Congress Election: Then and Now

My Great Supporters,

I conceded the Newcastle council race a few days ago before the certification of the vote that has taken place at the shady King County Elections Department (they misrepresented a lot of photos with silhouette-like exposures in the general election voters' pamphlet this year).  Congratulations to Mr. Drescher.  The congressional campaign in the 9th District is going very well, and like nearly all elections that I'm in, I got a very early start, although the rightist "Blue Dog" Democrat, Adam Smith, had his signs up at Newcastle Days last September.  Federal Way and Bellevue are the two biggest cities in the 9th District, and my support is very strong in both cities.  Federal Way was key in my winning the G.O.P. nomination in the 9th District in 2004 before it was snatched away from me by the then Dean Logan-run King County Elections Department (by neglect, not willful culpability) and handed to a political novice.   The official vote count for me then was 47 per cent, the actual vote count was likely 50 to 53 per cent.

If the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, Jenny Durkan, happens to be reading this, which is unlikely, I am making a plea to her to send out a press release and reveal to the western Washington media everything she knows about the 2004 primary in the 9th Congressional District.   Her office has already ignored one inquiry from me a few years ago, so I really don't expect any change from that venue (she was appointed by a Democratic Party administration, after all).  What I will really need to get the truth out to the wider community is one or two really good investigative reporters with a little heft, and who are with the mainstream media.  The chances of that happening for the case of an alternative politician who was denied a rightful primary victory almost 10 years ago are slim to none, but it is one of very few cards that I hold that may help to catapult me to the 114th Congress.  

Thank you, and by the way, I can accept up to $5000 in contributions before I have to file any paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission.  I don't have a PayPal or anything like that, so if you just drop a check or a money order under $50 to the Commoner Local Affairs Campaign Committee to my post office box (address information is in the right column), then that would be of great help to this campaign and greatly appreciated.  Once I reach the $5000 threshold, if not before, then I will start an internet system for accepting contributions.  By law, be a U.S. citizen and at least 18 years old to make a contribution.  If you decide to be extra generous by contributing 50 or more, by law, please, include your name, address and occupation.

- Mark Greene, Candidate for Congress, 9th Congressional District of Washington

[revised on 11/27/13]

9th Congressional District Women Supporting Greene

Women from the 9th CD of Washington who ordinarily vote for Mark Greene, support Greene because the veteran is more interested in solving the domestic problems of the nation rather than getting involved in overseas adventures of no practical self-defense value; and takes a sensible approach to nuclear weapons: in other words, get rid of them all through bi-lateral and multi-lateral treaties, and the sooner the better; wants to protect the social safety net programs, such as WIC, general nutritional aid, and social security; tries to advance educational security for children and young adults by strengthening public schools with morality education, and making at least the first two years of college or trade school completely as free of individual cost as publicly available elementary and high schools; is genuinely environmentally conscious; and thinks the government should stay out of people's naturally-given rights and law-abiding affairs.

[revised on 12/21/14] 
 

The Hare's Paupers

The Newcastle City Council breathed a sigh of relief when the hare won last November 5th, not that they weren't fairly sure what the outcome would be, given all the stops that they pulled for John Drescher.  Even though they knew that Mark Greene would never have gotten 4 votes on the Council in order to push through a people's agenda in Newcastle if he had won, they sure didn't want some dissenter on the council talking about poor and low income people.  Councilwoman Carol Simpson is the closest person they have to a dissenter willing to speak up for the lower economic classes every now and then.  So the Council's agenda of cozying up to real estate barons, gentrification, keeping renters in their place, and building up walls to keep the poor out of Newcastle will continue unimpeded, and as we said in a previous post, the hare will fit right in.  Any present-day apartment dweller, just about, that voted for Drescher is obviously uninformed about Newcastle politics or voted against their own interests for whatever reason. 

The so-called "Mutual Materials" apartments to be built will not be for the general workers in the shops of Newcastle's 2 strip malls, that's for sure, nor for Newcastle's government employees (by and large) for that matter.  The rents are not expected to be less than $2000 per month according to rumor, and probably much more than that in most cases.  This Council is not even hospitable to so-called affordable housing agendas put forth by the wider community, let alone actual affordable housing.

[revised on 11/25/13]
 

Leo's Maxim

Ellen Greene, circa 1953  (1933 - 2006)

Sometime in 1964, I told Mom, Ellen Greene, that I wanted to be a politician.  As an altar boy at that time, she had hoped that I would be a priest instead, nonetheless, about a week or two later, we went to Hudson's Department Store in Detroit where she bought a pictorial book about the Presidents of the United States of America, and she inscribed the words "To a future president, my son Mark."  A few months later,  a letter from the White House arrived to our house, and an actual president's aide had written something along these lines: "Dear Mark: President Johnson thanks you for the fine speech that you wrote for him during this election year, and he told me to express to you his gratitude."  I lost all of these mementos over the years, so the aforementioned written remarks are paraphrasing what I remember.





Mark Greene, circa 1962

I grew up rooting for Kaline, McLain, Wood and McAuliffe (I actually seen McLain whip the Minnesota Twins 8 - 5 three years before he became famous by winning 30 games), but I switched my allegiance from the Tigers to the Cubs the moment my mother decided to uproot the family from the city to the country, and thus we were closer to the Windy City than the Motor City.  Now, I was rooting for Williams, Banks, Santo and Hands.  It was there that I learned of this unruly, old-school manager of the Cubs named Leo Durocher. You know the type: womanizing, spits tobacco, growls, bad-tempered, kicks dirt on umpires, yells at the players, and so on.  It was Durocher who once said that "Nice guys finish last."





My former parish's (Saint Theresa, Det.) weekly pamphlet - 1964

None of this is in any particular chronological order, but throughout my years in politics I have tried to prove the late "Leo the Lip" wrong, who incidentally
is in the Hall of Fame.  I have been warm, compassionate, friendly, honest to a fault, merciful to opponents whose scandals and peccadillos that I chose not to make a case of; found a run-away beagle while campaigning and gave him or her back to a beaming little boy and his grateful mother; found it very difficult to tell a young Newcastle girl that I could not agree with her optimism about nuclear energy, and then later derided myself for not coming up with a more encouraging response, such as, at least you have a chance to offer new ideas for containing radioactive waste; was given renewed confidence when a little girl gave me her balloon after her mother had refused to sign my petition for Director of Elections; was so proud of my mother when she interrupted my first Congress election debate in Minneapolis as she accused the monitor of being unfair to me, but at the same time quivered at the astonishment of her bold though correct defiance in the face of authority; rushed away in disarray from a downtown Detroit stage with my head down after a crowd of hundreds stood in stony silence after my speech, other than applause from Mom, and polite applause from a few others; and earnestly asked the party workers in Alaska was I doing the right thing by wanting to be a peacemaker instead of wanting to crunch Saddam (I opposed the ['91 and] '03 invasion[s] of Iraq, and the party workers and my '02 campaign manager, Mom, agreed).



