We hold these truths to be self-evident...

Every year we need a reminder of the truths we hold to be self-evident:

A Simple But Powerful Message Garners Huge Support

Tuesday was a bad day for WA-08 candidate Darcy Burner. Her house went up in flames. She and her family barely escaped before the raging fire engulfed just about all her possessions, and unfortunately killed her cat. The family dog somehow managed to survive despite being caught inside the house while it burned down.

That afternoon while visiting the Seattle Times Web site I came across this front page:

The photo of Darcy Burner with the gutted house behind her was heart wrenching, but I was also taken by the T-shirt she was wearing.

The caption for the photo made mention she was "wearing a gray T-shirt", but fellow geek that I am, I understood that this was XML code for "End War", and knowing she must have been wearing it when she was woken up by the screams of her son Henry when the fire started, said to me something more. The primary issue that Darcy has made the central focus of her campaign is bringing a responsible end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. She doesn't just campaign about this, she's consumed by it, and literally eats, sleeps and drinks the issue. Her passion led her to spearhead the creation of A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, that has now been endorsed by over 50 other candidates for Congress.

So there she was wearing a simple T-shirt, yet it said so much, so concisely.

At Drinking Liberally that evening I showed fellow bloggers the photo and the quick posting I'd put up about it. David Goldstein of HorsesAss.org was there and talked about working with national blogs to do a campaign fundraiser to help raise money while the Burner family dealt with rebuilding their home and the loss of their possessions. He and others also saw the power of the photograph when I showed it to them, particularly within the Netroots, a grassroots group fervently against the war and made up of a lot of geeks who'd recognize what the T-shirt was saying.

The next morning I quickly threw up a similar posting at Daily Kos, which got a modest number of recommends and comments. An hour later Goldy posted his fundraising appeal, which was quickly joined by postings at Open Left, Eschaton, MyDD, and Swing State Project, but most significantly by one by Markos at Daily Kos. The goal: raise enough money for the campaign so that Darcy could spend as much time she needed focusing on her family and new house. The estimate was that every $5,000 raised would buy her an extra day she would be able to spend putting her personal life back together. Markos' ambitious target was $150,000, enough to buy her a full month of such personal time. All of these online appeals showed a copy of the same photograph with the T-shirt.

At 11pm on Tuesday night Darcy Burner's ActBlue totals for this election cycle stood at 7,669 supporters and $247,088 raised. Within 40 minutes of Kos' posting $8,000 had been raised. That grew to $15,000 in a little over an hour. By noon, $30,000 had been raised. By 1am this morning the totals stood at 9,095 supporters and $327,099 raised. Twelve hours later and we're at 9,343 supporters and $341,012 raised.

In little over a day the Netroots have raised, through ActBlue alone, $93,924 from 1,674 supporters, for an average of $56 per supporter. Surely more has come in directly to the campaign. That's simply amazing!

Last year the Netroots also rallied in support of Darcy Burner when George Bush came to Bellevue for a Dave Reichert fundraiser. Over a four day weekend period in late August, in an election off-year, the Netroots collectively raised close to $125,000. Back then the impetus was George Bush's visit. That drive managed to negate its effect and propel Burner to a better fundraising quarter than her opponent. It also led to the germination of the Responsible Plan.

This time Burner's personal loss, and that simple T-shirt have managed to garner an even greater response from Netroots supporters, and will help propel Burner into the final four months of this campaign with added determination and drive.

This is a critical time for the campaign due to the head to head nature of this year's primary. With only 46 days until the August 19 primaries, there are only 16 more days left to register by mail to vote or to transfer a voter registration if you've recently moved, or 31 days to do so in person if you want to be able to vote in the primary. If Darcy cannot campaign or fundraise during this time we need to help her out. Your donation is one way you can help. Volunteering to help get people registered is another, or you can simply spread the word by talking to your neighbors and friends to remind them.

Loss of Seattle Sonics Will Reduce Road Congestion

So the Sonics will move, supposedly with a new name, colors and logo to Oklahoma City next year.

While Don Ward is blaming elected officials for this, instead of Howard Schultz who sold the team to the Oklahoma buyers a couple of years ago, I'd think that Republicans should be dancing in the street over this news. After all, the absence of the Sonics will result in 41 nights of less of road congestion, particularly along the always troublesome Mercer, Valley and Broad Streets.

Alternatively we could have poured hundreds of millions of public dollars into financing the construction of a new arena to prop up a money losing private business venture. Perhaps that's good public policy to some, but most people in this area didn't think so. Maybe it is time for city sports teams to be actually owned by the citizens of the city and the fans. At least then we'd make more responsible decisions, and the team wouldn't move to another town.

Rising From The Ashes

Political candidates will have their good and bad days, but this was one rough day Darcy Burner certainly didn't envision with just over four months until election day. The above photo shows a distraught Darcy in front of the charred remains of her house. While the house is a complete loss, the Burner family thankfully made it out safely. Unfortunately they did lose their pet cat to the flames.

