December 7, 2004: Headlines: Speaking Out: Wisconsin Democratic Party Platform: For those who have served in the military, the Peace Corps, or similar agencies, we support full, lifelong medical care and generous educational, housing, and employment programs
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December 7, 2004: Headlines: Speaking Out: Wisconsin Democratic Party Platform: For those who have served in the military, the Peace Corps, or similar agencies, we support full, lifelong medical care and generous educational, housing, and employment programs
For those who have served in the military, the Peace Corps, or similar agencies, we support full, lifelong medical care and generous educational, housing, and employment programs
For those who have served in the military, the Peace Corps, or similar agencies, we support full, lifelong medical care and generous educational, housing, and employment programs
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin stands open to all citizens, responds sensitively, promotes outreach to and inclusion of all segments of society, and works actively for open and honest government responsive to the will of the people.
Democracy, Community and Government
Human Concerns
Education
The Environment
Labor & Employment
The Economy & Taxes
Agricultural Affairs
Foreign Affairs, War & Peace
Conclusion
Democracy, Community and Government
Government must be responsive to the needs and will of the people while respecting rights of minorities.
Government must respect, protect and support freedom of expression, strict separation of government and religion, individuals' privacy, constitutional rights of criminal suspects and the rehabilitated, all other rights under the Bill of Rights, and equal protection of the law for all.
We are committed to equality of rights and opportunities for individuals regardless of race, color, actual or perceived gender, marital or domestic partner status, age, occupation, national origin, disability, physical appearance, living arrangements, sexual orientation, and political or religious preference.
We are committed to the principle that women and men are equal.
We oppose racial and ethnic profiling.
All governments must respect the sovereignty of and abide by treaties with Native American nations.
We encourage initiatives to involve and empower citizens in civic affairs.
All governments must comply with open meetings and public record laws. Public records should be available through the Internet.
The Internet must be affordably available to all citizens without unwarranted intrusion on privacy.
Free libraries with access to uncensored information must be adequately supported.
We oppose consolidation of media ownership.
We support free media time for candidate debate. The Fairness Doctrine should be
re-instituted.
We call for full public financing of all election campaigns, reform of campaign finance laws to lessen the influence of money on public policy, and programs to enhance election participation by all citizens. We oppose measures that make voting more difficult.
We reject voting systems that do not leave a verifiable hardcopy record of votes.
We support improvements in government efficiency but hold government accountable for outsourcing. We oppose abuse of limited term employment.
We oppose taxes or legislation imposed under the guise of gubernatorial partial veto, and support a state constitutional amendment assuring that the Legislature approves all taxes and laws.
Government must deal effectively with crime, terrorism, and their causes, while protecting constitutional rights.
We oppose the death penalty.
We support adequate funding for law enforcement.
We support efforts to reduce the nation’s crime rate. Education and jobs with decent wages are more effective and economical than imprisonment in dealing with crime.
We support equitable sentencing standards, judges’ authority to modify sentences, and alternatives to incarceration.
Minor marijuana offenses should be processed as local ordinance violations.
We support the right to hunt.
We support reasonable firearm regulations to protect the safety of citizens and law enforcement officers. These include requiring safety locks on guns and background checks on all gun purchasers. We support Wisconsin’s concealed carry ban.
We advocate strengthening consumer protection laws and returning enforcement authority to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.
We support accurate labeling of food products, including “organic” foods.
Usurious lending should be prohibited.
State revenue sharing should continue. The state must honor its obligation to fund two thirds of school districts’ expenses.
Federal and state governments must fully fund mandated programs.
We support the Social Security system, with inflation indexing, but oppose its privatization, and object to misusing its Trust Fund to hide federal deficits.
We support the arts as essential for the spiritual, intellectual and economic health of our communities.
Our wealth should be measured not only by the GNP, but also by broad measures of well being such as the United Nations’ Human Development Index.
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Human Concerns
Government should ensure that everyone can lead a dignified, healthy, secure, fulfilling and useful life: one without abuse or unjust discrimination; with excellent, affordable health care; safe, sanitary, accessible, and affordable housing; access to quality public education; and opportunities for rewarding work, recreation, and meaningful participation in community affairs.
We support individuals’ rights to make their own moral, religious, philosophical, and medical decisions.
We support family values: love, commitment, mutual support, protection, stability and nurture for all family members, especially children. Marriage by civil ceremony must be permitted for unmarried couples of marriageable age without regard to sex.
We support the right to choose death with dignity with appropriate safeguards.
Family planning services must be readily accessible, confidential, and available without interference by government or others. We support freedom of reproductive choice, and oppose all measures to interfere with or limit it.
We seek an affordable single-payer health care system that provides universal access, promotes preventive health care, and covers prescription drugs, and all physical and mental illnesses.
We support Badger Care, Wisconsin Senior Care, Medicaid and Medicare with prescribed drug and medical device benefits and oppose undercutting Medicare by HMOs and insurance companies.
