Progressive Democrats Sonoma County

March 9, 2010

We highly encourage signing up for a PDA Issue Organizing Team (IOT) if you wish to actively engage in the work of PDA and PDSonoma County. If you have not already done so, you can get started by clicking on ‘Committees’ on the menu at the top of this website page and there you can:

*sign up for a PDA Issue Organizing Team via the PDA website and

*find the name and contact information for the local PDSonoma chapter team leader for that IOT. If you have not already done so, let that person know that you have signed up for the PDA IOT and they can add you to their local chapter list of activists on that particular issue.

SPREAD THE WORD ...
by George Lakoff

Dear Friends,

The California budget crisis is a democracy crisis.

The 2/3 vote rules have destroyed democracy. A small minority of extreme conservatives – 37 percent – has been controlling the state legislature
by saying no to all proposals until it gets what it wants. They want to destroy the ability of the state to serve public needs. They like the budget cuts. They don’t care about the pain they have caused.

We – the majority of voters – can change all that. We can pass the California Democracy Act, an initiative on the November 2010 ballot. It is one sentence long – only 14 words. It is simple democracy.

Elliott Gould warns us not to believe the myths about single payer health care. “Single payer is no more socialized medicine than the police department is socialized crime fighting,” he says. California OneCare is publicly financed, privately delivered health care, and poll after poll has shown

Link to Original

This IOT conference call had its usual stellar lineup of guests, including last-minute guest Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

PDA Conference Call Guests: David Swanson, Cole Harrison of UFPJ, PDA Field Director Conor Boylan,

Brown Bag Lunch Vigils (BBLV) partner David Swanson started the call off with comments on and advice for the BBLVs, to move the vigils to a higher degree of action, and he spoke about the legislation to halt Afghanistan funding.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN & to read more

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

Senator Mark Leno, author of Senate Bill 810, says that it’s time for Californians to be innovators once again. We can become the first state to enact a publicly funded, privately delivered single payer health care system that will cover everybody and save money.

Dear Single-Payer Supporter:

If you’re in the San Francisco area, please attend this rally for single-payer healthcare.

Medicare for All Rally

Join with activists from the California Physicians Alliance, California Alliance for Retired Americans, Gray Panthers, and Single Payer Now to let President Obama know that we want Medicare for All.

When: Thurs. 10am, Feb. 25
Where: San Francisco Federal Building, 90 7th St., between Market and Mission – Civic Center

___________________________________

February 17, 2010

Dear Representative Woolsey,

We thank you for signing on to support HR 2454, calling for an exit strategy from Afghanistan & HR 3699, prohibiting any increase in the number of U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan.

Further, we call on you to publicly commit to voting “No” on any bills that fund wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Yemen, and to publicly urge your colleagues and the House leadership to make the same commitment.

Protest! Health Care, not Warfare! Progressive Democrats, Sonoma County from Jon Stiffler on Vimeo.

Norman Solomon
February 19, 2010

Take Action: Tell Congress We need an exit strategy for Af/Pak war

Published by Norman Solomon.com.

During the last couple of weeks, I’ve spoken to Democratic Party clubs and other activist groups from Santa Rosa and San Rafael to San Mateo County and the East Bay—some chartered by the state party, others affiliated with Democracy For America or Progressive Democrats of America, still others with no partisan affiliation.

Read the Rest Here

Mark Leno
February 18, 2010, San Fransisco, CA

Published by The San Fransisco Chronicle

As outraged families and small businesses react to the latest health insurance premium increases, Californians are forced to face the fact that insurance companies are not in business to provide health care to people who need it. Premium increases are just part of the concerns—pre-existing condition denials, overturned doctors’ decisions, coverage rescissions and other insurance industry abuses are sadly commonplace.

It is impossible to make a profit serving customers who are likely to cost the insurer more than the premiums they pay. This means that if any one of us gets seriously sick or injured, we become an undesirable customer to health insurers. That’s the message Anthem Blue Cross sent to millions of Californians when it increased premiums by up to 39 percent. The insurer clearly doesn’t care if it loses these customers.

Read the Rest Here

Progressives Moving Forward! from Jon Stiffler on Vimeo.

COMMUNITY FORUM

When
Feb 03, 2010
07:00 PM to 09:00 PM

Where
Santa Rosa City Council Chambers,
100 Santa Rosa Avenue

Contact Jake Bayless

It’s clear new digital media have disrupted the traditional media landscape. It’s often less clear how new media can help local communities become informed and engaged in civic life. GoLocal and Empire Report ask you to join local media, governmental officials, and community leaders to discuss how new media can inform and engage our local communities.

