Democrat Corruption In Olympia!

**Express your outrage! 1.800.562.6000**

By Bob Clark

04/25/09

Dan Kristiansen from Snohomish County’s 39th Legislative District and Republican Leader in the Washington State House was stunned by one of the worst examples of corruption in the history of the State of Washington.

House Chair Seattle’s Frank Chopp was behind this latest example of “bipartisanship” from the corrupt and completely brain-dead Democratic Leadership.

Here is his wife Janis’ first report of a continuing deterioration of democracy in Washington State.

YOU SHOULD BE WORRIED ABOUT THIS, VERY WORRIED:

Corrupt Democrat Leadership in WA State

By Janis Kristiansen

Since NO ONE in the press is going to report this, I will. I just got off the phone with my husband, State Rep. Dan Kristiansen.

In summary, this is what he said.

At the beginning of session this year, the Democrats in control in the House changed the rules and eliminated the 24 hour rule from when the budget is introduced to when it can be voted upon. In the past, the budgets were rolled out for review, and no vote on any budget could happen until at LEAST 24 hours had passed, giving time for the minority party (read Republicans) to review the budget, and make an intelligent vote on it.

This morning, April 24, three days before the end of session, the Democrats announced that NO amendments to the capitol budget could be introduced after 3 pm today (most amendments are offered by the opposing party).

Guess when the Democrats released the capitol budget today, for the Republicans to get a first review of it? At 3:25pm, 25 minutes after cut-off for any amendments to be offered.

So, for the Republicans, NO amendments can be offered because the Democrats released the operating budget for the Republicans to see 25 minutes after the deadline for amendments to be accepted. This is CORRUPT.

The story is not over. The operating budget, separate from the capitol budget, was emailed to the Republicans this morning at 1:30 AM, early in the morning. It is several hundred pages.

The Democrats then said NO amendments were going to be allowed to the capitol budget after 12 noon today. So, in the middle of the night the Democrats release the capitol budget, and then announce no amendments are allowed after 12 noon, AND they are voting on this budget this afternoon.

This is the corrupt nature of the Democrats in control. How are Republicans supposed to vote yes or no on these budgets, hundreds of pages long, that spend approximately $34 billion dollars each biennium, when they are given no time to review it, or offer even hurried amendments to it?

The Democrats realize they have almost a super majority; so in essence, it’s OK to ignore the Republicans during the budget process.

According to Rep. Kristiansen this Operating Budget sets our state up for an approximate $10 billion shortfall in the 2011 biennium. This is outrageous!

Where is self-restraint? Where is responsibility? Where is the good stewardship of tax payer dollars?

Obviously not in Democrat hands.

In Washington State Suicide Begins

According to the Seattle Times Washington State health officials have reported two prescriptions have been filled for life-ending drugs under the new suicide law.

Health Department spokesman Tim Church said Thursday he could not provide any details about the people considering suicide, only that the department has received two forms from pharmacists saying they have dispensed the drugs.

The department has not received any forms certifying that a person has committed suicide under the state law that took effect in early March.

People who fill prescriptions for life-ending medication have as long as they want to take the medication or to change their minds and never take it.

How Many Gallons of Fuel Did It Take To Get The President To His Earth Day Speech?

Approximately 9,116.

In flying to and from Iowa on Earth Day for his save-the-planet speech President Obama took two flights on Air Force One and four flights on Marine One.

According to Boeing a 747 burns about 5 gallons of fuel per mile.

Let's see, it's approximately 895 miles from Washington to DesMoines, so a round trip would bring the fuel consumption for the President to 8,950 gallons.

Then add in time on Marine One for round-trips from the White House to airports and the actual speech venue which took about an hour of flight time and consumes another 1,200 pounds of fuel per hour.

That would calculate out to about 166 more gallons of fuel consumed by our planet-friendly President.

None of these calculations includes the many ground vehicles it took to move him to and from the actual event site.

And to think President Obama could have saved 9,116 gallons of fuel by just giving his speech at the White House.

Standing in a Bucket

"For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." ~ Winston Churchill

While thousands of Washington State citizens sent a loud message to their elected leaders last week protesting taxes at Tea Parties held across the state Democrats spent Tax Day introducing new bills to increase your taxes.

Here's a list of the Democrats' new proposals from Rep Matt Shea:

• House Bill 2377 -- Would increase the state sales tax from 6.5 percent to 6.8 percent for three years. It's expected this will extract an additional $1 billion from taxpayers. It also redistributes some of the tax money collected to low-income families under a state "working family tax credit" program approved last year.

• House Bill 2354 -- Would create a new tax on "intangible" property, such as stocks and bonds, interests in corporations, gold or other precious metals, mutual funds, money market funds and other personal investments. The tax would be levied as $1 for every $100 dollars of intangible property for every resident in Washington.

• House Bill 2378 -- Would increase the maximum school levy percentages to retroactively collect money above the current levy lids previously approved by voters.

Thus we find Democrats in Olympia standing in a bucket trying to lift themselves up by the handle.

Ah Yes, Earth Day

Meghan Cox Gurdon surveys eco-fear-mongering in children’s literature:

If you have somehow missed the fact that April 22 is Earth Day, it’s probably because you are grown up.

Were you a child, there’s not a chance you’d be allowed to miss the urgent chthonic nature of the day — nor the need to recycle, to use water sparingly, to protect endangered creatures and generally to be agitated about a planet in peril.

Contemporary children are so drenched with eco-propaganda that it’s almost a waste of resources. Like acid rain, but more persistent and corrosive, it dribbles down on them all day long.

They get it at school, where recycling now competes with tolerance as man’s highest virtue.

They get it in peppy “go green” messages online, on television and in magazines.

And increasingly, the eco-message is seeping into the pages of novels that don’t, on their face, necessarily seem to be about environmentalism at all.

Thus children who might like to escape into a good book are now likely to find themselves pursued into that imaginative realm by didactic adults fixated on passing along endless tellurian warnings.

Susceptible children are left in no doubt that we’re all headed for a despoiled, immiserated future unless they start planting pansies in their old shoes, using dryer lint as mulch, and practicing periodic vegetarianism.

Not surprisingly, many young people are anxious. The more impressionable among them are coming to believe that their smallest decisions could have catastrophic effects on the globe.

This, of course, is nonsense, unless their smallest decision involves tipping vats of mercury into forest streams.

But they’re children, for goodness’ sake: They tend to believe what adults tell them — minus the nuance.

Meanwhile in the OTHER Washington...

At a time when our President is telling us that "we all have to make sacrifices" given the economic hardships, Washington continues to carry on with its misplaced priorities.

Instead of pursuing commonsense legislation to right our economic ship, Congress is pursuing its recklessly irresponsible spending habits.

After a two week recess, Congress returns today, and among the pieces of legislation we will be taking up this evening are:

H.Res. 254 - Recognizing the designation of March 2009 as Irish American Heritage Month (Yes, it is April -- it's not a typo, but I guess Democrat leadership couldn't find the time to fit that one in last month. At least it doesn't cost anything.)

H.R. 388 - Crane Conservation Act of 2009

H.R. 411 - Great Cats and Rare Canids Act of 2009

The Crane Conservation Act would establish a new grant program to provide money to individuals or groups that work to conserve crane species in Africa, Asia, Europe, or North America. A noble goal, but one that will cost tax payers $25 million over 5 years and focuses largely on overseas programs.

Similarly, the Great Cats and Rare Canids Act expands government with your money by creating new grant programs authorizing $25 million over five years to fund rare cat and dog conservation in foreign countries.

With our economy in the condition that it's in, Congress’ time could certainly be better spent than on $50-million legislation like this.

by Representative Michele Bachmann

Tempest in a Teapot

It’s time for Democrats to back off on their idea to raise taxes, and it seems they may have had a jolt of reality strike them right between their tax-thirsty eyes.

The overwhelming number of citizens who joined in the Tax Day Tea parties along with some new polling numbers have them pouting and spouting.

For example, last week at the conclusion of a hearing on his bill that would ask voters to raise the state sales tax Rep Eric Pettigrew spouted "If voters do not pass this legislation, people will die." How pathetic is that?

The Everett Herald called it taxpayer blackmail in a recent editorial and made some excellent points:

If Pettigrew and his colleagues who share this view -- and that includes House Speaker Frank Chopp -- care that much about health-related programs for the poor, they should fund them. Instead, they propose leaving their survival to a vote of citizens who are scraping to make ends meet and are highly skeptical of Olympia's priorities.

Proponents will plaster images of the state's most vulnerable citizens on billboards and television screens, turning the guilt screws hard.Voters are smarter than Pettigrew seems to think. They'll see through this blackmail, and many will resent lawmakers for punting some of the tough decisions they were sent to Olympia to make.

If this one gets to the ballot, we bet the voters will kick it right back.

Families throughout the state are struggling. Draining more money from an already anemic economy could extend the downturn, undercutting the very revenues Pettigrew and Chopp seek to enhance.

Taxpayers are so done with taxes, and to their own peril legislators will ignore the tempest in a teapot.

Bellingham's Tax Day Tea Party

Photos by Vincent Buys

Marketing Death

Before even assisted their first death backers of assisted suicide are busy setting the stage for phase two - forcing every doctor and medical facility to participate.

Political agenda needs a campaign. It must be 'marketed' to the public to raise awareness and invoke sympathy. From there it is carefully crafted to morph into whatever it must look like to result in support.

How does one market death? By using - using the most vulnerable and desperately ill patients, and heartbroken families in grief. Parading very personal, tragic stories before the public to 'market' their death agenda is ultimate cruelty.

This article in the News Tribune marks the beginning of their new Washington State campaign to 'market' their expanded death agenda by forcing physicians and health care facilities to participate.

Isn't it ironic that in marketing I-1000 to the voters of our state they used the mantra of ‘it’s my decision’. Yet on the other side of that vote it is personal choice that is the first casualty.

As with abortion, the intent was to first crack the door and then shove the door open to every potential death imaginable.

Hugh Anderson recently wrote this in the Montreal Gazette:

"Holland legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide three decades ago, first in practice and later by law.

Advocates said it would be limited to competent adults who are terminally ill and ask to be killed.

Then it was extended to competent adults with incurable illnesses or disabilities, although not terminally ill.

Then it was extended to competent adults who were depressed but otherwise not physically ill.

Then it was extended to incompetent adult patients like Alzheimer's sufferers, on the basis that they would have asked for death if they were competent.

And now it is legal for doctors in Holland to kill infants, if parents agree, if they believe their patients' suffering is intolerable or incurable.

This is a long way from the soothing image of an elderly person choosing with full understanding to die with dignity, assisted by compassionate relatives and friends."

And so it will go in Washington State if we allow it.

Giving Up Our Vote

In the midst of a "crisis" it is always interesting to watch what legislators in Olympia find to do with their time and power during the course of a legislative session.

While most of it is spent finding ways to pay for their spending sprees, they are also finding time for other noble endeavors such as granting civil rights to breast feeders and voting right to convicted felons, redefining marriage, and giving away your vote in the next presidential election.

Yes, I said giving away your vote for President. A high impact bill is being ushered right thru the legislative process by Democrats intent on changing the way we elect our President

There is a great article on this today in the Wenatchee World that is well worth a read...and after that a phone call.

This bill has passed the Senate and they intent to pass it in the House as well. Your vote for President is certainly worth a call to your legislators: 1.800.562.6000

I was once told by a State Senator that if we truly had any idea of the power of legislators over every facet of our lives we would be so much more discerning about who we elect, and vigilant over what they do while they are in Olympia.

State Income Tax For All?

Last week Sen. Kohl-Welles introduced SB 6147 which would impose an income tax on individuals making $500,000, or couples making $1 million. Or would it?

Mike Reitz from EFF noted an interesting fact about this bill on their blog:

But there's a flaw in the bill that could result in the 1% percent tax inadvertently applying to every taxpayer in the state! (I wish I could claim credit, but someone else pointed this out to me.)

Section 301 of the bill imposes a 1% tax on "all taxable income of resident individuals." Section 407 then lists the "standard deductions" -- $1 million for joint returns and $500,000 for individuals.

As most bills do, SB 6147 contains a severability clause, meaning if one section of the bill is struck down in court, the rest of the bill will survive.

Based on the ruling party's fondness for taking money other people earn to spend as they choose I think this should be duly noted.

Your Voice Makes A difference

These are brutal days as we watch serious, high impact decisions being made in both Washington. I want to share some good news from National Eagle Forum:

April 6, 2009

We want you to know that your calls and e-mails are making a difference in our nation's Capitol.

We know that it is discouraging to see one piece of liberal legislation after another pass through this liberal Congress, but the good news is that your voices are being heard by the conservative Minority!

During last week's debate over President Obama's $3.6 trillion budget, Conservatives presented a united front and excellent leadership in the House and Senate, strongly opposing irresponsible spending and standing for solutions that truly work for American families.

Not a single Republican in the House or Senate voted for the President's budget! Plus, 20 House Democrats and 2 Senate Democrats voted against the bill. The GOP's solidarity on this vote ensured that the only claim to "bipartisanship" President Obama can make is the list of NO votes. We encourage you to take a moment to thank your Senators and Representatives for standing up for the American taxpayer by voting against Obama's severely bloated budget.

This is a challenging time for conservatives, but it is also a time of great opportunity for the grassroots to demand strong, conservative leaders. We hope you will continue to engage in this fight. Here are two opportunities:


1. Tea Parties -- We urge you to get involved with a "Tea Party" in your area on tax day, Wednesday, April 15, 2009. Click here for more information. See a video message from Phyllis Schlafly.

Town Hall Meetings -- Senators and House Members are returning to their Districts for Easter Recess. Many of them hold Town Meetings during recess. Visit your Senators' and Representatives' websites or call their offices to find out if they are holding Town Hall Meetings in your neighborhoods. This is a wonderful opportunity to encourage your legislators where possible and to hold them accountable where necessary.

Whatever you do, stay in the game. There is ground to gain, and the principles of family, faith and freedom are well worth your time and effort. Let's make it happen.