PDHblog This is a place for members of Progressive
Democrats of Hawai‘i to express their thoughts
and exasperations about political happenings. The opinions and views are not necessarily
those of PDH's steering committee
or membership as a whole.
In our sub-group at the LG speed dating event on Saturday, one of the topics we asked most candidates about was supporting quality agriculture land. In that group, the focus was largely about the Ho‘opili development that may displace an existing farm if allowed to go forward. The concept of “food sustainability” has come up in conversations a lot lately. It seems to be on off-shoot of the standard “sustainability” buzz word that many people profess to support, yet few seem to take many tangible steps to make it a way of life.
Along those lines, for many months (years?) I have been thinking about signing up for one of those weekly vegetable boxes that some local farms offer. It is an idea that I have always liked, but never got around to implementing in my own life. Until now. A friend of mine recently used his status post on facebook to comment about his CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) vegie box that he just got from MA‘O organic farms. Since I had been thinking about it already, that prompted to me to look into it once again. This time I followed through and purchased a subscription, so will now be receiving weekly boxes of fresh produce.
According to CSAfarming.com, “At its heart Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) connects local farmers with local consumers. These consumers help cover the farmer’s operating expenses in exchange for shares of produce grown or raised. Shares are usually purchased via varying types of memberships or subscriptions.” I chose to go with MA‘O, partly because of the facebook-friend connection, but also because I know about their work in the community and have always admired what they do. There are other local farms that have this type of set up as well. Some are listed at this link, http://csafarming.com/hawaii-csa
If each of us does our part to support local agriculture, perhaps food sustainability can become more than just a concept in Hawai‘i. We need to push our elected officials to support saving quality agriculture land, but we also need to support those farmers ourselves as directly as possible.
At our January general membership meeting, we discussed and passed a resolution regarding the situation in Afghanistan. It is now a month later and I am getting ready to go to our Feb general membership meeting… but I figured this was worth posting for people to see anyway.
If you agree with the sentiment, call your Congressional Representatives and let them know!
Afghanistan Resolution:
The dispatch of thirty thousand additional troops to Afghanistan is a profound mistake that is likely to undermine the credibility of the Obama administration and any of the progressive reforms it is trying to enact. Our soldiers will be used to prop up one of the world’s most corrupt regimes, one that has recently “won” a fraudulent election and has little if any appeal to the people of the country. In fact, its power does not extend outside of Kabul. American soldiers and firepower will alienate Afghans and drive them to support the Taliban.
The scenario we are following is familiar from Vietnam. As Under Secretary of State George Ball (the one senior advisor to advise Lyndon Johnson to withdraw) later recalled: “Nobody was prepared to concede that any particular step would require any further step.” We will send more and more troops under the guise that “progress” is being made. The casualties we take and treasure we expend will become justifications for deeper and deeper involvement. President Obama’s decision is sending us into a new quagmire which will split the Democratic Party and sabotage hope for genuine “change.” We urge the Hawaii Democratic Party to insist on withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan.
This past Saturday, a number of progressive activists, including a number of PDHers come out to Kailua to urge President Obama to do more, to do better.
A number of us have been disappointed by his position on a number of issues, including the health care reform bill that could be much, much better, and has provisions that don’t solve the problem, but rather serve as a boondoggle for private insurance companies. While many of us strongly support a Single-Payer system of health insurance, given the political realities we’re today faced with, we were happy to settle with a ’strong’ public option, which is in danger of being excluded from the final language.
We’re also unhappy about Obama’s decision to send more troops into Afghanistan, escalating a war that’s been waging for the better part of a decade, with no end in sight.
We also haven’t seen the financial reform he promised during the campaign. Instead, its been more of the same complicit favoritism toward the same financial firms and banks who’s irresponsible practices caused the worldwide financial meltdown and current economic crisis.
