From j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net Sun Nov 1 20:39:42 2009 From: j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net (Jim Doyle) Date: Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:39:42 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Thurs Nov 12 event at SJSU Message-ID: <4AEE628E.5070409@sbcglobal.net> *Subject:* 4th Annual "Poverty Under the Stars" Campus Sleep Out: The Great Recession On Thursday, November 12, 2009, SJSU students and faculty will hold the 4th Annual "Poverty Under the Stars" Campus Sleep Out at San Jose State, and we would like to invite your organization to participate. This year's "Poverty Under the Stars" event, which is sponsored by the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project and the Cesar Chavez Community Action Center, is focused on the / Great Recessio/n (see attached flier). There are three ways your organization can participate: 1. Decorate a tent that demonstrates how the /Great Recession/ is impacting your community; 2. Come to the 7-9 pm community-wide event at the Smith & Carlos Statue Garden and hear 1. speakers (including someone from your organization) discuss how the 2. /Great Recessio/n is affecting your community, and learn now Civic Works can create 3. jobs and rebuild America. 3. Sleep out in solidarity with the people who are being effected by the /Great Recession./ If you and/or your organization are interested in participating in the 4th Annual "Poverty Under the Stars" Campus Sleep Out, please email or call me at 510-508-5382. And please share with your staff and members, and feel free to distribute it widely. best, scott -------------------------------------------------------------------- Scott Myers-Lipton, Ph.D. Sociology Department, San Jos? State Co-Founder, Gulf Coast Civic Works Campaign (510) 508-5382 www.SolvingPoverty.com www.SequoiaRetreatCenter.com / "Have courage. Press on, one step at a time in the direction of your dream."/ --Ellen Grace O'Brian From tnharter at aceweb.com Sun Nov 1 21:50:54 2009 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:50:54 +0000 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Another big party on bicycles! This time it's Halloween in San Francisco... Message-ID: <4AEE733E.2060203@aceweb.com> I suppose I should include a warning that if you are frightened by the sight of rubber breasts in the background of a picture or two you shouldn't see this set... http://tian.greens.org/SanFrancisco/CriticalMass/Oct09/index.html -- Tian http://tian.greens.org Latest change: Added picts from the last SFGP office party on Howard St. From wrolley at charter.net Tue Nov 3 08:31:22 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:31:22 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] A Sprinkling of Truth: New Green Talk Column Message-ID: <4AF05ADA.6010208@charter.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carolineyacoub at att.net Tue Nov 3 10:03:17 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 10:03:17 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: Important Healthcare Update Message-ID: <939276.82710.qm@web81207.mail.mud.yahoo.com> For those of you who don't get these...... ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Congresswoman Anna Eshoo To: carolineyacoub at att.net Sent: Tue, November 3, 2009 8:04:15 AM Subject: Important Healthcare Update RECENT NEWS???? |???? CONSTITUENT SERVICES???? |???? LEGISLATIVE WORK???? |???? CONTACT ANNA???? |???? NOT A SUBSCRIBER? Dear Caroline, I have spent the last three months reaching out to constituents and listening to your concerns about healthcare reform to make certain that we develop the best possible legislation. I held four Town Hall Meetings and five Telephone Town Hall Meetings, reaching over 80,000 constituents from every part of our Congressional District. I?ve addressed each and every question, and considered all the suggestions constituents offered. Over 3,000 Town Hall Meetings were held across the country by other Members of Congress. Now, we are on the threshold of achieving an extraordinary goal, and that is to pass historic legislation to make health insurance available to every American. In the House of Representatives, we have a ?blended? bill, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, which merges the best parts of the versions drafted by the three committees with jurisdiction over the bill. I?m very proud that most of the components that I support and voted for as a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, made their way into the final package, including a public option. The bill will fix what is broken and preserve what is successful about the American healthcare system. It will provide extensive new protections for all health care consumers, rein in the skyrocketing costs which are breaking the budgets of families and businesses, and extend coverage to all Americans, while saving the government $30 billion over 10 years. With healthcare costs far outpacing inflation, our country is struggling to keep up. We must widen the insurance pool to include all Americans, focus on preventive care, and bring healthcare costs down. We simply cannot sustain the status quo. Here are the highlights of the legislation in the House of Representatives: ? A new Health Insurance Exchange, a one-stop comparison shopping marketplace, including a public option to compete with private insurers to help lower costs and improve coverage. >? Affordability credits to help low-income Americans buy insurance >? Improved Medicare benefits by closing the prescription drug "donut hole" immediately to lower drug prices for seniors faster, and extend the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund. >? Extended coverage for young Americans, allowing them to stay on their parents' health insurance plans up to their 27th birthday. >? An end to discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes, heart conditions, or cancer; and prohibiting health insurance companies from dropping coverage if someone becomes sick >? Elimination of co-pays for preventive and wellness care >? Annual caps on out-of-pocket expenses at $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for families >? Removal of yearly or lifetime caps on private health insurance policies. >? Reduce the deficit through revenue savings and Medicare efficiencies. There will be additional savings based on access to early and preventive treatments. The savings are actually greater than the Congressional Budget Office projections. Some of the reforms will take place immediately, including the prohibition of the abhorrent practice of ?rescission,? the dropping of sick patients in order to not pay their expensive healthcare bills. It will end discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, eliminate lifetime caps on insurance plans, and spend less than 85 percent of premium dollars on medical care. Beginning in 2013, a health insurance ?Exchange? will be available for those Americans who cannot obtain insurance through their employers. The Exchange is a health insurance clearinghouse to provide consumers with one-stop-shopping for the numerous insurance plans on the market, including the public option. Consumers will have the ability to go online, call a hotline, or read printed information that provides clear, concise comparison information about different health plans, such as cost and minimum benefits. Finding insurance, signing up and using a plan will be user-friendly, not cost-prohibitive, complicated or terrifying. Seniors will benefit from the Affordable Health Care for America Act because of provisions that strengthen and improve Medicare. The bill lowers Medicare drug prices by closing the coverage gap or ?donut hole.? It reduces inefficiencies and program costs to help Medicare remain solvent without cutting benefits. It improves coordination and increases the quality of care for seniors with diabetes, high blood pressure, and other chronic conditions. It eliminates co-pays for preventive office visits. Drafting this bill has not been easy, but I have confidence that our work will pay off with dividends ? a healthier population and lower costs. I look forward to voting for the Affordable Health Care for America Act when it comes to the House floor and I will continue to update you as the bill moves forward. The Senate is working to merge the two bills they?ve written, and then vote on their blended bill. After the House bill and the Senate bill are combined, the final bill will be voted on by both bodies and then sent to the President for his signature. If you have any questions or comments, let me hear from you. I?m proud to represent a Congressional District where my constituents are informed and ask serious-minded, thoughtful questions, and provide me with valuable feedback. You have made this historic legislation even better. Sincerely, Anna G. Eshoo Member of Congress DISTRICT OFFICE 698 Emerson Street Palo Alto, California 94301 (650) 323-2984 (408) 245-2339 (831) 335-2020 (650) 323-3498 fax WASHINGTON, D.C. OFFICE 205 Cannon Building Washington, D.C. 20515 (202) 225-8104 (202) 225-8890 fax WEB SITE http://email.address-verify.com/m/6c1GdnTcTj5q0vRItosDRKBWgjwnRgKDRMQl72KVzu1nrT2bKw If you wish to contact me, please do so at http://eshoo.house.gov. Please do NOT reply to this message. If you do not wish to receive future emails from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, unsubscribe here. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wrolley at charter.net Tue Nov 3 10:14:26 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:14:26 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Lofgren Message-ID: <4AF07302.6070003@charter.net> I find it rather laughable that Zoe Lofgren heads the Ethics Committee of the House of Representatives. This is what Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had to say about Lofgren in 2007. > A new study by Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington > (CREW), a non-partisan activist group, found that 72 members of > Congress diverted some $5.1 million in campaign funds to their > relatives, or companies owned by their relatives, over the past six > years. > The two biggest abusers of the system are *Rep. Zoe Lofgren*, Democrat > from California, who diverted $285,481 in campaign funds to her > husband's firm and California Republican Buck McKeon, who managed to > siphon off $263,168 in direct payments to his wife. Of course, she does what ever Pelosi wants done. -- "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 Tue Nov 3 12:31:39 2009 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:31:39 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Only Months re Climate Change Message-ID: <4AF0932B.2090003@earthlink.net> From Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, and former president of the Worldwatch Institute: "We Only Have Months, Not Years, to Save Civilization from Climate Change" "International agreements take too long, we need a swift mobilisation not seen since the second world war" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/03-9 Gerry P.S. I wonder what effect this article will have. Human psychology can be perverse, so this article may hurt, not help... See George Monbiot's article: "My fiercest opponents on global warming tend to be in their 60s and 70s. This offers a fascinating, if chilling, insight into human psychology" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/03-1 From WB4D23 at aol.com Tue Nov 3 17:06:27 2009 From: WB4D23 at aol.com (WB4D23 at aol.com) Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 20:06:27 EST Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Meeting Agenda for Tomorrow NIgh? Message-ID: Did I miss it? Is there a draft agenda for the regular GPSCC meeting? Status of finding a new Region CC member? Updates on tabling schedule, supplies and preparations? Warner -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From WB4D23 at aol.com Tue Nov 3 17:10:49 2009 From: WB4D23 at aol.com (WB4D23 at aol.com) Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 20:10:49 EST Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Film Screening- FRESH Message-ID: In a message dated 10/20/2009 12:17:21 PM Pacific Standard Time, wrolley at charter.net writes: We need to take this idea, and all of the others, and put them into a local platform for Green Candidates. What candidates? Anyone who plans on running for any office in 2010 should have started last summer. Warner -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tnharter at aceweb.com Tue Nov 3 17:42:38 2009 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:42:38 +0000 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Lofgren In-Reply-To: <4AF07302.6070003@charter.net> References: <4AF07302.6070003@charter.net> Message-ID: <4AF0DC0E.4030901@aceweb.com> I got the heebie jeebies when I realized that Lofgren's office was at the corner of First & Bush in San Jose. I didn't realize at the time that she was first in Congress in nepotism. What a surprise! :-/ Wes Rolley wrote: > I find it rather laughable that Zoe Lofgren heads the Ethics Committee > of the House of Representatives. This is what Citizens for > Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had to say about Lofgren in 2007. > >> A new study by Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington >> (CREW), a non-partisan activist group, found that 72 members of >> Congress diverted some $5.1 million in campaign funds to their >> relatives, or companies owned by their relatives, over the past six >> years. > >> The two biggest abusers of the system are *Rep. Zoe Lofgren*, Democrat >> from California, who diverted $285,481 in campaign funds to her >> husband's firm and California Republican Buck McKeon, who managed to >> siphon off $263,168 in direct payments to his wife. > Of course, she does what ever Pelosi wants done. > -- Tian http://tian.greens.org Latest change: Picts from Halloween's critical mass in San Francisco. From cls at truffula.sj.ca.us Tue Nov 3 21:31:31 2009 From: cls at truffula.sj.ca.us (Cameron L. Spitzer) Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 21:31:31 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Lofgren Message-ID: <20091104053131.D42036A94E@truffula.sj.ca.us> Before the "second" Gulf War I had only ever asked Lofgren for one thing. In 1997, spam was just beginning to damage the public email system. But it was growing exponentially. Unchecked, it would destroy the system within a decade. Everyone involved with running the system could see that unsolicited broadcast email was theft of service and illegal conversion of assets. One popular analogy compared spammers to vandals pasting their advertisements on other people's billboards, or even spraypainting them on your front door. A bill was offered in the House, which would amend the very successful anti junk fax law of 1991 so that email storage systems would be treated the same as fax machines. It could have nipped the problem in the bud. (I don't remember who wrote it now.) But there was a fake "technology expert" at the ACLU, who clearly didn't have a clue how the system worked much less how the threat worked, and his bosses were closely aligned with the junk mail business, both representing them and funding their operations through junk mail. The junk mail business was beginning to worry about where they'd be when email replaced paper, and they were determined to ruin the email system the way they'd taken over the Postal Service under Reagan. He convinced Zoe "The Idiot" Lofgren (Dummy-CA) that spamming was "free speech" and she locked the real experts out of her committee's hearings, and let the spammers testify as "internet entrepreneurs" and killed the bill. It was the only rational spam bill ever offered in the US Congress. In '04, about the time the EU and Australia got around to outlawing email spamming, the US *legalized* it! It created a legal situation where ISPs are afraid to enforce their own terms of service against spammers and ensured the eventual destruction of the public email system. That destruction is happening in phases. We're currently in the phase where nobody can afford to run their own, so it's all being outsourced to a handful of untrustworthy corporations. So much for the decentralization that had made email essentially impossible to wiretap. And the ACLU is *still* carrying water for the junk mailers and email thieves. The only thing worse than a corrupt congresscritter is a moron pretending to be an expert accomplishing the same. Lofgren's too stupid to be corrupt *or* honest. More plausibly, her staff or relatives are taking the money on her behalf and she's oblivious. -Cameron in San Jose. From wrolley at charter.net Tue Nov 3 21:41:31 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:41:31 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Film Screening- FRESH In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4AF1140B.3030709@charter.net> WB4D23 at aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 10/20/2009 12:17:21 PM Pacific Standard Time, > wrolley at charter.net writes: > > We need to take this idea, and all of the others, and put them > into a local platform for Green Candidates. > > What candidates? Anyone who plans on running for any office in 2010 > should have started last summer. Warner There are local candidates around the state... just none here. -- "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 carolineyacoub at att.net Tue Nov 3 22:35:40 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 22:35:40 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Only Months re Climate Change In-Reply-To: <4AF0932B.2090003@earthlink.net> References: <4AF0932B.2090003@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <404852.33777.qm@web81206.mail.mud.yahoo.com> It's too bad we can't get everybody--especially the super-rich--to read Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us. Ralph Nader's billionaires acccomplished a whole lot in a few months. If people only read pages 215-222 we would for sure have Single Payer. ________________________________ From: Gerry Gras To: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org Sent: Tue, November 3, 2009 12:31:39 PM Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Only Months re Climate Change From Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, and former president of the Worldwatch Institute: "We Only Have Months, Not Years, to Save Civilization from Climate Change" "International agreements take too long, we need a swift mobilisation not seen since the second world war" ? ? ? http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/03-9 Gerry P.S. I wonder what effect this article will have. Human psychology can be perverse, so this article may hurt, not help... See George Monbiot's article: "My fiercest opponents on global warming tend to be in their 60s and 70s. This offers a fascinating, if chilling, insight into human psychology" ? ? ? http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/03-1 _______________________________________________ sosfbay-discuss mailing list sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From alexcathy at aol.com Wed Nov 4 06:21:18 2009 From: alexcathy at aol.com (alexcathy at aol.com) Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:21:18 -0500 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Lofgren In-Reply-To: <20091104053131.D42036A94E@truffula.sj.ca.us> References: <20091104053131.D42036A94E@truffula.sj.ca.us> Message-ID: <8CC2B7135A440E0-FA4-19071@webmail-d089.sysops.aol.com> Cameron, that is one helluva story. Thanks for posting this. Just goes to show how even the A.C.L.U. can be hoodwinked by the idiocies of contemporary politics. I would like designate Zoe Lofgren as (Dummy-CA). I generally refer to those two people from Santa Clara County as Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Cisco Systems) and Rep Anna Eschoo (D-Hewlett-Packard) Most likely she took the position she took because that is what the famous "Silicon Valley" big shots wanted. Alex -----Original Message----- From: Cameron L. Spitzer To: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org Sent: Tue, Nov 3, 2009 9:31 pm Subject: Re: [Sosfbay-discuss] Lofgren Before the "second" Gulf War I had only ever asked Lofgren for one thing. In 1997, spam was just beginning to damage the public email system. But it was growing exponentially. Unchecked, it would destroy the system within a decade. Everyone involved with running the system could see that unsolicited broadcast email was theft of service and illegal conversion of assets. One popular analogy compared spammers to vandals pasting their advertisements on other people's billboards, or even spraypainting them on your front door. A bill was offered in the House, which would amend the very successful anti junk fax law of 1991 so that email storage systems would be treated the same as fax machines. It could have nipped the problem in the bud. (I don't remember who wrote it now.) But there was a fake "technology expert" at the ACLU, who clearly didn't have a clue how the system worked much less how the threat worked, and his bosses were closely aligned with the junk mail business, both representing them and funding their operations through junk mail. The junk mail business was beginning to worry about where they'd be when email replaced paper, and they were determined to ruin the email system the way they'd taken over the Postal Service under Reagan. He convinced Zoe "The Idiot" Lofgren (Dummy-CA) that spamming was "free speech" and she locked the real experts out of her committee's hearings, and let the spammers testify as "internet entrepreneurs" and killed the bill. It was the only rational spam bill ever offered in the US Congress. In '04, about the time the EU and Australia got around to outlawing email spamming, the US *legalized* it! It created a legal situation where ISPs are afraid to enforce their own terms of service against spammers and ensured the eventual destruction of the public email system. That destruction is happening in phases. We're currently in the phase where nobody can afford to run their own, so it's all being outsourced to a handful of untrustworthy corporations. So much for the decentralization that had made email essentially impossible to wiretap. And the ACLU is *still* carrying water for the junk mailers and email thieves. The only thing worse than a corrupt congresscritter is a moron pretending to be an expert accomplishing the same. Lofgren's too stupid to be corrupt *or* honest. More plausibly, her staff or relatives are taking the money on her behalf and she's oblivious. -Cameron in San Jose. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From snug.bug at hotmail.com Wed Nov 4 08:53:49 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 08:53:49 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Protest Condi Rice at the SJ Fairmont Today Wed. 5:30 Message-ID: She is being honored as a leader and legend by the SJ Chamber of Commerce, 800 of Silicon Valley's movers and shakers who are paying $300 apiece for tickets. Tell them they are wrong to honor a war criminal, torturer, perjurer. "I just don?t think we can let these people back into polite society and give them jobs on university boards and corporate boards and just let them pretend that nothing ever happened...." Richard Clarke _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: Unclutter your desktop. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9690331&ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_evergreen:112009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carolineyacoub at att.net Wed Nov 4 09:26:01 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 09:26:01 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Drew Altman on Americans affording health care In-Reply-To: <200911032108.nA3L82Zl022490@mail.ucla.edu> References: <200911032108.nA3L82Zl022490@mail.ucla.edu> Message-ID: <615770.28167.qm@web81201.mail.mud.yahoo.com> This one is really worth reading all the way through. Caroline ________________________________ From: shane que hee Sent: Tue, November 3, 2009 1:08:21 PM Subject: Drew Altman on Americans affording health care Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 10:19:35 -0800 >From: Don McCanne >Subject: Drew Altman on Americans affording health care > > >The Washington Post >Interviews with Washington's power players >November 2, 2009 >Drew Altman, President and CEO of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation > >MS. ROMANO: In your view, what must a bill have in order to be a step forward in health care reform. > >MR. ALTMAN: Well, you know, we're having this debate because the American people, average working Americans, became really worried about and are having real problems just paying their health care bills, and that's having a real impact also on their family budgets and their ability to pay for other things, pay their rent and mortgage or put a kid through college. > >We've forgotten a little bit that that's where this came from. That's why health got traction again as a political issue. > >So the main thing I actually want to see--us health care people tend to talk about this in terms of health care goals, access to care and the quality of care. The first thing I look for is, is this legislation actually responsible--responsive in a meaningful way to the meat-and-potatoes pocketbook problems that average Americans are having, paying for their health care which brought us this debate in the first place. That's number one for me. > >***** > >MS. ROMANO: With President Obama trying to cap the cost of these plans at $900 billion over ten years, does that make the discussion about subsidies very important? > >MR. ALTMAN: It is a really important discussion, and one of the things that's happened is, as so much of the debate lately has focused on this hot-button issue [of] the public option. Flying under the radar screen and not getting as much attention are these bread-and-butter consumer issues about will the policies be affordable for people who now have to buy health insurance coverage, are the subsidies high enough, is the coverage that people are going to get going to be adequate. > >And I think, as we get to two bills and then one bill that the country can really focus on and that people in the media can really focus on, that issue of the affordability of the coverage will rise to the surface and will become a really big issue. > >***** > >MR. ALTMAN: I think the public option issue has diverted attention from lots of other issues, and I think this issue of affordability will emerge as a big issue. And there's a tradeoff as they design this legislation between keeping the overall sticker shock, the price tag of the legislation down and the generosity of the subsidies they can give to people and the comprehensiveness of the coverage that people get, how high--how big those deductibles will be that average middle-class families are going to be asked to pay. > >And that's a very big issue. It's going to be a big issue not just for the people who are in these exchanges, who get these policies, but for the American people generally who look at this and say is this a fair deal, is this a good deal for people who now have to have health insurance coverage. > >I think this is the sleeper issue still. This affordability issue. > >And it's hard to understand. They're focused on the public option. They haven't gotten to it yet. So this issue of affordability, I think, is a sleeper issue because it's complicated, hard to understand how coverage works, what an actuarial value is, how the subsidies work at different income levels, and because they're focused on the public option. Everyone is so focused on the public option right now, but I think as they get to one bill that everyone can put under a microscope, then this issue of the subsidies and the coverage will really rise to the surface, and we'll have a much bigger debate about that. > >And that's the consumer issue. It's the real meat-and-potatoes consumer issue in this legislation. > >***** > >MS. Romano: Is there a way to hold private insurers accountable on costs other than a government option? > >MR. ALTMAN: Well, you know, there are comprehensive reforms of the insurance industry in the legislation, but the one thing they didn't do in this legislation which was proposed in the Clinton health reform plan, which as we all know failed, they did not propose this time around caps on the increases in insurance premiums. They didn't say, "Your premiums can only go up two times inflation in the general economy." That--those--that kind of price controls or regulation, they just didn't think that would work this time, or they didn't think it would fly. Anyway, it's not in the legislation this time. > >So, no, there aren't--I mean, one of the characteristics of the legislation this time is there are not strong controls over the increases that can occur in premiums in the future. > >***** > >MS. ROMANO: Health care costs are a huge burden on American businesses. Are there enough incentives in these different legislations to help the businessmen pay for this, pay for it for employees, or are we fast approaching a point where businesses will be no longer offering health insurance to employees? > >MR. ALTMAN: Well, it's a big problem in this. The reason we've seen a sort of slow drip-drip-drip of coverage out of the employment-based health care system is simply that business can't pay the cost any longer. > >I did a projection the other day that showed that if current trends continue, in 20 years the average cost of a family premium could be 30,000 bucks a year. So we're not on a good trajectory. > >MS. ROMANO: Wow! > >***** > >MS. ROMANO: Do you see a time when the U.S. will ever drift towards a single-payer system? > >MR. ALTMAN: You know, I don't know for sure, but I certainly think it will be a long time, and I know the single-payer people, you know, don't like to hear that because they believe so strongly in that approach, but we're at a point in time now when the approach is favored by the two wings, an all-market approach--people get a voucher, and