Steve, welcome back to Firedoglake. This community has been behind you longer than almost any other candidate. Before we get into the campaign itself, you can tell us why you think progressives who see the Democratic Party as the best route to achieve our goals should abandon that strategy and support you and other independent candidates? There will be plenty of people who will say that by running you are taking on a Nader role and helping the right-wing Republican incumbent win this seat. Is Dahlkemper really that bad?

Welcome back Steve! You say the reception for your campaign is different this time around, can you expand on that? Are people more open to progressive ideas, more willing to talk about what they believe?

Last night I read that Cindy Sheehan had qualified for the November ballot to oppose Nancy Pelosi and will base her campaign on Pelosi’s refusal to start impeachment proceedings against Bush and for not taking any effective action against the war in Iraq. I used to live in the district. If I still did, I’d vote for Cindy.

during the first few weeks of Nancy pelosi as speaker of the house I actually thought she would be the first female president of this great nation

now I want her impeached and held for high crimes, she is as culpable as bush for every single crime committed since her statement that impeachment is off the table

Steve, welcome back to FDL!

Are you able to get any of those who have stopped voting/are no longer registered to re-consider and vote for you?

A hearty congrats to future Conggressman Steve Porter!!

I hope every CD gets a chance to vote for an Independent someday – the great
vacuum where an opposition party should be will draw support from Independents,
informed non-voters, alienated (R)’s, and (D) voters who can finally put
principle above archaic, vestigial loyalty to the corrupt, mendacious (D)
machine.

He and other Independents can caucus and vote with (D)’s when necessary, but
authentic Progressive Democrats in Congress (if there is any such thing) can
also caucus, vote with, and maybe someday bolt to the (I) camp, jumpstarting an
authentic opposition party in governement in this country.

a single good example will send a terrific message to the Washington elites who
run the Congress like a plantation – maybe Accountability Now can get behind Mr
Porter … it seems congruent with their goals.

Welcome Steven! I’m in PA-03 and will cast a vote for you.

Thank you for inviting me back to FDL. I would love to get to your question.

When Pelosi took impeachment off the table, I was furious. Representative John Conyers had, before the elecion, held mock impeachment hearings in the basement of the Capitol. He was sent out by the leadership as an advance man to hype the issue of Iraq, Bush’s many constitutional violations, and the need for congressional oversight. Every poll before and after the election stated that the Democrats were swept into power because of the pledge to hold Bush accountable and to get us out of Iraq. For Pelosi to reneg on that promise the day after the elections raised a red flag in my mind as big as Texas. Since I have been trained as a researcher, I began to investigate. The result was my book, America’s Dying Democracy, which is absolute substantiation that the Democrats as well as the Republicans have been bought by special interests and have no intention of working on behalf of the people before they work on behalf of those interests. With great apologies for my own naive compliance with my former party, I resigned and registered as an unaffiliated independent. It is my considered opinion that our democracy has in reality ended and that the only way to restore it is either to enact public funding of elections or to elect honest, un-owned independents who will work for the people and not the lobbyists. I hope to explain in detail the actual research behind this opinion during our chat.

This probably belongs on another thread, but here goes: ActBlue only gives money to Democrats? So is Accountability Now PAC under the ActBlue rubric? Could Accountability Now give to a principled Republican or Independent for taking a stand for the rule of law?

I wish Steve Porter success. I’ve done the petitioning to get on the ballot my own self in Indiana’s 61st Assembly district. One problem I had was getting labor to see that a non Democratic Party candidate could possibly be better for them than some one with a “D” after their name. Big Labor seems to have Democratitus much like the NRA has Republicanitus. I hope you are able to get some chances to speak and campaign with rank and file labor, as you’ll need their votes.

The response has been quite different because the electorate is in much greater pain economically speaking. That has forced many people to look more closely at the lies of both major parties. The single-digit approval rate of Congress has led most of the voters I have met to believe that, to use their words, “they are all crooks,” and that we need new voices which can really change things as opposed to the hollow promises of change from the parties which will conduct business as usual. Obama’s recanting of public funding and McCain’s ties to lobbyists really do confirm the voters’ perception. It is also important to note that I got as many signatures for my petitions from Republicans as from Democrats, and consequently, I do not at all feel that my candidacy will ensure an English victory. In fact, I have said to the media that it is the corruption of the major parties which has intruded upon my democracy, and not my effort to end that corruption which is the intruder.

This probably belongs on another thread, but here goes: ActBlue only gives money to Democrats? So is Accountability Now PAC under the ActBlue rubric? Could Accountability Now give to a principled Republican or Independent for taking a stand for the rule of law?

if it were a principled republican who does not vote as a block with his party but votes for progressive programs, I for one would be happy to contribute to that politician no matter what party they ran with

just as republicans are happy to contribute to liarman since he is in fact a neo con not the democrat he claims to be

My doctor wanted one thyroid blood test, the cost $738.05, yes I get an insurance discount from that price, but still $738.05, prices are out of control, and of course the office visit was extra. Is that the number one issue, the voters have on their minds?

