Washington Liberals

Democratic Representatives Adam Smith, Derek Kilmer, Rick Larsen, and Dennis Heck voted with 134 Republicans to help defeat the Amash Amendment to shutter the NSA’s surveillance function.  (Boo!) Jim McDermott and Suzan DeBene voted FOR the amendment. (Hurray!)   “A majority of Democrats, 111, voted for Amash’s amendment despite the full court press while 83…

What: Localize This! 2013 is Backbone Campaign’s 5th Annual Cross-Movement Artful Activism, Strategy, Creative Tactics & Community Organizing Intensive Training Camp! When: July 31st – August 5th, 2013 (See daily offerings below) Register for one day or more days HERE Where: BEAUTIFUL Vashon Island, WA (15 min. Ferry from Seattle) Suggested contribution: Per day $25-$50…

Control of the state Senate hangs in the balance, depending on the outcome of a special election in the 26th LD. On one side is Democrat Nathan Schlicher, who was selected early this year to temporarily replace Derek Kilmer, after Kilmer left the state Senate half way through his four year term to serve in…

I read Lee Kuan Yew: The Grandmaster’s Insights on China, the United States, and the World. You might call Yew a benevolent dictator. There’s no freedom of the press in Singapore, and people who criticized him usually ended up broke or in jail.  But Yew is considered a genius, for in one generation he turned…

(courtesy of Carol Davidek-Waller) We’re sending our money to Washington, D.C. and Wall Street, but we have the power to bring it back. “How do I protect my own assets from the corruption. So I started my own investment advisory company” and financial software firm. The aim is to decentralize power and money via the…

Economist Ed Dolan, an intellectual leader of the Carbon Tax movement, has a three-part serious about why everyone (conservatives,progressives, and libertarians) should love carbon taxes. As if to prove him right, a new study of the BC carbon tax estimates that it will boost economic activity because “the government uses carbon tax revenue to reduce personal and corporate…

As the Washington legislative session wrapped up, our legislators finally took at least one important step in the right direction. Or rather, they stopped going in the wrong direction. It’s about time. Tuition and fees at the University of Washington are $13,000 — close to a quarter of the pre-tax income of the typical middle…

What: Press Conference & Protest at Bellevue Foreclosure Auction  Time: 10:00 AM Date: Fri., July 19 Where: Northwest Trustee Services, 13555 SE 36th St., Bellevue, WA 98006 Who: SAFE (Standing Against Foreclosure & Eviction) Why: On July 11, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Richard Okrent denied a motion to dismiss a case against both Quality…

Late Tuesday afternoon we learned that nation-wide vigils for Trayvon Martin have been called for this Saturday at noon, exactly the same time as the planned WTF Olympia? rally. At an emergency committee meeting last night we decided to postpone the rally until the following Saturday, July 27, out of respect for this national day of action…

King County Executive Dow Constantine spoke to the 41st LD Democrats Wednesday night. He said that King County is the 13th largest county in the country. It has a population of over 2,000,000 people, making it more populous than 13 or 14 states (each of which has two US senators).  King County accounts for about…