Shantu Shah's April 12, 2006 TVCTV Address to League of Women Voters of Washington County

My Sisters and Brothers of Washington County:

It gives me great pleasure to introduce myself to you. My name is Shantu Shah. Like each of you I have been an Oregon citizen for the last twenty eight (28) years. I am your can do candidate for the Representative in US Congress for District One Oregon. I have met many of you in my door-to-door campaign through the neighborhoods, trails, malls, and the streets.

I would like to express my gratitude to the League of Women Voters of Washington County by making possible this televised interview of candidates so I can converse with many of you, as it is almost impossible to reach in person each and every voter of our District One spreading across four (4) counties of Clatsop, Columbia, Yamhill, Washington, and part of the Multnomah County.

I attended North Carolina State University, School of Engineering in 1970 and received a post baccalaureate degree in Electrical and Telecommunications engineering. I am a Registered Professional Consulting Electrical Engineer and have extensive experience in design, construction, and management of power generation, transmission, distribution for state government utility and emergency telecommunications systems to protect federal buildings in Pennsylvania and Colorado.

I am a Beaverton Leadership Charter Class graduate. A few years ago I received an award as the second fastest growing company within 100 fastest growing companies by the Portland Business Journal of Commerce. I am on the Board of Interfaith Council of Greater Portland. We are planning a Festival of Faith on September 17, 2006 with M.K. Gandhi’s grandson Arun Gandhi as a keynote speaker for the event.

My wife has worked for Reser’s Fine Foods in Beaverton for the last twenty years. My younger son, a graduate engineer from Oregon State University, works for Intel. My older son has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Portland State University works for PAE consulting Engineers in downtown Portland and his wife has a diploma in performing arts from Louis & Clerk College. My family and I have contributed in the US and Oregon economy for several years now. We have hosted exchange students and businessmen from India, Brazil, Austria, England, Africa, Mexico, Japan, and Fiji Islands.

I participated in a trade mission by the City of Beaverton to its sister city Gotemba, Japan, and was the sole representative from Oregon for the U.S. Department of Commerce trade mission to Hong Kong and Singapore. I have extensively traveled to Asia, Europe, New Zeeland, and Fiji Islands for business and Rotary International community service. What distinguishes me from other candidates for US Congress is my international exposure to global trade and my background and experience with the city, state, and federal government. The advanced technology, utility, and industrial, clients like Intel and Willamette Steel Mills are the projects I have managed that have created thousands of jobs for the past three decades.

My brothers and sisters, please allow me to ask each of you “Are we better off today than we were eight (8) years ago?” Certainly I am not better off. Isn’t it a time for an overhaul of the entire U.S. Congress leadership, so you do not have to worry about escalating health care costs and the daily loss of lives and limbs of our sons and daughters in Iraq? It’s time for drastic changes in the status quo of déjà vu warmongers in Congress that are responsible for this economic fiasco.

Ladies and Gentlemen: George Bush’s war has now consumed $270 billion dollars and is rising daily - enough money to hire 4.6 million teachers and provide healthcare for 162 million children. Worse, nearly 2,300 brave American soldiers have lost their lives, another 17,000 have been maimed or wounded, and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed.

I have a clean slate. I am against the current political squabbling and the rampant corruption in the three branches of our government. Let’s turn the tables on these rascals with our high voter turnout and revolt against the déjà vu. We can’t remain silent while our livelihood, health, privacy, and our liberty are in jeopardy. We can’t be held slaves at the whims of this elite ruling class of Congress. We will tell them during this May primary with our high voter turnout that voters are not ignorant or as apathetic as déjà vu’s perceive us. And I need your assistance in throwing out the rascals from their corruptive stranglehold over American citizens like you and me. Drastic times call for drastic measures.

I am for what's just plain common sense to the average American. American citizenship is not for sale. I want to stop the infighting in Washington so that the government can do more for you, the common people. It's just common sense. I am for severely cutting, if not eliminating, taxes on the average American by raising taxes on the rich and cutting wasteful government programs.

I am for giving you increased benefits. You should get free healthcare like the members of Congress receive, free education, free food, free room and board — whatever you need, just like in Sweden. I am for cutting the cost of medicine and hospital equipment by opening price competition from other countries which make comparable medicine and hospital equipment.

I am for a strong US economy, education, research, and exports to South Asia. I am going to lower the deficit and stop going to war with far flung countries so that you get a good job and make more money. No more Regime changes please.

I am for the stronger environmental regulations, so that you have clean air to breathe and clean water to drink. I am for stronger corporate regulations, so that you don't get your money stolen from swindlers like Enron again. I am for stronger safety regulations so you don't die in a car crash or from some poisonous products. Why didn’t Bush-Cheney go to war on GM/Ford plants for making unsafe cars?

