Faced With Mining Vote, Senate Dems Should Check Their 2008 Platform

Democratic legislators being lobbied hard to join with Republicans already willing to weaken environmental law, ignore Native American rights - - text, videos here - - and approve a bad bill on mining should remember what they signed on to four years ago. The italicizing is mine:

Democratic Party of Wisconsin 2008 Platform Approved by Convention June 14, 2008...

From the text:

We recognize that minorities, senior citizens, and the poor often face formidable challenges, including obstacles to voting. We will work to eliminate those obstacles. We pursue legislation and cultural change that end racial and ethnic profiling, respect the sovereignty of our indigenous Native American host nations and ensure equality between men and women. We shall work for gender-balanced, qualified representation at all levels of government. Our goal is a government and an electoral process free of the corrupting influences of money and power wielded by some who lobby our representatives.

 Further from the text:

Protecting the ecological systems of our planet is essential to the economic and social welfare of our state and nation and to the future of humanity. Our legislators and leaders must pay heed to soil, water, and atmospheric pollution; scientific evidence of global warming; invasive species; and decreasing biodiversity while enacting appropriate legislation to safeguard our environment. We must maintain the integrity of the vast fresh water supply in the Great Lakes...

We will restore responsible environmental regulations affecting open space, wilderness areas, soil conservation, forest management, toxic and hazardous waste disposal and cleanup and watershed protection. We call for the use of advanced technology and environmentally-friendly practices to be implemented in industrial settings and mining natural resources and the enforcement and strengthening of safety regulations. To ensure the protection of our state's valuable natural resources, we support the re-establishment of a Public Intervenor's Office and an independent Department of Natural Resources.

None of that sounds like agreeing to artificially shorten mining permit reviews, end sworn testimony and a public hearing in the mining application process, enable mining and waste disposal in the Bad River watershed and wild-rice estuaries, and ignore Ojibwe-US Treaty agreements.

Photo below taken from the Wisconsin League of Conservation voters, which is organizing opposition.