Marin Peace & Justice Center Weekly New Bulletin For Week Of June 12, 2006

Bush Fights Global Warming
Ice cube collection centers
crop up across America
by Buff Whitman-Bradley - Humor
(Washington, DC) In what appears to be a dramatic reversal of a long-standing administration position. President George W. Bush announced today at a press conference on the beach in front of the White House (formerly Pennsylvania Avenue), that, after long and prayerful consultation with his friend, God, he now believes that there might be some truth to the dire warnings from every reputable scientist in the world about the dangers of global warming.
HOWL...read the entire piece

Rockridge Institute News - George Lakoff, Sam Ferguson
Framing vs. spin
Two weeks ago, Rockridge published The Framing of Immigration by George Lakoff and Sam Ferguson, an analysis of the framing used by progressives and conservatives in discussing immigration. Late last week, the DailyKos leaked a memo by Frank Luntz, the Republican messaging strategist, advising Republicans how to talk about immigration. If you want to compare what Rockridge does with what Luntz does, this is your chance. [Read More]

THE POLITICAL SCENE
THE COMING WEEKS IN MARIN

Tues., June 13, 10:00 AM
Will Marin Supervisors Stand
Against Illegal Wiretapping and Warrant-less Spying on Citizens?
Come support them fighting for our rights!
Come support our supervisors in carrying out their oath of office to "defend the Constitution against foreign and domestic enemies."
Board of Supervisors President, Susan Adams, has drafted a letter to Woolsey, Boxer and Feinstein calling for their action against the warrantless spying on citizens' phone calls by the National Security Administration. She writes that the National Security Agency's "recently disclosed surveillance program is a fundamental invasion of Americans' right to privacy, and is a flagrant violation of the Bill of Rights."
Adams is bringing her letter before her colleagues and the public at the next meeting of the Supervisors on Tuesday, June 13, at 10 am in their chamber on the thrid floor of the Civic Center. It is important for people to attend and lend their support. The matter was brought to her by a new coalition of Marin progressives, including the Marin Peace and Justice Coalition, the Social Justice Center of Marin, the Marin Democratic Central Committee, Progressive Democrats of California, Democracy for America and After Downing Street.org.
Civic Center
3501 Civic Center Drive
Board of Supervisors Chambers - Room 330
San Rafael, CA 94903

Tues., June 13, 7:00 PM
DECLARATION OF PEACE
TOWN HALL MEETING
Hey, Marin & Sonoma Peace Activists
Let's declare peace!
A new national campaign, the DECLARATION OF PEACE, is inviting ordinary citizens all over America to sign a document demanding that the U.S. leave Iraq, and vowing to engage in nonviolent direct action if our government fails to do so.
How can residents of Marin and Sonoma counties participate in this campaign?
• sign the Declaration of Peace ourselves
• distribute the Declaration and gather signatures
• join in national days of action -- demonstrations, civil disobedience -- in late September
but we need to get organized!
If you would like to help plan what we in the North Bay can do to declare peace with Iraq, please come to a
* TOWN HALL - brainstorming/ planning meeting
* at the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, 1520 Grand Ave. (corner of Grand & Acacia)
peace activists, artists, musicians, poets, dancers, curmudgeons and crones, old folks, young folks, lovers of life, dreamers of dreams, holders of hope
PLEASE COME!
For more information about the Declaration of Peace, go to;
www.declarationofpeace.org
For information about this meeting, e-mail: buph@igc.org

