Sen. Russ Feingold is offering a $5000 check to one of ten progressive House candidates. You get to help decide who gets the dough.
Cast your vote for Darcy in the Progressive Patriots Fund election today. Let’s show them the kind of strong grassroots support that has allowed Darcy to kick Reichert’s ass in dollars raised and number of individual contributors in every quarter since she joined the race this election cycle.
When the US Supreme Court ruled Initiative 872 constitutional, we can now vote for the most qualified.
James Vaughn for US Representative, 8th Congressional District
(Serving most of King and Pierce Counties)
Veterans, angry over Iraq, run for Congress
Potentially an unprecedented number of ex-service members will be running for office. The fighting Democrats, as some call themselves, say their military experience could give them the credibility to criticize the war without being dismissed out of hand by the GOP as naive and weak on defense, as the Bush administration has often done.
MSNBC Article
The Fighting Democrat Web Site
New Fighting Dems site by DNC, Clark, Dean, Fowler, and Horne
Before our government commits our sons and daughters to harms way, all political avenues need to be exhausted. Unfortunately, this did not happen with our war in Iraq. My initial contention with the war was that United Nation inspectors had not found any weapons of mass destruction and were still investigation when we invaded.
I am angered at the way the Republican leaders have handled the war. We all know the current administration doesn’t hesitate to stand in front of the troops when it comes to a photo-op, but never stands behind them when it comes to providing the armor necessary to fight in Iraq, or the benefits promised when they return home.
We all would like to see our troops come home. However, common sense tells us that this is not going to happen overnight. We have lost too many lives in this war and too much is at stake for us not to achieve stabilization and the proper reconstruction of Iraq. I feel a moral conviction to choose the right course of action not only for our country but for the Iraqi citizens.
Given our current deficit, rising gasoline prices, we need Iraq to help us financially in order to continue to help them restore their country. Iraq has the second largest oil deposits in the world and by receiving a portion of the oil we can correct our federal deficit. An option is for us to reach an agreement with the Iraqi government to sell us the oil at a reduced rate for a specified number of years. Iraq government gets paid, our gas prices drop and we pay down the budget deficit. Everyone wins. In addition, by using the oil revenues to reduce our federal deficit, our dollar will strengthen in the global market. As a result, the price of food, imports and other commodities will drop.
Now that we are mired in rebuilding Iraq, a responsible exit strategy is essential. Unfortunately, I hear candidates spouting anti-war rhetoric and an immediate reduction in troops. These comments do nothing but incite the terrorists and place our service members in greater danger. We need to remember the saying, “United We Stand, Divided We fall.”
What do we feel about our “American Way of Life and what do we say to our service members when:
• American corporations send jobs overseas.
• $130 Billion was invested in overseas emerging markets last year, rather than investing in the U.S. economy.
• $40 Billion military hardware contract was sent to France.
• They return home to poor employment prospects while our government is gutting our economy and playing E-Bay with our jobs.
• We have done nothing to provide affordable health care for their families.
• Our educational system is loosing ground to other nations.
• Our transportation systems are in disrepair.
• Individuals sit at home intentionally abusing L&I, welfare, and unemployment in order to draw a government check while we go to work each day.
• Our government does not provide adequate care for Veterans.
• Social Security is projected to be bankrupt in the year 2018 and our government spent $21 billion dollars on foreign aid last year and projects to spend $13.2 billion dollars on Pork Barrel Projects.
We need to say, “No More”. I am prepared to address the issues and fight the battles but cannot do it alone. In the 2006 election for US Congress, 250,000 people voted and the outcome was determined by 7,341 votes. There are projections that the upcoming election will have a record number of voters. Please join me in an effort to obtain 200,000 voters to unite into one voice. This “Fighting Democrat” needs your support.
