Petaluma 4 Change

Energy Blog

2009-03-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

Fixing the economy and creating clean energy go together. Here is an example from the economic stimulus plan that has given a loan to a solar company in Freemont California called Solyndra.

The loan is expected to supply debt financing for about 73% of the costs of constructing a second solar panel fabrication facility. When completed, the facility will have an annual manufacturing capacity of 500MW. Solyndra estimates that during construction of the facility about 3,000 will be employed, and when completed 1,000 new jobs will be created.

Solyndra's panels employ cylindrical modules which capture sunlight across a 360 degree photovoltaic surface capable of converting direct, diffuse and reflected sunlight into electricity. For more information about this innovative solar company go to-

solyndra.com

Interview with Anna Burger re EFCA

2009-03-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a recent interview with SEIU's Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger about what's going on right now with EFCA, and how various groups are organizing for and against it:

New Energy Blog

2009-03-19T16:39:00.000-07:00

Energy Blog
I will be contributing to this energy blog on a regular basis. The following sets out my thinking in general on energy policy. Feel free to contribute your ideas and comments. I also want to weekly highlight the research being done on alternative energy by emerging and established companies working to bring new energy technologies to market. Example of companies to be highlighted in this blog soon are Nanosolar (nanosolar.com) and Amyris (amyris.com)

New Energy Policy Goals
by Jeff Weiss

The United States needs to implement a new national energy policy
to become energy independent from foreign sources within 10 sears.
We should develop environmentally sound sources of energy that are sustainable and economical.
The mix of renewable clean energy technologies should include-
Solar, Wind, Fuel Cells, Natural Gas, Bio-fuels, Tidal and Wave Energy

The Unitied States needs to create a national intelligent energy grid that will
take advantage of efficient and clean energy production 24/7 and move
energy to where it is needed at the lowest and cleanest cost of production

Three Reasons To Implement These New Clean Energy Policy Goals

1. National Security-
We are dependent on oil from foreign nations in volatile regions of the world with weak or potentially weak governments that allow oil profits to end up in the hands of radical elements interested in the destruction of the United States.
2. Economic Productivity-
In this time of economic troubles, a national renewable energy plan would create productive jobs and increase our competitiveness in the world economy.
3. Environmental Protection-
The current use of oil is contributing to global warming and the pollution of the planet, therefor the burning of oil for energy must end.

The following proposal was writen by George Sterzinger, Executive Director, Renewable Energy Policy Project, and Martin Roscheisen, CEO, Nanosolar January 21, 2009

Policy Changes To Create Renewable Energy Breakthroughs

At a time when many people in Washington are running around with their hair on fire looking for schemes to dramatically increase renewable energy use by mid-February at the latest, let's consider that what renewable energy really needs is a shift to permanent, effective policies to pursue and develop its potential.
The recent inclusion of the Federal Investment Tax Credit for solar energy through 2016 is a good example of this type of policy. But, it is just the start.
In our view, renewable energy's greatest potential and competitive advantage is its ability to evolve rapidly and offer technologies that produce electricity at lower and lower prices with no carbon emissions, subsequently decreasing our dependence on foreign fossil fuels.
Here is one effective, low-cost approach to encourage innovation: Create a set of national Standard Offers or Feed-in Rates for new, significantly better renewable technologies. This policy would offer predictable compensation to any renewable energy generator in the form of long-term power purchase contracts, thus creating a streamlined administrative national framework that makes developing renewable energy projects and manufacturing new technologies highly investable for entrepreneurs and private capital alike.
The great virtue of offering a national price for renewable energy is that it would be immediately transparent and open to any technology company/developer. Currently, developing utility-scale renewable energy projects requires dealing with hundreds of private and public utilities all operating under strikingly different state regulatory requirements, and it often requires substantial upfront investments just to respond to requests for proposal.
The feed-in rate we are proposing would be set below what current renewable technologies deliver in order to focus support on breakthroughs that will drive the price of renewable electricity down in order to replace more and more traditional, fossil fuel based electricity generation. The national feed-in price could be adjusted periodically by the policy's governing board in order to move renewable electricity through the price points that would deliver greater market share to renewable generation while avoiding excess or windfall profits at the expense of the taxpayer. For example, the set of feed-in rate price points could be set by (1) on-peak natural gas fired generation to (2) combined cycle natural gas ‚Äìfired generation to (3) base load coal generation with an adjustment to reflect the cost of CO2 emissions.
Setting an initial feed-in rate at $0.15 per killowatt hour for 20 years for solar projects, for example, would draw out multiple breakthrough technologies and greatly advance their market penetration.
How close are we to delivering renewable technologies at the threshold of commercialization that can get to the first price point's on-peak natural gas fired generation? Wind and geothermal technologies are there today in certain locations in the U.S. Solar photovoltaic and thermal technologies are getting closer. An on-peak natural gas fired plant will generate a kilowat hour of electricity at a cost of between $0.09 and $0.11 per kilowat hour depending largely on the price of the natural gas used as fuel. The cost of capturing and storing the CO2 emissions from that generation has been estimated at about $0.028 per kilowatt hour (citation: S&P Viewpoint, Which Power Generation Technologies Will Take the Lead in Response to Carbon Controls, May 11, 2007).
The Federal Government's commitment would be to purchase a substantial amount of renewable power, or hundreds of megawatts or gigawatts. To support utility-scale projects, the feed-in system could also come with an offer to provide access to federal land for projects with transmission access. For example, a Department of Energy report demonstrated the feasibility of using the Nuclear Test Site in Nevada, 1,200 square miles, to host utility-scale solar energy projects. (see report at REPP.org). A small portion of that land could be offered at a low or zero cost lease to support huge solar projects. Other federal lands could be identified and made available over time.
A national feed-in rate would be straight-forward to implement, following the guidelines of past BPA hydro and wind generation projects for example. A Renewable Power Marketing Authority (similar to WAPA and BPA) would buy the power (i.e., pay the feed-in rate) and offer the electricity to investor-owned, municipal, and electric cooperative utilities at a price that would attract buyers. Any revenue shortfall would be covered by federal appropriations, but the cost of the program should be low. For a 100-megawatt PV project at the start that lost $.03 for every kilowat hour generated, the annual cost would be roughly $6 million depending on the annual kilowat hour generated.
We believe this simple, easily implemented step could accelerate major technology advances out of labs and turn development companies into mainstream companies while assuring that renewable energy would become a major source of utility-scale power projects in the U.S.
Once scaled up, these breakthrough technologies would assure that renewable energy would become a major source of utility power projects. And, these new and increasingly cost effective technologies would go a long way to assuring that renewable energy contributes to not only stabilizing climate change and increasing our energy security, but to also seriously lowering the cost of meeting these goals.

A message from Lawrence Lessig

2009-03-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

As you probably know, insurance giant AIG sparked national outrage by paying $165 million in executive bonuses after receiving a $170 billion taxpayer bailout.

What fewer people know is that AIG gave more than $9 million in campaign contributions to Congress. AIG split its money between those in both parties who could help them the most.

Will just recouping $165 million solve the AIG problem? No. We need to solve the underlying problem of special interests investing millions of dollars in political campaigns to reap billions in rewards from taxpayers.

You joined the Change Congress donor strike--now, can you help bring others into this critical movement for reform?

If you're on Facebook, can you "share" my Huffington Post piece from today about this issue? Here's a link: http://twurl.nl/a0l8ik

If you're on Twitter, can you Tweet something like, "Want to help solve the AIG problem? Check this out: http://twurl.nl/ze0t32 #aig #change #reform #congress"

Or, you can just email your friends and ask them to join the strike at www.Change-Congress.org

Now's the time to push hard for this reform. In the midst of national debates over how to regulate Wall Street, members of Congress should not be begging special interests for $2,400 checks.

Together, we can Change Congress.

--Lawrence Lessig

Come together right now, don't come tomorrow, don't come alone -- John Lennon, 1969

2009-03-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

When we won the election in November, I said that our victory alone was not the change we were looking for. It was only the chance to make that change. It was the chance for the millions of Americans who knocked on doors and answered phone calls to keep on working and keep on organizing for the change we need in America. -- Barack Obama, March 2009.

Beginning today, Wednesday, March 18th, Petaluma4Change is offering many opportunities for all of us to work together for the change we need.

1st opportunity! Wed. Mar. 18th:

Attend this evening's leadership meeting.
Click on this link for agenda, time, and location.

2nd opportunity! Sat. Mar. 21st:

Sign up for and help out at our Pledge Project table.
Click on this link for event details.

Create your own Pledge Project Canvass.
Click on this link for instructions.

Volunteer to help out at and to donate needed items for our SPRING into ACTION Volunteer Recruitment Fair.
Click on this link for details.

3rd opportunity! Sun. Mar. 22nd through Sat. Mar. 28th:

Volunteer to host a phone bank in your home.

Linda and Sarah will do all coordinating & facilitating. All you have to do is open your doors for us to come together to talk to people. Here is the list of days and times we are looking to fill:
Sun. Mar. 22nd 12noon-4pm
Mon. Mar. 23rd 5pm-8pm
Tue. Mar. 24th 5pm-8pm
Wed. Mar. 25th 5pm-8pm
Thu. Mar. 26th 5pm-8pm
Sat. Mar. 28th 10am-4pm
E-mail or call Linda!
linda@mojoluthier.com
707.478.2103

Get back the money AIG stole

2009-03-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

Click here to tell Congress to follow Obama's lead and get the bonus money back from AIG and into taxpayers' hands.

Poll shows Americans support EFCA

2009-03-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

A new Gallup Poll finds just over half of Americans, 53%, favoring a new law that would make it easier for labor unions to organize workers; 39% oppose it. This is a key issue at stake with the Employee Free Choice Act now being considered in Congress.

... The Employee Free Choice Act is a complex piece of legislation with numerous components, making it difficult to assess overall support for the bill among a population that is largely unaware of it. General support for the idea of "making it easier for unions to organize" as measured in the current poll is telling, but not necessarily indicative of public reaction to the bill if and when the political debate spills over into news headlines ...

Read the entire Gallup report here.

The money honey bee

2009-03-17T08:18:00.001-07:00

Very entertaining Comedy Central clip from Mar. 16th Jon Stewart Show that, believe it or not, is very informative about one of the financial legalities that has ruined the US economy. While we're all trying to figure out how to hang onto our jobs, how to afford to pay our health insurance premiums, how to keep up our mortgage payments, how to attract new customers to replace the ones that stopped purchasing our goods and services five months ago, and how to feed our families without having to visit the local soup kitchen once a week, it's good to get a little insight into the thinking of those who think our economy is one big crap shoot/slot machine/betting booth.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

The Money Honey Bee

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

It's legal!

It oughta be a lot of fun on Saturday at our Pledge Project table at the Spring into Action Fair, talking up President O's economic agenda to rally nationwide support of his 2010 budget, in the wake of his administration's handing over $170 billion of our money to AIG, who summarily handed over $165 million in "bonuses" to guys with the same moral ethics as this clown in the Comedy Central video. Bring along your optimism and sense of humor, and join us!

Watch a US soldier give a motivational pep talk to win the hearts and minds of the new Iraqi police force

2009-03-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

Warning: Not appropriate for young ears.

You gotta wonder what President Obama would think about his Iraq policy, were he to watch this video clip of America's finest winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. On our dime.

I think this guy needs a little R&R. Or maybe it's just time for us to come on home. Let the Iraqi people sort through the rubble on their own.

Maybe when he returns from this deployment, he'll apply to be a police officer in our town. Help clean up the tent-city riff-raff that's cropping up due to job losses and the foreclosure crisis. He could bring his AK-47 and hang out down at the soup kitchen, berating people for not going out and getting their own goddamn food.

Sonoma County League of Women Voters opposes current Dutra plan

2009-03-16T12:56:00.000-07:00

From P4C member Elaine L.:

... I contacted the local LWV about the Dutra Plant and received this reply today:
... concerning the League response to the location of the Dutra Asphalt Plant in Petaluma. We have mailed to each Supervisor our reasons for extreme opposition to this project. We are basing our opposition on our established Land Use policies.

The CEOs guide to jetting

2009-03-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

JetBlue is hitching a ride on populist anti-CEO sentiments in this new advertising campaign.

It is sooo worth the few minutes it takes to watch these three shorts. We can't get enough opportunities for healthy belly-laughing right now!

Obama enlists campaign army in budget fight

2009-03-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

From today's WaPo:

President Obama will kick off an all-out grass-roots effort today urging Congress to pass his $3.55 trillion budget, activating the extensive campaign apparatus he built during his successful 2008 candidacy for the first time since taking office.

Read the whole shebang at this link.

And then get involved!

Participate in P4C's Mar. 21st Pledge Project table at our Spring into Action Volunteer Recruitment Fair.

Create your own Pledge Project and let us know so that we can promote it among our group.

This is no time to wait for others to rally support for President Obama's budget. While we dally, the GOP is racking up on-air hours in its organized media blitz to repeat false talking points about the 2010 budget over and over and over again.

Let's stand by one another!

2009-03-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

We're losing our jobs. And our health coverage. Our kids' public school teachers are getting laid off, along with many other essential service-providers employed by our schools. If we own a business, we're losing customers. Our savings took huge hits in the October financial meltdown, and for the most part, they've continued to deteriorate since then.

Now, more than ever, is when we all need to pull together and help one another out, do all we can to survive the current and still-coming economic "whatever-you-want-to-call-it."

Playing for Change: Peace Through Music is an award-winning documentary that I ran across last fall during the heat of the campaign. I hope you will watch this short video from the documentary and feel inspired to reconnect with those of us who are continuing our work together for change.

We need help with our "Six Days in One Week" Phone Banking Event.
We are looking for homes as sites for these phone bank parties. Can you open up your door to our group again?

Sun. Mar. 22nd 12noon-4pm
Mon. Mar. 23rd 5-8:30pm
Tue. Mar. 24th 5-8:30pm
Wed. Mar. 25th 5-8:30pm
Thu. Mar. 26th 5-8:30pm
Sat. Mar. 28th 10am-4pm

We have a meeting coming up this week:

Wed., March 18th, 7pm
Home of Connie Madden & Wayne Morgenthaler
(the original Jungle Vibes)
215 Water Street, Petaluma
Along the water near the
E. Washington and Petaluma Blvd. intersection
behind Thai Issan restaurant.
707-781-9311

And Organizing for America is asking us to participate in its Pledge Project Canvass.

We hope you'll reconnect with us for change!

Press release for Spring into Action Volunteer Recruitment Fair

2009-03-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

Saturday, March 21st, marks the first full day of Spring 2009 and, in spite of blossoming flowers and sunny weather, the economy still leaves many local citizens with a chill of uncertainty. Petaluma 4 Change, a local organizing forum that arose from volunteers who worked together during the Obama campaign, is hoping to ease this chill by hosting ‘SPRING INTO ACTION’ - a local Volunteer Recruitment Fair featuring local community service organizations in need of helping hands. Spring into Action is to be held in the Petaluma Community Center, 320 N. McDowell Blvd., from 10am-4pm on Mar. 21st.

According to Sarah Gibson, co-organizer for Spring into Action:

“Many of our neighbors are in serious need of help, but equally as many are ready to help and don’t know where to start. Our Spring into Action Fair provides a unique opportunity for locals with a spare hour or two a month or some extra food in the cupboards a ‘one-stop-shop’ to learn about local volunteer opportunities and to donate much-needed items to provide immediate relief to the participating organizations.”