they shop for themselves--and a single-payer approach are not in the cards. > >And so what we're really looking at, if you view it through that lens, is we're looking at some form of a centrist deal that brings together elements that the right likes and that the left likes and builds on the existing system. It's a little bit messy, but that's all that can fly right now in our political system. > >***** > >MS. ROMANO: Is the U.S. obligated to provide every citizen with health insurance--health care--let me ask that again. Is the United States obligated to provide health care to all of its citizens? > >MR. ALTMAN: The way I would answer that question is to say that it is certainly something that we should do. And I don't know anybody--you know, right, left, or center--who doesn't believe that at some level. The debate is about how we get there, and, unfortunately, that debate about how we get there has been a really bitter and difficult debate in our country. And the tough part of it is, if you scratch beneath the surface and look at the difficult part of it, it is fundamentally about redistributing wealth in our country; that, ultimately, it means, as some of us who have more, have to pay, you know, a little bit more, so that others who have less can have health care. You can slice it and dice it a million ways with this kind of tax or that kind of mandate, but, at the end of the day, that's what's involved, and we don't do that too easily in our country, too happily, or too willingly. > >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/02/AR2009110201285.html > > >Comment:? Drew Altman is a very intelligent and very well informed advocate of a health care system that works well for all of us. His only handicap is that, as President and CEO of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, he must maintain his reputation as a highly credible but impartial voice on health care reform. That requires diligently negotiating his way through the minefield of Washington politics. > >Setting ideology and politics aside, Altman makes it clear that wealth redistribution is absolutely essential if everyone is going to have the health care that they need. By far the simplest, most efficient, and most equitable method of doing that would be to enact a single payer system. But this is where ideology and politics enter. > >How do you meld the ideology of single payer with the ideology of consumers shopping in a market of private health plans? After all, there's that redistribution problem. The solution currently being advanced is to perpetuate the market of private health plans while superimposing government policies to achieve redistribution of wealth, without which it would be impossible to finance care for everyone. > >The combination of private health plans and government policies requires a complex, difficult balancing act. Some of the variables that must be brought into balance include the package of benefits to be covered by the plans, the premiums to be charged for the plans, annual premium increases not limited by regulation, actuarial values of the plans, eligibility for the insurance exchanges, the value of the vouchers used to purchase the plans, the eligibility for the vouchers as related to income or as to wealth as some suggest, the size of the deductibles, copayments and coinsurance, financial support for out-of-pocket expenses, caps on yearly or life-time spending, payment for non-covered or out-of-network products and services, the variable contribution rates for employers, caps on federal and state budgets that limit the level of government funding, extensive corrections in the Medicare program, eligibility for and financing of taxpayer-financed Medicaid programs, financing the complex administrative services for a program in constant flux because of ever-changing eligibility status and contribution levels, balancing income taxes, payroll taxes, possibly VAT taxes, payroll deductions, taxes on health care products, taxes on insurance plans... (continue with your own additions to this list). > >Once you have the full list, just try changing any variable and see what happens to the rest of the variables. What will be the most shocking is to observe what happens to middle-income Americans. They will be clobbered by health care costs! > >The primary reason for these complex adjustments is that health care is now so expensive that redistribution is essential if everyone is to have the care they need. The private insurance market by itself is totally incapable engineering redistribution. Drew Altman says that this would be "a little bit messy," and that, at the end of the day, we won't do it "too easily, too happily, or too willingly." But that's as far as Drew Altman's job description will allow him to go. > >We are not so constrained. Soon we will have "one bill that the country can really focus on and that people in the media can really focus on; that issue of the affordability of the coverage will rise to the surface." > >We can take Drew Altman's astute observations on "the meat-and-potatoes pocketbook problems that average Americans are having in paying for their health care," and we can run with it. We know how to fix it, even if he can't publicly endorse our model of an improved Medicare for all. When we succeed, Drew Altman certainly will be at least a little bit smug. Let's go! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From snug.bug at hotmail.com Wed Nov 4 15:06:17 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 15:06:17 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Proposed Agenda for November Meeting Message-ID: Selection of Facilitator, Notetaker, Timekeeper, and Vibeswatcher Introductions and Announcements treasurer's report (fppc forms) 15 minutes finding candidates for council 3 - 5 minutes doing the same thing over and over again - loss of registered greens 5 minutes coalition for a downtown hospital report part 2 (HHC report, $100K) 5 minutes site for the plenary 20 min candidates for Regional Rep. new schwag three big upcoming tabling things (3 five minute reports) schedule, supplies and preparations (button blanks?) up to date tabling literature 5 minutes 1. Holiday Peace Fair --what they expect of us 2. 3. report on Santa Clara Valley Water District 5 minutes check for green focus (send it to whom?) 2 minutes Challenge from Cress to send Pam in Fairfax $100 ### _________________________________________________________________ Find the right PC with Windows 7 and Windows Live. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/pc-scout/laptop-set-criteria.aspx?cbid=wl&filt=200,2400,10,19,1,3,1,7,50,650,2,12,0,1000&cat=1,2,3,4,5,6&brands=5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16&addf=4,5,9&ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_evergreen2:112009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From palmheaven at gmail.com Wed Nov 4 21:34:35 2009 From: palmheaven at gmail.com (Palm Haven Handyman) Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 21:34:35 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Proposed Agenda for November Meeting In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Greenies: I suggest y'all discuss the new greywater provisions in the new Plumbing Code, and the need to advocate for individual cities to follow the State's lead and allow greywater use. It is gonna happen, and the Green Party can take a leadership role. It will appear to be a victory for the Green Party if they would visibly get behind this. Note what Kurt Newick has done for the Sierra Club with his campaign for lowering solar PV permitting costs... I'd love to be at the meeting, but it does not look likely at this point. Maybe I will write up a more detailed memo that can be read aloud a the meeting... Haven't we been talking about greenbuilding advocacy as a logical strength of the green party? Roy III On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 3:06 PM, Brian Good wrote: > > > Selection of Facilitator, Notetaker, Timekeeper, and Vibeswatcher > > Introductions and Announcements > > treasurer's report (fppc forms) 15 minutes > finding candidates for council 3 - 5 minutes > doing the same thing over and over again - loss of registered greens > 5 minutes > coalition for a downtown hospital report part 2 (HHC report, $100K) > 5 minutes > > site for the plenary 20 min > > candidates for Regional Rep. > > new schwag > > three big upcoming tabling things (3 five minute reports) > schedule, supplies and preparations (button blanks?) > up to date tabling literature 5 minutes > 1. Holiday Peace Fair --what they expect of us > 2. > 3. > > report on Santa Clara Valley Water District 5 minutes > check for green focus (send it to whom?) 2 minutes > > Challenge from Cress to send Pam in Fairfax $100 > > > ### > > > ------------------------------ > Find the right PC with Windows 7 and Windows Live. Learn more. > > _______________________________________________ > sosfbay-discuss mailing list > sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss > > -- Greenbuilder CA General Contractor B #756438 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carolineyacoub at att.net Thu Nov 5 11:00:11 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 11:00:11 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Green Party Meeting--November 4, 2009 Message-ID: <49242.61970.qm@web81202.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Green Party Meeting--November 4, 2009 Present: Andrea, Jim S., Tian, Tom, Jim D., Brian, Fred, Cameron, Caroline, Merriam Facilitator: Tian Time Keeper: Tom Vibes Watcher: Fred Note Taker: Caroline Agenda Preparer for next meeting, Brian. During intros and announcements, Fred said one of??his granddaughters is an intern at the UN in Geneva and another is going to? great school. Tom brought his biodiesel truck for us to see after the meeting. Treasurer's Report--Jim D Jim is set to send in the forms to the FPPC. Current balance is $1819. The budget Jim set up for this year was based on what was in the treasury at the time, approx. $1500. He set up three categories: operating, booths, materials. He proposes we do the same for next year. Caroline said we need to pick a goal--like $4000--and work at getting it. If we want to have Green candidates, we need to be able to support them. Jim said he didn't think we could get that. We have taken in $785 at our events so far this year. Andrea said we need an income/outgo sheet. People should keep track, when tabling, of what is donations and what is "donations" in exchange for buttons, shirts, etc. Jim D. said if we are going to host plenary we should budget for it. Jim S. said with current economy we probably won't make money on it.Tian said we would of we could find a cheap place. Next step? Caroline said we should send people to ROV to get contact info on new Greens and contact the ones we collected at tabling events. Merriam said we need to grow organically through events like Food 4 Thought. Andrea said we have a lot of good stuff we could sell on Craig's List. Tom asked if we had ever had a concert. He will talk about it at the next meeting. Finding Candidates for County Council Incumbents as well as new candidates need to go to ROV, sign up, get signatures, etc. Andrea said we need at least eleven candidates. Some incumbents were not there, but, of those there Andrea agreed to run again, with maybes Tom and Merriam. We will have a petition-signing party at a Food 4 Thought. Why are we losing registered Greens? Jim D. said we are losing one Green per day in Santa Clara County. To stay even, we need a new Green every day. Tom asked if we had voter reg. forms at tabling--we do. Jim says we need to do more. Andrea said at last plenary she learned that losing Green voters is statewide. Tom thought some of that might have been because of Obama. Jim S. said we peaked in 2003 and have been losing 7-8% per year since then. How do we make ourselves more attractive? Tian said earlier we had candidates with name recognition, e.g. Nader and Camejo. We need to find a star willing to work as a Green candidate. Coalition for a Downtown Hospital--Jim D. Jim said Board of Supervisors still has not acted on finding a site and getting approval. He has been talking to neighborhood groups and attending B. of S. meetings. In March 2008 the City Council voted to found a joint City/County commission to find a site for the hospital/clinic. This commission has met once. Brian asked why doesn't Code Enforcement come down on HCA for letting the existing hospital fall to pieces. HCA has put in for a demolition permit. The city is asking HCA to donate money. A rep from SJ redevelopment said the city has already spent $100,000 on the remaining building. Site for Plenary Andrea has talked to Palo Alto High School. The Electric Auto Assn. and Humanist Community have already met there. The HS has no objection to its being used for a political party. They have adequate rooms, an industrial kitchen, two parking lots, and we could have it all weekend. Probable cost $1600. Jim S. said this meeting will be the site of major changes in the party, so it is important for it to be accessible. As of last Sunday, we are the only party working on it. Jim S. found one place we could get for $150 for one day, but we would have to move for the second day. He is checking to see if we could use the County cafeteria. He is also working on the Labor Council and United Way bldg. Merriam suggested CET and Campbell Community Center. Tom will check the American Legion. Caroline will check Sunnyvale Community Center. We need to find the venue by the County Council meeting on November 15. The dates should be March 6,7 or13,14. If someone finds a suitable venue, they should call Jim S immediately!?? His? number is (408)432-9148. ?TheGPCA will throw in $400 to help pay for the venue. If we charge $40 each, that's around $1800 plus $400 form the state. We need a crew for food.? Merriam, Andrea, Caroline, Brian, Cameron and Fred volunteered to be crew. Regional Rep ?Jim S. has found a good candidate--Cindy (sorry I didn't get her last name) from San Mateo. She was very active in Nebraska, seems well organized, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. Jim said he would stay on as alternate until we find a good replacement. The process is, we have to declare a formal election meeting, which will be our regular December meeting. County Council people need to read article 9 before the cc meeting. SO Y'ALL COME TO THE DECEMBER MEETING TO MEET CINDY. Three Big Upcoming Tabling Events November 19--De Anza Peace Fair. Caroline and Andrea setting up and tabling, Tian speaking and helping to haul away. November 21--Junior State. Tom is lead and will get materials from Caroline. Tian, Andrea, and Jim S. will help table. Andrea will take muffins. December 5--Holiday Peace Fair. Brian and Cameron will go early and help set up. Merriam and Caroline will be helping during the day and taking dessert. Tian will help take down. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From the_alliance47 at yahoo.com Thu Nov 5 17:07:37 2009 From: the_alliance47 at yahoo.com (Edward) Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 17:07:37 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Single-Payer Emergency: Ask Reps to BLOCK vote on "single-payer" bill In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <196599.46835.qm@web54306.mail.re2.yahoo.com> The Weiner Charade will come to fruition on Saturday as there will be a Floor vote on a "single-payer" bill. This is a sham and is meant to forever silence any mention of single-payer at the federal and state levels. Reps. Kucinich and Conyers, co-authors of HR 676, describe the situation in detail below. Please ask your Congressmember to prevent a vote on this fake single-payer bill! -edward ------- Dear Friends,? We thank you for your continued devotion to the cause of health care for All Americans. We have worked together for many years to write, promote and campaign for HR676, a single payer, not for?profit health care system. Your work, in communities across America, has been instrumental in helping at least ten states create single payer movements, with many more states to come.? Tomorrow, the?House of Representatives?is scheduled to consider a single payer bill. As the two principal co-authors of the Conyers single payer bill, we want to offer a strong note of caution about tomorrow's vote.? The bill presented tomorrow will not be HR676. While we are happy to relinquish authorship of a single payer bill to any member who can do better, we do not want a weak bill brought forward in a hostile climate to unwittingly accomplish what would be interpreted as a defeat for single payer.? Here are the facts: There has been no debate in Congress over HR676. There has not been a single mark-up of the bill. Single payer was "taken off the table" for the entire year by the?White House?and by congressional leaders. There has been no reasonable period of time to gather support in the Congress for single payer. Many members accepted a "robust public option" as the alternative to single payer and now that has disappeared. The?Congressional Budget Office?(CBO) has scored the bill scheduled for a vote tomorrow in a manner which is at odds with many credible assumptions, meaning that it will appear to cost way too much even though we know that true single payer saves money since one of every three dollars in the?health care system?goes to administrative costs caused by the?insurance companies. Is this really the climate in which we want a test vote?? While state single payer movements are already strong, the national single payer movement is still growing. Many progressives in Congress, ourselves included, feel that calling for a vote tomorrow for single payer would be tantamount to driving the movement over a cliff. The thrill of the vote would disappear quickly when the result would be characterized not as a new beginning for single payer but as an end. Such a result would be seen as proof that Congress need not pay attention to efforts to restore in?Conference Committee?the right of states to pursue single payer without fear of legal attacks by insurance companies.? We are always grateful for your support. We are now asking you to join us in suggesting to congressional leaders that this is not the right time to call the roll on a stand-alone single payer bill. That time will come. And when it does there will not be any doubt of the outcome. This system of health care injustice will not be able to endure forever. We are pledged to make sure of that.? Sincerely,? Congressmen John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carolineyacoub at att.net Thu Nov 5 19:04:57 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 19:04:57 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Anniversary Message-ID: <512041.44070.qm@web81207.mail.mud.yahoo.com> On the first Saturday in February, there will be a celebration of the start of the Green Party in Berkeley. If there are several people who would like to go, I'll be happy to provide transportation, as long as one of the riders can drive. Caroline -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tnharter at aceweb.com Fri Nov 6 02:40:01 2009 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:40:01 +0000 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: Please pass this invitation on to the Green Party] Message-ID: <4AF3FD01.10203@aceweb.com> -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Please pass this invitation on to the Green Party Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 04:43:18 EST From: EllisG237 at aol.com To: tnharter at aceweb.com TN Please pass this invitation on to the Green Party- ish * * *?All legislative actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote? *Regional Summit to Support California Majority Rule & The California Democracy Act with Dr. George Lakoff . Saturday November 21, 10 AM to 1 PM - Humanist Hall 390 27th St Oakland. This is an organizing event where representatives of many organizations will decide how to participate in the campaign. The immediate goal is to organize the petition drive and use our speakers bureau to educate voters. The longer term goal is to build a strong network to carry the ballot measure to victory. RSVP: EllisG237 at aol.com *Ellis Goldberg 925 451 4303 cell 925 831 8355 office*** *EllisG237 at aol.com ** www.TriValleyDems.com//DemocracyInCalifornia.htm _ www.CAMajorityRule ___.com _Facebook: Democracy In California Twitter: EG237_*_ _ -- Tian http://tian.greens.org On my radio the guy that invented the smiley face [:-)] said "if it cost people a nickel to use it they'd stop, so that's my gift to the world." From gerrygras at earthlink.net Fri Nov 6 12:42:25 2009 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:42:25 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Gore says Civil Disobedience is ok for Cimate Change Message-ID: <4AF48A31.8070303@earthlink.net> "Civil Unrest Has a Role in Stopping Climate Change, Says Gore" "Ahead of Copenhagen summit, former US vice-president says 'non-violent lawbreaking' is legitimate in persuading governments to cut emissions" http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/06-6 Gerry From jims at greens.org Fri Nov 6 15:33:06 2009 From: jims at greens.org (Jim Stauffer) Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:33:06 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Stop San Jose from Gutting Affordable Housing Message-ID: <4AF4B232.4010305@greens.org> I got a call from Sol Wachter of the Affordable Housing Network. The SJ city council is poised to gut the funding of the Housing Dept., which includes the low income housing subsidies. They will be deciding this next Tuesday about 2:30 at the Redevelopment Agency budget meeting, which follows the regular city council meeting. San Jose residents are encouraged to attend the meeting and speak out against these cuts, or send a message to your council member. http://www.sanjoseca.gov/council.asp The story is... The state is gutting local budgets. In SJ, $75M has been taken from the Redevelopment Agency's budget. Part of that money is what funds the Housing Dept. The only other funding source for Housing is borrowing money with repayment by issuing bonds. Currently, no bank will lend them money under these conditions. This means that housing subsidies for the poor will be curtailed. Sol reported that the Redev budget for commercial property development is not cut as much as housing. Please make your voices heard. Jim Stauffer From tnharter at aceweb.com Fri Nov 6 16:05:36 2009 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:05:36 +0000 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Gore says Civil Disobedience is ok for CimateChange In-Reply-To: <4AF48A31.8070303@earthlink.net> References: <4AF48A31.8070303@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <4AF4B9D0.2090007@aceweb.com> I'm thinking the kind of civil disobedience called for is walking yellow lights and stuff like that. I relish crossing against the light when it's safe! Gerry Gras wrote: > > "Civil Unrest Has a Role in Stopping Climate Change, Says Gore" > "Ahead of Copenhagen summit, former US vice-president says 'non-violent > lawbreaking' is legitimate in persuading governments to cut emissions" > > http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/06-6 > > Gerry > > > > > _______________________________________________ > sosfbay-discuss mailing list > sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss > -- Tian http://tian.greens.org On my radio the guy that invented the smiley face [:-)] said "if it cost people a nickel to use it they'd stop, so that's my gift to the world." From the_alliance47 at yahoo.com Fri Nov 6 17:52:35 2009 From: the_alliance47 at yahoo.com (Edward) Date: Fri, 6 Nov 2009 17:52:35 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Update: No Floor Vote, stop calling Congress In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <997425.76781.qm@web54306.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Early this morning, the faux single-payer amendment was pulled and?there will be no vote after all. Please, do not make any further calls to Congress asking members to oppose a Floor vote on faux single-payer. In the coming hours, Congressmen Weiner, Kucinich and Conyers will release instructions via email explaining the next steps. PDA wants to?keep up the pressure?on inserting the?Kucinich amendment, and in support of?Sen. Sanders' bill?in the Senate. And, the?Mobilization for Healthcare for All?continues, as well as our work to pass single-payer healthcare in the states. This is a?teaching moment--clearly?better communication?between Congress members and the grassroots that support them is needed. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gerrygras at earthlink.net Fri Nov 6 20:51:21 2009 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:51:21 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] One Degree War Message-ID: <4AF4FCC9.7060505@earthlink.net> The 350.org blog points out this webpage: "Time to prepare for The One Degree War" http://paulgilding.com/cockatoo-chronicles/cc20091106-odw-launch.html It has a link to a draft paper: "One Degree War" http://paulgilding.com/fileshare/p091101-The-one-degree-war-plan.pdf about how to fight a "war" to get climate change under control. This paper was written by two climate scientists. NOTE: On page 13 of the paper is a reference to an article in the November, 2009 Scientific American. Apparently a renewable energy system would be cheaper than fossil fuel and nuclear?!? I MUST get a copy! NOTE: This includes CCS (Carbon Capture and Sequestration). It is my impression that there are some serious unsolved technical problems with CCS that may make it unfeasible. Does anyone know anything indicating otherwise? NOTE: On page 16 is a redistribution to every global citizen starting at $45 per person per year and rising to $225 per person per year. This would be a significant improvement to the world's poorest one billion or two billion. Gerry P.S. Stephen Schneider, a Stanford Climatologist, will be speaking at a Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce / Acterra event, November 13th, 1:30 PM: http://paloaltocacoc.weblinkconnect.com/cwt/External/WCPages/WCEvents/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=807 Schneider's website is at: http://stephenschneider.stanford.edu/index.html From tnharter at aceweb.com Sun Nov 8 00:38:22 2009 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:38:22 +0000 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Contagious Love Experiment Message-ID: <4AF6837E.2010105@aceweb.com> This evening I saw a fascinating presentation by these two Iraq vets at the San Jose Peace & Justice Center. If you can attend one of their upcoming events I recomend the experience. Her is the list from their website: 11/8-11th Bay Area: ?7:00pm presentation, Metta Center, 1730 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley, CA on the 8th ?10th, 7:15, Berkeley Friends Church (Conor) ?Lafayette VFP Veterans Day Vigil To find out more please visit their website at: http://contagiousloveexperiment.wordpress.com -- Tian http://tian.greens.org On my radio the guy that invented the smiley face [:-)] said "if it cost people a nickel to use it they'd stop, so that's my gift to the world." From wrolley at charter.net Sun Nov 8 10:17:43 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:17:43 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Water legislation votes Message-ID: <4AF70B47.202@charter.net> The list of State Legislators who took principled stand on the water legislation included Ira Ruskin, Paul Fong and Jim Beall . The others just went along and unfortunately, Joe Simitian once again paved the way for more ecological destruction as he has always done. It is interesting that some of the more progressive Democrats, like Tom Amiano, and wingnut Republicans like Roger Niello (Sacramento -- suburbs mainly) agreed that the legislation was bad. At times the compromise to the middle means that everyone gets screwed. -- "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 Sun Nov 8 21:33:37 2009 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Sun, 08 Nov 2009 21:33:37 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Health Care Reform? Message-ID: <4AF7A9B1.6040806@earthlink.net> Here are three opinions re the House bill passed yesterday. From Kucinich: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/08-0 And "Kucinich's Brave Health Vote Vs. Obama's Failed Promise" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/08-4 And from Barbara Lee below. Gerry -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Historic Health Care Legislation Date: Sun, 8 Nov 2009 14:17:32 -0500 From: Barbara Lee for Congress Barbara Lee Fights to Reform Health Care Congresswoman Lee greets President Obama on Capitol Hill Last night, just before midnight, the House of Representatives passed HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care For America Act. Congresswoman Barbara Lee was a leader in fighting to reform America?s health care system. As Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, she helped energized the Progressive Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus and the Asian Pacific American Caucus. She relentlessly communicated with the President and the Speaker of the House to make sure that this Bill not only passed, but contained reform that would bring desperately needed change to the American people. The final version of the bill will * bring health care to over 57,000 people in CA district 9 who were previously uninsured * reduce health Insurance premiums which doubled between 2000 and 2008 and will force insurance companies whose profits quadrupled during that time to become more competitive. The President challenged the Democratic Caucus to ??answer the call of history??. Barbara Lee answered the call and led the charge. (Watch her statement on the floor of the house here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siKh7_d6O7E) Following passage of the bill Congresswoman Lee said: ?Today?s historic vote is one step forward in our quest to provide health care to all Americans. While there is still much work to do, I applaud President Obama, the Democratic Leadership and the Chairmen of the Tri-Committees for their efforts to bring us to this point. I also want to thank the Tri-Caucus, Progressives Caucus and particularly the 42 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Together we have led the fight for a strong public option, which is included in the health care bill that the House approved today. When others were pronouncing health reform dying?and the public option dead and buried?we kept on fighting! And we will keep fighting until a final health care bill is on the President?s desk that includes not only a strong public option, but provisions to achieve health equity, eliminate health disparities and to limit the rate of increase for those with private plans. We have and will continue to champion issues such as the need for support for patients with end stage renal disease, for children?s mental health, and dental care, workforce pipeline issues, and expansion of community health centers. These provisions and others attack the many causes of health disparities, and we fought to get them in. Under the leadership of Congresswoman Donna M. Christensen, we have also championed expansion of the Office of Minority Health because we need a comprehensive way to address minority health across agencies. Finally, because we know that 85 percent of Americans are in private insurance, under the leadership of Rep. Donna Edwards, we fought to have included cost containment provisions to keep premiums reasonable. We know that the American people want and deserve affordable health care. We also know that this bill is cost effective for our country, and for American families watching their budgets. This was an historic vote, but we must keep up the fight until we have a final bill on the President?s desk. Health care should not just be a privilege for a few; it should and must be a basic human right in the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world.? You stood with Congresswoman Lee in her fight to reform health care in this country. Your support and participation helped to make history. This is a proud and remarkable day. Barbara Lee for Congress ? 