The Paramount Duty

The Washington State Constitution says: ARTICLE IX EDUCATIONSECTION 1 PREAMBLE. It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders, without distinction or preference on account of race, color, caste, or sex. SECTION 2 PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. The legislature shall provide for a…

Seattle Climate March: Sept 21

From https://www.facebook.com/events/1446281475652868/?notif_t=plan_user_invited Join us for a rally and march on Sept 21 in solidarity with the People’s Climate March in NYC calling for sustainable jobs to retool our economy with clean, renewable technologies as a solution to both the economic and environmental crises. We can’t rely on politicians who’ve been dragging their feet for decades….

Washington Conservation Voters is too kind to Steve Litzow and too cruel to the Democratic coalition

Washington Conservation Voters has given an endorsement to Republican Steve Litzow of the 41st LD. But WCV’s own data shows that Litzow’s 2014 legislative environmental score is below 50 (42 out of 100).  See WCV’s scorecard and the tables at the end of this article.  Litzow’s Lifetime Score is a bit better, 61 out of…

Snarkies

Many political cartoons have a little guy on the bottom corner making snarky comments.    Chris Tombrello and Chad Lupkes suggested that Pat Oliphant may have invented this form [snarky comment guy]. His little penguin was named Punk. Chris thought the insets might be called “cartouches”, but the term doesn’t quite fit. (See http://oldprintgallery.wordpress.com/tag/cartouche/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartouche_%28disambiguation%29…

Quickie: Wall Street prefers Hillary over populist Republicans

From The 6 Principles of the New Populism (and the Establishment’s Nightmare): Wall Street and big business Republicans are already signaling they’d prefer a Democratic establishment candidate over a Republican populist. Dozens of major GOP donors, Wall Street Republicans, and corporate lobbyists have told Politico that if Jeb Bush decides against running and Chris Christie…

When money buys elections: the case of Steve Litzow and Andy Hill, as well as Tom Steyer

[The Bellevue Reporter published this in an abbreviated form as a letter-to-the-editor in their print edition today, including the part about Litzow and Hill’s funding by the Koch brothers.  So far the letter isn’t appearing on their website.] According to letsfreecongress.com, in the 2012 US House elections, 95% of the candidates that outspent their opponents…

Amazing GOP hypocrisy

From USA Today’s story Challenger concedes GOP primary to controversial rep A transcript of DesJarlais’ 2001 divorce showed that he and his then-wife, Susan, made a mutual decision to have two abortions. Still another woman has charged that DesJarlais encouraged her to get an abortion as well. DesJarlais, a doctor whose congressional seat was a…