Washington Liberals

As reported here and here, a video introduction to the Justice Party of Washington and a discussion of ballot access for third political parties will take place at Traditions Café (300 Fifth Ave. S.W.) in Olympia on Thursday, April 12th from 7-9 pm. The public is invited and the event is free. Coffee and dessert…

The Christian Science Monitor is reporting, in Buffett Rule: Could it backfire on Democrats?, “Democrats are campaigning for the Buffett Rule, which would ensure millionaires pay federal taxes at a higher tax rate. But polls show ‘fairness’ doesn’t motivate key independent voters.” Among voters without a strongly held opinion of either Mr. Romney or Obama, 80…

Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2012 16:05:20 -0700 Subject: [SFPJN] Occupy the East End Rejects MoveOn.org Takeover Attempt PRESS RELEASE: Occupy the East End Rejects MoveOn.org Takeover Attempt April 8th, 2012 Please disseminate to everyone in and interested in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Thank you./ /APRIL 8, 2012—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE/ *OCCUPY THE EAST END TO…

AlterNet published an article by Peter Van Buren, I Had to Tell the Truth About Iraq–Even Though it Cost Me My Career. The author, who worked for the State Department at a forward operating base in Iraq, says, “the space between what we were doing (the eye-watering waste and mismanagement), and what we were saying…

From MoveOn.org

The world’s top 7 military spenders in 2010 The US Spends more on the military than the next 15 countries combined, and it spends 43% of the world total. Figures from the SIPRI Yearbook 2011. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures)

Retired US Navy Commander Faces Jail Over Interruption of Super Committee Hearing Bolger disrupted a public hearing of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, better known as the Super Committee, last October. “All this obfuscation, with percentages of GDP, this is just trying to confuse the issue,” Bolger said at the hearing, interrupting the…

Budget deal said to be 2 minutes from agreement

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report Who Pays? A distributional analysis of the tax systems in all 50 states shows just how regressive the tax system is, both nationally and, especially, in Washington State. In 2007 the richest 1% of Washingtonians paid about 3% of their income in state and local taxes, while…

The Washington state legislature is still engrossed in a special Session.  The House passed a budget yesterday that avoided major cuts to education, but kept the new proposed accounting system for sales-tax receipts collected on behalf of cities, counties and other local governments. This keeps sales tax money in state’s general fund longer for other spending…