Monthly Archives: August 2011

Posted inAnnouncements, Elections, Open Government, Policy Topics

Permanent Defense launches Eye on Money

by Andrew Villeneuve

This morn­ing, we’re proud to announce we have added a new tool to Per­ma­nent Defense’s web­site called Eye on Mon­ey, which can be found under Research & Reports. Eye on Mon­ey uses Stop­­Greed-style charts to visu­al­ly break down con­tri­bu­tions to Tim Eyman’s ini­tia­tive fac­to­ry. As the chart for Tim Eyman’s cur­rent mea­sure shows, the vast […]

Posted inMedia & Culture

The printed word will continue to endure

by Andrew Villeneuve

Some years ago, there began a rev­o­lu­tion which has changed the way we com­mu­ni­cate, do busi­ness, enter­tain our­selves, and get our news. That rev­o­lu­tion, the dig­i­tal media rev­o­lu­tion, is still going on today, and it has ush­ered in a new era of tran­si­tion and uncer­tain­ty. As news­pa­pers and book­stores close down or go online-only, we […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Deal struck by Executive Constantine, King County Council to save Metro

by Andrew Villeneuve

King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine and sev­en mem­bers of the King Coun­ty Coun­cil announced this morn­ing at a press con­fer­ence in Pio­neer Square that they have struck a deal that saves Metro with­out ask­ing the pub­lic to vote on approv­ing a new vehi­cle fee to off­set dev­as­tat­ing cuts. The deal was made between Exec­u­tive Con­stan­tine, the […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Elections, Policy Topics, Public Planning

OFM: Tim Eyman’s I‑1125 would imperil key transportation projects, raise borrowing costs

by Andrew Villeneuve

A few months ago, when we took an ini­tial look at the details of the scheme Tim Eyman said he was going to attempt to force a vote on in 2011, we con­clud­ed that it would inter­fere with vital trans­porta­tion projects around Wash­ing­ton, includ­ing many under or near­ing con­struc­tion, and many more on the draw­ing board. […]

Posted inElections

Democrats pick up two seats in Wisconsin recall, hope to capture a third

by Andrew Villeneuve

Through­out the sum­mer, Democ­rats in sev­er­al swaths of Wis­con­sin have been can­vass­ing, phonebank­ing, and orga­niz­ing around the six Sen­ate can­di­dates the par­ty is field­ing in Wis­con­sin’s long antic­i­pat­ed recall elec­tion. As most read­ers are aware, back in the spring, when Repub­li­cans were ram­ming anti-union leg­is­la­tion through Wis­con­sin’s state­house, Demo­c­ra­t­ic activists began col­lect­ing sig­na­tures to initiate […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

It’s time for the United States of America to downgrade Standard & Poor’s credibility

by Andrew Villeneuve

Almost imme­di­ate­ly after Stan­dard & Poor’s revealed on Fri­day that it was down­grad­ing the Unit­ed States’ cred­it rat­ing to AA+ from AAA, the deci­sion became fod­der for crit­ics of the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion. Among the loud­est crit­ics are the bevy of 2012 Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates, who have tried to blame Amer­i­ca’s eco­nom­ic woes on the Democratic […]

Posted inCivil Liberties, Policy Topics

Marriage equality comes to Washington

by Ken

Alas, the state of Wash­ing­ton has not yet fol­lowed in the foot­steps of New York by legal­iz­ing same-sex mar­riage. How­ev­er, mar­riage equal­i­ty has come to our state. Yes­ter­day, the Suquamish Trib­al Coun­cil vot­ed to extend mar­riage equal­i­ty to same-sex cou­ples, becom­ing only the sec­ond tribe in the nation to do so. The Suquamish Trib­al Coun­cil voted […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

U.S. Senate approves debt ceiling “deal”

by Andrew Villeneuve

By a vote of of sev­en­­ty-four to twen­­ty-six, the U.S. Sen­ate has put its stamp of approval on the Barack Obama/John Boehn­er debt ceil­ing “deal”. The roll call from the Pacif­ic North­west was as fol­lows: Vot­ing Aye: Mur­ray, Cantwell, Wyden, Begich, Bau­cus, Tester, Risch, Crapo, Murkows­ki Vot­ing Nay: Merkley As not­ed above, Jeff Merkley was […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Technology

Support independent game studios by paying what you want for the fourth Humble Bundle

by Andrew Villeneuve

In our view, the big media con­glom­er­ates that own most of the radio sta­tions, tele­vi­sion net­works, and pub­lish­ing hous­es in this coun­try could just as accu­rate­ly be described as big enter­tain­ment con­glom­er­ates. They sell and dis­trib­ute most of the movies, music, games, books, and soft­ware that we buy, often under oner­ous terms and con­di­tions that […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

Right wing economic liberty myths simply don’t square with reality

by Ken

Part of our work here at the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute is to pro­vide you, our read­ers, and fel­low pro­gres­sive activists with infor­ma­tion that can be used to counter the talk­ing points lies, half-truths, and decep­tion par­rot­ed by con­ser­v­a­tive talk radio hosts, talk­ing heads and polit­i­cal oper­a­tives. Here are two cas­es where the truth is entirely […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

Raw “deal”

by Ken

As we’ve not­ed with the pas­sage of the debt ceil­ing “deal” ear­li­er today in the House, there is plen­ty not to like. From the capit­u­la­tion of the oth­er Wash­ing­ton’s Democ­rats on core beliefs to a lack of rev­enue, no longer can Pres­i­dent Oba­ma and his sup­port­ers in Con­gress claim the man­tle of change. And now […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

U.S. House approves debt ceiling “deal”

by Andrew Villeneuve

A pho­ny cri­sis has been avert­ed at a great cost. The U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives vot­ed this evening to approve the debt ceil­ing “deal” endorsed by Barack Oba­ma, John Boehn­er, Mitch McConnell, Har­ry Reid, and Nan­cy Pelosi. The Sen­ate is expect­ed to fol­low suit tomor­row. There were two hun­dred and six­­ty-nine ayes; the nays num­bered one […]

Posted inEconomic Security, Policy Topics

Debt ceiling “deal” is a victory for the Grand Old Party of Extortion

by Andrew Villeneuve

Last night, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma took to the James S. Brady Press Brief­ing Room to announce that he and Repub­li­can con­gres­sion­al lead­ers had reached an under­stand­ing on  leg­is­la­tion that would raise the debt ceil­ing in exchange for deep cuts to essen­tial pub­lic ser­vices pro­vid­ed by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. The White House is try­ing to frame the […]