of course. Today American baseball umpire Bob Davidson nicely reversed a call in the new Baseball Classic which gave the American team a win over the Japanese - who were threatening to win. No problem
Juan Cole continues to provide the best available analysis of our Iraq involvement - at least that I have found. While his stance is not supportive of the Bush imperial goals, those in support of the
“Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said officers might, for example, surround a bank building, check the IDs of everyone going in and out and hand out leaflets about
Draft Dodger Dick Cheney wants to continue sending young Americans to death in Iraq. And being maimed - and being mentally unstable the rest of their lives. Dick didn’t want to go to Viet Nam to fight
I watched the US House of Representatives on C-Span last night - live. A sad display. They have now all gone home for a 2-week vacation - even before they have finished taking away the safety nets for
From the year 2000 when Bush took office, till recently, the Bush Administration has slammed the Clinton administration for not being concerned about Iraq and Saddam. Now that the lies of Bush are bei
GW Bush says we critics of his war are rewriting history. He says no one knew the intelligence was false in the spring of 2003 and going to war had broad support. Well, this common citizen in the far
A GOP memo is calculating that another terrorist attack on US soil will benefit GW and the Republicans. These are the guys who celebrate the deaths of American kids in war. So, is the party of Lincoln
Winter is descending on Pakistan and the earthquake victims will continue dying by the thousands over the next few weeks. Why? Because the relief agencies - including our American Red Cross - are trea
2,000 US military persons have been killed on the battlefields of Iraq since the March 2003 bombing and invasion. What is more horrifying is over 15,000 have been wounded. And tens of th
Got your attention? Time magazine has an article this week about our Bellingham fight over whether or not to put fluoride in our drinking water. It is worth reading.
“It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces – the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical opera
Most agree - even W. Bush - that FEMA has botched the aid effort for New Orleans. Now we learn that Mike Brown, the director of FEMA, was fired in 2001 from his last private sector job of overseeing h
Latest right-wing banal humor circulating on the Internet. This from the guys who say “my country, right or wrong”. This from the folks who actually think they have a rational reason for us to be inva
Sat, Aug 20, post Below I suggest no local elected officials attended the vigil. I am pleased to report that city council member Terry Borneman attended. Others saw him and told me. Anyone e
is being held tomorrow evening on the Fairhaven Village Green. Cindy is the mother of the soldier killed in Iraq. She is camped outside the gates to George Bush’s ranch in Texas. He has ignored her fo
Israeli Intelligence knew of the London bombings an hour before they went off. And so did Scotland Yard. Hell, Israeli National News posted it on their website. Make of it what you will. Sigh, it seem
So much for progress against terrorism. Multiple blasts on the London transportation system are evidence of that. Maybe just killing civilians by the thousands - as we have done in Iraq - and destroyi
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."