I really like the way Oregon does some public funding of elections, made it part of both of my independent campaigns. A limited amount of an individual’s contributions to political campaigns is given as a tax credit when filing state income tax. EG Oregon resident gives $50 to Jeff Merkley, $50 to Cannabis legalization initiative, $50 to another initiative… this is over the $100 limit, but they can claim $100 tax credit, effectively making their donations only cost them $50 out of pocket. I think the limit should probaby raise to $250 or $500… but it makes it so the state isn’t deciding who gets the funding, which is extremely problematic in a two party system.

God bless you for that comment. I also believe the same. In fact, it is because Pelosi’s complicity with the war and the special interests was so unexpected and such a violation of her pre-election promises that I feel her actions are equally criminal.

Very few, and that is very sad. As a former teacher, I am appalled at the lack of civic responsibility, though I understand the public’s cynicism. I have proposed that we teach a full HS course in the Constitution and that we hand out voter registration cards with every HS diploma.

wmd1961, ActBlue is like Visa or PayPal or Western Union. It’s just a technical method of sending money to Democrats. Blue America employs it to collect money for our candidates other than Steve (the only non-Democrat, so far, on the Blue America list of endorsed candidates). We’re suggesting that you donate directly to Steve today at his website or you can send a check to the address above in the post.

Hey, Steve. So happy to hear of your victory and even more glad you stuck around to fight and didn’t give up when you completed that research. You have always been one of my favorites of Howie’s Saturday Guests.

Can you elaborate on that research?

Many thanks for the comment. Just one un-owned independent the night HR 1 (which began Medicare Part D) was passed by one vote (216 – 215) could have restored the provisions for bulk buying and foreign imports. That would have saved Americans hundreds of billions of dollars every year. I know that from my own personal RX purchases because I am a diabetic and live only 30 miles from Canada here in Erie, PA.

The lobbyists have spent (this is an accurate, researched number) twenty billion dollars to buy both major parties.

We will never have lower gas prices, affordable health care, the absence of war, safe borders, a green ecology, solvent Social Security, etc, until that formula is changed.

With all the concentration in the schools about “teaching to the tests,” do you think it’s necessary to return to the days when schools were required to teach 3 or 4 years of Civics/US History and such as part of the standard curriculum?

Contributions can be made by accessing my website (www.porter4congress.com). I will give a signed copy of America’s Dying Democracy to anyone who contributes $50 or more. Those are the only contributions I wish to take.

As for labor, I have already addressed the UE 506 membership. This is the labor organization which represents the workers of GE and is by far the largest in the district. On the 13th I will be addressing the LAC board of PSEA.

Labor knows my stances and that I have always been with the working people of America. The question is, are they willing to support an honest, un-owned voice.

Of the $20 billion paid by lobbyists to buy Congress, the largest single lobby was the pharmaceutical lobby which spent $1.38 billion.

Yesterday, when Jane, Digby, John and I talked about today’s Blue America session, they warned me to be ready for attacks from rubber stamp Democrats offended that an Independent would dare challenge the two party monopoly on electoral politics. I was wondering why it’s been so congenial so far and I checked over at my cross post at DownWithTyranny and noticed that all the Villagers are over there yelling and screaming. I was tempted to invite them to this discussion but… who needs the headache?

All efforts at honesty are to be applauded. We will need them all if we wish to re-establish our democracy.

I gave to and worked for Steve Campbell when he was running against DiFi in 2000 for that reason. I feel Accountability Now PAC should have different rules on who they can support, probably should move out of ActBlue and be an independent PAC.

I’m sure the Mods are appreciative of your restraint Howie!

btw, could you please DIGG this post to get Steven’s truth out to a wider audience.

Thank you. I will try to elaborate. The sale of the democracy has been accomplished by the congruence of several factors. First, we have the dumbing down of American public education so that our citizens are poorly trained in civic responsibility and in the ability and desire to think critically. Second is the consolidation of media into fewer and fewer hands. Presently there are only about 10 sources which disseminate the “news,” and all of them are corporate duplicates of eachother. Finally, there is the 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision of the Supreme Court which equated money with free speech and opened the floodgates for K Street to buying Washington. These statements are not my opinions. They are thoroughly researched facts which can be ready in my book (America’s Dying Democracy). All the facts are referenced so that the reader can check for him- or herself. Most of the research is easily available online.

Are you aware that the nuclear industry can not get insurance for a meltdown at any price, so the government would be on the hook for a major disaster. Why would a republican like McCain support a government supported industry? It is not free market, at all.

wow – that is a potent anecdote.

Against that 20billion dollars, many still seem to beleive that plaintive faxes, emails and phone calls can sway their Congress-people to do the right thing.

This has been tried vigorously on issues ranging from the MCA to the AG confirmation to the recent FISA imbroglio.

Washington does not need to care a whit about all of these wails of complaint, because ‘the Left’ or grassroots support for whomever has a (D) after their name has been completely taken for granted.

Thanks for finally giving the folks in your district a chance to do something different – and thanks for appearing at FDL and showing there is hope for political engagement and action outside of the rigged Democratic Party game.

The point I’m making about Oregon’s public financing is that it isn’t a state bureaucracy that decides who gets the public financing – it is individual contributors that decide, all the state does is verify that the contribution is for something on the Oregon ballot.

