I'm supporting Jay Clough for WA-04

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

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

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

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

The mission of a political party

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

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

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

Free Speech for People moves forward in Washington State

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

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

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

SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 8027

State of Washington 61st Legislature 2010 Regular Session
By Senator Jacobsen

TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

WHEREAS, The First Amendment to the United States Constitution was designed to protect the free speech rights of people, not corporations; and

WHEREAS, For the past three decades, a divided United States Supreme Court has misinterpreted the First Amendment favoring the corporations' agenda over the people's voice; and

WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC overturned longstanding precedent prohibiting corporations from freely spending their general treasury funds for purposes of electioneering communications or direct contributions to candidates for public office; and

WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC will now permit unprecedented spending of corporate money in our political process unrivaled by any campaign expenditure totals in United States history; and

WHEREAS, An individual can use his or her money to speak on his or her singular behalf, the money corporations use to speak belongs to its shareholders, who presumably come from disparate political ideologies; and

WHEREAS, It took over one million individual donors to raise about seven hundred fifty million dollars for Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008; and

WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately five percent of ExxonMobil's third quarter profits in 2008; and

WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately five percent of Bank of America's profits in 2007; and

WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately 18 percent of Bank of America's profits in 2008; and

WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately 37.5 percent of Goldman Sachs's first quarter profits in 2009; and

WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately 18 percent of JPMorgan Chase's third quarter profits in 2009; and

WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately 25 percent of Ford's profits in 2009; and

WHEREAS, Seven hundred fifty million dollars is approximately five percent of Philip Morris's profits in 2008; and

WHEREAS, Individual shareholders will now be inextricably absorbed into the corporation's powerful political action, regardless of their individual political beliefs and affiliations; and

WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC threatens to dilute an individual's power as a voting citizen and compromise the democratic process; and

WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC presents a serious and direct threat to our democracy;

WHEREAS, The people of the United States have previously used the constitutional amendment process to correct those egregiously wrong decisions of the United States Supreme Court that go to the heart of our democracy and self-government;

NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memoralists respectfully pray that Congress, in accordance with Article V of the Constitution of the United States, immediately transmit to the several states for ratification an amendment to the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution so that corporations will not be considered as persons for the purposes of electioneering communications or direct contributions to candidates for public office.

BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.

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

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

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

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

Constitutional Amendment

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

The Constitution of the State of Washington is amended as follows:

Article. I

Section 1. Political Power. All political power is inherent in the **natural** people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain **the** individual rights **of natural people**.

Section 3. Personal Rights. No **natural** person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.

The Constitution of the United States is amended as follows:

U.S. Const. Amend. XIV, ? 1: All **natural** persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law that shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any **natural** person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any **natural** person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

To save paradise, and stop a parking lot

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

I certainly wouldn't want to indicate I have any unique insight on how everyone feels around this place but I thought you might be interested in how one Senate staffer is feeling.

My background is like probably the majority of staffers I know. I came to DC, from a far superior climate and quality of life, because I wanted to save the world. I arrived, and took a job in the House, at what I still view as the nadir of Congress - in 1996. Republicans had recently taken over Congress and had 230 seats in the House and 52 in the Senate. Democrats were in a state of shock and we watched (because that was essentially all we could do) in horror as they systematically went after nearly every institution of civil governance culminating in nearly removing the President from office via an entirely trumped-up charge. They had destroyed the Democrats in 1994 because they simply couldn't deliver - the BTU tax went down, health care went down, and finally the Crime Bill failed because it had such laughably wacky ideas as "midnight basketball" as a crime prevention measure (something with is widely approved of today and is completely noncontroversial). As a young LA, it was amazingly dispiriting. Literally nothing we proposed could get passed - we couldn't even get votes. Every bill came to the floor under a closed rule so we couldn't propose amendments and our Senate colleagues faced a full amendment tree on every bill such that unless they had Republican patron they couldn't get votes either. Kennedy fought like hell for things like minimum wage and sometimes could arm-wrestle a procedural vote win out of them but things would just die in the hands of the Hammer in the House. Eventually, my boss got fed up and retired and I went over to the Administration where I thought I might be able to get more accomplished.

