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Whatcom Whistleblower Reveals Serious Local Problem

9/29/2013

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     Why would we have to get local news like this from sources far away? Where has the Bellingham-Whatcom press been?  This story broke through the Freedom Foundation (see below).
      Most important - is a known, serious public safety problem being swept under the rug locally?              WE Editors

Electronic Home Monitoring:  Who's watching the inmates?
The Olympia Report - 9/18/13
by Jeff Rhodes


First of a three-part series

In late 2009, Whatcom County deputies arrested Robert Inda on a car theft charge on the campus Western Washington University.

Described by local law enforcement authorities as a “prolific burglar and car prowler,” there was seemingly nothing out of the ordinary about his latest alleged offense — except that, during the booking process, jail officials discovered Inda was wearing an ankle bracelet, signifying he was already out on bail awaiting sentencing on an unrelated charge.

But why weren’t authorities notified he was on the loose? Or were they?

According to an investigation by the Olympia-based Freedom Foundation, it turns out Inda’s case is far from isolated. In fact, thanks largely to electronic home monitoring standards that vary wildly from county to county and even city to city, there’s reason to believe hundreds — and maybe thousands — of potentially dangerous offenders could be roaming Washington’s streets when they’re supposed to be confined to their homes.

“We called literally every county in the state, and every one handles electronic home monitoring a little differently,” said Freedom Foundation Property Rights Manager Glen Morgan. “How it works — if it works — is entirely a matter of where the offense occurred, who imposes the sentence and who winds up monitoring the offender in question.”

As is the case virtually everywhere in Washington, electronic home monitoring (EHM) is an increasingly popular alternative in Whatcom County to incarceration due to chronic overcrowding at the county’s jail. The beauty of the system is that, rather than warehousing inmates in an expensive, taxpayer-funded cage, they are sent home with orders to wear a GPS-equipped bracelet on their ankle that prevents them from moving without setting off an alarm.

Even better, the cost of the monitoring service is paid by the offender, once he or she is approved for that option.



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“The problem isn’t the actual monitoring,” said former Whatcom County Deputy Paul Murphy, who claims to have documented more than 200 cases in which defendants sentenced to home monitoring weren’t monitored at all. “It’s whether the information gets to the monitor in the first place and what happens to it after that.

“I found one guy who was on home supervision for an entire year but never even plugged his box in,” he said “And yet his record was falsified to make it look like he’d complied with the court order when he hadn’t. You might just as well let everyone walk right out the back door of the jail the minute they’re arrested.”

Most shockingly of all, Murphy said many of the unexcused absences from custody are the result of bribery and corruption rather than administrative incompetence.

“It’s called ‘buying time off the clock,’ ” Murphy said. “And it goes on all the time.”

Murphy said he first became aware of the practice in 2007, when he made an arrest in connection with the theft of a large forklift from a local construction site.

“The suspect had been around,” he said, “and he knew that if he had information to trade, it could reduce his sentence. So he started to tell me this story about electronic home monitoring and how it’s easy to beat the system if you know how.”

The flaw in the system is that, contrary to general perception, it isn’t always a law enforcement agency that gets the call when an EHM client turns up missing. In many cases, it’s his or her bail bondsman — who may or may not have an incentive to report the incident.

Whatcom County, like most other counties in Washington, contracts with Boulder, Colo.-based Behavioral Interventions (BI), Inc., to monitor its ankle bracelet signals. If the defendant tries to cut the device off or simply strays too far from his or her home address, a signal is sent to BI, which notifies the appropriate jurisdiction.

In some counties, that could be the sheriff’s office, someone at the county jail or the probation office. Or it could be the bondsman who put up the money to guarantee the defendant would appear in court.

Electronic home monitoring is used in both the pre-trial phase — in conjunction with bail — and post-trial, as an alternative to jail. And in some cases, there are private companies, including at least one nonprofit agency, who bid for the contract to monitor a county’s defendants.

As far as anyone can determine, there are no minimum professional standards a company must meet in order to be considered. The are extensive state guidelines dictating which prisoners are eligible for home monitoring, but none for the monitors themselves.

“Every jurisdiction handles things a little differently,” said David Regan, owner of Regan Bail Bonds in Vancouver and vice present of the Washington State Bail Agents Association. “It’s up to the court who gets home monitoring, and after that, who does the actual monitoring.”

