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then buy the house. Jewish Proverb Don’t buy the house, buy the neighborhood. Russian Proverb Our Website Our Editor To Unsubscribe Table of Contents
*Featured Articles Communication, Opportunities and
Petitions Commentaries from Our Members Rich Austin: Reframing Poverty* Dick Falkenbury: Try Surface Option Before Viaduct Ray McBain: Stop Subsidizing Private Insurers Valerie Tarico: Where Religion Made the World
Worse Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef Barack Obama Calls for Affordable Housing Rick Warren Shouldn’t Do Inaugural Invocation State and Local Links to the Beef A
Canvasser’s View of Lake Hills Family Life Washington
Democrats: A Lost Opportunity* Ross Hunter: Basic Education Funding Task Force* Ross Hunter: 2009 Legislative Challenges* Why Jason Osgood Endorses Sherril Huff Nation and World Links to the Beef Two Ways to Stimulate Our Economy* Some Industries Lose Jobs. Others Gain Jobs.* Our Automobile Industry Should Lose Jobs Housing Values Need
to Decline More. The Biblical Case for Same Sex Marriage Our Liberal Spirit
Calendar of Events
Monday, January 19 at St. John’s Episcopal Church (114 = 20th Avenue SE, Olympia) at 8:45 AM – People’s Summit for Economic Justice and at 11:30 AM – March on the Capitol, sponsored by our Statewide Poverty Action Network.
Communication, Opportunities and Petitions
Communication with Our Members and Feedback
Only a few minutes after emailing our notice last week, the backlight on my laptop failed, rendering it useless. I purchased a new laptop and new software, had the data transferred from the old hard drive to the new one and using the new MS Vista, tried to restore the functions that I used with the previous MS XP. In the process, I lost my records of about 20 days of emails which were received and sent since I last backed up the previous computer. I apologize for not being able to respond to some emails that were received during this period.
Opportunities
Useful Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access to jillions of political cartoons.
Download Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About Sightline.
International
version of ‘Stand by Me’ (video).
Learn more
about the Obama-Biden policy agenda and share your ideas.:
For updates
from Obama-Biden Transition Project, including video of Obama’s weekly address.
For news about Obama-Biden’s preparations to take office.
For
news about Barack Obama’s inauguration and ways to participate from home.
Petitions and Donations
Tell decision makers to stop drilling in our Utah wilderness.
Tell your congress members to help stop military rape in the Congo.
Tell your congress members: no funds for unnecessary roads. We don’t need roads to nowhere.
Tell your congress members to create more green jobs.
Tell Barack Obama to end torture.
Thank Newsweek for story about biblical support for same sex marriage.
Commentaries From Our Members
Rich Austin:
Reframing Poverty
BRAVO! to the author of “We Need to Reframe Eliminating
Poverty”. Every one of us, and most
assuredly lawmakers, must ask and answer this question: Will our [nation’s]
policies be based on ethics, or will they continue to be conditioned on crass
economic dogma?
President Roosevelt reminded us that we all have
“inalienable rights”. Inalienable is
defined as “absolute,
inherent; something that cannot be transferred or sold or taken by anyone
else”. Chauvinistic “constitutionalists”
tell us that the words “inalienable rights” do not imply the existence of a
social contract, but instead merely assure each of us the right to succeed…or
to fall by the wayside. (That ideological mindset is repugnant to moral or
ethical values. It is the bleating of
mean-spirited demagogues; the antithesis
to a humane society.)
What
follows are the words of President Roosevelt.
They are as relevant today as when he spoke them in 1944:
"This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights - among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.
As our nation has grown in size
and stature, and our industrial economy expanded, these political rights proved
inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness. We cannot be content, no matter how high the
general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people - whether it
is one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth - is ill fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed,
and insecure.
We have come to a clear realization that true individual freedom cannot
exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are
the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
In our day, these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all - regardless of station, race, or creed.
Among these are:
· The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
· The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
· The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
· The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition by monopolies at home or abroad;
· The right of every family to a decent home;
· The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
· The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
· The right to a good education.
America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for our people." Rich Austin
Dick Falkenbury: Try Surface
Option Before Viaduct Rebuild
Published
by Seattle PI on 12/14/2008
The surface option is, by
far, the cheaper. If the surface option
works, we will save a huge amount of money and time. If it fails, we can try
the rebuild.
