From alexcathy at aol.com Tue Dec 2 16:31:23 2008 From: alexcathy at aol.com (alexcathy at aol.com) Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:31:23 -0500 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fwd: Dec 11: "Help Oakland Become a Green, Vibrant, and Equitable City" (Ella Baker Ctr for Human Rights) In-Reply-To: <8CB22EA4ACFA822-CA0-194@mblk-d39.sysops.aol.com> References: <8CB22EA4ACFA822-CA0-194@mblk-d39.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: <8CB22F59A98885A-69C-AB5@WEBMAIL-DY32.sysops.aol.com> * * * * * Forwarded from Ian Kim Ella Baker Center for Human Rights www.ellabakercenter.org Date: Tue, Dec 2, 2008 Next week, the City of Oakland is starting something exciting and transformative. On December 11, Oakland will host the first of several public workshops to get everyone's best ideas for how to green Oakland. As the city charts a path toward a greener future, let's make sure that opportunity for underserved communities is first on the agenda. WHAT: Public Workshop for Oakland's Energy & Climate Action Plan WHEN: Thursday, December 11, 2008, 7-9 PM WHERE: Oakland City Hall (at 14th St. and Broadway), Hearing Room 3 Too often, planning and decision making takes place without the input of low income communities and people of color. Not this time. Ella Baker Center and the Oakland Apollo Alliance will be there to represent the diversity of voices in Oakland. Join us as we help define what it means for Oakland to be a "model city." At the workshop, you will: :: Learn about the planning process for the Oakland Energy & Climate Action Plan; :: Find out how the City of Oakland will set priorities within the Plan; :: Weigh in on how Oakland should maximize renewable energy and energy efficiency, create green jobs, and save ourselves from the climate crisis. If you plan on coming, please let us know by sending a quick message to Emily Kirsch, our Bay Area Organizer, at greenrsvp at ellabakercenter.org. The next day, December 12, from 9-11 AM, the Oakland Apollo Alliance will hold its regular meeting at the Workforce Development Collaborative, 1433 Webster Street, Oakland. This is an opportunity for Oakland Apollo Alliance members and those interested in the Alliance to discuss the Oakland Energy & Climate Action Plan and strategize ways to be part of the decision-making process. This is a critical opportunity to collectively guide Oakland towards a sustainable and equitable urban future. We hope you can join us! See you there! Ian Kim Ella Baker Center for Human Rights * * * * * -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cbrouillet at igc.org Fri Dec 5 10:56:59 2008 From: cbrouillet at igc.org (Carol Brouillet) Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:56:59 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] End the Fed Rally Report Message-ID: Here's where I posted photos and a report on the End the Fed Rally and the speech I wrote which is pasted below. http://www.communitycurrency.org/etf.html A central thesis of Grey Brechin?s excellent history - Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin is that cities and empires are born out of violent conquest and built upon the labor of miners. We are here to call for an end to the Federal Reserve, to demand sound money, backed by something of real tangible value, not the imaginary wealth of incomprehensible derivatives or printed paper. Jacques Jaikaran?s book- Debt Virus: A Compelling Solution to the World's Debt Problems exposes the inherent flaw of a debt-based currency system. Even before the advent of fractional reserve banking, the Federal Reserve Act, next to brute military force, money was the most powerful tool of empire. Empires generally fall when 2% of their population controls the vast majority of the wealth, by destroying their ecological base. With a global empire, we are witnesses to the destruction of the forests, the oceans, the lungs of the world, the extinction of species, the end of the Cenozoic Era. The Cree prophetically said: ?When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money.? The imperial city of San Francisco was built not just from the gold and silver extracted from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, but from the technology that was developed, refined here and exported to extract gold and silver from Africa, Central and South America, throughout the world. The mining in California and other places has made a few people extremely rich, but has come at a very high ecological and human cost. For this reason alone, I don?t think that gold and silver are the best choices to back a currency, particularly since it continues to spur the mining industry. Over a hundred years ago, bank panics occurred with alarming regularity, driving farmers off their land. A debate over whether to back currency with gold or gold and silver led to the rise of the Populist Movement and the first major march on Washington D.C. led by William Jennings Bryan. Bryan and the Populist Movement were immortalized in L. Frank Baum?s books, including the Wizard of Oz, Oz represented the ounce or the gold standard. [Details in Ellen Brown's book- Web of Debt] Bryan was a champion of silver, as well as a peace candidate, anti-imperialist, a trust-buster, the leader of the Democratic Party, three times its candidate for President. He became Woodrow Wilson?s Secretary of State. Bryan?s opposition to a ?Central Bank? and the money monopoly were used to help Wilson pass the Federal Reserve Act which was generally thought to be better than a piece of legislation which clearly created a central bank under the complete power of the bankers; it was popularly assumed that the Federal Reserve Act was opposed by the bankers. Deception and fraud are key to banking and finance. Most people would be outraged to discover that bankers have the ability to create money out of thin air, loan it out at interest. Bankers don?t like to reveal their secrets, since belief in money and confidence in a bank is what enables them to create, with the strokes of a pen or key board, half a million dollars as a loan to a person, who is then obliged to pay them back a million (more or less, when you add up all the interest payments). Half the price of most goods and services is the cost of money which is continually transferred from the 80% who must borrow to the 20% that enjoy unearned income from what they possess. Banks depend upon an ever increasing money supply to keep the economy going. The financial system is one giant Ponzi scheme. Those with the most wealth and power are able to buy up the assets of others for pennies on the dollar, if there is a contraction, or a recession, or a depression. I have been expecting the system to collapse ever since I first understood what a fraud it was, but apparently with the help of the corporate media, one bubble has led to another, and another. In the 70s when Nixon detached the dollar from gold, currencies floated against one another, at the time 98% of the foreign exchange transactions had to do with real goods and 2% of the transactions were speculative, soon those numbers was reversed and a giant cyber-casino of speculative money was able to move quickly throughout the world, destroying entire countries economies. The US was a major force in trying to open up the rest of the world?s financial markets and ?deregulate? capital flows. The 80 and 90?s witnessed the looting of the Savings and Loans, an enormous financial crime, costing US taxpayers upwards of 160 billion dollars. Unfortunately, speculation moved from real estate to the dot com bubble. The Repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act was followed by the passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act in 1999 and set the stage for a new round of financial integration, concentration, deregulation, criminal fraud, exotic new financial instruments, the housing bubble. In September 2001, a major international protest against the IMF, the World Bank, and the Bush policies was scheduled to take place in Washington DC. On the day Rumsfeld acknowledged the missing 2.3 trillion in the Defense Department?s bureaucracy. The global justice movement was on the rise. September 11th changed everything. The IMF meetings and protests were cancelled, but some of us went to DC anyway, to protest an impending war, and to lobby against the PATRIOT Act. When I realized that the official narrative of 9/11 was a lie, that the war on terror was a fraud, I redirected my energies from economics towards 9/11 truth. It has been a struggle, although 9/11 and false flag operations are easier to explain than global economics and money; the resistance to information which shatters one?s worldview is tremendous. Paulson?s plan to keep the game going by pumping trillions into the hands of the people who created the last bubble seems criminal at best, and doomed, since no one is interested in purchasing potentially toxic, worthless financial instruments. The bursted bubble is of such a gargantuan size that it does threaten to bring down the entire system, since there isn?t enough money in existence to cover the ever expanding debts and liabilities. The only way to keep the show running is by changing the rules of the game, which is what has happened in the last couple of months, extraordinary precedents have taken place, as unpayable liabilities get shifted to taxpayers and whatever profit can be squeezed out of a controlled demolition of the stock market, economy, is privatized and pocketed by insiders. There is no transparency, no accountability. I foolishly thought that if people understood the truth about money and the global system that the system would collapse. In the 90?s many of us were advocates of local currencies to build community and at the same time educate people about how the monetary system worked. Local currencies can?t be used to finance wars. The manipulated rates of exchange and conditions forced upon third world countries has allowed the industrialized nations to basically loot and devour the resources of the ?undeveloped nations.? The rest of the world has learned the hard way that the IMF and World Bank, corporate globalization, the WTO, are all threats to the environment, workers, the infrastructure- schools, healthcare, public utilities within their nations. Stiglitz, who worked for the World Bank, turned into its harshest critic and clearly identified the steps that it put victim countries through, including social unrest which is the anticipated result of austerity measures that force the majority of people into poverty while raising the price of the necessities of life out of their range. The dollar is now in a most precarious position. The dollar used to be the world?s global currency, backed by US military might, and oil. Since the financial crisis, much of the world recognizes the sheer criminality at the heart of the financial bubble which has infected most of the entire system. At the Bretton Woods II Conference last weekend, the G-20 met and began figuring out how to ?reform the system? to give greater voice and participation to the world?s leading economies including China, India, Brazil in institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank, which has traditionally been dominated by the US. Video clips of the summit are rather stunning to watch, as you can see all the world leaders shaking one another?s hands, with the exception of the ?infected one,? their host- W is ignored as they line up for a photo op. Unfortunately, the collusion between global elites wishing to maintain their wealth and power regardless of the suffering or impoverishment of the vast majority of people will probably mean that the disparity in wealth is apt to grow and more resources will be used to police civilians in a largely undeclared war by the rich upon the poor. While the dollar may plunge, and the US might be excluded from the construction and domination of the architecture of the next financial system, that has yet to be determined. Illegal drugs, arms, war was at the heart of the last system. The greed, ignorance, wisdom, folly, honesty of world leaders will determine the next set of economic rules that they think will allow them to maintain and extend their power. Leading trend forecaster Gerald Calente is predicting revolution. Money, after all, when you understand it, is basically an agreement. When the vast majority of people disagree with what they regard as an unjust, illegal, tyrannical, oppressive, life threatening system, conditions are ripe for social change. Obama was elected on the promise of change, but his support of the bailout, his new cabinet, his corporate backers demonstrate a continuation of the warlike, unconstitutional, torturous policies of his predecessor- no accountability and promotion of those who should be going to jail for the crimes of the century. What has happened in the past seven years is that people are beginning to see through the lies, are beginning to realize that the corporate media is not reliable. Those who care about our lives, our families, our community, our country, our world realize that we must become the media, educate one another and ourselves. Fortunately, a technological renaissance is taking place and people are beginning to awaken to their own power. Yes, we should abolish the Fed, but I am wary of any legislation which saddles the taxpayers with the liabilities of the current regime which are beyond humanity?s capacity to pay back with interest I received an email from Daniel F, who wrote and posted a great article entitled ?Taking Down The FED With RICO? ?The Federal Reserve Bank has been rightly condemned for transferring wealth from those who work to those who quite literally have a license to print our money. The FED has been blamed for the Great Depression of 1929-1939 and for our current economic crisis. But those actions though despicable are not actionable under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) which was part of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. ?RICO allows American citizens to sue any person or persons who are members of corrupt organizations that have committed one or more of 27 federal crimes or 8 state crimes. It allows citizens to collect triple damages. The standard of proof is easier than in a criminal case where the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a specific crime was committed by a defendant. In a RICO lawsuit against the Federal Reserve all we are required to do is to show a pattern of corrupt behavior. And that we can easily do.? [Full text posted at- http://www.openingmind.blogspot.com/] I?m not a lawyer, but I don?t think the taxpayers should pay for a fiasco wrought by those who orchestrated the current crisis, those who are in the process of looting us and letting current and future generations struggle under the weight of an astronomically enormous debt. Those billionaires, bankers, financiers owe us. A lawsuit whether it succeeds or not, could help educate the public, particularly if 150,000,000 people sign on as part of a class-action suit. The major obstacle that I see is, unfortunately, they own the press, the politicians, the judiciary, and we are unlikely to find a courageous lawyer or an honest judge. Perhaps William Pepper will help us. He is the lawyer who proved in court that Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, not by James Earl Ray, but in a conspiracy that involved J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, Richard Helms and the CIA, the military, the local Memphis police, and organized crime figures from New Orleans and Memphis. The media failed to cover the story. Pepper has gone on to tackle the very challenging task of trying to create the conditions for a real investigation of 9/11. He spoke to the 9/11 Truth Movement and noted that the big elephants in the room were military intelligence, the CIA/or the media (since the CIA does have great control over what appears in the media), which are huge problems, but ultimately, we have truth and humanity on our side. The theme of the World Social Forum, the global justice movement has been ?Another World is Possible.? If we don?t want corporate globalization, unending wars, corrupt governments, an ever expanding police state/surveillance society, it really is up to us to redirect our time, energy, resources into creating a more viable option, path, possibility. We can create local currencies, honest currencies, transparent, community building currencies. Our job is basically to raise consciousness, withdraw our participation and support from a system which is criminal and oppressive, and do all we can to create alternatives to meet the genuine needs of our families, communities, country, and the world Carol brouillet -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net Fri Dec 5 15:30:15 2008 From: j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net (Jim Doyle) Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:30:15 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] last minute call for hpf help Message-ID: <4939B987.5010108@sbcglobal.net> Looking forward to tomorrow! We can still use help from your group with the desserts table and other general HPF jobs. Please ask your group members to take a turn, including with the general clean-up after you clear your tables. The really good news is that we do NOT need help with the 8 AM set-up of tables. We have lined up high school and college student volunteers and have gotten a good response from participating groups who will welcome volunteers to their tables to learn about your organizations' work and to help as needed with sales. Some of them will also help with children's activities and all the many jobs it takes to support your groups' table activities. But we need "adults" at the entrance and desserts tables as well as students -- so will appreciate anyone who can be spared from your table at various times during the day. Lois Fiedler is in charge of staffing those tables: 408-294-0981 and/or > if you have likely help availble for her and can let her know before you see her tomorrow. Thanks for all you are doing for your groups and for the Holiday Peace Fair in general. Roz Dean distributed over 100 flyers yesterday in the area around the church. Two weekly Campbell papers have had the HPF in their calendar sections for three weeks and printed articles a couple weeks ago, one with a photo! DeAnza College students and lots of you have distributed flyers at libraries, coffee shops, and farmers markets, and even one day this week at Christmas in the Park. I guess I'd better get the floor plan of table locations ready to print later today! The program is fairly much "composed" and the student volunteers schedule is ready for enlarging and posting. Joan Goddard 408-396-8039 (I won't be answering this evening, so leave a message -- I'll check a few times and call you back if needed) or email is great, if you don't need a reply today From gerrygras at earthlink.net Sat Dec 6 10:30:29 2008 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:30:29 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Gaza Catastrophe Message-ID: <493AC4C5.2050708@earthlink.net> Fraom the Guardian (UK), by "the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency" "The noble spirit of the universal declaration of human rights is betrayed by a lack of help for Gaza" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/06-0 Gerry From wrolley at charter.net Sat Dec 6 10:42:22 2008 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:42:22 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Gaza Catastrophe In-Reply-To: <493AC4C5.2050708@earthlink.net> References: <493AC4C5.2050708@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <493AC78E.9040403@charter.net> Gerry, in an amplification of this issue, let me state that I am very disappointed in the fact that Samantha Power has not (yet?) gotten a position in the Obama administration. The insights that she reveals in her biography of Sergio Vieira de Mello are needed now more than ever. Sergio was the Lead UN Diplomat in Baghdad who was killed in the truck bomb attack that caused the UN to pull everyone out of there. His history was that of working in the center of conflicts: Lebanon, Cambodia, East Timor, Bosnia / Sarajevo and then Iraq. The key perception from Vieira de Mello and Power was that for the UN to be "even handed" and "firmly objective" is these situations was, in fact, to side with those who already held Power. His actions in Bosnia finally came to becoming active in such efforts as using the cover of UN trucks, etc. to smuggle threatened dissident out of Sarajevo, etc. In this situation in Gaza, I feel he would have been "objective" in his public pronouncements and working his ass off behind the scenes on forcing resolutions / freeing captives, etc. We lost a potentially great Secretary General. All of this brings me to wonder what stance Hillary will take, minus the input from Samantha. Gerry Gras wrote: > Fraom the Guardian (UK), > by "the commissioner general of the United Nations Relief > and Works Agency" > > "The noble spirit of the universal declaration of human rights is > betrayed by a lack of help for Gaza" > > http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/06-0 > > Gerry > > > _______________________________________________ > sosfbay-discuss mailing list > sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss > > -- "Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente Wes Rolley 17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024 