1736 Franklin St., Ste. 550 ? Oakland ? CA ? 94612 From snug.bug at hotmail.com Sun Nov 8 23:57:02 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Sun, 8 Nov 2009 23:57:02 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] 125 Protest Rice in Minneapolis In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: http://www.startribune.com/politics/69535212.ht... Letter signed by Colleen Rowley and 8 others asked FBI to arrest Condi for conspiracy to commit torture on basis of Rice's admission last May in dialog with Sammy Abusrur at Roble that she had conveyed Bush's authorization for waterboarding to the CIA: http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/blog/chuck-turchick/condi-rice-meet-fbi Rowley is a former FBI agent who was with two other whistleblowers TIME Magazine's "Person of the Year" in 2002. Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now. _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141665/direct/01/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT00001 URL: From gerrygras at earthlink.net Mon Nov 9 12:40:29 2009 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:40:29 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Health Care Reform? References: <4AF7A9B1.6040806@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <4AF87E3D.1080701@earthlink.net> Several more articles from Common Dreams: "Six Smart Progressive Complaints About House Health Bill" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/09-10 "Is the House Health Care Bill Better than Nothing?" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/09-5 (her answer is No) "The Answer to the Stupak? Overturn Hyde Now" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/09-3 (about abortions) "Bernie Sanders Pledges to Hang Tough for Strong Public-Option" http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/09-3 (I don't like their attitude towards Bernie, but it does provide some info.) "Healthcare Bill Faces Tough Path in Senate" http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/09-0 "House Passes Health Reform, But Without Reproductive Rights" http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/08 NOTE: After a quick reading of these, there seem to be inconsistent evaluations between these articles. They appear to be talking about different house bills. Gerry From carolineyacoub at att.net Mon Nov 9 16:30:19 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 16:30:19 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: Where does the plastic go? Message-ID: <489010.60048.qm@web81202.mail.mud.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Rosie Yacoub To: Caroline Yacoub Sent: Mon, November 9, 2009 9:38:43 AM Subject: Fw: Where does the plastic go? Here's a post for the Greens. --- On Sat, 11/7/09, Darien De Lu wrote: >From: Darien De Lu >Subject: Where does the plastic go? >To: >Date: Saturday, November 7, 2009, 8:24 AM > > >Dear All, >??????? These photos of albatross chicks, starved to death and/or poisoned by plastic, depict the problem poignantly:? http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=11 >??????? The plasticdoesn't go anywhere, it stays right here on Earth, for at least hundreds of years, contaminating , poisoning, and killing.? What can be done?? Of course, the most obvious is - AVOID BUYING/ACCEPTING? ANY PLASTIC! >??????? I would say STOP, but that's nearly impossible.? (Hmm, this key board on which I type, it's made of...)? But we can use matches, or refillable lighters, instead of disposable ones; seek out glass, wooden, and metal alternatives to many consumer goods.? Minimize and re-use plastic bags (remember waxed paper?) >??????? Of course, plastic isso cheap - if you don't consider the disposal/future.? These brings up the critical difference betweenprice and (full)cost.? Right now,every piece of plastic manufactured since 1930 is still in the environment.? (Much of it is in the form of very small pieces - suitable for albatrosses and other creatures to mistake for food - but it's not gone!? That applies to those "biodegradable" plastic bags, that disintegrate into bits of... plastic!) >??????? Additionally, of course, plastic is made from fossil fuels. >??????? Be aware, be informed, be consequential. >??????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ??????? Your planet-loving friend, Darien > > >PS Wanton?? Wantoff?? This list is maintained by me, a genuine person.? If you want a change, just email to tell me! Your info is never intentionally shared nor abused.? DD >-- > > > >??????? /- -? - - - - - - - - - - - - -?????? - - - - - - - -? - - - - - - - -\ >??????? "Polls show that most Californians are more centrist. They are not absolutely opposed to taxes or government programs. They want compromises that work. The tragedy of California is that its political system no longer speaks for them. The center has not held. It no longer exists. It is a self-reinforcing problem: The more the public perceives politicians as ineffectual, the more it dismisses politics altogether." > > >??????? ??????? GoodSearch to Support WILPF >???????????????? The most painless option for creating an "income stream" for the >???????????? Women's Int'l League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) via the sister >???????????? organization, the Jane Addams Peace Association (JAPA)!? Please, >???????????? use the link below to put the Goodsearch.com search engine button >???????????? at the top of your screen.? Register the Jane Addams Peace Asso- >???????????? ciation as your "charity" of choice.? Every time you use it to look >???????????? something up, it donates (a penny!) to JAPA! >????????????????? ?????????????????????????? >??????????????? >????????????????????? Darien De Lu * 916/739-0860 * conjoin at macnexus.org >????????? \________________****!!****_________________/ > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gerrygras at earthlink.net Mon Nov 9 16:54:10 2009 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:54:10 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: Where does the plastic go? References: <489010.60048.qm@web81202.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <4AF8B9B2.2040204@earthlink.net> See also "As Oceans Fall Ill, Washington Bureaucrats Squabble" http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/11/08-2 (with picture attached.) Gerry Caroline Yacoub wrote: > > > ----- Forwarded Message ---- > From: Rosie Yacoub > To: Caroline Yacoub > Sent: Mon, November 9, 2009 9:38:43 AM > Subject: Fw: Where does the plastic go? > > Here's a post for the Greens. > > --- On Sat, 11/7/09, Darien De Lu wrote: > > > From: Darien De Lu > Subject: Where does the plastic go? > To: > Date: Saturday, November 7, 2009, 8:24 AM > > Dear All, > > These photos of albatross chicks, starved to death and/or > poisoned by plastic, depict the problem poignantly: > http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=11 > > The plastic doesn't go anywhere, it stays right here on > Earth, for at least hundreds of years, contaminating , poisoning, > and killing. What can be done? Of course, the most obvious is - > AVOID BUYING/ACCEPTING ANY PLASTIC! > > I would say STOP, but that's nearly impossible. (Hmm, this > key board on which I type, it's made of...) But we can use matches, > or refillable lighters, instead of disposable ones; seek out glass, > wooden, and metal alternatives to many consumer goods. Minimize and > re-use plastic bags (remember waxed paper?) > > Of course, plastic is so cheap - if you don't consider the > disposal/future. These brings up the critical difference between > price and (full) cost. Right now, every piece of plastic > manufactured since 1930 is still in the environment. (Much of it is > in the form of very small pieces - suitable for albatrosses and > other creatures to mistake for food - but it's not gone! That > applies to those "biodegradable" plastic bags, that disintegrate > into bits of... plastic!) > > Additionally, of course, plastic is made from fossil fuels. > > Be aware, be informed, be consequential. > > Your planet-loving friend, > Darien > > > PS Want on? Want off? This list is maintained by me, a genuine > person. If you want a change, just email to tell me! Your info is > never intentionally shared nor abused. DD > > -- > > > /- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > - - - - -\ > "Polls show that most Californians are more centrist. They > are not absolutely opposed to taxes or government programs. They > want compromises that work. The tragedy of California is that its > political system no longer speaks for them. The center has not held. > It no longer exists. It is a self-reinforcing problem: The more the > public perceives politicians as ineffectual, the more it dismisses > politics altogether." > > > GoodSearch to Support WILPF > > The most painless option for creating an "income > stream" for the > > Women's Int'l League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) via > the sister > > organization, the Jane Addams Peace Association > (JAPA)! Please, > > use the link below to put the Goodsearch.com > search engine button > > at the top of your screen. Register the Jane Addams > Peace Asso- > > ciation as your "charity" of choice. Every time you > use it to look > > something up, it donates (a penny!) to JAPA! > > > > > > Darien De Lu * 916/739-0860 * conjoin at macnexus.org > > \________________****!!****_________________/ > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > sosfbay-discuss mailing list > sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: pacifictrash-sm.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 10233 bytes Desc: not available URL: From wrolley at charter.net Mon Nov 9 20:05:01 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:05:01 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: [G-C-F] First the wars, military budget, then healthcare. Now the admin is getting involved in Ca water...] Message-ID: <4AF8E66D.8050702@charter.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: Attached Message Part URL: From wrolley at charter.net Tue Nov 10 13:10:54 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:10:54 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] GOTV Message-ID: <4AF9D6DE.3020104@charter.net> In the recent election cycle, the City of Fairfax elected it's third Green Party member to the city council. A look at the vote totals illustrates the importance of GOTV. *PAM HARTWELL-HERRERO* 1069 19.62% *DAVID WEINSOFF* 1009 18.52% *JOHN REED* 983 18.04% SUSAN BRANDBORG 742 13.62% The Marin County Council of the Green Party set up a GOTV phone bank and made 291 calls to Greens in that community. That is surely a contributing factor to Pam's win and illustrative of just why GOTV is important. PS.. they are now working on John Reed, to change his registration BACK to Green and then there would be 4 out of 5. -- "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 Tue Nov 10 15:13:18 2009 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:13:18 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: [gpsmc-d] Fwd: [CAclean] Fw: REMINDER: "Why Public Financing Works" forum in two days] Message-ID: <4AF9F38E.6080604@earthlink.net> -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [gpsmc-d] Fwd: [CAclean] Fw: REMINDER: "Why Public Financing Works" forum in two days Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:50:52 -0800 From: Jo Chamberlain To: GPSMC-D References: <946314.26163.qm at web112304.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> Begin forwarded message: > From: Carol Cross > > > Date: November 10, 2009 11:03:45 AM PST > > To: San Mateo CaClean participants > > > Subject: [CAclean] Fw: REMINDER: "Why Public Financing Works" forum in > two days > > > > > ************************* > ?... under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably > control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information > (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult and indeed > in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to > objective conclusions.? Albert Einstein, from ?Why Socialism?? > > --- On Tue, 11/10/09, Bill Ewing, Public Campaign > > wrote: > > > From: Bill Ewing, Public Campaign > > Subject: REMINDER: "Why Public Financing Works" forum in two days > To: cross0828 at yahoo.com > Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 8:58 AM > > > > > > > Dear Working Group, > > I > wanted to send along a reminder that in two days Nick Nyhart, > president and CEO of Public Campaign, and Bob Edgar, president and > CEO of Common Cause will be in your area at an event hosted by > the Commonwealth Club: "Why Public Financing Works." > > Event Details: > > Date: Thursday, November 12th > Location: SV Community Foundation, 2440 W. El Camino Real, Suite > 300, Mountain View > Time: 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program > Cost: $9 members, $15 non-members > > To RSVP for the event and for more information, please click here. > > > Don't miss this opportunity to hear about public financing of > campaigns from two distinguished experts in the field. I hope to > see you there. > > Bill Ewing > Development Director > Public Campaign > > PS: Help support and defend Clean Elections. Make a donation > today. > > > > > > > > > > > > This is a message from Public Campaign Action Fund. To change your > email address or update your contact info, please click here. > > To remove yourself from this list, please visit our subscription > management page by clicking here > . > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sanmateo at CAclean.org mailing list > To remove yourself or change your options: > http://lists.caclean.org/mailman/listinfo/sanmateo -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: nsmail.txt URL: From carolineyacoub at att.net Tue Nov 10 17:17:47 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:17:47 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: Uninsured veterans Message-ID: <303377.76026.qm@web81202.mail.mud.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: shane que hee Sent: Tue, November 10, 2009 1:36:02 PM Subject: Uninsured veterans Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:07:58 -0800 >From: Don McCanne >Subject: qotd: Uninsured veterans > >Physicians for a National Health Program >Press Release >November 10, 2009 >Over 2,200 veterans died in 2008 due to lack of health insurance > >A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001. > >The Harvard group analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau?s March 2009 Current Population Survey, which surveyed Americans about their insurance coverage and veteran status, and found that 1,461,615 veterans between the ages of 18 and 64 were uninsured in 2008. Veterans were only classified as uninsured if they neither had health insurance nor received ongoing care at Veterans Health Administration (VA) hospitals or clinics. > >"Like other uninsured Americans, most uninsured vets are working people - too poor to afford private coverage but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or means-tested VA care," said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a professor at Harvard Medical School. While many Americans believe that all veterans can get care from the VA, even combat veterans may not be able to obtain VA care, Woolhandler said. > >Dr. David Himmelstein, the co-author of the analysis and associate professor of medicine at Harvard, commented, "On this Veterans Day we should not only honor the nearly 500 soldiers who have died this year in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also the more than 2,200 veterans who were killed by our broken health insurance system." > >http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/november/over_2200_veterans_.php > >And... > >The New York Times >November 9, 2009 >A Word, Mr. President >By Bob Herbert > >Reforming the chaotic and unfair health care system in the U.S. is an important issue. But in terms of pressing national priorities, the most important are the need to find solutions to a catastrophic employment environment that is devastating American families and to end the folly of an 8-year-old war that is both extremely debilitating and ultimately unwinnable. > >If you were to take a walk around one of the many military medical centers, like Landstuhl in Germany or Walter Reed in Washington, your heart would break at the sight of the heroic young men and women who have lost limbs (frequently more than one) or who are blind or paralyzed or horribly burned. Hundreds of thousands have suffered psychological wounds. Many have contemplated or tried suicide, and far too many have succeeded. > >"Mr. President," I would say, "we?ll never be right as a nation as long as we allow this to continue." > >http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/opinion/10herbert.html?hp > > >Comment:? How can we continue to support a fragmented, dysfunctional financing system that allows some of our veterans (not to mention tens of thousands of others of us) to die merely because we have placed a higher priority on nurturing the private insurance industry than we have on improving access for everyone through a more effective health care financing system? Our veterans. How can we let them down like this? > >On a personal note, Veterans Day has always been a difficult day for me. In August of 1966, when I was driving from California to Texas to report for duty as an Army medical officer, we heard on the radio that our close friend, Dick Sather, was the Navy pilot who was just shot down and killed in the Gulf of Tonkin incident. (The other pilot shot down, Everett Alvarez, was held captive for over eight years.) > >I was already a pacifist, but strictly on an ethical and not a religious basis. I believe, like so many others, that war is not healthy for children and other living things. The very worst possible way to negotiate international disagreements is to engage in war. And yet the United States does it over and over again. The school yard excuse, "but they started it," doesn't even seem to apply anymore. > >After medical officer basic training in San Antonio, my first assignment to season me before being sent overseas, was as a battalion surgeon in Fort Hood, Texas. Yes, that Fort Hood. > >Now you understand why I seem to be off message - the combination of my Veterans Day grief, the tragic slaughter that just occurred at my former military base, and now this new report on the unnecessary deaths of so many veterans due to a broken health insurance system. > >Veterans Day is a day to think about the impact on not just our veterans but all of us, of record unemployment, war, and the unfair health care system that Bob Herbert writes about. We can fix all of them. > >So what are we doing? More government money for Wall Street, and less for jobs. More troops for the war in Afghanistan, instead of withdrawal. More money for private insurers, while health care becomes ever less affordable for patients. > >Is this what our veterans were fighting for? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carolineyacoub at att.net Wed Nov 11 08:46:30 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:46:30 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: Fw: [Fwd: [G-C-F] First the wars, military budget, then healthcare. Now the admin is getting involved in Ca water...] Message-ID: <980131.24591.qm@web81207.mail.mud.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Rosie Yacoub To: Caroline Yacoub Sent: Wed, November 11, 2009 6:36:00 AM Subject: Re: Fw: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: [G-C-F] First the wars, military budget, then healthcare. Now the admin is getting involved in Ca water...] Steinberg (my State Senator here in Sacto--one of the Delta Counties) actually sponsored the bill the Gov signed.? He has insisted over and over that this bill does not create a canal that would export 'more water' out of the Delta.? But I think that the debate is really over long term battles that in part have to do with "what is water?". So on that issue: Water is not salt water.? Some parts of the Delta are pretty close to where fresh water becomes salt water.? If large amounts of this water are removed to a canal--will salt water bcome an issue for farmers and delta habitat? Water is a legal right.? It may be that there is a San Joaquin water district that has strong water rights that could not be delivered because the pumps they use to access that water impact the Delta Smelt.? Creating a canal that bypasses the need for these pumps may not give this district more water on paper--it just gives it more water.? This means less water will be available in the Delta.? Fisheries and farmers in this area will be impacted--and may come into conflict with each other.? With water, what is fair and what is right can be two different things.... McNerney, by the way, has a long history of being a good environmentalist.? His career was covered in a PBS special recently. --- On Tue, 11/10/09, Caroline Yacoub wrote: >From: Caroline Yacoub >Subject: Fw: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: [G-C-F] First the wars, military budget, then healthcare. Now the admin is getting involved in Ca water...] >To: rayacoub at yahoo.com >Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 8:05 AM > > >Again, what's your take on this? Good guys? Bad guys? Thorns? > > > >----- Forwarded Message ---- >From: Wes Rolley >To: Green Discuss >Sent: Mon, November 9, 2009 8:05:01 PM >Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: [G-C-F] First the wars, military budget, then healthcare. Now the admin is getting involved in Ca water...] > >I forwarded this to a member of the Democratic Central Committee for Santa Clara County today.? This person is closely involved as a community volunteer for Congressman McNerney on environmental issues. > >Here was their response. > > >Just one of many disappointments with this President and his Administration. >>I feel betrayed.Thanks, Kalmran, for the ammunition. > >In contrast, here is what Congressman McNerney has to say on the question. > >http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091108/A_NEWS/911080317#STS=g1u50cbp.20mx > >Hard to know that Cardoza and McNerney are in the same party. > >-------- Original Message -------- >Subject: [G-C-F] First the wars, military budget, then healthcare. Now the admin is getting involved in Ca water... >Date: Mon, 9 Nov 2009 16:52:58 -0800 (PST) >From: Kalmran Alavi >To: cal-forum at cagreens.org > > >Dennis Cardoza, representing northern San Joaquin valley broadcast emmail this one today: > >Drought relief commitment made to Reps. Cardoza and Costa >Obama Administration to assist with Valley water projects > >For Immediate Release: November 9, 2009 > >WASHINGTON ? Over the last several months, Congressmen Cardoza and Costa have met with top officials from the White House and the Department of Interior. As part of ongoing discussions, the Congressmen have expressed the need for the Obama Administration to take action to address California?s Central Valley water crisis. In conjunction with their recent legislative efforts, the Congressmen have provided the Administration with a list of water-improvement projects and actions that would provide significant relief to San Joaquin Valley farmers, farm workers, and farm communities. >In response to these discussions, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today released the following statement: > >Salazar?s Statement on Obama Administration Actions >To Deal with California Water Crisis >WASHINGTON, D.C. ? Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar released the following statement on the Obama Administration?s actions to deal with the California Water Crisis: >?Today, Governor Schwarzenegger is signing milestone water legislation in Fresno County, one of the counties hardest hit by California's water crisis ? a crisis caused by the brutal combination of a three-year drought, the collapse of native fisheries in the Bay Delta, and the fact that California's investments in water conservation and infrastructure have not kept up with its growth. >?I would like to take this opportunity to express the federal government's commitment to being a full partner with the state and stakeholders in laying a foundation for California's water future, providing a sustainable water supply for Californians, and helping those hardest hit ? including in the San Joaquin Valley. >?To that end, I am pleased to announce that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) National Research Council Governing Board is meeting tomorrow and is expected to approve the request of the Department of the Interior and Department of Commerce for an independent scientific review of key questions relating to the California Bay Delta, and how to both protect the ecosystem and provide a reliable water supply. >?Secretary Locke and I are sensitive to the need for operational flexibility in using both the Central Valley and State Water Projects to move water during this critical drought crisis. With tomorrow?s timely action, NAS will be on track to deliver the first of two reports by March 15, 2010. >?If approved, the first NAS report will direct particular attention to the water delivery restrictions in the biological opinions and whether there are available alternative actions that would have lesser impacts on water deliveries while still providing equal or greater protection for the species and their designated critical habitat. The NAS report will also look at the extent to which factors other than water pumping (known as ?other stressors?) are contributing to the collapse of the Bay Delta ecosystem. >?In addition, the Administration is fully committed to funding and moving forward with the construction of the Delta-Mendota Canal/California Aqueduct Intertie, pending the completion of a Record of Decision on the project, which we anticipate within the next 60 days. >?The Administration is also continuing to pursue the Two-Gates Fish Protection Demonstration Project through the required permitting processes, on an expedited basis. Other potential projects that could supplement water supplies for the Valley include the Patterson Irrigation District Fish Screen project and related Pipeline Project. The Administration is interested in potentially pursuing both projects, subject to federal and cost share funding constraints. In addition, the Department of the Interior has used Recovery Act funds to help diversify Level 2 and Level 4 refuge supplies, and will look for additional opportunities to continue this diversification effort. >?The Administration remains committed to working to implement a broad suite of tools to help alleviate the critical water supply and environmental situation in California. As announced in October, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce and other federal agencies are working together under a Memorandum of Understanding that commits the federal government to produce an integrated work plan to address California water issues by December 15. The Administration is also working closely with the state on a variety of important fronts including, in particular, the development of a Bay Delta Conservation Plan. We will continue to pursue all of these efforts, in close tandem with the state and other stakeholders as we address both the short-term and longer-term water needs for California.? > > >-- >"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 > >-----Inline Attachment Follows----- > > >_______________________________________________ >cal-forum mailing list >cal-forum at cagreens.org >http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/cal-forum > > >-----Inline Attachment Follows----- > > >_______________________________________________ >sosfbay-discuss mailing list >sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org >http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carolineyacoub at att.net Wed Nov 11 08:59:58 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:59:58 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: Honor Veterans with Peace Message-ID: <951373.59285.qm@web81208.mail.mud.