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Contents * Featured Articles Calendars of Events Communication with Our Members Opportunities Petitions Commentaries from Our Members Fred Jarrett & Kristin Anderson: Promote Clean Cars Larry Kalb: Health Care Incrementalism Robs Education Valerie Tarico: 36 Biblical Capital Punishment Offenses Darcy Burner: What I’m Doing Now Larry Phillips: County Executive Campaign Update Liberals and Democrats Links to the Beef Liberal Demographic Groups Are Growing* Obama Watch – Week 14 (April 21 -28) President Obama’s First 100 Days* Obama Administration Environmental Policy Changes* What President Obama Has Done for Working Families* Groups that Oppose Employee Free Choice Act State and Local Links
to the Beef Featured Advocacy Group: Drug Policy Alliance What President Obama Has Done for
Washington Nation and World Links to the Beef Don’t Personally Bailout Banks Our Liberal Spirit Our
Political Priorities ·
Fair Clean
Elections and Open Government ·
Fair Taxes and
Competent Spending ·
Investment for
Productivity ·
Quality
Health, Education, Jobs, Income ·
Environmental
Protection and Energy Independence ·
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 5 Major Needs ·
Federal
Funding for Health and Education · Substitute
a Progressive Income Tax · Replacing
Conservative Legislators Quote of the Week I’m young. Therefore, I can. Dave
Thomas
Calendar of Events
Friday, May 1 at 3:30 PM
at St. Mary's Church (
The Washington State
Department of Early Learning will hold two
public hearings on the state’s draft
two-year plan for the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF),
which helps promote accessible, affordable, quality child care around the
state.
·
Help low-income
families find and pay for child care.
·
Fund activities
to improve the quality of child care.
·
Fund child care
resource and referral services for parents and caregivers.
·
Provide training
for child care providers.
The
hearings will be held on:
Monday, May 4 at 4 – 7 PM at
Tuesday, May 5 at 4 – 7 PM at Kent DEL Office Tahoma Room, (1313 W. Meeker,
Tuesday, May 13 at 7 PM at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center (Yesler
and 17th Avenue South, Seattle) – Free Educational Forum:
Afghanistan: Giving Peace a Chance, presented by Abe Keller Peace Education Fund
and SNOW, featuring Tamim Ansary,
Cabeire DeBerghe Robinson and Stephen Zunes.
Co-sponsors: American Friends Service
Committee, Justice and Peace Committee of
Saturday, May 30 at 12:30 PM at
Communication
with Our Members
We now have hundreds of members from
beyond Puget Sound, including
Opportunities
and Petitions
Useful
Websites: contacts, maps, community organizing tools, and more.
Access
to jillions of political cartoons.
Download
Sightline Institute’s climate policy primer ‘Cap and Trade 101’. About
Sightline.
Conduct your own home energy audit.
See all of President Obama’s
weekly (Saturday) addresses.
Petitions
Tell
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to save the Endangered Species Act.
Tell
your senators to oppose directional oil drilling in the Artic Refuge.
Tell
your house member to Co-sponsor the
Save American Energy Act.
Tell
your senators to support funding for housing for low income people.
Commentaries
From Our Members
Fred
Jarrett & Kristine Anderson: EPA & Legislature Must Promote Clean Cars
Published by
In our nation’s
capital the Environmental Protection Agency, now under new management, is
finally reconsidering allowing states to adopt stricter emissions standards
than those laid out by the federal government. More than a dozen states,
including
But we’re not
stopping there. The Senate Transportation Committee has worked hard this
session to make sure that Washington state is a responsible user of resources-
including introducing legislation that will go considerably farther by
promoting the use of biofuels and electric hybrids. This measure will require
biofuels and electricity combined to make up 40 percent of all fuel used in
state vehicles, vessels and construction equipment by 2013, reducing our
state’s dependence on foreign oil.
The bill also
would require the state to install electric charging outlets in all parking and
maintenance facilities for state vehicles and at all state-operated highway
rest stops by 2015. Along with Senate bill 5736 that would authorize a sales
tax exemption for new electric vehicles, we can make sure that electric
vehicles are both practical and affordable. And if doing all this in the name
of environmental stewardship weren’t justification enough, this measure will
create jobs in what has become a growth industry.
