END the Mass. Income Tax

Small Government News*
Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Publisher: Carla Howell
Editor: Michael Cloud

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IN THIS ISSUE
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-- END the Income Tax Initiative Headed For Ballot
-- Boston Globe Article
-- "Congratulations," Writes Citizens for Limited Taxation

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END THE INCOME TAX BALLOT INITIATIVE HEADED FOR BALLOT
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Dear Friend,

We're frazzled, fried, and fatigued.

Last week, we delivered 100,000 petition signatures for our END the
Income Tax Ballot Initiative to 351 town clerks for validation and
certification.

This week, we have to arrange pickups and shipping of these legally
validated signatures to us.

Next week - by Wednesday, December 5th - we must file our validated
petition signatures with the Massachusetts Secretary of State.

Then the fun begins. We get to show Massachusetts taxpayers and voters
the huge, immediate, direct benefits of ENDing the Income Tax in
Massachusetts. We get to tell them why they can make themselves
dramatically better off by ENDing the state income tax - and giving
3,000,000 Massachusetts workers and taxpayers $3,600 each, every year.

To donors: Thank you for giving us the tools to do the work. Your
donation got us over the hardest hurdle.

To volunteers: Thank you for helping with the labors of liberty. Your
work made a difference.

We have a long 8 days ahead of us - to get the validated petition
signatures to the Secretary of State by December 5th.

We're finishing up this part of our work to END the Income Tax - and
make government small.

We'll give you a situation and progress report later this week.

Thank you to everyone who helped.

Small government is possible,

Carla Howell & Michael Cloud


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BOSTON GLOBE ARTICLE
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On Saturday, November 24, The Boston Globe published an article on the
4 Ballot Initiatives qualifying for the 2008 ballot. Here are the 136
words they wrote about us:

Michael Cloud of the Committee for Small Government said his group
collected about 100,000 signatures for the income tax repeal, "enough
of a cushion to blow back any challenge." When it last appeared on the
ballot in 2002, the initiative received more than 45 percent of the
vote. Cloud predicted it would pass next year, adding that the group
plans to spend $500,000 on ads for the initiative campaign, compared
with just $90,000 five years ago.

The initiative would decimate the state budget, chopping it from about
$28 billion to $17 billion, which was about the size of the state's
1995 budget, according to Cloud. He said the average household's
savings would be about $3,600 a year.

"If the legislators feel like they need more money, they can make
their case to the people," he said.

* source


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"CONGRATULATIONS," WRITES CITIZENS FOR LIMITED TAXATION
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"The last time Carla and her Small Government organization put [the
END the Income Tax Initiative] on the 2002 ballot over the objections
of the Legislature, it garnered over 45 percent of the vote -- the
result of which probably kept Beacon Hill from even thinking about
hiking the income tax rate," wrote Chip Ford in the CLT Newsletter.

"What an achievement, in this 'busy people' climate!" wrote Barbara
Anderson in a message.

For 33 years, Citizens for Limited Taxation (CLT) has worked to
reduce, restrain, and restrict Massachusetts taxes. Under the
leadership of Chip Ford, Barbara Anderson, and Chip Faulkner, CLT has
been "the Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers."

http://www.cltg.org/cltg/clt2007/07-11-24.htm


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Starting Technorati

Firing up Technorati with this blog ...

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KING CONSERVATION DISTRICT ELECTION

Citizens' Alliance for Property Rights urges you to get out and vote for Matt Livengood. You must go to one of the 7 polling places.

From the KCGOP Weekly Newsletter (email), Feb 1, 2007 ...

KING CONSERVATION DISTRICT ELECTION
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2007

Remember this election from last year? This is the one where all King County voters (except for the following five cities: Federal Way, Enumclaw, Milton, Pacific and Skykomish) are eligible but only seven polling places are open across the county. Last year Ron Sims tried to change the composition of the board by promoting an unqualified liberal candidate. He failed but he’s trying it again. Please support the incumbent, Matt Livengood by voting this Tuesday.

You can find the seven polling places here. Matt Livengood’s candidate questionnaire is here (PDF) and his opponent, Ron Sims’ candidate, Max Prinsen’s candidate questionnaire is here (PDF).