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: shane que hee Sent: Wed, November 11, 2009 7:03:59 AM Subject: Honor Veterans with Peace > Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:58:27 -0500 (EST) > From: Green Party of the United States > Subject: Honor Veterans with Peace > > Dear SHANE, > > The Green Party is the Peace Party, the one voice in the political array that doesn't rely on about-face justification for continuing international violence underpinning notions of a superior calling for our nation.? What does that mean?? On Veteran's Day, what is the price of war? > > I'm from a military family.? My dad went into the Navy right out of high school, and is a Pearl Harbor survivor.? After the war, he went Army, to finish his twenty years.? Growing up, I attended 13 schools before I finished 9th grade, most of them in rural villages, where the Nike missile base was a barracks for the privates, the missile "silo" was a cramped metal trailer, and the two families with kids were temporary outsiders. > > Except for aunt Marianne, who was a navy nurse, the military didn't want women, so we four daughters were not expected to enlist. As a woman, I was often told I had no right to an opinion in favor of peace, unless I had a brother or a cousin in combat. Like many of you, I decided that the way you best fight war is to get there ten years beforehand, and prevent despair by fixing what was wrong. > > My husband's family was also military. In their Appalachia, no one was drafted-- they were Volunteers. His dad never saw a plane close-up, til he climbed into one, to learn to fly it for WWII. He re-upped, and finished his military career by teaching ROTC, in a building on campus that a Quaker-led group, including me, would stumble into one day, and occupy long enough to pray for the dead, and the still living. My as-yet-unmet husband's only brother was among the unnamed for whom we prayed. His unarmed reconnaissance plane was shot down, the last fatality from Tucson. Until the next war. > > How do we count the cost? There was the warrior's widow who, with two toddlers to raise alone, commenced a writing and publishing career with a Memorial Day article, asking for peace. She never remarried, and, she was eventually disabled with a brain tumor, and my husband and I became her caregivers. That is the part of the war that extends forever-- that the one who should be there to help, years later, is, instead, a name my hand touches on a Wall, as I touch the places where he should have been, and was not, and the differences that it made, to people I care deeply about, and people who will never even know that he existed. > > How do we, in the Green Party, honor the vet, on this Veteran's day, the one who lived, the one who did not? I have marched so often over the years, stood in vigils, helped tie a ribbon around the Pentagon. I've been cheered, been ignored, been spit on by old men with VFW hats. My husband, too, had marched against the War, and, in haunting, last letters back, his brother blessed the marching. > > The only "thank you" big enough for Veteran's Day is taking up the duty to find a better way.? Praise of their courage, in a speech or a flag-colored bumper sticker, is too small. Throwing one beloved corpse upon the next, to justify having thrown the first, is sad beyond grief.? The truest word is that they are lost to combat because we did not work hard enough to build a world where war was avoided, because peace was the better option. > > They planted a Peace Rose on Dave's grave, but it was gone by the time we buried his wife beside him. The next year, my husband and I took my dad back to see Pearl Harbor again. And last month, my cousin Clifford's son, Aaron, was killed in Afghanistan, leaving a widow and two young children, and we all cried again. > > No more names on a Wall, or bumpersticker praise for the Vet. Raise your voice. Raise our collective voices, supporting those who speak for peace, and who stand on the platform of our party to do so, and speak through the megaphone of their candidacy, and challenge the war-makers at the one place they can be displaced-- the ballot box. Ballots can unmake bullets, but only if the Party committed to peace endures, and for that, we need your support. > > This is not a small thing, and we are the only political Party that does it. If our Party is silenced, then we become spectators in a stymied, broken version of democracy, and the wars go on. > > Donate today. Help your Green Party make enduring peace, this Veteran's Day. > > Do it now at https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/175/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2989. > > Claudia Ellquist > Arizona Green Party > > Please help us fulfill our mission by donating to the Green Party today.? We don't take ANY corporate money because we think corporate money in politics is wrong.? If you want to help us work for peace, please help us today.? Your donation will help us make sure we have a strong Green Party today and into the future. > > You can help us reach the goal we set in July at our national meeting of funding our operations with the help of 500 sustainers giving $10,000 a month by the end of 2009.? Click https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/175/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2989 to become a sustaining donor to the Green Party today! > > Your gift of any amount will help to strengthen our voice so that we can make lasting peace a reality.? With your help we can provide support for anti-war candidates and challenge the war-makers.? If you have given recently, please consider giving more.? And, if you haven't given in some time, please make today the day you give at https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/175/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2989. > > Email: gpinfo at gp.org > > unsubscribe: http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/175/unsubscribe.jsp?Email= > > Office: PO Box 57065 Washington, D.C. 20037 202-319-7191 or toll-free (US): 866-41GREEN > > We are not the alternative - we are the imperative. Rosa Clemente -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carolineyacoub at att.net Wed Nov 11 09:05:04 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:05:04 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: Someone interested in running for Governor? Message-ID: <304984.40148.qm@web81203.mail.mud.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: shane que hee Sent: Wed, November 11, 2009 6:57:16 AM Subject: Someone interested in running for Governor? Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:25:57 -0500 >From: davidquinley at aol.com >Subject: Re: Someone interested in running for Governor? > > >this maybe of interest http://network.greenchange.org/news/11126-growth-of-independents-could-bolster-green-party > > > >Growth of Independents could Bolster Green Party > >Voters have been increasingly re-registering as independents in recent years, growing from 30 percent of all registered voters in 2007 to 39 percent of all registered voters in April 2009, according to the most recent Pew Research Center surveys. >Posted: 03:54PM >( >By: Tom Risen >Source: Scoop Daily >Published: 11.10.2009 > >Voters have increasingly been re-registering as independents in recent years, growing from 30 percent of all registered voters in 2007 to 39 percent of all registered voters in April 2009, according to the most recent Pew Research Center surveys. >Already established in European parliaments, the Green Party of the United States ran 158 candidates in local and state races last Tuesday. Many of their successes were small local positions like school boards or common council in states like Maine, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Maryland and Illinois. >Because of their nationwide restrictions regarding special interest contributions, Scott McLarty, national media coordinator for the Green Party of the United States, hopes the 2010 election will win them voters discouraged by the Wall Street crises and by government spending. >???We are fiscally conservative in the sense that banks are not too big,??? McLarty told ScoopDaily. ???One Green solution to the national bank crisis is that the banks should be broken up into the state and local levels ??? like the way AT&T was broken up in the 1970???s. One of our challenges to voters is to stop voting for parties who make decisions based on corporate money. Even progressive Democrats like Barney Frank have acted very much in service to financial interests.??? >The Pew survey indicated that independents more often resemble Democrats regarding social values, religion and national security. Many issues like stances against torture, protest of the War in Iraq and support of same-sex marriage are in the Green Party???s national charter, but Green candidates take varying positions on other issues at their local levels, said McLarty. >???I would ask progressive Democrats how long they can stay with a party that betrays their ideals over and over again,??? said McLarty. ???Lately we???re actually more in tug of war with forces on the Right, since their voters shift when there???s economic uncertainty. The Green Party has an interesting mix of people on certain issues. The Green Party national platform has a health care national single payer platform. On the other hand, some of our candidates recognize a diverse opinion on gun laws.??? >When most people talk about the Green Party, four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader comes to mind. Yet Nader only ran under the Green Party ticket in 1996 and 2000, and as an independent in 2004 and 2008. Nader told Scoop Daily that the Greens have an impractical approach to elections. >???Unfortunately they have a culture where the people who talk the most get the most attention,??? said Nader. ???The Greens are generally too fractious. I???m done with the Green Party but I wish them the best?They should model themselves after the more organized Green Party in Germany since it???s been the most successful.??? >Yet a mix of fiscal conservatism and liberal approach to social justice struck a chord with Illinois voters in 2006 under the Green???s gubernatorial candidate, civil rights lawyer Rich Whitney. Whitney ran against the now-removed former governor Rod Blagojevich (D) and Judy Baar Topinka??, who was state treasurer under former governor George Ryan, who was likewise removed from office on corruption charges and is currently in prison. >Pointing to the status quo as the problem, Whitney ran on the slogan ???Times Call for a Change,??? and with only $100,000 from individual donors his campaign won 11 percent of the vote. That showing guarantees the Greens a space on the Illinois ballot through the 2010 election, when they plan to run more than 30 candidates, compared to their 16 from 2006. >A major challenge for any third party candidate is to get enough petition signatures before an election to even appear on a ballot. This must be done in neighborhoods where Republican and Democrat incumbents use millions in political war chests to advertise against the candidates. When a candidate reaches 10 percent of the vote in Illinois they are guaranteed a ballot space in the next election, and a 5 percent showing by a gubernatorial candidate extends that privilege to their entire party. >While hoping that Whitney will score big in 2010, Patrick Kelly, spokesman for the Illinois Green Party, believes running with the example of a non-corporate funded campaign might inspire election finance change in states like Illinois even if they lose. >???Especially now that Blagojevich has been arrested there will be no getting around the fact that the Republican and Democratic Party and the way they operate,??? said Kelly. ???The fundraising system in Illinois has unlimited contributions. It???s basically a corrupt politician???s dream and needs to be changed. It???s not going to just go away, so we have caps on individual donors.??? >Responding to the Green Party claim to rally against the status quo, Steve Brown, press secretary for the Illinois Democratic Party, believes Green voters join the Democratic Party when they want a more practical vehicle to shape policy. >???The Greens are fine people, they pay attention and they???re involved in the process, which is great,??? Brown told Scoop Daily. ???People listened to Whitney???s message against Blagojevich and reacted accordingly. I think our Democrats stood our ground against Blagojevich and made his impeachment happen. I did not see Mr. Whitney or Republicans initiate that process. They tried two years ago to wrap Blagojevich around peoples??? necks, and it didn???t work then, but they???ll try again.??? > >Following the loss of governor???s seats to Republicans Tuesday night in Virginia and New Jersey, which trended toward the Democratic Party in recent years, Brown did not believe the election signals waning support for Obama or Democrats. > >???The national media likes to sweep up all these races and put them on a template rather than write about issues so they can have something to talk about,??? said Brown. ???We think Democrats will do well in Illinois in 2010 but we take nothing for granted.??? > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wrolley at charter.net Wed Nov 11 11:14:14 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:14:14 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Water District wants you money, wants your money. Message-ID: <4AFB0D06.1030004@charter.net> As reported in Tuesday's Morgan Hill Times, the Santa Clara Valley Water District has been double dipping into your pocket book, charging the same costs to both well owners (including Cities that get their water from wells like Morgan Hill) as well as property tax. You can read the story here: http://www.morganhilltimes.com/news/260799-witness-district-double-dipping I sent in a letter to the editor that says: The act of charging twice for the same water, exposed by the Great Oaks law suit and reported this week by the Times, seems clearly the result of a lack of oversight from the Water District Board, a group whose membership has too many old connections to the water district bureaucracy to be effective judges of actions or to represent the needs of the citizens who elected them. The time for change has come. I encourage all to become more involved in water issues. It is only your money. -- "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 jims at greens.org Wed Nov 11 17:06:08 2009 From: jims at greens.org (Jim Stauffer) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:06:08 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Regional Rep - More info on Cindy Message-ID: <4AFB5F80.4070904@greens.org> -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: GPCA Regional Rep Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:05:12 -0800 From: Cindy ---------- snip ----------- I am also including a candidacy letter that I wrote for the voting state reps of the GPUS at the 2004 convention, when I ran for the Coordinated Campaign Committee. Could you or someone please forward these things to the Santa Clara list? -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CCC bio.doc Type: application/msword Size: 231 bytes Desc: not available URL: From jims at greens.org Wed Nov 11 17:01:17 2009 From: jims at greens.org (Jim Stauffer) Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:01:17 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Cindy Asrir for Regional Rep position Message-ID: <4AFB5E5D.4080604@greens.org> In response to my various calls for a new Regional Rep to the Coordinating Committee, Cindy is applying for the position. I believe our County Council is scheduling the election for out Dec. meeting. Jim -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [SC-SM] CC Regional Rep position Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:55:54 -0800 From: Cindy Hi everyone! I am writing to let you know that I am interested in serving as a regional rep on the Coordinating Committee (CC) of the California State Green Party. To provide you a little background and info, I am attaching a brief Green Party "resume," which I hope you will find helpful. A little about me: I moved to San Francisco in May of 2005 from Lincoln, Nebraska, where I managed two Green Party US Congressional campaigns, served as the Nebraska Green Party Co-Chair, helped start the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Campus Greens, and was the state chair of the Cobb-LaMarche campaign. I also served on the GPUS Coordinated Campaign Committee, was one of two state reps on the Coordinated Committee, attended several US conventions, and worked as a regional coordinator for the 2004 Presidential Vote Recount. I was also very active in three anti-war groups in Nebraska and have been very involved in the San Francisco Bike Coalition and the PTA of my daughter's schools since moving to the Bay Area four and a half years ago. My daughter Naomi (who is 11) and I relocated to Redwood City in August of this year. She is a 6th grader at Ralston Middle School in Belmont, and I have been working on contract as a nonprofit development specialist and administrative assistant. I have attended a couple of local San Mateo/Santa Clara Green Party meetings and am looking to get more involved in the party and contribute on both a local and state level. I have been registered as a Green since 2000 in Nebraska and California, and have just re-registered as a San Mateo County Green. My strengths lie in strategic planning, organizing, communicating and motivating people so I look forward to getting to know everyone and moving the party forward. :-) I will be attending the next meetings of both the San Mateo and Santa Clara County Greens. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions, either in email or in person, and I look forward to meeting you all soon! Warmly, Cindy -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Green Party Resume 11-09.doc Type: application/msword Size: 71168 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tnharter at aceweb.com Thu Nov 12 16:28:15 2009 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:28:15 +0000 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Electronic Health Records at the VA Message-ID: <4AFCA81F.3020407@aceweb.com> TNHarter at aol.com wrote: > > > *Nancy Clum, RN, MN > > > *Electronic Health Records at the VA* > > > In 2006, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) received the > prestigious ?Innovations in American Government? Award from Harvard?s > Kennedy School of Government for its advanced electronic health > records and performance measurement system, one of the most > comprehensive and sophisticated electronic systems for patient records > in the nation. VA clinicians began using computerized patient records > in the mid-1990s for everything from recording examinations by doctors > to displaying results of lab tests and x-rays. Now, patient records > are available 100 percent of the time to VA health care workers. > > Nancy Clum, Chief Health Informatics Officer at the Palo Alto VA, > will describe the VA?s electronic health records system and, as noted > in a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine, how use > of the comprehensive system has significantly enhanced the quality > of patient care by largely eliminating errors stemming from lost or > incomplete medical records, making the VA one of the safest systems > in the health care industry. > Nancy began by explaining that in the olden days the VA's records were paper filing cabinets full of information. When patients moved from one service area to another their files would frequently get lost. Some technical people figure out that electronic records with information in one place that could be accessed over a network might work as a better system. Electronic records at the VA had started as a "skunk works" project back in the '70s, but by the late '80s it was a full fledged text based whose goal was to serve all patient records needs electronically. In 1998 they switched to graphical user interface, which is available in all 153 VA facilities nationwide. VA Palo Alto serves 3 inpatient facilities, a number of outpatient clinics, and 85,000 enrolled patients. The current system does much more than just make it easy for the doctor to access records about previous patient visits and medications. It also has medical images (X-rays, electronicardiograms, etc.) on file and easy to see. In addition there are checklists to remind doctors to ask all patients in target groups to get (whatever the test is). For example, all male patients over 65-75 who have a history of smoking should have screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm, so when a patient falls into that group the doctor is reminded to request that. It also flags dangerous drug-drug combinations and other known problems. Nancy described the system terminal as a computer with a monitor and a keyboard on a pushcart. The thing also has a bar code reader to input medication labels without mistakes. When the computer system first got adopted there was much adjusting to be done, but now there is lots of confusion when the system goes down, which doesn't happen often. Improvements for they system Nancy is looking forward to include better integration with other systems, better mobile computing support, and better task management tools. The system is open source. There is a detailed article about electronic medical record use in U.S. hospitals in New England Journal of Medicine, March 2009 issue. Please see that for more information. During Q&A the following came up: Interns can learn the thing with just an hour of training, which happens often. Records are more electronic in Europe than they are in the USA. The Department of Defense has a totally different record structure than the VA. Drug companies love getting reminders to check for stuff their product is good for solving in front of doctors. Sometimes doctors complain of reminder overload though. A Coast Guard serviceman who is about to retire and go into the VA system was advised to keep a paper copy of his medical file because Nancy was unsure if Coast Guard records would be accessible with other DOD records. -- Tian http://tian.greens.org On my radio the guy that invented the smiley face [:-)] said "if it cost people a nickel to use it they'd stop, so that's my gift to the world." From jims at greens.org Fri Nov 13 14:48:02 2009 From: jims at greens.org (Jim Stauffer) Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:48:02 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: Regional Rep - More info on Cindy] Message-ID: <4AFDE222.4020909@greens.org> I got a complaint that the original DOC attachment couldn't be opened. This one should work better. I removed the photo, which appears to have had a format problem. Jim -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Regional Rep - More info on Cindy Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:06:08 -0800 From: Jim Stauffer To: GPSCC -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: GPCA Regional Rep Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:05:12 -0800 From: Cindy ---------- snip ----------- I am also including a candidacy letter that I wrote for the voting state reps of the GPUS at the 2004 convention, when I ran for the Coordinated Campaign Committee. Could you or someone please forward these things to the Santa Clara list? -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CCC bio-.rtf Type: application/msword Size: 15202 bytes Desc: not available URL: From gerrygras at earthlink.net Fri Nov 13 17:02:59 2009 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:02:59 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Copenhagen Activists Message-ID: <4AFE01C3.3060908@earthlink.net> "Copenhagen: Seattle Grows Up" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/13 If this article is true, then maybe Copenhagen 2009 will be as (more?) memorable as Seattle 1999. Also, this talks about actions on November 30. Gerry From carolineyacoub at att.net Fri Nov 13 19:51:50 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:51:50 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] cc meeting Message-ID: <804053.38868.qm@web81203.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I would appreciate it if someone would make a decision about the cc meeting. And announce it. To everyone. Caroline -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From pmengstrom at macreviewzone.com Sat Nov 14 13:04:51 2009 From: pmengstrom at macreviewzone.com (Paul & Mary Engstrom) Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:04:51 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Email address change Message-ID: New email address:---paulmaryengstrom at gmail.com Discontinue :-- pmengstrom at macreviewzone.com Thanks Paul From wrolley at charter.net Sat Nov 14 16:29:14 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:29:14 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: [California Greening] Offshore drilling wins another round] Message-ID: <4AFF4B5A.2030305@charter.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wrolley at charter.net Sat Nov 14 22:18:59 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:18:59 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] CA Governor in 2010 Message-ID: <4AFF9D53.9020005@charter.net> In a previous post , I laid down some criteria that I thought Greens should be using to choose a candidate for POTUS in 2012. I got some good feedback on that. Today, I belatedly tackle the same problem for a Green candidate for Governor of California in 2010. Click /Read more!/ for my rant and recommendation. I think that we have to put forward a candidate who is clearly adept at talking on financial matters. On Wednesday, Nov. 18, the legislative analyst's office will issue a report on the 2010 budget and media reports say that the deficit could be pegged at $25 Billion rather than the $12 Billion that Schwarzenegger has been citing. We already know what the most likely mainstream candidate will be running on. Meg Whitman is all over the airways and the internet talking creating jobs, cutting spending and fixing education. That, more or less, will define the Republican pitch. It is even put forward as a platform. Well, Greens already have a platform , we just need to start using it. It clearly outlines that direction we would like to see society move. It does not, however, give a very good view of how you take the current government of California and apply sound fiscal policies to create the a sustainable future for this state and all who live here, not just for the ultra-wealthy like Madame Meg. This is not an aside. It underscores the need for a candidate who does more than mouth progressive platitudes, someone who could take a Ross Perot chart and make the rest of us understand it, understand where they want to take us. We had this for a while when Peter Camejo was mixing it up in the debates associated with the recall of Gray Davis. I have not heard that since. While there are many inspirational people associated with the peace movement, or other social justice efforts, that is not who we need leading this part in this state at this critical time. There are a number of other Green Issues on which we need to give our candidate all the help they can use. I know that we are in the middle of the next battle in the water wars. There are Greens ready and willing to help define a Green Party water policy and how we should react with a highly controversial water bond to be on the 2010 ballot, the /Safe, Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2010/. There is an opportunity, in the 2010 election, to redefine the social contract between Government and the citizens of California. The current one has been fractured like Humpty Dumpty. We have forgotten the duty we owe each other. This election is an opportunity not to be wasted. Meg Whitman is trying to do just that, offering a Contract with American style vision of a return to California's Golden Years. (Typical of a Republican to want to return to something that never was. We should allow Meg to enjoy her golden years.) The Democrats think that they own the social contract, but for them is only a way to slice and dice the populace, playing to every interest group and, in the end, disappointing them all. I am concerned about having a candidate who is articulate across a broad range of issues, but they have to be able to explain what they will do about California's budget mess. So far, of all the names that I have heard tossed around for Governor, only Laura Wells has demonstrated the chops to play this gig. -- "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 the_alliance47 at yahoo.com Sun Nov 15 18:57:21 2009 From: the_alliance47 at yahoo.com (Edward) Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:57:21 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] CA Governor in 2010 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <368489.12118.qm@web54306.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Has the GPCA looked into contacting this guy to see if we can endorse him? http://aguirreforgovernor.com/ -edward --- On Sun, 11/15/09, sosfbay-discuss-request at cagreens.org wrote: Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:18:59 -0800 From: Wes Rolley Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] CA Governor in 2010 To: Green Discuss Message-ID: <4AFF9D53.9020005 at charter.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed In a previous post , I laid down some criteria that I thought Greens should be using to choose a candidate for POTUS in 2012. I got some good feedback on that. Today, I belatedly tackle the same problem for a Green candidate for Governor of California in 2010. Click /Read more!