The news analysts are finally realizing that Bush’s speech was a declaration of war on Iran. I posted that minutes after the speech and revisited it yesterday. We are dragging out the detention of the
Unity08 - a new way to select and elect our next president. Worth our effort to check out and consider. For conservatives and liberals. For those of us who do not like the dominance of money in our po
Juan Cole provides an excellent if longish read on Bush’s new plan for the Iraq war. In particular he points out how many of the infiltrators and weapons are coming not from Syria or Iran but from Jor
In his speech tonight, Bush gave no specific time lines for expected results. The first words from news commentators referred to six months for results. But Bush can avoid any accountability in six mo
Freaky. There are reports - rumors? - that Israeli Air Force pilots are training for a bombing run into Iran. If Israel drops nuclear bombs on Iran then you know W asked them to do it - for they have
The new discussion site about airport issues - blinet.org - is being run by Matt Paskus. While his name is not on the site, he is very open to be identified. He lives out by the airport and - surprise
Why should the execution of Saddam be a concern to all of us? Because it was a lynching - and Bush and company participated. Personally I think Bush wanted Saddam dead quick out of fear that we may be
3,000 service persons killed in Iraq? Oh we are beyond that - up to 3,002 this morning - and could climb past 4,000 this year if we ‘stay the course’. More telling for me is we are approaching 50,000
As the 3,000th US service person is killed in Iraq today or tomorrow, the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center will hold a candlelight vigil at the Maritime Heritage Park this evening starting at 4:30 pm
The US - the Bush administration - had Saddam Hussein executed this evening. How sad - how stupid on several levels - and how oh so immoral. There are tyrants of several countries who murder their peo
One of the more momentous public hearings in Bellingham’s history appears to be ready to pass with more than the ordinary confusion. We wrote about some of the mis/disinformation earlier.
A good historic moment is upon us today. The Iraq Study Group Report was presented this morning to our nation’s leaders and to us citizens. I think this report and its 79 recommendations provide a sup
In the previous post I complained that the biggest rip-off in Whatcom County history was happening without even being discussed or making it into the news. Well, I lied. To
The good? We are no longer spewing forty+ pounds of mercury vapor every day into the local atmosphere. We are no longer dumping 20 to 40 tons of polluted solid waste into our bay, ravines and gravel p
Milton Friedman died at 94 years of age last week. Friedman was the maverick economist who implemented monetarist policies beginning with the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. As
While we’re being proud to be Americans, don’t forget that George Bush just pushed through legislation that makes it legal for our boys at Abu Ghraib to have tortured and makes it legal for them to ke
Protesting and dissent is no longer supervised by the police. It is actively escalated to violence, punished and prosecuted. This snippet is about a fellow rotting in jail as the result of his journal
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."
