3/19/08

The California Democratic Party took hours of testimony regarding measures real Americans wanted in the California Democratic Party platform.  Then it proceeded to ignore these recommendations.  It came up with what is being called a vacuous, vague, "say nothing" platform that says nothing about withdrawal from the Middle East, despite the support of the vast majority of Americans for ending the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and staying out of Iran.  The bullet points don't even mention Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran or the Middle East. Democrats interviewed are calling it the worst platform in the history of the California Democratic Party.

In the platform, you will not find anything which gives the vote to over 72 million disenfranchised Americans, you will find nothing aimed at bringing about universal, not-for-profit, single-payer health care, nothing aimed at preventing further wars or their funding, nothing aimed at regulating Gulag Schools (AKA child torture facilities or behavior modification schools and camps), nothing aimed at ending the free trade agreements that have destroyed the economy and the job market in the United States, nothing aimed at ending the death penalty or reforming three strikes (a law that allows a mother of starving children to go to jail for life for taking one piece of bread to feed her children), and nothing that ends medical discrimination against seniors.

Californians of all ages have testified before the California Democratic Party's placebo platform hearings and the vast majority of platform suggestions appear to have been thrown in the round file instead of incorporated into the platform.  The few suggestions that were taken were watered down tokens of what those testifying really wanted. 

These are some of  the platform planks called for by those who have testified.

[Everything listed below is not in California Democratic Party Platform, despite Platform committee's receipt of testimony and emails for these planks]

Requested planks that are not in the platform.  In some cases, these are the short versions of the requested planks. The California Democratic Party                              1. Calls for the minimum lowering of the voting age to no higher than 16 years of age. 2. Calls for the lowering of the drinking age to no greater than 18 years of age. 3. Calls for a ban on all tasers and instruments of violence on students. 4. Calls for support of the right of all Students to learn in peace and without fear of arrest or violence when their actions are non-violent. 5. Opposes strip searching of minors by school officials and employees. 6. Calls for a ban on and the elimination of American Gulag Schools (behavior modification schools, facilities and camps that engage in torture of students and deprivation of basic needs, often with a result of death). 7. Calls for the criminalization of food deprivation, water deprivation, torture and physical restraints on minors at schools or other facilities. 8. Calls for single-payer, not-for-profit, universal health care, such as that embodied in HR 676 and SB 840. 9. Calls for the United States to withdraw from the WTO and cancel NAFTA and similar free trade agreements. 10. Calls for the nullification or end to the corporate personhood doctrine. 11.  Calls for the repeal of Bankruptcy Act of 2005. 12. Calls for a cabinet-level Department of Peace. 13. Calls for an immediate end to military operations in Iraq 14. Opposes all military action in Iran. 15. Calls for an immediate end to all military operations in Afghanistan. 16. Calls for an immediate end to all funding for all military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. 17. Calls for the Federal government to grant amnesty to all military service personnel that have refused to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan. 18. Calls for an end to the use of private contractors for military operations, prison work and crowd control. 19. Calls for the closing of the School of the Americans. 20. Calls for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facilities. 21. Calls for the abolition of all nuclear weapons. 22. Call for the abolition of the use of depleted uranium weapons. 23. Calls for impeachment and prosecution of all public officials who used falsehoods to get America into war in Iraq and who seek to get the United States into an unprovoked war on Iran. 24. Calls for the impeachment, arrest and prosecution of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. 25. Calls for the arrest and prosecution of Katherine Harris and J. Kenneth Blackwell for treason. 26.  Calls for the impeachment, arrest and prosecution of Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy, and Antonin Scalia for treason, committed on December 12, 2000. 27. Calls for the restoration of President  Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti and for the arrest and prosecution of all U.S. officials involved in Aristide's removal. 28. Calls for the arrest and prosecution of all U.S. officials involved in the 2002 Venezuelan coup and kidnapping of Hugo Chavez. 29. Calls for an independent 9/11 investigation to be conducted with public input into all questions still arising from that day, including (but not limited to) the physical and scientific evidence regarding the events of that day. 30. Calls for publicly-funded elections. 31.  Calls for equal promotion of all Democratic candidates and for an end to pre-endorsement caucuses. 32. Calls for the inclusion of candidates of all parties in all debate 33. Calls for guaranteed equal time on TV, the Internet, radio, newspapers and other media of all candidates for office within the jurisdiction of that media. 34. Calls for a return to paper ballots. 35.  Calls for the elimination of the electoral college. 36. Calls for the election of the President of United States to take place by popular vote on paper ballots. 37. Calls for the replacement of the current winner-take-all system with Instant Runoff Voting. 38. Calls for Same day registration to vote. 39. Calls for guaranteed voting opportunities for anyone arrested on election day. 40. Calls for a national recall Amendment. 41. Calls for freedom of the Internet and an end to all government spying on Internet communications. 42. Calls for an end to free speech zones. 43, Calls for repeal of all legislation infringing on the right to assemble and protest. 44. Calls for the repeal of all legislation infringing on our civil liberties. 45. Calls for legislation to end monopolies and create real competition in the television, radio and publishing industries. 46.  Call for enforcement of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. 47. Calls for the repeal of the Real ID Act. 48. Calls for the naturalization of all immigrants (regardless of their status) who have children, siblings or parents who are American citizens, and of all immigrants who are living and working in the United States of America.