Regan said he knows of a handful of bond companies around the state who require ankle bracelets on high-risk, high-bail clients even without the court’s say so. He said he isn’t aware of any counties in which the bond agent is the first to be contacted when the defendant flees, but he said the practice makes sense from the bondsman’s perspective.

“The bail bondsman and the court work hand-in-hand,” he said. “The goal of both is to ensure the accused shows up in court, and the bondsman has a big investment in making sure he or she does. It’s entirely appropriate the person holding the bond be notified immediately if they try to run away.”


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“For me, it’s about accountability,” said Thurston County Sheriff John Snaza. “We lease our own EHM equipment and operate it ourselves. The monitoring is done by our corrections staff because I know them, and I can hold them more accountable than I would a private company.”

Snaza said he keeps the procedure in-house because “it’s important to me,” but he doesn’t blame other jurisdictions that outsource their monitoring.

“It’s a lot cheaper than keeping people locked up in jail,” he said. “I know everyone’s dealing with budget problems these days, and I wouldn’t be in favor of anything that takes away their flexibility to serve their community as they see fit. What works for us here might not work somewhere else.”

In Whatcom County, Murphy said, defendants are given a choice as to whether they will be monitored by local law enforcement or a private bail bondsman. Since the private company is invariably a few dollars cheaper, most choose that option.

According to Murphy, choosing a private company can also have added benefits for the career criminal. All too often, the client can “buy time off the clock” by offering the bondsman cash, drugs or any other inducement.

During the course of his investigation, Murphy said he went to a grand jury and a subpoenaed BI’s records. Ultimately, he discovered hundreds of cases where BI had notified a bond company one of its prisoners was unaccounted for but the company neglected to advise law enforcement.

“It’s an epidemic,” Murphy said. “I’m sure the vast majority of people on home monitoring follow instructions and stay put. But they’re not the ones you have to worry about. It’s the habitual offenders.”

Murphy said although most of the irregularities were traced back to one particular bondsman, there were discrepancies noted at a number of different companies in Whatcom County.

“I didn’t believe it at first,” he said. “But as I dug deeper into it, I discovered it was common knowledge. Even the personnel at the jail knew about it. There had just never been anything done about it.”

There still hasn’t. In June 2011, Murphy was fired by Whatcom County — in part, he believes, because the investigation was getting too close to the county prosecutor’s office.

Murphy filed suit for wrongful termination and his case is scheduled for trial next May.

In the meantime, if the electronic home monitoring system is so fraught with problems in a small county like Whatcom, how much worse is it in metropolitan communities like King or Pierce County?



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Murphy notes that Maurice Clemmons, who stalked and killed four Lakewood police officers at a Parkland coffee shop in 2009, was on electronic home monitoring at the time and had simply cut his ankle bracelet off and walked away.

His bail bondsman, Jail Sucks Bail Bonds, Inc., was notified, but in a subsequent investigation, it wasn’t clear whether the company passed on a warning to Pierce County law enforcement — and if so, whether any action was taken.

In either case, Murphy believes if he’d been able to complete his investigation, it would have led to a statewide examination of electronic home monitoring practices and possible legislation to patch any holes in the net.

“We’ll never know for sure,” Murphy said, “but it’s possible those four cops might be alive today if we’d realized back then just how screwed up this system is.”


Coming up:
• Part 2: Whistleblower fired just as his investigation into electronic home monitoring abuse was yielding results.
• Part 3: What can the Legislature do to tighten up the state’s electronic home monitoring laws?

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

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New Study:  Are Criminals Left Unwatched?
Freedom Foundation - 9/18/13

The public is living under a false sense of security when it comes to criminal supervision through electronic home monitoring (EHM) devices in Washington state.

In a new study with the Freedom Foundation, whistleblower Paul Murphy, a former Whatcom County Detective, claims that he has uncovered a scheme in which criminals “buy time off” of their electronic home monitoring devices. In exchange for petty favors or cash, private EHM companies, contracted by the government to monitor criminals serving time under house arrest, will look the other way when an alert comes through. Criminals use this time to illegally run errands, visit a significant other, or commit additional crimes. In the most egregious cases, criminals have committed heinous crimes such as rape and murder, or leveraged their “time off" into an alibi. 

The confusion of responsibility between government and private EHM companies is staggering, and it must be remedied quickly for the sake of public safety. Read more in our full study or in The Olympia Report's news article.

