Stand Up! Take Action! Vote!
Learn the Cost of War to Sonoma County. And see what this $$$ could have been spent on instead — what are the trade-offs?
CLICK HERE
Take Action: Attend the monthly Sonoma Co. PDA Brown Bag Lunch Vigil at Rep. Lynn Woolsey’s Santa Rosa office.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND JOIN THE BBLV
We fell short in Florida during the last Tuesday with our endorsed candidates – Marleine Bastien and Doug Tudor. It’s now time to focus our attentions to Rhode Island and New York. In Rhode Island we have David Segal and in New York we have Jonathan Tasini. Both of these elections are on September 14th. Shoot me an email if you or your chapter want to help out with these candidates.
August 28, 2010, Washington, DC
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) today called on former Senator Alan Simpson to resign his position as co-chairman of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in light of Simpson’s recent remarks regarding Social Security. Woolsey issued the following statement:
“Former Senator Alan Simpson’s latest attack on Social Security demonstrates that he is too biased to serve as co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which will likely recommend changes to the Social Security program.“
Describing Social Security as a ‘milk cow with 310 million tits,’ and complaining about ‘people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree,’ Simpson illustrates that he does not have an open mind about the program and doesn’t understand it either.
On August 10th, the Economic and Social Justice IOT resumed monthly conference calls. The Issue Organizing Team was re-organized and energized at the July PDA Grassroots Conference in Cleveland. Alice Chan, a leader of the new team from CA welcomed over seventy people to the call. IOT leader Randy Shannon discussed ‘full employment,’ a major goal of the IOT and urged members to make plans to attend the October 10th March for Jobs and Justice in Washington.
CLICK HERE to learn more about the Cost of War and what that $$$ could be used for instead.
by Chris Borland
People,
Did you know ARCO gas was BP?
The very LEAST we can all do to protest BP’s reckless and deliberate ignorance of it’s environmental responsibilities and ethical and legal duties as a corporate entity is to boycott ARCO and other BP brands. There certainly are plenty of other places to buy gas, etc.
Here’s a list of BP companies:
Harvey Wasserman
June 9, 2010
Take Action: Tell Congress – End our dependence on dirty energy—we want a carbon tax with revenue returned to households!
Published by Common Dreams
As BP’s ghastly gusher assaults the Gulf of Mexico and so much more, a tornado has forced shut the Fermi2 atomic reactor at the site of a 1966 melt-down that nearly irradiated the entire Great Lakes region.
May 25, 2010
Dear PDA and Progressive Allies
Not even the massive oil slick growing in the Gulf of Mexico has been able to divert attention from SB 1070, the outrageous new law signed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on April 24.
In this timely episode of The Agitator: Voices of PDA, we focus on the thorny subject of immigration reform.
Norman Solomon
May 24, 2010
Visit Winograd for Congress
Many are familiar with the adage, “When the people lead, the leaders will follow.” But what happens when people enable leaders to follow the dictates of the powerful?
These days, the answers are arriving in the form of a news drumbeat that’s apt to seem like a dirge.
From Afghanistan to Wall Street to the Gulf of Mexico, policies of military action and regulatory inaction are exacting terrible costs: in human life, economic resources and irreplaceable nature. Silence and inaction enable the destructive policies to continue.
Rep. Raul Grijalva called for a boycott of Arizona following the passage of SB 1070, the bill that has focused national attention on Arizona’s regressive immigration policies. “We’re on the wrong side of history,” proclaims Grijalva in part one of this episode. “Apartheid Arizona”–that’s how Dan O’Neal refers to his home state. Just days before the big demonstration in Phoenix, O’Neal discusses how PDA is impacting the debate. Listen to Tim Carpenter interview Grijalva and O’Neal on this timely topic.
Tom Hayden
May 7, 2010
Connect the dots — Join a Brown Bag Lunch Vigil
Published by The Nation.
The need for greater linkages between the environmental, peace and Wall Street reform movements grow by the day in the face of the epic oil spill caused by British Petroleum, a multinational firm tied to Goldman Sachs and Halliburton in oil wars from the Gulf of Mexico to the Persian Gulf.
Chris Hedges
April 7, 2010
Take Action: Fight corporate personhood!
Sign the motion to amend | Get involved at FreeSpeechforPeople
Published by Truthdig.
Ralph Nader’s descent from being one of the most respected and powerful men in the country to being a pariah illustrates the totality of the corporate coup. Nader’s marginalization was not accidental. It was orchestrated to thwart the legislation that Nader and his allies—who once consisted of many in the Democratic Party—enacted to prevent corporate abuse, fraud and control. He was targeted to be destroyed. And by the time he was shut out of the political process with the election of Ronald Reagan, the government was in the hands of corporations. Nader’s fate mirrors our own.
By Norman Solomon
Marin IJ
April 6, 2010
THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE is making a lot of people mad at “elites.” Populist resentments are common these days – even in affluent Marin.
When the mood turns bitter and corrosive, appeals for civility are nice. But they won’t accomplish much unless we can address some key underlying causes of distress.
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.
Californians for Democracy has a new look!
Help us reach our goal of 1 million signatures to place the California Democracy Act on the November 2010 ballot. Sign our Petition or better yet … become a Petition Circulator Today!!!
THE CALIFORNIA DEMOCRACY ACT “All legislative actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote”Also known as the CA Majority Rule Campaign, it changes two words in the California Constitution: “Two-thirds” becomes “a majority” in two places. That’s all it takes to make California sane and solvent again.
The Cesar Chavez March for Immigration Reform Begins
Sunday, March 21
12:00 Noon
Roseland Shopping Center parking lot
665 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa
and continues to Courthouse Square for a rally, live music and family entertainment.
Free. 707.528.3039
See story below.
By Gabe Meline
Bohemian.com
On March 21, immigration-reform proponents all over the country, from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, will march in honor of Cesar Chavez and to support passage this year of comprehensive immigration reform. In recent years, the annual march in Santa Rosa has brought as many as 15,000 participants. This year’s march is expected to meet or top that figure.
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.
Norman Solomon
February 2, 2010
Take Action: Eat lunch for peace—become a brown-bagger
This isn’t “defense.”
The new budget from the White House will push U.S. military spending well above $2 billion a day.
Foreclosing the future of our country should not be confused with defending it.
“Unless miraculous growth, or miraculous political compromises, creates some unforeseen change over the next decade, there is virtually no room for new domestic initiatives for Mr. Obama or his successors,” the New York Times reports this morning (February 2)
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.
Let’s combine forces to form the Brownbagger Movement!
Here’s a suggestion for what we should call ourselves— us ordinary people, progressives, ethnic groups, students, labor unions, other workers, environmentalists, conservationists and poor and middle class people: …
Ed. Note: Author Rick Massell is an active member of Progressive Democrats Sonoma County. PDSonoma County hosted David Swanson in Santa Rosa on January 13.
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.
Mike Hall
January 7, 2010, San Francisco, CA
Published by AFL-CIO Blog.
More than 100 union members, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and UNITEHERE! President John Wilhelm were arrested at a sit-in demanding justice and a fair contract for San Francisco hotel workers last night. The workers have been without a contract since August.
The sit-in in front of the Hilton San Francisco followed a march by nearly 1,000 members of UNITEHERE! Local 2, other union members and community and political supporters. Says Ingrid Carp, a cook for 29 years at the Hilton:
“We’re determined as ever to win a good contract. It’s wrong for corporations to position themselves to make billions with the coming economic recovery, and expect us to go backward.”
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.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
