Cascadia Liberals Weekly Newsletter #99

Our Political Priorities

· Fair Elections and Open Government

· Fair Taxes and Competent Spending

· Investment for Productivity

· Quality Health, Education, Jobs, Income and Retirement

· Environmental Protection and Energy Independence

· Personal Security and Equal Rights

· International Cooperation and Leadership

Conservatives oppose all of these.

Recommendations

·       Darcy Burner for U.S. Congress, 8^th District

·       Alec Fisken for Seattle Port Commission

·       Holly Plackett for Redmond Mayor

·       Brian Conlin for Redmond City Council

·       Keri Andrews for Bellevue City Council

·       Dana Stober for Kent City Council, Position 3.

·       Support Our Grocery Workers

WOW! Unbelievable! View at least 5 minutes

Puget Sound Liberals

Free Notices for Advocacy Groups and Candidates

In this section, we will provide a page containing continuing free notices for any advocacy group or candidate who stimulates 50-100 liberals to join our Puget Sound Liberals. Just inform your liberal members or friends that you are asking us to send them our newsletter, which they can quit at any time. Or ask them permission to send their information to us. Then send us their name, email address and residence (at least community and neighborhood). Phone numbers allow us to check when emails bounce. We will add them to our subscribers list, removing them immediately upon request. In our experience, more than 90% will happily continue to enjoy our newsletter’s in-depth coverage of fundamental political issues and news. We will publish your same notice each week until you send us an update.

Do You Want an Email list for Communicating with Other Members

An email list will let you ask questions, express information and opinions in an email which goes to all other members, each of whom can reply to create a conversation. An email list is similar to a blog, but private instead of public. Now you can only send a communication to me to publish, which people can only respond to a week later.

I have easily used Topica to create a half dozen email lists for members of various groups to privately communicate with each other. Topica has advertisements, but they are not nearly as obtrusive as Google’s email lists. I wouldn’t use Riseup because their radical views are inconsistent with our liberal ones.

All communications would be unmonitored, except I would warn and then reject members who personally attack others. I have warned several people, but never rejected anyone from my other email lists. Members would only be identified when they send messages. Let me know if you would join such an opt-in list. I can create it next week if demand exists for you to converse with each other.

Liberals and Democrats

A Scary Fable: Big Red Republicans Return

It is now 2010. The Democrats are in power nationally and at state and local levels. But all is not going well. U.S. troops have left Iraq, leaving increased civil strife behind. Israel has bombed Iran, producing worldwide condemnation and uniting Persians and Arabs against Israel and our U.S. for supporting Israel. Terrorist attacks against Israel and against overseas Americans have greatly increased.

Arabian states have ceased exporting oil to the U.S. Oil production is down in Iraq and Iran, as well as in civil strife-torn Nigeria, while China continues to import more oil. Soaring U.S. gasoline prices have stimulated inflation and recession (stagflation) as our Federal Reserve increases interest rates. Arab countries and others reduce their funding of U.S. debt, forcing our government to further increase interest rates to attract sufficient funding.

As happened earlier with the New Republicans, Democrats succumb to campaign contributors. With severe resistance from private health insurers and pharmaceuticals, Democrats fail to pass legislation to provide universal health coverage. With falling revenues and increased welfare costs, Democrats can’t pass legislation to significantly reduce our families’ financial vulnerability, nor balance our budget. The hopes of millions of voters remain unfulfilled.

Traditional Republicans like Richard Nixon and Dan Evans regain control of the Republican Party. They continue to rail against big government, but promote compassion at state and local levels. Giving less attention to the religious right and to libertarians, they build a strong support network among small business entrepreneurs whom Democrats have long neglected. They show more support for immigrants and ethnic minorities. They support many conservation measures, even energy independence and reduction of climate warming emissions. They become more somewhat more liberal, but still strongly oppose major legislation to provide access to quality healthcare, education, jobs, income and retirement. They also oppose regulation of businesses to protect workers, suppliers, consumers, and our general public.

The Conservative political infrastructure remains intact and improves, especially through applying Karl Rove’s strategies and tactics for grass roots mobilization. Democrats continue to fail to identify and mobilize their grass roots supporters. Our most enthusiastic Democrats prefer to use blogs to converse with each other. Republicans remain in control of southern states which are gaining congressional seats and Electoral College votes as our 2010 census certifies population increases there. Through gerrymandering, they will be able to gain still more seats. They are posed to greatly weaken Democratic political control in 1012.

