Stand Up! Take Action! Vote!
Learn the Cost of War to Sonoma County. And see what this $$$ could have been spent on instead — what are the trade-offs?
CLICK HERE
Take Action: Attend the monthly Sonoma Co. PDA Brown Bag Lunch Vigil at Rep. Lynn Woolsey’s Santa Rosa office.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND JOIN THE BBLV
We fell short in Florida during the last Tuesday with our endorsed candidates – Marleine Bastien and Doug Tudor. It’s now time to focus our attentions to Rhode Island and New York. In Rhode Island we have David Segal and in New York we have Jonathan Tasini. Both of these elections are on September 14th. Shoot me an email if you or your chapter want to help out with these candidates.
Dear Friend,
On August 24, two of PDA’s endorsed candidates are facing primary elections. Each of these candidates represents PDA’s core values and embraces PDA’s positions. And each of these races can be won if we all step up and donate an hour or two to make phone calls into their districts.
August 18, 2010
Dear Representative Woolsey,
Things are changing fast for this world, but many of these things are headed in the wrong direction. You are in a unique position — at least in regard to most of the world’s population — to put some very important things on a positive track. And these are things that will reverberate around the planet.
To do so, however, you might need to disabuse yourself and your colleagues of some pervasive and destructive notions. The first of these is that Americans are more valuable than other people in the world.
Norman Solomon
August 16, 2010
Take Action: Eat lunch for peace—become a brown-bagger
It’s already history. In mid-August 2010, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan launched a huge media campaign to prevent any substantial withdrawal of military forces the next summer.
The morning after Gen. David Petraeus appeared in a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” to promote the war effort, the New York Times front-paged news of its own interview with him—reporting that the general “suggested that he would resist any large-scale or rapid withdrawal of American forces.”
Norman Solomon
August 9, 2010
Six scary words: Governor Whitman. Senator Fiorina. Speaker Boehner.
Defeating the GOP is essential. And insufficient. We also need to move public policy in progressive directions .
From Sacramento to Washington, the political anatomy of elected officials is crucial: Republicans are heartless. Disaster follows when Democrats are spineless.
Celebrate with Pam at Tresch Family Dairy!
Please join us at
Tresch Family Dairy
Saturday, August 28th
3:30 pm to 6 pm
RSVP to Holly at Holly@Vote4Pam.net or 707.763.6825
This month … it’s just us folks. No special guests, bells or whistles.
Wednesday night please join us for a special evening. We will gather together, share practical information and valuable tools for the activism that calls us forward. Remember, WE are PDA!
Progressive Democrats Sonoma County
PDA Activists Workshop
Summer 2010
Wednesday, August 11
6:30 pm
French Garden Restaurant
8050 Bodega Ave.
Sebastopol, CA
Agenda to include brief report back from the recent PDA Grassroots Leadership Conference in Ohio. The remainder of the evening will be devoted to preparing ourselves to be smarter and more organized for the challenges ahead — on all of our issues. To include break out sessions with local chapter Issue Organizing Teams & Committees.
*Learn more about PDA Issue Organizing Teams and how to be involved with PDA strategy and tactics, inside & outside the Democratic Party. Learn what you can do to help PDSC Committees keep us organized and on track locally.
*And More! Whether you have 30 minutes or several hours a month — something for everyone.
If you have been thinking of getting involved with your local PDA chapter and were not sure how to do so, or if you have been involved for a while and would like to learn how to become more active — now is the time!
The agenda is a full one. We plan to start promptly at 6:30 pm. Please arrive early if you wish to order refreshments. New Members & Visitors Always Welcome!
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Attendees will have the opportunity to support PDA endorsed Congressional Candidate, David Segal – a true progressive running for the open seat of retiring Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Rhode Island. A win for David is a win for ALL of us!
David Segal – “I’m honored to receive the support of the Progressive Democrats of America. The members of PDA are national leaders in the fight for health care for all, for ending the wars, and for making sure that our elected officials represent the will of the people, not the corporations and very wealthy that fund their campaigns.”
