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the Beef Providing
Voters Access to Minor Parties* Washington
State Political Parties Updated
List of Conservative Washington Organizations State and Local Links to the
Beef Who are
Our Criminals? What’s Happening to Them?* Learn
about a Simple Progressive Flat Income Tax* Fred
Jarrett becomes Democratic senate candidate Nation and World
Links to the Beef Our Best
Investment Is Early Childhood Education Our
Supreme Court is Removing Worker Protections Eliminate
Agro-Business Subsidies Are Isolation
and Empire Our Only Possibilities? Our Liberal Spirit Our Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean 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 Let’s Restore Our American Dream View Darcy
Burner’s Campaign Progress Report Quote of the Week Taxation with representation isn’t any
better than the other kind. We admit
that we don’t know how to govern ourselves.
Tory Party
Calendar of Events
· Saturday, December 15 at 9-11
AM at
· Saturday, December 15 at 12-2
PM at
· Saturday, December 15 at 3-5
PM at Fairwood Library (
· Saturday, December 15 at 6-8 PM at
Island Park Elementary School (5437 Island Crest Way, Mercer Island) with Maureen Judge
· Sunday, December 16 at 11 AM
– 1 PM at Crossroads Mall room (
· Sunday, December 16 at 2-4 PM at Issaquah Library (10 W. Sunset
Way)
· Sunday, December 16 at 5-7 PM at
Opportunities, Petitions and Feedback
Opportunities
Join GoPetition to easily create your own
petitions
Join
Working America in alliance with labor union members
Wellstone Action will offer its Advanced Management Training
School in Seattle on April 25-7
Order Democracy
in America ‘Precinct Organizing’ and other Night School Training videos
Order Lester Ward’s Plan B 3.0, Mobilizing to Save Civilization,
a great xmas gift.
Order Sightline’s
2007 Cascadia Scorecard. See other
research that they share with our politicians.
Download
Sightline’s counter of Washington’s energy spending.
Order You Decide/Usted Decide, NARAL’s
bilingual English-Spanish resource guide for accessing reproductive health care
and safe abortion services across
Order gifts to help third world people improve their
lives. Sewing machine, bicycle,
training, etc.
Order
a great movie: What a Way to Go – Life at the End of an Empire.
Sign petition to support public
school libraries.
Petition
President Bush to protect endangered polar bears.
Petition President Bush
to apply strong pressure to Sudanese leaders concerning Darfur.
Petition
world leaders at Bali to ignore President Bush’s opposition to global warming
prevention.
Support
MoveOn’s cartoon advertisement opposing Bush beginning war against Iran
Commit to working
with Working Families for comprehensive health care reform.
I
receive 5-10 requests from various organizations and candidates for money each
week. Even more at year end. I have decided not to include these
here. Let me know if you want more
opportunities to donate to Liberal causes and candidates.
Feedback Needed Concerning Our Website
Our
website has a new improved home page with a counter of visits. Helpful Websites and Conservative
Organizations and Blogs have been added to our Resources menu. I am updating our Commentaries under the
Commentaries menu. We will soon have a
Blog, so you can post your thoughts and have them discussed.
Please email me other suggestions for improving our website.
Commentaries From Our
Members
Email from Member Dick Burkhart
In regard to a fair tax
system, you should also include equitable green taxes. Attached is my proposal
for a kind of carbon sales tax in conjunction with 'tradable personal carbon
allowances' as a way to tackle global warming. This was published in 'Eat
the State' a few months back.
Workers for Earth Community
Could
people who are struggling to just get by, be induced to say “bring it on” to
both global warming and peak oil? Seems improbable, yet merry old
Sounds
formidable, but it’s actually quite simple. Each person, including you, is
given the same “carbon allowance”. If you use less than your allowance, you get
to sell the excess to those who need more. It’s like the “allowance” I got as kid, except that I get a big reward if I
don’t spend it all, and I pay a penalty if I beg for more candy than my
allowance will buy.
I
might use my carbon allowance to buy one kind of gas to run my car, another
kind to heat my home. But what if I can actually get paid to take a bus
instead, or to move to an apartment with lower heating bills and better bus
service? Suddenly global warming and peak oil start to look like opportunities,
not disasters.
Or
if I’m a rich guy, then it’s OK to pay a lot more to run my fancy cars and mansions,
because I know it means that the masses will be struggling, not just to get by,
but to save the planet too. Or if I’m
well off, but not exactly rich, then I’ll think twice about the cost of my
high-flying life style. Maybe a little
voluntary simplicity and less debt would feel a lot better.
Here’s
one way it might work. The governing agency would give every adult, and
all organizations, a "carbon points" bank account. Every two weeks
the agency would deposit an allowance of carbon points to your account, just
like a pay check. The allowance for organizations would depend on the number of
employee hours worked. After two weeks, any unused carbon points could either
be left in the bank, donated to a non-profit, or sold on the carbon points
market. The current market rate would be set by computerized bidding
techniques.
But it’s
not like you’d get your gas for free. The carbon point cost would be on top of
the normal dollar cost. The agency would decide which things require carbon
points and how many, initially fuel and electricity for transportation,
heating, appliances, mechanical work, etc. Your ATM card would automatically
use the carbon points in your account, or buy them if the account is
empty.
And the
idea is not just reward and punishment, but help too. Buyers of carbon points
would pay a sales tax to help finance projects, such as renewable energy and
public transit, also grants or loans to individuals or organizations that need
special assistance to reduce carbon emissions.
Here’s where
Al Gore comes in: The carbon allowances would be based on a national carbon
budget, which would be decreased each year to target an 80% reduction in green
house gas emissions by 2050. Actually
this could be done at any level of government, from local to global. To be
practical, separate budgets might need to be carved out for some large
organizations with special energy requirements.
Sure, this wouldn’t happen overnight. You’d have to
start with research and development, then pilot projects in selected cities,
then expand to counties and states, finally the nation. But low and behold,
look at the amazing thing you’ve created – Dick Burkhart
Liberals and Democrats
Providing Voters Access to Minor Parties
·
Create Elections Commission independent of major political parties to
make and enforce rules concerning elections (including primary elections).
·
Provide government funding for campaigns. Limit donations from other
sources. Limit size of individual
donations. Prohibit corporate
donations. Prohibit bundling.
·
Shorten political campaigns by limiting primary elections and caucuses to
no more than six months before the general election.
·
Require media to provide time for forums and candidates.
·
Elect political convention delegates and electoral college
representatives from congressional districts, thereby eliminating statewide
winner-take-all systems
·
Include
·
Adopt instant run-off system
(with voters expressing 2nd and 3rd choices) for deciding
election. Voters can then vote for their
favorite candidate without assisting one that they dislike. For
more. For more. For more.
·
Allow minority party
candidates to participate in election campaign forums. For
more.
These reforms will strengthen both the minor and
major parties. When minor parties make
proposals which obtain support, the major parties will adopt them. Historically, social security and other major
programs legislated by the Democratic Party were previously proposed by the
Socialist and other minor parties. More
important, our public will benefit from exposure to and opportunity to support a
wider variety of proposals.