I don’t believe that all of these events will occur. But each of them could. It’s scary. More important, what should Democrats do to ensure they don’t happen? Above all, we must mobilize our grass roots. Dave Thomas

Democrats Fail to Mobilize Grass Roots

Our Washington State Democratic Party Chair said that “Caucuses are a test of your ability to organize a grass roots campaign.” If so, we flunk. Only a minority of precincts have any members show up for caucuses. For the rest, so few show up that most who show up can become delegates to county caucuses.

Participants produce platforms, but most candidates ignore them and no attempt is made to evaluate the extent to which Democratic legislators realize these platforms. Our 46th LD Platform/Resolutions Chair Dean Fournier and Sarajane Siegfriedt have expressed concern that our 2007 schedule provides for legislative district caucuses on April 5^th and county caucuses one week later on April 12^th, not leaving enough time for county platforms to be created based on legislative district platforms. Another instance of weak bottom-up communication.

Another test of our ability to organize at the grassroots level is the ability to recruit Precinct Committee Officers (PCO’s). Again we flunk. Only a minority of precincts have PCO’s, most receive no training and many fail to canvass their precincts, leaving most likely Democratic voters unidentified.

A third test of our ability to organize at the grassroots level is the extent to which we have identified likely Democratic voters, regularly contact them to inform them about our party, encourage their involvement, and stimulate them to vote. Again we fail. Most likely Democratic voters have not been identified. Those which have been identified receive no communication from the party, except for a minority who are canvassed (usually by candidates’ campaigns) prior to an election.

It is time for Democrats to get serious about grass roots mobilization. Our Lake Hills Liberals demonstrates at least some possibilities, particularly with respect to the third test. Other possibilities have previously been discussed in our newsletter.

Join Our Tory Party

Queen Elizabeth is visiting us. I have recently joined our Tory Party. When we obtain control over our government, we will immediately send a mission to her majesty. We will admit that taxation with representation isn’t any better than the other kind. That we aren’t capable of governing ourselves. We will ask to be taken back as a colony. Unfortunately, she will probably throw up her hands in horror and inform us that the British are no longer in the colony business. Dave Thomas

Letter from Member Ronna Weltman

Hi Dave, in your suggestion to Darcy Burner, you suggest opponents aren't likely to see information in an online newsletter, and that's highly unlikely. If her opponents have any degree of sophistication, they will subscribe or have a staffer/volunteer subscribe to Democratic/liberal sites to keep an eye on what she's doing and saying. It's a good idea to remind your readers that if they wouldn't want to read something they wrote on the cover of the New York Times, then they shouldn't post it on the Internet.

I googled '"Dave Thomas" liberal' and your website popped up on top. Everything you write can be -- and quite possibly is being -- monitored by Republicans -- and who knows who else!

I agree with Ronna that Conservatives can see our newsletters on our website and may even find a way to join our group to receive our newsletters. So Ronna is right that we should be careful. Secret campaign plans shouldn’t be reported here. The public media might report on some of our contents, but it is more difficult for them to report on private communications than to report on public ones. In addition, they have larger fish to fry. I hope the Republicans also have bigger fish to fry than worrying about threats posed by us. I hope we can be careful without being paranoid. Dave Thomas

National and World

Reagan Initiated Massive Assault on Liberal Progress

Reagan's election changed the political reality. His agenda was rolling back the welfare state, and his budgets included a wide range of cuts for social programs. He was also very strategic about the process. One of his first targets was Legal Aid. This program, which provides legal services for low-income people, was staffed largely by progressive lawyers, many of whom used it as a base to win precedent-setting legal disputes against the government. Reagan drastically cut back the program's funding. He also explicitly prohibited the agency from taking on class-action suits against the government -- law suits that had been used with considerable success to expand the rights of low- and moderate-income families.

The Reagan administration also made weakening the power of unions a top priority. The people he appointed to the National Labor Relations Board were qualitatively more pro-management than appointees by prior Democratic or Republican presidents. This allowed companies to ignore workers' rights with impunity. Reagan also made the firing of strikers an acceptable business practice when he fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981. Many large corporations quickly embraced the practice. Also, his high dollar policy in the mid-'80s was a severe blow to manufacturing unions, who suddenly had to compete against low-cost imports that were essentially subsidized by an overvalued dollar. The above was adapted from Dean Baker's new book, The United States since 1980 . For more.

John Roberts’s Activist Supreme Court

The recent supreme court decision which bans partial birth abortions even though the life of the mother may be threatened is only one of many decisions which can be expected, which reverse long standing precedents in accordance with Conservative ideology. It will be even worse if President Bush is able to appoint one or more judges to join the Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas. Read Simon Lazarus’ article More Polarizing Than Rehnquist which was published in The American Prospect along with 3 earlier articles. Simon Lazarus is public-policy counsel to the National Senior Citizens Law Center.

