Response to Luke Esser

The article in the PI about Obama's visit last night was great. Wish I could have made it, but I can't be everywhere. One particular set of paragraphs caught my attention, and it opens a door of opportunity.

Obama's health care reform plan, which he announced earlier this week and which would largely be financed by tax increases on the wealthy, drew a jab before his speech from state Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser.

"Barack Obama used his first big policy speech to call for a massive tax increase and a brand new tax on small businesses," Esser said. "It's nothing but the same old tax-and-spend politics we've seen from liberal presidential candidates for decades."

Taxes. What an evil word. How terrible that Democrats are calling on people
to pay their dues to society. How awful that we are calling for a foundation
under everyone's feet, one that supports people as much as they have a need,
paid for by those whose needs are taken care of.

Tell me, Luke. How would you pay for a Health Care system that provides coverage
and treatment for everyone, putting the needs of the sick over the desires of
the wealthy? Oh, that's right! "We oppose a universal government-run health
care system. We support a free-market solution to keep costs down through increasing
consumer choice and information. Health care is a personal issue and informed
individuals can make better decisions about their own health care than government
bureaucracies." "Health care is a personal issue, and informed individuals can
make better decisions about their own care than government. Republicans believe
in free market solutions that reduce health care costs by offering more information
for additional and better choices for consumers." In other words, the Washington
State Republican Party believes that Adam Smith will keep costs under control
for them, while letting the pharmaceutical companies, private and for-profit
hospitals and insurance companies, and our "well-educated population" take care
of our own problems, which will work itself out over time. And while it works
itself out, people will get sick, will lose time on the job forcing them to
choose between feeding their family or paying medical bills that just keep coming.
And at the same time we're all supposed to keep up with the Billions of (tax)
dollars of research and development that is happening at the National Institutes
of Health and around the world, so we can help our doctor (who probably has
at least 10 years of high-level medical education) make the decisions about
whether we will live comfortably or die miserably. Nice, Luke. This really shows
the values of the Republican Party well. Primary value: We don't really care
about people, it's just politically expedient to say that we do.

Let's put into perspective the actual position of the Democratic Platform on Health Care. "Healthcare is a basic right, and our government must assure accessible and affordable health care for all." Health care is NOT a personal issue. It's an economics issue. It's an issue for our entire society. When someone is sick, they can't work, which puts extra burden on everyone else who has to do what the sick person cannot. When someone is sick, they can't take care of their children, which puts an extra burden on family members, teachers and our neighborhoods who must give the love and attention that those children deserve.

Establishment of a comprehensive national healthcare plan, (as in HR 676: universal single payer healthcare) similar to Medicare and available to all, regardless of age or employment;

The key words are "available to all". Just like "Leave No Child Behind", we must never leave behind anyone when it comes to health care coverage. Nobody has the right to point at another person and say "you don't deserve coverage".

Development of a state health plan, assuring access to affordable, equitable healthcare for everyone, beginning with children, until a national plan is realized;

The Republican Congress between 1994 and 2006 has done more to deny our basic
rights than any other congress in history. Even given the problems that would
have come out of the plan that was brought forward in 1993 by the Clinton Administration,
it would have started to fix the fundamental problem. The way that Democrats
define the problem is that people don't have health care coverage, and thus
are limited in how close they can get to their potential. The way that Republicans
seem to define the problem is that people want health care coverage in the first
place. So by sitting on their hands over the last 12 years, one sixth of our
population now has no coverage at all. One in six people. That's not good enough
for the Republicans. They want even more people to be denied a healthy body,
mind and spirit.

Coverage including affordable prescription drugs, dental care, physical therapy and medical technology, available according to healthcare needs;

Medical doctors are only part of the picture. Every aspect of what keeps our bodies working right needs to be part of the coverage plan. If not, you tell me which aspect of health can be ignored. How about our eyes? Do we need to be able to see well when we drive, or should only those people who can afford glasses without any help be allowed to get back and forth to work? The Republican Platform has this statement: "All prescription drug purchases and health insurance premiums being fully tax-deductible." What about the crazy idea that purchases and premiums like this shouldn't have to come out of pocket at all?

Patient freedom of choice, including the right to obtain legally prescribed medications from any licensed pharmacy;

My grandmother is 94 years old, and she is suffering from congestive heart problems. As I type, she is in the hospital. Not just any hospital will do, however. It must be a Group Health hospital, which gives her two choices; Redmond or Tacoma. She lives in Kent. It's a half-hour or more travel distance from her home to either of these locations, every minute of which is uncomfortable for her. I'd rather she have the local hospital available, but because we have such a limited system that's not a choice we have. If I'm sick, or I change jobs and move to a different part of town or a different city altogether, I don't want to have to hunt through lists and make a bunch of phone calls to find out how far I have to travel to see a doctor, dentist or vision specialist. I just want to get healthy. The insurance companies spend a lot of money on advertising trying to get doctors and care providers to take their plans. The goal of course is to have every doctor available to every patient, so that the patient has the choice based on word of mouth and reputation which doctor they should go to. With universal coverage, that's not a goal on the horizon, it's a starting assumption. And we wouldn't be paying 30% of our health care dollars paying for that advertising and for paper pushers whose job it is currently to limit the opportunities and choices we have instead of making sure that we have healthy bodies, minds and spirits.

Inclusion of long-term care, home care and hospice, and support for caregivers as benefits;

Our elders have spent their lives in service to their families and their community.
The least we can do near the end of their lives is to make them as comfortable
as possible, without draining every last penny from their hard earned savings.
Right now we all have to plan for the eventuality that we will be laid up in
a nursing home watching our families suffer financially while we suffer physically.
What a terrible future to look forward to. We need to change that future into
one where our family members are shown the respect they deserve for the work
that they have done, and one that supports families by not destroying their
foundation to pay for that kind of care.

Parity for mental and physical healthcare, including treatment and education for drug, alcohol and tobacco problems;

The most healthy mind, with brilliant ideas and dreams, is limited only by
the opportunities that they are given to express and explore those ideas. And
it goes the other way as well. Sickness of mind and heart due to mental illness
is just as debilitating to a person's potential as being in a wheelchair. We
all recognize the need for everyone to have a healthy body, mind and spirit.
We should provide the resources to provide for all of those needs.

Full funding of current veterans and military hospitals and clinics, with expansion of services as needed by our returning troops;

Support our Troops has become a phrase thrown around like a gauntlet in a political
debate. Whenever it is said by a politician, it comes with lots of extra meaning.
I can almost hear the extra words under their breath. "I 'Support
our Troops', while you don't." Supporting our troops means giving
them a mission that they can understand from beginning to end, top to bottom,
and empowering them to do their best to fulfill that mission with the best planning
and resource support available in the 21st century. Supporting our troops means
taking care of their families while they are away on those missions, making
sure that they are able to return to a healthy and loving home. Supporting our
troops means making sure they have the best training possible to let them avoid
injury while completing those missions. Supporting our troops means that if
they do get injured, they will be able to feel the secure foundation under their
feet. Our country needs to welcome them back with open arms, open hearts, and
open doors for whatever treatment, help and ongoing support they need in order
to feel proud of their service and the job they did serving our nation. Anything
that limits or denies that foundation under their feet should be examined, discussed
and eliminated from our cultural institutions. Full medical coverage for life
should be the least worrisome of that foundation.

Public health policy based on sound scientific guidelines, following the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control, and organized plans for an effective response to major epidemics;

We don't employ witch-doctors in the 21st century. Every minute of training
that doctors receive is based in centuries of scientific study of what makes
us sick and what can make us healthy again. Diseases can spread through water
systems, air systems and through our social networks faster than we think they
can, and we need to be ready for whatever comes. This isn't a call to give up
our personal lives and freedom. It's a call to arms against a microscopic enemy
that can kill millions of people unless we respond rapidly and intelligently.
Remember the Black Death, or the 1918 Spanish Flu. This is not Hollywood. It's
life and death.

Restoration of funding and support for medical research, including stem cell research, to be based on scientific merit;

Sitting outside of the House and Senate chambers while the debate rages about
when life begins, in offices, homes and doctors offices, are millions of people
who suffer every day from disease and injury who could be helped. Sanctity of
life either extends from birth to death, or from conception to death. The Republican
Party would want us to believe that the "real debate" is about those first nine
months rather than the entirety of the 90+ years that we are actually alive
on this earth. This is not the abortion issue. This is about
people who are already here who need our help.

Restoration of funding and support of international family planning agencies within the United Nations.

One of the first things that President Bush did, on his first day in office, was to block federal aid to any foreign group that offered counseling or any other assistance to women in obtaining abortions. This wasn't about saving lives, it was about taking control away from the women who live in poverty and want to control how many children they have. It was about taking choices away from societies and cultures whose leaders know that only by giving those choices to their people can those people raise their standard of living and reach their potential. If a family cannot afford more children, they must be free to choose not to have more children. And it wasn't just about abortion. It was about any form of birth control at all. Even talking about family planning became a "sin" in the eyes of our Federal Government. We need to restore the power that women have over their own lives all over the world. We need to eliminate the necessity for abortions, not just forbid women from seeking options and choices.

