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May 4, 2007
Calendar
of Events Saturday,
May 5 - all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing
companies. You may then receive and be charged for sales calls. Call
888-382-1222 from your cell phone to place it on a national ‘no call’ list
for five years. Tuesday,
May 15 at 8 PM at . Saturday May 12th - Burien Library, 2-4:30
PM Friday,
May 25 at 6:30 PM at Quote of the Week “There are two things
that are important in politics. The
first is money, and I can’t remember what the second one is.” Mark Hanna, 19th century
political boss Table
of Contents *** featured
articles Free Notices for Candidates and Advocacy Groups Liberals and Democrats A Scary Fable: Big Red Republicans Return *** Democrats Fail to Mobilize Grass Roots *** Ronna Weltman’s Warning to be Cautious Nation and World Reagan Initiated Massive Assault on Liberal Progress John Roberts’ Activist Supreme Court *** Will Data Mining Reveal Bush’s Subversion? Washington DC Press Reacts to Bill Moyers’ Expose Dave
Broder Attacked for Attacking Harry Reid DLC
Recommended Budget to Reduce Bush Deficits The Many Facets of Poverty *** Under-Investment for Productivity *** Global Unions Needed to Counter Global Businesses Immigration
Raids Tear Families Apart State and Local Democratic Legislative Leaders Avoid Over-Reaching Seattle
Port Commissioner Alec Fisken Reports *** Our Liberal Spirit Barack Obama responds to Reinhold Niebuhr *** Vigiling to Bring Our
Troops Home Alive
Sunday May 13th - Bellingham
Educational Credit Union, 3:30-6 PM
Saturday May 19th - Mercer Island
Library, 2-4:30 PM
Sunday May 20 - Lacey Library near
Olympia, 2-4:30
Pre-registration required,
including which training
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 · Personal Security and Equal Rights · International Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose all of these. Recommendations ·
Darcy Burner for ·
Alec
Fisken for ·
Holly Plackett for ·
Brian Conlin for ·
Keri Andrews for ·
Dana Stober for WOW!
Unbelievable! View at
least 5 minutes
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
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.
Arabian
states have ceased exporting oil to the
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.
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 5th and county
caucuses one week later on April 12th, 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.
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 '"
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.
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
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
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
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 5th 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
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
Alec Fisken: Description and Commentary
on
Alec Fisken is a Port Commissioner
campaigning for Re-Election
Governance
The
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
This structure may have
functioned reasonably well in the first half of the last century, when large
local shipping offices and agencies filled downtown
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
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
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
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
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
With the exception of those
shown in the
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
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
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
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
When you ask about ways to
prevent
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
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
Lake Hills Liberals Newsletter
Lake Hills in
Enhancing Freedom,
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
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
·
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
·
Every third
Wednesday at 7 PM at St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church (
·
Every third
Thusday at 7 PM at
·
Every fourth Friday
at 6:30 PM at
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
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
·
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 –
·
Psychotherapist, accepts insurance - Sandy
Mathews (462-7889, www.sandramathews.com)
·
Babysitting
for infants (occasional
evenings and weekends) - $5 per hour-
·
Data
Entry- $10 per 12 font, double
spaced page-
·
Home
Repair- prices vary, depending
on job-
·
Auto Repair,
price varies depending on job (but always fair), Jaime Speicher (AAS Auto
Repair Technician) (425-746-2353)
·
Home Repair and Remodeling,
·
Life Support Therapies,
Volunteers and Donations Wanted
·
Healthy Start needs women volunteers to mentor young mothers –
·
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
·
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
About
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
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
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 –
Education – Dennis Gerlitz, John Stokes
Environment –
Gays and Lesbians –
Health
Care –
Hispanics
–
Labor
Unions –
State Legislation –
Veterans – Steve Johnston
Women’s Issues –
Additional Resources
See our website www.lakehillsliberals.org,
with an archive of all past newsletters and more.
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.