TUES., June 13, 7:00 P.M.
MGH v Sutter ...who is getting screwed again?
WHAT’S INSIDE THIS “TROJAN HORSE”
JOIN US AT THIS PUBLIC MEETING
MARIN GENERAL HOSPITAL meeting room
The bond issue is a ruse! Sutter knows the district can’t afford a bond under this deal. Sutter wins either way: either the district fails to pass the bond and can’t compete on quality without a new wing, or the district succeeds with the bond, and the taxpayers and district get saddled with Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Debt and no patients!
Sutter has done this before to other districts – It’s How They Operate!
Sutter recently hijacked the Mills-Peninsula Hospital
Sutter recently eliminated St. Luke’s as a competitor in San Francisco,
Now they want to do the same in Marin!
This agreement is bedeviled with a lack of details, a lack of guarantees, and a lack of oversight. The District Subcommittee that secretly negotiated this deal must be told that we will not stand for this Billion Dollar Giveaway!
ASK THE TOUGH QUESTIONS!
MAKE YOUR OPINIONS KNOWN!
TAKE BACK OUR HEALTHCARE FUTURE!

Wednesday, June 14, 7pm
Health Care for All-Marin
Social Justice Center of Marin, San Anselmo
We'll have a brown-bag supper with a video of an interview with Andrew McGuire, executive director of Health Care for All, talking about SB 840. This would be a very good way for new people to learn more about single-payer health care. Business meeting 7:30 pm.
Agenda items:
Marin County's plans for the OneCare NOW campaign. This campaign plans events in 365 cities in California over 365 days, starting on August 12, 2006, in Los Osos, and culminating in Los Angeles. Each city will try and produce an endorsement of SB 840 and a party/celebration/march/presentation/rally to bring publicity to single-payer health care and made the public's wishes clearly heard.
Novato's date is March 3, 2007, and San Rafael is April 1, 2007. We will have a committee for each city and hope to have a very noticeable event in each place, along with endorsements by the city councils.
Tabling and membership are on the meeting agenda; these are going well as evidenced by the petitions and new memberships rolling in — but we particularly need more help with organizing tabling. Otherwise one person gets a disproportionate amount of the burden, which is a way to lose volunteers. At the meeting we will also discuss fundraising, which we need to consider seriously.
Call if you have any questions, ideas or can’t come to the meeting but want to volunteer.
Esther Wanning
Director, Health Care for All-Marin
415-389-9991

WED. JUNE 14, 6pm to 10pm
Comcast Franchise Agreement
Marin Telecommunications Agency
IMPORTANT MTA MEETING
San Rafael City Hall, 1400 Fifth St., SR
Last month the Marin Telecommunications Agency approved a new franchise Agreement with Comcast. (Comcast has a few more days in which to sign off on it – most people think they will).
The Franchise Agreement, and the work of the MTA Governance Committee (on which MAM was represented by Val Schaaf) create the opportunity for the creating of Marin’s own Local Media Center, which would create programming and take over operation of Channel 26, among other things.
At next week’s meeting of the MTA a new budget is proposed giving the current executive director a $40,000 raise (that is raise, not salary) for his part time job with MTA, but no money is budgeted to staff the start-up of the media center! We need to ask the MTA to get their priorities straight.
We appreciate the work for Marin folks to come to these meetings as often as once a month, but our civic involvement has made a real difference. Without it there would have been no commitment to community media in the new Franchise. We ask your continued support and involvement to consolidate and protect these gains.
There are other important issues coming up. The full MTA agenda, with attachments, is at http://mta.marin.org/minutes.cfm
For more information including the governance report, see www.mediaactionmarin.org , come to our meetings next meeting 7 pm Sunday June 18, 1000 Sir Francis Drake, San Anselmo, Rm 18). Thanks.

Sat., June 17, 10am to 1pm.
San Geronimo Creek Restoration Day
Salmon Protection and Watershed Network
Meet at Roy's Pools on the San Geronimo Valley Golf Course.
Join us to continue restoration of the riparian forests on San Geronimo Creek. The willow bioengineering from last year is holding the banks steady and the natives are still thriving, but now it's time to work on the invasive weeds and help our newly planted willows, oaks, and bays survive their 1st dry summer. What to bring: Long sleeves and pants, work gloves, your favorite weeding tool, and sturdy shoes. Water & snacks.