Prospective volunteers can preview organizations represented at the Spring into Action Fair by logging onto Organizing for America and searching for events in Petaluma's zip code area. Look for events with 'Spring into Action' in the event heading. The lineup includes COTS, Petaluma Kitchen's Food Box Program, Rebuilding Together Petaluma, the California Veterans Home at Yountville, the Petaluma Food Pantry, and the local American Red Cross Chapter. The Food Box Program and COTS are also collecting critically needed food donations and other supplies. As demand for local food bank inventories has steadily increased, donations have dropped. Help to replenish these local larders by bringing non-perishable food items with you to the Fair.

Petaluma 4 Change is also hosting a Spring into Action 'hands-on’ project in Wickersham Park for those in search of an outdoor project that will provide immediate satisfaction for a job-well-done. Volunteers can show up anytime between 10am and 4pm on Sat. the 21st to give Wickersham's gardeners' house a new coat of paint and some sprucing-up TLC. Sign-ups for this event can be found on line as well. All tools and training will be provided.

Agenda for P4C Mar.18th leadership meeting

2009-03-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

7pm - Human Race Project (HRP)

HRP will tell their story, show a short video, find out if there is interest in P4C about an HRP seminar & group project. You can read about one P4C member's experience w/HRP at this link.

7:30pm - Spring into Action Volunteer Recruitment Fair

Sarah Gibson's community project to bring together many local service organizations into one public venue, so that they can do outreach for volunteer recruitment & to collect donations, is really coming together. Click on this link to read Sarah's press release.

7:45pm - Upcoming six days of phone banks.

8:15pm - Featured members speak.

New P4C leader/coordinator of energy issue-based working group:
If he is able to come to this meeting, Jeff W. will introduce himself & talk about his interest in energy issues, his new role as a P4C leader/coordinator of this group, and his volunteering to discuss President Obama's energy agenda with the public at our Mar. 21st OFA Pledge Project table/booth at the Spring into Action Fair.

P4C's May social event:
Initial organizer, Connie M., to talk about this event. Downtown location. Open to public.

Friends of Shollenberger & Clean Air:
Greg R. will provide an update on the Dutra project & how P4C members can stay/become involved.

Facebook as recruitment tool:
If she is able to come to this meeting, Paula B. will report back on her offer to look into P4C using Facebook to recruit new members.

8:45pm - web site & 501C3 status, & April's meeting (at Janice K.'s home).

Progress report on still-under-construction web site & our efforts to attain 501C3 status.

If she is able to come to this meeting, Janice K. will announce the day/time for April's meeting, to be held in her home.

8:55pm - wrap-up.

Wed., March 18th, 7pm
Home of Connie Madden & Wayne Morgenthaler
(the original Jungle Vibes)
215 Water Street, Petaluma
Along the water near the
E. Washington and Petaluma Blvd. intersection
behind Thai Issan restaurant.
707-781-9311

Send a thank-you note to Woolsey!

2009-03-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

Lynn Woolsey is one of the co-sponsors of EFCA, introduced on Tuesday, Mar. 10th, into both houses of Congress. Once again, our 6th district congressional representative is standing up for us, this time in opposition to the multi-million dollar campaign by corporate lobbyists to defeat EFCA.

Please tell Rep. Woolsey how proud we are of her!

Click on this link to sign a petition letter to her. Or send your own letter by clicking on her congressional link on the right-hand side of this blog.

EFCA issue heatin' up

2009-03-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

Who woulda thunk that a piece of legislation pronounced "eff-kuh" for EFCA or the Employee Free Choice Act or the "card check" bill would become the first legislative hot-potato on Capitol Hill? It was introduced into both houses of Congress this past week and, boy-oh-boy, the gang war has begun between anti-EFCA and pro-EFCA factions.

Basically, EFCA "would make it much easier for workers to organize." Anti-union forces, euphemistically referred to by the so-called liberal press as pro-business groups, are playing up the outright lie that "it would eliminate secret ballots in union elections." It would not do this, but the truth has never stopped anti-union front groups in the past from making stuff up to protect so-called pro-business interests that we are told would suffer unfairly under a system that would grant US workers greater rights.

These so-called pro-business front groups call themselves names like the Workforce Fairness Institute and the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. Kinda reminds us of promoting the corporate testing of America's schoolkids under the banner of No Child Left Behind.

Another misperception being played up by the anti-union gang is that America's small business employers would go under if EFCA is passed. This misperception does have some traction, but that traction is not based in reality. What's really going on here is that America's large corporate employers are using small employers as their Trojan Horse to get inside the hallowed gates of pro-small business interests. EFCA would absolutely result in highly successful US corporations having to broadly share in the fruits of our economic growth, which would cut into CEO compensation and decrease shareholder benefits. We can all decide for ourselves if we think this greater sharing of our economic wealth is good or bad for America.

Here's the truth:

"Under the Employee Free Choice Act, if a majority of employees signed a card requesting a union, the union would be validated without a secret ballot election. A majority of employees could choose to request a secret-ballot election."

So in other words, EFCA would not eliminate secret ballots in union elections. It reinstates that choice for workers, and takes away an employer's legal right to prevent workers from forming unions using only a secret ballot process. EFCA would simply take away an employer's veto power over how its workers choose to sign up for a union.

The question that pro-EFCA groups would be well-served to focus on is:

Why is it that anti-union front groups are so heavily invested in preventing US workers from getting back their right to sign cards as a way to form unions?

An answer to that question would reveal much about the true intent of the anti-EFCA movement.

Meanwhile, well-financed anti-EFCA front groups (union-opposing industry lobbyists) are "trying to influence" national legislative opinion, targeting pro-EFCA representatives like George Miller, Barbara Lee, Pete Stark, Zoe Lofgren, Barney Frank, and Dennis Kucinich.

So, where do our representatives stand on EFCA? Barbara Boxer is an original co-sponsor and remains supportive. Dianne Feinstein is waffling. She used to support it but has suddenly developed "concerns about this extraordinarily difficult economy." She is withholding her position until the best possible politically-expedient moment, like always. Lynn Woolsey is a co-sponsor.

Read "'card check' labor bill stirs controversy."

President Obama, get over the fear of even mentioning single-payer concepts!

2009-03-11T18:12:00.000-07:00

From Bloomberg News columnist John F. Wasik:

It’s time to stop kicking sand in the face of single-payer health care. It may be the strongest solution around to insure every American at a lower cost.
After decades of industry campaigns against this model -- dubbed by its critics as “socialized” medicine -- it’s important to stop whining and evaluate the many economic benefits. Health care is a fundamental human right.

If President Barack Obama wants real change in American health care, he will have to get over the fear of even mentioning single-payer concepts. At his health-care summit last week, only the threat of a demonstration garnered late invitations for Oliver Fein and Congressman John Conyers, two leading proponents of the single-payer plan.

Keep reading this commentary at this link.

Rachel Maddow & SEIU President Andy Stern on EFCA

2009-03-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

It's worth the nine minutes it takes to watch this video of Rachel Maddow and Andy Stern discuss the Employee Free Choice Act, and why it's not going to destroy America for our workers to have the right, the free choice, to decide for themselves whether they use a card check system or a secret ballot system in the union-forming process.

Should American workers be able to freely form unions, without having to follow silly rules set up by our largest corporate employers to their own benefit, or not? That is the question.

For the political nitty-gritty on who's for/against passage of this bill on Capitol Hill, as well as a short, recent history of the path EFCA has been on to get to its current point, click on this link and read away.

No more dough till we know where it goes

2009-03-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

They won't reveal to us the names of the banks that have received $1.2 trillion of our money since September 2008.

Despite all that money, last week, AIG posted $61 billion in losses for the 4th quarter of 2008.

Where did the money go?

No one will tell us.

And now we're getting ready to hand over another humongoid chunk of our money to the tune of $750 billion to the same people.

If you're not happy with this scenario, please sign a Firedoglake petition at this link to let them know.

Here's what the petition says:

"Dear Members of Congress: The public needs to know where all our money has gone. Restoring public trust is critical in getting our economy back on its feet. We ask that you move swiftly to re-regulate and bring transparency to a financial system whose rules have been written by bank lobbyists for their own benefit. No additional bank bailout funds should be approved until that happens."

Sign petition letter to support Employee Free Choice Act

2009-03-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

Today, March 10, the EFCA was introduced in both houses of Congress.

Right now is a terrific time for all of us to urge our national legislators to hear our opinions before they co-debate this bill. It would be a huge disappointment to us for them to make their decisions on this bill before we weigh in, leaving us in the pathetic position of simply expressing our disappointment in either their votes or their ineffectiveness securing passage of this bill.

Front groups for anti-labor interests are busy, busy, busy, spending millions on misleading ads, spreading lies and propaganda.

Do the simplest, easiest thing you have at your fingertips to secure passage of the EFCA. Click on this link and add your name to the petition letter.

Thank-you!

The Human Race Project & P4C

2009-03-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

I spent this past weekend sequestered within two rooms of a hotel in Emeryville with eight other local Bay Area progressive activists, two of whom, Craig and Sheila, are co-founders of the Human Race Project (HRP), a pilot project with roots that go back 12 years here in the Bay Area. Our enthusiastic group of nine spent a good, solid 15 hours or so together discussing the big issue of diversity. Among other aspects of diversity, we scrutinized diversity's role in the successful election of Barack Obama, and the challenges diversity now poses to our future success working together for progressive public policies and the passage of progressive legislation.

When we all walked out of that Emeryville hotel on Sunday afternoon, the first HRP group, consisting of Jackie, Jeff, Kathy, Ayumi, Sam, Reid, and myself, was launched. We seven made commitments to collaborate with Craig and Sheila to help them develop reality-based, constructive tools for more and more activists to use to expand our collective ability to shape the future of our country and our world for the better, using the power that diversity gives us both in sheer number and shared vision.

During this weekend seminar, I looked back over the two-month-long fall campaign, when literally hundreds of us in our micro-neighborhood of Petaluma and the surrounding geographic area worked together with extraordinary intensity, phone-banking and traveling together into swing states, with the singular task to build a successful presidential campaign around a leader we hope will open doors for us to bring about transformative social and political change. I recalled how profoundly struck we all were at the time by the differences that exist between our shared political and social perspectives around "hope" and "change," and the perspectives of non-supporters, people who not only do not share our point-of-view, but who see us and our progressive perspectives as threats to "American values."

But now that we have succeeded at electing Obama, a potentially more challenging issue for us to address is the one posed by other Obama-supporters who live in environments different from ours and who come from diverse backgrounds and so naturally bring a plethora of perspectives to the task at hand. During the campaign, we sometimes discussed amongst ourselves ways to successfully achieve our singular task despite these differences, to make connections that were powerful enough to help build support systems in places like Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado, support systems that smoothed the way for these swing-state voters to step up under oftentimes very harsh local social scenarios to work within their own communities toward a shared goal.

And, to top it all off, we now confront an additional challenge. We must make and maintain connections with one another throughout our progressive community, to capitalize on our participatory spirit and deep commitment to real, transformative change, to build on the strengths inherent in our diversity, and not just in our alikeness. If we are to succeed at working together to achieve big change, then we must also succeed at ensuring that the diversity so natural to our progressive ranks not be constrictive, and that it instead be a source of empowerment.

It is these kinds of connections between diverse parties with shared visions that I hope an alliance between P4C and HRP will augment. I believe that HRP has great potential to support our P4C community to experience even greater success in the months and years to come while we're working together to confront the panoply of critical issues that confront us all.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be naturally processing and integrating my experiences during this past weekend's HRP seminar with my work with other P4C members. Fresh ideas for meaningful, productive engagement between P4C and HRP are emerging from those experiences. I am very hopeful that engagement between P4C and HRP will have great potential to both expand the number of us who are willing to work together locally as a team, post-2008 election, as well as to expand the success of our collaborations. In other words, I think it will magnify our successes. If you would like more info, or are just curious about HRP, feel free to e-mail or call me. By now, most if not all of you have my personal e-mail address and phone numbers.

You may also contact Craig and Sheila directly, at humanraceproject@yahoo.com.

Yours in change,
Linda Carpenter Sexauer

Mission

The Human Race Project(HRP)will change worldwide consciousness about race and other social categories by creating a diverse global HRP community through face-to-face interactions, educational seminars, HRP group projects, local, national and international conversations ,a HRP documentary film and a social networking site.

Who we are?

A community of diverse friends committed to self-reflection ,making connections with other human beings that lead to social change and social justice in our community, nation and world.

What is HRP?

A social movement. A dynamic process of self-reflection, making connections with diverse people, engaging in meaningful dialog, working toward sustainable social change.

Why HRP?

We understand the concept of race and other social categories are constructed to control and divide human beings into“us and them” .We believe when people see each other as human beings all deserving basic human rights, people will no longer accept inequality, oppression, and injustice.

PETALUMA SPRING into ACTION Preview:

2009-03-07T12:32:00.001-08:00

SATURDAY MARCH 21ST

10AM - 4 PM

LOCAL DAY OF SERVICE:

Join the community on the first full day of Spring as we lift our hands

in a day of service for Petaluma.

Socialize, smile, and help those in need at a one stop volunteering experience!

Collect some VERY NEEDED food items that will fill the bare cupboards of

COTS, Food Box Program, and the Petaluma Food Pantry.

Cruise our VOLUNTEER FAIR from 10 am to 4pm,

at which you can sign up to volunteer for:

Petaluma Kitchen's Food Box Program,

Rebuilding Petaluma,

California Veterans Home, the Red Cross....

just to name a few of the many agencies that will be on hand!

Don't forget to bring a pair of work gloves to help

repair our Community Center Atrium Garden!

LEARN FREE CPR at 1:00 pm ( class size limited).

Keep your eyes posted here for an update on times, locations, and sign ups

this MONDAY March 9th!

P4C member comment re Obama's health-care summit

2009-03-05T11:49:00.000-08:00

Last night, we received the following message from P4C member Rachel, who wrote:

i am sure you heard that obama has not invited one advocate for single payer health care to his health care summit convening tomorrow

aargh

who do we contact to register our protest, futile as it may be?

so much for transparency and the will of the people, eh?

Here is how we responded to her legitimate frustrations about today's important health-care discussion:

Oh yeah?

Really?

Sign every single petition that comes your way. Here. Here. Here. And here.

And keep yellin' and passin' the word. The insurance industry and Big Pharma are countin' on us givin' up!

And here is her back-at-ya:

thanks for the info
i feel a bit relieved
signed whatever i could

Are you feeling the same frustrations? Do you share the concerns of so many others that single-payer is unfairly gettin' the short shrift by the Obama White House? Then take a couple of moments out of your busy day to click on those links and sign some petitions that will make a difference. It may be your signature that elevates single-payer to the stature of entree, instead of it being a last-minute hors d'oeuvre that arrives too late and so goes uneaten, even when it may be the best food item presented at the party!

And then pass along this message to your friends, family members, and co-workers (if you still have a job). We are gettin' this job done, brick-by-brick!

And thank-you for your time and your effort!

Rejoice! Two single-payer advocates invited by WH to join 118 health-care industry lobbyists for Thursday's health-care summit!

2009-03-04T19:55:00.000-08:00

From After Downing Street:

... Dr. Oliver Fein, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, has been invited to participate in [Thursday's] White House summit on health care. He will therefore be joining Rep. John Conyers in the meeting as a strong advocate for a single-payer national health program ...

... While it remains true that the number of single-payer advocates in the summit will be few in number, we feel we have won an important victory...

Please continue to urge [Woolsey, Feinstein, Boxer] and President Obama to support single-payer national health insurance, the only fundamental solution to our health care crisis.

Scheduled single-payer demonstrations outside the White House Thursday are cancelled!

Read Sam Stein's commentary on this over at HuffPo as well.

Obama vows to pass EFCA

2009-03-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

Here's what Obama said Tuesday evening, Mar. 3rd, to an AFL-CIO crowd:

And as we confront this crisis and work to provide health care to every American, rebuild our nation’s infrastructure, move toward a clean energy economy, and pass the Employee Free Choice Act, I want you to know that you will always have a seat at the table.

