Tuesday Evening 10/8/13, San Jose Will Do Final Vote On Modification of Bag Ban

On this coming Tuesday evening 10/8/13, San Jose will do final vote on amending plastic bag ban that take effect 1/1/14 that bag fee will remain at 10c instead of rising to 25c. The 10c bag fee will be imposed on all reusable/thick plastic bags, which are currently free.

Email San Jose City Council that you oppose 10c bag fee be imposed on ALL reusable bags. Also, you oppose bag fee be imposed on ALL retailers especially on small merchants and retailers who sell discretionary items such as clothing and accessories. It burden smaller merchants for the 10c per bag is not sufficient to cover their cost for the paper bags. And they are facing shop lifting problem. The fee on retailers selling discretionary items turns off shoppers who expect it as part of customer service. 70% of our economy comes from good old fashion consumer spending. We do not want to turn off shoppers which hurts our economy. 

Also, PLEASE CONSIDER joining several folks from StopTheBagBan on Tuesday night at the city council meeting to speak for 2-3 minutes. Please email Don at stopthebagban@gmail.com if you are available to speak.

Please read my blog on 8/13: To Read and To Watch for articles and movies on this "evil" plastic bag issue.

The more facts you can provide, coupled with personal experience on what you saw and did will make you a more persuasive speaker.

Council members Khamis and Constant are against the bag ban (and will likely vote against this on Tuesday night). The other council members support the bag ban.

SJ City Council’s emails:

http://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?NID=146

Or for you convenience, they are listed here:

For the bag ban (or likely for the modifications):

Mayor Chuck Reed: mayoremail@sanjoseca.gov

District 2: Mr. Ash Kalra: District2@sanjoseca.gov

District 3: Mr. Sam Liccardo: District3@sanjoseca.gov

Disctict 4: Mr. Kansen Chu: District4@sanjoseca.gov

District 5: Mr. Xavier Campos District5@sanjoseca.gov

District 6: Mr. Pierluigi Oliverio: pierluigi.oliverio@sanjoseca.gov

District 7: Ms. Madison Nguyen: District7@sanjoseca.gov

District 8: Ms. Rose Herrera: rose.herrera@sanjoseca.gov

District 9: Mr. Donald Rocha: District9@sanjoseca.gov

Against the bag ban:

District 1: Mr. Pete Constant: District1@sanjoseca.gov

District 10: Mr. Johnny Khamis: District10@sanjoseca.gov

The Hypocrisy of Plastic Bag Bans.

Congratulations to Issaquah, WA & Save Our Choice on Repealing Bag Ban

On 10/3/13 King County Department of Election has completed verification of the signatures submitted for Issaquah Initiative Petition on the Repeal of Plastic Bag Ban and Paper Fee, and a Certificate of Sufficiency has been issued.

Didn’t it make you want to cry? Especially if you have been hating it and working hard to get it repealed? With the wildfire of plastic bag bans sweeping across our nation, don’t you want to put a halt on it and call for reasons, investigations, and evaluations of the bans and fees?

You might not know; this was a long and hard won victory by Craig, Valerie and several dedicated volunteers from Save Our Choice (saveourchoice.us). They sacrificed summer and many leisure evenings. They spent 6+ months on the streets, knocking door-to-door to turn in 3600+ signatures. It came back early September short of 370, and was given 10 days to make up the deficiency. Every evening, they drove to Issaquah on their own expense and knocked on doors again to get more signatures, to register voters, or to get mismatched registrations corrected. They braved rain and darkness and got the work done. With this kind of determination and tenacity, they could move mountain! We really need to thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their hard work and sacrifices.

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Below is a poem from Craig Keller in response to Seattle Times endorsing legislature action banning bags statewide, or at least "harmonizing" regulations for those cities which vote in these coercive laws. That, along with his studying MacBeth with his daughter, inspired him to write this letter to the editor -- which understandably, was not published.  
(Fairview Ave. is the Seattle Times' address.  Olympia is the state capitol city at the southern tip of Puget Sound.) 

