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Our Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and Competent Spending ·
Investment for Productivity ·
Quality Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental Protection and Energy ·
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 More
on Conservative opposition to our American Dream Washington State’s 4 Major Needs Federal Funding for Health
and Education ·
A
Progressive Income Tax ·
Replacing
Republican Legislators Quote of the Week What’s the secret of a
successful rain dance? Timing. Why did God make
time? So everything wouldn’t happen
at once. Why did God make the last
moment? So things would get done.
Calendar of Events
Friday, October 10 at 6 PM at Gerri
and Bob Haynes home (
Saturday, October 11 at 9:30 AM –
3:30 PM at
Saturday, October 11 at 6:30 PM at
Sunday, October 12 at 5:30 PM at
Kathy and
Tuesday, October 14 at 7 PM at
Wednesday, October 15 at 6 PM at
Joby Shimomura’s and Trace
Friday, October 17 – 19 at
Thursday, October 21 at Noon at
1026
Tuesday, October 21 at 5:30 PM at
K&L Gates (
Saturday, October 25 at 6:30 at
Opportunities, Petitions and Feedback
Communication with Our Members and Feedback
I have compiled all of my commentaries
on our economy into one document which is posted on
our website. I believe one hour
spent reading them will make you better informed than the vast majority of
Americans, including many of our congress members. Without
understanding our economic crises, their causes and needed solutions, you are
unable to act responsibly to correct the situation which affects all of
us. Dave Thomas
Take
a crash course (2½ hours) about our American economy (video).
Opportunities
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Michael Moore’s latest movie ‘Slacker Uprising’ for free.
Sign up for a free
Brave New Films subscription to inform more people about the Real John McCain.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Learn about legislators’ source of campaign financing.
See
Environmental Defense Action Fund’s Green Action Voter Guide.
See
Washington Public Campaigns Blog.
Petitions and Donations
Tell
Bob Schieffer to ask our presidential candidates about early childhood
education.
Tell
our presidential candidates to address economic security, health care and
social security.
Tell
our EPA to protect streams from ‘mountain top removal’ coal mining.
Tell our
presidential candidates to attend the U.N. Climate Change Conference.
Protect
Colorado’s roadless forests.
Commentaries From Our Members
Joanne Gainen: Rebuild American Economy Right
The goal should not be to rescue Wall Street under the pretext of saving
Main Street but to help homeowners facing foreclosure, help small businesses
get credit to stay in business and rebuild our economy from the ground up.
There has been almost no congressional push-back on Treasury Secretary
Henry Paulson's original premises that the fix involves "bailing out"
or "buying out" or that it requires $700 billion of taxpayer money or
that a depression is imminent. Yet the
International Monetary Fund released a report on 42 systemic banking crises in
other countries, and found that purchasing bad assets, at the heart of the
Paulson plan, was used in only seven cases, while other strategies were more
effective.
Stop blaming one another. Find the common ground -- it's there and
Congress should take advantage of it. Congress,
especially the Democratic side, is poised to get the blame for failing to fix
mistakes made by the administration even while implementing the solution they
requested. Calm the markets by saying we can deal with this problem, then take
time to slow down the whole process and implement a variety of solutions such
as those used successfully in
The FDIC increase does nothing to help homeowners facing foreclosure; it's
lipstick on the pig. Joanne Gainen
Peggy Bruton: Re-elect Governor Christine Gregoire
Published
by
Thanks to the P-I for endorsing Gov. Chris Gregoire over challenger Dino
Rossi for all the right reasons. To me,
the most persuasive of these is her determination to save
Now Rossi is trying to hoodwink voters by suggesting that he, like Barack
Obama, is the candidate for "change." Change from what? Obama has an excellent environmental voting
record and would reverse the disastrous slash-and-burn policies of two Bush
administrations; Rossi, instead, would reverse Gregoire's record of protecting
our natural heritage and health.
Gregoire's record is well known. In 2007, she was endorsed for re-election
by major environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Washington
Conservation Voters -- public interest groups, not special interest groups
looking to make big profits from selling off our future.