If the rebuild option is
tried and fails, there is no way that we would tear it down and try surface. We
will have wasted billions and foregone the option that would work. Dick Falkenbury
Ray McBain: Stop Subsidizing
Private Health Insurers
I'm very
pleased that pres-elect Obama has recognized that the payments subsidizing
Medicare Advantage plans should be stopped and used to provide a Medicare-like
plan for the millions of Americans who lack health care. These Americans, along
with the rest of us, provide most of the funding of government. Therefore we
deserve universal health care. Our payments to the IRS consist not only of
direct taxation, but also the taxes paid by corporations come from the revenue
obtained from the products we buy.
It's
about time! In my own evaluations of MA
plans, I've taken into consideration that the government payments to such plans
may cease. The result of that would be to raise the premiums of such plans,
making them even less attractive to me. And the donut-hole built into all such
plans is a real killer! We need to
ensure that Obama keeps his promises by standing behind him against the forces
of profit. Ray McBain
Jack Smith: Yes We Can!
I'm afraid that if activists oppose Obama from the get-go , we may have a self fulfilling prophecy and my great President of Hope for Change will have no choice but to join the moneyed "powers that be" and become just like all of the rest of the failed Presidencies.
But I see an alternative that involves both Obama and us. Suppose we believe that he does represent the Hopes and Dreams that we seek. Suppose we work with him to achieve important objectives. Suppose we realize that we can't win every issue, but we are given the opportunity to be heard on each of them. Suppose we win many of the important issues. Suppose people start working together to find solutions that are reasonably acceptable by all sides. Suppose our nation finds that black and white, red and yellow, Red States and Blue States, World Countries all decide to work together to solve mutual problems. This is a part of the Obama-Nation that I believe is not only possible, but probable if we are willing to work for it.
Of course, suppose I am wrong. I will cross that bridge, if and when I get to it. I guess if that happens I will spend my precious time complaining, demonstrating and crying. But I just don't want to start from a negative base. I want to assume that this will be a great Presidency, work hard to make that happen and stay flexible enough to change if it is later necessary. I hope your friends will consider the same approach. Faith is a belief that cannot be proven in physical terms, as I am sure your friends would like. I chose to believe in a faith that together we can optimize life on our planet. As to evidence, I offer nothing physical, but after living with the worst case for eight years, I know we can do much better. YES WE CAN! Jack Smith
Valerie
Tarico: Two Stadiums Where Religion Made the World Worse
Within a few days of each other last week, on opposite sides of the world, on opposite ends of the wealth and privilege spectrums, the faithful filled two stadiums. In one, in Kismayo, Somalia, 1000 Muslim believers watched the stoning of a 13 year old girl—Aisha was her name--condemned for adultery because she dared to complain about being gang raped. In the other, in San Diego, California, thousands of Evangelicals sang and swayed and pledged their bodies and souls to the purpose of stripping gay men and women of equality under the law and specifically the right to marry. Like Aisha, those men and women have names. One of them is named David. Another Will. I know because I love them, as Aisha’s broken parents loved their daughter.
The horror of imagining a thirteen-year-old raped and stoned is so enormous that it is hard emotionally to put the two events in the same bucket. And yet we must, if we are to understand what is happening to our country and to our world. We must, because they belong there. Both events can be understood only in terms of a single human phenomenon: the worship of specific brutal words that were written in a brutal time and place. Those 1000 Muslims and thousands of Evangelicals are “People of the Book,” the ideological Sons and Daughters of Abraham, bound by a lineage of clay tablet and papyrus and vellum and paper to moral priorities of our Bronze Age ancestors.
These ancestors were sworn enemies of sex--outside of the relationship in which a man controlled and jealously guarded his females: wives, slaves, and daughters. He owned them all, and to violate one of them was to violate his property (“You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Exodus 20.) He owned their offspring, and if he was vigilant enough he could be reasonably confident about whose DNA his females carried in their bellies. When he went to war, he raped or kept the women of his enemies, as a part of the plunder. (“Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.” Numbers 13.)
The stoning, like the urgent need to bar gays from
acceptance as full members of society comes straight out of the Books, chapter
and verse. And though one seems more vile than the other, both reflect
the widespread human willingness to deny to others the rights we want for
ourselves: liberty, the pursuit of happiness, or even life. How
quickly we turn brutish when we idolize the fears and angers of our ancestors
or our own fear and anger –and thus give divine sanction to our darkest
impulses. In the end, in California, over 30 million dollars were spent
in an attempt to deny one of the world’s most basic human rights to young
couples, and old lovers, and pairs of moms and dads with kids in school or
highchairs. An equal amount was spent in defense of fairness.
How many thirteen-year-old girls might have been saved—from malaria or
starvation or even stoning-- if the American People of the Book could let
Books be books and could turn their moral energy toward alleviating suffering
instead of causing it. Valerie Tarico
Liberals and Democrats
Barack Obama’s
Priorities
Following his habit of prioritizing his political actions in terms of
continually widening and deepening his political support, I predict that Obama
will proceed as follows to deal with our various Liberal Priorities.
