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on Conservative opposition to our American Dream Washington
State’s 4 Major Needs ·
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Replacing Republican Legislators Quotes of the Week You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold
'em. From song sung by Kenny Rogers Bring ‘em on. George
W. Bush For more. More.
Calendar of Events
Friday, May 2 at 7 PM at the Rainier
UU Center (
Saturday, May 3 at 11 AM – 4 PM at
Crossroads Mall (156th
Sunday, May 4 at 3 -6 PM at Alice
Woldt’s home (
Monday, May 5 at 12 Noon at the Westin
(
Tuesday, May
6 at 6:30 at the Bellevue Regional Library (
Saturday, May 10 at 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM at The Evergreen State College in
Lecture Hall 3 in northwest
Friday, May
16 at 6:30 PM at Candy Sullivan and Jule Sugarman’s place (1140 Alki Ave SW #505, Seattle)
– inSPIRe monthly potluck and
discussion: with Valerie Tarico
on the Evangelical Mindset.
Friday, May 16 at
7 PM at
Friday, May 23 at 7 PM at
Friday, April 25 at 6:30 PM at
Saturday, June 7 at 2 PM at
Saturday, June 7 at 7 PM at
Opportunities, Petitions and Feedback
Opportunities
How
would you spend the $3 trillion the Iraq War will cost us? On what other government programs?
League of Women Voters has new website featuring
all the election information you might want.
Find out how your senators and
member of congress rated on global issues.
Find out how your congressional members rated
on environmental issues.
Learn how Facebook is
an agent of change.
Barbara Rader of Black Widow Web Development created our
Puget Sound Liberals Website, to which I can easily add, modify and remove
files. Learn more
about this unique company, which offers a 50% discount for organizations
that promote social justice and environmental stewardship.
Petitions and
Donations
Tell
your congress person to fund security and food for Darfur refugees.
Tell
the Bush Administration to protect Redrock Wilderness from oil development.
Tell
your congress members to stop ‘abstinence only’ sex education programs.
Tell
your congress members to support the Protecting Workers Act.
Feedback
What do
Commentaries
From Our Members
Todd Boyle on
In response to my promotion of a progressive
Washington State Income Tax, Todd Boyle emailed:
Good work. That is absolutely the most
important issue in this state. Taxing
the Rich is not just about money. Progressive
taxation is the application of progressively higher rates on higher levels of
income or assets. For the case for
progressive property taxes see Jeff Smith's work.
I would just add that until people understand that
"property" is itself, a takings from the commons without
compensation, they're unlikely to agree to give anything back to society for
the privilege of excluding everybody from their fictional boundaries. The
larceny is repeated every time a house is sold. The seller receives a big
payment and walks away, while, all of the neighbors and citizens whose ability
to use or benefit from the property were impaired, and sold, receive nothing.
Like most other transactions in a capitalist economy, most of what is being
sold does not belong to the seller in the first place.
But I came here to make a more important point. We have to apply higher rates of income tax
to higher levels of income, not only for the sake of economic justice but to
reduce the incentives for a wide range of destructive and antisocial behaviors. Corporate executives, of course, run the
world today. These greedy power holders inflict *all of the harms* on the
planet. Power holders inflict all harms, through their mismanagement and
misleading and exploitation of the common people, globally. I say, they are
responsible. I say, the condition of the planet is not an accident.
We have a wonderfully effective market system and global economy that manages
every damned thing to 5 nines. We have a globally integrated supply chain, and
finance. This is operated by millions of MBAs, tens of millions of lawyers and
accountants, and a hundred million totally obedient software people, telecoms
people, and clerks. Obedient to their bosses of course, not customers as
falsely portrayed in our school textbooks.
This economy is over-centralized. It is a producer-sovereign, rather than
consumer sovereign. It is not operated to serve native demand, but
rather, it's operated deliberately by power holders for their particular
interests. Now, we are tired of losing
this endless, complicated chess game with corporations. The common people seem
to chase one policy issue after another. Most often these are not the
"prime mover" issues but are only band-aids.
The "economy" works pretty good. It is extremely agile and
reorganizes itself very dynamically. Don't wait for another crash like the
1930s. Look for example at 1987 and other events in which, with all their
networks and computers the whole global economy digested the collapse in
financial markets and rationalized them and rebooted itself in about 2 or 3
days. Like 911, hundreds of $Billions of ownership was taken by global power holders,
from other power holders. The losers went off licking their wounds and hardly a
word was ever revealed in the papers.