For more information:
http://www.kingcd.org
http://www.scc.wa.gov
425-277-5581 x103

Seattle Viaduct - crash and burn preview

Least anyone wonder what traffic would be like if any of the tear down options (even for a tunnel, completed years later) become reality for the Seattle Viaduct, you need to look no further than the sad "crash and burn" that killed 3 people on the upper West Seattle bridge, closing the bridge for hours during morning rush hour commute. Don't worry, just go home ... businesses won't survive, either.

Or traffic can keep rolling with the retrofit option. And you'll save a boat load of money to spend on trivialities like health care and food, for your family.

[ seattle viaduct tunnel retrofit ]

Mercy killing of Seattle ( Sept ballot )

Let's just face reality about Seattle - there are no good options for limited government, or even slowly growing government.

Once you accept that reality, you realize the only path that may lead to more Liberty is through the heart of the beast. Seattle voters must first destroy this City before any other alternative can become viable.

Toward that long range vision (perhaps after I'm long dead), I will be voting Sept 20 for the most extreme Socialists possible ...

Mayor - Hoeppner; or Wood for diluted greater guv'ment

Council #2 - Madenwald

Council #4 - Averill

Council #8 - Pelz

Any other votes for more "moderate" or weak Socialism only delays the economic collapse of Seattle. My votes will work to rapidly expand massive guv'ment intrusion into every aspect of life in Seattle. Businesses will flee the City in droves when a mandatory "living wage" of $17 per hour is passed (Averill / Wood - unspecified $$ ) - imagine how much a McDonald's meal will cost !!

People take their Liberty for granted; or define neo-Liberty as equal access to "entitlements". They need to understand what it is really like to lose that Liberty in the most extreme way possible.

There are no good alternatives for Liberty on the Seattle ballot in 2005. So let them eat their Socialist cake - make Seattle choke on it.

Voter's pamphlet

Consider it a mercy killing.

Citizen's Audit Parallel Election

I ran across this very interesting citizen's project in another message list.

As a non-partisan entity, this might be something that needs to be established in King County, considering the 2004 elections failure here.

http://www.studycaliforniaballots.org

rawstory.com - San Diego recount

A Citizen's Audit Parallel Election project is not in itself conclusive, but may suggest where test recounts should be conducted (of the original ballots), by means other than the machine count.

Of course, if enough citizen's don't show an interest to volunteer then the project is moot.

Credibility for this kind of project can only happen if ALL political persuasions are invited to participate - Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist, Urban, Rural, etc. Ballot
integrity CANNOT be a partisan issue.

If you know of any such CAPE happening in King County, please email me,

freerangeauthor [a*t] exordia (d0t) net

Republicans can defeat Sims in Primary (strategic voting)

Sept. 7, 2005 Update: Stefan Sharkansky of Sound Politics is "crossing over" on his Primary ballot to elect the weakest Dem KC Exec !!
___________________________________________

Dear Republicans and Conservatives,

This Primary presents an opportunity to defeat Ron Sims in the Primary if R voters will cast their vote strategically.

I am a voter in the 34th LD and KC (King County) 8th Council District.

I am writing to propose an opportunity for Republicans to consider in certain King County districts, for partisan office, in the Primary.

For several districts there will be no contested, Republican partisan offices, such as the 8th KC Council district. R's will have no one to vote for, or the R candidate only needs 1% to proceed to the general election.

This presents the opportunity for R voters to cross over and select the Democrat ballot in the Primary. This could be very useful to vote for Ron Sims OPPONENT. This is how I will proceed with my ballot, and I am suggesting the procedure to other R's I know in my district - they seem very receptive to the idea, as a means to suppress Sims Primary returns, or possibly, defeat Sims in the Primary. R voters only need to mark a Dem ballot for Sims opposing candidate (I plan to mark Rispoli; see below), they do not have to mark any other Dem position - or if you're really concerned about ballot meddling, mark the write-in bubble and write "none" so they can't re-mark for other Dem positions.

Obviously this strategy cannot be considered for the 9th Council District because of the challenged R seat, but several other districts could use this strategy without impact on the R candidates to reach the General ballot.

KC districts 3, 4, 6, and 8 have no candidate of the opposing party - those districts could liberate thousands of R voters to cross over and vote for Sims OPPONENT in the Primary.

A very quick review of Primary election returns shows these numbers, as a limited example ...

