-----Original Message----- From: Aaron Ostrom, Fuse To: Billie Garber Sent: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:53 am Subject: Put the brakes on overdevelopment in Snohomish Co. Dear Billie, It seems like we hear about a new subdivision going in almost every day. Sometimes it feels like irresponsible developers run the county -- exploiting loopholes, cutting deals, and paving our countryside. But today we can do something about it. The County Council is considering three new laws in the next month that would close major loopholes and significantly improve the quality of new development here in Snohomish County. Fuse is working with people across the county and community groups like Futurewise and Pilchuck Audubon on a campaign to secure the passage of all three laws. Developers are fighting these laws tooth and nail, so we need to send the County Council a powerful message about where the people of Snohomish County stand. Please join us by signing our petition today, and forward it to your friends and neighbors. We'll deliver your message to the County Council before they vote.
Aaron: When you say it seems like developers run the county, why do you say "sometimes"? Money runs the county and always has. Right now it's "developers". In Columbia and Mexico, it's often drug dealers. It could just as easily be arms dealers, or "investors" in gambling or prostitution. Like frontier whores, the council members would embrace any of them as long as they offered a dollar. Do you suppose that anyone who decides to subdivide undeveloped rural land to build more stick houses and pavement in this environment could under some circumstances be considered "responsible"?! At least call a carpetbagger by its real name. These are all the same, just spoilers trying to make a lot of money. Maybe we should celebrate that most of them use their ill-gotten gains to hasten an early death and turn their children into delinquents. Much as I would love to believe you, the last development limitation "law" I supported was the Land Management Act and you can see how much teeth that has. I don't trust laws to solve this problem. No law will stop corruption, and laws without enforced severe criminal penalties don't even draw these people's attention. Their greasy attorneys love to stand up and warn the council against "strict interpretation of the law." We should try that with the tax laws on normal private homes. Too many of these campaigns seem to play us in order to establish even bigger and more persistent loopholes. I don't plan to give the council members an opportunity to show how MUCH they sympathize with our grief over the destruction of our rural way of life, while all the time they don't plan to uphold the law anyway. Money talks, big money talks loudest; the county council members and their development investors have no $ reason to protect our rural communities. Haven't you heard that Reardon said nothing can stop sprawl? Like crime or pollution. Nothing can stop crime, nothing can stop terrorism, nothing can stop evil in general. I think he meant to say he can't, but I believe he won't, because he's quite comfortable with them. I am putting my effort now into strongly urging legislators not to try using tax dollars to bail out lenders or borrowers. Maybe something can stop sprawl after all. Maybe some economic and cultural phenomena will stop it, abruptly, in fact. And we neighbors will also expect the County "Planning" Department to account for its decisions and clean up its messes as these "cluster ...communities" fall into decay. I can hardly wait, and love to see the cycle of signs going up along the housing project roads. First its Windermere, then John L Scott, then Century 21, then For Sale By Owner. When they are sagging and overgrown with alders, bracken and berries, maybe the wildlife will return and find they are fit to live in. It will be a vast improvement and good riddance!
The Building Industry Association of Washington - a trade association of ultra-conservative developers and the state's most powerful conservative special interest - is dragging Washington voters through the mud early this year. It's only June, but the BIAW is spending $500,000 this month on deceptive and misleading ads accusing Governor Chris Gregoire of being soft on sex offenders and cutting funds for foster children. We believe this kind of dirty politics is just plain bad for democracy.
Washington voters deserve a better campaign than this, and there's a simple way to stop these corrosive attack ads immediately. Dino Rossi simply has to call on his good friends and business partners at the BIAW to stop the ads. They are such close political allies that it's impossible to believe that they would ignore him if he called on them to stop the mudslinging.
Please sign our petition today urging Dino Rossi to call on the BIAW to stop their deceptive campaign. Help us deliver a powerful message about the kinds of campaigns Washington voters expect and demand.
http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/stopmudslinging
Dino Rossi has refused to criticize the ads, which make misleading and ominous sounding claims about sexual predators and foster homes. One ad accuses the governor of vetoing $3 million in spending on foster care programs without noting that foster care funding was actually increased by $12 million in the last session. The other accuses Gregoire of making it easier for sex offenders to perpetrate their crimes, despite her long track record of the opposite as both Attorney General and Governor.
This isn't the first time the BIAW has been caught misleading voters with dirty ads. In 2004, Comcast pulled one anti-Gregoire BIAW ad off the air because it contained "inaccurate statements" about the Governor. In 2006, the BIAW spent more than $600,000 on ads for a State Supreme Court race that were so dirty, the Tacoma News Tribune said they "left a stain on the state's most important court."