This puts control of public financing of elections in the hands of grassroots contributors. Any Oregon voter can select where they want $100 of state money to go in a given year. I think the limits need to be adjusted upwards. I also think that having individual voters decide what to finance is a very good thing.

Absolutely. It is a fundamental responsibility of education in a pluralistic democracy.

It figures the Villagers have their conventional wisdom in a twist.

Havening planed to sit out the 08 election I am excited to see that Porter is running as an Independent.

While I whole heartily agree with Blue America’s overall ground game I think it is equally important to caucus with good people outside of the two party system.

So, kudos to BA for supporting Porter’s Independent run in PA-03!

I was not aware of this. Thank you. The insurance lobby, by the way, was second in expenditures only to pharmaceuticals. Insurance has paid more than $1 billion to purchase Congress.

Here is why Cindy is treating the symptom and not addressing the root societal disease in our society.

1) All high level government officials, elected and appointed, are members of the ruling class of citizens. Think of them as members in good standing of the “U.S.A. Country Club”.

2) The dues for this membership are a substantial amount of personal wealth, or the assistance of those so endowed AND the good-will of the other members. Do something inamicable to the good name of the club, and you are in danger of being kicked out of the club.

3) Those few members in the club whose conscience would favor exposing and diminishing the massive fraud and theft some members of the U.S.A.C.C. (USACC) perpetrate against the Commonwealth of the U.S.A., and against the poor around the world (who remain the fortunate ones in their nations if they are not killed or dismembered by the U.S. M-I-C outright), those few honest members of the USACC fully know what fate waits for them.

4) The USACC has at its disposal a full-bore propaganda agency broadcast agency (Fox TV Channels), a full armada of Republican radio opinion making and reputation “destroyers”, newsprint media which are classic examples of Yellow Journalism and a Main Stream Media which provides an unbalanced presentation of “news you need to know” in proportions of 75% favoring international corporate interests, 24% presenting “Centrist” interests, and the remaining 1 percent presenting Liberal and Progressive causes in a non-discriminatory light. No wonder America has “TURNED” more Republican or “conservative” in the last 30 years.

5) It is unfair to ask Nancy to throw herself into the media Buzzsaw which awaits those members who dare to speak ill of fellow members of the USACC. If she has that audacity, her political career will be steered onto the same track that took Dan Rather to the sawdust pile of those who “bucked” THE club.

What Cindy and I need to do is to create a new media, a new distribution system of the Progressive and Liberal ideas which brought this nation to its now quickly shrinking greatness. At the same time, except for those whose mission it is to expose the lies, disceptions, and half-truths of the media stooges, we should shun the marketing hacks posing as truth-teller journlists, and all the sponsors who have us, their customers, pay the salaries for thesee hacks.

After all, the MSM State Progaganda Lies cannot reach those who are not listening, nor watching, nor reading their Orwellian drivel.

Good luck to us all, Cindy.

Thank you for caring and for responding. I think that if the public were aware of the enormity of the money, they would realize exactly what you say, that their influence is worth nothing at all…

Except on Election Day, when they hold the real power.

The tragedy is that the power is seldom used to effect real change.

However we choose to do it, I believe it is never wrong to oppose evil and never right to support, even when it is considered the “lesser” evil.

Mr Porter and Mr. Klien:
This country was not founded on party but the constitution (correct me if I am wrong).
When niether major party upholds the constitution why are we obligated to support them especially when the leadership of our party votes with our republican oppents.
We should be voting for an agenda that the candidate promises to support. But we are no lomger represented by those we put in office who have been coopted by big money ala big corporate global capital and a market place that has loyalty to stockholders but are run by crooks who are allowed to cheat the consumer and the dtockholder and they have bankrupted our economy and our state abd federal treasuries.
Their is to much deadwood on capital hill who havw special interest that pay them for their support. The you rub my back I rub yours that Pelosi, Reid, Hoyer and the leaders subscribe to has enabled congress to be mauevered into voting for bad legislation.
The DNC,RNC and the DLCC need to be sent a message…”do the peoples business or we will find someone who will”.
We the people have no say in our government. Welcome to Chinese and Russian totalitarianisn Russia where torture, imprisonment and spying on the people are the rule not the exception. Where a large portion of a growing population is living in poverty without the oppoirtunity to get adequate food, shelter, medical attention and clothing.
Yes this is a good exception in policy for Blue America.
Democracy has long gone in this environment. We cannot lead the free world when we are moving closer to fascism daily.
Congratulation on sending this message to dems…I hope they get it at the convention too.

Thank you, tw3k. We have taken a great deal of criticism from our friends in the Democratic Party for this. Some are furious. I’m hoping Steve will help explain why Dahlkemper is not a satisfactory choice for people who care about progressive values and principles.

big brother, thanks for your comments. Before I was old enough to vote I worked for a Republican congressman running for mayor of NYC, John Lindsey. He was a liberal and an independent thinker and he was running against an old line corrupt Democratic conservative, Abe Beame. Lindsey won and years later, when the Republican Party became more and more hostile to progressive values, he actually switched parties and became a Democrat. If there was even one good Republican running for the House or Senate– just ONE– I would recommend that Blue America consider endorsing him or her. But there isn’t. There is not one single good Republican in the House or Senate or even running. The Republican running against Rahm Emanuel advertises himself as a “liberal Republican.” You can imagine how excited I got. But looking into his positions I found nothing but a horrible rubber stamp Republican imbecile– just as bad as Emanuel and not worth supporting.

