Saturday, October 24, 2009

Journal of 2003-2006

Journal of the Commoner Local Affairs Campaign Committee, formerly called "C. Mark Journal".

Topics:
- Prologue;
- Unethical Embryo Research;
- The No Checks-and-Balances Congress;
- Empire or Democracy;
- Government Fiddles While Global Warming Warnings Heat Up;
- Foreign Policy;
- Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty;
- Defending the Bill of Rights (and more ...).

Prologue:
--- Almost all of the articles on C. Mark Journal, if not actually all, have aged by at least a few years. I will be updating this journal, shortly, by making revisions, possibly deleting some material, and writing about new topics. Your feedback about the important matters discussed on C. Mark Journal can be made through e-mail or postal mail. Thank you for your interest as we must take up the task of winning the vote, one by one, so that we can finally bring about a new era of economic progressivism, and respect for ecology and general traditional culture.  Please, consider becoming a member of the Party of Commons.
- C. Mark Greene

Unethical Embryo Research:
--- The surge in interest among some scientists for embryonic stem cell research, not to be confused with other practically noncontroversial stem cell research, has become a big political debate. All human beings start out as embryos. To use embryos for scientific experimentation is immoral. Human beings are not conceived or should not be conceived for the purpose of scientific experimentation, regardless of utilitarian reasons. This is a resort to a baneful unenlightenment that is surely a step back from a respectful consciousness for life or for the dead that have been elements of fundamental human morality since time immemorial.

The No Checks-and-Balances Congress:
--- When will this Congress decide that unrestrained executive war powers, secret gulags, detentions and imprisonment without judicial review (habeas corpus), and domestic spying without the sanction of the court is beyond the pale? Apparently, never.

Empire or Democracy:
--- It is not the job of the U.S. to root out unpopular regimes in the world unless there is an adequate justification. Anti-treaty, ultra-militaristic world policies are bringing the world closer to disaster. Our nation should maintain our status as a republic, following the Washington Farewell Address Doctrine of staying out of foreign entanglements rather than policing the world.

Government Fiddles While Global Warming Warnings Heat Up:
--- Long after the rejection of the Kyoto Treaty, the most ambitious treaty to date to deal with the problem of global warming, most scientists who are expert in the field of climatic studies now say that the earth faces catastrophic changes unless politicians act quickly to reduce the various greenhouse gases that effect global warming. Instead, the politicians fiddle while glaciers melt, sea levels rise and other climatic changes become precursors to widespread environmental damage.
--- The Kyoto Treaty should be re-negotiated and modified, not altogether rejected, and it is past time that the government started paying more attention to what may become the most serious problem on the planet. Among U.S. politicians, only Chairman C. Mark Greene of the Committee of Commons & Political Affairs and a few others are leading the campaign to make changes in environmental policy before calamity befalls us.

Foreign Policy:
--- The present course of foreign policy is unwise and badly off course, as was the foreign policy of the amoral Clinton Administration of the 90's, which also failed to grasp coherent policies in the national interest. One of the most glaring examples in Clinton's tenure was that of failing to dramatically improve America's relationship with Russia. Instead of doing more to improve and bring about momentous arm control treaties with Russia, that had recently made dramatic political changes, the Clinton Administration antagonized the Russian republic striving to build new democratic institutions.
-- From building the groundwork to expand NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) eastward, starting a war in the Balkans and, generally, infuriating a republic that we need to be our partner in bringing international cohesion and controlling weapons of mass destruction, the Clinton Administration missed the opportunity to bring exceptionally harmonious relations with the new Russia. Not only were plans for the needless expansion of NATO drawn up, but the Clinton Administration re-packaged "Star Wars," thereby preparing the way for the end of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and they failed to take advantage of the best opportunity since the Truman era to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
--- An increasing imperial world-view in recent years, pushed forward by the current U.S. administration is strengthening the hand of extremists around the world who may not be in power today, but who may take power in the future. This does not bode well for a world chock-full of weapons of mass destruction.

Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty:
--- C. Mark Greene understands that the worldwide nuclear arms problem must be solved politically, not by war, but through international cooperation in nuclear arms control accords, particularly the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This means that the entire world, including our own nation, must adhere to the treaties, which would ensure confidence around the world that the treaties are serious-minded, with no double standards.

Defending the Bill of Rights:
--- Citizens-at-large who support the Constitution must be prepared to defend the principles of the Constitution. The Greene campaigns ardently supports the 10 Bill of Rights. Our military services and national officials have an obligation, by oath, to uphold and defend the Constitution, a testament of liberty.

21st Century Dilemma:
--- Unfortunately, leading politicians in Washington state unconditionally support the burgeoning biotech industry, a field of science that is leading the world into a cycle of menaces unseen since the conjuring of the atom bomb, a nuclear genie that most sane people well wish could be put back into the bottle. Unrestrained biotechnology is setting the path for belligerent use like atomic power, has led to debauchery such as tinkering with human embryos in scientists' laboratories; manipulation of genes so that human DNA is mixed with the DNA of animals in the hope of producing some incongruous species or chimeras; genetically modified agriculture, which has caused damaging crop mutations and has made the general population of America involuntary guinea pigs. The government must set clear ethical mandates for biotechnology.

Committee of Commons & Political Affairs Played Major Part in Getting the "Top Two" Primary Initiative Passed:
--- The Committee of Commons & Political Affairs, under the leadership of Chairman C. Mark Greene, was instrumental in getting passage of the "Top Two" Primary initiative, the modified blanket primary which allows voters to choose any candidate they want in state primaries, regardless of party, affiliation or independent status, with the top two candidates reaching the General Election. The CCPA got about 500 signatures from various registered voters to help put the measure on the ballot, an initiative that strengthens Commoner Washington's rights in a democracy. The law was challenged and thrown out by a federal court judge; that ruling was sustained by the 9th Circuit Appeals Court, but the law was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in March, 2008!

William Jennings Bryan: Turning Defeat Into Triumph:
--- No major party candidate has lost more presidential elections than William Jennings Bryan, who lost three (the elections of 1896, 1900 & 1908), but Bryan's defeats ultimately proved to be the bellwether for populist economic reform in America and encapsulated the staying power of social conservatism. Mr. Bryan, although failing in popular majority votes, nevertheless, kept the loyal opposition together, along with a popular resistance to the laissez-faire, no holds bar economic policies of the time, that were little inclined to pull up the great masses. Few politicians with as little elective political success as Mr. Bryan managed to hold the magnitude of the "Great Commoner."

Campaign Endorsement:
--- Congressional candidate C. Mark Greene was endorsed by the Human Life Political Action Committee in the Ninth District congressional campaign of 2004.

Guinea Pig II:
--- First, it was the greatly enhanced acceptance of genetically modified foods into the U.S. food chain; now, the Food & Drug Administration, with little research, has assented to the use of animals bred from cloning for food.

Surveillance America, Orwell's "1984" Abounds:
--- Computer spy programs that are focused on the citizenry-at-large, illegal (without court authorization) surveillance; electronic bugging of Philadelphia Mayor's Office; harassment of dissenters at Drake University .... If elected to represent Washington state in the United States Senate, C. Mark Greene will vote for policies that do not run counter to our nation's libertarian heritage.

Recommended Books:
--- "Fatal Choice," by Richard Butler; "The New Nuclear Danger," by Dr. Helen Caldicott; "Democracy Matters," by Cornel West; "Seeds of Deception," by Jeffrey Smith (website at www.seedsofdeception.com).

[The Greene campaigns/CCPA does not necessarily agree with particular opinions in these books.]

[revised on 6/12/13]

 

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