Revived Citizens Party

Today, I sent e-mail invitations to all 3 other candidates for the 9th Congressional District U.S. Representative seat, which if at least 3 of 4 candidates agree to participate, will be held at the large meeting room in the main Bellevue Library on 110th Avenue on July 11, and possibly could be televised, as in 2004, by TVW, the Washington state cable news network that specializes in civic and political affairs.  The library has already approved the event.  For Challenger Congressional campaigns that have all but been ignored by the media, so far, you would think that  Rivers and Basler, especially, would jump at the opportunity to get more community interest in this election.  You would think, but so far no word.  Interestingly, in 2004, Lord, Losey and Smith didn't let the first day go by before accepting debates.  However, the candidates, including the incumbent, Smith, have until Independence Day to respond to the invitation one way or the other, and if one or more don'

There is Nothing So Powerful As a Big Lie That Everybody Believes   The lie makes its rounds at convenient times, in other words, opportunistically, during campaigns and elections for political office in America.  The lie is very powerful and potent, and its effect is amazingly consistent and dominating, and it goes something like this:  "We have a two-party system, and don't you dare step outside it, because any other parties or political forces outside of our Democrat-and-Republican controlled apparatus is essentially misfit, trouble-making and unAmerican."   The problem with this lie is that even the relatively short history of the United States negates it as multiple parties beyond just two played a much more prominent role nationally in the first hundred years of the republic, and even since 1876, political parties outside of Democrats and Republicans have helped to shape and define the political landscape, especially on the state level.  So let's be absolu

For practically decades, now, 9th Congressional District Republicans have been trying to deny Rep. Adam Smith reelection with the typical Republican politician, with one or two exceptions, from Hollywood Central Casting, and they came closest with Dick Muri in 2010, but still fell behind by several percentage points.  Now, that the currently shaped 9th District lined out half of all Republicans in the old 9th District, including Mr. Muri, a lot of Republicans have thrown up their hands in disgust since the 2011 redistricting deal was brokered and practically gave away the 9th to the Democratic Party, apparently in exchange for Rep. Dave Reichert (R) having a newly reshaped 8th District that is weighted a lot more to easy reelections for him than his used-to-be closely contested races.  Some conservatives in the 9th District, however, like councilwomen Lisa Jensen (Newcastle) and Dini Duclos (Federal Way) are not necessarily persuaded that Adam Smith is unbeatable, and are willing to

I am trying to revive the old Citizens Party that was, in its existence in the late 1970s to mid-1980s, environmentally and socially conscious, economically progressive, and was trying to counter the so-called two party system that was then and is now more accountable to big business interests than the people at large that continually vote for it. Even Republican President Theodore Roosevelt, trust-buster and environmentally conscious, saw the need to shake up the Republican/Democratic domination of politics by starting the "Bull Moose" Party when he was out of office during the second decade of the 20th century. We can do the same in this second decade of this century, but we're going to have to break out of the "familiarity breeds comfort" pattern, because right now the familiar means spending a lot of money on boondoggles that have nothing to do with either domestic tranquility or real defense, and we, as Americans, just going by the little that I already k

A fairly big swath of the City of Seattle is in the 9th Congressional District since the 2011 redistricting took place, but somehow a local Seattle cable program could not bring itself to have any candidate forums or presentations about the coming August 5th primary regarding this U.S. representative election, despite that they had many programs about the 1st Congressional District representative primary, in which not a single part of Seattle is located in, in 2012.  The same is true for other supposedly non-partisan media outlets and organizations.  They have decided that it's better not to call too much or any attention to these 2014 elections than to have traditional, oriented-to-democracy discussions, debates and programs.  This is blatant, partisan incumbent protection.

I'm not a big fan of educational standards coming out of bureaucratic, partisan obsessed, centralized oriented Washington, D.C., so if I am elected, I will have no problem sponsoring a bill to cancel "Race to the Top" and "Common Core."   I am not going to sit here, today, and propose detailed curricula for our public schools in Washington, because that's better left to the education professionals who have the training, expertise and experience, but I will say that I am more interested in teachers just teaching than worrying about an over abundance of assessments, tests and general scoring.  Sure, we need all of these data at some point, but too much of a good thing often ends up being counter productive and has students being trained by rote and conformity rather than giving them the space that they need to be exploratory and intellectually innovative, both of which have been important factors in the past for the United States being at the for

As a result of the incompetence of the Iraqi Maliki regime, and the perfidy of Bush/Cheney 12 years ago, Iraq appears to be on the verge of a major civil war after several years of skirmishes between ethnic, religious and political divisions.  Now, politicians in America want Uncle Sam to get involved in that morass, again, after many of these same politicians are the same ones that started it in the first place when they backed Bush II's call for the invasion of Iraq from 2002 - 2003.  This new call for overt interventionism should be rejected.  Our nation must defend against threats from fanatical organizations by choosing our battles judiciously, wisely and without creating a climate that would broaden regional sympathy for religious fanatics or terrorists.  Getting mixed up in the Iraqi civil war in a major way would not be the least bit smart, and lest we forget, Congressional consent is necessary for new military interventions that are not logically connected with the consen