My experience with disillusioned voting age citizens in the 90s was roughly 2 of 3 would agree to be registered after talking with them about their power to make a difference. Starting in 1991 with a small slate of Independent candidates in Municipal elections (mayoral candidate got 20% of the vote!) and then 2 runs for state legislature… I registered about 1100 people between 1991 and 1998, a good number of whom had initially expressed anarchist or nihilist views on voting.

Looking at voting records in 1994 and 1998 during the legislative runs about 1 in 5 of the newly registered did make it to the polls, this was partly due to poorly organized GoTV efforts.

Ron Paul?

No, thank you! I appreciate all the hard work and dedication you put into this!

As for Dahlkemper, right off the bat she is your typical corporate democratic that will vote against the interests of the people in the district.

Excellent salient point regarding ownership of the airwave for propaganda instead of news.
Please also address without the removal of Oxley-Sarbanes they caould not have raided Wall street Banks and investment houses with their Derivitives scams ala CDO, tranches and other worthless creative financial instruments in a pyramid sheme of hot potato that left the last holder with nothing but unsecured paper.
That was not enough, now we taxpayers have to pay with future debt for the next generations. The bastards stole their future! Imppeachment is a mild remedy compared to the Hague international courts on crimes against humanity. Just clarifying a bit.

You are quite correct about the government not being founded on party. In fact, in my book, I quote none other than George Washington in his warning to us against the establishment of parties.

Although I am not against parties, per se, I am certainly against the two major parties which have debauched our democracy. They, along with the media which special interests also own, have succeeded in brainwashing the American people into believing that the only choices are between corrupted Republicans and corrupted Democrats.

Well, we are not sheep!! We do not have to jump continually from the frying pan of corrupted Republicans to the fire of corrupted Democrats. There are choices, and in PA-03 I am offering one.

I’m not sure of all of Ron Paul’s positions but I do know at least one of the major Blue America criteria for endorsement that he disagrees with is a solid Pro-choice background as Paul is solidly pro forced birth.

the political Duopoly has to be broken.

One link in the chain that keeps it in place is the co-dependency between the (D) party and people of conscience, the grassroots, the Netroots, anyone who is ‘Left’ identified.

we need to escape from this arranged marraige mentality – the relationship is unfulfilling.

I’ve tried to make points like this here for years, and it has made me a pariah, but I’ve watched the outrage at (D) betrayals grow and grow to the point where witholding support from complicit (D)’s is now (almost) a widely acceptable point of view to express.

Many even renounced support for Obama after his little FISA tapdance.

Proffessional (D) politicos are of course oblivious to this trend rising – I hope an election victory for you shows them that the tide of disgust with the two party charade is a force to be reckoned with.

ron paul is an anarchist who has managed to come up with a new word for the term, they settled on “libertarian”

“libertarians” have some excellant platforms in order to promote their rediculous economic plans which are;

“the rules that protect industry are good, the rules that protect the consumer are bad”

Obviously Ron Paul doesn’t need money after all his success fund raising as a presidential candidate… I don’t see how anyone can seriously say he’s in the pocket of lobbyists though.

Another point on voter registration – I’ve frequently encountered people that told me they had permanently lost their franchise because of a felony conviction. In Indiana in the 90s this was not true and I would be very clear that they could legally register if they were Indiana residents. I’ve seen it again in California at meetings of bikers – and felons have their voting rights restored after they’ve served their sentence in California as well. These meetings usually have a lot of anti-Patriot act rhetoric from an attorney that has made outreach to the biker community a core of his practice.

No, no, no. Paul has an atrocious voting record overall. Sometimes he’s ok on civil liberties issues… sometimes. Usually he’s worse than even the absolute worst Democrat. Don’t believe the hype from his delusional, ill-informed supporters. I sat next to one on a plane once and kept looking for a parachute.

The run of 3rd party candidates lately is an encouraging sign. Not that any of them have any chance of winning….but the wherewithal to run in the first place is a vital step for our Political System.

Big L libertarians date to 1971. I agree with you that the political party is antithetical to economic problems involving the commons, and doesn’t address current corporate power in an effective manner.

I really commend some libertarian/anarchist writing that does get these issues over at the – Kevin Carson in particular does some good theorizing and ways that workers can re-assert their power. The second link has had me thinking for weeks now.

I’m glad to see another independent running. I think modern politics has outgrown the two party system. The fastest way to empower a large plurality is to leverage as a separate group.

I would be happy to explain why Dahlkemper is not a good choice.
Let us start with the fact that she has already signed on the Democratic Party, which means that in order to get support she must tout the party line. Hence, she has already taken money from the likes of Congressman Rangel who has been seeding democrats in PA and who is under attack for his sweetheart deals in the New York rent-controlled apartment scandals.

Kathy is a naive candidate, not at all a dynamic speaker, against whom I have already debated in an debate over the Iraq war. I found her knowledge of the issues and history of the Middle East to be frightening lacking for someone who wants to get into Congress.

