No monthly meeting in December

Upper Bucks for Democracy will not meet in December. See you in 2007!

Free screening of Iraq for Sale on Thursday, November 2, 7:30 p.m.

Plumstead Democrats & Upper Bucks for Democracy
Plumstead Township Building
5186 Stump Road (0.4 mi east of 611 on right)
Plumsteadville, PA 18949

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers

The Plumstead Democrats and Upper Bucks for Democracy will co-host a free public screening of the documentary Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, by Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Uncovered). Click here to reserve your seat.

Meeting on October 5, 2006

Upper Bucks for Democracy will meet at Democratic headquarters, 17 West Court St. in Doylestown, at 7 p.m. to support our candidates by phone banking.

Meeting on September 7, 2006

Upper Bucks for Democracy
Plumstead Township Building
5186 Stump Road (0.4 mi east of 611 on right)
Plumsteadville, PA 18949

PA Action, P4P, the 2006 Elections, and the Progressive Movement

Chuck Pennacchio, Jeanne and Mike will lead a discussion of the following questions:
1. What and who is PA Action and how can we work together--locally, regionally, statewide, nationally, and internationally?
2. What can we do through the 2006 elections to advance our shared concerns?
3. How does our coalition building and election activity fit into the larger picture of movement politics in Pennsylvania and beyond?
4. What does the P4P Senate campaign of May 16 offer in the way of resources, model building, and new opportunities?

PA Action is collecting clothes, books, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, and cassettes to raise funds to support their campaigns.

Note: Video of the Middle East War Forum with Scott Ritter and Ray McGovern on July 22 is now available for $12 plus postage. Email UpperBucksforDemocracy@yahoo.com.

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.

Meeting on June 1, 2006

Where do we go from here?

Our June meeting will be a celebration of Chuck Pennacchio's campaign for U.S. Senate and what it represented to the citizens of Pennsylvania. We will talk about how to keep the momentum going across the state of Pennsylvania.

Chuck Pennacchio; Jeanne and Mike Doyle; Roger Balson, Progressive Democrats of America; John Morgan, Berks DFA; and Jon Soden of Lehigh Valley DFA will be hosting.

June is designated Torture Awareness Month by Amnesty International USA and numerous cosponsors. Visit their website TortureAwareness.org for actions you can take. The Road to Guantanamo opens in theaters on June 23. See also AmnestyBucksMont.org.

Coalition for Peace Action Voter Guide

The Coalition for Peace Action has published a very helpful and revealing Peace Voter Guide to the Pennsylvania congressional candidates. Check it out.

No monthly meeting in May

UpperBucksforDemocracy will not hold a monthly meeting in May in order to focus all our time and energy on the campaigns of Progressive candidates like Chuck Pennacchio for U.S. Senate (Chuck2006.com) and Paul Lang for PA Senate (ElectLang.com), both of whom we strongly endorse. Members are urged to log into DemocracyforAmerica's DFALink and register their support for these candidates. (And please register as a member of our UpperBucksforDemocracy chapter if you have not already done so!)

Our next meeting will be Thursday, June 1, with a couple of steering committee meetings between now and then.

Meeting on April 6, 2006

Cyril Mychalejko, assistant editor of Upside Down World, www.upsidedownworld.org, will be traveling to Ecuador in April to work as a human rights observer with the Intag Solidarity Network. ISN is an organization formed with the people of the Intag region of Ecuador as they resist efforts by the Ecuadorian government, international financial institutions, and multinational corporations to build a large-scale copper mine near the community of Junin. Cyril will discuss the mining conflict and ISN’s Human Rights Observer Program. He has committed to stay in Ecuador for one year.

Tom Lingengelter will speak about PACleanSweep.

Mike Doyle will speak about the voting machine issue.

Note: We are transitioning from Meetup to the new Democracy for America Link software so we ask old and new members to please register at DFALink.com and help make this work!

Canceled: Meeting on March 2, 2006

Canceled due to bad weather.

Meeting on February 2, 2006

Marty Schor will discuss Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) legislative initiatives, the status of PDA organization in PA, and ratification of the PDA Spokescouncil Charter.

