Posted on 02/10/2007 2:49:40 PM PST by Iam1ru1-2
Results of three legislative hearings on various anti-initiative bills:
*Legislators ignorant about the contents of bills that they themselves are co-sponsoring;
*Repeated, purposeful misrepresentation of the facts by the Secretary of State, misleading legislators, the press, and the public;
*Committee hearings where microphones are cut off when citizens are speaking;
*Legislators snickering and rolling their eyes during citizen testimony;
*Far-reaching bills with an "analysis" that is a single paragraph;
*Without discussion or debate, votes on bills with only two legislators present (we asked staffers "How can you vote without a quorum?" - they refused to answer);
*Long lists of citizens signing up to testify against these bills but chairs limiting testimony to three minutes each for just two people;
*Legislators sponsoring bills that the judiciary has already ruled unconstitutional.
Mike Dunmire, who attended these 3 Legislative Hearings said: "I am offended by their arrogance, their ignorance, their mistreatment of citizens, and their disrespect for the Constitution. Their shameless actions have moved me to do something meaningful to fight back. I cannot and will not ignore their assault on the citizens' initiative process without a constructive response."
Please take a minute to learn about the violence the Legislature is unleashing on the initiative process:
*Senate Bill 5182 and House Bill 2019 -- sponsored by Jim Kastama (D-Puyallup) and Jim McDermott (D-Seattle) -- say that VALID voter signatures MUST BE REJECTED if the person who gathered the signatures doesn't print and sign their name and include their address on the back.
*SB 5182 punishes and disenfranchises voters and kills off volunteer signature gathering. It also makes people who gather signatures much more susceptible to harassment by publicly reporting their address.
*House Bill 1087 and Senate Bill 5356 -- sponsored by Adam Kline ((D-Seattle) and Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo) -- would find people guilty of a misdemeanor crime if they gather voter signatures and are compensated on a per-signature basis. In Oregon, this policy tripled the cost to qualify an initiative for the ballot, cut by two-thirds the number of initiatives that qualified, and doubled the rate of invalid signatures. Olympia passed this exact same law in 1993 and the court ruled that it's "invalid because it unconstitutionally infringes on the freedom of political speech guaranteed by the First Amendment."
*Senate Bill 5181 -- sponsored by Jim Kastama (D-Puyallup) -- would require anyone gathering signatures to wear an ID badge. SB 5181 is intended to stigmatize people for simply exercising their First Amendment rights. It is offensive to anyone who cares about civil liberties.
*House Bill 2018 -- sponsored by Jim McDermott (D-Seattle) -- would require people who gather signatures to register with government. HB 2018 says only those licensed by the government have First Amendment rights --this obscene overregulation is a clear attempt to intimidate and deter citizens from collecting voter signatures and makes them even more susceptible to harassment.
*Senate Bill 5392 -- sponsored by Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle) -- would increase the initiative filing fee 1900% (from $5 to $100). SB 5392 is clearly intended to discourage regular citizens from filing initiatives.
*Senate Joint Resolution 8205 -- sponsored by Ken Jacobsen (D-Seattle) -- repeals the initiative and referendum process from our state Constitution.
Each bill does harm to the people's power without providing any benefits. Legislators are concocting unconstitutional schemes to undermine the people's right to initiative. These anti-initiative bills try to achieve surreptitiously what cannot be achieved honestly.
WA ping request
Tim Eyman is about the only person that can save this state from itself.
Democrats love to talk about "real democracy," which always seems to require the exclusion of those pesky voters.
wasn't he in sort of trouble a few years back? what was it?
I guess waiting for the courts to continually slam conservative initiatives isn't good enough for the legislators. They just can't have the people voicing their opinions.
MSM-manufactured scandal about his PDC filings. Roughly the equivalent of forgetting to put a stamp on a letter.
What else does one expect from the People's Republik of Washington?
Not surprising that this kind of communism comes from Baghdad Jim McDermott.
There's a John McDermott out of the 34th - West Seattle.
D, of course.
WA State Ping...JFK
I'd laugh but it's true.
Have you seen the Climate Change Executive Order that Gregoire issued? It's Executive Order 07-02. That's why they want to get rid of the initiative process. The executive order is equivalent of the Kyoto treaty and includes some suspicious wording of forced unionization and plans to increase the gov't jobs to make up for non-green jobs. It puts restrictions on building and just a host of other regualations. Then there is the proposed income tax to support all this regulation.
I guess I must be anti democracy, because despite the fun we've had with Time Eyman, we've had more bad law than good imposed on us by initiative, namely:
The ban on use of hounds, bait and trapping for hunting bear and cougar. Without the use of bait and hounds in particular, bear and cougar are extremely difficult to take in any numbers, and their numbers are continuing to grow. Wildlife management decisions and hunting regulation is far better done by the departments that manage these things than by urbanites in Seattle who think it's mean to hunt animals. "The People" in this case, are not qualified to know what good management is.
The smoking ban in all bars and restaurants. An initiative paid for, in large part, by Indian Casinos, of all sources, who, coincidentally, are not covered under the ban.
Those are just the two examples that continue to irk me.
Some things actually are better left to the representative process, that can hope to be better informed, with a broader perspective and interest than the snappy issue de jour.
Out of funds raised to support an initiaive he paid himself about $50K although he'd said he was working on it for free. There was a big stink.
Does Washington state allow recalling legislators?
What is a person to do? How about a peoples filibuster?
Right. Shut the peoples will down and let the corrupt legislature tax us to death. I hope you will not gripe when they impose a state income tax on us to pay for all the demonrats tax increases, and pet projects which they only do for self agrandizement purposes only. By the by, who did you vote for governor?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.