My Soapbox, by Chad Lupkes

On the subject of PCO elections

2012-01-05T11:58:00.001-08:00

The following is a comment that I have been building and collecting from comment threads where I have been defending the lawsuit filed by the Democratic, Republican and Libertarian parties against the Secretary of State to keep Precinct Committee Officers an publicly elected position. I just don't understand why media institutions and editorial pages are getting behind this. It seems they are in denial of the Constitution and the core foundations of our democratic institutions.

In the event of a vacancy, the State Constitution says that the County Central Committee of the party of the person who left the seat shall present three names to the County Legislative Authority so they may appoint a replacement to fill the seat. The RCW says that the County Central Committee consists of Elected and Appointed Precinct Committee Officers. This is not a private function, it is a public function, and one that we have to be ready for at any time. The King County Central Committee just went through that process to replace Senator Scott White in the State Senate. This is a critical public function for Precinct Committee Officers, and thus the political parties are asking for the PCO position to be filled by a public election within their precinct. Contrast that with the Olympia City Council, which had to go into closed executive session to discuss the qualifications of candidates to fill a vacancy, or the King County Council which was made "non-partisan" by referendum a few years ago and had to go through months of haggling to fill the seat vacated by Dow Constantine. If these decisions were made by elected members of a party, the entire process would have been open and it would have been done quickly so our representatives could get on with the business of governing, which is their job.

Another example that I see in these comment threads: The Electors whose votes are counted and sent to Washington DC to elect the President of the United States are elected at Congressional District Caucuses held each Presidential year. The delegates to those CD Caucuses are elected by Legislative District Caucus delegates who are in turn elected by Precinct Caucus attendees. The Precinct Caucuses are presided over by the Precinct Committee Officers, who up to now have always been elected by the public and are recognized and trained publicly elected officials presiding over these neighborhood meetings to ensure that they are organized and run properly and efficiently as to not waste people's precious time. This is a critical public function, and an important part of our democracy. To close the process off from public election at the lowest grassroots level would damage our democracy and hurt our state.

Another point I would like to make is that the political parties have tremendous power in regards to our electoral and political process, power which can be either concentrated or distributed. In our society, it is in our best interest to have that power distributed as much as possible, and having PCOs elected from the public INTO that party structure at the grassroots level ensures that power is distributed and not concentrated in the hands of a few.

Certainly there are plenty of internal Party politics stuff, and I would mostly agree that they should be dealt with internally. But for me the bottom line is not the meetings and activism, it's the core purpose of having locally elected public officials, so that when important decisions on who represents a district in the event of a death or resignation, it's as public as possible. Or when it comes time to identify our Electoral Collage members so that Washington State's voice is heard in Washington DC for the most important election in the world, the people who run the meetings at the very beginning of the process have some idea of how to run a meeting.

People who object to the parties outright make me wonder if they are basing all of their stated opinions on what they read in the media instead of real personal experience. Political parties are groups of people who really care about our communities. If you doubt that fundamentally, then we really need to have a longer conversation. I got involved in the Democratic Party in 2003 because I shared the idea at the time that they were closed groups making decisions in smoke-filled back rooms. As soon as I got involved, I realized I was wrong. It's not the parties that have been strangling our state, it's our political atmosphere that fosters the notion that the only way to get anything done is by achieving power through the exercise of control, rather than reaching for peace through the exercise of cooperation. That goes much deeper than the parties, and includes the transformation of our media, our education system, and our core values as a country.

Like I said, this needs to be a much longer conversation than just about PCO elections. The people of Washington have always had an independent bend, and that hurts our understanding of the purpose of political parties from the very start. I grew up in Kent, so I'm not an outsider. I just know we've been wrong about political parties since our ideas of them were skewed by the Grange in the early 1900's, and most people don't give the parties a chance to do what they are supposed to be doing.

What these editorial boards are suggesting is that PCO elections be paid for by the political party. As if we having democratic institutions paid for is not the purpose of government. This would likely result in the PCOs being appointed by the political party leaders instead of the public, which would result in much more of a closed political party structure making all of these important and representative decisions in a closed room instead of public officials meeting in public to make public decisions. This is not healthy for our democracy, and it is the wrong direction for our state. And all of the major political parties, Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians, see it the same way. All three have signed onto this lawsuit.

Our democratic processes cost time and money, just as any process does in the public or private sphere. While many of the functions of PCOs, Legislative District Organizations, County Central Committees and State Party Organizations may seem strange and arcane, they exist in order to amplify the voices of activists who freely choose to get involved in order to ensure their voices are heard in our government. It is worth the cost to ensure that these democratic processes are maintained and kept in the public sphere. Too many of the important decisions that our government makes are behind closed doors, with the voice of the public not heard or outright ignored. Please don't create or advocate for a situation where our political parties also close the door on the public, simply because county auditors are unwilling to do their duties as defined by the Constitution and the RCW.

What is the alternative, and where would that alternative lead us in terms of our bottom up grassroots people powered democratic institutions? Just saying "I don't want to pay taxes for this" isn't enough. What is the opportunity cost? I see it as Tammany Hall or a hyper powered party with no regard to the voice of the public, and I don't want to go there. Having tax money go to pay for PCO elections to prevent the corruption of our political process is well worth those tax dollars. At least to me.

Investments report, 2011

2012-01-03T16:44:00.001-08:00

2011 was a crazy year in a lot of ways, but my investment strategy seems to be working just fine.

I ended the year with a total account value of $8,114.17. I had put in $2,400 directly from my paycheck over the last 12 months. My total dividends for the year added up to $650.64, up from $266.65 the previous year, mostly because I was putting so much in myself.

Over the next 12 months, I'm currently calculating a dividend return of $974.69, or 12.02% yield. Of course, I'll be putting in another $2,400, plus buying additional shares and getting dividend reinvestments along the way so the dollar total will probably increase.

As far as share value goes, I only look at the summary screen, and it is telling me that I have lost $44.97 or 0.78%. That's overall based on the original purchase of each share compared to now. My highest gain in dollar terms was AT&T, which gained $363.55 or 24.17%, and my greatest loss was Chimera Investments which lost me $273.42 or 35.01%. CIM is still paying a 20.08% dividend yield, probably because the share value has dropped so much, but as long as it is paying it's worth holding on to until the share value reaches 20% of what I bought it for. CIM is one of the shares that pays me over $100 per year in dividends, and until that changes I'll hold on to it.

Overall, 2011 was a good year for my investment strategy. I am up to 2.17% of my goal, which is to earn $45,000 per year from dividends alone. I have a ways to go, but I can see it happening within 15 years or so. Just in time for early retirement, as long as the world is still here for me to enjoy.

What is the natural world worth?

2011-12-14T12:40:00.000-08:00

Beautiful answer from Pavan Sukhdev:

So take a planet like Mars with no biosphere, no plants, no animals and no humans. Mars does not have an economy, natural or otherwise? Let's call that zero.

Now take a planet like Earth with a biosphere, plants, animals and humans. Earth does have an economy, both natural and economic. Let's call that one.

What is the natural world worth? Well, take the economic value of Earth, 1, and subtract the economic value of Mars, 0. That's the difference between the value of Earth vs. Mars. Then divide it by the value of Mars, 0.

The value of a natural world is infinity. The opportunity cost of denying that our natural world is threatened, meaning what we would pay if we did nothing to mitigate climate change and the other effects that humans ARE having on Earth, is infinity. What does it mean to pay infinity?

You can answer that yourself.

How to pass the Occupied Amendment

2011-12-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

H.J.Res.90 is the House Resolution proposing an amendment to the US Constitution that reverses Citizens United. It was introduced by Ted Deutch (D-FL19) on November 18th.

The bill was referred to the House Judiciary Committee when it was introduced on November 18th, and from there to the Subcommittee on the Constitution on December 2nd. That's where the bill sits.

Activism means finding answers to three questions. What decision is being made, who is making that decision and how can I influence that decision?

The decision being made right now is whether the Subcommittee on the Constitution will hold hearings on this Resolution. There can be no action on the floor of the US House of Representatives until it passes out of the Subcommittee and then the full House Judiciary Committee. So we need to push for hearings. Here are the members of the Subcommittee on the Constitution:

Trent Franks (R, AZ-02) - Chairman
Jerrold Nadler (D, NY-08) - Ranking Member
Mike Pence (R, IN-06) - Vice Chairman
Steve Chabot, (R, OH-01)
Randy Forbes, (R, VA-04)
Steve King, (R, IA-05)
Jim Jordan, (R, OH-04)
Lamar S. Smith, (R, TX-21)
Michael Quigley, (D, IL-05)
John Conyers, Jr., (D, MI-14)
Bobby Scott, (D, VA-03)

The Subcommittee does not have a separate website, but here is the list of Subcommittees for the Judiciary Committee:

http://judiciary.house.gov/about/subcommittee.html

Phone number for the Subcommittee: (202) 225-2825

In addition to the House Joint Resolution, Senator Sanders (I-VT) introduced S.J.Res.33, which is the same bill on the Senate side. Currently only Senator Begich (D-AK) has cosponsored this bill, and it sits in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Here are the members:

Patrick Leahy, Vermont, Chairman
Chuck Grassley, Iowa Ranking Member
Herb Kohl, Wisconsin
Dianne Feinstein, California
Chuck Schumer, New York
Richard Durbin, Illinois
Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island
Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota
Al Franken, Minnesota
Chris Coons, Delaware
Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut
Orrin Hatch, Utah
Jon Kyl, Arizona
Jeff Sessions, Alabama
Lindsey Graham, South Carolina
John Cornyn, Texas
Mike Lee, Utah
Tom Coburn, Oklahoma

So, given all of this information, what do we do? We contact our friends who live in the House Districts or States of the members of these two committees, and ask that the Resolutions be brought up in committee for a hearing, then put to a vote so that they can be considered on the floor of each chamber. Please let me know what additional information you need, and I'll see what I can find.

Fix Citizens United!

2011-12-13T11:00:00.000-08:00

The Occupied Amendment

Rep. Ted Deutch: The OCCUPIED Amendment, H. J. Res 90
Senator Bernie Sanders: Saving American Democracy Amendment, S. J. Res 33

Rep. Jim McDermott (WA-07) co-sponsored on December 2nd

Rep. Rick Larsen (WA-02) co-sponsored on December 13th

Two down, seven to go.

Am I running for the House seat in the 46th?

2011-11-05T12:17:00.000-07:00

Since I submitted a questionnaire, I've had several people contact me after reading it to ask me this.

I'm comfortable as the Chair of the 46th District Democrats. During an eboard meeting to prepare for the upcoming Special Caucus on November 10th, we discussed the necessity of having three names submitted to the King County Council for the Senate appointment. I was asked to fill out the Questionnaire. I filled it out like I was a serious candidate. How could I not? That would dishonor the position and the PCOs who have to make the decision.

I don't like making "the ask". I like hearing other people's views. So let me ask this question in response: Do you WANT me to run?

I know our platform. I like to say that I'm about as "progressive" as you can get. Does that make you want me as an elected representative? The best person is a balance of passion, experience, connections and an ability to work within the system, at least in my mind. I won't be deciding who I support until I write a name on the ballot.

I guess it's up to the PCOs in the 46th.

Scott's ghost said "hi" today

2011-10-31T09:47:00.001-07:00

I'm a believer in ghosts, to some extent. I believe that as long as we hold someone in our hearts, their spirit and memories come back to haunt us in ways we don't expect. This morning as I was finishing up the Demogram, I did what I always do and searched for a previous email to our printer that had the correct description of the steps necessary to print out a 6 page newsletter. It's smaller than normal this month.

The only email that came up in my search was from October, 2007. It was an email from Scott to Trade Printery about that month's Demogram. That was the last time we had a 6 page newsletter, and it was the last Demogram he edited as Chair of the 46th.

History and memories create some very powerful ghosts on Samhain.

November 5th, Carl Sagan Day

2011-10-13T16:34:00.000-07:00

Remember remember the fifth of November
Science, Sagan and Rational Thought.
Let us ensure that Carl Sagan
Shall never be forgot...

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

2011-10-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

I'm really impressed by this.

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

THIS DOCUMENT WAS ACCEPTED BY THE NYC GENERAL ASSEMBLYON SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are their allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known:

§ They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

§ They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

§ They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

§ They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

§ They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless animals, and actively hide these practices.

§ They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

§ They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

§ They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

§ They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

§ They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.

§ They have sold our privacy as a commodity.

§ They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.

§ They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

§ They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

§ They have donated large sums of money to politicians, who are responsible for regulating them.

§ They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

§ They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives or provide relief in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantial profit.

§ They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.

§ They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.

§ They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.

§ They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.

§ They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.

§ They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.

To the people of the world,

We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.

To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.

Join us and make your voices heard!

§ These grievances are not all-inclusive.

Join the movement at http://www.occupytogether.com

Senator Murray asked for my views.

2011-09-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

Dear Senator,

Thank you for asking our views. I'm a hard core progressive, so my view on how to reduce the deficit and pay down the debt comes from that perspective. First, the deficit is a problem because our economy is in the tank. To improve the economy, we must get people back to work. To get people back to work, the overall demand in the economy must increase. The Federal Government can best help with that by awarding contracts for projects. I do not believe that ANY tax cuts will do ANY good, even "targeted" tax cuts meant to "help" the middle class. Those are failures from the word "cut". People don't mind paying taxes when their income is sufficient to pay their bills and put some money aside for the future.

One important aspect of the Contracts must be this: No foreign companies. None. Not one good or service paid for by US Tax Dollars should originate outside of our borders, and not one of those dollars should go to the profits of a non-US (tax-paying) corporation. If doing this means we have to withdraw from the WTO, do it. If this means we have to withdraw from NAFTA, do it. There are no shortcuts or substitutes for putting our own citizens back to work.

Second, take Social Security and Medicare off the cuts table. Period. Social Security should be changed so that it is self-funded forever, which could be done easily by eliminating the cap on the FICA tax. We also need to add a savings component, something similar to a National 401K, where anyone can put additional money into the Social Security Administration which would be invested in Treasury Bonds, Bills Notes or Municipal Bonds of their choosing.

Medicare should be expanded by initiating a public option where any US citizen can buy into the program. Nothing else will do more to help eliminate the deficit in Medicare funding.

Military contractors should be shown the door. No private company should ever be given a contract to do what our own soldiers are perfectly capable of doing. I mopped floors in the Galley when I was in the Navy. Now I hear we're paying people from the private sector more than an E6 to do that. That's insane, and stupid. End that.

Rebuild our roads, our water systems, our sewer systems, our power grid and our rail system. Do what Eisenhower was not able to do by putting rail lines alongside every Federal Highway.

Reverse the Bush, Reagan and Kennedy tax cuts. People in the top 1% of income earners should be paying 70% in taxes. People in the top 0.1% should be paying 90%. Prevent the concentration of wealth and power that leads to the corruption of power in Washington DC and everywhere else by making them understand that all the money they are earning belongs to the country, not to themselves personally. If they don't like that, they are welcome to fund Space Exploration so they can move to the Moon or Mars.

I'm a hard core progressive. Those are my views. Enjoy.

More work in Victory Creek Park

2011-09-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

My son and I continue to work on Victory Creek Park, just East of the QFC along Northgate Way. We're focused on the Eastern ravine, which we believe belongs to the Seattle Department of Transportation because it aligns with the right-of-way from 12th Avenue down to Northgate Way NE. I don't think anyone has touched that portion of the park for years.

Here's the report I gave to the Parks Department via their "Report Illegal Dumping" form:

My son and I found a bunch of junk while working in Victory Creek Park. There is a large soft bottle of black oil sludge of some kind in the Eastern ravine. The bottle does not have a lid. The remainder of the junk including two tires, some metal pieces and a planter box with some broken glass bottles are across the walkway, visible from Northgate Way.
If you have any questions, please contact me. My son and I work in that area every Sunday.

Correction, this is what I would have sent as a comment if their comment character limit wasn't 150. Which is way, WAY, too short for me.

Here's the response I got when I submitted the form:

Thank you for your message to Seattle Public Utilities regarding Illegal Dumping. We will respond to your report as quickly as possible.
If the illegal dumping violation is on public property, Seattle Public Utilities will dispatch a clean up request to the appropriate department or agency. Public property includes alleys, sidewalks, planting strips, streets and rights-of-way. Our goal is to inspect reported complaints within 10 business days and remove debris within 14 business days.
Private property dumping is a civil matter between the property owner and the violator. For information on illegal dumping on private property, please contact the DPD Code Violation Complaint Hotline at (206) 684-7899.
We share your concern, and appreciate your message. It is citizens like you who help to keep our communities clean and beautiful.
Sincerely,
SPU Customer Service

I don't think this is NEAR fast enough. Of course, I'm not sure how many reports per day they get of people dumping stuff within the Seattle city limits. Probably way to often.

Here are some pictures of what we found.

I'll add more pictures as soon as we get them uploaded.

Ten years

2011-09-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

I arrived to work on time, around 7:00am. My job was to unpack the boxes that came in to the Sportswear department and get the floor ready for the day. The building was usually buzzing with the Department managers and stock people doing the same, but this was a quiet morning. My manager came down and asked if I knew. He sent me upstairs to the lunchroom where the television was. I watched the second tower fall.

I had been in the military. I knew what this meant. We were at war. With someone, not sure who yet. The manager of the shoe department was ranting about someone from the Middle East. I told him that another plane had gone down in Pennsylvania. We thought it had been going after Camp David.

Someone threatened the Irdis Mosque and shot a bullet into the ground there. I wrote up a sign and took it to the Imam to have translated. "We are one people, stronger than before". I meant it to mean America.

Most people were sent home that day. Nobody was coming in to shop. Everyone was at their televisions. But Nordstrom immediately geared up for a sale. Their first and only Fall Sale, to clear our inventory, and send a percentage of the sales to Ground Zero. The Mens Buyer walked into a local embroidery manufacturer and told them he wanted shirts and hats with the US Flag on them in every store. We probably sold hundreds. I wanted to buy one, but they all sold too fast.

There was an image in the news, with people from Pakistan holding up a banner that read "America, think why you are hated around the world." So I stopped to think. And I remembered my oath.

"...against all enemies, foreign and domestic..."

I was in the military. I knew what this meant. We were at war. And I knew who with. They're not from the Middle East.