Health Care is not my primary issue. But it is what got me involved in trying to rout the Conservative Movement and shove them into the history books as the primary example of how not to run a country. In 2003, I was diagnosed with Cancer. It affected my job, it affected my family, and it changed my life.

Thank you, Cindy

Heroes get tired. That's the lesson I'm getting from Cindy Sheehan's withdrawal from the spotlight this weekend. After the last few years, she deserves to step back and let someone else be the lightning rod. Any volunteers? I didn't think so. Things like this don't happen because people volunteer. They happen because people don't see a choice.

I've been in a few rounds myself, especially after my New York Times quote. I even went a round with Cindy herself about my statement.

I don't think anyone understands things from Cindy's perspective. I know I don't want to lose a child, or a parent, or anyone I know to gain that perspective. But I don't need it to be able to say thank you to a hero. Cindy put her name forward, sacrificed nearly everything in her life, and got a Congress that voted to continue the war that killed her son. So she's stepping back. G-d bless, Cindy. Healing takes time, and time is something that I hope we will give you.

Tears in the House

I had to show this. House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) gave this speech on May 24th, and he's speaking with distinction from his point of view. I respect him for that. And I would like to thank his office for posting the entire speech that he gave, instead of the clips that are being used against him in the blogosphere. I wish they were as good at posting the text of his speeches on his official website.

However, I don't respect his point of view.

Surrender. What a wonderful political term. It's a term designed to get the hair to stand up on the backs of our necks, and it's a term designed to stop us from thinking.

He asks a very important question during this speech. "When are we going to stand up and take them on? When are we going to defeat them?!"

The answer is simple. When George Bush leaves office, and a Democrat takes over. I don't have a timetable. I'm not a prophet. But I will say that I want to see Osama bin Laden on trial at the Hague, with the entire trial and ALL OF THE EVIDENCE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE TRAIL available to the public for inspection and consideration.

George Bush wouldn't do that. A Democratic President probably wouldn't do that. But it's the only thing that will solve the issue. Let OBL have his day in court. Then lock him away from the rest of the world forever, and dismantle his organization from the schools to the training camps once and for all. Bush wouldn't do that either. He didn't even try.

Why I don't have Clearwire

My wife and I are still using Earthlink.net as our Internet Service Provider, in spite of some ongoing customer service issues, which haven't really gone away, and it's upwards of $50 dollars a month for 99% service. Not the best deal in the world.

We keep getting offers from Clearwire, and for something like $35 per month we could have something I could take with me around the city, with no hassles. So the question is why haven't we switched yet?

Because they're amazingly dumb. I'll get it eventually, just for the convenience, but the only person they ever send their offers to is Debi's first husband, Jason, who has been dead since 1998. Like I said; dumb.

I'm posting this on the off chance that a top of the line Internet company has someone keeping an eye on the blogs for posts about their name, so maybe they can take Jason's name off their mailing list and prove that they are not, well, dumb.

Nuff said.

Worse than War

By David Krieger



Worse than the war, the endless, senseless war

Worse than the lies leading to the war



Worse than the countless deaths and injuries

Worse than hiding the coffins and not attending funerals



Worse than the flouting of international law

Worse than the torture at Abu Ghraib prison



Worse than the corruption of young soldiers

Worse than undermining our collective sense of decency



Worse than the arrogance, smugness, and swagger

Worse than our loss of credibility in the world

Worse than the loss of our liberties



Worse than learning nothing from the past

Worse than destroying the future

Worse than the incredible stupidity of it all



Worse than all of these,

As if they were not enough for one war or country or lifetime,

Is the silence, the resounding silence, of good Americans.

The Edwards Energy Plan

John Edwards is my top choice for President in 2008, at least at the moment. And no, I don't care how much he is willing to pay for a haircut.

DFA has been doing a great job engaging with the entire Democratic lineup on various issues, and their latest was about Energy, Climate Change, and what the plan is. John Edwards was the first to respond, as usual.

I was at first disappointed. It didn't sound like he was setting himself apart. So I went to his website to see more details.

http://johnedwards.com/about/issues/energy/new-energy-economy/

I want to go over this in detail, because there are some great things in here. But they don't go far enough, and they don't capitalize on the most powerful force for change that exists. Federal investment into our economy is critical to make this work, but I'm not talking about Pork Barrel Projects where we would encourage states and local municipalities to brag about how much Federal money they have been able to get from their Congresscritters for local projects. I don't think that's the right approach. Anyway, before I get too high on this soapbox:

Create a new energy economy and 1 million new jobs by investing in clean, renewable energy, sparking innovation, a new era in American industry, and life in family farms. - "1 million jobs" harkens back to a speech that Bush gave in the 2000 campaign, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don't want the Government to create jobs, except as a last resort. I want the demand for products to be high enough to create those jobs in Industry and Commerce. What the government needs to do is increase that demand.

Halt global warming by capping and reducing greenhouse gas pollution and leading the world to a new global climate change treaty. - We're not going to be able to "halt" climate change. It took hundreds of years after the last ice age to stabilize the climate when humans began the Age of Agriculture, and we're not going to be able to halt the coming changes within a single generation. We do need to get the carbon out of the atmosphere, and we need to stop putting more in. But the coming sea level changes and climate shifts are going to hit us no matter how much money we spend. We have to hope for the best AND prepare for the worst.

Meet the demand for new electricity through efficiency for the next decade, instead of producing more power. - Efficiency can reduce our demand, but we still have a growing national population and a growing global population that is pushing that demand up, not down. Maybe we can reduce the rate of demand growth by some of these measures, but we can't delude ourselves into believing that we can invest some money and have all the electrical power that 8.9 Billion people will need by 2050. Sure, I'd love to try, but we have to be honest about it from day one. Underpromise, overperform. Not the other way around.

Cap and Reduce Global Warming Pollution - The description mentions the "most aggressive plans under consideration in Washington" without saying who those plans are coming from. He's talking about the Safe Climate Act of 2007 (H.R. 1590), introduced in June of last year, and reintroduced this year. You can find more information about the bill at OpenCongress.org and Thomas.loc.gov.

There he goes again, promoting his 1 million new jobs thing. Here's the reality. Every year, around 100,000 of our kids graduate from high school. Currently the number of unemployed persons in the US is 6.8 million or 4.5%. That sounds like a healthy percentage from my economics class, but do we really only want to help one seventh of the people who are currently unemployed? Either use real numbers, or drop real numbers. One of the two.

Lead the World toward a New Global Climate Change Treaty - The best example of such a treaty was the Montreal Protocol, which limited the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in order to try and stop the destruction of the Ozone layer. Getting something that big on an international level again will take a lot more work than the Kyoto Protocol, which is only scratching the surface of what we will need to do over the next few hundred years. It's a good start, and the cap and trade system described within Kyoto is something that Edwards already has in his plan elsewhere.

Creating the New Energy Economy and 1 Million Jobs

Invest in Renewable Sources of Electricity - Invest how? Here's the crux of the problem that I have, and the biggest thing that is missing from this plan. The first thing that Reagan did in 1981 was to remove the solar panels from the roof of the White House. They were reinstalled in 2003, with little fanfare. If Edwards wants to make an investment in renewable energy, it's really simple to get started. All he has to do is require that all of the Federal Administration Buildings, from the Pentagon to shacks in the middle of the Federal Forest lands, have solar panels installed, not just to help reduce the power consumption, but to BECOME the power generation core of 21st century America. Same with Wind, Geothermal, etc. If the Federal Government takes this on, demand will skyrocket, economies of scale will bring the prices for the equipment down, and more and more businesses and individuals will follow suit with their own investments. I don't think it will be enough, but it should be the biggest part of his "energy plan".

I'll post more later in part 2, because I need to get to work.

Chad

Liberty or Security?

It's really difficult for me to read things like this, because I see the language used as effective for no purpose other than driving the United States into a second civil war, with "Liberals" on one side and "Conservatives" on the other. It's insulting, and I don't deal well with it. The substance of the proposal is something I originally missed because my eyes started glazing over. I'll try to put that aside and read it again. (These types of commentaries REALLY piss me off.)

"These people", referring in the first paragraph to liberals, means exactly who? Give me names or drop the reference. He's complaining about people who point fingers by pointing fingers. How stupid is that?

What the hell is this 'political correctness' crap? Who doesn't deserve to be treated with respect? Name them. It sounds like this guy is saying that Violent inclinations should be dealt with by putting people in jail, or denying them lives because we are terrified that someday they may do something. Is he suggesting that we should have sent this kid back to South Korea, and kicked his parents and sister out of the country because he was dealing with stress? I know you advocate closing the border, but that's not going to happen as long as the United States remains part of the earth.

Treating people with respect and continuing to give people a chance to reach their potential through education does not mean that we are all hostages. That could be taken as a call to reenact what the Soviet Union created in Eastern Europe, where the police ask to see our papers every time we get on a bus to go somewhere, and they have gulags where people who are "politically incorrect" labor without hope forever. Is that what we want?

Terror, terror, terror, be afraid, be afraid be afraid. I don't have the time. Am I willing to lose some towers in order to protect the constitution and the future of my chidren? Yes. Sorry, but yes. I believe in the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That means I'm willing to sacrifice to maintain my ideals. If people die, it's because we didn't do a good enough job in prevention. I don't believe that closing the borders or throwing out people who have weird thoughts running through their heads is a positive solution. I do believe that Seung-Hui Cho should have been put into counseling and watched. I don't believe he should have been able to walk across the street from the school and purchase the weapons. But I also don't believe that the solution is to point fingers at people who are different from myself and deny them any rights whatsoever.

