Brendan Williams

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12/03/09--02:57: Homebuilders Gone Wild! (chan 2088943)

In a spirited blog, the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) has taken to sharing its daily thoughts on political issues.


12/21/09--01:36: Health Care Deform? (chan 2088943)

In their zeal to pass a bill labeled "health care reform" – albeit a reform that does little more than force more Americans into a broken system – Congressional Democrats may create consequences unimaginable to millions of citizens working for progressive change in last year's election.


01/14/10--04:28: Washington Republicans Fire on Fort Sumter (chan 2088943)

With the global recession prompting another revenue shortfall for our state, it's clear our Legislature is confronted with a crisis during its scheduled 60-day session if Washington is going to continue to provide the vital services the public demands– including education, environmental protection, and health care for kids and seniors.


02/17/10--23:58: The Case for Taxes (chan 2088943)

The difficult times we're in demand the Legislature suspend a Tim Eyman initiative – 960 – that would hinder our state's ability to rebound economically by preventing adequate investment in education, higher education, and a social safety net that takes care of kids and seniors.


06/01/10--01:05: States of Denial (chan 2088943)

Last Friday the U.S. House removed $24 billion in Medicaid assistance to the states from a stimulus bill.


06/30/10--06:44: McChrystal, MacArthur, and the Lessons of History (chan 2088943)

The furor over intemperate remarks associated with General Stanley McChrystal reveals the hold generals still have over a nation that has, beginning with George Washington, elected twelve generals as president (poignantly, one, William Harrison, survived battles only to die a month after his Inaugural Address of a cold contracted while giving it).


07/13/10--02:49: Government Can’t Retreat in Face of Challenges (chan 2088943)

Presidential scholars recently rated Franklin Delano Roosevelt – who once noted that while some "prate of economic laws, men and women are starving" – our greatest president. We could use his fighting spirit again.


08/04/10--01:44: Hope for Those in Need Breaks Through Partisan Blockade (chan 2088943)

A Wednesday vote in the U.S. Senate, on a funding proposal put forth by Senator Patty Murray, provided Republicans an opportunity to put their money where their mouths have been.


08/30/10--02:48: Initiative 1082 Would Bankrupt Long-Term Care (chan 2088943)

I've been involved with long-term care for ten years in Washington.


09/14/10--23:57: Republicans Reap the Tea Party Whirlwind (chan 2088943)

"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." – Hosea 8:7


10/21/10--06:24: The Tea Party War on Women (chan 2088943)

The almost satirical aspect of some Republican Tea Party candidates – Christine O'Donnell's failure to read the Constitution as far as the First Amendment being just the latest example – belies the serious threat they pose to women's rights as crusaders against reproductive choice.


11/10/10--03:24: Reports of Death of Progressivism are Greatly Exaggerated (chan 2088943)

As ballot counts continue, seemingly forever, an inconvenient truth disrupts the election night narrative that progressive values lost.


01/05/11--18:36: As Those With Disabilities Suffer, Olmstead’s Promise is Unfulfilled (chan 2088943)

In the 1999 Olmstead decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that under the Americans with Disabilities Act a state is obligated to serve citizens with disabilities in the least-restrictive setting appropriate to care needs. Writing for the Court, Justice Ginsburg rebuked "unwarranted assumptions" that persons with disabilities "are incapable or unworthy of participating in community life." As a pioneering state in developing home-and-community-based long-term care options, Washington was ahead of ...


01/30/11--00:59: Unemployment Benefits are Hope for the Hopeless (chan 2088943)

As I write this, my 8-year-old son sits beside me reading a book that cost just over $13 with the sales tax.


02/13/11--00:50: Mr. McCabe Goes to Washington (chan 2088943)

As an uncorrupted U.S. senator in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” Jimmy Stewart issues a challenge, “Just get up off the ground . . . .  Get up there with that lady that’s up on top of this Capitol dome, that lady that stands for liberty.  Take a look at this country through her eyes [...]