From Stark
It’s official: The initiative attempting to prohibit coal shipments through Bellingham will not be on the ballot in November.
In a brief opinion, the Washington Court of Appeals has upheld an Aug. 3 decision from Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Charles Snyder, who found that the anti-coal ordinance and Community Bill of Rights proposed by Coal-Free Bellingham were clearly illegal, and it would be misleading to put it on the ballot.
I’ll be preparing an expanded story for the print and online editions later today.
What you say Stony Bird?
Yes, we know it’s illegal. The whole point is that the law itself jeopardizes life and liberty and ecosystems. It is based on a myth of endless consumption and profit motive as the supreme driver of future possibility. The Initiative was a first stage in trying to get lawmakers from local councils to judges, on up to awaken from their state of denial. Hey you guys, you are human too. Not changing may not kill you (if you’re old enough) but have you no imagination for the future. People who are addicted to wealth and power and unconsciousness are not going to deliver humanity into a sustainable future. It is going to take a collective intelligence. That requires a democratic process, where reason and morality and accountability, as evolved by a consensus of all affected interests, inform the policies by which we live. Democracy is not dead—you’ll be hearing a lot more about it. Come and help out—it’s your world.
I’ve heard this kind of argument (if you can call it that) made before by people advocating moving to alternative energy sources and I think it’s counterproductive because it’s absurd. There isn’t going to be a sudden ‘transformation’ in the way humans behave. Profit, pecking order, etc. have always been key aspects of human societies and always will be. I’m not some tea party tool either, I’m actually very liberal but these ‘transformation in thinking’ type arguments are embarassing. You know why life without civil society would be ‘nasty, brutish and short’? Because humans are ruthless and we require laws to keep us from killing one another. Don’t hold your breath waiting for tebaggers and anarchists and jehovah’s witnesses to suddenly come together in a cosmic transformation of thought. That’s ridiculous.
Freida,
This is a republic, just in case United States v. Gary Locke, 9-0 from the Supreme Court was confusing to your version of Life, Liberty and Property…
And tell us, about ecosystems from our drunks funding schools in Olympia?
“…The State of Washington has enacted legislation in an area where the federal interest has been manifest since the beginning of our Republic and is now well established. The authority of Congress to regulate interstate navigation, without embarrassment from intervention of the separate States and resulting difficulties with foreign nations, was cited in the Federalist Papers as one of the reasons for adopting the Constitution. E.g., The Federalist Nos. 44, 12, 64. In 1789, the First Congress enacted a law by which vessels with a federal certificate were entitled to “the benefits granted by any law of the United States.” Act of Sept. 1, 1789, ch. 11, §1, 1 Stat. 55. The importance of maritime trade and the emergence of maritime transport by steamship resulted in further federal licensing requirements enacted to promote trade and to enhance the safety of crew members and passengers. See Act of July 7, 1838, ch. 191, 5 Stat. 304; Act of Mar. 3, 1843, ch. 94, 5 Stat. 626. In 1871, Congress enacted a comprehensive scheme of regulation for steam powered vessels, including provisions for licensing captains, chief mates, engineers, and pilots. Act of Feb. 28, 1871, ch. 100, 16 Stat. 440.
Majority of residents support coal exports and the Gateway Pacific Terminal…
http://enews.supportgpt.com/mail/util.cfm?gpiv=2100093723.54705.147&gen=1
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
AFY, does the source of your polling information happen to come directly from Gateway Pacific Terminal? Let me tell you about the fox in the hen house…
Abe, is it that “your seas are stormy and you can’t find a port?” Consider that any change that has ever been accomplished started somewhere. Once it happened, it was obvious that things were going that way. You make a lot of assumptions about human behavior as if we were rocks or chemicals with fixed properties–and not all members of our species find that kind of competition natural. Maybe a lot of peole see things that you haven’t imagined yet. Transformation is scary, disruptive, and often messy. But it is entirely possible that when people understand win/win, they may develop a taste for not rationalizing a “need’ to chop each other’s heads off. Where did you read anarchy in what I said? I’m talking about greater order. We are coming up on do or die. Do you really want to defend the latter because you think change is too hard? As Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
Liberty Bell, you are telling me that you can look backwards, but can you look forward. I don’t want to hand my grandchildren a governement or a society that was articulated a couple hundred years ago that doesn’t respond to the reality of their time. Are you telling me that people today are too dumb to know what they value, they need some romantic, mythic, all-knowing authority figures from history to control their destiny? How does that work? Seems to me that while cowering from the thought of how complex and difficult things have gotten, those rich and powerful guys who hide behind corporate walls and super pacs are happy to make off with the spoils of what you are not paying attention to. When it suits their profiteering they tell you that the Supreme Court has corrupted original intentions, therefore rights need to be repealed. Being fearful makes you vulnerable to manipulation. The true, the good, and the beautiful is something that we the people can define in any age and we should stay on top of it because those who are most interested in power–and they have been there from the beginning–don’t always value those common aspirations.
Omg, my soulmate has found the Politics blog!!
Welcome, Frieda P.!