We can bitch, moan and complain about what should have happened forever, and I'm sure people like this author will. I'd rather repair the damage, and then look to the future changes that we should actually do to prevent something like this from happening again. First, we need to view violent tendencies as a mental illness, and completely fund mental illness treatment through a national health care system. A system like this would have known what to do with Cho, and would have given him the help he needed to get out of his downward spiral. Second, we need to all understand that people with mental illness might be dangerous to society, and have the communications infrastructure and legal framework in place to prevent people like this from being able to purchase weapons. That means that when Cho produced his ID for the gun dealer, the dealer's computer would have instantly told him that it was not safe to let him purchase guns, and would have alerted Cho's councilors that he tried to purchase them. Or is that too much "Big Brother", because it would have to be applied to US Citizens as well as foreign nationals and their children. Or do you think people like Timothy McVey should be ignored by such a system while Seung-Hui Cho should be singled out?

The Virginia Tech massacre was a tragedy, just like 9/11 was a tragedy. And the reaction of our country to being hit was immediately to hit back, and then get distracted by someone else. Instead of blaming Osama Bin Laden and going after him until he was put on trail in an International Court, we got distracted by someone that we used to supply weapons for. And now 3,000+ soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead. The reaction of this author to Virginia Tech sees to be "Blame the Teachers!", "Blame Rosie O'Donnell!", "Blame the lberal politicians!", "Blame those people over there, and anyone who lets those people come over here!"

They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security - Ben Franklin

Give me liberty or give me death - Patrick Henry

To secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity - Preamble to the US Constitution

What are you willing to do to our liberty in order to gain a little security? I'm not interested in pointing fingers, or putting mentally ill people in jail. I am interested in preventing something like this by prosecuting the gun dealer for not doing a complete background check, and fix the government systems so that such a background check would have come up with a "do not sell" flag. But I'm not interested in closing our borders, and I'm not interested in denying our kids or anyone's kid an education and the opportunity to reach their potential.

Now do you understand why I find this article to be pure crap?

Chad

Nationalism

I heard something interesting today. French Presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen was asking on a talk show how many French grandparents someone should have to be considered "truly French".

I wonder. How many German grandparents were required to be considered truly German in 1930?

I also heard that part of the "debate" in the Washington State Senate about Senator Oemig's Investigation & Impeachment bill was which political party was more patriotic. How many people have been killed in Iraq, and how many of our civil liberties have been torn to shreds, seems to have taken a back seat to the importance of which party would outdo the other by having American Flags on their desks, and the Democrats won by having theirs lowered to half-mast. Isn't that special...

Nationalism has it's place. It should be something that enhances pride in a nation's accomplishments, and it should help create an identity that helps enhance the positive view that people from other countries have of us. But it should not be a contest on who has the most Gravitas or who's flagpole is bigger. All of those kinds of contests are a way to avoid the real issues that are taking the lives of our young people and destroying our country.

So my message to politicans all over the world is this: Get over yourselves, and start paying attention to the real issues. Or you will be replaced. I don't care which party you hail from, or what country. The people are sovereign on this planet.

Framing gun control

I've heard a lot on the news today about the shooting at Virginia Tech. Here are some of my thoughts.

I've heard that John McCain is saying that Americans have the right to own guns, but that we should make sure that the bad people don't get them. What kind of drivel is this?! The Bad People is a reference to anyone different from us, or more importantly in the view of this frame different from ME. If I'm white, I should be aware and skittish around Black, Hisanic, Asian, etc. Reminds me of the movie Bowling for Columbine, which examined the gun culture in America. If I'm Christian, I should be afraid of non-Christians. If I'm not Christian, I should be afraid of Christian Fundamentalists.

This is called deterrence through fear. We are pushed away from our sense of security by igniting the fight or flight instinct. It's easy, cheap and quick. It gets ratings, and it ignites passions beyond logic. It's up to us as individuals to learn how to live with those passions and fears, and let them burn themselves out without causing any harm.

One news program had guests that were either pro- or anti- gun control, and one guest had the perspective that in a situation such as that faced by the students and teachers in that school who were cowering behind doors, desks and book cases, that some of them were likely thinking "I wish I had a gun". I really wonder about the effectivness of that kind of wish, because it seems to be somewhat of a death wish. Wouldn't it be better to be thinking "I wish that the person losing control of their passions did not have a gun?"

It's in the US Constitution that we have the right to keep and bear arms. The context of the 2nd Amendment has been up for debate since it passed Congress, and each person has their own interpretation of what it means. To me, just because I have the right to own something that can kill others, I'd rather not exercise that right. I don't own a gun because I don't feel like I need one.

I don't think the issue is whether we have the right to own firearms. That's not up for questioning, unless we want to take it out of the Constitution. And that would open a major can of worms. I think a better way is focusing our attention on the manufacturing of firearms. Why do we have so many companies making weapons of war? And it's not just in the United States, but all over the world.

The American Way needs to change.

What it's going to take for someone to win the Oval Office is popularity. Fundamentally, that's what the election is, a popularity contest. Candidates can earn that popular vote within each state by having the best ideas, having a worthy history in government service, or being able to pay for the best advertising. Whatever works, the campaigns will do. We can try to put all the higher ideals on it that we wish, but in the end, whoever gets the most votes wins, both at a caucus, a primary or the general election.

Bill Richardson would be fantastic as President. I really appreciate his foreign policy experience, and I like what he's done in New Mexico with Energy policy. He would certainly be a good person to go to the Middle East to talk and listen to the leaders and the people over there. But I'm thinking that it might take a lot of work to broker those deals, and we need someone dedicated to making it work who won't have to also work on other issues. I believe that Gov. Richardson needs to be the person to focus on the issues that we have with our neighbors in the global community.

My top three candidates right now are Edwards, Obama and Richardson. But I'm looking beyond the Oval Office and into the Cabinet room. I want to know who is going to be picked for Secretary of Health and Human Services. I want to know who will be picked to fill the Secretary of Labor position. I want the best minds and the best hearts around the table listening to each other and gathering ideas on how to fix the problems that we are facing. I don't want one person saddled with the responsibility of coming up with all the ideas.

At the Denver convention, we need to know without a doubt who will be looking at and solving the problems that we face as a nation and how we will help our neighbors solve the problems that we face around the world. I want to know who will sit around the round table in collaboration and cooperation with each other, with the American People and with the world community.

We need to stop crushing the American Dream with the American Way. The way we live needs to change at a deep fundamental level.

Quotes for the week

From Nicole Brodeur:

Because it's the American Way -- which can sometimes crush the American Dream.

And one that came to my mind the other day as I was riding my bike home from work:

This bike is powered by sweat and ingenuity, not blood and brain injuries.

From KUOW on Weekday: Dark Matter & Energy

Listening to a scientist on KUOW is great. Today they had a String Theory guy on. They talked a little bit about Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Made me come up with these thoughts. Don't know if they're accurate, and I don't know if they constitute a theory, but I thought I would record them.

Dark Matter - this is matter that has been accellerated above the speed of light, causing the mass of that matter to increase. I heard him say that 95% of the matter in the universe is this type of Dark Matter, and if they were going fast enough, it wouldn't take much.

We can't percieve Dark Matter because we are dependent on light to percieve things.

Dark Energy - When matter crosses the threashold of the speed of light, gravity reverses and repels instead of attracts. We can see the effects of Dark Energy because this is the force that is pushing the galaxies apart faster and faster.

So there we go. Crazy ideas, but they take in what I know and they're pushing the envelope.

When to cry at a concert

Let them in, Peter
For they are very tired
Give them couches where the angels sleep
And light those fires
Let them wake whole again
To brand new dawns
Fired by the sun
Not war-times bloody guns
May their peace be deep
Remember where the broken bodies lie
God knows how young they were
To have to die

You know God knows how young they were
To have to die

Give them things they like
Let them make some noise
Give roadhouse bands not golden harps
To these our boys
Let them love Peter
For they've had no time
They should have bird songs and trees
And hills to climb
The taste of summer
And a ripened pear
And girls as sweet as meadow wind
And flowing hair
And tell them how they are missed
But say not to fear
It's gonna be all right
With us down here

Let them in, Peter
For they are very tired
Give them couches where the angels sleep
And light those fires
Let them wake whole again
To brand new dawns
Fired by the sun
Not war-times bloody guns
May their peace be deep
Remember where the broken bodies lie
God knows how young they were
To have to die

You know God knows how young they were
To have to die

And tell them how they are missed
But say not to fear
It's gonna be all right
With us down here

It's gonna be all right
With us down here

Poem converted to a song by John Gorka.

Dear Governor Gregoire,

Dear Governor Gregoire,

I just heard on the radio that you oppose the rule of law. That you
oppose holding people accountable. I heard that you don't have enough
confidence in the grassroots of our party, nor in the elected
representatives of our party, to believe that we can do more than one
thing at a time.

I heard that you oppose the resolution introduced by Senator Eric
Oemig, SJM8016.