Activist Conservative Judges

My wife received a letter from the Traditional Values Coalition, which presents a battle plan to stop Senate Democrats from blocking confirmation of Bush’s pro-God federal judge appointments. This $8 million plan includes generating 500,000 letters, petitions and phone calls to U.S. senators; 2 million letters to mobilize traditional values voters; a major phone bank campaign; nationwide internet and email campaign; distribute voter guides opposing liberal candidates; publish books and pamphlets; and expand their rapid response team.

This confirms that Conservatives are the ones who are supporting activist judges, while they continually charge that liberals are doing so. See commentary on John Roberts’ Activist Supreme Court below.

Will Homeland Security Uncover Bush Subversion?

Will Homeland Security’s data mining find the missing emails which provide evidence of the Bush Administration’s attempts to subvert our constitution? If so, would it justify the data mining? If not, why can we expect data mining to produce any useful results?

After Moyers Iraq Documentary, DC Reporters in Damage-Control Mode

By David Sirota, WorkingForChange.com. Posted on Alternet, April 27, 2007

In the lead up to and wake of Bill Moyers' much-anticipated mega-dunk on the Washington press corps this week, we are seeing the ugliest side of Beltway culture -- the meltdown, damage-control freak out. Only what's new is that instead of politicians melting down, it's reporters themselves. And never underestimate the desperation that comes when Establishment Washington unifies to try to defend itself. For More.

Ending Poverty in America

The following is a summary of 16 articles which appear in the May 2007 issue of The American Prospect, recommended as an easy way for you to understand what must be done to end poverty. The authors are affiliated with the following organizations: Center for American Progress – Task Force on Poverty, National Urban League – Institute for Opportunity and Equality, The Opportunity Agenda, Demos, The Moral Center, Brookings Institute – Center on Children and Families, Education Trust, Economic Policy Institute – Living Standards Program, Northwestern University – Institute for Policy Research, National Science Council on the Developing Child, Work-Family Council, Brandeis University – Heller School for Social policy and Management, Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation,

Ending poverty is obtaining increased attention due to Katrina, publicity concerning increased financial inequality, and realizing that globalization requires raising children who can compete. Our poverty rates decreased significantly after World War II and President Johnson’s initiatives, increased during the Reagan-Bush years, decreased again during the Clinton years and are increasing again during the second Bush years. Our U.S. now has the highest poverty rate among 12 similarly wealthy nations, affecting minorities most; but most of our poor are white.

The poverty rate among African Americans and Latinos is 2.6 times the rate for whites and increasing. This results from discrimination in education, criminal convictions, jobs and housing. A quarter of Native Americans are poor, due to illness, lack of job opportunities and Trust Fund cheating. New immigrants are also disproportionately poor. Stereotypes often blame minorities for their poverty instead of emphasizing discrimination and other causes.

Our children are three times more likely than seniors to be poor. Due to decreasing marriage rates, increasing divorce rates and increasing non-marital birth rates, a higher proportion of children are in single parent families. A third of all babies and 70% of black babies are born to unmarried mothers. Our women suffer more poverty than men. 18 of our 30 fastest increasing jobs provide low-wages or very low-wages

Ending Poverty is about both values and economics, about personal behavior and institutional opportunities and incentives. It requires all children to be school-ready, which takes both stronger families and effective public programs. It requires both empowerment and transfer payments; both income support and opportunities for wealth. There are many good pilot programs. Now is the time to implement them fully. We can afford it.

Important policies include an increased minimum wage and earned income tax credit, assisting underemployed workers to find jobs, renewed unionization, immigration reform, universal lifelong access to quality health care, child-care assistance and education, and strategies to promote asset building. Some faith based organizations (Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation) are joining with others to emphasize strengthening families and neighborhoods instead of charitable contributions, such as food banks.

Education is a supply-side policy, which improves the quality of workers, but not the quantity or quality of jobs which is also necessary. Early childhood education yields a tremendous investment payoff. Education helps most when supplemented with job training, soft skills and holding out for quality jobs. Only 10% of young people from poor families earn a bachelor’s degree, due to declining federal, state and college support for student aid and loans. There are many effective models of programs to assist school to work transitions (Department of Labor programs); but none have been widely replicated. Many service jobs offer little chance for career advancement except without specialized education. Unions often negotiate paid time off and tuition reimbursement for taking specialized courses.

Between 1945 and 1980, real wages of American workers nearly doubled. Productivity has grown by 70% since 1980; but real compensation of non-managerial workers has remained flat. Wages for our lowest paid workers have collapsed. The weakening of our minimum wage, wage and hour regulations and unionization laws have all depressed job incomes. Manufacturing automation, privatization and globalization have also contributed to wage declines. Job (FICA) taxes and employer paid health care also reduce the number of jobs and wages.