You can read his full statement here.

Right-wingnut hyperbole targets the EFCA

2009-03-04T11:09:00.000-08:00

First, we get to hear Newt Gingrich call the EFCA "a mortal threat to American freedom."

We could all snark endlessly about this were it not for the pathetic reality that there remain many Americans who fall for this c**p thrown at us by various invested front groups.

Here is more of what America's anti-labor interests are calling the EFCA:

"the demise of a civilization ... how a civilization disappears"
"a firestorm bordering on Armageddon"
"nuclear war"
"two fundamental threats to society" along with radical Islam
"Gestapo tactic"
"Pro-Slavery"
"businesses are ready to riot in the street about it"
its supporters "should be shot ... should be thrown out of their goddamn jobs"

Join the SEIU's campaign to fight back against this potentially effective national campaign to prevent America's workers from receiving some of the benefits of the wealth they are helping to create for others for whom greed is a primary motivator.

The 'Mass. model' of health reform & its implications for national health-care reform

2009-03-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

Watch the video of the health-care reform joint forum organized by the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care, held in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 25th. This is a 1 1/2-hour video. We are not aware of a shortened version, or of a written summary of this forum. If you are, please let us know so we can pass those along to members.

Speakers include:

David Himmelstein, MD, Cambridge Hospital Physician, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
Sandy Eaton, RN, Massachusetts Nurses Association
Jamie Eldridge, Massachusetts State Senator
Mary Ford, former Mayor of Northampton and Human Services Manager
Peter Knowlton Presentation, Vice President of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America
Arthur MacEwan, PhD, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Boston

National Lessons from State Health Reform: The Massachusetts Case Study from New Words on Vimeo.

"Of all the forms of inequality,
injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Campaign against Obama health plan run by notorious conservative PR firm

2009-03-03T20:07:00.000-08:00

From TPM:

A new group called Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR) is about to launch the opening salvo in the fight to sink President Obama's health care plan.

CPR is running TV, radio, and web ads that attempt to stoke irrational fears of "a central national board" in charge of medical decision-making, asking Americans to envision a world where "bureaucrats decide the treatments you receive, the drugs you take, even the doctors you see." Of course, that vision has nothing to do with the president's health care plan, but the truth shouldn't be an impediment to CPR's dream of killing health care reform.

After all, the group has hired Creative Response Concepts, the same PR firm that represented the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 presidential race. The "media relations" contact number listed on CPR's website, (703) 683-5004, is the same phone number as Creative Response Concepts, as one liberal organization discovered when researching the new health care group.

Creative Response's past clients also include the Christian Coalition, the right-leaning National Taxpayers Union, and USANext, the front group that led George W. Bush's failed push to privatize Social Security. Hilariously, Politico could only bring itself to observe that CPR has hired "veteran Republican consultants" for its new anti-Obama effort.

Obama & US labor to date

2009-03-03T20:02:00.000-08:00

From Reuters:

Within days of taking office Jan. 20, Obama signed three orders to bolster unions and workers' rights. The first will prevent taxpayer funds from being used to reimburse federal contractors who spend money to impede workers from organizing.

A second requires federal contractors to inform employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act, and third was aimed at ensuring that qualified workers kept their jobs even when a federal contract changed hands.

Some EFCA updates

2009-03-03T19:57:00.000-08:00

From TPM:

Looks like the Employee Free Choice Act could get introduced as early as next week. It'll easily pass the House when it comes up for a vote, just as it did last year, but passage in the Senate will be hard and it doesn't help that the Minnesota seat remains unresolved.
Tomorrow, Vice President Joe Biden is supposed to give a full-throated defense of the act when he speaks to top AFL officials at their meeting in Miami.

Meanwhile, in the hotly contested House race to replace New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the Republican, Jim Tedisco was endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today in no small part because his opponent is supporting EFCA.

President Obama: Please rethink Afghanistan!

2009-03-03T13:27:00.000-08:00

President Obama has committed 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan. This decision raises serious questions about troops, costs, overall mission, and exit strategy. Historically, it has been Congress' duty to ask questions in the form of oversight hearings that challenge policymakers, examine military spending, and educate the public. After witnessing the absence of oversight regarding the Iraq war, we must insist Congress hold hearings on Afghanistan.

Watch the trailer:

Watch the entire video:

Sign the petition here.

Terrific letter to the editor in today's PD from P4C member Elaine Larson

2009-03-03T11:23:00.000-08:00

Full disclosure

EDITOR: You neglected to disclose that Doris Laul, a “Shollengberger Park user” whose letter you printed favoring putting an asphalt plant at the designated scenic gateway to Wine Country, is a Dutra Group employee (“Dutra’s value,” Letters, Friday).

The idea of having to trade tourist dollars, our health and well-being and the very existence of a world-class bird sanctuary for an oversized, polluting asphalt plant is not even worthy of consideration, but this is what Dutra wants us to think is a great opportunity.

The Dutra plant, just like other asphalt plants, needs to be sited where it can do the least harm to people, wildlife and the environment. Dutra also mailed a masterpiece of propaganda to Petaluma residents last week, but anyone who heard the many experts with no vested interest speak at both the Jan. 26 Petaluma City Council meeting and the Feb. 3 Board of Supervisors meeting knows it is nothing but desperate lies.

We must hold our supervisors accountable to enforce the Sonoma County General Plan 2020 and not allow the travesty of an asphalt plant disrupting a bird sanctuary to proceed.

ELAINE LARSON

Petaluma

Dems defecting on EFCA

2009-03-02T16:21:00.000-08:00

This is the third in a series of posts re the Employee Free Choice Act. Here is the first, and the second. We'll continue to keep everyone apprised of what's happening with this bill, as it's definitely on Obama's to-do list.

Will enough Dems support this bill? Or will lack of political will beat out pro-labor legislation?

Read Sam Stein's HuffPo piece here.

And here's a short video that demonstrates this Dem defection in Colorado, and how activists there are dealing with it:

The thing is, this really shouldn't be difficult or controversial. This is, as Darcy says, about the basic rights of workers to organize. EFCA is a bill that passed the House in 2005 and 2007 on a bi-partisan basis. While it came up short of a filibuster-proof super majority in the Senate in 2007, cloture garnered the votes of every single Democrat in the Senate (including Landrieu, Lincoln, Pryor and, yes, Salazar) plus both Independents and even Arlen Specter. Add to that the fact that during his run for the US Senate last year, freshman Colorado Sen. Mark Udall had been a co-sponsor of EFCA in the House, promised to support it as a Senator, and won by 11% despite the fact that EFCA foes ran ads targeting Udall as someone who would "take the secret ballot away."

Restore majority rule in California!

2009-03-02T08:02:00.000-08:00

A message to California's grassroots (yup, that's us!)

A group of California Obama organizers is fed up with California's arcane and unworkable budget process, and wants to get to work fixing this mess.

How? We want to use our networks to build a grassroots movement to get rid of the CA budget's two-third's rule.

California is one of only three states that requires a two-third's majority to pass a budget, and it has resulted in the legislature failing to pass a budget by the constitutional deadline 28 of the last 32 years!

We can't fix education, or health care, or the environment if we don't fix our budgeting process.

Will you sign up on Yes We Can Change California to indicate your interest in supporting repeal of the two-third's rule?

As President Obama told us more than once, our work is just beginning. California needs our help, and we need your support in order to begin this necessary process.

Please visit Yes We Can Change California, and sign up to join the state-wide effort to restore democracy to our state government and eliminate the two-third's rule.

When you do so, please let me know that you have signed up. I have made a personal commitment to get at least 100 fellow grassroots activists to agree to become part of this movement. I am fed up with the legislative impairment in Sacramento and take responsibility for changing its dysfunction before my teen-aged daughter reaches adulthood and assumes the fiscal mess that holds all of us hostage every single year. After all, this is our government!

Pass along this message to others who you think would be interested in supporting this movement. Consider making your own commitment to enlist 100 other citizens to join us. Let me know if you are doing this, so that we begin to create the powerful local network that will be required to get a ballot initiative that restores majority rule in the California budget process.

Feel free to contact me with any questions, inquiries, or concerns about this effort.

Yours in change,
Linda Carpenter Sexauer

The Employee Free Choice Act & us

2009-02-28T17:13:00.001-08:00

A lot of our members are expressing ignorance of or unfamiliarity with the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), also informally referred to as the card check legislation. If passed by Congress, the EFCA would take away the right of employers to demand secret-ballot elections by workers before unions could be recognized. Under the EFCA, unions could gain representation if a majority of workers sign cards authorizing it.

Passage of this bill could very well spur a renaissance in the US labor movement. The days of workers being discouraged from organizing due to employer intimidation would be over. Pro-US business groups hate the EFCA. In response to pro-EFCA claims that it would disempower employers, these groups counter-claim that it would deprive workers of secret ballot voting and subject employees to union bullying. This position is interesting in that pro-business interests are opposed to unions bullying their employees, but by golly will spend gobs of lobbying money to protect their right to bully their employees themselves.

Given America's difficult and controversial history around union organizing, and given the very different worker climate that existed during the times that businesses successfully lobbied for legislation to force workers to use secret ballot voting instead of openly signing cards, it really makes sense for all of us to do some homework about the EFCA, where and how it originated, and how today's worker climate in America is vastly different from the one that resulted in the federal targeting of unions decades ago.

Barack Obama is a strong supporter of the EFCA, and campaigned strongly on getting it passed. He is so preoccupied with the economy right now, though, that it's unclear as to when he will pick this issue back up and run with it. It's still not out of the question for passage of the EFCA to become one of his accomplishments during his first 100 days in office, but we can't count on that happening within this tight time frame.

You may recall that Obama had originally planned to delay health-care reform for a year, while he takes care of other issues such as US workers' rights. However, he has since changed this tack, since it's become increasingly evident that health-care reform must precede a lot of the other reform measures on his to-do list, including entitlement reform and passage of the EFCA, in order to turn around our economy, since current health-care costs are such a huge component of our federal deficit.

What we do know is that America's unions are in ongoing negotiations to put aside recent animosities and join forces to get this bill passed. We also know that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been rapidly hiring a significant ground effort to work in labor union battleground states as organizers for this bill's passage.

If you run across anything that you feel would help the rest of us get up-to-speed on this bill, before we're asked by the Obama administration to help him get it passed, please pass it along to us so we can share it with the rest of our member base.

Read what the AFL-CIO writes about the EFCA.

Read what Change to Win, an umbrella organization of seven unions, writes about the EFCA.

Obama's Budget Director Orszag

2009-02-28T15:18:00.000-08:00

We're not in Kansas anymore, fellow Munchkins!!! President O's Budget Director, Peter Orszag, blogs! Yup, he actually reads 30-40 blogs every morning to prevent his decisions from being formulated within a White House bubble.

You can visit OMB Director Orszag's blog at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/blog/

Be sure to set aside four minutes to watch this video at WhiteHouse.gov of Director Orszag providing clarification on Obama's 2010 budget.

This lack of secrecy almost hurts! Kinda like being let out into a yard in full sun after being locked up in a dark dungeon for eight years.

Don'tcha love it?

Obama's weekly address

2009-02-28T15:03:00.000-08:00

President O takes on powerful lobbyists in his weekly address. Hallelujah and amen, Brother Barack!

We will never change health care, energy, and education unless and until we change the legislative status quo that provides ringside seats for corporate interests, leaving us with our pathetic e-mail messages to our national representatives that are answered in robo-fashion by aides and computer-generated spam response systems.

2/28/09: Your Weekly Address from White House on Vimeo.

Watch Sarah Gibson represent P4C at a City Council meeting

2009-02-28T13:13:00.000-08:00

Sarah did a terrific job during the public comment period at the Feb. 23rd City Council meeting, informing councilmembers of our upcoming Petaluma Spring Cleaning Day event on Mar. 21st.

To watch her presentation, click on this link, and then, under Archived Videos, click on the video link to the right of Regular City Council/PCDC Meeting, Feb. 23, 2009. Fast forward to about 30:54 for her 2:12-minutes-long announcement.

Important conference call for California community organizers

2009-02-28T12:40:00.000-08:00

From California's Volunteer Liaison to Organizing for America:

I need your help. As leaders of our amazing activist network, I would like you to join me on a conference call SUNDAY NIGHT MARCH 1 at 8:30 p.m. to discuss how to fix California's broken budget process.

I've been talking with some other CA organizers and we decided we'd like to gauge - and then garner - support for a ballot initiative that would restore majority rule to CA's budget process and hold our government more accountable for its actions. California is one of only three states that has the two-thirds rule. The other two states are Arkansas and Rhode Island, whose budgets are a fraction of CA's. The two-thirds vote requirement has made California's budget negotiations drawn-out affairs almost every year. Lawmakers have missed the June 15 constitutional deadline to approve a budget in 28 of the last 32 years.

Restoring majority rule could be one of the most important political activities in the state over the next year. The organizers who helped change the way Washington works should be on the front lines of the battle to change the politics in our home state.

If you'd like to help, or just hear more about our idea for bringing about change in California, please join me and other CA leaders on a conference call Sunday night:

When: Sunday, March 1 at 8:30 p.m.
Call in info: 712-432-1100 access code 1015319

You may forward this email to anyone you think would be interested in being on the call.

I look forward to talking with all of you. Please feel free to email me with any questions.

Thanks for all you do.

Mary Jane

Our local Petaluma water situation

2009-02-28T10:40:00.000-08:00

It's obvious that the writing is on the wall for water rationing in Petaluma. Unless we experience a Noah's ark-like weather pattern between now and the summertime, it's unlikely we won't be hit with either a reduction mandate based on prior usage, or a per capita allotment. There are no other alternatives to a water shortage of the magnitude of our current one.

On Mon. Feb. 23rd, Mike Ban, Petaluma's director of water resources, gave a report to our City Council on Petaluma's upcoming water outlook. Many water-consumers weighed in with our councilmembers before that meeting. You can read about our anticipation of this meeting at this link, where you will find another link to read some of the responses given by Councilmember Glass, Mayor Torliatt, Councilmember Healy, and Vice Mayor Barrett.

P4C member Sarah Gibson attended Monday's meeting to listen to Mr. Ban's report and to our Council's responses to that report, as well as to inform the Council of our upcoming Petaluma Spring Cleaning Day event/project. To watch a video of the Council meeting, click on this link, and then, under Archived Videos, click on the video link to the right of Regular City Council/PCDC Meeting, Feb. 23, 2009. If you're extremely wonkish, by all means watch the entire video. If you aren't, you can forward to about 10:00 to listen to Ban's excellent report. To hear David Glass' remarks following the report, forward to about 28:00. Don't be put off by the fact that the video starts out identified as being from Feb. 18; it is not.

Here are Glass' comments:

I think that every councilmember has received e-mails ... from various people, but the concern that I get overwhelmingly ... is that [those water consumers who have] done everything they can to conserve on their water, they're in the lowest possible tier, and they're concerned that with either voluntary or mandatory water cutbacks coming on a per capita basis, that they're going to be unduly impacted. I don't think that it's designed to work that way. Could you address that?

Mike Ban:

We've been getting similar calls, and what we've been explaining to our customers is that what we'll be doing in a stage 1 is reminding people about what they can do to be efficient, make sure they irrigate and the water doesn't run down the sidewalk, but basically to be efficient with their water use. At this point, we're not talking about water rationing or going to per capita usage. It's really to remind people of what they can do to be efficient with their water use.

