Democrats gaining votes nationwide

In the fourth quarter of 2004, 36% of Americans identified themselves as Republicans. Now only 32% say they're (R)'s.
Gallups latest survey looks at which way independents lean and finds Democrats have a growing edge.

Democrats Gain Edge in Party Identification During Last Year
Fewer Americans identify as Republicans, more as independents

by Jeffrey M. Jones

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE - March 29, 2006

...In the most recent quarter, 49% of Americans identify as Democrats or lean to the Democratic Party, and 42% identify as Republicans or lean to the Republican Party. Democrats have held that same 49% to 42% advantage during each of the last three quarters. In the second quarter of 2005, Democrats had a slightly smaller 47% to 43% edge. At the beginning of 2005, the parties were at even strength on this measure.

Republican officials oppose equal-protection

King County Superior Court Judge Michael Spearman is right
- Police inspector Javert Attorney General Rob McKenna and Secretary of State Sam Reed are wrong.
No one should ever be prevented from voting because they owe money.

State to appeal ruling granting voting rights to felons who owe fines

By RACHEL LA CORTE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The state will appeal a King County judge's ruling that restores voting rights to convicted felons who have served their time but owe court-imposed fines, Attorney General Rob McKenna and Secretary of State Sam Reed announced Wednesday....

...King County Superior Court Judge Michael Spearman ruled Monday that the state's requirement that ex-felons pay all court-ordered fines and fees before they can vote again violates the equal-protection clauses in the U.S. Constitution and the state constitution.

"It is well recognized that there is simply no rational relationship between the ability to pay and the exercise of constitutional rights," he wrote in a 12-page ruling. ...(full article)

Bush Homeland Incompetence

It's no wonder the Neo-Con's want to "fight them over there", because when it comes to protecting the Homeland the Bush Administration is utterly worthless. Had this been real terrorists instead of a GAO 'test', the economy of Puget Sound could have been devastated for years.

PUBLIC SAFETY
Dirty bomb material crossed into state

JON GAMBRELL
THE BELLNGHAM HERALD

The Dec. 14 tests are the focus of a hearing today of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said Suzanne Trevino, a spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection in Washington, D.C.Trevino said two individuals in a car approached a border crossing. The radioactive material set off detectors at the border, alerting officers, she said.

At a secondary inspection, the officers found the nuclear material, Trevino said. However, the two individuals inside the car presented fake licenses and documentation from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, she said.

Because there is no method or database for customs officers to verify the licenses, they let the car go, Trevino said. However, she stressed those in the car had been stopped and that they carried only a small amount of the material.

"“Our system worked,"” Trevino said. "“Our CBP officers followed protocols."”...(full article)

The people on the frontline are doing their jobs and shouldn't be faulted. The Customs agents can only work with the tools they've been given. It's the upper levels of the Bush Administration that has completely failed us.
Naturally the Bush Administration is trying to down-play their most recent failure.

...Eliot Brenner, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said cesium was exempt from license or documentation requirements. He described the amount of cesium as negligible, saying it was the same amount of radioactive material found in home smoke detectors.

"The GAO really smuggled nothing. They were caught,"” Brenner said. "“The amount is insignificant. They couldn't contaminate the room I'm sitting in."

But it was anything but "insignificant".

The two individuals carried cesium-137, Trevino said. Typically used in gauges and in some cancer treatments, cesium-137 can also be used to create "dirty bombs" - explosives mixed with radioactive materials.

A cesium gauge attached to 10 pounds of dynamite could contaminate an area more than a mile long covering 40 city blocks, according to 2002 testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. While the resulting incidence of cancer would be one in 10,000, Henry C. Kelly of the Federation of American Scientists told the committee the area would have to be evacuated for decades if not decontaminated.

Contaminating 40 city blocks would economically devastate Bellingham (the first sizable city South of the Border crossing). Or... you pick a city along I-5.

The BBC has a facts sheet with a cesium-137 dirty bomb scenario - Dirty bomb facts

In January the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) very quietly issued guidance for responding to a terrorist detonation of a “dirty bomb.” DHS proposes permitting the public back into a contaminated area even if radiation doses are as high as 10,000 millirem per year (double what nuclear plant workers can legally receive). Over 30 years of exposure, that is the equivalent of 50,000 chest X-rays. The government’s own official risk estimates say such exposure would cause cancer in a quarter of the people exposed.

"Failure to restore important services rapidly could result in additional adverse public health and welfare impacts that could be more significant than the direct radiological impacts."

— DHS Guidelines

And there's Nuclear Power Plant incompetence too!!! NRC regulations still require reactors to have NO protection against air attack and only requires reactors to have security designed to withstand a ground attack by a fraction of the 19 terrorists involved in the 9/11 attack.

NRC says nuclear plants safe from attacks and productive

Thursday, March 09, 2006

By Bill Cahir

WASHINGTON -- Consumers should regard nuclear power plants as safe and consider them well protected from terrorist attack, according to the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission...

...Just as Diaz was praising the nuclear industry for its safety record, a watchdog group and a major union were taking the opposite stance.

Public Citizen and the Service Employees International Union held a news conference this week to claim that the NRC has erred badly by entrusting Wackenhut Services Inc., a private security company, to safeguard half of the nation's nuclear facilities...

Only their incompetence eclipses the cronyism and corruption of the Bush Administration and Congresses "Republican Majority".

Feingold's Standing Boosted Among Voters

By FREDERIC J. FROMMER - Associated Press Writer

...A Newsweek poll taken March 16-17 found that 50 percent of those surveyed opposed censuring Bush while 42 percent supported it, but among Democrats, 60 percent favored the effort.

Feingold's resolution would censure the president for authorizing a warrantless surveillance program, which the senator contends is illegal. Co-sponsors are Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Barbara Boxer of California....

Conservative Media hacks may try to make light of the call for Censure and Democratic politicians may be nervous about joining the effort, but Bush and the Republican Party are in deep deep trouble. The Newsweek poll showed Bush's job Rating at 36% while 50% Disapprove of the way he's handling terrorism and Homeland Security. What's more if the '06 election was held today, 50% would vote Democrat while only 39% would vote Republican.

Bush - Clueless... Planless

"Stay the course" is a slogan not a Plan and the American People have definitely figured that out.

A large 70%-majority of Americans told a Pew March 2006 survey that President George W. Bush does not have a clear plan for bringing the Iraq conflict to a successful conclusion. Fewer than a quarter (23%) think that he has such a plan. Fully 89% of Democrats and 79% of independents believe Bush lacks a clear plan on resolving the conflict, but 40% of Republicans share this opinion. [source: Pew Research Center]

Today in his news conference, Bush admitted he and his Administration are clueless. His grand scheme for Iraq issss... (wait for it)... To run out the clock and let the next President figure out how to extricate our troops.