Voters, do not be deceived. Not all change agents are created equal. Keep
Judith Shattuck: Watch anti-McCain Youtube Videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAyK-enrF1g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3ecA2L-VuQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4egXbhSOhk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwtayJCK5LY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAAYxCCT-Bg
Published by
In both of the two presidential debates so far, John McCain voiced great
pride in his efforts to kill Boeing winning the military tanker contract, which
then, as we know, was shadily awarded (then later "un-awarded") to
the European-led Airbus team. Mega-government contracts always come with too
much lobbying, which usually doesn't lead to good results for taxpayers. But
McCain favoring European lobbyists at the expense of Boeing and American jobs,
then using this as a primary example of how he will behave if elected
president, scares the daylights out of me.
Boeing is facing severe challenges. Our cyclical industry is heading down.
Our airline customers have been hammered by high oil/fuel prices like never
before. An economy in recession means much less air travel.
Airline bankruptcies are climbing. Our great new airplane is late, and
getting later everyday with our machinists on strike. The credit crisis is
drying up aircraft financing making airplanes more expensive at higher interest
rates, if our customers can even find someone willing to make them a loan.
A nimble, smart and committed Boeing team will get us through this mess,
but the last thing the
Like I said on an earlier date, the bailout is a
done deal. Now progressives across the country need to focus on replacing
Pelosi/Reid with progressive leadership. I've contacted PDA and am
awaiting a reply as to whether or not they're supporting people for leadership
positions. Closer to home (and this can
be said for most congressional districts across
I expect Obama to win. I expect Democrats
will add to their majorities. The question is this: “Will they continue
pushing the corporate agenda or will they finally respond to the working
class?” It is never too early to
begin planning massive demonstrations nationwide should the Democrats fail to
act in our interests within a couple of years. (Or we can continue
conducting keyboard activism and talk only to ourselves and get nowhere.)
Liberals and Democrats
Our Presidential Election: The End Game
I have often expressed how impressed I am with Obama’s campaign: Message of change and unity. Focus upon winning Democratic nomination delegates and then electoral college delegates. Grassroots organizing, using the internet. Fundraising. Public speaking. Disciplined management. Playing both offense and defense. And more. Running a successful campaign is perhaps the best evidence that a candidate is an effective manager.
Even President Bush has been a successful manager, both of his campaigns and his administration. He achieved much of what he desired in spite of institutional constraints and Democratic opposition. The problem with Bush’s management is that he managed toward the wrong ends. We would have been better off if he was a poorer manager.
Another
major factor in successful management is timing. Timing is a major component of Nelson Mandela’s principles of leadership. One advantage of Barack Obama’s grass roots
organizing is that it quietly creates the infrastructure for getting out the
vote, but doesn’t actually get out the vote until the election. The polls didn’t show Obama’s strength in
If a candidate’s support is apparent too long before an election, his supporters may take his victory for granted and slack off their efforts. His opponent’s supporters may give up, but they may attempt more risky strategies which may work. It is best for a candidate’s peak support to occur right at the election. I believe that may be what is happening now. As we enter the get out the vote phase of our election, people who are now considered less likely to vote will be stimulated to vote for Obama. I believe he will do better than the polls suggest.
As Barack Obama has only recently gained an increasing lead in the polls, John McCain’s campaign has been throwing more ‘Hail Mary’ passes, which so far have hurt instead of helping McCain. By selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate, he gained support among Republicans. But it is costing him support among Independents and Democrats. His ‘Sarah Palin’ Hail Mary pass was caught, then fumbled without reaching the goal line.
McCain’s second ‘Hale Mary’ pass was his meddling in the bailout negotiations. It has harmed him. The pass was intercepted by Barack Obama’s calm deliberation and well timed assistance. He is now attempting a third ‘Hale Mary’ pass to focus attention on Obama’s past associations. This didn’t work for Hillary Clinton and won’t work for McCain. I don’t foresee any October surprise that McCain can create that will slow Obama’s momentum. Obama has played an excellent defense as well as offense.
Here’s the Beef
Another example of Democrats’ superior grass roots organizing
John McCain’s campaign accuses Obama of guilt by association. What about McCain’s associates?
Freedom’s Watch is a major Republican Swift Boating Organization, attacking Democratic candidates.
Barack Obama moves ahead in more states.
Barack Obama’s campaign produces video showing John McCain’s role in our economic crisis (video).
John McCain has repeatedly voted against legislation to protect against anti-choice terrorists.
Cindy Sheehan lambastes Nancy Pelosi (video).
State and Local
Endorsements
for General Election Candidates
What You Should
Know About Our
The Secretary of State is our chief
elections officer.
