Washblog

You likely have already figured out whether you are voting for President Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. However, what about for the Commissioner of Public Lands? Or Initiative 1185? Judicial races? The ProgressiveVotersGuide.com by Fuse Washington can help.

The [2012] election has huge implications for our families, our communities, and our state. Our goal is to make smart, informed voting based on progressive values easier for you. We worked with Washington's leading progressive organizations to produce a Progressive Voters Guide based on their endorsements - your ticket to highly informed recommendations about the races on your ballot. The Progressive Voters Guide identifies the candidates with the most progressive track records and the ballot measure positions that will protect or promote progress in Washington.

"I wish to state that under no circumstances would I support Matt Shea for any public office," Senator Bob McCaslin (R) stated to the Spokane County Commissioners as they were deliberating who to appoint to a vacate seat to State House.

"He [Matt Shea] is dangerous enough in the House, and would be a serious menace to good governance as a Senator" --Gary W. Smith, Spokane Valley 4th District Republican

He was speeding like he usually does. He admits it. Leroy Norris likes to put the pedal to the metal, and last November he was returning home to his residence on the South Hill at a fast clip in his Chevy Lumina.

Then, a pickup truck drove along-side of Leroy, and the driver pulled a handgun out of his glove box in plain view of Leroy. Leroy freaked out, and he took off at an even higher speed in fear for his life. Really, who wouldn't be afraid?

With little or no concern for the safety of other drivers, pedestrians, or kids playing in the neighborhood, the driver of the pickup truck proceeds to chase Leroy Norris up the South Hill on Monroe Street. One or both vehicles exceeded 60-miles per hour at times through the residential area.

The driver of the pickup truck was Washington State Representative Matt Shea (R). Despite Matt Shea's minor celebrity status as a local elected official, an officer of the Spokane Police Department recognized a threat to the community when he saw one. The good'ol boy network did not work for Matt Shea. Lt. Dan Torok of the Spokane Police Department cited Republican Matt Shea, Spokane Valley, for two violations of State firearms law in the road rage incident. Leroy Norris was not cited for any offense. To the right is a YouTube video that was produced by Eastern Washington Voters about the firearms incident involving Matt Shea with more info at SpokaneWatch.net

"I am Sheryl Gordon McCloud, and I am running for the Washington State Supreme Court. In fact, I am the front runner for the Washington State Supreme Court now coming out of the primary election and going into the November general election. I have spent twenty-five years arguing in favor of constitutional rights in front of the Washington Supreme Court and my expertise in that has been recognized by endorsements from the Spokesman Review over to the Seattle Times. I intend to be a justice that is fair and who carries on my practice of creating a level playing field even for those who cannot afford a lawyer: Cheryl Gordon-McCloud for the Washington State Supreme Court." --Filmed and Edited by Eastern Washington Voters in Pullman, Wa, at the 2012 Lentil Festival this last August.

Below are links to resources I see as especially helpful for people doing GOTV. Most of them are from a reprint of an email that I received from the League of Women Voters of Washington this morning. I've added several links on restoration of voting rights for people with prior felonies from ACLU - and information on registration deadlines (in-person voter registration is possible through October 29 in Washington) from Washington's Secretary of State.

I was impressed with Kathleen Drew, candidate for Washington State Secretary of State, when I met her at the Lentil Festival in Pullman a few months ago.  She had a good clear grasp of the issues affecting the Office of the Secretary of State,  including the need to more fully fund the Washington State Voters' Guide, or the Voter's pamphlet if you will.

Below is the text of the youtube video of her, compliments of Eastern Washington Voters.  

Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke recently got some unwanted press.  Developer Lancze Douglass asked Todd Mielke for some help with some county business.  Todd Mielke allegedly turned around and asked him for a campaign contribution.

However, Lancze Douglass would not have anything to do with it, so he told Mike Prager of the Spokesman Review the story.    

The Stimulus Act of 2009 has been working, and we appreciate that Jay Inslee supported it when he was in Congress.  The Act has helped create jobs in Liberty Lake, WA, and boost Washington employment in general.

The Demand Energy project in Liberty Lake, WA, will retain and create about 90 Liberty Lake jobs in the County of Spokane. As part of the 2009 Stimulus Package, the company Demand Energy received a $1. 5 million grant to make energy storage devices for on-site users of electricity.

As a typical egotistical, arrogant, columnist/blogger, I usually think I can express my viewpoints better than anyone else. But when it comes to summing up the Ron Paul situation, the conservative blogger Erick Erikson says everything anyone needs to know.

This is from Erick's column today in www.redstate.com:

"Let me get this straight.

Twenty years ago someone put some crazy, racist stuff in newsletters bearing Ron Paul's name and written in the first person as if they were from Ron Paul.