Oh! oracle of Fairview,

Whence my plastic-bagged news daily flows,

Are the gods of Olympia those who only know?

 Anon! see it arrive clean and dry through fog and filthy air!

Were it not, what reader remnant swift would disappear? 

Oh Titan! drop not our orb of fragile blue,

When learnt all wisdom rises not from that Olympic slough.

Yea, though tomorrow and tomorrow your delphic vapors intoxicate,

Be it a vote, by the people, for the people, we come to celebrate.

Yes! Come to celebrate with Save Our Choice on 10/13/13 from 4pm – 10pm at a dinner party.

Contact: craig@saveourchoice.us for more info.

And make sure you come out to vote in 2/11/2014.

It is a very rare opportunity; a hard fought victory by We, The People.

Are You Being Told the Truth About Plastic Bags?

Lawyer Stephen Joseph -- from Sueing Oreo Cookies to Defending Plastic Bags

Paper or Plastic? A Lawyer's Answer Sends Him From Hero to Pariah  

By VAUHINI VARA, Wall Street Journal, 3/28/11

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704396904576226823248251548.html

The above is a very fair and unbiased write-up.
This is what we need from journalism, from our public radio and TV, to point out the actual biases or potential biases from both sides, and let the readers decide.

Attorney Joseph went from sueing Oreo cookies over trans-fat to now defending plastic bags. He is the author for Save the Plastic Bag.com which has many writings on environment, litter, landfill and reports from other countries such as Britian and Scotland, and rebuttals on myths, misrepresentation and deceptive photos. Mark his web site and come back for some serious scientific reading. There are quite some video footage documenting the actual researches.
 
He has sued many cities in California over the plastic bags ban and for lack of environmental reviews on the bans.

I love his 6 minute movie here: Are You Being Told the Truth About Plastic Bags?
It is the counter part of the movie Pacific Garbage Patch.
Watch it on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdQUzxp9Mfw#action=share

or directly on this site: 
http://www.plasticbagmovie.com/

You might find it both educational and -- amusing. :)

On Now: Petition Drives To Repeal Bags Bans in Campbell

http://www.mercurynews.com/campbell/ci_23497414/campbell-becomes-latest-bay-area-city-ban-single 

The article above states that on 6/19/13, Campbell voted to adopt plastic bag and 10c bag fee to be imposed on ALL stores effective 1/27/14. The 10c will go up to 25c on 1/1/2015.

I am so thankful that after Issaquah, WA submitted 3400+ signatures to repeal plastic bags ban on 8/30/13, StopTheBagBan.com in south bay is launching a petition to repeal the bags ban. To go against this feel good tide of eco-fads, the task is daunting and unpleasant. I am grateful that some people took the plunge. I can only admire their determinations and sacrifices -- yes, sacrifices -- for I, too have given 100+ hours of labor and postage writing to lawmakers in various cities and states.

StopTheBagBan.com needs volunteers and donations to hire paid signature-gatherers. It must turn in 10% voters signature by mid December'13. Please ask all your friends, family who are registered voters in Campbell to sign. You can print out the petition here, or forward it to voters:
http://stopthebagban.com/documents/CampbellBagBanRepealPetition.pdf

I just set up a donation link on a crowd source funding site:
http://www.gofundme.com/4a39xs
Please donate $5, $10, $15, $20 or whatever amount you can.
Right below your name, you can check the box to donate anonymously.
I have so far forwarded $75 to them.
Or you can send a check directly to the address listed at the bottom of the petition page.

Pay to: Stop the Bag Ban
P O Box 20422
San Jose, CA 95160

The founder recently did a 30 minute TV interview with The Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley.
http://www.theconservativeforum.com/the-right-side.htm
We can all connect with the Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley on Facebook.

The 26 min interview has been posted on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaSWeLjk-5M

Besides Campbell, the group is now driving a referendum to force City of Los Gatos to retract its plastic bag ban. They must get 10% of registered voters signatures, approximate 1850 in 30 days, to be submitted before 10/7/13.Go to www.stopthebagban.com or email: stopthebagban@gmail.com for the petition.

