Fuse Washington

I really shouldn't say this but I'm going to anyway.

Here's the deal: if you can only take one action this entire year, make it this one. This is incredibly important. There's a huge fight in Congress right now over how to attack global warming and jumpstart a green economy.

On our side is everyone who wants clean energy, green jobs and cares about the future. Against us is Big Oil, King Coal, and the fact that most people sit on the sidelines. Your member of Congress really needs to know which side you're on, and that you want a stronger clean energy and green jobs bill.

Powerful oil and coal interests did some real damage to a good bill in the House Energy Committee - winning loopholes, bailouts, and giveaways from taxpayers. The current bill doesn't actually require the creation of wind or solar power, and repeals President Obama's ability to regulate dirty power plants.

But we can strengthen and improve this bill on the House floor, if enough members of Congress will join our fight. Can you send a letter urging your representative to fight for a stronger bill?

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/speakout/WaxmanMarkey

The letter says: "We need a stronger energy bill to fulfill Obama's vision of a clean energy economy. Congress should strengthen the clean energy standards and restore Obama's authority to crack down on dirty coal plants."

There are some major shortcomings, but the bill has a lot of really good provisions too. The key thing is that Congress can still strengthen it - if there's a public outcry. But we don't have much time: Congress is expected to vote on this bill in less than two weeks. In particular, we need leaders in Congress to stand up for three key changes to the latest version of the energy bill:

1) Ensure more clean energy for America:Require power companies to produce more clean energy. Wind and solar create more than twice as many jobs as coal and oil.

2) Hold polluters accountable: Restore President Obama's current authority through the EPA to crack down on global warming pollution from power plants.

3) Create more clean energy jobs for America and build resiliency to climate change: Reduce giveaways to polluting industries in order to bolster green job development and protect vulnerable communities.

We are working with our friends at MoveOn and dozens of other groups to strengthen the clean energy and green jobs bill including: 1Sky, Climate Solutions, Environment America, Oxfam, Rock the Vote, ACORN, the Sierra Club, USAction and many others. It's a real show of strength.

Together we can convince Congress to strengthen and improve this bill. Please urge your representative to fight for a stronger energy bill. Clicking here will help you send a letter:

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/speakout/WaxmanMarkey

Swine Flu at level 5, Arlen Specter becomes a Democrat, and Obama’s 100th day.

Wow lots to blog about this week.

Despite all these important events I think I want to talk about Stephen Colbert.

For a while now I have thought that some conservatives didn’t really understand Colbert’s genius satire. It seems like many conservatives either don’t get it or choose not to get it.

Check out this post over at Horses Ass that talks about a study tracking how conservatives react to Colbert’s amazing program. This study reveals that self identified conservatives like Colbert not for his amazing political satire, but because they think he is serious.

On the surface this might seem like just another liberal elitist University “proving” that conservatives are dumb. Now this may be the case, but I think there is something deeper going on here.

I would like to posit that to some extent the conservative philosophy is based on a certain about of cognitive dissonance. The ability of Governor’s like Rick Perry to advocate secession while at the same time demanding the federal government send them more resources do deal with the Swine Flu is just one of the most recent examples of conservatives’ amazing ability advocate two seemingly contradictory positions simultaneously.

To take this argument one step further, I would argue that most conservatives who even bother to watch Colbert really do understand that he is skewering them but choose to reject this thought and through some mental gymnastics can convince themselves that what Colbert is saying is not sarcastic. This cognitive dissonance allows conservatives to enjoy Colbert’s amazing satire while at the same time not reconsider their political views.

Or instead of all this fancy psychobabble it could just be plain old ignorance, like the guy who booked Colbert for the White House Correspondents dinner in 2006. If you haven’t seen this you must watch Colbert lambast president Bush who sitting literally 10 feet from him.

Enjoy!

Washington State has just taken a big step forward on energy efficiency. When the Governor signs the Efficiency First legislation, Washington residents will be on the road to saving money on their energy bills and protecting the environment.