Dr. Lawrence Davidson, Middle East history professor at West Chester University, and Dr. Janet Amighi, anthropologist at Montgomery County Community College, will present a slide show (Power Point) of their recent trip to Iran and Syria with Conscience International. They will describe their experiences meeting with Iranians and Syrians and discuss the politics of the region. Janet lived in Iran for seven years in the 1970s and has written a book entitled The Zoroastrians of Iran. Lawrence has written three books on the Middle East: A Concise History of the Middle East, America’s Palestine, and Islamic Fundamentalism.

Meeting on January 5, 2006

Paul Lang, www.electlang.com, will speak about his campaign for the PA Senate in 2006.

This past November, Det Ansinn delivered a decisive victory for Democrats in Doylestown Borough. He's dedicated to helping fellow Democrats and progressives to do the same. From candidate petition to election day, Det will be sharing his experiences in running an aggressive municipal campaign. Presentation will include slide show, strategies, and open discussion.

As a dual DFA and PDA chapter, Upper Bucks for Democracy will welcome Kathi Ember and Roger Balson.

Kathi is the PDA chapter coordinator for Pennsylvania, and has been identified by National PDA as the Pennsylvania State PDA contact. She is directly involved with the chapter in Berks County, where she lives, and the Kutztown Area Democratic Club. PDA National has encouraged states to utilize either a caucus model, or to at least find ways to coordinate groups through some kind of state organization.

Roger is working with Kathi to organize PDA in PA. He's also organizing a chapter in Delaware County, Delco Progressives, and is the website editor for the PA Progressives, the statewide networking organization helping to facilitate communication and planning between PDA chapters and other progressive organizations in PA.

In addition to their own two chapters, so far Roger and Kathi have visited two of the eight PDA-related organizations in PA: the Chester County Democratic Coalition in Chester County and Pocono Progressives in Monroe County.

Upper Bucks for Democracy will be celebrating our first anniversary. Jeanne and Mike will talk about our first year and our accomplishments.

Meeting on December 1, 2005

Upper Bucks for Democracy hosted a panel discussion of the 2005 election results. Participants included:
Jeanne and Michael Doyle, Upper Bucks for Democracy Leaders
Pete Wernsdorfer and Jonathan Soden, Lehigh Valley DFA Leaders
Candidates JoAnne Longo, Meg Groff, Robin Rosenthal, and Det Ansinn

Wal*Mart, the High Cost of Low Price

Movie Night: Bucks for Democracy (http://www.dfalink.com/group.php?id=324) hosted a screening of Robert Greenwald's new film: Wal*Mart, the High Cost of Low Price on November 16. The film takes you behind the glitz and into the real lives of workers and their families, business owners and their communities, in an extraordinary journey that will challenge the way you think, feel . . . and shop.

Forum on the Iraq War November 12

Upper Bucks for Democracy hosted a forum on the Iraq War on November 12, 2005, at the BuxMont Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at Street Road and Route 611 in Warrington. The speakers were from the group U.S. Tour of Duty.

RAY McGOVERN served as a captain in the U.S. Army from 1962 to 1964 before working as a CIA analyst for 27 years. From 1981 to 1985 he conducted daily briefings for Ronald Reagan's vice president, George Bush, the father of our current president. Ray now works for Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Savior in Washington, DC. He is also a member of the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Ray is featured in two ground-breaking documentaries: Robert Greenwald's Uncovered and John Pilger's Break the Silence. He is a frequent guest on many radio programs, and his opinion columns are published widely in various mainstream and alternative media outlets.

NADIA McCAFFREY is known as the Gold Star mom who defied President Bush by allowing reporters to view the flag-draped coffin of her son Patrick, who was killed in Iraq. After Patrick's death, Nadia traveled to the Middle East with filmmaker Mark Manning, who made Journey to Peace, a 30-minute documentary about the trip. They sought answers to what causes wars and met with Iraqi mothers. Nadia explains her purpose: "I wanted to look them in the eye and share their pain."

JEFF NORMAN is the Executive Director of U.S. Tour of Duty (www.ustourofduty.org/), a nonprofit project that supports the anti-war advocacy of Iraq veterans, military families, policy analysts, and performers by organizing public forums, developing communication strategies, and producing video content.

