[nader-colo-students] Sprawlzilla; Al Gore would roll back some abortion rights

["Damon Haley " <dhaley@greens.org>]

The Colorado Green Party has endorsed amendment 24, for Smart Growth 
in Colorado.

Please check out the funny animation that the 'Yes on 24' people 
created.
http://www.voteyes24.com/sprawlzilla.html

Also check out Ralph's position on sprawl.
http://www.votenader.org/issues/sprawl.html

If any of you have fast web access, C-Span has streaming video of 
Ralph's Speech on Cities and Poverty, which is excellent.  He fends 
off many questions about being a spoiler and lets it be known his 
campaign will be strong to the end.

http://www.cspan.org/campaign2000/

Texas Green Vaughn Grisham created a  petition asking Gore to 
withdraw as a joke and a retort to the AP article in which a few 
former Nader's Raiders called on Ralph to quit.  (A total of twelve 
of thousands former nader's Raiders signed on, led by Toby Moffett, a 
paid lobbyist  for Monsanto).

Low and behold, Greens from all over the country have signed the 
thing. So, Vaughn is going to send the URL and printed petition 
results to the Gore campaign and to major media next Monday, so Al 
still has time to do a little campaigning for Ralph and Winona before 
the election.

If you haven't signed, please do...

The petition may be found at 
http://www.petitiononline.com/ydg/petition.html
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Nader Accepts Gore's Challenge
Invites Comparison Of Environmental Records 
   
WASHINGTON - October 25 - Ralph Nader said today that he would 
welcome any public discussion or debate with Vice-President Gore 
about environmental issues, and the two candidates' environmental 
records.  On Monday, in response to a reporter's question about 
Nader's appeal to voters concerned with theenvironment, Gore said: 
"I'll stack my record against anyone, including him." 

"Al Gore is suffering from election-year delusion," Mr. Nader told 
reporters today, "if he thinks his record on the environment is 
anything to be proud of.  He should be held accountable by voters for 
eight years of principles betrayed and promises broken.  A broad 
spectrum of voters from diverse political persuasions are willing to 
stand for stand environmental policies and against the corrupt 
corporate politics of the two-party system."

In this campaign, Nader has proposed the following environmental 
initiatives, among others:

·        Increasing the use of renewable energy such as solar, wind, 
and biomass, and diminishing use of fossil fuels; ending subsidies to 
the fossil fuel and nuclear power industries, in order to combat 
global warming and air pollution.

·        Withdrawing from the WTO and promptly re-negotiating global 
trade treaties so that the new agreements raise global environmental 
standards necessary to ensure to ensure protection of our air, water, 
forests and climate.

·        Ending commercial logging on US public lands and road-
building in all 60 million acres of large forest tracts remaining in 
the National Forest system

·        Improving air quality standards in urban areas, and passing 
a Defense of the Environment Act that would make it more difficult 
for anti-environmental riders to pass Congress

·        Allowing our farmers to grow industrial hemp, that our 
country now has to import, which will reduce the need for importing 
oil, cutting down trees for paper, among many other benign 
environmental uses from this versatile plant that Washington and 
Jefferson grew.

In a recent letter to voters concerned with environmental issues, 
Nader offered a detailed critique of Gore's environmental record, and 
throughout the campaign has strongly criticized the Vice-President 
for abandoning environmental principles.

Keeping in mind that Clinton handed the Administration's 
environmental portfolio to Gore upon taking office, consider the 
following aspects of the Administration record:

·        The dangerous WTI hazardous waste incinerator was permitted 
by the Gore EPA,  despite his promise in 1992 that it would not be 
granted.  The incinerator burns 60,000 tons of waste every year, 
making it one of the largest incinerators of its type in the world.  
Today, the incinerator, which is located very near an elementary 
school, continues to pollute the environment with dangerous 
emissions.  Gore claimed that the Bush administration allowed the 
first  permit there, but Bush EPA head William Reilly has said he was 
advised by the Gore staff during the transition to go ahead with the 
trash burn permit.