Click here to read the full report

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Want to Save the Planet? Think For Yourselves, Crusaders

9/28/2013

13 Comments

 
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    This little piece of work was handed out illiberally to students up at Western Washington University last week. It's a pledge card that suggests that four local candidates are in the can on a major issue that hasn't been through the complete review process.  And ho-yeah, it says vote for this foursome if you WANT TO SAVE THE PLANET.

These people (at least two of the four, who are already serving/incumbents) have a legal and moral duty to be fair-handed when the time comes to decide the GPT (Gateway Pacific Terminal) thing. This advertising promises they'll do something else.

WE won't tell you who to vote for, but if other candidates are saying  they'll vote "for" GPT, that would be just as bad.  Our position is that voting for pre-judged outcomes on anything is bad news.

WE'd just as soon see people skip voting altogether if they want our local self-government to be reduced to "winners take the spoils".  If that's the world you want, a government where candidates pre-judge issues, we'd rather see you have a nice meal, take a bike ride, get stoned, and save the stamp.

Whatcom WINS telling people to follow blindly is despicable. This promotion pushes every pretense of ethics over the cliff. Is that what "being a Democrat" has become? (Whatcom WINS is the Whatcom Democrats marketing strategy, or battle cry, this year).

What's heroic about elected officials making up their minds in advance?

That's downright indefensible, not only technically but morally unethical. Voting for pre-judgement if it suits your taste splits the community and pushes it down a dangerous and slippery slope.

This promotion also lays out a guilt trip. What's it saying - if you don't vote for these four, you're voting to trash the planet?  Apparently.

Does anybody actually believe that the "future of the global climate" is resting on the shoulders of this county, on this election (and its voters)?  That's a wild claim. People are cashing in on drama here - emotional theater. Use your head and keep this in proportion.

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Clockwise from left: SuperMann (Ken Mann), Blazing Barry (Buchanan), Rud-Urban (Browne), Captain Save-The-Planet (Carl Weimer)
Picture...for these guys, "in the tank" ?
This pledge card - let there be no doubt that it says (wink-wink) that electing these candidates will trashcan the Gateway Pacific Terminal proposal.  The fudgy-wudgy phrasing about "how America uses its coal" doesn't fool anybody. This relays "vote this way, get your way" as a guarantee.  That's a stone's throw from "winners take the spoils." Is that your idea of good (self) government?

That's pretty insulting when you stop and think about it. The people we elect aren't supposed to pre-judge things.  If they got elected, they should recuse themselves (as if they would). Campaign promises are rarely worth the paper they're printed on. 

Now, some people are so fanatical they think that "the ends justify the means" and pre-judging is okay in this case. Whaa???  Are these candidates saying "Who needs the Corps of Engineers and the EPA?"  Would they ignore any law or regulation that suits them?

It comes down to trust and integrity. Do you want honesty and fairness, or just one result?  Can you trust anybody who would act like that? These people take an oath to be objective; to uphold and defend the rule of law, instead of popular fads. 

WE could go on, but why not let George Carlin close for us, in his own inimitable way? (Caution, strong language!)

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Are They Schools or Soup Kitchens?

9/26/2013

2 Comments

 
WE think the mission creep has gotten way out of hand:

A Message from Communications and Community Relations  

Dear Staff,

We are sending this message to families on School Messenger today via email and phone. Dr. Baker and Isabel Meeker will be sending phone calls home to families. The press release is posted here on our website.

Bellingham Public Schools’ after-school dinners have begun for the new school year. We’re excited to offer free hot meals to all children under 18. Please note that accompanying adults are charged $4. 

These meals are offered at Shuksan Middle School in their cafeteria on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, from September 19 through June 10, 2014. Dinner is served from 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Providing healthy meals and snacks is part of our collective commitment to the children in our community, ensuring they have the nutrition they need to learn, play and grow. Offering this program promotes healthy, active individuals and supports the whole child as outlined in The Bellingham Promise.

The after-school dinner program is sponsored by the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

For more information, contact Mark Dalton, Director of Food Services for Bellingham Public Schools. 
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Candidate Fails to Account for More Than $7,700

9/19/2013

11 Comments

 
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Campaign seasons are hectic, and across the state thousands of candidates are running for office. Sometimes the WA Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) doesn’t catch discrepancies that it should on its own. But it posts everything it receives for public review and scrutiny, and relies on that to help keep campaign finance forthright.

Ken Mann, running for re-election as a county councilman, reported in July on his PDC Form C-4 that his 2013 campaign fund was being seeded with a modest “left over” cash balance of $73.60 from his 2009 campaign fund.

