SENATOR MIKE GRAVEL ENDORSES JOHN MURPHY FOR CONGRESS

 

FORMER DEMOCRAT SENATOR AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE HAILS MURPHY FOR HIS OPPOSITION TO IRAQ WAR AND TO U.S. MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

 

 

For Immediate Release: October 15, 2008 

For Further Information: John Murphy (610) 384-4460

 

EAST FALLOWFIELD, PA – The John Murphy for Congress Campaign is extremely happy to announce that former Senator and Presidential candidate Mike Gravel has endorsed John Murphy for House of Representatives in the sixteenth district of Pennsylvania.

 

“There are a few people in government who qualify for the term hero” said John Murphy, “but Mike Gravel is one of those people. I remember him from my undergraduate days as an anti-Vietnam War protester. Mike not only opposed the war but was an outspoken critic of the draft and tried to have it abolished”.

 

Senator Gravel demonstrated great courage when he conducted a filibuster in the Senate forcing the “Pentagon Papers” to be included into the Congressional record despite personal risk to himself. The “Pentagon Papers” was a 47 volume, top secret Defense Department history of the United States military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. The “Pentagon Papers” documented unconstitutional behavior by a succession of presidents, the violation of their oath and the violation of the oaths of every one of their subordinates.

 

“Mike made an unsuccessful bid as the Democrat Party candidate for president in 2008 but the Democrat Party leadership removed him even before Kucinich. The Democrat Party leadership does not tolerate candidates who truly represent the American people. Mike called for the immediate end of the occupation of Iraq and universal single-payer healthcare. Most uniquely, however”, continued John Murphy, “Mike is a true champion of democracy. He supports, as do I, a Constitutional amendment that would allow for national referendums on major public policy issues. This would truly mean ‘we the people’ would finally have a real voice in how we are governed”.

 

“Even his endorsement of my candidacy shows that he is as gutsy as ever. It is extremely rare that a two-term United States Senator would endorse anyone other than a Democrat. But doing the right thing rather than the politically correct thing has always been Mike’s style. It’s what makes him heroic” concluded John Murphy.

 

Mike Gravel said of John Murphy, “I strongly endorse John not only because of his strong opposition to the Iraq war but, like me, he knows that we could cut the price of gasoline in half at the pump if only George Bush, the Democrats and the Republicans would stop talking about invading Iran. And he’ll do something about it when elected”.

 

Senator Gravel added, “Rather than blindly support the military-industrial complex that spends more on defense than all the rest of the world combined, John will bring balance to our security and economic needs. Congress has lost touch with our real priorities. John will support the needs of working class Americans by prioritizing secure and sustainable jobs, fair taxes and a fair system of trade. Freedom, civil liberties and security are the values that will guide John as he represents of your interests. I hope you will consider voting for him”.

 

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INDEPENDENT CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE JOHN MURPHY SLAMS Mc CAIN AND OBAMA

THE TWO CORPORATE OWNED PARTIES

BAIL OUT WEALTHY AMERICANS AT THE EXPENSE OF WORKING AMERICANS

 

 

For Immediate Release: September 29, 2008 

For Further Information: John Murphy (610) 384-4460

 

EAST FALLOWFIELD, PA – Independent Congressional candidate John Murphy blasted what he called the two corporate owned parties “for picking the bones clean of working-class Americans in order to feed the bloated fat cats on Wall Street who have turned the investment business into a gambling casino”. Both of the two old parties are financed by the same 1,500 corporations.

 

Murphy went on to say that both presidential candidates are in complete agreement about the continuation of wars throughout the Middle East, never hesitating to use military force, saber rattling with respect to Iran on behalf of the rogue state Israel which is in violation of 138 United Nations resolutions, threatening nuclear armed Pakistan and referring to Venezuela as a rogue nation.

 

Most egregious on the domestic front however, according to independent congressional candidate John Murphy, is the use of 700 billion US taxpayer dollars to bailout the wealthiest Americans in the nation; people who knew in advance that if the dangerous game they were playing in order to further engorge themselves with the hard earned money of lunch-box Americans backfired, the government would have to bail them out.

 

“We are now reaping the harvest sown by Ronald Reagan” said John Murphy. “Ronald Reagan did away with a reasonably functional form of capitalism and replaced it with the thinking of Milton Friedman from the Chicago school. These people even redefined the word ‘freedom’. By ‘free markets’ and ‘free trade’ they meant that the government could make no rules regarding corporate greed, fraud and corruption. Imagine if I were to say, that I should be totally free to put a gun on my neighbor and steal his car which would then become my private property. That’s what corporate America has done under the so-called concepts of ‘free trade’ and ‘free markets’.  All of the regulations put on the greed-driven corporate class in the 1930’s to prevent another great depression have been removed and now working Americans are going to pick up the tab”.