·        The Administration has not proposed any across the board 
increase in CAFE standards, breaking a specific 1992 campaign 
promise.  Average fuel efficiency is now down to 24.5 mpg, the lowest 
it has been seen since 1980.  This freeze in standards contributes to 
air pollution and global warming, while costing consumers at the pump.

·        Gore's support for clean alternative fuels has never matched 
his promises. Instead of fighting for expanded solar energy and 
conservation budgets, he and Clinton have  wasted around $1.5 billion 
in a giveaway to GM, Ford and Chrysler to produce a fuel efficient 
"Super Car" the prototype for which has not even been developed.  
Taxpayer subsidies to fossil fuel and atomic power companies also 
continue unabated.

·        Gore agrees with George W. Bush on continuing the so-called 
"Clean Coal" subsidy, which wastes millions of dollars finding ways 
to clean up the burning of domestic coal, such as "sequestering" the 
resultant CO2 in sea beds or oil wells, while ignoring the 
environmental harm that comes from mining.  Meanwhile, he has failed 
to take a stance on mountaintop removal in West Virginia and in his 
home state of Tennessee.

·        The Administration has allowed grazing, helicopter logging, 
and even hard rock mining in National Monuments. Logging in National 
Forests has continued under this "earth-friendly" administration:  
Clinton-Gore signed the "salvage rider" that suspended the Endangered 
Species Act despite claiming they opposed it.  Logging subsidies in 
the Tongass (Alaska) and White River (Colorado) have been dutifully 
given to timber companies, and one in six old-growth trees that 
existed when they took office has been cut and sold for below cost.

·        At the behest of the food industry, the Administration 
signed away the Delaney Clause which prohibited any cancer-causing 
pesticides or ingredients in food, and

made a mockery of advisory committee set up to help implement the 
badly misnamed Food Quality Protection Act by allowing it to become 
controlled by agribusiness corporations and pesticide manufacturers.

·        Wetlands destruction is no longer properly tracked, and the 
Administration blocked the protection for functioning wetlands that 
are currently farmed, even refusing to have the Army Corps of 
Engineers implement section 404 of the Clean Water Act, which would 
protect wetlands.  This shatters a 1992 promise of Clinton and Gore's 
to "base wetlands policy on science rather than politics."

·        As Ozone depletion continues, Gore has equivocated his 
stated opposition to ozone-depleting chemicals, as the Administration 
cut deals over the pesticide Methyl Bromide, and even encouraged 
DuPont to slow its phase out of CFC production.

·        Prosecutions of environmental crimes have declined by as 
much as 50% since the Bush Administration according to Public 
Employees for Environmental Responsiblity, despite a specific promise 
from Clinton and Gore to crack down on environmental crime.

"If this record demonstrates success, then what might constitute 
failure?"  Nader asked.

"The best case Al Gore has made to any environmentalist in this 
election year is that he is not George W. Bush," Nader said today.  
"But Gore cannot even attack George W. Bush's record in Texas with 
complete credibility," Nader noted, "since his administration has 
broken its promise to clean up the maquiladoras that suffer from the 
rank environmental problems along the Mexican border, problems that 
have only gotten much worse since the passage of NAFTA.  The decaying 
corporatist Democratic party has becoming very good at electing very 
bad republicans." 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Al Gore would roll back some abortion rights

*** Gore and Bush both oppose late term abortions

*** Nader and Greens continue to support unrestricted
abortion rights and access


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gore supporters who have urged
Ralph Nader to drop out of the race out of fear of a
Republican victory can no longer use the threat of
rollback of abortion rights under George W. Bush.

In a response to a presidential candidate's
questionnaire from the U.S. Catholic Conference, dated
October 19, 2000
(http://www.nccbuscc.org/ogl/questionnaire.htm), Al
Gore affirms his general support for abortion rights,
but he would allow legal restrictions on late-term
abortions.  He even uses the term "partial-birth
abortion," a phrase favored by Republicans and
anti-choice advocates: "Al Gore opposes late-term
abortions and the procedure of partial-birth
abortions.... Al Gore believes that any law
prohibiting the partial-birth abortion procedure must
be narrowly tailored, and should include protections
for the life and health of the mother."

