statement

Statement on Corrupt Sports Gambling in Oregon

Submitted by info on Sat, 11/21/2015 - 03:18

The Oregon Progressive Party calls on Oregon's Attorney General to follow the lead of New York state's Attorney General, who on November 9th, 2015 “ordered DraftKings and FanDuel ... to immediately stop accepting bets from New York residents.”

NY Attorney General Schneiderman described these daily fantasy sports sites to be “...leaders of a massive, multi-billion-dollar scheme intended to....fleece sports fans across the county.”

Oregon's sports fans are no less cheated by the operation of these on-line betting parlors. Why silence from Oregon Attorney General Rosenblum?

The Oregon Progressive Party throughout its 7-year history has consistently opposed the legalization of gambling and "government promotion of gambling, including video poker, video slots, and approval of private casinos." We call upon the Oregon Attorney General to order fantasy sports gambling operations to stop accepting bets from Oregon residents.

Statement on Marketing of Tobacco to Youth

Submitted by info on Sat, 11/21/2015 - 03:14

Greedy tobacco companies continue their efforts to entice children to smoke by paying merchants to place tobacco products at low counter levels in stores, where children will see them, and by packaging tobacco products to be attractive to children. They look like candy.

SmokeFree Oregon has produced television ads calling our attention to these practices and asks that we take action.

The Oregon Progressive Party calls on our Legislature to pass laws banning the display of tobacco products in stores, period.  Anyone who want to buy tobacco products should have to ask at the check-out counter.  If the Legislature will not do this, then our county and city governments should do so.

Oregon Progressive Party Statement on Health Care

Submitted by info on Tue, 11/04/2014 - 03:25

Our health care system is broken. We pay more for health care than any other industrialized nation, but we cover the smallest percentage of people. Under the Affordable Care Act, many Americans remain without access to health care. For lack of health insurance, thousands of Americans die each year. For those who do have health insurance, large co-pays and deductibles send many into debt. And it's the taxpayer who picks up the tab for the subsidized plans. The Affordable Care Act is less than a band-aid. It is a giveaway to the insurance companies.

Imagine if health care were a human right. Imagine a health care system that puts people before profits. Imagine if everyone had access to health care. Imagine health care that doesn't push people into bankruptcy. Imagine doctors and patients making health care decisions, not insurance companies. Imagine health care including dental, optical, and mental health care for all.

The Oregon Progressive Party supports local and federal efforts to create universal access to health care. Everyone in, no one out. We need health care, not health insurance.

"Of all the forms of inequity, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."
--Martin Luther King Jr., 1966

We support the efforts of these organizations:

Health Care For All Oregon - hcao.org
Mad As Hell Doctors - MadAsHellDoctors.com
Simgle Payer Action - SinglePayerAction.org
Healthcare Now! - healthcare-now.org
Physicians for a National Health Program - pnhp.org

OPP calls for 28th Constitutional Amendment: Corporations are not people and money is not speech

Submitted by DavidDelk on Tue, 10/28/2014 - 22:00
The Oregon Progressive Party calls for a U.S. constitutional amendment which declares in clear and unequivocal language that:
 
Corporations Are Not People and 
Money is not Speech
 
American history is a long battle between democracy (We the People) and elitist power of corporations and the wealthy.  The balance has been tilted in favor of the wealthy 1% and the national/multinational corporations by various U.S. Supreme Court cases.  In a series of decisions beginning with the 1886 Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad, our rights as enumerated in the Bill of Rights have been declared by the courts to belong to corporations, the artificial creations of the states. These decisions have given corporations constitutional rights

Statement on U.S. Military Intervention in Iraq and Syria

Submitted by info on Fri, 09/19/2014 - 16:18

The United States needs to:

Get out of Iraq.
Stay out of Syria.

Twelve years ago the Bush Administration and the corporate media launched a huge campaign to convince Americans that a regime in the Middle East was such a threat that it required military intervention and occupation of the area.  "Sadam Hussein even gassed his own people," we were told, along with the falsehoods about weapons of mass destruction.  The United States has already suffered nearly 4,500 Americans dead and 35,000 Americans injured, not to mention the effects on Iraqis:  over 175,000 dead, untold numbers injured, displacement of over 1.5 million from their homes, the devastation of the Iraqi economy and infrastructure, and the leveling of Iraqi cities.  It has cost over $2 trillion of U.S. taxpayer money.

Now the same hype job is back, to ensure continued profits of the military-industrial establishment.  Now, again, there is a regime in the Middle East (ISIS) that is claimed to pose a threat to the entire world.  "The brutal, insane ISIS regime has beheaded two American journalists!  We must respond by sending our military back to Iraq!"

The Oregon Progressive Party says no.  American policy should be:

Get out of Iraq.
Stay out of Syria.

The Obama Administration now says we have to do the same thing we already did in Iraq for over a decade.  But this time somehow military intervention in Iraq (and Syria) will work, instead of just continuing to make the situation worse for the U.S. and for those who live in Iraq and Syria.  Not to be outdone by the Bush folks, Obama wants to expand U.S. military strikes into Syria and to arm "the moderate Syrian opposition."  The CIA has already been trying to do that, but the weapons seem to end up in the hands of ISIS.

And, say the hawks, we have to "train and equip the Iraqi Army," which we already did for 10 years--before they ripped off their uniforms and turned over their weapons to ISIS.  And, although until about a week ago the two worst regimes in the Middle East were supposedly Iran and Syria, now the U.S. is allying itself with those Shiite regimes against their Sunni enemies.

The only reason the war hawks care about Iraq and adjacent areas is because somehow a lot of Arab sand got deposited on top of our oil.  Protecting the oil there does not benefit consumers; it only secures more profits for the oil companies.

Get out of Iraq.
Stay out of Syria.

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