Progressive Democrats Sonoma County

Published by Alternet. Statement of Dr. Stewart M. Brandborg, Former Executive Director of The Wilderness Society, to the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests, U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Concerning S. 1470, “The Tester Logging and Recreation Bill” FOREWORD: The following statement was written by Dr. Stewart M. Brandborg, former executive director of The Wilderness Society. As described below, Dr. Brandborg worked more than 20 years with The Wilderness Society in Washington, D.C., including 12 years as the Society’s executive director, from 1964 to 1976. [more]

Published by The New York Times. ANCHORAGE—Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska conceded late Tuesday in her Republican primary race against Joe Miller, a lawyer from Fairbanks who was backed by Tea Party activists, Sarah Palin and other conservatives. Mr. Miller shocked the political establishment here and in Washington last week when he emerged with a narrow lead, 1,668 votes, after the primary vote, on Aug. 24. His victory makes him the presumed favorite to win the Senate seat from this heavily Republican state. [more]

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Published by The National. There is more chance of Saddam Hussein’s elusive weapons of mass destruction suddenly turning up in Iraq than there is of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas agreeing on the terms for a two-state solution in Washington this week. That does not mean the direct talks being orchestrated by President Barack Obama are pointless. On the contrary, they represent a moment of truth, not for the Israelis or the Palestinians, but for Mr Obama, who is creating a crisis by forcing irreconcilable differences between the two sides onto the table. The question now becomes, what is Washington prepared to do once the Israelis and Palestinians fail to agree. [more]

Published by t r u t h o u t. Update: An Army spokesman now says the Pentagon will investigate soldiers' claims that they were punished for refusing to attend the Christian-themed concert. Pvt. Anthony Smith is the type of guy who stands up for what he believes in. That's why he decided to hold his commanding officers accountable for punishing him and fellow soldiers after they refused to attend an evangelical Christian rock concert at the Fort Eustis military post in Virginia. [more]

Published by Guerrilla News. On March 1, 2004, I arrived in Al Qa’im, Iraq, at Forward Operating Base Tiger, to replace the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Six years later, on August 23, 2010, I worked with a group of anarchists and other activists to block their busses as they attempted to deploy to Iraq yet again. [more]

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Published by t r u t h o u t. Another false ending to the Iraq war is being declared. Nearly seven years after George Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln, President Obama has just given a major address to mark the withdrawal of all but 50,000 combat troops from Iraq. But while thousands of US troops are marching out, thousands of additional private military contractors (PMCs) are marching in. The number of armed security contractors in Iraq will more than double in the coming months. [more]

On the last night of August, the president used an Oval Office speech to boost a policy of perpetual war. Hours later, the New York Times front page offered a credulous gloss for the end of “the seven-year American combat mission in Iraq.” The first sentence of the coverage described the speech as saying “that it is now time to turn to pressing problems at home.” The story went on to assert that Obama “used the moment to emphasize that he sees his primary job as addressing the weak economy and other domestic issues--and to make clear that he intends to begin disengaging from the war in Afghanistan next summer.” [more]

Take Action: March for Peace, Jobs and Justice on 10.2.10

Published by Truthdig. The carnage is not yet complete, and President Barack Obama’s attempt to put the best face on the ignominious U.S. occupation of Iraq will not hide what he and the rest of the world well know. The lies that empowered George W. Bush to invade Iraq represent an enduring stain on the reputation of American democracy. Our much-vaunted system of checks and balances failed to temper the mendacity of the president who acted like a king and got away with it. [more]

Published by Space Daily. A proposed $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, one of the largest-ever U.S. weapons sales, marks the consolidation of America as the kingdom's main arms supplier after years of strain following 9/11. The deal, which includes Boeing F-15SA Strike Eagle fighters, also underlines Riyadh's determination to confront the threat it perceives from Iran, Saudi Arabia's rival for regional supremacy and leadership of the Muslim world. The Pentagon advised the U.S. Congress of the proposed multi-layered deal, which is expected to win approval in September. [more]

Published by The Huffington Post. In support of California's initiative to legalize marijuana I support the November ballot initiative because our country's long drug war is a disaster and there is an alternative that is better for our health, safety and democratic process. People are dying. [more]

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Published by Beaver County Blue. Rampant speculation, asset bubbles and corruption led to a crash of the Japanese economy in 1990. Like the U.S. government today, the government of Japan was controlled by the banks. The government of Japan liquidated the savings of the people of Japan, most of which were in Postal Savings accounts, to bail out the crooked banks. This bailout wrecked the economy and took ten years to overcome. The economy of Japan is still struggling at a very low growth rate. [more]

Join PDA's End War and Occupations, Redirect Funding Issue Organizing Team (IOT); learn more here.