Visit David Segal for Congress.
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Visit us on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Progressive-Democrats-North-Bay/289138693740
Congress can End the Wars by NOT funding them. Please join us for the local monthly Brown Bag Lunch Vigil:https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/309/personalopt1.asp?formid=meet&c=1919408
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Norman Solomon
August 6, 2010
How the University of California is helping to blow up the world
Published by Bohemian.com.
On my way to the Los Alamos National Laboratory a few years ago, I found it listed in a New Mexico phone book—under “University of California.”
Since the early 1940s, UC has managed the nation’s top laboratories for designing nuclear bombs. Today, California’s public university system is still immersed in the nuclear weapons business.
Take Action: PDA’s Amend to Suspend Corporate Personhood Conference Call is TONIGHT, Wednesday, July 28.
Learn more here: https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/309/personalopt1.asp?formid=meet&c=387273
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July 26, 2010
Two important war votes this week
Last Saturday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich made the first public announcement about his privileged resolution to remove US forces from Pakistan by December 31, 2010, at PDA’s Grassroots Leadership Conference in Cleveland. After speaking to the more than 125 PDA members, Representative Kucinich spoke with Tim Carpenter in an informal interview. Watch the video of their discussion here. (Read a report on the conference.)
The House is expected to debate and vote on this privileged resolution—HCR 301—tomorrow. Call your representative and ask for a YES vote.
Bill Fletcher, Jr.
July 14, 2010
PDA welcomes Bill Fletcher, Jr. to our Advisory Board
In February 2005 Danny Glover and I published an article in The Nation suggesting a particular approach to electoral politics. Entitled “Visualizing a Neo-Rainbow”, we argued that there was a need for a progressive electoral approach very much grounded in the realities of the US electoral system. This approach, which we called “neo-Rainbow” (drawing, in part, from the experience of the 1980s Jesse Jackson Presidential campaigns and the construction of the National Rainbow Coalition), involved the development of progressive, electoral projects at the local level that operated both inside and outside the Democratic Party. By “inside/outside” of the Democratic Party we meant two things. The first is that efforts needed to include running candidates within the Democratic primaries but also running independently when necessary. The second was that any electoral strategy needed to involve both mass action as well as ballot-box action.
Michael Kunzelman
July 9, 2010, New Orleans, LA
Take Action on July 21, the three-month anniversary of the BP blowout .
Published by Associated Press.
A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the federal government’s effort to restore an offshore deep-water drilling moratorium, opening the door to resumed drilling in the Gulf of Mexico while the legal fight continues.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled soon after an afternoon hearing in a lawsuit filed by companies that oppose the drilling ban. The moratorium was struck down June 22 by U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman.
by Ronnie Cohen
Pacific Sun
Friday, July 9, 2010
Absolutely nothing, according to latest work by San Anselmo filmmaker
Born in 1914, the first year of World War I, poet William Stafford grew up hearing war horror stories along with the biblical commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” When the U.S. government drafted him into World War II, he felt he could not go and instead became a conscientious objector, one of 12,000 who lived in civilian public-service camps throughout the country.
“I belong to a small, fanatical sect,” Stafford wrote in his journal. “We believe that current ways of carrying out world affairs are malignant.”
Progressive Democrats Sonoma County
Monthly General Meeting
Special Guest Speaker!
NORMAN SOLOMON, syndicated columnist & PDA National Board member
Where Do We Go From Here?