Primary Priorities
Barack Obama has proposed five priorities: (1) A jobs stimulus program, (2)
environmental programs including conservation and non-carbon based energy, (3) health
and (4) education, and (5) withdrawing our military forces from Iraq. Including many jobs relating to environmental
and educational programs within the jobs stimulus program reduces the
priorities to three: jobs, health and withdrawing from Iraq. We can expect Obama to quickly begin our withdrawal from Iraq as well as
closing Guantanamo and banning torture and rendition.
Obama will immediately implement his jobs stimulus program, including green jobs, funds for federal,
state and local infrastructure projects, including school buildings and
increased access to broadband internet, and jobs for teachers. Obama will also soon implement measures to
increase the incomes of our lower income people, including increasing our
minimum wage and earned income tax credit and extending unemployment benefits. Obama will later implement additional measures
to improve access to quality education and to facilitate unionization.
Given the increased pain that uninsured people, employers and employees
and health care providers are experiencing, Obama will also quickly move to
implement greatly increased health care
coverage. Instead of confronting
private health insurers, Obama and our congress apparently will not implement a
single payer (Medicare for All) type health care system. Instead they will provide Medicare type
coverage as an option, which will out-compete expensive private health care
coverage to result later in public single payer coverage.
Other Priorities
Our Liberal Priorities include some which are unlikely to receive as
early attention. While Obama has pledged
during his campaign to address them, they are not among his primary
priorities. Beyond withdrawing from
Iraq, we need to greatly reduce our military programs while enhancing the
international community’s ability to pass and enforce laws to provide justice,
peace and the protection of human rights.
That is, we need to quit policing the world to the advantage of
America’s private commercial interests.
Besides greatly reducing military spending, we need to greatly reduce
subsidies for energy, health, media, agricultural and other industries. We also need to increase taxes on high income
and wealthy people so that they pay their fair share to maintain and enhance
the infrastructure that has made their incomes and wealth possible. These measures will be delayed as Obama
builds his political support through implementing the three priorities
described above.
Apart from delaying military spending reductions, reducing other
subsidies to special interests and tax increases on our high income and wealthy
people, Obama will carefully examine our budget to implement more competent
spending as he has the political strength to combat special interests. Obama will provide a more open government and
quit violating our civil rights as Bush has done on the pretext of protecting
us from terrorists. But he may move
slower to change the legislation which enables such violations. As with McCarthyism of the 1950s, popular
hysteria concerning possible terrorist attacks will subside slowly.
Obama has proposed a New Politics, which should include a federal
elections commission (probably as part of our judicial branch) which would
regulate redistricting, manner of calculating winners, voting procedures,
debates, campaign contributions and other such issues. But such measures may also wait until he has
the political strength to confront entrenched party interests.
We liberals will have to recognize that all reforms can’t happen at once
or simultaneously. But we should act to
ensure that they are all remembered. And
acted upon as soon as political time and strength is available to do so. We
should act to increase such political strength instead of reducing it through
impatience for the impossible.
Unfortunately, what is politically possible is often not known,
especially by those of us outside government.
Barack Obama Calls for Affordable Housing
From providing shelter to those
displaced by Katrina to giving help to those facing the loss of a home to
revitalizing our cities and communities, HUD’s role has never been more
important. Since its founding, HUD has been dedicated to tearing down barriers
in access to affordable housing -- in an effort to make America more equal and
more just. Too often, these efforts have had mixed results.
That is why we cannot keep doing
things the old Washington way. We cannot keep throwing money at the problem,
hoping for a different result. We need to approach the old challenge of
affordable housing with new energy, new ideas, and a new, efficient style of
leadership. We need to understand that the old ways of looking at our cities
just won’t do. That means promoting cities as the backbone of regional growth
by not only solving the problems in our cities, but seizing the opportunities
in our growing suburbs, exurbs, and metropolitan areas. No one knows this
better than the outstanding public servant I am announcing today as our next
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development -- Shaun Donovan.
As Commissioner of Housing
Preservation and Development in New York City, Shaun has led the effort to
create the largest housing plan in the nation, helping hundreds of thousands of
our citizens buy or rent their homes. Prior to joining Mayor Bloomberg’s
administration, Shaun worked both in business, where he was responsible for affordable
housing investments, and at one of our nation’s top universities, where he
researched and wrote about housing issues. This appointment represents
something of a homecoming for Shaun, who worked at HUD in the Clinton
administration, leading an effort to help make housing affordable for nearly
two million Americans. Trained as an architect, Shaun understands housing down
to how homes are designed, built, and wired.