I am for common-sense security. Does it make sense to attack Iraq and then spend billions of dollars rebuilding it? Does it make sense to go to a war against terror when you're far more likely to be killed in a car accident than in a terrorist attack? I will initiate Bush and Cheney impeachment for lying to Congress about weapons of mass destruction and invading Iraq and creating the $9 trillion deficit. And if I have to begin fasting to convince the members of congress I will consider doing so. Bring back real democracy to our red and blue states, while the stubbornly stupid Bush-Cheney teamsters are trying to bring the democracy to lawless Iraq. Risking our sons and daughters, and plunging us into the inconceivable nine trillion dollar debt economic debt is ludicrous; it’s an impeachable crime.

Lastly each of these napping congressmen and women have been caught with their pants down while 11 million 21^st century immigrants snuck into the U.S. It’s high time we resolve this intellectually once and for all.

I am not with the tax-and-spend déjà vu liberals or the tax-and-bomb conservatives like the Bush-Cheney White House team. I am frustrated just like you. I want to be your voice in the U.S. Congress. I will do the things that just plain make sense. Instead of hearing news from Washington about whatever little things they've decided to bicker about this week, wouldn't it be great if you could hear about the new things I mentioned earlier like making wise use of your money and saving it for a rainy day?

I am for personal freedom and privacy. Rehab is much cheaper! Imprisonment is a waste of your money! It's time for real change in DC. It's time for the common sense candidates. The déjà vu’s, camouflaged with corrupt corporate and casino cash must be voted out.

We will begin our Voters’ Victory march in May 2006 to Washington, D.C., and experience it in November 2006 to teach a life long lesson to the tax cheaters. David Wu may hide déjà vu behind elite insidiously corrosive corporate curtains, while I, Shantu as your representative, am not going to sit silent to achieve the real and everlasting peace for the people and victory for the voters.

Let’s bring our friends in hordes to cast your votes by mail to oust the status quo for ever. This is not the last time the voters’ revolt has happened since the Boston Tea Party. History repeats itself. Voters’ victory is visible at the end of 2006 tunnel. If you will not drop our vote in the ocean of elections it would be one drop away from our thundering wave of victory. It’s you women and men whose choice counts. I wish my running mates, Good Luck!

My message is very simple:

"Please vote for Shantu Shah as Oregon District One Representative in Congress.

Mail your ballots before Monday, May 15 2006.

To Bring Troops Home.

To stop Corruption in Congress.

To Control skyrocketing Health Care Cost and For Stronger Economy, Higher Education, Cleaner Environment, and Stronger Exports.

Thank you kindly for your vote."

“War is weakness, Peace is Power.” “International understanding is Peace.”

If you need a copy of what I said today please log on to my website:

http://Shah4USCongress.blogspot.com

If you have questions please call me: 503-245-1722. My email address: EDCShah@yahoo.com.

2006 Primary Election Candidate

Name: Shantu Shah

Race: First District Representative in Congress

Party: Democratic

Opponents: Pavel Goberman, Alexa Lewis, David Wu (D) in May 6, Primary

          Derrick Kitts (R) in General Elections

Residence: Raleigh Hills, Portland, Oregon

Age: 65 

Occupation: Engineering-Construction

Political history: Candidate for Washington Co PUD Commissioner, and Raleigh Water Board

Education: Post Baccalaureate Degree in Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina

Family: Wife employed by Reser’s Fine Foods, Two sons employed by PAE Consulting Engineers and Intel, and a daughter-in-law Performing Arts 

Graduate of Lewis & Clark College

Personal information: Rotarian, Social work, KBOO 90.7 FM Host on Environments East/West Sunday, Society for the Performing Arts of India; Interfaith Council of Greater Portland; Past Member of Beaverton Arts Council; India Cultural Association; and Gujarati Samaj of Portland, Past Member of Beaverton Trade Mission to Gotemba, Japan; and US Department of Commerce Trade Mission to Hong Kong and Singapore, (2) Peace Poems writer, Read, write, and speak four (4) languages: Gujarati, Hindi, Sanskrit, and English, Pro se attorney, traveled internationally, interest in bridge playing and basketball games, hosted Beaverton Sister City and Rotary International Group Study, Friendship, and Youth Exchanges, personal home library bridging 3000 years BC Vedic literature to 21st Century biography, “Triumph of Will (Italy Born) Sonya Gandhi” granddaughter-in-law of First P.M. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.  