We favor enhancing programs for the aging and disabled, including subsidized long term in-home or nursing home care.
Health insurance companies should be required to cover physical and mental illnesses equally, cover pregnancy terminations, and include contraceptives in drug coverage.
We support health education and disease prevention programs, especially for young people, concerning smoking, alcohol, other drugs, pregnancy and STDs.
We favor increasing government support for biomedical research, eliminating prohibitions on human embryonic stem cell research, and permitting therapeutic cloning. We oppose reproductive human cloning.
Non-violent alcohol and other drug offenses can and should be dealt with more effectively and at less cost by treatment, education, rehabilitation, and employment, rather than by imprisonment.
Government must adequately support rural health care, public education, and other social services. We support adequate income and living conditions, and access to health insurance for farmers, migrant workers, and their families.
We advocate a welfare system in which able people are gainfully employed whenever jobs are available, with access to adequate affordable childcare, health insurance, transportation and job training.
We call for additional affordable, quality, licensed daycare centers and government support for adequate pay for licensed childcare givers.
top
Education
Quality public education for all is critical for individual wellbeing, economic prosperity, national security, and the health of our democracy.
We oppose public funding of private schools and privatization of public education through vouchers or other means.
Governments should increase funding of public education at all levels. Early childhood and preschool programs should be expanded. State government should increase funding and financial aid for the UW and Technical College Systems. Tuition in these systems must not increase faster than inflation.
Public school teachers must be better paid.
The QEO system must be repealed.
We oppose excessive or discriminatory testing.
We support students’ right to participate in post-secondary school governance.
top
The Environment
We must preserve Earth's environment. This requires clean air and water, uncontaminated land, wilderness, wildlife, and other natural resources.
We must conserve energy, develop and use renewable energy sources and alternative fuels, and improve automobile fuel efficiency.
Biodiversity must be protected.
We must develop sustainable food production systems.
We must be protected from pollution and unnatural radiation.
Mining must be strictly controlled to prevent environmental damage.
Environmentally threatening activities such as mining, quarrying, fossil fuel extraction, logging and grazing by free-roaming cattle should be banned from wilderness areas and parks.
Soil and water conservation should be improved.
We oppose diversion of Great Lakes water and extraction of groundwater for commercial bottling.
We support a balanced transportation system. Walking and bicycling should be encouraged, and public transportation improved and made affordable and available to all. We support passenger rail and ferries.
Laws to halt global warming and acid rain must be strengthened. Power plant emissions must be controlled.
We support land use plans that encourage compact urban development, reduce sprawl and waste, preserve topsoil, green space, and Wisconsin’s rural flavor.
Recycling should be required in order to save energy and landfill space and to reduce waste. Composting, use of recycled packaging, and minimal packaging should be encouraged.
Communities and workers have the right to information and control regarding location and transportation of nearby hazardous substances.
We support prompt polluter-paid cleanup of toxic waste sites and banning of residential development on or near them.
A Public Intervenor's Office should be re-established.
An independent Department of Natural Resources should be restored.
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Labor and Employment
Our top priority is meaningful full employment.
All workers must have the right to organize, bargain collectively, and strike for fair wages, benefits, and safe working conditions. We support public employees’ rights to speedy mediation and binding arbitration of labor disputes.
We favor strengthening OSHA and other safety agencies to ensure enforcement of workers' rights to a safe workplace.
We oppose right-to-work legislation. Hiring strikebreakers must be prohibited.
Workers are entitled to a living wage with benefits.
We support full equity in pay and benefits.
We support equitable ratios of management to labor pay.
We advocate national industrial policies to ensure thriving basic industries. We favor public investment in research and development of new technologies and worker retraining for nonmilitary domestic jobs.
Management and labor should cooperate for competitive success of U.S.-owned businesses.
We oppose American businesses establishing plants in foreign countries with the express purpose of evading taxes, taking advantage of sub-standard wages and circumventing environmental protection laws.
We support tariffs against nations where unfair conditions impede American exports.
Pension funds must be responsibly managed and strictly safeguarded. Employees and retirees must be informed regularly of anticipated retirement benefits. No employer should have access to pension fund assets.
Workers owed wages by a bankrupt business must have first claim to the business’ assets.
Businesses must be required to give sufficient notification of job cutbacks and plant closings to help communities and workers adjust.
Unemployment compensation should include health insurance and, in long recessions, automatic extension of benefits.
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The Economy and Taxes
We support a tax system that treats work and investment income equally, is based on ability to pay, and has a progressive income tax as its core. We must reduce our dependence on regressive levies such as property and sales taxes. Taxation of land should be according to use. Property taxes should not be the primary source of school funding.
The state must equitably fund local units of government, including school districts, and remove revenue caps.
