Stand Up! Take Action! Vote!
Learn the Cost of War to Sonoma County. And see what this $$$ could have been spent on instead — what are the trade-offs?
CLICK HERE
Take Action: Attend the monthly Sonoma Co. PDA Brown Bag Lunch Vigil at Rep. Lynn Woolsey’s Santa Rosa office.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND JOIN THE BBLV
August 20, 2010
Norman Solomon was interviewed yesterday on FAIR’s national radio program “CounterSpin”.
CLICK HERE to listen.
With $2 BILLION in Sonoma County taxes going to pay for the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, participating in a monthly Brown Bag Lunch Vigil to stop the escalation and funding for wars is an act of community support.
CLICK HERE to learn more about the Cost of War and what that $$$ 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.
— photo by Michael Aparicio
1) On this call we had a DC Update: The supplemental war spending vote is expected at any time. Featured guest: Mike Darner, United States Congress Legislative Director for Rep. John Conyers, Jr.
2) We Introduced the launch of the PDA vets for peace working group. We had representatives from Iraq Vets against the War and Veterans for Peace. The objective is to add the voices of progresive veterans to PDA’s on-going educational, electoral and legislative campaigns.
John Nichols
May 25, 2010
URGENT Action: Supplemental war funding vote this week — Tell Congress: No Money for War!
Published by The Nation
Congressman Alan Grayson is at it again. This time, the Florida Democrat who shook up the health-care debate by saying Republicans were the real death-panel party and who shook up the bank reform debate by leading (with Texas Congressman Ron Paul) the “Audit the Fed” fight, is shaking up the debate about so-called “emergency” supplemental spending to fund the occupations of foreign lands.
Linda Milazzo
May 24, 2010
Take Action: Join Marcy’s virtual phone bank!
Americans spoke out loudly this past Tuesday. In two of the nation’s most anticipated primaries, the Sestak vs. Specter Democratic primary in Pennsylvania and the Paul vs. Greyson Republican primary in Kentucky, the party underlings defeated their party leaders’ choices and demolished the status quo. On the Democratic side, despite the full throttle barrage for Specter by Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey and Governor Ed Rendell, Congressional upstart Joe Sestak beat three decade incumbent Arlen Specter by 54 to 46 percent.
In Kentucky, political neophyte, libertarian extremist, and tea party enthusiast, Rand Paul, clobbered the hand picked candidate of Senator Mitch McConnell, the most powerful Republican in D.C. The results of both elections send an earsplitting message to the leadership of America’s two dominant parties, that warns: ‘Your choices, endorsements and power don’t matter. We’re electing who WE want.’
May 19, 2010
Dear Representative Woolsey,
May should be a time of celebrating the beauty of living, with spring in full bloom and the recognition of our mothers as our source of life. But there have been too many events that make celebration difficult, if not impossible, for the members of Progressive Democrats of America.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 18, 2010
Local PDA Chapter Joins Nationwide Protests in Opposition to $33 Billion War Supplemental
Progressive Democrats Sonoma County, the local chapter of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), to hold noon hour “Brown Bag Lunch Vigil” in front of Rep. Lynn Woolsey’s Santa Rosa office to stop the escalation and funding for war.
We thank Rep. Woolsey 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 Rep. Woolsey to publicly commit to voting “No” on any bills that fund wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Yemen, and to publicly urge her colleagues and the House leadership to make the same commitment.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
12 PM – 1 PM
Office of Rep. Lynn Woolsey
1101 College Avenue
Santa Rosa , CA 95404
Jeffrey Blankfort
May 11, 2010
Join Marcy’s virtual phone bank!
Published by CounterPunch.org
What may be the last Democratic primary race worth paying attention to is taking place in the 36th Congressional District along the Southern California coastline where incumbent Jane Harman is facing a serious challenge from Los Angeles school teacher, Marcy Winograd, with the candidates’ widely separated positions on the Israel-Palestine conflict dominating a critical section of the political landscape.
Harman is the second richest member of the House of Representatives with estimated assets between $112 and $377 million dollars. Whether it was her money or her Israeli connections that kept the Southern California Democrat from being indicted as a foreign agent five years ago or a combination of both is something the public is never likely to know.
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April 21, 2010
Earth, Taxes, and a Supplement à la carte
March saw the seventh anniversary of the Iraq invasion, and many Brown Bag Lunch Vigils (BBLV) commemorated that. This month, over one hundred vigils across the country will remind our elected representatives and neighbors that our tax money goes in the wrong direction when it goes to military spending.
Since several people tried unsuccessfully to join this month’s call, we’re happy to compensate for faulty technology with the recording from this rich and informative conference.