Thank you, Mr. Treasurer!!

2011-07-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

I've been talking about municipal bonds to anyone who would listen for several years. I think using Muni bonds could be a way of saving our economy, if they are used properly, and sold to the right people (meaning everyone) at the right price (meaning what people can actually afford). Right now, if our state (or a city or county) needs money for a project, they go where everyone else goes, which is to Wall Street. They sell the bonds, pay the interest, and Wall Street gets rich. Sure, the government gets the money, and the projects get done. But only Wall Street gets rich from the interest. As a progressive, I don't like that. I want everyone to be able to get those returns, which is impossible if the State Treasurer only goes to Wall Street.

Jim listened! I was looking at the SeattlePI.com website this morning, and saw this:

Here's the letter on the front page of the Buy Washington Bonds website:

Welcome

Thank you for visiting Buy Washington Bonds.

Washington periodically issues bonds to finance investments in our schools, roads, bridges, housing, parks, and other crucial infrastructure projects.

As Treasurer, I am responsible for managing all of the State’s bond sales. I’m pleased to announce that on July 15 and 18, 2011, Washington bonds will be available to state retail investors in advance of other investors. On this website, you will learn more about these bonds and how to purchase them.

We expect to periodically have a portion of future State bond sales offered to retail investors and will update this website for those sales.

Sincerely,

James L McIntire, Washington State Treasurer

He's been talking about getting these ads out into the Washington media for a while, but this is the first time I've actually seen one. My wife also heard an ad on NPR about this.

He's offering the bonds to the retail public in Washington State for a few days before he goes to Wall Street. Now the biggest hurdle is the denomination, which is $5,000 at minimum. Bonds are "priced" at $100, but bundled at $5,000 to help the banks ensure that they don't drown in work because thousands of people want to buy $100 worth instead of just a few people wanting to buy $5K worth. The only way to change that is to have Congress mandate that the denomination of all Municipal Bonds be set at $100. Which the banks would fight against, like everything else.

But I want to thank our Washington State Treasurer for putting out these ads!! It's a great start!

More work in the park

2011-07-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

Shea and I worked on Victory Creek Park again today. Here are two videos, before and after, and a picture from after we were done.

From My Soapbox, by Chad Lupkes

Conservative talking point proven wrong, of course...

2011-06-29T18:42:00.000-07:00

I received another forwarded email today that told an old lie, and I want to say something about that lie.

"100% taxation of the income of every taxpayer in the US would NOT cover annual federal spending."

That's a lie. It's absolutely false, and here are some numbers to throw back at the lying liers who tell that lie.

The GDP of the United States was estimated to be $14.7 Trillion in 2010. The "GDP per capita" was $46,381. (Now, given that this calculates a total population of 316,940,126 people, I'm guessing that some of that is business to business. We don't have that many wage-earners in the US yet. But I'll use the number anyway.)

According to this NYTimes article in February of 2010, the 2010 Federal Budget was $3.8 Trillion. That included a $1.56 Trillion deficit.

If every wage earner, both individual and business, paid the same flat tax rate to the Federal Government, that tax rate would need to be 25.85%, or an average of $11,990 out of that $46,381. Just to pay the deficit would be 10.61%, or $4,922. But of course, if we did that, there would BE no deficit.

Now, 25.85% is a high tax rate for Americans. Especially if they don't have a clue and don't pay attention. Because according to history, that's about right. Especially if you consider that with a balanced budget we could really get serious at creating jobs, rebuilding our crumbling infrastrcture and actually start paying down the Debt. We wouldn't have to sell more bonds than we bring in as tax revenue, and the financial markets would LOVE us. The only people who would hate life would be the Republican Party and the Conservative Movement they serve, because they would be proved wrong, on everything, forever.

A day in the park.

2011-06-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

Victory Creek Park in Seattle is right behind the Northgate QFC, and it's a small park with a stream connecting to Thornton Creek. You can see it on a map here. This is within my precinct, SEA 46-2324, and I've worked in the park before. A few years ago, I saw that someone had done some significant work in it, building a new trail and bridge. This was part of a senior project for Alika, who received the help of his father Eric.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that the ivy on the trees was growing, and I remembered a guide from Earthcorps saying that one good way to fight invasive ivy is to simply cut it off at the ground and at about eye level. Here are some pictures of the trees after Shea and I did that taken a few days later: (not in 2016, that camera is in a time-warp..)

Good show of how we cut the ivy around this big tree.

This is higher up in the trees than we could reach, and I could see the ivy starting to dry up.

Another picture of the trees with the ivy dying.

Not fantastic photos, but the first one gives a good indication of what we did. I also started working on the blackberry brambles under those trees, and I saw something. It was a grocery cart, and something else I couldn't identify. But it was too deep in there and it was getting late, so we stopped.

Today I decided to go back and see what I could do. I'd bought a new pair of clippers from Ace Hardware, and they worked really well. The cart was surrounded by metal pieces that turned out to be from a geodesic half-dome that had been in a neighbors yard about 20 years ago. There's still a lot of blackberries in there, but I feel good about it. One of the employees at QFC said that they would get a friend to come haul it away. Here are some pictures:

Grocery cart and play-dome pieces

Another view of the scrap

This is the hole I cut into the brambles to get the metal out

And this is me for a size comparison

I'm going to go back over the summer and continue working on the park. There are still a lot of blackberries and it's a good workout.

Stepping stone reached in investments

2011-06-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

I've reached yet another stepping stone in my investment strategy. I now have 5 stocks that pay me at least $100 per year in dividends. My current yield (today) is 10.39%, and I'm expecting to get $740.89 in dividends over the next 12 months.

Milestone reached in investment

2011-06-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

I know this is going to end up being controversial, but thought I'd share it anyway. I've reached another milestone in my investment strategy. I now have 4 stocks that pay me at least $100 per year in dividends. My current yield (today) is 10.35%, and I'm expecting to get $727.79 in dividends over the next 12 months.

If you're interested in learning more about my strategy, you can view this presentation.

The Living Universe Foundation

2011-05-25T11:48:00.000-07:00

Back in 2001, I found reference to a group that fired my imagination. However I was getting married, going to college, and dealing with some other challenges. I always intended to get back to them to see what I could do. Then in 2003 I fought and beat cancer, and was redirected by the Fates into political activism. Everyone who follows my posts and actions knows where that has led me, and I don't regret any of it.

But my heart has always been in science fiction, and changing such fiction in to engineering and historical reality. The group I found in 2001 was the Living Universe Foundation, based on the vision presented in the book "The Millenial Project" by Marshall Savage. This is a 1,000 year plan to push humanity into space and beyond our solar system.

http://www.luf.org

I've gotten back involved, and recently rebuilt their primary website. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

I support our actions in Libya

2011-03-30T10:07:00.000-07:00

Louis XVI failed to make the case for intervention in North America. He never addressed the issue of his warmaking powers. He failed to distinguish between America and other cases like it, such as India, Vietnam, or Indo-China. And he didn’t adequately address the question of the overextension of the military after the Seven Year's War, and the distraction from the crying needs that face his country.

The promises of rebels -- as voiced in their "Declaration of Independence" -- should be met with the same skepticism as the rationale for war offered by the Auguste administration. "If the King is going to go on training rebels every time the flow of commerce is threatened," wrote the King's critics from their hiding places, "then we can expect perpetual war."

...

As long as the UN, NATO and Arab League have the lead roles in this, I have no problem with what our military is doing in North Africa. I do believe that our current President is smarter than our previous one. And I believe that the people of Libya have the same rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that we did in 1776.

From the Capitol in Madison

2011-02-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

From the Capitol in Madison to the Shores of Tripoli
http://warisacrime.org/content/capitol-madison-shores-tripoli
By David Swanson

From the capitol in Madison
To the shores of Tripoli
We will fight the people's battles
And we'll fight them peacefully;
We’ll pledge to be nonviolent,
And we’ll train before we start.
For our fight will be relentless,
We commit with all our heart.

Our flags unfurl to every breeze
From dawn to setting sun;
We will fight in every clime and place
And we'll never touch a gun.
In the snow of far-off northern lands
And on sunny tropic seas
You will find us always on the job
Building new democracies.

Here's health to everyone on earth
Whom we are proud to serve;
Despite the strife we'll risk our life
And never lose our nerve.
If the tyrants and their funders
Wish history to please
They will step out of their palaces
And join our democracies.

Family Disaster

2011-02-17T23:08:00.000-08:00

Got a call this afternoon from a family friend, telling me that there had been a fire at one of the family homes in Kent.

No kidding.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/26906135/detail.html

http://kent.komonews.com/news/911/fire-rips-through-kent-home/622080

http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/cmv/news/116452883.html

My mom will heal. The fire burned her face pretty badly, and she is at Harborview. Nobody else was hurt. They got the dogs down to the other house owned by my family on the same block, and we'll be looking for the cats tomorrow. We're guessing the kittens didn't get out. The bigger problems are on the horizon. My mom had retired from King County on December 31st, and had not continued her health insurance. She also had not had the time to send in the check for Homeowners Insurance. Meaning they have lost everything. All clothes for 2 adults and 1 child, all the toys, all the books collected over 50+ years, ... everything. The only thing we can do is put the lot up for sale.

What we need more than anything right now is clothes. My mom told me to run up her Nordstrom card. I think I'll stop by Value Village and call the Red Cross first.

Don't EVER go without insurance. That's why I got involved in politics in the first place, to push national health care insurance. I'm not giving up until I see my son get a US National Health Insurance card.

I'm checking to see how people can help. Right now the biggest need is clothes for three people. My mom wears a 1x-2x, Alberta wears 3x-4x and Karen a girls 14-15.

Update: My mom's clothes somehow survived. We're just going to have a large drycleaning bill.

If anyone would like to donate money online, please send money to my paypal account. search for my email address, chadlupkes@gmail.com

Dear Gov. Gregoire,

2011-01-14T06:36:00.000-08:00

I'm seeing some notes on the pro-life blogs that you have decided to restore funding to the "Take Charge" program, which allows young people to control their own reproductive choices. Thank you, that was a wonderful decision. The savings for the state over the next few years is substantial, because this program prevents unplanned pregnancies and other medical complications that we the citizens would have to pay for through our public tax dollar without this program.

Now I want to ask a follow-up question. I see on your proposed budget that the state is planning on cutting a significant number of people out of the Basic Health program. If your logic with "Take Charge" was to save the state money by preventing future medical expenditures by spending a little bit now to get a lot of savings, I can't help but wonder why the same logic does not apply to Basic Health. If we don't provide basic health services, then the only choice that those currently enrolled in that program will have is emergency health services which cost so much more.

Please reconsider your position, and find the revenue to fund our Basic Health program for ALL people in Washington who need it. I strongly believe that this will save our state money in the long run.

Chad Lupkes
Seattle, Washington

A positive heath insurance story

2011-01-12T15:22:00.000-08:00

Dear Mr. Nordstrom,

I wanted to share a small amount of good news and thank you for building such a great company to work for.

My son is having a difficult time making the transition from his previous life with his mother (my ex-wife) in California to living with me and my current wife here in Seattle. He has been going through counseling, and I have been trying to give him as much support as I can. His counselor recommended having him evaluated at the UW Medical Center’s Child Development Clinic, and we completed the paperwork just before the end of the year. He is being scheduled for an evaluation in February.

One of the people working at the UW called me because one of the tests can run up to 5 hours long and can cost quite a bit. She wanted to make sure I was aware of the potential cost in case the procedure was not fully covered by my insurance. I called Aetna and gave them the contact information for the UW, and I got a call right away from the UW saying that my son was covered for the procedure at 100%, something that she had never seen before.

This is a huge load off my mind, not to mention the cost that such wonderful health insurance saved me from. Just like in 2003 when this insurance plan saved my life during a fight with Hodgkins, I can feel the strong foundation of community under my feet when I walk into work every day.

Thank you.

What struck me the most

2011-01-08T20:29:00.001-08:00

My wife and I found a live feed from the Washington Post website as soon as we heard about today's shooting. What struck me the most is what I read in this article, thanks to Scott Forbes.

Also killed was 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green of Tucson.

A neighbor was going to the Giffords event and invited Christina along because she thought she would enjoy it, said her uncle, Greg Segalini.

Christina had just been elected to the student council at her school. The event, held outside a Safeway supermarket north of Tucson, was an opportunity for constituents to meet Giffords and talk about any concerns they had related to the federal government.

The school is Mesa Verde Elementary School, in Tucson, AZ. I think one of the best things that we could do would be to send support to their Parent-Teacher Organization. I have an email in to the PTO President to make sure that we can send things to the school address. I'll post that when I get a reply.

Update: Posted Beth's answer as a comment. Here's the address for the school:

Mesa Verde Elementary School
1661 W. Sage
Tucson, AZ 85704

Dear Amazon, where is your customer service?

2010-12-25T09:19:00.000-08:00

I think the Amazon computers are out of control. I also think that their customer service department (which of course should be the entire company) has failed us this holiday season. This is the letter that my wife just sent to them:

I'm very frustrated right now with your lack of customer service regarding this delivery. Not only did I get a message after 5:00p.m. on Christmas Eve that you would be unable to deliver my groceries at my scheduled time on 12/26/10, I've gotten no response to my reply, so I don't know if the delivery time can be rescheduled or if it just won't happen, and we have other plans on that day that we have to work around. Then I got my usual deliver reminder this morning telling me you would be delivering my groceries tomorrow between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m., and when I tried to call and leave a message, since email obviously isn't getting me any answers, your phone system said that you weren't in and hung up, leaving me no way to leave a voice mail.

This is seriously poor treatment of a loyal customer on Christmas weekend and I will cancel this week's order. Since I have no way to contacting anyone there or making sure you get any messages before tomorrow, I will simply delay all of my items on automatic delivery until next week.

Will you be delivering at my usual time next week or will it be the same deal, me getting notification on New Year's Eve that my delivery on the day after New Year's won't take place?

I suppose that if I get no answer to this query either, I should assume that next week won't be any better and cancel that as well.

This is how Amazon says "Merry Christmas"? I think they can do better than that.

Potential solution for the Eurozone bond problem.

2010-12-06T09:47:00.000-08:00

I just figured out a potential solution. Instead of a full Euro bond, and instead of breaking up the Eurozone into two pieces, allow countries to pair up for bonds where sets of countries can pair up and support each other.

For example, Germany can pair up with a country that needs help, and they can do a bond together. The primary repayment responsibility would be the country that needs help, with Germany as the "co-signer". That way the markets have stability and trust that their investment will be paid back, the country that needs help gets the funds for their municipal projects, and Germany doesn't have to worry about paying out any money unless their partner completely folds.

Geographic History of United States Elections

2010-11-23T14:37:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Lecture 1

Lecture 2

Lecture 3

Lecture 4

Lecture 5

These lectures are © Stanford University

Twelve Steps to recover from a Right Wing Media addiction

2010-11-23T12:58:00.000-08:00

1. Admit that we are powerless to control what comes across over the TV and Radio.
2. Come to believe that our community intelligence can restore us to sanity.
3. Make the decision to turn our will and lives over to the pursuit of peace and cooperation instead of power and control.
4. Inventory our issue positions and where those ideas come from.
5. Admit to society and ourselves the exact nature of our assumptions and misconceptions.
6. Become ready for our communities to educate us about those assumptions and misconceptions.
7. Humbly ask for forgiveness from our community.
8. Make a list of everyone we have spread right wing lies to and be willing to educate them on the truth.
9. Make direct amends to such people when possible, except when we get violent or negative reactions from them due to our new-found understanding and community spirit.
10. Continue to educate ourselves on the history and current events, and when we find something that points out another misconception or wrong assumption be ready to admit it.
11. Seek through community dialoge to improve our consious connection with that community, praying that through collective and self-understanding we can achieve a brighter future for ourselves and our children.
12. Having had a community re-awakening, carry the message in our hearts and deeds to engage, educate and empower others to join the effort of building our communities.

Time to rip apart another GOP idiot

2010-10-12T21:10:00.000-07:00

So, I see this tweet come over Tweetdeck from the WAGOP. It's a retweet from Koster4Congress. John Koster is the GOP candidate for Washington's 2nd Congressional District running against Rick Larsen. It is a link to his latest email talking about Rick's latest ad against him. Granted, as FactCheck.org points out, the Americans for Tax Reform Pledge does not state in writing that co-signers support outsourcing jobs. However, I need to point out that the Pledge also does not state in writing that co-signers support in-sourcing of jobs. The fact is that Americans for Tax Reform doesn't say anything about jobs because they don't CARE about jobs. They care about taxes. Low taxes. Taxes so low that the government can't do anything to prevent the outsourcing of jobs. So, in other words, Factcheck.org is correct, and the co-signers of the Americans for Tax Reform Pledge are idiots.

We knew that.

However, I did not know that John Koster was so totally ignorant about the United States until I went to his Issue Summary page.

John Koster has never heard of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Government Spending vs. GDP was higher in the 1940's, and the National Debt was higher in the 1940's. So when Koster says "uncharted economic waters", he is lying. When he says incomprehensible spending, it means he doesn't know how to read. I agree about unconscionable deficits, but when someone makes that claim AND says that he is proud to have signed the pledge from Americans for Tax Reform, then it means that he would rather see deficits and debt than actually collect the tax revenue that would be needed to balance the budget and reduce the debt.

Our "founding document" is the Constitution of the United States. The Declaration of Independence was a resolution. The purpose of government is defined in the Constitution as follows:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

I know that conservatives would like to toss the first three of these and just focus on the military and "freedom", but if they want to be considered American they really should try to support all of the goals of our government.

Does a well funded military mean that the Pentagon doesn't have to keep track of their money? When was the last comprehensive audit performed of the Department of Defense? Where exactly does all of that money go, anyway?

Koster seems to believe that suspected terrorists do not have any rights. Of course, he knows exactly who he means when he says this, wink, wink... I'm sure it's frustrating for him to be living in a nation of laws instead of a nation of winks and nods.

George Washington was not able to board a plane and step off into the streets of Paris in 10 hours. Any conflict, anywhere on the planet, can reach our shores in a matter of hours. That makes every conflict a legitimate concern for our national interest and security.

Being a veteran myself, I'm glad Koster supports our military veterans. I also support their families, and I support their right to come home to an economy that can support them.