Published by The Nation. Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination in 2008 because he was the one leading presidential contender who in 2002 had the wisdom to oppose the invasion of Iraq. But he won the presidency by a wide margin, along with overwhelming Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, because Americans wanted him to restore economic stability to a land that had been shaken not just by the financial meltdown of 2008 but by decades of misguided tax and trade policies. [more]

Published by AlterNet. David Cote is so dangerous he's willing to risk nuclear fallout in order to force uranium workers to cut their retiree health care and pension plans. A lot of attention has recently been focused on one of President Barack Obama's top advisers on the Federal Debt Commission--Former Senator Alan Simpson, R-WY. Simpson has generated justifiable outrage for describing Social Security as "a milk cow with 310 million tits." But Simpson isn't the only unhinged fanatic on Obama's Debt Commission. One man, in particular, stands out as far more sinister, and he was hand-picked for the Commission post by Obama himself. [more]

Published by The Huffington Post. Strip-mining is fun! Bring the kids! In a bold new effort to counter "ill-informed" statements by coalfield residents and addled scientists and expose the "out-of-touch" regulatory efforts by Obama administration officials, Big Coal is launching a new series of commercials to set the record straight. [more]

Published by Truthdig. Thomas Jefferson periodically expressed support for a free press as essential to an "enlightened citizenry," but when the reality of political life settled on him during his presidency and beyond, Jefferson had harsh words for it. The newspapers, he complained in 1803, "present only the caricatures of disaffected minds." In his "retirement" a decade later, Jefferson deplored the "putrid state into which our newspapers have passed and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write for them." The press’ capacity for mischief was ravenous, Jefferson complained. The media of the day, he said, were "like the clergy, [who] live by the zeal they can kindle and the schisms they can create." [more]

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Published by Common Dreams. The warnings regularly given by all manner of experts had been ignored for decades. If Pakistan's authorities continued to allow the country's timber mafia and a benighted and oppressed peasantry to strip the country's forests at a faster rate than anywhere else in Asia, as is happening, floods of Biblical proportions would be inevitable. They would not be acts of God. They would be man-made catastrophes. [more]

Published by ReaderSupportedNews.org. The Glenn Beck Magic Revival Hour is over now. The concession stands have sold out of "Freedumb Pop," while Believers shout hosannas and praise the "Word" as revealed to Beck from the burning sagebrush of John Wayne's sacred spirit. The great Oz Media has analyzed, punditized, commercialized and celebritized the Archie and Veronica of moral mediocrity, proving once again that if it sparkles like shallow water in sunlight it must be worth ratings. [more]

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Published by Salon.com. See related: Death of the First Amendment: The Nazification of the United States at CounterPunch. Three weeks ago, I wrote about a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights, based on the Treasury Department's failure to grant a "license" to those groups to represent U.S. citizen Anwar Awlaki in his efforts to obtain a court order barring the U.S. Government from assassinating him without due process. In response, Treasury officials issued the license (those groups are nonetheless proceeding with that lawsuit in an attempt to have the entire licensing scheme declared unconstitutional on the ground that the Federal Government has no authority to require its permission before American lawyers can represent American citizens, even if the citizen in question has been accused of being a Terrorist). [more]

Join PDA's Stop Global Warming/Environmental Issue Organizing Team (IOT); learn more here.

Published by Grist.org. Certain members of the U.S. Congress believe that America shouldn't do anything about climate change until China does. Putting aside the moral illogic of that position, let's focus on something China is doing: shutting down old, dirty coal plants. Surely once senators find out about this they'll be eager to follow suit! [more]

Published by CounterPunch. On Tuesday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report on the estimated impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (a.k.a.—Obama's $787 billion fiscal stimulus) The report provides conclusive evidence that the stimulus did exactly what it was designed to do and helped to avert another Great Depression. Here's a summary: It raised real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.7 per cent and 4.5 per cent; [more]