Well, the prime mover behind all these crazy and criminal behaviors, ranging
from a military industrial complex to global environmental destruction, the
destruction of the global gene pool with GMO’s, etc. is the greedy few at the top. Those most
cunning, long of fang, fleet of foot.
If the possibility of making more than say, $500,000 per year is removed by
steep tax rates, then all these sick, tyrannical types will have to satisfy
themselves running sports club franchises etc. instead of having us all worked
to death in factories and killing each other in real wars.
I think you need a continuous progressive slope starting at the median income
of the population (zero tax for half of the population) and with a straight
line up to 100% confiscatory taxation at around ten times the median income.
And it is universally agreed, on the left as well as the right, that when tax
rates get really high, there is a disincentive to "work". This is
exactly the goal of progressive taxation. We don't want the insatiable, the
greedy, doing that kind of "work", which is really theft.
One of the systemic problems in WA is the continual in-migration of high income
and high-wealth individuals. It
undermines our society. You can only absorb so many of that kind of person
before they start taking over the whole state by their power to buy elections,
and dismantling schools and social services, turning the state into a Florida,
which is a great place for owning a yacht, but sheer hell for everybody else.
This is the same thing we see in national politics: the ultra-wealthy, intent
on nothing other than tax cuts, support Bush and Cheney, regardless of any
other consequences... such as the
Ron Sims' effort to raise an income tax in the State of
The function of government is to meet human needs
and goals of society that markets leave unmet. Caring for the sick and the elderly, educating
the young, maintaining all things of the commons, the roads, law and order--
all these sorts of things. Will private enterprise handle these? No. Will
charity handle them? That's a myth. The poor, the sick, mentally ill, were
lucky to find a basement or barn or a crust of bread.
When business boosters show up in the congress or legislature, or the winners
of great fortunes in the marketplace not wanting to pay taxes, wanting to dismantle
social services they're dismantling the very purpose of having a government in
the first place. A government does not exist to protect the privileges of the
wealthy, to the contrary that has been done all too well by "the private
sector." Todd Boyle
Amelia
Kroeger on Supreme Court Nominations
We are
seeing increasing reports that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton supporters are
saying that if their candidate fails to become the Democratic candidate, they
will vote for John McCain or not vote,.
Both Obama
and Clinton both will:
·
end our occupation of
·
take on the special interests to regulate our industries and
markets, to protect us from abuse and bubbles.
·
fairly tax our people with high income and shift federal
spending from special corporate interests to fund needed physical and social
infrastructure and safety nets.
·
protect our civil rights, including women’s choice
concerning their pregnancies.
McCain will
do none of these. To forsake our Liberal values is nuts.
Amelia Kroeger adds: “And let's not forget (and probably one of the
most important long-term actions), both Obama and Clinton will nominate
Supremes that don't meet the neo-con and Christian fundy/dominionist
ideologies. Peace, Amelia Kroeger
Dave Jette on the Progressive Action Committee
Dear Dave, I am most
pleased to receive the newsletter, and I understand that you have been
discussing with Maryrose Asher articles to submit for publication.
Maryrose has asked me to get in touch with you about this.
Maryrose and I are
involved in the newly formed PAC, the Progressive
Action Committee (“PAC2”), and we are bringing Cindy Sheehan for a
three-day visit in early June. See our “Who
We Are” statement. Our four-person Board of Directors is actually four of the five
members of the Coordinating Council of the Green Party of Washington
State. However, PAC2 has no connection with the Green Party, and we
formed this FEC-recognized political action committee in order to serve the
broader progressive community.
We came together to form
PAC2 specifically in order to support Cindy
Sheehan’s June 6th Seattle Town Hall appearance, but this project is
naturally turning into something which promises to be really big, in advancing
the progressive movement; this is because all we do is to financially support
progressive campaigns and events rather than trying to build some sort of broad
progressive membership organization. So we’re very excited about Cindy’s
visit, both because of being able to host such an outstanding person, and
because this will be the main kickoff for our PAC2 project. Best wishes, Dave Jette
Ray McBain on Stupid Creationism Believers
Weird! According to this ABC news
report, a 2007
Gallup Poll found that more Americans accept the theory of creationism than
evolution. If Americans are really that
stupid, it may be that there is really no hope for the
Marianne Lincoln: George W. Bush’s Resume
Marianne emailed a resume of George W. Bush, with the comment that “this
is a stunner!” Marianne Lincoln The resume is too long to include here. However an almost identical resume may be
found at: http://www.matrixmasters.com/world/usnews/bushresume.html. Numerous other similar ones can
be found by googling ‘George W. Bush’s resume’.