Yet despite all
our progress on new electric vehicle technology, the simplest means we have to
cut our oil use - better fuel economy - is still unavailable to us unless the
EPA rules in favor of clean cars. The argument is clear: the gas savings alone
would keep $5.4 million in the pockets of
The EPA has
already heard from car industry executives who assert that new regulations will
toll the death knell for their industry, and it’s only a matter of time before
the Washington State Legislature hears from them, too. They’ve sung the same
tune about every regulation ever imposed on them going back to requiring that
all cars have seatbelts.
But to do our
best for
Sen. Fred Jarrett is a member of the Senate Transportation Committee
and represents the 41st Legislative District, part of which includes
Larry Kalb: Health Care Incrementalism Robs Our Kids’
Education
Two weeks ago I pulled out an 8-1/2 by 11 postcard
from the clutches of my tiny mailbox at the post office. It was from the
Washington Education Association. Their message was splashed across the face of
the card which read: “$1 billion in classroom cuts will set our kids’ education
back at least 10 years.”
Having worked on operating and capital budgets for
more than a dozen years for public agencies, I know that the cost of health
care benefits is a critical factor in determining which programs are funded or
cut entirely. Rather than talk about how these costs affect our economy in
general, I am going to focus on education because, frankly, the quality of our
society’s human resource is vital to the social and economic development of
future generations to come.
Let me help you connect the financial dots to better
grasp what is going on here. Your local School Board announces to the public
that that there is a budget shortfall due to the escalation in health care
inflation. In order to balance the budget, the Board decides to eliminate some
full-time positions for teachers, teacher training programs, classroom aides,
crossing guards, and even school nurses. But the Board doesn’t stop there. It
also cuts classroom supplies, textbooks, and technology as well as discontinuing
band and swimming programs and deferring building maintenance. To bolster the
flow of a revenue stream for operations, the Board wants you, the voters, to
approve a new tax levy. Once approved,
your property taxes go up. The lingering question is: “When is this vicious
cycle going to stop robbing our kids’ future of a decent education and draining
education of the funding that it so desperately needs?”
Here’s the deal, folks. As long as we keep marching
down the historical road of incremental health care reform as one happy family,
I will guarantee you that even more cuts are on the way, but they will be
deeper than ever and they will really hurt for a long time. Ironically, some
people in our community are so afraid of reforming our health care system that,
unbeknownst to them, they are directly burdening themselves with higher
property taxes to keep the local school operating until there is another call
for another tax levy because of health care inflation. Thus the practice of
incrementalism in health care reform is leading us down the path of defunding
public education.
Just look at
Robbing Peter to pay Paul or as I see it, robbing our
kids’ education to pay the bank robber, the insurance companies, is an
incremental failure of major proportions.
As the saying goes, things won’t change until the pain
of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. Have we now learned
enough by cutting funding for education just to make the insurance companies happy?
Here’s what you can do. Join Health Care for All –
Washington and be part of that change to reinvest in our kids’ educational
future. Who is going to do it for you, if you don’t? Larry
Kalb, President. Health Care for All - Washington
Valerie Tarico: 36
Biblical Capital Punishment Offenses
Cursing Parents
For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to
death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.
Leviticus 20:9
Working on the Sabbath Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall
surely be put to death. Exodus 31:15
Premarital Sex (girls only)
. . .If, however, this charge is true, that evidence of the young woman's
virginity was not found, then they shall bring the young woman out to the
entrance of her father's house and the men of her town shall stone her to
death, Deuteronomy 22:20
Disobedience (boys only)
If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and
mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and
his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town
at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, "This
son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton
and a drunkard." Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death.
Deuteronomy 21:18
Worshipping any god but Yahweh
If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God
giveth thee, man or woman, that . . . hath gone and served other gods, and
worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I
have not commanded; . . .Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman,
which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that
woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. Deuteronomy 17:2-5
Witches
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Exodus 22: 18
Wizards (epileptics? migraine sufferers? schizophrenics?)
