Friday, July 18 at 7:00pm

Westminster Hills Church
27287 Patrick Avenue, Hayward, CA
(Map and Directions)

Media Critic and Activist Norman Solomon

Norman Solomon, a nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics, will show excerpts from his new film War Made Easy and talk about the political situation.

Norman is an elected Obama delegate to the Democratic Nominating Convention in Denver in August and a member of Progressive Democrats of America. He has been writing the weekly Media Beat column since 1992.

Commentary from Tom Kersten, Demos' President
July, 2008

Reduce California Greenhouse Gas Emissions to 1990 Levels by 2020

Last week, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released its Draft AB 32 Scoping Plan, detailing how the state plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Traci Sheehan, Executive Director of the The Planning and Conservation League (PCL), praised the scoping plan as an important milestone for the state in fighting climate change through substantial deduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

The comprehensive plan includes a major commitment to expand renewable energy, increase energy efficiency, and improve water management. However, the PCL also criticized the plan for not going far enough to reform land use provisions.

Rather than require stricter local mandates, the plan merely encourages local governments to adopt new standards though various rewards and incentives. Without stricter standards, this could leave the door open to a business as usual approach between local governments and developers. "The final plan should require any increase in greenhouse emissions from land use decisions to be fully mitigated, and also explicitly require that public agencies use CEQA as a tool to quantify and reduce potential greenhouse gas emissions from proposed projects."

More . . .

June, 2008, Fear, Anger and Courage in the Gilded Age

April, 2008, California Water Crisis on the Horizon?

March, 2008, Budget Wars: The Conservative Agenda

December, 2007, While I really wanted to end 2007 on a more positive note. . .

November, 2007, We live in interesting times, no doubt about that!

October, 2007, Supercaptialism (includes video of Robert Reich)