I found out this morning that I may be looking at a $2,500 veterinary bill for our new puppy, which ties my hands as far as giving money to political candidates goes. We (Mrs. R and I) agreed to adopt this dog; and, even though we didn’t know it had these problems, its medical needs are now our responsibility. We aren’t going to throw away a life just because it came into the world with genetic flaws.
http://www.jimvaughnforcongress.com
Jim Does Listen and Understands: I frequently hear voters voice their frustration over the choice of candidates. They typically feel like they are making a selection between the lesser of two evils. If there were a third candidate called “None of the above” he or she would certainly win. I hear voters concern about the issues and their frustration with campaign rhetoric. A recent poll described in the July 16th Economist, asked voters if they thought their elected officials represented their priorities. Only 17 percent said yes. And, if we look at the policies being put in place by those in office we repeatedly see that the American people are correct – their views are unrepresented. As a result, I have listened to the voters and have addressed their issues.
If you read my biography, it will be obvious that my credentials are superior to my opponents. As a former Armor Officer, I understand military operations. At the end of my military career, I worked as an analyst. My last two projects were:
2004 Airborne Study: Conditions that would cause us to go into another war in the Middle East and how we would fight the initial entry battles. Bottom line is that I understand the issues in Iraq and Afghanistan.
My last project was the creation of a Prioritized List of Capital Expenditures that I briefed to Senior Officers at the Pentagon. This program became the cornerstone for the US Army Long Range Budget Planning.
During the first Gulf War, Senior Army Officers knew that there were going to be significant budget and personnel cuts after the war. This was a tough time and serious issues had to be addressed. For example, do we fund trucks to replace a worn out fleet that had been in action since the Korean War? Do we fund research for synthetic skin and synthetic plasma? Do we continue R&D for anti-aircraft weapons? My job was to create a program to prioritize all US Army expenditures/military programs, which covered a $300 billion dollar budget. The analysis provided senior officers with a prioritized list of expenditures allowing them to determine which programs to fund during a recession and time of downsizing.
With the eventual withdrawal from the current Gulf War, the huge budget deficit, and a recession looming overhead, we are again faced with another series of budget cuts. One of my strengths is the ability to prioritize capital expenditures and address serious budget issues in order to keep the essential services. Now that we are facing another serious federal deficit, recession and trade deficit, we need experience individuals to represent our country.
However, I want to highlight that I am far from perfect. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth and at 53 years of age, I have lived long enough for life to have dealt me some hard times. I left active duty after the first Gulf War, and struggled to find employment during the recession. I know from personal experience what it is like to be on the road for over a month on business and come home to find out the company I worked for went bankrupt. No paycheck and credit cards maxed out for expenses that were to be reimbursed. At that point in my life, I became self employed so to never place my future in another persons hands. After struggling for nearly three years and barely surviving the Dot.com crash my company folded in the fall out from the 911 disaster. Again I had to start over. Life is not always fair and bad things happen to good people.
I would not ask a voter to do something that I would not do myself. Voters have made it very clear that their main concerns are the economy, the war in Iraq, and our health care system. Because of the recession and my personal experiences after the first Gulf War, I have particular concerns regarding the employment opportunities for our returning veterans and the lack of medical coverage for their families once they are released from active duty.
Does Darcy Listen? At a Darcy Burner fund raiser, I hear the pain and frustration from an Iraq veteran and family member that lost his son in Iraq. Rather than listening to this individual, in a demeaning tone of voice, Darcy asked this gentleman sit down and be quiet so we (she) could talk about ending the war. This man served in Iraq, has been there and could probably shed some light on the issue. If this were my fund raiser, I would have invited that gentleman to the podium and let him speak. He is welcome to speak at any of my events. Since Darcy does not listen to the voters during a campaign, we can only assume she will not listen if elected.
Darcy Burner’s You Tube Video stating that there is no end in sight, that it is time to bring the troops home and other anti-war rhetoric is a serious concern. We all want this war to be over and have our service members back home. However, this is a global society and comments that we need to get immediately out of Iraq lends support to the Islamic terrorists. When our military is trying to restore peace, these comments create a feeding frenzy for the zealots and place our service members in greater danger. In the interest of safety for our troops that are currently in the field of operation, drawn down discussions and exit plans need to be conducted behind closed doors. Darcy’s publishing and broadcasting her views, gives the terrorists information that could be used to their advantage. Remember the saying, “United We Stand, Divided We Fall”.
