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DFA organizer, Democratic Precinct Committee Officer, writer, and programmer. My op-ed pieces have appeared in the Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and elsewhere. See http://WALiberals.org and http://TruthSite.org for my writing, my musical creations, and my animations.
Thursday, February 16, 2012 Poor, White, and Republican : The New Yorker (1 comments)
Sobering essay about why poor whites are attracted to the Tea Party despite their dependence on the government.
Friday, February 10, 2012 Indiana creationism bill passes the Senate
"The governing body of a school corporation may offer instruction on various theories of the origin of life. The curriculum for the course must include theories from multiple religions, which may include, but is not limited to, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Scientology."
Friday, January 20, 2012 Surprise! Al Franken defends SOPA (3 comments)
Al Franken defends the Protect-IP (SOPA) act, saying that it's necessary and not as bad as people fear. "If this bill really did some of the things people have heard it would do (like shutting down YouTube), I would never have supported it."
Thursday, January 12, 2012 Grover Norquist explains how trickle down works, in this 22 second video
Republican activist Grover Norquist explains how trickle down works.
"Trickle-down economics" and "the trickle-down theory" are terms used in United States politics to refer to the idea that tax breaks or other economic benefits provided by government to businesses and the wealthy will benefit poorer members of society by improving the economy as a whole. (Source: wikipedia.)
Wednesday, January 4, 2012 How Trickle Down Works
An image depicting the only type of trickle down that I'm familiar with.
Friday, December 30, 2011 Bible condemns a lot, so why focus on homosexuality? (1 comments)
Growing up in the evangelical community, I learned the Bible's stance on homosexuality is clear-cut. God condemns it, I was taught, and those who disagree just haven't read their Bibles closely enough.
Having recently graduated from Yale Divinity School, I can say that my childhood community's approach to gay rights--though well intentioned--is riddled with self-serving double standards.
Friday, December 30, 2011 The 3 biggest biblical misconceptions
The Bible is both a reservoir of spiritual insight and a cultural icon to which lip service is still paid in the Western world. Yet when the Bible is talked about in public by both believers and critics, it becomes clear that misconceptions abound.
To me, three misconceptions stand out and serve to make the Bible hard to comprehend.
Thursday, December 29, 2011 Uncle Sam to the rescue when the crybaby corporations get in trouble
In 2008 the crybaby corporations ran to Uncle Sam for a bailout. But conservatives pretend they don't need government. How well could corporations do business without government laws, protections, regulations, and bailouts?
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 OpEdNews mentioned: Ron Paul Under Fire for Praising Accused Traitor (2 comments)
"Ardent Ron Paul supporter Thomas Eddle .. once described himself as an advocate of a 'Left-Right Alliance' against the George W. Bush Administration and contributes to the left-wing progressive website, OpEdnews.com."
Wednesday, December 21, 2011 Ex-Ron Paul Aide Disputes Paul on Newsletters (3 comments)
Did Ron Paul look Sean Hannity in the eye after the Sioux City debate on Fox News -- and play fast and loose with the facts of his newsletter?
Saturday, December 3, 2011 "Rich people don't create jobs" -- Seattle rich guy
The super-rich paid about 40 percent in taxes during the prosperous 1960's, argues Hanauer, and about 30 percent during the prolonged prosperity of the 1990's. They now pay an average of 16 percent.
Hanauer reports that last year, he paid an 11 percent rate on an eight-figure income. (The median Washington family has a yearly income of $56,479.)
Thursday, November 17, 2011 Recall Patty Murray if the Super Committee proposes cuts to Social Security and Medicare (1 comments)
Washington is one of 18 states allowing for recalls of sitting US Senators.
If the Super Committee that Patty Murray is co-chairing proposes cuts to Social Security and Medicare I believe Democrats should mount a recall effort against her. This is especially needed if the Super Committee endorses no tax increases on the 1% and no substantial cuts to military spending.
Thursday, November 3, 2011 Bill Gates Proposes Robin Hood Tax
Bill Gates is telling G-20 leaders, meeting in Cannes, France that a "Robin Hood tax" on the trading of bonds and shares could raise $48 billion to combat global poverty.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 Protesters Arrested, Pepper-Sprayed At Chase Bank - Seattlepi.com
At least five Occupy Seattle protesters were arrested and several were struck with pepper spray at a Wednesday afternoon rally outside a Chase bank branch on Capitol Hill.