Larry Fox on Subsidizing Timber Interests
Published May 1,2008 by
If I read your Tuesday article right,
it appears President Bush's good buddies in the timber industry got the
administration to tax Canadian timber because it was unfairly subsidized by
their government. This, of course, raised the prices on all lumber for building
homes, etc. Now, ignoring the Constitution and international laws, 20 percent
of that money is given to the same timber interests that caused the price
increase. Isn't that a subsidy? None of this is a big surprise to me, given the
history of this administration.
Being a good sport, I can recommend a
way to bring in more money for the government. How about selling the
Constitution on eBay? We don't use it. Larry
Fox
Liberals and Democrats
Reverend Jeremiah Wright Describes His Perspectives
At his April 27th speech at the Detroit
NAACP April 27th Conference Reverend Jeremiah Wright revealed himself
to be a pastor, theologian, linguist and multidisciplinary intellectual. View
his speech (video). Also view Bill Moyer’s April
25th PBS interview with him (video). Also read about Reverend
Wright’s April 23rd presentation at the National Press Club. These present a very different understanding
of him than the one portrayed by commercial media sound bites. [I love watching a speech or hearing about
it, googling it, and finding a video of it.
It’s easy for you to do, to view things you missed on television, or
view them again.]
Reverend Wright’s ministry includes an emphasis
upon overcoming injustices against blacks.
Like Martin Luther King did, he also opposes the atrocities our
I believe the people should hear what Reverend
Wright has to say, and not just tidbits taken out of context. I believe he has every right to express his
opinions, especially when he has been attacked, based on false portrayals of
his beliefs. However in his passion for
social justice for Blacks, Reverend Wright has gone too far, such as suggesting
that the Government has promoted HIV among Blacks. He also was wrong to accuse Barack Obama of
political pandering, when Obama disagreed with Reverend Wright’s provocative
expression of our government’s defects.
Obama correctly argues that our present emphasis should be upon
overcoming racial, regional and faith differences to unite to produce the best
that
Also read a full transcript of Chris Wallace’s
excellent April 27th interview with Barack Obama on Fox Cable
News. See the video. The interview dealt with racism, Reverend
Jeremiah Wright, expressing patriotism, cooperating across party lines, General
David Petraeus, policy differences with McCain, public campaign financing and
other topics. Commercial media pundits
often report that people don’t know Obama very well. Through his autobiographies and campaign, we
know more about Barack Obama, his past activities and his way of thinking than
we know about Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
People who don’t pay attention don’t know much about any of the
candidates; but they easily could.
I am also glad that Jimmy Carter has met with
Hamas. He correctly asserts that no
Israeli-Palestinian settlement can occur without the participation of
Hamas. For more.
Barack Obama on Being Tough
On April 26th in an
When you’re tough, you don’t have to always prove
you’re tough. No matter how tough you are,
you always risk having the bad luck to get beaten. Why risk it, when nothing important is
involved? Why even get your hands dirty
or your shirt torn?
We have all seen Western movies in which some punk (eager
to obtain fame) challenges the top gunfighter.
The top gunfighter tries to avoid the fight. The young punk keeps goading the top
gunfighter. The young punk finally draws
his gun and gets killed. Shane tried to
quit fighting. But when it became
important, he stood up to the gunfighter that was threatening his friend.
The challenge is to know when to fight and when to
avoid it. When is the issue important enough
to fight? This is complicated when
public opinion says you aren’t tough unless you fight whenever challenged. Is this old politics still strong enough to
force Barack Obama to fight whenever challenged? Or can he prove his toughness in other ways
than continually responding to every challenge, no matter how trivial? Can he strengthen our new politics? Can he save his fighting for John McCain on
the big issues that divide them? After
being elected, can he focus his fighting on the wealthy and powerful interests
which resist the reclaiming of our American Dream?
Tough people, whether abusers or defenders of the
abused (who may themselves become abusers), don’t just go it alone. No matter how tough, they typically seek
assistance. Most dramatically, they
don’t obtain it and must fight alone.
The movies, Shane and High Noon are examples.
The answer to these questions is not just a test of
Barack Obama. It is a test of all of
us. Will we ignore or devalue the
trivial attacks? Will we direct our
toughness to join Barack Obama in the important struggles? If we don’t, it will be we who suffer. Only through being united, can we be tough
enough for the struggle to come.