In the last few days the Washington State Legislature passed Senate Bill 5854 by a vote of 27 to 18 in the Senate and 67 to 30 in the House. The bill has now been delivered to the Governor and awaits her signature.

Efficiency First was a key part of the environmental agenda this year and we are very excited to start seeing those energy bills go down!

Thanks in no small part to the actions you took; we will see the following policies become law:

1. Energy codes: Residential and non-residential construction permitted must achieve a 70 percent reduction in energy use by 2031, using the 2006 Code as the baseline.

2. Strategic Plan: The Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (DCTED) must develop and implement a strategic plan for enhancing energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from homes, buildings, districts, and neighborhoods.

3. Commercial building benchmarking: Beginning January 1, 2010, qualifying utilities must maintain records of energy consumption data for all non-residential and qualifying public agency buildings for which they provide service and provide them to the owners.

4. Public buildings: Establishes performance standards, benchmarking, and other reporting requirements for public buildings. Inefficient public buildings must perform an energy audit and if potential cost-effective energy savings measures are identified, they must implemented by July 1, 2016.

5. Leased public buildings: A qualifying public agency may not enter into a new lease or a lease renewal on or after January 1, 2010 for a facility with a National Energy Performance Rating score below 75, unless the lessor agrees to make upgrades.

Thanks again for all your hard work.

Thanks to you our legislators heard the call and took action to help reduce energy bills and protect the environment at the same time.

The Governor has offered us one last chance to make some progress on global warming and reducing fossil fuel dependence in the 2009 Legislature. Her common sense approach is focused on the important basics: 1) less coal, and 2) more transportation choices.

The State Legislature has generally blown it on global warming so far this year. They failed to move legislation that would cap global warming pollution and actually voted to weaken voter approved renewable energy standards.

This is the last chance to make some headway on global warming in Olympia this year, and we have to make sure legislators keep their eyes on the prize. We absolutely can't afford to let the "do nothing" lobby carry the day.

Contact your legislator now! The State Senate has just 10 days to approve this bill!

Click here to urge your State Senator to support the Governor's Global Warming Bill, E2SSB 5735: http://www.fusewashington.org/page/speakout/climatechange573

This important legislation will drive action to reduce Washington's dependence on fossil fuels and help to deliver real reductions in our global warming pollution. The Global Warming Bill, E2SSB 5735, will require Washington's one coal plant to clean up its global warming pollution no later than 2025; require transportation plans for urban areas that improve transportation choices so commuters and families will have the option to leave their cars at home; and keep Washington engaged in the Western Climate Initiative, a regional effort to reduce global warming pollution.

The Governor's Global Warming Bill will help move Washington State away from dirty fossil fuels and help Washington prepare for the green economy.

Make sure our legislators support progress. They need to hear from you now. Click here to contact your legislator: http://www.fusewashington.org/page/speakout/climatechange573

The 2009 State legislative session has moved into its final quarter. There's less than a month left. We know the budget is a mess, but how is everything else going? Is it really a disaster on all fronts, or does it just seem like it?

In the past ten weeks, thousands of Fuse members have reached out to lawmakers in support of a number of important progressive bills - legislation aimed at reducing global warming pollution, cleaning up political campaigns, providing health care to all Washingtonians, improving consumer protections, and strengthening civil rights protections.

Here's the third-quarter score on the issues Fuse has been covering:

Budget

With a $9 billion deficit, lawmakers are trying to balance a budget that will take Washington through 2011. The Governor, the Senate, and the House have all proposed budgets balanced by cuts alone, and the consequences are frightening.1

The impacts of balancing the budget this way will be felt across the state - larger class sizes for our kids, thousands left without basic health care, and decreased funding for hospitals and nursing homes. The proposed cuts just go too deep. Tell your legislators we need a better solution.

Here at Fuse, we've been urging lawmakers to keep all options for reducing spending and raising revenue on the table.

(Give the Legislature your input by balancing the budget yourself at www.YouBudget.org.)