Last book read: Character Profiles in Presidential Courage, by Chris Wallace (Chapter 4: “Breaking The Bank, Andrew Jackson and the Second National Bank”

Quotes: 

1) “Peace is Powerful, War is Weakness” Shantu Shah

2) “Even if you are in a minority of one Truth is still the Truth” M.K. Gandhi

3) “Ocean is just a drop only, if I did not add the drop the ocean would be one drop less” Mother Teresa

4) “One step in front of another will take you anywhere” 98-year young Granny D signed her book after her talk on March 11, at PSU. 

Questions:

It would be inappropriate for me to comment on the following state legislature questions as Congress does not have control over Oregon legislation. Rather than giving my detailed opinion I would just give my short answer to each as it relates to federal legislation.

Do you support requiring autos sold in Oregon to meet California's tougher clean-air standards? 

Yes, it should at least exceed Federal Standards set for the states.

What specific changes would you make to improve the quality of Oregon's public colleges and universities? 

Higher education is not just the state responsibility but also that of the US Congress to compete with the 21st Century world economies in Asia and Europe.

Would you support an increase in the cigarette tax to pay for health programs?

Health-programs are the equal responsibility of State and Congress.

Where can people contact you (phone number, Web site):

Phone: 503-245-1722, Cell: 503-890-0012, Web: http://Shah4USCongress.bllgspot.com

Leauge of Women Voters of Oregon Candidate Questionnaire, May 2006 Primary Election

Office Sought: U.S. Representative, District One Oregon

1. Voter’s Guide Information

Contact Information:

Shantu Shah

6637 SW 88^th Place

Portland, Oregon 97223

Shantu.shah@gmail.com

http://Shah4USCongress.blogspot.com

Phone: 503-245-1722

Cell: 503-890-0012

Background:

N.C. State University

Post-Baccalaureate Electrical Engineering degree

Professional Engineer

Portland Business Journal Fastest Growing Companies Award

Beaverton Arts Commission

Beaverton Chamber of Commerce Leadership Graduate

Beaverton Rotary Club

Society for the Performing Arts of India

Question 1: What actions would you recommend to support congressional campaign finance reform?

Response: A) Limit two-terms for the members of Congress.

B) Abolish, limit, or distribute equally the corporation campaign contributions to all competing candidates.

.

C) Independent organizations such as the League of Women Voters and the Chambers of Commerce (funded by the individual voters and Corporations) distribute funds equally for the following:

* Candidates’ campaign advertisements on radio, television, electronic media, phone banks, websites

* Candidates Statements for Voters’ Pamphlets provided by Elections Division and League of Women Voters

Question 2: Should the President have a broader power during wars on terrorism?

What is the role of Congress?

Response: A) President as the Commander-in-Chief has absolute power over the national defense with Congress approval.

B) U.S. Constitution (Article 1 Section 8) provides the role of Congress, primarily the checks and balances on President’s power over the national defense including the global-war on terrorism, as follows:

· Reviews foreign and domestic intelligence evidence.

· Investigates issues involved and approves necessary budget required for each major action.

· Prepares and passes the appropriate legislation required for defense.

Question 3: How can the U.S. Government balance the protection of our natural resources with the need of for economic development?

Response: “Interrelationship of:

· Dwindling natural resources

· Eco system

· Philosophy

· Politics and

· Religion shall all be considered in pursuing the goal of sustaining the Earth with the economic development policy that will rebuild what has already been destroyed.” Paula Daniels of Forest Grove agrees with my address on “Natural Resources” to her Lions Club.

The Dalai Lama wrote, “When we talk about environment we have to have a sense of universal responsibility.”

2. Easy-to-Read Voting Guide Information

1. Town where I live: Raleigh Hills, Portland

2. Job/experience: Forty years of experience:

· Community service

· Construction

· Engineering

· Leadership training

· Management of electricity (grid)

3. Top three things I want to do if I win:

3a. Exports to South Asia: Graphic # 2

· Cheese

· Computers

· Fine foods

· Fruits

· Wines

3b. Research and Development: Graphic # 5

· Biomedical

· Medicines

· Nanotechnology

· Vaccines

3c. Increase: Graphic # 1

· Economy

· Employment

· Guest-workers

· Healthcare

· Higher-Education

· Renewable-energy sources

· Social Security

Candidate's Statement

My Dear Oregonian Friends, Brothers, and Sisters:

As an Oregonian Shantu has participated in community service, trained in leadership, hired and trained Oregon employees, participated in international business delegations since 1978, raised and educated two bright sons through Oregon schools of higher education to become productive engineers like him, helping the Oregon economy as his wife also has.