By Norman Solomon
Marin IJ
February 2, 2010

WHEN A LARGE crowd gathered at the Sausalito Cruising Club to watch the inauguration of Barack Obama, euphoria was in the air.

Many of us there had worked hard to make the historic moment possible. On that bright winter morning, we were proud, excited and hopeful.

Fifty-four weeks later, the mood is very different.

Read the Rest Here

Norman Solomon interview 1/27/10 from Jon Stiffler on Vimeo.

By Richard Halstead
Marin IJ
January 27, 2010

Marin residents who listened to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Wednesday included a progressive Democrat, who disliked many of the president’s policy prescriptions, and two Republicans, who admire many of those same policies but doubt Obama’s sincerity.

“The speech was nice but reflected deteriorating policies,” said Norman Solomon, a West Marin author and progressive activist.

Referring to Obama’s proposal for a three-year budget freeze, Solomon said, “Now he’s not only a military hawk in Afghanistan, he’s also become a deficit hawk with the domestic budget. This is exactly the wrong direction in terms of job creation. FDR would be rolling over in his grave.”

And that was not all that rankled Solomon.

Read the rest here

January 28, 2010

By a vote of 22 to 14, the California Senate today passed historic reform legislation, SB 810, that calls for sweeping changes in the financing of health care.

Under the bill, authored by Senator Mark Leno (SF), all residents would be covered by a true universal health care system, which would pay for all needed health services utilizing a “single payer” insurance system. Most residents would be required to pay into the system and all would be covered, with no additional co-pays, deductibles or exclusions for pre-existing conditions.

Read the Rest Here

From: Dr Bill Honigman
Tue, Jan 26, 2010

From bay area activist Susan Harman, and my response below:

Subject: Write Back! Letters needed to refute the Oakland Tribune editorial against SB 810

Dear East Bay Single Payer Activists,

Below is an editorial in today’s Oakland Tribune.

It is part of a newly emerging and growing opposition to single payer, which exists both at the elite level (like the Trib’s publishers) as well as at the grassroots (like Tea Partiers). Such a movement will embolden Republican legislators to fight against SB 810, instead of being resigned to its passage and delivery to the governor. And it will embolden the GOP to wage electoral campaigns for assembly and senate seats on a platform of opposing single payer.

We can add to the momentum from the resolution that the California Democratic Party approved last November — calling for an end to the air war in Afghanistan, withdrawal of U.S. forces and an increase in humanitarian/development aid to that long-suffering country.

This gathering in Sonoma County will give a boost to a new effort, in the Bay Area and elsewhere, combining grassroots organizing with media outreach to reframe the politics of U.S. policies toward Afghanistan. Please bring a checkbook.

Speakers will include Karen Bernal and Norman Solomon. The two of them, along with Marcy Winograd (who is now running against incumbent war hawk Rep. Jane Harman), co-authored the military-out-of-Afghanistan resolution that is now the official position of the California Democratic Party.

California Nurses Association/National Nurses Union
January 25, 2010, Oakland, CA

With prospects for national healthcare reform dimming following Tuesday’s election in Massachusetts, a major bill that would establish universal healthcare, through a Medicare-for-all style reform, has been cleared today for a new vote in the California legislature.

SB 810, The California Universal Healthcare Act, authored by Sen. Mark Leno and sponsored by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United, with broad support among many healthcare, community, and labor groups, will be voted on in the State Senate by the end of next week.

Read the Rest Here

Norman Solomon on KPFA Radio, “The Morning Show” — talking about themes in his piece “Democrats Boosting Right-Wing Populism.” The 25-minute live interview begins at 7:35 a.m., at 94.1 FM in Northern California… and streaming at kpfa.org .

CLICK HERE to listen to this archived program.

Dear Progressive Democrats Sonoma County,

Why We Can!

The California Democracy Act is the start of a movement in California to democratize the state, beginning with the state legislature. Most voters are not aware that the state’s problems stem from the fact that the majority of legislators, who are quite responsible, are controlled by a small minority, a situation that runs shockingly counter to the most fundamental of American values.

This is the only campaign that can change that situation. We intend, as well, to raise the issue of what government is about, not only in California, but in America – that it is the way that citizens protect and empower the entire citizenry.