I respect John McCain for opposing the
New Leaders for KC Legislative Action
Committee
The newly appointed co-chairs of the LAC are Ivan
Weiss and
Tina Shamseldin and Scott White, who have provided
excellent leadership, are both leaving to run for legislative office.
Here’s the Beef
Poll shows that increasingly
political youth support our Democratic Party, both men and women.
Is
our presidential election degenerating into irrelevancy?
Barack
Obama’s 50-state campaign strategy is working.
He’s gaining super delegates.
Barack
Obama’s supporter list may become one of the Democratic Party’s most valuable
assets.
Racism
in Appalachia, especially Kentucky and West Virginia will cost Barack Obama
votes.
Bill Clinton
administration had many defects, It may not serve Hillary to tout her
experience there.
Green
Party of Washington describes how Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama agree and
disagree.
John McCain is a weaker candidate
than portrayed. 27% of republicans voted
against him in PA. More.
Cindy Sheehan opposes Nancy Pelosi’s
providing funding for our occupation of Iraq.
Change will depend
on more than elections. It depends upon
what happens afterwards.
Presidential
campaigns include costly proposals, with insufficient detailing of how to pay
for them.
State and
Local
Our Tax System Is Increasing Unfair
Income and Wealth
Inequality Has Been Increasing.
For decades, lower
income
The Economic Policy Institute reports that income inequality grew
in
Recessions Increase Unfair
Taxation
During recessions,
many of our people experience stagnant or falling incomes, especially our lower
income people. Sales and property taxes
produce less revenue. Needed
expenditures for assisting the poor and stimulating the economy increase. Cutting social services to reduce
expenditures harms low income people. If
sales or property taxes are increased to produce more revenue, low income
people who spend more of their income on taxed goods and services will be
affected more than high income ones.
Lower income people may face both falling income and tax increases.
Our Tax System Has
Become More Regressive
The CBP reports that “In fiscal year 1995, state and local taxes as
a share of personal income was 11.7 percent in
At the state level, it is estimated that the 1990s
tax cuts cost the state eight percent of its revenue. During the following
economic downturn, the state was faced with cutting important programs and a
downgraded bond rating.”
Tax rates were not cut in the 1990s. See a history of our sales tax rates. Incomes of high income people increased. As a result, tax revenues became a smaller
percentage of our economy. This
threatens our state’s ability to fund important public priorities including
education, transportation, health care, and preparation for another economic
slowdown.
While our overall
taxes are low compared to other states, our sales taxes are high: (4.8 percent of personal income). The taxpayers in
only one other state (
Among All 50 States, Our Tax System Is the Most
Regressive
The Washington State Budget and Policy
Center reports, “While overall taxes in
It is not surprising
if most of our people, who have faced spending a higher percentage of their
income on taxes, are leery of the adoption of another form of tax. The will have to be convinced that
substitution an income tax for the more regressive taxes that they have been
paying, will provide them a tax cut.
To Fish or to Train Fishermen?
Many have worked hard to pass the ‘Working
Families Tax Credit’ to make our tax system less regressive. It is not funded yet. But hopes are that it will be funded in our
next budget. If so, this only worsens
our inadequate revenue problem. The tax credit
will cost the state money, which will decrease the amount available for other
purposes.
Not
everyone supports the tax credit.
On
another occasion,
The
answer is not as easy as
Caretaking Our Disabled
Our
Seattle Times recently described the dilemmas faced by a family in which a
47 year old son with Down syndrome has been cared for all his life by his 82
and 83 year old parents. Now the son’s
disabilities are increasing and his parents are also experiencing increasing
limitations to the care they can give.
8,200 people over 40 are on the rolls of the Washington
State Division of Developmental Disabilities.
Experts say many thousands more may be eligible. Institutionalization costs $500 per day. Less disabled people may stay in a adult
group home, which costs $75 per day.
Respite care for family caretakers is severely underfunded.
National experts say that two thirds of people with
developmental disabilities are cared for by parents or siblings, often for 40
or more years. Often because they want
to, but sometimes because there is no alternative. They are the default system, when appropriate
public services are not available.
Our developmentally disabled are only a fraction of our
disabled. Most of us become increasingly
disabled before we die. Some of us have
no family to care for us. Some of us
have a spouse, who is also often becoming disabled. Many of our aging disabled persons have
children, but they often place other obligations (such as caring for their
children) first, or simply find caring doesn’t fit their lifestyle.