We oppose welfare for big business and the wealthy in the form of handouts, tax breaks, or tax loopholes. We support tax policies that create long-term economic development, good jobs, and environmentally sound development of affordable housing.
We oppose tax cuts for the wealthy that shift wealth inequitably away from middle- and low-income people and fail to spur economic development or job growth.
Deficits weaken the economy and the ability of governments to implement necessary programs. The federal deficit and the state structural deficit should be eliminated.
Businesses must stop avoiding taxation by nominally locating offshore.
We support fair, indexed estate taxes.
Leases for commercial use, or extraction of resources from, public land should be at fair market value and permitted only for environmentally sound activities.
We proudly support our state's cooperatives, which are community owned and operated businesses.
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Agricultural Affairs
We are committed to preserving family farming. We favor policies that allow family farmers and farm-related enterprises in rural communities to succeed.
We support supply policies that enhance family farmers’ incomes.
We call for farm subsidies that favor family farms over absentee-owned corporate farms.
We discourage absentee-owned corporate farms.
Foreign ownership of farmland should be discouraged.
Agricultural practices must protect the environment and provide safe, wholesome food supplies. We oppose factory farms.
We call for reducing high levels of processor involvement in agriculture and verifiable price discovery to insure fair prices.
We seek development of fair trade international markets for agricultural products.
Fair and safe electricity delivery to farms must be assured.
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Foreign Affairs, War & Peace
Our nation should seek to befriend others, work with them to secure peace and enhance the lives of all, and address the grievances and problems that foster terrorism. America must work with others on overpopulation, environment, hunger, disease, illiteracy, and unemployment, and encourage development of representative government.
Law and diplomacy must replace force in international decision-making. Our nation must strengthen, participate equitably in adequate funding of, cooperate with, and use international institutions such as the UN, its agencies, and the International Criminal Court. Such institutions should be responsible for eliminating international terrorism.
An efficient military ready to defend our country is essential.
We must use military force only as a last resort. Our government must renounce the illegal, destabilizing policy of preemptive force when there is no imminent threat to our nation.
Our country should work with other nations to eliminate nuclear weapons, weapons in space, land mines, chemical and biological weapons, and other weapons-related threats to people and the environment. Nuclear weapons’ development must stop. Existing nuclear weapons should be de-alerted and disposed of in agreed, verifiable stages. Ballistic missile defense plans should be abandoned. The international arms trade should be brought under international control. War industries should receive assistance for converting from military manufacturing to the manufacture of peaceful products.
.
A Department of Peace should be established to support national policies for a safe and peaceful world.
We can best support our military personnel by not placing them in harm’s way unnecessarily. We support fully meeting all material and medical, including psychological, needs of our active military and veterans. For those who have served in the military, the Peace Corps, or similar agencies, we support full, lifelong medical care and generous educational, housing, and employment programs.
We support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and urge U.S. ratification of the treaties that implement it.
Foreign aid should be allocated to meet basic needs and encourage human rights. Our nation must never employ economic sanctions with genocidal effects.
Our country’s immigration policies should be fair and applied fairly. We should offer refuge to victims of oppressive regimes without regard to political persuasion.
We support agreements to expand international trade, provided that they do not erode worker compensation, worker safety, environmental standards, or democratic control. We oppose fast-track legislation limiting Congress’ trade authority. Our government should block multinational corporations' practices of avoiding U.S. taxes and work for international control of their monopolistic practices.
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Conclusion
We expect all Democrats to support this Platform as candidates and work to implement it when in office.
When this story was posted in December 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| Is Gaddi Leaving? Rumors are swirling that Peace Corps Director Vasquez may be leaving the administration. We think Director Vasquez has been doing a good job and if he decides to stay to the end of the administration, he could possibly have the same sort of impact as a Loret Ruppe Miller. If Vasquez has decided to leave, then Bob Taft, Peter McPherson, Chris Shays, or Jody Olsen would be good candidates to run the agency. Latest: For the record, Peace Corps has no comment on the rumors. |
| The Birth of the Peace Corps UMBC's Shriver Center and the Maryland Returned Volunteers hosted Scott Stossel, biographer of Sargent Shriver, who spoke on the Birth of the Peace Corps. This is the second annual Peace Corps History series - last year's speaker was Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn. |
| Charges possible in 1976 PCV slaying Congressman Norm Dicks has asked the U.S. attorney in Seattle to consider pursuing charges against Dennis Priven, the man accused of killing Peace Corps Volunteer Deborah Gardner on the South Pacific island of Tonga 28 years ago. Background on this story here and here. |
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Story Source: Wisconsin Democratic Party Platform
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Speaking Out
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By MajorOz (ppp-75.ras.man.centurytel.net - 64.91.46.27) on Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - 6:14 pm: Edit Post |
....and they wonder why they lose elections. Don't they know Marxism is dead (except in Boulder, Berkeley, and Madison).
oz