With experience that stretches from
the public sector to the private sector to academia, Shaun will bring to this
important post fresh thinking, unencumbered by old ideology and outdated ideas.
He understands that we need to move past the stale arguments that say
low-income Americans shouldn’t even try to own a home or that our mortgage crisis
is due solely to a few greedy lenders. He knows that we can put the dream of
owning a home within reach for more families, so long as we’re making loans in
the right way, and so long as those who buy a home are prepared for the
responsibilities of homeownership.
In the end, expanding access to
affordable housing isn’t just about caring for the least fortunate among us and
strengthening our middle class -- it’s about ending our housing mess, climbing
out of our financial crisis, and putting our economy on the path to long-term
growth and prosperity. And that is what Shaun and I will work to do together
when I am President of the United States.
Thank you. Barack Obama See Obama’s complete
speech (video).
Rick Warren
Shouldn’t Do Our Inaugural Invocation
I have been very
impressed with the activities and results of Barack Obama’s transition
team. But in planning his inaugural, I
believe he has made a serious mistake.
In an apparent attempt to include diverse representatives of America, he
chose evangelical minister Rick Warren to provide the invocation. Rick Warren compares legal abortion to the Holocaust and gay marriage to incest and pedophilia. He believes that Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and
other non-Christians are going to spend eternity burning in hell.
I don’t believe our concept of representation of America’s diversity
should include people who exhibit bigoted intolerance, prejudice and hate. Our concept should be representation of
America’s legitimate diversity. Dave
Thomas For more.
Here’s the Beef
Our recent presidential election has already produced many of the changes we need.
Bill Moyer suggests some appointments that Barack Obama should make.
Garry Dorien says Obama should invest more aggressively than Franklin Roosevelt did.
A majority of Americans support a ten policy liberal agenda.
Our economic stimulus package must do more than just stimulate our economy.
Our government should provide venture capital.
Barack Obama chooses reformer to head Education Department. For more. For more.
Barack Obama chooses affordable housing expert to head Housing and Urban Development Dept.
Ken Salazar will lead our Interior department, with its very diverse set of responsibilities. For more.
As Agriculture Department head, will Tom Vilsack represent agro-business or our public interest? More.
Organic Consumers Association opposes Tom Vilsack appointment. Petition included.
Barack Obama’s health proposals address multiple issues and create multiple consumer choices.
President Bush’s Christmas message as he leaves office (video).
Joe Stiglitz describes the losses we have sustained due to President Bush’s policies.
Republicans attempt to use auto company bailout to lower employee wages. For more.
State and Local
A Canvasser’s View of Lake Hills Family Life
While canvassing to identify voting tendencies, I have talked to people at
their door in half of the 2400 households in Lake Hills. Here are some of my impressions. Some houses are meticulously landscaped,
others are tidy and still others have dandelions which indicate that the
residents may be renters. Some have
closed garage doors and vacant driveways, suggesting cars are inside. Others have cars in their driveway,
suggesting that their garage is filled with other stuff. Houses with open garage doors or carports
show which have lots of stuff. There are
at least two cars at most houses, with many some three or more. Boats and other recreational vehicles are
also present at perhaps 10-20% of the houses.
About 1/3rd of our houses display ‘Do not solicit signs, about
1/3rd display ‘welcome signs’ and the other 1/3rd display
neither. Yet there is little correlation
between the presence of signs and the greeting which I have received. Most people are friendly. Only a few refuse to talk. Fewer yet are hostile. Once they are aware of my interest in
identifying likely Democratic voters, some invite me into their homes for
further discussion. To my surprise, even
several single women in bathrobes. I
should add that they made no intimate advances.
Our households include some with a couple or single parent and a child or
children, others with a couple or single parent and one or more adult children,
others with an older retirement age couple or single person (almost always a
woman). Among the older couples, one is
often a caretaker for the other who is disabled. Some home contain two men or two women who
may or may not be homosexuals. Various
men have been very open to me about their homosexually.
It is difficult to identify why, but my impression is that perhaps a third
of the households are thriving, a third are doing just ok, and a third are in
conflict. I have gotten to know a few
enough to suspect that they are practicing alcoholics and several that they use
cocaine. Based upon their hostility, I suspected one
household of 4-5 single men of being involved is some criminal activity. I know from police reports that more of our
neighbors are in trouble (attempted suicides, domestic fights, and fights
between neighbors, and infrequent robberies) than one would think from simply
driving by.