I have been humble, respectful and kind to opponents and their supporters alike even when I was being all but hounded out of Minneapolis City Hall by a ward politician who thought he would fit in better with the rowdy antics of Chicago-style aldermen than the formalities of Minnesota nice. Yet, I considered my civility, friendliness and measured passiveness as important to the rule of law and government as elections themselves, so 83% being against me in Newcastle just about proves Mister Durocher right, as I have come to realize that the traits that have been ingrained in me since my earliest days is basically how I see democracy thriving.   In short, respect for society and hope for a better world.

- Mark Greene

Note: More than 50-year-old photographs shown above were a little worn when scanned for computer.

[revised on 2/9/14]

Informal Policies

Hi, Washingtonians,

I was so shocked by the great disparity in numbers between myself and John Drescher in the election, that I momentarily broke my rule about not conceding before the official verification of the vote count by election officials, and thus effectively did so by wishing Drescher good luck in his coming council tenure in my "The Wider Community" post of Nov. 5.  The only reason that I took that sentiment down was that I decided to return to this rule, a general rule that I implemented for my campaigns after I learned about the other curious election of '04 in 2010.  If the facts bear out as they currently seem to indicate, more than likely I will be issuing a good sportsmanlike concession statement through this blog after verification.  Fun nicknames and such on this blog are all good-natured joshing as N.P.R. is wont to do from time to time to keep this blog from being a dry political site, though I try not to go overboard, but political and government officials, and a handful of famous, politically-oriented private citizens, wouldn't get a lot of sympathy for being very sensitive about the soft jokes on these various blogs by the Party of Commons.

- Mark Greene, N.P.R. editor and candidate

[revised on 11/16/13]

Greene Winning Late Newcastle Tallies

But Too Little, Too Late

 

Mark Greene has been winning late vote count tallies by the K.C. Elections Dept., though his percentage of the overall vote has stayed within the 17% range, and Drescher's percentage of the vote is now rounded to 82% instead of the previous 83% (we'll keep changing a post that highlights the hare's percentage until it becomes steady).  There is a small write-in vote that accounts for about 1%.  People probably became more interested in the election in the latter days and thus read more.  Of course, the more people were informed about Newcastle's governance from alternative sources like N.P.R. (a couple of our other blogs that touched lightly on Newcastle were the only other alternative sources), the better Greene's chances were, but we have a feeling that voters, by and large, were mostly just following the Establishment's golden path for the hare as many were not following the election all that closely. 



Rightist Democrat: Rep. Adam Smith

Despite a recent council campaign, I have plenty of energy to continue a different campaign for U.S. representative that will bring the people's constitutional rights to the forefront, among other matters. The rightist Democrat, Adam Smith, will soon have to explain the stolen election of '04 (even as an unwitting beneficiary, he likely knows something), his votes for keeping the status quo of an overreaching, intrusive N.S.A. that is clamping down on the Bill of Rights instead of ensuring the checks and balances he has sworn an oath to do, his vote for doing away with habeas corpus (our right to judicial review if we are jailed) through the National Defense Authorization Act, his willingness to keep America in interventionist mode, his so-called free trade mantra that has kept America under the yoke of internationalist regimes and a great many of our citizens suffering from high unemployment, and his walking in lock-step with the fraudster Obama administration.  Smith had to endorse a card-carrying Republican, John Drescher, for Newcastle City Council just to keep me from running against him as a public official, but that act of treachery against his own party will only boomerang.  You can bet that Smith won't be trying to get the hare's endorsement in the next campaign, that would be too obvious a give-away to his Democratic Party faithful.

-- Mark Greene, Candidate for Congress (Washington 9th CD)

[revised on 11/14/13]

The Hare Snares 82%

Veteran's Day, 2013: Amazingly, USMC veteran and anti-interventionist politician, Mark Greene, received the lowest share of votes, 17%, in a Newcastle General Election for Council of any candidate since 2005 and probably longer ago than that, if not since incorporation in 1994.  Ten points lower than the next lowest since '05.  For someone as steadily involved in Newcastle politics and as intellectual as Greene is to receive such a low percentage of the vote, something is not right.  Greene, however, received a significantly larger percentage county-wide, 22%, when he ran for King County Director of Elections.  Moreover, Newcastle Democrats are obviously fond of Republicans, and have chosen that party over 3rd party politicians, independents or other Democrats a number of times in so-called non-partisan elections, including this current one, of course.  The hare, John Drescher, snagged 82% of the votes, and if Democrats in Newcastle were only 40% -- though we think it's a little bigger than that -- then Drescher, a card-carrying Republican, likely received at least half of the Democratic vote.  The hare has never served a day in the service as far as we know, at least he has never noted it on his various profiles. 

Note: ex-vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin got a bigger percentage from Newcastle than Mark Greene, but Greene at least knows that Africa is a continent, not a country (and knew that since, oh, say the first grade).  Actually, Greene has pretty much always known that very elementary fact.  It's disgraceful that America actually nominated someone for vice-president who was that ignorant, let alone Alaska electing someone governor.

Northern Pacific Report salutes our veterans!

[revised on 11/25/13]

In Defense of Democracy

 

FORMER PRIME MINISTER YULIA TYMOSHENKO & LAWYER

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, an opposition leader and political prisoner who has been imprisoned since 2011, regularly defends her integrity, democratic ideas, Ukrainian nationalism, and a broader economic association with the wider Europe.

Note:  To see Tymoshenko's website, please click on the caption under the photo above.

 

[Originally published on Commoner under the title "Yulia Tymoshenko: For Freedom's Sake."]

The Stolen Election

The 2004 stolen primary election, regarding the 9th District Congress race, that has never been discussed by the mainline media nor addressed by Rep. Adam Smith, is still waiting to come out into the broad open, and thus to stop Smith's steady progression of becoming yet another congressman-for-life in Washington, D.C.  The rightist Democrat was the beneficiary of the election that year as a result of him facing the wrong and misapplied challenger in the '04 general election.  I actually won the G.O.P. '04 primary, but the victory was snatched from me as a result of the incompetency of then Director Dean Logan and his King County Elections Dept., which never investigated their audit log problem properly or at all.  Public officials in various places all over Washington state are aware of the '04 primary malfeasance by the Elections Dept. (not properly attending to finding out what happened to missing audit logs), and in regards to an outsider or outsiders (outside of Elections) stealing an election electronically through remote control.  No mainline media reporters in or outside Washington state have ever felt it necessary to investigate that election since no Establishment politician was affected. 

Now, as I prepare to wage another campaign for the same congressional seat 10 years later, I will continue bringing up the stolen election and how Adam Smith benefitted from it, even though unwittingly, until the truth comes out.  Smith had no involvement in the theft, I stress that he was an unwitting beneficiary, but it is likely that he knows about the circumstances surrounding the primary and has kept mum about it.  So has the U.S. District Attorney for Western Washington, Jenny Durkan, kept mum, as she very likely knows more about the circumstances surrounding that primary than Smith does (neither she nor her office ever replied to an inquiry about the election that I made).  The F.B.I. was respectful, however, and they did reply to me and implied that something was not quite right about that election, although they could not intercede since the statute of limitations had run out by the time that I knew about any of this (2010).  The mainline media in Washington has been disgraceful as they jumped all over the Rossi - Gregoire imbroglio in the same year, 2004, but stayed as far away from the 9th Congressional district primary as they could.  Hopefully, the new 9th District campaign by me will resurrect new interest in the stolen election (by the alternative media and others) and thus put pressure on the mainline media to do the job that they failed to do in '04.

