SF GREEN PARTY WEEKLY 4/4/07-4/10/07 NEWS: - San Francisco Bans Plastic Bags - Green Supervisor Leads Charge http://tinyurl.com/2vbrwd EVENTS: This week: - 4/5: Animal Advocacy Working Group - 4/5: Feminist Issues Group - 4/9: Picnic for Peace Chez Pelosi - 4/15: WestSide Green Club Meeting - 4/22: Celebrate Earth Day at Green Apple Music and Arts Festival ANNOUNCEMENTS & ACTION ALERTS: - URGENT: Help Get Conscientious Objector Agustin Aguayo Out of Jail! See www.aguayodefense.org for details. For details on how to write to Agustin, and donate to his legal defense fund, see Helga Aguayo's letter below IN EVERY ISSUE: - Nancy Pelosi Watch, newly designed by Micheas Herman! (www.pelosiwatch.us) - Gavin Newsom Watch (http://tinyurl.com/23v3gp) - Car-Free Talk with Green Party Activist Sue Vaughan - Discuss Instant Runoff Voting in Green Party Activist Jim Dorenkott's Blog (http://tinyurl.com/y2j2gs) - Take Action! - Earn A Living Making San Francisco A More Green and Progressive City! - Support the San Francisco Green Party by Becoming a Sustainer NOT SO MUCH OF A JOKE OF THE WEEK: - Philip Zimbardo on the Lucifer Effect: When Good People Turn Bad http://tinyurl.com/32qdv9, RealOne Player required. Download RealOne Player at www.real.com ************************************************************ EVENTS: 4/5: Animal Advocacy Working Group WHEN: Thursday, April 5, 2007 7:00PM - order dinner, if you're hungry 7:30PM-9:00PM - meeting WHERE: Golden Era Vegetarian Restaurant, 832 Clement Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues, San Francisco DETAILS: The Animal Advocacy Working Group is involved in animal issues in San Francisco. The Ten Key Values apply to protecting the welfare of non- human animals. Of course, all are welcome. For more information, email Rosalind Lord at rclord@seaserpent.com --------- 4/5: Feminist Issues Group WHEN: Thursday, April 5, 2007 6:30PM-8:00PM WHERE: Soluna , 272 McAllister, San Francisco DETAILS: Spring Social plus meeting. Everyone welcome. --------- 4/9: Picnic for Peace Chez Pelosi WHEN: Monday, April 9, 2007 12 noon - 1:30PM WHERE: Phillip R. Burton Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate, San Francisco DETAILS: Join Krissy Keefer and other pro-peace activists for a brown-bag lunchtime picnic. Bring your pro-peace signs and send Nancy Pelosi a message that you want her to get American troops out of the Middle East as soon as possible. Contact: pelosilobbyproject@yahoo.com. --------- 4/15: WestSide Green Club Meeting WHEN: Sunday, April 15 3:00AM-5:000PM WHERE: Home of Barry Hermanson, 2467 - 28th Avenue, between Taraval and Ulloa, San Francisco CONTACT: Call Barry at 415-664-7754 or Nancy Lewis at 415-661-5713 --------- 4/22: Celebrate Earth Day at Green Apple Music and Arts Festival WHEN: Sunday, April 22 10:00AM-4:30PM WHERE: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco CONTACT: Call Sue at (415) 668-3119 if you want to help table DETAILS: Celebrate Earth Day with a day of tabling in Golden Gate Park. Promoters are expecting 30,000 people. ============================== ANNOUNCEMENTS & ACTION ALERTS: URGENT: Help Get Conscientious Objector Agustin Aguayo Out of Jail! See letter from Helga Aguayo: Dear Friends, Some important dates for us: January 13th, 2007 was Augie’s, original ETS (end term of service) date. But instead he was stop-lossed ( "STOP LOSS" means preventing a soldier leaving the military, even though the required term of service is completed). December 17th was Augie's 35th birthday, spent of course in military prison. THANK YOU to everyone who sent him a card. On December 12th, Augie had his Article 32 hearing (a formal military hearing that determines if there is enough evidence to conduct a court martial, similar to a grand jury investigation). His arraignment is currently scheduled for January 22nd; according to Dave Court, our new lawyer in Germany, this is "merely to establish dates for trial, motions, exchange of witness lists, etc." Nothing substantive will occur. Augie will be formally charged with desertion and missing movement in a General Court Martial set to occur in late February or March. A General Court-Martial is the most serious criminal proceeding that can be brought against a member of the military. A conviction by this Court is considered a federal felony and creates a criminal record for life. FOR WHAT?! Not wanting to kill, not wanting to contribute to the missions that kill, for being against war! I feel SO SAD! Meanwhile our case in civilian court is still pending. On November 21st, 2006 the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard Augie’s petition. The ruling can take between 6 weeks to 6 months. There is still hope that he might get exonerated! Please keep Augie in your prayers. Should the court martial go ahead, I wish to testify. I want the court to realize that his family mourns Augie's absence every second of every day. I hope the courtroom will be filled with supporters so the Army will know the world is watching. For those of you based in Europe, please consider attending if you can! Whatever happens, I will carry your strength, support, and solidarity with me in my heart. Our voices will unite. WE WILL BE HEARD! Here in L.A., our twin daughters, Raquel and Rebecca have seen better days. They are struggling in school and may not pass 6th grade. Last year at the U.S. base school in Germany, the