2003 Primary
KC District 6 - 17588 votes for the R candidate; no opponent

2002 Primary
KC District 8 - 5102 votes for non-Dem candidates (R & L)

I view Rispoli as the weakest Dem candidate possible. She wrote, "I will not be accepting any money. My sole purpose for running was/is to put a message out in pamphlet", on her Candidate Registration (C-1). [ view reports on http://www.pdc.wa.gov/viewreports/ ] She does not respond to email queries. [Sept. 7 : read Rispoli's pamphlet statement - delightfully weird]

David Irons, the unopposed KC Exec Republican candidate, will get enough votes from the 9th KC Council District to move to the November ballot. All other KC Council districts may be able to allow R voters to cross over to the Dem ballot in the Primary.

Please share this strategy with as many R voters as possible. Forward my message. The absentee ballots are arriving in the mail this weekend (we got ours Friday, Sept. 2).

Let's defeat Sims in the Primary and get the weakest candidate possible versus David Irons.

"Effing Unreadable" Award

I am forced to inaugurate a new award for illegible web sites, after two Washington State media sources adopt micro-fonts.

Criteria for the "Effing Unreadable" are ...

1) screen fonts of 10 point or less
2) fonts won't resize in the client browser (The first 2 winners won't resize in IE 6.x)
3) client reading glasses don't ease the pain of trying to read what the web site has posted in micro-font.

If you're over 40 with declining vision (requiring reading glasses, or other assist), these web sites are not "user friendly".

The first winners are The Stranger.com and the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. There is little satisfaction knowing these two organizations are politically polarized, since they have both decided to put a "Go Away!" sign on their web sites, to an aging populace that needs reading glasses to function. Both the "progressive" and "conservative" ends of the political spectrum have decided to disrespect a whole new demographic - the visually declining. The market place means little to these folk.

I guess that's why I've become Libertarian in my latter days (now 48, and counting).

See award photos in the messages below ...

[ Update: a reader directed me to an IE 6.x setting - Go to Tools, Internet Options, click Accessibility button, check mark "Ignore fonts sizes specified on Web pages". Now you should be able to fiddle with font sizes in the browser. But the layout may become very strange regarding alignments. My awards still stand since the vendors force a default micro-font that makes me dig deep into settings so I can read their great wisdom. A pox on their design defaults. ]

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Evergreen Freedom Foundation ( effwa.org ) is the co-winner of the first Smash Mouth Politics "Effing Unreadable" Award for illegible web site. The Stranger.com is the other winner (see other message)

The Stranger.com is the co-winner of the first Smash Mouth Politics "Effing Unreadable" Award for illegible web site. Evergreen Freedom Foundation is other co-winner (see other message).

Is it safe? (said the dentist)

[ homeland security ]

Two major events occurred recently that highlight the sad American response to perceived threats. In both cases the sad American response is to "feel better" about the situation without really making any significant improvement in security.

"Feeling better" is a childish substitute for learning from history, when trying to develop an effective public policy.

Part One: "Run Away, Run Away !!!"

Security at America's capitol ( DC ) appears to have been planned by the authors of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". This marvelous comedy ( the movie, not the guv'ment; although it's sometimes hard to tell the difference ) has several scenes where the Grail questers respond to threats by screaming in unison, "Run Away, Run Away!!!" and then doing what they scream.

With a new, massive Homeland Security bureaucracy this was the best they could do when a small plane violated the security airspace around Washington, DC.

Why is it more safe for everyone to run OUT INTO THE OPEN?

As a lay person I've come to realize that security is based on a priority of responses based on the engagement of the threat.

There used to be a time when the threat of a flying bomb caused us to build and occupy reinforced bunkers. Civilians in WWII London built their own below ground bunkers in their yards if they couldn't get to the underground mass transit tunnels.

What happened to all those nuclear bunkers, for congress critters, from the cold war?

If they lack the bunkers, might it be a good idea to retreat INSIDE the buildings with the most inert mass (heavy stone)?

This would seem to me a better priority than running into the open before the approaching predator has struck. I'm sure many predators would appreciate their prey exposing themselves, so the predator could change course and not have to fight past any substantial barrier, to kill the meat.