From JamBoi at Greens.org Sun Dec 7 08:41:01 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 08:41:01 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Holiday Green Party: This Thu @ Caroline's place! Message-ID: <53221.24.6.229.93.1228668061.squirrel@greens.org> All Greens (and our friends) are invited to come join us for Green fun, cooperative & green games, brainstorming for next year. DANA'S SUGGESTED DISCUSSION TOPIC: Future directions for the Green Party. BRING: your wonderful Green self, if handy a Green friend and your ideas (and if you'd like to -- not required -- a snack or other social contribution ie. a talent you'd share w/ us) WHAT: Hosted by the Caroline Yacoub & the North Valley Greens Local Thursday 7pm eve. @ Caroline Yacoub's WHEN: This Thursday, November 13th WHERE: 323 N Murphy Ave, Sunnyvale CA 94085 in Sunnyvale, near Maude and Mathilda MAP: http://tinyurl.com/CarolinesPlace Green is Joy! Drew From JamBoi at Greens.org Sun Dec 7 08:48:01 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 08:48:01 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Holiday Green Party: This Thu @ Caroline's place! Message-ID: <53232.24.6.229.93.1228668481.squirrel@greens.org> All Greens (and our friends) are invited to come join us for Green fun, cooperative & green games, brainstorming for next year. DANA'S SUGGESTED DISCUSSION TOPIC: Future directions for the Green Party. BRING: your wonderful Green self, if handy a Green friend and your ideas (and if you'd like to -- not required -- a snack or other social contribution ie. a talent you'd share w/ us) WHAT: Hosted by Caroline Yacoub & the North Valley Greens Local Thursday eve 7pm-ish @ Caroline Yacoub's WHEN: This Thursday, December 11th, 7pm-ish WHERE: 323 N Murphy Ave, Sunnyvale CA near Maude and Mathilda MAP: http://tinyurl.com/CarolinesPlace Green is Joy! Drew From carolineyacoub at att.net Sun Dec 7 14:49:16 2008 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 14:49:16 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Party Message-ID: <308749.8663.qm@web81204.mail.mud.yahoo.com> To encourage those of you from the far north or south, I live about three blocks from the Sunnyvale Caltrain station. For those of you on wheels, there are four unconnected pieces of Murphy. I live on the one north of Central Expressway, between Arques and Maude--much closer to Arques. My phone number is (408)530-0118. Caroline -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gerrygras at earthlink.net Sun Dec 7 15:41:32 2008 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Sun, 07 Dec 2008 15:41:32 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Socialism for the Rich, Capitalism for the Rest Message-ID: <493C5F2C.4050901@earthlink.net> Another egregious example about "Socialism for the Rich, Capitalism for the Rest". A company closes a plant in Chicage, giving its employees 3 days notice. The company claims this is because Bank of America won't provide the moeny they need. And Bank of America was a recipient of the Federal bailout money. But the workers are not taking this lying down. "Angry Laid-Off Workers Occupy Factory in Chicago" http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/07 "Making a New New Deal: Sitdown Strike in Chicago" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/07-5 Interesting this is happening in Obama's hometown. Gerry From gerrygras at earthlink.net Mon Dec 8 11:03:48 2008 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:03:48 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Socialism for the Rich, Capitalism for the Rest References: <493C5F2C.4050901@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <493D6F94.9090906@earthlink.net> More about this at http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/08 (Jessy Jackson and the Illinois Attorney General has gotten involved. Obama has spoken about it.) Gerry Gerry Gras wrote: > Another egregious example about "Socialism for the Rich, > Capitalism for the Rest". > > A company closes a plant in Chicage, giving its employees > 3 days notice. The company claims this is because Bank of > America won't provide the moeny they need. And Bank of > America was a recipient of the Federal bailout money. > > But the workers are not taking this lying down. > > "Angry Laid-Off Workers Occupy Factory in Chicago" > http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/07 > > "Making a New New Deal: Sitdown Strike in Chicago" > http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/07-5 > > Interesting this is happening in Obama's hometown. > > Gerry > From wrolley at charter.net Mon Dec 8 13:50:11 2008 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:50:11 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Bank of America and Republic Windows and Doors Message-ID: <493D9693.6060300@charter.net> There has been a lot of chatter about the closing of Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago and the role of Bank of America in doing this. Most of it has been a knee jerk reaction to the situation for political gain without thinking things through very carefully. In particular, much of this comes from those who would curry the favor of the labor unions involved. I think that it is odd to criticize the Bank of America for risky lending practices involved with real estate loans and then to turn around and criticize them for not lending more money to a failed company just to satisfy a social need. The argument goes that B of A received bailout money so they should have made that bailout money available to Republic. If that were the case, why should not the government have done this directly and skipped the middleman? Bank of America has a lot that it should be criticized for. It also has a lot that it should be praised for. Lisa Tailor sent me a notice that outlined B of A's new policy on coal and their decision NOT to lend any money to energy companies that practice mountain top removal mining. Hurray for B of A. The specific situation in Chicago shows that there is a lot of blame to go around. Not the least is that the company was either arrogant about what they could do or was ignorant of their dire situation... or both. But, you can not squeeze $$ from a failed corporation and so everyone goes after B of A. B of A was probably remiss in not having a closer feel for the real situation with Republic, so that this would not have been a surprise. Still, I do not think that they should have been blamed for not lending money to a company that they felt would not be able to pay it back. These cases are hard. The news we get is not reliable... only spin from both sides. There is a case to be made here for some sort of moral response but it has to be bigger than just the "the bank screwed us to go get 'em." -- "Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente Wes Rolley 17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024 From tnharter at aceweb.com Mon Dec 8 16:49:01 2008 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:49:01 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] A couple of food stories... Message-ID: <493DC07D.3070400@aceweb.com> Last Wednesday Laura Stec and Eugene Cordero Ph.D. gave a talk about their new book about the global warming issue here in Mountain View. The book is beautiful, with lots of pictures, recipes, and fun little tidbits of info in boxes that put the major themes in perspective. You can check out my notes from the event by visiting this page: http://tian.greens.org/MountainView/CastroSt/BooksInc/CoolCuisine.html On Sunday evening I went to a "Hunger Project Banquet" in San Jose. When I got there they took my $20, gave me the name "Teresa" and explained that I was a landholding farmer in Mozambique. The woman showed me where to sit, in the last empty seat at the middle class table. They did something similar with all the other guests, breaking us into three groups. The table of "global rich" was four people who had a many course meal (salad, steak, cheesecake plus condiments, side dishes and who knows what else) accompanied by wine and candles. Each of the people at that table had two servers waiting on their every desire. They started on their first course long before the rest of us. While the rest of us were waiting for our food the woman running the show led us in a discussion of the global causes for hunger. What I found out was that the rich got as much air time as they wanted to express their feelings, and the poor got most of the rest just because there were always lots of them with their hands up. I never did manage to put my two cents worth in. The table of "global middle class" was about a dozen of us including me. We had enchiladas (our choice of vegetarian or chicken) with optional sides of lettuce, salsa, and sour cream, and a brownie for desert. It was served with chilled tea. We had to go through a food line, just one step above serving ourselves. The meal was delicious if somewhat plain. It was hard not to be irritated at the rich, over there eating food we could smell long before we got a chance to eat a bite. While I was going back for seconds they had some special presentations by a couple of kids playing roles. One was a poor farmer whose choice was to either farm soil known to be salted with bombies (little bombs what could easily blow off your foot and leave you handicapped for life) left over from the last war or starve to death. The other was a native South-American who had been pushed out of the forest by industrial agriculture, couldn't find a job, and was forced to scavenge for food from the dumpsters of Rio De Janeiro. The rest of the group, something like fifty people, had to sit on the floor. After listening to all the above they were served rice and beans, after even the middle class had their fill of seconds. I tasted their food, and the only spice was a bit of salt on the beans. They didn't even get a glass of water to go with the food. I can't imagine how they felt. -- Tian http://tian.greens.org Latest change: Added pictures and commentary from Cool Cuisine talk. I gave a HI quarter to Terry Rayl Friday evening. She is my President. From j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net Mon Dec 8 17:26:19 2008 From: j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net (Jim Doyle) Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:26:19 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] obama "house parties" Message-ID: <493DC93B.7030008@sbcglobal.net> Discussion groups in your neighborhood this coming weekend can be found at http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/changeiscoming/ by entering your zip code could be interesting to see how others do it From gerrygras at earthlink.net Mon Dec 8 22:17:22 2008 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:17:22 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] A couple of food stories... References: <493DC07D.3070400@aceweb.com> Message-ID: <493E0D72.1080207@earthlink.net> That's quite a story! (The Hunger Project Banquet). I guess that's an evening that will be remembered for a long time! I sort of wish I had been there, (as long as I would not be one of the global rich.) Thanks! Gerry Tian Harter wrote: > Last Wednesday Laura Stec and Eugene Cordero Ph.D. gave a talk about > their new book about the global warming issue here in Mountain View. > The book is beautiful, with lots of pictures, recipes, and fun little > tidbits of info in boxes that put the major themes in perspective. > You can check out my notes from the event by visiting this page: > > http://tian.greens.org/MountainView/CastroSt/BooksInc/CoolCuisine.html > > On Sunday evening I went to a "Hunger Project Banquet" in San Jose. > When I got there they took my $20, gave me the name "Teresa" and > explained that I was a landholding farmer in Mozambique. The woman > showed me where to sit, in the last empty seat at the middle class > table. They did something similar with all the other guests, breaking us > into three groups. > > The table of "global rich" was four people who had a many course meal > (salad, steak, cheesecake plus condiments, side dishes and who knows > what else) accompanied by wine and candles. Each of the people at that > table had two servers waiting on their every desire. They started on > their first course long before the rest of us. > > While the rest of us were waiting for our food the woman running the > show led us in a discussion of the global causes for hunger. What I > found out was that the rich got as much air time as they wanted to > express their feelings, and the poor got most of the rest just because > there were always lots of them with their hands up. I never did manage > to put my two cents worth in. > > The table of "global middle class" was about a dozen of us including me. > We had enchiladas (our choice of vegetarian or chicken) with optional > sides of lettuce, salsa, and sour cream, and a brownie for desert. It > was served with chilled tea. We had to go through a food line, just one > step above serving ourselves. The meal was delicious if somewhat plain. > It was hard not to be irritated at the rich, over there eating food we > could smell long before we got a chance to eat a bite. > > While I was going back for seconds they had some special presentations > by a couple of kids playing roles. One was a poor farmer whose choice > was to either farm soil known to be salted with bombies (little bombs > what could easily blow off your foot and leave you handicapped for life) > left over from the last war or starve to death. The other was a native > South-American who had been pushed out of the forest by industrial > agriculture, couldn't find a job, and was forced to scavenge for food > from the dumpsters of Rio De Janeiro. > > The rest of the group, something like fifty people, had to sit on the > floor. After listening to all the above they were served rice and beans, > after even the middle class had their fill of seconds. I tasted their > food, and the only spice was a bit of salt on the beans. They didn't > even get a glass of water to go with the food. I can't imagine how they > felt. > From tnharter at aceweb.com Mon Dec 8 22:35:11 2008 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:35:11 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] A couple of food stories... In-Reply-To: <493E0D72.1080207@earthlink.net> References: <493DC07D.3070400@aceweb.com> <493E0D72.1080207@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <493E119F.7020000@aceweb.com> I forgot to mention that the sponsoring organization is The Human Agenda and that they do that once a year. You can find out more at: http://www.humanagenda.net/ Tian Gerry Gras wrote: > > That's quite a story! (The Hunger Project Banquet). > I guess that's an evening that will be remembered > for a long time! I sort of wish I had been there, > (as long as I would not be one of the global rich.) > > Thanks! > > Gerry > > > Tian Harter wrote: > >> Last Wednesday Laura Stec and Eugene Cordero Ph.D. gave a talk about >> their new book about the global warming issue here in Mountain View. >> The book is beautiful, with lots of pictures, recipes, and fun little >> tidbits of info in boxes that put the major themes in perspective. >> You can check out my notes from the event by visiting this page: >> >> http://tian.greens.org/MountainView/CastroSt/BooksInc/CoolCuisine.html >> >> On Sunday evening I went to a "Hunger Project Banquet" in San Jose. >> When I got there they took my $20, gave me the name "Teresa" and >> explained that I was a landholding farmer in Mozambique. The woman >> showed me where to sit, in the last empty seat at the middle class >> table. They did something similar with all the other guests, breaking us >> into three groups. >> >> The table of "global rich" was four people who had a many course meal >> (salad, steak, cheesecake plus condiments, side dishes and who knows >> what else) accompanied by wine and candles. Each of the people at that >> table had two servers waiting on their every desire. They started on >> their first course long before the rest of us. >> >> While the rest of us were waiting for our food the woman running the >> show led us in a discussion of the global causes for hunger. What I >> found out was that the rich got as much air time as they wanted to >> express their feelings, and the poor got most of the rest just because >> there were always lots of them with their hands up. I never did manage >> to put my two cents worth in. >> >> The table of "global middle class" was about a dozen of us including me. >> We had enchiladas (our choice of vegetarian or chicken) with optional >> sides of lettuce, salsa, and sour cream, and a brownie for desert. It >> was served with chilled tea. We had to go through a food line, just one >> step above serving ourselves. The meal was delicious if somewhat plain. >> It was hard not to be irritated at the rich, over there eating food we >> could smell long before we got a chance to eat a bite. >> >> While I was going back for seconds they had some special presentations >> by a couple of kids playing roles. One was a poor farmer whose choice >> was to either farm soil known to be salted with bombies (little bombs >> what could easily blow off your foot and leave you handicapped for life) >> left over from the last war or starve to death. The other was a native >> South-American who had been pushed out of the forest by industrial >> agriculture, couldn't find a job, and was forced to scavenge for food >> from the dumpsters of Rio De Janeiro. >> >> The rest of the group, something like fifty people, had to sit on the >> floor. After listening to all the above they were served rice and beans, >> after even the middle class had their fill of seconds. I tasted their >> food, and the only spice was a bit of salt on the beans. They didn't >> even get a glass of water to go with the food. I can't imagine how they >> felt. >> > > > -- Tian http://tian.greens.org Latest change: Added pictures and commentary from Cool Cuisine talk. I gave a HI quarter to Terry Rayl Friday evening. She is my President. From tnharter at aceweb.com Mon Dec 8 23:39:23 2008 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:39:23 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] My Dad likes the recomendations in this report a lot Message-ID: <493E20AB.8060301@aceweb.com> http://www.ombwatch.org/21strtkrecs.pdf -- Tian http://tian.greens.org Latest change: Added pictures and commentary from Cool Cuisine talk. I gave a HI quarter to Terry Rayl Friday evening. She is my President. From gerrygras at earthlink.net Tue Dec 9 14:30:16 2008 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:30:16 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Alternate View of Economic Recovery Message-ID: <493EF178.6030407@earthlink.net> A prescription from James K. Galbraith: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/09-2 Gerry From fredd at freeshell.org Tue Dec 9 19:23:30 2008 From: fredd at freeshell.org (Fred Duperrault) Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:23:30 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] EXPECT PEACE Message-ID: <493F3632.3030205@freeshell.org> On Friday, Dec. 12, starting at 6 pm, in a small Mountain View park, located at the corner of Castro St. and El Camino Real, a community gathering will celebrate new leadership with new expectations for peace. Candle lighting, live music and an open mic for expressing thoughts relative to the theme, EXPECT PEACE, will honor the fallen and and anticipate the end of the wars' in 2009. All are invited. Bring friends, relatives and candles. From JamBoi at Greens.org Thu Dec 11 09:06:57 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:06:57 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] (no subject) Message-ID: <54886.24.6.229.93.1229015217.squirrel@www.greens.org> INVITE: All Greens (and our friends) are invited to come join us for Green fun, cooperative & green games, brainstorming for next year. DANA'S SUGGESTED DISCUSSION TOPIC: Future directions for the Green Party. BRING: your wonderful Green self, if handy a Green friend and your ideas (and if you'd like to -- not required -- a snack or other social contribution ie. a talent you'd share w/ us) WHAT: Hosted by Caroline Yacoub & the North Valley Greens Local Thursday eve 7pm-ish @ Caroline Yacoub's WHEN: This Thursday, December 11th, 7pm-ish WHERE: 323 N Murphy Ave, Sunnyvale CA near Maude and Mathilda MAP: http://tinyurl.com/CarolinesPlace MASS TRANSIT: Caroline's place is near the park we had our Regional Picnic at this summer and is walking distance from the Sunnyvale CalTrain and Bus Station, and from 26, 32, 53, 54 & 55 VTA lines: See http://Caltrain.org and http://VTA.org for respective schedule details. {NOTE FROM CAROLINE: To encourage those of you from the far north or south, I live about three blocks from the Sunnyvale Caltrain station. For those of you on wheels, there are four unconnected pieces of Murphy. I live on the one north of Central Expressway, between Arques and Maude--much closer to Arques. My phone number is (408)530-0118. Caroline } Green is Joy! Drew From JamBoi at Greens.org Thu Dec 11 09:09:26 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 09:09:26 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Holiday Green Party: Tonight @ Caroline's place! Message-ID: <54892.24.6.229.93.1229015366.squirrel@www.greens.org> INVITE: All Greens (and our friends) are invited to come join us for Green fun, cooperative & green games, brainstorming for next year. DANA'S SUGGESTED