/ for my rant and recommendation. I think that we have to put forward a candidate who is clearly adept at talking on financial matters. On Wednesday, Nov. 18, the legislative analyst's office will issue a report on the 2010 budget and media reports say that the deficit could be pegged at $25 Billion rather than the $12 Billion that Schwarzenegger has been citing. We already know what the most likely mainstream candidate will be running on. Meg Whitman is all over the airways and the internet talking creating jobs, cutting spending and fixing education. That, more or less, will define the Republican pitch. It is even put forward as a platform. Well, Greens already have a platform , we just need to start using it. It clearly outlines that direction we would like to see society move. It does not, however, give a very good view of how you take the current government of California and apply sound fiscal policies to create the a sustainable future for this state and all who live here, not just for the ultra-wealthy like Madame Meg. This is not an aside. It underscores the need for a candidate who does more than mouth progressive platitudes, someone who could take a Ross Perot chart and make the rest of us understand it, understand where they want to take us. We had this for a while when Peter Camejo was mixing it up in the debates associated with the recall of Gray Davis. I have not heard that since. While there are many inspirational people associated with the peace movement, or other social justice efforts, that is not who we need leading this part in this state at this critical time. There are a number of other Green Issues on which we need to give our candidate all the help they can use. I know that we are in the middle of the next battle in the water wars. There are Greens ready and willing to help define a Green Party water policy and how we should react with a highly controversial water bond to be on the 2010 ballot, the /Safe, Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2010/. There is an opportunity, in the 2010 election, to redefine the social contract between Government and the citizens of California. The current one has been fractured like Humpty Dumpty. We have forgotten the duty we owe each other. This election is an opportunity not to be wasted. Meg Whitman is trying to do just that, offering a Contract with American style vision of a return to California's Golden Years. (Typical of a Republican to want to return to something that never was. We should allow Meg to enjoy her golden years.) The Democrats think that they own the social contract, but for them is only a way to slice and dice the populace, playing to every interest group and, in the end, disappointing them all. I am concerned about having a candidate who is articulate across a broad range of issues, but they have to be able to explain what they will do about California's budget mess. So far, of all the names that I have heard tossed around for Governor, only Laura Wells has demonstrated the chops to play this gig. -- "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 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From td at studiotom.com Sun Nov 15 22:08:10 2009 From: td at studiotom.com (Tom Donohue) Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:08:10 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Tabling at Junior State of America - Saturday 11/21 Message-ID: Hello all, I'm leading the tabling this Saturday the 21st at the Junior State of America's 2009 Political Activism Fair. This is part of their Fall State 2009 convention, and it will be taking place in the Grand Ballroom of the Santa Clara Marriott, 2700 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara, from 2-6pm, and set up begins at 1:30pm. There are one or two people who have agreed to join me, but I'd like to have at least four or five of us represent the Green Party at the event. This is my first time tabling, so I could use all the support I can get. Would anyone be interested in helping me out? If so, please e-mail me back off-list to confirm, and feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Also if anyone needs a ride, I have room to pick up one person on the way there. Thanks and I hope that a few of you will be able to join me there! Cheers, Tom -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From cbrouillet at igc.org Mon Nov 16 14:22:48 2009 From: cbrouillet at igc.org (Carol Brouillet) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:22:48 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Schwarzenegger Signs The Delta's Death Warrant Message-ID: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the "Green Governor," last week signed a five bill package that will lead to the construction of the peripheral canal, more dams and the destruction of the California Delta unless this insane plan is stopped. Governor's Office Photo: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger held a press conference at the Set Back Levee on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in Isleton, California to sign SBX7 1 by Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), the final bill of the package that will lead to the destruction of the Delta. Of course, the locals weren't invited to witness the signing of the death warrant for the Delta. From left to right: California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce President and Chief Executive Officer Joel Ayala, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. Schwarzenegger Signs The Delta's Death Warrant by Dan Bacher After an all night session, the California Legislature on November 4 passed a water package including an $11.1 billion bond that provides a clear path to the construction of the peripheral canal and more dams. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger then signed the bills that he described as "an historic legislative package to reform and rebuild California's water system" during a series of press conferences and highly choreographed photo opportunities over the past week. While Schwarzenegger and Darrell Steinberg lauded the package for being an ???historic compromise,??? Delta legislators, fishermen and Indian Tribes slammed the legislation for leading to the destruction of the Delta, its farms and its fish. "Water is the lifeblood of everything we do in California," said Schwarzenegger. "Without clean, reliable water, we cannot build, we cannot farm, we cannot grow and we cannot prosper. That is why I am so proud that the legislature, Democrats and Republicans, came together and tackled one of the most complicated issues in our state's history. This comprehensive water package is an historic achievement." Schwarzenegger praised the efforts of his Democratic collaborator, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, to push the water policy and bond package through the legislature. "He has been a tireless leader, a relentless advocate for the environment and a true statesman,??? said Steinberg. Steinberg claimed the legislation enacts ???landmark improvements to the environment and investments in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ? the heart of California???s water supply system ? ?? to ensure the restoration of the Delta???s fragile ecosystem while enhancing water reliability for all Californians.??? ???Over the last several decades, numerous efforts to comprehensively address the state???s water problems have consistently failed,??? Steinberg gushed. ???But the Senate this week rose to the occasion, overcoming enormous regional, philosophical, and political obstacles to forge an historic, bipartisan compromise.??? On October 11, Schwarzenegger issued a proclamation calling for the legislature to meet in an extraordinary session to address California's water crisis, in effect strong arming the legislature to pass the water package that he wanted. While the Legislature approved the water policy and bond measures, they killed a bill by Assemblywoman Alsyon Huber that would prohibit the construction of a peripheral canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta without a full fiscal analysis and a vote of the state legislature. ???I offered up a simple bill, a common sense approach,??? Huber stated. ???Unfortunately, my bill was killed without a hearing.??? She vowed that she will resubmit this bill so it will have a full debate. ???I opposed the water package because it creates a new layer of bureaucrats who will make decisions on water that will impact the communities I represent, without allowing us to have a voice, ??? she emphasized. ???I opposed the bond, especially because of the billions in pork for LA. This dead of night pork giveaway is exactly why voters give us low marks.??? Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, agreed with Huber???s assessment. ???The package lost any semblance of rational debate and turned into a pork festival with the water bond ballooning to over $11 billion dollars. With our state already facing a massive debt and more red ink on the horizon, how can we afford this???? The ???pork festival??? bond measure includes $455 million for drought relief, $1.4 billion for regional water supply, $2.25 billion for Delta ???sustainability, $3 billion for water storage , $1.7 billion for watershed conservation, $1 billion for groundwater and $1.25 billion for water recycling and water conservation. The $1.7 allocated for watershed conservation includes $250 million for California's portion of funding to remove four dams on the Klamath, directly linking Klamath Dam removal to building the peripheral canal and Temperance Flat and Sites reservoirs. Representatives of fishing groups were outraged by the passing and signing of the bills. "Today is a sad day for the San Francisco Bay/ Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary," said Roger Mammon, board member of Restore the Delta and the West Delta Chapter of the California Striped Bass Association after the passage of the package. ???The implications are unbelievable and could possibly lead to the worst ecological disaster to ever hit the United States." The passage of the water package could not have taken place without the back room negotiations that large national environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense and the Nature Conservancy, made with Westlands Water District, Metropolitan Water District, Steinberg and Schwarzenegger to craft the package. Laura Harnish and Spreck Rosecrans of Environmental Defense, strong supporters of the water policy package, said ???It is important to realize that the legislation does not authorize a peripheral canal.??? However, the legislation sets up a Delta Stewardship Council of seven members, 4 of whom are appointed by the Governor. The Governor reaffirmed that he wants to build a peripheral canal at a press conference in Stockton the same day the package was passed, so you can be sure that he will make the canal???s construction a priority for the council members he appoints. In addition, the water bond sets up the infrastructure that will be used in tandem with the canal. The vast majority of environmental organizations lobbied against the water package. The water package was opposed by the Sierra Club California, Planning and Conservation League, Friends of the River, Butte Environmental Council, Restore the Delta, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN), California Striped Bass Association, Clean Water Action, the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Center for Biological Diversity, Northern California River Watch, the Public Trust Alliance and the Environmental Protection Information Center. Major unions including the California Teachers Association and SEIU, the five Delta counties and regional governments throughout the Sacramento region opposed the legislation also. During the water package's development, the Planning and Conservation League (PCL) had insisted that any solution focus on reducing reliance on an already over-allocated Delta and require dedicated in- stream flows through the Delta and the San Francisco Bay for endangered and threatened fish populations. ???The package missed the mark on both fronts,??? said Charlotte Hodde, water policy coordinator for PCL. ???Instead of guaranteeing the flows that species in the Delta need to recover, the package provides no regulatory assurance that the water will be there. Even the legislators' own staff analyzed this portion of the bill as unenforceable. This will only worsen the fishery collapse and may lead to even more restrictions on water supply exports from the Delta.??? The plans by Schwarzenegger and Steinberg to build the canal in order to export more water from the Delta to agribusiness and southern California will be met by years of lawsuits, protests, direct action and other resistance by the communities impacted. When the $11 billion water bond goes to a vote by the taxpayers, I predict that it will be voted down just like the peripheral canal initiative was defeated in 1982. ???There is no way that when the state is cutting budgets for schools, fire departments, health care for children and other services that the voters are going to approve an $11 billion bond that will create a total ecological nightmare,??? said Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe at the California Tribal Water Summit that began just hours after the legislation passed. ???The children of our tribe have suffered for seven generations and now our children for seven generations ahead will be paying for this if this measure is approved.??? ???We will continue to use every means possible to oppose this package which sets in motion the canal and allows an unelected body to make key decisions that will impact our Delta Communities, while we are left on the sidelines,??? Barrigan-Parilla concluded. ???It???s no wonder Californians have such a low opinion of their elected representatives.??? For more information about the battle against the peripheral canal, go to http://www.restorethedelta.org. Content-Type: application/octet-stream; x-mac-type=5738424E; x-unix-mode=0644; x-mac-creator=4D535744; x-mac-hide-extension=yes; name=Delta Death Warrant.doc Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="Delta Death Warrant.doc" Arnold Schwarzenegger, the "Green Governor," last week signed a five bill package that will lead to the construction of the peripheral canal, more dams and the destruction of the California Delta unless this insane plan is stopped. Governor's Office Photo: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger held a press conference at the Set Back Levee on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in Isleton, California to sign SBX7 1 by Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), the final bill of the package that will lead to the destruction of the Delta. Of course, the locals weren't invited to witness the signing of the death warrant for the Delta. From left to right: California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce President and Chief Executive Officer Joel Ayala, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. 640_111209podium.jpg original image ( 700x467) Schwarzenegger Signs The Delta's Death Warrant by Dan Bacher After an all night session, the California Legislature on November 4 passed a water package including an $11.1 billion bond that provides a clear path to the construction of the peripheral canal and more dams. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger then signed the bills that he described as "an historic legislative package to reform and rebuild California's water system" during a series of press conferences and highly choreographed photo opportunities over the past week. While Schwarzenegger and Darrell Steinberg lauded the package for being an ?historic compromise,? Delta legislators, fishermen and Indian Tribes slammed the legislation for leading to the destruction of the Delta, its farms and its fish. "Water is the lifeblood of everything we do in California," said Schwarzenegger. "Without clean, reliable water, we cannot build, we cannot farm, we cannot grow and we cannot prosper. That is why I am so proud that the legislature, Democrats and Republicans, came together and tackled one of the most complicated issues in our state's history. This comprehensive water package is an historic achievement." Schwarzenegger praised the efforts of his Democratic collaborator, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, to push the water policy and bond package through the legislature. "He has been a tireless leader, a relentless advocate for the environment and a true statesman,? said Steinberg. Steinberg claimed the legislation enacts ?landmark improvements to the environment and investments in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ? the heart of California?s water supply system ? to ensure the restoration of the Delta?s fragile ecosystem while enhancing water reliability for all Californians.? ?Over the last several decades, numerous efforts to comprehensively address the state?s water problems have consistently failed,? Steinberg gushed. ?But the Senate this week rose to the occasion, overcoming enormous regional, philosophical, and political obstacles to forge an historic, bipartisan compromise.? On October 11, Schwarzenegger issued a proclamation calling for the legislature to meet in an extraordinary session to address California's water crisis, in effect strong arming the legislature to pass the water package that he wanted. While the Legislature approved the water policy and bond measures, they killed a bill by Assemblywoman Alsyon Huber that would prohibit the construction of a peripheral canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta without a full fiscal analysis and a vote of the state legislature. ?I offered up a simple bill, a common sense approach,? Huber stated. ?Unfortunately, my bill was killed without a hearing.? She vowed that she will resubmit this bill so it will have a full debate. ?I opposed the water package because it creates a new layer of bureaucrats who will make decisions on water that will impact the communities I represent, without allowing us to have a voice, ? she emphasized. ?I opposed the bond, especially because of the billions in pork for LA. This dead of night pork giveaway is exactly why voters give us low marks.? Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, agreed with Huber?s assessment. ?The package lost any semblance of rational debate and turned into a pork festival with the water bond ballooning to over $11 billion dollars. With our state already facing a massive debt and more red ink on the horizon, how can we afford this?? The ?pork festival? bond measure includes $455 million for drought relief, $1.4 billion for regional water supply, $2.25 billion for Delta ?sustainability, $3 billion for water storage , $1.7 billion for watershed conservation, $1 billion for groundwater and $1.25 billion for water recycling and water conservation. The $1.7 allocated for watershed conservation includes $250 million for California's portion of funding to remove four dams on the Klamath, directly linking Klamath Dam removal to building the peripheral canal and Temperance Flat and Sites reservoirs. Representatives of fishing groups were outraged by the passing and signing of the bills. "Today is a sad day for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary," said Roger Mammon, board member of Restore the Delta and the West Delta Chapter of the California Striped Bass Association after the passage of the package. ?The implications are unbelievable and could possibly lead to the worst ecological disaster to ever hit the United States." The passage of the water package could not have taken place without the back room negotiations that large national environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense and the Nature Conservancy, made with Westlands Water District, Metropolitan Water District, Steinberg and Schwarzenegger to craft the package. Laura Harnish and Spreck Rosecrans of Environmental Defense, strong supporters of the water policy package, said ?It is important to realize that the legislation does not authorize a peripheral canal.? However, the legislation sets up a Delta Stewardship Council of seven members, 4 of whom are appointed by the Governor. The Governor reaffirmed that he wants to build a peripheral canal at a press conference in Stockton the same day the package was passed, so you can be sure that he will make the canal?s construction a priority for the council members he appoints. In addition, the water bond sets up the infrastructure that will be used in tandem with the canal. The vast majority of environmental organizations lobbied against the water package. The water package was opposed by the Sierra Club California, Planning and Conservation League, Friends of the River, Butte Environmental Council, Restore the Delta, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN), California Striped Bass Association, Clean Water Action, the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Center for Biological Diversity, Northern California River Watch, the Public Trust Alliance and the Environmental Protection Information Center. Major unions including the California Teachers Association and SEIU, the five Delta counties and regional governments throughout the Sacramento region opposed the legislation also. During the water package's development, the Planning and Conservation League (PCL) had insisted that any solution focus on reducing reliance on an already over-allocated Delta and require dedicated in-stream flows through the Delta and the San Francisco Bay for endangered and threatened fish populations. ?The package missed the mark on both fronts,? said Charlotte Hodde, water policy coordinator for PCL. ?Instead of guaranteeing the flows that species in the Delta need to recover, the package provides no regulatory assurance that the water will be there. Even the legislators' own staff analyzed this portion of the bill as unenforceable. This will only worsen the fishery collapse and may lead to even more restrictions on water supply exports from the Delta.? The plans by Schwarzenegger and Steinberg to build the canal in order to export more water from the Delta to agribusiness and southern California will be met by years of lawsuits, protests, direct action and other resistance by the communities impacted. When the $11 billion water bond goes to a vote by the taxpayers, I predict that it will be voted down just like the peripheral canal initiative was defeated in 1982. ?There is no way that when the state is cutting budgets for schools, fire departments, health care for children and other services that the voters are going to approve an $11 billion bond that will create a total ecological nightmare,? said Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe at the California Tribal Water Summit that began just hours after the legislation passed. ?The children of our tribe have suffered for seven generations and now our children for seven generations ahead will be paying for this if this measure is approved.? ?We will continue to use every means possible to oppose this package which sets in motion the canal and allows an unelected body to make key decisions that will impact our Delta Communities, while we are left on the sidelines,? Barrigan-Parilla concluded. ?It?s no wonder Californians have such a low opinion of their elected representatives.? For more information about the battle against the peripheral canal, go to http://www.restorethedelta.org. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From snug.bug at hotmail.com Mon Nov 16 14:41:07 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:41:07 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Schwarzenegger Signs The Delta's Death Warrant In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I'm restating Carol's post because formatting characters made it difficult to read. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the "Green Governor," last week signed a five bill package that will lead to the construction of the peripheral canal, more dams and the destruction of the California Delta unless this insane plan is stopped. Governor's Office Photo: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger held a press conference at the Set Back Levee on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in Isleton, California to sign SBX7 1 by Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), the final bill of the package that will lead to the destruction of the Delta. Of course, the locals weren't invited to witness the signing of the death warrant for the Delta. From left to right: California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce President and Chief Executive Officer Joel Ayala, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg. 640_111209podium.jpg original image ( 700x467) Schwarzenegger Signs The Delta's Death Warrant by Dan Bacher After an all night session, the California Legislature on November 4 passed a water package including an $11.1 billion bond that provides a clear path to the construction of the peripheral canal and more dams. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger then signed the bills that he described as "an historic legislative package to reform and rebuild California's water system" during a series of press conferences and highly choreographed photo opportunities over the past week. While Schwarzenegger and Darrell Steinberg lauded the package for being an ?historic compromise,? Delta legislators, fishermen and Indian Tribes slammed the legislation for leading to the destruction of the Delta, its farms and its fish. "Water is the lifeblood of everything we do in California," said Schwarzenegger. "Without clean, reliable water, we cannot build, we cannot farm, we cannot grow and we cannot prosper. That is why I am so proud that the legislature, Democrats and Republicans, came together and tackled one of the most complicated issues in our state's history. This comprehensive water package is an historic achievement." Schwarzenegger praised the efforts of his Democratic collaborator, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, to push the water policy and bond package through the legislature. "He has been a tireless leader, a relentless advocate for the environment and a true statesman,? said Steinberg. Steinberg claimed the legislation enacts ?landmark improvements to the environment and investments in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ? the heart of California?s water supply system ? to ensure the restoration of the Delta?s fragile ecosystem while enhancing water reliability for all Californians.? ?Over the last several decades, numerous efforts to comprehensively address the state?s water problems have consistently failed,? Steinberg gushed. ?But the Senate this week rose to the occasion, overcoming enormous regional, philosophical, and political obstacles to forge an historic, bipartisan compromise.? On October 11, Schwarzenegger issued a proclamation calling for the legislature to meet in an extraordinary session to address California's water crisis, in effect strong arming the legislature to pass the water package that he wanted. While the Legislature approved the water policy and bond measures, they killed a bill by Assemblywoman Alsyon Huber that would prohibit the construction of a peripheral canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta without a full fiscal analysis and a vote of the state legislature. ?I offered up a simple bill, a common sense approach,? Huber stated. ?Unfortunately, my bill was killed without a hearing.? She vowed that she will resubmit this bill so it will have a full debate. ?I opposed the water package because it creates a new layer of bureaucrats who will make decisions on water that will impact the communities I represent, without allowing us to have a voice, ? she emphasized. ?I opposed the bond, especially because of the billions in pork for LA. This dead of night pork giveaway is exactly why voters give us low marks.? Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, agreed with Huber?s assessment. ?The package lost any semblance of rational debate and turned into a pork festival with the water bond ballooning to over $11 billion dollars. With our state already facing a massive debt and more red ink on the horizon, how can we afford this?? The ?pork festival? bond measure includes $455 million for drought relief, $1.4 billion for regional water supply, $2.25 billion for Delta ?sustainability, $3 billion for water storage , $1.7 billion for watershed conservation, $1 billion for groundwater and $1.25 billion for water recycling and water conservation. The $1.7 allocated for watershed conservation includes $250 million for California's portion of funding to remove four dams on the Klamath, directly linking Klamath Dam removal to building the peripheral canal and Temperance Flat and Sites reservoirs. Representatives of fishing groups were outraged by the passing and signing of the bills. "Today is a sad day for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary," said Roger Mammon, board member of Restore the Delta and the West Delta Chapter of the California Striped Bass Association after the passage of the package. ?The implications are unbelievable and could possibly lead to the worst ecological disaster to ever hit the United States." The passage of the water package could not have taken place without the back room negotiations that large national environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Defense and the Nature Conservancy, made with Westlands Water District, Metropolitan Water District, Steinberg and Schwarzenegger to craft the package. Laura Harnish and Spreck Rosecrans of Environmental Defense, strong supporters of the water policy package, said ?It is important to realize that the legislation does not authorize a peripheral canal.? However, the legislation sets up a Delta Stewardship Council of seven members, 4 of whom are appointed by the Governor. The Governor reaffirmed that he wants to build a peripheral canal at a press conference in Stockton the same day the package was passed, so you can be sure that he will make the canal?s construction a priority for the council members he appoints. In addition, the water bond sets up the infrastructure that will be used in tandem with the canal. The vast majority of environmental organizations lobbied against the water package. The water package was opposed by the Sierra Club California, Planning and Conservation League, Friends of the River, Butte Environmental Council, Restore the Delta, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN), California Striped Bass Association, Clean Water Action, the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Center for Biological Diversity, Northern California River Watch, the Public Trust Alliance and the Environmental Protection Information Center. Major unions including the California Teachers Association and SEIU, the five Delta counties and regional governments throughout the Sacramento region opposed the legislation also. During the water package's development, the Planning and Conservation League (PCL) had insisted that any solution focus on reducing reliance on an already over-allocated Delta and require dedicated in-stream flows through the Delta and the San Francisco Bay for endangered and threatened fish populations. ?The package missed the mark on both fronts,? said Charlotte Hodde, water policy coordinator for PCL. ?Instead of guaranteeing the flows that species in the Delta need to recover, the package provides no regulatory assurance that the water will be there. Even the legislators' own staff analyzed this portion of the bill as unenforceable. This will only worsen the fishery collapse and may lead to even more restrictions on water supply exports from the Delta.? The plans by Schwarzenegger and Steinberg to build the canal in order to export more water from the Delta to agribusiness and southern California will be met by years of lawsuits, protests, direct action and other resistance by the communities impacted. When the $11 billion water bond goes to a vote by the taxpayers, I predict that it will be voted down just like the peripheral canal initiative was defeated in 1982. ?There is no way that when the state is cutting budgets for schools, fire departments, health care for children and other services that the voters are going to approve an $11 billion bond that will create a total ecological nightmare,? said Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe at the California Tribal Water Summit that began just hours after the legislation passed. ?The children of our tribe have suffered for seven generations and now our children for seven generations ahead will be paying for this if this measure is approved.? ?We will continue to use every means possible to oppose this package which sets in motion the canal and allows an unelected body to make key decisions that will impact our Delta Communities, while we are left on the sidelines,? Barrigan-Parilla concluded. ?It?s no wonder Californians have such a low opinion of their elected representatives.? For more information about the battle against the peripheral canal, go to http://www.restorethedelta.org . _________________________________________________________________ Bing brings you maps, menus, and reviews organized in one place. http://www.bing.com/search?q=restaurants&form=MFESRP&publ=WLHMTAG&crea=TEXT_MFESRP_Local_MapsMenu_Resturants_1x1 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT00001 URL: From snug.bug at hotmail.com Mon Nov 16 16:59:56 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:59:56 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Preliminary Agenda for December GPSCC Meeting Message-ID: 12-2-09 Selection of Facilitator, Notetaker, Timekeeper, and Vibeswatcher Introductions and Announcements Treasurer's report Report from food committee of state-wide party meeting Report on site inspection/reservation for SWPM Report from tabling events Report on campaign for Water District Report from Coalition for a Downtown Hospital Finding candidates for Council 3 - 5 minutes Planned upcoming tabling events Report on Upcoming Food for Thought events GP 20-Year Extrannavervagansary in Berkeley New Plumbing Code greywater provisions; city-level advocacy for allowing greywater use. Election of Regional Representative Candidate Cynthia (Cindi) Asnir's presentation Action Alert to GPSMC for vote Updating literature ### _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft's powerful SPAM protection. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/ http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gerrygras at earthlink.net Tue Nov 17 07:11:57 2009 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:11:57 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] "Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change" Message-ID: <4B02BD3D.4000407@earthlink.net> FWIW, an article trying to explain American attitudes and thinking about climate change. "Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/17-4 Gerry P.S. The discussion about political psychology could be relevant to why third parties have a hard time. From wrolley at charter.net Tue Nov 17 08:09:52 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:09:52 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] "Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change" In-Reply-To: <4B02BD3D.4000407@earthlink.net> References: <4B02BD3D.4000407@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <4B02CAD0.4050606@charter.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From snug.bug at hotmail.com Tue Nov 17 09:29:56 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:29:56 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] "Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change" In-Reply-To: <4B02CAD0.4050606@charter.net> References: <4B02BD3D.4000407@earthlink.net>,<4B02CAD0.4050606@charter.net> Message-ID: We're not getting any sense of urgency from authority figures about the issue. Al Gore made his movie in 2006 and then moved on to other things. I never saw him (or anybody) barnstorming around trying to stir people up. Is Obama even acknowledging the problem? Has anybody criticized him for shirking it? There's no best-selling book--no Paul Ehrlich or Linus Pauling of climate change. There's no conspicuous activist group or leader--no Code Pink or David Swanson. It's not happening because it's not happening. Somebody needs to write the book, make the movie or the videos, start the group, get some visibility. Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:09:52 -0800 From: wrolley at charter.net To: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org CC: gerrygras at earthlink.net Subject: Re: [Sosfbay-discuss] "Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change" Gerry, That is interesting an maybe more true than some of the corporate pablum that Nordhaus and Schellenberger have put out in the past. However, I think that they miss some very well known, accepted facts. We only need to recall the hierarchy of needs described by Maslow. When people are out of work, when they lose their homes due to rising medical bills as was depicted on ABC's NightLine last night, they are dealing with immediate survival threats. It is not difficult to match the decline in support of action on climate change to the decline of the economy. So, it is not the apocalyptic vision that is wrong, because it is not, but rather the lack of immediacy that we have to deal with. In this sense, they are correct. Every time that we present the case for global warming through the image of a polar bear, we sell the idea that the threat is far away in both space and time. We need to bring it much more close to home and to make people realize that the effects are not in some future time, but right now, that action now is the only way to forestall economic devastation later. As a political party, Greens have somewhat the same failing. Recently, I used a quote from Julia Butterfly Hill to the effect "Many of us have gotten so good at defining what we are against that what we are against has started to define us." That is the argument against using only negative calls to action on climate change. That is why 350.org, for all the organizational skill it demonstrated, missed the opportunity to make a larger connection when McKibben failed to call for any policy specifics. If we are to be successful, we need to start defining what we are for, to paint the picture of a better future that they need Greens to show the way. If we want to make inroads into the pubic consciousness, then we have to show what it would be like to live in a world where Green values prevail. Wes Gerry Gras wrote: FWIW, an article trying to explain American attitudes and thinking about climate change. "Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change" http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/17-4 Gerry P.S. The discussion about political psychology could be relevant to why third parties have a hard time. _______________________________________________ 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 _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?h=myidea?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_myidea:112009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wrolley at charter.net Tue Nov 17 10:01:27 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:01:27 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] "Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change" In-Reply-To: References: <4B02BD3D.4000407@earthlink.net>, <4B02CAD0.4050606@charter.net> Message-ID: <4B02E4F7.3000902@charter.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From vdf at juno.com Tue Nov 17 12:30:07 2009 From: vdf at juno.com (Valerie D. Face) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:30:07 GMT Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Reminder : "Ending the Death Penalty: How to Make Change on the Local Level" TONIGHT Message-ID: <20091117.123007.9133.1@webmail22.vgs.untd.com> Ending the Death Penalty: How to Make Change on the Local Level Tuesday, November 17, 2009 from 7-9 pm at Congregation Beth Am in the Beit Keillah Room 26790 Arastradero Road, Los Altos, Ca Speakers: Natasha Minsker, ACLU of Northern California and Judy Kerr, Spokesperson and Victim Liaison for California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Palo Alto Free and Open to the Public For more information please contact: scccadp at aclunc.org or visit www.santaclaraagainstdeathpenalty.org ____________________________________________________________ Online Police Training Online law enforcement degree programs - 100% online while you work. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/c?cp=D6QQ-0JKrQfEgY37oQHTkwAAJ1BSv5BgKRMxjoB2-H05qqW1AAQAAAAFAAAAAG3nOz4AAAMlAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB3EQAAAAA= From gerrygras at earthlink.net Tue Nov 17 17:56:24 2009 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:56:24 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] People and Climate Change Message-ID: <4B035448.7090504@earthlink.net> As to what is happening re Climate Change ... the short answer is a lot. Whether it is "enough" remains to be seen. I am seeing so many articles on Common Dreams, that I can't keep up with what is in the articles and other resources I read about there. I presume that is because COP15 in Copenhagen is coming up in less than a month. I recently got an email from Acterra about a Climate Change talk with Stephen Schneider, a climate scientist with a new book "Science as a Contact Sport" (because of how much they are attacked). (I am about half way through that book.) I recently got an email from Robert Redford via the NRDC list about a new book "Clean Energy, Common Sense" written by NRDC president Francis Beinecke. (I have ordered that book from Keplers, it is not in stock.) I recently attended an MIT event in Santa Clara about clean energy. It would appear from what they said that MIT is heavily involved in research for clean energy. One professor said that in his research he is looking for short term benefits because global warming is urgent. Bill McKibben's October 24th action, through 350.org, was pretty big, over 5200 events in 181 countries. FWIW, a lot of climate science is funded by the U.S. government. It appears to me that world generally agrees on the need to do something. The tricky part is how much needs to be done, and by whom, and who pays for it. Gerry From snug.bug at hotmail.com Wed Nov 18 01:36:33 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:36:33 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] FW: Rebuttal to Enrico Manieri In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: For 9/11 scholars From: snug.bug at hotmail.com To: terrykoch1 at yahoo.com CC: sf911truth at googlegroups.com Subject: Rebuttal to Enrico Manieri Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:56:07 -0800 Hi Terry, Thanks for forwarding that inquiry about the Manieri articles. They're typical lame debunker fare--quibbling about details, a blizzard of irrelevancies, straw men--but since they're quite effective at convincing people who don't want to bother with 9/11 that they needn't bother with 9/11 I guess we'll keep on seeing them. Cosmos at truthaction recently referred colorfully to some posts at BoingBoing as "craptastically run-of-the-mill hitpieces on 9/11 truth". Here's what I wrote to the guy in NYC: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - "Whistleblower" WTC blueprints corroborate NIST, debunk CT claims - Real-world tests cut through steel, shatter thermite "evidence" - Technical details on thermal cutting of steel Thank you for the chance to comment on Mr. Manieri's articles, though they're red herrings. Nitpicking of conspiracy theories only distracts from the fact of the inconsistencies, dishonesty, implausibilities, impossibilities, and omissions of the official reports. I don't take truthers' theories very seriously, not even my own. They are only launching pads for further investigation. In seeking new investigations, I prefer to focus on facts such as these: 1. 91% of the 9/11 widows' 300 questions were not answered by the 9/11 Commission Report 2. NORAD's 9/11 tales were so unbelievable that the 9/11 Commission report "corrected" them, and the Commission gave thought to referring NORAD's shifting stories to the DoJ for a criminal inquiry. 3. The 9/11 Commission's claims about al Qaeda's involvement in 9/11 come largely from CIA transcripts of testimony extracted under torture, which would not be admissible in a court of law 4. The NIST report on the twin towers stops at the point of collapse initiation and thus skips the most baffling aspects of the towers' structural failure: a) complete pulverization of the concrete floors and associated steel floor pans b) symmetry of collapse--how did asymmetrical insults from aircraft impact and nomadic fires yield a completely symmetrical collapse? c) totality of collapse--neither NIST nor FEMA explained what felled the robust structural steel cores with their forests of 47 16" X 36" steel box columns. Dr. Bazant's "piledriver" theory is implicitly invoked--the core can't dismember itself and only attack by the mass of the upper section's acre-sized concrete floors can explain the cores' destruction--but north tower videos clearly show that Bazant's alleged "piledriver" came apart before the impact zone began to collapse. d) speed of collapse--"essentially in free fall", says NIST. Since kinetic energy was consumed in pulverizing concrete, breaking the structure, twisting and mashing steel components and creating the enormous hot dust clouds, this feat is mystifying e) arrested rotation of WTC2's top. Tilting 22 degrees, the top should have by the law of conservation of angular momentum continued rotating until it fell off the building. Instead its concrete floors seem to have turned into dust 800 feet in the air. Those aren't theories. Now to three of Mr. Manieri's articles: "Technical details on the thermal cutting of steel" Exhaustively informative on oxygen-assisted cutting, Mr. Manieri's article makes no effort to show it was used at Ground Zero. Why didn't he phone the cleanup contractor Controlled Demolition and ask? He doesn't quantify the molten material produced, nor quote any witness accounts of molten streams. If cleanup cutting produced the molten iron, why don't the officials say so? Instead they deny that the molten iron exists. Here is a page of witness accounts of molten steel, including reports of steel members pulled from the rubble with molten steel dripping: http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evidence/moltensteel.html Dr. Astaneh-Asl, a UC Berkeley structural engineer who studied the Ground Zero wreckage, told PBS "I saw melting of girders at the World Trade Center." Dr. Ahmed Ghoneim of MIT wrote "Evidence of some steel melting was suggested by the photographs." Were they talking about steel-cutting operations? Some of this testimony appears at 1:55 in this video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVO5jNZ34I0 Self-styled "debunkers" often seek to explain apparent anomalies in the 9/11 event with speculative theories that the officials do not advance. If Manieri is right, he's only proving my point--the official reports are incomplete and incompetent and we thus need further investigations. "Real-world tests cut through steel, shatter thermite 'evidence'". The famous photo of the angle-cut core column went into my "too good to be true" file the moment I saw it, I am proud to say. Debunking one mistaken piece of evidence by no means demolishes the other evidence for the thermite hypothesis. "'Whistleblower'" WTC blueprints corroborate NIST, debunk CT claims" Suppressed evidence invites speculation, the 9/11 Truth movement is not monolithic as NIST is, and Mr. Manieri's complaint that various conspiracy theories contradict each other is unreasonable. Truth researchers bring varied educational and social experience, various ideologies, and varying degrees of research competence and tolerance for science-fictiony speculation to bear, (and not a few are just plain nuts!). The theories are contradictory. So what? Mariani rightly criticizes Steve Watson's untrue claim that the NIST and FEMA don't report core column dimensions (they do), but this error hardly indicts the movement. People publish stupid stuff about 9/11 every day, I never heard of Steve Watson, and I don't read Infowars. Officials did in fact misrepresent the strength of the cores: the 9/11 Commission characterized the core as "a hollow steel shaft" and FEMA's drawings made 16" X 36" core columns look like toothpicks and sometimes eliminated them altogether. Manieri warns that basing structural calculations on architectural drawings would be a mistake. Well duh! Engineers know that architectural drawings aren't construction drawings and that they severely under-represent the building's strength. Condemning as "a harebrained approach, worthy of those who posit the involvement of nukes or space rays in the collapse of the WTC" an action that nobody even proposes is a transparent straw man argument. Manieri's implication that the steel components' stamped steel ID numbers somehow validate NIST's findings is amusing. The ID numbers specified each component's location in the structure and would have aided a truly scientific investigation that identified all the pieces and mapped their locations on the debris pile* and reassembled for study the pieces from the impact zone and from any anomalous failure zones. Not only was no scientific inventory done, the steel was shipped off to China and India before experts could study it. Dr. Astaneh-Asl complained to the House Science Committee that the aggressive recycling program interfered with his studies of the steel wreckage. NIST lacked the intellectual honesty to express regret for the steel's destruction, and the head of its investigation even lied to NOVA in claiming that the steel was unavailable for study because rescue operations scattered it. Rescue operations lasted one week. Fire Engineering Magazine was still screaming bloody murder about ongoing destruction of physical evidence three months later. The "scoop and dump" cleanup was so hasty that the complete body of a man in a business suit turned up in the landfill; the steel was recycled so swiftly that NIST apparently can not show evidence that any of their core steel samples show heating above 482 degrees F. That's not hot enough to seriously weaken the steel. Don't be fooled by the spectacularly deformed steel column C-88a in Manieri's Figure 6-31 and Figure 4-3 (from NIST's report NCSTAR 1-3C). Neither Manieri nor NIST make the claim that the hairpin bend was caused by high temperatures. The stresses imposed are thus just as consistent with the controlled demolition hypothesis as the fire-weakened steel hypothesis. Manieri's conclusion claims that he's shown "how gratuitous and groundless the CT's allegations of manipulation are." Since he's achieved only a trivial correction to Mr. Watson's mistaken declaration about manipulations that in fact occurred, Manieri's grandiose conclusion is neither justified or factual. * How a Scientific Deconstruction of the Pile Coulda, Shoulda Been Done: Station photographers in tall buildings next to Ground Zero. Before each piece of steel is removed, spray paint a color code (like an electronic resistor color code) on it, photograph it in place from the tall building. Photograph again from the ground as it's logged and placed on the truck. Ideally the stamped numbers would be recorded as the steel was put on the truck. Deconstructing the pile scientifically would have helped answer many questions about the collapse: 1. Did the core outlast the trussed floors? If so, toppled core components should be laid out linearly over the top of the other rubble. 2. Did the entire top part of the building remain intact through the collapse, as the Bazant piledriver theory claims? Then top components (particularly the hat truss) should have all been found close together atop the debris heap, and the components of the robust structural core should have been under them, centered in the heap. If the "piledriver" came apart before the collapse began, as videos of the north tower collapse seem to show, then the top components would be scattered widely in the debris, and core elements might reflect toppling, rather than crushing, failure. The hat truss elements in particular would have been informative in determining how a collapse on one side of the building managed to propagate across the robust core to bring the other side of the building down. 3. What was the nature of the so-called "squibs" which appear to be pulverized building materials ejecting explosively from windows centered in the exterior wall? Stamped ID numbers would have facilitated examination of the steel framing from those specific windows. ### Windows 7: Unclutter your desktop. Learn more. Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now. Hotmail: Trusted email with powerful SPAM protection. Sign up now. _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?h=myidea?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_myidea:112009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tnharter at aceweb.com Wed Nov 18 14:39:38 2009 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:39:38 +0000 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] "Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public onClimateChange" In-Reply-To: References: <4B02BD3D.4000407@earthlink.net>, <4B02CAD0.4050606@charter.net> Message-ID: <4B0477AA.3080107@aceweb.com> Brian Good wrote: > > We're not getting any sense of urgency from authority figures about > the issue. Al Gore made his movie in 2006 and then moved on to other > things. I never saw him (or anybody) barnstorming around trying to > stir people up. Is Obama even acknowledging the problem? > Has anybody criticized him for shirking it? > > I beg to differ. For one thing, I saw Gore speaking in 2007 at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, so he is still talking on it. Not only that, but after the 2006 thing he set up a group that has been training people to do versions of that presentation, and I know several people that did speaking tours as part of that. Probably at least one of them would be glad to do their talk again if they could find a local audience that wanted to hear it. The real problem is that there is cavernous gap between collective issues and personal issues that has been strip mined by the status quo to perpetuate itself. Part of that is the role of "God" in religion, part of that is the role of the sovereign in politics, another part of it is the role of advertising in corporate profits. I'm not sure about how K Street fits in, but they probably have something to do with it to. I like to illustrate it by talking about 911. 9/11 was a collective event. Dialing 911 is usually a personal event for the caller or someone else in the general area. > There's no best-selling book--no Paul Ehrlich or Linus Pauling of > climate change. There's no conspicuous activist group or leader--no > Code Pink or David Swanson. It's not happening because it's not > happening. Somebody needs to write the book, make the movie > or the videos, start the group, get some visibility. > There are plenty of conspicuous groups. 1sky.org comes to mind. They were tabling at the green festival. Live Earth was fairly big. StepItUp.org has had several events that made a lot of local media all over. Barbara Kingsolver wrote a book about eating locally. Michael Pollan buries an understanding of these issues in everything he writes. I often hear him interviewed again on national media. Remember that "Farmer In Chief" stuff? The fact that you think "nothing is happening" says more about you than "we". I grew up in the federal bureaucracy, and my perception was that my father was always scrambling from "critical emergency" to "critical emergency". When I got involved with politics I was looking for a problem that would "hold still" long enough to get beyond that jangling. Oil consumption habits fit the bill very well. All those people that suffer because of high gas prices? You are welcome to change your ways! It's not like it's a mystery what changes would help... Obviously we're not getting any sense of urgency from authority figures. The oil, car, and pharmaceutical companies paid good money to give us "authority figures" that like lining their pockets. Get a clue! Sunday I saw Starhawk say "we can't wait for leadership from Washington on climate change". I saw Acterra's Debbie Mytels say the same thing years ago. It was a good idea then and it's a good idea now. We gotta make progress on this issue without leadership from above. It has to come from the grass roots. In San Francisco's City Hall I saw it put differently. This guy said at a hearing on peak oil "All the emergency plans I know about boil down to 'stop the bleeding and wait for help to arrive'. This crisis is different. To address it we need to decentralize." Think globally and act locally. Art is our path to the mainstream stage. There are too many powerful interests keeping us out of the conventional mainstream media.I was discussing 911 with a Kiwi I know. She told me "we dial 111 for emergency services." The reason we dial 911 is that when the service was invented 111 was already the area code for a powerful zone. K St. probably had something to do with that. The first time I mentioned it to someone else, we were looking at a statue of a homeless man sleeping (dead?) in a cardboard box in an art gallery. There was $1.11 by his hand. I told the guy that happened to be there "In New Zealand 111 is their 911." Please notice that no actual homeless were harmed in the typing of this paragraph. Don't get me started on the topic of "Mexicans" in free speech. Tian > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:09:52 -0800 > From: wrolley at charter.net > To: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org > CC: gerrygras at earthlink.net > Subject: Re: [Sosfbay-discuss] "Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on > Climate Change" > > Gerry, > That is interesting an maybe more true than some of the corporate pablum > that Nordhaus and Schellenberger have put out in the past. However, I > think that they miss some very well known, accepted facts. We only need > to recall the hierarchy of needs described by Maslow. When people are > out of work, when they lose their homes due to rising medical bills as > was depicted on ABC's NightLine last night, they are dealing with > immediate survival threats. It is not difficult to match the decline in > support of action on climate change to the decline of the economy. > > So, it is not the apocalyptic vision that is wrong, because it is not, > but rather the lack of immediacy that we have to deal with. In this > sense, they are correct. Every time that we present the case for global > warming through the image of a polar bear, we sell the idea that the > threat is far away in both space and time. We need to bring it much > more close to home and to make people realize that the effects are not > in some future time, but right now, that action now is the only way to > forestall economic devastation later. > > As a political party, Greens have somewhat the same failing. Recently, > I used a quote from Julia Butterfly Hill to the effect "Many of us have > gotten so good at defining what we are against that what we are against > has started to define us." That is the argument against using *only* > negative calls to action on climate change. That is why 350.org, for > all the organizational skill it demonstrated, missed the opportunity to > make a larger connection when McKibben failed to call for any policy > specifics. > > If we are to be successful, we need to start defining what we are for, > to paint the picture of a better future that they need Greens to show > the way. If we want to make inroads into the pubic consciousness, then > we have to show what it would be like to live in a world where Green > values prevail. > > Wes > > Gerry Gras wrote: > > FWIW, > an article trying to explain American attitudes > and thinking about climate