Ten Ways to Beat George W. Bush
A Gift from Nader/Camejo to Kerry/Edwards on a Silver Platter
1) The Failed Presidency of George W. Bush Shows he is a
Compassionless Conservative
On the home front and around the world,
President Bush has failed the United States. His economic record is
one of record deficits, loss of jobs, creation of low-wage jobs. He
has failed to create a budget that puts people's needs before
corporate greed. He has made us less safe at home, turned allies into
adversaries, and trapped us in an impeachable, illegal quagmire. The
four-year record of George W. Bush shows his rhetoric of 2000 is not
consistent with the impact of his presidency—more poverty; lower
paying jobs; more people without health care; less protection from
pollution, disease, and job hazards; and more military and civilian
casualties.
2) Bush is Not Telling
the Whole Story on Casualties in Iraq and the Likely Return of the
Draft or Facing Up to the Challenge of Peace in Israel-Palestine
Consistent with the fabrications and
deceptions that sent us to war and trapped the US in a quagmire, the
Bush administration is under-stating casualties in Iraq by not
reporting the likely thousands of wounded and sick soldiers hurt in
non-combat situations. The administration is also not telling
Americans about the likely reinstatement of the draft—yet where are
the troops for escalation in Iraq going to come from when already 40%
of the troops in Iraq have come from the National Guard and Reserve? A
decisive peace plan for Israel and Palestine is needed ,rather than
the drift and subservience of the Bush administration. Seventy percent
of Americans of Jewish faith want peace in Israel and Palestine
through a real peace, two-state, solution plan. What is not needed is
automatic acceptance of the policies of the military government of
Ariel Sharon. Seek peace in the Middle East by highlighting the voices
of the broad and deep Israeli peace movement, which includes former
military officers, rabbis, local and national government officials,
legislative incumbents, and academics, among others, with their
Palestinian and American counterparts.
3) Protect the
Environment and Face Up to Global Climate Change
It is time to face up to the
environmental crisis we are facing. The epidemic of silent
environmental violence continues. Among the environmental emergencies
are the 65,000 Americans who die every year from air pollution, the
58,000 Americans whose demise comes from occupational toxic exposures,
and the cruel environmental racism leaving the poor and their often
asthmatic children to live in pollution sinks located near toxic
hot-spots. The evidence of global warming is mounting in Alaska, the
Andes, and Antarctica. It is time to break our addiction to fossil
fuels. We threaten the global environment with our continued use of
fossil fuels. Not only is this an ecological threat, it is a
tremendous economic threat, facing all of humanity. Global warming
alarms the re-insurance industry, spreads infectious tropical
diseases, causes massive ecological disruption, and increased severe,
unpredictable weather—all of which will significantly impact commerce,
agriculture, and communities throughout the US and the world.
4) Confront Corporate
Crime & Corporate Welfare and Challenge Corporate Control of
Government
It is time to end massive corporate
welfare programs so costly to taxpayers; prosecute corporate crime,
fraud; and abuse; and put the real owners of corporations in
charge—the stock holders. In addition, we must pledge to not put
corporate representatives in charge of agencies regulating their
businesses.
5) Expand Worker's
Rights by Developing an Employee Bill of Rights and Providing a Living
Wage and Health Care to All NOW
The rights of workers' have been on the
decline—take-home pay is at the lowest percentage of GDP since 1929,
when figures started being collected. It is time to reverse that trend
and begin to give our workers—the backbone of the US economy—the
rights they deserve. Workers need a living wage for themselves and
their families—not a minimum wage—as there has been an ongoing decline
in median family income, access to health care, and reductions in
medical benefits and pensions for current employees and retirees.
Roadblocks to union organizing, including the Taft-Hartley Act, need
to be removed. The US should withdraw from trade agreements that
undermine worker's rights, environmental protections, and consumer
rights by putting corporate profits before national sovereignty. The
US should renegotiate them so they are "pull-up" and not "pull-down"
trade agreements. See: For more information see: Workplace Fairness,
www.nerinet.org.