A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall
surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be
upon them. Leviticus 20:27
Loose
Daughters of Clergy
And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore,
she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire. Leviticus 21:9
Girls who are Raped within the City Limits
If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her
in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate
of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not
cry out in the city . . . But if in the field the man finds the girl who is
engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies
with her shall die. Deuteronomy 22:23-25
Blasphemers
And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death,
and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he
that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put
to death. Leviticus 24:16
Anyone Who Tries to Deconvert Yahweh Worshipers
If anyone secretly entices you--even if it is your brother, your father's son
or your mother's son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or
your most intimate friend--saying, "Let us go worship other gods," .
. . you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to
execute them. Deuteronomy 12:6
Men who Lie With Men
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed
an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon
them. Leviticus 20:13
Adulterers
And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that
committeth adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress
shall surely be put to death. And the man that lieth with his father's wife
hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to
death; their blood shall be upon them. And if a man lie with his daughter in
law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion;
their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20: 10-12
Men who Lie with Beasts and Beasts who Lie with Men
And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall
slay the beast. Leviticus 20:15
So. Are you up for the
death penalty?
Just so you know, it
could be worse. As I am reminded by people who want me to make nice, this list
represents an advancement from mob justice. They are right, and the Levitical
Code would a fascinating window into human moral history were it not for the
fact that juries in Texas, politicians in Colorado, and clergy in Africa all
advocate the death penalty for one person or another on the basis of these
texts (murderers, homosexuals, and child witches respectively).
When people put God's
name on Bronze Age documents, and then make those documents a golden calf, they
get stuck with Bronze Age moral thinking. Maybe it's time to take the Bible down off of its pedestal, and acknowledge the obvious human handprints on the texts. Maybe it's
even time to do again what Thomas Jefferson did: cut the book apart,
keep the parts that are worth keeping, and leave the rest on
the floor in the cutting room of history.
Valerie Tarico
Darcy Burner: What I’m
Doing Now
Many of you have been asking what I'm doing now that
the election is over. I told you that I would never stop fighting for
progressive ideals, and I won't.
I'm happy to announce that I've just taken a job in DC as the executive
director of a 501c(3) non-profit organization called the American Progressive
Caucus Policy Foundation, where I'll be spending my time bringing together
progressives inside and outside of Congress to help advance the things we care
about: peace and global security, energy independence, environmental
sustainability, human rights, civil liberties and the health and economic
well-being of us all.
It's a fledgling organization, but I'm incredibly excited about the opportunity
to work every day for the principles we've been fighting for. (You can find
more information about the organization at www.progressivecongress.org. If you want to help, contact me.)
In my personal capacity, separate from this non-profit, I'll also continue to
be engaged in progressive political advocacy. (More on this very soon!) All my best, as always, Darcy Burner
Larry Phillips:
David, as
April draws to a close, I'd like to let you know what the campaign has been up
to this month. After meeting with 14 different legislative districts and
sharing my vision for
Light Rail's First Day
We're
getting closer and closer to opening day
for Link light rail and I am proud that our region has
shown its support for efficient and reliable mass transit. It was
exciting to be present at the groundbreaking for the U-Link extension – one
day, we'll be able to ride from SeaTac to
Preserving Our Open Spaces
Working with the Department of Natural Resources,
Cascade Land Conservancy, Mountains to Sound Greenway, and others, I
co-sponsored a bill to help preserve 7,000 acres of open space at the head of
the
Supporting Transit Options
We must ensure that people continue to have access
to the transportation options they need. That's why I asked Metro to
identify options to retain a bus route between
Importance of Public Health
While we hope that we will never have to respond
to a public health crisis, in 2005, I co-sponsored legislation to put into
place safeguards to help protect the public in case of a major flu
outbreak.
Upcoming Candidate Forums
There are a couple of candidate forums in May
that I hope you'll be able to attend.
- King County
Democrats, May 5th, 7:30pm
- Alki
Foundation, May 7th, 7:00am
Larry Phillips, King County Councilman
Liberals
and Democrats
Four Political Strategies
Do Nothing
In
spite of the massive collapse of our economy produced by implementation of
Market Fundamentalist Conservative policies (tax cuts, deregulation and
privatization of risk), Conservatives deny reality by arguing that we must
continue such policies.
Recreate Our Bubble
Both
Wall Streeters and Main Streeters who benefited (at least temporarily) from our
borrow, spend and speculate bubble favor bailouts to allow largely unregulated
credit and speculation to again increase.
They hope we can regain the high housing and stock prices and sales of
autos and other consumer goods and services that we temporarily experienced.