Housing, food, energy, and utility costs and excise taxes which disproportionately affect the poor are rapidly increasing. Non-progressive job (FICA) taxes have increased. Income taxes have become less progressive. Housing interest tax deductions and other subsidies primarily benefit wealthier people. Conservative “opportunity society” proposals would only provide opportunities to the wealthy who can afford to take advantage of them, while increasing risks for the poor. .

Anti-poverty measures that only benefit the poor, often stigmatize those who benefit. Those which benefit everyone (like Social Security) avoid stigmatization, but often end up primarily helping the non-poor (like our housing tax deductions and much of our financial aide for college students). Care must be made to avoid either of these traps. Programs should be oriented to helping all of us when we are poor.

Many poor people become indebted through easily available credit cards, payday and other loans, pay enormously high interest rates and can’t afford to file for bankruptcy. Even middle income people can fall into debt through job layoff, uninsured medical costs, divorce or being scammed. Powerful lobbyists often prevent the passage of legal protections.

Our American Dream includes self-reliance, economic security and social mobility. Besides holding jobs paying living wages, asset accumulation is necessary. Half of us (especially Afro-Americans and Hispanics) don’t have enough financial assets to last without income for more than a few months. Various proposals have been made for providing tax free assets at birth, upon high school graduation or other times. Tax free savings toward retirement and other objectives have been passed; but these are primarily directed toward our non-poor.

Poverty is not just a personal experience. It is also a group experience and may require group correctives. Poor neighborhoods with cohesive trust relations (often stimulated by local organizations created without or with local government assistance) experience lower crime, mental illness, and other social ills than other poor neighborhoods. Informal normatively supported neighborliness, support and cooperation contribute much to crisis management and social learning. Unfortunately, few government and private anti-poverty proposals orient toward creating cohesive communities as their bottom line, perhaps due to measurement difficulties.

Obviously, there is no one or a few correctives for poverty. Many are required. Most require some government action. In spite of relentless Conservative claims that government should not act, 70% of us believe that our government should be responsible for caring for people who can’t care for themselves. 55% believe government should help more needy people even if it requires debt financing. As John Edwards is demonstrating, most Americans are compassionate and care about alleviating poverty.

This has been a much simplified overview of our poverty and needed correctives. Much more can be learned through reading the May, 2007 issue of The American Prospect. Or go to the websites linked at the beginning of this commentary. To ignore our poverty is to ignore our American Dream. Reducing poverty for everyone is a primary liberal goal.

Under-Investment for Productivity

Bob Herbert’s April 5^th New York Times Op-Ed column says US infrastructure is growing old and obsolete; says it would take more than a trillion and a half dollars over five years to bring it back to adequate condition; says weak infrastructure will put US at disadvantage in competitive global economy; blames politics and ideology for lack of public investment over past several years; and notes that this is counterproductive and that failing to address nation's infrastructure needs could lead to long-term disaster. Unfortunately, New York Times articles are only available to subscribers.

59 years ago, our Marshall plan contributed to rebuilding Western Europe. Now we aren’t even rebuilding New Orleans. The American Society of Civil Engineers says 1.5 trillion dollars is needed to restore our infrastructure. .Felix Rohatyn and former Senator Warren Rudman (co-chairmen of the Commission on Public Infrastructure) are among those who have criticized the Bush administration’s unwillingness to invest in public transportation, utilities, electrical and electronic grids; schools and other public buildings, parks and more. While China, India and other countries are racing to develop their infrastructure, ours is falling apart, to the detriment of our productivity and competitiveness. Investing for productivity does much more to create both short and long term employment than do the same amount of tax cuts.

Also read Roads to Riches in the May 7, 2007 issue of Business Week which discusses why states and local governments are increasingly privatizing their highways, bridges and airports. In the long run, users pay much more in tolls. In the short run, public agencies receive lots of money, private agencies make investments and make politically unpopular, but perhaps beneficial decisions. Privatization contracts may begin well, but over time become worse as private interests fail to maintain the facilities. Privatization contracts must be negotiated well to protect users from exploitation.

Local and State

Democratic Legislative Leaders Avoid Over-Reaching

Austin Jenkins, posted 4/22/07 at Crosscut Seattle

Despite the criticism, Democrats did what they set out to do. Gregoire came into the session with a broad agenda, and the House and the Senate delivered — passing 27 of her 29 governor-request bills. Speaker of the House Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, are seasoned legislative leaders. They run tight ships, keep their caucuses together (most days), and seem to have remembered the lesson of the early 1990s — which is don't over-reach when you've got big majorities.

