In conservative eastern Washington, Spokane is turning Democratic if not downright progressive.  They already have control of two legislative districts in Spokane, and are poised to gain in a majority on the County Commission.  

Farmers, environmentalists, and other uncommon coalition partners have joined together to defeat I-933 in the state of Washington and similar initiatives in the West.  I-933 is a costly scheme that would force communities to choose between paying millions of dollars to special interests to obey basic city zoning ordinances and environmental and smart growth laws, or to waive these laws.  A similar initiative passed in Oregon in 2004 and so far there have been about $5 billion dollars in claims filed against taxpayers there. These types of initiatives are now being run in five other western states in 2006.  However, in the state of Washington and elsewhere, a strong, extremely diverse coalition has emerged to stop the latest hijacking of the initiative process by right-wing extremists.  The crop art is below the fold.

Get your message ready and plan your "roaring 20s" parties.  George Bush's approval rating is likely to soon drop into the 20's as measured by one or more of the major pollsters.  

Bush has polled at 31% by two different polls, first by USA Today/Gallup, which tends to be more favorable to Bush, and then by CBS/New York Times, which tends to be less favorable.  Also, there has been another poll between these two at 34% and he has been steadily trending downward.  Therefore, I think we can assume that 31-32% is a fairly accurate reflection of his approval.  

Democratic activists have been experimenting with the term "culture of corruption" to depict the current Republican leadership and win back control of Washington D.C.  I believe this to be an important strategy in the months to come, but the results of a survey by Public Opinion Strategies (R) and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (D) suggest that we have work to do.  

At the end of this post, I recommend that Democratic candidates need to take very specific, tangible steps in the ethics debate . . . not with words, but with additional, very visible actions.  

You might be concerned that your diary posts are not being read when they fail to make the recommended list.  However, people are in fact reading what you write.  For every comment that you get, about 62 people are reading your diary.  If you receive 16 comments, that is one thousand people.  

Congratulations to Baton Rouge for bringing in AAR!  We had typed this diary a while ago, but had not yet posted it.  It contains ideas not included in the Baton Rouge diary from last week, and is an organized, step-by-step compilation of what others have done to bring AAR to their communities, including Spokane, Washington.  When we typed it, we had in mind something that was handbook style.  Please spread this around, citing Eastern Washington Voters were applicable.

Would you like to tune into a progressive radio station in your community instead of non-stop conservative radio and their hate, prejudice, and greed?  Well . . . so have many other Americans, and they have taken action to bring progressive radio to their communities, specifically Air America Radio (AAR).  They have been successful even in Republican states, such as in Louisiana.  Here is what people have done, and what you can do as well.  Although we call this a recipe for bringing in AAR, good cooks can improvise, of course.  

I am tired of being called an obstructionist, and I have yet to hear many good responses from Democrats to this Republican charge.  When Harry Reid referred to Republicans as "destructionists" he had one-half of the answer.  I want to suggest another half.  

We need to refute the label of being "obstructionists," and advance the idea of Democrats being the last defenders of what is good about America.  Just as importantly, we need to be blunt and aggressive about it.  Tyranny is creeping up on America from within and destroying what has made America great, and the Democratic Party and Harry Reid are our country's last defense.  If Republicans think that we are hindering them, they haven't seen anything yet!  If they try to dismantle our constitution, our system of checks and balances, and our civil rights and democracy, then Republicans will have to go through us!  If they plan to destroy social security, public education, health care for veterans, good relations with our allies, then they have an all out fight on their hands.  

Know your rights!  Despite what you might have been told by others, you can participate in electoral politics even if you are a government employee. Every election year there are dozens of close races around the country, and we need your assistance to help Democrats win.  You can legally involve yourself in many or all types of electoral politics depending on the government agency for which you work.  

There is a great deal of misinformation about the Federal Hatch Act.  The exact rules depend on if you are either a federal or state employee, and the kind of federal employee that you might be.  Also, some state employees that work on federal programs may have restrictions because of the Federal Hatch Act, but this is rather unusual.  Occasionally, employees of non-profits also fall under the Hatch Act if they are set up and funded by the government, but most non-profits face no such restrictions.  All federal employees should read this web page by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel.  

As you all know, Christine Gregoire has been inaugurated the Governor of Washington.  Nevertheless, the Washington State Republican Party is still challenging the certified election results in the state court system.  

A friend of mine is a Seattle attorney who has been following the matter, and his opinion is that the Repubs do not have much of a case.  I thought you would like to read his reasoning.  I should add the caveats that he is not an election attorney (but he does seem to have a "bird's eye view" of what is happening) and there is no way to know exactly what evidence the Republicans will present.  

His legal opinion . . . .

The Gregoire victory was helped by the long arm of Howard Dean and more than a few Kossacks at the grassroots.  This includes west-side Kossacks, but I want to talk about eastern Washington and in particular the group Eastern Washington Voters.