This was a clear explanation of what we're being asked to do "at this point." What we still don't know, however, and what we want to make sure is addressed equitably and with the health, safety, and welfare of all water-consumers in mind, pertains to what we will be asked to do at the point where a stage 1 voluntary conservation effort leaves off and the peak summertime flow picks up, where we will potentially be required to reduce our water consumption by a stated 22% below last summer's usage, keeping in mind that, since our water situation is very dynamic, it is not unreasonable to predict that that 22% could become 30-50%.

An across-the-board water use percentage reduction mandate works great for those who over-consumed last summer, who conserved marginally or not at all, for those who maintained grassy lawns and backyard swimming pools, but it most certainly unduly impacts those who conserved last summer to the maximum extent possible.

The next date to keep on our calendars is April 6, when our water resources officials will revisit this issue with our City Council and introduce an emergency water resolution based on their water forecasts at that time.

If you are so inclined to e-mail our city councilmembers about Ban's water report and/or Councilmember Glass' comment at its end, you may easily do so by clicking on the Petaluma City Council link on the right-hand side of this blog.

Woolsey blasts Iraq pullout plan as not enough

2009-02-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

From the Feb. 28th Press Democrat:

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, blasted Obama’s centrist approach to the troop drawdown. In a statement released Friday, Woolsey called the plan to leave up to 50,000 troops in Iraq “unacceptable.”
“Call such a troop level what you will, but such a large number can only be viewed by the Iraqi public as an enduring occupation force,” Woolsey said. “The faster that we can promote unification and reconciliation, the sooner we can bring all of our troops home.”

Read the whole PD news article here. Haven't been able to locate her full statement yet. Will post it when we do.

Click on the link for Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey on the right-hand side of this blog if her comments inspire you to send her your two-bits.

Gingrich: The Employee Free Choice Act "is a mortal threat to American freedom"

2009-02-27T16:15:00.000-08:00

Once again, you simply cannot make this stuff up.

Political reporter/White House correspondent Sam Stein verifies that, yes indeed, ole' Newtie absolutely did make this absurd, ridiculous comment about the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), the latest terrorist threat to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by some members of the Republican party.

But don't take my word for it. Read it here.

Kinda makes ya wonder ... If Republicans take back Washington in 2012, or god forbid, 2010, will they reopen Gitmo and send GOP Sen. Arlen Specter there for treason, for meeting the Obama administration halfway?

Endnote: We'll be on the lookout for information to pass along to our members re the EFCA, because we're predicting that the Obama administration will be calling on us in the near future to help secure passage of this bill through Congress.

Cash-strapped communities suffer as corporations target water systems

2009-02-27T11:38:00.000-08:00

Ran across a web site today that seems very well-suited as a resource for those of us who are interested in water resources and water allocation.

From Food & Water Watch:

"A new report released today by Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., reveals that many cash-strapped communities across the country are experiencing rate hikes and a decrease in public services after selling their water and wastewater systems to private corporations. Money Down the Drain: How Private Control of Water Wastes Public Resources highlights cities and towns across the country that have sold their water systems to private companies to offset budget deficits in an increasingly unstable economy, and the negative economic and environmental impact of water privatization on those communities ..."

Read the entire press release here.

Free foreclosure workshop in Oakland

2009-02-26T21:06:00.000-08:00

When: Mar. 14th 10am-12noon
Location: Merritt College
Address:12500 Campus Drive, Oakland 94619
Contact: 510.759.2491

FREE FORECLOSURE WORKSHOP

Stop the Foreclosure Epidemic in our communities
Find out how the Recovery Package benefits you!

Saturday March 14
10am to 2pm

Merritt College, Room P 307
12500 Campus Drive, Oakland 94619

Organized by “United for Change” a grassroots group supporting
President Obama’s mission for change

PARTICIPATING PRESENTERS & SPEAKERS:

Fidelity Title Co - The role title companies play in loan modification, short sales and REO’s

Acorn Housing – Foreclosure prevention assistance

Operation Hope – Programs available to assist and educate foreclosure homeowners

Councilwoman Desley Brooks – Work being done on behalf of foreclosure victims in East Oakland

Oakland City Attorney’s Office – Tenants Rights in foreclosed properties

Refreshments served
PLEASE JOIN US!
Wheel Chair Accessible

For additional information
annemarie.stephens@gmail.com
510-759-2491

New PAC challenges Congress to side with constituents, and NOT with corporate interests

2009-02-26T11:37:00.000-08:00

Many are expressing concern over President Obama's willingness to sacrifice true reform for bipartisanship, especially when his efforts to reach across the aisle result in our giving up reform measures in pieces of legislation, while those to whom Obama is reaching out end up voting against legislation even when it includes their concessions.

Ran across a new grassroots organization that seeks to address this problem. This new PAC may help us respond productively to our giving up critical parts of the progressive position we struggled all those months during the campaign to get, when those whose support we seek are unwilling to settle for anything less than continued tax cuts for America's wealthiest, at the expense of our working middle-class.

Accountability Now PAC is a grassroots organization supported by citizens devoted to compelling real accountability in Washington and closing the gap between citizens and their elected representatives in Washington, DC.

Salon's Glenn Greenwald, Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, and others are launching a union-backed group called Accountability Now PAC to pressure Democrats from the left, including primary challenges against members of Congress.

“We’re going to be about targeting incumbents to make space for Obama to be more progressive,” said Glenn Greenwald, a blogger on the online magazine Salon who is part of the effort. “There may be other times when the Democratic Party, as led by Obama, is being unresponsive, so yeah, we have the potential to push back against that as well.”

You Are Invited to Get-to-Know-the-NoCal-Obama-Team!

2009-02-26T08:03:00.000-08:00

Date: Mar. 7th
Time: 5:30pm
Location: Lucas Taproom & Lounge, Oakland

Team Obama-

Sorry for the late notice. Oakland is on and all No Cal cities are Welcome.

Your live Hosts for the evening will be Ms. Peggy Moore and Ms. Hope Wood.

The purpose of this gathering is to actually get to know the folks you have worked with these last couple of years.

We all know each others politics, but do we know each other. For example, did you know Mitchell has a real white picket fence, and his wife Lizzie is due on March 1st, or that Laura knits to insanity and she and Chaz are coming up on their 11th Anniversary?

We know many of you are coming a long way and hope you will make the journey to Oakland. We would like to do a few of these and can rotate the location to accommodate our various teams.

So come meet some new friends and see some old ones. The only rule, no organizing! Just for one night.

Join us for some tasty beverages and great company!

And yes... we will have name tags!

We will be with you in spirit and will raise a toast our awesome team up North!

Mitchell Schwartz & Laura Velkei

PS - We have poured over our lists a several times, but if you see we missed someone, please have them send me a note so we can add them for next time and by all means, FORWARD the invite. No one is meant to be left out so please share.

In Obama's 2.24 speech: "health-care reform this year"

2009-02-25T10:25:00.000-08:00

In Obama's speech last night, he did a terrifically intelligent job of framing some key policy positions in ways that can be embraced by all Americans, and not just by progressives.

Because I have taken up the single-payer cause, I took the liberty of outlining the points he made around health-care reform, adding some of my thoughts about how we progressives might speak to health-care reform skeptics in the wake of his speech.

I hope this outline proves helpful to many of us in the upcoming months, and I also hope that others in P4C will do for energy and education what I have done here for health-care. If you do, send it along to me and I'll post it under your byline.

-- Linda Carpenter Sexauer
community organizer, P4C

The problem with current health-care system:

"crushing cost of health care"
results in a bankruptcy in America every one-minute or so (Obama's claim of a medical bankruptcy every 30 seconds is incorrect)
will potentially "cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes" ... "by the end of" 2009
health insurance "premiums have grown four times faster than wages" ... over "the last eight years"
"one million ... Americans have lost their health insurance" every year over "the last eight years"
a main causality of problem of small businesses going under
a main causality of problem of corporations outsourcing US jobs
"one of the largest and fastest-growing parts of our budget"

Therefore, current health-care system is bad for household budgets, is bad for federal budget, is bad for US business, is bad for US workers, and is unsustainable.

Immediate reaction to problem:

Delaying health-care reform is not an option, due to the seriousness of the problems (see above points) created by our current health-care system. Talking about this problem for another year while 1.5 million more Americans lose their homes due to medical debts is unacceptable.

Obama administration health-care accomplishments in last 30 days:

Health insurance for 11 million American kids with parents who work full-time.

Three main points included in Obama's economic recovery package that address current health-care problem:

investment in electronic health records & other new technology

Why is this a good investment?
reduction in medical errors
reduction in medical costs
assurance of personal privacy around medical histories/diagnoses
reduction in loss of human life

larger investment in biomedical research and cancer research/treatment

Why is this a good investment?
reduction in loss of life

largest historic investment in preventive care

Why is this a good investment?
reduction in illness
reduction in loss of life
reduction in medical costs

Framing of Obama administration's solution:

historic commitment to comprehensive health-care reform
"quality affordable health care for every American"

Note: These ideas have nothing to do with the predictable "It's socialism!" argument that'll be coming out of the right-wing media shills in the days ahead. When they run around like a bunch of Chicken Littles screaming, "It's socialism!", we say, "It's in the best interests of our nation for all of us to make a firm commitment to comprehensive health-care reform, so that all Americans have access to "quality affordable care." Don't be lured into their shark-infested "It's socialism!" waters.

Funding of solution:

Funded in part by addressing/eliminating inefficiencies in current health care delivery system. (Not in 2.24 speech, but subsequently revealed in Obama's 10-year budget outline): Proposed cost savings in Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs, savings that are predicted in part to be a result of investment in electronic health records & other new technology.
(Not in 2.24 speech, but subsequently revealed in Obama's 10-year budget outline): Proposed reductions in Bush tax cuts on households with incomes over $250,000/year; would reimpose previous tax liabilities on corporations and America's richest taxpayers. Specifically, would more strictly limit itemized deductions of taxpayers in the 35 percent bracket, who now get a bigger tax break than middle-income people. This proposed Bush-era tax cut reduction for the wealthy would result in high-income people getting the same tax break as middle-income people for claiming the same deductions or making the same charitable contributions.
(Not in 2.24 speech, but subsequently revealed in Obama's 10-year budget outline): Proposed requirement for drug companies to give bigger discounts to Medicaid. Currently, drugmakers provide a discount to Medicaid of a minimum 15.1 percent of the average manufacturer price for a brand-name product. Obama's proposal would increase Medicaid's minimum discount by drugmakers to 22.1 percent.
(Not in 2.24 speech, but subsequently revealed in Obama's 10-year budget outline): Proposed cut in Medicare payments to health insurance companies that receive private premium payments from Medicare beneficiaries for private coverage outside of Medicare. In other words, Obama wants to disallow health insurance companies from being able to receive full Medicare payments for their private premium-paying Medicare beneficiaries.

Note: The costly inefficiencies in our current health-care system have become increasingly worse despite their being increasingly controlled by free market forces over the past 40 years. The increasing control over our health-care costs by private industry is the result of deregulation of the health-care industry beginning with Nixon in the 1970s. While it would not be fair to blame all health-care cost increases on private industry, it is absolutely fair to hold them accountable for the increasing control over these costs.

Other desirable consequence of comprehensive health care-reform:

reduction in federal deficit

What fiscal conservative wouldn't like this consequence of Obama's plan for health-care reform?!

Who will participate in the decision-making process for health-care reform?

businesses
workers
doctors
health care providers
Democrats
Republicans

Health-care activist training in El Cerrito

2009-02-24T12:31:00.000-08:00

March 6-7, 2009, El Cerrito, CA

Health Care Activist Training

This training is for people who want to become informed activists for real healthcare change. It is also for people who are already activists but who want to help recruit and train more people. $5 donation but no one turned away.

When: Friday March 6th from 7:00 to 9:30 pm and Saturday March 7th from 10:00 am to 4 pm.
Where: Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito, CA 94530, Between Potrero Av. and Moeser Lane.
RSVP: 510-526-0972

Watch live health-care hearings

2009-02-24T11:59:00.000-08:00

Watch live the joint hearing in Washington, D.C. on the Massachusetts model for health-care.

This will be a rare opportunity to watch and listen to testimony from physicians, nurses, patients, labor leaders, insurance brokers, and state legislators on the failures of "Individual Mandate" policy features adopted by the Massachusetts plan, flawed features that are now being included in current discussions to overhaul our national health-care policy.

Wed. Feb. 25th 11am-1pm PST.

FYI, the current national health-care policy discussions are being held secretly in a Senate hearing room, and are being limited to participation by pharmaceutical and industry lobbyists, big labor unions, and other special interests.

Petaluma SPRING into ACTION

2009-02-24T11:18:00.000-08:00

Due to a perfect storm created by the enormous success in Petaluma of the recent National Day of Service projects, and by the ongoing critical needs of local organizations that address local poverty, needs that are increasing at alarming rates due to the current economic crisis, P4C member Sarah Gibson is organizing a local Day of Service in Petaluma, which she has named Petaluma SPRING into ACTION. When? Sat. Mar. 21st.

Complete these steps to be an event organizer/host:
Choose a need for which you would like to host a drive. For ideas, review the needs successfully addressed by the local National Day of Service projects hosted in Jan. If you click on this link, you can read a couple of blog posts about these prior events. You can also go back into our blog archives and read about them, here, here, and here.
Post your event on Organizing for America.
Let us know that you have posted an event. We will promote it among our members, and we will ask the Argus Courier to collectively promote all of P4C's events. There will be other ways we will promote these events, ways that will become increasingly clear as our awesome members, that's you!, AKA agents of change, step forward with suggestions and offerings.

Notes from P4C leadership meeting 2.23

2009-02-24T08:15:00.000-08:00

Our third steering group meeting, Mon. Feb. 23rd, was attended by four P4C members: Sarah Gibson, Linda Sexauer, Mavis Anderson, and Connie Madden. Sarah's husband, Rich, popped in for a brief period and contributed, as well. The meeting was very productive, likely in part due to its smaller attendance, which we totally attributed to the meeting time. Our previous two meetings were attended by roughly 25 and 12, respectively.

One of the reasons for posting this account is to provide all of our members the opportunity to join with others in our group in these endeavors. Be the change our community, our nation, and the world needs right now!

A huge thanks to Sarah for creating our meeting agenda! Way to go, Gibby!!!

What we discussed:

Funding -
We have decided to become a nonprofit organization. By doing so, we will be able to better fund our web site, our events, and any general expenses that come up such as flyers, copies, and postage. Rich Gibson-Lopez will oversee the 501C3 process. Linda Sexauer has a Nolo Press CDRom to loan to Rich that will hopefully expedite this process.

Web site -
Our petaluma4change.org web site is under construction. Sara B. is off to a great start with it. We anticipate that it will replace our temporary blog at blogspot.com within a month or so. We are deciding now how many years in advance we will pay to have this site.

Mission statement -
We decided that it's essential for a core group of us to make this a high priority and to schedule a meeting where we will sit down and work hard on this until it is complete. Because of our decision to set up P4C as a 501C3, our mission statement and declaration of goals must be hammered down. I will be sending out word of this meeting to our core group soon.

Guidelines for adopting issues -
We decided that this will become clear when we hammer down our mission statement and declaration of goals. This specifically pertains to how we decide our role in issues and how we make public statements.

Recruitment -
Lots of ideas, many will be put into action soon, many are already in action.
Social events
Phone bank for local membership recruitment
Facebook
Aqus

P4C Board positions -
Identifying needed positions & setting guidelines for nominations/voting is postponed until our March leadership meeting.

Issues-specific sub-groups within P4C -
Many other community organizations all up and down California that came out of the Obama campaign and that are now working together to achieve the exact same things we are achieving and attempting to achieve have set up issues-specific committees, usu. headed up by one/more individuals with an interest in that issue. We want/need to do this. Issues include things like health care, education, local poverty, civil rights, local government, the list is endless and totally depends on who steps forward with what level of willingness/eagerness to get the ball rolling on their pet issue.