Even so, there was an interesting dynamic that I noticed this year. Despite the Democratic majorities, there was a lot of compromise required to get bills passed in both chambers. It seemed like the Senate was more liberal than the House.

For instance, the Senate passed a fairly robust paid-family-leave bill that included a payroll tax increase to fund the program. But when the bill went to the House, the payroll tax was taken out and the bill was stripped-down. (The governor had warned that any tax increase would have to go to a vote of the people.) In the end, the Senate had to compromise to get the bill passed.

Says Senator Brian Weinstein, D-Mercer Island: "This is only my third year here, and one thing that did come as a surprise to me is that we could have a Democratic governor, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic House — but not necessarily agree on everything."

It's worth noting that Chopp's leadership team is made up of two fairly conservative Democrats. There's Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, and Caucus Chair Bill Grant, D-Walla Walla. If they don't like a piece of legislation, that carries a lot of weight. It's probably not an overstatement to say they have veto power.

Over in the Senate, Majority Leader Brown has a carpe diem approach to having the majority. "I think there's a sense that you have to seize the opportunity when you've got it to move forward with your agenda," says Brown. She adds: "I suppose the most cautious approach would be don't pass family leave, don't pass climate change. They weren't on the lists at the beginning of session of major stakeholder groups, but there were senators that felt passionate about that, so we went forward." For more.

We are adding Crosscut Seattle to our list of Media for Liberals. It is an online newspaper for the Pacific Northwest, including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia. It's a guide to local and regional news, a place to report and discuss news, and a platform for new tools to convey news.

Alec Fisken: Description and Commentary on Port of Seattle

Alec Fisken is a Port Commissioner campaigning for Re-Election

Governance

The Port of Seattle is a municipal district (like a city, county, sewer district, etc.) established under the laws of the State of Washington. Its boundaries are the same as those of King County, and it is governed by a five-member commission, whose members are elected at large in the county. Commissioners serve four-year terms and are paid a very modest fee plus some expense reimbursement, all of which adds up to a total of under $15,000 per year.

It’s an odd governance structure – most ports elsewhere in North America are run by appointed boards or commissions – and it’s probably at least partly to blame for the not-so-good results from Washington’s large ports compared to other ports around the country.

This structure may have functioned reasonably well in the first half of the last century, when large local shipping offices and agencies filled downtown Seattle buildings, and a lot of people followed port activity closely. I’d argue that it doesn’t work so well today, when only a handful of voters in King County can spend the time to learn about port issues and cast an informed vote on the “down-ballot” choice.

And when voters do select the commissioners, those individuals generally arrive at the port with no particular background in seaport or airport operations, no salary, and no staff. It’s not surprising that they come to rely entirely on staff for their perspective on port operations.

So I’d argue that we’d be better off in Washington State if port commissioners at the larger ports were appointed, rather than elected. And they should serve for fixed terms and be appointed by more than one entity.

Los Angeles and Long Beach have commissioners who are appointed by, and serve at the pleasure of, their respective mayors. That leads to instability and massive changes in direction whenever there’s a new mayor in either city.

Vancouver B.C. has a much better system, with commissioner appointed for fixed terms by a mixture of federal, provincial, and local municipal bodies. This produces a stable commission with a good deal of understanding and commitment to the4 long term health of the port.

There are lots of ways in could be done here – maybe a mix of gubernatorial appointments, county appointments and appointments from the larger cities in the district. Or county nominations with gubernatorial selection. Any of these mechanisms are likely to result in a commission with more independence from the staff and a stronger sense of fiscal responsibility.

Operations

The two big divisions in the port are Sea-Tac Airport and the three container docks (Terminals 5, 18, and 46) in the south end of Elliott Bay. On the marine side Seattle is a landlord port – it leases the docks out to other operators (known as stevedores) who run them, hire labor, charge customers, etc.

The port also operates marinas (Shilshole and others), Fishermen’s Terminal, and leases a grain terminal and a cruise terminal; and it manages industrial and waterfront real estate.

In recent years the port has created an economic development division, which has taken over some seaport functions, but largely devotes its resources to projects like the Meydenbauer Convention Center investment, North Bay and other plans that promise large and rapid expenditures of taxpayer money for no discernable purpose.

Finances

The airport represents roughly two-thirds of the port’s revenue. For the most part it does not rely on any property tax money and is financially self-contained. The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) provides some grant funds to the airports, and as a condition of those grants it requires that revenue generated at the airport be used only for airport operations and improvements. So, except for an approved overhead reimbursement, money that is earned at Sea-Tac stays at Sea-Tac.

