)
“sheeple” to be manipulated by fear, prurience, bigotry, and falsehood.

It will take a long time and many, many honest and courageous voices to reverse the trend I see.

Steve

Can they be posted to youtube?

I have sent your request to the webmaster who is working on all that now. PS–it is now Sunday in PA, and I am back from the Armstrong County Democratic Dinner at which I spoke last night. Long night. The dinner was 150 miles away. The district is 200 miles from end to end. Before I go on, I would like to share a funny story.

The Butler County Democratic Dinner was the night before last. I also spoke, as did the main guest…pause…My wife, Rita, is from an Irish family of long standing. She is anything but a football afficionado. Be patient, I will tie everything in…So last week, she gave me a message that the guest speaker in Butler would be someone from Ireland. I was puzzled. I ask her who it was. She said the name on the phone was garbled but it sounded like Frank O’Harris. The guest speaker was Pittsburgh Steeler great Franco Harris.

Steve

I want to thank Jane, Christy and Howie for giving us an opportunity to meet these fine candidates. This is truly an effective use of the Internet.