Peter Myers for Congress

Please Vote No on 8

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:47:00 +0000

In the final days before the election, I need to add my voice to an important discussion in the state of California. Polls show that public opinion on Proposition 8 is far closer than it should be, and I learned long ago that if you don't stand up for the rights of others, eventually you will lose your rights as well.

I don't have a huge amount of gay friends and coworkers, but I have enough that I can think of dozens of people I care about who would be negatively affected by Proposition 8, which would eliminate their right to marriage. Proposition 8 would tell these friends of mine that their lives are less important than a straight person's, and that their relationships are less valid. I cannot support a law that would re-institute that kind of discrimination.

My campaign has tried to champion understanding and equality, whether it be through a peaceful foreign policy or through viewing immigrants as friends instead of threats. Proposition 8 stands against everything I have tried to say in my campaign. Please vote no on 8.

Help fund our final push for newspaper ads. Contribute now!

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 05:13:00 +0000

Thank you so far to all of you have supported me so far in my run for Congress. In the final two weeks of the campaign, we need to run ads in community newspapers to let voters know that they have a choice and they don't have to rubber-stamp a Democrat for another two years.

Can you help? We need another $1,000 by Saturday so we can reach as many people as possible. You can contribute directly through PayPal by clicking below.

Help right now!

Eugene Jarecki on the Daily Show

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 07:36:00 +0000

On Monday, Eugene Jarecki, the documentary filmmaker who created Why We Fight, stopped by the Daily Show.

The money quote:

"The world is not a secure place, and you cannot have perfect security. And what you can do by trying to pursue perfect security is you can literally bankrupt yourself as a nation on every level; spiritually, economically..."

You can watch the entire interview below:

Army Video Game Spreads Militarism to Teenagers

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 01:42:00 +0000

This report from CNN shows you what some of your hundreds of billions of dollars of tax dollars pay for when they go to the Pentagon. The military's recruitment process for future wars is slick and neatly packaged, and you and I pay for it every day.

My opponents won't take the initiative to rein in this type of wasteful spending that creates an American culture more militant than ever before. Only I have chosen to stand up against these disturbing military recruitment practices; a vote for anyone else is a vote for more disappointment.

My candidate statement, aired on KTVU

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:20:00 +0000

The Debate

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:37:00 +0000

On Monday, October 13, I debated Republican candidate Joyce Cordi in Cupertino. You can view the debate, filmed by Cupertino City Channel, below. The debate is split into eight parts.

Part 1: Opening Statements

Part 2: The Bailout

Part 3: The Two-Party System

Part 4: Economy and the Budget Deficit

Part 5: Military Spending

Part 6: Iraq and Afghanistan

Part 7: Impeachment

Part 8: Closing Statements

99.6 people arrested an hour for marijuana usage in 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:49:00 +0000

New FBI figures show that a record 873,000 people were arrested for marijuana-related "crimes" in 2007, which was a 5 percent increase over 2006.

Before I continue, I feel that critics should know that I do not use marijuana, have never used it habitually, and have not touched it for more than three years. Nevertheless, I support legalization of marijuana for many reasons:

Marijuana does not do demonstrably more harm than alcohol or cigarettes.
Marijuana laws were originally created to oppress Mexicans, and current enforcement of marijuana laws tend to disproportionally target blacks.
We are throwing our money away on the War on Pot, to the tune of at least $35 billion per year.
The government can tax legal marijuana and make billions of dollars off it. Why not use it to partially fund a universal health care program?

Like so many reforms, the will of the people is already behind this. All that remain to keep marijuana illegal are the two major parties, who want to arrest nearly a million people a year for possessing something that grows out of the ground.

U.S. to spend more than twice as much to arm foreign governments than it did in 2005

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 03:33:00 +0000

Rather than spending the money on education, health care, infrastructure, sustainable energy or foreign aid, the U.S. government has approved $32 billion to arm foreign countries in 2008, according to this New York Times article. This is more than double the $12 billion that it spent in 2005, and doesn't include the private American firms that sell weapons to foreign countries; those sales have increased from $58 billion to $96 billion. Here are a few quotes from the article:

“This is not about being gunrunners,” said Bruce S. Lemkin, the Air Force deputy under secretary who is helping to coordinate many of the biggest sales. “This is about building a more secure world.”