A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq: proposes expanded use of non-military personnel working at the grassroots level to strengthen the capacity of towns and villages to resist the insurgency on their own, as well as an internationalization of the effort. The end goal should be the creation of a network of local Provisional Reconstruction Teams reaching the entirety of the Iraqi population, thus addressing the medical, agricultural, educational, and commercial needs of the population served…. The Department of State, Agriculture, Commerce, Transportation, Justice and Treasury must be directly engaged in creating this solution, rather than assigning everything to our military.
The trouble is that the world is not an ivory tower. Given the capture and torture of American service members and civilians, grass roots diplomacy is a dangerous undertaking? Would you want to be a member of a Provisional Reconstruction Team at this time?
The plan issues a statement that the President should restate that, “The United States does not seek to control Iraq’s oil.” Why are we not using the money from the oil fields to rebuild Iraq and pay for our war efforts? Where is that money going and what happened to the saying, “To the Victor Go the Spoils”? Being politically correct is often times synonymous with nonsense.
Dave: Last spring, I was at a Veteran Fair sponsored by Dave Reichert. I informed Dave that Sally and I have a business that is focused on assisting veterans obtain full time employment, with the priority going to individual returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. I told Dave that we would like to help the seriously disabled veterans. We are spending billions to rebuild Iraq and at the same time shuffling the disabled veterans to the bottom of the deck. At that time we had over 700 seriously disabled service members at Fort Lewis.
With today’s technology and the internet, I was seeking money to fund a program to assist our disabled Veterans with a home office and the training so they can work from home in a meaningful profession. Dave told me that if the grant process did not work out that he would submit a bill through appropriations.
Common sense tells me that this would receive unanimous approval in Washington D.C. It would be political suicide to vote against such a bill to assist disabled Veterans. This would have been a huge boost to Congressman Reichert’s career. However, repeated e-mails and telephone calls to his office did not result in any action.
Dave Reichert has not passed one piece of legislation. Currently he is ranked 419 out of 439 congressmen, which is below representatives from Guam, Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico that are non-voting members. Dave Reichert has sponsored 32 bills since Jan 4, 2005, of which 28 haven’t made it out of committee and zero were successfully enacted.
Typically, new employees have a 90 day probationary period to prove themselves. Dave Reichert has had a two year probationary period. The job is not a good fit for him or for us. The Republican Party wants to keep Dave in office and not because he is a strong congressman. Dave will do whatever the party tells him to do in order to survive. We have seen that he is a yes man for George Bush. I ask you, “If Dave Reichert were in the board room with Donald Trump on the apprentice, what would Donald say?”
This morning’s Pea-Eye has a rather lame article claiming that Darcy’s scuttled her chances of beating Sheriff Dave because she’s concentrated on the war when all Mr. and Mrs. Joe Six-Pack America care about now is the economy.
Like the war has nothing to do with that. You betcha.
Jim,
Pick another CD and you’ll get my support. As a veteran myself, I appreicate your service and your sense of duty to country.
Unfortunately, you’ll have a tough time getting traction here and now in this district.
Vote for Darcy…now… and often!
You guys getting together a ballot-box-stuffing party already?
Dear GBS,
When I created my platform,I spoke to thousands of voters. I am looking at a 95% approval rating on my positions. I am here to represent the voters. One reason that I am not afraid to take a stand on the issues.
I don’t expect each voter will agree with everything on my platform, but hopefully they will get an idea of my thought process and feel comfortable with me in office.
Are we not tired of political rhetoric and when it comes time to vote we are at a loss because neither candidate has said anything substantial?
Maybe ditzy Darcy whats-her-name can take that money, buy some qualifications, experience, and a brain; or even a meaningful thought for that matter. Ooohhhh……shiny!! Watch those pubes Goldy!