Global Warming

The Legislature's efforts on global warming have generally been a disaster; lawmakers are definitely fumbling the ball on reducing global warming pollution this year. Three bills and one voter-approved initiative to tackle global warming and build a clean energy economy have faced serious challenges this session.

The Governor's global warming bill (E2SSB 5735, formerly known as "Cap and Invest") has been drastically weakened and accomplishes very little in its current form. Some people now refer to it as the "and" bill, as both the "Cap" provisions and the "Invest" provisions have been removed. There is no hope for resurrecting this bill to its formerly ambitious state at this point.

The Transit-Oriented Communities bill (HB 1490) failed to make it out of either the House or Senate and is dead in its tracks. The bill would have promoted affordable, walkable communities connected by public transit and required cities, counties, and regions to begin planning for ways to improve transportation choices and reduce their global warming pollution.

As if these failures weren't enough, the Senate voted 27-21 to pass SB 5840 to roll back Initiative 937, the Clean Energy Initiative. Voters approved I-937 three years ago to ensure that 15% of the electricity from Washington's largest utilities comes from new renewable energy sources by 2020, and the Senate seriously weakened this law. The House has been unwilling to go along, and a compromise is now under consideration. The compromise proposal reduces the damage considerably (although it still weakens the Initiative), but adds a positive by including an extension of renewable energy tax credits.

This year's Efficiency First bills are the lone bright spot on the global warming front. SHB 1747 and SSB 5854 were overwhelmingly passed by their respective chambers. These companion bills strengthen energy codes. They allow for energy efficiency policy planning and mandate commercial building efficiency performance scores, studies of efficiency scores for residential buildings, and efficiency standards for public buildings. The Legislature is expected to adopt a version that reconciles the differences.

Clean Elections and Good Government

SB 6035 is a piece of good news in this year's legislative session. It tackles one of the biggest rip-offs in Washington - a loophole that allows conservative business associations to divert funds from a State workers compensation program into attack ads. Washington's biggest and most conservative trade association - the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) - diverted nearly $7 million into attack ads last year alone. They skim the money from workers compensation refunds owed to employers - businesses that need their hard-earned money to maintain and create jobs.

SB 6035 fixes this problem by requiring the Department of Labor and Industries to institute greater transparency and stronger accountability in the State workers compensation insurance program. It calls for restrictions on the use of workers compensation funds by trade associations that manage the program's workplace safety rebate, called Retro, stopping them from using State dollars for political purposes. Conservative business associations are pulling out all the stops to kill this bill. SB 6035 squeaked through the Senate with one vote and can pass the House if the public demands it!

Equal Rights

Equal rights is another bright spot in this year's legislative session. SB 5688 is a further expansion of the Domestic Partnership registry established in 2007 and expanded again in 2008. SB 5688 is likely to succeed despite strong opposition from conservatives. When enacted into law registered domestic partners will have over 400 legal protections under state law, but still none of the over 1,100 federal protections of marriage. It's not marriage equality but it is meaningful protection.

SB 5688 passed the Senate 30-18. A public hearing on the bill is scheduled in the House Committee on Ways & Means at 1:30 p.m. Monday, April 6.

Consumer Protection

Predatory Lending

In Washington State right now it's actually legal to make small dollar loans that work as paycheck advances with interest rates up to 2,700%! An average payday loan borrower repays a whopping $827 to borrow $339.

Passage of ESHB 1709 would reduce these predatory payday loans by giving borrowers more options and time to repay loans and by limiting the number of loans one person can accrue. The bill offers immediate access to a 90-day or 180-day repayment plan - far better than current law provides. This is the furthest lawmakers have ever gotten in the fight against predatory lending. In the past 4 years, similar bills to protect consumers never even made it out of committee. ESHB 1709 passed out of the house and was voted out of Senate committee on March 30th. The full Senate must vote on the bill by April 17.

Homeowner Bill of Rights

The Senate has passed SB 5895, the 2009 version of a Homeowner's Bill of Rights by a very narrow vote (25 to 24). At the heart of SB 5895 is a warranty that requires builders to stand behind their work for several years, giving buyers of new single family homes the assurance that if a defect is discovered, the builder will be coming back to fix it. SB 5895 was heard in the House Judiciary Committee in mid-March. For this bill to still have a chance at becoming law it has to be voted out of committee by Monday April 6.