The Secretary of State’s duty is to make certain that
Sam Reed is the incumbent
Secretary of State. Although in 2004 he
oversaw one of the biggest election foul-ups in the history of the State of
There is much more to know about Sam Reed than meets the eye.
In 2002 Sam Reed
authorized paperless touch screen
voting machines, identical to models that have been decertified and banned in
Just last month (August 2008), Premier Election Systems (formerly Diebold Elections) announced that there was a flaw in their software that could cause votes to be lost if more than one memory card was uploaded at the same time. Diebold had been telling the election officials who have previously brought this to their attention for years, that the problem was an incompatibility with the virus software on the tabulating processors!
Reed relies on
federal “certification” and Logic and Accuracy tests as proof of security. Both
certification and the L&A tests have been proven meaningless for
security by organizations such as the
Sam Reed boasts
about removing 400,000 voters from the voter rolls without explaining why or
how these people were determined to be disqualified. Voter purges have
been used to manipulate elections. For more. For more. The Republican candidate for Governor,
Dino Rossi, has thanked Reed, and has
stated that he will benefit from Reed’s voter purges. (Kitsap Sun, March 15,
2008)
Sam Reed claims to
promote transparent government. However,
in order to verify that the 400,000 removals are legitimate, it takes special
technical expertise, a large capacity computer, special database software, and
a trained
As voters we are not
permitted to write our name on our ballot because it destroys the secret
ballot. Sam Reed, however, says it is ok
for the government to ignore the requirement of secrecy and to essentially
place your name (voter ID # or other unique identifier) on your ballot using a
barcode. Citizens in
The contract for
this barcode software was granted to VoteHere, a company headed up by Reed’s
mentor and Republican crony Ralph Munro.
It was a sole source no bid
contract for software that was only in the early development
stages. Taxpayers paid for untested
software. No one even knew if it worked – in fact it did not, which led to the
above mentioned lawsuit.
Once the barcode lawsuit was filed, Reed immediately repealed WAC 434-230-180 which stated “…There shall be no marks on the ballot cards which would distinguish an individual voter’s ballot card from other ballot cards.” The lawsuit claims the barcodes violate RCW 29A.36.11 (“No paper ballot or ballot card may be marked in any way that would permit the identification of the person who voted that ballot,”) and RCW 29A.36.115 (“Bar codes on provisional and absentee ballots must not identify the voter.”)
A few years ago,
Reed devised a highly restrictive procedure that required that voter registrations
be compared with Department of Motor Vehicle files. If they did not match the
registration would be cancelled. This plan was struck down by the court because
it would improperly disenfranchise voters. Two years ago the state legislature
enacted a law that requires voters to present ID at polling locations. A variety of forms of ID are permitted –
photo ID is not required. Nevertheless,
Sam Reed’s TV, radio and on-line public service announcements stated that
“photo ID is required.” Not until there was a public outcry did Reed
change the announcements to reflect actual law.
There is a pattern here in Sam Reed’s actions
in office, and it is not one that supports election integrity as we know it.
Why Election Integrity Activists
Should Support Jason Osgood
ü
First
and foremost, he’s one of us.
ü
Jason
Osgood is an election integrity activist who has walked the walk as well as
talking the talk. He’s not a politician
who has found election integrity to be a convenient cause to embrace in order
to be elected to a higher office.
ü
Jason
Osgood co-founded Washington Citizens for Fair Elections, a major elections
watchdog group in his home state.
ü
Jason
Osgood serves as a technical/computer consultant to a number of national
election integrity activists. He gives
freely of his time in the pursuit of fair elections.
ü
Jason
Osgood has spent considerable amounts of time preparing and lobbying
legislators during session. He
understands
ü
Jason
Osgood understands systems and technology, and has major project management
experience. He knows that elections are
a complex process, all the more reasons for straightforward solutions and
simple, not complex and secret, technology.
ü
Jason
Osgood has the personnel management skills from his years of managing complex
project teams to effectively run an office with approximately 370 employees, as
the Office of the Secretary of State has.
ü
Jason
Osgood will be the change we have been demanding of our election
officials. He will be a national leader
in election reform from within the National Organization of Secretaries of
State.
ü
Last
but not least, Jason Osgood is ONE OF US. For more (video). For
more.
As in
"The Wizard of Oz," I wish a good witch could wave a magic wand and
spare us from the economic crisis gripping our nation. That's not going to
happen, so Congress has approved a $700 billion plan to stabilize the financial
markets. Absent in the debate about where we go from here is how skyrocketing
health care costs have contributed to the financial instability of American
workers.
