These are listed in general order of the importance I think they deserve. As a senior citizen now, and with a lifetime of deep involvement in politics (not deep, but I even shook hands with JFK) I hav
Actually, International - but not local and that is the point. AlJazeera reports on a scholarly Islamic letter to the Pope - pointing out the factual errors in that inflammatory speech of his
Nice little slanted piece in today’s Bellingham Herald by Sam Taylor. He says “Some in the community have clamored for (library) branches…”. Clamor. Apparently we are not requesting or petitioning o
Karl Rove is being exposed as pressuring Rep. Foley - the Republican who pursued teenage Congressional pages - to run for Congress one more time. Indeed, Karl apparently told Foley that if he did not
The Auditor’s Election webpage has posted the General Election schedule. Indeed, ballots will be mailed to all of us starting a week from tomorrow on Oct 18. While the corporate media like to say it i
Next week the Auditor will mail out our ballots to us. Catch that? Next week, we start voting. Yet - our Whatcom County Auditor web page has no information at all about the general election. No dates
As Republicans try to prove the Democrats sprung the Foley scandal as an ‘October Surprise’, it is fun to actually learn how it all started. Check out the website for CREW - Citizens for Responsibilit
Right wingnuts - Drudge, Gingrich and others - are saying the Democrats want Republican House leader Hastert to resign so as to enhance Democratic House candidates in the November election. You know,
Oh, I’m sorry, that is unfair. If the facts don’t fit then make a mistake. (This post is labeled National so no conservative has to read this far and become upset - as I don’t want to hurt their relia
Now the right wing media theme is Rep. Foley is a homosexual - as if that explains pedophilia. So, would they say a rapist is just a heterosexual person? The Wall Street Journal and other right wingnu
is all they are according to the White House. (Tony Snow on CNN) Yep - from the same folks who say torture is “procedures”. And this explains why the top leadership of the Republican Congress ignored
So - it seems top Republican Congressmen also lie about having sex with interns - er, pages. I ask you - what is worse - exploiting a person over 21 - legally impossible - or a boy of 16? Seems the to
The “Terrorist Detainee” bill passed the US House of Representatives by 253 to 168 vote yesterday. Aka the Military Commissions Act of 2006. House Resolution 6166, passed on Roll Call 491 of the secon
For the record, the library administration reacted to the post below by shifting the argument from branches to drive times and looking to give us crumbs from the main library bond issue in the form of
The Bellingham Library Board of Trustees will meet Tue, Sep 19 at 2:30 pm in the basement meeting room of the downtown library - the room across the hall from the Children’s Library. The public
This coming Tuesday, our Bellingham Library Board of Trustees may make a decision on where to locate a new, huge, downtown library building. The plan is to ask voters to pass a bond issue of several t
Bush wants to continue torturing captives. Why are we even discussing this? The Nazis and Soviet Russia tortured people to get information - not the USA. Now here is Bush demanding the authority to t
Anti-War demonstration next Tuesday in New York will probably be big. Bush will be speaking at the UN on that day to further his Iraq war. Demonstrators are being denied permits - and we can expect a
Tim Douglas - the longest-serving mayor in Bellingham’s history - will now serve another year. This also sets up a perfect scenario for Dan McShane’s run for mayor as there will be no incumbent. Asmun
What NWCitizen posted on Sept 11, 2001 seems to have stood the test of time. The cautions and concerns about democracy and hate were relevant considering the hate mongering and mindless striking out a
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."