@2 Rodent:
‘We aren’t going to throw away a life just because it came into the world with genetic flaws’
Must be what your parents were thinking about you….
You’re good at getting the gov’t to pay for you, why not try for the same for this poor pup? I truly feel sorry for the poor thing, for two reasons.
Jim @ 7
You have to understand that this website is “bought and paid for” by the Burner campaign. Always has been. The webmaster gets a “tingle up his leg” whenever someone mentions her name. In fact, he’s SO enthralled that he gets giddy even if you say “Bunsen burner” or “Tina Turner.”
@ 2 RR
Sorry to hear about that. I think you’ve got your priorities straight. Hope the little guy comes thru okay!
Jim Vaughn,
I don’t believe you. But if you want to challenge Darcy Burner in the August 19 primary, have at it. It’s your funeral, as they say. How’s that cash-on-hand treating you?
Jeez, Jim, I just looked at your site. Why on earth do you want to run as a Democrat?
– You favor Republican so-called “property rights” positions.
– You embrace the Republican straw man of accusing “many candidates” of “calling for immediate troop withdrawal” when in fact no candidate outside of Ron Paul is doing so, and certainly Darcy Burner is not doing so. If you want to tell us about where you and Darcy differ, please do so, but your propagnada is old and tired.
– Also, why are you arguing about the WA B&O tax? You’re running for Representative. It’s really not your business.
– And you do not want “universal health insurance,” where the insured are aggregated to pool the risks and we use that leverage to obtain favorable tems from insurers. Instead, your plan is to eliminate Medicare and Worker’s Compensation (which is a state program, BTW, and again not in your bailiwick), wave a magic wand to eliminate insurnce companies, and instead have some sort of strange public fund provide everyone a private policy. I don’t even understand your plan, let alone endorse it. And no other Member of Congress suppotrts anything of the sort. Just how would you pass this weird monstrosity, and what do you think the chances of passing a bill eliminating Medicare are?
I’ll just tell you right now, you won’t get Democratic votes, you sure as hell will not survice the primary, and even if the heavens parted and God created a miracle just to elect you, you would be an outcast in the Democratic majority. Overall, I believe you would caucus with the Republicans, since they represent your views better than we do.
Really, I think you are a weird kind of Republican dirty tricks “candidate.”
Here’s a question, Jim, from your “health care” page:
When you say
..to what “organization” do you refer? You already eliminated Medicare, Medicaid, L&I, and all private health insurance in your “plan.” What organization are you proposing to create to do this work, or onto what existing organization do you propose to dump this work, and how will they be compensated? The cost of this “paper-pushing” is not factored into your financials.
And I gotta tell ya, Jim, on your site you come off as kind of a dunce. Anyone who uses the word “loose” instead of “lose” sounds, um, dumb. And whoever would state, as you do on your site, that a billion dollars is “100,000 million” should not be trusted with our money or our votes.
If I “do the math” correctly, $702 + $806 + $1209 = $2171 that you claim is the cost of medical coverage for two Americans (on average) after you have magically eliminated all overhead, even though you say that “an organization” will be doing the “paper-pushing,” presumably for free. So the cost to provide medical care for one individual with no overhead is $1035.50.
Now, according to the US Census Bureau population clock, the current US population is 304,042,706. So multiply the cost per person by the number of people, and it turns out that the cost of covering every American is $413,042,016,101, or slightly over 400 billion dollars. I will admit I used the more conventional measure of “billion” as “one thousand million” but that’s just me and my silly math degree.
Yet you also say that Medicare and Medicaid together cost $551 billion, and the overwhelming majority of Americans use neither of these.
So here you are, claiming that you can deliver quality health care for with no overhead costs at all (somehow, even though you claim that someone will be doing uncompensated work), and do it for the 50 miilion Americans without health insurance, for all Americans with private insurance, and for all Americans currently using Medicare and Medicaid, for just a tiny fraction of current costs.
Question: Has anyone who, you know, knows anything about medical care looked at your plan?