Vote for “David Wu” is “Deja Wu.” It’s real mess here. Drug addiction, gambling, hunger, and homelessness hover over poor; while the middle-class is stranded by the new economy. America is drowning in debt. Bleeding must stop.

Vote for incumbents corrupted by corporations, casinos, and medical insurers if you want 90% tax-heaven loopholes for the giant corporate shareholders to continue at the expense of Oregonians’ livelihood and expensive healthcare. It would be a social suicide. Vote for honest lawmakers, not the lawbreakers’ best supporting actors. Recall rascals.

Vote for Shantu, if you want the power to transform the world with US-India Partnership for the peaceful coexistence to win the hearts and minds outside America, please vote for Peace. Peace has power, War is weakness.

Vote for Shantu for non-partisan alignment and political partnership between two largest global democracies with corporate cooperation between Oregon and India. Bring long-term benefits to Oregonians with vibrant export-imports, biomedical, nanotechnology, engineering, telecommunications, scientific education, medical research, trade, tourism, and secular multicultural exchange opportunities to enhance economy, social security, employment, clean energy, entertainment, ethics, environment, and Northwest natural resources. Limit gas price to $2.00 per gallon.

Vote for Shantu to connect the democratic dots across the globe with diversity, diligence, and deliverance with bilateral trade if we want to restore America to its gigantic job growth. Export Oregon cheese, chips, computers, shoes, wines, fruits, farm products, and fine foods to 1.5 billion South Asian customers. Let’s simplify taxes. Ensure individual rights to personal privacy, affordable education, and healthcare for each Oregonian.

http://Shah4USCongress.blogspot.com

6637 SW 88^th Place

Portland, Oregon 97223

PH: 503-245-1722

Cell: 503-890-0012

Shantu.Shah@gmail.com

Filing deadline passes Tuesday for candidates for county and state offices

Save an university using 21st Century technology

Kirby Dyess's, Vice President of Oregon State Board of Higher Eduction, proposal for saving higher education by selling or privatizing one of the seven state university branches of Higher Eduction, that include Portland State University, though a only voice on the board is a boldone and deserves discussion to resolve the deficit budget. Mahatma Gandhi once said, " Even if your are in a minority of one truth is still the truth. " It's stunningly surprising the higher education board was stunned with an idea that require an exploratory evaluation to meet the two ends of the higher education expenses.

Higher education is not only the responsibility of the state legislature but also that of the US Congress. President Bush's Year 2006 State of Union mentioned billions of dollars of outlay for science and math education to compete with the Asian countries of India and China. Bush-Singh March 1 summit and bilateral agreement provides the cooperation between US and India in the global strategic alignment in many areas that should include Indian higher education system like the world-class Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) which could provide E (Internet) eduction to the Oregon State universities eliminating the increase in university staff or not replacing the retiring professors in Oregon.

I remember a graduate level electrical engineering video-class mailed out of a Washington State at Pullman, Washington I and seven other colleagues successfully studied three decades ago in 1977 in Boise, Idaho at the premises of our employer Morrison Knudsen International when the Internet was non-existent in the public arena. We must take advantage of the 21st Century technology to revolutionize the education methods to meet the challenges of the new Century as the international borders and education are now seamless and an illusion only.

Shantu Shah

Mumbai Call Center keeps Oregon economy rolling

When America is drowning in huge deficit budget of trillions of dollars no doubt we do not have enough gold coins lying around to pay the salaries of American longshoremen, clerks, and technicians for the day-to-day operations of our East Coast ports managed by our partners on war against terrorism.

These port operators not only hire the Americans for the jobs they are doing around the clock on our shores but also hire the Indians handling our port calls at Mumbai (British called it Bombay) call centers (Oregonian cartoon on Oregonian Page E2 - March 5) in India, America's new global strategic partner and one of the leaders of the world economy for the 21st Century.

These Indian call centers use the latest computers and Internet technology powered by Intel chips that keeps Hillsboro, Oregon prosperous with 17,000 Intel employees and new schools being built or planned in Washington County to pay school teachers to educate their children and grandchildren. Economy is not just a local phenomenon, but the worldwide market conditions which keeps our economy rolling.

Shantu Shah

Fighting Poverty and Social Justice like a pendemic bird flue

Journalist George F. Will's essay on "Evolution of Poverty" (March 5) and previous Senator and Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards' Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity deserves as much attention as its Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The poverty and the civil rights are not just the issues confronting North Carolina, or deep South but also that of the Pacific Northwest as well as the parts of Africa, Asia and South America. I attended the North Carolina State University in 1969 and the picture of poverty in Down Town Charlotte where I worked for Duke Power Company later was a rude awakening for me.