Kathy was non-existent in the 2004 and 2006 races of which I was a part, and for me, that makes her something of a political opportunist.

She has not signed onto the passage of HR 676, the universal health care bill, nor has she pledged to refrain from taking special interest money. For that alone, I would oppose her because, if elected, she will become another part of the problem rather than an agent for the solution.

Finally, Kathy is not pro-choice, and I am very leery of a position which holds women ransom to a morality determined more by religion than by ethical philosophy. And remember that pro-choice is not pro-abortion!!
It is the recognition that in situation where the rights of mother, father, fetus, and society may be in irreconcilable conflict. The government should not be given the power to intrude on the inalienable rights of citizens, particularly when the intrusion is rooted in a religious as opposed to a sectarian, philosophical construct.

The inability of candidates to understand that represents to me a very important weakness.

Does your opponent have a position on the largest expansion of government in US history, from $1.9 trillion US budget to $2.9 trillion US budget in just 7 years? And the war is off budge using supplementals, but not off Deficit.

Of course I agre, but not in action in the manner in which destruction is assured.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro’ the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

Better to

Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy’s plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy’s forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy’s army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities.

It is the recognition that in situation where the rights of mother, father, fetus, and society may be in irreconcilable conflict the government should not be given the power to intrude on the inalienable rights of citizens, particularly when the intrusion is rooted in a religious as opposed to a sectarian, philosophical construct.

Very well put on what Pro-Choice means, although I think you didn’t mean to say sectarian, rather use humanist or secular. As a religious issue abortion is sectarian, some denomination are Pro-Choice, others are Anti.

as I said, I agree whole heartedly with some libertarian models, however their entire platform is a lure that claims regulations are bad

however they refuse to acknowledge that the very concept of money is a regulation, ownership is a regulation, the court system are regulations

they LOVE the regulations that allow them to aquire their assets, they HATE the regulations that force them to pay their bills

onother thing libertarians refuse to achkonwledge;

the foundation of this country, the very reason we exist, the first spark, the boston tea party

that was NOT a revolt AGAINST taxes and it was NOT a revolt against “taxation without regulation”

it was a revolt because the king lowered the taxes and regulation of the china import company (I forget the exact name)

king george wanted to give his pals in big industry an edge so he LOWERED taxes (not raised them) AND the colonies wouldn’t stand for it

that is why we are here today

becuase the founders KNEW we need regulation to survive, to move forward, to progress

“libertarianism” is robber baron economics and anarchy

People who have been convicted of crimes in Cali do have a misconception of their voting rights

Their rights

One of the truly distressing bits of research I did was to find out that the major lobbyists own EVERYONE. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and Citicorp are all huge supports of both R and D candidates (including Obama and McCain), and Goldman Sachs seems to run a revolving door between its own CEO and the US Treasury Dept. These four banks have also been complicit in unregulated electronic speculation on oil prices which have been responsible for about 60% of the gas pump increases (Google the article by F. William Engdahl). The finincial sector is an enormous lobby. It has spent over $500 million to buy Washington, and it spends fairly equally on both sides of the aisle (40% D and 60% R).

I wonder where all the spirited advocates of the Least-Worst are?

only one anonymous coward left 5 comments on DWT – is that all they got?

perhaps their position does not thrive when subjected to analysis and debate…

Like I said at Confederation of Clubs meetings a lot of bikers think they’ve lost their franchise forever. When a speaker asks for petition signing or letters to Congress they say they can’t because they’re felons and can’t vote. I’ll jump in and say they’re wrong and the attorney will say the same thing, but I don’t think they believe it.

Steve, the mention of having traveled 500 miles door to door – how much of the overall district does that cover?

Do you receive the positives from those who voted for you in your earlier runs?

And why does Pennsylvania require so many mroe signatures to get on the ballot versus the requirement for Ds or Rs? Other than perpetuating the two party system – can you sue the state for the inherent discrimination?

that’s probably the biggest issue we can resolve, we need to get corporate sponsorship out of our elections, becuase obviously, that is allowing those concerns to buy our law

corporations do NOT enjoy personhood, that was not part of any supreme court decision AND, even if it were, (it’s not), then we need an amendment that rescinds corporate personhood

this is a goverment for PEOPLE, and by PEOPLE, not for industry and by industry

I know that’s a novel concept but I didn’t think of it myself

IIRC the time it took to form the beginnings of the Republican Party until they put their first candidate in the White House was 6 years. This was when mails were no faster than the horses carrying them (or trains where applicable). Do you not think six months might do the same, if people had the will, with todays communication abilities, even though they are monitored? Liberal and progressive are nominative identities that are used up, threadbare at this point. They have no carrying weight against the corporatist, the Republicans, the Democrats. One name which carries weight and strikes fear into the hearts of the aforementioned, is the word – Populist. It answers with full force against the corporatist argument with the only valid remedy. It would foolish to waste the power of that word. And daylight is burning in getting a real political party established to foil the predacious machinations of either wing of the corporatist party. Sorry for the OT

my 58 was for your 62

or the other way around

I have said in this campaign that the politics of “left and right” are not nearly as important as the politics of “right and wrong.” It is honesty, not position on a rather arbitrary line of philosophical tendency, which will provide the salvation of our democracy. An honest representative who has the best wishes for our nation and our world in his or her heart will not be a slave to an ideology which may prove in this or that case to be destructive. Besides, there often resides in the same person a “leftward leaning” tendency on this issue and a “rightward leaning” tendency on that.

