Thank you for your patience. I recovred your messages and will answer as time permits.

Dorli Rainey

Unacceptable Appointments

Submitted by Tracy Leaman on 6/9/09

• pro-choice
• women

President Obama has appointed Alexia Kelly as the Director of Faith-Based and Community Partnerships at the Department of Health and Human Services.  Kelly was the co-founder and executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG), which supports reducing access to abortion care and services.  While in the leadership at CACG Kelly characterized abortion to war and torture.  This is not the same message the administration sent when they appointed Kathleen Sebelius!

As Catholics for Choice points out, Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for providing and expanding access to key sexual and reproductive health services. As such, we need those working in HHS to rely on evidence-based methods to reduce the need for abortion. We need them to believe in men’s and women’s capacity to make moral decisions about their own lives. Unfortunately, as seen from her work at CACG, Ms. Kelley does not fit the bill.

I am loath to compare our supposedly pro-choice President to our very anti-choice last President, however, this reminds me of Bush appointing Karoak as HHS deputy assistant secretary of population services back in 2006, an equally anti-choice appointment to what needs to be a department that serves women’s health, not chips away at it.   True, it will be our saving grace, that Kathleen Sebelius is no Mike Leavitt and that Kelly must report to her, however after the Sotomayor appointment and now this, I fear in what direction our administration is heading when it comes to choice and women’s health.

http://ndn.org/blog/2009/06/anti-choice-appointment-hhs-office-faith-based-and-community-partnerships

Old Lady Questions

We need a Truth Squad. People need to ask some really pertinent questions at Candidate Forums. Recently I spoke to a lady on the bus and she said: “Women are an integral part of our world from the smallest village to the largest city so why do all politicians shy away from discussing women’s issues like healthcare, domestic violence, poverty, homelessness and choice”? Why is it that these questions are seldom asked at candidate nights? Why are women not more vocal in elections?

When you go to a candidate night you might find that all questions are written by the organizers and the audience does not get a chance to ask a question that would shine a light on what concerns them. Please talk to your Precinct Committee Officer (PCO) and District Boards about allowing questions from the audience. Democracy is not served when the public is not heard.

Below is the calendar for the King County Democrats events for the rest of this month. Find you precinct and go to the meeting. You might be able to ask questions, but you may not be able to vote on the candidate endorsements unless you are a paid up member of the district, Precinct Committee Officers are free to vote. “I confirmed that folks in the 36th LD must be paid up members 25 days before the endorsement meeting in order to vote (poll tax?). For us that would mean dues paid by 6/15 since our endorsement meeting is July 8th. PCOs are automatically members.”

There will be a candidate evening at Trinity United Methodist Church in Ballard at 7 PM on Monday June 15, 2009, 6512 23rd Ave NW. This will be a forum to listen to two candidates for Seattle City Council David Bloom and Sally Bagshaw. There is a vast difference between those two candidates. Please come and find out for yourself.

Old Lady The Continuing Saga of the Tunnel

Last Monday I stopped by the lofty offices of the “Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Program” henceforth called AWVSRP. Those offices take the 24^th floor of the Wells Fargo Building 999 3^rd Ave, in downtown Seattle. Plushy digs for a Governmental entity. I did get the some of the information I wanted. Going to places like this is like going into a large bank where the people are very nice, but the banks business practices are such that one wonders how nice people can work there. Like nice people working in a bomb factory. » Continue reading “The Continuing Saga of the Tunnel”

The Federal Highway Administration (also known as: We never met a gas guzzler we did not like), the Washington Department of Transportation (aka If We Build Them They will Come) and the City of Seattle (aka Allentown) invite you to a Public Scoping Meeting on the Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement: Community invited to public meetings on the bored tunnel plan to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct The following from WSDOT

Date:  Friday, June 05, 2009

Contact:
Amy Grotefendt, Alaskan Way Viaduct Program, 206-295-9846 (cell)
KaDeena Lenz, Alaskan Way Viaduct Program, 206-267-3836; 206-437-5061 (cell)

In May, Governor Chris Gregoire signed into law ESSB 5768, which endorses the bored tunnel and provides funding for the state’s projects. The program team is working on environmental review plans and other contracting work so that bored tunnel construction can begin in 2011. Comments for the supplemental draft EIS can be sent by e-mail to SDEIS2ScopingComments@wsdot.wa.gov or by mail to: Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement Program, Attn: Angela Freudenstein, 999 Third Ave., Suite 2424, Seattle, WA 98104. The deadline for such comments is July 10.