Medical
costs are putting many hardworking families in serious financial danger.
Consider this:
·
Health care costs are
inflating three times faster than wages and the Consumer Price Index.
·
From 2000 to 2007, the
average annual premium for job-based family health coverage rose from $6,351 to
$12,106 -- a 90 percent increase, of which the worker paid 25 percent.
·
In 1980, health care
costs were 9 percent of Gross Domestic Product -- today they're 16 percent and
they are expected to exceed 20 percent in a few more years.
·
Other industrialized
nations spend about half as much, even though they cover everyone and have much
better health outcomes.
·
A survey released by the
Commonwealth Fund in early August found 82 percent of Americans believe our
nation's health care delivery system should be fundamentally changed or
completely rebuilt.
As
chairwoman of the Senate Health & Long-Term Care Committee, I'm constantly
asked, "What can we do to change the system so that it's more
equitable?" For starters, we must contain costs. For example,
administration now eats up 30 cents of every health care dollar. Doctors say
they spend two hours a day dealing with different insurance forms and coverage
questions. In contrast, the "government-run" Medicare program has an
average 4 cents on-the-dollar administrative cost.
Senate
Bill 6333, which the Legislature passed this year, calls for an actuarial study
to estimate savings for my proposal, which I call the Health Freedom Act, and
five other reform proposals. This report, due in December, will give us the
bottom line on how much we can save if we undertake real health care reform.
Significant
changes can be made at the state level to ease the burden on families, but
federal leadership is also needed. As our government struggles to restore
financial health, we must also find a way to achieve health care that doesn't
threaten to bankrupt American families. The clock is ticking.
State
Senator Karen Keiser, D-Kent, 33rd Legislative District and chairwoman of the Health & Long-Term
Care Committee
Basic Education Funding Proposal - The Highlights – For complete Proposal.
Representatives
Hunter, Sullivan, Jarrett, Priest, and Anderson and Senator Tom
Goal: A new model of financing “Basic
Education” – the state’s Constitutional responsibility to make ample provision
of the opportunity for all students to meet state learning goals.
Key
Principles:
·
Begin with the End in Mind. Each child in the state should receive an education that
prepares them to succeed in the 21st Century. All students should make at least
one academic year of progress each school year. Disadvantaged students will
need significantly more support to allow them to catch up to their more
advantaged peers.
·
Teacher Quality Matters Most. We must implement a comprehensive and coordinated system
of educator evaluation, mentoring, certification, and compensation, all focused
on improvement of student learning.
·
Build a Coherent and Transparent Structure. Funding must be based on factors
that matter and make sense. Initially, the overall structure of the finance
system is as important as the numeric variables that drive resources.
·
Provide Flexibility with Accountability. Districts should have authority to
make spending decisions and the obligation to explain to their citizens why
their decisions may differ from the state’s assumptions. Financial and student
data systems must be improved.
·
Rely on the Best Available Information. The model must draw from multiple
sources, including research, best practices, and other available information to
create a rational basis that a reasonable person could agree would provide the
opportunity for a Basic Education.
Components:
·
A
Program of Education based on staffing and resources to support prototypical
schools.
·
Changing
Teaching: coordinated evaluation, mentoring, certification, and compensation
·
Improved
Equity and Accountability
·
A
plan for Phased-in Implementation and Revenue to support the new system.
At the end of the day, it will be up to the Legislature to make the key
policy and funding decisions. The model is designed to permit the rich policy
debate these issues deserve.
Finance
Model for a Program of Education
·
Builds
a model from the school level based on four prototypical schools: high (grades
9-12), middle (grades 7-8), elementary (grades 4-6),and primary (grades K-3).
·
Illustrates
the impact of key decisions such as class size, time for planning and
professional development, student demographics, and Core 24 graduation
requirements. Based on these factors, calculates the number of teachers needed
in the school.
·
For
high school, recognizes smaller class sizes for CTE, lab science, AP/IB
courses.
·
Provides
resources for additional instruction:
°
Based
on the percent and concentrations of low income students, and for ELL students.
Allows districts to choose staffing and assistance strategies, using a
combination of teachers and/or instructional aides.
°
For
special education, using the current multiplier (.9309) but an expanded funding
base and continuing the safety net at a statewide level.
°
To
enable enhanced learning opportunities for gifted students.
