Progressive Democrats Sonoma County

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May 15, 2013
Petaluma, CA

Donna Norton and Stan Gold deliver the May Letter to Rep. Huffman’s (CA-2) District Office in Petaluma, as part of PDA’s Educate Congress Campaign. Accepting the letter is District Office staff person, Kelly Meeker. Today, the Educate Congress Campaign delivered letters to over 200 Congressional offices, including District Offices around the country and Offices on Congressional Hill in D.C.

Click Here to read the May Letter to Rep. Huffman

To: Rep. Mike Thompson
From: Constituents of Congressional District 5

Re: Social Security, Tax, and Healthcare
May 15, 2013

Representative Thompson,

We are voters in your Congressional District, writing to urge you to oppose cuts to essential programs, as well as support common sense tax policies and job creation, as well as expanded, improved healthcare. Specifically, we ask you to:

Sign on to the Grayson/Takano “Line in the Sand” dear colleague letter pledging to vote against any cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits.

Cosponsor H.R. 1579: The Inclusive Prosperity Act — also known as the Financial Speculation Tax (FST) or Robin Hood Tax (RHT)—which would generate hundreds of $billions to fund job creation, jumpstart the economy, and protect essential programs. Lead sponsor: Rep. Keith Ellison.

To: Rep. Huffman
From: Constituents of Congressional District 2

Re: Social Security, Tax, and Healthcare
May 15, 2013

Representative Huffman,

We are voters in your Congressional District, writing to urge you to oppose cuts to essential programs, as well as support common sense tax policies and job creation, as well as expanded, improved healthcare. Specifically, we ask you to:

Sign on to the Grayson/Takano “Line in the Sand” dear colleague letter pledging to vote against any cuts to Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits. Your pledge to vote against ‘chained CPI’ benefit cuts is appropriate and we strongly urge you to make a similar commitment to vote against any legislation or measure which would cut Medicare or Medicaid benefits.

by Norman Solomon
Common Dreams
April 10, 2013

For progressives, there’s not a lot to be gained by venting against Obama without working to implement a plausible strategy for ousting corporate war Democrats from state power

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The story goes that some mice became very upset about the cat in the house and convened an emergency meeting. They finally came up with the idea of tying a bell around the cat’s neck, so the dangerous feline could no longer catch victims unawares. The plan gained a lot of enthusiastic praise, until one mouse piped up with a question that preceded a long silence: “Who’s going to bell the cat?”

In recent days, the big cat in the White House has provoked denunciations from groups that have rarely crossed him. They’re upset about his decision to push for cuts in Social Security benefits. “Progressive outrage has reached a boiling point,” the online juggernaut MoveOn declared a few days ago.

Obama’s move to cut Social Security is certainly outrageous, and it’s encouraging that a wide range of progressive groups are steamed at Obama as never before. But this kind of outrage should have reached a “boiling point” a long time ago. The administration’s undermining of civil liberties, scant action on climate change, huge escalation of war in Afghanistan, expansion of drone warfare, austerity policies serving Wall Street and shafting Main Street, vast deference to corporate power. . . The list is long and chilling.

For progressives, there’s not a lot to be gained by venting against Obama without working to implement a plausible strategy for ousting corporate war Democrats from state power.

So is the evasive record of many groups that are now denouncing Obama’s plan to cut Social Security. Mostly, their leaders griped in private and made nice with the Obama White House in public.

Yet imagine if those groups had polarized with President Obama in 2009 on even a couple of key issues. ...

Read the rest here

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Letters published March 23-March 30. A shout out to the authors of these recent Letters to the Editor!

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What we need

EDITOR: We need a representative in Congress who will reject cuts to Social Security and Medicare. We need a representative who will instead vote to end funding for America’s devastating, chaos-creating wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and, now, Syria. Unfortunately, we don’t yet have such a representative.

PHIL BALDWIN

Ukiah

Press Democrat. Saturday, March 23, 2013
Link to original

Why isn’t Rep. Jared Huffman promising to defend Social Security and Medicare?

by Alice Chan
Bohemian.com – Open Mic
March 27, 2013

Last week, a Press Democrat editorial praised Rep. Jared Huffman for refusing to join colleagues who have promised to “vote against any and every cut to Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security benefits—including raising the retirement age or cutting the cost of living adjustments that our constituents earned and need.”

What’s going on here? On Feb. 28, I joined a group of a dozen constituents meeting with Huffman’s district director, urging the congressmember to sign a letter initiated by Representatives Alan Grayson and Mark Takano. That letter includes a promise to vote against any cuts to benefits in those three vital programs.

Why did we request that our congressmember sign this letter? Republicans and some Democrats in Washington are pushing for cuts to Social Security benefits in cost of living adjustments, as well as raising the Medicare eligibility age. Those changes would directly affect the most vulnerable among us—the elderly and others with low and moderate income, who rely on these earned benefits to provide the basic necessities of life.

What was Huffman’s response? On his Facebook page a few days later, he stated: “I won’t be bullied from the left or the right into signing Norquistian vote pledges to outside groups.”

— Petition Statement —
Rep. Huffman: Please commit to protecting these vital programs from benefit cuts. Sign the Grayson-Takano letter now.
— CLICK HERE to sign the petition.

February 23, 2013

Dear fellow Democrats,

When we had a Republican governor sure to veto legislation for single-payer healthcare, the legislature passed a single-payer bill. Twice.

