NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Monthly Archives: August 2012

RNC Postmortem: Republicans head home after last day of convention in Tampa, Florida

Excerpt: Yes­ter­day was the final day of the 2012 Repub­li­can Nation­al Con­ven­tion in Tam­pa, Flori­da. Here are a few part­ing thoughts on the con­ven­tion from The Seat­tle Times‘ Jim Brun­ner, The Stranger‘s Paul Con­stant, and oth­er jour­nal­ists who were in town cov­er­ing the con­ven­tion from a nation­al perspective. Paul Con­stant has an essay in The Stranger […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Elections, Events, Party Politics
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Flashback to the Bush Error: In 2001, Paul Ryan defended budget-busting tax cuts

Excerpt: Today, we’re begin­ning a new series on The Advo­cate called Flash­back to the Bush Error that will fea­ture new install­ments on Fri­days each week through Elec­tion Day. The pur­pose of this series is to doc­u­ment and explore Paul Ryan and Mitt Rom­ney’s sup­port for the failed poli­cies of George W. Bush dur­ing the eight years […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Series & Special Reports
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Patient Protection Act a start, but U.S. still needs true healthcare reform: Medicare for All

Excerpt: Along with eco­nom­ic secu­ri­ty, the future of Medicare has emerged as a sig­nif­i­cant issue in the pres­i­den­tial cam­paign. The Patient Pro­tec­tion Act, passed more than two years ago and recent­ly upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court,  pro­vides insur­ance reform, not health­care reform. But both are needed. The Patient Pro­tec­tion Act imposed new require­ments on health […]
Written by:Ralph Gorin
Categories:Healthcare, Policy Topics
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RNC Watch: Charter bus fiasco keeps Washington State Republicans up really late

Excerpt: Today is the third day of the 2012 Repub­li­can Nation­al Con­ven­tion in Tam­pa, Flori­da. Here’s a roundup of some of the goings-on there, as report­ed by The Seat­tle Times‘ Jim Brun­ner, The Stranger‘s Paul Con­stant, and oth­er jour­nal­ists who are in town cov­er­ing the con­ven­tion from a nation­al perspective. Incom­pe­tent cen­tral plan­ning by the Repub­li­can […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Events, Party Politics
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RNC Watch: RGA Chairman says Rob McKenna would govern like Scott Walker

Excerpt: Today is the sec­ond day of the 2012 Repub­li­can Nation­al Con­ven­tion in Tam­pa, Flori­da. Here’s a roundup of some of the goings-on there, as report­ed by The Seat­tle Times’ Jim Brun­ner, The Stranger’s Paul Con­stant, and oth­er jour­nal­ists who are in town cov­er­ing the con­ven­tion from a nation­al perspective. At the Hol­i­day Inn this morn­ing […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Elections, Party Politics
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Tim Eyman’s lawsuit over I‑1185 fiscal impact “dimissed in full and with prejudice”

Excerpt: A base­less law­suit filed by Tim Eyman against the state’s Office of Finan­cial Man­age­ment (OFM) has been dis­missed in full and with prej­u­dice fol­low­ing a hear­ing in Thurston Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court ear­li­er today. After lis­ten­ing to argu­ments by Senior Coun­sel Steve Diet­rich (rep­re­sent­ing the state) and Tim Eyman (who appeared pro se), Judge James Dixon signed […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Elections, Litigation
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One of six proposed coal terminals in Washington and Oregon abandoned

Excerpt: Ask a polit­i­cal orga­niz­er in What­com Coun­ty, and it trends that they will tell you about how often they hear vot­ers ask about the pro­posed coal ter­mi­nal at Cher­ry Point, right out­side of Belling­ham. They get frus­trat­ed. Train tracks cut right through Belling­ham, and run along next to local busi­ness­es. Sit for a few hours […]
Written by:Patrick Stickney
Categories:Economic Security, Healthcare
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Republican Todd Akin’s offensive comments about rape draw widespread condemnation

Excerpt: Yes­ter­day, Mis­souri Repub­li­can Todd Akin, who cur­rent­ly serves in the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and is the par­ty’s U.S. Sen­ate nom­i­nee this year, was inter­viewed by St. Louis’ local Fox affil­i­ate about his can­di­da­cy. Dur­ing the inter­view, Akin was asked if he believed that abor­tion should be avail­able to women who are raped. Akin gave […]
Written by:Lorrie Sullivan DeKay
Categories:Civil Liberties, Healthcare, Policy Topics
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Turnout, get-out-the-vote efforts will determine whether Washington moves forward or slides backward after November

Excerpt: Few elec­tions will be as piv­otal in Wash­ing­ton State his­to­ry as the Novem­ber 2012 elec­tion. It is an elec­tion that could decide whether Wash­ing­ton steps bold­ly into a pro­gres­sive future, or whether it falls vic­tim to right-wing poli­cies that ben­e­fit the top 1% while deny­ing basic rights to many of the state’s residents. Pro­gres­sives can […]
Written by:Robert Cruickshank
Categories:Elections
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WOW! Félix Hernández pitches first perfect game in Mariners history at Safeco Field

Excerpt: All hail King Félix! The twen­ty-six year old Mariners pitch­ing phe­nom solid­i­fied his place in base­ball his­to­ry by becom­ing the first Seat­tle pitch­er to toss a per­fect game in front of 21,000+ cheer­ing fans on a sun­ny sum­mer day at Safe­co Field. The Mariners scored just one run against the Tam­pa Bay Rays, but that was […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Unscheduled Programming
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Kathi Goertzen: 1958–2012

Excerpt: This after­noon, we received the very sad news that one of Seat­tle’s best known news­cast­ers and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers is no longer with us. Kathi Goertzen, who for decades was the face of KOMO 4 News with coan­chor Dan Lewis, died around 12:45 PM today after a long, dif­fi­cult bat­tle with sev­er­al brain tumors, the sta­tion announced. […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Breaking News, Media & Culture
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BREAKING: Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan said to be Mitt Romney’s vice presidential pick

Excerpt: Break­ing news this evening: A num­ber of media out­lets are report­ing that the 2012 Repub­li­can tick­et has now been set with pre­sump­tive pres­i­den­tial nom­i­nee Mitt Rom­ney’s selec­tion of U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Paul Ryan to be his run­ning mate. Ryan, who rep­re­sents Wis­con­sin’s 1st Dis­trict and chairs the House Com­mit­tee on Bud­get, is well-liked by move­ment and […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Breaking News, Elections
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Wanted: Women willing to run for office

Excerpt: At a time when women’s repro­duc­tive rights are under attack in state leg­is­la­tures across the coun­try, there might soon be no female Demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nors to push back. The only two such gov­er­nors left in office — Washington’s Chris Gre­goire and North Carolina’s Bev Pur­due — are leav­ing office in 2013, and only one state, New […]
Written by:Kathleen Reynolds
Categories:Civil Liberties, Elections, Healthcare, Policy Topics
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Suzan DelBene gets boost from EMILY’s List, DCCC; Roll Call now rates WA-01 “Leans D”

Excerpt: The last forty-eight hours have been pret­ty sweet for Suzan Del­Bene and her cam­paign team. The good news just keeps rolling in fol­low­ing her big win in this mon­th’s win­now­ing elec­tion, which end­ed Tuesday. First, the DCCC has con­firmed that Del­Bene will receive pri­or­i­ty sup­port over the next three months as she bat­tles John Koster […]
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Categories:Elections
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