There was a problem with that figure.

Following his election to Council in 2009, Mann’s end-of-cycle PDC Form C-4 dated January 11, 2010, reported unspent campaign funds of $7,787.47.

So $7,713.87 has gone unreported or missing. WE have no idea which. But this needs to get straightened out officially.

Elected folks who plan to stand for election more than once are required to follow the provisions of state law found in RCW 42.17A.430 (6), “Disposal of surplus funds.” They’re supposed to set up a “surplus account” to properly account for unspent funds.This law clearly states that “The surplus funds of a candidate or a candidate’s authorized committee may only be disposed of in any one or more of "... the several ways" spelled out in the statute.

But between January 2010 and May 2013, the PDC didn’t receive or post any reports amended or otherwise from Mann concerning the “left over” funds from the 2009 campaign. Despite having more than three years to do so, it appears that the PDC (and thus Mann’s contributors and the public) has no idea how he spent or otherwise disposed of these campaign funds.

Washington State’s public disclosure laws establish a citizen-complaint driven process. On July 3, a complaint was filed with the state’s Public Disclosure Commission to bring the matter to their attention. On July 10 the PDC acknowledged receipt of the complaint and advised they were undertaking a preliminary review of the matter. Because the Commission sometimes receives complaints deemed frivolous, they advise filers they have not made a determination whether a formal investigation or any enforcement action may be warranted at the preliminary stage. Candidates are given time to get their paperwork caught up, as a practical courtesy.

When weeks passed without a response from Mann, on August 16 PDC Director of Compliance Philip Stutzman wrote to confirm that a formal investigation would be made (PDC Case No. 14-001), and he advised Mann of this to provide yet another opportunity to explain what happened to the money and to file amended PDC reports. The PDC posts the reports that it receives to the public promptly, usually within 24 hours of receipt.

When the discrepancy continued to go uncorrected, on August 27 a package of hard copies of the complaint with supporting documents, PDC letters, and a cover letter were delivered directly to Mr. Ralph Schwartz at the Bellingham Herald offices. According to a first-hand account, Mr. Schwartz opened the package, took a quick look at the contents and remarked, “Almost $8,000 – that’s not chump change!” and Schwartz added that he’d take the matter up with his editor, Debbie Townsend, when she returned from vacation after Labor Day. WE understand that he then added that the paper “would likely not want to do anything that might impact the outcome of an election.”

Really?

According to further accounts since, it seems the Herald has made it clear that it has no interest of informing the public or keeping them otherwise abreast of this until the PDC investigation is finished “hopefully by late October.” Apparently the “newspaper” does not want to inform the general public of the publically-available but not easily located facts that have led the state Public Disclosure Commission itself to pursue a formal investigation. As of this writing, the investigation is very “live”, and ongoing.

WE are citizen journalists who fundamentally “do what we do” because the public has little choice but to share news on its own around here, filling in gaps that the “official” press refuses to address.

All we’re saying is (a) Mann ought to get with it and straighten this out well before October, and (b) the Herald shouldn’t turn a blind eye to the PDC's official concerns about a confirmed problem. WE think the press could handle this tactfully, if it wanted to. Straight up reporting shouldn't be considered a matter of taking sides. We need a press that will report news as it happens, to be worthy of our respect and reliance. Mann's campaign would probably benefit from the same kind of trustworthy openness with the PDC right now, too.

Update (10/06/13): We received this press release: Whatcom County Councilman Under PDC Investigation for Campaign Finance Violations

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Wants balance and common sense...

9/18/2013

5 Comments

 
PictureThe EPA - fair??
    WE just received a PDF copy of a passionate letter that county councilwoman Kathy Kershner dashed out on September 13th to the DOJ and EPA in Washington D.C. pleading for the fair-handed and balanced treatment of Rader Farms here in Whatcom County.

      If the Bellingham Herald's account below is correct, the scale of fines related to the federal government's case for blueberry farming this 10-acre parcel seem unbelievably mean-spirited and way out of proportion:


"Under the new lawsuit, filed Aug. 29, EPA could seek several penalties, including an order to make Rader and Uptrail Group restore the site to its pre-fill condition at their own cost. The lawsuit also could seek civil fines of up to $32,500 per day for each day the wetland has been clear - or more than $86 million as of the time the case was filed."