Consumer Protection Act

SHB 1683/SSB 5531, an update to the State's Consumer Protection Act, makes sure consistent standards are applied for all Washingtonians and increases the damage limits available to consumers who win their case in both district and superior courts.

Workers' Rights

It's been a tough year for workers rights in the Legislature, best illustrated by the fate of the Worker Privacy Act (SB 5446) which sought to give employees the option of not attending employer meetings about how to vote, how to worship, whether to support a union, or other matters of individual conscience. Under heavy pressure to kill the bill from Boeing and other businesses, legislative leadership used an email from the State Labor Council as an excuse to kill the bill, and even requested a widely panned State Patrol investigation into the email message. The State Patrol quickly concluded that no laws had been broken, but the bill is still dead.2

Health Care

SSB 5945, a measure that would make it a goal to provide health care coverage to all Washingtonians by 2012, passed the Senate. The budget crisis precludes a more aggressive approach this year. The bill was heard in the House Committee on Health & Human Services Appropriations earlier this week. The committee must refer it on to the House Rules committee by April 6.

Take Action

So it's been a challenging and ambitious legislative session. Some critical bills have fumbled and some are in the end zone. In this last month of the session, it's up to us. Use our email letter writing tool to tell your legislators how you feel about the current slate of progressive legislation and keep moving forward!

Click here to write a letter:

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/speakout/stateleg

1State Senate budget plan would rescind gains by Andrew Garber; published Seattle Times March 31, 2009: (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008952196_budget31m.html )

2The "Neverending Saga" of worker privacy bill by David Goldstein published on Horsesass.org March 18. 2009: http://horsesass.org/?p=14130

Here at Fuse we have very little patience for corruption, abuse, and incompetence, as you may have already noticed. Fuse has been working hard to support Senate Bill 6035. The bill closes a gaping loophole that allows conservative business associations to divert millions of dollars from a public worker's compensation program to fund political campaigns and negative attack ads.

Making matters worse, the State mistakenly overpaid these trade associations by as much as $200 million over the last 15 years. And now there is compelling evidence that suggests the State's biggest conservative bully, the Building Industry Association of Washington, is illegally skimming funds owed to its members under the program.

We think this program is long overdue for some serious reform. But before we allocate our organizing resources for the last month of the legislative session, we wanted to check and see if this issue is important to you as well.

Can you please let us know if you think this should be a priority?

Click here if you think Fuse should make it a priority to organize public support for reforms that prevent these abuses:

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/yescampaign

Click here if you don't think it's an issue we should focus on:

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/nocampaign

Conservative business associations are pulling out all the stops to defeat the reform bill.

But if we decide to tackle this together, we can ensure that legislators are listening to the public when they decide how to vote rather than corporate lobbyists.

Thanks for weighing in on this one.

Here at Fuse we have very little patience for corruption, abuse, and incompetence, as you may have already noticed. Fuse has been working hard to support Senate Bill 6035. The bill closes a gaping loophole that allows conservative business associations to divert millions of dollars from a public worker's compensation program to fund political campaigns and negative attack ads.

Making matters worse, the State mistakenly overpaid these trade associations by as much as $200 million over the last 15 years. And now there is compelling evidence that suggests the State's biggest conservative bully, the Building Industry Association of Washington, is illegally skimming funds owed to its members under the program.2 We think this program is long overdue for some serious reform.

But before we allocate our organizing resources for the last month of the legislative session, we wanted to check and see if this issue is important to you as well. Can you please let us know if you think this should be a priority?

Click here if you think Fuse should make it a priority to organize public support for reforms that prevent these abuses:

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/yescampaign

Click here if you don't think it's an issue we should focus on:

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/nocampaign

Conservative business associations are pulling out all the stops to defeat the reform bill.

But if we decide to tackle this together, we can ensure that legislators are listening to the public when they decide how to vote rather than corporate lobbyists.

