Author Archives: Ken

Posted inOpen Government

Congressional insider trading bill being considered in the U.S. Senate today

by Ken

Last week in his State of the Union Address, Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma renewed the call to end the lit­­tle-known uneth­i­cal prac­tice that helps mem­bers of Con­gress increase their wealth through insid­er trad­ing. Today the Sen­ate will con­sid­er S. 2038, spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Joe Lieber­man (Par­ty of One — Con­necti­cut) which will pro­hib­it mem­bers from trading […]

Posted inElections

Mississippi’s war on women failing

by Ken

As of a few min­utes ago, Mis­sis­sip­pi’s dra­con­ian Ini­tia­tive 26, which defines a wom­an’s fer­til­ized egg as a per­son, is fail­ing by 60% to 40% with 42 per­cent of the precincts report­ing. Under this pro­posed law, a mis­car­riage could prompt a poten­tial crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion into the death of “the per­son”. Women who are raped and […]

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

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 inElections

Mitt Romney seeks to pillage Utah’s commonwealth

by Ken

Despite the dire finan­cial cir­cum­stances that most of the fifty states find them­selves in, there is at least one Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial can­di­date who would like to see Utah reck­less­ly spend mon­ey like a sailor on leave. That’s right, Mitt Rom­ney wants the state of Utah to spend any­where from $2.5 mil­lion to $3 mil­lion to […]

Posted inElections, Unscheduled Programming

Out of touch

by Ken

Not since for­mer Pres­i­dent George H.W. Bush, who famous­ly could not fig­ure out how to use a price scan­ner at a gro­cery store, have we seen a politi­cian so out of touch with every­day peo­ple, as Mitt Rom­ney was today. Mr. Rom­ney, in a pho­ny, pathet­ic attempt at empa­thy, informed vot­ers today that he, too, […]

Posted inUnscheduled Programming

He’s not rich, he’s you

by Ken

Excuse us for a moment as we break out our tiny vio­lins and a box of kleenex to lament the plight of Con­gress­man Den­ny Rehberg (R‑MT), who is chal­leng­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Jon Tester for his seat in 2012 . You see, although Mr. Rehberg is the 23rd rich­est mem­ber of Con­gress he informed con­stituents at […]

Posted inUnscheduled Programming

Meet the hypocrites: Donald Trump

by Ken

Since real­i­ty show host and cor­po­rate blowhard Don­ald Trump has decid­ed to express his polit­i­cal views and go through the motions of being a seri­ous polit­i­cal can­di­date, we’re hap­py the treat him as one. While the Don­ald breath­less­ly blew his own horn this morn­ing regard­ing the Pres­i­den­t’s birth cer­tifi­cate (some­thing this shame­less self-pro­­mot­er does frequently), […]

Posted inUnscheduled Programming

Meet the hypocrites: Congressman Doc Hastings

by Ken

Meet Con­gress­man Doc Hast­ings (R‑Pasco), cham­pi­on of open gov­ern­ment: Dur­ing the last ses­sion of Con­gress – under Speak­er Nan­cy Pelosi – this top-down, closed-door men­tal­i­ty reached an all time high.  There was zero open debate on the House floor.  Law­mak­ers were blocked from offer­ing ideas and amend­ments.  Con­gress spent mon­ey the gov­ern­ment doesn’t have and […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, World Commmunity

Meet the Hypocrites: U.S. foreign policy

by Ken

Ear­li­er tonight, Pres­i­dent Oba­ma laid out his case jus­ti­fy­ing the need for U.S. mil­i­tary inter­ven­tion in Libya, where coali­tion forces under the  aus­pices of a Unit­ed Nations res­o­lu­tion have been knock­ing out the air defens­es of its bru­tal dic­ta­tor. The Unit­ed States and its allies are work­ing to pre­vent Muam­mar al-Gaddafi from con­tin­u­ing to kill […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Public Planning

Republicans continue assault on emergency preparedness, even after Tohoku megaquake

by Ken

Read­ers may recall our ire was raised dur­ing the Repub­li­can response to Pres­i­dent Oba­ma’s 2009 State of the Union Address, when Louisiana Gov­er­nor Bob­by Jin­dal dis­missed fund­ing for vol­cano mon­i­tor­ing as a triv­i­al­i­ty. As res­i­dents of the Pacif­ic North­west, we are all too aware of the pres­ence of vol­ca­noes in our region and the destruction […]