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Table of Contents * featured articles Opportunities,
Petitions and Feedback Commentaries from Our Members Liberals and Democrats Links to
the Beef Democratic
Control of Congress. So What? Reagan
and Ted Roosevelt Supported Immigration See What a
Conservative Thinks State and Local Links to the
Beef Ten Big
Ideas for Washington State* Information
about State Legislatures Who Are Our
Conservative Legislators?* Nation and World
Links to the Beef Restoring
Our Innovative Society Our Liberal Spirit Changing
Others Changes Yourself 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 Quotes of the Week It doesn’t work to leap a
twenty-foot chasm in two ten foot jumps.
American Proverb It is
not the strongest or most intelligent who survive; but the one most responsive
to change. Charles Darwin
Calendar of Events
Tuesday, December 25 at home – Quit
Shopping Day
Saturday, January 19 at 6:30 PM at Carrie Bogner’s home (
Monday, January 21 – 26th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr.,
March and Rally: 9:30 AM Rally, 11 AM Workshops, 12 Noon March. For more.
Wednesday, January 23 at 8 AM – 5 PM at Everett Rail Station (
Friday, February 1-3 at
Opportunities, Petitions and Feedback
Opportunities
Join GoPetition to easily create your own
petitions. Great tool for advocacy groups.
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 Sightline’s
2007 Cascadia Scorecard. See other
research that they share with our politicians.
Send a
message to EPA asking them to reverse their denying California’s right to limit
pollution.
Send a message to the Federal
Election Commission to support grassroots donors
Send
a message to your members of congress to reverse the FCC’s media consolidation
decision.
Send a message to congress that you
support impeachment hearings. Read
Cong Wexler’s Op-Ed.
Support Chris Dodd’s filibuster against granting
immunity to telecoms who betrayed us.
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
See Chad Lupkes’ letter published by the
See Who Are Our Conservative Legislators?
Liberals and Democrats
Democratic Control of Congress. So What?
Before the 2006 elections, Congress.org stated the
following: “When
it comes to setting the agenda in the House, the differences between a
leadership of Nancy Pelosi and the existing one of Tom Delay are many. Our
Congress needs Democracy restored in the House, here's why.” Congress.org then expressed ten top reasons
to take back congress. Were they right?
1.
One party
rule hasn't been good for the country. A Democratic congress would have acted as a check
on President Bush. Checks and balances are the oil that keep our Constitutional
machine running smoothly. Congress has stopped new initiatives, but not rolled back
previous ones.
2.
Equal
representation for the other 50 percent. Republicans
in the majority say "we have the votes; we don't need you" to the
Democrats in the minority. It’s time to end Republican-only rule, where all
dissenting opinions are shut out. No more holding votes open for hours while
they bribe congressmen to get the necessary votes, or running conference
committees without Democrats. Democrats have been able to participate.
3.
An end to
the politics of polarization in lawmaking. Replace Republican majority shenanigans with a
bipartisan process. The current Republican leadership abuses its powers not
only to shut out dissenting voices, but to use its absolute control over
conference committees to prevent any meaningful bipartisan decision-making in
both houses of Congress. Lawmaking is still polarized.
4.
Judicial
and other appointments must be safeguarded against extremism. Don’t
let the government go where it doesn't belong. Protect a woman's right to
choose, human rights, and equal rights. No supreme court justices have retired.
5.
Restore the
power to initiate investigations, and bipartisan congressional oversight. For
Democrats and Republicans, the fact that House has virtually ceased to care
about ethics violations should be deeply troubling; the House ethics committee
needs to be restored to effectiveness to prevent the excessive influence of
those who put personal profit above the national good. The nation needs
effective oversight and investigation of the executive branch. These have occurred.
6.
Stop
invading countries under false information. We need a House that will authorize military
actions only when absolutely necessary and only with multilateral support. No
more carte blanche wars. No new wars so far.
7.
Stop the
explosion of deficit spending. The Republicans can't be trusted with our money.
They have given us trillions of
dollars in deficit spending and only global chaos to show for it. Most existing spending
continues, pork still occurs, and much more has been spent for
8.
End the
massive redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the very rich. We
need budget and tax priorities that ensure fairness to the lower and middle
classes, not windfalls and corporate giveaways to the wealthy. Unfair tax cuts
haven’t stopped, but there are no new ones.
9.
We need a
House that will enact real health care reform. No
more fake window dressing pandering to senior citizen voters. We need real
health care reform for all Americans, not just window-dressing and gifts to the
pharmaceutical industry. Make plans for universal Health Care, not Medicare
legislation that helps only the drug companies. No health care reform
has occurred.
10.
We would
have a meaningful jobs program. Under Republican mismanagement, millions of jobs
have been lost. A Democratic Congress will pursue policies that create jobs,
reward companies who keep jobs in the
Some of the worst abuses have stopped, but most reforms will wait
until Bush leaves the presidency. Liberals are impatient that Congress hasn’t done
more, including bringing the troops home for
To
receive the benefits listed above, we must increase our congressional
majorities. We need 60 members in the
senate to overcome Republican filibusters.
Gaining 9 senate seats appears possible, but unlikely. More likely is the gain of six or seven and
the ability to convince 3 or 4 Republicans to join Democrats to support various
popular legislation.
Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt Supported Immigrants
Most Conservatives are inconsistently Liberal on
some issues. President Ronald Reagan
viewed poor people unfavorably, but he favored immigrants. See the following passage from his farewell
address:
“I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I
don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my
mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept,
God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace,
a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there
had to be city walls, the walls had
doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get
here. That's how I saw it and see it still.” [Bold added]
Also see what Theodore Roosevelt said about immigrants
'In the first place, we
should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American
and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an
outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace,
or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an
American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance
here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an
American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have
room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have
room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.'
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
Unfortunately our New Conservatives are very opposed to
immigrants, seeking every opportunity to harass and limit them.
See What a Conservative Thinks
On CBS’s 60 Minutes, Andy Rooney expressed the most
comprehensive bunch of bigoted Conservative thought that I have seen. To
see them.
Here’s the Beef
Meet our Democratic
incumbents and challengers for U.S. Senate seats in 2008
President Bush has wrecked the
Republican Party.
Republican pundits
react negatively to Mike Huckabee’s religious base.
John Edwards most likely to
beat Republicans. But all other
Democrats also would.
Can
Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton?
Are Hillary Clinton
and Christopher Dodd trying to discourage college students from Iowa caucuses?