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Ted Kennedy diagnosed with malignant brain tumor

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It’s been all over the news, so you’ve probably already heard it, but Sen. Ted Kennedy has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. I’ve got no idea what the prognosis is, but clearly, things like this are never good.

Kennedy has long been a bogeyman for the right, beyond all reason, and no doubt there are more than a few assholes out there cheering his illness. But for the most part the reaction from the right has been muted thus far, and the statements of his Republican colleagues have been respectful, supportive and downright heartfelt.

I personally don’t believe in prayer, but those of you who do, have at it.

Dave Reichert votes for the wealthy and against GI’s

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When the US House voted to approve the GI Bill of Rights last week, giving veterans full tuition benefits at any public school in their home state, 32 Republicans joined 224 Democrats in approving the measure… but Dave Reichert was not among them, despite having publicly boasted about supporting similar legislation.

Why did Reichert vote no? Because unlike most of the Republican agenda these past eight years, this bill actually includes provisions to pay for itself now ($52 billion over ten years) instead of shoving the costs off to future generations, levying a tax surcharge of 0.47 percent on income in excess of $1 million a year per family. When it came to asking the wealthiest one percent of Americans to help pay to give Iraq War veterans the same educational benefits given veterans of World War II, Reichert sided with the wealthiest one percent of Americans.

Let’s put this in perspective. While over half of American families save less than $600 a year from the Bush tax cuts, the wealthiest one percent have saved an average of $92,000 annually. That’s about $550,000 each since the tax cuts were enacted. The new GI Bill of Rights would add back an average of only $9,000 a year to the tax bill of these wealthiest of Americans. And that’s just an average—a household making a cushy $1.5 million a year would pay only $2,350.

In return, every veteran—the Americans who have sacrificed the most for our country—would be given the opportunity to earn a college degree and the economic benefits that come with it. And Dave Reichert voted no.

Reichert supported the bill when it included no funding mechanism, calling into question his fiscal responsibility; he rejected the bill when it taxed those who have benefited most from the Bush regime, calling into question his priorities. If this is what the Seattle Times had in mind when it lauded Reichert for his “conscience-driven independent streak,” I wonder how they define “conscience” and “independence”…?

Seattle Times endorses Obama!

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Well, the Times hasn’t endorsed Barack Obama in the general election yet, but they will. They’ll also endorse Dino Rossi, Dave Reichert and Rob McKenna. But you know, because they’ll endorse the Democrat at the top of the ticket it will prove that they are in fact nonpartisan.

Remind me of my prediction come November.

Medical Marijuana Patient Update

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I just got back from a long weekend in Chicago, and I’ve apparently missed out on a few local medical marijuana cases. Here’s a quick roundup:

– A medical marijuana patient named Alex Morris, who is suffering from Crohn’s disease, is serving a 30-day jail sentence and is unable to use the medicine a doctor has authorized him to use. He’s lost 10 pounds in 8 days. Even under the Washington State law approved by the voters, his medicine is not legally available to him while in prison.

I’m not able to find out if Morris was sent to jail for marijuana-related charges or something else, but the effects that his lack of medicine is having on him should make us question having a person in his condition serving a 30-day jail sentence in a state where the prisons are already overcrowded.

– Another Crohn’s patient named Steve Senn was sentenced to one year in jail today, although he will be out on bail awaiting appeal. A Snohomish County judge has ordered Senn not to use his medicine while under Department of Corrections supervision. Even though Senn had already served his deferred prosecution for a refusal to submit to a breathalyzer test, the judge cited failed drug tests due to his legal medical marijuana use as the reason to invalidate the deferred prosecution.

– Bruce Olson, the husband of Pam Olson, had a pre-trial hearing today in Kitsap County. The case may be postponed until after July 1, when the state Department of Health is expected to announce the quantity guidelines for medical marijuana patients. As with all cases, showing up at the courthouse to show your support for the patients is always appreciated.

Raise tuition to make college more affordable

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Demand is up. Costs are up. Yet the Seattle P-I editorial board argues that the University of Washington should keep tuition down.

More families will be able to afford a school their kids can’t get into. And this solves the problem how?

Washington simply has not kept up with demand for slots at our state colleges and universities, and keeping tuition below market rates while refusing to provide sufficient state funding to make up the difference is not going to help anybody. Exporting college students is not a long term economically sustainable policy; we will over time lose many of our best and brightest to regions with better and more plentiful public and private university systems.

Of course we could as a state rededicate ourselves to investing in human capital, sinking billions more each year into higher education… but that would require raising taxes, so it ain’t likely to happen anytime soon. The alternative then, is to change the way we subsidize colleges and universities, moving away from our per-student subsidy to one based on financial need.

