New American Independent Party conducting poll to consider Chris Daggett (I-NJ) endorsement

 

The New American Independent Party is conducting a poll to allow their members to decide if the NAIP should endorse the independent candidate Chris Daggett for Governor of New Jersey. Polling ends at the end of the day on Oct. 25th. Members and those interested can vote at: http://poll.fm/19k0b

INDEPENDENT CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE JOHN MURPHY CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE END TO PHONY WAR ON TERROR

 

RAND CORPORATION CONFIRMS WAR ON TERROR IS A HOAX

 

For Immediate Release: July 31, 2008 

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

 

CHESTER COUNTY, PA – Sixteenth District Independent congressional candidate John Murphy has been calling the so-called War on Terror “bogus” for over three years on his website.  On Tuesday, July 29, 2008 the Rand Corporation, a leading adviser to the United States military released a study titled: “How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering Al Qaeda”.  The report concludes that terrorists should be perceived and described as criminals not holy warriors and that there is no battlefield solution to terrorism.

 

According to John Murphy, “the ‘war on terror’ is an absolute fraud. I said this over two years ago and it remains more obviously true two years hence.  It is a war designed specifically to mask the injustices and inequalities which afflict millions of Americans by aggravating and amplifying the injustices and inequalities inflicted upon millions of non-Americans. Its very existence represents continuous and ever-expanding victory for only the most vicious, opportunistic, and hateful elements among humanity, who will impose upon us tragedy upon tragedy, and terror upon terror, until we break cleanly and completely from the rotted chains of mindless fealty to false national leaders and forge links with those abroad whose friendships we have forgone for far too long.”

 

Murphy went on to say “I am overwhelmingly pleased that the Rand Corporation has concluded that the ‘war on terror’ is a hoax and that military efforts to deal with terrorism have always been ineffective.  As I have always maintained, and the Rand report concludes, we must make policing and intelligence the backbone of US efforts.  This will require careful involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as collaboration with foreign police and intelligence agencies.

 

“It is also not surprising that the Rand Corporation further suggests that a second aspect of a counterterrorism effort would minimize the use of US military force.  It further concludes that using the term ‘war on terror’ suggest that there is a battlefield solution.  Terrorist should be perceived as criminals not as warriors.  Nearly every US ally, including the UK and Australia, has stopped using the term ‘war on terror’ and replaced it with the term ‘counterterrorism’.

 

Murphy concluded, “although it should have been obvious many years ago, I am nevertheless pleased at the Rand Corporation has finally concluded that terrorist organizations end either because of operations carried out by police and intelligence agencies or because they join the political process; not because of military operations.  The terrorism of Timothy McVeigh was brought to an end through police action not by bombing New York, his home state.  The terrorism in Northern Ireland ended with a political solution showing the futility of years of military action.”

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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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OBAMA AND THE HITLER YOUTH REVISITED

By John Murphy

Back in September of 2004 I put together a photo essay and sent it to my friends on the Internet.  The essay was entitled “Kerry and the Hitler Youth revisited”.  It was an analysis of one of John Kerry’s campaign planks which he called “A New Army of Patriots”.  It demanded a compulsory year of service for high schoolers.  That service was to include assisting local and federal law enforcement and homeland security.  Kerry also promised college tuition in return for two years in the military which he called “the highest form of service”.  This is the “service” where Kerry’s band of brothers learned to burn villages and murder civilians.  Along with expanding what I called his “Police Corps” program John Kerry also wanted to create what can only be characterized as a Gestapo-like “Community Defense Service” with local captains functioning as the eyes and ears of the government.

 

Interestingly the URL which I quoted as a source no longer leads to this program.  The reference can still be found here: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5554/is_200407/ai_n21840070

 

The Police Corps Returns

 

“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”  Barack Obama, July 2, 2008

 

In the same speech Obama repeated his pledge to boost the size of the active military. But he said the nation’s future and safety depends on more than just additional service members. “It also depends on the teacher in East LA, or the nurse in Appalachia, the after-school worker in New Orleans, the Peace Corps volunteer in Africa, the Foreign Service officer in Indonesia,” he said.

 

Obama would put teeth in his program by promising to withhold funds from school districts which failed to establish service programs and set goals of 50 hours of service a year for middle school and high school students. For college students, Obama would set the goal at 100 hours of service a year and create a $4,000 annual tax credit for college students tied to that level of service.

 

In Germany in 1926 Adolph Hitler created the “Hitler Youth” (Hitlerjugend).  One of its sub-organizations was called the “Patrol Service” (Hitlerjugend-Streifendienst). It was the Hitler Youth’s counterpart of the Gestapo. It was designed to be a type of internal police service that worked in the shadows to enforce the strict laws of the Third Reich. It ruled by fear, terror, and violence. Its members sought out any dissident or suspected traitor to the cause. Like the Gestapo, its members were everywhere and were the eyes and ears of top party members. Any suspected disloyalty or even anti-Nazi (or Hitler) jokes were reported. “Patrol Service” members were capable of denouncing their own family and parents on occasion.

