Opening my Mail Bag

I get letters from several organizations that are working for causes that dovetail with what I believe. I believe the budget cuts being proposed on a state and federal level will send us back into recession and harm the poorest and most vulnerable. Here is a letter I received, asking for an action that if you are a Washington state resident you can comply with.

Tell your legislators to stand up for Washington families!

Dear Friend,

Tax breaks for special interests got a free pass in the state budget released on Monday.

No such luck for the rest of us.

From our state’s youngest children to our parents and grandparents, every family will feel the painful effects of this budget.

Funding for elementary school classes? Deep cuts.

Colleges and universities? Slashed.

Care for seniors and the disabled? Chopped.

Basic Health and Disability Lifeline? You guessed it - cut even more.¹

Despite more than $4 billion in proposed cuts, the most painful part of this budget is what legislators didn’t touch: tax breaks for special interests. Wall Street Banks, private jet owners, and other special interests emerged without a scratch.

Our representatives need to hear from all of us that Washington families deserve better than another all-cuts budget.Tell your legislators that a budget that saves tax breaks for special interests while slashing essential services is immoral and irresponsible. Click below to send a message now:

http://fusewa.me/ffJJR6

We’ve dug into the details of the budget since it was released on Monday and the numbers aren’t pretty. Here are some of the worst:

$1,200,000,000 cut from voter-approved initiatives to reduce K-12 class sizes and help pay teachers a living wage

$596,000,000 cut from community colleges and universities, hurting our competitiveness and innovation

$108,000,000 cut from Basic Health, eliminating coverage for thousands of families²

And the list goes on and on, all while legislators give special interests tax breaks a free pass. Instead of cutting billions upon billions from our communities, we need to rein in the fat cats and stand up for Washington families.

Tell your legislators that a budget that saves tax breaks for special interests while slashing essential services is immoral and irresponsible. Click below to send a message now:

http://fusewa.me/ffJJR6

Thanks for all that you do,

Erin and the entire team at Fuse

¹ http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/Budget/Detail/2011/HOSummary0404.pdf
² http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/Budget/Detail/2011/HOSummary0404.pdf

America Magazine Benedict XVI weighs in on "Redistribution"

Paul Ryan should perhaps look at the writings of Benedict and other recent popes on redistribution. they are most definitely teaching redistribution to help the poor, as this America article attests. America Magazine Benedict XVI weighs in on "Redistribution" : 'via Blog this'

Serenading the Donkey

Over the years I have had many times when I have had to call out others on their words, behavior, or attitudes on race, class or ethnicity and I have used a variety of means to get my point across. The first such incident was when I was 13 years old and my sister and a friend were skipping rope to the rope song that uses the "N_" word. I said we don't use that word in this place and the girls argued with me about it. I just said that if they used that word I would go tell Grandpa, and they complied. In a high school the teacher had let the discussion degenerate and the topic of "welfare" came up and a girl stated an old stereotype that my Daddy says "All the blacks go pick up their welfare checks in Cadillacs." I wanted that direction of the conversation to end immediately, so I blurted out "Well your Daddy is a racist." There was silence in the room for a couple of minutes and then the teacher changed the subject. When people have b

Striking at Bourgeois Values with "Free Stuff" Why is it that in middle class neighborhoods no one would think anything of it if you are having a "yard sale" or a "moving sale", spending your entire day selling your possessions at pennies on the dollar, a tenth of what you could get on E-Bay, making less than the federal minimum wage for your efforts, but they would shrink in horror from a "free stuff pile". What is the world coming from that they place so little value on material possessions that they would give it away for nothing. Someone will surely complain that you are doing "illegal dumping", even if you tend the pile and fold things back up. Fortunately for me, I live in a neighborhood with a heavy student population, north of Seattle's University of Washington campus, and such a pile is welcome. Having purged the house of unneeded things that aren't worth my time trying to sell (unlike my art, which I will find

Roomin' House Blues

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