June 24, 2007 by Bravo.

Planning for the future is a good thing. Let’s hire a consultant, pay him a chunk of money, set up a citizen committee, organize four community walk-arounds and three public hearings, and then ignore everything he says.

Sound crazy? That’s what Southeast Washington appears to be doing after a comprehensive plan for the future was presented last week in Walla Walla (see U-B article). Community members attending the meeting seemed to turn a cold shoulder to nearly every new proposal.

Among the ideas discussed, what about consolidating the city governments of College Place and Walla Walla with the county? Or maybe we’re all just happy with myriad elections, the fights over library funding and water rights, the endless negotiations, the bidding wars for big-box stores that have come to characterize this community.

Or what about some sort of planning for development zones that might begin to tie our commercial areas together? Nope. Guess we’re all too happy with stores popping up wherever.

The best outcome of a comprehensive plan is the discussion that is taking place and will continue over the next months. But what if we started from the premise that not every new idea is a bad one?

Posted in Walla Walla, Rural | 1 Comment »

June 15, 2007 by Bravo.

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, apparently wants to keep the region’s veterans from getting the care they need. The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin reports that Craig is criticizing an appropriations bill that would actually fund the much-ballyhooed vets outpatient clinic at the VA in Walla Walla. Cathy McMorris Rodgers couldn’t wait to pose for photos with VA Secretary Jim Nicholson last summer when he announced plans for the clinic at a surprise visit.

But it is Sen. Patty Murray who is making the right moves for local vets. Her office is reporting passage of a $3 billion appropriation bill for VA improvements. Part of that bill will move the clinic construction project up on the list of priorities for funding in 2009.

A group of vets and community members, called the Walla Walla Community VA Taskforce, meets monthly to check on progress in restoring services that the hospital has lost in recent years. The 20-member group continues to push for 24/7 emergency services and inpatient hospital beds.

Murray’s appropriations bill next goes into House-Senate negotiations, and vets here are hopeful of a presidential signature by August.

The new director of the Walla Walla and Spokane VA hospitals, Sharon Helman, met with the taskforce Thursday to talk about upcoming plans. She reported that documents have been signed to provide local vets with VA-funded emergency hospital services at the downtown hospitals in Walla Walla. Since the VA emergency room was closed, some local vets have faced long delays and denials in getting VA benefits for emergency services at area hospitals.

The taskforce also got word today that John King, the director of Veterans Affairs for Washington State, has submitted to Congress a bill for approval of a joint effort of the state and the VA to establish an 80-patient nursing home at the VA in Walla Walla.

Vets in Southeastern Washington were promised by two VA directors that all lost services would be restored. They are still waiting for the fulfillment of that promise, especially for emergency and hospital care. Thanks to the efforts of Sen. Murray and others, they have some reason for hope.

You can bet Larry Craig and his cronies will be squealing like stuck pigs at the next vote to bring troops home from Iraq. Yet they don’t seem to want to stand and deliver when it comes to paying the real costs of Bush’s war.

Posted in Idaho, Walla Walla, Rural, Iraq, Rants, Cathy McMorris | No Comments »

June 14, 2007 by Alpha.

Stuck’s last post mentioned a personal hero of mine: Jim Gilchrist. What a great American! In spite of all of the evidence, both statistical and ethical, that his stance is wrong, he goes right on ahead “defending our borders.” With guns and white supremacists. Who but a giant among men could stand in the face of all things that are good and say “No more! I’ve had it with all these brown people!”

A new poll from the LA Times that has been making the rounds (ah, that ‘new poll’ smell!) shows that 63% of Americans and 65% of Republicans (!) support a path to citizenship including the standard set of hurdles: fines, learning English, and “other requirements.” You know, all that stuff that us natural-born types had to do to be citizens.

The issue of immigration reform hits me close to home. Well, it hits in my home. My mother is foreign-born, but moved to the United States at the age of 16. Earlier this year, after living (legally) in this country for more than 40 consecutive years, she finally got to take her oath as a citizen.

She did it the way you’re supposed to. She got her green card when her family moved to the US and she renewed it as required. In early 2006 she was finally persuaded it was time for her to start speaking her mind, and making her voice count. She wanted to vote.

The processing of her paperwork took some 14 months. The various fees cost her in excess of $4,000. Her husband, children, in-laws, nieces, nephews, colleagues and friends (mostly) are all American citizens. If that makes me one of those awful “anchor babies” Mr. Limbaugh talks about, then I’m damn proud to be one.

Now maybe my mom isn’t a fair test case. After all, she’s fair-skinned and is a native speaker of English with advanced degrees and a good income and a strong set of professional and personal resources. She’s not a Guatemalan single mother of two who doesn’t speak English well enough to get directions to a bus stop. Does that mean that my mom is worth more to America than our fictional Guatemalan family? For that matter, why aren’t we asking which of these two women value America more?

