Washington Liberals

(Originally published for a national audience at OpEdnews. Washington State readers may want to skip the first half.) Dennis Kucinich’s Ohio congressional district is being redistricted, so Kucinich has been visiting Washington State over the last several months, testing the waters to see whether he can run for a seat here. See this, this, this,…

Joel Connelly attended the NW Roots conference in Seattle yesterday and wrote these two articles about it: Inslee takes the edge off controversial idea and Red meat from a vegan — Kucinich. The second article contains several taunts against Kucinich: “fiery old-time populism, mixed with New Age”, “is looking to Washington as a state where…

This month’s American Prospect has an article about the defeat of anti-tax initiatives A60, A61, and Prop 101 by more than 68% in Colorado State and about the Colorado Progressive Coalition‘s role in that campaign. The article also told of Democratic Governor Patrick’s win in Massachusetts and the defeat there of an anti-tax initiative. Here…

July 7, 2011.  Washington, D.C. In a hastily called press conference, President Obama announced his decision Thursday evening to sever formal ties with the Democratic Party and become an Independent. With Senator Joseph Lieberman (I, CT) at his side, the President explained his decision to stunned staff members and journalists. “After many months of frustrating…

Wednesday evening  I attended a public meeting, in Kirkland, of the county Transportation, Economy, and Environment Committee.  The topic was the proposed cuts in bus and trolley service and the $20 “congestion fee” that the county may impose on car owners to fund Metro bus and prevent the service cuts.  The next two meetings are…

Here’s a bipartisan effort, with support from libertarians as well as progressives, to end America’s addiction to war and violence. Specifically, it calls on a speedy withdrawal from Afghanistan. http://www.comehomeamerica.us/ Check out the list of signers and add your comments. I received email about this website from a libertarian email list.

ProgressiveCongress.org and Progressive Action Fund are sponsoring a public event on July 23 at South Seattle Community College. Here is their blurb (copied from a pdf file they sent): It’s not often that lawmakers come to our community to ask directions, but that’sexactly what they’re doing. Our community has been hit hard by the economy.…

Over the past 30 years, our political leaders have pursued increasingly immoral, unconstitutional, and destructive policies: fraudulent wars, torture, rampant corruption and mismanagement, reckless deregulation, tax cuts for the rich, erosion of civil liberties, bailouts of culpable billionaire corporations, outsourcing of jobs and profits, dismantling of public journalism, fixed elections, corporate personhood, and prosecution of…

In order to obtain emergency funding for public transit, the King County Council, specifically, Larry Phillips, has proposed a congestion fee of $20 to be charged for every automobile.  I am writing in strong opposition to this fee and hope that others will also oppose this regressive tax and testify at the upcoming hearings unless…

Prominent conservative David Brooks has some harsh things to say about the Republican Party in this New York Times editorial: The Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative. The…