Even there, in a Democratic Administration, we faced constant battles as anything remotely beneficial to the public or in keeping with our mission was forcibly outsourced by the Congress or investigated into near-paralysis. The Republican Majority in the House had steadily eroded so that by the end of the Clinton years they had only a 5 seat cushion (223) in the House, but their strong majority in the Senate (55) kept them firmly in control. Then, when Bush took over in the wake of the most disputable election imaginable, the political appointees flooded in and began reversing policies (including policies promulgated by previous Republican administrations) as if they were exercising the overwhelming mandate of the people. Republicans barely kept the House with 221 seats and only held on to the Senate via Cheney's tie breaking vote on the organizing resolution. I left to start a family.

Despite Jeffords' flip, and the razor-thin majority in the House, the Democrats dealt no significant losses to President Bush and his agenda went essentially unchecked, and nominations were processed efficiently and quickly (after all, the people had spoken!). The only arguable exception I can think of right now is that the Administration was unable to push through drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge but they actually did put it on reconciliation, they just lost too many Republicans to win. I returned to being in the Minority on the Hill, on the Senate side this time and as staff to an important Committee, and Republicans now had a 51-seat Majority in the Senate and had strengthened in the House to a mighty 229 seats. We fought valiantly to slow them down but were unsuccessful in stopping a one-sided energy bill, escalation of a needless war in Iraq, and continued erosion of the social safety net and de-funding of civil institutions through tax cuts for the well-off. We got occasional fig leaves, and maybe could get a witness or two included in a hearing, but were essentially not a part of the final discussions to put together bills. I dreamed that if only we could get two Senate seat takeaways, then we could finally take the reigns back - after all, poll after poll showed the American people agreed with us on nearly every issue. In 2004 we would surely break through to the public - we had neutralized them on their central issue by nominating a war hero and people were desperate for health care and education reforms. We had moved away from that scary Howard Dean fellow and were now proposing only modest reforms to health care, more tax cuts, and deficit reduction (don't worry, never at the expense of the Pentagon!). How could we lose? Republicans strengthened their majorities to 55 Senators and 232 House Members and I almost lost my job as the now-overwhelming Republican Majority in the Senate increased their allocation of the office space and staff salaries. Now a majority was a faraway dream and the best we could hope for was a few sympathetic Republicans on a few issues that might help us at least expose what they were doing (and we did manage to beat back drilling in Arctic again).

Unexpectedly, public mood did finally begin to sour on the wars and deficits agenda in 2006 and we were able to eek out victories in MT and VA so that we could take a narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate (including a dicey vote from Lieberman) and a massive 233-202 Majority in the House. Of course, we'd have to cautious and trim our sails a bit since Bush still was President and we had several skittish votes in the Caucus, but the American People were giving us a shot. We suffered some disappointments but we did about as well as could be expected in the Senate, but at least we were making progress and, though I had to trim my ambitions a bit, I was finally writing provisions that were becoming law. On balance, it was a good Congress, but I dreamed of having big majorities like 55 Senators so that we could really do the stuff we've all been waiting for.

A wave election hit us in 2008 where we not only had overwhelming majorities of 59 seats in the Senate (once Republicans finally got around to letting us seat Franken) and 257 seats in the House (returning us to the same power level as when we ruled the House with inpugnity in 1992-3) but, most importantly, a President who was explicitly elected on an agenda of "change." It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to wrench the wheel away from the abyss and really deliver on our promises. It was disheartening when it seemed that Reid was allowing McConnell's disingenuous narrative of "it's always taken 60 votes to get anything done" to take hold, but we were later even saved from that when Specter switched. But it seems we've spent the entire year moving our own goalposts farther away. Things have gotten so bad that in roaming the halls today it feels exactly as if we lost the Majority last night.

The worst is that I can't help but feel like the main emotion people in the caucus are feeling is relief at this turn of events. Now they have a ready excuse for not getting anything done. While I always thought we had the better ideas but the weaker messaging, it feels like somewhere along the line Members internalized a belief that we actually have weaker ideas. They're afraid to actually implement them and face the judgement of the voters. That's the scariest dynamic and what makes me think this will all come crashing down around us in November.