The need for more caretakers is clear. They should be both qualified and motivated
to provide quality care. How to obtain
enough qualified and motivated caretakers is not clear. In addition to expanding funding for
institutions, group homes and respite care, I believe we need to produce more
trained and motivated caretakers.
Imagine that we find a person to provide live-in care for a disabled
person or couple, train them, provide them room, board and income. And also provide a bonus (dependent upon the
length of care) upon the termination of the care due to death or increased
disability. Try to create an artificial family, in which a younger person or
couple becomes the caretaker for an older one or two.
One of my favorite movies is Tim, an Australian movie in which an older women cares for a younger
mentally disabled man and then marries him.
Another such movie is
And resentments typically occur by people becoming
increasingly disabled and by caretakers who can’t obtain the cooperation which
would make their job easier. Both
natural and artificial families suffer from the development of such
resentments.
Green Party Governor Candidate’s Proposals
Duff Badgley, organizer of the climate
change group, One Earth and Green Party Candidate for Washington
State Governor discussed the Green Party Climate
Crisis Manifesto at our Lake Hills Liberals Salon on April 25th. Duff believes that the scarcity of fossil
fuels and the global climate pollution which they cause will drastically change
our way of life. The use of cars, planes
and many other basic features of our American middle class lifestyle may
quickly become no longer feasible.
Technological fixes may fail or cause as many problems as they
solve. He advocates the ultimate in
voluntary (or involuntary) simplicity.
He criticizes environmental actions by Greg Nickels, Ron Sims and
Christine Gregoire for not going far enough.
Bye Bye Oil. Can we live without it?
We have only gradually (and only some of
us) learned of:
· resource scarcities compared to increasing demand
· global warming caused by carbon gases
· amounts of fossil fuel required for bio-fuel production
· increasing food prices due to diverting food stocks to
produce bio-fuels
· environmental destruction resulting from increased
bio-fuel production.
Arguing for worst case scenarios can wake
people up. It can make proposals for
change appear less radical. We need to
hear from people with Duff’s message. Duff’s
proposals point to what may be necessary.
I believe that if so, the market will price cars, planes, etc. out of
reach for most of us except for the most urgent reasons. The problem is that the market may take too
long to produce needed changes. Duff
would mandate needed changes, especially forbidding much of our use of carbon
fuels and resulting carbon compound emissions.
My complementary approach is to focus upon
progress, not perfection. I emphasize what
can be done soon, focusing less upon personal changes than upon social changes
which will motivate personal changes. [What the hell happened to ‘motivate’. Now everyone seems to want to use
‘incentivize’. Yuck.] Among my proposals have been:
· An income tax to fund needed environmental and social
public actions.
· Both carrots and sticks to motivate the switch to
non-carbon based energy sources.
· Affordable housing near jobs to reduce urban sprawl,
commuting, traffic congestion and pollution.
· Instant carpools, in which drivers pick up passengers at
bus stops or pay heavy fees for driving alone.
· Affordable rapid transit which uses public right-of-ways,
and maybe includes monorails with lesser footprints than light rail.
Here’s the Beef
Learn what
Washington has done to improve early childhood education.
In our
2nd LD, Democratic Chuck Collins is running against Republican
incumbent Jim McCune.
In our 5th
LD, Democrats Jon Viebrock and David Spring are running against John Anderson.
Nation
and World
How Will We Spend Our Stimulus Payment?
Most of us are receiving stimulus payments
ranging up to $1200. These were
supposedly enacted to stimulate our economy, through encouraging our spending
on American made products and services.
But all the financial advisors are recommending that we use them to pay
off our debts, or increase our savings.
Many of us will do this. Others
will use them to maintaining our levels of gasoline and food consumption in the
face of higher prices. Thus benefiting
foreign oil suppliers, or our already profitable agro-industry. Higher gasoline and food prices will be
sustained, the latter increasing poverty, malnutrition and starvation. For
more. Few of our expenditures will
be for other products and services.
Little stimulus will result.
High Gas Prices Are Finally Affecting Consumption Patterns.
People love to drive, especially
Americans. For many, driving alone seems
far better than any alternatives. As
parking, toll and gasoline prices have increased, we haven’t changed our
driving habits much. But recent and
expected future gasoline prices have begun to affect our behavior. We are driving less, and more of us are
gradually switching to less expensive forms of transportation. We are reducing our purchases of gas guzzling
cars and light trucks, to the detriment of American sales of American car
companies.