Ron Paul never read them.

Ten years ago, when confronted with some of the crazy stuff (I'm trying really hard not to use "crazy s**t" here), Ron Paul says he wrote them, but they must be taken in their whole context to understand them.

Fast forward to the present and Ron Paul never wrote them, does not know who wrote them, cannot recall the names of anyone who worked for him who might have written them, is shocked to learn he made big money off them, and people think this guy has the qualifications to be President of the United States?

Letting someone write bat crap crazy stuff under your name, not knowing who they are or what they are doing, profiting from them, then taking responsibility before denying responsibility is credible?!

If we're to take Ron Paul at his word, maybe we need to get him an Alzheimer's test. he is old. Hell, if pigs did fly and he did get elected President, he'd be 81 at the end of his first term."

Eric may normally be wrong about, well, everything, but he sure nails this perfectly

Right-wing lunacy has won again! MSNBC yesterday forced itself to apologize for telling the truth about Mitt Romney's rhetorical ties to the Ku Klux Klan.

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, he's discovered that the things you dream about often don't go according to plan.

The way it's worked out for him so far, it's been a lot of anticipation followed by a sudden wave of frustration, but I feel like he's a lot better off having his particular problem with his car...because if he'd had cancer instead, he'd surely be dead by now.

I don't feel very good about this country this morning, and as so many of us are I'm thinking of how Troy Davis was hustled off this mortal coil by the State of Georgia without a lot of thought of what it means to execute the innocent.

And given the choice, I'd rather see us abandon the death penalty altogether, for reasons that must, at this moment, seem self-evident; that said, it's my suspicion that a lot of states are not going to be in any hurry to abandon their death penalties anytime soon now that they know the Supreme Court will allow the innocent to be murdered.

So what if there was a way to create a compromise that balanced the absolute need to protect the innocent with the feeling among many Americans that, for some crimes, we absolutely have to impose the death penalty?

Considering the circumstances, it's not going to be an easy subject, but let's give it a try, and see what we can do.

Once again The Fates have come our way to provide a story, and once again, we have a contender for the "Ironic Story Of The Year".

It's got everything you need for serious irony: an irascible comedian who mocked religion at every opportunity, a city that loved him, and the rich coincidence of his having been born at the crossroads of New York City's communities of religious education.

And that's why, today, we'll be talking about the effort to name the street right next to Manhattan's Seminary Row...Carlin Street.

(And before we go further, a language warning: we'll be quoting George Carlin liberally, and that means there may be present today certain of the seven words with which he created one of his best known routines. You are now officially warned.)

I took a break to enjoy the holiday, as I'm sure many of you did, but my inbox kept busy, and on Friday came a doozy, courtesy of the Washington Post.

You remember that little bit of a banking crisis we had a couple of years back, where banks around the world might have possibly, maybe, just a little, conspired in a giant scheme to package toxic mortgage loans into Grade A, investment-ready securities instruments, which then blew up in everyone's faces to the tune of a whole lot of taxpayer bailouts?

Well all of a sudden, it looks like an agency of the Federal Government is looking to do something about it, in a real big way.

Last Friday the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced they're suing 17 firms (I'll give you a list, bit it's pretty much all the usual suspects); depending on who you ask the Feds are seeking an amount as high as $200 billion.

As Joe Biden would say, it's a big...well, it's a big deal, anyway, and that's why we're starting the new week with this one.

We gotta grow some jobs, and that's a fact, and we probably aren't going to be able to do it with big ol' jobs programs funded by the Federal Government, what with today's politics and all, and that means if this Administration wants to stay in the jobs game they're going to have to find some smaller and more creative ways to do it.

They are also going to have to come up with ideas that are pretty much "bulletproof", meaning that they are so hard to object to that even Allen West and Louie Gohmert will not want to be on record saying "no no no!"; alternatively, solutions that work around the legislative process entirely could represent the other form of "bulletproof-ery".

Well, I have one of those "maybe bulletproof" ideas for you today, and it has to do with how "Made in USA" the things are that our Government buys.

It was just a couple of nights ago that Keith Olbermann was challenging us, in one of his "Special Comments", to rise up in the streets and take back this country.

He pointed out that the only way those on the left were going to be able to fight against those who are looking to get all "Tea Party" is to be as angry and as organized and as aggressive as the Tea Party community, and if we're smart, we'll take him up on that challenge.

But if you really want to push "professional" Democrats to the left, most especially this President, and you want to do it in time to impact the '12 cycle, the only way to do it is to run a candidate in primary contests that either moves the conversation your way...or leaves you with a surprising new Candidate.

And right here, right now, we actually have a chance to do exactly that - and that's why, in today's discussion, I'm going to challenge Olbermann right back.