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/09/13/3200551/lynden-blueberry-farm-faces-another.html#storylink=cpy
That's outrageous, and in some ways this reminds us of the Idaho Sackett Case that the Pacific Legal Foundation took to the Supreme Court (and won) and also the Koontz Case.  The Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected disproportionate EPA actions.

Without analyzing the ins and outs of the case or the letter, WE definitely admire Kershner's grit and willingness to stand up and fight for someone like this.
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Press Primed To Lie About Climate Change

9/17/2013

2 Comments

 
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        Everyone who lives in Whatcom County (left or right) knows the truth about how blatantly partial the press is in these parts. This situation has existed for so long that even the guys on the beat don't begin to pretend that they don't "lean left." Despite the local facts of life, WE had no idea how truly insidious coaching to lie has become where it comes to climate change. Check this out:


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"CLIMATE CHANGE FOR JOURNALISTS" OFFERS A PRIMER IN LYING TO YOUR READERS, Sept 16 2013
Jeff Rhodes, Electronic News Editor - Libertyville.org
Email


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Those who believe, as I do, that the mainstream media overwhelmingly tilt to the left usually concede this bias is more institutional than conspiratorial in nature. 

Journalists don’t normally sit in meetings and plot ways to tell only one side of the story; they simply write from their own personal perspective — which tends to be almost exclusively liberal. Usually very liberal.

There are, however, exceptions to this rule as I discovered last week when I attended a two-day “Climate Change for Journalists” workshop hosted by the Seattle Times. Held at the Bullitt Center, which bills itself as the “world’s greenest building,” and conducted by the University of Rhode Island’s Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting, the event was precisely what we’re told never happens: a conscious, deliberate effort to coach reporters on the finer points of deceiving their readers and viewers into believing climate change is settled science.

Not that the assembled “journalists” needed a lot of arm-twisting. Reading though the bios of those who, like me, wangled invitations to the workshop, I noticed a participant who attended “on behalf of people who grow and raise our food, not all of whom accept that climate change is real.” Another proudly noted his “major area of interest is how the rhetoric and science of climate change, biodiversity loss and human health inform the creation of public policy.”

Four attendees were Seattle Times staffers, not including Kathy Best, the publication’s managing editor, who proudly introduced the event’s speakers.

I didn’t ask for a show of hands, but I’d be willing to wager I was the only climate change agnostic among the journalists present. As for the presenters…forget about it.

The first session of the day, for example, promised attendees “…a strong scientific and policy foundation for journalists covering the broad implications of climate change, just in time for the next highly anticipated report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).” For the record, not once in the discussion did anyone bother to point out that, in the IPCC’s previous report, it was caught redhanded falsifying its findings to look like man-made CO2 emissions were causing global warming, even though scientific evidence showed nothing of the kind.

This was followed, even more disturbingly, by a session with Hedia Adelsman, representing the Washington State Department of Ecology, who cheerily informed her audience that, “If there’s one thing we know for certain, it’s that human activities are changing the climate in ways that have committed us to centuries of change in temperature, preciptation, sea level rise and change in ocean chemistry, posing risks to our environment, econmony and way of life.”

And so it went with one speaker after another reassuring those who already agreed with them that there was only one viewpoint worth considering.

In point of fact, if there’s one thing we know for certain, it’s that nothing in science is ever certain. For every true believer the Metcalf Institute can trot out claiming the question of global warming is settled, I can counter with an equally distinguished skeptic. That isn’t to say either side is right. Clearly there are differing views on the subject and, despite what zealots in government and academia would have you believe, nothing close to a consensus exists on either side. 

And as a journalist, I’m fine with presenting both sides of the issue. What I’m not fine with is obvious collusion to ignore facts that don’t comport with preconceived environmental and political biases. It's not fair to the issues and, more importantly, it's not fair to the American people.

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What's Up With Renata's New Collaborative Economy?

9/17/2013

24 Comments

 
When WE think of a collaborative economy, it's usually something like this:
For some, it seems, WE'd be wrong. According to self-styled financial advisor and Port of Bellingham District 1 commissioner candidate Renata Kowalczyk, economics means something completely different from the tried and true principles that Nobel laureate Milton Friedman presents in the video.

While Renata's campaign website (cached) and press statements relay a reassuring tone to assure the public that she's grounded in the traditions and common sense of a free market and downright jazzed about the ability of the Port to invigorate the local economy, her rhetoric and slogans fail to reveal the full ideology that predominates her “Collaborative Economy Catalyst” website and her “5 Keys” promotional brief.

