Progressive Democrats Sonoma County

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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From the California Labor Federation …

JOIN US ON TUESDAY FEBRUARY 22ND!
5:30pm at the State Capitol West Steps, Sacramento

Rallies. Crowds spilling into the streets. A sea of people marching together in solidarity. Every day this week, nonstop.

This isn’t happening in Egypt…It’s happening in Madison, Wis.

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CLICK HERE to learn more or register for the calls.

January 29, 2011

Join PDA’s Amend to Suspend Corporate Personhood Action Group; sign up here.

Published by CommonDreams.

PALM SPRINGS—In anticipation of a “secret” meeting to be hosted in Palm Springs this weekend by two infamously anti-environmental billionaire brothers, the Sierra Club will launch a social media campaign with its 1.4 million members and supporters to expose the Koch brothers’ planned assault on public health.

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by Norman Solomon

Last week, soon after President Obama made his stunning tax deal with Republican leaders, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey told the Marin Independent Journal: “I think when you hold unemployment and the needs of the poorest and most desperate people hostage, that it is blackmail, and I don’t think we should give in to blackmail, ever.”

In the same article, I made a comment that’s often heard among progressives: “This is not what we worked for.”

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PDSonoma GuestBlog
By Will Shonbrun
December 22, 2010

Wikileaks is a website through which whistle-blowers can deposit documented information leaked from government and corporate sources. The data is then offered to newspapers of note for publication. A good deal of the documentation is labeled as secret. Governments and businesses operate in secret to one degree or another. Governments claim that the classified as secret information, if known, can put the national security of the state as well as individual agents in jeopardy. It is also commonly argued that release of secret information to the general public can act against the interests of the state. When documented information is leaked from a corporation it can only be objected to on the grounds that such revelations reveal secrets that it doesn’t want other businesses or the public to know.

Anne Flaherty
December 21, 2010

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

Published by The Associated Press.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed legislation that authorizes the Defense Department to spend nearly $160 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this budget year without major restrictions on the conduct of operations.

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John Nichols
December 15, 2010

Published by The Nation. See related by John Nichols: Michael Moore on Why Posting Bail for Julian Assange is a ‘True Act of Patriotism’

Leading Australian journalists have stepped up in a big way to defend WikiLeaks, with the head of the nation’s major media union arguing that “attacks on WikiLeaks can also be seen as attacks on the Australian media outlets which have worked with the organisation to publish leaked material.”

In response to calls for the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (an Australian) and attempts to block the distribution of leaked US diplomatic cables, Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance federal secretary Christopher Warren says: “Allegations that the work of WikiLeaks is somehow illegal are yet to be proven in Australia, or in any other country. The Alliance and (the International Federation of Journalists Asia-Pacific section) calls on governments to refrain from prejudicial speculation that risks harming our democratic system.”

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Giles Tremlett
December 4, 2010

Join PDA’s Accountability and Justice Issue Organizing Team (IOT); learn more here .

Leaked cables show Spanish officials and prosecutors shared information about investigations into US human rights abuses

Published by The Guardian.

US officials tried to influence Spanish prosecutors and government officials to head off court investigations into Guantánamo Bay torture allegations, secret CIA “extraordinary rendition” flights and the killing of a Spanish journalist by US troops in Iraq, according to secret US diplomatic cables.

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Medea Benjamin, Leslie Cagan, Tim Carpenter, Gael Murphy, Cindy Sheehan, David Swanson, Debra Sweet
December 2, 2010

With Wikileaks Revelations, Peace Community Redoubles Demand for End to Wars and Voices Support for Whistleblowers

While only a tiny fraction of the U.S. diplomatic cables scheduled for publication by Wikileaks have thus far been made available, some conclusions can already be drawn. These cables and the Iraq and Afghan War Diaries provide an opportunity for Americans to see our government for what it is.