Perfectionists
and Pragmatists recognize that we must change from Borrow, Consume and Speculate to Earn, Conserve and Invest.
Perfection
Perfectionists
want to push for immediate comprehensive changes, in both economic and other
policies. They favor quickly supporting
unionization, strengthening our health (through adopting a single-payer health
care coverage system), education and other infrastructure and safety net
services, comprehensive conservation and non-carbon based energy, prosecuting
Bush administration officials who violated our laws and bring our troops home
from both Iraq and Afghanistan. They
constantly worry
that President Obama doesn’t intend to go far enough and is proceeding too
slowly. For more.
Pragmatic Changes
Pragmatists
want to insure that Conservatives, Wall Street and ‘K’ Street interests don’t
stop progress toward the same reforms that perfectionists want. They are willing to compromise in ways that
provide for some reforms now and provide for more reforms later. President Obama appears to be a pragmatist on
many issues. He will accept health care
reform which preserves and private insurance for those consumers who want it
while providing a public health care option which out compete private
options. For
more. He may accept promoting
non-carbon based energy while penalizing carbon based energy. He will leave troops in
I
want perfection. But I support President
Obama’s pragmatism as long as I see continued progress. It appears that our 2010 budget, health care
and environmental reform will pass this year to provide Obama the public
support that will enable him to continue making reforms during the next 3
years. If he does not continue to
promote more reforms, I will then join the perfectionists who push for more
comprehensive reforms.
My
pragmatism stems in large part from having watched many reform attempts fail
because they reached too far. I think it
would be a disaster to for health, energy, education, military or other reforms
fail completely this year. Obama has an
excellent track record during his first 100 days. I am guessing that he may continue to make
the progress he is proposing.
Incidentally,
I don’t regard perfectionists as being more Liberal than pragmatists. I regard myself as comprehensively Liberal
and regard perfections and pragmatists as simply differing concerning the most
effective political strategy to achieve their shared objectives.
Liberal Demographic Groups Are Growing
Based
on a survey of Americans’ responses to 40 statements about government and
society (split evenly between Liberal and Conservative attitudes),
Conservative/Liberal scores were computed for 24 demographic groups, as
follows:
247.1 Liberal Democrats
244.0 2008 Obama voters
242.3 Liberals
237.7 Democrats
237.6 Progressives
228.4 Latinos
227.0 Post-graduate education
224.3 African Americans
221.1 News primary from internet/blogs
218.7 Under 20
217.4 Moderates
214.3 Women
212.7 Independents
210.8 Catholics
209.5 All Americans
206.4 High school or less education
204.3 Men
203.7 Whites
203.4 News primarily from national TV
200.7 Over 64
196.4 Baptists
177.9 Conservatives
169.0 2008 McCain voters
168.4 Republicans
160.6 Conservative Republicans
In
the range from 0 to 400, 5 groups have scores between 196.4 and 160.6 and 19
groups have scores between 200.7 and 247.1, with the overall mean = 209.5. Most groups have Liberal scores. The fasted growing groups have Liberal scores. Numbers of Hispanics (228.4), highly educated
(227.0), millennial generation (218.7), and single women are all
increasing. The number of White less
educated males is declining.
By
geography, the scores are Northeast (217.6), West (213.0), Central (207.2) and
South (204.6). Urban areas scored 216.6,
suburban areas 205.8 and rural areas 198.0.
Rapidly growing metropolitan areas are becoming more Liberal.
These
demographic changes explain why more attention is being paid to health care,
education and energy and less to religious and sexual issues. We can expect government to play a larger
role in our economy (infrastructure and safety net) and a smaller role concerning
our religion and sex. These demographic
changes are the basis for a durable political Liberal majority. For
more.
In 2010, elections will be held 19 Republican held
seats and 15 Democratic held seats. Five
Republicans (Christopher Bond (MO). Sam Brownback (KS), Judd Gregg
(NH), Mel Martinez (FL) and George Voinovich (OH)) and one Democrat (Ted Kaufman (DE) have so far said they are retiring. For more. On Tuesday, President Obama welcomed Senator
Arlen Specter’s switch to our Democratic Party, promising to help him win
re-election. For
more. For
more.