DISCUSSION TOPIC: Future directions for the Green Party. BRING: your wonderful Green self, if handy a Green friend and your ideas (and if you'd like to -- not required -- a snack or other social contribution ie. a talent you'd share w/ us) WHAT: Hosted by Caroline Yacoub & the North Valley Greens Local Thursday eve 7pm-ish @ Caroline Yacoub's WHEN: This Thursday, December 11th, 7pm-ish WHERE: 323 N Murphy Ave, Sunnyvale CA near Maude and Mathilda MAP: http://tinyurl.com/CarolinesPlace MASS TRANSIT: Caroline's place is near the park we had our Regional Picnic at this summer and is walking distance from the Sunnyvale CalTrain and Bus Station, and from 26, 32, 53, 54 & 55 VTA lines: See http://Caltrain.org and http://VTA.org for respective schedule details. {NOTE FROM CAROLINE: To encourage those of you from the far north or south, I live about three blocks from the Sunnyvale Caltrain station. For those of you on wheels, there are four unconnected pieces of Murphy. I live on the one north of Central Expressway, between Arques and Maude--much closer to Arques. My phone number is (408)530-0118. Caroline } Green is Joy! Drew From alexcathy at aol.com Sat Dec 13 07:25:29 2008 From: alexcathy at aol.com (alexcathy at aol.com) Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:25:29 -0500 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fwd: [Green Party Black Caucus] What's really behind the war in the Congo? Message-ID: <8CB2B4E2AACA7F6-D80-1ECA@WEBMAIL-MA18.sysops.aol.com> Dear Green Friends, This one is especially for?my "Silicon Valley"/California high tech colleagues.? A rare mineral used in all cell phones comes directy from that region of the Congo where *4 million human beings* have been slaughtered in a mindless civil war.? Another demonstration of the fundamental Green insight that in our time *everything* is connected to everything else.? Special thanks to longtime Pennsylvania Green activist, Diane White for posting this link to a powerful British documentary video that you can view?online.? A FOOTNOTE ON CYNTHIA McKINNEY By the way, for those of you who do not know this, one of the main reasons why then Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney got on the Establishment "Enemies?List" was that?years before her controversial and courageous dissent from the Bush War Machine, McKinney was a key member of both the House Armed Services Comitte and the International Relations Committee, serving as Ranking Member on its International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee.? In the 1990s President Clinton requested that McKinney attend high-level talks to open diplomatic ties with the new Democratic Republic of Congo. At the same time, she assisted a number of Georgia-based companies in establishing and strengthening trade relations with African nations.? From this unique position, McKinney was one of the first members of congress to look into dubious goings-on in African by?the usual rogues gallery of U.S. arms dealers, mercenaries, and transnational corporations.? It tells us something about US politics to?contrast McKinney's treatment with?that of, say, ?William "Cold Cash" Jefferson?of New Orleans, who?money intended to bribe Nigerian officials was?found in his?freezer.? ??? ??? Alex Walker Los Angeles ? -----Original Message----- From: DLighte To: gpbc at googlegroups.com Sent: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 4:11 am Subject: [GPBC] [Green Party Black Caucus] What's really behind the war in the Congo? Posted By DLighte to Green Party Black Caucus at 12/13/2008 07:08:00 AM http://gpblackcaucus.blogspot.com/2008/12/whats-really-behind-war-in-congo.html? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wrolley at charter.net Sat Dec 13 09:18:58 2008 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 09:18:58 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: Reminder: Keep Public Land Public Meeting Today 3 pm (Change is Coming)] Message-ID: <4943EE82.9090503@charter.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cls at truffula.sj.ca.us Sat Dec 13 10:28:41 2008 From: cls at truffula.sj.ca.us (cls) Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:28:41 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fwd: [Green Party Black Caucus] What's really behind the war in the Congo? Message-ID: <20081213182841.D4AF46A90A@truffula.sj.ca.us> I think Alex and Diane are really onto something here. The "rare mineral" is coltan, which is the ore we extract tantalum from. Tantalum is used in wet capacitors where you need more speed and density than you can get from cheaper aluminum wet (electrolytic) capacitors. Wet capacitors, tantalum or aluminum, are a "weak link" component in electronic systems. They wear out. They leak and dry up and fail. There's a grey market in mainland Chinese counterfeits of high quality Taiwanese and Japanese electrolytic caps, and when those get into computer motherboards they fail a lot. Apple among others has had huge recalls. When I was at 3Com's Desktop Ethernet division in the early '90s, we stopped using wet capacitors. Our problem with them was the supply was erratic and the price was unstable, as well as the bad reliability. We used large "solid" multilayer ceramic caps instead. These had recently been developed for camcorders, where tantalums aren't quite fast enough and fail too often. Recently I am seeing computer motherboards at Fry's advertising "solid capacitors" as a feature. Computer hobbyists are onto wet capacitors as a weak link. This summer KPFA's "Guns and Butter" show had someone on talking about coltan. I called in and mentioned that there were alternatives to tantalum and it might be wise to focus on that in campaigning against the stuff. The "expert" said I didn't know what I was talking about and they hung up on me. It *is* possible to build electronic stuff without tantalum. The biggest-selling line of PC add-in cards 1991-1996 was tantalum-free. They once thought it was impossible to build electronic stuff without lead. Now, thanks to the European Union and the end of CRTs, it's standard. And with white LEDs replacing fluorescent bulbs, mercury-free electronic stuff is coming. These days a campaign has to fit on a bumper sticker or it won't move. People know about "blood diamonds" because movie stars have campaigned against them. The diamond brokers got into the act and talk about "conflict diamonds" instead. Maybe it's time to start talking about blood capacitors. Cameron in San Jose From gerrygras at earthlink.net Tue Dec 16 00:41:59 2008 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:41:59 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] The Seven Deadly Deficits Message-ID: <494769D7.7070008@earthlink.net> I think this is a very good explanation of the US status now. And it is not too long. "The Seven Deadly Deficits" by Joseph Stiglitz http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/15-1 Gerry From gerrygras at earthlink.net Tue Dec 16 10:44:05 2008 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:44:05 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Lorax Comeback Message-ID: <4947F6F5.4050405@earthlink.net> FYI, "New Popularity for Dr. Seuss' 'The Lorax'" http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/15-6 Gerry P.S. For those who do not remember, this is a book about the need to save the environment. From alexcathy at aol.com Wed Dec 17 07:21:03 2008 From: alexcathy at aol.com (alexcathy at aol.com) Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:21:03 -0500 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Los_Angeles_State_Senate_District_26_?= =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=93_Special_Election?= Message-ID: <8CB2E723592A154-11C8-20F@mblk-d18.sysops.aol.com> For Your Information: =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? = Posted on the Web Site for the California Secretary of State http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_sd26.htm Senate District 26 ? Special Election Governor's Proclamation I, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim and order that a special election shall be held on the 19th day of May, 2009, within the 26th Senate District of the State to fill the vacancy in the office of State Senator from said district arising from the resignation of office by Mark Ridley Thomas.? DEC 10 2008 . . . Special Primary ? March 24, 2009 General Election ? May 19, 2009 . . . INFORMATION SHEET OF QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS STATE SENATOR, 26TH DISTRICT . . . REQUIREMENTS For All Candidates Full Payment of Filing Fee Every candidate must pay a filing fee equal to 1 percent of the first year's salary for a State Senator. Currently, the filing fee for State Senator is $1,162.08. The filing fee must be paid at the time the candidate obtains nomination forms from the county elections official. . . . Signatures In Lieu of Filing Fee A candidate may choose to submit by January 25, 2009 (E-58), a minimum of 3,000 valid signatures on petitions in lieu of filing fee. ? 8106(a)(2) The 3,000 in-lieu sign ature requirement applies to candidates seeking the nomination of the Democratic and Republican parties, as well as independent candidates. Candidates seeking the nomination of the American Independent, Green, Libertarian or Peace and Freedom parties may submit a petition containing, respectively, 150 signatures of members of their own political party. A. The petitions for in-lieu signatures may be obtained from the county elections official and circulated between December 10, 2008 and January 25, 2009. Sections of petitions in lieu of filing fee shall be filed with the county elections official of the county in which the signers reside. . . . =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? = -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tnharter at aceweb.com Thu Dec 18 00:34:17 2008 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:34:17 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] A Christmas wish for peace from Mountain View Message-ID: <494A0B09.1000700@aceweb.com> Last Friday the Mountain View Voices for Peace gathered to sing carols and vigil for peace. You can see the pictures I took at: http://tian.greens.org/MountainView/MVVP/Dec08/index.html One of the best features of the event was the fair trade themed lyrics to the carols. Click the picture at the top of the page to see those. If you want to add a little zing to your caroling, I recommend copying them. -- Tian http://tian.greens.org Yesterday I saw Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir warn us all of the Shopocalypse that Christmas has become for too many of us. From truekahuna at comcast.net Wed Dec 17 10:33:38 2008 From: truekahuna at comcast.net (Bert) Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:33:38 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] =?windows-1252?q?=5BGPCA-MediaComm=5D_Los_Angel?= =?windows-1252?q?es_State_Senate_District_26_=96_Special_Election?= In-Reply-To: <8CB2E723592A154-11C8-20F@mblk-d18.sysops.aol.com> References: <8CB2E723592A154-11C8-20F@mblk-d18.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: <49494602.1050405@comcast.net> Interesting. The demographic is latino, black, white, and other in that order. Given that demo, it is a fair bet that this district is working class (of course that's true of just about ANY demographic other than "rich white"). So, a working class district whose majority are people of color. Is this not for us a hanging curve ball? (apologies, but winter's midst makes one think wistfull thoughts of spring and baseball). Have we a candidate? Someone with a little gravitas who would like to be the first Green State Senator? Bert alexcathy at aol.com wrote: > For Your Information: > > =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? = > Posted on the Web Site for the California Secretary of State > http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_sd26.htm > > Senate District 26 ??? Special Election > > Governor's Proclamation > > I, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim and order that a special election shall be held on the 19th day of May, 2009, within the 26th Senate District of the State to fill the vacancy in the office of State Senator from said district arising from the resignation of office by Mark Ridley Thomas.? > > DEC 10 2008 > . . . > > Special Primary ??? March 24, 2009 > General Election ??? May 19, 2009 > . . . > > INFORMATION SHEET OF QUALIFICATIONS AND > REQUIREMENTS > STATE SENATOR, 26TH DISTRICT > > . . . > > REQUIREMENTS > For All Candidates > > Full Payment of Filing Fee > > Every candidate must pay a filing fee equal to 1 percent of the first year's salary for a State > Senator. Currently, the filing fee for State Senator is $1,162.08. The filing fee must be paid at > the time the candidate obtains nomination forms from the county elections official. > > . . . > > Signatures In Lieu of Filing Fee > > A candidate may choose to submit by January 25, 2009 (E-58), a minimum of 3,000 valid > signatures on petitions in lieu of filing fee. ?? 8106(a)(2) > > The 3,000 in-lieu sign > ature requirement applies to candidates seeking the nomination of the > Democratic and Republican parties, as well as independent candidates. Candidates seeking the > nomination of the American Independent, Green, Libertarian or Peace and Freedom parties may > submit a petition containing, respectively, 150 signatures of members of their own political > party. > > A. The petitions for in-lieu signatures may be obtained from the county elections official and > circulated between December 10, 2008 and January 25, 2009. Sections of petitions in lieu of > filing fee shall be filed with the county elections official of the county in which the signers > reside. > > . . . > > =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? = > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > GPCA-MediaWG mailing list > GPCA-MediaWG at lists.cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/gpca-mediawg From civillib at comcast.net Wed Dec 17 15:05:13 2008 From: civillib at comcast.net (civillib at comcast.net) Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:05:13 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] =?windows-1252?q?=5BGPCA-MediaComm=5D_Los_Angel?= =?windows-1252?q?es_State_Senate_District_26_=96_Special_Election?= In-Reply-To: <49494602.1050405@comcast.net> References: <8CB2E723592A154-11C8-20F@mblk-d18.sysops.aol.com> <49494602.1050405@comcast.net> Message-ID: <494985A9.2060103@comcast.net> This would be a good time, with a good candidate, to get in this race. We have some time to raise money and put on a progressive, aggressive campaign. Cres Bert wrote: > Interesting. The demographic is latino, black, white, and other in that > order. Given that demo, it is a fair bet that this district is working > class (of course that's true of just about ANY demographic other than > "rich white"). > > So, a working class district whose majority are people of color. Is this > not for us a hanging curve ball? (apologies, but winter's midst makes > one think wistfull thoughts of spring and baseball). > > Have we a candidate? Someone with a little gravitas who would like to be > the first Green State Senator? > > Bert > > alexcathy at aol.com wrote: >> For Your Information: >> >> =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? = >> Posted on the Web Site for the California Secretary of State >> http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_sd26.htm >> >> Senate District 26 ??? Special Election >> >> Governor's Proclamation >> >> I, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim and order that a special election shall be held on the 19th day of May, 2009, within the 26th Senate District of the State to fill the vacancy in the office of State Senator from said district arising from the resignation of office by Mark Ridley Thomas.? >> >> DEC 10 2008 >> . . . >> >> Special Primary ??? March 24, 2009 >> General Election ??? May 19, 2009 >> . . . >> >> INFORMATION SHEET OF QUALIFICATIONS AND >> REQUIREMENTS >> STATE SENATOR, 26TH DISTRICT >> >> . . . >> >> REQUIREMENTS >> For All Candidates >> >> Full Payment of Filing Fee >> >> Every candidate must pay a filing fee equal to 1 percent of the first year's salary for a State >> Senator. Currently, the filing fee for State Senator is $1,162.08. The filing fee must be paid at >> the time the candidate obtains nomination forms from the county elections official. >> >> . . . >> >> Signatures In Lieu of Filing Fee >> >> A candidate may choose to submit by January 25, 2009 (E-58), a minimum of 3,000 valid >> signatures on petitions in lieu of filing fee. ?? 8106(a)(2) >> >> The 3,000 in-lieu sign >> ature requirement applies to candidates seeking the nomination of the >> Democratic and Republican parties, as well as independent candidates. Candidates seeking the >> nomination of the American Independent, Green, Libertarian or Peace and Freedom parties may >> submit a petition containing, respectively, 150 signatures of members of their own political >> party. >> >> A. The petitions for in-lieu signatures may be obtained from the county elections official and >> circulated between December 10, 2008 and January 25, 2009. Sections of petitions in lieu of >> filing fee shall be filed with the county elections official of the county in which the signers >> reside. >> >> . . . >> >> =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? =? = >> >> >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> GPCA-MediaWG mailing list >> GPCA-MediaWG at lists.cagreens.org >> http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/gpca-mediawg > _______________________________________________ > GPCA-MediaWG mailing list > GPCA-MediaWG at lists.cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/gpca-mediawg > From palmheaven at gmail.com Thu Dec 18 20:08:37 2008 From: palmheaven at gmail.com (Palm Haven Handyman) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 20:08:37 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] San Jose City - Planning Commission - I applied today Message-ID: Hello Friends, Today I applied for a position on the City Planning Commission. Does anyone here have any useful advice for me re: getting getting appointed to a city commission? I figure that serving on a Commission like this would be very helpful in any future political ventures. Roy III -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Planning Commission Application.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 842623 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Planning Comission second page.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 724834 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tnharter at aceweb.com Thu Dec 18 22:27:36 2008 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:27:36 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] San Jose City - Planning Commission - I appliedtoday In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <494B3ED8.4040405@aceweb.com> One thing is start attending the meetings. That way when you get interviewed for the seat you can talk knowledgably about what they think the issues are. Palm Haven Handyman wrote: > Hello Friends, > > Today I applied for a position on the City Planning Commission. Does > anyone here have any useful advice for me re: getting getting appointed > to a city commission? I figure that serving on a Commission like this > would be very helpful in any future political ventures. > > Roy III > -- Tian http://tian.greens.org Latest change: Added pictures of the MVVP holiday wish for peace. From tnharter at aceweb.com Thu Dec 18 22:29:23 2008 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2008 22:29:23 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] San Jose City - Planning Commission - I appliedtoday In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <494B3F43.50707@aceweb.com> Congratulations on that! The more of us that do that the better. I hope somebody else is inspired by your example. Thank you Roy! Palm Haven Handyman wrote: > Hello Friends, > > Today I applied for a position on the City Planning Commission. Does > anyone here have any useful advice for me re: getting getting appointed > to a city commission? I figure that serving on a Commission like this > would be very helpful in any future political ventures. > > Roy III > -- Tian http://tian.greens.org Latest change: Added pictures of the MVVP holiday wish for peace. From JamBoi at Greens.org Fri Dec 19 00:20:37 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:20:37 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] San Jose City - Planning Commission - I applied today In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <54190.66.7.182.186.1229674837.squirrel@greens.org> Fantastic Roy! I served for a year on Sunnyvale's Housing and Human Services Commission. I would also suggest applying for at least a second if not a third choice since the Planning Commission is probably the most difficult to get onto (it has more power via its recommendations than probably any other commission). If you don't get Planning Commission you could serve a year on another one and then ask for a transfer (check SJ's policy on this -- Sunnyvale allows this, but SJ may or may not). I would start reading the notes for the past commission meetings, and try to learn more about the different commissioners that you'll be working with. I would definitely get to all the upcoming commission meetings, and probably to a City Council meeting or two just to get an idea of the current 'lay of the land'. Also reading doing research re: SJ Planning Commission issues with http://tinyurl.com/SJPlanningCommission, on SJMercury.com, MetroActive.com and any other good website's covering SJ issues. Green is Engaged! Drew On Thu, December 18, 2008 20:08, Palm Haven Handyman wrote: > Hello Friends, > > Today I applied for a position on the City Planning Commission. Does > anyone > here have any useful advice for me re: getting getting appointed to a city > commission? I figure that serving on a Commission like this would be very > helpful in any future political ventures. > > Roy III > _______________________________________________ > sosfbay-discuss mailing list > sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss > From snug.bug at hotmail.com Fri Dec 19 00:23:55 2008 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:23:55 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Senate Committee Blames Rumsfeld and Rice for Torture Message-ID: The report from the Senate Armed Services Committee was unanimous, with no dissent from any of the 12 Republicans on the Committee. Senator Carl Levin said he hoped the new administration "would look for ways, where appropriate, to hold people accountable." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/11/AR2008121101969.html The NYT ran an editorial on the report, saying Bush officials "issued legally and morally bankrupt documents to justify their actions, starting with a presidential order saying that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to prisoners of the 'war on terror'? and saying "A prosecutor should be appointed to consider criminal charges against top officials at the Pentagon and others involved in planning the abuse." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/opinion/18thu1.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2&hp Locally, the Examiner weighs in, at least on line, with these articles by Jay McDonough: http://www.examiner.com/x-243-Progressive-Politics-Examiner~y2008m12d16-rumsfeld http://www.examiner.com/x-243-Progressive-Politics-Examiner~y2008m12d18-NY-Times-calls-for-torture-investigation _________________________________________________________________ Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. http://windowslive.com/Explore/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_anywhere_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tnharter at aceweb.com Fri Dec 19 00:40:47 2008 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:40:47 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Jello Biafra's Open Letter To Barack Obama Message-ID: <494B5E0F.9010607@aceweb.com> Note: I first heard Jello Biafra live when he spoke at the 2000 Green Party Convention in Denver. He was one of the other Candidates that ran for President in some of the Green Primaries that year. - Tian http://tinyurl.com/66svg8 Jello Biafra Writes An Open Letter To Barack Obama By: Jello Biafra Tuesday December 16, 2008 6:30 am Here, by semi-popular demand, are the suggestions I sent to Obama's Change.gov site for citizen input. It veers from writing to Obama himself to writing for the people who may actually read this. A lot of these ideas may be familiar from my albums and spoken word shows. For the most part I stayed away from the big no-brainers covered by others, and from ideas he would never agree to in a million years. I did not vote for him because of his record in Congress voting for the PATRIOT Act, the anti-immigrant wall, numerous corporate breaks and subsidies, the FISA bill legalizing all the NSA's illegal wiretapping, etc. Nevertheless I, too, felt moved by his speech in the park that night in Chicago, seeing Jesse Jackson cry and wondering how Martin Luther King, Jr would have felt. I can only imagine how much this would have meant to Wesley Willis. And, yes, I am glad that the adult version of the Eraserhead baby and his pitbull pal were not handed the keys to the White House. I guess that's why it hurts so much more when the guy we all wish we could hang out with when we see him on TV turns around and backs the wrong position on something important. We expect this from the Clintons and Bidens of the world, but it hurts more with Obama because he knows better. He even said so on the FISA/NSA spying bill that he so eloquently opposed before he changed his vote. His economic and national security teams so far lack anyone from the "change" side of the Democratic Party. Not a good sign. If you have ideas or comments, don't just send them to me, send them to Change.gov! Even I have the audacity to hope that if one of these ideas penetrates up top, it is a chance worth taking. Tom Hayden is one of many who have pointed out that it is up to this movement to drive Obama, not the other way around. Jello Biafra OPEN LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA PREAMBLE GAMBLE Dear Mr. Obama, Congratulations on your recent victory, and for helping build such a strong mandate for change. In that spirit, please do not forget the other aisle you need to reach across. All the relief and publicity for the middle class won't do anything for the 40-100 million Americans who are starving, unemployed or just plain poor. You have gone out of your way to build a bridge to those of us fed up with war, pollution, inequality, corporate lawlessness and business as usual. You have energized a whole new generation who is far ahead of their elders in knowing what urgently needs to be done. I have never seen such an outpouring of heartfelt emotion, hope and support for an American politician in my life, and I remember Kennedy well. You are the first president in my lifetime to have a bona fide grassroots movement behind you and ready to rock. I hope those crowds' hope and urgency has penetrated deeply enough that you won't let that bridge be washed away. I remember another person who had the audacity to exploit and toss aside people's hope, and his name is Bill Clinton. Democrats fail time and again when they shirk responsibility and settle for being dealmakers instead of leaders. As important as it is to find common ground and build consensus for change, our situation is so dire we cannot afford any more dealmakers. The people voted for a leader. Anything less risks breaking the hearts of an entire galvanized generation who may then decide it is not worth it to get involved and participate any more. Strong medicine is needed. Here are some ideas: IRAQ ? TRY THIS! The closest thing to a solution I have heard was offered clear back in April 2004 by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (http://www.oic-ico.org ). The OIC is comprised of 57 Islamic countries ranging from West Africa clear over to Southeast Asia. At their annual meeting they found six member nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen and Morocco) willing to pony up enough of their own troops (approx. 150,000) that our troops could have gone home! Who slammed the door on that one? Colin Powell, on the grounds that having the Islamic soldiers under UN command instead of Americans was out of the question. WHY??!? Wouldn't a neutral force of Muslim peacekeepers make a lot more headway than the disaster we've made? Wouldn't they at least command a lot more respect, resulting in a huge drop in violence? Surely the non-stop carnage and Iracketeering we have spawned is Exhibit A that we need to get over this colonialist illusion that other countries' problems can only be solved by Americans. The OIC's proposal for US withdrawal and peace in Iraq must be revisited immediately, and also considered for Afghanistan. We must end not just our military occupation of Iraq, but our economic occupation NOW. Iraq is not ours to sell, and neither is its oil. Your promise not to leave any permanent US military bases in Iraq is a good start. But you have also backed leaving US troops in Iraq to "protect American assets like the Green Zone." The Green Zone is not our "asset." We stole it and we have to give it back. I hope you don't seriously believe we can get away with that giant feudal fortress of an embassy we are building, ten times the size of any other in history. We cannot afford to waste any more money on this, or down the black hole of the Bush administration's crony backroom deals with corrupt, incompetent private contractors like Blackwater, KBR and Halliburton. We need to fire them and they need to leave -- NOW. We do owe the Iraqi people help, and we have an obligation to clean up the mess we have made. That goes double for Afghanistan. But I can't see this getting done unless someone other than the United States is in charge. Let us also not forget the 2 million-plus refugees stuck outside Iraq who are draining the economies of Iraq's neighbors, especially Jordan and Syria. TERROR -- STRATEGY AND DIPLOMACY, NOT WAR Even if we kill off every insurgent and terrorist-sympathizer from sea to shining sea, what will their kids be like? And theirs? Wake up. The major cause of terrorism is not evil, it's poverty. Michael Moore said it best after 9/11: "Will we ever get to the point that we realize that we will be more secure when the rest of the world isn't living in poverty so we can have nice running shoes?" What do we need an empire for anyway? Ever notice how much happier the British and Europeans are now that they don't have to worry about policing colonial empires anymore? Many experts and heads of state, in the Middle East and beyond, agree that the best way by far to pull the rug out from under the terrorists and reduce their attacks dramatically is a just and humane resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel's right to exist is threatened most by the fact that hardcore zealots are running the show on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides. If we don't have the courage to stand up to them, who will? As painful as withdrawal to Israel's pre-1967 borders will be, our future depends on it. So does Israel's. As Reagan said to Gorbachev, "Tear down this wall!" Threatening Iran made for great red meat on the campaign trail. But any attack on Iran -- by us or using the Israelis as a proxy -- will blow up in our face worse than Iraq and Afghanistan combined. It will wipe out any good will and benefit of a doubt we have left in the eyes of the rest of the world. Iran is three times the size of Iraq and much more mountainous. The people there already hate our guts, thanks to our overthrow of their democratically elected leader Mohammed Mossadegh in 1954, ushering in 25 years of torture under the Shah. Backing and aiding Saddam Hussein in the eight-year Iran-Iraq war that cost a million lives did not help either. So, alas, we will not be "greeted as liberators." But we could run straight into a worldwide "Day the Earth Stood Still" if Iran responds by blocking all oil shipments out of the Persian Gulf. Iran knows full well they wouldn't even have to blockade the narrow Strait of Hormuz. All they would have to do is sink a tanker or freighter or two and no other ships will move. Not from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, nothing. Surely we can do better than this. Even Robert Gates seems to think so. Reckless threats against Pakistan will not solve anything, either. JUST SAY NO TO TORTURE Closing Guantanamo Bay is not enough. All torture, detentions without trial, kidnappings ("renditions") and illegal and unnecessary spying must end -- and end with transparency now. Otherwise we are no better than Saddam Hussein or the Nazis. The whole world knows this and the whole world is watching. What about the 20,000 people we still have locked up without charge in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan??? The USA PATRIOT Act is just about the worst mistake our government has made since FDR threw over 100,000 Japanese-American citizens into concentration camps during World War II. Even you panicked and voted to make the PATRIOT Act permanent. It should be repealed and flushed down the toilet immediately -- all of it. Even worse is the Military Commissions Act, in which Senators who should know better, such as Robert Byrd, Sherrod Brown, Ken Salazar and even John McCain voted with the majority to legalize torture, kidnapping and secret trials with secret evidence, wiping out the centuries old human right to habeas corpus. Again, isn't this what our "greatest generation" fought so bravely in World War II to stop the Nazis from doing to us? What galls me most is that all this iron-fisted trashing of our basic human rights has not caught and convicted one significant terrorist! Even the FBI admits that torture doesn't work. Meanwhile, if we're serious about preventing another terror attack, why is only 10% of the cargo entering our ports on ships ever inspected? Sure, no airliners have been hijacked by a terrorist wielding the wrong-sized shampoo bottle. But those cargo containers are big enough to smuggle in a small arsenal of rocket launchers and shoulder-fired missiles that could actually bring down a plane; dirty bomb material; or even Bin Laden himself. I sometimes wonder if he's driving a cab in Manhattan right now. RESTORE THE RULE OF LAW This means investigating and prosecuting each and every Bush administration official and their cronies who may have committed crimes while in power. Otherwise the lesson learned is you can get away with anything you want because the next administration will be too spineless to take action. For crying out loud, DO NOT make the same mistake Bill Clinton did when he let the rampant corruption, perjury and even terrorist acts of the Reagan and Bush I regimes go unpunished in the interest of moving on from the past. The crime here is this: Not only does everyone involved assume they have license to break even more laws the next time they hold power, but those who should be in jail for the lying, arms smuggling, assassinations and drug dealing in the Contra-gate scandal (like Elliot Abrams, Colin Powell, Richard Armitage and Robert Gates among others) are instead handed even more powerful positions where they have done even worse damage. Can you imagine the havoc and hooliganism if we put our heads in the sand after Watergate, let bygones be bygones, and G. Gordon Liddy wound up as director of the FBI? Secretary of Defense Haldeman? Attorney General Ehrlichman? Karl Rove's chair occupied by Colson, Magruder or Segretti? Watergate and even Contra-gate pale in comparison to the wholesale lawlessness this time around. From Jack Abramoff's bribes, to outing Valerie Plame; from lying about weapons of mass destruction and getting thousands of people killed; from wholesale fraud and attacks on the right to vote, to the gutting of the Justice Department, to torture and other possible war crimes -- this can't be allowed to go on. Cheney and Rumsfeld were bad enough. But it is equally critical that lower-echelon culprits lacking household names like John Yoo, David Addington (nicknamed "Cheney's Cheney"), and General Geoffrey Miller be held accountable for their alleged involvement in torture and other serious crimes. Otherwise, they could one day rise to Attorney General, Secretary of Defense, or even the Supreme Court and pick up right where they left off in their blood-soaked shredding of the Constitution. Even a South African-style Truth Commission would be an important step in preventing this from ever happening again. Otherwise, why should I or anyone else obey the law when my own government does not even pretend to? Even if Bush pardons the most blatant war criminals, all we have to do is fulfill President Clinton's promise to join the rest of the world in the International Criminal Court and they might not get away with it after all. We must come clean and drain the swamp now or it is just going to get dirtier. A lot dirtier. Rule of law must also be restored when it comes to the NSA, FISA and domestic spying. The Internet revolt by your own followers was right. Your vote for letting the NSA, and even the phone companies, off the hook for massive illegal spying on American citizens was a very bad mistake. These are the exact same crimes that got Nixon thrown out of office for Watergate. Now Watergate is legal too? I have to say it -- this doesn't remind me of Nixon as much as Italy's ordeal under Silvio Berlusconi. In Italy I have heard the joke again and again that "Berlusconi has to stay in power or else he'll go to jail." Sure enough, every time Berlusconi gets indicted for yet another crime, his majority in Parliament simply changes the law and he goes free. There should be zero tolerance for Berlusconi disease. Plus, does this much spying even make sense? What are we gaining here besides a bigger avalanche of useless data? If 9/11 was an inside job, it was not one of conspiracy but colossal, runaway incompetence. We were already spying on way too many people, collecting way too much data that no one had time to analyze. Thus finding the real terrorists before they struck was like looking for a needle in a football stadium. I have a feeling you may sign an important bill or two right from the podium during your inauguration speech. It might be an economic stimulus package or lifting the ban on stem cell research. How about also signing your first executive order declaring all of Bush's presidential signing statements he added on to bills he signed to be null and void. These things will go a long way toward restoring the rule of law. STAMP OUT ELECTION FRAUD -- RESTORE THE RIGHT TO VOTE I never thought that after all these years we would once again find ourselves fighting for our right to vote. In the United States of America? It is well-established now that every election at least since 2000, including the midterms, has been marred by widespread vote fraud, especially via the hacking and manipulations of electronic voting machines. But these widespread crimes have never been fully investigated, let alone prosecuted. Even the US Civil Rights Commission recommended prosecuting then-Governor Jeb Bush over all the fraud and voter intimidation in Florida during the 2002 election. But his brother's Justice Department declined. It is obvious the Help America Vote Act has backfired and done the opposite. Optical scan machines are not the answer at all. They have now been proven to be just as hackable as the notorious paperless touch-screens. They should all be junked once and for all. Digital is not always better, and voting should not be privatized. Any system where the people's votes are counted in secret behind closed doors has no place in a democracy. Nor is there room for contracting out the verification of our registration forms to the same corrupt biased companies that manufacture the phony voting machines. We can't just let this massive, widespread vote stealing go on and pretend it isn't happening. It may be too late to reverse the wreckage of all the stolen elections. But again, a Truth Commission to prove how it was done and who did it is essential to the survival of our democracy. Anyone in Congress with a spine for this? The people have a right to know. CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM -- THE EASY WAY I am sure you would agree that this election campaign was way WAY too long. Other countries, including one just north of us, limit campaign time to between 30 and 60 days. Election fever is much more focused so voter participation is higher. Why can't we do this? Sure, these other countries use parliamentary systems (another change I hope for) where the party in power calls an election and it takes place a short time later. But think of what we could save -- and what we would gain -- if we limited campaign time to 90 days. There could be 30 days between announcements and the primaries, followed by a 30-day primary season, then a 30-day home stretch to Election Day. Anyone who jumps the gun by jockeying, soliciting contributions or electioneering too early is automatically disqualified. I hope you would also agree that campaigns for high office have become obscenely expensive. We now have a full-blown Election Industrial Complex. Wouldn't it be great if you didn't need $750 million to run for President? The way our campaign contributions and lobbyists work today has another name in other countries. It's called bribery. Another way to restore sanity is to go national with a law enacted by popular vote in Nevada. If you don't like any of the candidates for an office in Nevada, you are allowed to vote None of the Above. If N.O.T.A. wins, they have to re-run the election with all new candidates. You say you want more people to get up and get involved? Lower the voting age! To get people's attention I have suggested lowering it clear down to age 5. But more realistically, I suggest showing people they have a stake in our democracy by allowing ages 14 and up to vote on school boards and school bond issues, 16 and up for local offices and ballot measures, and 18 and up for everything else. Overcoming voter apathy is hard, but when young people cast votes and see results, they'll stick with it long term. RETHINK AND SHUT DOWN THE WAR ON DRUGS Prohibition is as absurd and fruitless today as it was when Eliot Ness ran around shooting up Chicago trying to stamp out illegal beer. The world is laughing at us while real people are being robbed, jailed, assaulted and even killed. We have more people locked in prison than any country in the history of the world. But our drug use rate has barely dropped at all. The blood and violence from gangs and narco-traffickers that have left Colombia and Mexico on the verge of becoming failed states