Mission Impossible:   Trying to Get Democrats to Disaffect from Corporate Democrats I was a little shocked when the Young Democrats from Pierce County invited me to be a part of their endorsement process for the 9th District Congress office.  Imagine, Democratic activists, of all people, not giving the corporate incumbent congressman, who has a "D" next to his name, a free pass to another two years in Congress.   I got over my shock and answered their questionnaire, and now I'm waiting for their decision. Little has been more nerve wracking in this campaign for Congress than for Democrats in this now overwhelmingly Democratic district to tell me they're effectively going to vote for Adam Smith because he has a "D" next to his name, the party-line vote.  Smith votes for more bad legislation that ordinary Democrats would disagree with than you can shake a stick at, but he gets a pass because most people don't know how he votes; in other words, the b

Someone actually queried me recently with a rhetorical "You don't really think you're going to win, do you?"   In the past 5 years, because of politics, I have been ostracized from the private and government employment market in the Seattle metropolitan area, humiliated in a city council race in the small town that I lived in for 8 years, contemptuously "banned" from getting coverage in the Director of Elections race by the state's biggest "newspaper," lied about by sophomoric "journalists" of littler papers, and unfairly scorned by the region's political ratings kingpin, and one only had to look at a single contemporaneous rating comparison to realize the ridiculousness of that.  Yet, consider who these detractors really represent (hint: it's not the average populace) and what kind of politics they are trying to stop: economic populism with a conservative consciousness. Yet, none of that gets me down for long, as I have pr

Now, that I have been front and center in calling for "Church - Pike" type hearings in Congress, like in the 1970s, on various governmental agencies and departments, such as the C.I.A. and the N.S.A., you just know that I am on their radar screens.  That's something I'll live with, though unlike Rep. Adam Smith, who sits in Congress and goes along to get along, if I'm elected, I would not stand by and say nothing or pretty much nothing about torture, "extraordinary renditions," and military and C.I.A. rules of engagement that need to be reviewed and possibly overhauled.  Not to mention breaking the 4th Amendment through the surveillance of law-abiding American citizens who may be critical of government actions. Torture and extraordinary renditions should be banned, period, and the definition of torture is too narrowly defined in several instances, it seems.  The laws, the Constitution and the universal moral code must be respected and accountability p

Weakness and Strongness The computer put a red line under "strongness" in my subtitle.  Too bad, I like it, so I'm keeping that "non-word." Call it my invention, if you will.  You cannot imagine the emotions that welled up in me last night watching an old 1980s movie called "St. Elmo's Fire."  It's a movie that I never saw at the time that it first ran, circa 1985, but kind of watched it since then, off and on, after it aged 20 years or so, and began seeing it on television from time to time.  Last night, I came upon it about 15 minutes from the start, and watched it more closely than ever until the end.  I love the theme music, though non-lyrical, it's part of the magic of the movie, I believe.  In the 80s, I was just slightly older than the main characters in the movie.  It really brought back a lot of memories from that decade, particularly a period from the years 1980 - 1981, and it's amazing how watching a movie can trigger

While areas in the United States, including right here in Washington's 9th District, are in need of repairs to infrastructure, new infrastructure and general upgrades to the commons, Congress and the White House continue to give out lavish foreign aid money, such as a billion and a half dollars per year to the brute regime in Egypt.  Saudi Arabia said that if American foreign aid was pulled from Egypt, then they would fill in the gap.  Then they might just have to do that, because America should cut back from giving out lavish foreign aid, generally, especially when our cities, towns and rural areas are economically troubled, and what foreign aid we do give should be dramatically hollowed out, thought out and measured more carefully than it has been by President Barack Obama and the Establishment in Congress. [revised on 6/6/14]

The following is a list of some of Congressman Adam Smith's worst votes in Congress:   1999:   Smith voted for Gramm, Leach, Bliley Act: the law that dismantled the Glass-Steagall Act which had separated financial institutions' commercial and investment branches from involvement with each other, and thereby kept customers' accounts from being exposed to risky banking gambits. 2008: Smith voted for U.S. - India Nuclear Agreement: this agreement undermined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act (N.P.T.), despite that this deal involves the energy sector, by cooperating on a nuclear level with a country that has long refused to sign the N.P.T. 2008: Smith voted for T.A.R.P., otherwise known as Wall Street Bailouts:  while Wall Street was giving their executives million dollar-plus bonuses, before and after the passage of T.A.R.P., the American taxpayer was footing the bill for this outlandish give-away of government money. 2011: Smith voted for the '12 N.D.A.

Ninth District Republicans can be sure of one thing, Rep. Adam Smith wants the novice, Basler, in the Top 2 rather than formerly G.O.P. candidate ten years ago, but now Citizens Party candidate, Mark Greene.   Smith, who you just know prefers an opposite major party novice as his General Election opponent, is probably worried that Mark Greene will make the Top 2 and thus would become the first 3rd party candidate to get on the General Election ballot by overcoming a major party candidate, as Smith realizes that a strong coalition of Republicans, Democrats, other Third Parties, and Independents can send him scurrying to the White House begging for an ambassadorial job if he is sent packing, if not to K Street where he would be welcomed as a lobbyist.  The cover has finally been blown on Smith's votes in Congress that are completely out of touch with the wishes of his constituency, and Smith's last hope is for the loyal opposition to put up the same old typecast can