Folks, we are in this together. If you are mad for being forced to live with this law, please do some things and support our effort.

We can not afford to sit quiet and let the feel-good greenies screw up our business community, our economy, our lives and environment with this over simplified solution. Every thing is interconnected. What is simple? I don't know how paper bags are better than plastic bags while the former take a lot of natural resources and energy to produce and create more greenhouse gases, and the later take little to produce. I don't understand why big and thick trash bags are better than the thin-film plastic bags for trash. Do we stop having to take out trash from now on? And why having to buy trash bags are better than reusing the plastic bags we used to get for free? I also don't understand why the retailers should not bag our purchases as part of customer services? If they don't, why should I want their merchandise?

The green-consultants have benefited from this eco-fads. They are fattened by public sector on environment and waste-management issues, and corporations on creating eco appeal. We can not afford to now let them move on to "solving" our global warming problem after they screw up our climate with this false "solution". Stay out, that is what they need to do!

And for those who works with environmental non-profits who have perpetuated myths and misrepresentations, they should bow their heads in shame, and get down to their knees and ask their gods for forgiveness, and quit their jobs as apologies to the public and to our planet!

If you go to my 8/13 blog: "to read and to watch", you will understand why I say so.

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Please feel free to reach out to us. We need troopers. If you would tell us how you can help; with time to email / write, money, labor that would be wonderful. Or just being there for us, will give us much of the needed moral support to press on:

stopthebagban@gmail.com -- San Jose, CA -- Larry & Don understand how city councils work very well.They spoke out at city hall public hearings. If you are ready to do so, please connect with them.

craig@saveourchoice.us - Seattle, WA -- Craig is a real pro. He has successfully completed 4 petitions drive in Seattle, Shoreline and 2 times in Issaquah, WA. Issaquah took him 6 long months to get all the initial signatures in. A long and hard fought battle with victory at the end. 

http://fighttheplasticbagban.com - Tony, Ventura, CA -- Tony is a pro, too.He spent hours writing each document. Check out his documents.

repealbagfee@gmail.com -- SF, CA -- Terry, me -- enthusiast, blogger who refuse to keep quiet. I want the supervisors, city councils and lawmakers hear me out.

Foes of Issaquah plastic-bag ban submit signatures to repeal it

Foes of Issaquah plastic-bag ban submit signatures to repeal it.
The Seattle Times.

The article above states that on 8/30/13 Issaquah, WA, Craig Keller of Save-Our-Choice has submitted  3400+ signatures on repealing plastic bags ban to the city clerk. The signatures have to be verified next.

I just talked with Craig Keller (9/18/13) that the validation came short of 370 signatures. He needs to turn those in in 10 days. Time is getting tight. If you know of any body who are registered voters or who resides in Issaquah, please spread the words and ask them to go to www.saveourchoice.us or email Craig at craig@saveourchoice.us now.

I was encouraged by SaveOurChoice.us taking the effort to drive a petition and succeeded in getting actually 3600+ signatures! Let's do the final push and get it on the ballots and let the voters vote!
If after the vote, we shall lose even by .01%, we will accept the result!
That is how law is supposed to be made!

Since everything costs money, let's make a donation to Save-Our-Choice to help the fight. We will fight city-by-city, county-by-county, state-by-state to take our lives back. Let us cross the city or state line and help each other so that we emerge strong:
http://saveourchoice.wordpress.com/contribute/
The address is P O Box 321, Issaquah, WA 98027

Do we have global warming? Yes? How is replacing plastic bags with paper bags help? Paper bags create more green house effect!

Are we now going to reward the same green advisors who advocate these bags bans to help us "solve" our global warming problem? That will be quite good business for them -- never ending problems to solve.

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In 3/2013 Texas Representative Drew Springer filed HB2416 "Shopping Bag Freedom Act"
to ban this kind of bans. We need to enact law like this in every single state to stop this craziness. 

Email Rep. Drew.Springer@house.state.tx.us to urge him to push it through!