Obama Watch – Week 14 (April 21 – 28)
Also go to Whitehouse.gov.
Aren’t you glad Katrina George isn’t in charge of
responding to our swine flu threat?
On
Tuesday, congress
began work on President Obama’s environmental proposals.
On Thursday, President Obama
met with credit card executives, chastising them for the consumer
abuses. Both
houses of congress are preparing regulatory legislation.
President Obama’s Saturday
weekly address emphasized fiscal discipline. He called on federal employees to identify
ways to cut government expenditures
On Monday, President
Obama met with scientists and educators to express their importance. The $5 billion ‘Race
to the Top’ funds in our stimulus-investment package will stimulate higher
standards and better teaching for science and engineering.
On
Wednesday, President
Obama swore in Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, completing
the seating of all his cabinet members.
Both the
house and senate passed the 2010 budget proposal (similar to what President
Obama proposed) with all Republicans voting against it. Four senate Democrats and 17 house Democrats
voted against it.
President Obama’s First 100 Days
Beginning
with President Franklin Roosevelt, the custom of political commentators is to evaluate
a president’s first 100 days. For
more. For more. For
more. Barack Obama was inaugurated
on Tuesday, January 20 at noon. The 100th
day of his presidency begins on Wednesday, April 29 at noon and ends on
Thursday, April 30 at noon.
Watch
President Obama’s 100th Day press conference. (Video)
Bully Pulpit
The
most obvious feature of President Obama’s first 100 days is his use of the
bully pulpit. Almost daily, he and his
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs talk to the American people, in meetings
concerning various issues, at press conferences, weekly Saturday addresses,
town meetings away from Washington, bill signings, meetings focused upon
various issues, meetings with government employees in various departments. Other top officials also give frequent
addresses and appear on television talk shows.
During
his campaign, Obama argued that we must not only change our practices. We must change our mindset. He speaks often of our national traditions,
our oneness, our obligations to our country and to each other. He speaks of the difficulties we face,
alternative responses, what his administration is doing and what we Americans
can do. His speeches and his
administration’s websites present us with a more complete and detailed
understanding of administration agenda, principles and actions than have
occurred during any previous presidency.
For
more.
His
critics have argued that he will wear out his welcome. But so far, our people have relished Obama’s
openness and communication. We are glad
to know about our political and economic situation, and what is being done to
improve it. We often don’t understand
much of what is being done or why, but we are reassured that considered action
is being taken. The proportion of
Americans who believe the country is heading in the right direction has greatly
increased. President Obama’s popularity
has been continually increasing. Conservatives
are going ballistic.
Many Things at One Time
Also
distinctive is President Obama’s multi-pronged approach to resolving our
economic crisis: government ethical standards and openness; promised tax cuts
and increased food stamp, unemployment and other payments; assisting home
owners with defaulting mortgages; bailing out financial companies; reforming
and augmenting our health care, education and energy systems; and eliminating
waste. While critics have argued that he
should focus upon only one or a few of these, his strategy is cautious. Instead of putting all his eggs in one
basket, he is increasing our chances for success, even if one or several
initiatives fail. He said during the
campaign that a president must be able to do more than one thing at a
time. He is demonstrating that he can do
many things at one time.
Obama
has made "spending to promote renewable energy technologies that will
generate jobs and an effort to shift
the nation to a low-carbon economy" key priorities. For more. For
more.
President
Obama is also working well with Congressional Democrats. His major achievement was hasty passage of
our stimulus-investment package, with few changes from his proposals. The 2009 budget appropriation was
passed. The
2010 budget proposals are proceeding rapidly through congress. The use of reconciliation and the switch by Republican Senator
Arlen Specter to become a Democrat promises well for passage of Obama’s
budget initiatives.
Extending Our Arm of Cooperation
Unlike
President Bush’s ‘You’re with us or you’re against us.’ foreign policy and
refusing to negotiate with those who are not with us, President Obama has
expressed at home and abroad that we are a cooperative member of our world
community of nations. We will negotiate
with any country to first find issues and solutions of agreement, and then to
address issues of disagreement. The
result is that President Obama has been warmly received on his trips. Respect for and popularity of our
What Various Commentators Are Saying.