Thanks for weighing in on this one.

Today our state is facing a budget deficit of historic proportions. If we let it, this shortfall could turn back years of progress towards protecting our quality of life and building a strong future.

As state lawmakers wrestle over what to do, we wanted to give you the opportunity to balance the budget yourself. How will you do it? Will you increase class sizes or cut teachers' salaries? Will you raise taxes or knock thousands off of health care?

The budget process isn't as mysterious as it seems, but it's full of tough questions and hard decisions. Click on the link below to use our new online game, YouBudget. Let's see what you decide.

www.youbudget.org

Legislators and the Governor have already enacted common-sense belt-tightening measures like a hiring freeze, travel ban and cutting many boards and commissions. They are now moving forward with more painful cuts. But with an $8 billion shortfall, belt-tightening is not enough.

Before you balance the budget, check out the video from Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, where she talks about the decisions facing the legislature in light of the budget crisis. Then, take some time to balance the budget yourself using our online game. It should only take you about 10 minutes.

www.youbudget.org

Finally, after you've balanced the budget let your legislators know how you did it - and what you hope they'll do. How we handle this budget crisis is going to impact all of us, so we all need to weigh in.

Thanks for taking the time to balance the budget.

I can't believe what the State Senate just did. I'm one of thousands of volunteers who gathered signatures and made phone calls to help pass the Clean Energy Initiative - Initiative 937 - into law two years ago. Voters required Washington's utilities to develop new sources of renewable energy.

Late Tuesday night the State Senate voted 27-21 to remove the Initiative's teeth, approving a bill (SB 5840) which could cut the clean-energy requirements by as much as 73 percent.

There's a reason President Obama is stepping up to repower America and launch a clean energy economy in our country. We simply cannot afford the consequences of global warming and our dependence on fossil fuels.

Now is not the time to turn our backs on clean energy! We need your help to stop this roll-back. We can't let Washington become the first state in the nation to turn back the clock on clean energy progress.

Click here to sign our petition urging the House of Representatives to defend I-937, and forward it to your friends and family as well.

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/937rollback

In the next week we will also ask you to help us hold the Senators who voted to go backwards on clean energy accountable. But the first step is to stop this terrible bill in its tracks.

I honestly can't understand why the Democrats who control the State Senate are spending time and resources on rolling back a voter-approved clean energy initiative. Washington has an $8 billion deficit, a major economic crisis, serious health care problems and major education and environmental challenges.

We need our lawmakers to solve problems, not undo solutions. Please help us protect clean energy in the House. Click on the link below to join thousands of Washington residents in sending a strong message to House leaders that we are counting on them to stand up for clean energy!

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/937rollback

We have a great opportunity to fix a state program that's gone terribly wrong. I believe in good government, accountability and working hard to create jobs. Washington State's workers compensation program is heavily abused and completely broken on all three fronts.

Washington's biggest and most conservative trade association - the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) - siphons money from the program to pay for it's political campaigns, diverting nearly $7 million into attack ads last year alone. They divert the money from refunds owed to employers like me, who in these hard times really need our hard-earned money to maintain and create jobs.

Adding insult to injury, the State recently discovered that it has overpaid the BIAW and other business trade associations by as much as $200 million. The error, at $10-15 million per year, went undetected for 15 years. The State Senate is finally about to vote on reforms that would increase oversight, accountability, and controls on the program to fix this mess.

Conservative business associations are pulling out all the stops to defeat the bill. Your State Senator really needs to hear that people like you expect them to stand up for common sense and good government and pass these reforms. Click on the link now to send them this important message, and please ask your friends to do the same.

It's time to fix this problem!

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/speakout/retroreform

Washington's "Retro" workers compensation program suffers from an unbelievable lack of transparency and oversight of accounting, and an astonishing lack of controls over how money is spent. Senate Bill 6035 adds a desperately needed dose of transparency and accountability to the program.

