Progressive Democrats Sonoma County

Join PDA's Healthcare for All Issue Organizing Team (IOT); learn more here.

Published by The Sacramento Bee. With an overhaul of the country's health care system under way, California is moving briskly to put in place key parts of the landmark federal law—and in some cases expand the government's authority over the health care industry. [more]

Published by Southern Studies. As we approach the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, today the Institute is releasing a new report which looks at what has changed—and what hasn't changed—since the deadly storm took over 1,800 lives and devastated the Gulf Coast. [more]

The "Restoring Honor" parade tarnishes an event whose shared humanity was unlike anything I've felt before or since Published by Salon.com. Several small groups of radicals, anarchists, civil rights movement people, crazies—the quixotic among us at the time—had concluded that the Great March on Washington had the potential to bring together a disparate group of Americans, mostly black Americans, and deliver a statement on the condition of the movement vs. American society. This had struck us (I was among this group of misfits) as just audacious enough to possibly soften some establishment hearts and maybe push the stone to a resting place at the top of the hill. [more]

Published by AlterNet. The United States has a long and rich history of exporting terrorism abroad, according to a CIA memo released by Wikileaks on Wednesday. After noting several incidents in which American Muslims launched much-discussed attacks abroad, the analysts warned, "less attention has been paid to homegrown terrorism… exported overseas" by non-Muslim groups. The February 5 memo, marked "secret/ noforn" (the intelligence community’s designation for "not for release to foreign nationals"), was penned by the CIA’s “Red Cell,” a group tasked with "taking a pronounced ‘out-of-the-box’ approach” in order to “offer an alternative viewpoint on the full range of analytic issues." [more]

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

Published by InfoWars. In 1787, Thomas Jefferson lamented the fact that the newly minted Constitution lacked any specific provisions on standing armies. "I do not like the omission of a Bill of Rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for ... protection against standing armies," Jefferson wrote Madison. "The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force," he told Chandler Price in 1807. [more]

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

Published by Baltimore Chronicle. For months, US media reports distorted and lied about its severity, running cover for BP and the Obama administration, now practically avoiding the crisis altogether as it worsens. An August 20 Inter Press Service report is revealing, quoting Biloxi, MS fisherman Danny Ross saying hypoxia (depleted oxygen) is driving horseshoe crabs, stingrays, flounder, dolphins, and other sea life "out of the water" to escape. Another area fisherman, David Wallis said he's "seen crabs crawling out of the water in the middle of the day." [more]

Take Action: Tell President Obama "Hands off Social Security and Medicare"

Published by The Nation. Retired Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson, who inherited a soft-cushion career in politics from his father, is a garrulous old crank who at 79 seems desperate for attention. Simpson likes to pop off provocatively. He cannot resist mocking lesser mortals like Social Security recipients with mean-spirited ridicule. Simpson is an always quotable darling of Washington reporters, who mistake his nastiness for straight talk, who are too lazy to check out his ugly distortions. [more]

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Published by Creators.com. See related: Company Owned By Cancer Research Donor Lobbied Against Designation of Formaldehyde as Carcinogen Despite the kaleidoscopic proliferation of political media over the past decade, most of what Americans hear and read about the workings of our democracy can be politely termed superficial. Only very rarely does journalism fully penetrate the glittering illusions created by partisans on every side to reveal the grittier realities. When a reporter does blast through the usual scrim of deception, that is worth noting—as in the case of Jane Mayer's investigation in the current issue of The New Yorker of the Koch family and its malign influence. [more]

Published by Citizens for Tax Justice. House Minority Leader Says that Loophole-Closing Provisions in Jobs Bill Would Push Jobs Offshore — When the Exact Opposite Is True Speaking before business leaders in Cleveland on Tuesday, House Republican Leader John Boehner proposed a five-point "plan" to help the economy that mainly consisted of continuing George W. Bush's tax and spending policies, not enacting any new reforms, and firing the President Obama's economic advisers. He also claimed that deviating from the Bush tax policies would hurt small businesses, which has already been refuted by CTJ and other experts. [more]

More families seek simple, self-sufficient, low-impact lifestyles. Published by Philadelphia Inquirer. On this hot summer morning in suburban Collegeville, the Fraser children bounce out of bed and race downstairs. They're not running for the TV—they don't have one. [more]

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

Published by Common Dreams. "I don't believe it," seethed Ann Coulter. Her contempt was directed at a September 25 San Francisco Chronicle story reporting that former NFL star and Army Ranger war hero Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan last year, believed the US war on Iraq was "f***ing illegal" and counted Noam Chomsky among his favorite authors. It must have been quite a moment for Coulter, who upon Tillman's death described him in her inimitably creepy fashion as "an American original—virtuous, pure and masculine like only an American male can be." She tried to discredit the story as San Francisco agitprop, but this approach ran into a slight problem: The article's source was Pat Tillman's mother, Mary. [more]

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

For Gulf residents, the BP oil spill has made the problem of unchecked corporate power painfully clear. Exxon Valdez survivor Riki Ott on why this may be the moment to overcome our political divides and take back our democracy. Published by Yes Magazine. [more]

Published by Pro Publica. A prominent philanthropist, cancer survivor, and American businessman, David Koch, has given millions to the cause of cancer research, while his company—Koch Industries—has lobbied against formal recognition of formaldehyde as a carcinogen, The New Yorker reported in a piece published today. Koch sits on the advisory board of the National Cancer Institute—a position he was appointed to in 2004 by President Bush, reported The New Yorker. The National Cancer Institute published a study in 2009 concluding that formaldehyde causes cancer in humans. Here’s The New Yorker, describing that study’s findings: [more]

Published by This Can't Be Happening. It’s time for us progressives to stop playing defense on Social Security. We’ve watched the retirement system suffer years of attacks by conservatives and by class traitors in the Democratic Party. We have seen the retirement age raised since 1983 from 65 to 67, and the cost-of-living calculation altered so that our benefits have declined in value over time, while the tax rate on working people has risen. [more]

Published by CounterPunch. Don't look now, but someone just pushed the housing market off a cliff. The National Association of Realtors announced on Tuesday that the sales of existing homes fell a staggering 27.2 per cent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.83 million units. This is the lowest number of sales since 1995. The reaction on Wall Street has been swift. Shares plunged in a wild sell-off that pushed stocks down more than 100 points in a matter of minutes. US Treasuries rallied on the news, sending bond yields lower as jittery investors sought safety from the ongoing avalanche of dismal economic data. The 10-year slid to 2.49 per cent while the 2 year note dipped to 0.46 per cent. Bond yields are a gauge of investor pessimism. At present, confidence in the management of the economy is at a nadir. [more]

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Published by La Frontera Times. The Latino group Somos America has announced a boycott of Budweiser products in Arizona, targeting Hensley Beverage Company, which distributes Bud and Bud Light. Hensley Beverage Company made political contributions to state lawmakers who voted in favor of SB 1070. [more]

Why It Should Not Pass as It Is Written Published by Dissident Voice. No legislation is perfect. No legislation cannot be tweaked to be made better and to be more honest to the principles or goals that it espouses. Too often, though, legislation is promoted through massive PR campaigns which often hide, or even mislead us about, its intended purpose. We can see how the health care bill went through a major campaign of disinformation, propaganda, hidden agendas, etc., on both sides of the Democratic/Republican aisle. Unfortunately, a huge constituency (the consumer) was truly left out of the discussion as Single Payer (Medicare for All) advocates weren’t even permitted to have a seat at the table, thus insuring a victory for the health insurance industry, in whatever form the bill would make its way out of chambers. This was true even when Medicare for All advocates represented a majority of the popular view, including among Republicans, but less so. [more]

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Published by Bloomberg News. For almost 150 years Americans have believed that anyone born here, whatever his or her origins, can be a good citizen. There is no reason to believe the children of illegal immigrants are any different. [more]

Published by AlterNet. “It is with heavy hearts we are compelled to oppose the organization we once proudly served as Officers and Governing Council Members.” We, the undersigned former Officers and Governing Council Members of the Montana Wilderness Association (MWA), respectfully urge Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) to withdraw Senate Bill 1470, the “Forest Jobs and Recreation Act,” to rectify severe problems outlined by Agriculture Undersecretary Harris Sherman, who oversees the U.S. Forest Service. Sherman testified that the Tester bill dictates timber cutting quotas that are “not reasonable,” “likely unachievable and perhaps unsustainable.” [more]

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

Published by OpenSecrets.org. It was supposed to be their time. [more]