I'm on fire because of what this administration has done over the last
6 years. Aren't you? I'm furious to the point of losing my mind
about the carnage that we are waging in Iraq and around the world on
the order of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
I'm incensed that they were allow to steal not one, not two but three
election cycles without any accountability.

The NICEST thing that I can say about how I feel is that I want Dick
Cheney and George Bush impeached. Their actions over the past 6 years
are the reason that I am active in the Democratic Party, because the
party is the last, best hope for the US Constitution, the Rule of Law,
and the future of the world my children and grandchildren will be
living in.

That's why I'm insulted and ashamed when I hear that someone I respect
so much, who has been doing a fantastic job over the last 2 years as
governor of the greatest state in the United States, claims that
defending our values and our country against a domestic enemy is
nothing but a "distraction" from the real priorities that we should be
focused on.

I ask you, Governor. Can't you handle complexity?


Chad Lupkes
Seattle, Washington

What are we forgetting?

The PI had an article today about General Petraeus' Iraq staff, and while I'm impressed by the credentials, I couldn't help but notice the very first paragraph.

Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, who takes over today as U.S. commander in Iraq, is assembling a band of warrior-intellectuals in a crucial effort to reverse the downward trend in the Iraq war.

To win, or not to win, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the IED's and RPG's of the insurgency, or to take up armor in a sea of opposition, and by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by sleep we say we wish to end the hate and the thousand looks on the street that our soldiers are heir to, 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream of being home: ay, there's the rub for our troops;

What we are missing in the occupation of Iraq is a way to end the occupation. What we need is a path towards an exit. It doesn't matter how many people with lots of training in how to win a war are collected in the Green Zone. What matters is their intent. If what they want to do is "win the war", then nothing will change. Nothing can change. Because the United States has already won the war. The war was the invasion, and what army could stand against 130,000 of the best trained troops in the world? What we have now is an occupation of a foreign land, where 80-85% of the population wants us gone even if that means a full-on civil war. They don't care, they just want us gone.

When our intent changes, maybe someone will start thinking about what really needs to be done in Iraq. When we decide that we don't want to stay inside the country being shot at, maybe someone with a heart will start asking questions. Questions like "What do the Iraqi people want?", or "How can the Iraqi people take charge of their own country?" We must stop doing the thinking for them. We must encourage their Parliament to pass resolutions and bills, and then help enforce those bills, even if they say "The United States is no longer welcome on Iraqi soil, and must leave." If that is their will, so mote it be.

Our intent should be peace. Our wish should be for an end to all violence. Our desires for the people of Iraq should be for full sovereignty. We must pull our troops out of that country, and be ready to do the bidding of the Iraqi government when they request it, how they request it, or not. Until that happens, we've already lost this "war".

Rhyme about the Precinct Caucuses

Election year falls across the land
The caucus hour is close at hand
Volunteers walk in search of votes
To canvas y'awl's neighborhood.

And whosoever shall be found
Without the votes for getting crowned
Must stand and face the Republican crowd
And watch our country wither.

The foulest language is in our ears
The funk of 6 memorable years
And frantic candidates from every state
Are reaching in to mark your slate.

And though you fight to keep your resolve
The room is in a raucous!
For no mere voter can resist
The importance of the caucus.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

(With respect to Vincent Price & Michael Jackson.)

Second Life

Ok, I downloaded Second Life, because I see more and more people using it for political activism. Not just online, but meeting for conferences from around the country. The event that I'm trying to collect money to attend, which is the Beyond Broadcast 2007 event sponsored by M.I.T., is holding something on their Second Life campus. So, what the hell.

I had to upgrade my video driver to the latest version. That was ok. I know I have one of the slowest machines out there, only 750MHz. It works for text editing. It doesn't seem to work well in VR.

Time to start saving money for a new system. Oh, Joy.

More commentary about bills in Olympia

There's still a lot going on in Olympia. Here are some comments on the bills that caught my eye on Friday, January 26th. Standard disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, I haven't read the text of each of these bills, and I only do this when I have time. Take my comments as coming from one person in the grassroots.

House Bill 1510 (Providing for the community reinvestment of oil windfall profits.):

Introduced by Rep. Bob Hasegawa on January 22, 2007, to create a state windfall profits tax. Tax rates would range from 10% for gasoline selling for $1.75 per gallon to 30% for gasoline selling for $2.75 or more. Oil companies would not be subject to a windfall profits tax for gasoline priced below $1.75 per gallon. The tax is designed to force oil companies to set gasoline prices at historically reasonable levels. Revenues generated from a windfall profits tax would be used to partially offset the adverse effects of high gasoline prices. The revenue would provide additional funding for public goods and services that are linked to the current costs of energy and the development of renewable in-state energy resources.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49645

This bill caught my eye because it opens the door to something like the Alaska Permanent Fund, which is something that I would like to encourage. Maybe not from oil taxes, since the oil doesn't come from Washington State resources, but the financial infrastructure should be established for something like this.

House Bill 1511 (Modifying the business and occupation taxation of investment income received by corporations.):

Introduced by Rep. Bob Hasegawa on January 22, 2007, to modify the business and occupation tax on investment income received by corporations. The bill repeals the B&O tax credit for moneys derived as dividends or distributions from the capital account by a parent from its subsidiary entities, and moneys derived from interest on loans between subsidiary entities and a parent entity or between subsidiaries of a common parent entity. The exemption would only apply if the total investment and loan income is less than 5% of gross receipts of the business annually.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49646

This is in the "step in the right direction" department. Washington is the only state to have a B&O tax, and it should be eliminated entirely. But with all of our major party leaders in the House (read Frank) running as fast and as far away from the political nuke of real tax reform, we'll have to see what we can get to work.

House Bill 1516 (Providing business and occupation tax exemptions for new small businesses.):

Introduced by Rep. Dan Roach on January 22, 2007, to create a business and occupation (B&O) tax exemption for new businesses. All new businesses would be exempt from B&O taxation for the first year of operation. Small businesses with 25 or less employees would be exempt from 100% B&O taxation for the first 2 years, 75% for year 3, 50% for year 4, and 25% for year 5. After five years of operation, the small business would be required to pay full B&O taxes.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49651

Hmmm. B&O taxes are really small for retail, and I know it varies from industry to industry. I wonder if it would be effective to identify specific types of businesses that we want to encourage, and give them a larger exemption or rebate. If someone starts a new oil refinery, do we really want them exempt from B&O taxes for two years? I wouldn't. But if someone wants to start a business tutoring kids to improve their ability to reach their potential, I wouldn't ever want to charge them B&O taxes.

House Bill 1523 (Modifying voluntary green power program provisions.):

Introduced by Rep. Maralyn Chase on January 22, 2007, to modify provisions regarding green power programs. The bill would require electric utilities to provide their customers the option of purchasing energy from alternative energy resources owned or produced in the state of Washington. The bill would also add energy produced from biogas, manure digesters, or landfills as a “qualified alternative energy resource”.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49658

Interesting language in this summary. I'd love to know if some utilities actually deny people permission to generate their own power to feed into the grid. It's a slightly different topic, I know, but it reaches the same goal of increased independence. I would support this one.

House Bill 1629 (Increasing the qualifying income thresholds for property tax exemptions for senior citizens, persons retired because of physical disability, and veterans.):

Introduced by Rep. John Ahern on January 24, 2007, to amend property tax exemptions for seniors, retired citizens due to disability and veterans by expanding certain income qualifications. The bill changes the tax exemption for qualifying citizens from thirty-five to forty thousand dollars of income a year. The bill also discusses other income and property valuation conditions necessary to receive the exemption.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49969

A couple of questions on this one. When was the 35K exemption established, and has it kept up with the rising housing prices and property taxes? Obviously not, because we are looking to raise it, However, sticking pins in a graph seems inefficient to me. I'd like to see something in the bill that either requires a review of the tax rates every few years, or sets the exemption to an income or property tax level. I think we already have the periodic review happening, but if we can pin Minimum Wage to inflation, why can't we pin a property taxe exemption to the overall rise and fall of the housing market?

House Bill 1632 (Changing the number of seats in the state legislature.):

Introduced by Rep. Dan Roach on January 24, 2007, to amend the current number of seats in the legislature based on the federal decennial census from forty-nine legislative districts to thirty-three senate districts. The bill would also provide for three house districts within each senate district. The bill also states each house district would comprise one-third of the population of the
senate district for a total of ninety-nine house districts.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49972

This is in the "It Takes Guts" department. I'm glad he's presenting the idea, as we should be having a good debate about our electoral world, but this will never fly. If we're going to do this, why not just do proportional representation like Krist Novoselic would like to see us do.

House Bill 1634 (Expanding high school mathematics instruction and instructional capacity.):

Introduced by Rep. Dan Roach on January 24, 2007, to enhance math instruction and capacities by increasing the requirements for graduation. The bill amends the law for high school classes in fall 2007. The bill requires three years of math, including a minimum of one year of math curriculum that exceeds the Washington assessment of student learning for graduation.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49974

More tests, higher requirements, and another unfunded mandate. I haven't read the bill, so maybe he has some source for the money this would take, but I doubt it.