Various
commentators insist upon giving President Obama a grade of incomplete, because
the results of his initiatives are not yet apparent. But that has been true for every president
after only 100 days. They have also
graded him poorly for doing what they think should be done. But again, it is too early to tell whether he
or they are right. As he has said, some
of his initiatives will prove disappointing.
But as the results occur, he can add to some and curtail others. So far, various initiatives are producing
positive results and few negative results are apparent. For
more. For more. For
more. For
more.
Looking
ahead, a major question is ‘How
will he use his political capital?’ For
more. Watch
President Obama’s 100th day news conference. (Video)
Some Obama Administration Environmental Policy Changes
· On January 26th, President Obama ordered
tough new fuel economy standards for cars and trucks.
· Interior Secretary Ken Salazar voided Bush era
· Salazar voided leases to develop
· Obama included $100 billion in stimulus-investment
package for reducing usage of carbon based fuel and green house gas emissions.
· In his 2010 budget proposal, Obama increased EPA
spending by a third, revived superfund program for cleaning up hazardous waste,
allocated $3.9 billion for clean water projects and directed revenues from a
cap and trade program to reducing emissions.
· Obama eliminated a Bush rule by requiring federal
agencies to consult with scientists before allowing construction which might
harm endangered species.
· Obama eliminated funding for nuclear waste repository
at
· Obama reversed Bush policy by supporting an
international treaty to cut mercury pollution.
· And you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Most Americans think
President Obama will do a good job of protecting our environment.
What President Obama Has Done for Working
Families
Dear Dave, It's
remarkable! In just 100 days, President Obama and Vice President
Biden, with your help, have laid down a foundation of change for
Given the
perilous state of the economy and the world, there remains much to be
done. But today is a time for a brief reflection on what the Obama
administration has accomplished and what lies ahead.
For starters,
President Obama has shown his commitment to strengthening the middle class and
making the economy work for working families by:
·
Signing
the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to ensure that women earn equal pay for equal
work;
·
Working
with Congress to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program to cover
an additional 4 million children;
·
Creating
the Task Force on Middle Class Working Families, so workers have a direct input
into policymaking;
·
Appointing
Hilda Solis, a champion for workers, as secretary of labor; and
·
Protecting
More broadly,
with the Economic Recovery Act and the budget, the Obama administration,
together with Congress, is rebuilding our economy by:
·
Investing
in the rebuilding of our infrastructure and creating good jobs;
·
Providing
aid to state and local governments, so they can avoid layoffs and continue to
provide essential services;
·
Funding
the development of "green technologies" that will create good-paying
jobs while protecting our environment; and
·
Setting
aside resources for real health care and education reform.
The Obama
administration focused its first 100 days on putting down an important
foundation for change, and many challenges remain. We look forward to helping
the administration meet those challenges by passing the Employee Free Choice
Act and comprehensive national health care reform so our economy truly
works for everyone. In solidarity, Marc Laitin, AFL-CIO Online
Mobilization Coordinator
Corporate Front Groups that Oppose Employee Free
Choice Act
The
Employee Free
Choice Act provides for:
·
Majority sign-up
(card check) to form a union
·
Contract
arbitration, if employers won’t negotiate a contract
·
Penalties against
coercion.
Employees may still require a secret election. But employers can’t.
Groups
opposing the Employee Free Choice Act include:
·
Coalition for a Democratic Workplace
Here’s the Beef
The
bull in President Obama’s china shop is his Vice President Joe Biden.
Only
needing 50 votes to pass health care reform diminishes power of private
insurance lobbies.
Many
congress members and others are demanding that health care reform include a
public option.
Liberal and ethnic
caucuses support public health care coverage option.
Political
analysis of inclusion of public health care option and its nature.
Private
insurers are complaining because they can’t compete with public health care.
Massachusetts
mandatory private health insurance plan is financially unsustainable.
Education
Secretary Arne Duncan expresses Obama Administration priorities for education.
Republican
Senator Collins persuaded Democrats to cut pandemic preparedness for Stimulus
Package.
Military-Industrial-Labor
Complex argues against cutting useless jobs making useless armaments.
In spite of Republican
Party obstructionism, Democrats are advancing their agenda. For more.
Three Conservative lies
concerning Bush Administration torture.
Thanks
to Conservative commentators, young people are endorsing socialism.
Driven by hate,
Conservatives slander President Obama in every way they can imagine.