Let's not forget that it was the Pentagon that sold weapons to Saddam Hussein in the '80s, and we all know how well that turned out. The Pentagon and elected officials in Washington have demonstrated decades-long incompetence for choosing whom to give military aid. The American people have no reason to think that the countries we are supporting now won't, in Orwellian fashion, become our most hated enemy 10 years later. Military aid is not about "building a more secure world," as Lemkin said, but it is instead about creating loyalty among the countries that the U.S. sees being geopolitically important in the near future, regardless of what dictators may run them.

Travis Sharp, a military policy analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, a Washington research group, said one of his biggest worries was that if alliances shifted, the United States might eventually be in combat against an enemy equipped with American-made weapons. Arms sales have had unintended consequences before, as when the United States armed militants fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, only to eventually confront hostile Taliban fighters armed with the same weapons there.

“Once you sell arms to another country, you lose control over how they are used,” Mr. Sharp said. “And the weapons, unfortunately, don’t have an expiration date.”

“Sure, this is a quick and easy way to cement alliances,” said William D. Hartung, an arms control specialist at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute. “But this is getting out of hand.”

As of now, the two largest arms manufacturers are the United States and Russia. Both countries are arming other nations to the teeth, hoping to keep allies from joining the other side. It sounds like the Cold War because it's the same story. Just as the U.S. and Soviet Union were once able to limit the number of nuclear weapons they developed, the U.S. and Russia should join in a new treaty limiting the amount of arms they sell to foreign governments. In order to have that sort of treaty, though, the U.S. has to stop antagonizing Russia and stop our militaristic rhetoric. Neither the Democratic or Republican parties want to harm this billion-dollar industry, so we won't see any change without a Green vote.

Why are we there?

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:43:00 +0000

According to reports, last Friday's U.S. airstrikes killed 90 Afghan civilians, including 60 children. This raises the fundamental question: What are we doing in Afghanistan?

As little as a year ago, I saw Iraq as an immoral war and Afghanistan as a just reaction to the attacks of September 11. The more I have thought about and researched the Afghanistan war, however, the more I doubt the reasons behind it. Considering that the sole declared purpose of invading Afghanistan was to capture Osama Bin Laden, and he is now widely considered to be in Pakistan, one question remains: Why are we in Afghanistan?

If the goal had been to capture just Osama Bin Laden, a full-scale invasion that through the country into disorder and disarray seems to be the worst possible way to find him. Muddying the water prevents you from seeing the bottom of the well, and it makes it impossible to draw good water. The best action would have been to covertly capture Osama Bin Laden and bring him back for trial in America for the crime that he committed in our country.

Afghanistan did not need another war. It had still not recovered from its invasion by the U.S.S.R. in the 1980s (during which the United States funded the mujihadeen that would later enforce the Taliban's rule). Instead of helping recovery, the U.S. invasion has plunged Afghanistan into a new seven years of despair and chaos, with no end in sight.

My issue, as always, is never with the American soldiers in Afghanistan, who have done their best with the mission they've been given. I am disappointed in our national leaders, Democrats and Republicans alike, who feel that the only way to solve any situation is by plunging an impoverished country into war and destruction. I have not yet had a chance to read it, but Greg Mortenson's book, Three Cups of Tea, gives me hope that there are individual Americans who understand how to help a country like Afghanistan. Mortenson has spent 12 years so far building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the 55 schools that he has erected are a miracle in their communities. Because of these schools, children will choose facts and education over fundamentalism; children will see a friend in the United States of America, and upcoming generations in the Middle East will look to the United States as a source of kindness and development, not warmongers.

There seem to be two approaches to the Middle East these days. The Democrats and Republicans see military force as their greatest chance for making change. The Green Party and people like Greg Mortenson know that only friendship, not bombs, can create peace, development, and understanding.

Wouldn't it be the ultimate tragedy if the 60 Afghan children who were killed in U.S. air strikes on Friday were students at one of Mortenson's schools? It would be a perfect symbol for how policy-makers in Washington are ruining the possibility for progress in Afghanistan.

Retired Army Colonel: "Our biggest problems are within"

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:46:00 +0000

I recently came across this Bill Moyers interview with Andrew J. Bacevich, a retired Army colonel who served in both Vietnam and the first Gulf War. Bacevich was also a professor of mine at Boston University, and helped me understand how militarism has grown to consume so much of American life.

The entire interview transcript is worth reading, but if you read only part, this is what grabs me as most important:

The most obvious, the blindingly obviously question, is energy. It's oil. I think historians a hundred years from now will puzzle over how it could be that the United States of America, the most powerful nation in the world, as far back as the early 1970s, came to recognize that dependence on foreign oil was a problem, posed a threat, comprised our freedom of action.