It is easy to dehumanize candidates during a heated campaign, but then with a thud, stuff like this happens and suddenly the political race seems far less important than the need to pick oneself back up and rebuild a home and a life.

We learn a lot about other people, and about ourselves in times of adversity. The Burners will have a different outlook on things because of this personal loss, but I suspect they will also bounce back strong, and Darcy, the candidate, will find renewed determination to do whatever it takes over the next four months to win the election so she can work in Congress to end the war in Iraq.

We need to do whatever we can to help.

White House and Congress - A Very Dangerous Escalation of Iran Situation

Seymour Hersh continues his investigative reporting of U.S. actions against, and now in Iran.

Crooks and Liars has an interview with him from CNN, in which he states:

...The end game is, as far as -- and I do have some access into some of the thinking, particularly in the vice president's office. They do not want -- Bush and Cheney do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program, with, they believe, a nuclear weapons program. They simply don't believe the national intelligence estimate that came out late last year that said they haven't done anything in nuclear weapons since '03. They just don't believe it.

So they believe that their mission is to make sure that, before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program.

Forget what the intelligence has told us about the state of Iran's nuclear program. Forget how wrong the Bush administration were about WMDs in Iraq. Forget the mess we're in now in Iraq and the fact the military is stretched so thin. Forget all that. These guys in the White House live in their own world, make up their own rules. Be damned everything and everyone else.

Meanwhile, our congressional representatives are just handing over all the rope we need to collectively hang ourselves. In late May, a resolution (H.Con.Res.362) was introduced and referred to the House Committee of Foreign Affairs that escalates the situation further. The resolution's title: "Expressing the sense of Congress regarding the threat posed to international peace, stability in the Middle East, and the vital national security interests of the United States by Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and regional hegemony, and for other purposes." A Senate version, S.Res.580 was introduced in early June.

Here is what the text states:

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress--

(1) declares that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, through all appropriate economic, political, and diplomatic means, is vital to the national security interests of the United States and must be dealt with urgently;

(2) urges the President, in the strongest of terms, to immediately use his existing authority to impose sanctions on--

(A) the Central Bank of Iran and any other Iranian bank engaged in proliferation activities or the support of terrorist groups;

(B) international banks which continue to conduct financial transactions with proscribed Iranian banks;

(C) energy companies that have invested $20,000,000 or more in the Iranian petroleum or natural gas sector in any given year since the enactment of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996; and

(D) all companies which continue to do business with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps;

(3) demands that the President initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran's nuclear program; and

(4) urges the President to lead a sustained, serious, and forceful effort at regional diplomacy to support the legitimate governments in the region against Iranian efforts to destabilize them, to reassure our friends and allies that the United States supports them in their resistance to Iranian efforts at hegemony, and to make clear to the Government of Iran that the United States will protect America's vital national security interests in the Middle East.

While the resolution stipulates that "nothing in this resolution shall be construed as an authorization of the use of force against Iran", what would in effect be a blockade would be exactly that if not endorsed by the U.N. Security Council. The Seattle P.I. editorialized about this very fact a week ago.

Republican congressman Dave Reichert has joined Democrats Norm Dicks and Adam Smith as co-sponsors of the resolution, that has 83 Republican co-sponsors and 64 Democratic co-sponsors in the House. 12 Republicans and 8 Democrats are co-sponsoring the Senate version, including Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray.

Is this the road we are heading down? Is this what Americans want their government to be doing, calling for embargoes and blockades and provoking a war? Have we not learned anything from the Iraq invasion? Will our arrogance never end?

If we keep silent we will have given our tacit approval. Contact your Representatives and Senators and tell them that they're heading down a very slippery slope that will lead to no good and possibly to a war we want no part of.

Q2 Fundraising Coming to an End

It is the end of Q2 fundraising and three Washington Democratic challengers for Congress will be looking to report strong totals with your help: Darcy Burner in the 8th, George Fearing in the 4th and Mark Mays in the 5th.

Please make a donation today of even the smallest amount if you can.

Update: Please note that George Fearing's Web site is now http://www.georgefearingforcongress.com/

Israel Gains Nothing

Remember that 34 day war that ensued after Israel launched attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006, supposedly in response to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers?

The war ended without anything gained from it except a demonstration of Hezbollah's ability to withstand the Israeli bombardments.

Now it turns out the two Israeli soldiers, who were never freed, are now dead and the Israelis have agreed to a swap of a living Lebanese killer, for the remains of the two soldiers.

And somehow Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is still leading that nation. Amazing.

Elway Poll: Gregoire Leads Rossi 47% - 39%

Governor Chris Gregoire is up on Republican Dino Rossi 47 to 39 in the latest Elway poll according to the PI.