change. > > "Apocalypse Fatigue: Losing the Public on Climate Change" > http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/17-4 > > Gerry > > P.S. The discussion about political psychology could be > relevant to why third parties have a hard time. > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star. > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > sosfbay-discuss mailing list > sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss -- Tian http://tian.greens.org Latest addition: green festival pictures and words from San Francisco. From tnharter at aceweb.com Wed Nov 18 14:50:56 2009 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:50:56 +0000 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] People and Climate Change In-Reply-To: <4B035448.7090504@earthlink.net> References: <4B035448.7090504@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <4B047A50.5040305@aceweb.com> Gerry Gras wrote: > > I recently attended an MIT event in Santa > Clara about clean energy. It would appear > from what they said that MIT is heavily > involved in research for clean energy. > One professor said that in his research he > is looking for short term benefits because > global warming is urgent. > > Bill McKibben's October 24th action, through > 350.org, was pretty big, over 5200 events > in 181 countries. > > FWIW, a lot of climate science is funded by > the U.S. government. > > It appears to me that world generally agrees > on the need to do something. The tricky part > is how much needs to be done, and by whom, > and who pays for it. > A lot of people don't know that Palo Alto could be the only place where local government provides electricity, water AND internet. Mountain View is more of a "normal California city" with power from PG&E water from local government, and internet from various private vendors. -- Tian http://tian.greens.org Latest addition: green festival pictures and words from San Francisco. From alexcathy at aol.com Thu Nov 19 08:16:47 2009 From: alexcathy at aol.com (alexcathy at aol.com) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:16:47 -0500 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] WAL-MART vs. THE CITY OF MILPITAS Message-ID: <8CC374AD3DF1444-5AE0-A62@webmail-m040.sysops.aol.com> Dear Green Friends, A few weeks ago I posted a note about plans to expand the existing Wal-Mart store in Milpitas into one of Wal-Mart's notorious Supercenters. See below important information about a meeting in Milpitas to be held tonight. Please circulate this widely. WAL-MART VERSUS THE CITY OF MILPITAS The City of Milpitas released the Draft Environmental Impact Report(DEIR) for Wal-Mart?s Supercenter application. The public has45-days to comment. Tell the City that Milpitas does not need aSupercenter. * * * Attention: Important Community Meeting * * * Please join like-minded, concerned residents to discuss how we can stopthe proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter. Please bring your family andfriends. Thursday, November 19 at 6:00 PM Omega Restaurant, 90 South Park Victoria Drive A Wal-Mart Supercenter comes with risks... Displaced local businesses. Milpitas already serves as a regional retail magnet. A 24-hour Supercenter will not generatesubstantial gains in sales tax revenues, since it will simplydisplace other existing retail. Urban decay. As businesses close as a result of aSupercenter, property values will fall due to urban decay and propertytax revenues will be lower than otherwise. Traffic congestion. The Draft Environmental ImpactReport (DEIR) states that the 24-hour Supercenter will have?significant unavoidable impacts? on the roadways due to trafficincreases. Lower wages. Wal-Mart pays lower wages and benefitsthan most of its competitors, particularly in the grocery arena. Theselower wages will impact Milpitas? economy since many employees arelikely to be residents. These new jobs will displace higher paying jobsin the grocery industry. Lower quality of life. When a community?s mom-and-popoperations lose to national big-box chains, the community loses aswell. And although Wal-Mart is located on the other side of theInterstate, a 24-hour Supercenter will impact the entire city,including your neighborhood stores. The City of Milpitas should not allowthe Supercenter. Let?s maintain our quality of life. Tell the City toreject the Wal-Mart expansion, like many other Bay Area cities. Send your written comments via email, letter, or fax by 5:00 PM, Friday December 18th. Each letter should address the various impacts in the Draft Environmental Impact Report. All letters should be sent to: Ms. Cindy Hom, Assistant Planner City of Milpitas Planning and Neighborhood Services Department 455 E. Calaveras Boulevard Milpitas, CA 95035 E-Mail: chom2 at ci.milpitas.ca.gov You may download a .PDF file of a sample letter to council members at: http://alexcathy.com/milpitas_letter.pdf -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From alexcathy at aol.com Thu Nov 19 16:12:12 2009 From: alexcathy at aol.com (alexcathy at aol.com) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:12:12 -0500 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] WAL-MART vs. THE CITY OF MILPITAS In-Reply-To: <8CC374AD3DF1444-5AE0-A62@webmail-m040.sysops.aol.com> References: <8CC374AD3DF1444-5AE0-A62@webmail-m040.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: <8CC378D3DC32128-C50-1A3C8@webmail-d002.sysops.aol.com> See below a link to my blog post on California Greening about the Milpitas Wal-Mart. Please read, post a comment, and check out tonight's meeting if you are in or near Milpitas Alex Walker http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2009/11/wal-mart-versus-city-of-milpitas.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carolineyacoub at att.net Thu Nov 19 17:26:08 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:26:08 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: Climate Crisis Coalition Action Alert Message-ID: <730871.85278.qm@web81202.mail.mud.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: shane que hee Sent: Thu, November 19, 2009 4:06:39 PM Subject: Climate Crisis Coalition Action Alert > Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:49:17 -0800 (PST) > From: Scott McLarty > Subject: Climate Crisis Coalition Action Alert (fwd) > > Climate Crisis Coalition > http://www.climatecrisiscoalition.org > > Dear Friends of CCC, > > We have an urgent request this week that can be a real game-changer in the debate about climate change. > > Congressmen Bob Filner (D-CA) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) are circulating a sign-on letter to President Obama urging him to attend the climate change conference in Copenhagen next month and seek agreement on a goal that will lead to a safe and sustainable climate for the Earth. The goal specified in the letter is to lower the concentration of carbon-dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere to 350 parts per million and keep it at or below that level. > > Many of you participated in the 350.org (http://www.350.org) events of October 24 that called attention to this goal. Scientists are telling us that if we stay above this level of CO2 for a long period of time, our world will suffer catastrophic consequences. Unfortunately, many policy-makers are laboring under the assumption that we can allow carbon levels to rise as high as 450 ppm. This would be a disaster. CO2 levels are now at 390 ppm, and we're already seeing the world's glaciers recede at an unprecedented pace. > > Please take action: > > Call your member of Congress and leave a message. Tell him or her who you are and where you're calling from and that you're very concerned about climate change that's being caused by overuse of fossil fuels. Ask that your Congressman sign on to the letter from Representatives Filner and Kucinich that is asking President Obama to go to Copenhagen and seek agreement on the need to lower carbon-dioxide in our atmosphere to 350 parts per million. Mention that the letter will close out on Nov. 25. > > You can view the Filner/Kucinich "Dear Colleague" letter here. > http://citizensclimatelobby.org/files/350_DC_with_text_0.pdf > > You find out how to reach your member of Congress here. > http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/dbq/officials/ > > And, you can sign the letter to President Obama here. > http://citizensclimatelobby.org/node/369 > > You can also make a donation here to help us in this effort. > http://www.climatecrisiscoalition.org/donation.html > > See our 28-min. interview with Dr. James Hansen. He explains why 350 is such an important goal. > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jarAWIGML5k&feature=player_embedded > > The following Members of Congress have recently signed on to the Filner/Kucinich letter: Steven R. Rothman (D-NJ); Joe Setak (D-PA); Lynn C. Woolsey (D-CA). Please help us persuade your representative to sign on to this important letter. > > We much appreciate your assistance. > > Tom Stokes, Climate Crisis Coalition > http://www.climatecrisiscoalition.org > (413) 243-5665 - tstokes at kyotoandbeyond.org > > Mark Reynolds, Citizens Climate Lobby > http://www.citizensclimatelobby.org > (619) 437-7142 - mark.reynolds at citizensclimatelobby.org > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From snug.bug at hotmail.com Thu Nov 19 20:46:11 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:46:11 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Documentary on Reforestation in Kenya Saturday 1:30 pm Fremont Library Message-ID: Planting trees for fuel, shade, and food started Wangari Maathai down the path that reclaimed her country's land from 100 years of deforestation, provided new sources of food and income to rural communities, gave previously impoverished and powerless women a vital political role in their country, and ultimately helped to bring down Kenya's twenty-four-year dictatorship and bring Maathi the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for ?her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace.? Discussion will be led by Tabitha Kanogo PhD, University of Nairobi, currently Professor of history at UC Berkeley. Saturday, November 21 at 1:30 p.m. Fremont Main Library, 2400 Stevenson Blvd at Paseo Padre, Fremont There's a Stevenson exit on 880--it's three or four miles south of the Dumbarton Bridge exit. Head for the eastern hills about two miles. The library's on the right, just after you cross Paseo Padre. _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: It works the way you want. Learn more. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_evergreen:112009v2 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From gerrygras at earthlink.net Fri Nov 20 02:07:36 2009 From: gerrygras at earthlink.net (Gerry Gras) Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:07:36 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] "The New (Green) Arms Race" Message-ID: <4B066A68.1090504@earthlink.net> About how China is more aggressive about green technology, and may beat us there, with adverse effects on our economy. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/19-8 Gerry From snug.bug at hotmail.com Fri Nov 20 10:03:48 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:03:48 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] "Eyewtiness Gaza" Sunday Evening in Santa Clara Message-ID: Sunday, November 22 at 5:30 p.m. Muslim Community Association, 3003 Scott Blvd, Santa Clara (From Central Expwy turn toward the bay on Scott. When Scott turns toward San Francisco the MCA is on the right.) This presentation is a must-see. Donna and Darlene Wallach have dedicated themselves to publicizing the injustices against the people of Gaza. In August 2008 they traveled on the Free Gaza movement's boats, the first boats to arrive in Gaza Strip in decades. Accompanying Palestinian fishermen and farmers they witnessed Israeli military violations of the June 2008 ceasefire. Come listen to them speak about the spirit, resilience, kindness, generosity, and humor of the Palestinian people and the peaceful ways they survive. _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: It works the way you want. Learn more. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_evergreen:112009v2 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From fredd at freeshell.org Fri Nov 20 12:41:42 2009 From: fredd at freeshell.org (fred) Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:41:42 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: 3 Upcoming Events] Message-ID: <4B06FF06.3060105@freeshell.org> FYI Fred -------- Original Message -------- Subject: 3 Upcoming Events Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:00:43 -0800 From: Peter Drekmeier Friends, Following are three water-related events that I thought might interest you. 1) Sustainable Silicon Valley Water Summit 2) Green Plumbers Training Workshop 3) Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards *1) Sustainable Silicon Valley Water Summit* This event -- taking place at NASA/Ames Research Center in Mountain View on Monday, December 7 from 11am-7pm -- will catalyze a sea change in action towards resiliency in long term water supply and management in Silicon Valley. The expo will feature speakers, panel discussions, expo tables and a wine and cheese reception. For more information or to register, please visit http://www.sustainablesiliconvalley.org *2) Green Plumbers Training Workshop* The Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (BAWSCA), the City of Hayward and Green Plumbers are hosting a water efficiency training workshop on December 1-4 in Hayward. As part of this training, BAWSCA will make a presentation about various water-efficient technologies that are available and eligible for rebates (specifically high efficiency toilets). This information can be used by plumbers to effectively convey to their customers. More details are listed below. To register for the workshop, please visit http://greenplumbersusa.com/hayward-series *3) Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards* We will begin accepting applications and nominations for the 2010 Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards on January 4, 2010. The Awards are presented to organizations, agencies and businesses whose programs and leadership have advanced water conservation in Silicon Valley (San Mateo County, Santa Clara County and Alameda County from Hayward south). Award categories are: * Government Agency/Water Utility * Business * Organization * Agriculture * Greenscape Management * Education * Multiple Benefit Timeline for 2010 Awards: January 4 ? Application/Nomination process opens February 26 ? Application/Nomination process closes March 22 (World Water Day) ? Awards Presentation and Ceremony Additional information and a nomination form can be found at http://www.WaterAwards.org *Green Plumbers: Join us in Hayward for five green plumbing workshops December 1**^st ** - 4**^th * It's a fact.* The green retrofit and renovation market is growing for both commercial and residential plumbing systems. The green demand is here. Are you able to meet it? *Green*/Plumbers/ is bringing five green plumbing workshops to Hayward, CA during the week of December 1st-4th. Learn about new water conservation technologies, how to perform a water audit, solar hot water technology, recycled water, water efficient products, and much more. Plumbers in California may qualify for the /Employment Training Tax Benefit/, which would reduce registration from $400 to no fee (_see if you qualify_ ). Manufacturer sponsorship has slashed the week-long five workshop series fee down to $400. To register online, please direct your web browser to: _http://www.greenplumbersusa.com/hayward-series_ -- or call us toll-free at 1-888-929-6207. ^* _McGraw-Hill Construction Report, 2009_ *Why you will want to join us in Hayward:* * Sponsorship has slashed the series fee to $400 * Become a fully Accredited *Green*/Plumber/ in just one week * Learn how to advise your clients on solar technology and rebates * Learn how to perform property water audits * Up-skill your training to reposition your business for the new /green/ economy Register online *Location of Workshop Series:* 24499 Soto Road Hayward, CA 94544 (_View Map_ ) *Reminder: up-skilling in your field of work is a tax write-off. If you would like to be unsubscribed from this email list, please respond with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. Thanks. -Peter ----------------------------- Peter Drekmeier Bay Area Program Director Tuolumne River Trust 111 New Montgomery, #205 San Francisco, CA 94105 (415) 882-7252 x 302 peter at tuolumne.org http://www.tuolumne.org/bayarea From j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net Fri Nov 20 14:17:00 2009 From: j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net (Jim Doyle) Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:17:00 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] nuclear power Message-ID: <4B07155C.7070808@sbcglobal.net> Here is a rebuttal to an op ed in the New York Times by the CEO of Westinghouse Electric, Candris. Rebuttal provided by Pierre Tristan on Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/19-1 ---snip --- Candris' final fallacy: Renewables are "comparatively more expensive energy sources." In fact, nuclear energy is more expensive than solar or wind energy. Take Florida Power & Light's plan to build two new nuclear reactors sometime over the next 12 years (it's not clear when), though the company is already socking it to customers by making them pay for construction today. No other state but Georgia allows that con. The projected cost of the two reactors s $18 billion. It'll certainly go up well beyond that by the time they're done, but go with the $18 billion figure. The two reactors will produce 2,234 megawatts of electricity. That comes out to $8 million per megawatt at the opening bell. FPL just started operating a 25-megawatt solar-power plant in DeSoto County. Cost: $152 million, or $6 million per megawatt -- $2 million cheaper than the projected cost of the nuclear reactors. With wind, it's even cheaper. A Chinese-American consortium on Oct. 29 announced plans for a 600-megawatt wind farm in West Texas. Cost: $1.5 billion, or $2.5 million per megawatt. Cheap nuclear power? Demonstrably not. From WB4D23 at aol.com Sun Nov 22 14:20:13 2009 From: WB4D23 at aol.com (WB4D23 at aol.com) Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:20:13 EST Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Inquiry on behalf of the GPUS Delegation re Hosting the 2012 ANm/QPNC Message-ID: Congradulations to all involved in organizing a March 2010 GPCA Plenary... I'm sorry I missed the November meeting (short story: Did not get out of the house until after it was dark, tripped and fell a few blocks from my house and did not feel it was safe for me to continue walking to the meeting). As some of you are aware, I am one of the California Delegates to the Green Party of the United States (GPUS) National Committee (GNC). The GNC consists of delegates from each of the state GPs that affiliate with the GPUS. The GPUS holds an annual in-person meeting once a year (ANM) and a presidential nominating convention (QPNC) every four years. Some conversations have begun whether the 2012 combined ANM/QPNC might be held in California. What is needed to continue those discussions is to identify a possible host location. Another Delegate is making inquiries about San Francisco. Greg Jan of Alameda County has indicated tht Alameda County does not have individuals interested in doing the work necessary to identify a site and otherwise prepare a proposal. I have been asked to discuss this issue with Santa Clara County activists. The local hosts would primarily have the responsibility to identify a possible site, coordinate housing issues, and provide some local knowledge and support workers during the meeting period (Wednesday evening program; meetings and workshops through Sunday noontime; probably early July). The GPUS would be responsible for expenses, credentialling voting delegates, media work and setting most of the events and meetings schedule. Any proposal would have to be approved by the GNC, but the sense is that if California submitted a proposal it would likely be accepted. I would appreciate questions and comments being posted for discussion on this list. The next Delegation monthly teleconference is the 3rd Tuesday in December, so I would like to have this put on the agenda for our next general meeting. Warner -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wrolley at charter.net Sun Nov 22 14:23:54 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:23:54 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: [California Greening] CA State Education Budget Cuts and the Governor's Race] Message-ID: <4B09B9FA.701@charter.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From JGSHURT69 at aol.com Sun Nov 22 11:00:59 2009 From: JGSHURT69 at aol.com (JGSHURT69 at aol.com) Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2009 14:00:59 EST Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fwd: Menace of the Militarist Program Message-ID: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: JGSHURT69 at aol.com Subject: Menace of the Militarist Program Date: Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:59:59 EST Size: 2297 URL: From carolineyacoub at att.net Mon Nov 23 08:39:00 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:39:00 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: nuclear power Message-ID: <154361.9936.qm@web81206.mail.mud.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Rosie Yacoub To: Jim Doyle ; Caroline Yacoub Cc: yacoub8003 at yahoo.com Sent: Mon, November 23, 2009 8:08:56 AM Subject: Re: [Sosfbay-discuss] nuclear power SMUD I think commissioned the Ranch Seco Nuclear Power Plant in the early 70's as gas prices were skyrocketing.? Because it is a publically held utility, there was a grassroots movement to decommission the facility and it worked.? Now, that could have left the utility with too many customers and not enough energy.? It could have made them more subject to the turbulance of the open energy market when CA degregulated a bit circa 2001--but it didn't.? In fact--at that time when PG&E doubled the price of their kilowatt, SMUD had a much more modest increase--and utility customers in Davis, CA started to have SMUD-envy and have since been organizing to be included in SMUD's service area. Why? The Sacramento Public Utility District decided that they would make up for Rancho Seco's output with conservation.? They paid direct rebates to people who upgraded their appliances to ones that use less energy, installed insulation, dual-pane windows, and weather strippin, or agreed to have shut-offs installed on their heating and air units that would turn them off when peak demand exceeded a certain amount.? They paid to plant 1,000,000 deciduous trees around people's houses and in parking lots--which made the whole city measurably cooler in the summer.? They have a program that provides the fianancing and handles all the paperwork for rebates for installing roof-top solar (and have had this program since the late 80's/early 90's).? It was a gamble which happened to pay off, and one of the things I really love about where I live. Best, Rosie --- On Sun, 11/22/09, Caroline Yacoub wrote: >From: Caroline Yacoub >Subject: Re: [Sosfbay-discuss] nuclear power >To: "Jim Doyle" >Cc: yacoub8003 at yahoo.com, rayacoub at yahoo.com >Date: Sunday, November 22, 2009, 9:30 AM > > >When people talk about huge amounts of money, as in comparing the costs of these forms of energy or health care legislation, a red flag immediately goes up in my mind, and I think, "Where do they get these numbers?" And my cynical self replies, "Out of thin air." It does not seem possible to put a dollar amount on kilowatts or megawatts produced in such diverse ways in diverse parts of the country. I know that the cost of?production of nuclear energy varies tremendously from plant to plant, and, I assume, so would wind and solar--depending upon things like?whether they purchased their solar panels from American or Chinese sources, and how far from the existing grid would this wind farm be, necessitating construction of miles and miles of towers and lines. I've been to west Texas, and the only thing I saw that would need electricity was the world's largest Dairy Queen. It was so far from anything else,I figured the employees must live in. > >I sent your email to my son, who works for GE, but he hasn't responded. I'd like to ask my daughter in Sacramento, also. They shut down their nuclear power plant and I don't know how they are currently generating their electricity. It would be interesting to know how it affected their electricity bills. >Caroline > > > > ________________________________ From: Jim Doyle >To: sosfbay discussion group >Sent: Fri, November 20, 2009 2:17:00 PM >Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] nuclear power > >Here is a rebuttal to an op ed in the New York Times >by the CEO of? Westinghouse Electric, Candris. >Rebuttal provided by Pierre Tristan on Common Dreams: >http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/19-1 > >---snip --- > >Candris' final fallacy: Renewables are "comparatively more expensive >energy sources." >In fact, nuclear energy is more expensive than solar or wind energy. > >Take Florida Power & Light's plan to build two new nuclear reactors >sometime over >the next 12 years (it's not clear when), though the company is already >socking it to >customers by making them pay for construction today. > >No other state but Georgia allows that con. > >The projected cost of the two reactors s $18 billion. It'll certainly go >up well beyond >that by the time they're done, but go with the $18 billion figure. The >two reactors >will produce 2,234 megawatts of electricity. That comes out to $8 >million per >megawatt at the opening bell. > >FPL just started operating a 25-megawatt solar-power plant in DeSoto >County. >Cost: $152 million, or $6 million per megawatt -- $2 million cheaper >than the >projected cost of the nuclear reactors. > >With wind, it's even cheaper. A Chinese-American consortium on Oct. 29 >announced plans for a 600-megawatt wind farm in West Texas. >Cost: $1.5 billion, or $2.5 million per megawatt. > >Cheap nuclear power? Demonstrably not. > >_______________________________________________ >sosfbay-discuss mailing list >sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org >http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carolineyacoub at att.net Mon Nov 23 08:49:50 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:49:50 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: Hold Big Polluters Accountable Message-ID: <982554.41249.qm@web81208.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hi Greens, I hope we're going to be righteous and support this effort by the Sierra Club to hold big polluters responsible. I think the Green Party should be sending out things like this. Caroline ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Rosie Yacoub To: Caroline Yacoub Sent: Mon, November 23, 2009 6:11:55 AM Subject: Fw: Hold Big Polluters Accountable quickie climate change action --- On Sun, 11/22/09, Peter & Jean Bradshaw wrote: >From: Peter & Jean Bradshaw >Subject: Hold Big Polluters Accountable >To: rayacoub at yahoo.com >Date: Sunday, November 22, 2009, 1:03 AM > > >Hi-- > >Right now, only a handful of sources, including coal power plants, are responsible for more than half of all US global warming emissions. I just send a comment to the public register supporting the EPA's Big Polluters rule, which is a major step toward holding these facilities accountable. > >You should join me! Help my grandchildren live in a better world. > >Check it out: >To take action on this issue, click on the link below: >https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Advocacy?s_oo=LMfdW2NHBXWaKzXK3NNJ5A..&id=3219 >If the text above does not appear as a link or it wraps across multiple lines, then copy and paste it into the address area of your browser. > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wrolley at charter.net Mon Nov 23 10:17:42 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:17:42 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Not with a bang Message-ID: <4B0AD1C6.5050209@charter.