It is much like, if you pardon me for be a teacher again, the folly of putting a child in a “gifted” category because his or her math scores are high. Children can be “gifted” in math and “remedial” in phsyical education. Wilt Chamberlain was a gifted basketball player. Vladimir Horowitz was a gifted pianist. Einstein was a gifted physicist. Often our categorizations do as much to misinform and mislead as to inform and lead.

I really commend Kevin Carson to you.

When I ran in 1994 and 1998 in Indiana the big L party offered to give me ballot access without petitioning. I declined their offer because I am not a big L libertarian. I explained it thusly:

If I own a gasoline station and one of my storage tanks develops a leak the public good needs that leak discovered and remediation done quickly, not decades later when contamination is discovered in someone’s well. So the government should be able to coerce (libertarian phrasing) me as a business owner into having monitoring wells. Tort Law is not enough, the discovery of the problem must be compelled for the common good.

Given that I had to put in significant effort to get on the ballot in 1994 and 1998 refusing the L’s offer did have some cost.

it was a revolt because the king lowered the taxes and regulation of the china import company (I forget the exact name)

British East India Co.

If she does, I have not heard it from her or seen it on her website. I, by contrast, have written several press releases on the enormity of the growing national debt and the absolute mismanagement of the budget.

I would rather suspect that since the Dems hold the majority of the House and thus of the purse strings, Kathy will not be terribly critical of the Democratic leadership on this issue. It is yet another instance of how the major parties “control” the membership.

I’ve posted a couple of comments on details of public financing as I understand it in Oregon. I think they’ve got it right in general – individual voters determine where the public financing goes – they get a tax credit for a limited amount of Oregon political contribution (first $100 in donations each year is rebated as a tax credit).

This opens up a lot of grassroots directed financing, and could be expanded to $250 or $500. Don’t put public financing of campaigns in the hands of a state bureaucracy, because they will inevitably become corrupt and probably start from an assumption that non D or R candidates shouldn’t be funded, nor should any referenda. Leave the where part of funding in the hands of individuals.

Thank you. I meant to write “non-sectarian”.

aye – I shouldn’t have implied that support for you would only come from those who are ‘left-identified.’

Only that, amongst the left-identified, progressive netroots or what have you, there is still considerable, faith-based devotion to the (D) party despite their innumerable betrayals and structural unity with the corrupt status quo.

I suspect that this Least-Worstism is actually strongest in this segment, and that disgruntled lifelong (R)’s of Goldwater/Libertarian tendencies could more easily cast off partisan loyalty and vote their consciences than lifelong (D)’s but this is pure conjecture.

Mr. Porter,

My major issue is the stopping of torture as the law, policy and practice of the United States, the rescinding of the Bush definition of torture and the holding to account all those responsible for the new definition and its enshrining and the actual torture itself.

With you stand up and vote for these issues ?

For Dan (my husband who was a Vietnam vet, POW, and torture survivor)
Heather

You’re right about the money. I used to ask every candidate that was on Blue America about support for public financing of elections – until I got tired of being roundly ignored.

Best of luck bucking the conventional wisdom about independent candidates not being viable. I guess some people never heard of Bernie Sanders (for one example). I donated, both to support your effort and because I am interested in reading your book.

sorry, that should have been :

Will you

Red-faced,
Heather

The district is 200 miles from end to end. It encompasses all or parts of seven counties. Most of my walking has been in Erie county, since it is by far the most populous. I will continue to go door-to-door between now and November, however, and will do so in as many counties as I can.

The petition rules against non-Republicans/Democrats are, for me, clearly unconstitutional. Can you imagine what might ensue if the law stated that women or blacks or Jews needed more than the requisite number of signatures needed by Rs and Ds? The case would be in the Supreme Court tomorrow.

As to a law suit, I have asked the ACLU to look into it. Right now, I am involved in my own law suit against Phil English for defamation–and it has been dragging out for that past 2 years.

Thanks for spending the time with us today, Steve, and thanks for helping put this whole concept into context for us. I think the Had Enough video is as appropriate now as it was in 2006.

Thank for having Steven here to chat today Howie!

Steven, do stop in to visit the Edinboro area!

Perhaps another party would work, whatever the name. But I have become disenchanted with parties because organizations frequently become such that their main aim is their own perpetuation rather than the causes for which they were instituted.

What I encourage in my book is for districts to select an honest, un-owned individual and rally behind that person, regardless of party labels. That person, once elected will then be beholden to nothing but the people.

You’d think that the 14th amendment would mean that. I talked with the ACLU about Indiana election law back in the 90s, seems that the states interest in having smoothly running elections (ease of tabulation and counting) gives states pretty broad power to set ballot access law. I disagreed then and continue to feel that ballot access is an important issue. At the time Indiana law said that any party reaching a threshold of 2% of the vote for Secretary of State would automatically have ballot access in the general election (hence the L’s offering me access). Parties with over 20% could have a primary election as well. This strikes me as state funding of private groups’ business – primary elections shouldn’t be funded by the state.