I wonder if Koster considers the FDA standards of farm safety to be excessive. And repealing those standards would result in what? Oh, yeah. Disease and death.

Small businesses (making less than $5M) and farmers should be exempt from the Federal Estate Tax. But it should certainly apply to stock speculators.

Free Market = low wages. Free enterprise = no regulations and no consumer protection. Money that is reinvested into a small business is NOT TAXED. Only money that is brought home in a paycheck is taxed. Jobs are created by demand, not wealth. Don't talk to me about "S" Corporations.

We ARE drilling on American soil. We don't have enough to meet the demand. And Koster doesn't seem to believe in Climate Change, risking our children's future on his "right to keep the fruits of our labor" dogma.

What would have been "sound economic policy" would have been to reverse the Reagan Tax Cuts and balance the budget in 2010. We could have done it. We should have done it.

I give up. Everything I'm reading on his issues page is right wing "Boehner is my King" garbage.

Rick Larsen may not be perfect, but at least I know he shares most of my values. John Koster doesn't seem to share any of them. And that means he is the wrong choice for the 2nd Congressional District.

Original Intent?

2010-09-24T12:44:00.000-07:00

The GOP wants to bring our country back to the "original intent" of the US Constitution.

They do know that the "original intent" did not include Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of the Press, Freedom to own guns, etc, right? The Bill of Rights was a requirement that the states demanded in order to agree to ratify the original Constitution, and was passed by Congress AFTER that certification. So, did "original intent" include them, or not?

They do know that the 40 hour work week was not part of the original intent of the Constitution, right? Supreme Courts had ruled this, and other free-market intrusions of government like child labor and L&I insurance, unconstitutional until the 1930's. So if the GOP wants to go back to the original intent, would they rule those basic workplace protections as against what the founders intended?

One specific thing that was included in the Supreme Court rulings was denial of the ability of the government to create Unemployment Insurance. So, if the GOP wants to go back to the original intent, that means the people who are currently unemployed would be thrown to the free market. Same with Social Security and Medicare. The GOP has ALWAYS wanted to repeal those entitlement programs instead of fixing them and making them sustainable. They would rather throw our seniors and kids to the good graces of our charities. Which receive and control less than 5% of the capital available for those programs through government intrusion into the market place. People would starve, freeze and die of illness. That's the GOP.

The GOP wants to give the DENIED stamp back to the private health insurance companies. Their "Pledge to America" would very simply Plunge America into a Second Great Depression. A second Republican Great Depression.

We will get the kind of government that we vote for. If you believe that government should be used to help people, to establish a foundation for everyone so we can reach for our potential and reach for the stars, then please vote Democrat. Not because we're the least worst option, but because the Democratic Party is the ONLY option to keep our country moving in a positive direction.

Keep our nation in Drive. Vote D.

Dear Gov. Gregoire,

2010-09-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

Please do not end the Take Charge Family Planning Program.

Take Charge saves the state money. Take Charge costs approximately $4 million a year. The unintended pregnancy costs in one year for those who are left without services are $45 million.

By cutting $4 million the state will incur $45 million in additional costs this year alone.

If $4 million to fund this program sounds like a lot now, how are we going to pay for the $45 million a year in new pregnancy costs next year which will add to the $3 billion deficit we already know about?
This program has allowed over 400,000 low-income Washingtonians to get the basic health care they need to be healthy and make responsible decisions. Thousands of unplanned pregnancies have been avoided because of this successful and cost-effective program.

The program has improved lives: young women have been able to finish school; families have been able to better to care for the children they already have; women have been able to start a career.

I know we are facing a huge revenue shortfall, and you are forced to make very tough choices. But this cut makes no sense for Washington's families or our budget, since it will cost the state $45 million in the next year.

Please use all of your resources to save this program. None of us can afford for Take Charge to end.

----

To take action and send your own letter to Gov. Gregoire, please click here!

Answering Dino Rossi's latest letter.

2010-09-11T10:22:00.000-07:00

Dino Rossi's campaign is so badly organized, they actually sent ME a fundraising letter. Here's my answer:

Brick by brick, the conservative movement is trying to take apart the foundation of our nation's future. The trillions of dollars that goes through our Federal Government provide that foundation, and Dino Rossi and his conservative allies think that it is too much. They believe that the Health Care legislation that passed cost too much. They claim that the IRS will need to hire more people to collect the taxes. That's a lie.

They claim that the first set of stimulus money "has doubled our national debt". That's a lie. The conservative Heritage Foundation report that was the source of that claim said that if nothing was done that would be the result over the next decade. Rossi puts that doubling in the past tense. We intend to do something to balance the budget, pay OFF the deficit, and pay down the debt. And we're willing to do it without destroying our country and hurting our people.

Rossi claims that the stimulus plan failed to create jobs. The Congressional Budget Office believes otherwise, that the stimulus may have created up to 3.3 million jobs. So Rossi is lying again here.

Rossi claims that the government "took over car companies". That's a lie. GM is doing an IPO over the next few months so that the government can sell the shares it owns after the bankruptcy saved the company from extinction, and maybe even make money on the sale of that stock.

The policy of giving money to banks, insurance companies and Wall Street was a $700B boondoggle that came from a Republican Treasury Secretary under a Republican President. I agree that it was a bad idea. But is Dino so completely stupid that he believes that the Federal Government should be able to tell those companies that they are not allowed to give bonuses to their executives? He needs to make up his mind.

Rossi talks about the expiring tax cuts affecting the "average family". If Bill Gates walks into a bar, I'll bet the average income of the bar will increase as well. If Republicans are going to complain about the debt and the deficit, then they are being hypocrtical by only looking at one side of the equation. We need to pass I-1098 so that the people who won't be hurt by taxes can help pay the taxes.

America is at a crossroads. We can either continue to move forward, or we can put the country in reverse. Much of what has happened over the first year and a half of President Obama's term has been moving in the right direction. Personally, I don't think it's far enough, and certainly not fast enough. But one step forward is better than 8 years of goosesteps in the wrong direction.

The Balanced Budget Amendment to the US Constitution has been introduced before. It's a crock, designed to be a nice talking point during the election. The truth of such a requirement is that it would destroy our country. In the United States, We the People are the government. So when conservatives say, quite seriously, that they want to drown the government in a bathtub, what they are saying is that they want to drown the people of the United States in their own debt. People who don't believe in government have no business running for office.

Rossi says that healthcare is too costly. He has never had cancer. He doesn't have a child with severe disabilities. Dino Rossi doesn't care about health care expenses because he has never had to pay them. He has no idea why people need help paying for their health care expenses because he has never needed help.

Rossi whines about $11 Billion in earmarks, which is less than 1% of the total budget. I don't think he has his priorities in order.

Dino Rossi can count on my help to send him back to the private sector, so he can continue to make money off the forclosures that are driving our fellow citizens out of their homes because the private sector has failed to use the Trillions of dollars at their disposal to hire people at a living wage. Third time's a charm, Dino. I hope this is the last time any of us ever see your name on a ballot.

I'll say again, people who don't believe in government have no business running for office. If the private sector is capable of doing everything, why hasn't it? Because it's another lie.

There is not one shred of truth to anything that Dino Rossi says when he talks about his values. He doesn't care about people, he cares about money. That's why he's asking for our money so he can help defeat our values in Washington DC.

Don't give him the time of day.

Chad Lupkes
Chair, 46th District Democrats

How to support our kids:

2010-09-02T07:12:00.000-07:00

"It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex. ... The legislature shall provide for a general and uniform system of public schools."

This is from the Washington State Constitution, Article IX. If we accept this constitutional duty, then we must recognize the responsibility of the legislature to maintain their ability to raise revenue sufficient to fulfill their paramount duty, that of funding our schools. Anything that limits or reduces the ability of the Legislature to raise that revenue should be considered an attack on our schools. And anyone who proposes and/or promotes limits or reductions on the ability of the Legislature is against our State Constitution, against our schools, against our kids' future, and SHOULD NOT BE PROPOSING INITIATIVES TO THE PEOPLE OF WASHINGTON STATE!!!

Please vote against I-1053 and against I-1107. Let our legislature do its job providing for our kids education and our future.

On David Horsey's latest cartoon

2010-08-25T06:29:00.000-07:00

See the cartoon here.

The comments are typical of the right-wing fanatical insanity that we usually see from people who don't have anything better to do than repeat the FOX and right-wing talking balloons. So here's what I posted:

What did we celebrate about 10 years ago, before the recession caused by the deregulation of the Financial Sector? Oh, right. The longest period of growth since the 1960's.

I was born in 1969, so I don't have any direct memories of that decade. But I can see by reading, thanks to an education that was publicly funded, that the top marginal tax rate was lowered by President Kennedy from 91% to 77%. And he closed loopholes, resulting in an increase in tax revenue because people in his tax bracket could no longer get out of taxes. Then President Nixon lowered it even further in 1969 and '70 down to 70%.

What was it that I said in the first paragraph? Oh yeah. The fact that the 1960's was a period of great economic growth. Meaning that high tax rates on the hyper-ultra-super-rich DON'T HURT THE ECONOMY.

But never mind the facts. Conservatives live in their own reality, one created by Reagan who lowered that top marginal rate down to 25% and started the accelerating budget deficits, one continued by Bush, Clinton and Bush, and one maintained today by President Obama by not suggesting that the hyper-ultra-super-rich pay their share for the tens or hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars that they earn every year, on the backs of the working people of this country who are now out of work at a rate of between 10 and 20 percent.

We can rant and rave forever about "unequal distribution of wealth". But the truth, backed up by historical fact, is that the only way we are going to see a real recovery, see unemployment go down, see our children grow up in a world with as many if not more opportunities than we had, is if we demand that the people making millions or billions pay their share of the cost of that opportunity.

Don't like that? Vote against it. And if you have a majority of the vote, you can watch our nation continue to suffer, and fall over the cliff that we find ourselves at the edge of.

Response to the President's address to Netroots Nation

2010-07-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

My reaction? I'm an advocate for change. I'm going to keep pushing for change, and the acceleration of that change. The Federal Government needs to do two things. First, prop up the state governments that are facing deficits. No more cuts to state education budgets, or health care budgets, or unemployment benefits. Put resources into the hands of people, not banks or corporations. Second, make a huge, HUGE, investment in renewable energy, one that makes up for the last 30 years of inaction. We need solar panels on the roof of every government building in the country. We need a line of solar panels along every inch of Federal Highway. We need to revitalize our rail infrastructure and push it forward 50 years with high speed rail paralleling the Highways from coast to coast, border to border.

All of this is going to take money. It's money that we have to spend if we are going to save our country, or civilization and our planet. I honestly believe that it is possible for us to reverse course and fix the problems that we have created over the past 200 years through the industrial revolution. Yes, we can do this.

If we don't... If we continue as we are now... If we advocate for, or even tolerate the systems and attitudes that we see in the media today... Well, then we are sentencing our children to death. We will not just hand the next generation the problems we have created, we will have ended their future. I have friends that tell me that I'm wrong, that there will be small pockets of humanity that survive in specific places around the globe. Is that really what we want to resign ourselves to?

Mr. President, you have done a lot over the last year and a half. Thank you for working so hard. I'm not going to say that you have done a poor job. I think you've done the best job that you could do with the tools that you have. But as you said on the campaign trail, it's not up to you. It's up to us.

Red, White and Blue

2010-07-02T12:49:00.000-07:00

Red, White and Blue
by Chad Lupkes

I would like to talk about what being an American means to me. To do that, I want to review the colors on our flag. Those colors are red, white and blue.

Blue represents opportunity. The blue sky on the horizon, a horizon that we constantly strive to reach. We may be distracted by the treasures and comfort that we find, but we must continue to strive to achieve, to learn new things, and find new paths.

White represents fairness. The white paper that we use to vote, the paper that we use to write our laws. With the rainbow of ideas, ideology, race and culture, the law must be written to be fair to everyone. This helps to ensure that we leave nobody behind as we strive toward that horizon.

Red represents sacrifice. The red blood that is spilled on the battlefield, the tears that we shed in memory of those who have sacrificed everything. The sweat that comes from our efforts to regain what was lost. We must never forget those that we have lost, and we must be there to help the ones who have sacrificed for us.

This is why we support our veterans and active military. Their sacrifice ensures our right to strive toward that blue horizon, writing our laws to leave no one behind.

The original meanings of the colors only came to apply to the Great Seal of the United States, adopted by Congress on June 20, 1782. This from USFlag.org:

"The colors of the pales (the vertical stripes) are those used in the flag of the United States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valour, and Blue, the color of the Chief (the broad band above the stripes) signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice."

The meaning of the colors is always subjective. But that does not diminish the pride that we feel on July 4th.

Dear Mr. President about the Gulf Coast

2010-05-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Mr. President,

I know this is tough, but for the Gulf Coast, the future promises to be rough. What you will see will most likely make you want to flee.

The questions from the GOP make me wonder how hard on BP you should actually be. Should the government take over the oil spill response through eminent domain, or should you direct the DOD and Homeland Security to take things over with a military campaign?

With British Petroleum a corporation chartered by the British crown, I wonder what effect it might have for them to see a Royal frown. What is more important to our future, our ability to generate power, or the ability for animals and plants to grow and flower?

While the oil company tries to stop the flow with mud, the rest of the US gets to watch our coast fill up with crud.

People are worried if they will be able to eat the shrimp and fish, but aren't there bigger issues than simply the food on our dish? We all need to learn the lessons of this disaster, by slowing our lives down instead of pushing harder and faster. Think about our natural resources the next time you take a hot shower, because there are much better ways for us to generate that

Debi's House of Damaged Boys

2010-05-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

Tamoshanter (Tam) is an 11 year old orange male tabby cat that came to us last March. He'd been living with some dogs in the home of the father of his previous owner when she left college. He is huge, and at 23 pounds one of the biggest cats we've seen and actually bigger than either of the two cats that Debi had brought from Florida, also orange tabs. Tam really caught our attention because he seemed by the pictures to be a mix between our original cats, and when he showed up he was actually bigger than either of them.

Over the past few months, the weather has been nice enough for us to take Tam out on the 2nd floor landing of our condo building, so he's enjoying the sounds and smells. But he's still not getting enough exercise, sort of like yours truly. Because we knew that the condo was big enough for two cats, we decided to try and find a companion for Tam. On Sunday we found one.

Cosmos was a stray that was brought into the Seattle Humane Society on May 10th. He is about two and a half years old. He's another orange tab, about 11 pounds. He's been through some really rough times, so he is pretty much skin and bones. His hair is dry and rough, and they had to shave quite a bit because of matting. They did the fixing surgery, which it looks like he's pretty much recovered from, but he's certainly a rescue.

We brought him home, and opened the top of the box in the living room. Tam was very dominating, so we brought Cosmos upstairs to Shea's room, set up a small cat box and food, and gave him a safe space. The little guy is a minx, and small enough to hide in a bunch of different places. He actually found a way under Shea's bed in the trundle, hiding among the blankets and luggage. According to Shea, he came out a few times during the night and actually spent much of the night on Shea's feet. All of the food was gone when we got up this morning, and he had used his box. Tam spent his night going back and forth between Shea's closed door and the open window in our room where his short tree is.

We're going to give Cosmos a few days of good rest and food, then open the door to the rest of the condo. We figure it will take about a year before he's fully healthy. It's a great long term project for Shea, and the bonding will be good for him.

Yet another guest in Debi's House of Damaged Boys.

Oh, and this morning I did the Greenlake loop in about 50 minutes. That's pretty good time for not having done that in 8 months.

Some changes at home

2010-04-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

Shea's computer was really slow. It's actually Debi's old system, dating back to the mid 1990's. I've boosted it a few times, and it has XP on it, but it really can't handle Youtube and animations. So we had to find a way to get him a computer that worked better. He really likes my desktop, so I asked my friends at Seattle Laptop whether they had a laptop Dock that I could get. They did.

So, my desktop is now up in Shea's room, along with my old monitor. I picked up a new monitor, flatscreen and widescreen, from Best Buy. I also switched out the router that we were using because it was a wireless that I needed for my laptop, which I don't need anymore. Meaning that we have our older wired router for the systems, Shea's computer connects to the router using a powerline connection, and everyone's online.

The last bit I'll say about this is what it makes possible for the 46th. The wireless router that I was using at home is now in the bag with the overhead projector. Anytime I go on the road with the projector, I can plug my Clear modem into the router, and connect via the wireless connection. And so can anyone else at our meetings.

One small step for Shea, one giant leap for the District. Ok, he doesn't think it's that small of a step. The computer upstairs is now a heck of a lot faster.

Chase, just shut up...

2010-04-07T12:16:00.000-07:00

I got a call about 6 months ago from Chase, warning me about a terrible new law that was passed that required them to give me an option to opt out of their greatest deal, the magic "OverDraft Protection Coverage" or something. I listened to the speaker, and then asked this question:

Chad - "So, if I don't agree to continue with this overdraft protection, and I don't have enough money for a transaction, you won't approve the transaction?"

Chase rep - "Yes"

Chad - "And that also means that you won't charge me an overdraft fee?"

Chase rep - "Yes"

Chad - "So, you will no longer charge me an extra fee if I am stupid enough to try to make a transaction with my bank account that I can't afford?"

Chase rep - "Um, that's true, but..."

Chad - "But if I agree to your overdraft protection you will continue to do what you've been doing for years, which is charge my account $39 or more every time I try that?"

Chase rep - "Um, yes."

Chad - "So, you can probably guess what my answer is."

Chase rep - "Yes, I probably can."

"click"

But that didn't stop the warnings, of course. They're so terrified of losing their $39 stupidity reward, they send out warnings weekly, sometimes daily. Today they sent this one, and I had enough:

If you don't have Chase Debit Card Overdraft CoverageSM, beginning August 15, 2010, your everyday debit card purchases will not be approved if you don't have
sufficient available funds*.

These purchases may be approved at Chase's discretion if you have Chase Debit Card Overdraft Coverage.
Standard overdraft fees may apply.

So now they're at least being a little more honest and saying that the is charged at Chase's discretion, meaning they can choose whether to hurt their customers or not rather than it just being an automatic slap in the face every time they find someone who can't maintain their bank balance above zero.

Chase, just shut up...

Why does nobody ever ask this question?