Thursday, October 27, 2011 OWS Surveillance (From Satellite?) (1 comments)
Video of surveillance of OWS, apparently from a satellite. You can hear the police chatter.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 A Witness To The Violence In Oakland
f Gandhi was right, yesterday's Civil Resistance Action in Oakland, California, achieved all of its aims. By day's end a heavily-armed, fully-militarized police force was in control of Frank Ogawa Plaza, but Occupy Oakland was in control of the agenda.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 Police Clear Oakland Anti-Wall Street Protest Camp (1 comments)
Under cover of darkness early Tuesday, hundreds of police swept into Oakland's Occupy Wall Street protest, firing tear gas and beanbag rounds before clearing out an encampment that demonstrators had hoped would stir a revolution.
Monday, October 17, 2011 50,000,000 strong, human megaphone: End the wars! Stop the corruption! Stop socialism for the rich! (1 comments)
Tens of millions of Americans are fed up with the immoral war-mongering, the torture, the rampant corruption, the fixed elections, the handouts to the super-rich, the mismanagement, the outsourcing of jobs and profits, the lack of accountability, the reckless deregulation, the dismantling of the social safety net, and the increasing concentration of wealth.
The 99% need to understand how the richest 1% are screwing them -- how the 1% have been waging and winning a class war for several decades. The Occupy Movement is the chance to set the record straight.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011 The Occupy and D.C. protesters are True Patriots and should wear tri-cornered hats (1 comments)
How un-American: torture, immoral wars, vote fixing, imprisonment without trial, handouts and taxbreaks for billionaires, desecration of the environment, government for the corporations, theocratic combining of church and state, free trade agreements that ship jobs overseas, etc.
The protesters in D.C. and on Wall Street are true patriots and should adorn themselves with tri-colored hats and other symbols of the Revolutionary War era.
Saturday, October 8, 2011 Occupy Seattle images (1 comments)
Images from the Occupy Seattle protest at Westlake Park, Saturday, Oct 8, 2011.
Sunday, October 2, 2011 The American Fall: whither the Wall Street protest movement?
The protests on Wall Street and their coverage are long overdue. Combined with the upcoming Oct 6 protests in D.C. we may be on the verge of an American Fall akin to the Arab Spring.
But where's the movement heading?
Monday, September 26, 2011 Bar Dick Cheney from Canada? (7 comments)
The immigration critic for Canada's opposition New Democratic Party, Vancouver lawmaker Don Davies, is demanding that Cheney be denied entry to the Great White North.
Saturday, September 3, 2011 Obama backs down on smog standards
President Obama announced Friday that he will keep in place Bush-era smog standards described by his own EPA director Lisa Jackson "not legally defensible given the scientific evidence on the record" of dangers to human health."
Friday, September 2, 2011 Thom Hartmann on the REAL story behind the Boston Tea Party (1 comments)
Thom Hartmann brilliantly exposes the real story behind the Tea Party: it was an anti-corporate movement motivated by opposition to tax breaks granted the East India Company.
Thursday, September 1, 2011 N.H. GOP Chairman (a Tea Party member) forced to quit
New Hampshire GOP Chair and Tea Party member Jack Kimball is forced out. The split in the GOP is real and acrimonious. (The Dems need such a split to kick out the centrists.)
Saturday, July 16, 2011 Banned: Robert Greenwald's video indictment of KBR and other military contractors (1 comments)
Robert Greenwald's hard-hitting video indictment of KBR and other military contractors was banned by Congress in 2007. It documents private employees making six figure salaries, staying in lavish resorts, and charging the US taxpayers $99 per load of laundry, while US soldiers endure low pay and mistreatment.
Thursday, July 7, 2011 Ezra Klein: Obama's budget more regressive than Reagan's
The folks at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities to helped Ezra Klein break down the deficit-reduction deals passed by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. They indicate that Obama's budget is more regressive than the Gipper's.
Thursday, July 7, 2011 Breaking News: President Obama declares himself an Independent (3 comments)
In a surprise speech and with Joe Lieberman at his side, President Obama announced his decision to sever ties with the Democratic Party and become an Independent. (satire)
Tuesday, July 5, 2011 Conservative columnist David Brooks calls GOP unreasonable (8 comments)
Prominent conservative David Brooks has some harsh things to say about the Republican Party in this New York Times editorial. "The members of this movement do not accept the logic of compromise, no matter how sweet the terms.
The members of this movement do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities.
The members of this movement have no sense of moral decency.
The members of this movement have no economic theory worthy of the name.
To members of this movement, tax levels are everything. Members of this tendency have taken a small piece of economic policy and turned it into a sacred fixation.