Note:  Investigative journalist, Tom Flocco, published this report about the '04 primary on Nov. 2nd, 2004.

-- Mark Greene, Candidate for Congress (Washington 9th CD)

Just Fine

Despite the loss, I am just fine knowing that about this time next year (2014), I will likely be basking in the victory of the 9th District congressional general election.  The Newcastle 17% that voted for me this year, along with my supporters in SE Seattle, Mercer Island, Bellevue, Renton, Tukwila, Kent, SeaTac, Des Moines, Federal Way and NE Tacoma will catapult me into one of the most famous 3rd party election wins in Washington state, if not the nation.  The Party of Commons is foregoing getting into the labeling of GMO politics as a sponsor, though it was considered, to concentrate 100% on the congressional race.  Congratulations to the citizens of SeaTac for instituting the increased minimum wage measure.

-- Mark Greene, Candidate for Congress (Washington 9th CD)

Austerity Designs

... On the Road of Irony

 

I have no idea how many votes that candor cost me, but politicians are suppose to be smarter than to say that something that just about everybody uses must be cut back severely for financial reasons, which is what I effectively did by saying that the expenditures for streets & roads should be reduced by half.  I am willing to bet that this statement that the media didn't let get by, of course, cost me some crucially needed momentum.  However, little did those who cast a vote against me for that reason know that I was actually the anti-austerity politician in Newcastle for two reasons:

 

1. I was willing to raise taxes a little if there was a community consensus for that in order to keep streets maintained at the current level (that had been publicly known, however).
2. The present Council is thinking about cutting street expenditures a whole lot more drastically than the 50% that I proffered (a plan which would still have left streets about one million dollars annually).  Now, there are plans simmering that could bring expenditures for streets as low as a hundred thousand dollars in 2014.  And you thought I was the austerity politician!

 

However, it is not easy to communicate effectively when statements cannot be brought to bear in short interviews with enough time for reflection, and thus the appropriate context, or even with it, the ability to make sure that it is actually seen through those who control the most widely seen print.  That's why money is important in elections, and your contributions for my congressional campaign would be greatly welcome and appreciated (see the boxes to the right for address information).  Thank you!

-- Mark Greene, Candidate for Newcastle City Council, Position 6

[revised on 11/7/13]



Petition

Hi, Washingtonians,

Why does the  media ask me for a comment about the election results and then not publish it?  I only wish I had a million dollars for my congressional campaign so I could bypass all news media altogether, but it's a fact of life that politicians have to entertain reporters to some degree if they want to have any chance of success in elections. 

I am using a petition for the U.S. Representative 2014 election and I am asking my supporters to write to me and get a petition sheet.  If all who did that could just get me 10 signatures, that would go a long ways towards making this process easier and allowing me to concentrate on other aspects of the campaign, like fundraising.

The inclusion of the City of Federal Way will be a big bonus for me in the congressional election.  Federal Way played a big part in helping me win the contested '04 primary for 9th District congressperson.  An election that was stolen from me and in which the mainline media never wrote about, commented on, or investigated much.  They knew something was wrong, but they kept it under wraps because no Establishment person would benefit if the truth was uncovered and it became widespread.  The official results showed me with 47% of the vote, but I really had anywhere from over 50% to 53% of the vote.  To find out more about this strange primary election, read the Commoner post, "Major Election Irregularities (Graph & Essay)."

-- Mark Greene, chairman of the Party of Commons

Note:  I just caught this after re-reading the News article about the election results, but how am I a "challenger" when John Drescher is no more of an incumbent than me?  I guess, technically, you could use that term for any candidate regardless of who they were running against, but in the usual political parlance, "challenger" is only used when a candidate is running against an incumbent, which Drescher is not until he swears in.  -- Mark

[revised on 11/7/13]

Branching Out

As we implied in the previous post, N.P.R. will not concentrate as much on the Newcastle City Council in future posts, but will be branching out to other city and town councils in the 9th Congressional District.  N.P.R. plans to visit at least once, before the 2014 Primary Election, all city or town councils (their meetings) in the 9th Congressional District, including Newcastle and Seattle.

It looks like I-522 is not doing as well as expected, but it's still too close to call as we write.  If it fails, "Commons" is almost tempted to push our own labeling initiative as an Initiative to the People, but that's unlikely seeing that running a congressional campaign and an initiative at the same time may be a little too much on the plate.  We think the primary backers of 522 made a mistake by not focusing on the potential health hazards of genetically engineered food as much as they could have.

As for the Congressional election in District 9, "Commons" will make a big deal about Adam Smith endorsing a Republican (John Drescher, a former backer of George W. Bush and John McCain) in a city council campaign, one who is opposing a diametrically opposite third party candidate that is to the left of Smith on economic issues, N.S.A. surveillance of law-abiding American citizens (it's out of control), and foreign affairs.  Smith is a de facto "Blue Dog" Democrat.

[revised on 12/3/13]

The Wider Community

Newcastle's 17% that voted for me will play an important role in 2014.

 

A good portion of the vote is in and it looks like Newcastle decided to stay with the status quo (Drescher will fit like a glove with the present Council).  The only exception to staying with the status quo is that there will be less hurdles to clear for those who want to merge with Bellevue, and believe me there are people in high places in Newcastle and Bellevue trying to accomplish that goal (their goal, not "Commons'").  N.P.R. will now start covering the wider community more, the 9th Congressional District of which Newcastle is in, and taking a very close look at Rep. Adam Smith's poor record.  Much of this work is already on Eye on Congress. 

 

To the 17% that voted for me, thank you very much and I'm pretty sure I'll need your support again in the summer of '14.

[revised on 11/7/13]

 

-- Mark Greene, Candidate for Newcastle City Council, Position 6

Back to the Future: Poor John and Lord Rob



Just when I was going to take a little break from writing (until Election Day), the Newcastle News dropped in with two old friends.

I could practically swear that the Newcastle News told me that they had implemented a policy of publishing only one supporting letter to the editor, in total, for anyone's favorite council candidate, and only one negative one, during the election season.  I'll have to check my e-mails to be 100% sure, but I'm 98% sure that this was their policy until apparently it began to look like their candidate, John Drescher, didn't have this election locked up, yet, as he should have with all of his advantages (including the support of the town newspaper that is going out of their way to help him).  Now, it looks like the News is changing their policy in the middle of the ballgame and giving "Poor John" yet another helping hand by publishing another letter from one of his Planning Commission buddies, this time from Lord Rob, a.k.a. Rob Lemmon.  Lord Rob, as you know, wants to go back to 1910 (you'll have to read an old N.P.R. post to get the joke).  In Lord Rob's world, Newcastle would become one big gated community, and the Planning Commission would be the gatekeepers, of course.  Lord Rob's vision of Newcastle 2035 looks a little more like Orwell's "1984" than Taft's 1910, but who's counting years when regression is back to the future.