2010-04-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

I saw this question on one of the mailing lists that I subscribe to, and thought it was important enough to pass on as a seed for discussion.

Why are facts like this never put forth by any union or anyone?

When you rent a DVD from Netflix, the first thing you see is that if you pirate (copy) the DVD, you face a $250,000 and 5 years in jail. Yet, the coal companies, which have kill people in their death traps and continue to have repeat safety violations, face fines less then a $100,000 fine. They are repeat offenders and have killed many people over the years. It is appalling that we live in a society that values and has more fines and jail times for a $20 DVD then a human life.

Sincerely,
Jeff Lyles

I'm from Seattle

2010-03-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

Went to a concert last night with two of my favorite artists, John Gorka and Patty Larkin. Here's a filk:

Inspired by John Gorka's "I'm from New Jersey" on his album "Jack's Crows"

I'm from Seattle
I probably expect too much
If the world ended today
I would reboot

I'm from Seattle
Yes I know I talk that way
I didn't own a TV
When I was young

I'm from Seattle
My mom's American
I've read those cowboy books
We don't belong

There are girls from Seattle
They have G.P.S.
They're found on 405
Or the Mercer Mess

I'm from Seattle
It's not like Florida
There is no mystery
I can't ignore

I'm from Seattle
It's like Silicon Valley
But even more so
Imagine that

I know which exit
And where I'm bound
The tolls on the Light Rail
Won't slow you down

Seattle people
They might suprise you
Cause they're expected
To do so much

They might try harder
They may go further
Cause they always have
Their coffee cups

I'm from Seattle
I probably expect too much
If the world ended today
I would reboot
I would reboot
I would reboot

----

And here's the original so you can get the tune:

Bill Phillips and I had some fun!

2010-03-01T17:15:00.000-08:00

I am the very model of a modern Junior-Senator

[Pirates of the Senate]

I am the very model of a modern Junior-Senator
I know the rules of filibuster and adore the mainstream media
Now should I talk some Baseball you know I am quite historical
From Cooperstown to Waterloo, in order categorical
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters senitorical
I understand rules of order, both the simple and authorical

About parliamentary theory I'm teeming with a lot o' thorny
Bothersome and scary facts about the budget of the country

With many scary facts about the budget of the country
With many scary facts about the budget of the country
With many scary facts about the budget of our great country

I'm very good at legislative and parliamentary calculus
I know the scientific names of things animalculous
In short, in matters scary, budgetary, senatorical
I am the very model of a modern Junior-Senator

In short, in matters scary, budgetary, senatorical
He is the very model of a modern Junior-Senator

I know our mythic history, Washington’s and Jefferson
I'll answer all your questions after I get permission
I quote in elegiacs all the crimes of Teddy Roosevelt
Unemployment never bothered me for it I've never ever felt.

I can tell Nasdaq from Dow Jones and I love all lobbyists
I love their croaking chorus for I'm a lobby hobbyist
I hum whatever tune my donors play because they know me best

I hum whatever tune my donors play because they know me best
I hum whatever tune my donors play because they know me best
I hum whatever tune my donors play because they know me best
I hum whatever tune my donors play because they know me best

Then I can write a dashing bill in Babylonic cuneiform
And tell you ev'ry detail of Jim Demint's "play" uniform
In short, in matters scary, budgetary, senatorical
I am the very model of a modern Junior-Senator

In matters scary, budgetary, senatorical
He is the very model of a modern Junior-Senator

In fact, while I know that our country is unraveling
I can identify from a distance a filibuster or a javelin
When such affairs as downturns and recissions and the jobless hit
I know precisely when to say "tough shit"

When I have learnt what progress has been made in modern buffonery
When I ignored all of the lessons taught by Ted Kennedy
In short, when I've a smattering of elemental strategy
You'll say a better Junior-Senator had never sat a gee

You'll say a better Junior-Senator had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Junior-Senator had never sat a gee
You'll say a better Junior-Senator had never sat a sat a gee

For my parliamentary knowledge, though I'm plucky and adventury
The country has been brought down at the beginning of this century
But still, in matters scary, budgetary, senatorical
I am the very model of a modern Junior-Senator

But still, in matters scary, budgetary, senatorical
He is the very model of a modern Junior-Senator

I'm supporting Jay Clough for WA-04

2010-02-27T14:22:00.000-08:00

I had a good gchat with Jay Clough yesterday. He’s running against Doc Hastings (WA-04). If you would like to help turn the 4th Congressional District blue, please visit http://cloughforcongress.com and support him. We learned last year that radio ads and exposure are very effective because the prices are so reasonable. So let's do a Money Bomb for the race!

Jay's primary issue focuses are Education, Health Care and the Economy. So far I like what I'm reading and hearing both from him directly and from others. As hard as it might seem to win in a district like this, the lesson we get from progressives who run AS progressives is that they get the support they need to win. Please visit his website to learn more about him, get in touch with his campaign and find out how you can help. The season is well underway, and money at this stage can really help him. Even small donations will help, from anywhere so spread the word across the country for this one.

If you live in his district, what he needs most (in my opinion) is small town hall events both as fundraisers and as a way to get people to listen to him as well as talk to him. If you would like to hold one, please contact him directly.

I have a lot going on, as everyone knows. But when a candidate specifically reaches out to ask for my help, I do what I can.

The mission of a political party

2010-02-24T10:30:00.000-08:00

(Excerpt from a "Chairs training guide" that I'm working on in my spare time.)

The mission of a political party in general is to push the platform into law. Everything else needs to happen in order to reach for that goal. We build our organizations in order to elect candidates in order to have those elected officials make decisions while in office that we support. To leave an elected official to make their own decisions without our input is ignoring our primary mission. To let decisions made that violate our principles and values go without being addressed is setting aside those principles and values in order to achieve some kind of "victory". The ONLY victory that we should consider worthwhile is improving the lives of the people who live in our communities.

Our platforms are written to articulate what our ideas are in order to achieve that victory. Candidates that agree with our principles and values, and agree to help push our ideas into law should be the candidates that we endorse and support during an election. Then we need to work just as hard to hold them accountable to the promise that they made when running with our endorsement.

Free Speech for People moves forward in Washington State

2010-02-04T10:04:00.000-08:00

At my urging, Senator Jacobsen has introduced a Senate Joint Memorial asking for Congress to submit to the states a Federal Constitutional Amendment limiting the political activities of Corporations. The bill has been sent to the Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee, where Darlene Fairley from your district is the chair. Can I get your help to push this through committee AS FAST AS POSSIBLE before first cutoff goes by and we miss the opportunity for this year?

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=8027

Please read the bill as submitted. As you can see, this is one of the most critical issues that we have ever dealt with in this country in over 230 years. This is literally a "Drop Everything" moment. I'm not joking. Specific actions to take are below the text of the bill.

SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 8027
State of Washington 61st Legislature 2010 Regular Session
By Senator Jacobsen
TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:
We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:
WHEREAS, The First Amendment to the United States Constitution was designed to protect the free speech rights of people, not corporations; and
WHEREAS, For the past three decades, a divided United States Supreme Court has misinterpreted the First Amendment favoring the corporations' agenda over the people's voice; and
WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC overturned longstanding precedent prohibiting corporations from freely spending their general treasury funds for purposes of electioneering communications or direct contributions to candidates for public office; and
WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC will now permit unprecedented spending of corporate money in our political process unrivaled by any campaign expenditure totals in United States history; and
WHEREAS, An individual can use his or her money to speak on his or her singular behalf, the money corporations use to speak belongs to its shareholders, who presumably come from disparate political ideologies; and
WHEREAS, It took over one million individual donors to raise about seven hundred fifty million dollars for Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008; and
WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately five percent of ExxonMobil's third quarter profits in 2008; and
WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately five percent of Bank of America's profits in 2007; and
WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately 18 percent of Bank of America's profits in 2008; and
WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately 37.5 percent of Goldman Sachs's first quarter profits in 2009; and
WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately 18 percent of JPMorgan Chase's third quarter profits in 2009; and
WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately 25 percent of Ford's profits in 2009; and
WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately five percent of Philip Morris's profits in 2008; and
WHEREAS, Individual shareholders will now be inextricably absorbed into the corporation's powerful political action, regardless of their individual political beliefs and affiliations; and
WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC threatens to dilute an individual's power as a voting citizen and compromise the democratic process; and
WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC presents a serious and direct threat to our democracy;
WHEREAS, The people of the United States have previously used the constitutional amendment process to correct those egregiously wrong decisions of the United States Supreme Court that go to the heart of our democracy and self-government;
NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memoralists respectfully pray that Congress, in accordance with Article V of the Constitution of the United States, immediately transmit to the several states for ratification an amendment to the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution so that corporations will not be considered as persons for the purposes of electioneering communications or direct contributions to candidates for public office.
BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.

So how do we push this through? The bill is currently in the Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee. Here are the members:

Senator	Room	Phone
Fairley, Darlene (D-32) Chair	JAC 227	(360) 786-7662
Oemig, Eric (D-45) Vice Chair	LEG 416	(360) 786-7672
Roach, Pam (R-31) Ranking	INB 202	(360) 786-7660
Benton, Don (R-17)	INB 109B	(360) 786-7632
McDermott, Joe (D-34)	JAC 230	(360) 786-7667
Pridemore, Craig (D-49)	JAC 212	(360) 786-7696
Swecker, Dan (R-20)	INB 103	(360) 786-7638

Government Operations & Elections
439 J.A. Cherberg Bldg., P.O. Box 40466, Olympia, WA 98504-0466
Telephone: 360-786-7432 / Legislative Hotline: 1-800-562-6000

If you live in one of the districts represented above, please contact your Senators office directly and ask them to co-sponsor and support the bill. Then we need EVERYONE to call the committee office itself and ask that SJM 8027 be put on the hearings schedule as soon as possible so it can then be scheduled for a vote in committee. The first cutoff, where all bills must be out of the first committee, is tomorrow, February 5th. So this is a drop everything moment to get this done. The Senate and House leadership could choose to waive the cutoff rules, but that's not a sure bet. Let's do the work.

Constitutional Amendment

2010-01-21T09:33:00.001-08:00

Please submit this to your state legislator in Olympia. If you are reading this from outside of Washington State, you can get your customized state version here.

The Constitution of the State of Washington is amended as follows:
Article. I
Section 1. Political Power. All political power is inherent in the **natural** people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain **the** individual rights **of natural people**.
Section 3. Personal Rights. No **natural** person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
The Constitution of the United States is amended as follows:
U.S. Const. Amend. XIV, ? 1: All **natural** persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any **natural** person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any **natural** person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

To save paradise, and stop a parking lot

2010-01-21T08:18:00.000-08:00

This letter from a US Senate staff member is too important to ignore. I found it here on Talking Points Memo, thanks to a friend. I'm going to copy the entire thing, and damn the consequences of copyright and whatever. The message I'm getting from this letter is that our party leaders in Washington D.C. are learning a song. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

I certainly wouldn't want to indicate I have any unique insight on how everyone feels around this place but I thought you might be interested in how one Senate staffer is feeling.
My background is like probably the majority of staffers I know. I came to DC, from a far superior climate and quality of life, because I wanted to save the world. I arrived, and took a job in the House, at what I still view as the nadir of Congress - in 1996. Republicans had recently taken over Congress and had 230 seats in the House and 52 in the Senate. Democrats were in a state of shock and we watched (because that was essentially all we could do) in horror as they systematically went after nearly every institution of civil governance culminating in nearly removing the President from office via an entirely trumped-up charge. They had destroyed the Democrats in 1994 because they simply couldn't deliver - the BTU tax went down, health care went down, and finally the Crime Bill failed because it had such laughably wacky ideas as "midnight basketball" as a crime prevention measure (something with is widely approved of today and is completely noncontroversial). As a young LA, it was amazingly dispiriting. Literally nothing we proposed could get passed - we couldn't even get votes. Every bill came to the floor under a closed rule so we couldn't propose amendments and our Senate colleagues faced a full amendment tree on every bill such that unless they had Republican patron they couldn't get votes either. Kennedy fought like hell for things like minimum wage and sometimes could arm-wrestle a procedural vote win out of them but things would just die in the hands of the Hammer in the House. Eventually, my boss got fed up and retired and I went over to the Administration where I thought I might be able to get more accomplished.
Even there, in a Democratic Administration, we faced constant battles as anything remotely beneficial to the public or in keeping with our mission was forcibly outsourced by the Congress or investigated into near-paralysis. The Republican Majority in the House had steadily eroded so that by the end of the Clinton years they had only a 5 seat cushion (223) in the House, but their strong majority in the Senate (55) kept them firmly in control. Then, when Bush took over in the wake of the most disputable election imaginable, the political appointees flooded in and began reversing policies (including policies promulgated by previous Republican administrations) as if they were exercising the overwhelming mandate of the people. Republicans barely kept the House with 221 seats and only held on to the Senate via Cheney's tie breaking vote on the organizing resolution. I left to start a family.
Despite Jeffords' flip, and the razor-thin majority in the House, the Democrats dealt no significant losses to President Bush and his agenda went essentially unchecked, and nominations were processed efficiently and quickly (after all, the people had spoken!). The only arguable exception I can think of right now is that the Administration was unable to push through drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge but they actually did put it on reconciliation, they just lost too many Republicans to win. I returned to being in the Minority on the Hill, on the Senate side this time and as staff to an important Committee, and Republicans now had a 51-seat Majority in the Senate and had strengthened in the House to a mighty 229 seats. We fought valiantly to slow them down but were unsuccessful in stopping a one-sided energy bill, escalation of a needless war in Iraq, and continued erosion of the social safety net and de-funding of civil institutions through tax cuts for the well-off. We got occasional fig leaves, and maybe could get a witness or two included in a hearing, but were essentially not a part of the final discussions to put together bills. I dreamed that if only we could get two Senate seat takeaways, then we could finally take the reigns back - after all, poll after poll showed the American people agreed with us on nearly every issue. In 2004 we would surely break through to the public - we had neutralized them on their central issue by nominating a war hero and people were desperate for health care and education reforms. We had moved away from that scary Howard Dean fellow and were now proposing only modest reforms to health care, more tax cuts, and deficit reduction (don't worry, never at the expense of the Pentagon!). How could we lose? Republicans strengthened their majorities to 55 Senators and 232 House Members and I almost lost my job as the now-overwhelming Republican Majority in the Senate increased their allocation of the office space and staff salaries. Now a majority was a faraway dream and the best we could hope for was a few sympathetic Republicans on a few issues that might help us at least expose what they were doing (and we did manage to beat back drilling in Arctic again).
Unexpectedly, public mood did finally begin to sour on the wars and deficits agenda in 2006 and we were able to eek out victories in MT and VA so that we could take a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate (including a dicey vote from Lieberman) and a massive 233-202 Majority in the House. Of course, we'd have to cautious and trim our sails a bit since Bush still was President and we had several skittish votes in the Caucus, but the American People were giving us a shot. We suffered some disappointments but we did about as well as could be expected in the Senate, but at least we were making progress and, though I had to trim my ambitions a bit, I was finally writing provisions that were becoming law. On balance, it was a good Congress, but I dreamed of having big majorities like 55 Senators so that we could really do the stuff we've all been waiting for.
A wave election hit us in 2008 where we not only had overwhelming majorities of 59 seats in the Senate (once Republicans finally got around to letting us seat Franken) and 257 seats in the House (returning us to the same power level as when we ruled the House with inpugnity in 1992-3) but, most importantly, a President who was explicitly elected on an agenda of "change." It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to wrench the wheel away from the abyss and really deliver on our promises. It was disheartening when it seemed that Reid was allowing McConnell's disingenuous narrative of "it's always taken 60 votes to get anything done" to take hold, but we were later even saved from that when Specter switched. But it seems we've spent the entire year moving our own goalposts farther away. Things have gotten so bad that in roaming the halls today it feels exactly as if we lost the Majority last night.
The worst is that I can't help but feel like the main emotion people in the caucus are feeling is relief at this turn of events. Now they have a ready excuse for not getting anything done. While I always thought we had the better ideas but the weaker messaging, it feels like somewhere along the line Members internalized a belief that we actually have weaker ideas. They're afraid to actually implement them and face the judgement of the voters. That's the scariest dynamic and what makes me think this will all come crashing down around us in November.
I believe President Clinton provided some crucial insight when he said, "people would rather be with someone who is strong and wrong than weak and right." It's not that people are uninterested in who's right or wrong, it's that people will only follow leaders who seem to actually believe in what they are doing. Democrats have missed this essential fact.
The stimulus bill in the spring showed us what was coming. In the face of a historic economic crisis, Democrats negotiated against themselves at the outset and subsequently yielded to absurd demands from self-described "moderates" to trim the package to a clearly inadequate level. No one made any rational argument about why a lower level was better. It would have been trivial to write "claw-back" provisions if the stimulus turned out to be too much or we could have done a rescission this year to give these moderates their victory, but none of this was on the table. We essentially looked like we didn't know what the right answer was so we just kinda went for what we could get. This formula was repeated in spades in both the Climate and Health Care debacles.
This is my life and I simply can't answer the fundamental question: "what do Democrats stand for?" Voters don't know, and we can't make the case, so they're reacting exactly as you'd expect (just as they did in 1994, 2000, and 2004). We either find the voice to answer that question and exercise the strongest majority and voter mandate we've had since Watergate, or we suffer a bloodbath in November. History shows we're likely to choose the latter.
Although I realize this is far too long to publish, if you do decide to use any of it, please keep my anonymity. Just in case I'm wrong and there is more good to do yet.

Are we going to read letters like this, and then roll over and go to sleep? Or are we going to stand up? Do you think the Democrats in DC are weak? So do I. But like I've said to hundreds of people online and off, that realization doesn't make me want to walk away. It makes me want to take up the hammer and beat the forge to develop better tools. It makes me want to read history and learn its lessons better. It makes me want to make new plans and work even harder to bring them to fruition. If you're seeing a disspirited army on your side of the fight, you don't let them get slaughtered. You give them back their spirit. You take your passions and ideals, and you wear them on your sleeve. You don't back down.

Is there anything in our lives more important than saving our country and securing the future for our children? Anything?

This is a perfect moment

2010-01-05T22:18:00.000-08:00

I love Free Will Astrology.