The struggles of the next few weeks are about what sort of party the G.O.P. is -- a normal conservative party or an odd protest movement that has separated itself from normal governance, the normal rules of evidence and the ancient habits of our nation."
Saturday, July 2, 2011 Obama compromises early again, on deficit reduction
According to this LA Times article, President Obama began his bargaining about raising the deficit limit from a position that already gave Republicans most of what they want.
"Even if Obama were to gain all the tax-law changes he wants, new revenue would make up only about 15 cents of each dollar in deficit reduction in the package....Acquiescing to GOP demands would be the third major compromise for Democrats in the past year."
Administration officials said the president began discussions at what one senior official called a 'realistic starting point,' not one designed to maximize his bargaining position."
The GOP deficit plan would enact zero cuts to the military budget. I, for one, doubt that Pres. Obama will insist on substantial defense budgets either.
The situation is grim.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 Terry Gross' 2003 interview with anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist
Terri Gross's 2003 interview with Grover Norquist, in which Norquist compares the estate tax to the Holocaust (targeting the few) and calls government "tyrannical" and says Social Security is a "ponzi scheme." Norquist lauds anti-government campaigners, saying their work "harkens back to armed resistance to the central government" from the Revolutionary War.
Gross had recently interviewed Paul Krugman, who predicted the Bush tax cuts would "send us into a spiral of fiscal collapse. Krugman said that behind the Bush economic policies was a plan to deprive the government of revenue so that it's forced to dismantle most of the federal system that's been built up since the 1930s."
Saturday, June 25, 2011 2011 Farm Subsidy Database: view the corruption!
This webpage lists farm subsidies per state and per farm. Some farmers have accepted millions of dollars in government handouts.
Sunday, June 19, 2011 Author offers evolutionary explanation for religion
In his new book "Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith," J. Anderson Thomson, a Virginia psychiatrist, offers a scientific explanation for religious belief. "In our modern skull there remains a Stone Age brain -- and the same ancient mechanisms that make us an extraordinary, ultra social species are the ones that come together to create religion."
Thursday, June 9, 2011 Weiner vs. Bayh: Which One's A Bigger Scandal?
Anthony Weiner wanted to get off, while Evan Bayh wants to get rich. Weiner serviced himself in public, while Bayh's abusing his public service. Guess which one will be a pariah in Washington and which will still attend all the right parties?
Thursday, June 9, 2011 Search Site Support the PJRC Fact Sheets & Flyers Afghanistan Contacts - House Afghanistan Contacts - Senate
The true number of U.S. casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan totals no less than 176,772 when one tabulates the dead and wounded, those who have required evacuation due to injury or illness, and private contractors on the U.S. payroll.
U.S. troops dead and wounded: 50,031
U.S. troops requiring medical evacuation: 55,252
Private contractors dead and wounded: 71,4891.
Thursday, June 2, 2011 The twelve-step program that works, but probably not for you
Over the last thirty years, Republicans, conservative Democrats, and their well-to-do allies have perfected a twelve-step program that has enabled them to remake America.
Sunday, May 22, 2011 Amy Goodman's Speech at the Seattle Green Festival
Sunday afternoon I heard Amy Goodman and Dennis Kucinich speak at Seattle Green Festival. Both speakers received standing ovations. This article covers Amy Goodman's speech.
Saturday, May 21, 2011 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.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 Blog Warfare: Right-Wing Sock Puppets Pretending to Be Liberals Assault Progressive Websites (2 comments)
"Whether it's defense or offense, Advantage Consultants has a dedicated team of experienced blog warriors ready to advance your candidate or campaign."
"Why wait for the attack? Launch your attack with a battery of blog and forum comments aimed at all media and blog sites in your district.
"Contact us today and let us show you the Advantage in professional blog warfare."
Sunday, May 15, 2011 FCC Commissioner Baker's blatant conflict of interest
The latest outrage involves the Federal Communications Commission. Republican FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker is leaving the FCC to become a lobbyist for Comcast/NBC Universal1 -- just four months after she voted to approve the controversial merger of the two media behemoths.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 Do women enjoy sex without orgasm?
For most men, sex without orgasm would be frustrating and even uncomfortable. Is the same true for women? That is, are women generally unsatisfied with sex unless they climax? Or do women enjoy sex even without orgasm?
Tuesday, May 10, 2011 Help President Obama pilot the ship of state (animation)
Help President Barack Obama and Veep Joe Biden pilot the ship of state to the Left (towards blue skies) or to the right (towards stormy weather).
Saturday, April 23, 2011 Hey, Road Killers, Stop Aiding Tim Eyman!