Bush: No plan to withdraw troops

Posted: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 at 5:00 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush says he doesn't plan to be the one to pull US troops out of Iraq. Bush says the decision about when to withdraw all of those troops Iraq will fall to future presidents and Iraqi leaders. ...(source:)

Jim McDermott rocks against Depleted Uranium

The political band Anti-Flag has given Afterdowningstreet.org the exclusive release of the unreleased song "Depleted Uranium Is A War Crime" from Anti-Flag's upcoming release "For Blood and Empire."

Listen here: Depleted Uranium Is a War Crime. Here are the lyrics.

Anti-Flag wants you to take action while you're here and write your member of Congress while listening and learning! (The interview segments in the song are from an interview that Justin Sane of Anti-Flag did with Washington State Congressman Jim McDermott, the leader in Congress who is pushing for the study of DU!)

McDermott has introduced a bill in Congress, H.R. 2410, The Depleted Uranium Munitions Study Act, which calls for in-depth studies to be conducted on DU and its effects on the health of those exposed to it. Ask Your Congress Member to Cosponsor. / Learn more about DU. / Keep Reading for more music.

whiny kids tended to grow up conservative

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative. ...
[Toronto Star article "How to spot a baby conservative"]

For GOP, Deeper Fissures and a Looming Power Struggle

GOP Struggles To Define Its Message for 2006 Elections

A Kempthorne in Our Side

GLOBE EDITORIAL
America the bulldozed

March 18, 2006

...Dirk Kempthorne, the Idaho governor nominated by President Bush to succeed Norton, is clear-cut from the same cloth. His one term of service in the Senate and his sympathy for the antienvironmental views of its Republican majority should guarantee him an easy confirmation. ...

Will Kempy bring dead swans to all of America?

Lead contamination kills swans, keeps children inside

SUSAN GORDON; The News Tribune
Published: March 19th, 2006 01:00 AM

COEUR D'’ALENE, IDAHO -– The long, sleek necks that give tundra swans their regal bearing also make them miserable, at least in the Coeur dÂ’Alene River basin, where hundreds die annually. Tundra swans are the most visible victims of the heavy metal contamination that taints the basin, which stretches 166 miles from Spokane across the Idaho Panhandle to Montana. ...(full article)

Ayatollah Tony Perkins (president of the Family Research Council) wants to know what Republicans have done for him lately - calls on Republicans to be more repressive!

US evangelicals warn Republicans

By Jamie Coomarasamy BBC News, Washington

Prominent leaders from the Christian right have warned Republicans they must do more to advance conservative values ahead of the US mid-term elections.

... At a news conference in Washington, some of America's most influential conservative leaders said the current perception among evangelical Christians was that the Republican majority was not doing enough for them. ...

... Exit polls suggested that more than three-quarters of white evangelical Christians voted for President Bush in 2004. But according to a recent opinion poll, the number of them who want Republicans to retain their Congressional majority is not much above 50%.

Bush advance staff impersonated reporters(WA-POST)

Bush Using Straw-Man Arguments in Speeches(AP)

Riverbend 3 years later......

fanatics destroy everything they come in contact with....they are destroying our country as they use our resources to destroy Iraq.....i am so angry and ashamed at what is being done in our name.....

Saturday, March 18, 2006
Three Years...
It has been three years since the beginning of the war that marked the end of Iraq’s independence. Three years of occupation and bloodshed....

....I read constantly analyses mostly written by foreigners or Iraqis who’ve been abroad for decades talking about how there was always a divide between Sunnis and Shia in Iraq (which, ironically, only becomes apparent when you're not actually living amongst Iraqis they claim)… but how under a dictator, nobody saw it or nobody wanted to see it. That is simply not true- if there was a divide, it was between the fanatics on both ends. The extreme Shia and extreme Sunnis. Most people simply didn’t go around making friends or socializing with neighbors based on their sect. People didn't care- you could ask that question, but everyone would look at you like you were silly and rude.
full post

Border Vigilantes

The border vigilantes will be at it again in April; lurking near the Canadian Border here in Whatcom County. They'd like to be called something official sounding. They'd like folks to think they're nothing but a neighborhood watch group. They'd like everyone to think they have some sort of official status.

I re-checked with the Whatcom County Sheriffs Office. I spoke with Chief Criminal Deputy Jeff Parks who supervises the Operations Division. He said the Minutemen are not endorsed by nor working in cooperation with the Sheriffs Department. Deputy Parks also made it clear that the Minutemen won't be getting any slack should they cross the line and try to take the law into their own hands.

The sheriffs Department won't be the only ones watch the Border vigilantes.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Local group to watch Minutemen

Volunteers will gather at border for month of April

JON GAMBRELL
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

A local group opposed to the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps will organize observers to watch those watching Whatcom County's northern border with Canada this April.

The volunteers will serve as legal observers, making sure Minuteman border watchers comply with the law, said Carl Shook, an organizer with the Coalition for Professional Law and Border Enforcement.

Shook said the point of the observers isn't just to wait for a Minuteman volunteer to break the law so "we can point a bunch of fingers." Instead, having observers could calm a situation he believes is prime for potential abuses.

"We are trying to establish beforehand enough accountability, transparency and public awareness of what is actually going on to try to key down this entire situation," Shook said. ...(full article)

- HOW TO CONTACT GROUPS
- To find out more about the Coalition for Professional Law and Border Enforcement, visit notinmycounty.org.

- For more information about the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, visit its national Web site at minutemanhq.com.

WA Republicans hurt Law Enforcement

The Washington State 'House Republican Caucus' is at it again: needlessly frightening citizens and sabotaging Law Enforcement... Yes! Sabotaging Law Enforcement! In their effort to scare people into voting for their fanatical Right-wing extremist candidates, the Republican Speakers Roundtable thinks nothing of wasting vital law enforcement resources. While Sheriffs departments are tied up dealing with the hysteria created by the House Republican Caucus, how many criminals are free to roam our neighborhoods?

Phone messages add to tensions over sex offender

By Jerry Cornfield
Herald Writer
Published: Thursday, March 16, 2006

OLYMPIA - Another community meeting on a convicted rapist living in Lake Stevens may be needed because fears are being stoked by a Republican group, Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart said Wednesday.

The group, the Olympia-based Speaker's Roundtable, phoned about 10,000 homes in the county on Monday with a taped recording that began with "A level 3 sex offender has been released into your community."

The message does not name the city or offender, but describes the crimes committed by Jeffrey Henderson, who moved to Lake Stevens after serving a 19-year prison sentence for convictions in 1984 and 1985.

Phone calls went to that city, as well as to Bothell, Everett, Marysville, Mill Creek and Snohomish. Bart received one at his home.

By Wednesday morning, 40 residents from throughout the county had called the sheriff's department asking if the unnamed offender described on the phone had moved into their neighborhood. For most of them, the answer was no, Bart said.