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It appears that away from the campaign trail Renata (the only name shown on campaign signs) predicts that the economy will never return to "normal" (after what WE assume means the Crash of 2008). But she says there’s a "new normal" being created, The Collaborative Economy that she's a “catalyst” for. What would the "new normal" be, when it’s at home?  And who says that this “new normal” is desirable? Is the idea to get elected, then personally nudge the body of her "collaborative" economic theories and other transitions into public policy?  What are the "brand new rules" she has in mind?  She's fuzzy about 'em.

It's significant that beyond her campaign site, Renata writes about wanting “a new life in which connection and collaboration matter more than anything else."  That begs the question:  Which connections and what kinds of collaboration does Renata have in mind for the Port?  A little searching revealed that she's tied-in tight with BALLE and Sustainable Connections, and a private investment group known as WIN (Whatcom Investment Network). The first two are highly ideological and the third seems more than a little secretive about its operations.


[WE want to make a critical point up front: Free market economics is not some artificial or sophomoric construct dreamed up in dorms, or by a bunch of hippies in a (pot) smoke filled room somewhere. Healthy, vibrant commerce rests on natural law (specifically, human nature in this case) that plays out every day, regardless of anybody’s personal agenda, would-be financiers who might try to monopolize it, or regime mandates. Past, present or future, when powers govern against nature, they're bound to fail. From even before the First Thanksgiving, human history is littered with failed regimes that refused to acknowledge that simple truth.]

So... Renata waxes big on communal ("community") resource-sharing strategies, like “in kind” exchanges of goods and services, suggesting that collaborative transactions are somehow better and more satisfying than trading in cash. Sure, sometimes swapping goods and services makes sense (and it generally isn't taxable*). But often times you, or the person you want to do business with, won’t have anything that you want to exchange tit-for-tat. That's why trading with currency has long been considered a major advance beyond tribal economics. Cash (currency) is a token for trading-at-will that liberates one to obtain the goods or services that you do want. And with cash, you have a method of counting and saving, for measuring success, and keeping things straight. Without a means of measurement there can be no real accountability. A cash economy offers flexibility and vast opportunities; reverting to more primitive standards is regressive.

After eschewing cash, Renata then goes completely off the rails and celebrates a flaky transaction using Life Dollars. Micro-brew currency might be fine for a commune or a small subculture, but it seems odd that a serious contender for public office would be quite so uncritical about it.

Why are WE telling you this? We're concerned that Renata will bring some risky, untested and bizarre ideas to the Port, most particularly the collectivist agenda driven by her affiliations with Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) and Sustainable Connections. These groups have been holding and promoting workshops led by Renata for quite some time; one was held just last week.  What services Whatcom Investing  Network  (WIN) provides as a "local lending network" we don't know, but Renata describes it glowingly in cash terms:

    "I participated in the creation of a local lending network that grows our local economy by making sure small businesses have access to capital they need, right in our community.  In its first year, we loaned out over a half million dollars."

[Documents forwarded to the Vator reveal that WIN’s investment operations have been under review by the State of Washington’s Department of Financial Institutions for about a year.  Check out WIN’s long trail of evasive tap-dancing here, and here, and here.] 

BALLE?  Like Sustainable Connections, BALLE blatantly pushes a globalist-collectivist agenda, with tentacles that reach well beyond local, despite the “localist” community-building image they promote. Their objective is to change the world, evidently without bothering with the consent of the people. How presumptuous is that? (Very.)  All this would be academic if its collaborators weren't itching to get mitts on a hefty lever of power, to shift things into some other gear.

The Port of Bellingham has a budget of $40-50 million annually (in greenbacks), and it’s not a social club or an agent for social change. It’s a public service agency that’s supposed to perform practical functions and provide uniform service. Git ‘er done, not change the world.

