Hello Steve, I’m probably too late to the party for an answer but I’ll ask the questions anyway…

I have just been reading the “About Steve” section on your website regarding your views, policy’s and what you would like to do or see done by the government.
I don’t remember reading anything about the minimum wage and would like to ask you, do you have any thoughts or intended policy regarding the minimum wage? and if so, do you believe it should be changed?

I also noticed in the same section of your website under the “Economy” heading you listed defence contracts as a way to bring jobs into your area.
I would like to ask you, why is the Defence Industry highlighted? I would have thought that such a large industry built on the farcical wars we see under the Bush administration has more than it’s fair share of Government contracts and any money sunk into that bottomless pit could be better spent in far more worthwhile projects, including but most certainly not limited too, Health and Education.

I am an Australian and if there is one thing that many people outside the US don’t get, is how can the richest nation on Earth can pay such a miserable and miserly minimum wage to it’s workers?
I know that some of these people do get tips which supplement their wage but the last time I researched the subject I found it was only about 2 percent of the people on Min. wage do indeed receive Tips. $5.15 (or has it gone up since I last checked?) is an absolute disgrace and the US should be embarrassed by such a paltry sum.
I don’t believe ANY executive is worth the Hundreds of Millions of Dollars they are paid by I do believe that $5.15 an hour is an almost criminal amount to pay any worker especially in the wealthiest nation.

Raise the minimum wage to at least a livable amount and please stop pouring Taxpayers money into the already overflowing coffers of the Defence Industry and you may have another supporter.
Thanks.

Good morning. I will try to answer your questions on the minimum wage and on defense revenue for PA-03.

I am in favor of wages for all workers which allow them to live out of poverty. The recent raise in the US minimum wage was insufficient to do that, but at least a step toward it. My position is one which tempers the laissez-faire attitude of many free-market thinkers with a social and historical reality. The reality is that sub-standard economic life sooner or later leads to social unrest and in the long run destroys the very people who originally profit from it. When the royalty of France responded to the cries of the French for bread by saying, “Let them eat cake,” they set in motion the violence which led to their own overthrow. We see this time and again throughout human history. The answer I believe is to temper the free market penchant for greed with social responsibility. In the long run, being our brothers’ keeper is not just a moral imperative, it is also a practical one.

As to defense income in PA-03, this district once thrived on the steel and tool industries. I am not a proponent of unneeded military spending, but some defense spending is required of most nations, particularly ours, given the conflicts in the world with which we must deal. My recipe for economic revitalization in PA-03 simply says to our government, “If you must spend money on defense, spend it at home to the benefit of your own workers and your own industries rather than outsourcing the jobs.” I hold this position for another reason beyond the economics of it. I feel a little ill-at-ease when sensitive military equipment is produced in a nation which might use it against us down the road. It makes little sense to have China make a computer chip for a US missile guidance system, for example, when that chip might end up in a missile directed at the US. I am not saying that this would automatically happen, but why gamble when US workers need the work? Again, there are lessons in history to bear out my concern. Many a US soldier has been killed by a bullet fired from an enemies gun which has “Made in the USA” stamped on its cartridge.

Dr Porter – I agree with your analysis of what we have done in Iraq but not your proposed solution.

I believe very strongly that our only right action is to leave, as quickly and completely as possible. US troops are not providing protection but are instead the cause of the major violence in Iraq….

And relying on the Iraqi “government” which is a puppet government crafted by our interests and not those of the Iraqis to split the country into those segments we approve of (Kurd, Shia, Sunni) ignores the complete lack of Iraqi support that “government” can claim and the wishes of the Iraqi people for selfdetermination and a unified Iraq. The division of Iraq is a solution designed by big oil powers to provide greater access to the oil wealth of the whole Iraqi people by placing key reserves in the hands of segments of Iraq who are quite happy to give away their patrimony for short term gain.

Actually it is the “Iraqi government”, the U.S. Government, and the oil companies of the occupying forces that desire a “unified Iraq”. They have been opposed to a tripartite division of Iraq and an equal division of oil revenues for some time. There is substantial support for large scale regional autonomy in the Parliament…but that is suppressed by the Federal leadership that was largely imposed by the U.S. It’s going to happen…the US is simply incapable of preventing it.

The Brits are pulling out of the Southern Provinces and the Shiite militias are already battling ovcer control there. And the “reduction of violence in Baghdad” is largely the result of the Mahdi Army’s silent hand.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..AjEm2s0NUE

I think Dr. Porter simply realizes that this is what will evolve to when the US military leaves. I can’t conceive of autonomous regions offering oil contracts to “Coalition” bidders that don’t offer competitive bids vis-a-vis countries like Russia, China, or Germany. But the Centralized Government is under great pressure to do so because they know that the Federal system requires cooperation with the United States.

And where will the lines be drawn? That would have to be the result of either negotiation between the different groups of Iraqis or through conflict, whether or not we pull out.
As noted above, it’s the imposition of force to create a false and arbitrary system that is feuling the violence.