"They're worried. I'm trying to allay their fears," he said. "This raises the hysteria. This raises it to the level that it will cause law enforcement a problem. ...(full article)

Click here to listen to the taped message that was sent to 10,000 homes by The Speaker's Roundtable on Monday.

'06 - Time to Clean Up

McCranium has roadside news from the Eastside -
Doc Hastings Gets His Own Billboard

If you've got a couple bucks to spare, send 'em to Richard Wright and help retire Ol' Doc.
Richard Wright - Democratic Candidate, Washington 4th Congressional District

Global Warming - Cause and Effect

NOAA: Carbon Dioxide Rises to Record Level

... The reading was up 2.6 parts per million, according to preliminary calculations, David J. Hofmann of the Office of Atmospheric Research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday. ...

...Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas. Those are chemicals that have been increasing in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, raising fears of altering the planet's climate by trapping heat from the sun. ...

Yes, it's been the warmest Canadian winter on record
...

This winter's preliminary figures show temperatures averaging 3.9 C above normal.

That makes it not just the warmest winter but the most overheated season – winter, spring, summer or fall – on record.

The weather has been even more unseasonable in some places than in others.

• FROM JAN. 24, 2006: NASA calls 2005 the warmest year in a century

Winter temperatures have been above normal across Canada, the report says, with most of the country at least 2 C above normal and with Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories all experiencing temperatures greater than 6 C above normal. ...

the transfer's a comin'

this from Michael Ruppert and the good folks at From The Wilderness

More Americans are losing their homes

Risky borrowing is catching up with a number of homeowners across the U.S. Foreclosures rose 45% in January compared to a year ago, and experts only expect the pace to accelerate.
By Melinda Fulmer MSN Real Estate
Friday, March 10, 2006

............And there are more drawbacks and risks to buying property at auction. First of all, most buyers will need to come up with 100% of the purchase price on the day following
the auction. Second, many times a property can’t be fully inspected, and in some states, the previous owner has the right to buy it back for what you paid within a certain period. “Like any other investment, the higher the reward, the higher the level of risk,” Sharga said. Real estate economist Tuccillo recommends that buyers educate themselves about the foreclosure process now, so they can be ready to move when they see something they like. “Start doing a lot of research and monitoring of those markets now,” Tuccillo said. With
interest rates expected to rise 3/4 of a point to a point this year, “In six months, you will be able to do more picking and choosing.” And remember, Sharga said, sometimes these properties are in trouble for a reason, whether it’s a problem with the neighborhood, or a problem with the foundation. “They may not be the property where you would want to live,” he said.
full article

hmmm......who will pick up the property? maybe they wouldn't want to live there but they might not mind being slum landlords.

if they can do it in Burlington...

why not here.....

Burlington, Vermont - March 7, 2006

Vermont's First Instant Runoff Voting Election
Following Burlington's first-ever Vermont election conducted by Instant Runoff Voting, supporters want to take the voting system statewide. And so this election was watched closely.

full article

Instant Runoff Voting would do so much for us in reclaiming our democracy....no more "spoilers".....more participation and debate....cheaper.....the list goes on.

Whiney, Mud-slinging Republicans

House GOP criticism isn’t ‘mud-throwing’

THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: March 1st, 2006 02:30 AM

House Republicans in the state Legislature are hopping mad about having their press releases censored by the chief clerk, who is chosen by the Democrats.

... Nafziger (House Chief Clerk) described the stricken words and phrases as "“pejorative,"” and said, "You try to maintain a civil debate in Olympia, You don'’t want it to degenerate into mud-throwing."

So it'’s "“mud-throwing"” to call someone's actions "“disingenuous"”? "Shell game"” is a pejorative term? Nafziger - and anyone else who finds those words objectionable -– must not watch much cable TV. ...

...Democrats should remember that what goes around, comes around. They may find themselves in the minority one of these days, and it's unlikely that Republicans will forget how they were treated.

They've GOT to be kidding! Just because cable TV plumbs the depths of inflammatory rhetoric doesn't mean we should abandon civil discourse in the Washington State Legislature. The House Republican Caucus isn't prevented from telling whatever outrageous lie they want, on their own dime. And as far as "what goes around, comes around"... It was the Republicans who started this legislative session with a major smear campaign!... Remember:

House GOP should disavow predator mailings

THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: January 27th, 2006 02:30 AM

State House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt told newspaper reporters this week, "“It'’s important to tell the truth in politics."”

He didn'’t really mean it. If he had, the Chehalis Republican would have condemned one of the more despicable campaign ploys to come out of Olympia in years.

A Republican political action committee recently mailed 25,000 postcards to voters in six legislative districts accusing Democrats of being soft on sex offenders.

The postcards "— labeled ƒÂ‚“sex offender notification"” - displayed a mug shot of a sex offender, with a black bar across his eyes in a feigned attempt to protect his privacy. Printed above the photo was the statement, "“This violent predator lives in your community."”

That might have been helpful information -— if it were true. ...

...DeBolt denies he has had anything to do with the attack ads -— despite the fact that they are the handiwork of the Speaker'’s Roundtable, an arm of the House Republican caucus that DeBolt leads.

But even if he didn'’t authorize the ads, you'’d think DeBolt would take a stand against such deceptive tactics. Nope. "“People'’s awareness has been raised. People have called in. We have moved to the positive,"” DeBolt told The Olympian.

The ads indeed have raised awareness -— about how far some politicians are willing to go for political gain. Although some Republicans have reportedly apologized to Democrats privately, GOP leadership has refused to publicly disavow the ads.

The campaign'’s intended beneficiaries - Republican legislative candidates -— best do better, or risk having their attempt to look tough on crime expose them as gutless.

There's no shortage of reasonableness and good will on the part of Washington State Democrats. The House Republican caucus has become a bunch of fall-down artists, trumping up phoney "issues" and bemoaning their imaginary "victimhood". How can they sleep at night?

Weaselly Republican Campaign Stunt

The NPI blog has a post about Republican candidate Mike McGavick taking credit for Sen. Steven's halting his pollute Puget Sound bill, S.1977.

My local paper has a story titled "Alaska senator won't pursue repeal of Magnuson amendment". That article doesn't mention the candidate from Safeco, but it does point out:

A repeal of the Magnuson Amendment could have had consequences for Whatcom County. BP Amoco PLC's Cherry Point refinery could have skirted a recent court decision requiring a review of whether the company broke federal law when it built a new pier.

None of the media coverage really explains that Senator Stevens has only put his bill on hold, when he could have withdrawn it. Now personally, I don't trust Ted Stevens (R)-Oilaska any farther than I could drop kick him and I suspect that he's planning to renew his attack right after the elections.

His own press release even lies about the bill:

...Upon its introduction, the bill was met with press releases deliberately mischaracterizing its intent and effect. These releases claimed the bill would increase tanker traffic and the size of tankers allowed in Puget Sound. The bill did not raise either of these issues, ...