With less money left over after purchasing
gasoline, and fewer ways to borrow money, we are beginning to cut our other
consumption, buying cheaper products or doing without. For more. For
more. For
more. Coupled with rising prices for
food dependent upon grains, including meat and dairy products, we are becoming
especially cautious in our food purchases.
Poor people here and abroad are suffering hunger, with more using food
banks. Some are selling their stuff. Retail stores which offer high priced clothes
and other products are experiencing declining sales. Starbucks’
sales are down. Money flowing to oil
producing companies abroad are increasing our debt, while declining retail
sales are harming our economy.
Many of our problems: urban sprawl,
commuting, traffic congestion and pollution result from the lack of affordable
housing near jobs. Higher gasoline
prices will make housing near jobs even more expensive, while reducing the
prices of houses far away. Commuters
will find it more difficult to sell their remote homes and more expensive to
buy ones closer to metropolitan jobs.
On April 24, 2008, our Puget
Sound Regional Council’s (PSRC's) General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to
adopt VISION 2040. VISION 2040 is a regional strategy to
accommodate the additional 1.7 million people and 1.2 million new jobs expected
to be in the region by the year 2040. A
major component is the attempt to concentrate homes near urban centers instead
of enabling urban sprawl. Between
increasing gasoline prices and government action, we may be able to reduce
urban sprawl.
Not sufficiently emphasized is
that a key component will be the availability of affordable housing near
jobs. Rising gas prices may actually
make urban houses less affordable, as more people attempt to purchase
them. But we could take advantage of our
current housing foreclosures, to bail owners out in return for restricting
their resale and rental price, thus making the house affordable to future moderate
and lower income owners as well as the present owner.
Oil: Who’s Got It? Where Do We Get It?
Who’s Got It? Where Do We Get It? U.A.E 7% Others 10% Source
and more.
Goodbye Manufacturing. Hello Financial Services. Also Health Services
Since the 1970’s, manufacturing production has
decreased from 25% of a growing GNP to 12%.
While financial services has increased from 12% to 20%. Health care services has also increased to
about 14%, including many paper pushers.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could reduce the number of people in
financial and health care services, spending the money instead on training caregivers and paying them better.
Why have financial services grown so much? Through tax cuts, government debt has
grown. Tax changes have encourage
corporations to replace equity financing with borrowing, so their debt has
grown. Easier credit (both credit cards
and household second mortgages) and stagnant incomes have stimulated an
increase of household debt. More
employees have be able to make own decisions concerning their retirement
investments. Financial deregulation has
stimulated the growth of many new types of financial services. More financial employees are needed to manage
this borrowing, lending and investing.
Due to their influence on both Republican and
Democratic legislators, it may be virtually impossible to regulate financial
services. Without regulation, bubbles,
their collapse and government bailouts will continue. Regulation will need to begin with our
Federal Reserve, which is controlled by bankers and puts their interests before
the interests of our workers and consumers.
Instead of reducing the proportion of our workers, engaged in financial
(and health care) services, they may increase until our whole financial system
collapses. For more.
The Party’s Over
Our Bush
administration and colleagues have thrown quite a party. But now it’s over. Leaving a horrendous mess. As Damon Silvers says in the current issue of
the American Prospect,
“So the next president will
come into office facing a multitude of challenges -- a housing- and
credit-market driven recession, rising energy prices, global warming, a current
account deficit that is spiraling out of control, the war in Iraq, a collapsing
dollar, a rising China and India, long-term crises in health care and
retirement provision. Treating each of these crises individually while
continuing our low-wage, high-debt economic strategy will certainly result in
failure. The challenge is to understand that there is a choice, a different
direction we can and must go in. And then, to go there.”
When Barack Obama takes office in January, 2009, our hopes
and expectations will be high. But they
were high when our Democrats assumed control of our congress in 2007. And we have been disappointed. Will we be disappointed again in 2009? How fast will things change? Especially the things we most care
about. How patient will we be? How can we respond to our impatience
constructively to further the changes we want?
What should be our priorities? Like a log jam, some logs hold the key to
releasing lots of others. But these logs
may be the most difficult to move and if they move, may not seem very important
compared to others we care more about.
Curbing the influence of campaign contributors and their lobbyists are
key logs. But this will be difficult,
especially when Americans are more concerned with peace and prosperity
issues. This is where leadership comes
in.