How every President from Richard Nixon down to the present one, President Bush, declared, "We're gonna fix this problem." None of them did. And the reason we are in Iraq today is because the Persian Gulf is at the center of the world's oil reserves. I don't mean that we invaded Iraq on behalf of big oil, but the Persian Gulf region would have zero strategic significance, were it not for the fact that that's where the oil is.

Back in 1980, I think, President Carter, in many respects when he declared the Carter Doctrine, and said that henceforth, the Persian Gulf had enormous strategic significance to the United States and the United States is not going to permit any other country to control that region of the world.

And that set in motion a set of actions that has produced the militarization of U.S. policy, ever deeper U.S. military involvement in the region, and in essence, has postponed that day of reckoning when we need to understand the imperative of having an energy policy, and trying to restore some semblance of energy independence.

Because of our energy policy, we are unable to think rationally when it comes to the Middle East. The United States has repeatedly had to put our stake in with the likes of Pervez Musharraf and Ahmad Chalabi, not to mention, of course, the decade in which we provided military aid to Saddam Hussein. Without Americans rethinking our lifestyles, we will continue to create wars in order to provide enough material goods for those lifestyles.

Running as a Green candidate has caused me to look in the mirror about my own activities. I walk to the grocery store. I bike the five miles to my job nearly every day. I run the dishwasher sparingly, if I don't wash the dishes by hand. I don't list these things as a way of showing off, because there is much more that I can do to improve my consumption. I am offering myself up as an example of little things that one can do to make a big change. Because I bike, I'm not only healthier, but I also get a good laugh as I bike by a gas station, and I spend less than $50 a month on gas.

To live Green is to be responsible for your actions and your impact on the world around you. It is a less wasteful way to live, and as the saying goes, "Waste not, want not." If we as a nation can teach ourselves to want less, to be responsible for our actions, then our wants will not expand into the Middle East.

John McCain: We went to Iraq because of our dependence on oil

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Sun, 04 May 2008 05:50:00 +0000

At a town hall event in Denver on Friday, John McCain said the following:

"My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will - that will then prevent us - that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East."

Straight from the Republican nominee's mouth, that is our reason for going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not terrorism. Not weapons of mass destruction. Not liberation and democracy. It comes down to oil.

Seen in this context, peace and environmentally friendly policies go hand in hand. If the U.S. puts even a fraction of the money it puts into war into researching sustainable alternative energy sources, we can stop our dependence on Middle Eastern oil. If politicians no longer feel that America needs to invade sovereign states in order to secure oil fields, we no longer need a massive military-industrial complex.

Of course, what no presidential candidate is saying is on the tips of nearly every American's tongue: we as a nation need to consume less. We need to drive less. We need to take public transportation. We need to walk three blocks to the grocery store rather than drive there. We, as a nation and as individuals, after eight years of being asked by our government to do nothing but shop, need to tighten our belts.

I have immense faith in Americans and in the 15th District that we can take these important steps toward personal responsibility. I just wonder why neither of the other two candidates in this race are saying anything like this.

Let's go on a shopping spree, America

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:34:00 +0000

The Iraq War has cost Americans $3 trillion, and if the Democrats and Republicans in Congress have their way, it won't end any time soon. Check out 3trillion.org to see what we could have spent that money on.

What's truly scary is that this is only with money spent on the Iraq War, let alone our needless and wasteful spending on other military expansion. How many schools could we build with each of the 700 military bases we have on foreign soil? How many people could we guarantee medical coverage for if we hadn't built each of our 9 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, which each cost $4.5 billion to construct and $160 million to operate.

I invite you to my town hall meetings in Campbell on May 8th and 15th, where we will discuss how we can reclaim America's priorities from the hands of the warmongering Democrats and Republicans. The events will be held at 6 p.m. at the Campbell Library, which is located at 77 Harrison Ave. in downtown Campbell.

Upcoming Town Hall Meetings in Campbell

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:55:00 +0000

Please join me on Thursday, May 8th and Thursday, May 15th at the Campbell Library for two town hall meetings. Both meetings will begin at 6 p.m.

The Campbell Library is located at 77 Harrison Ave.

Myself and other Greens at San Jose State

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 05:40:00 +0000

Here's the article from the San Jose State Spartan Daily, describing a forum that I participated in last week. Here's perhaps the most interesting part:

The event was supposed to include representatives from the Green Party, the Socialist and Liberation Party, the American Independent Party, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

Jerry Denim, the American Independent Party representative, didn't show up, and as the event was set up, the Democratic and Republican representatives were nowhere to be found either.