State
and Local
Our Failure of Advocacy
Our
Democratically controlled state legislature and governor have responded to our
declining state revenue by passing
a budget that trashes our government services including education, health
care and assistance to disabled people. They
did not make a probably futile effort to increase revenue through offering
a increased sales tax or income tax options to our voters. Why should they unnecessarily take the
political risk, when civic leaders and advocacy organizations have not strongly
supported such options?
As
long as our religious, educational, labor, business and other advocacy groups
and civic leaders fail to express a vision of universal access to excellent
state services, they will fail to address the fundamental obstacles to
providing such services. In particular,
they will fail to address the major obstacle which is our unfair tax system
which provides too little revenue. By
comparison with other states, we are providing less of our income for state
services. The result is that our state
services are becoming worse by comparison with other states.
Featured Advocacy Group - Drug
Policy
The Drug Policy Alliance Network (DPA
Network) is the nation's leading organization promoting policy alternatives to
the drug war that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.
Our supporters are individuals who
believe the war on drugs is doing more harm than good. Together we advance
policies that reduce the harms of both drug misuse and drug prohibition, and
seek solutions that promote safety while upholding the sovereignty of
individuals over their own minds and bodies. We work to ensure that our
nation’s drug policies no longer arrest, incarcerate, disenfranchise and
otherwise harm millions of nonviolent people. Our work inevitably requires us
to address the disproportionate impact of the drug war on people of color.
DPA Network is actively involved in the
legislative process and seeks to roll back the excesses of the drug war, block
new, harmful initiatives, and promote sensible drug policy reforms. As a
result of our work, hundreds of thousands of people have been diverted from
incarceration to drug treatment programs, tens of thousands of sick and dying
patients can safely access their medicine without being considered criminals
under the law, and states like California have saved more than $1.5 billion by
eliminating wasteful and ineffective law enforcement, prosecution and prison
expenditures.
The Drug Policy Alliance
Network is a national organization with a branch in
On President Obama's 100th day in office
the White House asked Congress to address the issue of disparity in penalties
for the use of powder/crack cocaine. This historic request follows a national
lobby day held yesterday that was co-sponsored by a dozen advocacy groups. For
more.
DPA Network has a web page concerning
Washington State. It hasn’t been
updated since 2004 and no address or other means of contacting them locally are
presented. Other relevant
·
King County Bar Association Drug
Policy Project
·
Hemp Net
·
American Civil Liberties Union
of Washington
·
Washington Defender
Association
·
The Defender
Association Racial Disparity Project
·
Division of Alcohol and
Substance Abuse of Washington
·
Criminal Justice Reform
Network
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What President
Obama Has Done for
2,360,000 workers receiving tax credits
75,000 jobs
created
67,000
students aided by tax credit
49,800
additional children with health care coverage
Here’s the Beef
Ten
states, that didn’t participate in financial bubble, aren’t experiencing its
collapse.
One
of the first cities where Nissan will sell its electric car in 2010 will be
Seattle.
On
Wednesday, April 29th, Seattle Mayor Greg Nichols announced a $145
affordable housing levy.
NY
developer Jonathon Rose has greened several large old Seattle commercial
buildings.
Nation
and World
Don’t Personally Bailout Banks
After
40 years of banking with Bank of America and its predecessors here in
My
other reason is that any money I deposit there is used for offsetting Bank of
America’s speculative losses instead of making loans. A smaller bank that didn’t speculate will use
my money to make loans to local customers.
Dave Thomas
Five Energy-Climate Policies
1.
Energy efficient
building and appliance codes
2.
Higher vehicle
fuel efficiency standards
3.
Requirements that
utility companies use a larger percentage of non-carbon based energy
4.
Enable utilities
to make money by encouraging consumers to save instead of use more energy.
5.
Put a price on
carbon (a carbon tax, or a ‘cap and trade’ system
For more. Read what congress is
doing.
Legalizing Marijuana
Prohibition
of alcohol didn’t stop drinking. It
produced crime and corruption.
Repealing, regulating it and taxing it still leave us with an alcoholism
problem. But making it illegal didn’t
solve the alcoholism problem either. The
best remedy is public education and treatment.