The Port of Seattle has the ability to collect a property tax levy up to $.31 per $1,000 of assessed value of the property in the district (King County). The Port’s budget for 2007 calls for a tax collection which will yield approximately $68 million.

For years Seattle had a policy of keeping the amount of tax collected flat at $35.65 million in 2002 the commission increased the amount collected, and it’s been going up ever since.

The Port of Portland current budget includes an interesting chart comparing property tax collections of Northwest ports here (go to page 99).

With the exception of those shown in the Portland graph, most large ports in North America do not collect any taxes. In fact, most contribute money to their communities in the form of taxes or other payments. In Seattle’s case, the tax collection covers losses from the central waterfront redevelopment, the cruise business, container terminals, and other “economic development” projects, in roughly that order. Small amount go to non-port transportation projects, and, recently, a two airport projects.

The Interbay redevelopment plan is beginning to take a larger share of tax revenue now, and in future years even the port’s own projections show it becoming one of the larger consumers of the tax collection.

While those are the larger expenditure categories for the tax collection, the underlying reason that the port needs to collect taxes is that the container rivalry between Tacoma and Seattle has prevented either port from making money off the container docks. Instead, both ports tax their respective populations (King and Pierce counties) to sustain their competition.

Our Progressive Spirit

Obama, Gospel and Verse by David Brooks New York Times Op-Ed Page April 26, 2007

Yesterday evening I was interviewing Barack Obama and we were talking about effective foreign aid programs in Africa. His voice was measured and fatigued, and he was taking those little pauses candidates take when they're afraid of saying something that might hurt them later on.

Out of the blue I asked, ''Have you ever read Reinhold Niebuhr?'' Obama's tone changed. ''I love him. He's one of my favorite philosophers.'' So I asked, What do you take away from him? ''I take away,'' Obama answered in a rush of words, ''the compelling idea that there's serious evil in the world, and hardship and pain. And we should be humble and modest in our belief we can eliminate those things. But we shouldn't use that as an excuse for cynicism and inaction. I take away the sense we have to make these efforts knowing they are hard, and not swinging from naive idealism to bitter realism.''

My first impression was that for a guy who's spent the last few months fund-raising, and who was walking off the Senate floor as he spoke, that's a pretty good off-the-cuff summary of Niebuhr's ''The Irony of American History.'' My second impression is that his campaign is an attempt to thread the Niebuhrian needle, and it's really interesting to watch. On the one hand, Obama hates, as Niebuhr certainly would have, the grand Bushian rhetoric about ridding the world of evil and tyranny and transforming the Middle East. But he also dislikes liberal muddle-headedness on power politics. In ''The Audacity of Hope,'' he says liberal objectives like withdrawing from Iraq, stopping AIDS and working more closely with our allies may be laudable, ''but they hardly constitute a coherent national security policy.'' In Chicago this week, Obama argued against the current tides of Democratic opinion. There's been a sharp rise in isolationism among Democrats, according to a recent Pew survey, so Obama argued for global engagement. Fewer Democrats believe in peace through military strength, so Obama argued for increasing the size of the military.

In other words, when Obama is confronted by what he sees as arrogant unilateral action, he argues for humility. When he is confronted by what he sees as dovish passivity, he argues for the hardheaded promotion of democracy in the spirit of John F. Kennedy.

The question is, aside from rejecting the extremes, has Obama thought through a practical foreign policy doctrine of his own -- a way to apply his Niebuhrian instincts? That question is hard to answer because he loves to have conversations about conversations. You have to ask him every question twice, the first time to allow him to talk about how he would talk about the subject and the second time so you can pin him down to the practical issues at hand.

If you ask him about the Middle East peace process, he will wax rhapsodic about the need to get energetically engaged. He'll talk about the shared interests all have in democracy and prosperity. But then when you ask him concretely if the U.S. should sit down and talk with Hamas, he says no. ''There's no point in sitting down so long as Hamas says Israel doesn't have the right to exist.''

When you ask about ways to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, he talks grandly about marshaling a global alliance. But when you ask specifically if an Iranian bomb would be deterrable, he's says yes: ''I think Iran is like North Korea. They see nuclear arms in defensive terms, as a way to prevent regime change.'' In other words, he has a tendency to go big and offer himself up as Bromide Obama, filled with grand but usually evasive eloquence about bringing people together and showing respect. Then, in a blink, he can go small and concrete, and sound more like a community organizer than George F. Kennan.

Finally, more than any other major candidate, he has a tendency to see the world in post-national terms. Whereas President Bush sees the war against radical Islam as the organizing conflict of our time, Obama sees radical extremism as one problem on a checklist of many others: global poverty, nuclear proliferation, global warming. When I asked him to articulate the central doctrine of his foreign policy, he said, ''The single objective of keeping America safe is best served when people in other nations are secure and feel invested.'' That's either profound or vacuous, depending on your point of view.