Where I suspect that couples are not getting along very well, I seldom
know why: finances, selfishness, children, or what. There are more ‘for sale’ signs this year
than previously, but I don’t know if some of these result from imminent
foreclosure. I will ask several of our
neighborhood realtors about the extent of foreclosures. I encounter households in which several
adults have strong political differences.
More frequently one spouse is much more politically interested than the
other.
Lake Hills residents appear to do little entertaining. I seldom see numbers of cars parked on the
street which would indicate guests. The
only signs of neighborliness are occasional groups talking in their front yards
during pleasant summer days. Rarely,
there are coordinated groups of yard sales.
I am glad to see so many families thriving in a difficult world. I am sad to see that when people are in
trouble, they don’t seem to reach out to others for help, nor do most neighbors
reach out to help them. I have
encountered several people who have taken responsibility for helping many of
their neighbors, especially older people.
I spent the first six months of 2006 trying to organize a series of
neighborhood activities, including potlucks, discussion groups, block parties,
forums, movie nights, walks in the park, recycling garage sales, an arts and
crafts fair, and much more. Except for
our Lake Hills Liberals Salon, none of the other activities attracted enough participants
to continue them. As you know, our 500
members who receive our Lake Hills Liberals newsletter has expanded beyond Lake
Hills to 3000 members who receive our Puget Sound Liberals newsletter.
Washington Democrats:
A Lost Opportunity
240 Passionate Lake Hills Democrats attended our 2008 caucuses, an average
of 20 per precinct. But our next monthly
48th Legislative District meeting was attended only by people who
had previously participated. No new PCOs
were recruited. In the 41st,
45th, and 5th LDs, about 25 new people from the caucuses
attended who had signed up to become PCOs.
But now few of the new people are attending.
Our primary in which people could register their party preference enabled
Washington State Democrats to add to the 33% of identified likely Democratic
voters in Vote Builder. But few of our
precincts have been systematically canvassed to identify additional likely
Democratic voters. The result is that
about 50% of our likely Democratic voters have not been identified.
In Lake Hills, we have canvassed to identify 90% (1720) of our likely
Democratic voters. 300 households
(containing 30% of our identified likely Democratic voters) receive this Puget
Sound Liberals newsletter. Statewide,
very few Democrats receive any regular communication from our Democratic
party. Very few legislative district
organizations provide training to new members or new PCOs concerning their
primary function: grassroots organizing.
Our website contains many
suggestions for canvassing and other activities to improve the grassroots
organizing of our legislative district organizations.
Obama’s campaign recruited, trained and sent grassroots organizers to
greatly augment our coordinated campaign offices. But now that the election is over, this
grassroots organizing has ceased. Before
the election, many new Obama supporters attended house parties, organized
through the internet. Change.gov is now
providing the capacity to continue arranging house parties to discuss the
issues to be addressed by our Obama administration and congress. But few house parties are being arranged and
few are signing up to participate in the ones that are arranged. Our grassroots organizing is back to where it
was before the election season.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have greatly improved our grassroots organizing,
including identification of likely Democratic voters, communication with them,
identification of yard sign locations and more before our 2010 elections? Wouldn’t it be nice if our Democratic
candidates received much more assistance from our legislative districts and
state organization? With public campaign
financing and their potential voters identified, candidates could spend most of
their time interacting with voters and getting out the vote. It’s time for a change.
The following text comes from the League of Education Voters, who seems to like the plan we've put together.
For the first time, we have a
comprehensive plan for building a K-12 system that better prepares our children
for college, work and life. Here's how:
Early learning is included in basic education: Task Force members broadened the definition of basic education to include early learning for low-income preschool children, who are disproportionately at risk of not meeting state learning standards. Providing early learning wisely invests public dollars to help young children with the greatest needs begin their school careers on the right track.
A new compensation system: For the next generation of teachers, a new compensation system would be based on their skills and responsibilities in the classroom, and won't require teachers to earn master's degrees and PhDs simply to earn a professional level salary. The new system would be informed by regularly conducted salary surveys, which could incorporate regional cost of living factors. Current teachers could opt-in to the new system.
Raises the bar and lengthens the school day: The Task Force supports CORE 24, which would raise high school graduation requirements so all children are prepared for life after high school, whether that is a university, college, vocational school, or work. The state would also pay for six periods per day, instead of five.
A more transparent way of budgeting: A new "model schools" approach would all but require the state to fund the true cost of Basic Education. The Legislature would create four prototype schools--primary, elementary, middle and high schools--and build the state budget to fully fund actual class sizes, teachers and support staff and operating costs. This new system would greatly improve the ability of legislators, educators and parents to understand and make the best budgeting decisions to improve learning.