 

Murphy further said that “while the corporations are completely free of regulations, working men and women have so many laws placed upon them that it is impossible for the labor movement to gain a foothold and protect working Americans. Because of the Taft-Hartley law passed in 1947 only 10% of the American workforce has been able to join unions to protect themselves from the onslaught of corporate America and neither the corporate-owned Republicans nor Democrats have made any effort to repeal this most horrendous piece of anti-working class legislation on the books. While the economy has grown 78% in the last 30 years, only 167,000 Americans – less than 1/10 of 1% have become extraordinarily rich while the rest of the American people have experienced no increase in their standard of living since 1973. These corporate criminals shouldn’t be asking for a bailout, they should be asking for bail”, insisted John Murphy.

 

John Murphy went on to say that “when Ronald Reagan was president the ratio of CEO salary to worker was 42 to 1. Today the CEO makes 426 times the amount of the average employee. The ruling elite have continuously pushed down wages by invoking the bogus excuse of foreign competition and then outsources our jobs to Third World nations. All the while they are sucking the very life out of working Americans constantly reminding us that ‘we’re number one’ then playing one group of demoralized working people off against another. These greedy leeches tell us to blame the tree hugging environmentalists, the welfare queens and undocumented workers for our problems. We are never permitted to hear anyone criticize the ruling elite. Anyone who engages in such criticism is accused of class warfare.

 

“Now, as if to add insult to injury”, Murphy added “they actually plan to take over $700 billion of our money to cover their bad gambling debts and tell us that it is for our own good! If you believe this, then I have some weapons of mass destruction to sell you along with a bridge in Brooklyn“.

 

John Murphy added “nowhere are we told that there are other answers to this problem. We have been told that we are going to bailout the 400 most wealthy people in this nation while 1 million Americans will lose their homes in the next few months. These executives will continue to get their golden parachutes and their salaries. The deal that should have been worked out should have been extremely punitive in nature forcing these executives to give back the $20 million plus bonuses they received last year.

 

“We could have developed an economy and a society that was truly just and met the critical needs of our people. But we have been told that we will work ourselves to death to enrich a handful of people and that we should be content that their wealth will ‘trickle down’ upon us. The wealthy have been trickling upon us and now they are about to stick our face into something even more degrading.  How long before we reach our braking point and say we’ve had enough?”

 

John Murphy concluded saying “we need a taxpayer revolt in this country to free ourselves from this corporate domination. Unfortunately, because five corporations own 11,000 television and radio stations, and another five own 11,000 newspapers and news magazines, we never learn what is really happening to us and never develop the courage we need in order to fight back. This system has even robbed us of our imagination, our creativity and our ability to think and act for ourselves. The neoliberal economics of Ronald Reagan, exponentiated by Bush I, II and Clinton has now created the final incarnation of its monstrous system – state socialism – more frequently called fascism”.

 

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CONGRESSMAN PITTS INTRODUCES A BIPARTISAN SUPPORTED BOGUS HEALTH CARE PLAN FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

 

For Immediate Release July 24, 2008

For Further Information: John Murphy (610) 384-4460

 

CHESTER COUNTY, PA –   Representative Joe Pitts, the Republican congressman from Pennsylvania has introduced a bipartisan bill intended to make health care insurance more affordable for small businesses. “Unfortunately”, according to the 16th district Independent Congressional Candidate John Murphy, “as long as the insurance companies and HMOs remain part of the healthcare system we will never bring costs under control which will not only make health care affordable but accessible to everyone.

 

“This bill might be well-intentioned” continued Murphy.  “We never want to think that any of our elected representatives are passing legislation which will deliberately benefit corporate America at the expense of working America.  I certainly share Congressman Pitts’ concern that close to 50 million Americans have no health care insurance and millions of others have inadequate healthcare insurance. Experience shows however that these types of ad hoc, pool programs whether they are state subsidized through tax credits or otherwise do nothing to control insurance company policies like denial of claims, excluding the sick through ‘pre-existing condition clauses’ and do nothing to control costs.” 

 

Murphy went on to say, “we can certainly understand why our congressmen might jump the gun and look for a quick fix – especially in an election year but these piecemeal, ad hoc, patchwork plans, to the extent that they leave private insurance companies in the driver’s, seat will not be able to deliver what they promise in any meaningful or long-lasting way. They always end up crashing on the rocks of spiraling health care costs which are the result of corporations which are selling healthcare insurance for a profit and consequently incur all of the associated costs such as $100,000,000+ paid CEOs, executive perks, stock options, corporate profits, along with sales and marketing expenses. 