[ May 21, 2005: even if the congress critters were running outside to get into bunkers, this doesn't seem such a hot idea. These teens figured out a neat scheme to kill their fellow students - don't you think the adult predators could use the same tactic? With all the billions of Federal debt spending your children will have to pay for, might a few secured tunnels be better than an open air sniper arcade? ]

Once a predator has struck his select prey, a stampede (to the next available defensive position) becomes appropriate, as a second priority. Once the predators of Columbine High School had penetrated INTO the first defense (school building), a student stampede AWAY might have saved many - yet they did just the wrong response, locking themselves into the building, becoming a captive buffet to the predators who could crack the shell.

But maybe I'm objecting to the "Run Away!!!" scheme too much - if our reps can be picked off easier, we'll have the term limits many have been calling for, to improve our Republic.

Part Two: Identify the Innocent ( all others lie )

In close conjunction with the "Run Away!!!" security paradigm, Congress adopted Real ID (isn't that a GREAT "feel good" name? You haven't been "real" until the guv'ment told you) which creates a de facto national / universal Federal ID - the particular State ID forms may vary, but it's all linked to a central Federal database.

Of course it's all to improve YOUR security.

Again, as a lay person, I've learned these things about a central, mandatory guv'ment ID ...

1) The Nazis made everyone carry "papers" in the Motherland and the occupied territories, yet the armed resistance still persisted, blowing up or otherwise destroying stuff the Nazis didn't want destroyed. If the Nazis couldn't stop armed violence against the state with universal ID, why do we think the glorious American guv'ment can do any better? Just because we're the "good guys?"

2) ALL the Sept. 11 terrorists had US guv'ment issued identity papers - they may have stayed beyond the time limits specified in the documents, but they had the paperwork to prove it.

Guess what, boyz and gurlz, Real ID will just raise the price, or change the tactics, predators use to get that same ID that says the guv'ment recognizes them. "Sleeper" predators will work very hard to have a "clean" identity outside the US, then get the appropriate American papers.

Or save the hassle and just idle across our southern border with enough portable funds to do their damage.

Have you EVER heard of people "branding" the predators to protect the herds? No, it's always the herds that get branded so their owners know who belongs to which owner. Predators don't apply for valid ID; or do so under false, "clean" identity - the wolf wears the most attractive sheep skin.

Here's an idea: all the DC critters can run outside and wave their Real ID as the predators home in on the meat outside of it's shell.

A final movie allusion: Homeland Security has become the "dentist" from The Marathon Man who drills into the protagonist's tooth marrow (with no pain killer) while repeatedly asking, "Is it safe?" The protagonist has no idea why he's being tortured, or being asked "Is it safe?".

Homeland Security is drilling deep into my family's funds, and I have no idea how they are keeping me safe. What I'm seeing doesn't convince me.

At least the threats are color coded - that "feels good". Maybe that would help in Israel, color code the Palestinian threat?

Maybe Feng Shui could have saved the Titanic? What's that saying about "rearranging the deck chairs?"

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Ignoring market demographics

You may wonder why this topic is posted here.

Evergreen Freedom Foundation touts itself as a defender of market place solutions rather than government dictates ( coercing virtue ), and I do agree. For one year I was an EFF subscriber.

It would be nice if EFF would pay attention to market demographics when it designs its web site ...

I sent this message ...
___________________ May 11, 2005
As a 48 year old who now uses reading glasses I am getting very tired of web sites that have unnecessarily small text that cannot be resized by the browser font adjustment.

Your 10 point or less font size is difficult to read. What I can't read easily, I don't contribute to.

Get a clue that not all your readers are 20 - something with the vision of eagles.

For all it's many other deficits, www.thestranger.com gets its display correct.

[ May 21, 2005: within days of my commendation of The Stranger as an example of a legible web site, The Stranger must have hired the fellows from effwa.org to inflict their design standards on another market demographic. Now The Stranger web pages suck as bad or worse than Evergreen Freedom Foundation. So I have awarded both my new "Effing Unreadable" Award for illegible web sites - see my 2 messages with photos above. ]

If you want people to subscribe to your organization, make your service accessible to an aging population with declining vision.

I won't be considering sending any $$$ until you improve your web site display.

Your "multimedia" specialist and assistant are earning degrees at media schools whose customers will always be younger than 30? Someone is not paying attention to American age demographics.

Getting old sux big time. Don't aggravate nature's failing by catering to a minority demographic - those with youthful vision.

West Seattle

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