°
To
address dropout prevention and Career and Technical Education.
·
Provides
for on-line learning through a common state-provided website.
·
Includes
explicit assumptions about other building-level instructional and administrative
staff: principals, librarians, nurses, counselors, and instructional coaches.
Allows districts to justify actual staffing decisions to their communities and
through the accountability system.
·
Allocates
building staff not already covered by other aspects of the model:
non-instructional aides, secretaries, student safety, custodians. Acknowledges
that, more than for other staff, classified staff must be compensated in a
competitive market and bases allocations on current average salaries initially,
adjusted by labor market surveys for comparable jobs in the future.
·
Provides
funding for Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs on a per-student basis,
based on common-sense categories that can be adjusted at different inflation
rates to reflect real marketplace costs for items like curriculum and library
materials, utilities, insurance, security, maintenance, and central office.
·
Creates
a specific allocation for instructional technology, including computers,
whiteboards, video, software, technical support, and training. Shifts
administrative technology and online learning to state-provided databases and a
single common access point.
·
Assumes
an overhead allocation of 6 percent (for the time being) for central
administration, with variation for very large or small districts. Expects small
districts to rely on ESDs.
Changing
Teaching – Evaluation, Mentoring, Certification & Compensation
·
Implements
a new statewide evaluation and certification system based on the research that
links teaching practice with improved student learning. Relies on multiple
measures of performance, scored by teachers outside the district who are
trained and certified as evaluators, as well as NBPTS certification.
·
Builds
a new compensation system for new teachers, with starting wages and the upper
end of the salary range to be competitive in the labor market. Provides
compensation increases as teachers demonstrate additional competency based on
this system. Creates a salary schedule that recognizes certification and
responsibilities rather than degree attainment.
·
Develops
a significant mentoring program for new teachers and those who need additional
support, with trained and certified mentors and operated through an ESD
network.
·
To
attract new teachers in areas of significant undersupply, provides new
compensation tools including loan forgiveness, and bonuses for hard-to-serve
areas and hard-to-staff fields. Provides regional wage adjustments based on
competitive labor market analysis.
·
Rewards
student learning gains in each school with a building-based bonus for achieving
annual student learning goals (based on improvement and growth).
·
Provides
current teachers with the option to move to the new system, at least for some
time.
Equity –
A General and Uniform System
·
Provides
significant additional resources based on low-income and ELL students.
·
Removes
long-standing inequities from the current finance system that lack a rational
basis:
°
Eliminates
grandfathering of teacher salaries over the long-term with a new compensation
plan that is attractive, has no grandfathering, and has an eventual deadline.
In the short-term, slows the rate of increase in salary allocations for
grandfathered districts over a four-year period until the other districts catch
up.
°
Alters
the assumptions for administrator and classified salary allocations such that
grandfathering is not an issue.
·
Phases-in
a 30% levy lid, accompanied by additional state funding for Basic Education and
a modernized levy equalization system to ensure that all districts have per-student
funding within a defined range no district puts a disproportionate burden on
its taxpayers.
Accountability
·
Creates
a coherent system of school and district accountability, based on the work of
the State Board of Education, including creation of a multiple-factor
accountability index to place schools in five tiers of performance, from
Exemplary to Priority. Proposes a tiered system of assistance and support, with
a significant focus on chronically underperforming Priority schools.
·
Provides
financial accountability through a common, state-provided budgeting and
accounting system, which should also serve as an efficiency measure and save
costs.
·
Enables
monitoring of student progress through a state-provided diagnostic testing
system used by all districts and improves data collection with a state-provided
student information system that seamlessly connects information about students,
test scores, teachers, and courses.
Transition
and Revenue
·
Proposes
to phase-in the model and resources over a six-year period.
·
Expects
the specifics of the model and the changes in resources to be specified in
statute to ensure the phase-in occurs.
·
Estimates
that some of the additional cost can be funded by taking a larger percentage of
the natural growth in the state budget. Expects K-12 funding to return to 50
percent of the overall budget.
Eastside Needs N-S More than Bellevue-Seattle Transit
Home-Work person trips to Downtown Bellevue in 2030 are projected to be:
· 32% from the north mostly via I-405
· 17% from the south mostly via I-405
·
16% from
·
10% from
· 7% from Issaquah and east
·
18% from within
Only 16% come
across
These facts suggest that our Eastside’s greatest transit needs are connecting our work-shopping-residential concentrations through using our I-405 corridor and links to it. This is reflected in the I-405 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Plan, which was adopted in 2003, but ignored by the 2007 and 2008 Proposition 1 proposals.