The Obama administration must certainly win some quick
victories by dealing with the low hanging fruit – things that can be changed by
executive order. But it must also inform
and mobilize people and our congress to deal with basic issues.
Here’s the Beef
Is our U.S.
government typically more competent than business, at least until Bush?
Supreme
Court OK’s voter ID, making voting more difficult for low income people.
Liberal
America will seek to cooperate with other nations, but we will remain very
different. For
more.
Our
United States and China should cooperate to find alternatives to using oil.
A
political pandering gas tax holiday doesn’t deal with basics & provides
little temporary relief. More.
Biofuel
production is causing food crisis.
Congress
is allowing wind and solar tax credits to expire, driving these technologies to
Europe.
Congress
supports farm bill, which is one of our worst private interest subsidies.
NGO’s are
responding to food crisis.
Iraqi refugees in
Syria face poverty.
Congressmembers want Iraq to pay
for us occupying them.
Violence
increases in Iraq as U.S. supports present government against al-Sadr.
Our military industrial complex
has almost bankrupted us.
When
predators like bats become extinct, their prey like insects may increase
enormously.
Twelve
conservation groups oppose removing wolves from endangered species list.
Doctors
are finally beginning to support single payer health insurance.
Single
payer health insurance is necessary for universal access to health insurance.
For more about policemen killing
Blacks. For more.
Police who kill unarmed
Blacks are virtually never punished.
Helen
Thomas questions Bush Administration about the use of torture (video).
Wealthy
commercial media pundits regard themselves as middle class or less.
The 2001 recession
never ended for many Americans.
Our Liberal Spirit
When to Hold ‘Em, When to Fold ‘Em
I have long regarded the song
popularized by Kenny Rogers, ‘When to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em’ as the short
form of the serenity
prayer: God grant
me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the
things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Three challenges are presented: serenity,
courage and wisdom. I believe the most
difficult challenge is wisdom. We can develop
serenity and courage. But we can never
know all we need to know about the alternatives we face.
No matter how much research we do, there will always
remain areas of uncertainty. And the
limited time that many choices are available often limits the amount of
research we can do. So we are usually
choosing with the possibility of alpha or beta errors. In choosing one alternative, we may be
choosing the one that worse than others.
In rejecting one alternative, we may be rejecting one that is better than
others.
Suppose I am a 5-year old, deciding how to obtain a
cookie. If I ask mom and she says “yes”,
then I easily get the cookie. If she
says “no” and I just take it and I get caught, then I am in more trouble than
if I had taken it without asking. Should
I ask mom? The challenge is I don’t know
what she will say and if I take it without permission, whether I will be
caught. Where does serenity lie, except
in forgetting about eating a cookie?
Where does courage lie, in just taking the cookie, or in asking mom
first?
Our lives are continually like that 5-year old’s. We can try to have wisdom, serenity and
courage. But we can never be sure
whether to hold ‘em or fold ‘em. Some of
us typically err on the side of holding them.
Others err the other way. Some of
us live out of best case scenarios.
Others out of worst case scenarios.
One of the key factors is how we regard winning and losing. Some of us are willing to accept losses as we
try to win. Others us play a higher
value upon avoiding losses.
I believe the difference is often whether we have
effective ways to pick ourselves up and keep going after losing. Some of us can quickly forsake the past to
respond to the present. Others hang on
to the past which distracts them from dealing with the future. As their failures join a growing pile, they
become more afraid to fail again. One of
the maxims which appears along side the serenity prayer is to focus upon the
present. Live one day at a time. Similarly, don’t focus on the future. Progress, not perfection.
I like the analogy that life is like living in an hour
glass. If I live in the bottom among the
grains of sand that have fallen, or in the top among the grains which have yet
to fall, then I can’t affect the ones which are falling now. So I should live at the apex. But if I have no knowledge of the grains
above and below, I can’t make any rational decision about throwing the present
one. Watching the grains below, I create
a story of the types of grains which may come from above. Watching where they land in the pile below, I
create a story of how my throwing may affect various types of sand.
So I try to live in the present out of a rich story of the past and the future. A story which is subject to constant revision as more sands come, I throw them differently, with different results. I am constantly updating my story of when to throw ‘em and when to let ‘em just go by.
