Meeting on August 3, 2006

Ben Shapiro will talk about America Votes PA, a state PAC working to educate voters on the important issues in Pennsylvania. It is a partner of America Votes, the nation’s largest coalition dedicated to turning out the vote in 2006. Comprised of a historic partnership between many of the largest progressive, membership-based groups in the nation, America Votes is independent of any political party, and is singularly focused on communicating with voters on the issues. This election cycle, America Votes will work in 8 targeted states, including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Wisconsin, to raise awareness on a broad range of issues including the economy, health care, the environment, education, and civil and human rights.

Middle East War Forum with Scott Ritter and Ray McGovern on July 22

The Middle East War: How We Got into Iraq,
How We Get Out, and How We Stay Out of Iran

Video (4:42)

Video of Forum $12 plus postage
Email UpperBucksforDemocracy@yahoo.com

Guest Speakers: Scott Ritter and Ray McGovern

Saturday, July 22, 7 p.m.

BuxMont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
2040 Street Road, Warrington, PA (just east of Rt. 611)

Scott Ritter: As a U.S. Marine intelligence officer and the United Nations' top weapons inspector, Scott led 14 inspection missions in Iraq between 1991 and 1998. Ritter also spent several months of the Gulf War serving under General Norman Schwarzkopf with Marine Central Command headquarters in Saudi Arabia. Scott is the author of Iraq Confidential (www.iraqconfidential.com), published in October 2005 by Nation Books. "The important thing to know about Scott Ritter is that he was right." --Seymour Hersh

Ray McGovern: A senior CIA analyst for 27 years, Ray's duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President' Daily Brief (PDB). These, the most authoritative genres of intelligence reporting, have been the focus of press reporting on "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq and on what the president was told before 9/11. During the mid-eighties, Ray was one of the senior analysts conducting early morning briefings of the PDB one-on-one with the Vice President and other senior administration officials. Ray is in the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

Larry Glick, formerly a security inspector at U.S. atomic weapons facilities, will moderate.

The forum is sponsored by Upper Bucks for Democracy and U.S. Tour of Duty. Local co-sponsors are the BuxMont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Peace Initiative, the Coalition for Peace Action, the Peace Center, the Tikkun Community of Philadelphia, Hunterdon (NJ) for Democracy, Lower Bucks for Democracy, OpEdNews.com, America Votes, and PA Action.

$10 Admission--but no one will be turned away.

For more information, email upperbucksfordemocracy@yahoo.com.

Meeting on July 6, 2006

Dani Pere will be our guest. Ms. Pere has been the lead Field Coordinator for the Alliance for Retired Americans since 2002. She has successfully worked to create, build, and politically establish the Oregon, Washington, Nevada, and Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans state chapters. Ms. Pere has successfully led two educational campaigns in Pennsylvania: (1) The Medicare Education Project (2004), which focused on extensive peer to peer education of the senior population concerning the effects of the Medicare Modernization Act and (2) the Social Security Education Project (2005), in which she led the Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans into colleges and universities across the state to create a dialogue between seniors and students on the controversial proposals to privatize the Social Security system.

Currently, Ms. Pere is leading her newest project under the Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans – the Medicare Education Project Phase II: “The Implementation of the Medicare Modernization Act: Assessing the Impact on Pennsylvania Retirees,” a pilot research study she developed with a grant for Indiana University of Pennsylvania. By designing this project to provide first-hand research on how the implementation of Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Benefit legislation is impacting Pennsylvania seniors, Ms. Pere is working to accurately document how the new Medicare Rx benefit is affecting affordability and access to prescription drug coverage for Pennsylvania retirees by utilizing the case study method.

Craig Kaufman will also join us. Craig co-founded and co-directs PA Action, a statewide organization centered in Bucks and SE PA, focusing on progressive issues, with current campaigns on Medicare Part D, federal budget/tax issues, and GOTV 2006. PA Action is working to open a long-term community center/books-clothes giveaway space this summer in Bucks. He ran Bucks offices for John Kerry in 2004 (with historic turnout and success) and swept all ten 2005 races as Bristol Democrats' campaign manager. He was an early leader of Student Environmental Action Coalition, the largest student group in the US at the time, helping defeat Hydroquebec and being a delegate to the UNCED preparatory at the UN. He founded and directed a diversity-mediation nonprofit for 8 years and built and ran a New Mexico Greens US Congress campaign in 1998 (Bob Anderson, 1998 --he was hired initially as Carol Miller's campaign manager, who along with Anderson posted the top two third-party national election results in decades). He is proud to have settled in Pennsylvania.

Note: In the wake of the recent flooding, we will be passing the hat for the extremely hard-working Upper Black Eddy Fire Department.