Hey, Jim, why would Iraq sell us their oil for less than market value when they could get $125/bbl (and rising) on the open market? Do you really think they’re that stupid?
Do you think, if completed, that such a deal would be anything other than extortion on the part of the Occupation Force?
Jim,
All I’m saying is that Darcy Burner has a plan for Iraq, she’s been at this since the 2004 cycle as a dark horse and nearly won.
Two years later she has positioned herself rather smartly for this cycle and she is on the radar screen of the national party as a prime candidate to unseat an incumbent Republican.
This is not your best shot at winning.
Hey, Daddy Love
I think you must be a government worker, or at the very least, someone who does not have to be fiscally responsible. Everyone should be concerned about the Gross Receipt Tax, better known in Washington as the B&O Tax. This is one of those wonderful taxes that none of the Law Makers seem to want to talk about. They all talk about how they support the small business person, but they don’t. The B&O Tax is driving business out of Washington at record speed. I can’t understand why more people are not outraged by it. Most don’t understand the tax because it is a hidden tax. If you were a business owner, you would get it! And you would hate it! This is a tax that allows Washington State government to spend, spend, spend without any regard to the consequences. There will be a tipping point when business owners in Washington will move to truly business friendly states. The B&O Tax is terrible. Do me a favor – with your math degree,
and read the GRT information
atwww.taxfoundation.org.
Also, go to access washington and do a search on the business and occupation tax. You will find pages of different industries trying to get their rate lowered. It will probably never happen. The local law makers only did that for Boeing, and they left anyway.
The Business and Occupation Tax is a nonpartisan issue. We all need to expose its hidden cost and keep small business working.
Dear Daddy Love,
The Democratic Party represents small business, which has been the case until it got tied up in partisan politics. As you can see, I am adamant on providing healthcare for everyone, not something that you will find in the Republican party. I vote the person not the party. I vote the issue not the party. I am not a party democrat and will stand up to my party when I think it is not representing our citizens. If I will not take a stand during a campaign and say that I disagree with the party line, what can you expect me to do when I am elected. One of the reasons Dave Reichert is not effective.
Darcy does and continually calls for immediate troop withdrawal and this really angers me. I have more friends serving in Iraq than the entire genealogy of the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s. I want our service members home as much as anyone else. Everyone realizes this will not happen overnight. What we need to do, is focus on the correct actions for us and the Iraqi people. This war has cost too much money and too many lives have been lost to throw it all away. This is a sad situation and the majority of our service members do not want their efforts to be in vain. This can be accomplished without dragging the war on for an extended period of time. The Democratic Party knows this, which is one of the reasons, many of our elected Democrats keep getting beat up for financing the war. The problem is campaign rhetoric and candidates telling the voters what they want to hear versus telling the truth. We need the Iraqi government to help us financially help them. Every country pays for freedom, and they should not be the exception. We are in a position to make this happen. Ask yourself, as many voters and legislators are asking, “Where is the oil money going when it is being sent to banking institutions out of the country? Saudi Arabia and Bush’s oil buddies?” We the American people need to be reimbursed. Period. Ask yourself, “What happens if we have immediate troop withdrawal and leave a force to protect the embassy?” I see another Black Hawk Down on the horizon. Can Iraq defend itself against Iran? The Iraqi government needs us to see this through and we are in a position to demand reimbursement.
B&O Tax, yes this is a state issue but it is also a federal issue. This tax is so bad, that I am attacking it on state and then at the federal level. My intention is to create voter awareness with my campaign. Hence the beginning stages of an Initiative at the state level. Once elected, I will present legislation to eliminate this pyramid tax on a national level. There are only three states that have this tax. However, several states are entertaining the idea, since it is such a cash cow. We have lost too much of our industrial base and economically we cannot afford a tax that discourages capital investment. We must invest in our country.
Dear Daddy Love,
Obviously, you are a Darcy supporter. However, it is obvious that you care a great deal about the political issues and I wish more people did. As a result, I want to address your comments on health care.
I did not say that a billion dollars was 1000,000 million. I was talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. I did remove that because it obviously was confusing.
