Recent Articles

Library/garage

If you have arrived at this website for the first time as a result of the link posted in today’s Bellingham Herald article about branch libraries, then I welcome you and hope you return occasionally.

If you have arrived at this website for the first time as a result of the link posted in today’s Bellingham Herald article about branch libraries, then I welcome you and hope you return occasionally.

By
If you have arrived at this website for the first time as a result of the link posted in today's Bellingham Herald article about branch libraries, then I welcome you and hope you return occasionally. We will be posting more on the library issue during this year. Actually, the Herald did not make a hot link from their website but only included 'nwcitizen.us' as plain text. And the Herald online article will disappear in a few days as they routinely purge stories from their website - a practice that works against more people visiting their website.

The article referred to my post "Branches are better" - which is linked at the bottom of this page.

Sam Taylor, the reporter, quoted me accurately and got the story right, in my opinion. He had one factual error: he wrote that I have been a "staple" at library board meetings, whereas in truth, I have made few of them these past few years. Sam is new to the area and in his experience I have been there often. I have closely followed the library board's actions via discussions with the board members and reading the minutes of their meetings when I did not attend. The point is I'm probably current on the issues.

Our city hall - mayor, council and library - plan to ask us citizens to vote approval of a $20 million to $60 million bond issue later this year - supposedly for a needed new central library. This will be an almost complete waste of money as much will be for a parking garage for city and county employees and a new central library that will not serve the changing needs of adults and school kids. We need to spend $100 thousand to $200 thousand on a study - a comprehensive and objective study - to determine our best course for the future. So far, a group of complete amateurs - our well-meaning library board members - have simply been told repeatedly for years by library staff that a main library is the only solution. That is not intelligent planning.

Library/garage

By John ServaisOn Jan 19, 2007

If you have arrived at this website for the first time as a result of the link posted in today’s Bellingham Herald article about branch libraries, then I welcome you and hope you return occasionally.

Welcome to Rick Larsen . . .

By John ServaisOn Jan 16, 2007

… welcome to the correct side of the Iraq war issue. Rick spoke yesterday at Bellingham city hall and, according to the Bellingham Herald, he switched his stand and now favors a partial pullout of

Democrats erring; remembering Paul Roley

By John ServaisOn Jan 13, 2007

OK, my Democratic Party friends. Deal with this - like Barney Frank would not. He shouted down a Senator who dared to reveal this on the Senate floor. The hypocrisy stinks. If this is the lily-pure 10

War with Iran

By John ServaisOn Jan 12, 2007

The news analysts are finally realizing that Bush’s speech was a declaration of war on Iran. I posted that minutes after the speech and revisited it yesterday. We are dragging out the detention of the

A new way to select our next president

By John ServaisOn Jan 12, 2007

Unity08 - a new way to select and elect our next president. Worth our effort to check out and consider. For conservatives and liberals. For those of us who do not like the dominance of money in our po

War - war and more war

By John ServaisOn Jan 11, 2007

Juan Cole provides an excellent if longish read on Bush’s new plan for the Iraq war. In particular he points out how many of the infiltrators and weapons are coming not from Syria or Iran but from Jor

Escalation announced tonight

By John ServaisOn Jan 10, 2007

In his speech tonight, Bush gave no specific time lines for expected results. The first words from news commentators referred to six months for results. But Bush can avoid any accountability in six mo

Israel to bomb Iran?

By John ServaisOn Jan 09, 2007

Freaky. There are reports - rumors? - that Israeli Air Force pilots are training for a bombing run into Iran. If Israel drops nuclear bombs on Iran then you know W asked them to do it - for they have

Airport issues

By John ServaisOn Jan 08, 2007

The new discussion site about airport issues - blinet.org - is being run by Matt Paskus. While his name is not on the site, he is very open to be identified. He lives out by the airport and - surprise

Bush is totally dysfunctional now

By John ServaisOn Jan 07, 2007

Why should the execution of Saddam be a concern to all of us? Because it was a lynching - and Bush and company participated. Personally I think Bush wanted Saddam dead quick out of fear that we may be

The dead are blessed

By John ServaisOn Jan 01, 2007

3,000 service persons killed in Iraq? Oh we are beyond that - up to 3,002 this morning - and could climb past 4,000 this year if we ‘stay the course’. More telling for me is we are approaching 50,000

Candlelight vigil tonight

By John ServaisOn Dec 31, 2006

As the 3,000th US service person is killed in Iraq today or tomorrow, the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center will hold a candlelight vigil at the Maritime Heritage Park this evening starting at 4:30 pm

Saddam Hussein executed

By John ServaisOn Dec 29, 2006

The US - the Bush administration - had Saddam Hussein executed this evening. How sad - how stupid on several levels - and how oh so immoral. There are tyrants of several countries who murder their peo

Moving Target

By Tip JohnsonOn Dec 11, 2006

One of the more momentous public hearings in Bellingham’s history appears to be ready to pass with more than the ordinary confusion. We wrote about some of the mis/disinformation earlier.

On th

The Iraq Study Group Report

By John ServaisOn Dec 06, 2006

A good historic moment is upon us today. The Iraq Study Group Report was presented this morning to our nation’s leaders and to us citizens. I think this report and its 79 recommendations provide a sup

Global Warming, Record Lows - Fiddling while Rome burns

By Tip JohnsonOn Nov 30, 2006

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blockquote>”When do you wreck it as a system? It’s like going up to the edge of a cliff, not really knowing where it is. Common sense says you shouldn’t discover where the edge is by passing over it,

Public meeting & hearing rescheduled

By John ServaisOn Nov 30, 2006

Notice:

Relative to the last post:

Ecology has rescheduled the public meeting for:
December 7th, 6:30 p.m. ñ 8:30 p.m., Bellingham Cruise Terminal, 355 Harris Avenue, Bell

Public Process - Lots of it (kind of),

By Tip JohnsonOn Nov 27, 2006

or I lied (sort of!)

In the previous post I complained that the biggest rip-off in Whatcom County history was happening without even being discussed or making it into the news. Well, I lied. To

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By Tip JohnsonOn Nov 26, 2006

The good? We are no longer spewing forty+ pounds of mercury vapor every day into the local atmosphere. We are no longer dumping 20 to 40 tons of polluted solid waste into our bay, ravines and gravel p

Long Run

By Tip JohnsonOn Nov 19, 2006

Milton Friedman died at 94 years of age last week. Friedman was the maverick economist who implemented monetarist policies beginning with the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. As