Our ears are open to any of our members who would like to discuss this item further, or to begin a process of setting up an issue-specific group.

Upcoming dates -
Wed. Mar. 18th ... next steering group meeting. 7-9pm. Host: Connie Madden. 215 Water St.
Sat. Mar. 21st ... Local Petaluma Day of Service. Patterned after the recent highly successful National Day of Service in Jan. Renamed by Sarah Gibson as Petaluma Spring Cleaning Day.
Sun. Mar. 22nd-Sat. Mar. 28th ... six phone banks to recruit new P4C members, as well as to activate more fully our existing base. Info forthcoming.
Apr. ... monthly steering group meeting hosted by Janice Kearns. Info TBA.
May ... P4C social event. Initial organizing by Connie Madden. Downtown location. Open to public.

Organizing for America (OFA) -
We discussed the likelihood that the first, next ask of us by the Obama team may very well be to phone bank in an effort to build a national campaign to support passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). This bill is one of the cornerstones of the Obama/Biden platform, to bring labor back into the national discussions that determine wage rates, employer-provided benefits, which jobs are outsourced overseas, worker safety, employment discrimination, just to name a few policy areas that concern/affect all of us.

We make this prediction based on recent job postings all across the country by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to staff up the ground effort to work in legislative battleground states for this purpose. Those of you who have traveled recently to a battleground state, such as Nevada, may have noticed that the anti-EFCA effort is well-organized and functioning effectively in the media, promoting false perceptions among targeted demographics that the EFCA will erode individual rights and turn America into a communist nation. You simply can't make this stuff up! Just for kicks, read this HuffPo piece with Gingrich saying, "This bill is a mortal threat to American freedom and we will never forgive somebody who votes for cloture or for passage."

Now is a great time for all of us to take the initiative to become better-informed about this piece of legislation.

Feb. 23rd Petaluma City Council meeting -
Sarah Gibson agreed to attend this meeting with two purposes: (1) To publicly announce our upcoming Petaluma Spring Cleaning Day/Local Day of Service, and (2) To listen to and report back on the water resources report.

About P4C member Connie Madden -

Connie is very involved in Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative www.golocal.coop. Contact Connie to learn more or to become active in our local-area efforts to "build a durable local economy and take steps to reclaim our local economic power."

Our current economic situation provides a perfect time to join this effort, on whatever level suits your life. With businesses going under, how they are replaced, whether they be with entities like WalMart or with entities that chart a course back to building local economic power, will be our local legacy to future generations of Petalumans.

Contact info:
conniemadden@yahoo.com
707.781.9311 (c) 364.7627

Endnote: We threw this summary together in about 30 minutes, so judge its transcription accordingly, por favor! Suggestions on improving this communication? Send 'em in!

Petaluma SPRING into ACTION: LOCAL DAY OF SERVICE

2009-02-23T20:42:00.001-08:00

Hey P4C friends. . . looking for the next way to stay involved and active here in our community?
Well get ready to roll up your sleeves and pitch in with a LOCAL SERVICE PROJECT on Saturday March 21st.

P4C is sponsoring a day of service right here in our City thanks in great part to the overwhelming generousity and response from the National Day of Service on MLK Day in January. We have every expectation that our local day of service will be a sensation and hold high hopes that we can make it an annual event.

Keep checking online with us for a listing of projects in which you can be a part.

Got an idea for a project?? GREAT! Let us know by sending us an email and we will help you organize and run your service project!

Supportive words from a P4C member

2009-02-21T09:32:00.000-08:00

We received the following message this morning from one of our members who's been involved for awhile now and who is hanging in there with our group while we transition from a long campaign to an even longer period of legislative change:

Just a quick note on a Saturday morning to let you and all the folks working so hard on this website and other activities, that I truly appreciate your efforts. You make it possible for many more of us to stay more informed and to do "at least something."

Thanks,

Here is our response to this support:

We can't tell you how good it feels to get an e-mail like yours. Thank-you so much. We're going to share it with the others in our core group who are working so hard to keep everyone engaged meaningfully.

We have a terrific group in Petaluma. Only a very small handful have dropped out, and those drop-outs were predictable. They were either those who got involved right at the very end of the campaign, who seemed to be interested because they wanted to see what was going on and to be able to tell others they participated in it, or those who complained during the process that things weren't going as they thought they should be.

Thanks again. Very, very soon, the Obama administration is going to have specific legislative tasks for us, to get the change we all voted for through Congress. This kind of work is not as glamorous or as sexy as the work to elect a "hero," but it is way more meaningful.

We have to keep reminding one another why we worked so hard for the 2008 presidential campaign. We didn't do it out of hero-worship, out of some sense that some dude (or dude-ette) was going to ride into the White House and save us from the mess America finds itself in at this moment in our history. We did it out of a belief that we could bring about change with the right person as our President.

We so greatly admire all of our friends, neighbors, co-workers, and even strangers who remain committed to this arduous civic project we are all a part of. Petalumans4Change, you/we rock!

Get the facts on Dutra's latest ad in the Argus Courier

2009-02-20T10:47:00.000-08:00

We note that the Dutra Group has paid for yet another full-page ad in the Argus Courier, boldly making many claims on p. C8 of the Feb. 19th issue that simply do not stand up to scrutiny.

Rebuttal from Friends of Shollenberger Park

Dutra's claim: The proposed asphalt plant and barge offloading facility is nothing more than a "relocation" of its previous operations.
Fact: "Haystack Landing is a new large plant. Dutra's temporary small operation was shut down Nov. 1, 2007 by Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) for operating without a permit and failing to meet Best Available Control Technology."

Dutra's claim: "The new location is in an industrial area ..."
Fact: "The Haystack Landing parcels would have to be rezoned from commercial to 'industrial' to accommodate the plant, with amendments to the recently adopted Sonoma County General Plan."

Dutra's claim: "[The Dutra Haystack Landing Project] is subject to more than 140 conditions ... that will ensure protection of air quality, the ecology of the Petaluma River, aesthetics and the environment."
Fact: "Dutra has a record of non-compliance in Petaluma and in Marin Co. (See Marin Co. Grand Jury Report.) BAAQMD has issued numerous violations to Dutra in Petaluma for noxious emissions.
Two 70-ft. storage silos and a large industrial plant would greet visitors to Sonoma Co. and Shollenberger Park. They would create a negative, stunning sight adjacent to the view corridor protected by Measure D in 1998 by a super-majority of Sonoma Co.'s voters, as well as across from Shollenberger Park."

Dutra's claim: "Normal operating hours will be Monday through Friday from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM."
Fact: "Use Permit allows 24/7 operations for Cal Trans and other government projects, their target customers. They will operate 24/7."

Dutra's claim: "Emissions from the plant will be contained ..."
Fact: "Fugitive blue gases outside the plant (carcinogenic PAHs) will enter the air from trucks loaded with hot asphalt. It is easy to say emissions will be contained. The risks to the public are too great and Dutra's record of noncompliance is of great concern. Diesel exhaust from trucks, loading every three minutes, all day long, is a health hazard to nearby residents, visiting schoolchildren at Shollenberger Park, and wildlife."

Dutra's claim: "[The Dutra Haystack Landing Project] includes over 19 acres of restored wetlands and habitat that will remain as open space."
Fact: "These so-called wetlands would contain toxic water: runoff from dust control and the operation. Open stacks of aggregate and crushing of rock and recycled asphalt create toxic dust."

Dutra's claim: "Noise from operations will also be contained ..."
Fact: "The EIR states that noise levels to sensitive receptors (people) using Shollenberger are unacceptable and cannot be mitigated. As loud as a rock concert (112 decibels)."

Check out Save Shollenberger Park for links to documents supporting this rebuttal.

Click on this link for a tool box of action items for you to use to be productively involved in this effort.

Read how our County Supervisor Mike Kerns sold us down the river on this one.

Petaluma's water resources director to give water outlook report to City Council

2009-02-20T09:55:00.000-08:00

We notice in the Feb. 19th Argus Courier that on Mon. Feb. 23rd, Mike Ban, Petaluma's director of water resources, will give a report to our City Council on our city's upcoming water outlook. With cutbacks forecasted to be between 30% and 50% this summer, now is the time to weigh in on this issue with our City Council members.

What you can do:

Attend Monday's City Council meeting. Mr. Ban is scheduled to present his report at 7pm. Listen to what is said, and provide your own public comment. City Hall, 11 English St.
Write a letter to our City Council members. Links to get their e-mail addresses located on the right-hand side of this blog. Read one of the letters already sent. At the end of the letter, you will find the responses by councilmembers received so far. All have responded positively to it.
Ask your friends and neighbors to attend Monday's meeting, and/or to send their own e-mail.

Now is when we need to let our public officials know how we feel about this important issue that will affect all of us especially during the upcoming summer months.

From Torliatt:

The City of Petaluma purchases its water from the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) which is the Board of Supervisors. The Sonoma County Water Agency delivered 58,000 acre feet of water last year to the 10 contractors including the City of Petaluma. SCWA is proposing to only deliver 45,000 acre feet this year. The City of Petaluma does not really have a choice when the Agency reduces the amount of water consumed. Petaluma is working with the other contractors to increase the amount of water up to the 58,000 acre feet again this year.

Let's do all we can to make sure that whatever water rationing program is handed down for us to follow is one that addresses effectively those who are using more than others by choice, and not out of any real need during a critical drought season. Otherwise, those of us who currently practice strict water conservation practices may find ourselves in a situation where we are forced to give up safe hygienic practices in our homes, while those who do not currently practice these strict measures are required to give up their private pools.

Stop the outrageous and irresponsible obstructionist behavior of the CA GOP!

2009-02-18T17:11:00.001-08:00

Looking for one really quick action to take to shake the California state budget impasse? Do this.

And if you're looking for more to do, go to the front page of Community Organize and read Marta's post about the hostage crisis in Sacramento and what we can do to stop it.

Reinforcing CHANGE. . . .

2009-02-16T19:39:00.000-08:00

NOW is the time that we make sure we are enforcing the values which we HOPE will dominate our Government and our Country. Sure, there may be plenty left for us to work on towards the path to CHANGE, but how about these simple action items you could complete in five minutes of your day that promote some of the positive steps made right here in our county:

1. EMAIL the PETALUMA CITY COUNCIL and tell them Thank You for SUPPORTING the FIGHT AGAINST DUTRA.

2. EMAIL SHIRLEY ZANE and thank her for VOTING AGAINST the General Plan ammendments made for the Dutra Asphalt Plant.

3. Send Second District Supervisor MIKE KERNS a photo of your favorite local bird, flower, or animal which calls Shollenberger Park or our local Riverways home. Remind him that he still has the time to CHANGE HIS VOTE in support of the Dutra Asphalt Plant.

4. Learn how our local voting process works at an informational lecture this week! Sign up here.

Our positive actions will help this next Administration find the courage to continue to create the CHANGE we need .

HOPE WON!

Local Petaluma forum on homelessness in Sonoma County

2009-02-12T13:53:00.000-08:00

John Records, the Executive Director of Committee on the Shelterless in Petaluma, will discuss homelessness in Sonoma County and social action, the current state budget and our new Democratic presidential agenda. Please come and get informed about what this vital organization is doing in our area and learn about opportunities for involvement.

Click on this link for more event info.

For more information, please email raven@pon.net. This event is hosted by the Democratic Club of Southern Sonoma County.

National Call-In Day for single-payer health-care

2009-02-12T08:14:00.000-08:00

Today, Thu. Feb. 12th, is the third National Call-In Day to support single-payer health-care, HR676. This event is organized by Healthcare-Now!, not to be confused with Health Care for America Now, an organization which supports incremental reform that would leave insurance companies in control of the system.

And btw, did you read where Blue Cross is raising premiums beginning Mar. by a whopping 31% on 80% of its individual policy-holders. This comes right on the heels of their agreeing to pay $1 million for wrongfully rescinding insurance for 2,330 patients after bills were submitted for them for expensive care, and after having to pay $10 million last summer.

A personal account from a P4C member re one of the two Feb. 8th economic recovery house parties in Petaluma

2009-02-11T10:32:00.000-08:00

From Ted & Anne-Marie Nordquist. Ted & Anne-Marie open with a personal message about their impressions of the meeting, and then outline the ideas that came out of it:

Summation of Our Meeting:

[We] deeply appreciate [Helaine] holding this meeting ... The following is my attempt to summarize our meeting and an attempt to encompass some of the ideas that were discussed:

1.We were impressed with the concern that all seem to have regarding education, community services such as firemen and police, and programs for the needy. It appears that everyone at the meeting felt that our government (our tax money) should be spent immediately to support existing employment rather than laying off employees in these areas. There are existing programs connected to improving the environment that employ youth that will help these youth toward employment opportunities in the future. Cutting these programs now will put these youth back on the streets and most likely increase the already growing crime rates.

2. Develop "child care" centers, day care and after school activity centers to help single parents and youth. This is an investment in future generations. There are already local boys and girls clubs that "if supported" can serve many more youth.

3. Extending unemployment insurance to the unemployed is a priority, but there are many unemployed who are victims of these times that are not on this list. The government must initiate programs to help these people also!

4. All seemed to agree that our government programs (tax money) must be spent without any discrimination for ethnicity/ race, religion, sexual preferences or physical handicaps. We must move towards a society that truly invests in fairness and distribution of our natural resources for all. It is time to end the corporate greed that has taken hold of our national and international markets. Corporate law that allows corporations to exploit employees throughout the world for the limited gain of shareholders must be regulated. Hiding behind "free market values" at the expense of "human dignity and fairness" must be addressed.

5. The banks are not helping the common citizen with home, car or business loans. We wonder why the banks (with our tax money) are charging high interest rates on loans when the federal interest rate is close to zero? The government should force a special loan program through the local banks that are tied to low interest rates when these loans are applied to energy efficient housing, cars and business.

6. Although the Obama campaign is tied to communications via the internet, email, etc., there are many American Citizens who do not have access to this technology and do not use this technology. How are you going to reach them? How do you include them in your communications and informational feedback?

7. It was pointed out that California already has senators "on track" and supportive of your recovery package. However, there are many "Red" communities that need to be reached. It was suggested that we all contact our governors, mayors, city council members and legislators and let them know that we support this recovery plan and also look forward to considerable change in how our resources are allocated going forward.

8. Just a note, although I am very supportive of the Obama Administration I am not a member of the Democratic Party. I am a member of the Green Party. I hope that you include all political parties, Green, Independent, Socialist, and Republican in your gathering of information. I would also strongly recommend that you contact indigenous tribal representatives still living on this land to get their opinions and ideas. Many of these ideas and values are much more "sustainable" than those we have developed from our European cultural values. After all, "we" are the ones destroying the earth, streams, rivers and oceans, not the indigenous people we supplanted.

9. Finally, this was not discussed in our meeting but I want to throw it out anyway. Europe experienced enormous "immigration" issues with many southern European citizens migrating to wealthier northern European countries. Europe finally formed a "European Union" where residence and work permits are open to all within the EU countries. Eventually, Canada, the USA, Mexico and South America will need to form such a union. It is just a matter of time. We should begin planning immigration laws, work permits and residence regulations towards this eventual Union to avoid excessive waste in the future. Building a Berlin wall between the USA and Mexico is such a waste of time and money.

Sincerely,

Ted & Anne-Marie Nordquist

Look what these citizens did while we were having house parties!

2009-02-10T17:24:00.000-08:00

I just found a very heartening video of hundreds of homeowners rallying in matching "Stop the Loan Sharks!" t-shirts, carrying posters, outside the Connecticut McMansions of some of the bankers who fleeced mainstream America and who are now complaining that they can't live off of $500,000/yr. provided to them compliments of us taxpayers.