-- Mark Greene, Candidate for Newcastle City Council, Position 6

P.S. : Incidentally, since I'm campaigning more intensely than usual these last few days, if anybody sends me an e-mail, it might take a day or two for me to respond.  My apology, however.

[revised on 11/2/13]

Key phrases or words for link(s), above: old N.P.R. post

Recent N.P.R. post with Mark Greene's photo: Time to Vote.

Last day to mail in or drop-off ballots: Tues., Nov. 5th, 2013.
 

Feeling Like Alaska

I thought that my previous post (about the fabulous singer, Miley Cyrus) would be my last post until the first results come in on Tuesday, but it just dawned on me that I have the same feeling going into Election Day that I had in the Alaska primary for Congress 13 years ago.  Then there were six candidates competing in what would turn out to be the last statewide Open Alaska Primary, a primary in which any partisan candidate could run in regardless of their party affiliation (before the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed those kind of primaries, but later reinstituted it, more or less, through the State of Washington's "Top 2" law). The Alaskan Republicans opted to hold their own primary rather than participate in that one that year, 2000.  I campaigned hard although in only 2 of Alaska's towns as it is almost impossible to cover the whole great land mass state even with considerable money, let alone without it. 

However, I did manage to communicate through the Alaskan media well enough to win the primary, but had absolutely no idea where I would place among the 6 candidates before I first heard the results from my mother over the phone (who had checked the results on her computer).  The radio announcers were pretty much ignoring the Congress primary until very late in the night, if not after 12 A.M.  I thought that I did well given the hand that I was dealt (poor finances, relative newcomer to Alaska, a conservative state that's doesn't particularly embrace dyed-in-the-wool liberals), but doing well is not always good enough to win elections.  However, I won.  Today, I have the same feeling about Newcastle (not really feeling too sure, but also having this feeling that a victory will happen), but the difference is that this is the General Election and not a primary, so now I may take office.  Thank you, Newcastlers, for your support and confidence in me.  My first agenda item will be trying to put together the consortium and political support needed to build a geothermal plant in Newcastle (in conjunction with gearing up the private version of the Newcastle Environmental Enhancement Project), and I will start on that, within the full legal boundaries as a private citizen still, during the transition period between Election Day and the start of the new Council term in early January (my swearing-in day).

-- Mark Greene, Candidate for Newcastle City Council, Position 6

Note:  After 2000, Alaskans awarded me a second consecutive partisan primary victory for Congress in August of 2002, with roughly 2/3 of the vote.

[revised on 11/1/13]

Recent N.P.R. post with Mark Greene's photo: Time to Vote.

Last day to mail in or drop-off ballots: Tues., Nov. 5th, 2013.

Miley: One Great Star

Since Miley Cyrus is one the most famous celebrities today, I know that a lot of people that don't ordinarily vote, but follow Hollywood pretty intensely, may be led to this post, and that's good, because I'm trying to reach out to non-voters for a change, and urging them to take an interest in this election or the next one because politics matters, believe it or not.  By the way, I like Miley Cyrus, the singer and musician, and would never have a celebrity name as the title of one my posts if I felt differently.  I like Ms. Cyrus because she doesn't mind being herself no matter what anybody thinks about her and that is something to be greatly applauded in a society that pretty much follows the herd rather than thinking independently.  At least there are people out there who say, "hey, wait a minute," this doesn't make sense, or it doesn't follow my sensibilities, or it's no more right than my very different way, or it's downright absurd or worse. Cyrus stands out because of her independence and willingness to take a stand for it, and by extension, her God-given natural rights, not to mention rights from the Constitution.  If only the political psyche of America was more like Cyrus, then we wouldn't be led astray by "moralistic" politicians and pontificators who are anything but moral.  So if you came to this post expecting a blog about entertainment rather than politics, you will be disappointed, but maybe you will think about politics more, and how your independent vote, if you decide to vote, could lead us to a better government that is really of, for and by the people.  For Newcastlers, it's not too late to vote today and up until the 5th day of November.  This will probably be N.P.R.'s last post until the results come in late Tuesday.

-- Mark Greene, Candidate for Newcastle City Council, Position 6

[revised on 10/31/13]

Recent N.P.R. post with Mark Greene's photo: Time to Vote.

Last day to mail in or drop-off ballots: Tues., Nov. 5th, 2013.

Greene Busily Campaigning During Final Voting Days

Mark Greene, candidate for Newcastle City Council, has been busily campaigning on the streets of Newcastle this week and picking up more support, just several days before the November 5th vote count.  Ballots have already been mailed out by the King County Elections Department.  Newcastle women appear to be especially supporting Greene, as many appreciate his endorsement from political activist and former Congressional nominee, Darcy Burner.

Women also appreciate Greene's big support for Police Chief Melinda Irvine and City Attorney Dawn Reitan, and Greene's call for freedom since 2011 of ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian political prisoner.  Greene also lauded State Senator Pam Roach (R) in an earlier post on N.P.R. even though Greene, himself, is from the Party of Commons, a third party.  Greene expects to get somewhere between 53% - 58% of the female vote.

Greene also expects to do well among the elderly and the low income in Newcastle, who appreciate Greene's support for expanding and defending the social safety net, especially social security.  Greene also does very well among those really interested in protecting the environment.  The little bicycle club (Cascade) refused to endorse Greene despite his filling out their questionnaire and obviously being much in support of improving the conditions for bicyclists and pedestrians (neither did they endorse Drescher).  Nothing against their rank-in-file members, most of whom are probably upstanding, good citizens, but their hierarchy is probably overrun by pansy-assed snobs.

Of course, Greene is not doing as well among the Establishment and Chamber of Commerce-types, as they are all too aware that Greene will be representing the wishes of commoners, not moneyed interests, if he is elected to the Council.  Greene's support is more from unelected officials in Newcastle than elected.

[revised on 10/30/13]

Recent N.P.R. post with Mark Greene's photo: Time to Vote.

Last day to mail in or drop-off ballots: Tues., Nov. 5th, 2013.

Tymoshenko's Stand For Democracy

Former Premier, Yulia Tymoshenko

The Party of Commons and its founder, Mark Greene, candidate for Newcastle City Council, has morally supported former Ukrainian Premier and political prisoner, Yulia Tymoshenko, since the 2nd big disputed election (since 2004) in that Eastern European country in February, 2010, and has consistently called for her freedom on these blogs (Tymoshenko successfully had the 1st disputed election for the presidency, that she wasn't even running for then, overturned).  Greene, who has visited Eastern Europe, among other regions of the world, had the pleasure of visiting western Ukraine during the Zeroes (decade).  Greene has traveled to other world destinations as a tourist as well, especially since '92, including the cities of Hong Kong, Warsaw, Russia's Moscow and St. Petersburg, Athens and Rome.  There are rumors circulating that Tymoshenko may be freed soon, but we're not getting our hopes up until it actually happens.