The evidence of the lie is the bill itself:

S.1977
Title: A bill to repeal section 5 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.
Sponsor: Sen Stevens, Ted [AK] (introduced 11/8/2005) Cosponsors (None)
Latest Major Action: 11/8/2005 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

SUMMARY AS OF:
11/8/2005--Introduced.

Amends the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to repeal restrictions on crude oil tanker traffic in Puget Sound.

---

And this is what you get with Republican Senators!!!

Crude oil spills from transit line at Prudhoe Bay

DAN JOLING - ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An unknown quantity of crude oil spilled Thursday from a 34-inch diameter pipeline at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope, and dangerous fumes were preventing crews from cleanup work.

Crude oil could be seen on the snow-covered tundra more than 200 miles east of Barrow. Alaska Department of Conservation spokeswoman Lynda Giguere said the oil was pooling on the frozen ground.

The cause of the spill, discovered early Thursday morning by BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. operators, had not been determined. ...

Time to Bring The Troops Home

Warnings insurgency would grow issued in '03 — and ignored

By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies repeatedly warned the White House beginning more than two years ago that the insurgency in Iraq had deep local roots, was likely to worsen and could lead to civil war, according to former senior intelligence officials who helped craft the reports. ...(more)

Poll says troops back '06 withdrawal

By Drew Brown

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Nearly three of four American troops serving in Iraq think U.S. forces should withdraw within a year, and more than one in four say the United States should leave immediately, according to a new poll published Tuesday. ...(more)

Among troops serving in Iraq;

89 percent of Army reservists,

82 percent of National Guardsmen,

70 percent of regular Army troops

think the United States should leave Iraq within a year.

29% of the Troops in Iraq think the U.S. should withdraw immediately!

What did Bellingham ever do to Alaska?

Ferry to Alaska becomes pawn in political dispute over Arctic drilling
In symbolic move, lawmaker proposes ending states' link

By MIKE LEWIS * P-I REPORTER

A symbolic move? Sounds more like attempted blackmail!

Senator Ted Stevens (R)-Oilaska vowed revenge after he was thwarted in his crude move to open ANWR to drilling. He and his pals have been trying to screw over Washington State ever since.

First, Stevens tried to increase oil-tanker traffic (and the risk of oil spills) in Puget Sound by doing away with the 1977 Magnuson Marine Mammal Protection Act. But he was unsuccessful. (and we'll pretend like we didn't notice that Stevens attempted revenge on Senator Cantwell would have benefited one of his all time biggest contributors - BP, by letting them enlarge their refinery at Cherry Point.)

Then, Stevens pal Don Young (R) Alaska (chair of the House Transportation Committee), attempted to move the homeport of the Coast Guard ice-breaker Healy from Seattle to Anchorage. Young quietly inserted a one-sentence line about this in the 78-page bill on the Coast Guard and maritime transportation. That jab at Washington State didn't work out either. He withdrew his proposal.

Now, we've got Rep. Kurt Olson, (R-Soldotna) sponsoring a resolution in the Alaska state legislature to terminate ferry service between Bellingham, WA and Alaska. His resolution is sitting in committee and Olson said he would wait until he discusses it with U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, before requesting a hearing. But Alaskans (especially those who can't enter Canada because of DUI convictions) think it's a stupid idea that would hurt them more than it would hurt Bellingham.

With Republicans in charge - who needs enemies

The Bush Administration with the collusion of the Republicans in congress have been wearing out and using up our National Guard. After multiple rotations to Iraq, the situation has become critical.

Bush Policies Are Weakening National Guard, Governors Say

...Tens of thousands of National Guard members have been sent to Iraq, along with much of the equipment needed to deal with natural disasters and terrorist threats in the United States, the governors said here at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association. ...

...In a preview of their message, all 50 governors signed a letter to the president opposing any cuts in the size of the National Guard. ...(more)

With the Bushiveks in charge, Iraq has become an endless exercise in deadly stubbornness, where our troops don't lose but can't win.

Fort Lewis'’ first Stryker Brigade prepares for second trek to Iraq

THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: February 27th, 2006 02:30 AM

Soldiers from the Army's first Stryker Brigade Combat Team are in the midst of their last major training exercise as they prepare for a second tour in Iraq. ...

...The 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, based in Fort Lewis, began a yearlong combat mission in Iraq in late 2003. They'’re preparing to replace the 172nd Stryker Brigade of Fort Wainwright, Alaska. ...(more)

With Democrats in charge, Washington State is picking up the slack left by the criminal mismanagement of the Pentagon and the VA system.

State reaches out to veterans torn by trauma
More money to treat post-traumatic stress disorder is written into budget proposals.

By Blythe Lawrence
Herald Writer

OLYMPIA - The effects of the war in Iraq are beginning to reverberate in the state Legislature.

A state-funded treatment program for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder could receive an extra $170,000 this year, enough to serve another 130 soldiers should they need help when they return from Iraq.

The funds are in a $500,000 package for the Department of Veterans Affairs in the budgets proposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire, the House of Representatives and state Senate.

Only Washington and New Jersey have state-funded PTSD treatment programs. Washington is the only state with an increasing number of veterans, said Tom Schumacher, who runs the Everett-based program. ...(more)

more depleted(not)uranium.....and Iraq

what kind of hell can we buy with $77million tax dollars........

ATK Bags $38 Million Tank Ammo Order

by UPI WireFeb 20, 2006

........The M829A3 specs show that the 22.3-kilogram round uses 8 kilograms of solid propellent to attain a muzzle velocity of 1,555 meters per second. While the velocity isn't as fast as other U.S. 120-mm rounds, the 10-kg projectile is heavier than the others. The projectile's use of depleted uranium shows continued confidence in the slightly radioactive but increasingly controversial depleted uranium. full article

and this......

The Sunday Times
February 19, 2006
UK radiation jump blamed on Iraq shells
Mark Gould and Jon Ungoed-Thomas
RADIATION detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the “shock and
awe” bombing campaign against Iraq, according to a report.
Environmental scientists who uncovered the figures through freedom of information laws say it is evidence that depleted uranium from the shells was carried by wind currents
to Britain. full article

I sent this to my congressman who i heard on saturday....he believes we should "stay the course" and repeats the administration "training up the troops" rhetoric....i don’t think we can talk about Iraq and depleted uranium too much.………

I saw you in Bellingham today and appreciated much of what you had to say. I disagree with your position on Iraq. And I remember well your vote against the war in the beginning. That has sustained me through the some other votes. (Bankruptcy for instance) However, our staying in Iraq will just fuel the steady decline we have witnessed since the beginning of this disaster. The same inept, corrupt civilian leadership are running things. My favorite Iraqi voice, Riverbend, summarizes things pretty well in this post. She is well worth following. If the people of Iraq had water, electricity, jobs, and safety things could be different. Right now I think most Iraqis see us as the cause of the horrible conditions in their country. There cannot be an insurgency without the support of the people. Iraqis want us out of there!!! We have done nothing but make their lives a living hell. Iraq has turned into the quagmire credible people predicted. The Iraqis know how to rebuild their country. They do not need war profiteering contractors. Isn’t that against the law? We should be out of there and paying reparations to them. We cannot win anything there. And I have yet to know what our mission is there? Staying will only continue the financial and moral bankrupting of our nation. I don’t know if we will ever recover from the reckless foreign policy of the last 5 years. And the new branding this month of “the long war” says everything. The latest news about the training of the Iraqis to take this over is not good.

