Hundreds of citizens last night descended on Municipal Court in solidarity with the Hundred Acre Woods to express their opposition to Horizon Bank’s potentially disastrous development now calle
Oftimes it is far easier to criticize than to compliment. Is it too easy to forget how to acknowledge positive steps? At this week’s WAG meeting, Port official Mike Stoner, Mayor Dan Pike, City Plan
Or how to mitigate the illegitimacies of Fairhaven Highlands, AKA Chuckanut Ridge and the Hundred Acre Woods. Sorry, I didn’t have time to write something short!
Welcome. At 8:45 pm this evening, this website went live with its transformed design. You are looking at it. Yes, this is the Northwest Citizen that has been a political comment site since Septembe
Just a couple days more and we should be able to turn on the new NwCitizen website. Programming continues and what free time I have is going into the look and feel of the site. With the Bellingham Her
OK, we are running on the new server. And the design and programming are going well. I have cautious hope the transformed site will be running by early next week. One addition will be comments. I have
OK, we are running on the new server. And the design and programming are going well. I have cautious hope the transformed site will be running by early next week. One addition will be comments. I have
Barack Obama gave an inspired victory speech last night in Iowa. You can watch and listen to the podcast on Talking Points Memo. It is less than 14 minutes long. Quite impressive.
Barack Obama gave an inspired victory speech last night in Iowa. You can watch and listen to the podcast on Talking Points Memo. It is less than 14 minutes long. Quite impressive.
I’ve now heard the rumor twice. Could it finally be happening? You know, when conservative radio station owners try to construct a liberal program, it rarely works. Usually harsh and excited and outra
A liberal talk radio station in Whatcom County? I’ve now heard the rumor twice. Could it finally be happening? You know, when conservative radio owners try to construct a liberal program it rarely wor
Barack Obama is beginning to sound like the president we need and is beginning to show that he is a progressive that can be elected. I have favored Dennis Kucinich and was delighted that he yesterday
Barack Obama is beginning to sound like the president we need and is beginning to show that he is a progressive that can be elected. I have favored Dennis Kucinich and was delighted that he yesterday
Juan Cole continues to provide a knowledgeable look at Bhutto’s killing and the Pakistan situation. His column today explains how the government is being discredited regarding their claims of how she
Happy New Year. The new year always brings hope. Tis the nature of humans to wake up in the morning and feel that the new day will offer opportunities for us. We hope that our personal efforts in our
The city has posted the audio of the Dec 19 council meeting. After a week delay, it was posted within a couple hours of my queries. What I said at the meeting may or may not be important in the opinio
The city has posted the audio of the Dec 19 council meeting. After a week delay, it was posted within a couple hours of my queries. What I said at the meeting may or may not be important in the opinio
9 pm Some links. Juan Cole has his first take posted regarding the killing of Bhutto. Arianna Huffington knew her well and posted a personal remeberance. CNN reports with some amazing information o
Writer's notes: The candidates for State Representative in the 40th District Position 1 are: Dusty Gulleson (prefers Republican Party,) Chuck Carrell (prefers Republican Party,) Doug Revelle (prefers Happiness Party,) Mike Newman (prefers Republican Party,) Kristine Lytton (prefers Democratic Party,) Tom Pasma (prefers Democratic Party,) Thomas Boucher (prefers Democratic Party,) Justin Van Dyk (prefers Democratic Party,) and Donna R. Miller (prefers Republican Party.)
What follows are the two responses to questions I submitted to Chuck last Mon, Aug 2.
Why should I vote for you?
"I’m running this year because the Legislature and Governor continued their out of control spending habits despite our troubled economy, and we need to stop it.
The only way it will stop is to start electing strong leadership to the Legislature that can make the hard choices that will be needed.
I will not support any new taxes unless they will completely eliminate an existing tax and make the amount less overall to the people they affect.
I think people are taxed to their limit right now and the real long term solution is to have the state and local governments cut their spending and get back to the essential functions of what state government is supposed to do.
I will not accept money from, or be a representative for, any PAC or special interest group. That’s important when figuring out where to trim at least $3 billion dollars from our state’s budget next session.
When making cuts, these candidates will feel obligated to keep unnecessary programs due to the financial aid they received during their campaigns. The problem was highlighted this year, and electing those types of candidates will only bring the same issue to the next Legislative session."
What is important to you?
"The most important thing to me this next Legislative session is getting our fiscal house in order.
We need to simplify the tax structure and then get an accurate assessment of what the state budget will be.
Then we need to REALISTICALLY balance the budget. This means that we fund our most important things such as education and public safety first and then continue down until everything is funded or there is no more state money left.
When the state budget is down to zero then we stop funding programs. No matter how badly we want to fund a program, if the state budget is spent then they will have to get their funding someplace else besides state government.
Even within our top priorities we need to look at how to consolidate these agencies and programs to make them more efficient. We also need to look at reducing the middle management in these agencies and what I term “inner bureaucracies.”
Years of these types of hiring practices by state and local government has created an enormous drain on our resources and is not sustainable. Nor can we rely on Federal grants like we did this year to balance the budget."