House Bill 1638 (Providing tax incentives for employer provided health care.):

Introduced by Rep. Bill Hinkle on January 24, 2007, to amend current law by allowing small employers a tax incentive if they provide health care. The bill allows employers to deduct taxes when health care services are provided to their employees. The bill also states that payments made by employees are not eligible for deduction.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49978

This is almost a step in the right direction, but Single Payer would be so much easier, cheaper and better for the society. This bill isn't as bad and some out there, but it's still missing the big picture.

House Bill 1644 (Modifying health care eligibility provisions for part-time academic employees of community and technical colleges.):

Introduced by Rep. Phyllis Kenney on January 24, 2007, to amend current health care eligibility requirements for part-time technical college employees. The bill shortens the eligibility requirements in health care coverage for part-time technical college employees, from four to three quarters or three to two quarters, depending on certain related qualifications.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49984

If we're not going to create Universal, this is a step in the right direction. I'd rathe go Universal and stop excluding anyone.

House Bill 1686 (Concerning parent and child health services provided by the department of health.):

Introduced by Rep. Lynn Kessler on January 25, 2007, to promote healthy birth outcomes and reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, by reaffirming the state’s commitment to encourage health plan coverage of family planning as an essential component of the health care system and to provide public health funding for preventive family planning services for women and men with family incomes up to 200% of the federal poverty level. See companion SB 5585.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50108

This looks like it should be part of the regular budget. Why isn't it?

House Bill 1695 (Restoring the business and occupation tax credit for high technology research and development spending.):

Introduced by Rep. Jim Dunn on January 25, 2007, to restore the business and occupation (B&O) tax credit for high technology research and development spending.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50117

More spending on high tech research and development, using state universities. Yup, yup!! Let's keep more of our R&D work within the state.

House Bill 1696 (Facilitating the statewide initiative and referendum processes under Article II, section 1 of the state Constitution.):

Introduced by Rep. Joe McDermott on January 25, 2007, to create the Citizen Initiative Review Commission. The 12-member commission would convene panels of voters, demographically representative of the state as a whole, who would study and evaluate ballot measures through a quasi-legislative hearing process. The findings of the panel would be included in the voters' pamphlet.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50118

Looks like someone read Tao of Democracy! There is a Senate bill as well, introduced by Sen. Eric Oemig

House Bill 1708 (Modifying the definition of criminal act.):

Introduced by Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson on January 25, 2007, to modify the definition of a “criminal act.” The bill would remove language from the definition pertaining to terrorist acts, as defined in federal law, committed against Washington residents outside the U.S. See companion SB 5526.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50130

This bill, which I had to read to get a clear picture of, removes the duplication of the Department of Redundancy Department. Terrorism is a crime. It's a special kind of crime, but it's still a crime and should be treated as such. Bravo, Mary Lou! Stick this in your pipe and smoke it, Gonzales!

House Bill 1711 (Creating an energy road map.):

Introduced by Rep. Maralyn Chase on January 25, 2007, to require the Washington State University energy program to conduct a study to create a Washington state energy efficiency program road map. The study must: (a) Evaluate the state's current efforts with respect to energy efficiency and conservation; (b) Evaluate the state's role in regional efforts to improve energy efficiency and conservation; (c) Evaluate the effectiveness of other jurisdictions with 6 established programs for funding energy efficiency and conservation; (d) Evaluate methods for funding energy efficiency and 8 conservation; (e) Evaluate funding sources for municipalities to promote energy efficiency, conservation, and renewable energy projects; (f) Identify areas where the state needs to increase energy efficiency and conservation; (g) Identify areas where the state could establish, expand, or fund efforts related to energy efficiency and conservation; (h) Identify methods and create recommended strategies to fund energy efficiency and conservation in areas where increased efforts are needed; and (i) Create the Washington state energy efficiency program road map containing recommended steps to be taken by the state, local governments, the Washington State University energy program, and other interested parties to establish, fund, and expand energy efficiency and conservation.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50133

What, you mean actually figure out where we are, where we want to be, and the steps to get there? Hasn't the energy advocacy community already done this work? In Section 2.2, I would add the following potential participant: j. The general public. Otherwise, it's good. I wish they would have to report earlier than the end of 2008, however. As important as this study process is, we don't have time to waste on talking without action.

House Bill 1714 (Changing campaign contribution provisions.):

Introduced by Rep. Maralyn Chase on January 25, 2007, to modify campaign contributions laws. The bill would remove certain restrictions on contributions to candidates from political caucus committees. The bill would also increase the amount of money a county central committee could give to a political candidate.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50136

I can't find the definition of a "political caucus committee". If anyone can find that in the RCW, please point me to the right page.

House Bill 1720 (Providing property tax relief for veterans of the armed forces.):

Introduced by Rep. Jim McCune on January 25, 2007, to amend tax exemptions for military veterans. A veteran with a combined disposable income of $70,000 per year or less would be exempt from some regular property taxes and all excess property taxes. See companion HB 1102.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50142

Supporting our veterans is a basic tenant of citizenship in this country. I support this, and I'd like to hear arguments against it.

House Bill 1721 (Creating certified capital companies to promote economic development through investment in start-up and emerging businesses.):

Introduced by Rep. Pat Sullivan on January 25, 2007, to create certified capital companies. This bill is intended to assist small start-up enterprises to succeed in their business and to contribute to the future of Washington. See companion SB 5621.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50143

I need to look at this more!

House Bill 1730 (Regarding the use of the life sciences discovery fund for human stem cell research.):

Introduced by Rep. Brian Sullivan on January 25, 2007, to allow the donation of human stem cells from any source for research purposes if the donor has provided written consent. The donor may not receive valuable consideration for the donation. The bill would also prohibit money from the Life Sciences Discovery Fund to be used for human embryonic stem cell research unless the stem cells were donated. However, such funding could not be used for donated stem cells for human cloning or to injure an embryo implanted in a uterus.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50152

On the heels of California.

House Bill 1731 (Regarding reporting by lobbyists and lobbyists' employers.):

Introduced by Rep. Glenn Anderson on January 25, 2007, to require lobbyists and employers of lobbyists to electronically file mandatory political contribution reports. Currently, only political candidates or committees spending $10,000 or more per year are required to file reports electronically.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50153

More information about lobbyist reporting can be found here: RCW 42.17.150 - 42.17.230

Senate Bill 5611 (Providing for a location endorsement to certain licenses for microbreweries and domestic breweries.):

Introduced by Sen. Ken Jacobsen on January 25, 2007, to allow a microbrewery holding either a spirits, beer, and wine restaurant license or a beer and/or wine license to apply to the Liquor Control Board for a location endorsement to either of these licenses to allow the microbrewery to open a second location. Each location endorsement would cost $1,000 per year.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50176

Party on, Dude! With local brew, even!

Senate Bill 5614 (Creating incentives for community-based solar energy projects.):

Introduced by Sen. Phil Rockefeller on January 25, 2007, to provide that, for the purpose of calculating the annual incentive limit, community-based solar projects that are located on separate parcels of property, are not to be combined, as each project is individually eligible for incentives of up to $2,000 per year per project.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50179

Anything with solar energy in the title gets my attention. However, can someone with realtor or similar experience explain this to me?

Senate Bill 5625 (Authorizing counties and cities to contract for jail services with counties and cities in adjacent states.):

Introduced by Sen. Jim Hargrove on January 25, 2007, to allow cities and counties to contract for jail services with adjacent cities or counties or adjacent states.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50190

Adjacent cities or counties, maybe. I think that the community that produces criminals should be required to house those criminals regardless of where the crime was committed. If someone here in Seattle does something unacceptable, Seattle should bear at least part of the costs of their jail sentance. This would create incentives to encourage our kids NOT to become criminals in the first place.

Senate Bill 5626 (Requiring training for school directors.):

Introduced by Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe on January 25, 2007, to require certain training for school district board of directors. The legislature finds that school board directors are responsible for setting the vision for the school district, creating successful board and superintendent relations, understanding school law and finance, accounting for school and school district improvement, using data to make decisions, and advocating for public education in the community, regionally, and at the state level. Each member of a school district board of directors would be required to complete a minimum of 7 hours of training annually. The hours of training obtained by each member must be posted on the school district's web site.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50191

Seattle is having a great deal of trouble, and everyone was watching what happened in Federal Way. Maybe it's time that School Board members got some training on how to do their job.

Senate Bill 5628 (Adopting the interstate agreement for the election of the president of the United States by national popular vote.):

Introduced by Sen. Eric Oemig on January 25, 2007, to create an interstate agreement regarding the election of the U.S. President. Currently, Presidents are elected by the Electoral College made up of electors from each state. Candidates need 270 of the 538 electoral votes to win the presidency. SB 5628 would pledge Washington’s 11 electoral votes to the winner of the nation-wide popular vote. However, this measure would only take effect if enough states possessing a majority of electoral votes adopt the same measure. The interstate agreement would guarantee the winner of the popular vote to be the next president effectively bypassing the Electoral College. See companion HB 1750.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50193

Go Eric!!! Damn, I'm proud of that guy!!!