Click on this link to go to NBC New York News, and then click on the video that's on the lower left-hand side of your screen. Those marchers could be any one of us!

Be sure to click on the slideshow that's just below the video for a roll call of the sheisters who made off with all the subprime mortgage booty and who now are struggling to pay their nannies, chauffers, and groundskeepers, without tapping into their offshore accounts made possible by lax financial regulations during the Bush administration.

Looks like the foxes are about to be evicted from the hen house!

CEO bailouts or aid to working middle-class homeowners?

2009-02-10T12:52:00.000-08:00

This video is especially poignant after reading Lynn Woolsey's letter to Pelosi and the Appropriations Committee about Senate cuts to Obama's economic stimulus bill, including cuts to zero out $2.25 billion in aid to states and localities to stabilize home abandonments/foreclosures.

To those of us who don't think this foreclosure crisis affects us, think again. Every time someone loses their home in this bank-created fiasco, the home values for every homeowner in America go down. Just because you haven't lost your home in this greed-frenzy doesn't mean you're not losing equity/wealth you have spent years of hard work earning.

While CEO's are screaming about their salaries being capped at $500,000, and corporate America is claiming that CEO salary-capping will discourage America's best and brightest from continuing to do the "terrific jobs" they've been doing these last few decades for American business, GOP Senators are engaging in Capitol Hill histrionics about the "pork" in the stimulus package. Apparently, salary assistance for hedge fund managers will pull us out of this recession, while financial aid for communities to address home foreclosures is "pork."

Lynn Woolsey is listening to her progressive base!

2009-02-10T11:52:00.000-08:00

Read Congresswoman Woolsey's letter to Pelosi and the Appropriations Committee, in response to the Senate's beheading of Obama's American Recovery & Reinvestment Bill's funding for "green" technology, veterans, sustaining prevailing wages, school construction, early childhood education programs, state and local government financial asistance, the housing crisis created by our banking system, preventive health-care, and providing health-coverage for laid-off workers.

There's a link on the right-hand side of this blog if you care enough about this letter to send our US representative an e-mail.

A personal account from a P4C member re one of the two Feb. 8th economic recovery house parties in Petaluma

2009-02-10T10:06:00.000-08:00

From Lee Strauss. Lee opens with a personal message about her impressions of the meeting, and then outlines the ideas that came out of it:

At the Dorenfeld's yesterday, we all agreed to submit a summary of the discussion. The bulk of it was the background and problems of the participants and each one''s current concurrence or displeasure with the state of the stimulus package.

Bottom line...there was no agreement of any type of action that we as a group or individuals could undertake.

There were several good suggestions presented that could be acted upon (beyond the philosophies that we all talk about).

To list a few: (and not in order of importance or preference)

1. Consumer Affairs Dept. (in D.C.) oversee a rebate program on large tickets items i.e. washers, dryers, refrigerators, water heaters, furnaces ETC. to stimulate purchases for persons with a definite NEED, but not the available finances to make the purchases.

2. Require large businesses to bring outsourced services back to US and hire locally.

3. Explore the first-hand knowledge with Ted Nordquist, CEO of a corporation in Sweden (American Citizen) who is intimately familiar with incentive programs, to save natural resources. I have his contact information.

4. Organize local volunteer projects to help the local economy (ie food for animal shelters, goods and services for persons who are no longer independent (newly unemployed) ETC, ETC, ETC.,

5. Talk to Betty Ann Bruno, retired Broadcast Journalist, about getting media coverage for the various projects. (She was at the meeting and very knowledgeable.)

I believe that if a meeting was announced and an agenda included that addresses how to start and manage these projects (amongst others), it would result in action. The people on the attendance list should be notified so that they feel that their participation is valued and needed. That's what gets and keeps volunteers!

Lee Strauss

A personal account from a P4C member re one of the two Feb. 8th economic recovery house parties in Petaluma

2009-02-10T09:18:00.000-08:00

From Elaine Larson. Elaine opens with a personal message about her impressions of the meeting, and then outlines the ideas that came out of it:

Hi All.

Yesterday, after an incredible Mystery School weekend, I went to a local house meeting about the Economic Recovery Plan. There were 12 in attendance who, except for couples, had not met before. We watched the videos and then discussed ideas we had. It was a great experience and a summary of our ideas is below.

One idea that was left out is that US car makers have overseas operations that build small, fuel-efficient cars for other countries. Why can't those be made for the US market asap?

I bought my last new car in 1976. After that I made a vow that I would not buy another new car until I could buy one that got at least 100 mpg and was totally non-polluting. That was 33 years ago and the technologies were available then; I was disgusted that major auto makers were paying enormous sums to inventors so they could keep the technologies from coming to market.

It is a wonderful experience to meet other locals who want humans to survive as a species on the planet and who want the US to be in the forefront of creating solutions to make that possible.

Namaste,
Elaine

Ideas from 301 6^th St. Petaluma Meeting:

February 8^th, 2009

· Make a commitment to advocate among our community about the need for Recovery Plan to friends and neighbors- demonstrate our support for the Recovery Plan

· Donate our tax relief for projects and services that are being cut and are important to us

· ? Tax cuts do they make sense? Isn't that what has gotten us to where we are today?

· Moody's grade report for best spending says it is in aid- -unemployment, food stamps; health insurance etc.

· Long term tax cuts- allow people to create business plans that create for which they can get a loan.

· Credit? For business that hire people? That feels like a tough sell? Couldn't we create stimulus (reward) for hiring?

· Universal Health care-that could be a big boon for the country

· Infrastructure projects need to be shovel ready (ready to go)

· I'd like to see more manufacturing built in the US- but not to use protective tariffs- and not initiate a global trade wars. What can we do about it? How can we rebuild the manufacturing industries in the US?

· Are we addressing the mega watts issue? California uses a third less energy than other states because we conserve energy. - How can we help spur renewable energy across the nation?

· We need a whole different way of thinking than what we've had

· What is a healthy economy anyway? What does it look like? We need to ask ourselves this question in a new way. This is an important questions to ask ourselves as we embark on the biggest spending package we've ever seen

· Parks and the arts-don't appear to be in this package and they are both key to building a healthy community and economy.

· Can we insure that new technology in building materials are used in the infrastructure projects- i.e. concrete and asphalt that do not rely solely on petrochemicals etc. .are used in the infrastructure projects that are on the docket

· I want to weigh in to the admin – and those who are working on how to influence the choices are made so that we move ourselves toward a more sustainable economy.

· Can we get a list of what is being proposed to be spent on Infrastructure projects locally? Call Lynne Woolsey? We might be able to influence choices that will be made.

· Can we influence?

--
Elaine Larson

It's about time our press exposes the stupidity of the comments in opposition to the stimulus package!

2009-02-08T09:25:00.001-08:00

In an op-ed today, the WaPo's Steven Perlstein really lays into the economics-ignorant rantings coming out of Capitol Hill and their minions in the right-wing press who are out railing against President Obama's American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan. Last week, in an NPR news spot, I was really struck by the jaw-droppingly stupid comments about the part of the stimulus package that Obama wants to use to purchase hybrid vehicles for official use by our government workers. Listening to our basic economics-challenged legislators strut and crow that this is wasteful pork is almost unbearable.

Good gosh almighty. In all their legislative glory, they are unable to see how this would stimulate that part of the auto industry that needs to be stimulated right now. I can't think of a better way for our tax money to be used to set a new standard in auto purchases by US consumers, to jump-start greater research into the new technology that will get us off the oil that's contributing so greatly toward global climate change, and that will have a relatively immediate impact on reducing our overall consumption of foreign oil, a consumption that everyone knows fuels global jihadist terrorism.

Listening to these clowns and their economic proclamations reminds me of the first week I spent in Calculus 301 at the University of Florida 35 years ago, before the drop/add process weeded out the dozen or so students who really weren't up to the level of math discussion, and who insisted that the problem was with the instructor's inability to set the lectures at their level of comprehension, rather than at the level that was needed to move forward with the course.

Not only does this op-ed do a good job outlining their specious arguments, it's entertaining to boot. And it goes a long way towards making all of us realize what a difficult task lies ahead for President Obama, the task of overcoming the ignorance of those elected to national office by constituents raised and nurtured on right-wing teevee and radio.

Let's all say a prayer for President O, to give him the strength and patience to deal with these numbskulls without making them look like total idiots.

TARP oversight panel chair Elizabeth Warren on The Rachel Maddow Show

2009-02-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

Be one of a very small handful of Americans who watch this video clip about accountability for the public hand-out already given to our banks by Bush/Paulson, and the upcoming one they hope to get from Obama's economic stimulus package, the one that Obama/Geithner is now asking us to support. This is a must-see before attending one of those economic recovery house parties on Sun. Feb. 8th.

Are we listening? Demand transparency, accountability, a coherent story about what's going on. Let's make sure the economic stimulus bill we get is good for our economy and for our families, and not just good for special interests, like the banks.

Sen. Feinstein has her Intelligence Committee mojo up-and-running!

2009-02-07T10:58:00.000-08:00

Sen. Dianne Feinstein ... wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday to urge him to look into the improper concealment of the permanent placement of two former Bushies within the Department of Defense.

This is a terrific opportunity for us to thank our senior US Senator for working to prevent the burrowing of Bush appointees into permanent career positions where they would be involved in sensitive political debates over Gitmo. It almost, but not quite, makes up for her Aug. 2007 vote to support the FISA bill that undid the warrantless surveillance restrictions placed on our executive branch and its political appointees, and that disallows America from prosecuting the Bush administration for its retroactive breaking of this federal law.

Send her a thank-you note! Links to send an e-mail to Dianne Feinstein on the right-hand side of this page. I sent her a note, and it only took me 30 seconds!

Obama's weekly address

2009-02-07T08:08:00.000-08:00

This is a must-watch for those of us participating in this weekend's economic recovery house parties. P4C member Helaine Dorenfeld's event is full, but as of this writing, Robert Hudson still has three spots available for you to sign up for:

And if you're so inclined to travel with a small group of us to Oakland on Sunday for the Community Organize Bay Area meeting hosted by Pam Coukos, you can sign up here. Let me know if you want to carpool with others. I can probably help you out.

Linda Carpenter Sexauer

Mike Lux: The Progressive Revolution

2009-02-06T10:58:00.000-08:00

"The progressive activist base is always going to want more, and they should."

Obama's speech about the economy before this weekend's grassroots efforts to help him get his stimulus package passed

2009-02-06T08:57:00.000-08:00

Please take the less-than-10-minutes it takes to watch President Obama speak on Feb. 5th before House Democrats about his economic stimulus plan:

You can go here to watch a four-minute MSNBC video clip from his speech, and to read his speech in its entirety.

"This isn't some abstract debate."

Time to rev up our "Yes We Can" mojo!

2009-02-04T11:56:00.000-08:00

There is an organized right wing fringe campaign to stop Obama's economic stimulus. Despite thousands of phone calls that mainstream Americans (Yes! We're in that group!) have made to our US Senators since Tue. Feb. 3rd, insisting on passage of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan, Rush Limbaugh's playing ideological political games with his right wing radio fan club base, and their calls are outnumbering ours 100 to 1. As a result, our US Senators are getting the false impression that America does not support Obama's economic stimulus package when, indeed, we do!

What can you do?

(1) Visit the front page of Community Organize for a toolbox to use to take action. Choose for yourself which actions you support, and support them.

(2) Sign up for and attend one of the following events on Sunday:

P4C member Helaine Dorenfeld's economic recovery house meeting in Petaluma

Pam Coukos' Community Organize Bay Area meeting in Oakland

Robert Hudson's economic recovery house meeting in Petaluma

Mr. Dutra...will you respect me in the morning?

2009-02-03T21:39:00.001-08:00

This is a first-hand account, by P4C member Sarah Gibson, following the Sonoma County Board of Supes meeting on Feb. 3rd that decided whether the Dutra asphalt plant proposal will receive a higher prioritization than Shollenberger Park and Petaluma's water and air environment:

When I pulled into the Santa Rosa Courthouse parking lots today, I could not easily find a single parking spot ... and for very good reason. The lots were filled to the brim by opponents to the Dutra Plant.

In front of the Supervisor's Chambers, I found the cutest protest line one could ever hope to chance upon: rows upon rows of children and moms holding hand-made signs reading "Save Shollenberger Park" and "I love wild birds"... the sight brought a sincere smile to my face.

Inside the hallways of the chambers, my smile quickly faded. Rows of metal fold-up chairs were filled intermittently with constituents wearing flourescent green "YES" stickers on their plaid collar work shirts, intermixed with rows of citizens wearing "No Dutra Asphalt" badges upon work-out wear and suits.

The open General Public Comment period began somewhere around 3pm. In the meantime, we stood in line against the walls of the chamber, hoping to get our voices heard by the Supervisors. High-heel pain was no longer an excuse to quit at this point. I was committed!

As it turned out, there was an astonishing number of people there to be heard in opposition to the Dutra Plant. Intermixed with the anti-Dutra crowd were the well-appointed "YES"-to-Dutra people, who consisted mostly of the North Bay Construction Management Co., Ghillotti Construction, and the random construction employee in search of a job. The one surprising exception to this was one Mr. Dolcini from Liberty Road.

Mr. Dolcini felt it important to point out that the "mere 3,000" signatures collected by the opposition movement were "only 2 %" of the population of Petaluma. He also felt further inclined to add that this number adds up to only 1.5 signatures per person/pothole in Sonoma County.

Unfortunately, Mr. Dolcini only did retrospective math .... not prospective. As things turn out, we're staring down 8,400 signatures AGAINST Dutra's proposed plans per year at our current rate. And here's one of a few important facts to ponder at bedtime ...

WHY would the Board of Supervisors amend the current General Plan to allow permanent structures within a flood plain when part LU-7 of the General Plan clearly spells out in no uncertain terms, "NOT TO AMEND THE GENERAL PLAN TO ALLOW PERMANENT LIMITED INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS ON A FLOOD PLAIN"??

Perhaps every sentiment in the room, without going into every detail, was described by a sweet silver-haired lady, who couldn't quite understand how she could find herself and her favorite park suddenly the object of an overnight industrial disaster, and who asked quite clearly to the hushed room, " Mr. Dutra ... will you still respect me in the morning?"

Her stunning message was loudly awash in metaphor -- shouting out to the Board of Supervisors as only a sweet lady of experience could, spelling out in a web of words, " Watch out, because we're all about to get (bleeped) by Dutra".

Obama asks us, the volunteers who worked so hard for so long to get him elected, to stump for his economic stimulus package

2009-02-03T07:40:00.000-08:00

From today's SFChron, by Chron political writer Carla Marinucci:

... [Obama] is on the stump in the virtual world, heading what political and tech experts say represents Act II of the groundbreaking, tech-savvy political organizing effort that helped take him to the White House ...

"I need your help to spread the word and build support," Obama told [his netroots supporters] Monday, urging Americans to lobby their legislators on behalf of the package.

... He is also urging them to host house parties and events to help spread the word. The parties will be held Friday through Sunday, and supporters will be able to visit an Internet site that arms them with the ammunition they need to make Obama's case: downloadable reports, statistics, talking points and state-specific information.

Read the whole shebang here.

Watch Obama tell Americans why he wants our support in a series of TV interviews Tue. evening Feb. 3rd:

A personal message re Dutra Asphalt Plant

2009-02-02T12:31:00.000-08:00

From P4C member Connie Madden:

Honorable Sonoma County Board of Supervisors:

I am Connie Madden, author, Petaluma360.com blogger and activist living in Petaluma - and I very strongly oppose the request of Dutra Materials to locate an asphalt plant at Petaluma's gateway on 101 South and just exactly across from our most popular walking trails - a real tourist draw - Shollenberger Park and bird sanctuary.

