Stand Up! Take Action! Vote!
August 8, 2010
Published by Tom Hayden.com.
The White House stepped up its campaign against WikiLeaks [Wednesday] by calling for the whistleblower organization to turn over the secret Pentagon documents still in its possession.
Meanwhile a petition supporting WikiLeaks began national and European circulation. See Defend WikiLeaks—End the Secret Wars at http://www.gopetition.com/petition/38165.html . The petition has been endorsed by Daniel Ellsberg, who was prosecuted by the Nixon administration for releasing the Pentagon Papers a generation ago. Other signers include Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Rev. George Hunsinger of Princeton Theological Seminary, and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink.
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.
Sonoma County – Santa Rosa at City Hall, 100 Santa Rosa Avenue at 7:30 PM contact ca-sonoma@marriageequlaity.org
More info and details:
http://www.marriageequality.org/
CLICK HERE to view some great videos from the PDA Grassroots Leadership Conference. Norman Solomon, Jeff Cohen, John Nichols, Daniel Ellsberg, Dennis Kucinich and more!
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.
By David Swanson
Progressive Democrats of America marked the beginning of its seventh year with a three-day conference that brought hundreds of activist leaders from all over the country to a Cleveland, Ohio, hotel this past weekend. Participants heard from and met with star speakers, and split up and strategized in groups organized around issue areas and geography.
PDA activists engaged in similar work in distant states — opposing war funding, promoting single-payer healthcare, protecting civil rights, and advancing progressive candidates’ campaigns — were able to compare their tactics and success rates. Many commented in the closing plenary on how much they’d benefited. Videos of many of the weekend’s events are being posted at PDA’s Blog
Norman Solomon
July 28, 2010
Join PDA’s End War and Occupations, Redirect Funding Issue Organizing Team (IOT); learn more here.
Washington’s spin machine is in overdrive to counter the massive leak of documents on Afghanistan. Much of the counterattack revolves around the theme that the documents aren’t particularly relevant to this year’s new-and-improved war effort.
The White House seized on the timeframe of the documents released by WikiLeaks. “The period of time covered in these documents (January 2004-December 2009) is before the President announced his new strategy,” a White House email told reporters on Sunday evening. “Some of the disconcerting things reported are exactly why the President ordered a three month policy review and a change in strategy.”
David Swanson
July 28, 2010
Published by WarIsaCrime.org.
On Tuesday evening, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill already passed by the Senate that funds a $33 billion, 30,000-troop escalation in Afghanistan. The vote was 308 to 114. What could the good news possibly be?
The first good news is that, while we had no more than 35 congress members who would vote against war funding a year ago, or perhaps 55 when it was an easy vote with no pressure, we’ve now got 114. That’s serious progress. That’s a far more dramatic increase than we’ve seen in the number of congress members willing to vote for a non-binding unspecified timetable for a withdrawal. That number rose from 138 last year to 162 on July 1st (although the legislation was somewhat stronger this year). In other words, willingness to express mild interest in ending the war has reached a plateau. Willingness to take serious action to end the war is rapidly catching up. Of course, both have to top 218 before we win.
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.
David Cobb will be joining us in Cleveland for the PDA Conference, July 23-25. It’s not too late to join us! Agenda details and registration available here: https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/309/donate.asp?formid=meet&c=459338
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.
By David Swanson
July 9, 2010
On July 1, the House sent a bill with $33 billion in war escalation funding in it back to the Senate, but with changes the Senate will have to deal with. There is a good chance the Senate will make changes and send it back to the House.
If that happens, we will be in a good position to stop it. Already last week the House was unable to pass war funding without Republican votes, and so passed it without technically voting on it at all. The vote on the Rule to create that crazy procedure, however, nearly failed despite the built-in excuses that (1) it was just a “procedural” vote and (2) it allowed votes on good amendments. This time, we’ll be ready to confront that first excuse, and the second one won’t be there.
Our message to congress members is simple, clear, moral, and urgent: VOTE NO. If good measures are included, VOTE NO. If it’s merely a procedural vote, but the procedure facilitated by it is mass murder, VOTE NO.
We need to keep calling, lobbying, protesting, disrupting, and communicating, whether this bill comes back to the House or not. There will be another one.
Capitol Hill Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
We only need think of the Gulf of Mexico to be reminded that corporate abuses have deadly consequences–especially when the corporations are considered people with the same rights we have, as in the case of Citizens United. In this episode, our guests discuss the growing movement to demand the suspension of corporate personhood. Tim Carpenter interviews two progressive scholars–both of whom were with us from the beginning of PDA–John Bonifaz from Free Speech for People, and David Cobb from Move to Amend. Produced by David Pakman.
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.
David Swanson
July 9, 2010
Join PDA’s End War and Occupations, Redirect Funding Issue Organizing Team (IOT); learn more here .
Published by WarIsACrime.org.
The U.S. corporate media pronounces our nation a “democracy” so frequently that sometimes its spokespeople stumble. They can’t be unaware that virtually every act of Congress diverges significantly from what the majority of Americans favor. Yet the assumption that somehow the government must follow public opinion creeps in, creating this sort of comedy:
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.”
Please join us for the next Grassroots Leadership Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, July 23-25.
The conference provides time to meet with and learn from each other, where to find and how to use the tools and resources available to you, and plotting our course for the rest of the year.
Participants will meet with special guests Rep. Dennis Kucinich, John Nichols, Daniel Ellsberg, Wendell Potter, David Cobb and Jo Comerford; Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign co-chairs Norman Solomon and Donna Smith; and current and former Advisory Board members Mimi Kennedy, Michael Lighty, Jeff Cohen, Steve Cobble, Jim Hightower, and Tom Hayden!
Details & Agenda Here: https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/309/donate.asp?formid=meet&c=2114568
STREAMING LIVE ONLINE HERE: http://blog.pdamerica.org/pda-webcast/
edited 7-24-10
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From David Swanson
July 5, 2010
What it means: The Peace Movement’s Progress.
How it worked: Democrats Forced to Cheat to Fund War .
What it looked like: Live Blog of the Vote .
How they voted on the Rule that allowed the war escalation funding to move forward.
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:
By David Swanson
July 3, 2010
Take Local Action: Cost of War to Sonoma County
The peace movement has made significant progress in the United States since its low point of late 2008, and just about everything anyone in it has done has been a contribution. If everyone keeps doing what they’re doing, and more of it, we might just end some wars, eventually. But I think some techniques are working better than others, and that pursuing the most strategic approaches would make victory likelier sooner and longer-lasting when it comes.
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:
John Nichols
July 3, 2010
Join PDA’s End War and Occupations, Redirect Funding Issue Organizing Team (IOT); learn more here .
Published by The Nation
An additional $33 billion in spending for President Obama’s occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq—and they are now his occupations as much as they once were George Bush’s—was approved by the House Thursday night as part of a broad “emergency” supplemental spending bill.
We are an affiliated chapter of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA)
MOVIE NIGHT!
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
NOTE: Early start time for Wednesday’s meeting, in order that we may enjoy Movie Night and still have time for an endorsement meeting to follow.
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.
Healthcare advocates from fourteen states met in Wayne, Penn., April 10, 2010. The following Declaration is a result of the meeting. Add your name to the Declaration! PDA is planning actions around the country when our goal of 25,000 signatures is met.
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