Senate Joint Resolution 8217 (Repealing a conflicting residency requirement for voting in a presidential election.):

Introduced by Sen. Michael Carrell on January 25, 2007, to remove Article VI, Section 1A from the Washington State Constitution. The article states, “In consideration of those citizens of the United States who become residents of the state of Washington during the year of a presidential election with the intention of making this state their permanent residence, this section is for the purpose of authorizing such persons who can meet all qualifications for voting as set forth in section 1 of this article, except for residence, to vote for presidential electors or for the office of President and Vice-President of the United States, as the case may be, but no other: Provided, That such persons have resided in the state at least sixty days immediately preceding the presidential election concerned. The legislature shall establish the time, manner and place for such persons to cast such presidential ballots.” This resolution would amend the state Constitution if approved by two-thirds of the Legislature and a majority of the voters in the next general election.

Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=50195

This is in the WTF department. Can someone tell me some background on what this is actually changing? If someone moves to the state in time for the residency requirements defined by the Secretary of State and the County Auditor, why are we limiting them to Presidential elections instead of helping to decide who their school board members are so their kids get an education, who their city and county council members are so they have a voice in how their property and sales tax dollars are spent, etc. I don't support this right now, based on the summary text. Somebody correct my misconceptions. Please.

I can say NO to charities and not feel bad about it!

Over the Christmas holidays, I got call after call from this or that charity
asking for my support.  Every one of them had a good story and a good
pitch, and most of them I had given to before.  I hate saying no, but I had
to wait for a full paycheck before I could actually send out any money. 
Then I had a crazy idea.  Everyone knows that charities are totally honest,
right?  Yeah, sure.

Here's an interesting table of facts, with links.  And this is just the
charities that I got contacted by the Secretary of State's office has
information on every charity allowed to call people in Washington.

Name of Charity	Fed EIN	% to Programs	Last year filed with SOS	Amount I saved by not sending them a check
Law Enforcement Education Program	38-3385175	9%	June 30, 2005	$10.00
Children's Charitable Foundation	30-0193229	6%	December 31, 2004	$20.00
Cancer Fund of America Support Services	42-1568866	7%	December 31, 2004	$25.00
Firefighters Assistance Fund	20-0484684	5%	Jun 30, 2005	$10.00

Here's a blog post with a
similar bend. 

If you're thinking "what about the programs" let me say that my
wife and I saved up the money to attend the Farestart
Grand Opening on February 1st.  According to the Secretary of State
website, they put 75% of their donations to programs. 
How much?  You don't want to know.

So, now I feel better about saying NO on the phone when charities call. 
All I have to do is ask for their Federal EIN, look them up while they are on
the phone, and if they are not based in Washington and send at least 50% of
their donations to programs, I don't ever want to hear from them again.

Update, got another note in the mail from this one:

CHILDRENS CANCER FUND OF AMERICA INC

7435 E MAIN STREET BLDG 1

MESA AZ 85207

480 218-6062

Reports submitted to Washington Secretary of State end Dec 31, 2005.

Federal EIN: 20-1226416

They only send 15% to programs. So I wrote them a note asking them to take my name off their contact list.

There is a LOT going on in Olympia

I send out lists of bills every few days when I have time to go through the list that I get from WashingtonVotes.org. This one was too long to put in an email. And I have the room to comment about it here!

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House Bill 1385 (Implementing a strategic direction for higher education.):
Introduced by Rep. Fred Jarrett on January 18, 2007, to implement a strategic direction for higher education that includes increasing the capacity in higher education, increasing the number of baccalaureate degrees each year, as well as assure that the cost of attendance per student is less than 30% of that family’s income.
Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49367

Education is important, all the way up.

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House Bill 1395 (Allowing out-of-state physicians to recommend marijuana for terminal or debilitating medical conditions.):
Introduced by Rep. Sherry Appleton on January 18, 2007, to allow out-of-state physicians the ability to recommend marijuana for terminal or debilitating medical conditions. The recommendation must come from a physician from another state that authorizes the use of medical marijuana. Currently, Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington are the only states that allow medicinal use of marijuana..
Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49377

I support natural substances used to relieve suffering.

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House Bill 1396 (Providing a single ballot proposition for regional transportation investment districts and regional transit authorities at the 2007 general election.):
Introduced by Rep. Dennis Flannigan on January 18, 2007, to modify transportation provisions enacted by the 2006 Legislature. The 2007 general election ballot will include two separate transportation proposals for King, Pierce, and Snohomish County residents – one from the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID) and one from the Regional Transportation Authority (Sound Transit). Under current law, one measure cannot go into effect unless the other is also approved. This bill would combine the measures into one ballot proposal instead of two. See companion SB 5282.
Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49378

We're going to be voting on this, so it's important to keep track of what we're going to be voting on.

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House Bill 1399 (Changing collective bargaining eligibility requirements for certain employees of higher education institutions and related boards.):
Introduced by Rep. Steve Conway on January 18, 2007, to modify the definition of “employee” for the purposes of collective bargaining for higher education employees.
Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49381

(see Washblog)

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House Bill 1420 (Modifying provisions on primary election ballots.):
Introduced by Rep. Troy Kelley on January 18, 2007, to allow votes in a primary election to be counted even if the voter failed to declare a political party preference on a consolidated ballot. A political party affiliation would be inferred if a voter voted for members of the same party throughout the primary ballot.
Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49402

Duh!!!

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Senate Bill 5383 (Modifying provisions of the energy freedom program.):
Introduced by Sen. Jim Hargrove on January 18, 2007, to expand the Energy Freedom Program to include community action agencies. Among other changes, the bill would allow the director to fund 100% of a project’s cost if the project is that of a community action agency. Generally, the Energy Freedom Program may only contribute up to 50% of the total project cost.
Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49419

The What!!! I didn't even know about the Energy Freedom Program, and they already want to "improve" it! Sweet!!

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Senate Bill 5399 (Developing a work group to support industry clusters as an economic development tool.):
Introduced by Sen. Derek Kilmer on January 18, 2007, to require the workforce training and education coordinating board and the economic development commission to convene a working group, consisting of the department of community, trade, and economic development, the employment security department, the state board for community and technical colleges, a representative of local economic development councils and local workforce development councils. The workgroup would create a framework for the identification of economic clusters, as well as service and resource delivery to the clusters.
Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49435

Summary in one word: localization!

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Senate Bill 5403 (Certifying animal massage practitioners.):
Introduced by Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen on January 18, 2007, to require certification for animal massage practitioners. Certificate applicants would be required to complete a minimum number of hours training through a qualified program and successfully complete a competency exam. See companion HB 1158.
Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49439

(WTF!!)

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Senate Bill 5416 (Encouraging carbon dioxide mitigation.):
Introduced by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles on January 18, 2007, to provide a business and occupation (B&O) tax credit for voluntary carbon dioxide mitigation efforts. Businesses that reduce carbon dioxide emissions, verified through an independent third-party organization, can apply for a B&O tax credit of $1 for every ton of mitigated carbon emissions. See companion HB 1208.
Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49452

Hurah!!!

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Senate Bill 5420 (Requiring public agencies to post certain information to their web sites.):
Introduced by Sen. Pam Roach on January 18, 2007, to require all public agencies that manage a website to post certain information. The information includes all ordinances, rules, regulations, orders or directives and minutes of all regular and special meetings of the governing body. The website must also contain meeting dates and names of the governing body .
Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49456

I don't like much of what Pam Roach does, but this I'll support 100%!

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Senate Joint Memorial 8002 (Requesting that Election Day be changed to coincide with the Veterans Day holiday.):
Introduced by Sen. Eric Oemig on January 18, 2007, to request from Congress Election Day should be changed to fall on the Veterans Day holiday.
Details and Comments: http://www.washingtonvotes.org/Legislation.aspx?ID=49458

What a fascinating concept! Give people a chance to participate!!!

Local connections

Capital Press has an article about a Peace Corp volunteer named Tarn Mower. Tarn is the nephew of the chef at the Nordstrom Employee's Cafe run by Bon Appetit.

Berkman Sunlight event at Harvard

http://campaigns.wikia.com/wiki/Forum:Sunlight_Foundation_event_on_January_15th%2C_2007

That's a link to the wikified agenda. I'll put more up soon.

Collaboration = Foundation

I'm reading a book about online collaboration, and something jumped out at me.

Wikinomics, How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

Here is the paragraph that caught my attention:

"Competition through free enterprise and open markets are at the heart of a dynamic economy, but if there is one additional lesson to take away from this chapter it's that we can't rely on competition and short-term self-interest alone to promote innovation and economic well-being. Vibrant markets rest on robust common foundations: a shared infrastructure of rules, institutions, knowledge, standards and technologies provided by a mix of public and private sector initiative."

The reason this paragraph caught my attention is because it goes to one of the core values that unite progressives across the spectrum of political ideologies. That core value is the need for a solid foundation under everyone that allows us all to reach for our potential. The only way that innovation and healthy competition can exist is on a foundation of collaboration and cooperation. Without both, we have neither.

The conservative ideology drives competition down deep into the middle of our cultural, financial and legal foundations and forces us to believe that we should all try to become islands able to handle everything ourselves in our personal lives, and to rely on a strong military to protect us from "those people over there". The metaphor I used, driving competition down deep, appears to my mind like a wedge being driven into a piece of wood that we are getting ready to send up in smoke.