girls were on the honor role! The turmoil has been hard on them. I tell them every day, “this will pass”. Money issues -- I just sent our German-based lawyer, David Court, the next installment on his fees: 1000 €. I had to borrow some of it. The next installment of 2000€ is due two weeks before the court- martial. Tax deductible donations to the Legal Defense Fund can be made via <www.couragetoresist.org>. More direct donations (without a tax deduction) can be made via <www.aguayodefense.org>. I need funds to travel to Germany for the court martial too. Right now I am fund-raising with Courage to Resist and Iraq Veteran's Against the War. I hope to see results soon. I continue to do interviews with various news organizations, including one today for National Public Radio. I think it went well. Next week I start speaking at California high schools about the OTHER SIDE of enlisting in the military. It's called "counter- recruitment". As far as I understand, California is the only state that MANDATES high school seniors hear both sides of military recruitment. This is a project that is dear to my heart! Los Angeles is the Number ONE recruitment city of high school seniors. I want to work to change that. Meanwhile I attend rallies to publicize Augie's situation. Many of Augie's family members take part. Some good news: I have struggled to keep up the website: <www.aguayodefense.org>. Now a PROFESSIONAL web designer has volunteered to take over. Hurrah! Improvements should be visible soon. I THANK YOU all for working so hard and diligently to support Augie and the family! With all my love, Helga P. Aguayo 36838 57th Street East Palmdale, CA 93552 USA To write to Agustin: SPC Agustín Aguayo Unit 29723 Box LL APO, AE 09028-3810 USA --------- Car-Free Talk with Green Party Activist Sue Vaughan Keep an eye out for "Car-Free Talk" on San Francisco's public access tv station, Channel 29. In the next show, David Fridley, staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley and member of San Francisco Oil Awareness, discusses the myth of biofuels. Date and time to be announced. ============================== IN EVERY ISSUE: Take Action! Find out about opportunities to help our elected Greens (writing letters, attending hearings, etc) -- subscribe to the SF Green Party Action list! The Action list is a low-traffic list (approximately one message per week in addition to our newsletter) telling you what you can do to help: https://list.sfgreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/ action --------- Earn A Living Making San Francisco A More Green and Progressive City! Three years ago, former organizers for the Matt Gonzalez for Mayor campaign decided it was time to stop getting 'close but not close enough' to progressive victories like public power and Matt as Mayor, and to begin a city wide, year round, grassroots campaign that would start helping us win such victories! So in January 2004, the organization Our City was born. Since then we have helped to: - Pass the ban on old polluting diesel buses - Pass Matt Gonzalez's anti chain store law - Get the downtown hotel workers back on the job, and - Get the Police and Planning Commissions put back on SF Government TV after the City tried to pull them off. Now we are campaigning to end PG&E's monopoly and run the City on renewable energy like solar and wind power, and to stop corporations from taking private monopoly control of the new public internet and cable system being built for San Francisco. We have just begun hiring and training new grassroots organizers to help us win these campaigns. No experience necessary. Earn $280 to $400 each four day work week learning to be a strong progressive organizer. To apply, call Eric at 415-756-8844 from noon to 2pm any weekday, or send an email to jobs@our-city.org For more information, see our web site at http://our-city.org --------- Support the San Francisco Green Party by Becoming a Sustainer The San Francisco Green Party needs donations for rent on the office, mailings, signs, and many other expenditures in order to wage effective political campaigns. We are especially interested in building up our base of "sustaining members," those who agree to contribute a certain amount each month by credit card. By becoming a sustaining member you save us money and time that we can then devote to our political work. It is a method of donation that is perfect for a grassroots organization like the Green Party as it allows us to thrive off of many, many small and medium size donations instead of depending on a few large donors. For more information, please visit the MAKE A DONATION page on the website at http://www.sfgreenparty.org/makeadonation/makeadonation.html For questions about the sustaining member program contact treasurer@sfgreens.org To make a one-time donation by mail please send a check made out to The San Francisco Green Party to: San Francisco Green Party 1028A Howard St. San Francisco, CA 94103 ************************************************************ For more info on our activities, please see our website, http://www.sfgreenparty.org. You can also email us questions at info@sfgreens.org. To send us news items (short blurb please, plain text only) for possible inclusion in the newsletter, email news@sfgreens.org. Please don't put these addresses on mailing lists; messages not specifically addressed to us won't go through.