And Dr. Porter is absolutely correct in his point that Al Qaida will lose any local support once the US occupation is ended. They are only viewed as being “allies” pragmatically in that battle, and impediments to local control otherwise.

I have just been reading the “About Steve” section on your website regarding your views, policy’s and what you would like to do or see done by the government.
I don’t remember reading anything about the minimum wage and would like to ask you, do you have any thoughts or intended policy regarding the minimum wage? and if so, do you believe it should be changed?

I also noticed in the same section of your website under the “Economy” heading you listed defence contracts as a way to bring jobs into your area.
I would like to ask you, why is the Defence Industry highlighted? I would have thought that such a large industry built on the farcical wars we see under the Bush administration has more than it’s fair share of Government contracts and any money sunk into that bottomless pit could be better spent in far more worthwhile projects, including but most certainly not limited too, Health and Education.

I am an Australian and if there is one thing that many people outside the US don’t get, is how can the richest nation on Earth can pay such a miserable and miserly minimum wage to it’s workers?
I know that some of these people do get tips which supplement their wage but the last time I researched the subject I found it was only about 2 percent of the people on Min. wage do indeed receive Tips. $5.15 (or has it gone up since I last checked?) is an absolute disgrace and the US should be embarrassed by such a paltry sum.
I don’t believe ANY executive is worth the Hundreds of Millions of Dollars they are paid by I do believe that $5.15 an hour is an almost criminal amount to pay any worker especially in the wealthiest nation.

Raise the minimum wage to at least a livable amount and please stop pouring Taxpayers money into the already overflowing coffers of the Defence Industry and you may have another supporter.
Thanks.

If just a handful of independent voices could somehow galvanize the progressive public nationally so that they could win, it would shake the 2 major parties to their roots and they might begin to think that its time to serve the people instead of the special interests.”

This is something that I have been pushing for a while now.
That is, to gain power in the Parliament, what we need to do is to get a few Senators elected so that THEY HOLD THE BALANCE OF POWER !!.

In Australia it was a strategy conceived and enacted in the 70’s by a Politician named Don Chipp. He formed a political Party (named the Democrats ironically) for the sole reason of getting members elected into the Senate and holding the balance of power in the Parliament and to use his/their slogan at the time “to keep the Bastards honest”.

It worked.

You/we only need to get a few Senators elected to make this a success.
No Legislation can get passed unless it goes through both Houses of Parliament, and if you have the 3 or 4 Members (or whatever number is needed) that hold the deciding votes you can force these corrupt rubber stamping clowns into action.

Please get behind the Dr. Steven Porter.
Independence from these “special interest groups” and Corperations in Parliament can only be a good thing.

Thanks for spending so much time with us today, Steve– an FDL record; and very much appreciated. Please keep us abreast of the developments in PA-03. We didn’t even get a chance to talk much about one of the most odious of the rubber stamp Republicans– Phil English. I hope we can have you on again, soon.

Thank you, howie, for all your efforts.

I will try to stay in touch via my website and blogs, and perhaps even another of our chats, if Jane and Howie can recover.

Steve

:) Thanks so much for being here, Steve. Really appreciate the chance to talk to you. God Bless and good luck. Hope to see you again.

PS: Great job Howie!! You rock! :)

Back from driving my kid’s car over to a shop 20 miles away, shopping and coming home – and you guys are still hashing it out with the pups here. Bravo!

Howie, if you don’t get to helping me figure out why Diane’s ActBlue page isn’t coming up at AK-01 until tomorrow, I understand.

And to everyone of you who participated today, thank you, too, now matter what your comments, pro or con.
It was a pleasure to be with you.

I will try to stay in touch via my website and blogs, and perhaps even another of our chats, if Jane and Howie can recover.

Steve

steven porter @ 258

And most of all, what is YOUR plan for a humane end to this madness?

for me, it’s more an issue of that it’s not my call – it should be up to iraqis… because they 1) have the right to determine their own future, 2) are more likely to know what will work in their own country, with their own people than any american. the iraqis are the ones who have to live (far more than any of us) with the consequences of their choices.

i’d like a foreign policy that, with regard to iraq, takes it’s direction from the will of the iraqi people. not from what any american thinks is what they should do.

if iraqis want the future you’ve outlined, i’m all for supporting that. i just think we should ask them what they want us to do. that, i think, is the very least we owe them…

again… this isn’t only a moral imperative – it’s also, i think, a pratical one. because any (even the best) plan imposed from the outside (especially, now, by the usa) will be seen by iraqis as illegitimate.. and that will make it harder (impossible?) for the plan to succeed.

these ideas are expressed much better, than i’m capable of, by stephen kizner.

p.s. thanks again to both steve and howie for sticking around and answering so many questions. you guys are the best!

I fear that your position might lead to great slaughter.