 

“All of these expenses, representing over 50% of the cost of providing health care, would be eliminated through universal single-payer health care.  Eliminate the middleman, the insurance companies and HMOs, which are in business not to provide health care, because that reduces profits, but to deny health care as much as possible and to control how Americans receive health care.

 

Murphy added that “producing an automobile in Windsor Canada cost $1,700 less than it does right across the river in Detroit, Michigan simply because in the United States we have put insurance companies in charge of our health care system instead of physicians with a system funded by the government.  The government is essentially better at some things than private industry.  Medicare operates at a 2% overhead while private insurance companies operate at a 20% overhead.  Universal single payer health care would essentially be Medicare for all.  No deductions; no co-pays; no exclusions; no denial of services; no charge for pharmaceuticals; all at half the current cost!  Everyone gets full coverage and the taxpayer takes home about $300 more of their paycheck each month.”

 

“Imagine going to a doctor”, Murphy suggested “who diagnoses your problem correctly but then, instead of prescribing an antibiotic, prescribes a placebo.  It is possible the placebo may actually make the patient feel better for a while but the disease continues to increase in severity threatening the very life of the patient.  This is what these hodgepodge, piecemeal, ad hoc programs are all about.  They especially look good to our representatives around election time! 

 

“When both corporate owned party gang up on a piece of legislation with what they call ‘bipartisanship support’ like the USA Patriot Act or the Military Commissions Act or the FISA bill, the people know they are in trouble.  This disgraceful, so-called “Small Business Choice” Bill, should be rejected by the House of Representatives because it is clearly an election year ploy to keep healthcare firmly entrenched in the hands of the for-profit insurance companies by providing a placebo instead of a cure. Under universal single-payer health care, costs per capita would be $2,902 as opposed to $5,711 per capita under our so-called “private”corporate health care system.

 

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Moore/Alexander ’08 Ballot Access Appeal for Funds

$15,000 Appeal to Assist Ballot Access Efforts

 

Please help the Moore/Alexander ’08 presidential ticket gain ballot access in 20 states this election year, in November, and also “write-in” status in another 20 states as well, with an urgent donation. Any amount will be appreciated!

We have already qualified in the states of Vermont and Colorado, and we have targeted 20 other states for ballot access status by no later than September 9th, less than two months away!

Because of the time constraints, and limited resources, we need to compensate some of our volunteers to work extra hours, as well as hire professional petitioners, by paying them per signature, and in some cases, cover our volunteers’ gas and motel expenses.

 

We expect petitioner expenses in the states of Washington ($2,000), Arkansas ($1,500), Iowa ($1,500), Ohio ($5,000), Minnesota ($2,500), and in the secondary states of Nebraska, New Hampshire and Kansas (a significant amount if we can achieve donations for the others). That is a total of $12,500 for those 5 targeted states, and probably another $9,000 for the three secondary states.

We also have upcoming state fees of $500 for Louisiana, and we have already had to pay $750 for three separate legal advertisements required by the state of Washington, in three separate city newspapers (Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver) and possibly more, to announce our upcoming petitioning efforts. Socialist Party member, and former presidential candidate, Walt Brown of Oregon, has already been gracious to pay our $500 fee for Colorado. A list all of our contributors in a separate communication is forthcoming. The early contributors have also helped us immensely in this ballot access effort. The campaign also will have expected expenses in July and August for campaign signs, bumper stickers, flyers; plus, travel and convention fees and publicity expenses to announce upcoming speeches, etc. This is not to speak of our efforts in September and October to pay

for radio ads, cable TV spots, mass marketing e-mails and taped telephone calls in as many states as we can, both where we are on the ballot or in states where we have official “Write-In” status.

 

So any dollars you can donate would be most appreciated. $5.00 and up! Please ask your friends, family and acquaintances who you know that support the Moore/Alexander ’08 platform and our Socialist Party’s efforts to radically alter our economic system to redistribute wealth, gain worker and citizen control, and achieve a quality of life with a more egalitarian and democratic process for all.

 

Please contribute now!  Thank you.

 

To donate via our website, visit http://www.votebrianmoore.com/donate.htm. Or, contribute

by check to “Brian Moore for President Campaign,” P.O. Box 5247, Spring Hill, Florida, 34611.

Thank you.

Brian

 

 

Visit the Brian Moore Campaign website at http://www.votebrianmoore.com/