is spilling across our borders. This is no country for old men -- or old laws. Could we do worse than to at least try the Harm Reduction programs used most successfully in Holland and other parts of Europe? As unorthodox as this sounds, decriminalizing (not legalizing) even harder drugs, making them available on prescription from the government for free, along with a safe place to use them, has led to a much lower crime rate -- and even addiction rate -- than ours. Why? The free prescriptions mean the addict does not have to rob and kill people to pay the drug gangs' high prices, and the gangs are put out of business. Dealers are still treated harshly and rehab is strongly encouraged. This could also save up to $50 billion a year for rehab and education that is otherwise wasted by throwing people in prison. This also frees up billions and billions of dollars to treat the addicts when they want to get off drugs -- which will be sooner rather than later. Rehab costs 2/3 less than prison. Our mushrooming prison-industrial complex is draining our money so badly that state after state is slashing funds for education -- education! -- to pay for throwing more and more people in prison. In California, a prison guard now makes more money than a teacher. So much for family values. What is wrong with this picture?!??? As president I suggest the commuting of federal prison sentences of all small-time non-violent drug offenders to time served and releasing them immediately. Then strongly urge governors to do the same at the state level. Again, think of all the wasted taxpayer dollars this will free up for more important things like education and rehabilitation. Estimates run as high as $50 billion nationwide. This does not mean any of these drugs should be legalized, just decriminalized. That is, strictly regulated like alcohol and tobacco, with big-time dealers and gangs treated as harshly as ever. For another way to fight the drug lords, consider this. In 2005 the United States spent $780 million on drug eradication in Afghanistan. Where on earth did it all go? It worked so poorly that $600 million of poppies and heroin escaped into the market anyway. Do the math: We could have saved a whopping $180 million if we had simply gone to the suppliers and bought the drugs, and then destroyed them so they won't keep making people sick and killing my friends. As sickening as it is to even think of doing business with drug cartels, can anyone think of a better way to cut off the supply? A counter-argument is that this will actually force the gangs to drive the street price way up. But with Harm Reduction programs already in place they will have nothing to sell, no place to sell it, and no suckers willing to buy. And for crying out loud, isn't it time to finally get real and decriminalize marijuana? If current strains are more potent than the old days, so what? Study after study still proves that marijuana is less harmful -- and less addictive -- than alcohol or tobacco. Nowadays, going overboard against marijuana has not only flooded our prisons to the breaking point, it has driven the price of cannabis so high that young people are going straight into crack cocaine and methamphetamines. Is this wise? On top of that, it is not just oil we are dangerously low on, we are running out of wood. If we ever hope to turn the tide on global warming and save what is left of our forests, we must remove all bans on the cultivation of cannabis for its many industrial uses -- including the strain of hemp that has no THC in it to get anyone high but is still banned anyway. Recycling is not enough. Why chop down millions of trees to make paper when we can use hemp or kanaf and then grow another crop of paper a few months later? It does not get any greener than this. It will also help rescue a lot of family farms. Finally, the Joe Biden-authored Illicit Drug Anti-Proliferation Act (formerly known as the RAVE Act), passed as a rider to the Amber Alert Bill, is as big a disgrace as the PATRIOT Act. It has no place in a free society and should be repealed immediately. Long-term rescue of our social fabric and society, not to mention our southern neighbors, depends in major part on enacting humane drug laws. RESTORE BALANCE TO THE SUPREME COURT Even George Will complained that Bill Clinton's Supreme Court nominees were too moderate; that the court needs a good progressive or two for the full and thorough consideration of each issue. Balancing the court means choosing a justice or two with the passion and spirit of a Thurgood Marshall, John Marshall or William O. Douglas, even if you do not fully agree with them. You may only have a two-year window before a mid-term Congress cramps your style. MEDIA REFORM The Federal Communications Commission should get off their high horse about Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" or naughty words that everyone says anyway, and instead focus on the rampant hate speech and outright lies that are falsely broadcast as impartial news. Sure, celebrity bullies like Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Glenn Beck, and Ann Coulter have a right to say what they want. But when no one -- even the target of a personal attack -- is allowed the right to reply, the very idea of an informed democracy goes out the window. Was that their goal in the first place? Nowadays, mainstream corporate media deliberately dumbing down the news, omitting key facts and sides of the story, or neglecting to report the story altogether is the worst form of censorship going on in America today. Since the big mergers, most debate that gets aired at all is restricted to right wing versus ultra-right wing, while the rest of us are allowed to laugh along with Stewart and Colbert. What kind of democracy are we when freedom of speech -- or the equally important right to communicate -- belongs only to the oligarchs who control the airwaves? There used to be a law called the Fairness Doctrine that guaranteed the right of reply, without Bill O'Reilly yelling at you to shut up every 15 seconds. It was allowed to expire late in the Reagan years, and urgently needs to be renewed. Your stated opposition to this puzzles me. What better tool is there for "opening up the airwaves and modern communications to as many diverse viewpoints as possible" than making sure they are allowed to be seen and heard in the first place? And how about some enforcement of the laws guaranteeing that the public, not corporations, owns the airwaves. Even the big corporate media barons should again be required to renew their FCC license to broadcast every five years, complete with public hearings. I also do not think anyone should be allowed to graduate from high school until they pass a class on media literacy. Sadly, we do not yet have the curriculum. In the meantime we must all pitch in with the teaching -- to both adults and children. ECONOMIC STIMULUS -- START WITH PEOPLE WHO NEED IT MOST I'm glad there seems to be a sense up top that national security, the economy, climate collapse and the environment are all intertwined. Think about it. No rogue state or terrorist threatens our national security nearly as much as our collapsing economy. The growing gap between the rich and poor is what is tearing apart the lives of average Americans and their families. National security means: ? Everyone has a home. ? Everyone has enough decent food to eat. ? Everyone can drink the water without having to buy it in a bottle from Coke or Pepsi. ? No one has to worry about getting their hand cut off at work or having their job outsourced overseas. ? Everyone can be who they are without fear of being detained and tortured without trial. ? Everyone can vote without fear, knowing their vote will be counted?accurately. ? Every woman has the right to choose what to do with her own body. ? Everyone has enough money for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. ? Everyone, even if they don't have money, has the right to see a doctor if they're sick or hurt. In so many other countries this is a guaranteed human right by law. Stimulating and reviving the economy will only succeed from the ground up. This means getting a lot more money quickly to the people on the bottom who need it the most. When they finally have some cash in their pocket they will be more than eager to spend it. Stores perk up, jobs are saved, and the train is finally rolling out of the station. This is why leaders as diverse as Martin Luther King, Milton Friedman and even Richard Nixon have at different times proposed a guaranteed annual income so that everyone can participate and keep our economy humming. Raise the minimum wage to a living wage: $9.50 an hour helps, but $12 an hour is closer to a true living wage. Welfare should not be a dirty word, especially after PBS reported last month that if you count all the Americans who have given up looking for work because they can't find any and dropped off the radar screen, unemployment is actually around 12%! So please remove the time limits on unemployment compensation, welfare benefits and Aid to Families with Dependent Children that were slapped on the least fortunate during the Clinton years. But where will the money come from when we burn it all up shoveling it down the mouths of the dragons on Wall Street? You are right to point out that trickle-down supply-side economics never trickled down. It wasn't supposed to. How will this be any different? To the average taxpayer this so-called bailout looks more like the last great looting of our treasury before Bush and his cronies get the hell out of dodge. There is also growing concern about the appearance of self-dealing by officials with connections to Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. So far your own economic team seems alarmingly slanted toward the robber barons who helped create this mess in the first place. Where is Joseph Stiglitz? Where is Robert Reich? Are we still all in this together? Your Economic Advisory Council is supposed to be a council, not a choir! You say you want a support staff that debate and give you diverse ideas. So even if you do not agree with them, how about adding William Greider or Doug Henwood or even Naomi Klein as well? GREEN JOBS THROUGH GREEN AID Let's move even faster on climate collapse. The clock is ticking? Your proposal to spend $150 billion on our crumbling infrastructure is a good beginning. But it is only 10% of the $1.5 trillion in urgent repairs the American Society of Civil Engineers says we need right now to avoid more disasters like the freeway bridge collapse in Minnesota. This does not even account for restocking the Bush-depleted Superfund to clean up toxic waste, or creating affordable housing for everyone. Your plan states, "We'll put people back to work rebuilding our roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children and building wind farms and solar panels, fuel efficient cars and the alternative energy technology that could free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead." Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to spend whatever it takes to weather-strip and winterize old homes and buildings now if the owners can't afford it. It will reduce our swollen carbon footprint dramatically and save tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few years. How about aid for solar panels? Home windmills too? Not just tax breaks, aid. Most people just don't have the money for this. Time magazine reported in 2001 that an American farmer could get $50 for an acre of wheat and $2000 for an acre of wind power. We either pay to do this now or pay a lot more later. Europeans are already way ahead of us on this one. Also, look for ways to accomplish two or three things at once with every renewal project. Replacing the water or sewer lines? Lay fiber optic cable! Our not-so-liberal mayor in San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, nixed that idea because there was not enough graft in it for telecom companies. His own silly plan for wi-fi towers fell on its face, so a smart opportunity was wasted. AUTO AID -- REQUIRE GREENER CARS Ever seen a documentary film called Who Killed the Electric Car? They worked so well their owners did not want to give them back. But when their leases came up, Detroit snatched them away and destroyed them. Now Detroit wants a great big handout? Then another? Then another? There should be no bailout for carmakers if all they are willing to offer in return is more fuel-hogging clunkers like the Ford Flex. No aid until they bring back the electric cars! If the Chevy Volt is so great, why aren't they selling them now? For almost 30 years, people who go to design schools have told me that the car designers almost always pursue jobs overseas because Detroit is still unable to adapt as quickly to fresh ideas for the future. So far "clean coal" seems to be about as clean as our mountains of "clean nuclear waste." Again, no aid to big coal companies unless they end their environmentally devastating "mountain top removal" plundering once and for all. TRAINS MAKE SENSE -- PEOPLE ARE READY Another crucial way to fight global warming and reduce our dependence on foreign oil is to wake up and get serious about a nationwide high-speed rail system and better rapid transit in the cities. Again, Europe, Japan, and even China are way ahead of us. When I do my speaking tours in Europe it is so much easier and less expensive than traveling here: Just take my backpack and go. Even a normal train is often faster than flying. No traffic jams getting to the airport, no long security lines, no baggage claim wait, no traffic jams back into the next town. I just get on the train and get off the train, right downtown. The scenery is pretty cool too. Amtrak has hemorrhaged money year after year. But ridership is finally going up, in spite of the decimated service. People have finally grown so fed up with traffic jams, fuel prices and the arrogance of our bumbling airline industry that a proper train system would now do very well. Just ask former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, another intriguing choice for a high position in your administration. Californians finally passed a bond issue to begin work on a long-overdue bullet train system between San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles. People I have talked to in random conversation are almost as excited about this as they are about your own election. A similar initiative passed in Florida in 2000, but Governor Jeb Bush impounded the funds. Surely we can find the money by canceling a few aircraft carriers, tanks and planes we don't need, and by shutting off the faucet for the hundreds of billions wasted on Reagan's star wars fantasy -- now known as "missile defense." Are those new installations in the Czech Republic and Poland really worth all the grief they're stirring up with the Russians? The Czech and Polish people don't even want them there! Green energy technology should also be shared, even given, to the Chinese ASAP. Here on the West Coast I have to wipe a brown sooty film off my windshield every couple of days -- and my car is in a garage! It is coal dust from Chinese factories. They open a new coal plant every few days. According to Mother Jones, sustaining an American lifestyle for a Chinese middle class predicted to reach 600 million will require the resources of several more Earths! COMPETE GLOBALLY -- TAKE BETTER CARE OF OUR PEOPLE Other countries prefer a healthy workforce and are willing to pay for it. Here we stick our workforce with fat, greedy insurance companies who serve no purpose but to act as a tollbooth or a gatekeeper and charge exorbitant fees before a person can even see a doctor. The result, of course, is the most expensive healthcare system with the least benefit for the buck of any in the industrialized world. You say the big insurance companies "should have a place at the table." Aren't these companies the problem? Other counties want their workforce to be as well-educated as possible to better care for themselves and compete in the global economy. So they are willing to pay to make sure this happens, instead of kicking them in the face with back-breaking student loans and cutting school funding to the bone. Other countries want their children to grow up well-nourished and loved instead of dysfunctional. They are happy to pay welfare for single parents to stay home with their little ones, and for 12-18 months maternity leave with 80-90% pay for either parent to make sure no child is left behind. Traveling overseas it is not hard to notice that many European countries, and not just Scandinavia, have a higher standard of living than we do, and the gap is widening. The reason is they are willing to pay for it. HUMANE TAX REFORM Please do not break your promise to raise income taxes on the wealthy and close those Titanic-sized loopholes that allowed two-thirds of US and foreign corporations who do business here to pay no tax at all between 1998 and 2005. We used to have a tiny tax on security speculation and stock transactions. Britain still does. If the annual amount of wheeling and dealing in the stock market really amounts to the reported $500 trillion a year, a mere 1% tax could raise $5 trillion per year and Wall Street would not even feel it! Other ways to raise badly needed revenue without hurting Joe the Plumber would be to tax companies who pollute, divert funds overseas, and ship jobs out of the country, as well as taxing stock windfalls rewarded by Wall Street for balancing the bottom line with employee layoffs. Last September the Bush administration quietly dynamited Section 382 of the tax code allowing big banks to run off with as much as $140 billion dollars in new tax breaks that many suspect are illegal. Was this illegal? Please enforce the law and stop the bleeding now. We could also follow the lead of Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, and even the state of Maine and encourage cities to start their own municipal or community banks. Being a non-profit, these banks would provide low-cost loans for homes and small businesses. They would also save cities millions of dollars apiece that they now waste on private banking fees. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D - IL) proposes generous tax breaks and shareholder advantages to "patriotic corporations" who limit management salaries to 100 times the lowest-paid fulltime worker. I think 10 times is better. Shareholders need better legal tools to limit runaway CEO pay and looting by top executives. Schakowsky would also give tax breaks to corporations that: produce at least 90% of their goods and services in the United States; spend at least 50% of the research and development budgets here at home; stay out of employee organizing drives; are clean with the EPA, OSHA and the NRLB; and provide their employees with generous and portable pension funds and health insurance. They must also agree not to price-gouge consumers. So how do we convince Americans that it is in our best interest to help pay for all of this? It would help if you use your power to inspire and persuade, to get through to people in this country that not all taxes are automatically bad, especially when spent in a way that benefits them directly. Starting with the Boston Tea Party in kindergarten, it is drilled into us that taxes are this terrible violation of our freedom. As adults we have had 30 plus years of media sermons from both parties that we are no longer a community, but a marketplace, and that competitiveness is more important than caring about one another. Isn't it interesting that the people least interested in paying taxes are often the first to complain when a government service they take for granted doesn't work any more? To wise people up and chip away at this I suggest pointing out what happened to California when voters passed Proposition 13 and gutted what was once the number one education system in the country, if not the world. It is now almost dead last. According to the ACLU, some schools in Los Angeles are not only short on books and desks, they don't even have toilet paper. Californians also voted down an initiative guaranteeing universal healthcare after the Disease Industry ran a blitz of TV ads claiming it would raise people's taxes. They banked on people failing to do the math and see how a slight tax increase would dramatically reduce their own medical bills. Another example is the tale of two of the Quad Cities on the Mississippi River. In the 1990s, Rock Island, IL voters were willing to raise taxes to build a floodwall. Voters in Davenport, IA rejected a wall three times because it would raise taxes. Guess whose town was devastated the next time the Mississippi flooded? To raise local money for local and state projects voters have to be shown that it is worth raising taxes to pay for these things. Taxes also wouldn't hurt so much if the people had more say in where their money went. How about placing 12-15 categories in US income tax forms so people can vote what percentage of their tax money they want spent where? I'll bet education, the environment, infrastructure, and services would go straight up and our bloated military cash cow would go straight down. HELP PEOPLE RESIST FORECLOSURES To fight the plague of foreclosures, I suggest following the lead of the Cook County Sheriff in Chicago by declaring a moratorium on foreclosure evictions. Debts to predatory lenders should be forgiven at once. Many families are fleeing their homes because they are so frightened of the