This is a perfect moment. It's a perfect moment for many reasons, but especially because you and I are waking up from our sleepwalking, thumbsucking, dumb-clucking collusion with the masters of illusion and destruction.

Thanks to them,
from whom the painful blessings flow,
we are waking up.

Their wars and tortures,
their crimes against nature,
extinctions of species
and brand new diseases.

Their spying and lying
in the name of the father,
sterilizing seeds and
trademarking water.

Molestations of God,
celebrations of shame,
stealing our dreams and
changing our names.

Their cunning commercials
and blood-sucking hustles,
their endless rehearsals
for the end of the world.

Thanks to them,
from whom the awful teachings flow,
we are waking up.

*

Their painful blessings are cracking open more and more gashes in the shrunken and crippled mass hallucination that is mistakenly called "reality."

And through the fractures, ripe eternity is flooding in; news of the soul's true home is pouring in; our allies from the other side of the veil are swarming in, inspiring us to become smarter and wilder and kinder and trickier.

We are waking up.

As heaven and earth come together, as the dreamtime and daytime merge, we register the shockingly exhilarating fact that we are in charge of creating a New Earth. Not in some distant time or faraway place, but right here and right now . . . .

Read the rest here.

The era of Bush is over, right?

2010-01-02T17:51:00.001-08:00

After reading this article, I must say I'm really frustrated with the Democratic ad campaign "experts" in Washington DC. I'm mean really. Reminding people of the Bush years is a good way to win elections?! Please.

If you want to remind people of Bush, do it right. Off the top of my head, here's an ad that I would like to see on TV. If I owned a TV, anyway.

Announcer: "Remember the previous President? The Republican George Bush? So do we, and like you we don't want to go back to those years. Unemployment went up, the increasing National Debt went out of control thanks to the budgets passed by a Republican Majority and a Republican President, we got into an unnecessary war in Iraq, our leadership position around the world became a laughing matter."
Screen shows pictures of the stock market crash in September, 2008, the debt clock spinning out of control, and scenes of fighting in Iraq.
Announcer: "Since 2006, the Democrats in Congress have been fighting to put things right. And the Republican Party has tried to stop us at every turn. We tried enforcing accountability in Iraq, and the Republican President at the time vetoed it. We faced a record number of Block That Vote attempts in 2007. We tried providing health care to kids, and it was vetoed twice. You responded in 2008 by increasing our majorities and putting a new President in office."
Screen shows pictures of Republicans yelling and looking like idiots. Shouldn't be too hard to find.
Announcer: "In spite of all the Republican efforts to stop our progress, we still got some things done. We increased the Minimum Wage for the first time in over a decade. We implemented the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, something that had not been done under the Republicans. And under our new President, we finally passed health care for children, the largest investment in the economy ever, the most comprehensive legislation protecting people who use Credit Cards ever, and that's just the beginning."
Screen shows Senator Edward Kennedy (who advocated for the minimum wage increase), the cover of the 9/11 Commission Report with a big blue checkmark, healthy kids, a picture from one of the many construction projects, etc. Have fun with it.
Announcer: "So, after all of this, what do the Republicans want? They want to remind us of the years under George Bush. In our opinion, that era is over. And with your help, we won't be going back. Please support Democrats in 2010."

Did McGinn forget something?

2009-12-31T10:43:00.000-08:00

On the November, 2005 ballot, there was a special item on the ballot that really meant something to the activists in our city.

City Of Seattle Advisory Measure No. 1 Health Care asked a basic question to the citizens of Seattle. "Is Health Care a Right?" 122,129 people, or 69.5%, said yes. 53,606 or 30.5% said no.

So now we have the incoming Mayor, Mike McGinn, whom my records say VOTED in that election, saying that he can't find a way to justify paying for some members of the outgoing Mayor's staff so they can keep their health insurance while they search for a job during the month of January.

This is not about broken promises. This isn't about money, which we can find if we need it. It's about a newly elected official not paying attention to the voices of the people he now represents. What do we have to do, have this initiative pass every single election for our elected representatives to be able to listen to it?

Health Care is a RIGHT, Mr. Mayor-Elect. You can bet that I will NEVER let you forget that.

Give these people the right to coverage during January while they search for a new job. Listen to the people of Seattle. Please.

Twas the Debate before Christmas

2009-12-22T07:17:00.001-08:00

I'm sorry if I offended you

2009-12-21T07:24:00.000-08:00

You see, I'm one of those "tree-huggers" that they talked about in the movie "Avatar". You were walking ahead of us as my son and I walked from the movie to the mall for dinner. I was telling my son what I was thinking after watching the movie, and this is part of what I can remember.

"One of the messages from that movie was that mankind had already destroyed our own world, and we were moving from system to system trying to collect resources to take back to Earth to power our civilization. But that wasn't the language that was used. The movie said that we had already 'killed' our world. And they're right. If we don't wake up and change our way of life, that is what will happen. And it's up to you and your generation to make sure that we don't destroy this planet and make it uninhabitable."

You had your two sons walking with you, and as I told my son that it was up to him and his generation, I pointed to both him and the two boys walking ahead of us. Because that is what I believe. We are at a crossroads, and we have a choice to make. I continued, "Nature must be treated as a partner, not just a source of raw materials and resources."

And then you laughed. Snide, like "oh, great, one of those people". And I got pissed off. I will admit that I flew off the handle, but when someone laughs at me and what I believe, I go on the defensive.

"And anyone who laughs at that will die along with their children," I said.

Yes, that's what I said. Loud enough for you to hear it. Because your laugh disgusted me, hurt me, and I lashed out.

That's how deep my faith is. I read the news. I listen to the radio. I know how close we are to the point where it is too late to turn back the clock. Do we want our civilization to survive? Does it deserve to survive? If nature is just a bunch of dumb animals, raw plant matter and ore for mining and building, what's the point of life? What's the purpose behind G-d's creation if we can't (or won't) nurture it, protect it and watch it grow?

I don't need to be a scientist to know what James Cameron was talking about. In some ways I have felt it. Our own real scientists have seen the evidence of it in the Redwoods of Northern California. The bioelectric neural network from the movie doesn't quite exist, but I can see it. I would love for science to develop a way for us to connect to each other on such a deep level. Maybe that is what we need to wake ourselves up from this nightmare of dead roads and poison producing energy sources. I hope we're not too late.

Anyway, that's what happened, that's how I feel, and I'm not ashamed of what I believe. I'm just sorry I flew off the handle, and I hope you can forgive me.

Whoever you were.

My health care message to President Obama

2009-12-09T09:46:00.000-08:00

Mr. President,

The question should not be whether there is a public option or not. The question should be whether we allow the private option to continue. We cannot continue to allow the private insurance market to rape this country. And there is no nice way of saying it.

Only Single Payer will solve the problem of coverage. I would support a robust public option that moves us in that direction.

Sir, you MUST issue a VETO THREAT against any bill that reaches your desk without a nationally accessible public option without a trigger. You MUST send Senator Reid and Nancy Pelosi a message that only a robust public option will get your signature.

If you don't do this, if you sign a bill without a public option, then you will lose the support you built during the 2008 campaign. Everyone I know is frustrated, and is looking you for progressive leadership. Your political future is on the line, sir. Oh, and the lives of thousands upon thousands of people.

Please make the right decision.

Chad Lupkes
Seattle

Support the Cap and Dividend bill!

2009-11-26T11:26:00.000-08:00

Dear Congressman McDermott,

Please consider signing on as a co-sponsor of H.R.1862, the Cap and Dividend Act of 2009. This legislation was introduced on April 1st, 2009, and would establish a method of reducing our carbon dioxide emissions while at the same time providing the money for our citizens to afford the increased cost of energy due to our efforts to curb Climate Change.

The concept is simple, and similar to the Cap and Trade bill that is being pushed by Rep. Waxman. But instead of allowing companies to buy and sell the permits in a trade system, the money that they spend to buy the rights to put pollution into the atmosphere would instead be distributed to the citizens of the United States directly. The system is already in place in Alaska, and is very popular.

Please consider co-signing this bill. I think it has more of a chance of actually helping to curb Climate Change than any other legislation in Congress.

Thank you for all that you do!

And now for something Really Important

2009-11-01T18:04:00.000-08:00

The idea was to make it look as much like the toy as possible, to try to build it like the way the toy designer(s) did.

The design came from the 2009 Voyager Ironhide toy. Shea transformed the toy into vehicle mode, and we collected a bunch of cardboard boxes with pieces big enough to build a truck of a size necessary to make a costume out of. We completed the truck, but didn't get a picture of it before we cut it up to make the individual pieces of the costume.

The result was a three piece costume, plus a mask and the weapons.

Here's a link to some pictures on Facebook.

Lessons learned.

Velcro does not stick to black trashbags very well. We eventually had to get some electricians tape and give it a few wraps between the back and the shoulder pieces. This means that we won't be able to use this exact design to transform it, but it held together really well for the walks down the street and to the Northgate Mall.

Congress is wrong, and this is how to fix it.

2009-10-31T08:02:00.001-07:00

(Another link in an email chain between myself and my mother.)

I don't disagree with needing to take care of our own first, but I
will draw the line at taking care of our own ONLY. And Congress is
not doing either with this piece of legislation. The representatives
in DC from the Democratic Party that I have contact with know my
position on this piece of junk, or if they haven't read their email
yet they will soon.

I want private for-profit insurance companies to have to earn their
ability to stay in business as supplemental insurance over and above a
national single payer program where everyone pays the same percentage
rate, whatever rate is required to pay for everyone's coverage.
Insurance problem solved. That's what France does, and they have a
vibrant private insurance sector where 80% of the people of the
country can afford and buy that supplemental insurance. I want our
doctors and nurses to be able to pay off their school loans and not
have to worry about that debt, and I want medical schools to be free
for anyone with a passion for helping their fellow man. If you can
pass the courses, you can be a doctor or nurse.

I want our veterans to get whatever care they need, including mental
health counseling for PTSD, and I want the best medical technology
applied to bring their lives back into a semblance of normalcy. I
want Medicare reimbursement rates to be regionally specific, paying
100% of market rate in each region of the country, not this 75% or
whatever the discount that has so many of our doctors around the
country refusing to see Medicare and Medicaid patients now.

I want Social Security to remove the cap on the taxes so that it is a
flat tax applying equally to everyone in our society from minimum wage
to our CEO's. That would solve the SSI financial hole immediately and
forever.

The best Social Welfare program is a job, and I want the government to
be the employer of last resort again like it was when Grandpa got a
job as a lumberjack in the Cascades. We need our roads repaved from
our federal highways to our local streets. We need our water systems
rebuilt with modern pipes that don't crack during a cold spell. We
need our rail systems revived across the country so we can transport
passengers and freight. We need our power systems plugged into
millions of solar panels, wind turbines and geothermal plants so we
can stop burning coal for electrical power.

These are the ideas that I've been pushing for years, and my
desperation at trying to get people to listen to me has gotten more
and more intense. I will not quit until someone finally listens.

Chad

WikiWorld - Us Now Film

2009-10-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching a series of videos on YouTube that were uploaded by UsNowFilm. It's a 7 part series, also available as a full length DVD, that talks about how collaboration is changing everything in our society. The film is based, and was filmed in London and the UK, but the principles apply everywhere.

Here's a link: UsNowFilm Part 1

And here's the embed:

This is part of the choice we have in front of us. What kind of a world do we want to build, OR do we continue on our current path and watch our world self-destruct. Please watch and enjoy. Then think about it.

What do you do?

2009-10-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

What do you do when the choices that seem to be offered to us are "Socialism" or extinction? Not an easy choice?

How do you tell your children "I'm sorry" when what you are apologizing for is failing to save the planet?

How do you get a message to the voters that their participation is necessary because the only other choice is to give up all power to people who care more about their bank account balances than the future of our children?

I don't have any answers to these questions. But at least I have the courage to ask them.

The conservative message machine is going on and on about how President Obama is a "Socialist", and they don't seem to understand that the American people are understanding more and more that socialism is no longer something to be terrified of. And they don't stop to define it, other than to say "the government is taking over our lives." Which goes beyond the Psycho Talk that Ed Schultz likes to highlight on his TV and Radio shows. It's just stupid. And what it means is that the conservatives on radio and television no longer have any idea of what they are talking about.

Maybe they're not worth listening to.

Michelle Bachman is convinced the 1% AM radio listening audience that regularly tunes into Limbaugh's show is a majority of people. Callers to Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz and Ron Reagan on AM1090 repeat endlessly that because "they" object or because a number of people who like Tea Parties object, they have the right to stop what a SUPERMAJORITY of people in our country know must happen and worked to make happen in the last election.

They don't care we live in a democracy. They can't really claim to have the support of the majority anymore. I keep thinking about what country they could move to if they don't want to live in America anymore. I can't think of one.

I watched Al Gore's talk to the 2006 TED conference yesterday. It's on Youtube and the TED.com website. He quoted a scientist's statement that the current climate crisis is the test whether an opposible thumb and a cerebral cortex is a viable combination on planet Earth. The scientist gets it. Al Gore gets it. Most strong progressives get it. We're not talking about food prices going up. We're talking about stores being empty. We're not talking about electricity costs going up. We're talking about the electrical grid going dark. We're not talking about sending our kids to their room for getting bad grades in school. We're talking about sending them to their graves.

What are we really supposed to do? Talk to each other. Go knock on your neighbors' door, and ask them over for dinner. Turn off your television and radio, and turn on Facebook, Twitter, and any number of other social networking sites. Express your fears and worries. Ask questions. Get answers.

Vote. It matters who you vote for, but just casting a vote is a huge step in the right direction. Get involved. Go to volunteer.gov, and see what the opportunities are. Ask the person sitting next to you at work if they voted. Go out to lunch and talk about who they voted for.

Teach your children well. Tell them that you love them and that you are doing everything possible to make their future possible. Then do it. Whatever you can do. Whatever it takes.

What do you do? What will you do? Start.

A rant on Health Care Reform

2009-10-11T17:45:00.001-07:00

This rant comes from an email thread with my mother...

The current forms of the public option allow the private insurance companies to continue to rip into the guts of our finances, both as individuals and as a nation. They don't care about us, and they seem to own our Congress outright, or at least most of them. The have enough influence to slow down or stop any real reform. Unless we do something to counter them.

I want everyone under the same system. No more wasting time, money and resources by having different forms for each of the 1,800 different insurance companies. No more paper pushers that get paid to deny claims. If we can get away from our irrational fear of the boogyman government, we could save enough money to maybe save our planet. If not, we all die. Not kidding, and you know it. Single Payer is the only real solution to the biggest issue, which is coverage for every single person in the United States.

The current bill's affect on Medicare and Medicaid are totally unknown right now. Until the bills are reconciled and merged into a single set of text, don't listen to anyone who tells you this or that about the text. They're all talking out of their ignorance. Health Care is 1/6th of our economy, because the private insurance and medical industrial complex want it that way. It should be half that, at most. Our goal should be to get it under control, not to deny it to anyone.

And you're damned right we want everyone covered regardless of status. I don't want someone with Ebola or TB walking around our streets instead of being in a hospital just because someone puts a silver cross in front of them and cries "illegal alien". That's as stupid as anything coming out of the xenophibic idiots on the right. Get them into a hospital, get them well, and send them home. Charge their government for the expense.

And as I've been saying for years, throw anyone who hires someone without at least a verified green card in jail, one day for every day that someone like that was employed. You'll see a line of people trying to get back south across the border within 2 days. Democrats need to help set up and enforce the e-verify solutions that will prevent fraudulent Social Security numbers from being used.

Watch Keith Olbermann

2009-10-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Nuff said.

Facebook readers click here.

Dear Rep. McDermott,

2009-09-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

Thank you for voting for more civility in the House instead of less.
The rebuke was nothing but a revenge tactic that helped the media
distract the voters from the real issues. Stay focused, and let's get
this health care bill done.

I don't think Seattle is ready for my son

2009-08-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

Shea was walking home from QFC yesterday with Debi, and he noticed a stretch of sidewalk that had a lot of trash on it. According to Debi, he stopped and got this look on his face. When I got home from the KCDCC meeting at about 9:45, he was all over me saying that we had a job to do today. Picking up the trash.

We were out until 7, meaning we're having dinner around 8. Which is ok.

On our way home, picking up paper as we went, we passed by a middle eastern gentleman who joined us for about a block. He said that the apartment complex behind him had a bunch of kids that needed something to do until school started, and asked Shea to organize them into a neighborhood cleanup crew.

Seattle, are you ready for this? Shea is a recycling fiend! :)

Today's sign that the corporations have too much power.

2009-08-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

This is fascinating. I'm curious if there is a rail line between Lewiston, Idaho and Spokane, Washington. So I do a Google search for "rail lines in the Northwest". Northwest of Chicago? No. NorthWest Rail in Australia? No, but at least that link gets me to Wikipedia. So, let's zoom out to the "rail lines in Sydney" category, then Australia, then "Railway lines by country". That's where I see the fascinating thing.

Every other category description has "Railway lines in XXX". Except the United States. "Railway companies of the United States".

So not only have corporations taken over our government, they're actually more important than the lines that they are supposed to manage on the global encyclopedia?! Freaking weird.

Sustainable Works in Seattle

2009-08-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Sustainable Works, a project of Sound Organizing and also working with IAF Northwest, is beginning a campaign over the next few years to retrofit and assist homeowners in North Seattle. Here is the area they are looking at; NE 65th St to NE 85th St, and 30th Ave NE to 30th Ave NE. Here is a map of the area:

View this map full screen.

They sent me two documents to help explain who they are as an organization, and what this project is all about. The first is a Q&A about Sustainable Works, and another page going into some details about what they want to do. Please read those two pages and if you are interested, please contact Richard Wells, 206-930-6377.

One form to rule them all.

2009-08-12T19:53:00.001-07:00

Three forms from the Navy on the sea,
Seven from the medical halls of Florida,
Nine from Washingtonians doomed to try and rhyme,
One for the Superintendent on her throne,
In the City of Seattle where his school district lies.
One Form to rule them all, One Form to organize them,
One Form to bring them all and before September 8th bind them
In the City of Seattle where Shea doth lie.

Can we please move to electronic medical records?