 

Tymoshenko may have been denied a rightful victory to become president of Ukraine in '10, though amazingly it seems incredulous to many people that elections are actually stolen, including right here in the U.S.A.   The other curious election of '04 (Washington state) comes to mind, a strange Congressional primary that the mainstream news media intentionally ducked since they realize that the truth may really set us free.

Note:  to see Tymoshenko's official blog, click on the caption under her photo.

[revised on 10/28/13]

Previous N.P.R. post with Mark Greene's photo: Time to Vote.

The other most recent post regarding Y. Tymoshenko: ("... In the Clutches of Regime")

 

Last day to mail in or drop-off ballots: Tues., Nov. 5th, 2013.

Time to Vote

Mark Greene

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It's time to vote!  Now, is your time to take charge of the government and to let the lobbyists and go-along politicians know that the People shall rule in 2013, and that Newcastle isn't going to be just a neighborhood of another city anytime soon, if ever.  I request your vote and I appreciate your confidence in me as someone who is solely and wholly interested in representing the people only.  That is pretty much assured by the Establishment's hands off attitude towards me, as usual, as they are very aware that I don't represent their big money interests, because I'm totally grounded with the people, and believe we can do a lot better in being stewards of the Earth bestowed to us by God.  I am very glad that Mr. Drescher listed his many big shot endorsers, such as Rodney Tom and Rob McKenna, in a Newcastle News advertisement, because that's the clearest sign yet of the contrast between him and I, and how we approach politics.  Thank  you!

- Mark Greene, Candidate for Newcastle City Council, Position 6

Correction: a previous statement on this post should have been worded to state that I have never lost an election in which there were only non-incumbents on the ballot, notwithstanding the disputed primary loss for federal representative in '04 (Washington/9th CD).  I have been in three primary elections as such, including 2 victories in Alaska for federal representative ('00 and '02).

Oct. 21, 2013: N.P.R. has surpassed the goal of at least 5000 views on this site in a 30-day-period before Election Day, which means that word is spreading fast about one of the most energetic campaigns in a Washington local election this year, namely the Mark Greene for Newcastle City Council (Anti-Annexation) campaign.  Thank you for letting other readers know about N.P.R. -- the circulation of this site could not have dramatically increased in the last couple of months without your help.  Tomorrow (Oct. 22nd) is the annual Town Hall Meeting at the Newcastle Golf Club.

Oct. 22, 2013: While the hare and his Establishment friends scurry about in these last days before the election trying to get votes wherever they can; the tortoise keeps chugging along and is going to need your help to get over the finish line.  Please, call one family member, friend or acquaintance -- from Newcastle -- and ask that person to vote for Mark Greene. Thank you so much!

Oct. 25, 2013: The off-and-on competency of the King County Elections Department is off again as they bungled the exposure of my photograph (and a number of other candidates as well) and thus made it look like a silhouette in the 2013 King County Voters' Pamphlet (General and Special Election).  This can't be blamed on the particular photograph that I sent them (and probably can't be blamed on the particular photographs of most other candidates), because they had the same exact photo in my last election and it came out good then, but they got it from the Secretary of State's office that time, not to mention that this photo underwent some of the most rigorous specifications possible as directed by the Secretary of State.  As I said in '11, when I was Runner-up for Director of Elections, the King County Elections Dept. needs a thorough revamping.  Not much has changed, if anything, in the Huff - McConnell election operations since then.

Note:  The N.S.A. is  completely out-of-control spying on law-abiding American citizens, especially political activists and everyday people, and is now or was recently spying on German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.  None of our State of Washington delegation in Congress, least of all "Blue Dog" Democrat, Adam Smith, ever speaks out fervently against the unconstitutional acts of an increasingly Orwellian N.S.A., but the Party of Commons is writing about them, among other subjects, on Commoner.

[revised on 10/25/13]

Last day to mail in or drop-off ballots: Tues., Nov. 5th, 2013.

R's Could Keep Near Unanimous Control of Council

... if Democrats and Independents Vote Republican instead of Commons.

Don't be fooled by "Blue Dog" Democrat Adam Smith's endorsement of John Drescher (R); not to mention so-called Democrat Rodney Tom's endorsement: if Drescher, a supporter of George W. Bush and John McCain, respectively, during the '04 and '08 presidential elections, is elected to the Newcastle City Council in a few weeks, the Republicans will keep near unanimous control of the Council, and the probable make-up of the Council would stay the same: 6 Republicans out of 7 council members.  However, if Mark Greene (Commons) is elected, the probable make-up would be 5 Republicans out of 7 council members.  These numbers are N.P.R. estimates, only, because it is hard to be 100% sure since Council positions are technically non-partisan.

[revised on 10/20/13]

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

And I-517 should also be passed, which strengthens the initiative system, the people's check on the legislature and the governor.

The Nation's Albatross

The Monsanto Corporation, the primary producer and sponsor of genetically modified (GM) food, is the nation's albatross.  They are presently trying to trick Washington into thinking that GM food is not harmful and thus trying to keep I-522 from being passed.  522, after all, is no more than labeling so that consumers can decide for themselves whether or not they want to eat and drink GM products, but it could lead to monumental changes in the entire nation's agricultural policies -- which Monsanto realizes.  Despite the sleight-of-hand that Monsanto and their supporters often use in saying that genetically modified or engineered food is normal, GM food is not the ordinary cross-pollination of crops, a technique that farmers have used for centuries, but instead is something that started over the last quarter century-or-so: a new scientific experiment in which the molecular structure, itself, of plants is manipulated, deformed and changed, an experiment in which human beings are the unwitting guinea pigs. GM food is a long-term health hazard to humans according to many top scientists, and tests have shown that animals (whose senses are often sharper than humans) instinctively avoid it when given an equal choice between natural food and GM food.  These animals, including birds, instinctively know better than to eat Monsanto's stuff when given a natural option.

If Monsanto and the lesser known companies that do essentially the same thing as Monsanto are not stopped, agriculture across the U.S. will inevitably be ruined further than what it already has been, and America will have to import much of her food from countries that have enough sense not to let this albatross on their farms.  The corrupt U.S. Congress has long let Monsanto have their way in devising our nation's farm policy, and the current Secretary of Agriculture (Tom  Vilsack) is Monsanto's #1 sympathizer.  Therefore the effects of Monsanto's and Vilsack's policies have caused  much of America's plants and crops to be despoiled, including alfalfa which was fairly recently unprotected from the GM frenzy, and these effects could be long lasting.  Now, however, Washington (trough Initiative 522) has a chance to be the first American state to trip up the albatross and Vilsack, and hopefully, lead the rest of the nation to the side of normalcy and naturalness for the sake of the survival of American agriculture and humanity.  This debate is no less critical than that.

[revised on 10/20/13]

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?
 
And I-517 should also be passed, which strengthens the initiative system, the people's check on the legislature and the governor.

Finance Director Presents Preliminary Budget

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of 10/15/13

 

Finance Director Christine Olson presented the Preliminary Budget for 2014 to the Council on Tuesday night, but N.P.R. was only able to stay for the very early part of the presentation because of the non-N.P.R. work schedule of the editor.  Therefore N.P.R. only has very sketchy details right now, but will try to get information from City Hall about the full extent of the preliminary plan.  This probably will be showcased on N.P.R. sometime next week once City Hall sends the relevant documents to us. 