 

Obama’s “Civilian National Security Force”, like Kerry’s “Community Defense Service”, with their compulsory training of young people, strongly enforced by withholding educational services, was ominously foreshadowed by the Hitler Youth’s “Patrol Service”.  Just as there was virtually no mention of John Kerry’s compulsory youth program back in 2004 there is virtually no mention of Obama’s compulsory youth training corps by the mainstream media.  In fact, if the speech were not available on YouTube, http://tinyurl.com/5t76rw it might be suggested that the comments never occurred.  This is altogether warranted since the prepared remarks given to the media did not contain some of the comments Obama made in the actual presentation.

 

The Obama Youth versus Nader’s Watchdogs

 

By contrast Ralph Nader has introduced the idea of “Congressional Watchdogs”.  Instead of forced participation in a government run program driven by threatening the loss of educational funds and instead of creating an organization with the nebulous purpose of further protecting our “homeland security”, Nader’s proposal does not establish a covert organization for spying on our fellow citizens.  Rather it is an effort to galvanize American citizens in each congressional district in order “to turn the Congress around” as Nader puts it.  Rather than creating an atmosphere of fear and the aura of a police state, as planned by the corporate Democrats in 2004 and now again in 2008, Nader’s idea is to have “Congressional Watchdogs” defang the corporate serpent which now controls our Congress. 

 

Ralph Nader encourages us saying that “we’re millions of people out there, and we simply have to, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, and the state of our nation in [sic] the world, we have to mobilize in that manner, and that’s what that, that Web site (www.votenader.org) is all about [sic].  It’s not just a Web site. It’s a gathering center”. 

 

When I read about Obama’s plan I feel a draft.  A national draft, both for military and civic purposes, in which Obama’s Youth will find themselves indoctrinated in the beliefs of neoliberal corporatism and taught to pledge their allegiance to Milton Friedman every morning.  What I would like to have heard from Obama, wishful thinking, would be that he is cutting the Pentagon budget by 15% and would use that to fund a college education for every kid in America.  But Obama is not about do that anymore that he is going to propose universal single-payer health care.  Just as he receives huge campaign contributions from the financial organizations that make a fortune on college loans, he is up to his neck in HMO and big Pharma contributions.

 

This is a scary election. In previous years, candidates would at least sometimes go through the motions of trying to differentiate themselves from the opposition.  In 2008 with both candidates having approved the USA Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act and the FISA bill, both parties seem to be competing to make America a police state.

 

 

We can choose to follow a citizen-based civic oriented watchdog group or a government mandated, fear driven program which moves us further to the corporate goal of a completely controlled population.  Bringing about a new version of the Hitler Youth will not be a difficult task.  Two recent books, “The Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein and “American Fascists” by Chris Hedges both detail how easily either the corporate Democrats or the corporate Republicans could swiftly engineer a situation which would result in the final eradication of the last vestiges of democracy to be replaced by an unmitigated corporate totalitarian government.

 

Postscript

 

Less than 24 hours after completing the draft of this article, just prior to submitting it after final proofing, I noticed that the video of Obama’s speech in Colorado Springs at YouTube says that it is no longer available.  Another website which archived the speech http://forthardknox.com/2008/07/16/say-what-a-400b-national-security-force/ still has the appearance of the video but last time I tried to listen, it too failed to open so that approximately 16 minutes into the speech Obama’s obiter dicta could be heard!

 

John Murphy is the independent candidate for House of Representatives in the 16th Congressional District of Pennsylvania (www.johnmurphyforcongress.org). He is also one of the founding members of the Pennsylvanian Ballot Access Coalition, working to change the egregious ballot access laws in Pennsylvania. He can be reached at: johnamurphy@comcast.net.

 

Mario Fiorucci hosted gathering of Independent & Third Party Candidates

 

Back in May, activist Mario Fiorucci hosted his annual “state of the world” forum and an Independents’ Day event in Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania. Fiorucci invited independent and third party candidates to come address the gathering. Independent Presidential candidates that attended were: Bill Ingram, Daniel Kingery, Joseph Oliva, Donald K. Allen and Christopher Popham Smith.

The Citizens Voice covered the event here.

The unknown men who would be president

The Philadelphia Daily news covered the Independent presidential forum sponsored by Democracy Unplugged in Swarthmore, PA last week. Independent Presidential candidates Rick Fleharty, Daniel Kingery and John Bootie addressed the audience.

Marakay Rogers, the Libertarian Party candidate for Pennsylvania Attorney General also gave a presentation on the restrictive ballot access laws in Pennsylvania.

You can view the article here.

Send your candidate/party links along with campaign news

 

Thank you for the strong response. I have gotten a tremendous number of requests to add links and news. I will try to get everything posted as soon as possible.

Keep sending me your campaign news. It is much easier if you send your news without images or HTML codes.

I am seeking reporters and editors to divide up the coverage of the various political parties and campaigns.

If interested, please email me a short introduction and brief explaination of what you want to cover and why you want to get involved to d4nader@yahoo.com