Election Maps and History Project Update

2009-08-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

I would like to announce a major milestone for the Maps and History project of the Washington State Democratic Chairs Organization. Roger Crew, our Maps project lead, has completed his collection of precinct shape files for all 39 counties in the state of Washington. The maps are viewable on our website here:

http://wa-demchairs.org/maps/precinctmap.php

This project began in 2006, when I figured out a way to include the maps that Roger had been working on with the Election History data pages that Fred Morris had developed. We have gotten help along the way by many of the local party chairs, and Ben Johnstone-Anderson and Michael Snyder joined our efforts and did a lot of legwork getting the shapefiles. Thanks to everyone!

The Maps project will continue as we gather updates, and we will be very active over the next two years as the US Census does their work and the counties work on redistricting based on the new population data.

There are 6732 precincts in the database now if you want to use the number. We started in early 2007, won the Blogpac contest which was broadcast all over the country, I went to Netroots Nation in '08 to talk about it, I went to the 2008 Washington GIS Conference to speak about it, and I'm making contact with other states to ask how they are doing and what we can do. It's interesting, because we reached 100% coverage in Washington nearly two years to the day of my submitting the project for consideration to Chris Bowers of OpenLeft.com and Blogpac. Our next step is to do an inventory of the election history data that we have, that we can get, and figure out how to make use of it all. I'm looking forward to seeing the project grow.

Here is the project history, as you can find it on the Blogosphere:

May 7, 2007: Maps in Progress - a post I put up talking about some of the map projects I've been working on
May 23, 2007: Congressional Districts for every State - This is not actually about our project, although I mentioned it in the comments back in 2007. The files make the boundraies for the 109th and 110th Congressional Districts available in KML format.
July 10, 2007: Blogpac puts out the call for projects - a post by Chris Bowers
August 15, 2007: And the winners are... - Announcing the winners of the contest.
August 15, 2007: We won a BlogPac Contest! - my post on the WSDCO website
August 15, 2007: Chad Lupkes wins Best Progressive Entrepreneur!! - an article by Dina Johnson
August 15, 2007: BlogPAC Progressive Entrepreneurs Contest Winners - a post by Chris Woods on Bleeding Heartland in Iowa. Our project is mentioned in the comments as something that they need in Iowa. I'm contacting them to see what I can do.
May 6, 2008: Maps Presentation - A presentation that Chad made to the Washington GIS Conference at Seattle Center on Tuesday, May 6th. Here is a copy of the presentation itself

Links:

Left.Wikia.com

Here's a video put together with Emmett O'Connell with some older maps that I had put together in 2005 showing how representation had changed in the Washington State Legislative Districts between 2002 and 2004:

This is where I want to go, showing election results on the maps themselves using data and KML. That's the eventual goal.

There are other groups around the country working on similar projects as well. Here are some highlights:

Mapping campaign contributions in Chattanooga Tennessee
Harris County, Texas has a collection of precinct maps.
I have had some inquiries from Brazos County, Texas as well on how we've done all this.

Have ideas? Want to help us collect data for the rest of the country? Contact me, and let's put this country on the map.

Rep. Doc Hastings lies to his constituents on his publicly funded website

2009-08-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

http://hastings.house.gov/index.aspx

In case he changes it, here's a screenshot from earlier this morning.

"Were you aware that individual private health insurance plans will be outlawed in 2013 under the Democratic health care plan?"

Show me in the language of the current legislation being considered by the committees in the US House and US Senate where it says that individual private health insurance plans will be outlawed in 2013. You can't. It's not there. Neither can Doc, and he knows it.

Even under HR 676, Medicare for ALL, private insurance would not be "outlawed" for anything beyond basic care, which is our national responsibility TO EACH OTHER in a civilized country. Because that's the way it works in all the "civilized" countries around the world whose citizens decided that they care about each other.

Five "Freedoms" to ponder

2009-07-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

Got a link to this article sent to me:

5 Freedoms You'd Lose in Health Care Reform

I'm not an expert. I don't have all of these laws and rules at my fingertips. I deal with things based on principles that I hold. And I'm willing to question anything. Even freedom. So,...

---

1. Freedom to choose what's in your plan

Correct. You will no longer be able to choose not to pay the money necessary to prepare for certain things. It's all or nothing. If the committee decides that certain things have a significant risk for people in the United States, and allocates some money to study it and find a cure for whatever it is, our money will be going towards that research, as well as the money necessary to treat the people suffering from the disease.

The Senate bill requires coverage for prescription drugs, because many people in the United States (including myself) need them to survive. It requires mental-health benefits, because people who are suffering from a mental illness need our help. Same with substance abuse. It's less expensive to treat people and get them back into mainstream society than to let them rot and move into the underground culture of crime.

So, everyone pays into the system, and those resources get allocated however they are needed to provide all of us with the coverage we need for whatever troubles us. That's what being in a "society" means.

2. Freedom to be rewarded for healthy living, or pay your real costs

When Social Security passed in 1936, it launched what is known as a "generational committment". The decision was made that we didn't want to see our elders on the street, or losing their home, or thanks to Medicare passing in the 1960's too sick to appreciate the life they have.

What is the reward for healthy living? How about an enjoyable life? The purpose of our government is to secure Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness for our citizens. If you're homeless, or sick, you're not very happy.

And the real costs of people being sick go beyond just that individual or that family. The entire community suffers, because that person is not being effective at work, is not able to participate as a member of their family, etc. So we need to be willing to pay the costs necessary to get that person back on their feet.

3. Freedom to choose high-deductible coverage

A "market" is where people make trades and exchanges of goods and services, under a set of rules. That's what is so often ignored when people talk about "free markets". They don't exist. All markets operate under particular rules and laws. If you're talking about a financial market, it wouldn't exist without the money that is being used in the exchange. It wouldn't exist without the laws being enforced by the courts. It wouldn't exist without a foundation that protects people on both side of a trade. If by "free market" you mean one without any rules, you're talking about Anarchy.

Health Savings Accounts mean one thing. If you haven't saved up enough money, your insurance doesn't cover it. The tax thing? We can fix that. And do you really want to buy into a program where you must have that $12,000 available in cash in case you get hit by a car? That makes no sense.

Consumer driven care, to me, means care that is under the control of a patient and their doctor. The insurance company is there to pay the bills, not put something between what your doctor says you need and your ability to pay for it.

4. Freedom to keep your existing plan

This is based on an assumption. That assumption is that the employer based health care system is good and healthy for our country and our citizens. If you believe that it is, then this Freedom is important to you. If, on the other hand, you believe that our employers should not be saddled with the costs of health care, then this Freedom doesn't seem so important.

What part of your health care do you want to keep? Your rates? What if the new program costs you less? Your doctor? What if the new program would allow you to continue to see your doctor, go to the same pharmacy, the same hospital, etc?

The biggest "threat" when it comes to your existing employer based health care plan doesn't come from the Government. It comes from your employer. What if your employer figures out that they can save a lot of money by dumping their health care coverage and requiring people to go to the "exchange" instead out of their own pocket? From sole proprietor to super-corporation, every business needs to examine their ability to keep up with the costs associated with health care. If it is less expensive for your company to ask people to move to the public option, or another option because they choose not to offer coverage, that's what they will do.

I won't get into details in the law. Let's start with principles. Is a business in existence to make money, or to provide services to their employees? I thought it was to make money. It's OUR responsibility as a society to take care of each other. It's not the responsibility of your employer. That has twisted the for-profit business sector since World War II, when businesses started offering health insurance coverage because the rules of the economy at that point in history did not allow them to raise wages. It was wrong then, and it's wrong now.

5. Freedom to choose your doctors

The article goes into big picture what if statements. I have a primary doctor. He is covered under my plan. I would not choose to take coverage under any insurance plan that would require me to change my doctor. And if the government tries to take away my choice, I'll raise havok with my government, which I have the ability to do. Right now if my private insurance company decided to drop my doctor, I would not have any opportunity to influence that decision. Because my insurance company is looking at costs, not my desires and wishes.

---

Question the assumptions. Question what we have now. Don't assume when you are looking either direction for a solution for this mess.

Freedom is not free. That's a phrase that gets shot around all the time. And it's right. Freedom is not free. It requires a foundation. And it's the role of our government to secure our foundation so we don't fall through the cracks. That's the progressive viewpoint on Government.

Interesting statistics

2009-07-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

So I'm cleaning up my desk, and sorting all of the paperwork that I've kept in total chaos over the last 5 years. Finally finished getting everything financial related into folders in a storage box, which looks much better than a pile of random paper.

But what I'm finding interesting is the statistics involved in what that paperwork consists of. I don't have counts of the pages, that would be a bit above and beyond. But here's the thickness of the folders for the thickest ones.

Thickest at the top.

- Bank statements from Washington Mutual.
- Records of Medical Bills and Insurance Statements.
- Records from my 401K and other investments.
- Records from my credit cards

Just found that interesting in terms of paper wasted by what industries, and how important these are in my life.

Oh, and I found my library cards. For Seattle, King County, Sno-Isle and Tacoma. The Washington State Libraries need to take a look at the ORCA card.

A ramble on trust and truth

2009-07-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

It used to be all I'd want to learn
was wisdom, trust, and truth

- Collective Soul:Forgiveness, Discipled Breakdown (1997)

Sometimes I find the differences between the conservative perspective on government and the progressive perspective on government worth commenting about.

I'm a progressive. I see the government as the organization that is focused on securing our foundation. When everything falls apart, I rely on the government to help ensure my safety and provide the security so that I can get back on my feet. When trust falls apart, they have the ability to find the truth. The truth will set you free, right..?

To conservatives, or people who seem to hold conservative values even if they don't consider themselves to be following any of these politically based terms, the government is a force that takes things from them. They take taxes to provide help to someone else, deserved or not. They are a last resort because they have that kind of power, and if you have to go to the government it means that you have failed. And failure is a bad thing.

Well, failure is an option sometimes. We can't do everything, and we certainly can't do everything right every time. Having the government as a foundation allows us to make mistakes, because if our government is operating properly we have the sense of security necessary for us to take those risks.

The government is not something to be afraid of. Our government is there to help us, or at least it is supposed to. What we have to do is be honest with ourselves and those that we do business with, personal or otherwise. If that trust is broken, we need help from someone who has the ability to determine the truth. If you are scared of the government, then something is wrong. The way to secure your position is to use the government as a shield.

I think that's another way of articulating that difference in perspective. Conservatives see government as a sword, while progressives see government as a shield. If you are going to the government for help, you're not asking them to strike out against someone else, you're asking them to be a shield against the unknown or untrustworthy. If you have the truth on your side, the government will defend you.

This is sort of a ramble, I know. But rambles have their place. Maybe they can start a conversation, and contribute to people's understanding. Sometimes rambles can communicate better than direct attempts.

Dear Reagan Dunn: Shut up

2009-07-21T20:06:00.000-07:00

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/408329_countytaxes21.html

To quote the boy wonder who wants his mother's old seat, "The first rule in economics, you don't tax economic activity in a down cycle of the recession."

Funny, when I did a Google search for "The first rule in economics", I got a different result: First Rule of Economics: Wealth Is a Result of Exploitation.

Maybe I should complete his sentence, say what he really meant to say. The first rule in economic politics is that you don't dare tax wealth if you want a prayer of being reelected or elected to a higher office.

In case you can't tell, I'm rather angry about this.

No funding for parks, to heck with health services, end all help to people who need it. Perhaps the only way to drive this home would be to not only stop funding clean up efforts in the parks, but actually blockade the entrances so that nobody can use them. We should post signs in the windows of the health service centers that shut down saying "This center closed due to rich greed."

Economics is a science. It is the study of financial transactions and how those transactions affect the lives of people. In a true sense, economic value is like matter and energy. Can neither be created or destroyed. We take resources from the Earth and the Sun, and convert them into goods and services that meet a human need. Food is soil combined with water combined with sunlight. Shelter comes from taking materials from a forest or the ground, and turning them into homes and buildings. We generate wealth through the production of those goods and services, but these things only have value if they actually serve a human need. Just generating numbers in an accounting book does nothing to help anyone, and it should be discouraged.

Taxing wealth, the way that President Herbert Hoover did in 1932 on our way down into the depths of the Great Depression, was a way of preventing the rich from getting away with their wealth. Taxes on the highest incomes went from 25% to 63% on a graduated scale. That wasn't to tax economic activity, it was to discourage idle wealth from sucking up the recovery dollars that were going to be put into trying to dig us out of the hole.

Power corrupts. Wealth in our society means power. That means wealth corrupts. Our problem here in Washington is that we have a Constitution that says "All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of property within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax and shall be levied and collected for public purposes only. The word 'property' as used herein shall mean and include everything, whether tangible or intangible, subject to ownership." - Article VII, Section 1. This has been interpreted by the court as preventing a progressive state income tax, as well as any measures that would tax any property at a higher rate than any other property. Which gives our state the most regressive tax system in the nation, hurting the people who need the most support from the foundations of our society. The foundations that we rely on our government to secure.

We need leadership in this state who will put their reelection needs lower on the priority list than getting the real work done. We need people in office who will do what is right.

One lousy afternoon

2009-07-18T20:57:00.001-07:00

Your knowledge of a situation changes the situation instantly. By becoming aware, you alter the outcome of the situation - "Dr. Quantum's Little Book of Big Ideas" by Fred Alan Wolf, Ph.D.

So, Debi went out to volunteer to help clean up an area of Magnuson Park with EarthCorps, and I stayed home to relax and get some things done online. We had planned to head down to ride the train to Tukwila after she got back and I looked online for some interesting restaurants before I headed out on my bike for a ride.

Search came up with zilch. And it was a bit depressing to find out that the Lewis & Clark movie theater that I had grown up going to was closed, at least from what I could find online. Hopefully, someone will come up with some interesting non-fast-junk-food places around that station. And hopefully soon.

So I went out on my bike. I headed down 125th Ave, with a plan to bike down to Magnuson and around to the U-District and then back home. That didn't work. I don't go down 125th very often, and the road was in bad enough shape that my rear tire popped thanks to the cracks in the road. This was down the hill, and I realized that I had forgotten my bus pass. So I walked my bike back up the hill to home, got my pass and my debit card, and then walked it up Roosevelt to Revolution Cycles to get my tire replaced. I'll try that run again tomorrow morning.

Debi got home around 2:45, and when she was rested and ready, we set off to the rail station. This meant that we needed to catch the 41 at 115th and 5th, and the schedule said that it was supposed to be there at 3:58 and the next one at 4:11. We didn't make it to the 3:58, but we did see a bus go by at about 4:03 as we were walking towards the stop. So we waited for the next one. And waited.

At 4:35, a 41 bus finally got to our stop. We got to the Transit Center, and the line was very long to get on, and there was a wheelchair. It wouldn't have been a problem if a little'un and a little bigger'un weren't crying and screaming in the seats next to us. Survivable, but I was getting hungry.

We finally got downtown around 5, after going through hella-traffic thanks to a car stuck in the middle of the southbound lanes. Getting hungrier.

We figured it would be easy enough to get on the train at Westlake, make the run to Tukwila and back again, and stop at our favorite place in Pioneer Square on the way home. So we headed into Westlake Mall to get to the tunnel. Wrong move. They had blockaded the entrance so people couldn't just come into their celebration from anywhere willy-nilly. We, along with a LOT of other people, were told to go back up to 4th Avenue to the entrance by Abercrombie & Fitch. So we went up, and found that it was actually the Main entrance in the Macy's building that was the real entrance to the circus. And I do mean circus.

A clown playing a saw with a violin bow? A Starbucks delivery for order #63 on a tall unicycle? Amateur attempts at crowd control? The guys doing tricks weren't bad, but if you're going to have people line up to get on a ride, do like Disney and SeaTac does, and create a snake so that we always think the line is moving.

We finally got to the train at 5:45, rather ravenous for some food. So we asked, and were delighted to find out that we could get off the train in Pioneer Square so we could go eat. But, how long would the trains be running tonight? Don't know, not sure, ask him/her, check upstairs. On our way out we got an "I don't know, maybe 7:30 or 8" a few more times from the people with yellow shirts who were the "Event Staff". Whatever, by that point we were too hungry to care much.

Dinner was great, btw. As usual at the New Orleans.

After dinner, we found a station entrance blocked, and was pointed up the James hill to another one. This was about 6:45, and we were told that just before we got there they had all been told that the system would stop running at 8pm, with no guarantee that we would be able to get back on the train but that there were shuttle buses running between the stops just in case.

We quit. Headed to the closest 41 stop. For another bus ride, another wheelchair (blessings be upon them), and finally got home around 7:45.

Four hours for dinner downtown, and a thrilling evening around the people of Seattle on a Saturday night.

I think we'll go shopping in the morning and stay home. I think it might be a bit less chaotic starting Monday when the circus leaves down.

New Twitter "Tag"

2009-07-10T18:55:00.001-07:00

I'm having a lot of fun on Twitter. A few times today I noticed a post that I just had to respond to, and my own post in return had a new 'tag' on it. "Bring it!"

Hat tip to Mr. Former President whom I hope gets thrown in prison. Bring it on indeed.

What if

2009-07-01T06:26:00.000-07:00

It's 5:45 am. Do you know where your immigration legislation is? My mom does. Not that I wanted to hear it at that hour. The King County Council is considering legislation:

Under a proposal before the Metropolitan King County Council, health facilities run by the county could not deny care based on immigration status, and sheriff's deputies could not ask people for immigration papers, or investigate, detain or arrest people for immigration violations. - Seattle Times

So my mind started thinking about "What If".

What if there is a traffic accident, with one witness to the accident who might not speak English very well. A huge insurance war erupts, with each side blaming the other. Where is the witness? Well, the King County Sheriff had asked about immigration status, and the witness was returned to her home country before identified as a witness.

What if there is a fire, and a silent hero rescues 3 children. The family and neighbors plan a great big celebration as a thank you, only to find out that the hero, who was silent because of a language barrier, cannot attend from the INS detention center.

Immigration is an issue. It's an issue of how strong we are willing to build our communities. I don't believe that anyone should be breaking laws to come to the United States. But we have people who are without employment not because the employers don't have positions available, but because those employers are more than willing to skip the immigration question in the hiring process. That's where our enforcement dollars need to go. It's those employers who need to go to jail, not members of our community who are trying to build a future for their children in the land of opportunity.

Oh, it's about taxes? Francamente, no doy un maldito.