In Washington State, the Road Kill Caucus of centrist Dems are aiding conservative activist Tim Eyman's plan to drown government in a bathtub.
Saturday, April 2, 2011 Money needed to rescue Basic Health is out there (Washington Liberals)
What do Steve Ballmer, Paul Allen, and Jeff Bezos have in common? They are among the wealthiest people in the world, and they want their wealth only for themselves. So they all pitched in with six figure contributions to defeat Initiative 1098 last year, which would have taxed their income above $400,000. Not a lot, but why give up anything when you are at the pinnacle?
Saturday, March 19, 2011 God's Wife Edited Out of the Bible -- Almost
God had a wife, Asherah, whom the Book of Kings suggests was worshiped alongside Yahweh in his temple in Israel, according to an Oxford scholar.
The ancient Israelites were polytheists, Brody told Discovery News, "with only a small minority worshiping Yahweh alone before the historic events of 586 B.C." In that year, an elite community within Judea was exiled to Babylon and the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.
Thursday, March 17, 2011 NPR sting raises questions about media ethics, influence
USA Today has an article about yet another sting operation by the conservative videomaker James O'Keefe, this time against NPR.
They're the same group that stung ACORN.
Why doesn't the Left do this sort of thing?
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 Peaceful Uprising
Defending a livable future through empowering nonviolent action.
Tim DeChristopher laid his freedom on the line at a Salt Lake City auction in 2008, to stop the sale of oil and gas leases on thousands of acres of pristine Utah wilderness. Tim won that battle for us all, but he faces ten years in jail.
Sunday, March 13, 2011 WikiLeaks resignation: State Department spokesman resigns after criticizing Pentagon (1 comments)
P.J. Crowley, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs, told a group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last Thursday that the Pentagon's treatment of Pfc. Bradley Manning was "ridiculous and stupid and counterproductive." His comments were made public by a blogger who attended the session.
Thursday, March 3, 2011 Could Washington Be the Next Wisconsin? by Goldy - Features -
The likely Republican candidate for governor, Rob McKenna, will likely work with other GOP governors to destroy state government, according to this well-written article. The Tea Party Express is gonna run ya over.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 It's the Inequality, Stupid | Plutocracy Now
Use graphs and facts showing the extreme inequality of wealth in the US, and the increasingly unfair tax system.
Sunday, February 20, 2011 Texas college kids soon could pack heat
Sounds like something from The Onion, but the Texas legislators and governor may soon vote to allow students and staff to carry guns on college campuses, under the highly suspect theory that the campus will be safer if armed, law-abiding citizens can defend against crazed gunmen.
Sunday, February 20, 2011 Top 10 Shocking Attacks from the GOP's War on Women (1 comments)
A MoveOn campaign to raise awareness of GOP's war on women and children. (Beware the inevitable fundraising request?)
Sunday, February 20, 2011 Cross-check: Egypt's revolution vindicates Gene Sharp's theory of nonviolent activism (1 comments)
Whereas most pundits have focused on the role of social media in Egypt's revolution, what impressed me most was that one of the most powerful, entrenched regimes in the world was toppled by a nonviolent uprising. Does anyone doubt that if the protesters had resorted to violence, they would have been violently crushed by Mubarak?
Wednesday, February 16, 2011 Iraq Bioweapons Claim a Lie, "Curveball' Says
The Iraqi defector whose claims that Saddam Hussein's government had biological weapons became part of the Bush administration's justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq has admitted that he fabricated his story.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 George Lakoff: The "New Centrism" and Its Discontents (3 comments)
Much of what he says makes a lot of sense, especially: "If you start adopting conservative language and/or positions, you become conservative-lite, or worse. " But why this? "Sixth, progressives have to get over the idea that conservatives are either stupid, or mean, or greedy - or all three. Conservatives are mostly people who have a different moral system from progressives."
Monday, February 14, 2011 One Nation, Under Lock and Key, by Rosette Royale (1 comments)
Nearly 60 percent of those locked up were nabbed for drug related crimes. Of the more than two million who are incarcerated, 38 percent are black; in 20 states, the number of black people behind bars far exceeds the number who aren't. And these figures don't include people on probation or parole. What, you might be inclined to ask, is going on here?
Sunday, February 13, 2011 Deadly Choices, How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All (1 comments)
How did we get to a place where vaccines are viewed with horror rather than as life-saving medicine? Why, despite dozens of studies exonerating vaccines as a cause of autism, do some individuals insist that immunizations are responsible for autism? The answers are rooted in one of the most powerful and disturbing citizen activist movements in our nation's history--a movement that, despite recent epidemics and deaths, continues to grow. Deadly Choices, by Dr. Paul Offit, is the story of anti-vaccine activity in America--its origins, leaders, influences, and impact--and is a powerful defense of science in the face of fear.