Pentagon: Iraqi troops downgraded No Iraqi battalion capable offighting without U.S. support

Friday, February 24, 2006; Posted: 8:29 p.m.EST (01:29 GMT)WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday. full article

.........Another thing you mentioned was nuclear proliferation. I sure do agree this is a huge problem and look forward to real work toward solutions. How can we have any moral authority on this issue? We have the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet with plans for more. How can we ask the rest of the world to work with us when it seems we are saying one thing and doing the opposite? And the fact that we are spreading our nuclear waste all over the middle east in the form of depleted uranium is unconscionable. We are using this and selling weapons for others to use. Over 11,000 Gulf War1veterans, to date, have died and thousands more are disabled. DU has been definitely linked to Gulf War Syndrome. And the DU spread then is nothing compared to what has been done since march 03 and continues. We are leaving a gift that “keeps on giving” to the innocent people living there. Our veterans and their families are paying a horrific price. We face a worldwide health crisis from what we are doing right now.

Heads roll at Veterans Administration Mushrooming depleted uranium(DU) scandal blamed
by Bob Nichols
Project Censored Award Winner Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter charged Monday that the reason Veterans Affairs
Secretary Anthony Principi stepped down earlier thismonth was the growing scandal surrounding the use of uranium munitions in the Iraq War. …..Arthur N. Bernklau, executivedirector of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, stated, “The real reason for Mr. Principi’s departure was really never given, however a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the US Military.” Full article

Depleted uranium: Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets A death sentence here and abroad

by Leuren Moret full article

This insanity has got to stop. I feel we must get out of Iraq. Until we are demonstrating the right behavior it’s hard to ask much of the rest of the world. Right now we are behaving as belligerent bullies instead of the good people I believe most Americans are. As you often say, we agree about most things. I really do appreciate the work you do. I sure wouldn’t be able to do what you do.

Almost here - A Washington Media "Shield Law"

There's an editorial in the Bellingham Herald urging the Washington State Senate to pass the Media "Shield Law" HB 2452 . A Media "Shield Law" is certainly a good idea and this bill looks pretty comprehensive in it's protection.

I'm not sure why the editorial takes Democratic State Senators to task, it certainly doesn't step-up and name names. The bill passed the State House 87-11 with ten of those eleven nay votes coming from Republicans; So it's tough to tell if there's really a problem or if it's just grandstanding by Attorney General Rob McKenna (R).

It couldn't hurt to drop an email to your State Senator, asking them to be sure this bill gets passed.

Of Seaports and Security

A United Arab Emirates government-owned business is set to take over running SIX major American ports and:

Bush said the seaports arrangement is "a legitimate deal that will not jeopardize the security of the country."

Yeah, well... I'm having some trouble buying that. Bush's track record on "Homeland Security" and honesty are abysmal.

Jan. 24, 2006 — Documents released today by Congress show that two days before Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the White House received detailed damage forecasts from Homeland Security officials predicting that the city's levees might be overtopped or breached.

Yet in the days after the storm struck on Aug. 29, federal officials, including President Bush, said the levee breaches could not have been foreseen.

And in spite of the Aug. 6, 2001 PBD wasn't Bush the guy who said no one could have imagined terrorist flying planes into the World Trade Towers?

Washington State G-O-Pooh

Remember when the Washington State Republican Legislators announced they had a plan, a "Commitment to Washington"? Well they have a progress report on their plan. And it turns out their plan is to take credit for what the Democrats have done!

Rep. Doug Ericksen (R) - Press Room

Commitment to Washington update

Jan. 19, 2006 - (Olympia) - This is the first of several periodic updates on the progress of legislation proposed by House and Senate Republicans in their Commitment to Washington - an 11-point agenda for the 2006 legislative session.


* House Bill 2370 passed the House and Senate and signed into law -– Provides $7.6 million in low-income energy assistance and is one part of our commitment to help reduce energy costs for families.
...

Yes, Doug Ericksen Republican Floor Leader, added his name to the co-sponsors of Bill 2370 and now that's the number one accomplishment of the House Republican Caucus. Just one wee little problem, Ericksen is the only Republican co-sponsor and their are thirty Democratic co-sponsor!!!

HB 2370 - 2005-06
Funding low-income home energy assistance.

Sponsors: Representatives Green (D-28th), Williams (D-22nd), Kessler (D-24th), Kilmer (D-26th), Chase (D-32nd ), Blake (D-19th), Morrell (D-25th), Appleton (D-23rd), Moeller (D-49th), Hasegawa (D-11th), Murray (D-43rd), Linville (D-42nd), Conway (D-29th), P. Sullivan (D-11th), Springer (D-45th), Takko (D-19th), Lantz (D-26th), Dickerson (D-36th), Kenney (D-46th), Fromhold (D-49th), Kagi (D-32nd), McIntire (D-46th), B. Sullivan (D-21st), Simpson (D-47th), Ericks (D-1st), Sells (D-38th), Upthegrove (D-33rd), Ormsby (D-3rd), McDermott (D-34th), Schual-Berke (D- 33rd), Ericksen (R-42nd )

By Request: Governor Gregoire

And the Senate companion bill doesn't make the Republicans look any better, with only four Republicans versus twenty-two Democrats co-sponsoring the bill.

SB 6285 - 2005-06
Funding low-income home energy assistance.

Sponsors: Senators Eide (D), Poulsen (D), Rockefeller (D), Pridemore (D), Rasmussen (D), Brown (D), Haugen (D), Berkey (D), Keiser (D), Prentice (D), Fairley (D), Kastama (D), Fraser (D), Kohl-Welles (D), McAuliffe (D), Thibaudeau (D), Spanel (D), Regala (D), Kline (D), Shin (D), Sheldon (D), Franklin (D), Mulliken-R, Morton-R, Roach-R, Oke-R

By Request: Governor Gregoire
Companion Bill: HB 2370

There are some words for what Republican Floor Leader Ericksen and his GOPals are trying to do, and the polite ones are: lie; perjure, equivocate, fudge, palter; beguile, cozen, deceive, delude, dupe, fool, gull, hoax, hoodwink, kid, snow, take in, trick; defame, libel, slander, traduce; falsify, misrepresent, misstate; distort, garble; dissemble, dissimulate; misguide, misinform, mislead

Bush Robbing the Working Class to pay the Rich

U.S. Has Royalty Plan to Give Windfall to Oil Companies

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: February 14, 2006

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 — The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.