One plan that was new was the intent by the city to hire a liaison for the Community Activities Commission at a price tag of $50,000 annually. This obviously would be somebody not on the Council, as presently is the case with the temporary liaison (Mayor Richard Crispo) and explained on a recent post, ironically: "Liaison Position on Community Activities Should Be Jettisoned."  Why they would hire a liaison after reducing the Parks manager's hours to part-time earlier this year would be a good question, but N.P.R. has little information right now (the Parks Commission was renamed to Community Activities, with added responsibilities, and is now under the purview of the "Parks/Community Activities" manager).

What would the new liaison be doing anyway?  Liaison sounds like a fancy name for doing whatever the mayor and the city manager wants done, or more generally, executive assistant for Community Activities.  Would the "liaison" post be under the part-time Parks manager as well, or vice-versa, or on equal footing?  The city should go to the plan outlined in "Liaison Position on Community Activities Should Be Jettisoned," including re-setting the position of Parks manager (Michael Holly) back to full-time, and perhaps hiring a part-time executive assistant or "liaison" that would be under the manager, if needed.

In other Council news, it was announced that the Eagle Scouts are hard at work developing the Crosstown Trail.

Mayor Rich Crispo announced the resignations of Craig Belcher and Jesse Tam from the Community Activities Commission.  There will be at least 2 new volunteer commissioner slots open on Community Activities, now.  If interested, apply at City Hall or go to their website for more information (must be at least 18 years old).

Councilman Bill Erxleben said that the King County government is no longer planning on plowing secondary roads during a future snow storm, but will only plow primary roads.

[revised on 10/17/13]

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

And I-517 should also be passed, which strengthens the initiative system, the people's check on the legislature and the governor.

Position 6 Election Is a Toss-Up

Despite John Drescher's (R) apparent and commendable hustle -- he claims he's door-belling the entirety of Newcastle -- and despite his much more greater spending of money compared to my campaign, not to mention his ability to get the Washington Establishment in his corner, amazingly the Position 6 Newcastle Council race looks like a toss-up.  I have personally met at least 10,000 Washingtonians over the course of a decade in politics, here, who have affirmed their support for me, and a good portion of those have been Newcastlers (especially in 2013), although I don't door-bell, and thus don't disturb people in their homes.  I prefer to meet voters at our various community centers, and I have met thousands over the past couple of years and the past decade.  Another 90,000-or-so have joined those 10,000 by voting for me in various elections.

All the signals are telling me that this is a 50-50 race, and that's not just wishful thinking.  People are telling me they are tired of the Establishment and their special interest friends whose needs take priority over the commons as a whole.  The commons is all-inclusive and takes care of the entire community's needs, places like public libraries, post offices, public schools and the streets we drive on, to name a few.  The Party of Commons stands for maintaining and strengthening the commons, and alternatively trying to make sure that it is not depreciated by narrow special interests who would like to privatize much of the commons for their own profit, thereby making it harder for citizens to stand together as a community in the interest of building and maintaining a great civil society for the needs of everybody, not just a privileged few.  Our name, however, has a double-entendre meaning, because Commons also means the common person or, simply, commoners.  After all, the high and the mighty have two parties looking out for them and are, in fact, primarily for them.  They go by the names of Democratic Party and Republican Party, so there should be at least one party that looks out after the interests of common citizens, and it's us.  Come and join our party by sending me an e-mail, showing up for our meetings, and casting a vote for me in this election.  I'm not guaranteeing a victory, but it's going to be close, and the common people of Newcastle and Washington state might just be celebrating a victory on Nov. 5th.

- Mark Greene (Commons), Candidate for Newcastle City Council, Position 6
  
Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

And I-517 should also be passed, which strengthens the initiative system, the people's check on the legislature and the governor.

Liaison Position on Community Activities Should Be Jettisoned

With the coming of the election ballots just days away, N.P.R. will be writing nearly every day until the weekend just before the official Nov. 5th election date.

Regarding the changes that were made to the formerly named Parks Commission earlier this year, some may have been necessary since the duties of the commission were expanded, but it would have been better to start a third and separate commission altogether, and to leave Parks to just overseeing parks.  The Parks Manager should have remained in a full-time status instead of the reduction to part-time that occurred, and thus his role could have been expanded to include whatever duties a new, third commission (probably "Community Activities" without the parks) would have been handling.  The Council can still enact these changes.

The Council Liaison position, currently held by Mayor Rich Crispo, should never have been created in the first place (only Councilman John Dulcich, to his credit, voted against it), as there should be a strict line between the Council and the Commissions, which would, among other reasons, lessen any possibility of conflicts of interests, an issue that Councilwoman Carol Simpson brought up during the discussions regarding the changes.  Moreover, it's discriminatory to say that one commission needs a minder (which is really what the liaison position amounts to) and another doesn't.  If any commission needs a minder, it's the Planning Commission, not Community Activities, but there should be no "liaison" for any commission and the Council should not extend this position pass the sunset date of 12/31/13 (or thereabouts -- N.P.R. isn't sure of the exact sunset date).

A revamped Community Activities Commission (with Parks on its own) could handle the library, the proposed historical society, and the proposed Environmental Enhancement Project as offered by Council Candidate Mark Greene, among other responsibilities and duties.

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

And I-517 should also be passed, which strengthens the initiative system, the people's check on the legislature and the governor.

Newcastle Can Reinforce the Third Party Movement

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The election ballots to arrive in your mailboxes are right around the corner and the Washington Establishment which has its fingers in the pot of every nook and corner of the state has done everything they could to try to make the Position 6 council election a forgone conclusion for their candidate, John Drescher (R).  Everything from getting Rodney Tom (D)/(Turncoat) to return to his "parlor games" to making sure that no debate forum was or will be held in Newcastle.  They forgot one thing, though -- your common sense and how it could surprise them. 

We are in a new Gilded Age.  Nuclear waste contamination from nuclear energy plants -- from Fukushima to wherever else -- threatens to despoil the entire planet, and its cousin, nuclear armaments, dangle over our heads just waiting for an accident or lunatics to set them off.  A manufactured crisis in D.C. (by John Boehner & Co.) has shut the government down and the man-made crisis of global warming could shut down wide areas of habitable Earth.  Very recently, a poll has shown that more than 3/4 of Americans think that our nation is going in the wrong direction, yet there is not a single third party congressperson in the national/federal government (there are 2 or 3 independents in the 113th Congress, but that's not exactly the same thing).

Although, the fledgling Party of Commons is hardly known in Washington state, let alone outside of it, an election victory in Newcastle would be another of many small 3rd party steps towards shaking up the Democratic/Republican stronghold on governance.  Hopefully, enough of these little victories, similar to the domino effect, will eventually transcend into a nationwide 3rd party breakthrough of national prominence and into Congress itself, and thus a breakout from the crusty old Republican/Democratic guard that has kept America in political lockdown, interventionist grind and economic lockout. 