Re: OP-ED: The non-competition health plan | Dr. Stark

2009-06-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

Doctor Stark,

I'd like to make a few comments about your opinion piece.

You said: "118 million will be forced to join after opting out or losing their private coverage." I don't understand something about this. If people's health insurance is so good, why would people choose to switch over to the public option? I'm an advocate for Single Payer, and I believe that the reason is because private businesses who are tired of competing with companies in other industrialized countries who don't have to pay for their employees health care would decide to stop providing that benefit altogether. So people wouldn't have a "choice". They would be pushed, by their current employers' decisions, to move to the public option.

You also said: "Medicare was passed in 1965, and by 1970, no private market existed, except for co-pays and deductibles, for the elderly in the United States." This is not true. Plenty of private health insurance exists for people over the age of 65. If people want to pay the premiums, health care insurance companies would be more than welcome to provide them with coverage. Nobody can afford it, but that's not the issue. They would exist if there was a market for it. And the only reason why there is not a market is because private insurance cannot compete with Medicare on a level playing field. People can complain all they want about how bad the coverage is, but the fact remains true that those complaints have not created a way for private health insurance to compete with the Medicare system. And if there are problems with Medicare, we know what to do about it. Get our representatives to fix it, or vote them out of office. Have you been able to successfully lobby the Board of Directors of Blue Cross?

Personally, I believe that a Public Option or Single Payer is something we cannot afford NOT to do. You're right about the unfunded liabilities in the Medicare system. Estimates I have seen say that at the peak of the Baby Boomer retirement in the 2020's, the system will have $77 Trillion Dollars to deal with. I'm not going to deny that. But I just don't believe that private health insurance, which has a mandate to make profits instead of providing care to people, would be able to handle that load any better than any other system, and with enough pressure brought to bear by the people depending on the system for their very lives, a publicly funded system might even be persuaded to do it better and cheaper.

I've seen the estimates that say Medicare only reimburses 70-80 percent of the private rates. And I agree that's a problem. So let's increase that to Market Rate and see how many doctors suddenly decide that it's worth accepting Medicare patients again.

I don't think Canada should be the only foreign system that we look at. Have you looked at the French system? There is a vibrant and healthy private, non-profit, health insurance sector built on top of the national insurance available to everyone. 85% of the people of France are covered by both, and they are very happy with it. We could do that. We could do even better, I'm sure.

Let's put market competition at work providing health care services instead of paying health care CEO's and stockholders, and we'll see a healthier America and a brighter future.

Chad Lupkes
Seattle

Gasp! Dow's a Democrat?!

2009-06-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

NW Digest has a post up about Dow Constantine being willing to say out loud in public that he is a Democrat. Gasp! How Shocking!

So, I decided to comment, and wrote this:

---
When did it become partisan to want to build a strong economy with good paying jobs? When did it become partisan to want a healthy natural world for our children to show to their children? When did it become partisan to want cheaper alternative methods of transportation that get us from place to place faster? When did it become partisan to want an efficient government that is responsive, responsible and representative? When did it become partisan to want to protect Human Rights, or Animal rights? These are just the issues on Dow’s issue page.

Non-partisanship does not mean that candidates have to hide their values. By saying that he is a Democrat, Dow is simply identifying which set of values he tries to live by. A strong community, fair markets, fair taxation, better government and traditional american values of peace, opportunity and justice for all.

If that drives people away, maybe they’re listening to conservative talk radio too much.
---

And when I hit submit, it told me that my comment was awaiting moderation... So, better to be safe than sorry. I posted it here as well.

Comments welcome! And unmoderated, I might add...

Sean Salazar is too dangerous to be in the US Senate

2009-06-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

I got home from a wonderful Father's Day, and checked my Twitter account for updates. found these:

seanforsenate: The older generation was decimated during the ten year Iraq war…

seanforsenate: 70% of the population of IRAN is under 40 and they are PRO AMERICA….!

seanforsenate: I support complete overthrow in Iran…NOW!

seanforsenate: The U.S Govt. failed to see the generational uprising in Iran. I predicted it over a year ago

Oh, my, frickin', G-d.

First, "seanforsenate" is the campaign Twitter account for Sean Salazar, GOP candidate for US Senate in Washington for the 2010 election cycle.

I'll go through these in the order that they were posted.

"The U.S Govt. failed to see the generational uprising in Iran. I predicted it over a year ago" - Um, as little as I think about how the Bush Administration destroyed foreign relations between our country and the rest of the world, I have real trouble believing that they were THAT STUPID. Give me a break. Anyone with a brain should have been able to see this coming for at least two decades. That it took until last year for Mr. Salazar to see it doesn't bode well for his ability.

"I support complete overthrow in Iran…NOW!" - Really!?! A candidate for the US Senate is advocating for the overthrow of a foreign government? There's a big difference between our people supporting their people as they try to wrestle with the problems of getting fair representation and fair treatment by their government, and actually calling for them to do something this drastic. We should NOT be advocating for violence, and that's exactly what this is no matter how you try to spin the words.

"70% of the population of IRAN is under 40 and they are PRO AMERICA….!" - How do we know that? Show me the polling data. The United States President responded to candle-light vigils in the streets of Tehran after September 11th, 2001 by naming them a member of the "Axis of Evil". We boosted the power of Iran by taking out their biggest boogyman in the region, Saddam Hussein. But that power did not go to the people, it is held by their government. The government that is now shooting at them. That's a really complicated situation over there, Mr. Salazar. Can we please let the professionals, or at least the ADULTS, articulate US Foreign Policy?

"The older generation was decimated during the ten year Iraq war…" - Decimated by WHAT WEAPONS sold to Iraq by WHAT COUNTRY?! Hello?! And yet the people of Iran whose parents were "decimated" by US weapons sold to Iraq are supposed to be 70% in our favor?! In what Michael Steele fantasy world are you living in? Oh, hey, nice picture on your website...

I want all of the violence to stop in Iran. I want the people of Iran to see that the United States is turning away from stupid statements that claim that we in the States have the authority to declare how their government should be designed and how it should function. I want them to believe that when they get through this period, they will have open arms waiting for an opportunity to help them build a positive future for themselves and their children as we move into the future together. That's foreign policy, Mr. Salazar. Not bravado statements that make me want to play "Pin the Brain on the Elephant."

A funny thing happened on the way to the Endorsement

2009-06-19T10:08:00.000-07:00

The Primary Endorsement Meeting of the 46th District Democrats was held last night, and it was not what was expected or hoped for by a lot of people, including me. This is my perspective and memory of what happened, written the "morning after". It's not a historical record, but a record of what I can remember of my actions, my thoughts and my feelings. Being human, that's all I can do.

The meeting room was packed. Probably 175 people total, although I realize now that I never called for a credentials report. The way we do endorsement votes is with paper ballots, and only voting members and/or PCO's get those ballots so it's pretty secure. It would have been nice to have the number, though. The number of people in the room raised the pressure a bit, and the temperature didn't help. I want to thank Rep. Scott White, who was very familiar with the facility and took it upon himself to contact the custodian so we could get the air conditioning turned on. Thanks, Scott!

I went through the 'Chair's Report' quickly, highlighting the Mothers March for Health Care that both my son and I marched in on May 30th. I mentioned the upcoming Seattle Pride Parade and July 11th Summer Holiday Party. I also mentioned that our August meeting was going to be on the regular schedule of the 3rd Thursday at Olympic View Church instead of the Elementary School. This is because the school is closed in August and it would cost us about $150 more to use the School.

We approved the endorsement rules, which had been changed a bit since the January meeting where we considered and endorsed Sherill Huff for King County Elections Director. Before approval, I went over the changes and highlighted the specific rule on how to Suspend the rules for any particular race. I anticipated needing to use that, and I wanted to make sure that campaigns that would otherwise only be considered in September knew that they could, and should, request a suspension of the rules in order for us to consider their race that night.

The first race we considered was Seattle Mayor. Nominations went smoothly, with all the candidates speaking to a body eager to hear from them. The first vote was called, and sent to the Tally Committee. This was where I made my first mistake, and caused the cascade of mistakes that I worked for the rest of the night to wrestle with.

Our Endorsement Rules state that "No Endorsement" is always an option on the first ballot. I had forgotten that, and did not ask Kathryn to include the option on the screen at the front of the room. When the vote came back, someone had evidently remembered because there were 3 votes for "No Endorsement". But, because I had forgotten to include it on the first vote, I asked her to add it to the screen. Then my second mistake hit the fan. I allowed a vote for "No Endorsement" on the second ballot.

What this did, and because nobody had caught it and either challenged it or corrected me (Note to district, please keep an eye on what I'm doing and how I'm following the rules. If you see something odd or wrong, hesitation to speak out... causes problems. I depend on everyone in the body, not just the Eboard members or trained parliamentarians to keep the rules flowing so we can avoid mixups.), is it allowed 9 people to vote for "No Endorsement" instead of either Joe Mallahan or Greg Nickels on the second ballot.

The next step in the rules after the second vote was to consider a motion for a dual endorsement. Someone, and my memory tells me it was Jason Sawatzki, stated that the language of the rules don't specify which candidates need to be considered eligible for a dual endorsement, and that it was within the rules to consider a motion for a dual endorsement of Mallahan and Michael McGinn. That really threw me. I declared that the intention of the rules was to conduct the Second and Third ballots as a run-off election from the first ballot, but I did not specifically rule that this was the only way that I would consider a motion. I probably would have, but I was saved by John Webber who made a motion to dual endorse Mallahan and Nickels. Thank you, John!

We did the vote for the dual endorsement by show of hands, and it did not receive the required 2/3rds majority. Then things got stranger. There was a lot of people talking around the sign-in table, and one of them was Matthew. He raised his hand to be recognized, and said something about trying to raise a concern about moving on before we had taken the Dual Endorsement vote. His concern was about continuing on when a mistake had been made in the ballot process, and he thought that we should consider reconsidering our consideration of the second ballot. However, there were objections raised by some people about revisiting a consideration after the fact, and then someone mentioned that it was already 9pm. That also threw me. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess. Anyway, I kept us going. Which caused more problems.

See, what Matthew was trying to do is a Challenge of the Chair. He was trying to get the body to reconsider the vote, but he wasn't clear enough for me to recognize it, nor even recognize or remember when he had raised his hand. Was it before we started voting on the Second Ballot? Was it after those results had been known? I honestly did not know. I thought and considered (and yes, I'm using that word too much), and did what I thought was right. I told Matthew and Larry Smith to answer this question: "What does Roberts Rules say about when a Challenge of the Chair can be considered?" I had a copy of RRO and there were a few others floating around the room, including the copy in David McDonald's head. The answer was that Roberts was silent on when a challenge may be considered. So, I told Matthew to talk to both campaigns affected, and get their input and thoughts on whether they wanted the body to reconsider the second ballot. The answer came back that they did want it brought up again. Ok. We can do that.

I thought about it too long. A few more races went by while I was wrestling with all of this, and I got poked by a few people who were watching people leave because it was getting late. So at the next opportunity, I told everyone what I was thinking, that after the Primary Races were done I would sustain the challenge. This was to prevent any more people who really wanted to vote on the Mayor's race from leaving. I think this was about 9:45.

We finished all of the Primary races at 10:15. I asked Kathryn to bring the Mayor's race back up on the screen, and talked about what I had heard and what I wanted to do. The ruling that I had made, ok at least the way that I had thought about it at the time, was that the 9 people who had voted for "No Endorsement" would have split their vote and the 2/3rds requirement would not have been met. So my ruling was that the result was No Endorsement and that we needed to move on with the Agenda. I asked the body to tell me whether I was right to move on. And I was supported 52 - 29. But we had to take that vote.

Lessons learned. We need to adjust the language in the rules so that they are more specific about the intent of the run-off election and who is eligible for a dual endorsement. My feeling is that the two candidates considered on the second ballot should be the ones we can consider for a dual. Others might have a different view. We'll talk about it. Also, I need more practice at this. I guess you have to learn by doing, and I hope my decisions and actions are more understandable now that I've written all of this down. Please feel free to comment on either Blogspot or Facebook. I did my best, and did what I thought was the right thing to do.

I want to thank Scott White for giving me the advice to make a ruling that could be challenged. It helped me get my feet back under me. I want to thank David McDonald for his depth and breath of experience. I want to thank Joe Mallahan and Senator Jacobsen (supporting Greg Nickels) for being so willing to help me work through the process of reconsideration. And I want to thank the hecklers who made me think and rethink. It's not fun to be declared "a failure of leadership", but when you get nearly a standing ovation when I asked for forgiveness for being human, it really means something.

Finally, I want to thank the Conlin, Ginsberg, Carr and Holmes campaigns for getting together and deciding together that asking for a suspension of the rules for a consideration (there's that word again) of their race was beyond what the district could deal with at 10:30 at night. To thank them, I announced that we would consider those two races, and those two races ONLY, at our August meeting. I hope we'll see everyone there.

Chad Lupkes,
Chair, 46th District Democrats

Re: Frustrated

2009-06-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

Dear Maria,

I served in the US Navy from 1988 to 1994. While serving, I had good coverage. When I got out, I had none.

I opened a small business in Everett, Washington, and spent 3 years trying to figure out how to make it work. I had to get a job outside of my business so I could get coverage and pay the rest of my bills. My business failed because I couldn't put the time into it that I needed to.

In 1997, my wife at the time became pregnant with my son, and I scrambled to find a job while I was closing my business, and found one at Nordstrom. My son was born in March of 1998, fully covered. Then I left my job to move to Florida and moved back when my wife and I split up. I spent about a year working for Temp agencies with no coverage.

I was lucky. My current wife, whom I had just moved in with back at the end of 2000 asked me why I was working Temp with no benefits or coverage when there was a Nordstrom next door. I got another job with Nordstrom in 2001, and I've been here ever since. Why is this lucky? Because I was diagnosed with Cancer in May of 2003.

Without my health coverage through my employer, I would have been $50,000+ in debt, probably requiring us to sell our home and struggle for the rest of our careers. The way it played out, my coverage paid for just about everything, and I'm now healthy and active.

I'm most active trying to make sure that NOBODY lives under a cloud of fear like I did. Not everyone is as lucky. As appreciative of my insurance coverage as I am, I know not everyone can get it through private insurance. I would switch to a National Health Insurance Program in a heartbeat if it meant that my premiums would help pay for coverage for the 50 million people who are currently not covered. I personally believe that Single Payer is the only solution to the current mess. I would not object to having supplemental insurance available for people who can afford it, but the foundation needs to be a national system that provides basic and catastrophic coverage for everyone in this country. And any supplemental insurance must be provided by non-profit organizations. Nobody should EVER make themselves rich by denying health insurance claims. That is so wrong, it should be a Felony.

I hope you will listen to the feedback you get. And I hope that any feedback you get from people is posted publicly so that we can see the stories that you get and share with each other. Keeping messages in your office is not transparency.

Thanks for being willing to listen. And I hope that you will sign onto Senator Sanders bill, S.703.

Chad Lupkes
Seattle

Share your own stories, ideas and thoughts with Senator Cantwell about the Health Care issue in the US here: http://www.cantwell.com/action/healthcarestories/

Re: This is why

2009-06-16T13:43:00.000-07:00

Barack --

I supported your campaign after the Washington Caucuses because your supporters on February 9th, 2008 asked me. Your positions on the issues during the campaign were close enough to my own for me to feel comfortable with supporting you and voting for you.

However, your position on the Health Care debate is not where I would want. I want Single Payer. I don't want a Public Option to be the end-all and be-all of the debate. Single Payer. Supplementary insurance on top of Single Payer is ok, as long as it is non-profit, but START with Single Payer.

Your position on torture is ok, as in "we should stop". But I want George W. Bush and Richard Cheney in Federal Prison for the war crimes that they have committed, and you don't seem to agree.

I appreciated the need to create a government stimulus package, but I don't believe that what you did is going to be strong enough or big enough to really make a difference in time. The United States is slowing down in our slide towards the economic abyss, but we're still falling. Balance the budget this year. How? I want the top marginal tax rate restored to what it was under Jimmy Carter. 70% - 90%. You don't. You seem to believe that the super-rich are entitled to our national wealth. I don't.

You may be the best President in a generation. However, because the generation we are both part of seems to be the "gimme mine generation", you are not showing yourself to be the Progressive President that we need.

Good luck, and I'm going to fight as hard as I possibly can for what I believe in.

Chad Lupkes
Seattle

HR 676: The video series

2009-06-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

Found this on YouTube

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Dear Senator Murray,

2009-06-08T16:11:00.001-07:00

The only long term solution to the Health Care Crisis in the United States is for the Government to establish a single payer insurance system where everyone is in the same risk pool. You stated in your speech on May 30th that people should be able to keep their current health insurance if they wish. I have health insurance through my employer, and they helped me fight and beat cancer in 2003. As good as it is, I still believe that private, for-profit businesses should not be in the health insurance business. I don't want anyone making a profit based on denying claims.

A public option is a good first step, but it MUST NOT be considered a solution. The ONLY solution is Single Payer.

Thank you for your consideration of my views.

Chase Online Banking

2009-06-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

I've been using an online service to track all of my accounts, and the move from WAMU to Chase has been really frustrating.

Transactions, especially POS transactions, remain in "pending" status for days. This makes it very difficult to accurately keep track of the account balances in any third party software.

I'm looking at local credit unions to see what they have to offer. Should have started there in the first place.

State Party Caucuses

2009-05-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

I'm reading the minutes of the WSDCC Executive Board, and this caught my attention:

Page 5, Line 20:

20 O. Dwight Pelz disagrees with the resolution’s statement that caucuses

21 are a good way to get individuals involved. Outreach should take

22 place through the local parties. State Party organizations should be

23 helping with the governance of the Democratic Party in Washington

24 State.

I can see what he is saying, but in my experience it just doesn't work that way. People can get engaged by the party in several ways, including both candidates and issues. In my case, I walked in to see what it was like, and then spent 6 months fighting cancer. I came back with a vengeance, and the intention of pushing health care reform as hard and as far as I could. The 46th already had the right platform plank. Heck, the state party has the right platform plank, not that anyone with real power in Olympia or Washington DC cares.

And that's the problem. I read the platform, and I watch the news. Our elected officials don't seem to care about our platform, at least not after election day. We don't see most of them working specifically to enact our platform planks. And that means they either don't understand our positions on the issues when they are not in front of a microphone, or it doesn't matter to them and they just want to push their ideas. If any individual candidate comes out with the perfect solution to any problem, that's great! Let's get that solution into the platform.