New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government. ...(more)

Bush and his coconspirators are planning to give at least $7 billion to their oil and gas pals while he squeezes a billion out of working families by jacking up PNW electric bills 10%.

Federal Budget: Juicing the region

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

The Pacific Northwest got a jolting reminder Monday of what passes for budgeting in the Bush administration.

If the president has his way, the region will have to pay more for electricity. The proposed increase in Bonneville Power Administration rates would hit some utilities harder than others. But we would all likely feel the effects from taking nearly $1 billion from Northwest families and businesses over 10 years to make a minor difference in the federal Treasury. ...(more)

And there's more at stake than an increase in our electric bills,

there are Family Wage Jobs on the chopping block:

Energy costs threaten Intalco

Future again hinges on an uncertain BPA contract
DAVE GALLAGHER
THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

...Coming to an agreement may prove challenging. The region has grown and BPA has more customers sharing the once-abundant supply of cheap hydroelectric power from dams on the Columbia River.

If Intalco and BPA can't reach an agreement, the facility once again will be at a huge risk of closure. ...

...Facing a future as cloudy as Intalco's, company officials have tried to find ways to survive. That's meant trying to make the facility as efficient as possible, according to Rousseau. One effort has been a program to purchase scrap metal and re-melt it, which takes less energy than creating new metal. The scrap metal project now represents about 30 percent of all the products that come from the facility. ....

Employees: About 460 people work at the facility. Before the energy crunch of 2000, the plant had about 1,100 employees when running at full capacity.

Fast facts: The plant is one of two aluminum smelter facilities left in Washington state, the other is in Wenatchee. Since 2001, the facility has used improved operational procedures to reduce greenhouse gas potential from aluminum reduction by more than 60 percent. The company pays about $1.2 million annually in property taxes.

How about joining the fight to keep PNW regional power and jobs.

Cantwell tells Bush she will fight BPA plan

By MATTHEW DALY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Maria Cantwell met with President Bush on Tuesday and told him that Northwest lawmakers strongly oppose an administration plan to change the revenue structure of the Bonneville Power Administration.

Under the president's budget, surplus revenue from the Portland, Ore.-based federal power marketing agency would no longer be used to lower electricity rates for Northwest consumers. Instead the money would be used to pay down the federal debt.

Cantwell and other Northwest lawmakers call the plan unacceptable. The Washington Democrat said she told the president as much at the White House meeting. ...

...Cantwell has called on Northwest residents to sign an online petition demanding an end to the plan, which she would said "unravel" BPA's cost-based rates. The petition is posted on Cantwell's Senate Web site at http://cantwell.senate.gov/. More than 1,000 people have signed the petition in the past three days.

Don't blame the whole Party

It stinks, but don't blame the whole Democratic Party for what some Politicians are doing.

Iraq Vet Abandons Ohio Political Bid

By DAN SEWELL
Associated Press Writer

CINCINNATI (AP) -- Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, a Bush administration critic who had been recruited by top Democrats to run for U.S. Senate, said Tuesday he was reluctantly dropping his campaign and declared his political career over.

Hackett said he was pressured by party leaders to drop out of the Senate primary and run for the House against Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt instead.

National Democratic leaders, especially Sen. Charles Schumer, added to that pressure by telling his top fundraisers to stop sending money, Hackett said. ...(more)

Personally, I'm still onboard with Doctor, Governor, Chairman Howard Dean.

The Democratic Party's Blog
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
About Paul Hackett

As you know, Iraq veteran Paul Hackett left the race for U.S. Senate in Ohio today. In his campaigns, Paul had the courage to stand up and speak out for what he believes in. That is how Democrats will win elections and take this country back for the people who built it. Our country and our party are better off when people like Paul step up and run for office, up and down the ballot, in every election. I also want you to know that it is the policy of the Democratic National Committee not to intervene in contested primaries. We need more people running for office at every level, gaining experience and bringing new voices into our party. I want to thank Paul Hackett for inspiring so many people to be part of the political process, including many of the "Fighting Dems" running for office across the country. Keep up the fight, Howard

Posted by Howard Dean at 11:57 AM

It's going to take time to remake the Democratic Party as a really Grassroots Party. And it won't happen at all if the Grassroots are a bunch of petulant wimps who take their toys and go home at the first sign of trouble.

"Shattered The Myth Of White Supremacy"

just heard this quotation and loved it......thanks Liberal Serving.....

"If there's one thing that George Bush has done that we should never forget, it's that for us and for our children, he has shattered the myth of white supremacy once and for all,"

Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY), via Tennessee
Guerilla Women

Farm Bureau files initiative to end farming

Farm bureau files land-use initiative
Property owners would be paid for restrictions

By JENNIFER LANGSTON
P-I REPORTER

The Washington Farm Bureau filed an initiative Wednesday that would require governments to compensate landowners who've suffered financially or lost use of their land because of regulations passed in the past 10 years.

"Our ... Initiative would require government to understand the impact that its laws and regulations have on landowners, both financial and personal," said Steve Appel, a Whitman County wheat grower and state Farm Bureau president. "Who can argue with that?" ...(more)

"Who can argue with that?" Well... for starters:

Brian at Washblog sez:

Our fake property rights advocates, the Washington Farm Bureau and the Building Industry Association of Washington, have filed their loophole initiative to develop farmland into tract housing and big-box retail stripmalls. ...

Jon DeVore at VanBlog has a thing or two to say about it.

Carl at Washington State Political Report wrote the Farm Bureau a sarcastic letter about the initiative and received a thoroughly clueless reply.

From my vantage point way up here in rural Whatcom County, this sure does look like a Land Developers (aka Carpet Baggers) Initiative. If voters get sucked in and pass this and it stands up to court challenges, then Washington State will become a Carpet Baggers paradise. Zoning laws will be out the window and Farmers certainly will be able to sell their land to Developers; 'course once they do that, they won't be Farmers anymore... will they. Any Farmer who wants to continue farming will need to lawyer up, 'cause I'm sure one of the first laws to be rescinded will be The Washington Right to Farm Act. Once those McMansions got sprinkled in amongst working farms it'd be just too expensive for the government to defend farmers and pay (with OUR tax dollars!!!) for all that lost property value. I mean after all, the dust, machinery noise and farm smells would be property devaluing nuisances in exurban McParadise.

Biofuel passes in spite of WA GOP obstruction

House passes measure on biofuel, ethanol

By RACHEL LA CORTE

The Associated Press

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington state drivers could have a greener option at the pump under a measure approved Friday by the state House as part of a larger energy independence package.