If Dutra could somehow convince me they would truly enclose this new plant and operate during the day, that could possibly be a mitigation - but we know they have not kept their side of the bargain at their site in San Rafael (operating 24/7, building docks and other structures without permits, noise and air pollution). Their record is not at all good at that facility.

As you know, Petaluma is a major tourist destination in our County and that draw is greatly enhanced by the presence of Shollenberger and its extended wetlands, just now coming into use! Birding enthusiasts come from all over to share the experiece of spotting the hundreds of varieties of migratory birds that depend on this place for nesting, for resting en route.

This is a very beautiful park, treasured by so many. Our Rowing Club Regatta draws 600 participants each year - but this plant would end that by blocking the River so the Regatta could not take place. One wonders if OTHER boats could get past the huge barge Dutra intends to dock in a narrow part of the River as well!

The idea of placing two huge smoke stacks right alongside the freeway as our gateway view is, as Council member Mike Healy said, disheartening! Let alone the likely presence of additional pollution making its way into the park and into residential neighborhoods.

As you will hear, former Petaluma Council member, David Keller, and Friends of the Petaluma River Director, David Yearsley, were invited to view Dutra's "state of the art" facility in LA and found to their dismay BLUE SMOKE PLUMES exiting the "state of the art" plant - and more of same rising from trucks that were supposed to be covered with tarpulins but were not. Yuck!

It just doesn't make business sense to insult the eyes, ears and nose of people coming to Petaluma for a get-away, business trip, trip to Sonoma's wonderful wine country - by first offering them a view of smoke stacks, smell of asphalt, noise of the very loud plant.

If there is any way of convincing Dutra to move this plant further from our bird sanctuary or at least demanding any facility be fully enclosed - and regulations honored - we might still be able to add this asphalt plant to our landscape. But Dutra's record is not good - and we have managed for 150 years without an asphalt plant at the gateway to our postcard pretty River City. At this time, I would deny their request!

Thank you for your consideration.

Yours, Connie Madden
Petaluma360.com

Economic recovery house meeting in Petaluma

2009-02-01T16:13:00.000-08:00

P4C member Helaine Dorenfeld is hosting an economic recovery house meeting in her home.

Event details:

Sun. Feb. 8th 2-3pm
Helaine Dorenfeld's home
521 Larch Drive
Petaluma 94952
763.8140
Sign up to attend.

Mayor Torliatt and Councilmembers Glass and Barrett attend Shollenberger Park FUNdraiser!

2009-01-31T23:46:00.000-08:00

Well over one hundred guests filled the downtown SAVE SHOLLENBERGER Headquarters Saturday evening to listen to music, enjoy food, and share art depicting the inhabitants and landscapes of Shollenberger. Band "Gabby La La" opened the evening as the Petaluma Mothers Club, Petaluma Rowers, local residents, biologists, bird watchers, and organizers socialized:

P4C member Joan Cooper spoke on the current efforts for petition signing and fundraising, while Petaluma Mayor Pam Torliatt offered again the support of the Petaluma City Council:

A P4C member returns from DC fired-up & ready-to-go!

2009-01-30T13:15:00.000-08:00

P4C member Linda Sandoval is back in town from her trip to Washington, D.C. for the inauguration. "How was your trip?! Are you ready to change the world?"

Here's Linda's response:

Totally an adventure! The most memorable part was meeting the many people from all parts of the country/world (Switzerland, Canada, etc) who came just for the inauguration! Cuban family from Miami, Trinidad -descent family driving from Florida, picking up a "Grand" Aunt in Georgia, 3 generation family driving through the night from Chicago, etc.

We were able to see the concert(HBO) on Sunday, did get to the Mall on Tuesday, all went well. Saw many personalities, including taking a picture with Al Franken, and even though it was very cold and lots of crowds, the people were extremely friendly and not one incident with 1.8 million people descending on D.C. Already planning on going again in 2013!

I am very inspired to "Be the Change", going to volunteer more, extend a hand more, etc. The experience was something I will never forget.

P4C gets first third-party mention in local newspaper

2009-01-30T11:01:00.000-08:00

OK, so it's not totally third-party, because we were mentioned by one of our members, Bonnie Allen, in her letter to the editor in the Argus-Courier on Thu., Jan. 29th. But hey, I still think it counts as our first press mention.

Read our commentary on the inaugural bash at the Phoenix.

A message from Organizing for America

2009-01-30T10:35:00.000-08:00

Host an economic recovery house meeting.

If you decide to do this, be sure to let me know, so that I can post information about your event at this blog, as well as send out information about it to our P4C group e-mail list.

Are you still unclear about what Organizing for America is all about? Get up-to-speed by watching this video.

Linda Carpenter Sexauer
community organizer, P4C

An open letter from Friends of Shollenberger Park

2009-01-30T10:29:00.000-08:00

Dear fellow friends of Shollenberger Park,

We want to sincerely thank you for your support and your assistance in this campaign to save one of the most unique environmental treasures in California. The response to this cause has been phenomenal and we are confident that with several more days of tireless awareness-raising and constant communication to the County Supervisors we can convince this board that Dutra's proposed Asphalt plant at Haystack Landing is the Wrong Plant and the Wrong Place! ...

... Also let's not forget who is going to decide our future. The five members of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors hold the fate of Shollenberger Park and our clean air in their hands ...

Read the entire letter here.

A personal message re Petaluma City Council meeting & Dutra Asphalt Plant

2009-01-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

P4C member Joan Cooper speaking at a Petaluma City Council meeting to protect Shollenberger Park from the Dutra asphalt plant:

More videos of Petaluma citizens speaking out on behalf of the fragile wetlands environment protected by Shollenberger Park can be viewed here.

After attending the City Council meeting on Mon. Jan. 26th, a meeting which lasted until 11:30pm due to public discussion of this issue, here's what Joan had to write:

Our community's finest hour(s): We stand united against the Dutra asphalt plant proposal

From 9 PM to well past 11 PM, the Petaluma City Council heard testimony from regular citizens, technical experts, naturalists, rowers, teachers and docents, environmentalists and birders – all raising their voices to defend and protect the health, education, economic viability of Petaluma. It’s unanimous – the Dutra Asphalt Plant located at Haystack Landing is a bad idea. It’s a legal battle waiting to happen. Our Council asked for additions and comments on the strong letter they are sending, signed by all seven members, urging the Sonoma County Supervisors to deny Dutra a Use Permit to operate this huge Asphalt Plant at the gateway to Petaluma and the entire county.

When was the last time our Council spoke with one voice? This is serious - this plant would impact our health and viability as a community and it seems like we can’t control our own fate. But we can! Yes we can!

One speaker recalled that Petaluma has a history of leadership in environmental progress, that our former Mayor, Helen Putnam took our zero growth quest all the way to the Supreme Court. Joan Cooper, Friends of Shollenberger Park member said: “There’s a new wind blowing, now that President Obama has been inaugurated, and this wind doesn’t have cancer causing PAHs in it.”

Although counties all over the US are looking hungrily towards “Obama money” coming down the pike for their infrastructure projects, would President Obama be happy to hear this money is being used to pollute and degrade open space, go against the will of the community, and invest in old polluting technology with greedy, questionable owners?

Teachers and Docents spoke about the thousands of children who learn about nature and science with Shollenberger as their natural laboratory. These children would be at risk with polluting Path’s and diesel exhaust pumping out of Dutra’s site across the rive. A chemist spoke about the stupidity of placing a plant with these toxic by-product across from public open space. “It would be as stupid as taking a tube from the exhaust pipe of your truck and sticking its other end into the cab.”

A father talked about Shollenberger as a place where parents go for respite, quietude, and for those who believe a sense of God. Chief Docent of Shollenberger Park and Heron and Egret Colony Official Observer, Bob Dyer spoke about the impact of loud noise, lights, truck on the viable and growing nesting place of these birds in the trees on site.” Egrets and Herons choose their nesting place,” he said and if disturbed they will choose to leave. David Keller, Friends of the River spoke about the underestimation of the toxic air and water quality impacts of the plant. He warned that Dutra Co. will say that their proposed plant will be safe, and these impacts mitigated, but actual observation of a working plant in Irvine by Keller, showed how toxic, unfiltered and unsupervised the release of PAHs (Blue smoke and particulates were as trucks entered the so called negative out flow tunnel and how intense the diesel exhausts of trucks lining up to pick up loads of hot asphalt was in the surrounding area.

Most bone-chilling was the testimony of a San Pedro Road Alliance member, who detailed the decades long struggle against Durra Co.s practices at their quarry site in Marin Co. The subject of a Marin Co. Grand Jury Investigation, Dutra ‘has failed to comply with court orders to modify their hours of operation and has made the neighbors and homeowners’ lives a nightmare of blasting, diesel truck traffic, and lawsuits to protect themselves from this company’s activities. He warned the Council of Dutra’s tactics of delay, failure to produce documents that detail their operations, deep pockets. “You are just at the beginning!”

Citizens urged the Council “to put some teeth, preferably canines” onto their letter to the County Supervisors and to meet with them personally to carry the voice of the Petaluma Community to their ears. Major Pam Torliatt urges the citizens to stay involved, contact their supervisors, and attend the 2 PM Feb 3, 2009 Hearing in Santa Rosa. She directed us to focus our comments not only on the toxic impact of the Asphalt Plant and its wide net of influence, degrading business, education, and health in Petaluma, but also on the newly adopted Petaluma General Plan and its goals of sustainability
An Asphalt Plant in this location does not meet health, environmental, and aesthetic goals for Petaluma as stated in the General Plan.

Five Supervisors will determine the fate of over 60,000 Petaluma residents. We only need three “NO” votes.

Petaluma has always been an environmental leader, and we will lead in this arena as well. Yes , Sonoma County needs asphalt. But it is the responsibility of the Sonoma County Supervisors to “Preserve and protect the tranquility” of their citizens. An asphalt plant must be operated by an ethical company, who will act in good faith to preserve and protect the quality of life in Sonoma . It must be a truly state of the art facility with maximum enclosure and filtration of toxics. It must be located at a site that does not impact our most vulnerable and defenseless populations: the sick, the elderly, babies and children, wildlife and wetland ecosystem. There is a new wind blowing against greed and for Green. YES WE CAN!

Come to our Fund and Consciousness Raiser
Art Music Energy
Bring Artwork to Wetlands
SAT JAN 31 4-6 PM
322 Western Ave Petaluma (next to Tea Cafe)
Music by Gabby Lala Wine Cheese Conversation

Joan Cooper
Friends of Shollenberger Park and Clean Air

A personal message re Petaluma City Council meeting & Dutra Asphalt Plant

2009-01-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

From P4C member Elaine Larson, after attending the City Council meeting on Mon. Jan. 26th, a meeting which lasted until 11:30pm due to public discussion of this issue:

My husband ... and I went to the City Council meeting last night and came away totally outraged at the proposed asphalt plant and the process that has allowed it to proceed so far ... I will be composing a passionate letter to every Sonoma Supervisor that I will share later today.

Thanks,
Elaine

Here's Elaine's subsequent letter, which she sent to Supervisor Kerns on Wed. Jan. 28th:

Dear Supervisor Kerns (and all other elected and appointed officials, public interest groups and media representatives receiving a copy of this email),

We, both native Californians, are new residents of Sonoma County, having just purchased a home for our retirement years in Petaluma in 2008. We first heard of the proposed asphalt plant next to Shollenberger Park and the Highway 101 entrance to Sonoma County on January 26 and attended the Petaluma City Council meeting that night to learn more.

The facts presented by dozens of experts, residents, business owners, and other interested parties are overwhelming and totally negate any possibility of the use of the proposed site for any 'heavy industrial' purpose, let alone a smelly, polluting, carcinogenic rubberized and recycled asphalt plant. Each one of the factors below, on its own, is more than sufficient cause to have discarded this proposal much earlier in the exception, permitting and approval processes. Taken together, they represent a major failure of multiple government agencies to act in the public interest.

1) Impact on Tourism and the Sonoma 'Brand'
Many government agencies, businesses, groups and citizens have worked very hard and invested millions of dollars for many years to grow Sonoma County into a world class tourist destination. Putting an asphalt plant between 101 and the stunning vista of Petaluma, the river, yacht harbor and wetlands that one now sees upon entering Sonoma County is throwing this investment down the drain and limiting the inflow of future tourist dollars.

2) Impact on Local Businesses
There are many office buildings and a yacht harbor easily within smelling and severe-health-impact distance of the site. This includes the magnificent Sheraton Hotel complex, a jewel of Northern California. Imagine putting an asphalt plant next to the Awahnee Hotel in Yosemite Valley or the Del Coronado Hotel in San Diego to get the picture. Imagine having to work with the overpowering smell of rubberized asphalt in your nostrils every day of every week of every year. It is likely these business will take appropriate action to protect their employees, customers and income, including suing, moving or both.

3) Impact on River Traffic
The size of the barges planned to service the proposed asphalt plant would create a blockage of the Petaluma River that will not be allowed by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard or be tolerable for businesses upstream from the site dependent upon river traffic. One of the opportunities for process improvement is not to wait until County permitting is complete to have the ACE and Coast Guard say it can't be done anyway.

4) Impact on Wetlands and Bird Sanctuary.
Shollenberger Park is the largest wetlands in the Bay Area and attracts hundreds of thousands of birders a year. To our surprise, we learned birders spend more tourist dollars than football, basketball or baseball fans. Even more important than the economic impact of lost birder dollars, the fact is heavy industry such as a asphalt plant within 200 meters of nesting sites in and near the sanctuary will have negative impact on the survival rate of the birds and their use of the area.

In addition to the above evidence of the unacceptable consequences if the proposed site is put to heavy industrial use, there are other factors to consider before approving an asphalt plant at an appropriate site elsewhere in Sonoma County.

5) Sonoma needs a state-of-the-art asphalt plant that does not pollute or harm
No matter where located, the plant must be 100% contained, with all air, water and particulate emissions being scrubbed and processed to contain no or insignificant temperature changes, pollution or carcinogens. All employees and users of the plant must be adequately shielded and protected at all times. Our workers, elders and children deserve no less. Such plants are already in operation in other countries, so this represents an opportunity for Sonoma to lead the way in the US.

6) The asphalt plant needs access to fresh water, not salt water
The inappropriately located plant would have used Petaluma River salt water in making asphalt. Use of salt water instead of fresh creates an inferior grade of asphalt that has to be replaced more frequently than asphalt made with fresh water. This is not economically or environmentally sound.

7) The EIR must pertain to the plant that will become operational
The 'fantasy' EIR that was prepared for the unallowable project addressed the production of standard asphalt. The intent for the plant was to produce rubberized asphalt and recycled asphalt, both of which have much more dire environmental consequences.

8) The plant operators must have an unassailable record of good corporate citizenship and environmental protection.
The record of the Dutra Group is abysmal and continues to be so to this day; they were just sued by the residents near their rock quarry in San Rafael. Over the past two decades they have been fined $740,000 by the EPA for illegal dumping in the ocean; they have been indicted by the San Rafael Grand Jury; they have ignored court orders to cease operations and produce records; they have built structures without any permits; they have consistently lied about hours of operation, noise levels, dust levels, and pollution levels. Before another application is accepted from them, they should be required to clear all outstanding matters to the satisfaction of the aggrieved parties and then maintain a clean record for three years to show they have changed their ways.

9) The public must be involved from the beginning
We were shocked that many of the people who spoke to the Petaluma City Council said they had just found out about this proposed project. This indicated an unacceptable lack of disclosure to and involvement of the public in vital matters of concern to all. The public needs to be involved at every stage of locating and permitting the new asphalt plant.

