Exciting development in VT Congressional race
Some of you may know that I have been encouraged to run against Peter Welch in 2010. Ultimately I've decided I'm not ready but someone else has stepped up to the plate and if he is what he says I'm very excited by this prospect.
From VT Commons:
Ashes To Ashes: Dan Weintraub Announces Congressional Bid
Hello, my name is DAN WEINTRAUB:
I may be liberal when it comes to social issues, but I am extremely concerned about the direction that the Obama Administration and our Democrat-controlled Congress are taking us vis-a-vis our current ECONOMIC POLICIES, and I am running for Peter Welch's (VT) seat in Congress in order to help us bring a new economic sanity to Washington and to hopefully help bring the era of the "professional politician" to an end.
****MY FOUR POINT PLATFORM FOLLOWS****
NO TO THE PROFESSIONAL POLITICIAN
I am a middle class, unemployed former high school and college history and economics teacher. I was recently laid off by Dartmouth College after two years of work as an IT specialist. I rent a small house on the river in Norwich, VT, where I live with my two children and my wife of eight years.
I am neither wealthy nor interested in becoming so. I do not want, and I will not accept, one cent of the $165,000 salary that members of the House of Representatives receive. If elected, I will donate the entirety of my salary to local foodbanks in Vermont.
I will always vote against any salary increases for elected officials.
I will only serve for one term if elected. I believe that the professional politician is often guided NOT by truth, but by polls. He is guided NOT by conscience, but instead he (and she) is swayed by the will and might of special interest. I will only serve one term in office and I will vote my conscience without any consideration for how my voting record could impact my electability. After two years of service to my nation I will return to my small rented home on the river.
I will actively oppose corporate influence-peddling and I will struggle against those forces on Wall Street and in corporate America who seek to subvert our founding fathers' Enlightenment ideals in order to make a buck.
I will strive to bring our country back to a time in which the people, NOT their political leaders, are sovereign.
I will view members of BOTH political parties equally, and with the contempt they so deserve, and will seek legal remedy, should they prove themselves to be, or are they discovered to be, complicit in the illegal fiscal fleecing of the American middle class.
I will work to limit the ability of people and institutions who would fraudulently and in bad faith seek to make millions of dollars on the backs and hard work of the rest of us.
I will always tell you the truth, even when that truth is painful. Truth of course is real. Any attempt to obfuscate or avoid the truth is productive of the creation of false hope, false dreams, and false beliefs. I will not participate in the perpetuation of falsehood.
I will not employ negative campaigning or character assassination to promote my candidacy or political agenda. I, like my opponents and allies, am a flawed individual. Attacking people's character flaws for political gain would be the height of hypocrisy and I will not do it.
NO TO THE OBAMA ECONOMIC AGENDA
I may be a liberal democrat, but I firmly believe that the Keynesian economic policies that are being pursued by the Obama Administration are leading us toward economic ruin. I know a lot about this. I am an economist and I write often on this very topic. (Link to my ECONOMICS BLOG)
I will vote against any further stimulus or ill-fated bailout plans. Creating more debt is no way to solve a problem caused in the first place by profligacy, fraud and debt.
I will seek to have former Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson indicted for Contempt of Congress.
I will seek to speak truth to all of ways in which the government manipulates data in their effort to perpetuate a money-as-debt system that, through decades of fraud and abuse, has furthered our economic woes.
I will argue for a return to a Gold Standard, for the abandonment of a system of irredeemable fiat currency that, through its abuse, has brought us to the brink of a new economic depression.
I will support true and honest free market Capitalism (In which real risk and real reward exist, and in which businesses succeed and fail without bailouts and free of fraud and undo influence-peddling) whilst simultaneously seeking to expose the fraudulent Ponzi-economy that has made billionaires out of criminals and thieves, and that has left the majority of Americans without monies for their retirements and without a paycheck to pay the rent.
I will seek to end the efforts of Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve to employ ill-fated monetary policy and Quantitative Easing; efforts that continue to push us to the brink of a bond market dislocation and into a new and "greater" economic depression.
I will seek to have the Federal Reserve closed, and Ben Bernanke fired.
I will seek to bring an end to the fraudulent "free trade" efforts of such usurious and exploitative institutions as the IMF and World Bank.
I will ask that ALL members of Congress, including myself, be audited as to the possibility that they have used their political influence to unlawful financial ends. I will ask that independent agencies determine which, if any, officials have acted in bad faith vis-a-vis economic conflicts of interest, and I will demand indictments of those who are found complicit.THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IDEOLOGY. This is about keeping government honest and clean.
YES TO SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
I believe in God. My belief in God provides me with strength and peace of mind. My belief in God helps me be a less fearful and more loving father and husband. However, I believe that individual freedom can be measured in the distance that exists between church and state, and I will always act to limit the influence that religion plays in the creation of public policy.
I, like Mohandas Gandhi, believe that "...there is no God higher than Truth...".
I will actively oppose any attempt to limit gay marriage or abortion rights at a federal level. I believe that such efforts are undertaken by individuals who use religious beliefs to guide policymaking. I think that such actions are anathema to the maintenance of church-state separation and I will oppose such efforts at every turn.
NO TO A WIDER WAR IN ASIA
I am unwaveringly opposed to the prosecution of a wider war in South Asia, East Asia or on the Horn of Africa.
I believe that our leaders in Washington may find themselves backed into a corner vis-a-vis promises of incipient economic recovery and as such may be compelled to pursue the prosecution of a wider war as a pretext for artificially growing GDP in the near term through exploiting nationalism and patriotism in an effort to raise revenues through increased taxation. I will oppose such pursuits.
I also believe that calls to "disarm" rogue states such as North Korea, or attempts to keep radical elements such as Al Qaida from gaining access to nuclear weapons through military means is both dishonest and doomed to failure. In a world in which such weapons technologies exist and will always exist, honest diplomacy and humility are the sole effective tools for change. Military engagement will only bring about more suffering. It will not solve the problem.
I will not be swayed by the adroit employment of the Bully Pulpit by President Obama should he attempt to move us toward the prosecution of a wider war in Asia.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING
I hope that you will consider my candidacy in the fall of 2010.
Sincerely,
Dan Weintraub
dan@weintraub2010.com
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by LittleLightShining