Meeting on Thursday, November 3

Bucks County District Attorney candidate Terry Houck, http://www.terryhouck.com/, will join us to talk about his campaign, as will Andy Warren, http://www.warrenforcongress.com/, candidate for the nomination to run against Mike Fitzpatrick to represent the 8th District in Congress. JoAnne Longo, candidate for Prothonotary, will speak about her experiences as a volunteer in the wake of Katrina.

Mike Doyle will speak on the DLC wars—a brief history and review of current positions of the Democratic Leadership Council.

"Not only are the Dean campaign activists out of step with most Democrats, but they seem intent on purging the party of Democrats who disagree with them."
—Al From (CEO of DLC) in Blueprint Magazine, May 31, 2005

Who belongs to the DLC? And how does their election thinking look vs. that of progressives?

Eric Loeb, Executive Director of GoodWorks-PAC.org, will also speak. In 2004, Republican and Democratic candidates spent$1.7 billion on commercials. GoodWorks-PAC.org works with Democratic Congressional campaigns to get most of that money and effort back into our communities where it belongs. The organization foresees a day when all candidates will demonstrate their leadership skills, show us what issues they care about, and display their approach to problems by devoting much of their campaign time and money to community service projects. GoodWorks-PAC.org identifies and supports Democratic Congressional candidates who will participate in "GoodWorks" projects. JoAnne Longo was set on course for Katrina humanitarian relief in Jackson, MS, and New Orleans, St. Bernard's Parish, with Eric as her initial organizer and leader.

Meeting on Thursday, October 6

Bucks County District Attorney candidate Terry Houck, http://www.terryhouck.com/, will join us to talk about his campaign, as will Patrick Murphy, www.Murphy06.com, candidate for the nomination to run against Mike Fitzpatrick to represent the 8th District in Congress, Tom Lingenfelter, candidate for Bucks County Controller, and Neil Samuels, www.NeilSamuels.com, candidate for State Representative, 143rd Legislative District.

Meeting on Thursday, September 1

Paul Lang (www.electlang.com), candidate for the nomination to run against Mike Fitzpatrick to represent the 8th District in Congress, will speak about his campaign.

Jeff Garis, Field Director for Pennsylvanians United to Protect Social Security, will provide up-to-date information on the ongoing struggle to protect Social Security and present strategies for local mobilizing in the context of this statewide and national campaign. Congressman Michael Fitzpatrick still refuses to take a clear stand on Social Security privatization and continues to avoid publicly facing his constituents on this issue. With a U.S. House vote on the McCrery-Shaw bill likely to occur in early fall, it is critical that visible and vocal opposition be organized expose this shabby repackaging of the Bush-Santorum privatization scam, and to increase the pressure on Rep. Fitzpatrick to represent his constituents rather than his party's elites. Join us and participate in mapping out a Bucks County strategy to save Social Security from those who despise our American principles of mutual support and human dignity for all.

Rich Kotchmar will join us from www.walmartwatch.com.

“Perhaps no other group is scrutinizing the company more thoroughly than Wal-Mart Watch. Since it was founded in March, Wal-Mart Watch has unleashed a torrent of news releases, advertisements and statements meant to change the way Wal-Mart does business.” --Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 6, 2005

In April 2005, Wal-Mart Watch launched a nationwide campaign to challenge Wal-Mart, Inc., to become a leader in corporate responsibility toward its workers and host communities. By supporting the many efforts already underway across the country, Wal-Mart Watch will serve as a catalyst for coordinated action and a unifying voice to counter Wal-Mart’s multi-million dollar media and public relations blitz. We invite your ideas, your participation and your commitment to establishing higher standards for corporate behavior at home and abroad. Wal-Mart Watch is a joint project of The Center for Community & Corporate Ethics, a 501c3 organization devoted to studying the impact of large corporations on society, and its advocacy arm, Five Stones.

Cyril Mychalejko, journalist and assistant editor of Upside Down World, http://www.upsidedownworld.org/index.htm, an online magazine covering politics and activism in Latin America, will also speak. A graduate of Council Rock High School and Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, he writes for numerous online and print publications.