As the healthcare reform bills move through Congress, many progressives are starting to wonder if the bills are worthy of support. Former DNC Chair, Dr. Howard Dean, was a recent guest host on the Rachel Maddow Show and addressed this very question. An excerpt:
In order to have insurance reform, you need two things. The first is making sure insurance companies can‘t turn you down for any medical reason. That‘s called guaranteed issue—and that‘s in the bill. But that‘s only effective if you make sure that the coverage is affordable. And that‘s not in the bill.
As the bill is written now, the insurance companies will still be allowed to gouge their customers if they have illnesses, to charge you two or three times what your neighbor gets charged.
A lot of the insurance reform in this bill is gone. The only real reform that‘s left is the public option. If that‘s compromised away, this bill is no longer health care reform. It‘s just a huge gift to the health insurance industry from the same people who bailed AIG out, the American taxpayers.
Howard Dean discusses the bill with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt):
Dr. Dean interviews Rep. Anthony Weiner to get a perspective from the House. That video after the bump. (more…)
Title: 350 Rally for Climate Action Location: Hawaii State Capitol Description: 350 signifies the safe upper limit of CO2 in our atmosphere. Send a firm statement to policymakers that we must act decisively on climate change. Group photo will be taken at 3:50pm. Start Time: 2:00pm Date: 10/24/09 End Time: 5:00pm
Last week, Barack Obama caved in to pressure from corporate interests and an ongoing campaign by rightwing commentators, and fired Van Jones, the appointee in charge of overseeing the administration’s efforts to create “Green Jobs.”
From press accounts, we hear Jones had committed such unforgivable sins as signing a petition demanding answers to the US government’s response to the attacks on 9-11, and for saying Republicans are assholes at a public meeting at Berkeley several months ago.
I think the reasons Van Jones was dumped, rather than defended, by Obama are evident in this video of Van Jones’ speech at a mass environmental summit held in Washington D.C.. (more…)
in a recent new york times/cbs news poll, reuteres reports, 85% of respondents
wanted major healthcare reforms and most would be willing to pay higher taxes to ensure everyone had health insurance.
this is HUGE. most people usually respond to the notion of higher taxes with some level of annoyance or anger. but in this case, the opposite seems to be the case. while i don’t know that we have obama to thank for the results of this poll, though. instead, i think people understand, as some fundamental level, that real and major changes are need to fix our health care system. (more…)
i’ve been made aware of an excellent movie premiere here in honolulu on june 26th at the blaisdell concert hall.
i’ll let the preview, which is powerful in its own right, speak for itself. i will suggest, however, that PDH try to get as many people together as possible and go as a group.
The “A” in the PDH S.H.A.P.E.S. platform stands for Accountability and Justice for the Bush and Cheney administration. The national Progressive Democrats of America considers this part of their “Stop the War” priority, since most of the Constitutional excesses of the Bush & Cheney regime are related to the so-called “Global War on Terrorism.” That first priority begins:
End the War, Redirect Funding
PDA wants all troops withdrawn promptly, and war funds redirected toward social needs at home and humanitarian aid in Iraq. Toward that end, we call on the Democratic-led Congress to use its powers to 1) cut off funding that prolongs the military occupation of Iraq, and 2) fully investigate false White House claims justifying the invasion and occupation of Iraq. If such investigations lead to moves toward impeachment, so be it.
In the March 2006 issue of The Progressive, the remarkable Molly Ivins published one of her memorable columns, Enough of the D.C. Dems, in which she chastised Democrats,
“As usual, the Democrats have forty good issues on their side and want to run on thirty-nine of them.”
Her solution?
“Here are three they should stick to:
1) Iraq is making terrorism worse; it’s a breeding ground. We need to extricate ourselves as soon as possible. We are not helping the Iraqis by staying.
2) Full public financing of campaigns so as to drive the moneylenders from the halls of Washington.
3) Single-payer health insurance.”
I took her suggestion to PDH, adding one more item: Impeach Bush and Cheney! I also arranged these 4 items into a handy acronym S.H.I.P.:
