Special Election on April 27th

There are three measures on the ballot for April 27th:

. City of Black Diamond - Public Safety Levy
. Skykomish School District No. 404 - Maintenance and Operations Levy
. Proposed Kent Fire Department Regional Fire Authority

Read about them here,
http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/elections/201004/measures.aspx

Monday March 29th is the deadline for registering to vote in the special election as noted in the attachment.

Attachment:

King County Election News, March 25, 2010

Congressman Jim McDermott on Health Care Reform

At last: a National Health Care Reform Bill!

For me and many of colleagues, passing a national health care reform bill is the culmination of a long process. In the late 1950s and early 60s, when I was going to medical school in Chicago, Canada’s Tommy Douglas was beginning a national health care plan in the province of Saskatchewan. As I came to the end of my medical training, doctors began to strike in Canada because they didn't want to practice medicine under any system that was not totally free enterprise in nature. But as a new physician at the time, it seemed to me that the benefits of extending health coverage to everyone in Canada far outweighed the benefits a free enterprise system. Between 1963 and 1970, while I got my training in adult and child psychiatry and served two years in the United States Navy, I had the opportunity to observe the American healthcare “nonsystem” firsthand. Every day, I watched as people fell through the cracks. When I entered politics in the Washington state legislature, I knew that it was my obligation to do all that I could to bring about a national system that would provide coverage for everyone. And during my campaign for governor in 1972, I made my first speech declaring my support for a single-payer system similar to Canada. Each year that I served in the state legislature, I faced the institutional resistance to the creation of a more orderly system. Yet people complained they couldn't get care. Hospitals complained about uncompensated care. People complained about cost shifting of the expenses of the uninsured onto the policies paid for by the insured.

In the early 1980s, I began trying to establish an uncompensated care fund that would be paid into by all hospitals and the receipts would be given to those hospitals that took care of those in the community who had no health insurance. But hospitals resisted. I did a study to find out how many people in the state of Washington either were not covered by a government program or didn't have insurance through their employment. Unsurprisingly, we found that it was a huge number. So In 1983, I began the process of trying to do in Washington State what Tommy Douglas had done a few hundred miles away in the province of Saskatchewan.

As I tried to get universal coverage in the state of Washington, I ran into numerous obstacles. The medical establishment was more interested in capital investments than they were in ensuring that medical coverage was available to everyone in Washington. Large businesses were reluctant to accept any responsibility beyond what they were already doing for their employees. Any mandate was out of the question because under a technical loophole, big employers are exempt from many regulations that deal with insurance. So instead, I ended up authoring the Washington State Basic Health Plan, which is a subsidized health insurance program to help lower-income families afford coverage. But I wasn’t able to get universal coverage.

This experience taught me that it was going to be incredibly difficult to create a health care plan in one state that could be replicated across the country as had been done in Canada. I wrote the plan originally when the governor of the state of Washington was a Republican, so it didn’t get anywhere until Democrat Booth Gardner was elected governor of Washington in 1984. The process was so frustrating and the final legislation so modest that I decided I'd go back to medicine. I went to work for the State Department in Africa where I saw the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic in 1987.

One day my brother called me when I was in Africa and told me there was a seat open in Congress. He suggested that I return to the U.S. to run for the seat and work on getting universal health care. The dream was not dead, it has just been dormant. So I returned, ran for Congress and was elected in 1988. I made the decision to get on the Ways and Means Committee because I thought that was where I could be most effective in getting a national plan established. I was appointed to the committee in 1991 and began working with 95 other members who were dedicated to a single player plan. In 1993 President and Mrs. Clinton came to Washington to enact a national health plan, but we were unsuccessful.

The years between 1994 and 2006 were a painful period as we watched Republicans try to dismantle the only national health care program we have, Medicare. We breathed a great sigh of relief at the 2008 election of President Barack Obama who stated that he wanted to enact a national health plan. The President was determined not to repeat the errors of the Clinton administration, and the process of writing the bill has been a long and tortuous. Over the course of many months, we’ve watched this bill wind through three committees in the House and 2 committees in the Senate, which brought us to where we are today.

I still believe that a single-payer model is the most effective to achieve both cost control and universal coverage. But 40 years of experience prevent me from being ideological about the solution to the problems of universal coverage. Rather than establishing a single-payer system, Congress has designed a less desirable model that that would more tightly regulate private insurance companies much in the same way that we do with utility companies. Members of Congress have opted for a model that provides for insurance regulation at the national level, rather than the state level as it is today. It has much in common with the French system which provides universal coverage to the French people at half the cost of what we spend here in the United States. Their system provides a quality of care that is considered the best in the world according to the World Health Organization.

I know that this bill is far from perfect and will require continued efforts to adjust and improve it in the years to come. But today we began. As the Chinese adage says, “every journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.” We have taken that step.

Congressman Jim McDermott

Gut Check

Dear Chad,


By all accounts, the health care vote is coming this weekend or Monday. For my colleagues in Congress, it is gut-check time: Do we crack under the pressure and threats, or do we see this cause for what it is -- something far bigger than any of our individual political futures.

Thirty million Americans' health care is at stake -- this is a no brainer.

We must pass health care -- we must, as I've said in the past, "Finish the Kitchen." Sign my pledge now to make sure my colleagues know there is support for the decision, that wavering will not be tolerated.

Click here to sign now!

The Republican threats of electoral catastrophe if health care reform passes are empty caterwauling -- a cynical, last-ditch attempt to gain political power. As I've said to you before, I believe that NOT passing health care reform threatens our majority far more.

But even if I did believe these ridiculous threats, I would still vote for health care reform -- because I believe it is my job as a public servant to put those 30 million Americans ahead of any political calculus.

Making decisions like this is why I ran for office in the first place. I came to Congress to do as much good as I can for the people in Washington and this country. How could I possibly sit by and let a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make a difference in millions of lives pass by because it may put my job at risk?

I can't sit by and miss this chance -- and no other member in Congress should either.

Tell them to join me by signing my "Finish the Kitchen" pledge now.

For years, health care has consistently been at the top of the list of voters' biggest concerns -- we are desperate for a solution, and have been for decades. Senators and members of Congress throughout history waited their whole careers for this kind of opportunity -- to make such a profound difference for so many with one vote -- and yet, we may let it go because we're spooked by make-believe threats and political pundit spin.

Americans need relief, and now voters are demanding action. Now is the time -- we must get this done.

Thank you for your support -- and your work making sure our representatives do what's right, not just what's easy.

Very truly yours,

Jay Inslee
Member of Congress

An Organizing Benefit for 3-Strikes Reform

MICHELLE ALEXANDER
AUTHOR OF THE NEW JIM CROW
MASS INCARCERATION IN THE AGE OF COLOR BLINDNESS

Professor Alexander served as the Director of the Racial Justice Project for the ACLU of Northern California. She holds joint appointments with the Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at Ohio State University.

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Presented by Justice Works! Co-sponsored by ACLU Washington; Black Prisoner’s Caucus; Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites; Concerned Lifers Organization; Friends Committee on Washington Public Policy; Hotel Max Seattle, SEEDArts, a Program of SEED; STEPS: Steps To Ethically Profiling Stability; University Behind Bars, Washington Defender Association

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LASTING REFORM REQUIRES SOCIAL CHANGE – NOT JUST NEW LAWS

1 in 30 adult Washingtonians are behind bars or under community supervision. An estimated 1 in 20 children is affected at any one time. This impact falls with severe disparity depending on race. Washington is less than 4% Black. Our prison population is 20% Black. Our 3-Strikes population is 40% Black.

Professor Alexander traces how racial disparity in the criminal justice system nationwide connects with the historical Jim Crow, creating a new form of the old social ill. She presents her vision for grassroots organizing for social change to enable policy changes that put Jim Crow behind us forever.

The evening begins with short presentations by champions of recent positive developments that put Washington at the center of the nation’s criminal justice reform movement:

In Farrakhan v Gregoire, January 2010, Federal court ruled that people in Washington State prisons should vote because the racial disparities in Washington’s criminal justice system cannot be explained in race-neutral ways. A 2009 law change restores the right to vote to approximately 167,000 Washingtonians. There has been a resurgence of the campaign to reform 3-Strikes. Despite positive developments, our criminal justice system remains one of the most racially disproportionate nationwide.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14 6:30 - 9 PM
RAINIER VALLEY CULTURAL CENTER
3515 SOUTH ALASKA STREET, SEATTLE
TIX $6: WWW.BROWNPAPERTICKETS.COM OR AT THE DOOR

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Please download and share the event flyer!

Support Health Care Reform! from DFA and the Coffee Party

This is an email coming from the Coffee Party USA:

http://www.coffeepartyusa.com

"For those of you who would like to do one small thing that can make a big difference, here’s your chance: on Friday, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin announced that the Senate will support and pass whatever the House includes in a reconciliation bill -- even if it includes the choice of a public health insurance option.

This gives House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a big opportunity to take the reins back on behalf of the House of Representatives and the majority of Americans who want a non-profit public option to compete with the private for-profit insurance corporations. Getting this done in the House bill will give us huge leverage to pass it in the Senate. Speaker Pelosi needs to know how much of the general public supports this.

Click on the link below if you want to send your support. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions about it."

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/activities/311

Executive Constantine on the King Conservation District election

Friends,

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is Election Day for the King Conservation District. While largely unknown, the King Conservation District has a big impact, for our environment, our agricultural economy, and many of our rural neighbors. That's why I'm supporting Max Prinsen in tomorrow's election. Max currently works at KCD and is the President of Save Habitat And Diversity of Wetland (SHADOW). He is also on the WRIA 9 (Green/Duwamish salmon recovery) Committee, the Cedar River Council, and is the endorsed candidate of the Sierra Club Cascade Chapter and the King County Conservation Voters.

I encourage you to take some time this evening, find your nearest polling location (click here), and go cast your vote for Max tomorrow. Every property owner in King County pays into the Conservation District, and every voter has a right to help choose its leadership. Please take the time to make sure your voice is heard.

Sincerely,

Dow

Fire the Insurance Man!

This video comes from:
Rick Aydelotte
PO Box 221
Skykomish WA 98288
Website raconstruct.com
Email rick@raconstruct.com