The measure, which passed on a 70-28 vote, means that 2 percent of the state's diesel sales will be biodiesel by Dec. 1, 2008.

By that same date, gasoline must be blended with a minimum blend of 2 percent ethanol. Ethanol standards could jump to 10 percent if air quality won't be affected. ...(more)

Republican Floor Leader Rep. Doug Ericksen - (District 42) stood on the state House floor and opposed this bill just before the vote this evening. He's supposed to be representing me and the other voters in the 42nd legislative district, but his votes say otherwise.

So far this session he's spent his time whinging on about phoney issues like repealing the estate tax on multi-millionaires and blindly opposing everything that the Democratic majority proposes.

Meanwhile our other Representative Kelli Linville (D - 42nd LD) has worked to pass nine bills designed to help Veterans, National Guard members and military families.

GOP Candidate runs aground in Bellingham

Republicans say they are targeting Rep. Rick Larsen, WA - 2nd Congressional District's quiet workhorse. That must be because in 2004 Larsen only got 64% of the vote.

True to form, the GOP has found an affable doofus to run. A Navy has-been Veteran with no ideas of his own. The Bellingham Herald obligingly covered the candidates appearance at the Northwest Business Club, a PR front group for Whatcom County Republican Party. (Don't believe it's a front? Ask Bruce Ayers Vice President of the Northwest Business Club and Whatcom County Republican Party Chairman.)

There was the obligatory 'business good, government bad' quote:

... He criticized government regulations for stifling small businesses and promised to have the courage "to stand up and do something."
"Sitting on the sidelines is not an option anymore," Roulstone said. "If you believe in these principles, you have to stand up.

Right... no sitting on the sidelines... stand up... stand up. blah blah blah. Sporty active verbs: Yes... Content: No. Oh yeah, this affable doofus is named Doug Roulstone, (but perhaps we should refer to him as Ol' Roulstain in honor of Capt. Queeg.)

..."he supported a constitutional amendment to make burning the flag a crime."...

..."It doesn't make sense we have some foaming at the mouth over ANWR," he said. "It's not a big piece of property. ..."

But my favorite is:

...He called the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps "a program that makes sense,"

Yeah! Vigilante's prowling the border in the name of fear-mongering, that's an idea who's time has come! Yes indeed; a month of feverish activity by our local border vigilantes netted one impulsive young man who stepped across the border so he could call his girlfriend and say he was calling from Canada.

The B'ham Herald said Ol' Roulstain has raise $278,461... BUT, forgot to mention that about a third of that has come from GOP members of Congress!

Democrat warns Democrats....huh?

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety…………Benjamin Franklin

This quote is as important today as it was then. Anyone in a leadership position should heed it’s warning. Since when has the truth been dangerous for Democrats????????

Vilsack: Opposing wiretapping dangerous for Democrats
THOMAS BEAUMONTREGISTER
STAFF WRITER
January 31, 2006
Gov. Tom Vilsack said Monday that Democrats
risk political backlash if they object to the Bush administration's wiretapping but cannot show that Americans' civil liberties are at risk.

"If the president broke the law, that's unacceptable. But I think it's debateable whether he did," Vilsack told Des Moines Register editors and reporters.
Under a directive signed by President
Bush, the National Security Agency can monitor the international communications of people inside the country, when one party to the call or e-mail is believed to be involved with the terrorist network al-Qaida. The practice is done without a court order, normally required to monitor such communications. full article

Huh? What the hell……
Does anybody recognize America……?? Because of the abuse of power, we now attack preemptively based on lies….torture and render people…..hold American citizens and others indefinitely without access to the courts. All this behavior fueled by doses of fear and adolescent bravado that passes as security. ie. Landing on an aircraft carrier all dressed up tough! Only a leader willing to stand up with courage and speak the truth can lead us away from the dangerous direction this county is headed.
How the hell will we know if the president broke the law if we don’t know if the president broke the law??? Let the debate begin!! Let’s start with the stuff that, as far as we know, didn’t get anybody killed. We have a perfectly broad law in place that allows for super secret surrveilance. As an active member of the democratic party, I expect leaders to stand up for civil liberties and against the abuse of executive power.

Our Constitution is a political issue?

Domestic spying tests GOP lawmakers' loyalties

By Maura Reynolds - Los Angeles Times

... The tenor of the hearing rests on a central question: Do the Republicans who control Capitol Hill have greater loyalty to Congress as an institution or to the president who heads their political party?

The National Security Agency (NSA) controversy may be the first of the Bush presidency to place Republicans' roles as lawmakers and politicians so directly in conflict. Some GOP lawmakers have been less vocal than usual in defending the president, a sign that many have not made up their minds which role to put first. ...

... The controversy strikes a nerve with senators from the GOP's libertarian wing, who banded together late last year to help stall reauthorization of the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law passed in response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

"You have a substantial group of genuine conservatives who are very uneasy about 'Big Brother' and who have a long-standing, outspoken drive on privacy issues," said Norman Ornstein, an expert on Congress and head of the American Enterprise Institute think tank. "It doesn't matter who the president is, they don't like the idea of the government looking over people's shoulders.

"I think if you took a secret ballot in the Senate and House, you'd get a majority of Republicans joining on to those [libertarian] concerns," Ornstein said. "But the majority of Republicans in both houses see themselves more as field soldiers in the president's army than as independent actors in an independent branch of government. ...

[That group is] very reluctant to challenge their president and to do so in a way that gives Democrats a political issue." ...

But apparently Tom Vilsack is still loyal to the Unitary Executive

Vilsack: Opposing wiretapping dangerous for Democrats

By THOMAS BEAUMONT - REGISTER STAFF WRITER

January 31, 2006

Gov. Tom Vilsack said Monday that Democrats risk political backlash if they object to the Bush administration's wiretapping but cannot show that Americans' civil liberties are at risk. ...

..."If the president broke the law, that's unacceptable. But I think it's debateable whether he did," Vilsack told Des Moines Register editors and reporters.

"And I think Democrats are falling into a very, very large political trap," he said. "Democrats are not going to win elections until they can reassure people they are going to keep them safe." ...

... Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has compared the practice to President Nixon's practice of monitoring his political adversaries' communications.

Vilsacks readiness to toss our Constitutional Rights into the dumpster of history has gained him praise from that bastion of right-wing propaganda the WeeklyStandard: "Iowa Gov. and DLC Chair Vilsack Won't Be Led Around by the Nose by the Far Left"

So the WeeklyStandard and the DLC think the Constitution is a Far Left Document?

As well as being the leader of the DLC, Tom Vilsack is still Governor of Iowa. He really needs to get up, walk across his office to the Iowa State Flag and read the states motto:

"Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain"

Has DeBolt & WA-GOP apologized Yet?