Downtown
Monday, June 8, 5 – 7 PM
Seattle City Hall, Bertha Landes Room
600 Fourth Ave.

West Seattle
Wednesday, June 10, 6 – 8 p.m.
Madison Middle School, Cafeteria
3429 45th Ave. SW

Ballard
Thursday, June 11, 6 – 8 p.m.
Leif Erickson Hall, Auditorium
2245 NW 57th St.

For those who cannot attend these public meetings, the materials will be posted on the program Web site at www.alaskanwayviaduct.org.

My plea to all:

There is a need for people there to ask the pertinent questions such as:

What day after the November 2007 election when 70% of the voters voted against the Cut and Fill Tunnel on Alaskan Way did you start to plan the 1st Ave Deep Bore Tunnel?

Is four years (from Nov 2007 election to 2011 start of construction) of planning a new record for engineering for such a massive project?

When will you publish your Environmental Impact Statement?

Will your plans include a truck friendly exit ramp at Roy Street prior to the start of the project or will it be “plan as you go”?

Will the question of who pays for the cost overruns be answered prior to the start of the project?

Dorli

Military Recruiting has now gone mainstream.

In DeKalb County, which includes part of Atlanta, protests by parents and threats of lawsuits began almost as soon as the school board announced last year that it planned to open a Marine Corps high school. The district wanted to open it this fall, but the approval process in Washington has delayed that. The district hopes to open the school in fall 2010.

Critics like Mike Hearington, a 56-year-old Vietnam War veteran whose son attends Shamrock Middle School in DeKalb County, say the schools are breeding grounds for the military. “To pursue children like they are is criminal in my mind,” Hearington said. Read the whole story at the link below

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090604/ap_on_re_us/us_marine_public_schools

The National  Park Service is taking comments on their review of the Permit for the Airport at Grand Teton National Park.

For more information see: NPCA Web Site

My comments to the National Park Board are below:

“Our National Parks were left to us by visionary leaders who saw the value of sustaining some spots on earth where there still can be some serenity and peace. A place where people can enjoy the outdoors without gas fumes and motor noises. A place to think about our station in life as sustainers and not destroyers. Let us uphold this vision and stop planes.”

Last year on June 26, 2008 Seattle Police raided a self regulated, well managed homeless camp named “Nickelsville” after our esteemed Mayor Greg Nickels.

The site itself is one of the unappealing properties bordered by roads and overgrown with weeds. It is away from any neighborhood and the City wants it for a new jail.

16 people were arrested and charged and some of the tent stakes were broken. Personal belongings were confiscated.

Yesterday May 29 in Judge Hightower’s Courtroom 903 at the City Justice Building 600 5th Ave Seattle, the case against the Nickelsville Nickelodeons got dismissed. This was done in co-operation with some of the great legal eagles in Seattle who deserve out eternal gratitude. Of course, dismissal is the City’s and the City Attorney Tom Carr’s way out of a sticky situation and leaves the Nickelodeons with no legal decision to quote the next time they set up camp the City disapproves of.

What is really needed is a court decision to enjoin the City from destroying people’s property and use the City Police force to enforce their inhumane statutes. The money spent by the City to enforce those statutes is considerable and would be better spent in co-operation rather than destruction of private property and lengthy legal proceedings.

We will see next weekend how this dismissal will be enforced at the next move of Nickelsville. Stay tuned.