You stated, “If I “do the math” correctly, $702 + $806 + $1209 = $2171 that you claim is the cost of medical coverage for two Americans (on average) after you have magically eliminated all overhead, even though you say that “an organization” will be doing the “paper-pushing,” presumably for free.”
Your math is not correct. $702+$806+$1,209=$2,717 not $2,171
The actual cost for medical coverage for two individual is $2,418. Less than the $2,171 which leaves $$ for overhead and administrative fees.
Bottom line is that you appear to be willing to pay of excess government, but upset when at the $$$$ that are being spent in Iraq. Why would anyone not want to reduce government. When a business is loosing money they cut back. We need to streamline our governement. In doing so we can have affordable health care.
Healthcare Issues deeply impacts each and every one of us. My own household is a prime example of how our system is failing us. Because my fiancé has arthritis, she has been repeatedly denied medical coverage. We recently started our own staffing service and were able to get medical coverage through the business, at a cost of $903.22 per month for the two of us.
From a business perspective, we have had repeated cases where we have employed individuals that worked one day and claim an injury that in fact was pre-existing . We know that the injury is not job related but cannot prove otherwise. We understand that individuals make these claims because they do not have health care insurance. As a result, we as employers are penalized for every Labor and Industry Claim that is submitted (our L&I rates increase).
Below is a copy from my website:
We need an affordable health care plan that covers everyone and to that end I ask? Why are we paying for three types of medical coverage which are:
1. Medicare-Medicaid
2. Worker’s Compensation
3. Private or personal medical insurance.
Let’s Do The Math and see what happens when we combine the three programs together.
1. The average American family spends $702 on Medicare each year.
2. There are 2,080 work hours in a year x $1 per hour paid to L&I = $2,080
3. American Health Insurance Plans’ Center for Policy and Research shows that the average cost for an individual plan in the year 2006 was $2,015 per year.
4. Consider that the insurance companies are making 40% in commissions and profits the actual amount that goes towards medical coverage is $1,209
5. Working citizens pay $2,015 to L&I minus $1,209 the actual cost for medical coverage= $806 remaining that can be used to pay for individuals that are not employed.
6. Apply the $702 that goes towards Medicare to the $806 remaining from L&I payments and we cover the costs for healthcare.
Note: Census Bureau shows that 53 % of our citizens are employed. If every working person pays for one non-working citizen we more than cover the costs for universal medical coverage. With this system, people continue to choose their physicians, doctors’ clinics and hospitals as they always have. The only difference is the billing process. By insuring ourselves, we eliminate the profit to the insurance companies, streamline the billing process, and eliminate overhead costs to Medicare, Medicaid, L&I, and private insurance companies. It does not make sense to pay the overhead for all these agencies. No wonder we have a federal deficit.
In this scenario everyone has health insurance. According to the Institute of Medicine, 18,000 people in the United States die every year from a lack of health insurance–that’s two people every hour.
In addition, this concept saves time and money: By having one organization handle all of the bureaucracy and all of the administration of the health care system (mostly consisting of paperwork and payments) paper-pushing greatly decreases in frequency and cost. More of each of our dollars that go toward health care would actually be used to care for people’s health, instead of going toward managers and forms. We eliminate the bulk of paperwork duplication, and in the process, could potentially save hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars. As it is right now, American businesses are at an economic disadvantage, because their health costs are so much higher than in other countries.
Granted this is a broad brush picture. However, my point is that affordable health care is possible and we need to take a serious look at this alternative.
Jim,
OK, you need to rethink this whole running for office thing. You are grossly under informed on the issues.
NO Demcorat is calling for the immediate and irresponsible withdrawl of our forces in Iraq.
What they are saying, is to immediately begin the process. It will very likely take any where from 9 months to possibly 2 years to complete the transition. Us Democrats got a fucking handle on the situation.
Blackhawk down?? Are you fucking joking me??
Tell me what you think went wrong from a policy point of view only. Not your passionate military prespective.
PS: Do your homework before you answer.