So WE think it's important for everyone to know what principles motivate the candidates running for this public office, and we think Renata's beliefs about society and the “new normal” are being soft-pedaled. WE have to ask:
  • Renata claims that she’s bringing ivy-league credentials in economics and a rich history of Wall Street experience to her candidacy. But then she says she’s rejected all that, to achieve a "new American dream". Which Renata would we get if she were elected, and which principles would she employ in office?
  • Does she feel that the people should control and define their government, or the opposite? She’s a relative newcomer (so new some would even say a carpetbagger). She wants this important seat for what reason?
  • Renata speaks of alternative currency and relying on "connections".  Would that limit the opportunities of the people that she and her affiliates don't connect with? Would the unconnected find themselves on a less than level playing field, unwelcome? Will collectivist (oops - collaborative) political litmus tests be added to Port policies?
  • Renata seems to prefer a cashless economy for many things. Would her brand of “collaborative" economics overlap into the use of public resources? Without dollars and cents accountability and auditability, all sorts of mischief can go undetected. That's the opposite of the kind of transparency in government that informed citizens want and demand. How will Renata's tenure be audited? Will she faithfully follow standard accounting rules, or side-step them as WIN seems to?
  • Are the “connections” of which Renata speaks tantamount to crony socialism, crony capitalism, or just plain favoritism? Without accountability, how would we be able to evaluate that? 

Are WE deliberately spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) here? You bet we are, and rightly so! And it will remain so, until the candidate answers such questions to everyone's satisfaction. 
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Catalyst for what, exactly?
Even without FUD, there's good reason to feel that Renata's connections (sustainable or otherwise) are patently unpalatable to free market realists, countywide. (We're guessing the Tea Party was suckered.)

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*an interesting dichotomy for those statist, illiberal control freak 'progressives', who never saw an expanding government bureaucracy they didn't like. Who will pay for it, if all the collectivists in their little communes are trading goods and services in kind, under the table and below the government radar? Oh yeah, the One Percenters, that's who.
24 Comments

Connecting Some Dots

9/6/2013

5 Comments

 
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On August 29, the Bellingham Herald published this article about the possible untimely release of a criminally insane mental patient into unsupervised leave in open society. Fortunately, Sheriff Bill Elfo and his counterparts in other counties managed to stall the release for the time being.

The article states, "[Per Olaf] Johansson, 35, is notorious in Whatcom County. He was arrested in December 2010 and charged with second-degree murder and second-degree assault. According to charging papers, he stabbed his father at least 30 times in a deluded rage, and stabbed his mother and 13-year-old niece. The two women survived; Johansson’s father didn’t."

There are dreamers who say that criminals should be rehabilitated. Maybe they should be -- if they can be. There are dreamers who say that other cultures put the victim and the perpetrator together face-to-face in the town square (instead of a jail or prison) to make them resolve their differences, making both whole again. Uh huh. Force them to shake hands and make up. If only it were that easy. 


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Anyway, WE told you that so WE could show you this: The dreamers in Olympia evidently think  "low barrier" housing for sex offenders, felons, fugitives, and drug users would be a good idea. The Freedom Foundation published another expose' of foolhardiness and wishful thinking at the citizens' expense. The article contains a litany of neglected priorities and unwise trade-offs. 

Not only does this housing project open the door for dangerous occupants, the article states, "the Olympia City Council and Thurston County Commissioner Valenzuela want to take the approach of no questions asked, no ID needed, no idea who is staying at the “low-barrier” homeless project in Olympia. Their preference means there’s $400,000 less to use for families and children who are homeless."

WE think it would be wise for elected officials and bureaucrats to consider these two articles in context of one another before going off half-cocked on risky Utopian 'progressive' policies. 

5 Comments

This is a Permission Free Zone!

9/1/2013

4 Comments

 
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This nation was founded on the idea that we are citizens to be free, not subjects to be managed. Thomas Jefferson said in a letter to M. L'Hommande in 1787 , “The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.” The original purpose of the American government was to protect our freedom and liberty, not to restrict it. 

For nearly 200 years, the default status of the American people was that we were at liberty to do pretty much whatever we wanted (especially on our own property), with very few exceptions – and those were usually related to the consideration of the rights of others. 

Today, the situation is nearly reversed. The default status is that we need permission to do just about anything. We are at liberty to do only the most mundane and trivial pursuits. As WE have said before, government is taking our rights, and selling them back to us as permits – if they're permitted at all. 

Today, if you decide to build, dig, landscape, or start work on much of anything on your own property, you'd best check with the city and/or county and/or state and/or the feds, or face fines – or worse. Really, what's the point of owning property if the only privilege you gain is paying taxes, without any of the advantages of self-determination? 

WE know what you're thinking: It can't happen here! Wanna bet? In the latest installment of Freedom Foundation's Tales of Tyranny series, we have this, from right here in River City:

Read the full article, Tales of Tyranny: Joe Remenar’s “Illegal” Wildlife Habitat at Freedom Foundation's website. 
4 Comments
    WE Dredge!
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