Does it matter James where it comes if it is true because the truth has no agenda!
Freida;
“As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust: So there are other qualities in human nature, which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence. Republican government (that of a Republic) presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form. Were the pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us, faithful likenesses of the human character, the inference would be that there is not sufficient virtue among men for self government; and that nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.” James Madison
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death.” James Madison
The difference between a republican form of government and that of a democracy can be found when one looks at the Anerican revolution & the French revolution and the results thereof.
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
Yep AFY, it sure does matter what the source is. I would no sooner trust a poll paid for (and conducted?) by Gateway Pacific Terminal than I would a poll directly from the Anti-Coal Initiative folks. Look up the term: vested interest.
And how do you know it’s true?! Did you hear it on Fox News or read it in “Coal Mining Today”?
Frieda, the problem with the true, the good and the beautiful that we the people can define is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and some people really, really love Ferrari’s, and Foie Gras, and vacation homes in Vail, etc., etc.
I respect your idealism, but recognize it is just that. What you advocate has no basis in reality. And again, let me be clear, I am majorly left leaning – I just believe that people talking about ‘transformative human collectiveness’ in serious political debates cannot be taken seriously and do a disservice to the cause they feel they are supporting.
That’s interesting Freida, the “mystic cords of memory” discuss yesterday, tomorrow is the future, and that is mystic for blind in this neighborhood.
I like the way you handed your grandchildren the National Debt Load too, when exactly do you plan on paying for the Vietnam War? And will that be your grandchildren’s bill too?
The Jefferson Administration explaining China.page 10, along with debt, debt reduction, trade, commerce, and the rest of the story from the 1st Republican’s Jefferson and Madison.
New England Patriots?
http://archive.org/stream/addresstopeopleo01gran#page/10/mode/2up
And Freida, your statement “Life and Liberty and Ecosystems” doesn’t exist in Jefferson’s Words.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;
unalienable?
“…for cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world…”
We knew the initiative wouldn’t withstand legal review. The court of appeals opinion was a single sentence for a reason. It’s ruling is not a statement about our society but about the crafting of that legal document.
There is a vital movement to overturn Citizens United. There are hundreds of people working actively to stop this coal terminal and thousands to stop the five terminals on the west coast, using our laws and prepared to appeal in the courts on arguments that can and should withstand appeal. The permitting process has only just begun here and commenting is the public’s best means to participate at this time. It isn’t time to submit comments yet but it will be soon and there will be so much information about how to participate in the process. We are fighting against this most obscene example of corporate greed, but in a way that could stop the activity within the system of laws and government that we have. If we don’t like that system, then we need to become more politically active and vote for those who won’t pass crappy laws or dilute good ones. Lobby and educate representatives. It’s time to stop talking about it and do something that can effectuate change. Unfortunately, signing a petition isn’t enough. This is advanced democracy and it’s time to get to work.
This is advanced democracy TW?
Like “Hillary the Movie”, Citizens United’s subject matter?
(b) Thus, this case cannot be resolved on a narrower ground without chilling political speech, speech that is central to the First Amendment ’s meaning and purpose. Citizens United did not waive this challenge to Austin when it stipulated to dismissing the facial challenge below, since (1) even if such a challenge could be waived, this Court may reconsider Austin and §441b’s facial validity here because the District Court “passed upon” the issue, Lebron v. National Railroad Passenger Corporation , 513 U. S. 374 ;
James, it’s probably the same on-line poll that I saw by some public relations company that was hired to promote coal in the Pacific Northwest. It wasn’t even a real poll, it was a push poll. that asked you questions and then tried to change your mind. I didn’t even finish reading all the questions. It was a pure waste of time. It reminded me of some of the polls that I have seen put out by the state dept of education and the Ferndale school district. At least with the school district polls, you get a window into what they are thinking, we already know what the coal lovers think.
This issue is so politically charged and convoluted that we, the people, have been purposely excluded from the process, but they won’t be able to shut us out permanently. There is an election coming up and our representatives need to feel the pressure from the voters.
Some of the Democrats think that Bellingham voters will vote against their own interests to vote along party lines. Some of the Republican candidates, think just the opposite, that if they side with the unions, they will win election. The Libertarians claim that they are protecting private property rights when they defend the coal terminal, corporate private property rights, that is.
Don’t let these politicians take your votes for granted. Let them ALL know what you think, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, whatever. Let them hear from you.
Liberty Bell, do you blame everybody you don’t like for the National Debt? It is interesting that the main issues of the Conservative voices are associated with money, not air, food, health, and other things more essential to life. Money is a very complex abstraction that can be manipulated—especially if you can control the law of the land by using it to buy the guys who represent the republic. Didn’t you call them Republicans? I guess that if you consider money more important than life itself, then it makes sense that people who are not enslavable as underpaid and undereducated workers would just be in the way of the 1% as they ascend their towers of accumulation. They get uncomfortable when the little people aren’t content or confused in their stations. Why do you assume that I was trying to quote Jefferson. You gotta update your reading list. Your gettin lost in a narrow bit of time and space. An important time, but not a magical time that defined the way it was to be forever and ever–and not without its own spokesmen for domination and greed.