I believe President Clinton provided some crucial insight when he said, "people would rather be with someone who is strong and wrong than weak and right." It's not that people are uninterested in who's right or wrong, it's that people will only follow leaders who seem to actually believe in what they are doing. Democrats have missed this essential fact.

The stimulus bill in the spring showed us what was coming. In the face of a historic economic crisis, Democrats negotiated against themselves at the outset and subsequently yielded to absurd demands from self-described "moderates" to trim the package to a clearly inadequate level. No one made any rational argument about why a lower level was better. It would have been trivial to write "claw-back" provisions if the stimulus turned out to be too much or we could have done a rescission this year to give these moderates their victory, but none of this was on the table. We essentially looked like we didn't know what the right answer was so we just kinda went for what we could get. This formula was repeated in spades in both the Climate and Health Care debacles.

This is my life and I simply can't answer the fundamental question: "what do Democrats stand for?" Voters don't know, and we can't make the case, so they're reacting exactly as you'd expect (just as they did in 1994, 2000, and 2004). We either find the voice to answer that question and exercise the strongest majority and voter mandate we've had since Watergate, or we suffer a bloodbath in November. History shows we're likely to choose the latter.

Although I realize this is far too long to publish, if you do decide to use any of it, please keep my anonymity. Just in case I'm wrong and there is more good to do yet.

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

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

This is a perfect moment

I love Free Will Astrology.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*

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

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

We are waking up.

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

Read the rest here.

The era of Bush is over, right?

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

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

Announcer: "Remember the previous President? The Republican George Bush? So do we, and like you we don't want to go back to those years. Unemployment went up, the increasing National Debt went out of control thanks to the budgets passed by a Republican Majority and a Republican President, we got into an unnecessary war in Iraq, our leadership position around the world became a laughing matter."

Screen shows pictures of the stock market crash in September, 2008, the debt clock spinning out of control, and scenes of fighting in Iraq.

Announcer: "Since 2006, the Democrats in Congress have been fighting to put things right. And the Republican Party has tried to stop us at every turn. We tried enforcing accountability in Iraq, and the Republican President at the time vetoed it. We faced a record number of Block That Vote attempts in 2007. We tried providing health care to kids, and it was vetoed twice. You responded in 2008 by increasing our majorities and putting a new President in office."

Screen shows pictures of Republicans yelling and looking like idiots. Shouldn't be too hard to find.

Announcer: "In spite of all the Republican efforts to stop our progress, we still got some things done. We increased the Minimum Wage for the first time in over a decade. We implemented the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, something that had not been done under the Republicans. And under our new President, we finally passed health care for children, the largest investment in the economy ever, the most comprehensive legislation protecting people who use Credit Cards ever, and that's just the beginning."

Screen shows Senator Edward Kennedy (who advocated for the minimum wage increase), the cover of the 9/11 Commission Report with a big blue checkmark, healthy kids, a picture from one of the many construction projects, etc. Have fun with it.

Announcer: "So, after all of this, what do the Republicans want? They want to remind us of the years under George Bush. In our opinion, that era is over. And with your help, we won't be going back. Please support Democrats in 2010."

Did McGinn forget something?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Twas the Debate before Christmas

I'm sorry if I offended you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whoever you were.

My health care message to President Obama

Mr. President,

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

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

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

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

Please make the right decision.

Chad Lupkes
Seattle

Support the Cap and Dividend bill!

Dear Congressman McDermott,

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

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

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

Thank you for all that you do!

And now for something Really Important

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

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

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



Here's a link to some pictures on Facebook.

Lessons learned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chad

WikiWorld - Us Now Film

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

Here's a link: UsNowFilm Part 1

And here's the embed:



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

What do you do?

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe they're not worth listening to.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A rant on Health Care Reform

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Nuff said.

Facebook readers click here.

Dear Rep. McDermott,

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

I don't think Seattle is ready for my son

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

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

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

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