Phase-in of recommendations over six years: The Task Force did not identify additional funding sources necessary to implement these recommendations. However, in light of the looming state budget shortfall, Task Force members committed to a six-year plan to fully phase-in their recommendations.
Back to Ross -- this is the biggest change in school funding
in a quarter of a century and should position us well for the 21st
century. You can find out more at www.whatittakesforkids.com, a web
site my group of co-conspirators have put together to share information on the
progress we're making. Ross Hunter
I try to be organized about how I approach a legislative session, particularly one as difficult as this is likely to be. It's easy to lose track of where you are and what you want to get done. While there are lots of small items I'm working on, these five rise to the level of weekly review.
First, we have to deal with the budget problem. This is both a tactical problem of responding to the national economic disaster and a strategic opportunity to re-focus state government on what it's good at and get it out of the business of things it's not good at. This budget will be incredibly painful, and will hurt a lot of the people I came to Olympia to champion, but we will do what we have to do to have a sound financial footing for the state. We will come out with a leaner government focused very carefully on our priorities. We'll prioritize the parts of the budget that are investments in the future like education, and we'll try our best to preserve the safety net for the most vulnerable: seniors, at-risk kids, and those who are displaced by the crazy national economy through no fault of their own.
Second, we have to deal with one of the strategic priorities for the state: education funding. Our constitution is very clear that education is our paramount duty. I've been working with a bipartisan group of legislators for the last 18 months to pull together a plan that changes our current system from an opaque, confusing, overly complex and inadequate set of formulas to one that is much more transparent and simple -- a system that clearly delineates what we need to fund and how we should do it. This will be my major policy effort this year.
It's not often that you get a chance to play an important role in one of the pivotal moments in American History. This year is one of those -- America has the opportunity to shift our economy to be much less dependent on foreign oil and at the same time shift to an economy that doesn't contribute to the global warming problem. States have a responsibility to be part of the solution. Washington will have an opportunity this year to be part of the Western Climate Initiative, a joint effort of the major states in the west and big chunks of Canada. Doing a "Cap and Trade" system right is an opportunity for major changes in energy use and climate change, but is also an opportunity for one of the biggest transfers of wealth from consumers to polluters in history if done wro! ng. Getting the details right on this is crucial, and I'll be following it closely.
We are also in the middle of a set of transportation decisions that are crucial for our district: the 520 bridge plan, how tolling will work, the viaduct, and keeping the focus on 405 work. We have to make sure that decisions on the Seattle side don't push up the costs (and the tolls) beyond what we can afford, and we need to get it done. Now that Sound Transit Phase 2 has been approved we need to make sure it makes sense for the Eastside. I'll be pushing for them to start over here with the section from Bellevue to Redmond. This enables us to link up with the BNSF line north through Redmond, avoiding the difficult Kirkland route, and will help drive the redevelopment of the Bel-Red corridor. More on this in the next update.
Finally, there are a number of wonky tax policy efforts I've been working on for a few years that will come to fruition this year. It's not an optimal time to make changes in the tax code, but we should do these anyway. As more and more of the products we buy become digital, the tax code needs to grow and change to reflect this and to maintain fairness across different means of distribution. I've spent 18 months leading a joint effort with the business community to change the tax policy here and expect to pass a relatively non-controversial bill this year, even though it's a pretty big change. Ross Hunter
Why Jason Osgood
Endorses Sherril Huff for King Co. Election Director
The following statement was issued by Jason Osgood:
“Sherril Huff today announced her intention to run as a candidate in the February 3rd special election scheduled to fill the position of King County Director of Elections. Huff is currently the appointed head of the department and is now the most experienced and best qualified candidate seeking this position. Her exemplary performance in the November general election clearly demonstrated that Huff is the most logical choice in this race. I have therefore withdrawn my candidacy for King County Director of Elections, effective immediately, and am fully supporting the candidacy of Sherril Huff.
I had an opportunity to speak with Sherril Huff
earlier today. After congratulating her, I reiterated my commitment to
advocating for open source alternatives to current King County election systems
of which I and others have been critical. Huff expressed a willingness to work
together o n achieving shared goals and advancing the cause of election
integrity in King County. I am confident that in the months and years ahead we
will all move forward together.
These last nine months have been an extraordinary experience, first as a
candidate for Secretary of State, and recently as
a candidate for King County Director of Elections. I am incredibly grateful for
the amazing support I have received from so many citizens, activists and fellow
Democrats. I have learned so much, met so many wonderful people, and had the
time of my life. I have no regrets.
Thank you all. Cheers, Jason Osgood
Here’s the Beef
Our 1930’s depression produced hydroelectric dams. Now we will produce wind energy farms.