Sat. June 17, 7PM
Arsenal of Hypocrisy
The Space Program and the
Military Industrial Complex
A Community Film Showing in support of Christian Heath’s Social Landscape Project participating at the World Peace Forum 2006 in Vancouver.
Currently the US Military is pursuing the installation of space based weapons to enable “rapid global attack…anywhere in the world under any conditions”. In a democratic-republic the actions of government are supposed to reflect the general will of the people, while citizens must know what their government is doing to positively and constructively engage with it. In this positive spirit, please join a community film showing!
One Hour Film Features:
Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut ;
Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Nuclear Weapons and Power in Space;
Noam Chomsky, Activist and Professor of Linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT);
Outlines of U.S. plans to control space and the Earth below, dangers of Bush’s "Nuclear Systems Initiative" that would expand use of nuclear power in space by building Project Prometheus (the nuclear rocket). Archival footage, Pentagon documents, and President Dwight Eisenhower in 1961 warning the American people about the dangers of an unchecked military-industrial complex.
First United Methodist Church of San Rafael
9 Ross Valley Rd., San Rafael (Across from Bedrock Records on the “Miracle Mile“)
$5 Suggested Donation*
More info 415-455-9918
Endorsed By: Western States Legal Foundation (WSLF), Social Justice Center of Marin (SJCM), Marin Peace and Justice Coalition (MPJC)
*Donations Benefit Christian Heath's Social Landscape Project participating at the World Peace Forum 2006 in Vancouver, Canada June 22-29. Please download a flyer and post click here.

Sun, June 18th, 7:00 pm
McCarthy Era Lessons for Bush’s America
Join
ROBERT MEEROPOL
Son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and Executive
Director of the Rosenberg Fund for Children
for a discussion.
Robert Meeropol was six years old when his parents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were sent to the electric chair in 1953, executed by the U.S. government after one of the most hotly debated trials in U.S. history. Now, Meeropol leads the Rosenberg Fund for Children (RFC), a public foundation he started in 1990. The RFC echoes the support Meeropol received from the progressive community after his parents’ deaths, by aiding children of today’s activists who are living through similar nightmares to that which he experienced as a child.
In this presentation, followed by Q&A and a book signing, Meeropol - now an attorney, activist and Executive Director of the RFC- will discuss the many dangerous parallels between the post-9/11 political climate and the McCarthy era of the 1950’s.
Student Services Ctr. Cafeteria, College of Marin
Copies of AN EXECUTION IN THE FAMILY will be available for purchase.
Sponsored by the College of Marin Students for Social Responsibility, Marin Peace and Justice Coalition and Bay Area National Lawyers Guild
For more information about the event contact Jim at (415) 485-9390 or jimmyjustice@gmail.com.
For more information about Robert Meeropol and the Rosenberg Fund for Children visit www.rfc.org. The RFC, a 501(c)(3) public foundation, provides for the educational and emotional needs of the children of targeted progressive activists in this country and also for targeted activist youth.
If you are unable to attend but wish to make a tax-deductible contribution, please visit www.rfc.org to donate online by credit card or send a check or money order payable to the Rosenberg Fund for Children to:
Rosenberg Fund for Children
116 Pleasant St., Suite 348
Easthampton, MA 01027

June 19, 2006 at 5:00 p.m
Immigration/Freedom Rally
General and Unconditional Amnesty for All Immigrants
People United For a General and Unconditional Amnesty
Barrio Unido Por una Amnistia General e Incondicional
No matter what the decisions the lawmakers make to "reform" the immigration laws, we know that they will make some immigrant workers "legal" and others "illegal." We hold this rally in celebration of the date of June 19th, 141 years ago when it was declared the end of slavery by Black people in this country. We make a call for unity at this rally in the Bayview so we can honor June 19th by making a commitment to sow the first seeds together in order to make a reality the emancipation of the Black people and the immigrants and to demand the immediate freedom of the great leader of the Black people, Mumia Abu-Jamal, innocent on Death Row.
Palou Avenue and Third
San Francisco, CA
Contact Persons:
Cristina Gutierrez: 415-431-9925
Kati Sanchez: 415-368-2576