Mary Nichols-Rhodes spoke first, describing the plans for the US Social Forum this June in Detroit and the National Peace Conference this July in Albany. Michael Darner, Legislative Director for Rep. John Conyers, discussed the Afghanistan legislation in play, but his most important piece of information came as a response to the question of whether Representative Conyers will commit to voting no on the supplemental budget request for $33 billion for Afghanistan. Darner said that Conyers is committed to voting against any military funding and expansion. ...
Healthcare NOT Warfare co-chair Norman Solomon spoke about how the Brown Bag Lunch Vigils are a good tool in moving our representatives to “no” votes on the supplemental. ...
Finally, Bruce Taub, coordinator for the Israel/Palestine Action Group, addressed the efforts being made to cut off funding to Israel while it continues expansion into Palestinian areas and attacks on Gaza.
David Swanson
April 7, 2010
Add Jim McGovern to the list. That makes 15! See whip list: http://defundwar.org
And three have told PDA they will speak out and whip their colleagues: Kucinich, McGovern, and Conyers. The latter is forming an Out of Afghanistan Caucus.
Dan Murphy
April 6, 2010
Take Action: Tell Congress – No Money for War
Published by Christian Science Monitor.
A video released on the Internet Monday by WikiLeaks, a small nonprofit dedicated to publishing classified information from the US and other governments, appears to show the killing of two Iraqi journalists with Reuters and about nine other Iraqis in a Baghdad suburb in 2007 that is sharply at odds of the official US account of the incident.
John Nichols
April 6, 2010
Published by The Nation.
The video is clear, and devastating.
It shows a U.S. military helicopter targeting, shooting and killing a Reuters photographer and driver in a July 2007 attack in Baghdad.
The U.S. pilots are heard reveling in their “kills.”
Members of PDA national team will be on the road in Pennsylvania and California from April 7th to the 21st, so we have had to change the conference call schedule a bit.
In this episode of Agitator Voices, Tim Carpenter turns our attention to the midterm elections and PDA’s endorsed candidates for Congress, Marcy Winograd and Tracy Emblem. Conor Boylan, PDA Field Coordinator, discusses Brown Bag Lunch Vigils.
Steve Cobble
March 23, 2010
Thanks to Steve Spitz of Virginia PDA, Carol Gay of New Jersey PDA, and Mary Nichols-Rhodes and Michael Carano of Ohio PDA, our “Healthcare Not Warfare” signs were all over Lafayette Park across from the White House on Saturday, as PDAers from VA, DC, MD, NJ & OH (with no doubt others that I missed) joined a couple thousand peace protestors to call for an end to both the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
PDA marchers linked up with Gene Bruskin and U.S. Labor Against the War in the front of the AFL-CIO building for some preliminary speeches, then marched over to nearby Lafayette Park from there.
PDAers also demonstrated Saturday—the 7th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War—in cities and towns around the country—in Northampton, MA, PDA signs were featured prominently on the local news.
Saturday’s March and Rally will be a perfect place to distribute PDA Healthcare Not Warfare and Brown Bag Lunch Vigil flyers.
Available Here:
http://pdamerica.org/pdacms/sites/default/files/HNW_-_1-15-10.pdf
http://pdamerica.org/pdacms/sites/default/files/BBLV-%201-15-10_1.pdf
From the Peace and Justice Center of Sonoma County:
We’ve reached the 7th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and the annual march in San Francisco is again being held Saturday, March 20, 11:00 a.m., Civic Center. San Francisco. (The march is a loop beginning and ending at the Civic Center.)
U.S. Out of Afghanistan and Iraq Now! Free Palestine! Money for Healthcare, Jobs and Education! U.S. Hands Off Latin America! Haiti Needs Aid, Not Occupation!
Carpooling will be available from the Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County. We will leave at 10:00 a.m. (the march itself does not begin until noon) from 467 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa. Information – 575-8902
11am-12noon: Opening Rally, Civic Center Plaza
12noon-1pm: March through dowtown area *
1pm-4pm: Closing Rally, Civic Center Plaza
(* approximate departure and end time of the march)
The San Francisco March 20 march will begin and end in the Civic Center Plaza (City Hall/Polk & Grove Sts.) The opening rally will begin at 11 a.m. and last until a little after noon. The march will be joined by a labor contingent (which is having a pre-march event at the Plumbers Hall on Market St.), a faith-based contingent (which will be holding a pre-rally gathering at UN Plaza starting at 10:30 a.m.), and a student/teacher/parent contingent (look for banners at the corner of Larkin and MacAllister Sts.), and many others. People will be coming from all over Northern California for the march and rally.
The march will go through downtown San Francisco, passing by two hotels, the Hilton and the Four Seasons, in solidarity with the UNITE HERE Local 2 hotel workers who are fighting to win a new contract that maintains their health benefits. The march will also go by the Federal Building and return to the Civic Center by way of Market St. for a closing rally lasting until 4pm.
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.
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