The BIAW is Dino Rossi's biggest political supporters, starting with his election to the State Senate in 1996. They spent close to $1 million promoting Rossi's bid for governor in 2004 and have already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his 2008 campaign. In return, the BIAW says Rossi backed their legislative agenda 99% of the time. Rossi's relationship with the BIAW has been personal as well as political. While a state senator, Rossi purchased a multi-million dollar apartment building and co-founded a bank with BIAW lobbyists.
Please sign our petition today urging Dino Rossi to call on the BIAW to stop their deceptive mudslinging. Washington voters deserve better.
http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/stopmudslinging
Thanks for all you do!
When: Friday, June 13 at 2 p.m.
Where: Westlake Park
Why: Justice for Janitors Day
Friday, June 13, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 6 janitors and members of the faith, student, and labor communities will celebrate the 17th annual "Justice for Janitors Day." They will rally at Westlake Park at 2 p.m. The program will include speakers, music, and radical cheerleading. This year's Justice for Janitors Day is important due to the expiration June 30th of the contract that covers janitors working in King County. Read More »
Congress and the media have been negligent, but this museum would be a real building, housing exhibits, videos, and texts that bear witness to the crimes and deceptions of our leaders (whether Republican or Democrat, though mostly Republican).
Think of it as analogous to the Holocaust Museum.
I've set up a website http://moa.truthsite.org and am looking for allies who might be interested in developing the museum. I think it could be powerfully effective at getting out our message. Visit the website for more detail.
Call us greedy if you want, but at Fuse there are two things we want a lot more of in politics: Leadership and Accountability. That's why we created the Fuse Sizzle Awards.
The Sizzle Awards are designed to recognize great leadership and promote accountability. They are based on extensive conversations with activists, lobbyists, and progressive leaders; a great deal of research, and our own experience. We are giving Sizzle Awards to six legislators, the Governor, and one reporter for outstanding leadership.
We are giving Fizzle Awards to four legislators who consistently stand in the way of progress.
Please click on the link below for the full story on our award recipients - the Sizzle winners have definitely earned our appreciation, and the Fizzle winners have earned their woes.
http://www.fusewashington.org/sizzle
The Sizzle awards are accompanied by a report card on the legislative session. We wanted to take a step back and see how the Legislature did on the bills we worked on - a Legislative Progress report. Our Progress Report will give you all the details on the bills that we worked on together--the victories, the let downs, the champions and the hurdles.
Our award winners?
The Sizzles
"The Boss" - Senator Lisa Brown
"True Patriot" - Senator Craig Pridemore
"Cool Leadership" - Governor Chris Gregoire & Senator Chris Marr
"Intercontinental Smackdown Champion" - Representative Mary Lou Dickerson
"Favorite Gunslinger" - Senator Brian Weinstein
"The Collaborator" - Representative Skip Priest
"Spotlight on the Shadows" - Chris McGann
The Fizzles
"Biggest Embarrassment" - Representative Jim Dunn
"Off Her Rocker" - Senator Pam Roach
"The Mapquest Award" - Representatives Deb Eddy & Sharon Tomiko Santos
There isn't room in this email to give you the full story on how our winners earned their awards. But you can click the link below to see how your priorities faired and get the full story on who Sizzled and who Fizzled this year. Then forward this email to your friends to help build the movement.
http://www.fusewashington.org/sizzle
Our elected officials work for us and their work should reflect our values and beliefs. Despite your hard work and the hard work of our partner organizations, it was ultimately up to our legislators to pass progressive polices. Some of them emerged as leaders, while others stood as obstacles.
Our Sizzle Awards and our Progress Report are aimed at supporting the leaders, and identifying the problems.
Thanks for all you do!
Chris McCullough, Aaron Ostrom and Mina Hashemi Mercer, Fuse
One of our country's leading civics textbooks has this to say about global warming: "Science doesn't know whether we are experiencing a dangerous level of global warming or how bad the greenhouse effect is, if it exists at all."
American Government, is used in high school Advanced Placement classes around the country. The textbook claims that that "the scientific community is divided over the issue."
The first time I read this I couldn't even believe it.
This has to stop. Please join us and other organizations around the country in demanding that Houghton Mifflin pull these books from classrooms and revise them to give our children unbiased and factual information on global warming. We will add your voice to thousands of others and deliver your message straight to Houghton Mifflin.
http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/HoughtonMifflin
American Government, is in its 11th edition and is used in high school Advanced Placement classes around the country. The textbook claims that that "the scientific community is divided over the issue" and that "Science doesn't know whether we are experiencing a dangerous level of global warming or how bad the greenhouse effect is, if it exists at all." The book goes on to portray environmentalists as "elites who often base their arguments on ideology as much as facts."
