added to the Reference section in the right side column. It deals with our 4th Amendment rights to privacy - just what the government is busy dismantling in the name of security. Bill Scannell runs th
The future of our war in Iraq is analyzed and predictions are made in a new post on the website World In Conflict, a sub-site of NwCitizen. Credit for the articles there belongs to a local academic wh
in Iowa embarrassed me. Watching John Edwards speak after his surprise 2nd-place finish was refreshing and hopeful. Edwards spoke to America during his 7 minutes of coverage by all the networks. Dean
and champion of our basic rights. Without him we would be a more backward country today - and perhaps have more internal violence. He showed the way for whites as well as blacks towards a society of e
by Tim Paxton. He posted this to the Lake Whatcom discussion group and has given permission for posting here. I phoned the city attorney’s office and asked the name of this attorney in Tim’s report. T
for President. The most important single reason is that I think he can beat George Bush. I’m independent, never having belonged to either party. Some of my best liberal friends insist I’m a closet con
The online edition has the same articles as the four-page tabloid. It would help if the editor would put dates with the online articles so we know which are current. Editor James Johann prints an anal
About 240 citizens check NwCitizen each day and regular readers check about once a week. Over 4,000 unique - different - citizens check this site every month. Examining where you come from reve
We read that 35 US soldiers were “hit” in Iraq yesterday. When our Bellingham Herald does print war casualties on the front page, the choice of words seeks to minimize the tragedy. Hit. Did someone pu
this afternoon? A small 2.7 intensity quake under the southern part of Chuckanut Mountain, about 4 miles south of Fairhaven, jolted us. You can check the earthquake site for details.
I see the Bham Herald has taken to printing US war dead on the back pages. Maybe some directive came down from Gannett headquarters telling all 80-some Gannettoids to print this awkward bad news in th
May I urge you, gentle reader and patriotic American, to check the War and Peace website links on the right. Look for articles that may give you more facts and information on what our country is doing
about the impending attack? Enough to have stopped the attack? The widow of a fellow killed in the attack has refused the $1 million from the government and is suing George W and his advisors. And she
I urge you to visit the independent websites that report on events in Iraq. Independent being those not owned by US corporate media, such as CNN, Fox, MSNbc, etc. The independent War and Peace sites a
of some local developers is plain to see in this photo essay at the Lake Whatcom website. The WA Dept of Ecology has enforcement folks tooling around in their spiffy pickups, but no enforcement for th
Today’s Herald has a human interest story about Greg Grant who hired sniper John Muhammad for yard chores a year ago - just a couple weeks before his rampage of killing. This past week, Greg testified
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."