So the only thing that issues-based activists can do is to organize. Which means building coalitions between legislative districts, and between counties. The ONLY place to do that is at the state party level. That's why I worked to put (and keep) the Progressive Caucus together, fighting as hard as I could over the last few years to make it mean something to people beyond the state committee members. There are plenty of health care advocacy organizations out there, and they're not all doing what they need to do which is to work within the party to help identify and elect candidates that will actually fix the problem. If they are invited to work within the party, they'll be so much more successful. But if all of their outreach efforts are limited to the local party organizations, they're sunk.

Just like our platform planks.

Edith Evangeline {Putnam} Brandon (1913-2009)

2009-05-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

Edith Brandon crossed the veil at 7:05pm on Thursday, May 28th, 2009. I had gotten an email from my mother earlier in the day saying that she was taking a turn for the worse, and then another from my uncle saying that she was not expected to last the night.

Debi, Shea and I had just finished dinner, and we raised a toast to Grandma asking that her passage be peaceful. We also played one of my favorite songs for the toast:

i'm over on the other side
where life and death softly divide.
left my skin and bones behind
now i'm over on the other side.

can you feel me there with you?
my breath is gone but i'm not through.
loved you then and i still do
from over on the other side.

i can fly. really fly.
below the earth ... all through the sky.
tell em all i did not die.
i'm just over on the other side.

it's good here on the other side.
the sweetest songs...the bluest skies.
thank you for the tears you cried
but it's good here on the other side.

i can fly. really fly.
below the earth...all through the sky.
tell em all i did not die.
i'm just over on the other side

the world is smaller than a needle's eye.
where life and death softly divide.
when you leave your skin and bones behind
i'll be waiting on the other side.

i can fly. really fly.
below the earth ... all through the sky.
go tell em all i did not die.
i'm just over on the other side.

Don Conoscenti

If you've read all the way down to this, thank you. Please do listen to the song if you get a chance. The live version is not quite as good as the recorded version on his album Paradox of Grace, but it's a wonderful song in whatever form.

By the way, the song ended and we left the condo to head down to Kent at 7:05pm.

Touch magic, pass it on.

Bankers in the Palace

2009-05-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

"In days of yore, when investors were brave,

And journeyed from their bonds and savings,

Trusty men were called upon,

To speak of opportunities worth raving.

They helped themselves to fees and charges,

And drank from crystal chalice.

Oh, it was a stirring sight,

Those bankers in the palace.

And some things still haven't changed. Hit us, boys!"

So, Chase sweeps to the rescue, under orders from the FDIC or whomever. And over the last year they have slowly been digesting what they ate. This morning, after being shut down all (holiday) weekend, they went live with all wamu.com accounts on chase.com. So I went in to see how it was. There are some changes, most of which I could get used to. But then I went to my financial management software.

WAMU had opened up the protocol allowing people to access their accounts through Money or Quicken without any charges. Chase, it seems, wants to charge me $9.95 per month for that.

They had a link to their full list of fees and charges. Here it is. Anyone else outraged?

Ok, I'll admit it. I was spoiled by Washington Mutual. But fundamentally, at least the way that I understand the way a bank works, the profits for a bank are the difference between the interest rates that they charge on loans and the interest that they pay on savings. That's what a bank is supposed to do. If they are charging fees, it's to discourage bad behavior and teach people how to handle their money responsibly.

What Chase, and I'm sure a lot of the other monopoly level banks, seem to want to do instead is charge fees instead of being smart about who they give their loans to. If people can't pay back their loans, DON'T GIVE THEM THE LOANS. Why is that difficult to understand? Oh, but they're allowed to charge all these fees, and they can sell the loans on the open market...

I'm going to call them and try to make sense of whether they are going to charge me for accessing my accounts online through a third party. If they do, I'm taking my banking elsewhere. Anyone know of a good bank that isn't out to screw with their account holders? Anyone? Bueler?...

Trying again with a question from Thursday night

2009-05-23T22:32:00.000-07:00

Thursday night was the candidate forum hosted by the 46th District Democrats. We worked hard on the questions that were asked, but this being my first time I hadn't thought of one question long enough or hard enough to really put it into the right words. I'm going to try again here.

Here is the original question, posed to the Seattle City Council candidates:

Tacoma has a free broadband network and Seattle has a large amount of unused fiber capacity belonging to private corporations. What are the pros and cons of sponsoring a similar free broadband network and would you support it?

First, Tacoma doesn't really have a "free broadband network". They have a high speed backbone running through the downtown that businesses can tap into and use. They did put $100 Million into a fiber-optic network that connects businesses and residential neighborhoods. Here's an article from August of 2000 about it and what people thought it might do to the economy in Tacoma at the time. So that was badly phrased.

What was most distubing to me was the answers that were given by the candidates for Position 6, including the incumbent, Nick Licata. Both Martin Kaplan and Jessie Israel talked about how it just wasn't feasible right now to do anything with high speed internet at the expense of the city, when our top priority should be economic growth.

... Excuse me?!

Ok, (I thought) maybe I'm missing something. I went to college to learn about technology and how it can spur economic growth. It's a no-brainer to me. Nick Licata mentioned that the council had looked at the issue, is looking at the issue, and might again look at the issue in the future. But it's not something that we can do right now, what with all the work it would take to place the lines and set everything up.

... Excuse me?!!!

In a discussion with Rusty Williams later, who had done a little bit of reading on the subject, he sent me this note:

As an IT major and a veteran of the dot com era, nobody knows better than I do the economic energy that it produced. One technological idea I have is to install a fiber optic network throughout the city. This network would be the uber-high speed conduit for deploying the City's digital media services. But the beauty would be in licensing this network to entrepreneurs who in turn would compete for our communications dollars resulting in better service, lower prices and better features. Imagine getting only the television channels you want. Or changing vendors when you are dissatisfied. We could see an end to the current oligopoly.

This is closer to the kind of answer I was looking for, but there was still something in the back of my mind bugging me. Tonight, I found it.

Dark Fiber: The region's fiber-optic networks remain largely unused

Seattle doesn't need to install anything. During the 1990's, like the Barenaked Ladies sing, "It's All Been Done". And it's still mostly dark. Meaning unused. Sleeping, like our economy right now.

So, what to do... How about a rephrasing of the question?:

When I was in college in 2002, I saw a report in the Puget Sound Business Journal on the tremendous amount of fiber optic cable under the streets of Seattle that had been installed in the 1990's but had since gone 'dark', meaning super high speed broadband capacity that was not being used. What can the city do to ignite the economic engines of our city by making use of this under-utilized resource?

Candidates, it's your move.

President Carter on Energy, May 13th, 2009

2009-05-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

C-Span Archives

Single Payer talking points

2009-05-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

The United States has the best medical technology in the world. That has never been in question. We're not talking about the technology.

The US has some of the best doctors in the world, who know the human body and mind better than anyone, and can do incredible things to repair from damage and disease. That has never been in question. We're not talking about the doctors, the nurses, or any of the other personnel associated with actually keeping us healthy.

The US has some of the most powerful corporations in the world. They have accumulated so much financial and political power that they, not the doctors or the patients, are the ones who make the choice whether the medical technology can be used by our doctors to help us recover from disaster. Whether we're talking about the insurance companies who would prefer not to pay or the pharma companies who would prefer to charge us more, these corporations are the enemy that we are trying to identify and eliminate.

We could cure almost any disease, if we could put all of our resources behind that goal. Right now, the corporations are putting all of their resources towards a different goal. Making more money.

Canada sends their people down here for the technology and the doctors. They don't send people down here to find the financing to pay for them. They take care of their citizens.

We should take care of ours.

Cap and Dividend

2009-05-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

Dear Congressman McDermott,

I have been following the carbon tax debate, and I have been reading Peter Barnes from On the Commons. Rep. Peter Holt has introduced H.R. 1862, the Cap and Dividend Act of 2009. I would like to ask you to co-sponsor this bill, which I believe is moving in the right direction.

The purpose of the act is "to cap the emissions of greenhouse gases through a requirement to purchase carbon permits, to distribute the proceeds of such purchases to eligible individuals, and for other purposes."

The model used is already in place in Alaska, where profits from the sale of the oil fields are provided to the citizens of Alaska as an annual dividend. The system provides a higher state of living for the people of Alaska. I think we can use this model to provide a better quality of life to everyone in the US. You can learn more about the concept at the Cap and Dividend website.

http://www.capanddividend.org/

I would like to know your thoughts on this bill, and whether you would be willing to sign on as a co-sponsor.

Chad Lupkes
Seattle, Washington

Dragonslayer

2009-05-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

Senator Baucus decides not to invite anyone who advocates for Single Payer to a committee hearing, and kicks out the members of PNHP who protest his decision.

Senator Schumer decides to introduce a public option that must follow all the same rules as any private plan.

One of my senators, Maria Cantwell, is a co-sponsor of a bill that sets a goal of having "affordable, guaranteed private health coverage that will make Americans healthier and can never be taken away."

Nice words. What do they mean? It means that people make money off the suffering of others.

National Health Care was first introduced in Congress in 1948 by Harry Truman. The Republican congress refused to allow it. So he pushed it into Europe and Japan. The EU is now a stronger economy than we are.

If a predator was living in our neighborhood, the community would be up in arms wanting the police to do something to protect our children. If a wild animal was on the loose we would be up in arms calling the police to do something to protect our children. But when a wild financial predator appears in our sights that has been feeding off our wallets and our children for 61 years, we turn our backs and say that it's just the way things are.

We don't need US Senators who try to calm the people by trimming the nails of the dragon.

We need someone to stand up and become a dragonslayer.

A Seattle earthquake drill

2009-04-22T09:59:00.000-07:00

Over the loudspeaker: "BEEEP: This is an Earthquake Drill. Please drop and cover. Music will play to simulate the earthquake itself. Please remember to move away from the outside walls of the building, and stay on your floor as the elevators and stairwells may be unsafe. Thank you for your participation in this drill."

Music: "I feel the earth .. move .. under my feet ..."

Only in Seattle. :)

Rediscovering God

2009-04-06T22:35:00.000-07:00

Those of us who have transcended mythical belief systems know without any doubt that there is no God up in the sky. But when we awaken to what I call the evolutionary impulse—the mysterious passion to evolve, to become, to develop on every level—we rediscover who God is. When we begin to experience the aspiration to evolve as that unique ecstatic compulsion in our own heart and mind, that's when the God who fell out of the sky is awakening within ourselves, as the urge to take the next step.

Fourteen billion years ago, there was nothing. Then, suddenly, there was an enormous explosion—an explosion that never stopped and is still reverberating here and now. So what I'm describing is a perspective and a state of consciousness in which the very first cause is waking up to itself as we wake up to our own impulse to evolve. That's Evolutionary Enlightenment: when the spark that initiated fourteen billion years of development becomes conscious of itself. When you realize this and recognize this at the deepest level of your being, and then choose to take responsibility for it, it is then that you know without any doubt that it's up to you to make this world a better place. It's up to you. In that realization, you discover a reason for living, which is spiritually empowering. It is where you will find dignity, self-respect, ultimate meaning, and purposefulness.

Andrew Cohen

Frustrating weekend

2009-03-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I read an article about the Port of Seattle again delaying the purchase of the Eastside Rail corridor. Because they didn't think it was a good time to go begging to Wall Street for $107 Million. Because there were not 107 millionaires willing to buy the bonds, because they're all trying to find secure places for their money. Rich people are stupid. Hello, Tay! Over here!!! Instead of looking for 107 rich silver spoons, how about asking if King County has a million people who would be willing to buy a bond for $107? We've already expressed interest in helping, you just need to make the municipal bonds available at denominations we can afford! Unthinkable?

Next was all of the hype about how unfair it is to tax AIG bonuses at 90%. Because it's targeting just those people. The Republicans are right, that is unfair. So let's make it fair. Let's tax EVERYONE who makes more than $3.5 million a year at 90% for every dollar earned above $3,500,000. Would that make it fair?

And then this article in the Boston Globe about millionaire audits taking a dive in 2008. What, you thought they would increase in an election year?

Frustrating weekend, news-wise. But, I got to speak to my sons twice! That's the kind of bonus I like.

Letter to Verdeim Software

2009-02-22T12:17:00.000-08:00

Re: Edison PC Power Management Software

I installed Edison a few weeks ago, and found that I actually didn't need it, although thank you for helping me find the Power Options through the Control Panel.

I uninstalled the Edison software from Add/Remove programs, but it refuses to go away. I can go into the Power Controls and delete the Edison Power scheme, but when I reboot the computer, it reappears.

This is a problem because I am unable to control my computers power use at all now. When I walk away from the system for more than 10 minutes, it goes into a Stand By mode where the CD-Rom light, Hard Drive light and power light are continuously on, and I an unable to wake up the system through the keyboard or the mouse. I have to hold the power button down for about 6 seconds, and do a hard reset of my system, which causes me to lose anything that I am working on.

So, uninstalling did not work. The other option is to go into the Registry and clean it up so that the Edison power scheme stops reappearing in the Power Option Properties. Can I get help finding that in the Registry and getting rid of this problem once and for all?

Note to anyone reading. I don't recommend Edison PC Power Management. Just take control of how your system works through Power Options via the Control Panel.

About expanding Convention Place Station

2009-02-16T14:23:00.000-08:00

I sat in a meeting of the House Committee on Community & Economic Development & Trade, and heard my own Rep. Scott White testifying about a bill he is sponsoring seeking to allow the construction of an expansion of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center on top of the transit center at Convention Place Station. Along with Rep. White, the CEO of the Trade center, a representative from the City of Seattle, and a union representative spoke in favor of the bill. I heard from the CEO that this project would employ 3,000 people during the construction, with further gains in long term employment thanks to the jobs created by the expanded convention center. There was another project mentioned that I wanted to look up, a hotel at the location of the Greyhound building downtown. Another potential 3,000 jobs plus long term employment for the hotel staff.

The Seattle Times wrote about the expansion project here:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008453960_conventioncenter01m.html

The article says that it might compete with financing for a potential expansion of Key Arena. It will be interesting to see which of these projects gets the most attention.

On Sir Edmund Burke

2009-02-08T11:06:00.000-08:00

A mailing list post got me searching for information about a State Income Tax, and I found that Senator Franklin has introduced SB 5104, creating an Income Tax. Of course, I found this through the conservative bill tracking service, WashingtonVotes.org.

And I got into it with some of the posters who were whining about spending, etc. Same argument as ever. Until I saw this comment from "glhadley":

What we really need are term limits and a restriction on voting to those who actually pay more taxes than they game the system for. If we could remove from the voting rolls, those who are simply voting for people who promise the most, we could really have a non-self-destructive society.

My answer was that he sounded like Edmund Burke:

The occupation of a hair-dresser, or of a working tallow-
chandler, cannot be a matter of honour to any person —
to say nothing of a number of other more servile em-
ployments. Such descriptions of men ought not to
suffer oppression from the state ; but the state suffers
oppression, if such as they, either individually or collec-
tively, are permitted to rule.

I found this quote on Archive.org, and it got me reading a bit more. Burke goes onto quote Ecclesiasticus, Chapter 38, which I think he completely misunderstood. It talks about honoring labor, and that in spite of the fact that people who do hard work are rarely consulted in political matters 2,000+ years ago, they "they will maintain the state of the world, and all their desire is in the work of their craft."

Burke thought that the ancients were saying that the workers "should not" be consulted in politics. I read the passage as cynical lore, saying that even if they are not consulted, they maintain the foundations of our lives, and should be honored for it.

What do you think?

Answering the Cato Institute's NYTimes Ad

2009-02-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

I'd rather have the government hire someone as a last resort for 40K per year than give a $100,000 tax cut to someone else and have the person who needs that 40K go begging for a job. Kind of rough, but if you look at the proposal that Bush put out in the 2000 election, giving a 500 Billion Dollar Tax Cut in order to "create 5 million jobs", that's what he was saying. If I need capital to start a business, I don't go to a rich friend, I go to a bank. (I don't have any rich friends, and don't really want any.) If my business idea has merit and if I can sell the idea that I would be able to earn money from it, the bank gives me a loan that I have to pay back. But even more important than that, I don't need financial capital to start a business, I just need demand for my product or service. Without that demand, I'll stay working for someone else.

If it were true that giving tax breaks and more financial capital to people at the top of the income ladder created more jobs, then wouldn't it also follow that giving ALL of our financial capital to THE richest person in the world would create the MOST jobs? That's what I call failed logic.

It IS true that by giving more money to people who will spend most of their income increases demand for products and services. It does NOT follow that giving all of our financial capital to everyone equally would create paradise. But at least people would be able to eat, live in a house, go to a doctor and send their kids to good schools.

The Brookings Institute is here: http://www.brookings.edu/

The Cato Institute is here: http://www.cato.org/

Conservative Economics, also called "Supply Side" economics, has failed. It failed in the 1920's and created the Great Depression. It failed in 1981 and created the Recession of the early '80's, but Congress didn't have the guts to reverse the tax cuts. Those policies started being reversed in 1993, but the 1994 election (thanks to the broadcasts and illusions cast by people from the CATO Institute and other groups like them) stopped it. Now we might have another chance to fix the mess, put regulation back to work trying to protect our country against fraud and abuse. But I would expect that Congress still won't have the guts to restore the top marginal tax rates to what they should be. If we don't do that, then the fraud and abuse will be coming from the people with the most finanical capital, able to buy and sell elected offices.

If "supply side" were true, then retailers would want to maximize inventory so they have whatever their customers want to buy. Retailers instead try to keep inventory to a minimum, because inventory is a cost, and unsold inventory is a loss. Would you rather have a few people who can afford multi-million dollar homes, or a LOT of people who can afford homes that they can be proud of?

The role of government is to establish and maintain a foundation for the private sector to build on. Without that foundation, everything falls apart. Physical, financial, social and legal foundations are what make our country as great as it is. Selling off that infrastructure in bits and pieces so that private corporations can make money off selling services for higher prices than should be charged for basic needs like water, electricity and other elements of the commons is the best way to destroy that foundation. That's what we've seen happen over the last 8 years, and for the 20 years before that.