Political comment and discussion about Island County, Whidbey Island, Camano Island and Washington State
If you are planning on visiting one of our local Indian Casinos anytime in the near future I would certainly be aware of the class action lawsuit filed by the Swinomish Tribe and consider visiting one of the many other casino’s in our area.
The local Swinomish Casino is owned and operated by the Swinomish Tribe, the entity that is suing Oak Harbor for a reported 9 million dollars.
VIEW LAWSUIT HERE (5 mb .pdf)
From the tabloids:
US Supreme Court to hear public-meeting prayer case
States ask for clarity on rules
May 20, 2013
The Supreme Court said Monday it will hear a new case on the intersection of religion and government in a dispute over prayers used to open public meetings.
The justices said they will review an appeals court ruling that held that the upstate New York town of Greece, a Rochester suburb, violated the Constitution by opening nearly every meeting over an 11-year span with prayers that stressed Christianity.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the town should have made a greater effort to invite people from other faiths to open its monthly board meetings.
While Progressive Democratic Socialists shout “Separation of Church and State” from their pulpit, what they are really after is the removal of religion from the State.
Did the Constitution of the United States inhibit public displays of faith? The answer to that question is NO. Truth is our new Republic welcomed public worship. Church services were held in our U. S. Capitol Building and Treasury Department every Sunday up until after the Civil War.
Our Founding Fathers did not intend to remove religion from government. Prayer in Congress is alive and well for now. Read the rest of this entry »
Geographic distribution of major world religions (Click on map for larger map in new window)
While ruling that NO opening prayers would be allowed in the chambers of the Island County Commissioners, some revelations revealed themselves. Read the rest of this entry »
As we have recently seen with the news of the NSA monitoring e mail and phone traffic in the US we really have no idea how this information may be used so we all should be concerned. As we have seen with the IRS/Tea Party issue where conservative groups have been targeted by extra scrutiny and harassment by the government and the supposedly secure files at the IRS being released to liberal groups we obviously need to be able to protect ourselves from snooping by unauthorized government agencies and other groups that may be using similar methods to target conservatives and their causes. Remember this incident?
Sarah Palin’s E-Mail Hacked
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1842097,00.html
Press release, 5/31/13:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Effective prioritization of transportation funding, protecting the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds and opposing unfunded federal mandates were among the legislative priorities that Commissioner Kelly Emerson advanced before members of Congress and administration officials during the National Association of Counties’ (NACo) Rural Action Caucus (RAC) “fly-in” advocacy effort, April 23-25, in Washington, D.C.
“It’s critical that our federal representatives hear directly from county representatives expressing rural America’s interests,” said Emerson. “With Congress needing to make deep spending cuts, considering higher taxes and fees and imposing new federal regulations, they need to understand how these decisions will affect our county and the communities we serve.”
Kelly Emerson (R), Chair
In this edition:
Island County Commissioner Helen Price Johnson and Coupeville Mayor Nancy Conard are holding a Community Forum to discuss the “Distress” and the “Level of Impact” caused by the Naval Outlying Field in Coupeville.
Therse 2 local politicians are holding a community meeting at the Coupeville Rec Hall, Wednesday June 19, 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
They state: “By increasing the dialogue we can come together to reduce the negative impacts of base operations on our community.”
Many say our education system is broken.
The teachers’ unions says they need more money to fix it, BUT AN INCREASING NUMBER OF CITIZENS DISAGREE WITH THOSE CLAIMS.
A tech-savvy and caring parent could create a curriculum based upon state and fed standards and prep a child better than most public schools. Many are doing exactly this with “home schooling“:
One of the original goals in the late 1800s of expanding public schools was to create an environment for the influx of immigrants to become “Americanized” and for the system to act as a center for social interaction.
A witness indicated a southbound “oversized load” struck the upper portion of this truss bridge very shortly before this collapsed occurred.
The bridge that collapsed is rated as “functionally obsolete“.
At the City Council meeting on May 21st the City Council had 2 agenda items that were tabled until the next meeting following the November election. Both of these Agenda items were brought by the Mayor and Administration in response to the “Fiscal Emergency” declared by the City Council.
One of the items was Resolution 13-12 which would have eliminated health care benefits for part time elected officials including the Mayor and the City Council.
The other was an Agenda Bill that asked the Council to make a decision on the method of reviewing and possibly reducing the salaries of Oak Harbor elected officials. Read the rest of this entry »
Saturday, May 18th is Armed Forces Day. THANK YOU for your service!
President Harry S. Truman led the effort to establish this single holiday for citizens to come together and thank our military members for their patriotic service in support of our country. The first Armed Forces Day in the US was observed on 20 May 1950.
In the United States, the longest running city-sponsored Armed Forces Day Parade is held in Bremerton, Washington.
In 2013, Bremerton celebrates the 65th year of the Armed Forces Day Parade. By way of contrast, in Oak Harbor, Washington, zero local Armed Forces Day activities exist, and today’s local newspaper editorial is about the city opting into a new animal shelter for cats and dogs. Read the rest of this entry »
Filing date for political office is over and with the number of offices filed for this is going to be an interesting election. 2 of our authors here at Island Politics have filed to run for political office and we could not be more proud of them. It is one thing to whine and complain about the way the system works as we often do here at Island Politics but it is another thing entirely to take the time and the effort that it takes to run for political office.
Hat’s off to our 2 authors that have registered as candidates. Here are the 2 candidates and the offices they have filed for:
Mike Rosenberg performing at Southampton Brook music venue in January 2013
I have to “come clean” with our Island Politics’ readers.
I have been accused of being a “hater” of one sort of another.
I admit it. I do “hate” some things, but the things I “hate” are not actually the things I am accused of hating.
So, I have chosen to provide a video to delineate some of those things that I do “hate”. Read the rest of this entry »
Whidbey News Times’ Executive Director and Publisher, Keven R. Graves wasted no time weighing in on Senate Bill 5927 saying it was “seriously flawed.” http://www.whidbeynewstimes.com/opinion/206995691.html
Part of SB5927 is found below and a link to the full bill is provided:
An event calendar of upcoming conservative events on the Islands. To add an item to this calendar please use the comment form below or contact one of our authors directly.
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Here!