6) End the Drug War
and Restore, Expand Civil Liberties and Constitutional Rights
Civil liberties and due process of law
are eroding due to the "war on terror" and new technology that allows
easy invasion of privacy. Americans of Arab descent and
Muslim-Americans are bearing the brunt of these dragnet, arbitrary
practices. Advocacy is necessary for the restoration of civil
liberties; repeal of the Patriot Act; an end to secret detentions,
arrests without charges, no access to attorneys, and the use of secret
"evidence;" military tribunals for civilians; non-combatant status;
and the shredding of "probable cause" determinations. Civil liberties
must be expanded to include basic human rights in employment and truly
equal rights regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, or
religion. An end must be brought to the failed and expensive war on
drugs—with public health, social services, and tender, supportive time
with addicts, especially youngsters, in our depersonalized society.
Law enforcement should be at the edges, not the center, of drug
policy.
7) Institute a Fair
Tax Where Workers' First $50,000 in Income is Not Taxed, Where the
Wealthiest and Corporations Pay their Share; Tax Wealth More than
Work; Tax Activities We Dislike More than Necessities
Taxes are skewed in favor of the wealthy
and the corporations, further garnished by tax shelters, insufficient
enforcement, and other avoidances. Corporate tax contributions as a
percent of the overall federal revenue stream have been declining for
fifty years and now stand at 7.4% despite massive record profits. Tiny
taxes (a fraction of the conventional retail sales percentage) on
stock, bond, and derivative transactions can produce tens of billions
of dollars a year and displace some of the taxes on work and consumer
essentials. A fundamental reappraisal of our tax laws should start
with the principle that taxes should apply first to those behaviors
and conditions we favor least, such as the clearly addictive
industries (alcohol and tobacco), pollution, stock speculation, the
gambling companies, and extreme luxuries.
8) Create More Jobs by
Investing in America's Infrastructure, Investing in Americans, and
Withdrawing From Trade Agreements that Cost us Jobs
Since January 2001, 2 million jobs have
been lost, and more than 75% of those jobs have been high-wage,
high-productivity manufacturing jobs. Overall, 5.6% of Americans are
unemployed, while 10.5% of African-Americans are unemployed.
Unemployment among Latinos is nearly 30 % higher than January 20,
2001. By requiring two-way equitable trade, investing in urgently
needed local labor-intensive public works (infrastructure
improvements), creating a new renewable energy efficiency policy,
fully funding education, and redirecting large bureaucratic and
fraudulent health expenditures toward preventive health care, we can
reverse this trend and create millions of new jobs.
9) Announce an Exit
Strategy for Iraq With a Definite Date of Withdrawal
The only way to reduce the escalating
violence is Iraq is to announce a dual military and corporate
withdrawal from Iraq, so mainstream Iraqis know they will be getting
their country back. US withdrawal should be preceded by
internationally-supervised elections to replace the puppet government
that we have installed. Continued planning of an ongoing military and
corporate presence in Iraq fuels the resistance and prevents the onset
of democracy and self-rule in Iraq.
10) Face Up to
Increasing Poverty Especially Among Children and Demand an End to
Commercial Exploitation of Our Children
The commercialization of childhood seems
to have no limits. Children are urged to consume bad products and
watch entertainment that is harmful to their physical and mental
health. We must remove corporations from child-rearing and restore
that role to parents. We must face up to the rise in poverty: the
Department of Agriculture estimates that 34.9 million Americans,
including 13 million children—experience food insecurity, or the lack
of consistent access to enough food to ensure active, healthy living.
Overall, households with children reported food insecurity at more
than double the rate of households without children, 16.5% versus
8.1%. Forty-seven percent of single-mother households faced food
insecurity. Make ending poverty for all Americans a priority, weave it
into a network of known, proven policies, many advanced by
conservatives and economists years ago. See Growing Up Empty: The
Hunger Epidemic in America, By Loretta Schwartz-Nobel (Harper
Collins 2004)
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