Jason Ritchie

This week we were delighted to hear that two truly awful Republican congressmen-- John Kline in Minnesota and Dave Reichert in Washington-- are stepping down.

Blue America’s last endorsement of the 2014 cycle was Jason Ritchie, the candidate running for the Blue-leaning Washington State seat currently held by conservative Republican Dave Reichert, in a district that stretches from the suburbs south and east of Seattle all the way out to Wenatchee and Ellensburg. At the time, Ritchie vowed he word make a concerted effort to win the seat over at least two cycles.

When Congress legalizes medical marijuana-- and that's coming-- dozens and dozens of ineffective, highly toxic prescription drugs, many with ghastly side effects, will cease providing bounties to the industrial drug makers that manufacture and market them. These pharmaceutical conglomerates have appealed-- so far successfully-- to Congress to at least wait for them to make some minor, inconsequential change to marijuana before they legalize it.

If you've been following Jason Ritchie's twitter feed, you're following the most active struggle against Fast Track in the state of Washington, Fast Track that sacrifices $700 million in Medicare to grease the skids and Fast Track that is being pushed by Republican incumbent Dave Reichert. Obama won WA-08 both times, by almost 15,000 against McCain and by close to 5,000 against Romney. Both of Washington’s Democratic senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, also won WA-08.

Brown has been fighting against the job-killing corporate trade agenda since long before he was ever elected to the Senate. He was the primary champion of the battle against these unfair trade bills in the House-- just as Grayson is today. Last week, Brown did an OpEd for the Jackson County Times-Journal about the dangers of fast-tracking the TPP.

The video above is from a hearing of the Michigan state legislature not the U.S. Congress. And the hearing is about abuse of forfeiture laws, not about medical marijuana itself.

Phony smile on phony politicianThere's been a lot of chatter that WA-08 incumbent Dave Reichert would abandon his congressional seat to run for governor against Jay Inslee. Although his name recognition is a healthy 53%, a new poll from PPP shows him scoring only 34% against Inslee's 45%.

In the new video above, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, a professor of economics at UC Berkeley, asserts, "The only sure way to stop excessive risk-taking on Wall Street-- so that you don't risk losing your job or your savings or your home-- is to put an end to the excessive economic and political power of Wall Street by busting up the big banks."And in a new Senate report, Broken Promises: Decades of Failure to Enforce Labor Standards in Free Trade Agreements Elizabeth Warren punched back hard at the absurd contention

The year 1970 saw marijuana's exit from my life-- or so I thought. (A little background here.) But because of the pain and side effects from 6 months of chemotherapy, I've started a program of medical marijuana every night before bed.

Ghoulish anti-Choice fanatics Dan Lipinski (D-IL) and Dave Reichert (R-WA)Late Thursday night, as midnight approached, House Republicans called a vote on Tennessee reactionary Diane Black's HJ Res 43.