The bill responds to the State's massive 15-year overpayment mistakes with increased review and oversight requirements. It also requires that workers compensation taxes be spent on insurance purposes, workplace safety programs and reasonable administrative fees; and that there be clear accounting for how workers compensation taxes are spent.

Conservative trade associations that administer funds under the program are doing their best to defeat the reforms. We have to make sure that Senators hear from the public as well on this. They must stand up for good government and common sense.

Please click on the link to contact your State Senator and urge them to support Senate Bill 6035 today.

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/speakout/retroreform

Thank you very much for your help,

Workers' rights are important. And in tough economic times they are more important than ever. With an ultra-competitive job market, unscrupulous employers can take advantage of their employees and get away with it.  

Last fall, Walmart organized mandatory meetings for their employees where they were instructed to vote against Obama. Your boss can force you to attend a mandatory meeting to press his or her views on religion, politics, unionization and other matters of personal conscience. If you choose not to participate or listen, you can be disciplined or fired -- and it's totally legal.

The State Legislature is moving a piece of legislation called the Worker Privacy Act (SB 5446 and HB 1528) that will allow employers to share their opinions on matters of personal conscience, but not force employees to listen. This protects all of us from arm-twisting sessions about how to vote, how to worship, whether to support a union, or other matters of individual conscience.  

This bill faces strong opposition from the business community and it needs our support. Your legislators need to hear from people who support workers' rights.  Please click here to support workers' privacy:
 
http://www.fusewashington.org/page/speakout/wpa

Employers would maintain the freedom to speak freely about all of these issues. The only difference is that they cannot require employees to participate in such meetings and communications, or punish or fire those who opt out.

Imagine a situation where you are forced -- under threat of losing your job -- to sit down and listen to someone tell you things that are none of their business, like how you should vote or how you should worship?

Here is just one story from a former employee at Fred Meyer. According to Dan Joy: "Almost on a daily basis, I was subjected to have to listen to his [bosses'] religious views and comments. Many times when he and I were in meeting one-on-one, I was asked to attend his church. During these meetings, it was made very clear that your attendance at his church would greatly benefit your career... During these periods of time, after I declined his invitation my work schedule was affected in a negative way...The last and final time I was confronted about attending his church and I declined, I was told by him that I was a "trinket worshiping Catholic" he then laughed at me and walked away.1

These kinds of abuses should not be legal. Click here to support workers' privacy:

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/speakout/wpa

1Testimony of Dan Joy before the House and Senate Committees
Regarding HB-1528/SB-5446; February 3, 2008 

With the deficit now at $8 billion, the State's financial problems have reached the point where they affect all of us in some way. And depending on how they are addressed, they could haunt us all for years.

In my family, the kids are the ones on the front line of the consequences. My oldest son Cole (on the right with his friend Joaquin) is a 2nd grader, and his younger brother Desmond will be a kindergartner next year.

To balance the budget, lawmakers are considering deep cuts in funding that schools use to reduce class sizes and provide early learning opportunities; that support science, math, arts and after school programs; and that would eliminate cost-of-living salary adjustments for teachers.

We need your help to show legislators who's really impacted by the cuts they're considering to education programs. Just click one of the links below to tell us how you or your family will be affected by cuts to education funding, or to simply let us know that you are concerned about education cuts.

Tell us your story

I don't have a story for you, but I am worried about education cuts.Keep me posted!

More than half the state's budget goes to education. With an $8 billion shortfall, the loss to education is brutal. We've got tough decisions to make as a state about how we'll balance the budget. At Fuse we're working to make sure that legislators and the public understand the consequences of their choices.

We'd love to know if your daughter's school is facing massive cuts, or if your son attended community college and landed a great job when he graduated. If you're a teacher who's worried about how this will impact your ability to do your job, we'd love to hear from you.