Thurs., June 22, 3:30 P.M.
MARIN Community Choice Aggregation
Local Energy Independence WORKSHOP
Marin County is holding a CCA workshop, open to the public,
Board of Supervisors' chambers, Marin Civic Center, San Rafael.
All Marin advocates of community choice will want to attend. Six years after Marin's Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to back State CCA legislation that eventually became AB 117 (2002) and opened the door to community choice state-wide, we're now finally getting closer to CCA in Marin.
Many of you have seen Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" now playing at Sequoia Theater in Mill Valley. The film motivates us all to look for ways to greatly scale up non-carbon renewable power and energy efficiency to cut greenhouse gas emissions. CCA offers a democratic clean-power option that has great potential for coping with what the film calls "a planetary emergency". Finally -- a solution that's commensurate with the scale of the problem.

TAKE ACTION:

GMO Free Action Alert
Measure B is under state level attack again
Local Democracy - Local Control Again Under Threat in California
On June 28th 2006, the California State Assembly Agriculture Committee will consider a bill (SB 1056) that will take away local government authority over seed regulation. If passed, this bill will override current and future restrictions on genetically engineered crops and seeds such as our Measure B that prohibits the outdoor cultivation of GMOs in Marin.
In 2005, a groundswell of organizational and citizen response stopped the California preemption attempts - we need your help to prevent the passage of this bill once and for all. We ask you to join Californians for GE-Free Agriculture in protecting local communities democratic right to protect their citizens in the absence of adequate state and federal regulation of genetically engineered crops.
Take Action!
1. Call, email or fax your Assembly member to ask them to oppose SB 1056. CalGE-Free coalition member True Food Network has set up an online action page at: http://ga3.org/campaign/CA_preemption, or Call your local elected officials and encourage them to do the same.
County Supervisors Phone (415) 499-7331 Fax (415) 499-3645
Susan Adams, President sadams@co.marin.ca.us
Harold C. Brown Jr hbrown@co.marin.ca.us
Charles McGlashan CMcGlashan@co.marin.ca.us
Steve Kinsey skinsey@co.marin.ca.us
Cynthia L. Murray cmurray@co.marin.ca.us
Assemblyman Joe Nation (415) 479-4920
State Senator Carole Migden (415) 557-1300
2. Attend the Assembly Agriculture Committee hearing in Sacramento on June 28th to voice your opposition (for more details, contact Becky at 510-647-3733 or (becky@calgefree.org)
3. Join the Cal GE-Free list serve (http://www.calgefree.org/mailerregform.shtml) for regular updates.
4. Forward this info to everyone you know in California and urge them to take action!
SB 1056 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY SEPTEMBER 02, 2005
52251.5. Except as otherwise provided in this code, the provisions of this chapter are of statewide concern and occupy the entire field of regulation regarding the registration, labeling, sale, storage, transportation, distribution, notification of use and use of seeds to the exclusion of all local regulations. Except as otherwise specifically provided in this code, no ordinance or regulation of any political subdivision may prohibit or in any way attempt to regulate any matter .relating to the registration, labeling, sale, storage, transportation, distribution, notification of use, or use of seeds

MPJC'S Independent Media Campaign
Needs You...
If you think media need to be part of the solution, not the problem...that democracy and everything we care about depend on an informed citizenry...and if you want to help promote and support media that's getting it right...
Then we invite you to take part in MPJC's Independent Media Campaign.
We need volunteers, organizers and financial supporters.
We welcome organizations to endorse the campaign and to participate.
We seek Marin merchants who will carry our Independent Media Guides in stores throughout the county.
Come to one of our presentations about the campaign. For date, location, and time, contact Zhenya at 381-9085.
Visit us at www.mpjc.org/imc.