Democratic majority in the State Legislature = tough on sex offenders in spite of Republican sabotage! The Republicans smear campaign couldn't derail good legislation and what's more it's now a felony to distribute phony sex offender notifications (House Bill 3238) - - [ Ha Ha! ]

OLYMPIA -- In a series of unanimous votes, the House of Representatives passed a package of tough bills to catch more sex offenders, convict more sex offenders and protect more victims.

"Police and prosecutors tell us we've made our bills as tough as you can get without leading to fewer convictions," said the chair of the Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee, Rep. Al O'Brien (D-Mountlake Terrace). "These bills are specifically designed for victims to speak out, which is the first thing we need to get sex offenders locked-up."

County prosecutors, sheriffs and police chiefs say the new laws will give them better tools to catch and convict child molesters and rapists. ... (link)

The Police seem to be pretty happy with Democrats.

OLYMPIA -- The state's sheriffs and police officers have the back of Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane.

The Washington Council of Police & Sheriffs (WACOPS) yesterday honored Brown with its 2005 Legislator of the Year Award.

Asked why WACOPS chose Brown, Lee Reaves, the organization's governmental affairs director, called Brown a "class act." ... (link)

But in the sour grapes department we have...

House Republican Leader Doug Ericksen, (R-Ferndale) votes for sex offender law, but wants more to be done ... (link)

And that "more to be done" appears to be beating up on teachers.

OLYMPIA-- Rep. Toby Nixon (R-Kirkland) has redoubled his efforts to enact penalties for teacher strikes after an attorney general opinion affirming they have no right to strike. Nixon introduced House Bill 2808 last month that would impose penalties of up to $10,000 per day on labor unions that incite illegal strikes. ... (link)

Fortunately and quite correctly, Nixons bill went nowhere this session.

It's way past time to replace these Republican poseurs with honest hardworking Democrats. Jasper MacSlarrow is running against Doug Ericksen and let's hope there's an equally good candidate out there to run against Toby Nixon .

comment to previous post

thanks for the comment Lietta and great job!!.....i will contact my reps. and i brought this post forward. so important!!!

HB 3107 Exposure to depleted uranium H State Govt 1/20/2006
Studying military uranium exposure.
and SB 6732 Exposure to depleted uranium S Hea/L-T Care 1/19/2006 Studying military uranium exposure.
Hearings already held in Washington State House; hearings today in Washington State Senate. Follow the progress of these as well, and encourage your elected officials to support. Requests medical screening for depleted uranium for returning WA Natl Guard and establishing a State Registry. A small group from Pt Townsend (DUST) in conjunction with Veterans for Peace members did the work-up to get this from proposal to hearings. Representing Military Families Speak Out, Washington State Chapter, I was asked to participate in giving testimony and have submitted written testimony for today's State Senate hearings to be entered into the record.
# posted by Lietta Ruger : 11:42 AM

my letter to editor

well not really cuz the bellingham herald didn't print it....so i'll post it here.....

Our current use of depleted uranium weapons is producing a catastrophe. We will be counting human victims in the millions. Tons of depleted uranium is being spread in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our troops are being exposed. We are all increasing exposed as it travels in the atmosphere. If we think we are facing a healthcare crisis now folks, we have seen nothing yet.
We have been doing this since Gulf War I. Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in the first Gulf War 11,000 are now dead. By 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. Eminent scientist Leuren Moret recently named depleted uranium as the definitive cause of ‘Gulf War Syndrome.
Support Congressman Jim McDermott’s nonpartisan legislation studying the health and environmental impacts from the militaries use of depleted uranium in combat zones and clean up of sites in the U.S. H. R. 2410. Ask Representative Rick Larsen to cosponsor.

if your rep hasn't co sponsored yet , ask them to. bill status

We have a choice about how we live. We can co-operate with all people of the world. We can make important decisions about how we use the earth’s resources. We must immediately stop waging nuclear war with depleted uranium. Our children’s future depends on it.

Riverbend

Riverbend on church and state......sounds kinda familiar.....and i sure know what she means about not dwelling on the results too much (i know the chill and quiet terror) and i have had non-stop electricity and move freely and safely thru my day. i can't even imagine living in constant danger under occupation. i know there are many people in my life(some i've known since my birth) that i can't have a discussion about policy with. the mixing of politics and religion is dangerous where ever it is used.

.......Americans write to me wondering, “But where are the educated Iraqis? Why didn’t they vote for secular parties?” The educated Iraqis have been systematically silenced since 2003. They’ve been pressured and bullied outside of the country. They’ve been assassinated, detained, tortured and abducted. Many of them have lost faith in the possibility of a secular Iraq.

Then again… who is to say that many of the people who voted for religious parties aren’t educated? I know some perfectly educated Iraqis who take criticism towards parties like Da’awa and SCIRI as a personal affront. This is because these parties are so cloaked and cocooned within their religious identity, that it is almost taken as an attack against Shia in general when one
criticizes them. It’s the same thing for many Sunnis when a political Sunni party comes under criticism.

That’s the danger of mixing politics and religion- it becomes
personal.

I try not to dwell on the results too much- the fact that Shia religious fundamentalists are currently in power- because when I do, I’m filled with this sort of chill that leaves in its wake a feeling of quiet terror. It’s like when the electricity goes out suddenly and you’re plunged into a deep, quiet, almost
tangible darkness- you try not to focus too intently on the subtle noises and movements around you because the unseen possibilities will drive you mad…
Thursday, February 02,
2006

Cantwell and the non-filibuster

I still want to know Senator Maria Cantwell's reason for not supporting a filibuster of Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court... I think she owes her constituents a clear statement about the reasoning behind her decision.

Whatever her explanation is, I probably won't agree with it. But will I vote for her in November? You betcha!

There are good reasons to re-elect Cantwell. I hear people say she's not progressive enough, but her voting record doesn't look so bad. I went to "ProgressivePunch.org" and looked at the ratings. It's true that Maria Cantwell isn't as progressive as Patty Murray, but not by much.

Patty Murray's progressive score is 90.30% making her #17

Maria Cantwell's progressive score is 88.57% making her #20!

Consider that John Kerry is #24 with a progressive score of 86.23%

Referring to the progressive-punch scores again, the most moderate Republicans in the Senate are:

Chafee, Lincoln (R- RI) 42.67%

Specter, Arlen (R-PA) 35.27%

Snowe, Olympia J. (R-ME) 32.28%

Collins, Susan M. (R-ME) 30.73%

Then comes Shelby, Richard C. (R-AL) at 16.06%

So with that in mind, I wouldn't want to risk losing Maria and ending up with a Republican Senator... or even a Green/Libertarian/...Democrat.

So - here's this mornings pointer to the words of our beloved Senator Cantwell:

Cantwell Reacts to Bush‚’s State of the Union

No Fixes for Troubled Medicare Rx Plan; Record Oil Company Profits with No Plan to Cut Skyrocketing Fuel Costs