SF GREEN PARTY WEEKLY 2/7/07-2/14/07 NEWS: - Two Election Workers Convicted of Rigging '04 Presidential Recount http://tinyurl.com/2y655l - Brazil Better About Global Warming than Developed Nations, Says President http://tinyurl.com/2xs73x EVENTS: This week: - 2/8: Animal Advocacy Working Group - 2/10: Schwarzenegger's Health Insurance Plan for California vs Single Payer Plan for California Next week: - 2/13: County Council Meeting Upcoming: - 2/21: SF Green Party General Membership Meeting - 2/24: Workshop on Designing Leaflets SAVE THE DATE: - 2/17: San Francisco Green Party's Annual Celebration ANNOUNCEMENTS & ACTION ALERTS: - Green Activists Needed for Campaign Demanding that Congress Bring Troops Home - 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 (www.keeferforcongress.com, 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 JOKE OF THE WEEK: - Bush Knocks Down the Towers (http://tinyurl.com/2uzqy3) ************************************************************ EVENTS: 2/8: Animal Advocacy Working Group WHEN: Thursday, February 8, 2007 7:00PM-9:00PM 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 --------- 2/10: Schwarzenegger's Health Insurance Plan for California vs Single Payer Plan for California WHEN: Saturday, February 10, 2007 3:00PM WHERE: 531 Grove Street (Cross- Octavia). Take #21 Hayes Bus and 5 blocks west of Muni/BART, San Francisco CONTACT, INFORMATION: Call Don Bechler at 695-7891 or e-mail dbechler@value.net DETAILS: Discussion on Schwarzenegger's Health Insurance Plan for California vs. Single Payer Plan for California (Kuehl's SB840). Sponsored by CAPA (California Physicians Alliance for Single-Payer). If you care about your health care, please come! --------- 2/13: County Council Meeting WHEN: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 7:00PM-9:00PM WHERE: San Francisco Green Party office, 1028 A Howard St (between 6th St. and 7th St.), San Francisco, CA 94103 DETAILS: Join us to plan the agenda for the following Wednesday's General Meeting. --------- 2/17: San Francisco Green Party's Annual Celebration WHEN: Saturday, February 17, 2007 7:00PM-10:00PM WHERE: Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th Street, San Francisco (across from 24th St BART) DETAILS: Please join us as we celebrate the victories of 2006, with an evening of food, fun, and politics! Speakers will include Jane Kim, John Rizzo, Ross Mirkarimi, Chris Daly, Kim-Shree Maufas, Sarah Lipson, and Board of Education President Mark Sanchez! --------- 2/21: SF Green Party General Membership Meeting WHEN: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 7:30PM-9:30PM WHERE: San Francisco Green Party office, 1028 A Howard St (between 6th St. and 7th St.), San Francisco, CA 94103 DETAILS: The General Membership meeting is on the third Wednesday of each month. This is where all policy decisions, endorsements and ideas for the party are discussed and decided upon. We will be ratifying our active membership list for 2007 at this meeting. --------- 2/24: Workshop on Designing Leaflets WHEN: Saturday, February 24, 2007 2:00PM-6:00PM WHERE: 2940 – 16th St. Room 204 (between Mission and South Van Ness), San Francisco, CA INFORMATION: Call the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition at 513-5393 or email sflivingwage@riseup.net DETAILS: Workshop on Designing Leaflets with Russell Kilday-Hicks Russell is editor-in-chief of a statewide union paper for staff working on the 23 campuses of the California State University system, and production editor for “Green Focus,” the California Green Party newspaper. He has taught newspaper production at Laney and is a teaching assistant in Workplace Ethics and Environmental Ethics courses. He is statewide chair of the communication committee of CSEA Local 1000, SEIU, and chair of the City of Berkeley’s Commission on Labor. ============================== ANNOUNCEMENTS & ACTION ALERTS: Green Activists Needed for Campaign Demanding that Congress Bring Troops Home On Monday, February 5, 2007, a national campaign began to occupy congressional offices asking them to vote for bills which pull the troops out immediately, and cut the funding for the occupation of Iraq. The Green Party seeks volunteers to establish a Green Party presence in this campaign, and participate in it. Our voices especially need to be heard by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, since she is speaker of the house and thus in a position of big influence. If you want to make a stronger statement than just emails, get involved! Please contact Jim Dorenkott at jimdorenkott2@yahoo.com if you'd like to find out how. --------- 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.