Rossi isn't getting McGavick's numbers, and only 78% of the Republican vote. That's not where he wants to be. Yet, with him clumsily trying to run away from the Republican Party by filing as preferring the "G.O.P Party", and his deep BIAW connections, it isn't a surprise that his popularity would be low, while Gregoire's support is on the rise.

Democrats will be hoping he keeps doing what he's been doing, given how poorly that's been working for him.

Big Bad Sheriff?

The Daily Show played part of this incredible campaign ad for Texas Senator John Cornyn last night:

Can you imagine Dave Reichert doing a "Big Bad Sheriff" version locally?

Clinton's Campaign Debt Shouldn't Be Obama's Burden

As expected, Obama supporters are being asked to help retire debt accumulated by the Clinton campaign during her run for the nomination.

I say phooey to that.

The race dragged on almost three months beyond the ultimately decisive outcomes of the February and early March contests. At that point Clinton should have gracefully bowed out and conceded as she had no realistic chance of winning the nomination. Instead she stubbornly forged on with a scorched earth approach in a desperate attempt to damage Obama to her benefit. It was foolhardy and costly. The donations to her campaign coffers in April and May were both too much and not enough. It was money that could have been directed elsewhere, and now has become a debt her opponent's supporters are being asked to help pay back.

That just doesn't sit well with me.

This was her decision. The contributions were her supporter's decision. It should be their burden to bear.

Yes, I'm sure Obama's wealthiest donors will help pay off that debt, but really this is a debt Clinton's wealthiest supporters should suck up and pay. They gambled and lost, and the Democratic Party and Obama campaign were the ones that suffered for it. The least they can do now is admit to their responsibility and deal with the debt they ran up.

The Incredible Shrinking Gas Tax Rate

I write letters. This one only made it to the Seattle Times' online page:

Louise Pasche wants the final gas-tax increase that was approved by voters when they overwhelming defeated Initiative 912, a whopping 1.5 cents per gallon, to be canceled ["Washington's gas tax," Times, Northwest Voices, June 23].

At present prices, that would be a mere one-third of 1 percent the cost of a gallon of gas.

The price of gas has risen locally by more than $1 in the past year, which has effectively reduced the state's tax rate on a gallon of gas by 28 percent in that time.

Washington voters recognized the need for investing in our transportation infrastructure three years ago, and that need has not gone away. Gimmicks such as calls for a federal gasoline tax "holiday" have been seen for what they are — pandering — and even worse, reckless energy policy.

Cancellation of a 1.5 cent gas-tax increase will only starve us of much-needed revenue for hundreds of projects statewide.

Rossi: Will Deceive For Votes

According to this Fox News report, Dino Rossi says he's always used the "Grand Old Party" nickname (1m50s into the video).

Except that's a lie as Goldy points out. Here is his voter pamphlet statement from 2004:

Rossi - Republican in 2004

Not one reference to the "G.O.P. Party".

Video: Reichert's Convention Address (Including His Clinton Joke)

TVW has added the ability to embed their videos and indicate a start point and end point for playback. They still have some improvements that I think they should make (no easy replay button for the chosen segment for instance), but it is a start.

So it provides me with opportunity to point people to Dave Reichert's 12 minute address at the Washington State Republican Party Convention last month:

The infamous joke is at the 25 minute mark (about 1 minute into the selected segment).

Reichert then asks, "What does 'change' mean? 'Change' is [the Democrat's] theme: we're going to change the greatest nation in the world?" Then he questions the Republicans' version, "Change that you deserve. What does that mean?"

Instead he chose to focus on "H.O.P.E." Taking a page out of Obama's mantra that we're not a nation of Democrats or Republicans, but that we are all Americans, Reichert also asked the contentious crowd full of Ron Paul supporters to agree that we are all "proud Americans". He followed that up with three increasingly loud calls that "Today we support John McCain as our nominee!", while the Ron Paul supporters chanted "Ron Paul! Ron Paul!" Sure doesn't sound like party unity listening to that shoutfest.

He then spelled out his definition of "H.O.P.E.": Honor, Opportunity, Prosperity and Equality, referencing the "American Dream".

Clearly Reichert will be seeking to appropriate the messages of "Change" and "Hope" as his own over the coming months. That might be a tough sell to voters who have seen Republicans trash the honor of their charge, limit the opportunities of the down-trodden, seek to prop up the prosperity of the wealthy at the expense of the middle class, and walk all over our constitution and civil liberties.

Donna Edwards Wins Congressional Seat

Donna Edwards, an early vocal endorser of the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq, was elected to fill the open seat in Maryland's 4th CD on Tuesday. She won in a landslide with 80.2% of the vote.

That's one candidate elected (she will run against the same Republican opponent again in November), and 53 others to go to change the face of Congress and elect candidates that will help get us out of Iraq.

Obama +4.0 Over McCain Nationally

Now that's what I call a consistent result - almost unheard of in election polls:

Source: RealClearPolitics