This list is nowhere close to being exhaustive, but it does give a flavor for what we are dealing with. We will close by asking how can we help see that the lessons learned from this fiasco will improve the operations and processes of Sonoma County government? The home page of the Board of Supervisors includes this most encouraging statement: 'To insure that the public is heard on issues of concern, the Board of Supervisors provides a forum for problem solving as it relates to government agencies and processes.' Supervisor Kerns, please tell us how we can participate in this forum, and thank you for this opportunity to comment. We expect your NO votes February 3..

Best Regards,

Elaine and Lars Larson
Petaluma, CA

First-hand account of Petaluma City Council meeting re Dutra Asphalt Plant

2009-01-30T09:25:00.000-08:00

From P4C member Sarah Gibson, after attending the City Council meeting on Mon., Jan. 26th, a meeting which lasted until 11:30pm due to discussion of this issue:

The City Council hearing on the proposed Dutra Asphalt Plant centered its attention on a letter currently being authored by our City Council members to the Board of Supervisors. Signed by every member of our Council, Mayor Pam Torliatt and our representatives wanted to hear from Petaluma citizens on what to include in the letter they will present to the Board. Chemistry professors, biologists, high school and elementary school teachers, senior citizens, the Petaluma Mother's Club, the Petaluma Rowing Club, the Audubon Group were just a few of the many groups who are against the proposed plant. Listening to the chemist and biologist explain in plain English just how grossly carcinogenic and toxic the bi-products of the proposed Dutra plant are is enough to make you hold your breath in disbelief.

As if anything could be more terrifying than scientific testimony ... Joe Carnucci of San Rafael, who has been fighting Dutra since 1986 on environmental, air, and noise violations, listed legal case after legal case in which Dutra was found in violation of code. The most disturbing part of Carnucci's 9-minute presentation was the fact that, in spite of a 2005 ruling by the Attorney General in favor of a lawsuit presented against Dutra by Carnucci, the plant still operates 24/7 pending another EIR to be released next week. Even though the 2005 suits were also filed in conjunction with the State of California, Dutra has yet to pay fines, upgrade equipment, or cease operations.

The good news? Mayor Torliatt and Council Members have pledged to put "more teeth" into the letter. Mayor Torliatt has also made it known that she will personally stand with us on Feb. 3rd at the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors hearing. She has also met with two of the five Board Members already. We have a City Council standing with us.

For those of us considering that an enclosed plant will meet our standards - consider Dutra's track record above on broken promises. Then also consider these three stunning facts:
There are only two fully enclosed plants in the world. Neither are in the U.S.
Dutra wants to use 20,000 gallons of river water from the River to mitigate dust. As it turns out, the river water will not meet the needs and therefore Dutra will use plan B: Your drinking water.
The chemicals/gases, known carcinogens, that will be released into the air from the recycling part of the facility are some of THE MOST carcinogenic industrial fumes.
Check out the meeting on our local cable channel. You won't want to miss the many wonderful people who presented stunning documentation and testimony to preserve the river, Shollenberger Park, and our health.

Additional suggested reading by Sarah:

Dutra dredging fined $735,000, Marin Independent Journal, 8.17.06

Report from P4C member Joan Cooper on this past weekend's petition gathering/art show/information session to Save Shollenberger Park

2009-01-26T12:34:00.000-08:00

[The Sat./Sun. event at our headquarters at 322 Western Ave.] went well. [At this point], about half the people we talk to have heard about this issue and come to us to sign [the petition in opposition to the Dutra plant being built on the Petaluma River across from Shollenberger Park]. [We collected] maybe another 400 signatures - we are heading towards 1,000.

Obama launches Organizing for America

2009-01-26T11:01:00.000-08:00

An updated toolbox for P4C members to use NOW to take action on the Dutra asphalt plant issue

2009-01-26T09:06:00.000-08:00

(1) Become better-educated about this local project. Links below the dotted line.

(2) Sign an on-line petitio n. More suggestions below the dotted line.

(3) Neighbor-to-neighbor signature-gathering petition-drive. Two not-mutually-exclusive paths to take on this one. Information about both pathways below the dotted line. Petition included as attachment.

(4) E-mail our local Petaluma City Council members. Contact info below the dotted line.

(5) E-mail our Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Contact info below the dotted line.

(6) Attend a Petaluma City Council Meeting on Mon. Jan. 26th. Info below the dotted line.

(7) Friends of Shollenberger Ad Hoc Committee Meeting on Tue. Jan. 27th. Info below the dotted line.

(8) Friends of Shollenberger Park hosts a Breathe-In: Awareness-raiser/fund-raiser Party on Sat. Jan. 31st. Info below the dotted line.

(9) Final hearing! Feb. 3rd Sonoma County Board of Supes meeting. Info below the dotted line.

(10) School displays in support of Shollenberger for exhibition in the former Sacks site on Western. Info below the dotted line.

(11) Donate $$$. Info below the dotted line.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(1) Suggested reading and viewing:

Read what the Madrone Audubon Society in Sonoma County has to say.

>From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
Stream of commerce, 6.1.08
Petaluma concerned about asphalt plant, 8.14.08

>From the Petaluma Argus-Courier:
Board of Supes expected to approve Dutra's project, 12.4.08
Decision Delayed, 12.9.08

Some letters to the editor:
Lynn King: Not a good alternative, 1.12.09
Lindsay M. Mickles: Asphalt plant a travesty, 1.14.09
Bill Kortum: Asphalt plant must be enclosed, 1.20.09

Project portfolio: Dutra Asphalt Co., EIR, in progress
Concerns about draft EIR, Norris R. Dyer, Senior Wetlands Docent, City of Petaluma, 2.27.08

Save Shollenberger Park website, Friends of Shollenberger Park and Clean Air

Videos of a chemist, a former city council member, a civil engineer, a senior docent at Shollenberger, neighborhood organizers/activists, and an educator speaking out against the proposed Dutra facility

(2) After you've signed this petition on-line, ask your e-mail friends and colleagues to do the same.

(3) Two local community organizer projects under way to gather signatures:

Sarah Gibson has posted her P4C project here.

Joan Cooper invites volunteers to participate in her Friends of Shollenberger Park and Clean Air project:
Petition gathering/art show/information session
Sat./Sun. Jan. 24th/25th 9am-1pm -- Come to 322 Western Ave. next to Tea Cafe.

(4) Petaluma City Council members:

Mayor Pamela Torliatt, ptorliatt@aol.com
Vice Mayor Teresa Barrett, teresa4petaluma@comcast.net
Council Member David Glass, daveglass@comcast.net
Council Member Mike Harris, mike4pet@aol.com
Council Member Mike Healy, mtheally@sbcglobal.net
Council Member David Rabbitt, david@davidrabbitt.com
Council Member Tiffany Renee, tiff@tiffanyrenee.com

(5) Sonoma County Board of Supes:

Valerie Brown - 1st district, vbrown@sonoma-county.org
Mike Kerns - 2nd district (Petaluma), mkerns@sonoma-county.org
Shirlee Zane - 3rd district, szane@sonoma-county.org
Paul L. Kelley - 4th district, pkelley@sonoma-county.org
Efren Carrillo - 5th district (Sebastopol), ecarrillo@sonoma-county.org

(6) Petaluma City Council meeting info:

Mon., Jan. 26th
Info: 707.778.4360

"Discussion and possible action to submit additional comments to the County of Sonoma on the proposed Dutra asphalt and recycling facility" (Gerald L. Moore, Petaluma Wetlands Alliance)

Here's the plan from Joan Cooper: Meet outside City Hall at 8pm to pre-plan who will speak to the Council and who will give their minutes up to other people for longer presentations.

(7) Meeting at Friends of Shollenberger HQ, 322 Western.

Tue., Jan. 27th, 7pm

From Joan Cooper: We will continue strategizing and report in on our progress with our various projects to get the word out to the community. Bring a folding chair or pillow to sit on.

(8) Party info:

Where:
322 Western Ave. (next to Tea Room Cafe)

When:
Sat. afternoon, Jan. 31st, 4-6pm

Who:
Everyone! This is an open invitation to all. Bring the kids!

What to bring:
We're working to provide food and drink, but any and all potluck contributions are appreciated, but definitely not required.

(9) Board of Supes final hearing info:

Tue., Feb. 3rd, 2pm
Supervisors' Meeting Room
575 Administration Dr., Ste. 100A, Santa Rosa
Info: 707.565.2241

Why go?
To publicly comment on Dutra plant project, or to support those who do.
To present petitions in opposition to Dutra plant project.

(10) Contact Joan Cooper, saveshollenberger@mail.com

(11) Open Space & Water Resource Protection and Land Use Foundation (OWL)

Images of Sarah's and Charlotte's MLK day community service projects

2009-01-26T08:54:00.000-08:00

Hey there, 

Please check out a few of the many service photos of two of the four service projects hosted in Petaluma last week. Charlotte and I collected jaw-dropping amounts of donations, and these pictures are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the success of all our projects here in Southernmost Sonoma County! ... Hope won!

Sarah
community organizer, P4C

Inaugural bash at the Phoenix

2009-01-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

The Petaluma Progressives and MoveOn put on a heckuva party Tuesday evening, one that had a wonderful spirit of community! It was open to all, with no admission fee. Donations to benefit the Phoenix Theatre were suggested, but not required. All age groups were in attendance. Lots of kids, young ones as well as ones of older high school-ages. Young twenty-something's, senior citizens, and everyone in between. And what an amazing array of potluck dishes were contributed! There was so much delicious food, it was difficult to decide what to put on your plate. The music was perfect, and appealed to all.

Thanks to all who put so much time and effort into putting this event together, and making sure it was a hit.

This party was a tremendous statement of community in support of the new administration of our 44th President, Barack Hussein Obama!

From Bonnie, one of the organizers for this all-community event:

... I must say, the event succeeded beyond our wildest imaginings. Many people put a lot of work into planning, publicity, logistics, and creating the tent, the donation bins and the wall decorations. Notable were Steve Dyer and Lorin Bell, Laurel Hill, SteveDella Maggiora, Dusty Resnek, Brian Mealins and Sueann and Chuck Sher. A half-dozen of us attended weekly planning meetings--on Sunday mornings, no less.

We also had donations from Jungle Vibes, Noah's Bagels and others. The Sofa Kings and Phoenix Jazz Workshop donated their services as well. Tom Gaffey of the Phoenix did the sound.

From Connie, another party-organizer:

Many, many people put this wonderful night together. [We were overwhelmed at how many] brought stuff to imbibe and chew.

Here's a link to some photos on Petaluma 360.

Would love to hear from those of you who attended. Any observations? Comments? Anecdotal stories from the evening to share? Leave them as comments, or e-mail them to Linda Sexauer.

Comments from P4C community organizers about their National Day of Service projects

2009-01-24T14:05:00.000-08:00

Sarah organized two separate projects, a pet supply drive to benefit local-area animal shelters and no-kill rescue organizations, and another to benefit the new dementia/brain trauma unit of the Yountville Veterans' Home:

We ... had an amazing response ... People were so gracious. I had a wonderful two days!

From Ken, who organized a donation drop-off for COTS, our local-area homeless shelter:

Our event was an extraordinary success! I was completely overwhelmed by the response ... Thank you again for all your support. It has been an absolutely phenomenal experience.

From Margie, who is not a member of P4C, but whose project we supported by inviting our members to participate in it. Margie organized a clean-up project at Shollenberger Park:

We ended up with over 100 people who signed in ...! Several very good outcomes besides the numbers. Thanks for ... help getting the word out.

And from Jeff, who organized a smaller canned food drive for the Petaluma Kitchen with his neighborhood group of ten volunteers:

Our group donated 26 bags of groceries to the Petaluma Kitchen ... for our public service contribution.

Hope everyone blog posts about your projects at Community Organize!

Organizing for single-payer health-care

2009-01-24T12:45:00.000-08:00

Thank-you to the 94 people who co-signed the single-payer health-care letter written by five members of P4C: Linda Sexauer, Bonnie Allen, Janice Kearns, Connie Madden, and Sarah Gibson! I submitted our letter in two stages, due to the trickling in of signatures. Today, I will send in the third stage.

And thank-you to everyone who also submitted their personal health-care stories to the Daschle team, while it's in the process of formulating our new national health-care policy.

This is going to be a big struggle, getting single-payer to pass through the US Congress. It won't happen overnight. There are just too many powerful and influential interests invested in our profit-driven system. I predict that this change process will be an incremental one. We are still building the national organization of citizens who will participate in this struggle. By agreeing to be a co-signer, you became part of that national organization.

If you haven't already, please join Community Organize. It started out as a California statewide organizing forum for all of us who volunteered our time, spent money to travel to and work in battleground states, and used our cell phone minutes to speak with voters all across the country to build the campaign that got Obama/Biden elected to the White House. It has grown and is now attracting members from all over the country, and the world, providing us with an on-line presence that is resulting in citizen teams that will all work together in the years to come to bring about this whole "change" thing. Our strength lies in our sheer numbers, and Community Organize is a vehicle to capitalize on that strength.

The White House team is paying very close attention to what is happening and being said on Community Organize. For those of us "political/social change junkies" who are following this site very closely, we are noticing that many of the communications, both written and video-taped, coming out of the White House, reflect strongly what we are saying to each other in the forums and blog posts on Community Organize. I believe that Community Organize is one of the epicenters of change right now.

So please consider joining this forum. Right now, it is mostly communications between all of us, within our geographical groups and nationwide, with the site managers creating new congressional district groups based on new members signing up. But very soon, this forum will become a hub where we will all, once again, become "bundles of energy" working together for a common purpose, just as we did in the months leading up to the election.

Thanks so much!
Linda Carpenter Sexauer
community organizer, P4C

Watch this video of the Health Care Community Discussion which took place on Dec. 29th at the Petaluma Community Center:

For a copy of Doug Roffmann's report of this meeting, which he submitted to the Obama-Biden Transition Project, please contact me. I'm happy to send it as an attachment to your e-mail address.

DUTRA ASPHALT PLANT Petition and Info Toolbox

2009-01-21T16:41:00.000-08:00

Updated toolbox here.

P4C Day of Service Projects

2009-01-08T21:54:00.000-08:00

***UPDATED January 14th! Check out our new projects!*****

Join P4C in meeting our 44th President's request for service in honor of MLK and the inauguration....

HOPE for Veterans: Benefiting the Veterans Home of CA Memory Care Unit

Veterans Home of CA in Yountville is opening a new section of the dementia/memory loss unit to accomodate soldiers from all conflicts with alzheimers, dementia, and traumatic brain injury with associated memory loss. The "activity center" in the unit provides the Veterans with projects and important social opportunities which are clinically proven to delay further brain deterioration and increase cognitive/motor function skills. Equally important, these activities improve the quality of life for our valued veterans.

http://www.usaservice.org/page/event/detail/4jlkl

Four-Legged Friends 4 CHANGE: Pet Supply Drive

In honor of the Obama Families most anticipated new arrival ... A pet dog for Sasha and Melia ... P4C is sponsoring a Pet Supply Drive! Drop off your donations of food, gently used or new toys/supplies, or even a couple of dollars on or by January 19th. Supplies will be distributed between the Petaluma Animal Shelter and local no-kill animal rescues in honor of the Obama family and their new "First Mutt".

http://www.usaservice.org/page/event/detail/4v72s

AND A NEW PROJECT!!!: ONE LIFE at a TIME - COTS

The Committee On The Shelterless helps homeless families and single adults bring stability, safety, and independence back into their lives. COTS provides emergency shelter and transition housing to families and adults in crisis. For the adults, the children, and their homes, there are material needs to help rebuild lives and dreams. We will be collecting valued items at a home in Petaluma from 10-11am on January 19th. For all the great details and to sign up go to:

http://www.usaservice.org/page/event/detail/4v29w