At an event for students and other locals about the importance of politics in life, officials from the Democratic and Republican parties didn't even bother showing up, leaving their party views to be represented by students. Jim Doyle, Drew Johnson and I were more than happy to talk to over 40 people about Green Party views. If the two major parties continue to ignore the American people, the American people will ignore them.

Pentagon fed talking points to TV stations' military analysts

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:04:00 +0000

Under the Bush administration, the Pentagon has recruited a group of former military men to repeat the administration's talking points on news networks, according to an article in today's New York Times:

Many [analysts] also shared with Mr. Bush’s national security team a belief that pessimistic war coverage broke the nation’s will to win in Vietnam, and there was a mutual resolve not to let that happen with this war.

This was a major theme, for example, with Paul E. Vallely, a Fox News analyst from 2001 to 2007. A retired Army general who had specialized in psychological warfare, Mr. Vallely co-authored a paper in 1980 that accused American news organizations of failing to defend the nation from “enemy” propaganda during Vietnam.

“We lost the war — not because we were outfought, but because we were out Psyoped,” he wrote. He urged a radically new approach to psychological operations in future wars — taking aim at not just foreign adversaries but domestic audiences, too. He called his approach “MindWar” — using network TV and radio to “strengthen our national will to victory.”

The Bush administration is not the first to use the media in order to affect Americans' perception of war, nor will it be the last. American citizens do not naturally desire war; the assumption that a military solution is the best option is a message that the Pentagon systematically sends out through as many media as possible.

The American people deserve a voice in Congress that stands up against the military propaganda, and the 15th District has a chance to elect that voice in November.

Bush approved torture, and Congress still does nothing

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:52:00 +0000

ABC and other news sources confirmed earlier this month that President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice and others approved specific instances of torture in the years since September 11, 2001. Congress has yet to punish the executive branch. Reactions on Keith Olberman's show from Jonathan Turley of George Washington University:

Money quote: "Congress is like a convention of Claude Rains actors.... No one is doing anything about it. And so what we have is the need for someone to get off the theater and move to the actual in going and trying to investigate these crimes."

The Democrats and Republicans both protect the military-industrial complex, and refuse to rein in the misuse of our military forces. The United States cannot afford to be a country that tortures, and neither of the two major parties seems to understand that. Ending torture is a principal part of what we need to do to redeem our reputation abroad, and when elected, I'll do more than just talk about it.

Town Hall and Movie Screening in Campbell this Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:58:00 +0000

Please join me at my first town hall meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 22, at the Campbell Library. We will be watching Eugene Jarecki's outstanding documentary, Why We Fight, which exposes the military-industrial complex and its dangers. After the movie, we will be discussing the film and any other issues you'd like to bring up.

The Campbell Library is located at 77 Harrison Ave. Campbell, CA 95008.

Paperwork completed

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:16:00 +0000

It's official: I'm on the ballot.

Thanks to everyone who's helped get the campaign this far. Now comes the real work.

A YouTube introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:09:00 +0000

My first YouTube campaign video:

The Three Trillion Dollar War

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:58:00 +0000

Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-winning economist, has written a book, along with Linda Bilmes, looking at the true cost of the Iraq war. He's interviewed here in the Guardian. To permanently borrow the phrase from Andrew Sullivan, here's the money quote:

Combined with the war, whoever inherits the White House faces a crisis of epic proportions. Where do they go from here? "The way that shapes the debate," says Stiglitz, "is that Americans have to say, 'Even if we stay for another two years, just two years, and we're spending $12bn a month up front in Iraq, and it's costing us another 50% in healthcare, disability, bringing it up to $18bn a month in Iraq, and you look at that in another 24 months, we're talking about half a trillion dollars more for two years - forgetting about the economic cost, the ancillary costs, the social costs - just looking at the budgetary cost - not including the interest - you have to say, is this the way we want to spend a half a trillion dollars? Will it make America stronger? Will it make the Middle East safer? Is this the way we want to spend it?"

The answer to Stiglitz's four rhetorical questions is a resounding no, and it applies to the U.S. military's situation in many more places than just Iraq.

February Update

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:45:00 +0000

Greetings from the Campbell office, where we had a great first month of the campaign. We raised over $600 and gathered dozens of the signatures required to get on the ballot. But this is just the beginning. Our fundraising goal for February is $2,000, and we need to finish gathering 250 signatures in order to get on the ballot. More on that in a minute.