Other third parties have made gains on city and town councils, and legislatures, all over America.  We can keep the trend going through the power of your vote, as every incremental step paves the way to a new government.

- Mark Greene (Commons), Candidate for Newcastle City Council, Position 6

[revised on 10/14/13]

Previous post:  "Essential Tales: Jackson & Orwell"

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

Essential Tales: Jackson & Orwell

The two best tales of the last century to fortell the future are "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "Nineteen Eighty-four" by George Orwell. The authors were prophets of their time for whom we would be wise to reconsider as their prophecies have come to light a little more than sixty years since the publishing of their tales: Jackson's in 1948, and Orwell's in 1949.

Both tales are a mirror of our times as Jackson wonders how a society could keep doing something absurd, even as it instinctively knows it's ridiculous, and yet keeps following the pattern, because of built in systems or traditions of a perilous nature, including that of hardly ever upsetting the established viewpoints. Nuclear energy programs all around the world are a case in point, as humanity produces extremely hazardous atomic waste by self-replicating caseloads, stuff they have no idea of where to put, but putting it someplace nonetheless, none of which is a good place, and that of which getting into the worst places, as it inevitably does, wrecks the ecosystem, not to mention occasional meltdowns and a million years-or-so life spans of unfriendly to humanity and animals alike radioactive particles. All of this is particularly curious since there are relatively safe energy alternatives from wind, solar, and geothermal sources that are far from being fully developed. As for other Jackson-type "lotteries" that societies partake in, the list is long.

Then there is Orwell. If Shirley Jackson was the prophet of illogic unchecked, then George Orwell was the prophet of politics gone astray, as his "1984" shows that power, unchecked and immovable, gives rise to totalitarianism and tyranny. Today, the Constitution is ignored regularly, with barely a murmur of protest, as many think that seemingly practical things, like omnipresent security, are more important than the rule of law, and politicians and judges have figured out a way to squirm around basic democratic norms, by simply acting in a way that makes democracy narrow and nominal. Whereas economic power is regarded as practically supreme by those political and institutional forces that erode democracy.

In a way, Orwellianism, and Jacksonian illogic make good bookends as an ominous warning to society, because one could probably not thrive without the other. Illogic thrives when Orwellianism rules. Orwellianism thrives when illogic rules.

[Originally published on Commoner on 9/18/2011 under the title "Bookends: Tales of Shirley Jackson and George Orwell;" revised on 10/14/13.]

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

Correction: Misspelling in Past Title

N.P.R. is quite embarrassed by the spelling error in the title of our October 5th, 2013 post: "The Establishment Tries to Run Up the Score."  N.P.R. had originally spelled the plural of the word "try" as "trys" instead of the correct "tries," but that is now corrected.  I mistakenly thought that the two different spellings were variable. This is all the more embarrassing because I did so well with spelling bees in grade school and I have scored above average on college and employment grammar/spelling tests since adulthood. 

N.P.R. apologizes to our readers.  If ever any one of you sees a grammatical error (or anything you believe is a factual error), please, let N.P.R. know by sending an e-mail or a comment.

-- Mark Greene, Editor of Northern Pacific Report

Previous post:  Drescher's '04 Article Criticizing Kerry and Defending Outsourcing

Note:  N.P.R. surpassed 3000 page views over a 30-day-period for the very first time, today, which is very good news for the Mark Greene for Council campaign.  Thank you for spreading the word about Northern Pacific Report!

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

Drescher's '04 Article Criticizing Kerry and Defending Outsourcing

Unless John Drescher (R) has changed his mind since his nine-year-old Op.-Ed. criticizing a major party presidential nominee (John Kerry), Mr. Drescher apparently supports job outsourcing from America to other countries.  N.P.R. is going to keep this post short, after all, any kind of rationalization by Mr. Drescher hoisting up outsourcing speaks for itself.  Outsourcing, however, has been the bane of the common working person in America, as manufacturing has fallen off dramatically in the last generation and unemployment, today, is practically or actually at unprecedented levels since the era of the Great Depression.  If you think this is incredulous, then go to the link provided in the first sentence of this essay and read Drescher's article.

[revised on 10/14/13]

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

Drescher's Benefits & Salary Cuts Vrs. Aesop's Wisdom

Regarding the Newcastle News Q & A for Position 6 candidates, John Drescher answered the question about cutting the city budget by saying, in part, that he wants to cut the salary and benefits of underperforming staff.  For one thing, it should be the city manager's prerogative to discipline underperforming staff, if any, which N.P.R. doubts is a big problem in Newcastle.  Moreover, Drescher's idea smacks of overreaching management retribution to deal with problems and would create problems with the unions.  Generally, the City Council should not be trying to micro-manage how the city manager commands and disciplines his staff.  The Council gives broad guidelines to the city manager, but neither they nor the manager should be using salary and benefits as a tool to punish underperforming staff, but instead should use positive steps, such as setting goals, to improve performances that don't meet standards.  Improvement letters or talks, and goal-setting, that's it, not threatening to diminish the living standards of workers.  The city must abide by the agreements with the unions in spirit and in practice, and avoid costly legal entanglements.  Has Mr. Drescher ever read Aesop's Fables?  If so, he should re-read "The North Wind and the Sun," and he would find that positive influences work much better than trying to blow the cloaks off of workers that he may come to disapprove of.

Update:  "Here Comes the Sun": a new post on the Commons blog, "Groundswell."

[updated on 10/11/13]

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

Greene Attends Gathering of Candidates

Mark Greene (Commons) attended the Newcastle City Council candidates' gathering at the Newcastle Golf Club yesterday hosted by the Jensen family (John & Lisa, the Deputy Mayor) and spoke to various guests about environmental advancement and, among other subjects, a proposed public safety initiative in the name of hiring a few more patrol officers under the guidance of Police Chief Melinda Irvine.  The event was lightly attended, about 30-or-so guests, but lively as conversation about governance and politics, among other topics, took place.  Mayor Rich Crispo, Councilman John Dulcich, and Candidate John Drescher (R) also attended, among other politicians and officials, including City Manager Rob Wyman and County Councilman Reagan Dunn.  Incidentally, Greene and Drescher shook hands.

[updated and revised on 10/10/13]

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

What the News Left Out

Why the Newcastle News used a larger than usual typeset size in their print edition for the Question and Answer segment by the candidates for Position 6, and thus did not display all 14 questions presented to the candidates, is curious, but we can only speculate.  Here are the 4 questions and answers that they did not print, and the endorsements they left out as well.  

[The following Q & A was derived from the Newcastle News' on-line edition (October 4, 2013) and posted here under the Fair Use Doctrine regarding copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code).]

What should be the city's role in economic development? 

Mark Greene: 

Encouraging it through proactive policies, such as inviting developers and entrepreneurs to City Hall, and running the city well will help to achieve that goal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
John Drescher:
 
Newcastle should make clear through word and policy that it welcomes and encourages entrepreneurs who choose to invest in and bring services to our city.


What recent council decision would you have changed if you could?  Why?