cruel Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, they are willing to default on their mortgage just to keep up with their credit card debts. You voted against this law. Now let's get rid of it. I am inspired by City Life/Vida Urbana in Boston who have said "Yes We Can" to reviving the Depression-era practice of volunteer rolling brigades who show up to defend people's homes from eviction, and if need be take all the furniture and belongings back from the curb into the house. In addition, they alert the media to help shame the banks and predatory lenders from coming back. In many cases it has worked. The most intriguing proposal flying around the Internet is for everyone who files an individual tax return to be given $1 million dollars on the condition that they use it to pay off their mortgage in full (thus bailing out the banks) and buy an American car within the next three years. Whatever is left over is theirs to keep and invest. Unfortunately the math does not add up. Even the staggering estimated total of $8 trillion thrown at our collapsing economy would only bring $57,971.01 for each of the 138 million individual tax returns filed each year. Too bad, it is an interesting idea. "THIS MOVEMENT IS NOT JUST ABOUT ONE PERSON . . ." I'm glad to hear you say that, but I keep waiting for you to expand and take it further. To point out how much it also matters who is in the Senate, who is in the House, the Governor, the State legislature, mayors, city councils, school boards, ballot initiatives, county commissioners, you name it. To say that if a person is not satisfied with what is going on in their community, they should get involved. If they are not satisfied with how they are being represented, they should consider running for office themselves. A lot of inspired people would. What else can we do in the meantime to make things better? What simple, easy steps can we take in our own lives? You have two more chances -- Inauguration and the State of the Union. Before people return to the slumber of Soundbite McNews. Bill Clinton could have won back Congress in 1996 if he had used his popularity, convention speech and pulpit for something besides his own shoo-in re-election. But he didn't. I was in the room for Al Gore's acceptance speech in 2000. He didn't bother either. It was just about one person. I'll be amazed if Mr. Obama or anyone close actually reads this, so this last part is for you folks who have. To me, if there is an Obama movement, it is more like the Pope-mobile. You know, that cage of bulletproof glass on wheels that rolls around with the Pope inside, waving at his adoring flock, "Yo! I'm here! Look at me, I'm the Pope!" Then everybody goes home. But who is driving the Pope-mobile? Can a crowd organize to block the wrong turns and steer it in a better direction? I did not vote for you, but I dearly want you to succeed at delivering the change you have promised. We have very little time and may not get another chance. Recent history shows we have eight years maximum before the pendulum swings back the other way -- and hard. She may lose once or twice, but I fear the Pitbull with Lipstick will one day be bigger than Reagan. In many ways, people seem to be looking to you as their new great-and-powerful Oprah as much as they look at you as their President. This can be useful too. To revive people's sense of community and what it entails. To persuade people that voting for small local tax increases brings much greater benefits for everyone down the road. To encourage people to not just recycle but look for ways to stop wasting so much. Those same European countries whose standard of living seems to be higher than ours use a fraction per capita of natural resources we do. How do they do it? Think of all the forests we could save just by showing people how much paper they can save just by writing on the other side before they throw it away? Imagine if lawyers figured this out. HONOR AND RESPECT YOUR MOVEMENT Please don't ever forget why so many people who had given up hope are investing so much of their hearts and hope in you. If that hope is shattered and they feel betrayed, a great deal more will collapse for good. So to keep your movement alive -- and help it grow beyond you -- keep those texts and e-mail lists alive! Keep your Blackberry. Does it matter if it all becomes public record? How about posting a daily log of what you did and who you and your staff met with, including lobbyists. Why not keep all those campaign offices you opened all over the country alive too? Convert them to branch offices. Senators and House members have branch offices all over their districts. You now represent the whole country. Keep the branches. Above all, be a leader, not a dealmaker. There are times when cutting a deal is the same as cutting and running. To put it mildly, we can't afford that anymore. There are no sails left to trim. And if this is a movement about change and not just about one person, it is up to the movement to drive the President, not the other way around. Please do not stand in the way. Sincerely, Jello Biafra -- Tian http://tian.greens.org Jimmy Carter sent me a holiday greetings card with a reddish painting titled "Tulips are People II" on it. From snug.bug at hotmail.com Fri Dec 19 01:01:18 2008 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 01:01:18 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Constitutional Law Prof Jonathan Turley on Cheney's Accountability Message-ID: Olbermann interviews Turley, a George Washington University Prof of Constitutional Law. http://www.examiner.com/x-243-Progressive-Politics-Examiner~y2008m12d17-The-Constitution-and-Dick-Cheney Notes from the video: The administration argues that it must not be a crime, because nobody's prosecuting us for it. But it is a crime. The Bush regime of the last 8 years was an assault on who we are. Obama is going to must decide if he wants power without principle, or if he wants true change in which crimes will be prosecuted. Democratic Congressional leaders are trying to create a new commission that will avoid criminal prosecution. Waterboarding is a well-established by legal precedent to be a war crime. That's why Mukasey wouldn't answer the question at his confirmation hearings--because it is a crime. It is equally immoral to stand at the side and do nothing, and that is what the citizens are doing... this gigantic yawn. _________________________________________________________________ Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. http://windowslive.com/Explore/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_anywhere_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From JamBoi at Greens.org Fri Dec 19 08:53:29 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:53:29 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] San Jose City - Planning Commission - I applied today In-Reply-To: <54190.66.7.182.186.1229674838.squirrel@greens.org> References: <54190.66.7.182.186.1229674838.squirrel@greens.org> Message-ID: <55811.66.7.182.186.1229705609.squirrel@greens.org> Here's another link specifically for news related to the SJ Planning Commission: http://tinyurl.com/SJPlanningCommissionNews Green is Collective! Drew On Fri, December 19, 2008 00:20, Drew Johnson wrote: > Fantastic Roy! > > I served for a year on Sunnyvale's Housing and Human Services Commission. > > I would also suggest applying for at least a second if not a third choice > since the Planning Commission is probably the most difficult to get onto > (it has more power via its recommendations than probably any other > commission). If you don't get Planning Commission you could serve a year > on another one and then ask for a transfer (check SJ's policy on this -- > Sunnyvale allows this, but SJ may or may not). > > I would start reading the notes for the past commission meetings, and try > to learn more about the different commissioners that you'll be working > with. I would definitely get to all the upcoming commission meetings, and > probably to a City Council meeting or two just to get an idea of the > current 'lay of the land'. > > Also reading doing research re: SJ Planning Commission issues with > http://tinyurl.com/SJPlanningCommission, on SJMercury.com, > MetroActive.com and any other good website's covering SJ issues. > > Green is Engaged! > > Drew > > > > On Thu, December 18, 2008 20:08, Palm Haven Handyman wrote: >> Hello Friends, >> >> Today I applied for a position on the City Planning Commission. Does >> anyone >> here have any useful advice for me re: getting getting appointed to a >> city >> commission? I figure that serving on a Commission like this would be >> very >> helpful in any future political ventures. >> >> Roy III >> _______________________________________________ >> sosfbay-discuss mailing list >> sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org >> http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss >> > > From wrolley at charter.net Fri Dec 19 08:58:20 2008 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 08:58:20 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] San Jose City - Planning Commission - I applied today In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <494BD2AC.90204@charter.net> Palm Haven Handyman wrote: > Hello Friends, > > Today I applied for a position on the City Planning Commission. Does > anyone here have any useful advice for me re: getting getting > appointed to a city commission? I figure that serving on a Commission > like this would be very helpful in any future political ventures. Let me suggest looking at the writings of Roger Gray, a long time Commissioner in Pasadena, CA. http://socalgreen.blogspot.com/2007/01/how-to-get-appointed-primer-part-ii.html Roger has some additional comments, but you can follow links for them. This one is aimed directly at answering your question by someone who as been there. One think unique in what Roger has done is to mentor another, younger Green to take his place as he has hopped from Commission to Commission. Wes -- "Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente Wes Rolley 17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024 From gerrygras at earthlink.net Fri Dec 19 15:35:14 2008 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:35:14 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: From a CA Green Party Member regarding Mr. Obama's invitation to Rick Warren] Message-ID: <494C2FB2.5090603@earthlink.net> FYI, Gerry -------- Original Message -------- Subject: From a CA Green Party Member regarding Mr. Obama's invitation to Rick Warren Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:17:11 -0800 From: Shannon Q To: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Dear Ma?am or Sir; I've recently been speaking to a number of friends in the LGBT community in my area and abroad, both directly and over electronic forums such as Live Journal, blogs and email. The majority of these friends are currently registered voters with the Democratic Party. As you most likely know, President Ellect Obama has invited Rick Warren as a key member of his inauguration. Rick Warren was not only a significant champion of supporting Proposition 8 in California to take away the right to marry from same sex partners, he is also a publicly outspoken figure who vehemently equates same sex orientation to incest and pedophilia and contributed to a campaign of lies and slander against homosexuals (both as part of his efforts in the Proposition 8 campaign and before/after as well). Politics aside on whether or not Mr. Obama supports gay rights or not (and he does not, despite his claims to the contrary. We?re either equal or we are drinking from another water fountain), the deep and dismissive insult to the LGBT community is inviting a man who spreads outright lies and slander regarding LGBT citizens of this country to act as a key speaker in a ceremony Mr. Obama ?claims? to be inclusive of everyone. The collaborative bigotry going on here is blatant and shameful. If the the head of the Aryan Nation or the Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux clan had been invited in Mr. Warrens place, no one would have the gall to try and speak about ?differing perspectives? or ?inclusiveness?. Mr. Obama has willfully invited a hateful bigot to stand with him at a ceremony that is supposed to represent the entire nation. In my discussions with my Democratic LGBT friends, I pointed out to them that the Democratic Party has historically courted the LGBT community for votes and support, however whenever it is the LGBT community who needs the support of the Democratic Party, the Party is suddenly reticent to make any kind of significant stand on germane issues, citing it to be 'too controversial'. I then invited all of them to come take a look at the values and stated platform of the Green Party, citing that the Green Party has the courage to unequivocally state that they support equality for all under the law, including those of same sex orientation and transgendered people. It was my hope to offer them a political party that really did stand for them and not one that was simply ?the lesser of two evils? (intolerance vs indifference). I have been providing links to both state level Green web sites (www.cagreens.org being one of them) and the national site at http://www.gp.org . It was then that I felt a pit in my stomach. No where on the Green Party sites is the Rick Warren situation being discussed. So now I am writing you to ask that you rectify this oversight. As a Green, I and other gay Green Party members stand with you and for the Green Party platforms, all of them. I am asking that the Green Party do the same. Thank you for your time, Shannon Mathew Quintero ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster. Get your account now. From fredd at freeshell.org Fri Dec 19 15:40:43 2008 From: fredd at freeshell.org (Fred Duperrault) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:40:43 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] San Jose City - Planning Commission - I applied today In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <494C30FB.10305@freeshell.org> I know two Roys very well. Who is "Roy III?" Fred VII Fantastic Roy! I served for a year on Sunnyvale's Housing and Human Services Commission. I would also suggest applying for at least a second if not a third choice since the Planning Commission is probably the most difficult to get onto (it has more power via its recommendations than probably any other commission). If you don't get Planning Commission you could serve a year on another one and then ask for a transfer (check SJ's policy on this -- Sunnyvale allows this, but SJ may or may not). I would start reading the notes for the past commission meetings, and try to learn more about the different commissioners that you'll be working with. I would definitely get to all the upcoming commission meetings, and probably to a City Council meeting or two just to get an idea of the current 'lay of the land'. Also reading doing research re: SJ Planning Commission issues with http://tinyurl.com/SJPlanningCommission, on SJMercury.com, MetroActive.com and any other good website's covering SJ issues. Green is Engaged! Drew On Thu, December 18, 2008 20:08, Palm Haven Handyman wrote: > Hello Friends, > > Today I applied for a position on the City Planning Commission. Does > anyone > here have any useful advice for me re: getting getting appointed to a city > commission? I figure that serving on a Commission like this would be very > helpful in any future political ventures. > > Roy III > _______________________________________________ > sosfbay-discuss mailing list > sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss > _______________________________________________ sosfbay-discuss mailing list sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss From gerrygras at earthlink.net Fri Dec 19 16:23:46 2008 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:23:46 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Cheney Defies Prosecution for War Crimes Message-ID: <494C3B12.6070409@earthlink.net> "Cheney Throws Down Gauntlet, Defies Prosecution for War Crimes" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/19 (by President of the National Lawyers Guild) Gerry From JamBoi at Greens.org Fri Dec 19 23:37:01 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:37:01 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] GP-US discussion re: Obama's choice of Rick Warren for inaugural prayer In-Reply-To: <494C2FB2.5090603@earthlink.net> References: <494C2FB2.5090603@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <49928.66.7.182.186.1229758621.squirrel@greens.org> Here's some of the discussion that IS going on at the national level (but just hasn't quite yet developed into a media release. This was posted by the GP-US Media Contact, scottmclarty at hotmail.com. Also Shanon might want to check in with the Lavender Greens Caucus. In CA Shan Que Hee is the contact: squehee at ucla.edu Nationally try: lavender-caucus at green.gpus.org . Also I'll forward his note to Scott Here's some LGBTQQ related press releases that we've done recently: http://www.cagreens.org/press/pr080519.shtml http://www.gp.org/press/pr-state.php?ID=62 http://www.cagreens.org/press/pr081114.shtml Green is Multi! Drew Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:58:24 +0000 From: Scott McLarty Subject: [usgp-dx] Obama's choice of Rev. Warren for prayer: a slap against his gay supporters (John Cloud, Time) To: The Problem for Gays with Rick Warren ? and Obama By John Cloud Time, December 18, 2008 http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1867664,00.html About three years ago, a reporter at Fortune asked Rick Warren ? the successful pastor whom the President-elect has asked to pray at his inauguration ? about homosexuality. "I'm no homophobic guy," Warren said. His proof? He had dined with gays; he has a church "full of people who are caring for gays who are dying of AIDS"; he believes that "in the hierarchy of evil... homosexuality is not the worst sin." So gays get to eat ? sometimes even with Rick Warren! Then they get to die of AIDS ? possibly under the care of Rick Warren's congregants. And when they go to hell, they won't be quite as far down in Satan's pit as other evildoers. But Warren did have a message of hope for gays: they can magically become heterosexuals. (He didn't explain how, but I suspect he thinks praying really hard would do it, as though most of us who grew up gay and evangelical hadn't tried that every night as teenagers.) Homosexuality, Pastor Warren explained in the virtually content-free language of the dogmatist, is "not the natural way." And then he went right for the ick factor, the way middle-school boys do: "Certain body parts are meant to fit together." More recently, Warren told beliefnet that he thinks allowing a gay couple to marry is similar to allowing "a brother and sister be together and call that marriage." He then helpfully added that he's also "opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage." The reporter, who may have been a little surprised, asked, "Do you think those are equivalent to gays getting married?" "Oh, I do," Warren immediately answered. I wish the reporter had asked the next logical follow-up: if gays are like child sexual abusers, shouldn't we incarcerate them? Rick Warren may occasionally sound more open-minded than Jerry Falwell, another plump evangelical who once played a prominent role in U.S. politics. But he's not. Gays and lesbians are angry that Barack Obama has honored Warren, but they shouldn't be surprised. Obama has proven himself repeatedly to be a very tolerant, very rational-sounding sort of bigot. He is far too careful and measured a man to say anything about body parts fitting together or marriage being reserved for the non-pedophilic, but all the same, he opposes equality for gay people when it comes to the basic recognition of their relationships. He did throughout his campaign, a campaign that featured appearances by Donnie McClurkin, a Christian entertainer who preaches that homosexuals can become heterosexuals. Obama reminds me a little bit of Richard Russell Jr., the longtime senator from Georgia who ? as historian Robert Caro has noted ? cultivated a reputation as a thoughtful, tolerant politician even as he defended inequality and segregation for decades. Obama gave a wonderfully Russellian defense of Warren Thursday at a press conference. Americans, he said, need to "come together" even when they disagree on social issues. "That dialogue is part of what my campaign is all about," he said. Russell would often use the same tactic to deflect criticism of his civil rights record. It was a distraction, Russell said, from the important business of the day uniting all Americans. Obama also said today that he is a "fierce advocate for equality" for gays, which is ? given his opposition to equal marriage rights ? simply a lie. It recalls the time Russell said, "I'm as interested in the Negro people of my state as anyone in the Senate. I love them." Many gays I know gave money to Obama, which mystified me. The favored explanation was that he doesn't "really" believe gays shouldn't be allowed to marry; he just has to say that in order to win. People seemed to feel that once he had won, he would find a way ? in his contemplative style ? to help convince Americans that gay people really do deserve basic equality. Instead, he has found a way to insult gay people deeply. In California, some gay activists are planning to put marriage on the 2010 