During the past two years, since we’ve had a Democrat in the governor’s office, the legislature hasn’t moved single-payer legislation.

And this year, activists have struggled to find a single Democrat in the legislature willing to even introduce a single-payer bill.

There is every indication that Governor Brown doesn’t want such a bill on his desk — and the Democratic leadership in the legislature is obliging.

The behavior of our Democratic governor and current legislators stands in stark contrast to the California Democratic Party platform, which trumpets its support for single payer:

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Balance for Our Families and Our Economy
February 20, 2013

Dear Representative Huffman,

We are writing in support of legislation to promote economic growth, protect voting rights, end the war, and lower the deficit.

The Balancing Act (H.R. 505) proposed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus would provide relief to American families, and reduce the long-term Federal deficit in a fair and balanced way by balancing budget cuts and revenues—closing loopholes and making sure the Pentagon and the nation’s biggest corporations do their part—and by putting $800 in the pockets of every family this year. It would create more than 1 million jobs by investing in infrastructure, and by keeping 280,000 teachers in our classrooms.

Dissident Voice
by Kim Petersen / February 7th, 2013

In March 2003, the United States under the administration of president George W. Bush and vice-president Dick Cheney launched an aggression against a smaller, sanctions-crippled nation that had been fundamentally disarmed by a UN weapons inspection regime. Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! looked back at then-secretary-of-state Colin Powell’s address to the UN Security Council which electrified the corporate media types and had chickenhawks and right-wing commentators clucking that this presentation was definitive proof of Saddam Hussein’s government possessing weapons-of-mass-destruction (WMD).

Read the article here

by Norman Solomon
January 23, 2013. CommonDreams.org

With President Obama’s second term underway and huge decisions looming on Capitol Hill, consider this statement from Howard Zinn: “When a social movement adopts the compromises of legislators, it has forgotten its role, which is to push and challenge the politicians, not to fall in meekly behind them.”“When a social movement adopts the compromises of legislators, it has forgotten its role, which is to push and challenge the politicians, not to fall in meekly behind them.”

With so much at stake, we can’t afford to forget our role. For starters, it must include public clarity.

Read the article here

Healthcare NOT Warfare! Members of Progressive Democrats Sonoma County out on the sidewalk with the Nurses, January 17, 2013.
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CLICK HERE to view more pictures from the event.

by Norman Solomon
Common Dreams. January 16, 2013

A simple twist of fate has set President Obama’s second Inaugural Address for January 21, the same day as the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.

Obama made no mention of King during the Inauguration four years ago — but since then, in word and deed, the president has done much to distinguish himself from the man who said “I have a dream.”

Read the article here

DISSIDENT VOICE
November 9, 2012
by Robert Hunziker

The American public has rejected filthy rich capitalists as personified by Mitt Romney’s run for the presidency. No other candidate in modern political history has embodied the precepts of consummate, rampant capitalism like Romney; he is the classic image of Rich “Uncle” Pennybags, aka: Mr. Monopoly, doffing his black top hat to passers-by but without the funny little white mustache. Unfortunately for Mr. Romney & Co., contempt for the political dogma of filthy rich capitalism has been exposed within the dark shadows of defeat. At the same time, and paradoxically, his campaign’s billions helped progressives… immensely.

Read the Rest Here

Originally published by the Press Democrat
by Norman Solomon

On a recent day in Petaluma, two very different events spotlighted grim results of upside-down priorities from the federal government.

Upwards of 600 people gathered for an early breakfast at the Veterans Memorial Hall to raise money for the Committee on the Shelterless (COTS), a nonprofit organization that last year sheltered nearly 2,000 individuals, served more than 127,000 hearty meals and distributed 800,000 pounds of food to the needy.

We heard moving stories about — and from — people whose lives have been transformed by active compassion, generosity and their own hard work. But, as speakers lamented, COTS must turn away many who need help.

Read the Full Story Here

The House of Representatives voted on HConRes28 “Directing the President to remove the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan.” 93 voted aye.

If you see your Representative below, please contact and thank him or her. If not, contact him or her ask why not, and express your support for a rapid, responsible withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Read the Rest Here

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For a schedule of all of the upcoming PDA IOT calls, click here

North Bay Bohemian
March 16, 2011

Crisis in Fukushima underscores need for truth about nuclear power’s danger

By Norman Solomon

On the edge of Capitol Hill, day after day, we heard wrenching testimony from people whose lives had been ravaged by the split atom.

That was three decades ago.

I was coordinating the National Citizens Hearings for Radiation Victims in 1980, one year after Three Mile Island. The voices came from uranium miners, atomic workers, veterans, downwinders exposed to atmospheric nuclear bomb tests . . . and many others. The people who testified were from a wide array of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. But in addition to radiation exposure and suffering, they had one huge experience in common.

They’d been lied to—not once or twice, but repeatedly. Year after year.

Read the Rest Here

March 8, 2011

Ben Ferencz, the last living Nuremberg prosecutor, spoke at a PDA event in Boca Raton, Florida, on February 26th with David Swanson and Sandy Davies.

Read the Rest Here

February 20, 2011

A bipartisan group of representatives discussed their legislation to swiftly end the war in Afghanistan on a press conference call, February 17, 2011. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA-9) opened the call by welcoming the reporters. She thanked her colleagues Representatives Walter Jones (R-NC-9) and Ron Paul (R-TX-14) for joining the call, and “working for our troops [to] bring them home and end the war.”

Read the Rest Here