Here's what some Fuse members have shared with us already:

"Education is an absolute fundamental responsibility of our state and its communities. It all starts with educated kids and assuring their ability to think." -San Juan County Fuse member

"I am a retired teacher, so I know the value of public school education. Cutting the number of days to four a week, not giving teachers decent wages, reducing staff...all these will affect the entire school and thus the community and therefore, everyone will suffer." - Thurston County Fuse member

"Larger class sizes and other cuts in education will impact my sons on a daily basis. Quality education is the key to a successful and fulfilling future . . . You either pay now (education) or pay much more later (prison etc.)" -Whatcom County Fuse member

It'll take just a minute, and we will use your story to help make the case for funding our state's education system. Click on the link below to tell us how you'll be impacted by cuts to education:

Tell us your story

Thank you for your help,

I carpooled down to Olympia with Fuse volunteers yesterday to testify at a critical hearing in the House of Representatives. The Cap and Invest bill (HB1819) will for the first time create a system where polluters will have to pay for their pollution, and funnel the revenue towards creating green jobs. This bill will also set a cap for the total amount of pollution our state will generate.

Needless to say we were excited on the ride down (not only because there was no traffic!)

Environmental supporters filled the room. There were at least 160 supporters of this bill at the hearing. So many supporters in fact that many had to stand and the Chair of the Committee Dave Upthegrove decided to limit questions from legislators so that anyone who wanted to testify could do so.

We were very excited at this point.

There was the usual cavalcade of special interest opponents who object to almost ay plan that might make them rethink the way they do business. There were even a few global warming deniers (who apparently still listen to Rush Limbaugh) who embarrassed themselves as usual. On the drive home we were congratulating ourselves on a job well done.

So you can imagine my surprise when I opened the PI this morning and read this terrible article:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/398642_cap04.html

This reporter decided to give literally 90% of the coverage in the article to the special interest arguments and complaints. I can only hope this decision reflects the fact that this bill has a good chance of passing this year and not a conscious effort to downplay the many advantages of this bill and exaggerate the claims of polluting industries.

The article didn’t even mention the large numbers of clean industry professionals including fuel cell company executives who testified that this bill would make Washington a Mecca for clean-tech industries.

I am very disappointed in the coverage the PI gave to this hearing. They completely ignored the potential for economic growth that this bill will create by attracting clean industries to our state.

I hate that this will be one of the last memories that I will have of the PI’s coverage of critical environmental issues.

So here at Fuse we use the “interwebs” a lot.

We make fun of Ted Stevens for calling the Internet “nothing but a series of tubes.”

But now those tubes are under attack from the usual corporate bad guys including Comcast, other cable providers and GOOGLE. Wait Google? I thought they were the good guys?

Let me back up for a minute.

Net neutrality is the idea that Internet service providers cannot give preferential treatment to certain content providers. So basically what Comcast and the other Internet service providers want is to be able to charge websites like Amazon.com or Fusewashington.org a fee for delivering their content to consumers. In the abstract this may not sound like a terrible idea.

But it is.

Big powerful websites like Amazon.com and Foxnews.com could easily afford to pay whatever the Internet service providers want to charge them to get their content to consumers in the “fast lane.” Meanwhile sites like FuseWashington.org or any other potentially unpopular site would be delivered to the consumer in the slow lane.

For Internet service providers it’s a great deal! Not only do they get to charge their subscribers, but they would get to charge content providers too.
The way the law is written today, Internet service providers have to deliver all content at the same speed. And that is the way it should, and looked like it would stay until a Wall Street Journal article exposed that Google has been trying to strike a deal with Internet companies that would create a Google fast lane.

Google along with Microsoft and Amazon now have all turned their backs on net neutrality in favor of creating their own special content fast lanes with different service providers.

This is not only bad for the consumer, its bad for our fledgling information-democracy.

The Internet is the most powerful tool in human history. It can provide equal access to the worlds information. The more equal access we have to information the more rational and informed our choices will be.  This applies to politics too. If we only have access to the political information that the content providers are willing to pay to have us see, the quality and diversity of the sources of our information will suffer and our ability to make rational choices as citizens our democracy will suffer as well.

Without net neutrality we are basically back to the television model where you as the consumer can only really view the content the powerful corporations want you to see because all the other websites will run slow if at all in the future.