The BRT plan envisioned express
buses, but light rail should be included
where warranted by population densities and trip volumes. I understand that 10,000 people per square
mile is a suggested minimum for light rail.
Knowing that our 1 square mile
As gasoline prices increase, public transit will become more advantageous and necessary. Reduced low occupancy vehicle travel will reduce the need for more roadway capacity and its enormous environmental and other costs.
Our Sound Transit is now structured
so that each proposal must provide balanced benefits to
Proponents of our various proposals argue that delay will only increase the costs. But will the costs go up faster than inflation. If not, delay won’t cost us more in real dollars. I agree with State Representative Fred Jarrett that our planning and implementation of infrastructure projects is often too slow. But some of our delays have avoided bad projects and produced better ones.
I am not a transportation planner, but I hope that the broad argument that I have provided is essentially correct. I welcome any corrections and additional details. Dave Thomas
Read what the proponents of Proposition 1 say. See Sound Transit’s Proposition 1 flyer.
Barack Obama’s
Neighbor-to-Neighbor Program
Barack Obama’s
campaign now makes it easy for all of us to canvass to get out the vote. When you log in to their Neighbor-to-Neighbor
webpage, you'll see the resources that you need, including:
·
A list of voters in your neighborhood, or in a key
battleground state, who we need to reach out to
·
A script you can use in your conversations
·
A customized flyer you can distribute if you're going
door to door
·
Easy interfaces to report back the results of your
efforts to the campaign
·
Support and training to answer any questions along
the way
I believe this is a tremendous resource. But I have some suggestions for improving it.
I compared the list of 50 voters (in 31 households) in my precinct which I downloaded with information in our database which we have created through previous canvassing. It included 25 likely Democratic voters, 11 likely Republican voters and 14 voters who voting tendency is unknown. I need to visit the
14 voters with unknown voting tendencies to get the ones who are likely to vote for Democrats to vote. We need to visit the 25 likely Democratic voters to get them to vote (although in my special case, 10 of these receive our newsletter and will likely vote without extra stimulation). But I believe it is counter productive to visit likely Republican voters, which only reminds them to vote. Maybe the Obama campaign didn’t know that these were likely Republican voters, but if they did, they shouldn’t be in the list.
Our 48th Legislative District Coordinated Campaign Coordinator informed me that the canvassing was designed to elect all of our national, and state candidates, including state legislators. But the script, flyer and handout only concern Barack Obama and Governor Christine Gregoire. The script and flyer which we use in our Lake Hills canvassing concerns all of our Democratic candidates. Our other Democratic candidates are important. And so are Barack Obama’s coattails, so that when elected, he can easily work with a supportive congress.
Here’s the Beef
See who’s filing to
run for Washington state and federal offices.
Lots more new registered voters, hopefully most will vote for Democrats.
State Republican Chairman believes Republicans may win 2 Senate and 6 house seats, now Democratic
Democratic Kevin Ranker may defeat incumbent 42nd LD Republican Representative Steve Van Luven.
Seattle PI endorses Peter Goldmark for State Commissioner of
Public Lands.
Governor Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi clearly differ on Minimum Wage.
Governor Christine Gregoire forsakes Paid Family Leave.
Dino Rossi is sued for illegally coordinating fund raising with Building Industry of Washington. For more.
I-985 would divert tax revenues form Eastern to Western Washington. For more.
If encouraged, tens of thousands of green jobs could benefit our Pacific Northwest.
By 2038, 4.2 million green jobs may be added nationally to our present 0.75 million green jobs.
Tacoma considers plan to develop affordable housing.
Bye bye Washington Mutual. Bye bye Boeing. Bye Bye traffic congestion. Bye bye highway expansion.
Our Washington State DSHS allows 23,000 more Washington people to qualify for food stamps.
Hope for Homeowners program will help 400,000 mortgage holders avoid foreclosure.
Washington State Bar Association favors permitting same-sex marriages, for fairness.
Washington State Officials agree to help Immigration officials screen farm workers for documents.
Faced with declining revenues, states seek federal help. For more.