Our government is seen here as controlling a global military and espionage empire that impacts every region of the globe and deceives its own population. Secrecy, spying, and hostility have infected our entire government, turning the diplomatic corps into an arm of the CIA and the military, just as the civilian efforts in Afghanistan are described by Richard Holbrooke, who heads them up, as “support for the military.” Secret war planning, secret wars, and lies about wars have become routine. The United States is secretly and illegally engaged in a war in Yemen and has persuaded that nation’s government to lie about it. The United States has supported a coup in Honduras and lied about it.

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Norman Solomon
November 29, 2010

Compared to the kind of secret cables that WikiLeaks has just shared with the world, everyday public statements from government officials are exercises in make-believe.

In a democracy, people have a right to know what their government is actually doing. In a pseudo-democracy, a bunch of fairy tales from high places will do the trick.

Diplomatic facades routinely masquerade as realities. But sometimes the mask slips—for all the world to see—and that’s what just happened with the humongous leak of State Department cables.

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Office of Rep. Dennis Kucinich
November 26, 2010, Washington, DC

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

Published by Truthout.

Afghanistan War, Nightmare without End for Troops, Innocent Civilians and US Taxpayers

(November 23, 2010) — Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich, a leading proponent of peace, today renewed his call to end the Afghan war after it was revealed that a self-proclaimed senior Taliban negotiator working with President Hamid Karzai and NATO officials was in an imposter.

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Earl Ofari Hutchinson
November 16, 2010

Published by The Huffington Post.

In an exclusive interview, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), co-chair of the Progressive House Caucus, talks with New American Media Political Analyst and Huffington Post Contributor Earl Ofari Hutchinson about the group’s strategy in the new, Republican-controlled House. The interview was conducted by New America Media.

THR: Many are not familiar with the Progressive House Caucus. How big is it?

LW: We had 83 members before the election. It is bicameral, with House and Senate members. It’s by far the largest caucus in Congress. We lost four members this election. But we also gained a couple of new members. We will not have less than 80 members in the next Congress. The Blue Dog Democrats lost almost two-thirds of their members.

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Thursday, Oct. 14, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
The Glaser Center, 547 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa

Col. Ann Wright, one of three State Dept. officials to publicly resign in direct protest to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, traveled on the Freedom Flotilla bringing emergency supplies to Gaza and drawing international attention to the plight of the Palestinian people. She will tell her compelling story and her reasons for opposing U.S. policy regarding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

PDA had a very strong presence in DC and around the country at One Nation. I was personally on the ground in DC and want to thank all of our members who showed up for our lobby day and reception on Friday and the rally on Saturday.

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On this call we introduced the new co-chairs of this IOT – Marcy Winograd and Steve Carlson. We apologize for the poor quality of this recording.

1. We reviewed both the Cleveland and Albany conferences.
2. Discussed Accountability & Transparency for War Voting (BBLV’s)
3. Wikileaks/Bradley Manning Defense Committee
4. Iran, House Res. 1553 (46 Republican co-sponsors pledging US support to Israel for attack on Iran)
5. Why are 46 US warships being sent to Costa Rica? Venezuela connection.
7. BDS/Israel/Palestine

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Robert Naiman
August 9, 2010

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

Published by ZNet.

Is there a man or woman in America today who is willing to stand at noon in the public square and claim that demands to bomb, invade, and occupy other people’s countries have anything to do with human liberation?

If such people can be found, let them answer a few simple questions about the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

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Ray McGovern
July 29, 2010

See John Nichols interview Daniel Ellsberg at the PDA Grassroots Leadership Conference in Cleveland.

Published by Alternet.org.
Photo: US Army Sergeant Dostal adjusts the scope of his sniper rifle in eastern Afghanistan (AFP – Simon Lim).

The brutality and fecklessness of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan have been laid bare in an indisputable way just days before the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on whether to throw $33.5 billion more into the Afghan quagmire, when that money is badly needed at home.

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