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tnharter at aceweb.com Wed Nov 18 02:48:37 2009 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:48:37 +0000 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Green Festival 2009 Message-ID: <4B03D105.7000507@aceweb.com> There was much more to it than I could put on a web page, but here is what I got: http://tian.greens.org/SanFrancisco/GreenFestival/2009/index.html -- Tian http://tian.greens.org On my radio the guy that invented the smiley face [:-)] said "if it cost people a nickel to use it they'd stop, so that's my gift to the world." From jims at greens.org Mon Nov 23 16:03:59 2009 From: jims at greens.org (Jim Stauffer) Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:03:59 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Inquiry on behalf of the GPUS Delegation re Hosting the 2012 ANm/QPNC In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B0B22EF.3010203@greens.org> It would be helpful to have some idea of the budget and attendance for this meeting. There are lots of hotels with conference and/or convention facilities in the Valley. A few target numbers from GPUS are needed. Overall, I think this project would be less work than hosting a state meeting. It's mostly just getting a cost estimate for the venue. Volunteers could be recruited from the entire region. Jim WB4D23 at aol.com wrote: > Congradulations to all involved in organizing a March 2010 GPCA Plenary... > I'm sorry I missed the November meeting (short story: Did not get out of > the house until after it was dark, tripped and fell a few blocks from my > house and did not feel it was safe for me to continue walking to the > meeting). > > As some of you are aware, I am one of the California Delegates to the Green > Party of the United States (GPUS) National Committee (GNC). The GNC > consists of delegates from each of the state GPs that affiliate with the > GPUS. The GPUS holds an annual in-person meeting once a year (ANM) and a > presidential nominating convention (QPNC) every four years. Some > conversations have begun whether the 2012 combined ANM/QPNC might be held > in California. > > What is needed to continue those discussions is to identify a possible host > location. Another Delegate is making inquiries about San Francisco. Greg > Jan of Alameda County has indicated tht Alameda County does not have > individuals interested in doing the work necessary to identify a site and > otherwise prepare a proposal. I have been asked to discuss this issue with > Santa Clara County activists. > > The local hosts would primarily have the responsibility to identify a > possible site, coordinate housing issues, and provide some local knowledge > and support workers during the meeting period (Wednesday evening program; > meetings and workshops through Sunday noontime; probably early July). The > GPUS would be responsible for expenses, credentialling voting delegates, > media work and setting most of the events and meetings schedule. Any > proposal would have to be approved by the GNC, but the sense is that if > California submitted a proposal it would likely be accepted. > > I would appreciate questions and comments being posted for discussion on > this list. The next Delegation monthly teleconference is the 3rd Tuesday > in December, so I would like to have this put on the agenda for our next > general meeting. > > Warner > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ sosfbay-discuss mailing > list sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss From carolineyacoub at att.net Tue Nov 24 09:37:02 2009 From: carolineyacoub at att.net (Caroline Yacoub) Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:37:02 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: We're ready Message-ID: <114916.19852.qm@web81201.mail.mud.yahoo.com> ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: shane que hee Sent: Mon, November 23, 2009 8:38:00 PM Subject: We're ready From: "Dan Jacobson, Environment California Legislative Director" >Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:10:04 -0700 >Subject: We're ready > > ? > >Hi shane, > >I'm ready. So are Cedric the Entertainer, Alanis Morissette, Chevy Chase . . . as well as Wisconsin, Texas, Pennsylvania and especially California. > >We're ready for the world to act together to stop global warming. We've teamed up with TckTckTck and the Environmental Media Association to help in the fight to stop global warming. > >We're working to bring the leadership of California and other states to the negotiating table in Copenhagen, where in a few weeks world leaders will sit down and try to come up with a plan to stop global warming. > >Join your voice with ours, andtell the world you're ready. Check out our new video featuring Cedric the Entertainer, Alanis Morissette, Chevy Chase, Simon Baker, Kathryn Morris, Jason Mraz and others -- and take action. > >Share this video with your friends -- forward this e-mail, post the link on Facebook, Twitter and your blog . . . because we've got our work cut out for us if we want to make history in Copenhagen. > >While the Obama administration supports strong action, partisan bickering over his visionary global warming and energy plan in Congress has weakened the president's hand at the negotiating table. > >But we've got a plan to get momentum back on our side. > >Critics point to Congress as proof that America isn't serious about global warming -- but they ignore all that's being done at the state level. After all, if California were a country, we'd be in the G-8. > >And California is already doing what the rest of the world should do: California has put a hard cap on global warming emissions, has an aggressive goal for producing 33 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, is leading in solar power with a Million Solar Roofs, and has been regulating auto emissions for years > >That's not all: > >* Our sister group, Environment New Jersey, led the campaign to get New Jersey to adopt a mandatory economy-wide cap on global warming emissions. > >* Next, Environment Connecticut, Environment Massachusetts and Environment Maryland helped pass caps on global warming pollution in their states. > >* Ten Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states have joined together to cap and reduce global warming emissions from power plants. > >* In Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Maine, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, governors have set targets for reducing global warming emissions. > >* Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia also have renewable energy requirements. Texas leads the nation in wind energy, generating enough power for 1.6 million homes. > >* Thirteen other states have followed California's lead to cut pollution from cars -- rules then adopted by the Obama administration for the whole country. > >* Nineteen states have adopted minimum energy efficiency requirements for utilities. > >We need to get the message out. We're ready. We're already taking action, and we want the world to see it. > >http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/action/global-warming/ready?id4=ES > >Thanks for leading the way, > >Dan Jacobson >Environment California Legislative Director >http://www.environmentcalifornia.org > >P.S. Help us give our leaders the support they need to call for strong action in Copenhagen to stop global warming -- pass this message on. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wrolley at charter.net Tue Nov 24 09:55:02 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:55:02 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: We're ready In-Reply-To: <114916.19852.qm@web81201.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <114916.19852.qm@web81201.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <4B0C1DF6.2010002@charter.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wrolley at charter.net Tue Nov 24 18:51:53 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:51:53 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Corruption at San Jose Evergreen Community College Message-ID: <4B0C9BC9.7080803@charter.net> I urge everyone to pay attention to this expose on ABC7News, KGO. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/iteam&id=7137343 While classes are being cut, staff laid off, student fees skyrocketing, Chancellor Rosa Perez is taking lavish trips all on the public tab. On top of that, she maneuvered her housemate (partner?) into a Deans's job and then gave her a raise. If Dan Noyes got this right, and it looks like he does, it is time for a loud public outcry. Noyes certainly has enough info from public records to make a convincing case for prolifigate spending. -- "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 alexcathy at aol.com Wed Nov 25 09:05:52 2009 From: alexcathy at aol.com (alexcathy at aol.com) Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:05:52 -0500 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] A PBS Series: California's Water Message-ID: <8CC3C08AD701A23-38BC-1C396@webmail-d076.sysops.aol.com> Posted on California Greening, November 25, 2009. A Public Television Series: California's Water by Alex Walker I do not know anything about Huell Howser'spolitics, but I do know that he has a gift for presenting Californiahistory and culture in an easy popular format. Notice that this PBSseries has been "generously funded" by institutions with a direct stakein this mess. Even so, anyone interested in a video overview might wantto check out a PBS television series that you can view directly on yourcomputer. A Public Television Series: California's Water Climate Change: Trek high into the Sierra Nevada for a closelook at the winter snow pack and how climate change may threaten itscritical role as the state?s largest water storage reservoir. Trace thejourney our melting snow takes from the mountains to rivers andstreams, and ultimately into man-made reservoirs as part of ourelaborate water supply system. VIEW ENTIRE SEGMENT The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta: Visit the Sacramento-SanJoaquin River Delta by boat and learn why it is the single mostimportant ? and most vulnerable ? link in California?s water deliverysystem. Get a look at Delta levees and understand what experts such asUC Davis geologist Dr. Jeffrey Mount see as a growing risk to the watersupply for 23 million Californians and millions of acres of farmland. VIEW ENTIRE SEGMENT . . . What's New on the Colorado River: Travel to the Colorado RiverAqueduct and learn what California water agencies that rely on theColorado are doing to stretch supplies in light of new rules governingthe river. See how cooperation and innovation are helping to ensure weget the most out of every drop of Colorado River water. VIEW ENTIRE SEGMENT Using Water Wisely: Necessity is the mother of invention. Tokeep pace with a growing population and a fairly static water supply,water agencies are investing hundreds of millions of dollars ininnovative hardware and cooperative programs that stretch supplies. Seethe latest in water-saving tools and technology, and learn why everydrop counts. VIEW ENTIRE SEGMENT . . . In 2010, California's dysfunctional Republicans and Democrats are goingto ask the voters to approve a half-baked, pork-laden, $11 billionpackage of water projects sealed in a classic cigar smoke filled backroom. And again, as always, this "bipartisan" solution requiresexploting the general ignorance, indifference, and prejudices ofvoters, like me, in California's big thirsty coastal cities. And here again, the California Green Party is the onlyorganized political party that gives a damn about both the working andmiddle classes in the One-Party Democratic cities and also familyfarmers, migrant farmworkers, and "throwaway kids" without hope in theOne-Party Republican countryside. READ MORE AND COMMENT AT: http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2009/11/public-television-series-californias.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From wrolley at charter.net Wed Nov 25 13:16:10 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:16:10 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] California Greening's first Un-Green Product Award. Message-ID: <4B0D9E9A.5020209@charter.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From alexcathy at aol.com Fri Nov 27 10:40:42 2009 From: alexcathy at aol.com (alexcathy at aol.com) Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:40:42 -0500 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Black Agenda Report: Bruce Dixon on Georgia Greens Message-ID: <8CC3DA841C8CD42-7FA0-B788@webmail-d045.sysops.aol.com> Dear Green Friends, See below a link to an article by the distinguished journalist, Bruce A. Dixon, about the Georgia Green Party's strategic decision to take on the world's worst criminal justice system in the 2010 elections. Mr. Dixon's commentary is one of the most unapologetic, downright partisan statements I've ever read about why the Green Party is important to inner-city African-Americans. By the way, you know me, I don't necessarily agree with everything Dixon write here. For one thing, like most "Lefties" who write about this issue, he has no interest whatsoever in the objective reality that African-American neighborhoods have also been the ones most devastated by mindless violence and general ugliness by criminal gangs. His article is clearly open to attack for "not giving a damn" about the victims of criminals. I agree 100% that in this area, as in so many others, we need a progressive alternative to what the Democratic Party Machines have done in the cities, but in the final analysis, what is needed is an *ALTERNATIVE* program to the current regime. I don't see that here, but this is a start. Alex Walker Los Angeles Greens = = = = = = = = = = Posted on Black Agenda Report, November 18, 2009. Why Democrats and Republicans Won't Confront Black Mass Incarceration, and Why The Green Party Will by Bruce A. Dixon, BAR Managing Editor With less than 5% of the world's population, the US accounts for aquarter of the world's prisoners. While African Americans are only aneighth the population, we account for almost half the locked down.America's widely acknowledged but rarely discussed social policy ofblack mass incarceration has been a decisive fact of African Americanfamily and community life for a generation. Four years ago in BlackCommentator, this reporter wrote that: ...Right now, the shadow of prison squats at the cornersof, and often at the center of nearly every black family?s life in thisnation. The number of persons in prisons, jails, on probation, bail,parole, pre-trial and post-conviction supervision continues to rise andaccording to a March 2009 Pew Center report is now one in 31nationally, including one in eleven African Americans. An astoundingthree percent of all black Americans are in prisons and jails, themajority for drug charges, although black and white rates of drug usehave been virtually identical for decades. While politicians in blackconstituencies are regularly obliged to wag their fingers at it, theirmisleading analyses often point to educational outcomes, and jobmarkets as if these were causes of explosive growth of the carceralstate rather than its outcomes. In fact, the policy of mass blackimprisonment has functioned as a kind of reparations in reverse,curtailing the economic vitality of entire black communities, stressingand destroying the cohesion of millions of families and thousands ofneighborhoods, worsening black health outcomes and more. The pretense that black mass incarceration is the murkyoutcome of other social policies rather than a plainly failed andmalevolent social policy by itself misdirects public attention andeffectively takes the issue off the political table. If blackjoblessness, lack of family cohesion and health disparities are somehowsupposed to cause black mass incarceration, there is no reason toexamine the growth of the carceral state itself. Thus the social policyof black mass incarceration never has to justify itself, its costs orits outcomes, never needs to be publicly acknowledged, and can neverbecome a political issue in and of itself. But this may be about tochange. The ninth largest US state, Georgia leads the rest with one inevery thirteen adults in its prisons, jails, on parole and probation,and various kinds of pre-trial and post-conviction court orcorrectional supervision. A generation of white and black politiciansfrom both major parties have built their careers on stoking the fear ofcrime and the expansion and justification of the state's vast crimecontrol industries. The state's current Republican governor, as well asthe top two Democratic contenders who want to succeed him all had ahand in passing the state's three-strikes mandatory sentencinglegislation under former Democratic governor Zell Miller. One of thoseDemocrats is the state's African American attorney general, ThurbertBaker. The last Democratic governor Roy Barnes wanted to put a"two-strikes" provision into the state constitution. But Georgia's Green Party, BAR has learned, will announcetomorrow that its major focus for the coming two years, including the2010 election cycle, will be making a political issue out of black massincarceration. The Green Party of GA intends to do this by runningcandidates for the state legislature and for district attorney andsheriff, not just in metro Atlanta, but in Augusta, Macon, Columbus,Savannah and elsewhere. Georgia's Green party will expect itscandidates to put the fact of black mass incarceration squarely on thepolitical table . . . READ MORE AND COMMENT AT: http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/why-democrats-and-republicans-wont-confront-black-mass-incarceration-and-why-green-party-wil -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tnharter at aceweb.com Mon Nov 23 15:13:44 2009 From: tnharter at aceweb.com (Tian Harter) Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:13:44 +0000 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Please notice no Republicans were harmed in the making of this page... Message-ID: <4B0B1728.4080003@aceweb.com> http://www.bookshopsantacruz.com/sarah-palins-just-plain-nutz -- Tian http://tian.greens.org Latest addition: green festival pictures and words from San Francisco. From wrolley at charter.net Fri Nov 27 20:55:09 2009 From: wrolley at charter.net (Wes Rolley) Date: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:55:09 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] [Fwd: [California Greening] What's growth got to do with it?] Message-ID: <4B10AD2D.5090208@charter.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From snug.bug at hotmail.com Sun Nov 29 09:38:05 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:38:05 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Proposed Agenda 12-2 General Meeting Message-ID: Selection of Facilitator, Notetaker, Timekeeper, and Vibeswatcher, Select agenda preparer for next meeting Introductions and Announcements Treasurer's report Report from food committee of state-wide party meeting Report on site inspection/reservation for SWPM Report from tabling events Report on campaign for Water District Report from Coalition for a Downtown Hospital Election of Regional Representative -- Candidate Cynthia (Cindi) Asnir's presentation -- Action Alert to GPSMC for vote Finding candidates for County Council 3 - 5 minutes --- County Council--Campaign parity Planned upcoming tabling events Report on Upcoming Food for Thought events World Water Day March 22, also SiVa Water Conservation Awards Ceremony GPUS Annual Meeting/Presidential Convention 2012 (Wed-Sun early July) --possibility of hosting locally GP 20-Year Extrannavervagansary in Berkeley New Plumbing Code greywater provisions ---city-level advocacy for allowing greywater use. Updating literature ### _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?h=myidea?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_myidea:112009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jims at greens.org Sun Nov 29 15:38:26 2009 From: jims at greens.org (Jim Stauffer) Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 15:38:26 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Preliminary Agenda for December GPSCC Meeting In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4B1305F2.4010202@greens.org> There's two agenda items I'd like to address for preparation. ** Election of Regional Representative This is the first election under our new procedure. The candidate, Cindy Asrir, is from San Mateo County so most people here probably haven't met her. Given all this, we should schedule at least 20 min. for this. And we should place it early in the agenda so Cindy can leave at a decent time. And to clarify, I'm asking to be elected as the alternate rep. I plan to continue trying to recruit another alt rep after the next state meeting. ** Planning for the State Party Meeting I would advise against trying to use the monthly meeting for working on this. What we need is brief status reports from the various sub-committees. At this meeting, we need to solidify who is on which sub-committee, especially the food committee. Our immediate priority needs to be coming up with a budget, which means we need cost estimates on the major items. We have the venue, now we need to calculate a food estimate. We should try to have the budget done by the end of Dec. Jim Brian Good wrote: > 12-2-09 > > > Selection of Facilitator, Notetaker, Timekeeper, and Vibeswatcher > > Introductions and Announcements > > Treasurer's report > > Report from food committee of state-wide party meeting > > Report on site inspection/reservation for SWPM > > Report from tabling events > > Report on campaign for Water District > > Report from Coalition for a Downtown Hospital > > Finding candidates for Council 3 - 5 minutes > > Planned upcoming tabling events > > Report on Upcoming Food for Thought events > > GP 20-Year Extrannavervagansary in Berkeley > > New Plumbing Code greywater provisions; city-level advocacy for allowing > greywater use. > > Election of Regional Representative > Candidate Cynthia (Cindi) Asnir's presentation > Action Alert to GPSMC for vote > > Updating literature > > > ### > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft's powerful SPAM protection. Sign > up now. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/ > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > sosfbay-discuss mailing list > sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org > http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss From snug.bug at hotmail.com Sun Nov 29 19:47:39 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 19:47:39 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] You Get What You Vote For Message-ID: Sheehan announces antiwar fervor in the spring "How do you get your principles back from the dung-pile of selling out?" What I'm getting from my street action is that a lot of people think the system is broken, the Dems and the Pubs are the same and there's no point in caring. http://www.opednews.com/articles/You-Get-What-you-Vote-For-by-Cindy-Sheehan-091127-350.html _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?h=myidea?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_myidea:112009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From alexcathy at aol.com Mon Nov 30 07:49:09 2009 From: alexcathy at aol.com (alexcathy at aol.com) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:49:09 -0500 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Michael Moore: Begging Obama on Afghanistan Message-ID: <8CC3FEBCA3F6393-D58-4D868@webmail-d026.sysops.aol.com> Posted on California Greening, Monday, November 30, 2009. Michael Moore: Begging Obama on Afghanistan by Alex Walker In 2004, Michael Moore and Bill Maher got on their knees on nationaltelevision to beg Ralph Nader not to run for president again. Six yearslater, Mr. Moore is begging Democratic President Barack Obama *NOT* toescalate the war in Afghanistan. Behold the difference betweenRepublicans and Democrats -- when Democrats are in power we get to begon our knees facing the White House. Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you goto West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you areincreasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you arethe new war president. ... Michael Mooere's "Open Letter to President Obama"is a good letter. It is also a sad letter. It is sad that in 2010 aftereight years of war that such a letter is even necessary. . . Please Read the Full Text and Leave a Comment at my blog: California Greening: http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2009/11/michael-moore-begging-obama-on.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net Mon Nov 30 10:14:39 2009 From: j.m.doyle at sbcglobal.net (Jim Doyle) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:14:39 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] cfj californians for justice Message-ID: <4B140B8F.4010403@sbcglobal.net> */It's almost time for CFJ's End of the Year Celebration and we hope that you can join us. We'll be celebrating the year's successes as well as honoring our members and allies. Hear from the student leaders who are at the fort-front of their school campaigns, demanding high quality education in East San Jose. /* */_Californians for Justice End of the Year Celebration_/* */A celebration of student leadership and community struggle in educational and racial justice! /**//* */Friday, December 11/**/^th /**//* */5:30 pm Reception, 6pm Program/** **//* */Evergreen High School (Cougar Hall) /* */3300 Quimby Rd. San Jose, CA 95112 /* *//* From snug.bug at hotmail.com Mon Nov 30 12:56:03 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:56:03 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Michael Moore: Begging Obama on Afghanistan In-Reply-To: <8CC3FEBCA3F6393-D58-4D868@webmail-d026.sysops.aol.com> References: <8CC3FEBCA3F6393-D58-4D868@webmail-d026.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: Obama has been the new War President since his third day in office when his Hellfire strikes from the Predators violated the sovereignty of a nation that was no military threat to us and killed a dozen civilians in Pakistan. In doing so he declared his contempt for international law and made his bones as a gangster. US media such as WaPo have told us that it was OK to do this because we had a secret agreement with the Pakistani government and its protests were phony. This is very poor precedent even if it's true because there's an obvious potential for abuse of the claim of secret agreements between the sole superpower and a third-world state--particularly when the superpower's media have a history of excessive credulity with respect to government claims. To: gplac-forum at cagreens.org; sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org; gpbc at googlegroups.com Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:49:09 -0500 From: alexcathy at aol.com Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Michael Moore: Begging Obama on Afghanistan Posted on California Greening, Monday, November 30, 2009. Michael Moore: Begging Obama on Afghanistan by Alex Walker In 2004, Michael Moore and Bill Maher got on their knees on national television to beg Ralph Nader not to run for president again. Six years later, Mr. Moore is begging Democratic President Barack Obama *NOT* to escalate the war in Afghanistan. Behold the difference between Republicans and Democrats -- when Democrats are in power we get to beg on our knees facing the White House. Do you really want to be the new "war president"? If you go to West Point tomorrow night (Tuesday, 8pm) and announce that you are increasing, rather than withdrawing, the troops in Afghanistan, you are the new war president. ... Michael Mooere's "Open Letter to President Obama" is a good letter. It is also a sad letter. It is sad that in 2010 after eight years of war that such a letter is even necessary. . . Please Read the Full Text and Leave a Comment at my blog: California Greening: http://cagreening.blogspot.com/2009/11/michael-moore-begging-obama-on.html _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft's powerful SPAM protection. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/ http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/177141664/direct/01/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From snug.bug at hotmail.com Mon Nov 30 16:25:40 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:25:40 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] FW: Proposed Agenda 12-2 General Meeting In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Selection of Facilitator, Notetaker, Timekeeper, and Vibeswatcher, Select agenda preparer for next meeting Introductions and Announcements Election of Regional Representative -- Candidate Cynthia (Cindi) Asnir's presentation -- Action Alert to GPSMC for vote --- election of alternate regional rep Treasurer's report Status report from food committee of state-wide party meeting Report on site inspection/reservation for SWPM Report from tabling events Report on campaign for Water District Report from Coalition for a Downtown Hospital Finding candidates for County Council 3 - 5 minutes --County Council--Campaign parity Planned upcoming tabling events Report on Upcoming Food for Thought events Budgeting food expenses for state-wide party meeting World Water Day March 22, also SiVa Water Conservation Awards Ceremony GPUS Annual Meeting/Presidential Convention 2012 (Wed-Sun early July) --possibility of hosting locally GP 20-Year Extrannavervagansary in Berkeley New Plumbing Code greywater provisions ---city-level advocacy for allowing greywater use. Updating literature ### Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star. _________________________________________________________________ Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star. http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/default.aspx?h=myidea?ocid=PID24727::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WWL_WIN_myidea:112009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT00001 URL: From snug.bug at hotmail.com Mon Nov 30 23:51:49 2009 From: snug.bug at hotmail.com (Brian Good) Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:51:49 -0800 Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] Proposed Agenda for 12-2 Wed. General Meeting Message-ID: Selection of Facilitator, Notetaker, Timekeeper, and Vibeswatcher, select Agenda Preparer for next meeting Introductions and Announcements Election of Regional Representative -- Candidate Cynthia (Cindi) Asnir's presentation -- Action Alert to GPSMC for vote --- election of alternate regional rep Treasurer's report Status report from food committee of state-wide party meeting Report on site inspection/reservation for SWPM Report from tabling events Report on campaign for Water District Report from Coalition for a Downtown Hospital Reports from anti-escalation demonstrations Finding candidates for County Council 3 - 5 minutes --County Council--Campaign parity Planned upcoming tabling events Report on Upcoming Food for Thought events Budgeting food expenses for state-wide party meeting World Water Day March 22, also SiVa Water Conservation Awards Ceremony GPUS Annual Meeting/Presidential Convention 2012 (Wed-Sun early July) --possibility of hosting locally GP 20-Year Extrannavervagansary in Berkeley New Plumbing Code greywater provisions ---city-level advocacy for allowing greywater use. CA Fair Elections Act Resolution opposing Obama's escalation Updating literature ### _________________________________________________________________ Chat with Messenger straight from your Hotmail inbox. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/hotmail_bl1/hotmail_bl1.aspx?ocid=PID23879::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-ww:WM_IMHM_4:092009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: