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Table
of Contents ** featured articles Commentaries from Our Members Keith Scully: Administrating and Reforming Justice Tina Shamseldin: Bush Administration Fails Democracy Don Smith: Liberal Organizations Should Cooperate ** Liberals and Democrats Darcy Burner and Rodney Tom ** Legislative District Skill Banks and Farm Teams ** Nation and World Leaving
Iraq: When and How? ** State and Local Political Differences between Our Two Washingtons Links to
Interesting Current News Our Liberal Spirit Recommended Books Quote of the Week There is a foolish corner in the brain of the
wisest man. Aristotle Recommendations Vote August 21st 2007
Primary Election ·
Both Keith Scully and Bill Sherman for King ·
Scott
Noble for King County Assessor ·
King
County Parks Levies #1 and #2 ·
Alec
Fisken for ·
Gael Tarleton for ·
Write in Brad Larssen for ·
Holly Plackett for ·
Brian Conlin for ·
Richard
Cole for ·
Both Jessica Greenway and Penny Sweet for ·
Keri Andrews for ·
Josh Schaer for Issaquah
City Council ·
Maureen Judge for ·
Dana Stober for ·
Save
Our Renton-Snohomish Rail Line In 2008, Vote for: ·
Rodney Tom for 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 ·
Justice and
Peace Everywhere ·
International
Cooperation and Leadership Conservatives oppose
all of these. Let’s End Our National Nightmare
Calendar
of Events Friday,
July 27 at 6:30 PM at Friday,
July 27 at 7 PM at Continued
on next page
Calendar of
Events Continued
King County Democrats Calendar
Showing Legislative District Meetings
Saturday,
July 28 at 3 PM at
Saturday,
August 4 at 9 AM at
Sunday,
August 5 at 12 Noon at
Tuesday,
August 7 at 4 PM on MSNBC – Democratic
Presidential Candidates Forum.
Friday,
August 10-12 at Seattle University – Conference The Pursuit of Peace in a
Culture of Violence, addressing war and occupation of Iraq, Palestinian-Israeli
conflict, conscientious objection, cultural memory and struggle of oppressed
and indigenous peoples, climate change and sustainability, racially inclusive
communities, structural racism, and more.
For more
Commentaries From Our Members
From Keith Scully, candidate
for King County Prosecutor
The Prosecuting Attorney of
King County administers the criminal law, and should take the lead in reforming
it. There are two broad movements in
their infant stages – rethinking the war on drugs, and returning to a
rehabilitation-based system of sentencing – that require a strong leader
willing to innovate at the King County Courthouse. I served as a deputy prosecutor for over six
years, and know the current system inside and out. I also have the outside experience, at the
United Nations and for a nonprofit group here in
The War on Drugs has
failed. You simply cannot punish someone out of an addiction, and longer
and longer jail sentences are expensive and futile. Instead, programs
like Drug Court - where you are required to stay clean, attend treatment, and
take the steps necessary to live drug-free, are the right
approach. In these programs, in-custody time, whether in jail or a
treatment facility, is used initially to provide a chance to "dry
up" from the immediate effects of substance use. Then, jail is only
used as a sanction for failing to comply with the program's requirements,
not as a punishment for being an addict. This model needs to
become the standard for all drug use crimes, and used in combination with
punishment for more serious crimes (drug dealing, theft) that are rooted in
drug addiction.
We also
need to review our sentencing practices.
Our current take on criminal justice was born decades ago, when
rehabilitation was abandoned in favor of punishment, and the focus of
sentencing was only on the crime, not the offender. That means that no
matter why a crime was committed – whether it was born from substance abuse, mental
illness, desperation, or just plain meanness – the sentence is the same.
We've now realized that extreme view was a mistake. We have to focus on
both the crime and the offender, and make sure that punishment is
only part of a jail sentence. The other half of sentencing is making sure that each
criminal has the tools they need to survive on release without committing more
crime. That means job training, literacy, and life skills and parenting
education in custody, along with mental health and substance abuse
treatment. It also means job placement and housing assistance on release,
and a continuum of supervision that includes ongoing mental health and
substance abuse prevention along with probation for all offenders.
We need to focus
on both punishment and rehabilitation. The Prosecutor needs to take the
lead in making sure that our corrections system is truly making us safer, not
just warehousing criminals until their next crime. Keith Scully
Letter from member Tina Shamseldin published
July 26th in Seattle PI
Can this administration
foster democracy in
So how do we hold the
administration accountable in regard to
Don Smith, July 5, 2007
Executive summary
There is great need for progressives to coordinate their political activities and, in particular, to amplify their media voices. To address the need for better coordination and cooperation in the Seattle area, we have two concrete proposals: (1) Progressive leaders should combine their multiple, small media voices into a louder, more unified voice by adopting a shared website that will serve as a portal (gateway) to content provided by member groups. Administration and editing of this website will be a shared responsibility. No single person or group will "own" this shared resource. (2) Progressives should convene a meeting wherein stakeholders discuss their goals and decide how to further coordinate their efforts.
Progressives typically oppose the excesses of private ownership and support public schools, community media, publicly financed elections, and national health insurance. So it makes sense that they should support a community-owned progressive website. Longer term, we envision two additional areas where progressives can coordinate: content submission to traditional media and co-support on coalition actions.
Numerous progressive
organizations are active in the Puget Sound area: MoveOn, NARAL, Planned
Parenthood, ACLU, Sierra Club, Democracy for
The various groups have different emphases, tactics, and leaders. But there is great overlap in their goals. Most progressives support environmentalism, women's rights, gun control, fair taxation, civil rights, separation of church-and-state, health care reform (including national health insurance), environmental protection, election reform (verified voting), campaign finance reform, and well-funded public education.
Moreover, there are probably thousands of progressive citizens who are eager to work to support issues and candidates but who feel powerless to effect change. As any progressive activist knows, only a handful of members are truly active.
Coordinating the various progressive groups will be difficult -- like herding cats (or lions). Each group has its own turf to defend and its own power structure. Democrats are notorious for being disorganized and for fighting among themselves.
The Republicans, in
contrast, were able to unite behind a (terrible) leader, George W. Bush,
despite their variegated coalition of libertarians, social conservatives, neoconservatives,
and corrupt capitalists. The various groups towed the line and swallowed their
substantial differences for the sake of the greater cause. Moreover, the
Republicans have a disciplined, well-funded party organization that is
effective at getting people to vote and getting its message heard in the media.
Progressives particularly need to coordinate in the area of media access. This
is for two reasons. First, progressives need to communicate better with each
other. Second, progressives need to get their message out to the general
public.
We believe that better coordination among progressive groups would result in more effective politicking, would engender a louder and more coherent media voice, and would increase the likelihood of electing progressive candidates to office.
(1) A non-partisan, neutral, "inter-denominational" progressive website shall be created to provide a single source of news and direction. The various progressive groups will contribute (mostly unedited) content to the website. Management and editing of the website will be a shared task, perhaps using the model of a board of directors supervising an executive manager. Coalition partners would not lose their separate identities. The availability of a shared website will encourage broad participation and prevent the power-grabbing and bruised egos that occur when private owners try to monopolize media control.
(2) To organize the shared website and to discuss additional areas for coordination, progressives shall convene a meeting (a progressive "summit meeting"). The main challenge of the summit meeting would be to organize such a website ("The Progressive Gateway"), perhaps utilizing existing websites such as WashBlog, horsesass.org, or Northwest Progressive Institute.
The third and fourth proposals are a bit more ambitious and long term.
(3) Progressives shall contact local media outlets (newspapers, radio, TV) and arrange regular or occasional columns/features of high quality material written and co-produced by coalition members. It may be easiest to start with small, local newspapers (like Bellevue Reporter) that are probably desperate for copy. The presence of opinionated, high quality material would attract readers and earn respect. The media outlets may require that our material appear alongside material submitted by conservatives. Eventually, progressives may want to start their own newspaper.
(4) Coalition members shall agree to cooperate on each others' events and initiatives, by writing letters, making phone calls, appearing at meetings and rallies, etc.
If conservatives can coordinate, why can't progressives? National health insurance, Social Security, community radio stations, union coalitions, and multi-national corporations all effectively utilize shared ownership. Shared ownership can work. For a coalition of progressives, it makes sense.
Note: It may be difficult or impossible to get the national organizers of progressive groups (e..g, MoveOn, Sierra Club, and NARAL) to grant official support for this proposal. Such support is desirable but not necessary.
Response by