The textbook goes on to a lengthy presentation of the "skeptics" positions, with passages such as "Activists say that a warmer earth will be bad for humankind; skeptics say that a warmer earth will make it easier to grow crops and feed people."
American Government, was written by James Q. Wilson and John DiIulio, Jr. Wilson was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2003. DiIulio, a University of Pennsylvania professor, was formally the first head of Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
The publishers of the book, Houghton Mifflin, claim that the 11th edition of the book was revised to "reflect current developments in environmental policy research," but there are no new citations listed. Our children deserve more than this.
Join me in writing Houghton Mifflin, the publishers of American Government, to demand they give our children unbiased and factual information on global warming. Then ask your friends to do the same.
http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/HoughtonMifflin
Thanks for all you do!
Fuse is bringing people like you together to make our state more progressive. Fuse offers busy but concerned people easy ways to make your voice and values heard and make a difference.
Support our member-driven organization: Fuse depends on the support of our members. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now at:
http://www.fusewashington.org/donate
For more information on this story and the textbook at question, please visit the following website:
Center for Inquiry Textbook Critique
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cfi_issues_critique_of_civics_textbook/
Dino Rossi's plan is a recycled 1950s-style freeway construction bonanza with a twist - the twist is that he's financing it by diverting funding from schools rather than with gas taxes.
Rossi's plan is overwhelmingly focused on building new highways, has no funding for transit service, and is funded primarily by a dead on arrival proposal to divert funding from the heavily stressed generally fund. Over 50% of the general fund is allocated to education, and it currently faces a $2.4 billion shortfall.
If you like traffic and political gridlock, this is the plan for you.
Great news! Yesterday, Governor Gregoire signed into law all three of the progressive bills we contacted you about last week.
In bill signing ceremonies yesterday afternoon, the Governor signed Local Solutions to Global Warming, the Working Families Tax Credit, and the nation's toughest law against Toxic Toys. Combined, these new laws mean a Washington that is safer, healthier, and offers more equal opportunities to its residents.
This is a major victory! Thousands of you signed our petition to the Governor, which we delivered to her office last week. In addition, we assembled a coalition of more than 40 progressive organizations to sign a letter to the Governor supporting the three bills.
But our work isn't quite over yet. If we're going to continue building a strong relationship with our elected officials, we can't just contact them when we want something -- it's just as important to thank them when they do the right thing.
So please take a moment right now to say thank you to the Governor for her leadership.
Just follow the link below to the contact form on the governor's website. You don't need to write a novel -- just a, "thank you for signing the three progressive bills!" will do the trick.
http://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/default.asp
Thank you for getting involved, and for all of your work throughout the session!
Click here to get our widget!One of our founding principles at Fuse is that by making it easier for real people to engage in the legislative process, we can achieve more progressive solutions to the challenges we're facing as a state.
In the past six weeks, you and thousands of other Fuse members have weighed in on important progressive bills - fighting global warming pollution, tackling rising health care costs, improving consumer protections, and strengthening civil rights protections.
With your help and the leadership of the progressive organizations we're partnering with, the Legislature is on track to pass some important progressive bills this year. Here's a rundown of where the bills we've been focusing on stand:
Health Care
SB 5261 would restore Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler's authority to review and limit rate increases for individual health plans and hold insurance companies accountable.
Over the last 8 years, the price of individual health plans has skyrocketed 16% a year. At the same time, benefits are being slashed. It's getting harder and harder for individuals to afford quality health insurance in Washington State
Working with the Healthy Washington Coalition, more than 2,000 Fuse members signed our petition to the legislature before this bill passed in the Senate. It's now in the House, and we'll continue working to ensure it's enacted this year.
Global Warming
Global Warming has been a priority issue for Fuse, and our members have stepped up to the plate this session. Working with organizations like 1Sky Washington, almost 3,000 of you have taken action on the climate bills we've been working on, and both of them are making steady progress.
The Local Solutions to Global Warming bill tackles the global warming pollution created by irresponsible development and traffic and will protect farm and forest land, encourage energy efficient building, and promote livable, family friendly communities.
We are happy to report that this bill passed out of the Senate early this week by a vote of 31-18. Unfortunately, it didn't get out unscathed. An amendment stripped the provision that made reducing global warming pollution a goal of the Growth Management Act, one of the keys to making the requirements mandatory. It's still an important step, however, and we believe it has an excellent chance of passing in the House.
The Climate Action and Green Jobs bill, proposed by Governor Gregoire, creates a structure and timeline for cutting the state's global warming pollution to 50% below 1990 levels by 2050, while also creating a program to train Washington State workers for jobs in the clean energy industry.
This bill is moving along steadily -- it passed out of the House on Tuesday by a vote of 64-31, maintaining all its key requirements and initiatives. A public hearing on the bill will be held in a Senate Committee tomorrow.