Thanks for coming back Steve, it was good to talk with you again!

Of course I will stand up against torture, and for three reasons. The first is moral. It is wrong on the face of it. The second is that it is often, if not always, non-productive because it doesn’t guarantee the revelation of truthful information. The third is that it is an open invitation for the same things to happen to our own people when captured.

Bless you.

Yes, thanks for the discussion. i wish you success in your run. Maybe we can get impeachment in January 2009!

I plan to. In fact I will be in Edinboro on the 31st at the NOW event.

Thank you for having me.

You’re correct, that was what happened to the Republicans after slavery was abolished, you’d never recognize the party of original intent from what it became, only T. Roosevelt bucked that somewhat.

All the best in your endeavors and success this election. If I were there, you are the choice.

in fact the policies of torture costs us information, far more then the what we gather

in addition, we lose those people who might have agreed with our cause, we also lose those people who might have surrenderd, how could they possibly surrender if they know we torture

we will never know the information we lost because of the valuable information we might have gathered if we did not endorse torture

and the president “redifining” what is and isn’t torture so he can “claim” that he doesn’t torture is just juvenile ciminality

rather the defend the stand against torture we should attack the position for it, we should shout them down;

“do you know the information we might have gathered if we used the techniques we know give us more and better information?

Do you know how many insurgents we have created because we endorse torture?”

we need to attack their position with their reasoning not defend our own…a much better tactic

thank you steve porter and thank you wmd1961

by the way wmd1961, I have no idea who you are and what district, please to inlighten?

I’m Bill D’Amico. Dual resident of Ben Lomond, California and Bloomington Indiana (currently about 80/20 CA/IN). I’m probably mostly CA for the next 6-10 years – I identify as a mathematician, work as a software engineer. I’m also a biker, brewer and political activist. My first masters degree is in pure mathematics and it is something I have passion for in spite of not being able to make a living at it. Most recent application was when a builder of custom spiral staircases asked me for a formula to describe the cuts needed for facing the underside of a spiral – I told him to use cylindrical coords, then it is just f1(r,theta) = (r1,theta,c*theta) and f2(r,theta) = (r2,theta, c*theta). I then told him to be practical and just tape and cut craft paper to the underside of the staircase and use that as a pattern rather than try to construct a helicoid surface from analytic geometry. You’d think he’d have bought me a beer for the help!

I ran for Indiana Assembly in District 61 in 1994 and 1998 as an independent. Probably still have name recognition in the teens from that. Moved partially to California in 1999 for work, bought property in 2001, still own property in Indiana and have family, friends and political interests in Indiana.

wmd1961 is a mashup of my initials and year of birth. I’m a bit amused by concern about wmd, can take it that people are worried about me!

great bio bill!

own a hog?…which one

My first masters degree is in pure mathematics and it is something I have passion for in spite of not being able to make a living at it.

I had an epiphane a while ago and I would like your take;

0x any number = 0, (of course)

however any number times zero does NOT equal zero as we are taught, it equals the same number we start with

for instance, if I have 5 apples and do not multiply those apples, (multiply by zero), I still have 5 apples, they do not evaporate

can’t stay to read your answer but will read later

Thank you very much, Mr. Porter.

I look forward to your presence in Congress.

With gratitude,
Heather

Absolutely right, Perris.

Thanks for the back up.

With gratitude,
Heather

I own a BMW R1150RT in California and a BMW R90/6 in Indiana. Both are modified from stock for performance reasons – better suspension and fuel/exhaust systems.

forgot to mention I’ve got a small flock of chickens for meat and eggs. just about done processing this year’s meat birds, nice to have home raised organic chicken in the freezer!

You’re a bit confused about the definition of multiplication. In your example you “do not multiply” then say that is the same as “multiply by zero”. not the same thing – do not multiply indeed eaves you with 5 apples. multiply by zero means you have zero instances of 5 apples, which is zero apples. This area of number theory is usually developed in a first course in abstract algebra, specifically the definition of a Ring.

Integers aren’t a Field with respect to addition and multiplication – there are no multiplicative inverses in the integers. I’ve not thought about integers as a Ring for a while, but do recall that they are an abelian ring – that is both addition and multiplication are commutative in the integers.

It may be instructive to think about integers modulo some prime.

multiply by zero means you have zero instances of 5 apples, which is zero apples.

this might be a thearhetical principle but that principle is flawed since it ignores the premise:

I HAVE 5 apples, this is not a number on a piece of paper, those apples exist

I THEN do not multiply what I have, this IS zero times whether or not I can do this theorhetically. I multiply what I DO have zero times

I STILL have those apples

if the theory says otherwise then the theory is wrong and that is my point

for instance, if I HAVE 5 apples and therefor am not allowed to multiply by zero, since the action cannot occur 3 Still have those apples.

if theory says otherwise but the apples are still there then the theory has to be rewritten

You said it your self, you DO NOT multiply… if you have zero instances of 5 apples then you have zero apples. when you have zero of something you have zero. Similarly if you have something zero times, still have zero.

Having something zero times means you do not have something.