PSE is constructing wind energy farms in southeastern Washington.
Solar panels are placed in schools to educate students.
Choose viaduct solution which best qualifies for federal stimulus plan assistance.
Seattle City Council approves affordable housing plan. For more.
10% of Washington people receive food stamps.
Only 4.4% of homeless in Seattle have jobs.
Obama hasn’t appointed anyone from our Pacific Northwest.
Economic Opportunity Institute’s economic stimulus and
recovery plan for Washington. For more. More.
Nation
and World
Two Ways to Stimulate Our Economy
Our economy depends upon demand provided by consumer, business and government spending. Business spending increases in response to consumer spending. Such demands lead to increased production which requires increased employment. Increased employment provides increased household income and increased demand. When our economy declines, our government can stimulate it by tax cuts which provide more consumer spending or by increased government spending.
To justify his tax cuts, President Bush told us, “You can spend your money better than the government can.” This is obviously only sometimes true. People in New Orleans couldn’t each build a levee around their houses. We can’t each buy our own air controller, forest ranger, judge, soldier, etc. Some things the government can better spend money for than we can. Nevertheless, lots of people liked Bush’s message and his tax cuts passed.
Bush also justified his tax cuts (which especially benefited our wealthy) as providing economic stimulus. People would spend the money, creating demand for products and services, such that businesses would hire workers. Favoring the rich was justified by hypothesizing that they would fund businesses which provide the jobs.
Unfortunately, Bush was wrong. The tax cuts were not an economic stimulus. Compared to alternatives, they were an economic drain. Many of the products which Americans buy are produced in other countries. So money they spend for these products helps stimulate the economies of other countries instead of our own. If the government wants to make tax cuts to assist the economy, it should give them to our poorer people who will quickly spend it, although some will still be spent on foreign goods and services.
By contrast, wealthy people spend less of their incomes on products and services than do less wealthy people. Beyond their consumption, they spend much of their money on speculation, which doesn’t provide demand for jobs or investment capital for supplying them. In addition, when wealthy people fail to pay money to replenish and grow our infrastructure which enabled their wealth, they are ripping off the advantages provided by previous generations.
A second more effective and efficient way for the government to stimulate our economy is for the government to spend money. Especially if it spends money to hire Americans and especially if these Americans are paid to perform work which makes our economy more efficient? Military spending hires Americans, but does not result in a more efficient economy, unless it protects us from a military threat which would rend our economy less efficient. As has been true since John Kenneth Galbraith wrote the Affluent Society in 1958, we have spent too little to maintain our infrastructure. Since President Reagan’s administration, spending on infrastructure has been much less than our historical norm.
President Bush’s economic policies obviously failed to stimulate our economy. They failed to provide enough demand. They also caused excessive borrowing and debt and excessive consumption and pollution. Barack Obama’s economic development stimulus package will invigorate our economy. The severity of or downturn will require a large stimulus or it will take some time to turn around. Dave Thomas
Some Industries Lose
Jobs. Others Gain Jobs.
Industries which produce and distribute products (construction, manufacturing, retail trade and transportation) have lost 1.8 million jobs, including 260,000 auto industry jobs (including auto dealers. Industries which provide services (education and healthcare) have gained jobs.
We need more education providers and caretakers. We need more health care providers; but fewer health insurer clerical jobs concerned with deciding claims for coverage. We need fewer financial jobs (especially those which have involved speculation). We need to decrease private consumption and the manufacturing and retail jobs which provide consumer goods. No matter what we do to assist our big 3 American auto companies, our auto industry needs to reduce its production and sales by as much as 25% from 16 million to 12 million cars a year. But we need to increase construction and manufacturing relating to our infrastructure, environmental enhancement and medical and other new technologies. For more. Read about 28 of the world’s companies which are innovators and front runners that are shaping business today.
While big bad financial companies mired in speculative excess are justifiably failing, new small financial companies without speculative assets are forming. These should be encouraged, so they can provide loans to appropriate investors and consumers (ones who can be expected to repay the loans). Dave Thomas
Our Automobile
Industry Should Lose Jobs
To return to our Earn, Conserve and Invest mindset and practices from our prevailing Borrow, Consume and Speculate orientation, we need to produce and consume fewer cars, perhaps returning from 16 million to 12 million per year. Our automobile industry needs to cut its production and workforce by 1/3rd. These cuts may affect both American and foreign owned production.