Under such a model, tuition would be allowed to rise closer toward market rates, with much more of the full cost of one’s education reflected in the actual price. Then the state subsidy, which is now spread somewhat evenly amongst all students, would be funneled into an aggressive and generous financial aid program.

Those families who could afford to pay the full price of educating their children would do so. The rest would get financial aid in the form of grants on a sliding scale based on ability to pay. Such a system, if executed properly, would pump more revenue into our colleges and universities and fund more slots, while keeping college affordable for lower and middle income families.

Or.. we could continue to make it harder for WA students to get a quality education, regardless of ability to pay.

Straight talk excess

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One of the fascinating things about this election cycle is the way the Internet is breaking the stranglehold of traditional political and media institutions. For example, we all knew that Hillary Clinton was a lock for the Democratic nomination because nobody could compete with her massive money machine… that is until Barack Obama used the Internet to go straight to the people, and set new fundraising records in the process.

The same is beginning to happen in terms of media coverage, with some wags referring to 2008 as the first “YouTube election.” The video above is a great example, generating nearly 400,000 views in its first 24-hours online; not quite the audience of a network news program, but damn impressive nonetheless. It begs the question how much longer the national media can stick to the “Straight Talk Express” narrative without damaging (further) their credibility?

Meanwhile the DNC is doing its part to help both voters and reporters discern truth from fiction with today’s launch of McCainPedia:

McCainpedia.org is a wiki run by the DNC’s Research, Communications, and Internet teams. The goal is to centralize research material, allowing the general public to use it as they see fit.

Opposition research is nothing new, but its product is traditionally aimed at journalists and opinion makers, who then regurgitate the tidbits they find most compelling, and in the context of their choosing. Campaign seasons are typically filled with swarms of press releases pushing one factoid or another, most of which never make it into the mainstream media narrative.

With McCainPedia, the DNC is both seeking to cut out the gatekeepers, while simultaneously giving them a tool to do their job better. Sure, this is a partisan site created by a partisan organization, but facts are facts, and each citation is thoroughly documented.

The legacy media may want to ignore these new developments, but they do so at their own peril.

Pelz endorses Obama

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State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz, a superdelegate to the national convention, has officially declared his support for Sen. Barack Obama. Following a theme we’ve seen throughout Obama’s recent flood of endorsements, Pelz writes:

Throughout this campaign, I have gained an enormous respect for Hillary Clinton. This country and this party are unquestionably far stronger for the contributions she’s made throughout this campaign and throughout her long career in public service. I will be eternally grateful for Sen. Clinton’s appearance at our awards dinner last year, as she was warmly welcomed by Washington State Democrats, and for the time she has spent campaigning in Washington state. I have no doubt that Sen. Clinton would be a tough, thoughtful, intelligent, compassionate, and supremely-prepared President of the United States.

At this point in time, however, I feel the voters have spoken, that Sen. Obama will be our nominee, and that it is time for us as Democrats to begin the final stretch of this historic 2008 campaign to take back America. It is time to unify our party around one candidate.

There was a point early on when Clinton led Obama five to one in WA superdelegates. Obama now leads seven to five, with five remaining. (Actually, it’s seven to four with five remaining, as Ron Sims isn’t technically part of WA’s superdelegate slate, earning his slot as president of the National Democratic County Officials. But why get technical?)

75,000 rally for Obama in Portland

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An estimated 75,000 rallied to hear Barack Obama speak in Portland today, just days before the Oregon primary.  Blue Oregon has video of the massive rally that gives a good feel for the size of the crowd.

Imagine John McCain drawing a crowd of this size.  Betcha can’t.

Sunday morning reading

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The official NRCC Blog doesn’t typically generate much of a conversation—a few comments here and there, maybe a dozen or so in a really active thread.  So perhaps NRCC chair Tom Cole might want to pay attention to the 1255 comments on his most recent post, “Republican Solutions and a Positive Agenda.“

And all of them negative. Really.  I’ve been browsing the thread for an hour and haven’t found a single supportive comment.

You want to watch the Republican meltdown in action, go read this thread.

when I must sing of horror

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35 years ago, in the early days of the Pinochet regime in Chile, folk singer Victor Jara was murdered. Yesterday, one of the people involved, colonel, Mario Manriquez Bravo was found guilty. It’s really an amazing story, and I recommend that you read the whole thing here.

The dictatorship ultimately banned Jara’s music. They even banned some of the folk instruments often used to play it.

That day is over.

The boxing arena where he was murdered is now called Victor Jara Stadium.

Almost thirty-five years later, and nearly two decades after the end of the dictatorship, a Chilean court has found a retired colonel, Mario Manriquez Bravo, guilty in the murder of Victor Jara.

Unfortunately, they also closed the case, despite the clear involvement of numerous others. The Jara family’s attorneys believe that the court is still protecting the rest for political reasons. Now come appeals.

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