I think you’re trying to get at this when you say “since the action cannot occur” – you’re confused by what the second multiplicand means when it happens to be zero. you get it when it is 1, 2, … and probably when it is -1 or 1/2, but zero is confusing because having zero instances of something seems to make no sense, whereas cutting 5 apples in half makes sense physically. Numbers are abstract logical entities, not apples. And arithmetic is built up in a way that is consistent according to logic. Arithmetic is also necessarily incomplete, but that’s a deeper topic.

lets try this another way – if you have 5 apples 2 times you have 10 apples.
If you have 5 apples 1 times you have 5 apples.
If you have 5 apples zero times you have zero apples
if you have 5 apples negative one times you owe 5 apples…

How many instances of 5 apples do you have?

Zero is a very important concept in arithmetic, and it made a lot of modern mathematics possible when it was borrowed/stolen from arabia.

There definitely are times when you do not have to have a factor that is zero to get a zero product, linear transformations of the real plane is the example here

But if you want to have consistent addition and multiplication you will have a*0=0*a = a for all a in the set you’re doing arithmetic over. In most fields a lay person would recognize as “numbers” you also have a*b = b* a, that is multiplication is commutative (or viewed as a group the set is abelian with respect to multiplication).

having zero instances of something seems to make no sense

that makes perfect sense, but multiplying is a verb

when I multiply there is no negative action, I already havce those apples, I can’t then claim to have zero instances of them

if you mean to say the action of multiplying those apples by zero means you do indeed get rid of the apples then I quite understand but that would mean in the case of multiplying by zero the action becomes subtraction not multiplication

that makes perfect sense, but multiplying is a verb

the process of multiplication is a verb, we take a product, (so to speak), and we we do something with that product

if we have zero products we can multiply that product as many times as we want, there would zero

if we have 5 apples then you are saying we cannot therefore multiply by zero (unless we substract those apples)

I am saying that if you want to say multiplying by zero is in fact subtracting the quotient then I understand your point

but then theory would have to say that and that is the point, theory does not say any multiplication process becomes subtraction

(or does that theory indeed exist?)

But if you want to have consistent addition and multiplication you will have a*0=0*a = a for all a in the set you’re doing arithmetic over.

there can be addendums, for instance there is a leap year after all

I believe my explanation might indeed solve some problems

for instancI, suppose I am to multiply the number of one formula by the number of the second formula, that second formula yields zero

I believe if we are talking about numbers that were derived from real life, the answer would be the solution to the first formula, not zero

if the solution to the first number is zero then the solution to the second formula would be mute

therefore the way theory should read is;

“when using the concept of zero, it is important to determine at which point the zero occurs, for when it comes to multiplication and the concept of zero, the inverse does not yeild the same result”

there, that’s the way the theory should read

let’s not forget, math represents reality, I can indeed refuse to multiply my apples, that would indeed be zero times when we are talking about reality

YOU’RE GONNA LOVE THIS WMD1961!

“tommy, go and gather all the apples for the tree our backyard, (5)M bring them to bill, he has promised to multiply your apples this year by the amount of apples he has produced this year and you can have whatever that number is because we gave him some of our crop last year buy buying the differance from allen

bills crop was sick this year and he produced zero apples

does that mean bill keeps the apples tommy grew because the multiple is zero and tommy goes home with nothing?

no, that’s not what it means, it means tommy goes home with five apples

so you see, my solution IS the solution, mathematical theory fails

you’re quite confused, I’ll give you that. English words and mathematical concepts aren’t always a good fit, and the last example makes no sense in english – what does it mean to multiply apples by apples? Apples aren’t numbers, when you say 5 apples you’re using 5 to describe the cardinality of your set of apples… which is itself somewhat abstract as the physical apples aren’t identical so saying there are 5 apples isn’t very descriptive.

Mathematics doesn’t describe reality, it describes certain logical constructions. sometimes that is useful in modeling things in the real world. The point of my example with a negative number of instances of 5 apples was to show the real world model – most of us have some sense of being in debt. That example is also pretty illustrative of what multiplication over integers is. If multiplication is to be consistent you have to have …, 10,5,0,-5, … for products of {…,2,1,0,-1,…} x 5.

by the way mathematicians don’t do subtraction, just addition. When you would write 5-5 = 0 a mathematician would write 5 + (-5) = 0. Rings don’t have multiplicative inverses so there is just addition and multiplication. Division is much like subtraction, a mathematician doesn’t do division instead she multiplies by the multiplicative inverse (need to have a field of numbers rather than a ring to have multiplicative inverses).

Formally the logic of these operations is described as mappings between sets ie addition : integers X integers -> integers … eg + (5,5) -> 10.

There was a lot of thought given to develop rigorous logic to underpin arithmetic back in the early part of the 20th century. Bertrand Russell being one of the logicians that worked on it … at some point I want to use Principia Mathematica as bathroom wallpaper. kind of geeky I know. What’s much more mind blowing is developing real numbers from the rational numbers. I can remember the first time I saw a diagonalization proof that there were more numbers in the unit interval than there are integers, and being really excited by its conceptual beauty and elegance. It was some time before I learned about Cauchy sequences and how to rigorously develop the real numbers logically.
I’m really pleased to have all these concepts readily available in wikipedia. All this stuff is really beautiful, and now it’s out there for anyone to see.