Pundits have been saying that if one of our American companies fails, the lack of demand for parts from suppliers of all three companies will weaken them and the other two automobile companies. I don’t know the extent to which both American and foreign owned companies are served by the same or different auto parts companies supply. But suppliers will need to cut production by a third, whether they are serving two, three or more companies. This loss of manufacturing jobs may be offset by increases in manufacturing jobs relating to our infrastructure, conservation, non-carbon based energy and other economic redevelopment.
Housing Values Need to Decline More.
Fraudulently fueled speculation drove home values way above the historical norm, in which a typical home cost 3-3½ times median household income. With the collapse of our housing bubble, values have lost perhaps one half of their excess value. They may need to fall as much again to become affordable to typical families who commit to mortgages they can repay. We need more affordable smaller homes and condominiums built near jobs. For more. Dave Thomas
The Biblical Case for Same Sex Marriage
Christian Conservatives have cherry picked the bible to justify their prejudice and discrimination. A broader reading of the bible justifies both different and same sex marriages. Marriages should establish families in which members care for each other. Gender is irrelevant to caring for each other. Dave Thomas
Sign a message to LDS church
leaders asking them to publicly support civil unions and other pro-equality
legislation in the Church's home state of Utah.
Here’s
the Beef
Do you want to waste your time reading outrageous pundit comments?
Government bailouts have obligated us to pay as much as $8 trillion.
Our government has various options for funding our economic stimulus and recovery proposals.
Recovery stimulus package should provide public spending instead of stimulating consumer spending.
Recovery stimulus package should include good spending, avoid
bad spending.
Recovery stimulus package should modernize unemployment insurance.
Recovery stimulus package shouldn’t include money for unnecessary transportation projects. For more.
Recovery stimulus package may cost $850 billion = $2800 per person.
U.S. policies have contributed to the collapse of our auto companies.
What policies will relieve people facing mortgage foreclosure and stabilize our housing market?
Democratic Leadership Council recommendations for regulating financial markets.
We’ll be happier when we quit our borrow and consume mindset and behavior.
Death penalty sentences are becoming less frequent.
Our United States is the world’s major weapons proliferater, selling $32 billion worth in 2008.
Israel commits crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Our Liberal Spirit
Knowing Our Neighbors
Knowing our neighbors is important. For crime protection. For assistance during an emergency. To protect and care for our children. For communication and cooperation. Block or house parties are a convenient way to get to know our neighbors.
Many years ago. Before the age of cars. When more people lived in rural areas and small towns. When houses had porches in front instead of garages. When families had more children. When people had fewer specialized interests and networks of people associated with these interests. When people found travel more difficult. And had no radio, television or internet entertainment. People were more likely then to know their neighbors.
They encountered them when they went outside, when they walked, when they were shopping. They encountered them at church. For men, at taverns. Fraternal organizations provided social activities. Later, sports events drew people. And schools have always drawn parents together.
This had the advantages listed above. It also produced feuds and scapegoats. People left rural small town areas for larger cities to escape their prejudices and pressures toward conformity.
During my first 40 years, I resided in medium sized academic towns: Columbia, MO; Boulder, CO; Tallahassee, FL, Iowa City, IO, Berkeley, CA, and Bellingham, WA (where I was born). Since then I have lived in Bellevue, Washington, which has changed from a suburb to a cosmopolitan city. Only at Bellingham’s South Hill neighborhood, did I know all of my close neighbors and even then we didn’t visit or entertain each other in our homes.
My impression is that my experiences are typical. I realize that some neighborhoods (and perhaps retirement communities with shared dining) are more social and that some people are much more social than others. But the decline of bowling has been accompanied by the decline of neighborliness.
Some people socialize mainly with their extended family members; but many of us (especially the ones with careers) have moved such that we have no extended family members nearby. Contrary to the prevailing image of the past, Americans have always moved a lot, such that most had no extended family nearby. I suspect most of us have a small or medium circle of friends and a larger set of acquaintances, gained through work, voluntary activities or otherwise.
I don’t know what can be done to increase neighborliness, or whether it will happen. What do you think? Dave Thomas
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
Chalmers Johnson, 2000, Blowback, The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
Chalmers Johnson, 2004, The Sorrow of Empire. Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic
Chalmers Johnson, commentary which summarizes his two books listed above.
These two books describe our military-industrial empire, which undermines democracy at home and abroad and greatly weakens our economy by spending billions each year which could be invested in our infrastructure and providing needed safety nets. These are must reading for Americans who are mostly unaware of the extent to which we have gotten into and are finding it difficult to get out of this mess, so counter to our earlier history of trying to avoid empire building. Coping with this mess will be a key indicator of how much the Obama administration will make needed changes. Also see related books on our list of books for Liberals.
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Housekeeper,
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Life
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