Mark Greene:  

No one decision, but approving various zoning ordinances without requirement that large real estate gentrification cannot displace renters without limitations on increased rent or compensation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
John Drescher:

It was unfortunate to lose a full-time parks director. Parks are our strength. We should invest in their proper care and fullest use.


How will the city continue to improve public safety?

Mark Greene:

Support Police Chief Melinda Irvine and her proposals, including a few extra patrol officers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
John Drescher:

My goal is for two Newcastle officers to be on duty 24/7 for added prevention and quicker response to combat the sharp rise in crime.

Should the city expand its recreation programs? Explain.

Mark Greene:

Maybe, but under a tight budget, recreation won’t be high on the totem pole. With all the wide-open fields, here, people are quite innovative.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
John Drescher:

Parks/trails are our strength. I am in favor of funding a full-time community activities/parks manager when the city finances better allow for such.

Mark Greene's Endorsement:

Darcy Burner (former two-time Congress nominee)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
John Drescher's Endorsements:

Adam Smith, 9th District; Dave Reichert, 8th District; Rob McKenna, former Attorney General; Rodney Tom, state Senate Majority Leader; Steve Litzow, Senator 41st District; Burien mayor Brian Bennett; Newcastle Mayor Rich Crispo; Newcastle Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen; Gordon Bisset, Newcastle City Council; Steve Buri, Newcastle City Council; John Dulcich, Newcastle City Council; Bill Erxleben, Newcastle City Council; Allen Dauterman, Newcastle Planning Commission, vice chairman; Rob Lemmon, Newcastle Planning Commission; Tom Magers, Newcastle Planning Commission; Jon Simpson, Newcastle Planning Commission; and Elizabeth Thompson, Newcastle Planning Commission

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

Public Officials and Criticism

Goes With the Territory

I've been hearing that I'm being criticized for, myself, criticizing several of Mr. Drescher's endorsers.  However, I've gone down the list of Drescher's endorsers as publicized on his site or in the Newcastle News, and every one of them are public officials or former public officials.  So, in effect, they are using their positions, some of which are very well paid and others are volunteer (it's makes no difference either way), to effect the outcome of an election.  Generally, I would not criticize a non-public official who endorsed Drescher, because they are just exercising their rights in a democracy, and I respect that immensely.  However, there is a different and higher standard for someone who is using their government position to effect an election, so they are subject to criticism.  By the way, a lot of my criticism of Drescher's endorsers is trying to be light and sometimes humorous.  I will take the criticism of my criticizing public officials with a grain of salt, but there's no apologies, here.

-- Mark Greene, Candidate for Newcastle City Council, Position 6

[revised on 10/14/13]

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

Mediocrity Speaks

At Least He Doesn't Think He's Spock (probably)

Jon Simpson, one of the Planning Commissioners and one of John Drescher's (R) endorsers, wrote a letter to the editor praising Mr. Drescher in the Newcastle News.  N.P.R. has barely noticed Simpson at some of the Planning Commission meetings, as this flabby mediocrity, who puts on airs like he's some kind of intellectual, seems as delusional as the Seattle-area billionaire who thinks he's the second coming of Lieutenant Spock (Star Trek).  Simpson probably hopes that he'll rise up a notch from the bottom of the totem pole at Planning if Drescher ascends to Council.

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified. If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

The Establishment Tries to Run Up the Score

The Newcastle News published a Question and Answer segment for the Position 6 council candidates in their latest (October) edition.  At least that was neutral.  Additionally, however, the News endorsed John Drescher (R): "Surprise, surprise, surprise," as TVs Gomer Pyle would have said.  In the past the News has endorsed several, if not many, of Drescher's many endorsers, and they published a letter to the editor in favor of their endorsee in the October edition as well.  Almost the entirety of the mostly Republican Newcastle City Council and Planning Commission, and especially an anti-apartments commissioner who wrote a testimonial, endorsed Drescher. Regarding outsiders (not from Newcastle), Drescher received endorsements from everyone from turncoat political charlatan Rodney Tom (D) [it should be (T)] to unsuccessful though renowned gubernatorial candidate, Rob McKenna (R). 

In football, they call this running up the score, but I remember a game where the Seahawks fell way behind and then managed to come back and win the game.  Mark Greene (Commons) has met hundreds of voters, maybe even thousands, coming into downtown ever since he first ran for council in 2007, and is continuing to work hard to win this election.  As you can remember in "Aesop's Fables," the hare pulled away in front of the tortoise quite dramatically, but the tortoise ended up getting the victory.

[revised on 10/11/13]

Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified.  If GM food is the greatest thing since sliced bread (according to them), then why don't they want it labeled?

Tortoise at the Table

Mark Greene

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for your attention to this close council election in Newcastle between me and my "2" opponents, Mr. Drescher and the Washington Establishment.  I cannot even identify the latter as just the town Establishment, because big shots from outside of Newcastle have meddled in our politics to make sure that the "little people" do not get a foothold in governance.  After all, they realize that the game (of special interest politics) is up once the little people start governing.  Which is why, my friends, that I need your vote and for many of you to join my relatively new 3rd party, the Party of Commons.


I started this campaign back in early December, and like the Tortoise in Aesop's Fables, "The Hare and the Tortoise," I have been inching along towards victory, receiving support from commoners from all parts of Newcastle as we try to get a seat at the table.  Naturally, I'm not going to put up signs in every square mile of Newcastle (I put up just a handful of signs), because for one, all these political signs everywhere aren't that aesthetic-looking, and secondly, I don't get the money from wheelers and dealers who try to influence politics for their own narrow or special interests as opposed to that of Newcastle, generally.

As someone who has promised that I'll never vote for the annexation of Newcastle, voters will have at least 3 solid votes against annexation on the Newcastle City Council in the next 2 - 4 years (Councilmember Carol Simpson being among those).  This loyal bloc will keep Newcastle independent and sovereign until we pass the baton to a new generation.

-- Mark Greene, Candidate for Newcastle City Council, Position 6

[Revised on 10/3/13 and updated with a photograph on 10/5/13.]

Note #1:  Please, pass the word around about Northern Pacific Report, URL: http://commonsnorth.blogspot.com.  The larger the circulation, the better chance that commoners will get a seat at the table. Thank you!  

Note #2:  Yesterday's Council Meeting: the Newcastle City Council was in session yesterday with an agenda filled with budget matters.  N.P.R. did not attend that session. 

Yesterday's agenda format is from the City of Newcastle:

GENERAL BUSINESS
 

a.  AB 13‐068  Operating Budget Needs and Council Priorities for 2014      Christine Olson, Finance Director 

 

Councilmembers will begin the 2014 budgeting process by discussing needs and  priorities for next year.   

b.  AB 13‐069  Revenue Forecast for 2014 ‐ 2019  Christine Olson, Finance Director 

A review of financial forecasts as part of the budgeting process.   

c.  AB 13‐070  Ordinance Amending the 2013 Budget  Christine Olson, Finance Director

The Council will review proposed amendments to the current fiscal year budget.

A public comment period is provided.

From N.P.R.: Please vote for I-522 this November, YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW about whether of not the food you buy is genetically modified.  If genetically modified food is so great, why don't the producers of it want it labeled?