Nation
and World
The Bailout: The Good
and the Bad
The Bush Administration Department
originally presented a three-page
proposal, which would provide authority to spend $750 billion or more in
generally unspecified ways without congressional or judicial restraint. For more. Making an unusual framing mistake, they
called it a ‘bail-out bill’. The general
public was outraged.
Congressional leaders acted to
produce a 110 page proposal with more detail and restraints concerning the
bail-out. But it failed to pass the
house. Democratic house members voted
140-95 in favor. Republicans voted
133-65 against. For a total of 205 in
favor and 228 against. Our stock market
dropped by 777 points (Dow Jones
Average).
Our congressional leaders then
produced a
451 page proposal which contained a number of enticements, costing an
additional $150 billion:
·
An oversight board to supervise the program
·
Limits on how much executives may be paid
if their firms sell assets to the government
·
Increased Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
account coverage from $100 to $250 thousand.
·
shielded 24 million taxpayers from the
alternative minimum tax
·
required steps to help homeowners avoid
foreclosure
·
tax relief provisions for disaster victims
·
funding for rural counties with national
forests
·
deduction of state sales taxes from income
tax
· mental
health parity For
more. For
more. For
more.
·
tax credits for business research and
development
·
a hybrid car tax credit
·
tax credits for
carbon sequestration
·
tax breaks for teachers who spend their own
money on school supplies
·
dozens of other smaller tax breaks (like
earmarks) For
more.
The revised
Bailout bill passed the Senate 65-24. To
see individual Senate votes. Democrats
in the House favored the revised bill 172-63.
Republicans voted 108-91 against it.
33 Democrats had switched their votes to "yes," while one
Democrat changed his vote from "yes" to "no." Twenty-five Republicans switched to
"yes," and one other Republican voted "yes" Friday after
missing Monday's vote. To
see individual House votes. To
see campaign contributions congress members received from mortgage bankers and
brokers.
Twenty
five of 47 Democratic Blue Dogs voted for the bail-out the first time. In spite of the added provisions and unfunded
costs, it appears that more Blue Dogs voted for it the second time.
To demonstrate concern for
With lawmakers now heading home for
the fall campaign, Congress will wait until next year to consider tougher
regulations on financial institutions. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of
the House Financial Services Committee, said lawmakers will "do some
serious surgery on the financial structure."
For
more about the whole bail-out proposal.
See who
lobbied for the bail-out proposal.
As I have expressed before, I am uneasy with bailing
out the firms which have speculated to create our financial bubble and
collapse. If possible, I would instead
prefer to strengthen the (generally small) banks which avoided
speculating. I generally favor the
enticements which were added to the proposal before the second vote.
The major exception is reducing the alternative
minimum income tax, which makes our income tax more regressive. The alternative minimum income tax doesn’t
allow wealthy people to deduct the interest on their large mortgages on their
mansions and restricts their ability to take advantage of other tax loopholes.
A
We need to change from our present Borrow and
Consume (and Speculate) Economy to our previous Earn and Invest Economy. In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt
confronted a financial system collapse similar to our present one. There are also differences between the two
collapses, but they similarly resulted from insufficiently regulated financial
speculation.
Unlike our Bush Administration,
Why are both Republican and Democratic congress
members convinced that we must save failing financial companies, whose greedy
risky speculation hurt both
Part of the problem is that not only Wall Street,
but also
But we have seen in
Those who want bailouts will argue that without
them, our suffering will be catastrophic.
And that while we can find money for bailouts, we don’t have enough for
rebuilding. They are wrong. We have lots of wealth (even after our debts
are subtracted from our assets). We have
much misdirected wealth which can be redirected to investments which create
jobs doing what
We are greatly in debt, compared to our debt before
the Reagan-Bush-Bush era. But we are not
nearly as much in debt (compared to our national production) as we were
immediately following World War I. Just
as we did then, we can invest to grow our economy, so as to diminish our
relative debt. We need to learn from our
past. Isn’t it strange how little we
have heard comparisons of our present situation and the one
As Barack Obama has said (perhaps not loudly
enough), we need to not just change some of our behaviors, we need to change
our mindset. For more. Our citizens (who aren’t as influenced by
Wall Street lobbyists as our Legislators) are resisting bailouts. But we haven’t changed our mindset to
recognize the changes that we must make not only to our economic institutions,
but also to our own lifestyles.