The progressive ideology, on the other hand, is a picture of letting the trees grow and thrive alongside the many other living things in the forest. Every living thing in a healthy ecosphere has a place, knows its place, and is able to thrive in that place. I believe that we can translate that healthy vision to our economy, and give every worker, every business and every innovative idea a place in that economy to not just exist, but to thrive. In the classes and reading that I have done about the ecology of our planet, the longer forests are allowed to grow and thrive, the stronger they get. I think that's a good vision to reach for, an economy that establishes a solid foundation for all, provides the nutrients for innovation and growth, and lets that sustainable growth continue far into the future.

Technorati

So, I've established a Technorati Profile to help me get some more traffic to my blog. Let's see what happens.

John Edwards is in!

The reason for the season

Up here on the Northern Hemisphere, this is the longest night of the year. It's time to reflect on the reason why celebrate and have festivals at all during these cold months. From Ramadan, Hanukkah, Solstice, Yule, Christmas, etc. we get together with friends and families, tell stories about the previous year and make plans for the coming year. What seeds will we plant in our lives, and what will we do differently this year than last year? What other lessons have we learned from mistakes we have made, and what went well that we may wish to repeat?

The 23° 27’ tilt of the earth creates this phenomenon, and the plants & animals have evolved to take advantage of it and thrive. The solstice is the point where the sun is at the far point north or south of the equator. In our hemisphere, the winter solstice is where the sun is as far away from us as it gets.

Why is the earth tilted? When our third generation sun ignited 4.57 Billion years ago from the collapse of the gas cloud, and the solar wind drove the smaller dust away, the planets had already mostly formed from the material they had collected. The inner planets like ours collected mostly heavier metals and minerals because the lower density gases couldn't stay in the center of that disc because it got too hot too fast. The outer planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune collected most of the material they could before ignition. Much of it likely disappeared into Interstellar Space, but there should be quite a bit hovering at the outskirts of our system.

The formation of the Earth was a process of getting slammed again and again and again with meteors and asteroids of all sizes. The last truely major punch was when Theia and proto-Earth came together, forming the Earth and the Moon. I personally believe that this was the point that the current tilt of the Earth's axis came from. So, by this hypothesis, we can thank Moon for the Solstice.

Thanks, Luna! And Happy Birthday, Sol!

Time to go out to dinner with my wife and enjoy a good meal with a good glass of wine. That's what life is all about. Or something...

Cause I'm a Geek! Yeah, yeah., yeah

On December 17th, I received an email confirmation from Yahoo saying that my password had changed. It wasn't me. So, for the last 2 days, I've been bouncing emails back and forth with Yahoo trying to get access to my account. It got rather hairy.

They use a 'secret question' that you use when you first set up your account. For me and Yahoo, that relationship goes back years. Almost a decade. I created a Yahoo Mail account when they first launched the service way back when they first bought Rocketmail in 1997. So my question was based in an era that I no longer live in, and I couldn't remember it. And that's IF it was the same question that I originally used. The only other alternative was to remember the credit card number that I used to pay for the account, when I was paying for it. Three years ago. Don't ask how, but I remembered it.

So I got back in, and changed my password again. And part of the email confirmation that I got was the IP address to where I was. Which made me go back and look at the original confirmation, and yep, there was an IP address on that one too.

24.166.13.60

I did a quick search, and discovered that this IP address came from Indianapois, Indiana. Actually, coming out of the airport there, in fact.

So, after getting home, I dug a little deeper.

cpe-24-166-13-60.indy.res.rr.com

So, someone in Indiana using a Roadrunner account just before 11:26 AM discovered a password that I had set up almost 10 years ago, and decided to hack into the account. I'd like to think it was for fun, but I'm making quite a few waves in some circles. So, who knows. Maybe Karl's trying to find out what I'm up to. Good luck, Karl. You've already lost.

I'm running

Dear Members and PCO's of the 46th District Democrats:

I'm running for King County Delegate from the 46th at our next
Reorganization meeting, and I would like to ask for your vote.

Suzie Sherry has already asked me to take an appointed position as
'Chair' of the Rapid Response Committee, and I'm working with Rob
Dolin to improve the kcdems.org website. I was planning to run for
the Alternate position, but then Dean Fournier announced that he was
interested in stepping back. So I'm going to run for the full seat.

I'd like to gather ideas on how I can be effective in the Rapid
Response role, as well as be a communications link between the
activists in the 46th and the King County Executive Board as we move
into the 2007 and 2008 elections. I started working with the 46th
just before the Precinct Caucuses in 2004, and I've been on the
Executive Board of the 46th for the last two years, handling the
website and participating in whatever planning committees were needed
to get things done. I'd like to put that experience to work at the
county level, and be your voice on the King County Democratic Central
Committee.

If you have any questions or ideas, please let me know. I'm starting
this campaign at the Holiday Party, and the vote is on Thursday,
January 18th. I hope to hear from you, and I hope I'll earn your
vote.

Chad Lupkes
PCO, SEA-46-2324

http://www.dfalink.com/campaign.php?id=1715

Another way of looking at our US Senate wins.

Thought I would post a link to my personal site and the data work I've been doing.

http://www.seattlewebcrafters.com/politics/2006/USSenate2006results.php

This graph shows the results per Wikipedia, with Democrats in Blue, Republicans in Red and Independents in Yellow.

I'm working on maps for Washington State as well.

Dear Mr. Lame Duck

You stupid idiot.

You damned fool.

Sure, you can fight fire with fire, if you're willing to watch the entire building or forest burn down. Sure, you can fight terror with terror, if you're willing to watch the Constitutional Rights of our people erode and disappear. But by saying that we can't leave Iraq until we "succeed", without giving a definition of success that all sides of the conflict can agree on, you're saying basically nothing.

You fight fire with water, in order to put the fire out. You fight terror with hope, in order to heal the people and the community.

The United States must leave Iraq. Whether that is immediately, on a specific time-table, or based on real and achievable milestones is up to the Iraqi people and the American people working together.

Go ahead. Stay on your high horse. Stay safe in your marble mansion. You have already lost this war. You have already committeed war crimes, and destroyed not one, not two, but three countries. Afghanistan, Iraq and the United States will be feeling the effects of the last 6 years for at least a century, and the entire world will suffer for it.

You're not a leader. You're a lame duck. Just go away.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, find me a match

A friend in Seattle has put together a fun little website that enables users to create Yes/No questions, answer other people's questions and find people that closely match their own answers.

Here's the link:

http://devil.m3047.inwa.net/matcher/

To create an account, you'll need an invitation. You can contact Fred, whose email is linked on the home page, or let me know that you're interested in and I'll send you one.

Why politics is important

Thanks to Compaqdrew of Campaigns Wikia!

New Progressive Alliance

A New Progressive Alliance

A Call for Unity between Secular, Spiritual, and Religious Progressives

June 3, 2006

Realizing that our shared commitment to human rights, religious freedom, and peace and social justice, significantly outweighs our differences; we the undersigned, comprised of both secular and religious progressives, declare an alliance between progressive, rational-minded people regardless of one’s spiritual, religious, or secular perspective.

While our beliefs about the existence of God may differ, progressive Americans share a common tradition of humanism dating back to at least the Renaissance. Many spiritual and religious thinkers have significantly contributed to the advancement of doubt, free thinking, and the sciences, laying the ground work for the Enlightenment and modernity. There is no “cultural war” dividing us.

While we make no apologies for the beliefs that have helped to shape our character, we acknowledge that neither faith in God nor atheism suffices to define one’s ethical character. We maintain that the character of a human being can only be defined and evaluated on the basis of one’s actions.

We agree that fanaticism, be it religious or secular, is the true enemy of reason and of human progress.

We therefore formally reject the proposition that one cannot be both religious and rational. And we patently reject the notion that people of faith are incapable of respecting modern science and evolution.

We equally reject the point of view that implies one must believe in God or hold a specific religious belief in order to be valued as a moral/ethical being.

We call upon our movements to unite for the betterment of our society and to reject the enmity of pundits who have made their careers out of promoting intolerance and hatred.

We affirm the plurality of our nation and the importance of maintaining the wall of separation between civic and religious authorities in order to preserve the democratic principle of freedom of and from religion.

Our nation has been carved into a maze of horrors: torture, war, poverty, gross spending on warfare, corruption, religious fanaticism, sexism, homophobia, bigotry and intolerance. Progressive people both with and without religious faith must work together if we are to correct these injustices.

We, the undersigned, agree that given our nation’s many ethical and societal challenges, secular, spiritual and religious progressives must set aside their differences to work together to create a better world.

To view the signatures, please visit their website.

Not abortion again...

Campaigns Wikia has a mailing list, and we broke into an abortion discussion today. Temporary, I hope. Here's my position today:

Doesn't the Bible teach that life begins at the first breath? Isn't
part of the mythology that Mary had to decide whether or not to end
her pregnancy? Or at least whether Joseph would stay with Mary until
the child was born?

If it is against the Western tradition to "kill babies" or (my
addition) allow them to be killed, why don't our laws require that all
children receive free health care paid for by the community from the
moment of conception to the moment of natural death? Why aren't we do
everything in our power to prevent abortions by teaching our teenagers
about birth control along side the "just say no" concept that is
failing us so badly?

I'll tell you why. Because the Catholic Church teaches that we will
pay for our sins in some future eternity, and that any suffering that
we have to endure in this life is insignificant. The same mentality
teaches radical Muslims that their reward in a future life will be
beyond their imagination if they create suffering for their enemies in
this life.