So it may seem a little far-fetched but I just hope we don’t look back on the 1990s and 2000s as the golden age of information technology and freedom.

So come on Google, Amazon, and Microsoft lets keep net neutrality and have you compete based on the success of your content rather than they deal you strike with the internet provider.

The Horse’s ass blog has a great write of this story too.

So its not as bad as Blago-gate, but it could have been.

The Governor of Illinois' appalling attempts to auction a Senate seat sets a new low for campaign fundraising corruption. Could it happen in Washington State? The sad truth is that it already is. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's justified the crime with a simple conclusion: "This Senate seat is worth a lot of money."

At the heart of the crime was his simple decision: "Screw the law." Not to mention a few other choice things he had to say about the president elect.

The Building Industry Association of Washington, with help from Republican Dino Rossi, made the same decision in disregarding campaign finance laws to raise and spend $7 million in their failed efforts to defeat the progressive candidate, Governor Christine Gregoire.

And according to a complaint filed last week by the staff of Washington's Public Disclosure Commission, the Association of Realtors failed to disclose almost $1 million worth of mailings supporting Attorney General Rob McKenna and Dino Rossi, and illegally coordinated with McKenna and Rossi in their fundraising for the mailings.

It's time to demand that our State's leaders get serious about cleaning up Washington's campaigns and close the loopholes that invite special interests and candidates to flaunt our campaign finance laws. Click on the link to help us send a strong message that we want cleaner campaigns in Washington.

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/pdcrealtors

Far too often, powerful business interests and unethical candidates aren't playing by the rules. At Fuse we believe that a stronger democracy is the best path to a better future - that by joining together people can overcome the influence of big money in politics.

People-powered campaigns will often win at the ballot box -- if campaigns and elections are fair and both sides are playing by the rules. Washington's public disclosure laws limit the power of corporations and special interests in elections and create transparency for campaign fundraising and spending. The law limits the amount that corporations or individuals can donate to a candidate's campaign.

The illegal activities that generated Dino Rossi's Buildergate scandal have become a pattern. Conservative business associations like the BIAW and Realtors are spending millions of dollars on races throughout the state. The fines levied by the PDC against campaign law violators --even the $130,000 fine levied on Realtors association earlier this year -- have become a "cost of doing business."

And that is business the voters of Washington cannot afford. Tell your lawmakers that it's time to clean up Washington's campaigns, and that you are expecting them to strongly support laws that tackle the "business" of illegal campaigning.

http://www.fusewashington.org/page/s/pdcrealtors

Earlier this week Doug Sutherland finally conceded the race for Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands. http://www.horsesass.org/?p=10339

This is a major victory for the environmental community and for those who prefer that people who know something about the office they are running for actually get elected.

After the timber and mining industries started dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into Doug Sutherland’s campaign it was clear whom the special interests were rooting for. With Peter Goldmark’s election we will finally have a Lands Commissioner who brings years of experience and academic know how to the job. Goldmark has a PhD in Molecular Biology and has also vowed to manage our forests sustainably. He has promised to promote decentralized renewable energy (like wind and solar), and protect the Puget Sound.

Unfortunately at the same time we are celebrating these new policies for Washington State, that other Washington still has some damage to do before January 20th. From opening up millions of acres to oil and gas drilling in the west, to promoting the oil shale industry, to weakening the endangered species act lame duck George Bush is giving environmentalists a final obscene gesture with his plan to ram through 90 new anti-environmental (de-)regulations in the last weeks of his administration. Just look at this torrid list: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/30/AR2008103004749.html?hpid=topnews

It’s a nod to the special interests that Bush so loving referred to as “his base.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn4daYJzyls Thankfully President-elect Obama just announced at a meeting of governors (read our earlier post) restoring environmental protections is the first priority come Jan. 20 and hopefully he rallies his allies in Congress to overturn Bush’s last minute ramrod.

Thankfully as well, here at home we now have Peter Goldmark working to re-green Washington State. He a strong local advocate who will work hard to make sure Obama’s environmental promise has a home here with local leadership safeguarding our priceless natural resources.