We can grow our economy, without growing our
spiritually and environmentally harmful consumption. We can grow our economy by greatly improving
the way we care for ourselves and each other: our health, our education, our
work places, our retirement, our leisure and our relations with each
other. In our free society, we have
jillions of relevant experiments and demonstration projects. Many more examples
can be found in other societies. What an
adventure it can be to embark on a great transformation (even with the
uncertainty and pain which struggle involves).
We are tougher than we sometimes look or feel. God Bless
William Greider says we must borrow ideas and
models from the New Deal, including:
·
Stop the easy-money bailout
·
Help the folks who are hurting – directly
·
Get serious about economic stimulus – create
needed jobs. For
more. For more. For more. More.
·
Re-regulate the bad actors and indict the criminals
·
Create a new brain for government management of the economy.
Howard
Zinn argues for a Roosevelt solution to our present financial crisis. For
more. For
more. For
more. For
more. For
more. Local community banks do
less speculation, earn less money and are less vulnerable to failure.
Strengthening Our Good Banks
The British Government has
announced that it will offer the Royal Bank of
Ouch! Reducing Our Speculative Gains Is Painful
We are rapidly losing our speculative gains in the
values of our houses and stocks. For more. In the long run, this is good. In the short run, it hurts. We wouldn’t mind so much if we had been
receiving the wages we earned through our productivity. But these were stolen by our employers and
financial companies.
We need to quickly restore our fair earnings. More jobs (maintaining and improving our
physical and social infrastructure; creating non-carbon sources of energy;
development of new medical and other technologies, and more). Better pay through stimulating unionization,
increasing our minimum wage and earned income tax credit. Reducing unfair prices through increased
competition by restricting oligopolies. Restoring fair earnings must be the primary immediate thrust
of our Obama Administration. Fortunately, this will be politically
popular.
A
Better Investment Plan
If you had purchased
$1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you would have $49.00 today.
If you had purchased
$1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you would have $33.00 today.
If you had purchased
$1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you would have $0.00 today.
But, if you had purchased
$1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the
aluminum cans for a recycling refund, you would have received $214.00.
Based on the above, the best
current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle - It is called the
401-Keg plan.
Here’s
the Beef
Our best personal bailout plan is to live within our incomes.
A website concerned with educating us about factors contributing to our economic decline.
Conservatives have blamed Community Reinvestment Act for fraudulent mortgages. They’re wrong.
States respond to utility shutoffs resulting from unpaid bills for more expensive energy.
Relieve the shortage of primary care doctors by paying their education expenses.
House Democrats unveil climate change plan.
One fourth of all mammals face extinction.
Many of our concerns will lead international trade to become major issue.
United States is asked to receive more Iraqi refugees.
Our Liberal Spirit
Personal Finances: Then and Now.
When I finished my formal education
in 1965, I had no unpaid student loans.
I bought a 2400 square feet Victorian house in
How times change. Sunday’s newspaper described the finances of many young college graduates today. They have large student loans and often credit card debt as well. Even with 5-6 times the income I began with, they cannot afford our far more expensive houses. Many are returning to live with their parents.
We don’t want to return to the financial conditions of 1965. But our economic productivity is much higher than it was then, so we should be able to live better. We need to make college education affordable. To have workers receive a fair share of what they produce. To have housing prices 20% lower in keeping with historical ratios of typical house price to family income. To keep our consumption within our incomes. This is the direction in which we must go, with the help of our president and congress.
Financial pundits (who have a vested interest in selling stocks) are mostly advising us to not panic. Don’t bail out of stocks. The value of stocks will increase in the long run. But as Maynard Keynes said, “In the long run, we’re dead.” Now that stocks have lost 40% of their value, the pundits may be right. It may be that stocks won’t fall much further. And if Obama can revive our economy, stocks may begin to increase again. The time to panic was one year ago, when the stock market was at its high (Dow Jones of 14,000. But who can time the market’s highs or lows? The good news for our economy is that stocks are much closer to where they should be in relation to company earnings (measured by P/E ratios).
Recommended Books – See our list of books for
liberals
Arthur M. "Schlesinger, Jr.,
1957, The Crisis of the Old Order: 1919-33, The Age of
Arthur M. "Schlesinger, Jr.,
1958, The Coming of the New Deal: 1933-35, The Age of Roosevelt, Vol. II
Arthur M. "Schlesinger, Jr.,
1960, The Politics of Upheaval: 1935-36, The Age of Roosevelt, Vol. III
Harvard Sitkoff (ed), 1985, Fifty Years Later, The New Deal Evaluated
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