Recommended Books –
See our list of books
for liberals
I have become sick and
tired of reading books about the faults of the Bush Administration. I would prefer to read books about what
President Barack Obama and our Democratic Congress should do after taking
office in 2009. Unfortunately, these
books aren’t yet being published. So I
am mostly reading about history, which I enjoy as much or more as reading about
politics. Instead of recommending books
this week, I am recommending some movies which relate to being tough and to
caring for our disabled.
Shane
and High Noon both focus upon tough
men. Shane (played by Alan Ladd) seeks
to avoid fighting, until he must defend his friend. Marshal Will Kane (played by Gary Cooper)
unsuccessfully seeks help to defend himself against released gun fighters
seeking revenge. Like Shane, he must
face his opponents alone, until his pacifist wife assists him. Both movies present a dim view of community
members who are afraid to join together to assist the hero in his fight.
Tim
and Rain Man each present a
caretaker who benefits from caring for another.
In Tim, an older woman (played by Piper Laurie) cares for a young
disabled man (played by Mel Gibson). In
the end, she marries him. He is cared
for and her life becomes much richer. Similarly
in Rain Man, one brother (played by Tom Cruise) assists his disabled brother
(played by Dustin Hoffman). The
caretaker is transformed for the better.
Free Member Advertising
Hire Our Lake Hills Neighbors
·
Auto Repair, price varies depending
on job (but always fair), Jaime Speicher (AAS Auto Repair Technician)
(425-746-2353)
·
Babysitting for infants (occasional evenings
and weekends) - $5 per hour-
·
Data Entry- $10 per 12 font, double spaced page-
·
Debt Elimination
Counseling, Seminars and Workshops – price negotiable – Sherry Brandt
(206-356-8034, somerev2@comcast.net)
·
Home Repair- prices vary, depending
on job-
·
Home Repair and
Remodeling,
·
Housekeeper, price negotiable –
·
Life Support Therapies,
·
Private Piano Lessons (students must have a
piano), afternoons - Anna Khosrowian (378-7938), price negotiable
·
Psychotherapist, accepts insurance
- Sandy Mathews (462-7889, www.sandramathews.com)
About
In October, 2005, we founded our Lake Hills
Liberals as an experimental demonstration of creating neighborhoods where
liberals thrive and multiply and maximizing our vote for Liberal
candidates. In January, 2006, we began
our newsletter.
During our
first year, we focused upon Lake Hills neighborhood development, experimenting
with a variety of activities and events.
To elect Liberals, we canvassed our 12 precincts to increase the number
of identified likely Democratic voters from 33% to 90% and stimulated them to
vote, which assisted election of our 2006 Democratic candidates. We recruited
30% (500) of them. We encouraged house parties
to allow neighbors to meet each other to be able to prevent crime, to assist
each other in a disaster, and to protect and assist our children. We created our website. We began a monthly discussion group, called
the Lake Hills Liberal Salon.
During our
second year, we recruited many members from throughout our
As we
begin our third year, we continue our past activities, especially electing Liberals,
canvassing Lake Hills, promoting house parties, educating and enabling
cooperation among Liberals, and promoting Public Campaign Financing. Our
new political priority is promoting a fair
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
Our weekly newsletter is currently distributed to 2300 members by email each Friday. 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.
African
Americans –
Blogs
–
Campaign
Finance – Sarajane Siegfriedt
Democratic
Party –
Drug
Policy –
Education
– Dennis Gerlitz, John Stokes
Environment
–
Gays
and Lesbians – Jack Greenlaw
Green
Party – Trey Smith
Health
Care –
Hispanics – needed
Immigration
- Grosvenor Anschell
Housing
and Poverty –
Labor Unions –
Law
and Justice –
State
Legislation –
Veterans
–
Women’s
Issues –
Additional Resources
See
our website at www.PugetSoundLiberals.org,
with our basic training about being Liberal, our archive of all past
newsletters, resources for liberals, tools for Democratic legislative district
organizations and more. Join
Fuse to connect with to other Liberals and more. To learn about particular
issues, visit websites of advocacy and caring organizations. Join them to further your interests and meet
colleagues. Also see our list of helpful
websites. Craig’s List Seattle
For
news about NW sustainability, visit Sightline
Daily. We recommend the Pacific NW Portal for
displaying many blogs through which Northwest Liberals exchange their knowledge
and opinions. See also Lefty Blogs. We recommend you go to Washblog to find blogs containing
information and opinions about
Learn about our State
Democratic Party. About 2008 Caucuses and Elections. Quickly and easily contact your national and
state officials. For
many Congressional Report Cards. Report Card on your congress member.