Recommended Magazine – See our list of recommended media

The American Prospect May 2007 issue contains 16 articles which comprehensively address poverty issues. It also contains an excellent article on the John Roberts Court and another concerning the effects of block clubs to enhance poor neighborhoods. Unfortunately they don’t archive recent issues. Your $24.95 subscription for 12 monthly issues will be money well spent.

Lake Hills Liberals Newsletter

Lake Hills in Bellevue, Our City Where Neighbors Care for Each Other

Enhancing Freedom, Opportunity and Cooperation in Lake Hills and Beyond

Bring Our Troops Home

During this past 5 weeks, some of us have been vigiling for peace, including members of Lake Hills Liberals, MoveOn, Eastside Reconciliation for Peace and Eastside Liberals for John Edwards. Several times a week, 2 to 4 of us hold signs at a 4-way stoplight one mile south of the main Microsoft campus. On a stake, each 12" x 17" sign says `Bring Our Troops Home Alive'. Below signs carried by his supporters is a 4" x 12" sign which says `John Edwards'.

We stand there from 4:30 to 5:30 PM. About 500 cars pass by slowly as they wait their turn at the intersection. About one out of five indicate their approval by waving, thumbs up, flashing their lights or honking, About the same proportion are talking on cell phones. Contact Dave Thomas (davthom@att.net) or 425-746-4572) to make arrangements to join us.

Events Calendar

· Every Thursday 7-8:30 PM in Crossroads Mall near the large chess board at table with red checkerboard patterned tablecloth – Conversation Café –. Participants (mostly Lake Hills Liberals) use a discussion format with each participant addressing an issue in turn with listeners respecting what they say. A great way to learn different understandings and opinions, while presenting and modifying your own.

· Every first Wednesday at 7 PM at Redmond Community Center (16600 NE 80th Street, Redmond) – 45^th District Democrats monthly meeting

· Every third Tuesday at 7:00 at Lake Hills Clubhouse next to Lake Hills Library – Lake Hills Neighborhood Association

· Every third Wednesday at 7 PM at Stevenson Elementary School (14220 NE 8th Street in Bellevue) – 48^th District Democrats monthly meeting

· Every third Wednesday at 7 PM at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church (4228 Factoria Boulevard SE, Bellevue) - 41^st District Democrats monthly meeting

· Every third Thusday at 7 PM at Angelos Restaurant (818230 – 130^th Avenue NE, Bellevue) – Drinking Liberally

· Every fourth Friday at 6:30 PM at Ann Rolio’s home (16109 SE 5^th Street) – Lake Hills Liberals Salon, including gourmet buffet and political presentation and discussion. RSVP to davthom@att.net.

Activities and Services

Our Neighborhood Enhancement Interests and Activities include: block parties; welcoming new neighbors; cooperation among home owners and apartment tenants; environmental enhancement (recycling exchange), crime prevention, disaster response, school and youth services, military concerns, family financial security, and elder support task groups; and free advertisements for members.

Our Political Actions include: displaying yard signs and bumper stickers, letters-to-editors and government officials, campaign support for liberal candidates, canvassing to identify liberal voters and stimulate them to vote, and encouraging formation of liberal groups in other neighborhoods. Our newsletter stimulates networking of liberals throughout our Puget Sound and provides free advertisements for liberal events. Our canvassing last summer identified 1000 new likely Democratic voters and contributed to our Democratic candidates winning by 2 – 8% more than they did in the rest of our district.

Our Personal Enhancement Efforts include: educating liberals (our newsletter, commentaries and discussions; website; and reading list), healthy living (walking groups), and arts and crafts fair.

· Our Lake Hills Liberals Walks – M & F 5:15 PM and Sat at 7:30 AM at Lake Hills Library parking lot by dumpster. Slow Pokes Walk. – W 5:15 PM Bring your cane or walker to walk a short distance to Larson Lake.

· Our liberal spirit commentaries (which sometimes accompany our newsletter) address mutual respect and cooperation of religious and secular liberals. They also address changing our mindsets (such as not bringing our experiences to consciousness, insensitivities, resentments and cynicism) which restrict our ability to take advantage of our freedoms and activities. The major restrictions on our freedom and opportunity may be in our head. These can be changed.

· .In keeping with our principle of not competing with existing services, we won’t add a blog capability to our website. See www.nwprogressive.org/portal to examine many northwest liberal blogs.

Hire Our Neighbors

· Debt Elimination Counseling, Seminars and Workshops – price negotiable – Sherry Brandt (206-356-8034, somerev2@comcast.net)

· Private Piano Lessons (students must have a piano), afternoons - Anna Khosrowian (378-7938), price negotiable

· Housekeeper, price negotiable – Laura Montano (641-5038 ambar_lau@hotmail.com)

· Psychotherapist, accepts insurance - Sandy Mathews (462-7889, www.sandramathews.com)

· Babysitting for infants (occasional evenings and weekends) - $5 per hour- Christy Pacheco- johnpacheco01@yahoo.com 425-653-3565

· Data Entry- $10 per 12 font, double spaced page- Christy Pacheco (425-653-3565 johnpacheco01@yahoo.com)

· Home Repair- prices vary, depending on job- John Pacheco 425-653-3565 johnpacheco01@yahoo.com)

· Auto Repair, price varies depending on job (but always fair), Jaime Speicher (AAS Auto Repair Technician) (425-746-2353)

· Home Repair and Remodeling, Rick Hegdahl (425-256-2427 magical_beginnings@msn.com)

· Life Support Therapies, Astara Burlingame RN. (MD) holistic care, acupuncture hypno therapy, biological medicines (206-370-0356)

Volunteers and Donations Wanted

· Healthy Start needs women volunteers to mentor young mothers – Karen Wilson (karenw@chs-wa.org 425-895-9813). Especially Spanish speaking women – Maria Ines Berardo (mariab@chs-wa.org) 425-895-9576)

· Head Start at Lake Hills Elementary School needs an operational computer for parents of one of their students. If you have one a few years old that you no longer intend to use, call Valery Stoury at 456-5326 The low income families in the Lake Hills Head Start program also need furniture, food, clothing, bus passes or gas vouchers, etc. Safeway and Fred Meyer gift certificates to be used for family emergencies would be greatly appreciated

· Lake Hills Elementary School is looking for volunteers to spend one hour a week with individual students in the classroom or as a lunch buddy. To volunteer, call our VIBES on-site coordinator, Mary Giesen (425-456-5300) to arrange required VIBES training. For additional information, contact Principal Judy Buckmaster, (buckmasterj@bsd405.org)

· Phantom Lake Elementary School needs volunteers who are willing to be trained as Reading Mentors or who are able to spend one hour, one day a week in the school either in classrooms, helping in the office, or being “Lunch Buddies” during our school’s lunch time. To volunteer, call our VIBES on-site coordinator, Beth Drobny (425-456-5600) to arrange required VIBES training. For additional information, contact Principal Tracy Maury (mauryt@bsd405.org

About Puget Sound Liberals

We began Lake Hills Liberals as an experimental demonstration of creating neighborhoods where liberals thrive and multiply and maximizing our vote for Democratic candidates. We hope that replication will occur in other neighborhoods. Through our newsletter, we have now become Puget Sound Liberals to create well informed liberals who easily communicate, associate and cooperate to realize our liberal values. Our weekly newsletter is now distributed to 1100 members by email each Friday.

All of our members should attend our boot camp, which consists of reading our basic training commentaries:

Liberals and Conservatives

New Conservatives Rise and Fall

A Liberal Manifesto

Reframing Liberal Concepts

Our Strategic Roles

Also review our extensive Reading List for Liberals.

To get our free services, including our newsletter, our ‘Proud Liberal, Time for a Change’ yard signs or ‘Proud Liberal’ bumper stickers, volunteer or make a donation, contact Dave Thomas. Please help your liberal friends to become well informed, by inviting them to receive our newsletter. Just send us their name, email address, and residence.

Submit your news to Editor Dave Thomas. We are seeking reporter-reviewer-editors with knowledge of particular political groups and issues. We have asked the following experts to help us.

Blogs – Rick Hegdahl

Campaign Finance – Sarajane Siegfriedt

Education – Dennis Gerlitz, John Stokes

Environment – Bill Austin

Gays and Lesbians – Celeste Keaton

Health Care – Lisa Plymate, Bob Fifthian

Hispanics – Joanne Cisneros

Labor Unions – Nancy Rising

State Legislation – Tina Shamseldin and Sarajane Siegfriedt

Veterans – Steve Johnston

Women’s Issues – Catherine Minch

Additional Resources

See our website www.lakehillsliberals.org, with an archive of all past newsletters and more.

See Center for Progressive Action for archive of well researched daily news.

See Alternet for archived liberal commentaries. Subscribe to Liberal Opinion for many more commentaries.

We also recommend the Pacific NW Portal for displaying many blogs through which Northwest Liberals exchange their knowledge and opinions.

Learn about our State Democratic Party.

Quickly and easily contact your national and state officials.

To learn about particular issues, visit websites of advocacy and caring organizations.