War on Poverty is not only the matter to be addressed by John Edwards of Two Americas but also is being addressed by the United Nations and the recent anti-poverty bill passed by India where sixty percent population, about six hundred million men. women, and children are poor and uneducated. The moderate living wages and the rise in employment accompanied with the rights to the education, housing, staple food, and health care for all should be the goal of all civilized and the industrial nations and all democratic institutions.

Unless we tackle the poverty and civil rights like the pandemic bird flue it will engulf the humanity.

Shantu Shah

Taxing gas is Greed not Green

Only 12 percent Americans like Thomas Friedman of The New York Times (A National Gas Tax- The Oregonian - March 2) are obsessed and addicted with the idea of extra gasoline taxes to curb its use that will badly impact the checkbooks of millions of workers and seniors who depend upon only transportation means available to them for travel to and from their work places or to the markets.

The gas consumption by the 12 percent very rich who use Humvee and four-wheel drives makes the biggest gas addiction in U.S. that should be curbed by restricting its uses on alternate odd or evendays depending upon the last or first number of the automobile license number. Coalgasification and production of bio fuels are the ways to make it a "Green" and not the tax greed to revolutionize the addiction on foreign fuel.

Gas taxes collected from the middle class and poor would flow into the deep pockets of very rich who have already received large tax cuts thanks to the U.S. Congress. It's a smart way to cheat millions of average Americans. Clever try Friedman, I am glad you are not lawmaker but a journalist who who day dreams of taxes.

Shantu Shah

Shah registers with Oregon Election Commission to run for Congress

"Shantu Shah, an electrical engineer and resident of Portland, Oregon, has formally registered as a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from District 1. " Please click link below to read the www.newsindia-times.com report by Ela Dutt:

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:6GrfgnchjtcJ:www.newsindia-times.com/2006/02/17/usa06-103631.html+Shantu+Shah&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=9

Beaverton Sunrise Rotary Club Speaker Shantu Shah

Beaverton Sunrise Rotary Wednesday, March 1, 2006
E Newsletter




INDIAN NATIVE, ENTREPRENEUR, ROTARIAN, CANDIDATE SHARES STORY

"I came to this country 37 years ago because I saw that there was unlimited opportunity here," Shantu Shah, Indian native, successful business entrepreneur, Rotary member and now candidate for political office, told Sunrise Rotarians on Feb. 22.

"I left Bombay on Jan. 26, 1969 bound for John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. I was on my way to North Carolina State University to study electrical engineering as a graduate student. I had left behind my wife and a year-and-a-half old son. It would be one year before I saw them again. I had also left a good job in India to come to America."

"This country has been very good to me and my family and now I want to try to give something back," Shah said of his political activities.

But the entrepreneur spent most of his time talking about his native India and what is happening in that part of the world today.


Shantu Shah

Shah told the Rotarians that multiculturalism had existed in India for centuries. "We have had Muslims living alongside Hindus and Christians in India for many, many centuries. India is a Hindu country," he noted.

Correctly speaking: "India is a secular country" with predominant Hindu population.

(One could say India is a predominantly Hindu. There is a very large population of Muslims - second largest after Indonesia. Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Christians are also the citizens of India. )


He extolled the virtues of India's culture. Of the Indian music, he said, "I think if you heard it, you would like it." And he showed examples of India's art and architecture.

"I hope that you will have a chance someday to visit my native country. It is a beautiful country."

Shah said that he is inspired by three great Indian leaders: "Ghandi, Patel and Ghandi. That is, Mahatma Ghandi, Vallabhbhai Patel and Indir Ghandi."

"And in particular, I have been inspired by Kasturba Ghandi, Mahatma Ghandi's wife from whom he learned the method of non-violent confrontation. And it is her grandson, Arun Ghandi and his wife who will be coming to Portland in September to address an Interfaith Festival of Faith. I hope that you can all attend," he suggested. Ghandi is incorrect six (6) times in last two paragraphs. It's spelled as Gandhi.


Shah is an active member of the Beaverton Rotary Club.

Bush-Singh Atom-Mango Doctrine

To learn about the US-India bilateral agreement please click below:

Ahttp://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060302-5.html

Elect Shantu Shah - Representative in US Congress

Bring Troops Home

Curb Corruption
Control Healthcare Cost
Elevate Education,
Economy, Employment

Protect Privacy Rights

Request Individual Campaign Contributions only
http://Shah4USCongress.blogspot.com
6637 SW 88th Place, Portland, OR 97223
PH: 503-245-1722; Cell: 503-890-0012