Mr. Gore's answer suggests that late-term abortion
will come under threat regardless of whether he or
Gov. George W. Bush wins the White House.  The
position of the Green Party and Ralph Nader is that
the decision to have an abortion should always remain
between a woman and her physician, without legal
interference.

In Republican candidate Gov. Bush's answer to the same
question, he says "I will provide leadership to take
positive, practical steps to reduce the number of
abortions in America: ending partial-birth abortion,
streamlining adoption, helping women in crisis through
maternity group homes, promoting abstinence, and
passing laws requiring parental notification and
waiting periods. I believe the U.S. Supreme Court's
recent decision upholding the brutal practice of
partial-birth abortion was wrong, and as President I
will fight for and sign a ban on partial-birth
abortions that passes constitutional muster."

There's little substantive difference between what Mr.
Gore and Gov. Bush promise, in terms of White House
policy, although Bush is more specific in the measures
he'd undertake to discourage abortion.  Mr. Gore,
following Clinton Administration policy, agrees with
Bush about promotion of abstinence.  Republicans know
that outlawing all abortion would be political
suicide, so they've targeted late term abortion.  In
office, Gov. Bush would probably also support
exceptions for "protections for the life and health of
the mother."

Mr. Gore supporters, accusing Nader and the Green
Party of attempting to "spoil" the election, have
argued that abortion and other human rights show the
need to vote Democrat on November 7.  In retreating on
abortion rights, Mr. Gore evokes his early career in
Congress, when he supported the Hyde Amendment's
restrictions on access to abortion for poor women. Mr.
Gore, as Senator from Tennessee, voted to confirm the
confirmation of rightwing Justice Antonin Scalia to
the Supreme Court.  President Clinton and Vice
President Gore did nothing in eight years to promote
abortion drug RU-486 and push its passage through the
FDA until two months before the 2000 election.  


Comparable retreats by Al Gore on other issues

Mr. Gore's gradual slide on abortion rights is
comparable to his "step by step" position on universal
health care.  From 1948 until the Clinton-Gore
Administration, the Democratic Party promised national
health insurance, a pledge the Clinton \-Gore ticket
canceled in 1996.  Mr. Gore's 2000 program offers what
he calls "steps" towards universal health care, such
as a prescription medicine plan for older Americans
(which leaves them with coverage inferior to what
Americans under 65 enjoy if they have private
insurance).  

But Mr. Gore confirmed during the debates that he
opposes government administration of health coverage,
i.e., the kind of national health insurance plan Mr.
Nader and the Greens support.  In his 2000 campaign,
Mr. Gore has refused to address the crisis of 44
million Americans frozen out of our failed
private-profit-driven HMO and insurance system.  As in
the public debate on abortion, he aims for an
ill-defined "center," regardless of the needs of
women, patients, and seniors.

Ralph Nader and the Green Party have insisted that the
positions of George W. Bush and Al Gore are the same
or nearly the same on most important issues.  These
include support for free trade pacts with the
authority to overrule human, labor, and environmental
protections; inaction on fuel emission standards;
rescission of the Delaney Clause prohibiting
pesticides and other carcinogens in food; toxic waste
siting and dioxin production; increased military
spending; development of President Reagan's fraudulent
space-based missile defense scheme; continuation of
sanctions which have killed over a million Iraqi
civilians; maintenance of profit-based corporate HMO
and insurance coverage and opposition to national
health insurance; the death penalty; privatization of
the prison system; rollback of New Deal and Great
Society social safety net guarantees; the
military-based war on drugs; opposition to medical
marijuana; preserving Taft-Hartley restrictions on
union organizing; opposition to the living wage;
support for the Defense of Marriage Act; maintaining
subsidies, tax-breaks, bail-outs, and other taxpayer
free lunch for corporations; and acceptance of
corporate soft-money contributions throughout the 2000
campaign.


More information: 

*** Association of State Green Parties:
http://www.greenparties.org

*** Green Party Platform: http://www.gp.org

*** Nader 2000 Campaign: http://www.votenader.org 

The Association of State Green Parties
PO Box 18452, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 232-0335






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