Sunday, February 13, 2011 Libertarian Left (1 comments)
I don't usually read conservative websites. But this is intelligent and enlightening, though flawed. "These days left-libertarians feel vindicated. American foreign policy has embroiled the country in endless overt and covert wars, with their high cost in blood and treasure, in the resource-rich Middle East and Central Asia--with torture, indefinite detention, and surveillance among other assaults on domestic civil liberties thrown in for good measure. Meanwhile, the historical Washington-Wall Street alliance--in which recklessness with other people's money, fostered by guarantees, bailouts, and Federal Reserve liquidity masquerades as deregulation--has brought yet another financial crisis with its heavy toll for average Americans, additional job insecurity, and magnified Wall Street influence."
Sunday, February 13, 2011 Progressive Strategy Handbook
Are you ready to build the progressive movement that America desperately needs? This is the moment you've been waiting for. We've finished writing the Progressive Strategy Handbook that you -- the community -- paid for last fall through a crowdfunding campaign.
Sunday, February 13, 2011 WikiLeaks crippled by ex-associates, sources say
Not sure this is legit: "WikiLeaks' ability to receive new leaks has
been crippled after a disaffected programmer unplugged a component which guaranteed anonymity to would-be leakers, activists and journalists who have worked with the site say. "
Friday, February 11, 2011 House GOP unveils $61B spending cut plan (1 comments)
House GOP plan cuts domestic spending (including Head Start and nutrition programs for women and infants) but not Defense spending.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 Wired for war? Killer chimps fuel debate on how war began (4 comments)
In 1998, researchers in Uganda saw a group of male chimpanzees beating on and swaggering around another male chimp's freshly killed body. Its windpipe, fingernails and testicles were torn out.
The finding added to a growing number of documented incidents of chimpanzees ganging up on, hunting down and killing each other--activities in which some researchers find eerie parallels to human war. These scientists argue that the killings among chimps, our closest ape relatives, may offer clues to war's evolutionary origins, lessons that could help us break our own violent habits.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011 Your science is stuck in my mystical
A response to the recent publication in a major scientific journal of a research paper defending the existence of ESP. Are scientists biased against ESP? Probably.
Sunday, February 6, 2011 Republicans Vote To Repeal Obama-Backed Bill That Would Destroy Asteroid Headed For Earth (3 comments)
In a strong rebuke of President Obama and his domestic agenda, all 242 House Republicans voted Wednesday to repeal the Asteroid Destruction and American Preservation Act, which was signed into law last year to destroy the immense asteroid currently hurtling toward Earth.
Saturday, February 5, 2011 Rebuilding amid the ruins of Reagan's legacy (1 comments)
Thirty years of corruption has hollowed out governing institutions. Nothing works anymore. The Reagan revolution poisoned our worldview with cynicism even as it set out to dismantle institutions through incompetence. The revolution is almost complete. Corporate victory is at hand. The class war is basically over. They won; we lost. Now we must rebuild again.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011 Heist -- About the Film
Heist tells the story of how corporations and their political allies in Congress, orchestrated the greatest theft in history -- the robbery of Americans' prosperity, savings, and retirement security. Heist exposes how free-market extremists steadily dismantled the regulatory protections that the New Deal had built to prevent a repeat of the 1929 Wall Street crash.
Sunday, January 30, 2011 Fix Gun Checks
The recent shootings in Tucson have once again exposed flaws in America's efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, drug abusers, the mentally ill and other dangerous people. Join more than 550 U.S. Mayors in calling on Congress to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.
Sunday, January 23, 2011 Seymour Hersh unleashed: criticisms of Obama, neocons (5 comments)
Foreign Affairs called this speech, "loopy", and implied that the venerable Mr Hersh is losing his marbles. "In a speech billed as a discussion of the Bush and Obama eras, New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh delivered a [???] rambling, conspiracy-laden diatribe [???] here Monday expressing his disappointment with President Barack Obama and his dissatisfaction with the direction of U.S. foreign policy."
Read the full text here: http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Obama-Bush-Foreign-Pol-by-Seymour-Hersh-110124-354.html
Saturday, January 15, 2011 U.S. Schools Are Still Ahead -- Way Ahead (1 comments)
A contrarian article that argues that, despite doom-and-gloom pronouncements, America isn't so bad after all.