49. Calls for amnesty for all immigrants (regardless of their status) who have children, siblings or parents who are American citizens, and of all immigrants who are living and working in the United States of America. 50.  Calls for all immigrant workers, documented or not, working in the United States to receive the same wages, rights and protections as American workers. 51. Calls for the destruction of any parts of any wall between the United States and Mexico and for an end to all funding for any future walls. 52. Calls for an end to the use of American funds to propagandize against Hugo Chavez, the popularly (and legitimately) elected President of Venezuela. 53. Calls for an end to the Cuban Embargo. 54. Calls for a national holiday in honor of civil rights leader Caesar Chavez. 55. Calls for the closing of the immigration detention center in Santa Ana, California. 56. Calls for an end to immigration raids. 57. Calls for the U.S. Immigration Service to be required to provide all individuals picked up for deportation to receive quality legal assistance and full access to due process. 58. Calls for the end of all age-related discrimination. 59. Declares that all Americans, regardless of age, are entitled to all human rights, civil rights, Constitutional Rights, treatment with dignity and the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 60.  Calls for a national holiday in honor of civil rights leader Claudette Colvin. 61. Calls for the release of the Jena Six. 62. Declares that someone old enough to be tried as an adult is old enough to vote. 63. Declares that someone old enough to die for his country is old enough to drink. 64. Calls for the elimination of all compulsory attendance laws 65.  Calls for the criminalization of inferior treatment of elderly patients. 66. Calls for an end to DMV priority re-examinations, which are lacking in due process, and for due process hearings to be required before any driving rights or privileges are removed. 67. Calls on all state and local officials to respect the 4th Amendment Rights of Pet owners. 68. Supports the privacy of pet owners in healthy decisions that affect their pets. 69. Opposes any attempt to place potentially carcinogenic tracking devices into pets, children, babies or people without the fulling informed consent of the recipient or pet owner. 70 . Calls for the decommissioning of all existing nuclear power electrical stations and opposes the construction and commissioning of any new fission-based nuclear power electricity generating stations. 71. Calls for the decommissioning and closing of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Station. 72. Calls for the immediate termination of the Yucca Mountain Radioactive Waste Repository and opposes any similar facility in the future. 73. Calls for legislation declaring California to be a Nuclear-Free Zone.   74.  Calls for abolition of the death penalty. 75.  Calls for an end to the use of the death penalty and prisons as instruments of racism. 76. Calls for open and transparent oversight of law enforcement and a closer look at use of deadly force in the field. 77. Calls an end to economic disparity in criminal cases and for defendants who are middle or lower class to receive as much funding as the prosecution receives in order to have an adequate defense. 78. Calls for a quota-based sentencing system whereby an equal number of poor and rich defendants must be sentenced to prison and/or death within any twelve month period. 79. Calls for the reform of "three strikes" to include only three separate and unconnected felonies and for the release of all current convicts who do not fit this qualification who are in jail only because of the three strikes law. 80. Calls for the labeling of all products containing genetically modified foods or non-organic foods and that all chemical pesticides used in growing foods be labeled on any products containing those foods. 81. Calls for the mandating safety tests (including toxicity, allergenicity and epidemiology studies) of at least three years duration or two generations of the species involved, whichever is longer, for all GM (genetically modified) food products and foods from cloned animals to form the basis of a human health impact statement before any and all marketing of such foods is permitted. 82. The California Democratic Party calls for banning the use of commonly eaten foods containing GMOs (GM organisms) or GM products or products from cloned animals until their safety is assured. 83. Calls for mandating the labeling of all GM food and foods from cloned animals even if the product is approved by local, state, federal or foreign governments. 84. Opposes any attempt prevent local governments from regulating GMOs and cloned animals at the local level. 85. Demands that California's medical marijuana law be fully recognized and implemented by all of the appropriate local, state and federal jurisdictions. 86. Demands full inspections of the American food supply and that the FDA ensure the safety of the foods Americans eat. 87.  Calls for universal college for all who are interested in obtaining an advanced education.

Delegates that support any of the above planks are being encourage to vote down what many Democrats are calling the worst platform in the history of the California Democratic Party.   A great many progressive, looking at this platform, are saying there is too much missing to ever hope to repair it.  The general cry seems to be "Do the honorable thing.  Send a message by voting 'no' to the business as usual platform."

Nancy Pelosi's daughter Christine and her committee, which included Jo Olson, Brad Parker, are among the group that masterminded this "say nothing" platform.

Democrats are finding the California Democratic Party platform vacuous and vague.

Some of the planks suggested by the Patrick Henry Democratic Club of America and the National Youth Rights Association were placed into the platform in limited form.  The NYRA and the PHDC worked to convince the platform committee members to include Repeal of USA PATRIOT and public oversight of voting software.  Though they tried to convince them to support instant runoff voting and universal, not-for-profit, single-payer health care, the committee paid lip service to IRV and only used the word "universal."  The platform fails to say whether it is universal mandated insurance in order to live in America or some other plan for coverage.  The committee limited  instant runoff voting to "where feasible," falsely implying it was not feasible everywhere.  Other concessions were also given in limited form.
 
The platform leaves out much of what has been said in prior platforms.  It actually waters down the strength of prior platforms on subjects that matter to Americans of all races, ages and ethnic backgrounds.  It leaves out the parts of prior platforms that some consider the fundamental issues that brought them into the Democratic Party.   The failure to oppose funding for the Iraq occupation or to oppose war with Iran places the California Democratic Party platform far outside the positions of mainstream America.

Will the delegates to the California Democratic Convention have the courage to vote down a platform that says next to nothing?  America will know on March 30, 2008.

Copyright ©2008 by the Creative Youth News Team.  All rights reserved.

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