Simply put, it is because this debate isn’t about the preservation of the inherent value of American citizenship, as Rep. Tancredo would have us think. It’s about the preservation of the inherent value of people.

63% support Bush’s plan. 63% support a plan that requires people to pay an unspecified fine to clear their illegal status, return to their countries of origin, learn to speak English, then come back to the US and get in the back of the citizenship line, all for the privilege of paying thousands of dollars to become an American.

How many currently illegal immigrants have legal access to that kind of money? We’re talking about at least $4,000 per person before the fines and costs of returning to their native countries. This path to citizenship is a largely impractical carrot at the end of a relativistically long stick.

So what happens in the interim? Mr. Bush’s wonderfully creative Guest Worker Program! Under this program, illegal immigrants would get to apply for a special new kind of work visa. What’s special about it? How about being put to work at a job where getting fired means getting kicked out of the country? How about being required to pay unspecified fines before entering the program?

So where are all of these illegal immigrants going to come up with the kind of money they’ll need to get into either one of these programs? Especially with all of those undoubtedly hefty unspecified fines running around! They won’t. These folks are mostly working for little more than subsistence, and I anticipate that most of them won’t be able to raise the funds they would need to “go legit.”

So what happens when you offer 12 million undocumented workers access to programs they can’t afford to get into? Nothing. Nothing changes. Whether or not a deal can be struck to pass this so-called “immigration reform” we’re still going to have 12 million undocumented workers.

But if immigration reform really does blow your skirt up, I have two ideas. First, a huge number of illegal immigrants are actually paying tax on their income. These taxes go to Social Security and other social welfare programs, which non-citizens do not benefit from. I propose that all of these payments be credited against the cost of entering either one of Mr. Bush’s programs. Not only would doing so eliminate one of the most fundamentally unfair conditions imposed upon the undocumented worker (taxation without representation?!) but it might also drive up the number of people seeking legal status.

Second, and this one seems like a no-brainer, enforce the law as it stands concerning the employment of persons lacking legal authorization to be employed. Specifically, reinstitute the IRS worker status verification system, which simply looked at how many hours a week a given Social Security Number was taxed for and flagged anomalous ones. “574-10-2405 was taxed for 200 hours of work last week? Better talk to the employers.” Then, fine the shoes off of anyone who knowingly employs someone without status.

Alright, folks. I must have made someone out there in Blogistan angry. Let’s hear it.

Posted in Washington, Rural, Presidential, National, Rants | 1 Comment »

June 13, 2007 by Bravo.

Looking for a change, former Walla Walla County Democratic Party Chair Nina Roth has turned her position over to retired dairy farmer Bill McCaw. Roth will continue to serve the state party as the committee woman for the county, with Conrad Cavazos serving as the county’s male party rep.

Tom Schmerer, an IT contractor, has assumed the role of chair of the 16^th Legislative District, a position formerly held by Pasco’s Roy Dehart. Schmerer lost a state senate race against Mike Hewitt of Walla Walla in 2004.

Roth did a fabulous job during her tenure as county chair in organizing party efforts, including recruiting volunteers, turning out voters at rallies and distributing yard signs. The party has worked hard in this county to make itself heard. And it has had to. The Rs in the county hold such a numerical advantage that they seem to have become lax about such distasteful political activities as door-to-door canvassing.

Finding good Democratic candidates to run in this district is another challenge. In fact, Democratic candidates sometimes feel they can do better running away from the party than with it—some go so far as to say that being hand-picked by the party is, in this county, the kiss of death. So the party doesn’t have much real leverage in enticing good candidates to run.

The strength for the WW County Dems in 2008 may be in the work they have done to encourage grassroots activism among the party faithful here. They have a base to build from, experienced volunteers, and more than a few voters dissatisfied with the direction of the country.

Posted in Rural, Fifth CD | 2 Comments »

June 11, 2007 by Alpha.

If current trends are maintained, you can expect to see more Democrats in cowboy hats in the future, a new Center for Rural Studies report indicates.

Key findings:
No significant ideological shift: 50% of respondents still call themselves conservatives.
Significant drop in Bush’s approval: he’s polling at 44%, down 10 since his reelection and down 22 since 2002.
Rural voters are currently favoring Democrats in both Presidential and Congressional races, but these leads are within the margin of error.
Finally, almost 60% of respondents know someone serving in Iraq, though a plurality still support “staying the course.”

What does this mean? While the numbers aren’t convincing us that a whole lot has changed, it’s starting to look like the resurgance of Democratic performance in rural areas last cycle wasn’t just a fluke. We might also hope to see a return to the near-parity that President Clinton’s campaigns scored, and as soon as 2008.

The most pointed question is this: Which, if any, Democratic candidates can deliver the rural vote?

That’s a question I’m honestly not prepared to answer some 18 months out. I’ll be thinking on it, I assure you, and I’ll be sharing my thoughts.

Posted in Rural, National, Campaigns | 1 Comment »