Washington Liberals

On my way to and from my office in Seattle I pass a variety of homeless people and beggars. Some of them are regulars: I see them begging at the same spot nearly every day. But on Friday I saw a newcomer: a middle-aged black woman who was bent over a shopping cart that contained…

Bye Bye, Bybee Jay Bybee is the notorious author of the torture memo that the Bush Administration used to justify harsh treatment of prisoners. Here are new lyrics for the song Bye Bye, Birdie that Ann-Margret sang for the 1963 movie by the same name. Original lyrics New Lyrics (by Don Smith) Bye, bye, Birdie…

Anti-abortion activists like to call embryos “unborn children”, “innocent babies” or “developing human beings.” Their obvious aim is to shame people into believing that abortion is murder. But just repeating these phrases doesn’t change any facts and shouldn’t change any opinions. There are clear differences between early term embryos and late term fetuses. Specifically, a…

“Tired of the Koch Brothers buying our political system?” Koch Blocked An email went out promoting the above clever and powerful video. The email contained an essay, reproduced here, that calls the Koch Brothers and the Tea Party movement “Sociopathic fascists .” Repeatedly, they use terms “Corporate Fascist” and “Naziism.” The essay makes numerous valid…

Louder Than Words — Roots Action’s video critical of President Obama The timing of this video is perfect. President Obama is back in full campaign-mode, and he’s a brilliant speaker and campaigner. But too often his actions belie his words. Yesterday at my local Democratic LD organization, there was a rather heated discussion about the…

Guns N’ Religion: a (satirical) anti-elitist, anti-government song (sung to the tune of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”, lyrics only)

This website has published a series of articles challenging the constitutionality of I-1053, the voter initiative that imposes a 2/3 super-majority requirement on the legislature to raise taxes or eliminate tax breaks. See I-1053 is apparently unconstitutional, How our legislators should deal with I-1053 and the references therein. The issue of the constitutionality of I-1053…

Had we elected Dennis Kucinich, pretending that were possible, I wonder just how that would have translated into Republican votes for progressive legislation, fewer filibusters, or a diminished corporate influence on Congress. President Bush managed to ram his agenda through. As it turns out, there are no corporate interests opposing deregulation, or tax cuts, or…

Critter’s Crap breaks down economics for us. It’s really quite clear. Over a long period of time, the numbers show that the economy grows at a rate of 2.1%. We can and should have a discussion about steady state economics in light of resource depletion, but for the purpose of evaluating economic activity, income and…

Washington State is undergoing redistricting, in response to changes in population. At Sunday’s Legislative Action Committee meeting, Sarajane Siegfriedt passed around a redistricting map of King County. Districts which have grown in population (compared to the average) are shown in red and need to shrink. Districts which have shrunk in population (compared to the average)…