Yes Abe, I am idealistic and even optimistic in a world with a whole bunch of problems. But I’m wondering what serious political debates are tarnished by this thinking? The ones on FOX or CNN, or KGMI, or here? I think I am far more serious and realistic when I advocate that we fire up the discussion of what really matters. If those who are disgusted with the corruption because they are sane, thoughtful, compassionate, caring, creative, and capable of commitment actually joined forces, don’t you think we could come up with something better than food by Monsanto, health by Aetna, and wealth by war mongering? Sure, a lot of people think that a Ferrari is a beautiful thing, but after the kids are fed. Some who own Ferraris may have acquired them by exploitation, but do we have to be complicit in helping them justify those crimes by claiming that change is too hard? The number of ways there are to shed light on bad behavior that is now, with the help of mass media, painted as inevitable human behavior must be beyond measure. Shedding light on things hiding in the dark is fun and rewarding (transformative). I happen to think that what sustains the corruption is a house of cards. We are on the verge of crisis, that’s why we can’t mess around with paralysis.
Freida, I never considered money more important than say, Stoney Bird’s theories on air, food and health? And Nixon’s Gold Standard, well yes money has been made an abstract, complex, manipulative, to pay for these wars, like colonial script, or the greenback from Lincoln, the post modern America, back to Colonialism, like Gitmo, and another Offshore Colony as discussed clearly July 4, 1776.
Life, Liberty, and Ecosystems? I guess it just depends on how one define’s a life into their ecosystem, and todays model, by, you guessed it…
Ecosystem?
Lost in Space Freida, beam us up Stoney Bird’s ecosystem?
“…But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world….
“No one is pro-abortion?”
Barack Obama?
Citizen United; “…To Prove this, let Facts be submitted to a Candid Word…
“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country” 1961, a New England Patriot.
“For, stripped of the temporary associations which gives rise to it, it is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for the country in return.” 1861, a New England Patriot.
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion…
“The movie, in essence, is a feature-length negative advertisement that urges viewers to vote against Senator Clinton for President. In light of historical footage, interviews with persons critical of her, and voiceover narration, the film would be understood by most viewers as an extended criticism of Senator Clinton’s character and her fitness for the office of the Presidency. The narrative may contain more suggestions and arguments than facts, but there is little doubt that the thesis of the film is that she is unfit for the Presidency. The movie concentrates on alleged wrongdoing during the Clinton administration, Senator Clinton’s qualifications and fitness for office, and policies the commentators predict she would pursue if elected President. It calls Senator Clinton “Machiavellian,” App. 64a, and asks whether she is “the most qualified to hit the ground running if elected President,” id. , at 88a. The narrator reminds viewers that “Americans have never been keen on dynasties” and that “a vote for Hillary is a vote to continue 20 years of a Bush or a Clinton in the White House,” id. , at 143a–144a.
“…This (poll) is consistent with a region-wide poll conducted by DHM Research for Earthfix (a collaboration of Pacific Northwest public radio stations) that found a majority of residents throughout Washington, Oregon, and Idaho support coal transportation through the Northwest for export to Asian markets. In fact, of the 1,200 Northwest citizens polled, 55% are in favor of new coal exporting facilities….
http://enews.supportgpt.com/mail/util.cfm?gpiv=2100093723.54705.147&gen=1
Now you could say Earthfix (a collaboration of Pacific Northwest public radio stations)might be slanted but then agin the truth has no agenda, dio’t ya know!
AFY!!theheelotsheepdog!!!
So Frieda, you are longing for this collective transformation of thought so long as the thought fits in with your views. I assume that you are open to embracing views that differ from your own if that’s where the collective thought winds up?
The big problem these days is everyone is convinced they are 100% right and the “other side” is 100% wrong. This means that everyone is wrong but is too stubborn to embrace compromise. Democracy revolves around compromise so everyone needs to pull their heads out and start giving a little. A good deal is where everyone walks away from the table irritated.
Right on Abe!!!!!
Actually Abe, a good deal in this republic, is when someone rips of their whig, and stomps on it, the masked monarchie specialists like John Adams or Barack Obama, two peas in a pod.
Citizen United 1804, where speech scared the hell out of Adams, just like Obama and Hillary too.
“I discharged every person under punishment or prosecution under the Sedition aw, because I considered & now consider the law to be a nullity as absolute and palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a golden image; and that it was my duty to arrest its execution in every stage, as it would have been to have rescued from the fiery furnace those who should have been cast into it for refusing to worship their image…Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams…1804
Worship Your Party, and your drunks from Harvard Law too? Stoney Birds Favorite!
President Obama claimed that the Supreme Court had
“reversed a century of law to open the floodgates – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections.”
While you buy or sell a real estate, during the lien process, a liability waiver is a form from a contractor, sub-contractor, or any other parties to your construction project mentioning they have received your payment in full and waive any future liability responsibility to your real estate, Basically there are four different types of liability waivers.