A BOOST TO THE CAMPAIGN STAFF
I'm happy to announce the addition of Ben Rubin as the campaign's online media coordinator. Ben has experience working on Dennis Kucinich's presidential campaign, and has already been instrumental in the campaign. Part of his work has been to create a new cause on Facebook called "Peter Myers for Congress" and a Peter Myers political candidate, to whom you can join in support, just as you would for your favorite presidential candidate. I encourage you to search for both the cause and the candidate profile on Facebook, support both, and tell your friends.

GETTING SIGNATURES: CHANGE YOUR PARTY AFTER THE PRIMARIES
If you are registered as something other than a Green, Tuesday, November 5 is the last day that it makes sense to stay that way. After the primary, you can change your registration to Green and support my campaign. If you live in the 15th district, you can meet me at any time, fill out a new voter registration form as a Green, and then sign the petition to put me on the ballot. E-mail me at peter@myersforcalifornia.com or call me at 408-242-4212 to arrange the best time for you. We need those signatures in the next two weeks, so don't delay.

SUPER TUESDAY SUPER PARTY
After you celebrate your right to vote on Tuesday, celebrate what the Beastie Boys would call your right to party. Join me at my apartment in Campbell starting at 7 p.m. to watch the results come in while surrounded by like-minded people. It's also a great time to switch your registration and sign the petition. Campaign contributions of any amount are highly encouraged. E-mail or call me to RSVP and get directions to my apartment.

VOLUNTEERS
It's not too early to start volunteering. We need people to spread the word, especially at college and community college campuses around the area. We also need people to spread the word on the internet, both through blogging and Facebook. E-mail or call me to discuss which is the best way for you to help.

THE STATE OF OUR CAMPAIGN
The state of our campaign is growing, and it will continue to grow. See you on Tuesday, and don't forget to vote.

The Push for Signatures

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:36:00 +0000

Last night, I met with Merriam and Edward, two active Greens; and Paul, my friend, roommate and webmaster who is becoming more and more active in politics. We went to one of the South Bay's ubiquitous Starbucks and strategized about the campaign for more than two hours. I started by giving them an update:

The campaign has raised $310 in its first two weeks of fundraising. I set the goal for January at $1,000, so we've got to push in the second half of the month to meet our goal.

The past week has been slow because I was starting a new job and moving to a new apartment. That turbulence has largely stopped, and I'm now able to focus again on my campaign.

We discussed some long-term and short-term strategic goals, and we all came away very excited about the next month. In the short term, our goal is to get 250 signatures from registered Green Party voters in the district, so that we can safely exceed the 150 necessary to waive the expensive filing fee. We will be concentrating in Los Gatos and Campbell, where we live, and we'll build our momentum from there.

We all came away from the table with a list of things to do, including getting in touch with some other congressional candidates in the area. One task on my to-do list is already done; you can now download this flyer, which describes my campaign platform and prominently features the web address. You can start helping the campaign by printing out the flyer and handing them out to your friends, neighbors and acquaintances. It's time to mobilize, and I can't do it without your support.

Taking the power back

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:17:00 +0000

California was an interesting place this weekend; it just wasn't very well illuminated. Storms and gusts of wind over 50 mph knocked over power lines up and down the entire West coast. My parents' house in Los Gatos was without power from Friday morning until early Saturday morning, and the internet stayed down longer than that. No power and the inability to go outside in the bad weather made the day a bust in general, but I gathered some friends together and we played Scrabble by candlelight.

Sunday, with the power back on, I went to church with my parents, and even did some fundraising at coffee hour. I'm happy to say that we've now raised $200 in just the first week of the new year, on our way to our $1,000 goal for the month of January. Remember to contribute by clicking on "Join the Campaign" and the Donate button. A contribution of $25 or even less will be a step forward, allowing us to spread the word about the dangerous military-industrial complex.

Meeting with the Greens, and our first contributions

noreply@blogger.com (Peter) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 06:55:00 +0000

Tonight I went to the Green Party of Santa Clara County's monthly meeting, held at the Peace Center in San Jose on the first Thursday of every month. At the beginning of the meeting, I took 10 minutes out of the agenda to update everyone on my campaign's progress and to talk about my platform. They had some suggestions for me, and they also gave me my first campaign contributions; the campaign is now $83 in the black. It's a start, and hopefully there will be a whole lot more support where that came from.

I also registered two more people today, both as Greens. That brings our total registration numbers up to four people. Once again, not numbers to brag about yet, but the key word there is "yet".