It's a lie. It's a tool used to encourage the domination of the many
under the hand of the few. It's a justification used to force people
to tolerate the intolerable, to allow the inexcusable and to
accomplish the unthinkable.

We have one world. This one. We have one life to have an influence
over. This one. The Bible tells us to be "fruitful and multiply".
It does not tell us to be fruitful and multiply to the point that our
population numbers make life unbearable and unsustainable. G-d set
the rules of the game, and has granted us with free will to play the
game. If we destroy the game board, G-d is not going to save us. He
will wait a few million years and try again with a new species. He
has all the time in the Universe. We don't.

I will agree to a 100% ban on abortions when we have completely
eliminated unwanted pregnancy from the earth. If we could work
together, we could do both. Big "IF", isn't it.

My quote in the NYTimes

To those who have expressed concerns about my quote,

I was not speaking from the experience of someone who lost someone in the war. I was not speaking from that perspective. I can't. And none of the people that you have met would wish me to be talking from that perspective.

Let me give you the context for the word "fool".

"Life is, among other things, an elimination contest. We get eliminated from this and that and from them and him and her; and finally a germ or faulty pump valve eliminates them altogether. A few find the contest so disagreeable that they eliminate themselves. They are the 24-karat fools who miss the important point about it all; namely, that the major meaning of life is the opportunity to strive and struggle: an opportunity forever denied inanimate things. Striving and struggling implies that the striver is aiming to do something he is not doing now, or get somewhere different than where he is now."

Wayne Valdemar Brandon

Wayne Brandon was my grandfather. From when I was 6 years old to when I was 13, I lived with my grandparents. More than anyone else in my life, my grandfather taught me what values to live with. How to make decisions. What to care about. He came to the US from Sweden in 1923. He and my grandmother survived the crash, survived the Great Depression, survived the 2nd World War.

In 1991, during the first Gulf War, I was in the Navy. In Bremerton, Washington, with my ship in Dry Dock. I did nothing during that war except watch the clock. I didn't know about the damage done by the Reagan years. I knew that George H. W. Bush was my Commander in Chief. I was told by my officers that the Arkansas Governor, William Clinton, was incapable of doing the job. I voted the way I was told. I was a fool. A damned fool. And I learned.

People, individuals, deserve respect. And they have, do, and always will, get my respect, and my ear. But attitudes that deny the larger struggle, ideas that lose the path from where we are to where we should be going. Those I intend to change.

In order to stop the war, this president must be held accountable for his decisions. This will not be done if the Republican party maintains control of the House or the Senate. We must take both in the 2006 election. This is something that the most liberal, most progressive members of our House and Senate agree on.

All of the people that have been mentioned to me in emails and phone calls care about health care. So do you. So do I. All the people that have been mentioned care about the environment. So do you. So do I. The war is a node in a network, a nexus in a web of cause and effect. You know that. So do I. We must work to make sure that everyone is aware of the web.

To call people fools, without context on the front page of the most important national newspaper in the United States, was wrong. To have an interview with a reporter from that newspaper last 45 minutes so he could print 4 sentences is a poor way to show respect for mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, wives and husbands that have lost family and friends in this war. For that, I sincerely apologize.

Politics is about people. And it is about decisions that people make. And those decisions must be made with a full understanding of the consequences, and a full and complete understanding of the context. I did not have that understanding when I talked with the reporter, and I don't have it now. But I'm closer, thanks to all of you. Hopefully, the context that I have provided will also bring you closer.

My wife and I bought a documentary a week or so ago. "9/11", by Jules & Gedeon Naudet, and James Hanlon. It peels to the bone the illusions that those of us who were on the other side of the country had and have about what happened that day, and gave me a very interesting change in perspective to watch it for the first time while I was writing this response. I hope to ever have that kind of change in my perspective, whenever someone writes to me from theirs.

I am no longer defending myself from criticism. My statement was my opinion, based on my understanding. And we are 44 days from the election.

Chad

Party Primaries

This is from a mailing list post I made on September 3rd. The question is raising its head again, and I wanted to put this somewhere I could find it quick.

---

I don't think it should matter whether we're talking about an Incumbent seat, a Challenged seat or an Open seat. Because what we're talking about is not specific details having to do with a specific race or a specific candidate. We need to nail our principles to the party door. And the principles that I would use to decide policy on Primary races come from the Charter of the Washington State Democratic Party.

We, the Democrats of the State of Washington, believe in the concepts expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States that all power to govern resides with the people. In accordance with the National Charter of the Democratic Party of the United States, we organized and pledge ourselves to promote a truly representative Party open to all who support its principles.

We further pledge to make every effort to encourage maximum participation in the political process and to protect individuals' rights, civil liberties, our environment and social and economic justice for all.

All power to govern resides with the people. To translate that into this discussion, all power to pick and choose candidates for office resides with the voters. And all power to decide who will best represent the principles and values of the Democratic Party reside with the grassroots activists and voters in the Primary election. Move the primary up to June, May, April, whenever we need to. My honest choice for a primary, especially when it comes to the 2008 Presidential Primaries, would be President's Day, the third Monday in February. To heck with this jockeying about who goes first, and no more influencing the grassroots with the claim "Well, they won in Iowa so they must be the best." Start the landslide nationwide with all 50 states on the same day, whether that be via Primary or Caucus.

We pledge ourselves to promote a truly representative Party open to all who support its principles. To be truly representative, the Party rules should be encouraging people to campaign, to run, to build support and campaign infrastructure. There should be standards and an instruction manual for candidates and campaign managers revised every year just as there is currently a PCO Handbook. It would explain how to file for office, what positions are partisan, and most importantly what the rules are for gaining access to whatever infrastructure the Party has available. This includes the Voter File, Endorsements, etc. The Candidate Handbook would also explain fundraising best practices, how to host a house party, how to get someone else to host a house party, and where and how to advertise. Every candidate that I've talked to outside Incumbents who have already learned these sorts of things by doing them tells me that everyone is on their own when it comes to building a campaign. This often means that people start really early, or they have to put lots of money into a campaign from their own pocket to make up the difference. Which means that if someone doesn't have a lot of money or enough time to really campaign full time, they might as well not bother.

We further pledge to make every effort to encourage maximum participation in the political process. How can we fulfill this pledge if we are from the onset telling people interested in public office that they are on their own?

Incumbent candidates automatically get extra help. They can call on the party to help them get the word out about an event, and more than likely get what they need quicker than a primary challenger seems to. If an Incumbent has screwed up somehow, by the votes they have cast or by not responding to grassroots pressure from within the party, the chair of that district or the state should be willing and able to address the concerns about that behavior to that elected official. That doesn't mean withdrawing support, it means the chair being accountable to the people that put them into office by raising concerns, and then reporting the response to the people who raised the concern.

Rodney Tom got the support of his district immediately, and the person who had already announced for that Senate seat, and had been building campaign infrastructure for several months, was asked to drop out. This was the person who had actually run against Rodney in 2004 for his House seat, with the support of her district. What's fair about that? I'm sure that he will do a great job in the Senate, but that's not the point. The point is that we drove off someone who had been building support within her district for 3 years, and probably drove off some of that support at the same time. That's in direct violation of our stated principles as a party.

About the Governor's reelection, I agree that the party should start now. And they should start with a simple question sent out to every Democrat on our mailing lists: "What do you want to see from a Washington State Governor, and will you help make sure that the Democratic Party candidate in 2008 will live up to your desires and expectations?" House parties should be happening every month at a Precinct or Area level (the 46th is divided up into 14 Areas of 10-15 precincts each). These parties don't have to be focused on the Gubernatorial race, they should be focused on the grassroots. What do we want from a Governor? What do we want from an Attourney General? What do we want from a Secretary of State? What do we want from a Lands Commissioner, a Treasurer, an Auditor, our Legislature, our county and city governments, our courts? What do the people, who are the source of everything else in this country and this party, want from our government? That is what we need from a political party wanting to be the party of the people.

Media!

Ok, I've had quite a week. Quoted on the front page of the New York Times on Tuesday the 19th, and then today I get on the Thom Hartmann show to hold myself accountable. I'll fill in the quote in a bit, so keep an eye out, but it's also on WashBlog.com and DailyKos.com if you can't wait.

As far as the radio goes, download the mp3.

Load the mp3, and scroll over to 2 hours, 34 minutes or so. It's about 5 minutes long.

Here's the quote:

" `Do you really want a Republican representing Washington?' That's the question she's asking," said Chad Lupkes, a Washington coordinator for Democracy for America.

In July, Ms. Cantwell hired two of her potential Democratic primary challengers, both critics of the war, to work on her campaign. The move drew charges from both sides that she was paying off opponents; one of those hired, Mark Wilson, is paid $8,000 a month. The other person hired was Dal LaMagna.

Mr. Wilson, now a Cantwell campaign outreach director, did not respond to a request for an interview. Mr. Lupkes said Mr. Wilson was far from a sellout. He said it had been "critical" for Mr. Wilson to join the Cantwell campaign.

"The progressives really want to learn how the system works," Mr. Lupkes said. "You've got a bunch of people who say that the war is their top, only issue. Those people are fools. They're going to vote for Aaron Dixon. Maybe 5 percent of the vote goes for him?"