Progressive politics this fall and beyond
Wednesday, July 14
6:30 pm
French Garden Restaurant
8050 Bodega Avenue
Sebastopol, CA
Here is a video of a recent interview of Norman Solomon on C-Span’s Washington Journal. He discusses President Obama’s relationship with the progressive & liberal wings of the Democratic Party, unaffiliated liberals, and the Political Left:
For those who couldn’t get into the sold-out screening of “Every War Has Two Losers” in San Rafael on Wednesday night, or for anyone else interested in taking a look, here’s video of Norman Solomon’s interview last week with the filmmaker Haydn Reiss:
California Political Desk
June 30, 2010, Sacramento, CA
Published by California Chronicle
The Assembly Health Committee today approved the California Universal Health Care Act, authored by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco). The bill guarantees all Californians comprehensive, universal health care while containing ballooning health care costs and improving the quality of care and delivery of health services statewide.
“Our state is being bankrupted by out-of-control health care costs, and small businesses and families are struggling to pay premiums that rise as much as 40% every year,” said Senator Leno. “California´s single payer plan remains the gold standard for health care reform, and is the only proposal that will truly contain health care spending and provide universal coverage for all.”
Norman Solomon is going on KPFA “Morning Show” tomorrow (Thursday) at 8:10 a.m. to talk about the swap of Petraeus for McChrystal; 94.1 FM on the radio in Northern California and streaming on the web at www.kpfa.org
EVERY WAR HAS TWO LOSERS – An evening with Alice Walker, Haydn Reiss, and Norman Solmon.
This exciting evening will begin with a viewing of Haydn Reiss’s documentary film, Every War Has Two Losers.
Here’s the Rafael Film Center’s page for this event: http://www.cafilm.org/rfc/films/1392.html
Here’s the Facebook page for the film: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Every-War-Has-Two-Losers/154807543895
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Rafael Film Center
San Rafael, CA
Following the movie HAYDN REISS will join Pulitizer Prize winning author of The Color Purple, ALICE WALKER, and the award winning author of War Made Easy and Made Love, Got War, NORMAN SOLOMON, for a discussion about pursuing peace during wartime.
Every War Has Two Losers confronts two powerful ideas: Do wars lead to lasting peace and are wars inevitable? Based on the journals of William Stafford, a conscientious objector in World War Two and award-winning poet, Stafford reasoned that war was a choice – a human choice – and not inevitable. War was but one way to respond to conflict. The film is an invitation on how all of us can contribute to a more peaceful world.
1) HNW co-chair, Donna Smith,upated us on the Declaration of
Health Independence and talked about some upcoming events including the Washington, DC Brown Bag Lunch Vigil.
2) Katie Robbins from Healthcare-NOW! joined us to talk about
plans for the upcoming US Social Forum.
3) Eve of Brown Bag Lunch Vigil updates.
4) State Medicare for All updates.
With $2 BILLION in Sonoma County taxes going to pay for the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, participating in a monthly Brown Bag Lunch Vigil to stop the escalation and funding for wars is an act of community support.
CLICK HERE to learn more about the Cost of War and what that $$$ could be used for instead.
CLICK HERE to learn more about the Brown Bag Lunch Vigils and how WE can help to End War & Occupations by sending a consistent message to our Congressperson to stop funding wars, set firm dates for complete withdrawal, and dismantle corporate influence over our government.
CLICK HERE to Read More about the CA State Democratic Party Resolution to “End the U.S. Occupation and Air War in Afghanistan”.
Santa Rosa, CA
June 16, 2010
Dear Representative Woolsey,
It’s like a trick of misdirection, except that instead of a magician distracting an audience from seeing how the legerdemain is accomplished, we’re living through Congress deflecting our attention from important domestic issues over to patches on a system that is ready to burst.
Instead of enacting health insurance reforms that would have been fiscally responsible, ethical, and humane—such as Medicare for All with a single-payer system—we’re faced with the president and Congress telling us that to balance our budget we need to make cuts in two of the only programs in our country that offer protection to those who most need it: Medicare and Social Security.
We are an affiliated chapter of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA)
STAY TUNED FOR PROGRAM DETAILS!
PDSonoma meets the 2nd Wednesday of every month except December.
New Members and Guests Always Welcome!
Refreshments can be ordered and enjoyed in our meeting room. Please arrive early if you wish to order refreshments.
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