Toxic Toys
The Children's Safe Product Act bans the sale of children's products containing high levels of lead, cadmium, or phthalates and requires manufacturers to report what chemicals are in their products to the Department of Ecology, which will publish the information on their website.
The Washington Toxics Coalition has led the charge on this bill, and Fuse members sent more than 1,000 emails to their legislators. We're thrilled to report that the Children's Safe Product Act passed out of the House unanimously and seems to be in great shape as it awaits a committee hearing in the Senate.
Equal Rights
The Domestic Partnership Expansion Act would extend many important rights and responsibilities provided by marriage to registered domestic partners, including nursing home visitation, veterans' benefits, community property, and testimonial privileges.
Fuse worked with Equal Rights Washington on this bill, and our members sent more than 2,000 emails to their legislators. It passed out of the House late last week by a vote of 62-32, and it's now scheduled for a public hearing in the Senate.
Consumer Protection
Washington is one of the only states in the country that doesn't allow homeowners to hold contractors accountable for poorly constructed homes. The Homeowner's Bill of Rights, introduced by Senator Brian Weinstein, makes contractors responsible for fixing problems that result from negligence and shoddy construction.
This bill has faced serious opposition from the beginning and the powerful building industry is pulling out all the stops to kill it. It passed in the Senate by a vote of 27-20. Fuse members lobbied the Judiciary Committee to give the bill a hearing in the Senate, and it's now scheduled for next week.
Clean Elections
The Local Choice bill will allow local governments to establish public financing programs for elections by a vote of their citizens. It's an important first step towards restoring sanity to our campaign finance system.
Washington Public Campaigns has been working hard on this bill, and Fuse members helped wth more than 1,300 emails to their legislators. We're happy to report that it's now passed in both the House and Senate. Both chambers must now concur on final language, but it should be approved.
Economic Justice
The Working Families Credit will cut taxes for more than 350,000 Washington residents by adding a boost to their Federal Earned Income Tax Credit refund.
Unfortunately the Working Families Credit bill has faced challenges from the beginning and was not funded in the House's budget for 2008. The Senate is in the process of drafting their budget now and still have the opportunity to fund the bill. The Washington Tax Fairness Coalition is leading the fight to make this happen, so stay tuned for more information on how you can help.
"I (would) get to appoint almost 2,000 people, from blueberry commission on up," he said. "Think about that: growth management hearings boards. Every board or commission you can imagine. ... (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction), Department of Ecology, Labor and Industries."
Speaker Frank Chopp and Majority Leader Brown got special Valentines signed by thousands of Fuse members from every single district in the State.
Senator Chris Marr and Representative Geoff Simpson earned the biggest Valentines (and candy!) as the original sponsors of the bill. Senators Adam Kline and Darlene Fairley and Representatives Kelli Linville, Sharon Nelson, and Hans Dunshee also got special thank yous from Cupid for their leadership.
Katrina revealed how inadequate our homeland security is. The Bush administration has corruptly granted no-bid unsupervised contracts to political supporters in both Iraq and the gulf coast. It has assigned incompetent political cronies to replace competent experts.
The Bush administration has focused law enforcement upon terrorist threats to the extent that white collar and other crimes are not being investigated and prosecuted.
They have attempted to politicize our justice system through the appointment of regressive judges and politically responsive U.S. attorneys. The number of investigators of white collar crimes has been reduced, including the investigation of companies which violate consumer protection regulations.
Unfortunately the general public and many of our Democratic legislators have scarcely protested these steps toward a police state. This is perhaps the area where liberal principles are required more than any other.
Lyndon Johnson asked Martin Luther King to slow his campaign of marches and speeches to allow time for opinion to change. Martin Luther King refused to slow his campaign. Due not only to Martin Luther King's campaign, but also to many acts of civil disobedience by Southern blacks, support by northern Whites and the violent reactions of southern law enforcement officials and murders by southern hate groups, public opinion changed. Lyndon Johnson then obtained the support of Republicans to override Southern Democrats and pass the voting rights act. He predicted correctly that this would cost the Democrats the support of White Southerners for 50 years. Read More »
This package doesn't deliver much money to people with low incomes, those who suffer long term unemployment, and those who face increased heating and other prices and would spend it most quickly and completely for consumer goods. It doesn't encourage investment in sustainable energy production and other needed new technologies which will provide quick and long term employment. It doesn't provide money for maintaining and enhancing our social and physical infrastructure, with resulting payoffs in our human resources and more efficient transportation and communication.
It is quite possible that the stimulus package will have little effect. It is small compared to the size of our economy. Much of the money may not be spent on American produced consumer goods and services. It's effects won't occur for perhaps six months. Read More »
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