All
of the same arguments apply to marijuana and perhaps other illegal drugs. Illegality creates a profit
for illicit drug dealers. Their
illegality is also causing crime and corruption in Mexico and other countries.
Contrary to President Obama’s statement,
legalizing
marijuana would also stimulate our economy through employing domestic
producers and regulators, instead of importers and law enforcement agents, who
could be better employed pursuing other crimes.
Bye Bye Newspapers
The
major objection to the demise of our newspapers is that we
would lose their investigative reporters.
But newspapers have given investigative reporting a low priority
compared to advertising and reporting dramatic events. Advertising feeds our excessive private
borrowing, spending and consumption.
Reporting dramatic events distracts us from dealing with obstacles to
our American Dream.
Much
routine reporting (such as sports, crime, government actions, economic
statistics and obituaries) can be easily posted on internet web pages, perhaps
paid for by targeted advertisements.
Think tanks and advocacy organizations should hire more investigative
reporters to supplement their academic research, as
Although
only a small proportion of bloggers do competent investigative reporting, a
large number of competent investigative reports appear on blogs. Daily Kos
highlights some of these, especially those concerned with political conditions
and trends. An increasing number of
websites offer investigative reports concerning various issues.
One
alternative is to publicly assist newspapers which focus upon investigative
reporting. For more. Or the
public may be willing to pay for online newspapers.
Here’s the Beef
Wall Street
executives get paid lavishly for creating bubble and its collapse.
A
financial transactions tax would reduce speculation.
Removing
barriers to foreign doctors would greatly expand number of needed doctors in
U.S.
More
legislation is necessary to stimulate equal pay for women.
Companies
are still eliminating jobs to increase their immediate profits.
Our
recession has caused over half of Americans to change their lifestyles.
IMF
should change its economic doctrines and governance before getting more money.
Wildfires
cause global warming cause more fires cause more global warming.
Green
Costa Rica subsumes energy, mines, water and natural resources under
environmental minister.
A new promise of a
nuclear free world.
President
Obama should deal with other Iran issues before addressing their nuclear
capacity.
Afghanistan has been
conquered several times. By Alexander,
Genghis Kan, Barbur,
Our
Liberal Spirit
The Audacity of Youth
One
might think it rational for seniors to be more willing to risk their lives than
youth. Seniors have less time to
lose. But the reverse appears true. Having so much life ahead of them, youth
don’t worry so much about its value. As
seniors realize they have less life ahead of them, they worry more about its
value.
Seniors
also worry about their long built assets, including their reputations. With fewer assets and less reputation, youth
have less to lose by committing rash and outrageous acts. And they have more time to recover. They are often more audacious with not just
their lives, but also their possessions and reputation.
Barack
Obama’s race and gender have drawn much attention. Less attention has been given to his
age. As with other members of racial
minorities, Obama has become very sensitive to many social and political
issues. He has responded audaciously to
his sensitivity. He chose highly
competitive
He
has experienced a great deal of good luck along with some bad luck. But he has been prepared to make the best of
his good luck, while recovering from his bad luck. It is difficult to imagine an older person
daring the things that he has. He stood
out among his older political competitors, as the one willing to differ from
our conventional wisdom.
It
is difficult to imagine that any of his older rivals would have championed and
passed his stimulus-investment package.
If anti-government spending McCain had won, little government action
would have been taken to stimulate our economy or invest in our recovery. If one of the other Democratic candidates had
won, I guess that fewer tax cuts would have occurred, public investments would
have occurred; but attention to health care, education and energy reforms would
have been delayed.
I am
glad for the audacity of youth and particularly for President Obama’s careful
audacity. I am glad for the audacity
which is to be expected from our Millennium generation. More than any other time during my adulthood,
I am experiencing a Liberal vision for
After
we recover economically and implement domestic reforms, I imagine that President
Obama will expand his audacity to emphasize sustainable global prosperity,
justice and peace. Could Obama’s
audacity lead to his becoming our first world president? I hope I live long enough to find out. Dave Thomas
Recommended Books – See our list of books for liberals
Barack Obama,
1995, Dreams from My Father, A Story of
Race and Inheritance
Barack Obama, 2006, The Audacity
of Hope, Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
These books have long been on
our reading list for Liberals. If you
haven’t read them, read them to realize how reflective Barack Obama is compared
to most politicians.
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