Updated with video from TVW:

A hearing on single-payer health care is scheduled for this afternoon, Friday, February 1 at 1:30 p.m. in House Hearing Room B in the O'Brien Building on the Capital campus in Olympia.  The bill is House Bill 1085.

If you can't be there, then it will be available on TVW:
http://www.tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwliveplayer&eventID=2013020032

and now for a few photos from past healthcare rallies:

Seattle, May 2009

Olympia, August 2009

Associated Press Legislative Preview

The Decade our American Democracy worked -- right here in Olympia. 

The authors of the new book, Politics of the Possible, Mary Ellen McCaffree and Anne McNamee Corbett will be at Orca Books on 4th Steet on February 29th. Join them for a presentation, reading and lively discussion.

Date: February 29th, 2012

Time: 7:00pm 

Location: Orca Books, 509 4th Ave E

Given our current political environment, the new book, Politics of the Possible by Mary Ellen McCaffree and Anne McNamee Corbett offers a timely and refreshing approach to today’s often frustrating governmental process. Budgets, deficits, wrangling political parties, and special interests that increasingly press (and achieve) their demands in disregard of the public’s general welfare – all find antidotes in this lively political history. Politics of the Possible reminds us how our government is supposed to work. It’s a living example of an effective decade of governing when our elected leaders moved beyond partisanship and focused on problem-solving for the people.

By retracing McCaffree’s’ path inside the gears of governing during Washington state’s most productive and legendary decade, Politics of the Possible charts the overhaul of our state during the 1960’s, culminating in a stunning 1970 special legislative session that capped a sweeping program of progressive, bi-partisan reforms. 

For more information or to purchase a book, please visit: www.politicsofthepossible.com. Questions can be directed to me, Alison McCaffree, the author's granddaughter and marketing manager at info@politicsofthepossible.com.

Washington State now has a 10th Congressional District. Much of the North of Thurston County will be included in the new district. Also included are parts of Southeast Mason County, and parts of Western Pierce County. The final report is scheduled for official release next Monday, the Ninth. Redistricting Website: www.redistricting.wa.gov/

http://blip.tv/olympia-fellowship-of-reconciliation/washington-state-needs-tax-reform-5759966

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPr5Do_VIuY
Monday 21 November 2011—Members of a group calling themselves "Occupy Washington" delivered an invitation to the Governor to join the occupation movement. They set up a tent for the Governor to stay.
endofoligarchy.org/2011/11/21/64/

www.occupyolympia.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDoSL7I98bg

Educational Tabling about State Tax Policy with Pat Holm, at the People's Movement Assembly. The PMA was sponsored by the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace.

(updated with additional comments)

(Update 2 below the fold: 11 October 2011 meeting video embedded, and also more information about the Citizen Commission. Meeting video is also available at the Tax Preferences website.)

(update 3: just want to note that the Commission's work is to work with JLARC—the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee, and to compare and rate, and recommend and suggest various tax exemptions to the legislature, for the purpose of representing the citizenry's preferences.)

Comments at Citizen Commission for Performance Measurement of Tax Preferences Hearing

These are my comments from the Citizen Commission for Performance Measurement of Tax Preferences on Tuesday. I will add a link to the meeting video when it becomes available.

Additional comments: "Hog Fuel" is industry jargon for slash that results from clearcuts. When I went to an earlier commission a few weeks ago, this was a big topic, with industry advocates pushing for the tax exemption. I had to listen for a while before figuring out this didn't have anything to do with heating barns for pigs.

Additionally, a few things I had thought about, but didn't manage to remember to testify on during the hearing include: 1) the possibility that, if we are really concerned about job creation, then ending the practice of clear-cutting forests might help. That might have to be coupled with a dose of de-technologization. Selective harvesting of carefully chosen trees. Coupling trees to horses to pull them out of the forest, for instance. Or owners being willing to lower their margin of take-home cash, so as to ensure a responsible employment and environmental ethic.

2) I also spoke about productivity and merit and disparity in wealth. What I didn't mention is the problem of profiting from activities which have no merit. This includes both legal and illegal activities (like narco-trafficking, for example. By some estimates this illicit economy might account for $1 trillion annually.)

There are legal activities with dubious merit. Take the petroleum industry as an example. Petroleum extraction has enabled technological advancement. But for whom. And at what cost? —The petroleum industry, and other industries it has enabled (like the global military industrial complex, for example) have done tremendous harm to human cultures and to the planet. Look at the decimation of tribal societies. The meaningless consumerism. The pollution of the water, of the land, and of the air of this planet Earth. There are other industries that are harmful too. Petro-chemicals are not alone.

p.s. I suggest that the petro-chemical industry be nationalized. No one person, or group (e.g. the investor-class) should profit from industries that are harmful to everyone.

Also, think about legalization and regulation of the drug trade, to reduce violence associated with the illicit market.

The Olympian has a story about a City Council unanimous decision to replace the exterior on the Washington Center for Performing Arts. According the story, the work is expected to cost $3.4 million.

$3.4 million. That's a lot. Too bad the exterior isn't holding up, but then, 26 years is a long time.

I'm not saying to drape plastic.

But maybe the repairs could be accomplished in less expensive ways.

Is there only one company that was contracted to perform an estimate/bid/consult on the project?