12.Nov.2006: Week's Review

Written by: Stephen Schuck on Nov 12, 2006 3:42 PM EST

Wed.01.Nov: For a meeting with no agenda (all activities for the coming election were on auto-pilot), a good number of people turned out. Conversation eventually focused on attempts to contact Congressman Rick Larsen. More on that at the very end.

Wed.01.Nov: Twelve-year Bellingham Mayor Tim Douglas retook the reins of city government as interim Mayor following the departure of Mayor Mark  Asmudson for greener pastures. I work closely with, and highly regard, Tim. The new Mayor will be elected in the 2007 General election.

Sat.04.Nov: The Cantwell bus arrived a little late at WCC, but brought an impressive array of politicians, including federal Senator Patty Murray, and federal Representative Jay Insley (Rick didn't make it), as well as our D-42 candidates and many people from county and city government. Two students, introduced as being from WWU, talked about losing opportunity with the loss of Pell Grants. Curiously, the WWU-YDs had no idea who they were.

Tue.07.Nov: Having lived in Germany for a number of years and having visited firebombed Dresden just after the wall's fall, but before serious reconstruction began, I have a lot of respect for the price of prying a rich-man's corporate-driven cabal out of a government. In my opinion, we have participated in a revolution of significant magnitude, bigger than it appears because of the headwind provided by irresponsible media, biased voter intimidation and disenfranchisement, and untrustworthy counting systems. My impression as an election observer is that we in Whatcom County, are very fortunate to have a fairly good system with significant oversight provided by the Whatcom Fair Voting group. Please consider joining them.

Tue.07.Nov: Rick Larsen's victory party at the Lakeway Inn was a place to see and be seen, and kinda fun besides. In addition to incumbents, candidates, and the usual Dems, a surprising number of YDs from WWU attended. Welcome, America's future. Unfortunately, the expected big screen TV (remember 2004) turned out to be two little TVs low down by the podium. By the end of the evening the House of Representatives was clearly in Dem hands.

Thr.09.Nov: Consessions in VA and MT gave the Dems 51 federal Senate seats and all committee chairmanships. If someone can herd those cats, they can override Cheney's tie-breaking vote and get something useful done.

Much appreciation to 25 year old Eli Pariser and his MoveOn.org crew. They seem to have picked up the Dean 2004 primary idea of computer driven nationwide telephoning and expanded the lists and computer support considerably. During the last campaign days, use of their system was advocated by a number of organizations, including DfA, Howard's DNC, and Bill Clinton's DLC (that's a jaw-dropper). Many thanks to everyone who participated in their phonathons. In addition, MoveOn has been instrumental in starting balls rolling in the Delay, Cunningham, and Abramof scandals, among many others. They've delivered on almost everything that they have undertaken. Impressive. If they ask what they should do next, please vote for reversing media consolidation, and for improving voter access and vote counting reliability (e.g., cleaning up states' Secretary of State offices).

A battle royal may be shaping up among the Dems, with the sides already well drawn (one letter makes a lot of difference): In our corner is the DNC (Democratic National Committee) (the party), chair Howard Dean and his "We can do it" 50-state strategy. In their corner is the DLC (Democratic Leadership Council), principal mouthpiece Illinois Congressman Rahn Immanuel, a group of Dem politicians with a corporate money, "grass-what?" philosophy. Both sides are claiming responsibility for this elections results, and claiming that the results would have been more favorable without the intervention of the other. For alphabet soup fans there is also the DSCC (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee) and the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee), both appearing to me as primarily DLC-like operations. An example of this battle played out in Illinois when Progressives (including DfA) supported Christine Cegalis in the primary. The DLC ran double Iraq amputee Tammy Duckworth, who won the Dem primary and lost the general. This is the kind of internal warfare that the neo-con-artists waged to take the Rep party away from our parents.

Government stalement: When they take office at the end of the next 1.5 months of last minute "lame duck" Rep plunder, the Dems will be in a position to roll back a lot of the Rep legislative lunacy, but Bush can still veto and the Dems cannot override without a lot of Rep help. This bodes well for the Dems if they can get access to the media. Watch carefully.

Clean-up: Both the revenge and the punish-the-lawbreakers crowds are seeking Bush's impeachment. While belonging to the second group, I also respect poker players who don't play their best cards up front. With Rep Conyers chairing Judiciary, I expect background investigations to continue without the Dems actively pursuing impeachment (at this time). With new Ethics Committee chairs, I hope to see more activity within Congress (including some corrupt Dems in safe Dem seats - gotta be fair). Press exposure will be needed for the ongoing string of revelations that should come out of a couple of committees while the full Congress deals with real work. Impeachment proceedings, particularly early in the game, would give the Reps lots of traction and keep the Dems from rolling back the Rep legislative disaster. To be effective, both Bush and Cheney would have to be impeached, possible in the House, but conviction (especially dual) in the Senate is unlikely, leaving Bush and/or Cheney in place after a lot of wasted time and rancor. HOWEVER, the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 determined a long line of succession, here notable that a dual conviction would give the Presidency to the Speaker of the House, providing the USA with an incumbent female Democrat President going into the 2008 election. Fun times!

Changing places: Many neophytes are about to take their places in Congress as seats change hands. There to greet (and train) them will be a mercenary "army" of lobbyists, only a small number of whom are supported by grass-roots organizations. Any "throw the bums out" or "term limits" endeavors ultimately support lobbyists' corporate backers. The first order of business should be term limits or some kind of parity on lobbyists. Dream on!

Rick Larsen: Rick's district extends from the agricultural and retirement northern counties through the populated, industrial (Boeing and other MIC companies) Everett area. He can't keep everyone happy, but he does respond to the political environments both at home and in Washington. Things probably haven't changed much at home, but they have changed radically in Washington. This is a good opportunity to nudge him in a more Progressive direction. The 01.Nov DfA-Bellingham meeting began a discussion of how this might be accomplished. Hopefully that discussion will continue at the next meeting and that it will include working with other Progressive groups to develop a united front.

TAFN

Steve Schuck, "Organizer", DfA-Bellingham

Don't forget Citgo - Northwest at Birchwood, also in Ferndale - non-Arab gasoline (and decent prices)

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