ballot so that Proposition 8 ? which (thanks partly to Warren's support) passed last month, banning marriage equality in the state ? can be undone. Gays will need to reach older voters, religious voters, and African-Americans in order to overturn 8 (those three groups all voted disproportionately for it). If gays hoped that President Obama would help, they may want to reconsider. The only piece of good news is that Obama loves to raise money, and he won't want big gay donors to stop organizing fundraisers for him. Having picked Warren to pray at the inauguration and the Republican Robert Gates to stay at the Department of Defense (where Gates will likely continue the policy of investigating gay servicemembers ? a policy he has the legal power to end with the stroke of a pen), Obama will now have to do something nice for the gays. Today the Washington Times brings news that some retired military leaders are supporting William White, an openly gay man who is chief operating officer of the Intrepid Museum Foundation, to be Secretary of the Navy. That would be cool. But I'm not getting my hopes up. On Fri, December 19, 2008 15:35, Gerry Gras wrote: > > FYI, > > Gerry > > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: From a CA Green Party Member regarding Mr. Obama's invitation > to Rick Warren > Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:17:11 -0800 > From: Shannon Q > To: , , > , , > , , , > , , , > , , , > , , , > , , > > > > Dear Ma?am or Sir; > > > > > > I've recently been speaking to a number of friends in the LGBT community > in my area and abroad, both directly and over electronic forums such as > Live Journal, blogs and email. The majority of these friends are > currently registered voters with the Democratic Party. > > > > As you most likely know, President Ellect Obama has invited Rick Warren > as a key member of his inauguration. Rick Warren was not only a > significant champion of supporting Proposition 8 in California to take > away the right to marry from same sex partners, he is also a publicly > outspoken figure who vehemently equates same sex orientation to incest > and pedophilia and contributed to a campaign of lies and slander against > homosexuals (both as part of his efforts in the Proposition 8 campaign > and before/after as well). > > > > Politics aside on whether or not Mr. Obama supports gay rights or not > (and he does not, despite his claims to the contrary. We?re either equal > or we are drinking from another water fountain), the deep and dismissive > insult to the LGBT community is inviting a man who spreads outright lies > and slander regarding LGBT citizens of this country to act as a key > speaker in a ceremony Mr. Obama ?claims? to be inclusive of everyone. > The collaborative bigotry going on here is blatant and shameful. If the > the head of the Aryan Nation or the Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux clan > had been invited in Mr. Warrens place, no one would have the gall to try > and speak about ?differing perspectives? or ?inclusiveness?. Mr. Obama > has willfully invited a hateful bigot to stand with him at a ceremony > that is supposed to represent the entire nation. > > > > In my discussions with my Democratic LGBT friends, I pointed out to them > that the Democratic Party has historically courted the LGBT community > for votes and support, however whenever it is the LGBT community who > needs the support of the Democratic Party, the Party is suddenly > reticent to make any kind of significant stand on germane issues, citing > it to be 'too controversial'. I then invited all of them to come take a > look at the values and stated platform of the Green Party, citing that > the Green Party has the courage to unequivocally state that they support > equality for all under the law, including those of same sex orientation > and transgendered people. It was my hope to offer them a political party > that really did stand for them and not one that was simply ?the lesser > of two evils? (intolerance vs indifference). > > > > I have been providing links to both state level Green web sites > (www.cagreens.org being one of them) and the national site at > http://www.gp.org . It was then that I felt a pit > in my stomach. No where on the Green Party sites is the Rick Warren > situation being discussed. So now I am writing you to ask that you > rectify this oversight. As a Green, I and other gay Green Party members > stand with you and for the Green Party platforms, all of them. > > I am asking that the Green Party do the same. > > > > Thank you for your time, > > > > Shannon Mathew Quintero > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster. Get your > account now. > > > _______________________________________________ > sosfbay-discuss mailing list > sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss > From JamBoi at Greens.org Sat Dec 20 14:36:34 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:36:34 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] New California Green Mayor takes office, unveils Green agenda Message-ID: <49336.66.7.182.186.1229812594.squirrel@greens.org> http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/archives/2008/2008-Dec-18/marinas-new-mayor-one-of-three-green-city-leaders-in-the-state-pushes-an-ambition-agenda/1/@@index Green Energy Marina's new mayor, one of three Green city leaders in the state, pushes an ambition agenda. By Zachary Stahl Marina City Manager Tony Altfeld leans back in his chair and buries his face in his hand. It's 10:15 p.m. The earlier energy and enthusiasm that filled the City Council chambers for Mayor Bruce Delgado's swearing in on Dec. 16 has faded. Altfeld, along with councilmen Dave McCall and Jim Ford, want to go home, but Delgado has saved a multi-faceted item for last. Delgado wants seven meaty discussions on future agendas, from mobile-home rent stabilization to alternatives to the California Public Employment Retirement System (CalPERS) and budget deficits in Landscape Assessment Districts. Altfeld wakes from his slumber once McCall suggests the city should notify everyone in the district when that item is scheduled. "Things are getting fast and furious around here," Altfeld says sharply. "If we are putting an agenda item to simply discuss landscape districts... we are not going to go out and mail notices." After some back and forth, the council manages to pass a motion to schedule the items on future dates. In November Delgado defeated Gary Wilmot, vowing to curb deficit spending, increase public participation and push downtown revitalization. Perhaps his first night on the job wasn't the best time to play several cards on his ambitious agenda. Earlier in the meeting, staff gave the council a status report on the city's budget at Delgado's request. While the report revealed some new oversights, the bulk of revenues haven't arrived yet; staff said it was too early to get a pulse on money problems. Getting his laundry list on the agenda is one thing. Building consensus on the issues will be tougher challenge for Delgado. At Delgado's first meeting behind the gavel, a 3-2 split emerges. The two more conservative-minded councilmen, McCall and Ford, ironically seated to Delgado's right, support the traditional location for the council and city manager's upcoming retreat. The more progressive councilmen, Ken Gray and newly elected Frank O'Connell, follow Delgado's lead. Still, Delgado attempts to build bridges during his swearing-in speech. He trades jokes with Wilmot and even acknowledges former mayor Ila Mettee-McCutchon, to whom he lost a mayoral bid in 2004. "I hope to become the best team player I can," he says. Delgado, one of three Green Party mayors in the state, wants to steer Marina in a more sustainable direction than the old guard. He expects to sign environmental accords such as the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and pursue a Styrofoam and plastic-bag ban. He also wants to focus dense development in the downtown area and push alternative energy in the project that replaces Cypress Knolls on Fort Ord. "We'd like to go as green as we can," Delgado said. But this vision may only be realized once his mayoral greenness rubs off. From JamBoi at Greens.org Sat Dec 20 14:44:17 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:44:17 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] FW: strategy considerations Message-ID: <49361.66.7.182.186.1229813057.squirrel@greens.org> Jon Olsen joliyoka at gwi.net Wed Dec 17 19:18:28 EST 2008 Previous message: [usgp-dx] Recruiting Green Candidates Next message: [usgp-dx] strategy consideratons Replying to Craig Seaman, who wrote, in part: I wonder if others have ideas/suggestions for developing an active base on a large scale (knowing that our states are different sizes). I wonder how Illinois is handling this. Is California trying to counter a stagnant base. This may well be an issue many state parties with and without ballot lines may be dealing with. There's certainly many states that have gained and lost ballot lines. We need to discuss growth strategies (growth in people who do the work "on the ground" as it were). What are "you all" doing to increase and encourage "enthusiastic" participation so that people feel the want to volunteer for campaigns or any other party building activities? We need to discuss strategy. (Create that infrastructure which includes vehicles to participate) My responses: YES, we need to think BIG in order to grow the party. Envision the end and work backwards from it. Here's my take on that scenario: 1. The END: Greens are in the strategic position the Dems are now, with Obama coming in and a considerable majority in Congress. 2. Step back--under what conditions can we achieve this end? A. (1)The majority of people voting have no confidence in the other parties and (2) we have inspired them to give us their trust. B. Regarding A (1) The economic and political collapse continues unabated and (2) we replace the prevailing ideology (which I would term neo-feudalism, though Monte amiably disagrees) with one based on our Green values, combined with elements of a traditional left analysis of imperialism (see the brand new speech by Evo Morales I posted just the other day to this list --absolutely brilliant, simple, and thoroughly Green.) We invent an ideology, which is a network of shared mutually compatible values. 3. We repudiate the tendency to spend so much time on procedural wrangling (what union member would, for example have the patience to tolerate all this procedural bickering?) and instead concentrate on a few major tasks: A. Evolve and develop a strategy to win people's allegiance (if we do that, the votes will come). We need to see how South American countries have done this successfully in the past decade, without an armed revolution, and adapt their ideas to our our circumstances (obviously not copying, due to historical and cultural differences). B. Break the media blockade of our ideas. This means taking on the corporate media as an opponent, not regarding them as a nuisance, or worse, a potential ally. C. Find a way to exponentialy increase revenue. Get out of the rut of begging for money like every other organization (hundreds, if not thousands of them). Instead, we organize to earn it by offering our collective goods and services, and finding like minded people with means who see the futility of the existing system. There must be celebrities who would be willing to have us sponsor an evening with them for a genuine political discussion, to which we can request a modest fee. 4. Identify and nurture those Greens who can INSPIRE. Obama is where he is now (in just 4 years) because of his excellent rhetorical ability. We Greens have people like that too; Cynthia being one of them, for sure. 5. Distribute tens of millions (as we have the income--see item C) of 10 Key Values, Real Difference cards, each with the GPUS website. How? Anywhere people are in lines--they will read anything, since it is boring to stand in lines. Ball games, movies, theatrical productions, concerts, fairs, etc. 6. Use the internet vehicles that Craig understands so well (and I don't) and the exponential exposure that comes with such use. 7. To do these kinds of bold promotions, we need to consolidate our own core base, including a few more paid staff, and then a few more, so each state can grow and nurture the seething opposition to the state of affairs we have now. 8. Regard elections as the BY-PRODUCT of our activism on the key sisues people are concerned about: A. The present economy (time to invent a NEW economy--enough with "the" economy) B. Imperial aggression C. Health care D. Taxation without REAL representation (how many people feel "represented" by those in Congress, or even their legislature? Enough for now. Please digest and use for nourishment. Your responses? Jon Olsen., Maine From wrolley at charter.net Sat Dec 20 22:28:23 2008 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:28:23 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Intergenerational Justice Message-ID: <494DE207.1080804@charter.net> I have just now read Dr. James Hansen's talk at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting this week. I had recently listened to George Monbiot interview Faith Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency on the question of energy reserves. Frankly, it scares the hell out of me. Birol is talking about doing the very things that Hansen feels could bring about the final extinction... life as we know it and there will never be a 7th Generation. Check the entire story at California Greening or Green Change. -- "Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente Wes Rolley 17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024 From JamBoi at Greens.org Sun Dec 21 14:58:44 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:58:44 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] FW: RE: From a CA Green Party Member re: Obama's invite to Rick Warren Message-ID: <49615.66.7.182.186.1229900324.squirrel@greens.org> ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: RE: From a CA Green Party Member regarding Mr. Obama's invitation to Rick Warren] From: "Scott McLarty" Date: Sun, December 21, 2008 12:17 To: jamboi at greens.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lazy, ineffective Green Party: "This is an important issue. Can we get the party to issue a press release on it?" Smart, effective Green Party: "This is an important issue. Can we get a couple dozen letters to the editor and op-ed columns submitted to newspapers and news web sites, as well as a GP press release on it?" Scott PS Working on a release right now. ------------------------- > Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:40:04 -0800 > Subject: FW: From a CA Green Party Member regarding Mr. Obama's invitation to Rick Warren] > From: JamBoi at Greens.org > To: scottmclarty at hotmail.com; usgp-media at gp-us.org > > This Green is requesting we put something out re: Obama choosing Pastor > Rick Warren to give the inaugural prayer. > > > Green is Multi! > > Drew > > ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- > Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: From a CA Green Party Member regarding > Mr. Obama's invitation to Rick Warren] > From: "Gerry Gras" > Date: Fri, December 19, 2008 15:35 > To: "GPSCC" > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > FYI, > > Gerry > > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: From a CA Green Party Member regarding Mr. Obama's invitation > to Rick Warren > Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:17:11 -0800 > From: Shannon Q > To: , , > , , > , , , > , , , > , , , > , , , > , , > > > > Dear Ma?am or Sir; > > > > > > I've recently been speaking to a number of friends in the LGBT community > in my area and abroad, both directly and over electronic forums such as > Live Journal, blogs and email. The majority of these friends are > currently registered voters with the Democratic Party. > > > > As you most likely know, President Ellect Obama has invited Rick Warren > as a key member of his inauguration. Rick Warren was not only a > significant champion of supporting Proposition 8 in California to take > away the right to marry from same sex partners, he is also a publicly > outspoken figure who vehemently equates same sex orientation to incest > and pedophilia and contributed to a campaign of lies and slander against > homosexuals (both as part of his efforts in the Proposition 8 campaign > and before/after as well). > > > > Politics aside on whether or not Mr. Obama supports gay rights or not > (and he does not, despite his claims to the contrary. We?re either equal > or we are drinking from another water fountain), the deep and dismissive > insult to the LGBT community is inviting a man who spreads outright lies > and slander regarding LGBT citizens of this country to act as a key > speaker in a ceremony Mr. Obama ?claims? to be inclusive of everyone. > The collaborative bigotry going on here is blatant and shameful. If the > the head of the Aryan Nation or the Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux clan > had been invited in Mr. Warrens place, no one would have the gall to try > and speak about ?differing perspectives? or ?inclusiveness?. Mr. Obama > has willfully invited a hateful bigot to stand with him at a ceremony > that is supposed to represent the entire nation. > > > > In my discussions with my Democratic LGBT friends, I pointed out to them > that the Democratic Party has historically courted the LGBT community > for votes and support, however whenever it is the LGBT community who > needs the support of the Democratic Party, the Party is suddenly > reticent to make any kind of significant stand on germane issues, citing > it to be 'too controversial'. I then invited all of them to come take a > look at the values and stated platform of the Green Party, citing that > the Green Party has the courage to unequivocally state that they support > equality for all under the law, including those of same sex orientation > and transgendered people. It was my hope to offer them a political party > that really did stand for them and not one that was simply ?the lesser > of two evils? (intolerance vs indifference). > > > > I have been providing links to both state level Green web sites > (www.cagreens.org being one of them) and the national site at > http://www.gp.org . It was then that I felt a pit > in my stomach. No where on the Green Party sites is the Rick Warren > situation being discussed. So now I am writing you to ask that you > rectify this oversight. As a Green, I and other gay Green Party members > stand with you and for the Green Party platforms, all of them. > > I am asking that the Green Party do the same. > > > > Thank you for your time, > > > > Shannon Mathew Quintero > > > _________________________________________________________________ Send e-mail faster without improving your typing skills. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_speed_122008 From JamBoi at Greens.org Mon Dec 22 07:37:16 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 07:37:16 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Edumacation Secdatary Arne Duncan Wants Military Schools Message-ID: <49478.66.7.182.186.1229960236.squirrel@greens.org> http://network.greenchange.org/blogs/4012-edumacation-secdatary-arne-duncan-wants-military-schools -- JamBoi http://www.greencommons.org/blog/63 "Peaceable: the ability to interact peacefully. A skill set similar to social or emotional intelligence that is unfortunately rare in today's American culture, but can be developed by all. The Green Parties need to lead the way in Peaceableness." From JamBoi at Greens.org Mon Dec 22 23:29:25 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2008 23:29:25 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Carol Chomsky has died Message-ID: <52368.66.7.182.186.1230017365.squirrel@greens.org> ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: [usgp-media] Carol Chomsky has died From: "Scott McLarty" Date: Mon, December 22, 2008 11:05 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carol Chomsky; at 78; Harvard language professor was wife of MIT linguist By Bryan Marquard The Boston Globe, December 20, 2008 http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/12/20/carol_chomsky_at_78_harvard_language_professor_was_wife_of_mit_linguist/ Brilliant and accomplished, Carol Chomsky taught for many years at Harvard's Graduate School of Education and wrote oft-cited articles about how young children learn to read. And yet, she possessed talents that didn't easily fit on a curriculum vitae. "She was a pretty remarkable person," said Judith Chomsky of Philadelphia, who is married to the younger brother of Dr. Chomsky's husband, Noam. "She was very athletic, and, until she was ill, she was fishing and water skiing and doing things people wouldn't normally associate with her. She played the accordion. She could fix a car. She was mechanical. I mean, she was the one who fixed everything at the house." Through her work in language development and psycholinguistics, Dr. Chomsky also helped young children learn the mechanics of reading, and by doing so gain greater social acceptance in their classrooms. Dr. Chomsky died of cancer yesterday at her Lexington home. She was 78. "She was a very upbeat, happy kind of a person," said Sylvia Schatz of Burlington, who is Dr. Chomsky's sister-in-law. "She was also a very giving person, of herself and of her thoughts, of her ideas, of her suggestions. And she was very generous, both in material things and with her support and help in many ways." Among Dr. Chomsky's duties was, at times, acting as a de facto gatekeeper for those seeking access to her husband, a linguistics professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose writings and political activism made him famous in ways neither of them could have imagined when they married in 1949. Take two years ago, when Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, held up one of Noam Chomsky's books during a fierce speech at the United Nations, turning it into an overnight bestseller. Dr. Chomsky fielded phone calls at their house and kept reporters at bay. "Everyone wants to know what his reaction is," she told the Globe in September 2006. "And that's on the level of gossip and of no consequence at all." Of consequence was her work, her family, and her friends. Carol Schatz grew up in Philadelphia, and her mother taught at a Hebrew school where Noam Chomsky's father was principal, she said in an e-mail interview with The Pennsylvania Gazette, a publication of the University of Pennsylvania. Because of the family connection, she met Noam when she was 5, but they did not date until they were attending the university. "I loved it there," she told the Gazette. "I found my interests; had many excellent, even wonderful professors; and looking back, received a quite satisfactory intellectual grounding." A New Yorker profile of Noam Chomsky in 2003 noted "Carol was then, as she is now, small and slightly built, though her hair was shorter - now white, it grows nearly to her shoulders. She decided in her teens that she disliked wearing lipstick, and she has stuck to that." The Chomskys married in 1949, and she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in 1951. A couple of years later, they tried living on a kibbutz in Israel. "When they were young and they were on the kibbutz, she wanted to drive a tractor or be a mechanic," Judith Chomsky said. "Now, the kibbutz wasn't quite ready for that. It was way before there were even words about women's rights." For various reasons, the Chomskys decided not to stay. They ended up in the Boston area, where he joined the faculty of MIT and they raised their three children. As Noam Chomsky's political activism raised the possibility that he could end up spending time in jail, he and Dr. Chomsky made a decision that set the course of her professional life. Carol Chomsky went back to school and received a doctorate from Harvard, writing a dissertation on early childhood language acquisition. Sylvia Schatz, who was a teacher, said, "We shared a lot of common concerns about kids and their learning." Dr. Chomsky's work helped children who were having difficulties learning to read to experience life-changing moments in their classrooms, Schatz said. "Not only did it help the kids with their learning, but it also gave them a great sense of accomplishment," Schatz said. "She not only contributed the mechanics of how to read, but brought them out so they felt accomplished and were recognized in the classroom, where before they had been considered the low end. That is very hard for little kids." Although Dr. Chomsky and her husband both taught in the field of linguistics, she cautioned against assuming that their scholarship intertwined. "It's a very different sort of linguistics from Noam's pursuits," she told The Pennsylvania Gazette. "I always have to laugh when people talk about how interesting our dinner-table conversation must be since we're in the same field." During summer visits to Wellfleet, Dr. Chomsky taught her grandnieces and grandnephews how to cook hamburgers on a rock that had been heated and how to glide across the waves. "One of my granddaughters," Schatz said, "found a picture of Carol teaching her to windsurf on a pond in Wellfleet." In addition to her husband and her sisters-in-law, Dr. Chomsky leaves two daughters, Aviva of Salem and Diane of Mexico City; a son, Harry of Albany, Calif.; a brother, J. Leonard Schatz of Burlington; three grandsons; and two granddaughters. Funeral plans were not immediately announced. From JamBoi at Greens.org Tue Dec 23 07:31:07 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:31:07 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Greens: protest Obama's antigay inaugural minister Rick Warren Message-ID: <49479.66.7.182.186.1230046267.squirrel@greens.org> http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=159 Gay rights supporters should protest Obama's choice of antigay minister Rick Warren to deliver inaugural prayer, say Greens Gay rights supporters should protest Obama's choice of antigay minister Rick Warren to deliver inaugural prayer, say Greens GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES http://www.gp.org For Immediate Release: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 Obama should have the US sign UN statement endorsing universal decriminalization of homosexuality WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party activists challenged gay voters and advocates of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights to protest President-elect Barack Obama's invitation to Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation. "Unless we make our anger known now, Mr. Obama will continue to betray gay people," said Starlene Rankin, co-chair of the party's Lavender Green Caucus (http://www.lavendergreens.us). "Barack Obama's claim to be a 'fierce advocate for equality' is not credible when he chooses a pastor notorious for his ill-informed and slanderous opinions about homosexuality and vigorous support for Proposition 8." "The invitation signals that Mr. Obama may repeat the Clinton approach to gay rights. President Clinton, taking gay votes for granted, signed the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act into law and authorized the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' military policy. We've had generations of gay rights advocates and other progressives insisting that we need to elect Democrats, then we'll push them towards pro-gay agenda. Instead, gay people have remained second-class citizens in the Democratic Party and told to hush up when they're politically inconvenient. For those tired of bipartisan retreats from promises of human rights and justice, the Green Party remains the party of real change in America," added Ms. Rankin. The Green Party's national platform asserts that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans deserve all the rights, including marriage and the ability to raise a family, that all other Americans enjoy (http://www.gp.org/platform/2004/socjustice.html#999082). Greens strongly opposed Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage in California. Mr. Obama has said he opposed the passage of Propositon 8, but he also opposes full same-sex marriage rights, a position inconsistent with support for full and equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Pastor Warren's public statements have revealed profound ignorance and bigotry on sexuality and on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in particular. Promoting passage of Proposition 8 in California, he has said that "in the hierarchy of evil... homosexuality is not the worst sin," an admission that he believes gay people are evil because they are gay. He has said that allowing same-sex marriage is like allowing "a brother and sister be together and call that marriage" and added that he is "opposed to an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage," comparing same-sex marriage and homosexuality to incestuous relationships and pedophilia, which are crimes. Pastor Warren has also said that homosexuality is "not the natural way.... Certain body parts are meant to fit together," but has not called for the invalidation of heterosexual marriages in which the spouses have engaged in sex outside of vaginal sexual intercourse. Greens noted that Barack Obama's choice of Rev. Warren for the inaugural prayer coincides with a declaration introduced by 66 countries in the UN calling for universal decriminalization of homosexuality (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7791063.stm). The US is the only major western nation that has refused to sign on, even though a Supreme Court decision has invalidated US laws against sodomy. "Will the new Obama Administration maintain Bush policy and decline to have the US sign the declaration against criminalization of gay people?" asked Tim Casebolt, secretary of the Lavender Green Caucus. "Barack Obama has asked Robert Gates to stay on as Secretary of Defense. Mr. Gates is not only likely to continue the Bush Administration's military aggression around the world, but also the targeting of gay members of the armed forces for investigation, harassment, and discharge. The Obama Cabinet appointments have disappointed anyone who sincerely hoped for genuine change in 2009," Mr. Casebolt added. MORE INFORMATION Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org 202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN Fax 202-319-7193 Tally of Green election victories http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/election-results.html Green candidate news http://www.gp.org/2008-elections/candidate-news.php Green candidate database for 2008 and other campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections ~ END ~ From JamBoi at Greens.org Tue Dec 23 07:41:37 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:41:37 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] CAGreens: insist Obama un-invite anti-gay pastor; suggest Dems helped Prop. 8 passage] Message-ID: <49501.66.7.182.186.1230046897.squirrel@greens.org> News Advisory THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA www.cagreens.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, December 22, 2008 Contact: Cres Vellucci, press secretary, 916.996-9170 cvellucci at cagreens.org Susan King, spokesperson, 415.823-5524 sking at cagreens.org Daniel Brezenoff, spokesperson, 310.422-2211 dbrezenoff at cagreens.org State Green Party demands Obama un-invite California pastor Rick Warren to inauguration, suggests President-elect, Democratic Party ?ambiguity' may have helped passage of Prop. 8 SACRAMENTO ? The Green Party of California ? noting the Democratic Party's national platform does not support same sex marriage ? is demanding that President-elect Obama un-invite pro-Prop 8 pastor Rick Warren to perform the invocation for the Obama inauguration. Further, Greens charged, it quite possibly was the mixed message sent from the Democratic Party, and the President-elect himself that contributed to the passage of Prop. 8 in California ? which bans same sex marriage ? despite Obama's landslide victory here. "The Green Party in California has supported same sex marriage since it first published its platform in 1992. Not so for the Democratic Party. That ambiguity of the Democrats led to confusion on Prop. 8 among voters," said Shane Que Hee, GPCA Platform co-coordinator. "The national Democratic Party platform does not explicitly support same sex marriage, and only this year did the California Democratic Party put it in their platform. That should speak volumes. No one should be surprised by the President-elect, who does not support same-sex marriage explicitly, and only opposed Prop. 8 on state's rights reasons," he said. The Green Party of the United States has echoed the call by the California Green Party, asking that if President-elect Barack Obama calls himself a "fierce advocate for equality" for gay people, why has he invited Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration? Greens said the choice of Pastor Warren signals that Obama may repeat the Clinton Administration's approach to gay rights. Clinton, taking gay support for granted, signed the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act into law that defended marriage exclusively for heterosexuals, and authorized the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' military policy. Obama's opposition to full same-sex marriage rights suggests he does not believe in full and equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. Others have suggested Pastor Warren's biases go further, noting his statement that members of the Jewish community and "non-Christians" will be denied "salvation." -30- _______________________________________________ GPCA-MediaWG mailing list GPCA-MediaWG at lists.cagreens.org http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/gpca-mediawg From gerrygras at earthlink.net Tue Dec 23 14:36:55 2008 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:36:55 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: The moral climate] Message-ID: <49516807.2080709@earthlink.net> A good (IMO) article about climate change and morality. Gerry -------- Original Message -------- Subject: The moral climate Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:08:17 -0800 To: Gerry Gras http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/3260/ Of all the psychopathology in the climate issue, the most counterproductive thought is that solving the problem will require sacrifice. As though our wastefulness of energy and money is not sacrifice. As though war built around oil is not sacrifice. As though losing polar bears, ice-dependent penguins, coral reefs, and thousands of other living companions is not sacrifice. As though withered cropland is not a sacrifice, or letting the fresh water of cities dry up as glacier-fed rivers shrink. As though risking seawater inundation and the displacement of hundreds of millions of coastal people is not a sacrifice?and reckless risk. But don?t tell me to own a more efficient car; that would be a sacrifice! We think we don?t want to sacrifice, but sacrifice is exactly what we?re doing by perpetuating problems that only get worse; we?re sacrificing our money, and sacrificing what is big and permanent, to prolong what is small, temporary, and harmful. We?re sacrificing animals, peace, and children to retain wastefulness while enriching those who disdain us. From wrolley at charter.net Tue Dec 30 10:01:35 2008 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:01:35 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Remember Alex Walker? Message-ID: <495A61FF.9080405@charter.net> Do you want to be introduced to State Senator Alex Walker? Alex has stepped up and is running in a special election to take the seat of recently elected His campaign? A NEW POLITICS FOR A NEW CENTURY FOR A NEW CA UNBOUGHT LIKE RALPH NADER UNBOSSED LIKE CYNTHIA McKINNEY Check out Alex's Web Site. http://alexwalker4california.com/ This is the right campaign and the right time. I think that Alex has framed the issue in just the right way. Now, it is up to all of us to deliver the support that he needs. If any of you are on facebook, I urge you to join the group. Senator Alex Walker. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41981043947 -- "Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente Wes Rolley 17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037 http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024 From gerrygras at earthlink.net Wed Dec 31 01:51:03 2008 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:51:03 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Remember Alex Walker? References: <495A61FF.9080405@charter.net> Message-ID: <495B4087.7080900@earthlink.net> Wes Rolley wrote: > Do you want to be introduced to State Senator Alex Walker? I'd love to. > > Alex has stepped up and is running in a special election to take the > seat of recently elected Great! It's about time! > > His campaign? > > A NEW POLITICS FOR A NEW CENTURY FOR A NEW CA > UNBOUGHT LIKE RALPH NADER > UNBOSSED LIKE CYNTHIA McKINNEY > > Check out Alex's Web Site. http://alexwalker4california.com/ > > This is the right campaign and the right time. I think that Alex has > framed the issue in just the right way. Now, it is up to all of us to > deliver the support that he needs. If any of you are on facebook, I > urge you to join the group. Senator Alex Walker. > http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41981043947 > We urged him to run for office when he was still living in this county. I remember a very good speech he did at San Jose State on behalf of the GP. And his comments are generally right on. I'll send him a check today. I propose that the GPSCC endorse him at our next meeting, one week from today. Gerry From JamBoi at Greens.org Wed Dec 31 15:04:35 2008 From: JamBoi at Greens.org (Drew Johnson) Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:04:35 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Israeli ramming of Cynthia McKinney's Boat and attacks on Gaza Message-ID: <52828.66.7.182.186.1230764675.squirrel@greens.org> ---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: [usgp-media] Collected articles on Gaza attacks, ramming of SS Dignity (relief vessel with McKinney on board) by Israel gunboat From: "Scott McLarty" Date: Tue, December 30, 2008 11:28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's a collection of articles & video links I put together from various sources, some of them already posted on the Media & International lists. Israel is claiming that the Israeli Navy gunboat collision with the SS Dignity was an accident, contrary to accounts by witnesses on board the Dignity including Cynthia McKinney. Overall, the foreign press coverage of the incident seems to be more detailed and probably more accurate. The Green Party will have a release out shortly on the Gaza attacks and the SS Dignity incident. -- Scott McKinney relief boat hit by Israeli ship The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 29, 2008 http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/stories/2008/12/29/cynthia_mckinney_gaza.html?cxntlid=brkng_nws_bnr Israeli air strikes represent massive violations of international law Russia Today, December 29, 2008 http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/35373 Israel accused of ramming Gaza aid boat The Guardian (UK), 30 December 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/30/israel-gaza-aid-ship Gaza protest boat back in Lebanon The Associated Press, December 30, 2008 http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/30/news/ML-Lebanon-Gaza-Boat.php Israeli Navy rams Gaza-bound aid boat, forcing it to dock in Lebanon Michael Theodoulou, The Daily Mail (UK), December 30, 2008 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1103227/Israeli-Navy-rams-Gaza-bound-aid-boat-forcing-dock-Lebanon.html Israel pounds Hamas in Gaza ??? Government buildings destroyed in latest air strikes ??? Hospitals overflow with casualties as civilian death toll mounts The Guardian, December 30, 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/30/israel-gaza-attacks CNN video featuring interviews with Cynthia McKinney http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/12/30/am.lebanon.aid.boat.mckinney.cnn http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/12/30/am.lebanon.aid.boat.mckinney Video of damaged SS Dignity docking in Lebanon http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7804841.stm http://news.google.com/news?AlJazeeraEnglish: hl=en&ned=&q=rammed+aid+boat+in+gaza&btnG=Search+News Emergency appeal for food, meds, clothes, Free Gaza ship attacked by Israeli Navy, diverts to Lebanon: Aid group issues emergency appeal for food, meds, clothes Al-Jazeerah, December 30, 2008 http://www.aljazeerah.info/News/2008/December/30%20n/Emergency%20appeal%20for%20food,%20meds,%20clothes,%20Free%20Gaza%20ship%20attacked%20by%20Israeli%20Navy,%20diverts%20to%20Lebanon.htm New U.S. policy needed toward Israelis and Palestinians Jess Ghannam, San Francisco Chronicle, December 30, 2008 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/30/EDRV150JIJ.DTL "If Gaza falls..." (column with background on the Gaza attack) Sara Roy, London Review of Books, January 1, 2009 http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/roy_01_.html Support for Palestinian people under attack http://www.freegaza.org (Free Gaza Movement, which organized the SS Dignity's Gaza relief effort) http://www.al-awda.org Jewish Voices for Peace statement on Gaza attacks December 28, 2008 http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_1146.shtml _______________________________________________ usgp-media mailing list usgp-media at gp-us.org http://lists.gp-us.org/mailman/listinfo/usgp-media From JGSHURT69 at aol.com Wed Dec 31 18:16:27 2008 From: JGSHURT69 at aol.com (JGSHURT69 at aol.com) Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:16:27 EST Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Gaza: Is it Violence or Just Land? Message-ID: So much talk about rockets and terrorism. No. It's much more simple and familiar. It's not about victims. It's only about land.. Palestinians are on it, and have been on it for centuries. Israel claims it, by God and the UN. Just like Indian Land from sea to shining sea. The natives were the terrorists, Marines still scream "Geronimo !!!" Give us the land or die in Gaza, or in Arizona. Why even talk about violence? Viva Palestine / Israel One state solution. Right of return. Human Rights for all...or Divestment, no tourism, no more dollars. Viva South Africa. Viva Cuba Libre. Happy New Year Jeffrey in San Bruno **************New year...new news. Be the first to know what is making headlines. (http://www.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000026) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: