Washington Liberals

The Olympian reported in July: I-1053: Filers say initiative violates state constitution, endangers education The League of Education Voters and several House Democrats filed a lawsuit Monday [July, 25, 2011] in King County to challenge the voter-approved two-thirds legislative vote requirement for tax increases. They say the limit in Initiative 1053 violates the state constitution…

Whereas the State Revenue shortfall for the current biennium is now about $2 billion and may rise to over $3 billion by June 2012 and Whereas Governor Gregoire has proposed increasing the sales tax which would increase taxes on our poor and middle class by $500 million per year and Whereas our State already has…

December 1, Olympia. Day four of protests against proposed budget cuts at the special legislative session. Services Employees International Union (SEIU) and Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) sponsored today’s events. Although there were about 200 unionists in attendance, there was not the swarm of unionists about the capitol campus. The multi-generational SOS contingent included…

I got a weird little story about my friend Blitz Krieger to bring to you today. He’s had a crazy car problem, he has, and over the past few months he thought he had found a solution – in fact, he thought he had found the solution of his dreams – but in the end,…

Occupy Wall Street has turned the national conversation to corporate privilege vs. the 99 percent. The mainstream media has “discovered” the yawning chasm in income, privilege and well-being between Main Street and Wall Street. No surprise — it is the same thing that we have all understood in the back of our brains for the…

A strong victory was awarded today to dozens of Capitol protesters who received warnings banning them from the legislative campus after demonstrating their opposition to $2 billion in proposed state budget cuts. U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Bryan issued a temporary restraining order that prevents the Washington State Patrol from issuing trespass warnings that…

Stephen Lacey and Richard Caperton report in Exclusive Timeline: Bush Administration Advanced Solyndra Loan Guarantee for Two Years, Media Blow the Story: It’s often claimed that the Solyndra loan guarantee was “rushed through” by the Obama Administration for political reasons. In fact, the Solyndra loan guarantee was a multi-year process that the Bush Administration launched…

From Bob Hasegawa: Washington Investment Trust: an update Two years ago I introduced a bill that would establish a publicly owned bank for the State of Washington – known as the Washington Investment Trust (WIT).  The WIT would be a bank that serves as the repository for state deposits and is publicly owned, governed, and…